I’m baaaaaaack.
And I’m not just back, you guys. I’m back with another trip.
Yeah, but full disclosure time. This trip isn’t like a full Disney trip per se. Like out of the full 12 days (yeah, 12 days….we’ll get to that in a second), 7 of those days are not Disney days.
But hey, look. This trip is kind of an epic situation. Because it’s like 4 trips in one AND its just me and Nickie on this trip. I mean, we meet up with some friends a little later on during the Disney portion of the trip but overall? It’s like just us.
Yeah, your excitement is palpable. Let’s get on with the details in a section of the post I cleverly named “The Details.”
Our 12-Day Empty Nest Extravaganza Trip: The Details
I’m sure you’ve got questions:
- Why was it just the two of us?
- Where did you go?
- How come the trip was 12 days?
- What made the whole thing four trips in one?
- Why are you still writing these posts?
- Aren’t you a grown man with a job?
First of all, rude. Also though? Accurate.
But beyond those rather uncalled-for questions, I hope to answer all your other queries.
Let’s start with…
Why was it just the two of us?
I’m so glad I asked.
So, this year kind of marked a big year in the Goodreau household. In August 2025, we dropped both boys off at college – Myles for his second semester of his junior year and Owen for his first semester of his freshman year.
Which meant we were going to be empty nesters. And that brought with it a whole slew of different emotions. It was the turning of the page on the past 21 years. And while we knew it didn’t mean the boys would be like “gone,” – I mean Owen was only going to be like 20 minutes away at Northeastern…
…and even though Myles was a little further away living in his first apartment at Seton Hall…
we were still seeing him at least once a month usually – things were going to be different. We didn’t have “kids in the house.” Which was sad.
But it also meant Nickie and I had a new chapter beginning. A chapter in which we could focus on “us” and it was kind of exciting looking forward to figuring out what that meant. Watching the shows we wanted to watch. Listening to the music we wanted to listen to in the car. If we wanted to stop for a drink after dinner, we could.
And it meant maybe some trips just for us. And all of that is what . Something that would simultaneously help to take our mind off the sadness attached to the boys leaving home AND something that would let us kick off our “just the two of us” chapter properly.
Where did we go?
So we started looking into this trip maybe a year or even more in advance. And we were all over the place with what we were thinking. Do we go to Walt Disney World on our own? Europe? Do we keep it local at somewhere like Cape Cod or Maine?
We landed on a cruise because each time we have cruised in the past, we found ourselves thinking a cruise would be something we would really enjoy if it were just the two of us. We love how much there is to do on a cruise, but also the ability to just chill on your balcony, looking out at the ocean. A cruise carries with it the ability to do as much or as little as you want – and if it were just the two of us, we had the freedom to choose whatever it was we wanted to do.
But even once we decided on a cruise, we still were all kinds of back and forth on the cruise line, the itinerary, the dates. Were we gonna do a Disney cruise? A Norwegian? 4 nights? 3 nights? Leaving from Boston?
Where do we go?
Bermuda?
Bahamas?
Come on, pretty mama.
But we ended up deciding on a Royal Caribbean Western Caribbean cruise on the Oasis of the Seas leaving out of Fort Lauderdale. Mainly this was on account of timing and price but we also saw a lot to like about this ship and we were interested in the itinerary (which eh, I’ll let that whole thing unfold as we get through these posts).
How come the trip was 12 days AND what made the whole thing four trips in one?
Yeah, these questions are kind of related. And also I am kind of bored writing these details. I mean, we are like 3 pages in and we haven’t even started the trip yet. So let’s cover these two together.
Days: 6
So right, this was a 6-day, 5-night cruise but it somehow expanded to 12 days.
Well, first off, we were leaving on a Sunday but wanted to definitely not fly into Ft. Lauderdale morning of so we flew in a day early.
Days: 7
Also though? My work asked me to attend a 3-day conference AT WALT DISNEY WORLD the week after we disembarked. So we tacked it onto the trip.
