Utopia of the Seas

My travel agency serves two markets. The first is family vacations. This trip to Florida has been so valuable for my family vacation clients. I’ve experienced new things at Walt Disney World and Universal Studios. This helps me best prepare my clients. Some of my families have children with special needs so knowing as many details as possible really helps me make their trip as best as possible. Before I leave, I have one more new experience to check-out.

Utopia of the Seas is Royal Caribbean’s newest ship. It’s the newest Oasis Class ship. Wonder of the Seas, Symphony of the Seas, and Harmony of the Seas are other ships in this class. Ships within the same class have the same overall ship architecture but have some small differences between them. There are three noticeable differences that I spot between this ship and the others.

Utopia Station Dining Car

Utopia Station is brand new to this ship. This is a new specialty experience, and I love it! Royal Caribbean has brought a train dining car to the ship. You board the “train” and ride through the Wild West with a meal that fits the theme. Rumor has it that additional destinations are in the works. I wasn’t too sure about this idea when I first heard about it, but they really did a wonderful job bringing this idea to life. It really does feel like you’re on a train. Keep in mind that booths fit four so families of five may find it challenging to make a reservation.

Pesky Parrot

The Pesky Parrot is also new to this ship! It’s a tiki themed bar and is located in the Royal Promenade. We were on mission mode to see the ship so no update on the actual drinks here. It was busy and everyone seemed to be enjoying it!

Playscape on Utopia of the Seas

The other main difference with this ship is the Playscape. The Playscape is an outdoor playground that they introduced on Wonder of the Seas. I absolutely love this! The Playscape on this ship is located at the same place on Wonder of the Seas but is setup differently. This one seemed to have more attractions and had less hidden spots. It is an easier playground to watch your children versus the one on Wonder of the Seas. I love this feature for all my families with sensory-seeking children!

I spent four hours on the ship and logged over 12,000 steps in that time. We were moving! I’m super grateful for the opportunity to see this ship while I was in town.

After the tour, I had a little time to hang out with friends at local outdoor bar. Then, I’m off to the airport for my next adventure.

My next adventure is training for my second market: Milestone Trips. I’m headed to Europe to learn even more about river cruising and to experience a new-to-me region of Europe. I will be exploring Austria and Slovakia! My journey starts with 1-night in Vienna, 3-nights on Viking, 4-nights on AmaWaterways, and 4-nights on Riverside Luxury Cruises. River cruising has become my favorite type of trip. Did you know that some cruise lines include millennials and multi-generational trips in their market?

I’m flying Discover Airlines which I had never heard of before. They have an Orlando to Frankfurt flight at night which works well with seeing Utopia of Seas during the day. Bags were not included so I tried to buy a bag for $75 online. The purchase appeared to go through, but I received a cryptic email that suggested otherwise. The gate agent had to call Lufthansa to confirm that the charge did not go through, and I paid again for the bag. They emailed me a receipt, and I was on my way.

I generally don’t really care where I sit on an airplane. It was extra to choose a seat, so I rolled the dice on my seat selection by having them assign one to me. The bad news is that I ended up at the back of the plane, but the good news is that it was a great seat. The airplane that I am flying narrows towards the back of the plane. The middle row had four seats across, but changes to three. I’m seated at that transition. The row in front of me is four and mine is three. I’m seated at the aisle, and it means there is empty space between my seat and the aisle. I can fit my backpack here during the flight and stretch my legs under my seat. It was a nice surprise!

Our initial flight was delayed over an hour making my tight connection almost impossible. I studied the map seeing that the two gates were near each other. The wildcard is how far passport control is from both gates. I sprint off the plane, but don’t get far. The flight attendant wants to check my flight. She looks it up and tells me I’ll never make it. The gate for my second flight changed from very close to very far. There are several flights to Vienna from Frankfort, so she books me on the next one out which is about three hours from now. This gives me time to leisurely make my way to my gate.

Passport control is needed for entry into the EU. I wait in a decently long line and watch the travelers before me get grilled on their travel plans. There is one lady in particular that seems to be asking a lot of questions. I quietly say to myself, “Please don’t let me get her.” It doesn’t work. I’m called into her line and interrogated like the travelers before me. How long are you staying? Do you have a ticket back home? Show me your ticket. Where are you staying? Show me your reservation. Why are you here? I realize I don’t actually have a copy of one of my reservations, so I hope she doesn’t look too closely. For my clients, I have an app with all documents and some trips even get paper documents. This is a back-to-back trip, and I prepared a ton of client travel documents before I left. My stuff comes last, and it is not organized. Yes, I have it, but it’s somewhere in my email. I quickly pull the flight request to show her. Then the ship confirmation is next. The internet crawls and I’m having a hard time loading the reservation. It finally loads, but it’s the wrong one. She decides she’s done waiting and waves me through instead.

I had turned my phone on to load the reservation and I immediately get a text from Verizon that I’ve used one day of my international pass. I wait around in Frankfurt and then board an Austrian Airlines flight to Vienna. They did call me to the desk because they didn’t see that I paid for my bag. Luckily, I do have the receipt from yesterday that I show. When I arrive in Vienna, I get another text that I’ve used another day of my data. Verizon’s international plan counts each country as a new pass so keep your phone on airplane mode in-between flights unless you want to use two passes!

I arrive to Vienna and it’s a relatively small airport. Only one baggage claim which makes it easy for meeting a friend who is landing shortly after me. I wait for my friend, and we take an Uber to our hotel. I’m happy to be in Europe and can’t wait to have a couple weeks of real food.