Las Vegas – Day 3

The pictures are:
1. One of the lobbies.
2. One of 8 pools.
3. The fashion show at the mall
4. Dinner in the room during the game

Well we awoke late to cloudy skies, but there is not snow and we didn’t need a jacket to walk around the strip so the weather was great in comparison to Illinois.

First we walked around the hotel complex – wow. There are 8,108 rooms. A total of 64 restaurants and bars and over 150 shops. They, whoever “they” are say that “this is the largest 5-star hotel complex in the world” and it is really big and everything is over the top, even for Las Vegas.

Our walk around, tourist trip today was to go to the big fashion mall a few blocks away from the hotel. We found out that they were going to have a fashion show on a runway in the mall, so we stayed around to watch it. Then it was pizza in a nice restaurant in the mall.

Next we went to the sports book at the hotel and placed a bet on Syracuse.

Then it was onto the casino for an afternoon session and we both lost – but we are still ahead for the trip.

After the casino, we went to see an acrobatic show in the afternoon which was fun.

We had reserved a couch in the beautiful sports book to watch the Syracuse game and eat; however, when we got there they had Tony Stewart from NASCAR and he was going to be giving a presentation and Q & A’s until 7:30pm. We had a private large TV with our couch but we couldn’t hear because of Stewart so we left and had dinner in our room and watched the game which Syracuse won.

Then it was onto the casino for our evenings play and it wasn’t a very good session for Ed. Yesterday we were up and today Barb was up and Ed was down.

We cashed in our winning Syracuse basketball ticket – should have bet more but we really don’t follow sports betting.

People watching was fun and the “kids” just streamed into the hotel going straight for the entertainment venues. There was a big deal in the front of the casino because Kim Kardashium (sp) was on the property - a red carpet and photo backdrop and lots of photographers were set up for her arrival. We didn’t wait!!

Everything was so crowed – they said it was their biggest Saturday of the last 12 months. We have walked and walked and it is very, very crowed and so it is time for bed – a fun Saturday.

Las Vegas – Day 2

The pictures are:
1. Inside Ceasars Forumn shopping area.
2. The antimated statues.
3. Pete Rose and no customers!!

What a nice day it was – the tempteture were in the middle 60’s. Just nice enough to go outside without a jacket.

We found out yesterday when we checked in that this was going to be the biggest weekend for the hotels as over 150,000 fans are expected for the NASCAR races. What fun we had today just people watching everyone arriving and walking the streets. I forgot to tell you yesterday that last night, the city blocked off the main strip street and the semis for NASCAR drove at high speed up the strip with a police escort – what a sight that was.

Ed slept late and woke up at 7 and went downstairs and had two business calls right away – but that is just fine – the iPhone is wonderful to use.

Barb slept in until 10 and then it was up and out of the hotel. This time we walked south along the strip. We headed for Caesar’s Palace and the Forum Shops. They had expanded since we were here in 2001 and we wanted to see the new shops. What a place it is with every top of the line store there is. Then we watched the two major shows that they have inside the mall - the fountains and sculptures that are animated – a fun show.

As we were leaving the shops, we walked by a sports shop and right in front was Pete Rose who was supposed to be signing autographs, but amazingly, no one was stopping to get his autograph. Barb wanted to go up to him and ask him why he shattered so many dreams, including hers. He was her hero at one time. This was a very sad sight.

Lunch was at the Cheesecake factory where we split a sandwich

After dinner it was to the theater to see Phantom of the Opera and wow, what a play. Even though this place is jammed, we were able to get great center main floor tickets from the casino host. The sets were amazing and there is no question this show is not coming to Bloomington with this set-up and with scaled down sets it just wouldn’t be the same. It had to be maybe the best musical that we have ever seen.

Then it was back to the hotel for a casino session where we did well. As a matter of fact we had the perfect session, Ed won and Barb beat him with a jackpot!! A great night.