Days: 10
However, the conference didn’t start until Monday and we were disembarking on a Friday. Soooooo…we ended up booking a couple nights in Vero Beach.
Days: 12
If there is a way to stretch out a trip in any way possible, we will find it.
When life gives you lemons, order a bunch of chicken
Alright so a little twist here. About two weeks before the trip, Nickie was just not feeling good. Like at all. She was having some severe abdominal pain that landed her in the emergency room. Yeah. My poor Nickie.
Welp, turned out she was suffering from diverticulitis. Which sucked. I mean, primarily because she was in a lot of pain. Obviously. But it also put this whole trip kind of up in the air. As an immediate action, Nickie had to go on a liquid diet before moving to a bland low-fiber diet before finally being able to eat somewhat normal again. And obvs, this meant no alcohol for a little while and even when she could drink, she’d have to take it easy for a little while at least.
And right. We were going on a cruise. Drinking and eating is like 90% of the reason people go on cruises in the first place. And obviously, we didn’t want to go if Nickie was feeling terrible. Feeling not terrible is a big part of enjoying vacation.
So we kept an eye on things as the cruise approached, unsure if we were going to cancel or not. As she worked through her liquid-and-then-low-fiber diet, she did seem to be getting better. So it was looking like we were going to go. But we did end up making some adjustments. Namely, we cancelled our drink packages and the multiple nights of specialty dining we had booked (but don’t worry, we do end up booking some later).
But yeah, while Nickie is doing so much better now, she was still somewhat restricted especially at the beginning of the trip. So, like, if you see Nickie eating like a lot of plain grilled chicken and drinking less than you’re used to, you’ll know why.
Alright, now that all that is out of the way…
Our 12-Day Empty Nest Extravaganza Trip: Day 1
Day 1, you guys!!
Much excite.
But you know what wasn’t exciting? How early we were up on Day 1.
This picture of my coffee right here?
That thing was taken at 4:06 AM.
And yeah, it was August 29th and I was drinking out of a Halloween mug. But whatever you guys. My kids have literally left me. Let me have Halloween whenever I want.
Always sad saying goodbye to Lilo & Stitch though. These two were def gonna be in good hands while we were gone of course – our friend Renee and my mom were taking turns watching them while we were gone. But still, we were gonna miss these little fluffs.
Stitch, in fact, was going to extremes to try to avoid a tearful goodbye.
Aw puppers.
We did have to leave though, so we ordered up a Lyft and man, it was like still wicked dahk when it pulled up.
It was a quick ride to the airport and we were there by like 5AM. And we quickly made our way from the curb to our gate with no issues whatsoever.
The end.
..
…
OK fine. There were issues. Two issues to be exact. For one, as we were getting to the airport, our Lyft driver asked us what terminal at Logan we were heading to. When we told her “Delta” she asked, “Terminal B or E.” We confidently replied “B,” knowing that Terminal E was the International terminal and we were heading to Florida. Which is most assuredly NOT International.
However, after she dropped us off and we attempted to do curbside check-in, the dude behind the counter informed us that our flight was in fact leaving out of, you guessed it, Terminal E. And the driver had already left.
THAT was issue #1.
Issue #2 was that as we were figuring this all out, Nickie also realized she left her phone in the car.
So here we were, less than a half hour into our trip and we were stranded at the wrong terminal minus one phone. Nickie, however, had the idea to call her phone multiple times until finally our Lyft driver picked up and said she was on her way back to drop it off!
AND.
When she got there, we informed her of our terminal debacle. And she graciously offered to drive us over to Terminal E.
So actually? Nickie leaving her phone in the car ended up being not the worst thing since it also got us a ride to the correct terminal. Annnnnd it got that Lyft driver a hell of a tip.
Once we were in the actual correct terminal, we made our way over to security and look you guys. Look how fancy we were.
