A “combo vacation” seems to be a new thing with Marlene and me. On CV1 we did 8 days on a cruise followed by an auto trip to Charleston SC, Acworth GA (near Atlanta), Orlando and Coral Springs FL. Our next combo trip will start August 10 with a 7-night cruise followed by an auto trip to MA, with 2 stops going north and at least 3 stops going south. And 3 weeks in MA for a total of over 5 weeks.
I will designate the cruise portion as CV2 (which suggests both a combo vacation and the name of the ship) as it will be our second on the Carnival Vista. If you recall, that was the ship on which I won over $2,000 in the casino. But that was pretty much the only good thing about the ship. We can only hope that embarking and disembarking will be smoother this time.
Because the auto portion is quite long, both in terms of miles and time, I will give the auto portion its own designations: TN_10 for the trip to MA and TS_10 for the trip back to FL. It is my 10th trip from FL to MA and back. It will be Marlene’s second trip south but just her first trip north (she flew up to join me last time).
There is a lot of planning yet to be done but I can give you the rough outline.
CV2
If we didn’t like the ship the first time, why are we going again? Because Marlene’s son and daughter-in-law will be on board. They don’t know yet that we will be joining them (shhh… don’t tell). It will be a surprise. Hopefully a good surprise.
The main ports are Aruba and Curacao – places we have been to recently, but we like both and are happy to return.
TN_10
The ship leaves from Port Canaveral so the first hop of TN_10 will be Lehigh Acres FL to Port Canaveral FL. From there we will drive about halfway to Virginia – perhaps to Florence SC. It will just be an overnight stay – no sightseeing planned.
The third hop will be to Dumfries VA where we will spend two nights with one of Jett’s sons. The fourth hop will get us to Worcester MA where we will take up residence in the home of Jett’s brother and sister-in-law. That will be the end of the TN_10 auto trip. Four hops, about 1,500 miles, just one night in a hotel.
In MA we will do some sightseeing. We haven’t decided yet what we will see but I am pretty sure we will get to VT – the only New England state that Marlene has not yet visited. Maybe NY and CT too. And very likely a couple of casinos.
TS_10
The trip back will probably start with a drive to Hershey PA where we will, hopefully, tour the Hershey chocolate factory and sample some Pennsylvania Dutch food. Just one night there and one night in Wheeling WV (with a possible stop at the Flight 93 memorial in Shanksville PA) then down to Louisville KY for just two nights with my cousin Keith. A long trip to Destin FL for two nights then a final hop back to Lehigh Acres. That is 5 hops, 6 nights – 4 in hotels – and about 2,200 miles.
Should be fun. But it will also be a lot of long hops. Good thing I enjoy driving. We will take some audiobooks to amuse us while we travel.
The $900 (mis)adventure
Marlene and I have booked a 25-night cruise from Tampa FL to Anchorage AK in Aprill 2025. This will be the most expensive cruise we have ever taken together – over $2,500 each. This is because it is on the Norwegian Jade rather than a Carnival ship where we both get major discounts. But we felt the expense was justified because it is still not expensive in absolute terms – just about $100 per day – and because the itinerary is amazing – 15 ports, including some in Columbia, Panama and Costa Rica as well as some good Mexican and Canadian ports and both San Francisco and Los Angeles. Had to do it.
Anyway, we need to get it all paid by December. We are going to make several payments. We agreed that we would each pay $900 in July. No problem, right? We had the money. I am responsible for the payments so Marlene gave me $900. I just had to pay via Visa then get the money into my checking account to pay the Visa bill.
So… how to get her money into my checking account in Massachusetts? There are no branches of my bank anywhere in Florida. But Zelle works everywhere, right?
Plan A: Use Zelle to transfer the money from Marlene’s bank to mine
That would have been simple but, unfortunately, Marlene’s bank doesn’t support Zelle.
Plan B: Use CashApp.
We both have CashApp and have transferred money between us before. She successfully transferred the money to my CashApp, I linked my CashApp to my checking account and tried to move the money. That was declined by my bank on Thursday. Why? No idea and I wouldn’t be able to ask the bank until Friday. I needed the money deposited by Monday. Couldn’t wait to try again.
Plan C: Buy a money order and remotely deposit it into my account
I purchased the money order at Walmart, no problem. But as I endorsed the back I saw a little notice: Not for Mobile Deposit. Huh? I tried to deposit it and, not surprisingly, the deposit was declined.
Plan D: Cash the money order, deposit the cash in Marlene’s checking account and have her write a check
You are probably thinking “why didn’t she just write a check to start?” Indeed, that would have been the best plan, except that it seemed so old school. Why deal with a check when cash transfer was instantaneous? Obviously, cash transfers are not always instantaneous.
Anyway, the flaw in Plan D was that Walmart, where I had purchased the money order just 90 minutes before, was unable to cash the money order. Why? They couldn’t say. Just that the third-party check cashing service had some problem with my ID or the money order. Calling Walmart headquarters did not help. The best they could offer was a refund in 10 days.
Plan E: Cash the money order at a Western Union office
It is a Western Union money order so they should be able to cash it, right? If anyone had my $900 at this point it was Western Union. But this, too, failed, due to the prior attempt to cash it at Walmart. I would have to wait 48 hours to try again. Oh, by the way, the fee for cashing the money order – to get back my $900 that they had held for just a couple of hours – would be $55. Unbelievable. The fee for cashing it at Walmart was just $4. Highway robbery. No thanks, Western Union.
So 5 plans, 5 failures. I gave up and sold some stock. I am hoping that money gets into my checking account by Monday. If not, I will have to pay less than my total Visa bill and will incur at least $30 in interest. But I still have hope that the money will be there by Monday.
That is Plan F. I won’t know until Monday if it succeeds.
I will wait 10 days to get the refund on the money order. Then I will deposit it in Marlene’s checking account, she will transfer it to my CashApp and then move it to my checking account. I believe I fixed the CashApp problem. It was due to CashApp having *2* ways to link to a checking account: (1) routing number and account number and (2) debit card number. It seems to default to debit card number – and doesn’t offer the option to use the routing/account number. My debit card number was an old card that had expired months ago. I was not even aware that it was linked to my CashApp. Anyway, I have corrected that.
But that begs the question: why, when processing a withdrawal request, does CashApp solicit a routing/account number and then not use it?
Frustrating.
UPDATE: The stock was sold on Thursday but the money did not appear in my checking account until early Tuesday, about 6 hours too late to avoid interest charges on my Visa. So Plan F, like all the other plans, was a failure.