April 2026: When You WISH Upon a Cruise: Day 1

Day 1: Saturday April 25, 2026

After a night of minimal sleep, because Gizmo is apparently a terrible roommate when a twin bed is involved, I was awake before my 3:15 am alarm. I got up and got ready, while Gizmo conveniently went down to the living room where Nick was asleep on the couch and jumped up on Nick, waking him up.

Needless to say, we were all set to hit the road about 10 of 4. We had very intentionally left the bulk of the luggage in the car, so we just had to sneak out past the dogs (and prevent Gizmo from following us out the door) and get in the car. Surprisingly, it was Snow that got vocal about us leaving. I guess Gizmo had accepted his fate of being my MIL’s TV watching buddy for the week. But, we made it out, Gizmo didn’t escape, and my FIL later reported that Snow quieted back down pretty quickly.

We got to MHT just about 4 after a nice quick 10ish minute drive, and surprisingly found a parking space on the same level (and row!) as the pedestrian bridge from the terminal to the garage. We grabbed the luggage, fired off pictures of the car’s location to my in-laws who would be picking the car up later that day, and then I took great joy in the sound of luggage spinning across the garage, moving walkways and terminal floor, as we made our way to check-in. Seriously…that sound just doesn’t get old!

After February, I was prepared for a long line at baggage drop, but there was actually no line for the check in kiosks with JetBlue, and almost no line for baggage drop, so within a few minutes we were on the escalator to security. Pre-check was a breeze for me. Nick’s belt set off the metal detector, because apparently after almost 10 years of pre-check he still thinks he doesn’t need to take his belt off, so he got a patdown, but we made it through and continued on into the terminal where I bought a maple glazed Holy Donut (no, really, that’s the brand of amazing potato donuts from Maine), Nick bought himself a breakfast sandwich at Burger King (the proof that our airport is small…), and we settled in at our gate.

If anyone didn’t know that this flight was an Orlando-bound flight, they needed their eyes checked. The gate area was filled with people wearing shorts and capris, and nearly every group had a bag or a shirt that was Disney…and often not entirely recent Disney. I quickly understood how, when the price finally dropped on this flight, it filled up quickly. This was a flight with Disney adults. This was also a classic NH airport in late April experience, as all of us were sitting around in summer clothes, watching the ground crews de-ice planes because of overnight frost. Happy April vacation!

As I was looking around, I saw my old officemate, so I went over and we chatted for awhile, which was nice. She moves around the district more than I do, so we don’t get to catch up as often as we used to.

And then it was time to board the plane! Boarding was quick enough, and pretty soon, we were settled in, me watching the sunrise, excited to see multiple planes lined up at this little airport. Is MHT in its comeback era?! I sure hope so!

Boarding was efficient enough that we actually pushed back from the gate a few minutes early, just after 6 am. We taxied all around the airport and then we were airborne, flying right over my mom’s house, on our way east to the Atlantic, before turning south.

It was an uneventful, and reasonably smooth flight down the coast. We landed just before 9, half an hour early. Yay for an extra half hour of vacation! Surprisingly a gate was available, so soon enough, the deplaning stampede began. Deplaning went much more smoothly than it had when we flew into MCO in November, which Nick and I both were grateful for!

Once off the plane and in the terminal, it was an easy and pleasant walk to baggage claim. Both of us were really impressed by all of the food options in this terminal. Terminal C is a major step up from terminals A and B. We made it to baggage claim and then waited and waited and waited some more. Nick got a cold brew right next to baggage claim that he was REALLY happy with. I had time to change from capris into shorts. And then luggage finally started emerging. JetBlue is just not fast at delivering luggage to the carousel in any airport.

Both of our suitcases emerged and we headed to the rental car center. I had done skip the line with Alamo (the ONLY way to rent a car these days!), so we headed right out to the garage where the attendant directed us to the mid-size row, and we picked a bright blue Hyundai Sonata. Nick loaded luggage while I inspected the car, and then after getting GPS established (always a humbling, marriage-testing experience), we were on our way.