Las Vegas – Day 1

The Pictures are:
1. The room
2. Barb waiting for Ed
3. Part of the front of the hotel
4. Street performers in St. Mark’s Square
5. Outside the restaurant where we had pizza.


It was up at 4am and to the airport by 5 and after going through security, we walked right on the plane. The plane arrived in Atlanta ½ hour early, but there was no place to park the plane so we sat on the taxiway for the ½ hour!

The flight to Las Vegas was just fine but that is a long flight – over 3 hours. We arrived at the Venetian at 12:30pm and checked into a beautiful room. Maybe one of the best we have ever had that wasn't on a beach with a balcony.

The room is 650 square feet. You walk into a hall, with a huge bathroom to the left, then the bedroom and two steps down to the living room. The bathroom has a tub and a separate shower, gold fixtures and a TV, one of three in the room.

There are also 3 phones, each with two lines and even a fax machine installed next to the desk. Then the curtains operate by a remote control! The couch in the living room could probably seat 8, at least.

We walked across the street to the Mirage to the Carnegie Deli which has been rated the best lunch on the strip. What a sandwich we shared. We also sat next to a couple who had just arrived from Australia and they had to drive 5 hours to the airport and flew for 14 hours – and we thought our flight was long.

Later it was onto the casino to check in with a host and set up our line of credit. We then went for a pizza at the indoor St. Marks square and ate in the square.

Then to the casino for a little while and it was then time for bed.

Our first day was very long and we are tired.

Las Vegas - 2010

Well our spring trip is to Las Vegas. Barb and I have not been there since 2001 when we took the kids on a trip. That was a great trip with everyone and on top of that, Barb hit for a big jackpot on the last night there - let's hope for that again!

We leave at 5:45am on AirTran for Atlanta and then on to Las Vegas arriving at 12:09pm.

We are staying at the Venetian so it should be fun staying in a little bit of Italy. The Venetian has over 4,000 rooms, more than in all of Bloomington/Normal.

Take a look at its web site at http://www.venetian.com/.

We come back home on Monday afternoon, leaving Las Vegas at 2:30pm and arriving in Bloomington at 10:55pm. A quick trip but it should be very relaxing and lots of fun - wish us luck.

Day 10– January 8, 2010

The pictures are:

At the airport - the pictures will not load - will try later!!
1. Part of the water slide and pool deck.
2. The main pool.
3. Our wait staff.

Today was our last day at sea before arriving in Florida and it was one of the nicest sea days we have ever had. The weather was perfect, little if no wind and the seas were calm.

We had sandwiches from the Deli on our deck chairs and laid out until 1:30pm and then cleaned up and went to the slot tournament. Neither of us qualified so we went back to the cabin and packed. Then it was onto the spa, rested for a little bit and it was finally time for watching people and dinner.

The last dinner is always a little sad. We made new friends and may never see them again – but they were fun for the week and great tablemates.

We went to the comedy club and then onto the casino were we both lost a little. The good news is that we are way up for the trip.

At 1:00 am we said our good bys to the casino staff and went to our cabin for the night.

Tomorrow we get off the ship at 8:30am, pick up our shuttle and fly out of the Orlando Airport. We hope that we can get home with all the bad weather they have been having.

As always, it was good to get away after a hectic holiday season and now we are ready to get back home and onto work.

The Carnival Dream is a wonderful ship and we look forward to sailing on it again sometime.

That’s it for this trip – thanks for reading.

Well I went to send this last night and it was too late, they had cut off the internet at midnight and we were going to be at 2am. So I am sending this from the Orland o Airport. We awoke to 31 degrees outside and raining – welcome to Florida!!

From what we have seen the weather is going to be miserable back home – so here we come, we hope that we can make it home and into our house.

Well we had wonderful on time flights on AirTran. At the airport, Ed went and got the car and took quite a while because of all the snow on the car. After we loaded up, we went and picked up a Pizza and picked up our dog.

