Carnival Vista- 11/3 Pre-Cruise

Friday, November 3^rd: Pre-Cruise

We woke up at 4:15a.m. and, in a groggy yet excited state, got dressed and ready for the airport. My very generous chauffeur (he prefers father) drove us to Midway airport, with a quick stop at McDonalds first. For some ridiculous reason, Midway decided it needed to class up the place and get rid of all of their fast food restaurants, including the coveted and surely financially profitable McDonalds. After 10 years of early flights, it’s a tradition (or habit) for me/us to get McDonalds breakfast at the airport, and when I was preparing for the trip, I read the tragic news about the removal of the eatery. Thankfully, my dad decided he would take a detour to McDonalds (jeez, how many times can I say this name in one paragraph?) to enable my love of Egg White Delights. We arrived at the airport around 5 am and did self-check in at a kiosk, which is a fairly quick and easy process. For the first time in years, I checked luggage on the plane, which induces a little bit of anxiety but seemed necessary for a nine-day trip. At least this gave us a chance to try out our new luggage! I made sure to cross-pack with my husband’s luggage, so we would still have full outfits to wear in case something happened to our belongings (thankfully we had no issues the entire trip).

A huge benefit of traveling so early is the severe lack of lines. Sure, TSA will make everyone’s lives a little harder regardless of the time of day, but other than that, check in was smooth and painless. We found a few seats once we got to our gate and started the waiting game until we boarded. Our flight took off a few minutes early and we cut down on travel time once we were in the air, so we landed at FLL before our previously stated time of 10:25a.m. Eastern. 

Another plus of early travel is sunrises from the plane:


We grabbed our luggage and headed outside to experience that warm, humid Florida air and my husband called our hotel, the Hyatt Place- Ft. Lauderdale Airport & Cruise Port, for their shuttle to pick us up. We waited about 20 minutes but didn’t technically have anywhere else to be so it was alright. We got to the hotel and were very impressed by the place; I may have splurged a little bit and decided that the Quality Inn on Stirling Rd. (while totally fine for a one-night stay) wasn’t what I was looking for to start the honeymoon trip, and booked at the Hyatt Place instead.

After getting to our room, we headed across the street to McDonald’s for lunch and tried out their new self-ordering system, which is weird, by the way. (I’m just realizing we ate there twice in one day, which is sort of gross. We eat there maybe once every six months, so I guess we were taking advantage of vacation. Ooops!) No worries though, because we walked a mile to the Walgreens to stock up on a 12-pack of Coke Zero, a 4-pack of Red Bull, and two bottles of wine, and then walked another mile back carrying the goods, so we definitely got our exercise and worked off part of our lunch. After spending a few hours in the hotel watching “The Great British Baking Show” (our newest Netflix binge-watch), we hailed a Lyft and headed to the Hollywood Broadwalk. Quick tangent: Who decided it should be the Broadwalk instead of the Boardwalk…? We got dropped off near a Margaritaville that I didn’t even knew existed, and watched some Flow Riding, which was fun. 

We walked around for a while and found the Taco Spot around 5:15p.m. and were able to get seated right away, but it was definitely a popular spot. We quickly learned why it was so great, with awesome beach views, good drinks, and good food. We ordered a piña colada in a pineapple, which was AWESOME and very strong. We only have one honeymoon, why not live it up? I had a ground beef quesadilla and my husband had the carnitas taco combo, and we also had an order of chips, guac, and salsa, which was super delicious. Not the best Mexican food we’ve ever had but for sure a place we would eat at again and recommend with no hesitation. 

Taco Spot Menu:




This Pina really was worth the big bucks!

We walked on the Broadwalk more and enjoyed the sun setting before ordering another Lyft to return to the hotel. We received two free drink coupons for our honeymoon and decided to grab two Bacardi and Diet Cokes before heading back to the room. The drinks were incredibly strong, which I suppose for free is pretty cool, but also made it hard to drink. We prepared our luggage for the next day (YAY CRUISE TIME!) and continued our Netflix-watching before heading to bed.

UP NEXT: Embarkation Day!!
Link: Embarkation Day!