Exiting airport property was a bit of a white knuckle experience, but once we were on the Beachline, the rest of the drive to the Brevard Zoo was easy…until we got to the parking lot. The place was mobbed. Apparently they had had a couple events that morning. But, we found a space and pretty soon we were exploring the zoo.

We were pretty impressed with Brevard Zoo. There is a LOT to see here. We also were pleasantly surprised by the food. It tasted good and the serving sizes were massive. We got a plate of cheese fries and the 3 chicken tender meal to share. We could have just gotten a three chicken tender meal, with the fries it came with upgraded to cheese fries and we probably still would have had too much food.

 
When we had fully explored the zoo, we hopped in the car and headed for Cocoa Beach. Here we lucked into a perfect parking spot and headed for…Ron Jon. I love flip flops. Why wouldn’t I go to Ron Jon? We both found flip flops. We’ve been to Ron Jons in Disney Springs and in Clearwater Beach, and liked them, but we were very impressed by this one.

Flip flops acquired, we headed across the street to our next stop, the Florida Key Lime Pie Company. Here, after watching Florida man give a bath to an alligator named Sweetie (and yes, her toes were painted pink), we headed inside for the hardest decisions of the trip. In the end, we decided on key lime pie ice cream and a key lime snickerdoodle cookie. Nick also found a key lime cheesecake soda. We sat outside eating the ice cream and enjoying the soda, watching people try to figure out if Sweetie the alligator was real or a robot. The ice cream was a little chalky but the flavor was excellent.

Ice cream consumed, we hopped back in the car and drove the last couple of miles to our hotel, the Hyatt Place Cape Canaveral. Check in was quick enough, and pretty soon, we were in room 231, which was good sized and impeccably clean, with kind of a loud air conditioner.

 
We settled in and stalked the weather forecasts. We had tickets for Illuminature tonight at the Brevard Zoo, but suddenly we had gone from a zero percent chance of rain this evening, to 100% chance. But it was maybe going to be over in time for us to still see the lights? So we set out for dinner at Grills in Melbourne. This was about a half hour, pretty easy drive.

When we got to Grills, the parking lot was PACKED, but we actually were seated about 5 minutes after putting our name in. I didn’t actually take pictures, but I think I had a mahi sandwich. Nick might have had shrimp of some sort? Dinner was good, and there was a nice view of the river from our table.

Dinner consumed, we headed back out to the car to make some decisions. It was clear that the worst in terms of storms was NOT over, so we decided to head back to the hotel to ride it out, and then see where things were at in about an hour. So we did exactly that, stopping at Publix for bottled water, and deodorant because Nick thought he had forgotten to pack that (he hadn’t).

Back at the hotel, I watched the radar closely, Nick discovered he actually had packed deodorant, and I ended up making the decision to bail on Illuminature. Nick was surprised, because it wasn’t really raining anymore in Canaveral, but the radar made it clear that it was REALLY raining in Melbourne. Bummer, because it would have been cool to see, but I think it was for the best. As soon as the decision was made, I showered and crashed for the night…despite the loud air conditioner and our room being over the indoor bar that we could tell was HOPPING. I was TIRED!

April 2026: When You WISH Upon a Cruise: Pre-trip

Cast of Characters:

Me: 39, Disney Dork, family vacation planner, school SLP
Nick: 39, passenger prince, seller of big trucks

I started planning this trip in the summer of 2024, when new itineraries were released, and I saw an itinerary that I was excited about on a ship that I was not excited about, that lined up with my anticipated April vacation. I booked it (without a placeholder!) as soon as I could, and then continued on with planning the lineup of vacations before this one.

Eventually it was time to get other components of this vacation booked, and I was quite successful with that. Our cruise would be a 4 night on the Disney Wish, leaving Monday April 27 from Port Canaveral, returning on Friday May 1. So I booked us on points at the Hyatt Place Cape Canaveral, a pretty new hotel near-ish to the port for Saturday and Sunday nights. Then I booked us on points at the Walt Disney World Dolphin, for the Friday and Saturday nights after the cruise. I found flights with JetBlue, roundtrip from Manchester to Orlando (RIP to that beautiful flight arrangement). Originally we were booked to fly down Friday night, April 24, but then JetBlue changed to a morning flight, so we ended up with a flight early Saturday morning. Our flight home remained relatively stable, with us flying home Sunday midday. I booked a rental car from Saturday to Monday, picking up at MCO and returning at Port Canaveral. Then I booked car service to the Dolphin with Gearfusion, after much debate about which company to use. On Black Friday I bought tickets through Undercover Tourist for Kennedy Space Center.

