Key Largo, Montego, Baby Why Don’t We Go (Or, a Week on The World’s Largest Cruise Ship): Part Twofeatured

by Nicole on June 1, 2013

I’m a big believer in pre-vacation vacations. We frequently take a bit of time before any trip we take to hang out in Florida because we love Florida. When Stephanie and I were little, Mom used to take us down to live with grandma in her condo in Boca Raton from November through March. So while our cruise left on Sunday, our vacation started on Wednesday. Well, Mom’s and mine did. Stephanie has less generous vacation time at work. She joined us on Friday.

I live in downtown Chicago, and Mom and Stephanie live in the suburbs. The weekend before we left, Stephanie and I took my luggage to Mom’s house (you hear that? I was packed A WEEK IN ADVANCE this time!! Lets take a second to enjoy this moment because I’m sure it may never happen again), so I left for work on Tuesday, locked up my apartment and said goodbye to Chicago for the next week and a half!

After work, I headed straight to the ‘burbs to spend the night at Mom’s house so we could head to the airport together on Wednesday. Mom worked from home for half of Wednesday and I…worked even though I was off. Work has rendered me completely unable to sleep in past 8 anymore and since I was packed…I worked. And since I was in the suburbs and our flight wasn’t until early evening, I ran out to my favorite childhood Chinese restaurant.

I vowed to myself I was going to finish my last two Dream reviews and my last Disney review before I left and I was so, so close. Almost there. I didn’t think I would make it. And literally, within a minute of hitting publish on my last post for Mouse Madness: Back to Food and Wine, the cab came to take Mom and I to O’Hare. The Skycap gave me *the look* when we went to check in. That “you look like a chronic over-packer and this is a very big and heavy suitcase.” I got the last laugh — 48.7.

O’Hare wasn’t entirely too busy. From the time we left Mom’s house to the time we were through security and at the gate was probably around an hour. We waited two more to board and then got on a ridiculously turbulent but short 2.5 hour flight to Florida where we couldn’t see a window from our seats (if you’re flying American, watch out for row 12…it’s windowless on most of their planes).

We landed in Florida around 9:30 pm and headed to Hertz for our rental car. Stephanie usually arranges our rental cars for us (I do the hotels) and I think she almost always uses Hotwire because they guarantee a major company and unlimited miles. We were more than content with both the car and the service we received at Hertz and were quickly off on our way to our pre-cruise stay at the Marriott Renaissance in Plantation.

We’ve stayed at the Renaissance in Plantation for nearly all of our Fort Lauderdale and Miami cruise departures. The rooms are spacious, well-appointed and always clean and the staff are helpful and pleasant. It’s close enough to Fort Lauderdale (less than 15 minutes to airport and Port Everglades), but far enough away from the hustle, bustle and crowds that make Fort Lauderdale hotels less appealing to us. And, being the Priceline pro that I am, I can always guarantee we get that hotel when I bid: it’s the only 4-star hotel in the Plantation zone. If my bid is rejected, I can add zones that don’t have 4-star hotels for re-bids until my bid is accepted.

Anyways, we checked in around 10:30 pm and noticed they’d renovated the hotel since our last stay here in 2011. It had more of an urban chic vibe in the lobby now much like the W-hotel chains have in their lobbies.

And they still have that fruit-infused water out in the lobby, which is incredibly refreshing after a long day (or a long flight).

When we got up to our room, we found the rooms had been renovated, too, with new fixtures and furniture, and there were upgraded shower amenities from Aveda.

Mom and I had contemplating a late dinner at one of her favorite restaurants (Smokey Bones) since it’s open late, but we were so tired. Instead? We headed towards the drive through at the Golden Arches and split some McNuggets.