Everything was just fine until we got to the house and made it most of the way into the drive; however, we got stuck before we could get to the garage. It was zero out so we unloaded the car and left it in the drift. Ed will plow out tomorrow.

A special thanks to the casino staff of the Carnival Dream - they truly made our trip a wonderful experience.

Until next trip - night from Ed & Barb

That's the blog for this year.

Day 9– January 7, 2010

The pictures are:

1. Ready for formal night.
2. Ed’s usual two shrimp cocktails for dinner.
3. Our nightly towel animal

Wow what a picture perfect day to be at sea and heading home. We are ready to be back, but in the meantime, we took advantage of the sun to work on our tan. We probably spent too much time in the sun, but it felt great. We’ll see how we feel in the morning. Hopefully tomorrow will be the same wonderful weather.

Ed played in the blackjack tournament this afternoon and came in second by only $100! Way to close to miss out on the $500 first place prize, but he didn’t make it. Later Ed did terrible in the casino and Barb broke even.

It was our second formal night again so we left the room early and people watched until going to the early PG show in the comedy club. After dinner, we went to the R-rated show in the comedy club and the comedian was really good. His name is Mark Simmons and he has a great act.

Then it was onto the casino where Ed made up for his loses this afternoon and Barb hit for a nice jackpot and we both left the casino winners for the evening.

Tomorrow is packing and we will be home soon.

Day 8, January 6, 2010

The pictures are:
1. Arriving at St. Maarten.
2. The entrance to Club Orient on Orient Beach.
3. Our ship (back right) and two others.
4. Ed's fillet

The day in Sint Maarten - St. Martin

We forgot to tell you that last night we were joined at our table by Andy, an employee of Carnival’s outside public relations firm. Andy flew to St. Thomas from Miami to join the ship and take some publicity shots for the next four days. He has been on over 60 cruises so we had fun listening to some of his stories last night
Now onto the trip today –

This is one of the prettiest islands in the Caribbean and one of the most unique. One part of the island is Dutch and the other part is French. Were told that this island is the smallest land mass in the world to be shared by two different nations. It is only 37 square miles and one-third is Dutch and two-thirds is French.

The two major things to do here are shopping and going to the beach. We decided on the beach since we had shopped and shopped on St. Thomas.

We docked at the Dutch side and when we left the ship at 10:00am we immediately got a shuttle van to take us to the French side of the island and Orient Beach, a spectacular beach. We had 18 in the van when a mile from the dock the van lost its transmission. The driver flagged down a returning van, we all transferred and we were on our way.

As it was last year, the beach was wonderful. Sorry the only picture that we can show is a picture of their billboard at the entrance, as they don’t allow cameras on the beach.

While walking on the beach, we met the lady who hands out the beads and got to talking to her and it turns out that she and her husband are from Pontiac, IL and ride their motorcycle to Kicks in Towanda and to the Merna Tap on weekend rides. We exchanged e-mail addresses and said we would meet during the spring when they ride down. They stay on the beach every year. They even knew exactly where we lived.

At 2:30pm we went on our last walk down the beach and back, jumped in the water to wash the oil off and found a returning shuttle to take us back to the ship.

We were onboard by 4:00pm and relaxing on our balcony.

Dinner tonight is very special. The cruise line has a supper club that only serves a few each night in a “5-star, world class” atmosphere. There is an extra change to eat in this room and it is called The Chef’s Art Steakhouse. We were very lucky in that Claudia, one of the supervisors in the Casino and our host on a previous cruise comped us to diner.

It lived up to its reputation; the food and service were top of the line. Ed had a 9oz fillet which was cooked to perfection and almost melted in his mouth. Barb had the surf and turf and it also was excellent.

Then we went to the comedy club and the new comedian who just came on the ship was really, really funny. His name was Mark Simmons and he is from Chicago. His bio said that he had a starring roll in Barbershop and Barbershop II, the movies.

Then a great night in the casino and it is time for bed. We are heading for home and the next two days are at sea.

Night for now.