As the trip got closer, more details got ironed out. We lamented the lack of mixology classes to book (WHY did I get up at midnight when there was nothing worth booking for activities?!). I analyzed the map of Lookout Cay. We bought Epcot tickets. We bought tickets to Illuminature at the Brevard Zoo after a LOT of weather analyzing and we started packing. Gizmo got sulky when he saw the suitcases. And then finally, after a week that included enough black ice to shut down the highway and send me detouring to work in mid-late April, it was go time. We loaded up the dogs and the suitcases on Friday evening after work and spent the night at my in-laws so that we could be closer to the airport the next morning. I think we finally got to their house around 8 pm after a long day, so we just visited for a bit and then went to bed.

March 2026: Let the Good Times Roll in...Montreal?: Day 4, The End

Day 4: Monday March 30, 2026

This morning we slept in slightly…you know, until about 6. Eventually we got up and got ready and walked a couple of blocks to breakfast at Le Fabrique de Bagel, which was in a small mall of sorts.

I got a cranberry chocolate bagel with cream cheese and Nick got a breakfast sandwich on a bagel. We both quickly decided that a cranberry chocolate bagel is brilliant and the cream cheese here was amazing, but Montreal bagels are not for us. They’re almost…sticky.

 
We finished eating as much of breakfast as we were going to and then checked out a piece of the Berlin Wall that was in this mall, before heading back to the hotel.

Back at the hotel we packed up the room, and brought everything down to the car so that we could get the car out of the garage before handing in our keys. Once I had pulled the car around front, I went in to check out and then we hit the road. I think we checked out a little after 9.

It was an uneventful and dare I say it, easy, drive to the border. The line to enter the States moved slowly, but it really wasn’t that long, and pretty soon we were playing 20 questions with US Customs. We passed the test here too, and were welcomed home.

From the border it was probably about an hour to our next destination: Cold Hollow Cider Mill. This is a favorite stop of ours in the Stowe area. We grabbed a delicious lunch of sandwiches (on homemade bread) in their cafe, and then explored the cider mill store for a bit. Because it was a week day (we’re usually here on weekends) we got to see them pressing apples to make cider, so that was cool. We picked up some of their cider donuts (in maple sugar…winning!), and I tried to get a frozen hot chocolate with maple creamee, but their frozen hot chocolate machine was frozen, so I ended up with an apple cider slush with maple creamee. This was very good.

Having gotten our fill of cider, we got back in the car for the roughly 2 hour drive the rest of the way home. It was uneventful and we were home in plenty of time to collect the dogs from the local pet resort and get ready for the rest of the week.


Final thoughts:

Well, it wasn’t New Orleans, but we had fun.

If you go to Montreal and don’t eat well, you did something wrong.

We still don’t like cities.

I’m not necessarily in a hurry to go back to Montreal, because I felt like we got the gist of it, but I would like to go back sometime during terrace season. I love outdoor dining and it seems like they have an amazing outdoor dining scene in Old Montreal.

I would recommend the hotel we stayed at without hesitation.

The Biodome alone was worth the trip.

If you’re ever in the Stowe, VT area, go to Cold Hollow Cider.

March 2026: Let the Good Times Roll in...Montreal?: Day 3

Day 3: Sunday March 29, 2026

We were awake relatively early this morning. We were both excited for today. So we got ready and headed for breakfast at a Canadian institution…Tim Hortons. Breakfast sandwich for Nick, maple boston (i.e., a custard filled, maple frosted) donut for me.

 
Food eaten, we headed outside and approximately 1 door down to the Place des Artes Metro station. We found the ticketing machines easily enough, and thankfully the machines had an English option so buying our tickets was easy. I had screenshot the directions, so once we had our tickets in hand, we pretty easily found the right platform. A train came along within 5 minutes, and we were off to today’s destination.

