My wife and I (on our honeymoon) drove to Chicago on 12/29/06 and stayed at the Howard Johnson in Elk Grove Village near O'Hare airport. The hotel was the right price for parking for a week and one night's stay for $99.00. The hotel itself is just ok. I would book it again since it's close to the airport and they provide the transfers to/from the airport.

Airport: I've never been to O'Hare and I've heard nightmares about it but we didn't incur any. We checked in via the automatic self check-in computers and it printed out our boarding passes and luggage tags. We flew out the day of the cruise which was 12/30/06. The flight went smooth and we landed in Orlando. Exited the plane and collected the luggage which went smooth as well.

Transfer: We booked a private car to take us to the ship. The man was waiting with a sign with our last name on it, I've always wanted someone to do that! Originally, I booked a towncar but we were surprised when we got into a stretched black/white limo. It was great. The ride to the port went smooth until my wife turned on the radio in the back of the limo. Pop, a fuse blew and smoke started coming out of the radio and the air conditioning stopped working. The driver apologized over and over again like it was his fault. No worries, we scooted closer to the driver and got the air-conditioning from the front. Read more