Yup. First class. Nickie had upgraded our tickets as a surprise. A surprise she told me pretty much right after she booked them. On account of surprises are something we have a real hard time with.
So right. More on first class later.
We were through security and to our gate area by like 5:30AM.
Since we had first class waiting for us and all the food-ness it promised, I figured I would wait for breakfast. But Nickie, in her condition, wanted to try and find something to bring on the plane she knew would be safe. I had called ahead to try and get her a meal she could eat, but just in case.
So we stopped off at Peet’s for a smoothie.
At around 5:50, we got to watch the sun start to come up.
Nickie said she thought it was beautiful, but I thought it was a little plane.
Was that the first pun of the post. Six pages in? Wow.
It was a pretty exciting feeling at that moment. Sitting there watching the day begin, waiting to board our plane felt like the start of a pretty grand adventure. And I mean that not only in terms of the 12-day land and sea situation we were embarking on. I mean this was the first trip in a line of hopefully many to follow as we now have so much time to focus on just us. If this was empty-nesting, it wasn’t looking to be too bad.
Especially with that rawr-ness by my side up there.
Alright, let’s board this plane and see what all this first class stuff is about, eh?
As we boarded, much in this fashion…
…we sat down to find some water waiting for us at our big comfy seats.
To start off my flight in the right way, I looked at my reflection and said “Bloody Mary” three times. And voila.
I know. I have made that joke like way too many times on this blog. But it’s a classic now. Classic WeHeartDisney, right? Maybe we can get t-shirts made.
As you can see, I also found the movie I wanted to watch on the flight – Ballerina: From the World of John Wick.
We were in the air a little after 7AM.
And since she was still watching herself, Nickie opted for a ginger ale. But she opted for a ginger ale in a fancy glass.
So you know…ginger alé.
I also followed up my Bloody with a coffee. Because honestly? One of my favorite things about First Class is getting coffee in an actual mug.
It’s ruined me for paper.
Oh right – and my movie ended. LOVED it btw. SO violent.
So as you can see in that picture above, I moved onto reading my latest Stephen King book – Needful Things. Also so good. And yeah, violent too.
I obviously have a type.
That coffee, though, was only a precursor to what was to come. It was breakfast time y’all. I went with the Ricotta Omelet. Which was served with a side of Bacon, Mushrooms, and Spinach as well as a Croissant and some Overnight Oats.
And I mean, yeah. It was pretty good. I thought the omelet was tasty and both the spinach and mushrooms were nice additions. The croissant was fresh….enough. And those overnight oats were kind of the star of that tray right there. It was actually really really good.
The bacon was…eh. Not the best. Kind of limp and flavorless. But everything else was kind of yumtown.
Oh and I obvs squad paired it with a breakfast beer – a Wayne vacation staple.
First Class though. Best.
At around 10:30, we started seeing Fort Lauderdale come into view.
And soon enough? We landed!!
It was time to get into Phase 1 of this vacation.
And thanks to First Class, we were off the plane real quick. We ordered up our Lyft and got to our hotel – The Hilton Fort Lauderdale Marina – by like 11:15.
So we made our way right to check-in.
When we were checking in, the guy at the front desk said the room we were assigned was not ready yet but that we could pay a fee for an early check-in. Which, like, I did because I’m an idiot maybe? On account of when we got to our room, we realized it did not have the view we wanted of the marina and instead had a view of the pool.
And like that wouldn’t do. We were hoping to wake up to a view of our ship docked and waiting for us to board. So I called the front and asked if we could go back to our original reservation. Dude said no problem and refunded us the extra he charged us for the early check-in.
But we did end up changing quickly in the room into our bathing suits for an afternoon at the pool while we waited.
And wild stuff, but as we were walking in, they were starting the Ms. International World Pageant. Like right there at the pool. You can kind of see a glimpse of the stage beyond Nickie in that picture up there. But that’s kind of all I got of the show. I mean, I had my own beauty all to myself.