I was actually really impressed with how clean the Metro train was. The T trains in Boston are absolutely NOT that clean. It was an uneventful 8 or 9 stop trip to the Pie-IX station, where we figured out that Sortie means exit and found our way back to ground level.

Once outside, we walked around the Parq Olympique a bit, before we headed for the Montreal Biodome, which was why we were really here (although as someone who really likes Olympic Gymnastics, being about to walk around the Olympic Park from the Olympics where Nadia Comaneci scored a 10 was a big deal).

 
We found our way to the entrance of the Biodome, and once our tickets had been scanned, started exploring. The Biodome is basically 4 different ecosystems, and it’s really well done. We both were very impressed and felt that the Biodome alone made the 4 hour trip to Montreal worth it.

 
When we were done at the Biodome, we decided since it had been so worthwhile that we should go to the Insectarium. This was about a 10 minute walk, but it was starting to warm up, so it wasn’t too bad.

At the insectarium, we bought tickets and headed inside. This place was basically a butterfly garden with a couple extra exhibits and some additional insects thrown in. It was well done, but I definitely enjoyed the Biodome more.

 
When we were done at the Insectarium, we worked our way to lunch, via some more picture taking around the Biodome and Parq Olympique.

 
Lunch was a few blocks from the Biodome: Poutine Centrale. When we walked in, we were greeted with a full conversation in French. Thankfully, they quickly saw our confused faces, asked if we were English speakers, and switched to perfect English. We all joked around and then Nick ordered basically poutine with bacon and I ordered a classic poutine with extra cheese. Service was quick, and the poutine was amazing. Not a place I’d go to after dark, but it was worth the off the path trek for lunch. And, I could have gotten away with regular classic poutine. There was a TON of cheese on mine.

Lunch eaten, we headed back to the PIE-IX metro station, where we waited just a few minutes for a train back to Place-Des-Artes. This train was standing room only, but it was another uneventful and surprisingly clean ride back to downtown.

When we exited the Metro, we discovered that there was some sort of big event going on AT the Place-Des-Artes, so leaving was chaotic, but we made it out, and then promptly found the nearby liquor store. Always look for interesting stuff. This was a small liquor store, so after surveying the options, we bought a maple cream liquor and a strawberry maple cream liquor. Since bags are not an automatic thing in Canada apparently, we also bought a reusable bag, which turned out to be the world’s best reusable bag…separate sections for up to 4 bottles of liquor. That bag will be a useful addition to our bag collection!

The liquor store was kind of in a mall so we explored a bit more, including going to an IGA. Nick seemed surprised that I knew that IGA was a grocery store, but he forgets that my grandparents lived close enough to Canada that we could watch the Canadian news channels (don’t ever watch their weather forecasts in February; those temperatures in Celsius are terrifying!), so of course I’ve been in an IGA!. This IGA was a small one (although bigger than it looked) and we were specifically looking for interesting items. Nick got some different flavor of Coke that he hadn’t found in the States yet, and I got some Easter Cadbury Dairy chocolate and some maple cream golden Oreos (yeah, they were amazing). We then worked really hard and eventually made it out of the mall. Seriously…more obvious exit/sortie signs would be great!

It was a couple blocks back to the hotel, where we settled in for the great dinner debate. I’d made reservations at a Montreal BBQ place that is apparently an award winner for their brisket, but as we’d walked back in the hotel room, I’d gotten a text that they would be unable to open for the night due to a family emergency, so our reservation was canceled. So, it was back to figuring out dinner.

We got dinner figured out and a reservation booked, then chilled for a bit before heading out into Old Montreal. The first stop was a souvenir shop. I needed to get a suitcase sticker and ornament for me and a shot glass for a friend. That goal was quickly accomplished, with some poor attempts at French, and some fumbling with the plastic that is Canadian currency. Then it was off to dinner, very nearby at the Wolf and Workman Pub.

Dinner was excellent. Nick got the steak frites and a Canadian stout. I had an apple cider spritz cocktail and the chicken pot pie. Service was attentive, food and beverages were excellent. Prices were city prices, but with the exchange rate working in our favor, dinner ended up costing about the same as it would have in rural NH. Even without the significant exchange rate benefit, Nick and I both would not hesitate to eat here again.