At this point, we were hella-hungry. So I put it an order for us at the little pool bar. I got myself a Tito’s and Soda.
Oh right. Guess I was thirsty too.
But there was food, I swear. Look if you don’t believe me.
That right there is my Poolside Press (Flour Tortilla, Cheese Blend, Pico De Gallo, Sour Cream, Guacamole) and I added some Chicken.
So right. A Chicken Quesedilla. Like, just say that Hilton Fort Lauderdale Marina pool bar.
Nickie got the Grilled Chicken Sandwich, which usually comes with Sriracha Aioli and Swiss Cheese, but she opted for it plain.
Get used to seeing a lot of plain grilled chicken for Nickie. Ol’ Plain Grilled Chicken, I call her.
I will say though – my quese…sorry. My Poolside Press was actually pretty good.
After we finished our lunch, cramps be damned, we went for a swim.
We were in the pool for about an hour or so, which was very nice. It was a hot day out there and the vacation decompress was beginning. By the time we got out, we were feeling like for real on vacation.
I gotta mention one thing that is kind of annoying the crap out of me about Hilton hotels lately. It feels like they are CONSTANTLY trying to get you to buy into their timeshare program. We were approached at the pool, multiple times in the lobby, and there was a booth set up by the elevators with a super-aggressive woman that offered us basketball tickets like, I don’t know, 12 times?
And we have seen this at other Hilton properties too lately.
It’s like chill the f out on the timeshares, Hilton. Seriously. I am SHOCKED that Paris would allow such a thing.
At this point, we wanted to do a little exploring. So I stopped off at the pool bar to get myself a walking-around drink.
I think I went with the Irish Sunburn? Right, this looks like that right?
OK let’s do a little exploring. We started off out back along the water. It was a beautiful day out there. And like, there were a lot of boats out there. You might even say there was a boatload.
We also walked around to the front of the property as well, which gave us a nice look at the hotel itself.
We then made our way back into the lobby.
And out to the back patio to sit down and enjoy the scenery a little bit.
We have been before but I do love the whole layout of Fort Lauderdale. How it’s all little canals and inlets and what not. It’s like Venice, except drunker.
Oh by the by, while we were on the patio? We were approached about a timeshare. I wanna be like…this is time I don’t wanna share. Know what I mean?
At around 3PM our room was ready! Like, the actual room. With the view and what not. Lookit the room. Lookit.
And yeah, the view? It was viewtastic.
OK yeah. I know it’s not like all “whoa look at that view” and it was more “oh look at that parking lot” but it was what we wanted. On account of we were pretty confident our ship was gonna be right there outside that window in the morning.
As I noted wayyyy back when we started this post, we were up all kinds of early today so we ended up taking a little power nap for a couple hours and caught up with the kids on FaceTime before ordering up an Uber to take us over to Las Olas Boulevard for a stroll.
Las Olas Boulevard is a street full of stores and restaurants. Like this store. That has giant Mickey Vinylmations in the window.
Or like this store.
That has pretty girls in their mirror.
But yeah, we ended up in Lily Pulitzer. On account of Nickie cannot avoid going into a Lily Pulitzer store. Like, if she was being chased by a serial killer and ran by a Lily Pulitzer store she would backtrack to see if anything new came in.
And she of course ended up seeing something she liked, but wasn’t going to buy because she thought it was too expensive. Another hallmark of a Lily Pulitzer store trip.
Thankfully though? I was there to break the cycle and got her the bracelet she wanted.
On account of I am some sort of prince among men or something.
We walked along, ducking in and out of stores, but really found nothing else we wanted. I came close to buying some new cologne at Tommy Bahama but thought better of it.
Oh wait. I DID buy a cappuccino at the Hollywood Donut Factory.
But not a donut. Despite there being donuts.
I donut know what was wrong with me.
But yeah, I got a cappuccino. Nickie got an apple juice and we set up at the table outside the Hollywood Donut Factory to do a little people-watching while we decided on dinner. We were all back and forth on what we wanted to do – do we eat somewhere on Las Olas? Do we head to the beach? Burger King?
So many choices.
But. Well. We ended up both wanting to check out 15th Street Fisheries, which was a restaurant we could see from our hotel but weirdly not get to without a car. Like look at this place.
It’s like…right there. So close. But yet so far away.
But whatever. It didn’t matter at this point. I mean, we were on Las Olas so we were gonna need a ride anyway.
To 15th Street Fisheries!
We ended up getting a table outside with a really nice view of the marina.
Ha, my beard was LEGIT on this trip.
This place was super cool though. Not only did we have a view of the water from our seat but there were also these little windows in the floor where you could see the tarpon fish (of which there are A LOT in this water) swimming by.
So I spent a good chunk of time during dinner taking pictures of where the fish were a second ago. Like, I would see a fish, open up my camera and snap – they were already gone. I’m the best at this.
Tonight was a big night though. Not only was it the first night of vacation but it was the first night Nickie was going to have any alcohol at all since finding out she had diverticulitis. Big night.
She went with a glass of Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc. I, meanwhile, went with The Fisheries Dirty Martini ( Belvedere Organic Vodka & olive juice, chilled, and served with Bleu Cheese stuffed olives).
Look how excited Nickie is to have wine.
You know what they say. Drunk wife, drunk life.
Or. Wait was that it?
For dinner, I went with the Florida Fried Shrimp Tacos, which the restaurant’s site describes as Lightly Fried Shrimp/ Fresh Summer Slaw made with Lime Juice and Cilantro/ Chipotle Lime Aioli/ Grilled Flour Tortillas. So many slashes.
But yeah, these things are what I am taco-ing about.
Really really good tacos here. The shrimp was deffo lightly fried, which I appreciated. Those onion rings though? Kind of more-than-lightly fried.
Also appreciated.
I never got a picture of Nickie’s meal, but I am pretty sure it was grilled chicken. Get used to the phrase “Nickie got the grilled chicken” this trip.
I paired my meal with a nice Hazy IPA, of which I have no idea what it was.
And um, I guess I made quick work of it? On account of that picture was taken at 6:58PM and this picture of my picture of my Lagavulin on the rocks was taken at 7:28.
Of course it was delicious. It was Lagavulin on the rocks.
But yeah that was dinner at 15th St. Fisheries. Such a good kick off to the trip I thought. Food was great, ambiance was fantastic, and I didn’t mention before but our service was top-notch. A good decision for sure.
After we finished up with dinner, we took a walk on the dock to get a better look at the tarpons. And I mean, did we ever.
It was like…Have you seen these fish?
Seriously tho. These things were huge situations.
It was a pretty well-attended thing, looking at the tarpons. I mean. Tarpons? More like Tarpo-pular-ons.
…
…
Sorry.
But why wouldn’t it be popular? It was kind of real pretty outside.
But eventually we had to go. It was time to head out the front door…
…and say goodbye to all the fish.
Ha, Nah. Just kidding. There were fish out there too!
Fish everywhere. They should call this place a fishery or something cuz of all the fish.
…
…
Oh. Right.
We ordered up our Lyft and were back at the hotel by around 8:30. We made a quick stop off at the little market in the lobby for some necessities. Namely, this. This is a necessity.
And we made our way back to our room. We spent a little time on the balcony, enjoying our view and getting super excited about the days to come.
At around 9:00, we headed on to bed. I know. Early, right? But it was a big day tomorrow. And it’s not like I went to sleep. I was able to catch the end of Ghostbusters, in fact.
Before moving right the hell into Ghostbusters 2.
A Ghostbusters double feature? I don’t know, vacation. You’re kind of setting a high bar right now.
But yeah, that’s Day 1, you guys. A pretty fun start, I think. And man, get ready for Day 2 on account of we actually board the ship and head out into open ocean on Day 2.
See you all then!
Next Post – Day 2!
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