 
After dinner, we made the walk back uphill over the cobblestones to the hotel, where we pretty much crashed for the night.

March 2026: Let the Good Times Roll in...Montreal?: Day 2

Day 2: Saturday March 28, 2026

After a night of ok enough sleep, we got up and started getting ready for the day. Once we were ready for breakfast, we headed out to the car, which needed defrost time, because the temperature had dropped dramatically overnight. When we could see out the windshield, we headed kind of across the street to Burlington Bagel for breakfast. Nick had a breakfast sandwich on an asiago pepper bagel and a dirty chai (that he tricked me into trying even though I HATE espresso), and I had…a bagel with cream cheese. Burlington Bagel has some of the best bagels in New England, so it was a great breakfast and we loved that there was a location right by our hotel. Well worth skipping the free hotel breakfast for!

After breakfast we headed back to the hotel, where we finished packing and checked out around 9. We made a quick stop for fuel, because even though Vermont gas is more expensive than NH gas, it’s a LOT cheaper than Canadian gas, and by filling up here, we would make it back into the States before we needed to fill up again, and then we hopped back onto I-89.

Less than an hour later, and straight up I-89, we were at Canadian customs, answering rapid fire questions as to why we were going to Canada. But, we passed the quiz, and were on our way again, driving through farm land, and expressing embarrassment that this was our first trip to Montreal, when Canada really was so close. About an hour (and really just a few roads) later, we were pulling up to our hotel, the Courtyard Montreal Downtown. Yeah, we live 4 hours from Montreal and have never been.

I left Nick in the car and headed inside to ask about parking and luggage storage since we were very early for check-in (it wasn’t even 11:00 am yet). I was greeted enthusiastically and told that I was not too early and they would find us a ready room. And they sure did. Keys in hand, and directions on how to enter their parking garage, I headed back out to the car to tell Nick the good news that we were already checked in. We both were pleasantly surprised.

We parked in the underground garage easily, and then found our way to our room, 712. We were immediately impressed with the room. It was immaculate and absolutely huge for a city (or, honestly, any standard hotel room).

 

We settled in a bit, put on all the warm gear, and then headed out to explore Old Montreal. Our hotel was a couple blocks from the “start” of Old Montreal, so while we took a more circuitous route initially than we later discovered was necessary, it wasn’t a bad walk. We spent some time just walking around, taking in all the sites. We certainly have old cities in the States (Boston…), but this really was unique compared to what we’re used to.

 
Eventually we decided it was time for lunch, and by some miracle, since offline Google Maps was not working as I had hoped, and public wifi is not nearly as prevalent in Old Montreal as it is in Ireland, we found the Pinnacle Wagyu Deli, which is exactly where I’d been hoping we would be able to have lunch. This is a small order at the counter place, known for their steak and their smash burgers. I got the smashburger and Nick got the steak frites. Both were amazing. You could cut the steak with the disposable wooden fork and knife we were given. Seriously, this was a great lunch stop. Prices were fair too, especially once the Canadian dollar was converted to American!

After lunch, we worked our way to the Montreal Museum of Archaeology and History. This museum had a lot to offer in terms of history but had the most confusing layout I’ve experienced in any museum. So…mixed feelings about this museum, but it did provide us the opportunity to warm up, some wifi, and because of where in Old Montreal it is, allowed us to figure out the most direct route between the hotel and Old Montreal.

Museum explored we headed back to the hotel room to warm up, take a break from miles of walking uphill on cobblestones, and figure out where we wanted to have dinner.

In the end, we chose the nearby food hall for dinner, so when we were ready, we walked a few blocks over to Le Central. Here we both decided on pasta dishes. Nick had carbonara. I had bolognese. Nick also found us some cocktails while I watched them cook our pasta from our seats. I think my cocktail was a strawberry shortcake cocktail and his was something tropical with beer in it. Both cocktails were very good, and both pasta dishes were some of the best we’ve had. Le Central was very loud and chaotic, but I’d happily go back.

Dinner eaten, we walked back to the hotel, where we took in the nighttime view and crashed early.