New Years 2012 – Day 4

Packed and ready to go to the ship

Our time on Miami Beach is over and it is time for our first day on the ship.

We left the hotel at 9:30am and made the drive down to the airport to turn in the rental car and take their shuttle to the ship. Everything went very smoothly and we were on board the ship at 11:00am.

We dropped everything off in the cabin as they were still getting it ready and went up on deck to eat.

Then we went back to the cabin, changed into our swimming suits and sat out on the deck for a couple of hours. It was 79degrees and simply beautiful out.

Ships leaving the harbor ahead of us

After that, our cabin was ready and our bags had been delivered so we unpacked and got ready to go to the welcome aboard cocktail party given by the management of the casino,

The neat thing was that a lot of the casino staff from the Manager and Host on down we had met on previous cruses so it was nice talking to them and nice that they knew us.

We went to the opening show, which wasn’t great.

Then we walked about and finally headed for dinner in the restaurant. We are in the Aqua Class of staterooms so there is a separate restaurant called Blu that is just for the 132 guests in these cabins. It is very elegant and the service and food was outstanding.

A private island as we depart

We are eating with Vera and Jeff from Long Island who we met on the last cruise.

After dinner we went to the casino and played blackjack until we realized that it was after 2 and the time moves ahead one hour tonight.

New Years Eve was neat in that they closed the casino for a brief time while everyone celebrated.

Time for bed – night

Happy New Year – 2012 is going to be a great year.

New Years – 2012 – Day 3

We slept quite late, what a wonderful way to start our last full day on Miami Beach.

The entrance to Haulover Beach

Our first stop for the day was the beautiful Haulover Beach – one of our favorite beaches.

The weather was a perfect 78 degrees, no clouds and a light breeze. We stayed on the beach until 2:30pm and then headed back to the hotel to clean up and change for the evening.

We headed down to the Miami waterfront to Bayside Village, which is an entertainment, food and shopping area right on the waterfront. After staying there for a couple of hours we headed out to the far west side of Miami where there was supposed to be a weekly Cuban food festival. After driving for about ½ hour, we found out that they were not holding it this weekend, probably because of the holiday.


So we headed back towards the hotel, first stopping at a wonderful Cuban place for dinner. Basically we were the only English speaking people in the place. One person spoke some English and she was able to give us an idea of the food selection.

We made it back to the hotel by 10 and packed for the trip to the ship tomorrow.

Night for now – tomorrow the Celebrity Eclipse and 7 days sailing.

Bayside Villlage



Where we had dinner



New Years – 2012 – Day 2

Ready to go out for the day

We slept late today as we are both still feeling the effects of a cold. Then it was off with the top down in the car to do some shopping. We did not go to the beach because it was a little cloudy and we thought it would be better for us.

The day was basically shopping, lunch and some more shopping, driving around looking at sights and we had fun.

Then it was back to the room to clean up and get ready for dinner.

On our way to dinner, we spent a couple of hours driving down the streets of the really, really wealthy who have homes on Miami Beach – amazing homes.

Part of the main courses at dinner

Tonight we met our friends from our last cruise, Jeff and Vera who will also be on this cruise. We met them at their hotel on the beach for drinks and then piled everyone into our car to go to the restaurant.

At the restaurant, wee also met their friends and business partner from New York Hal and Lynore who now live in Boca Raton. We went to a famous restaurant on south beach, Joe’s Stone Crabs. This is not the chain Joes Crab shack; this is a Miami institution having been open for 91 years. It serves 2,000 diners on a busy night and tonight was one of those nights. It is huge and seats 500 people.

They do not take reservations and when we got there at 8pm, the wait was two hours; however, Hal knew someone and we were able to get right in. We had stone crabs, crab cakes, artichoke hearts, key lime pie and a few other items that we all shared. When we left at 10:30pm, there was still a big line to be seated.

After dropping Joe and Vera off at their hotel, we headed up the beach to our hotel and crashed for the evening.

Tomorrow the beach.

New Years – 2012 – Day 1

MaryTherese and Cedric meeting us in Atlanta

We were up bright and early for our 6:30am flight to Atlanta and then to Ft. Lauderdale airport. The neat thing was that Jason and Sharon and the kids were also on the flight to Atlanta. Then they had to change planes and flew to Orlando to go on a Disney cruise.

When we arrived at Atlanta and walked off the plane, MaryTherese and her husband Cedric were there to meet us. MaryTherese is an AirTran stewardess who we met several years ago and have become friends with. She and her husband live just outside the Atlanta airport so they came to say hi and also brought us muffins!! What special people. Just after Thanksgiving we shared an evening with them when they were in Bloomington for an overnight stop.

It all fit!!

After an hour of conversation with them, we got on the plane to Ft. Lauderdale and were then by Noon. It was a short walk to the rental section and we picked up our rental car. The agent said we would never fit our luggage into the car, but we did it. Of course we had to have the top down to make everything fit!!

The weather was 72 degrees and sunny, what a great way to finish the Christmas holiday.

Our room was ready at the Marriott Residence Inn so we were checked in and were changed and back outside by 1:30pm.

A Lnyx at C. Madeleine's

We first went to a deli that was ranked one of the best in Miami and spit a sandwich – it was a hole in the wall but really good.

Our first major stop for the day was at a vintage clothing place called

C. Madelene’s. The New York Times called this store “One of the fashion wonders of the world” and it was amazing. The entire store is filled with vintage clothing and none of it inexpensive. We spend about an hour there just laughing and with Barb trying on a dress that thank goodness was too small.

Then it was to South Beach and a walk in the Lincoln Avenue section of town. This is an 8 block section of South Beach that is full of great shops and the streets are blocked off for only people – a fun place.

Finally we went to eat at a place we had read about called Pubbelly where we shared a small dinner.

Lincoln Ave on South Beach

Then it was about 45 minutes north to our hotel and we called it an early evening. Lots more to do and see tomorrow and it was fun first day.

Thanksgiving - Christmas 2011

What a month it is between Thanksgiving and Christmas at our house.  We will up-date this as the month goes on and also add pictures and videos.



Jacob trying out the batting cage

With this blog, we will try to show you some of the things that happen in our life at this time of the year.

We were blessed to have Thanksgiving at our house once again and everyone except Jeff and his family made it home. The weather was perfect and we all had a great time.

Jason, with Bill's help finished putting up the batting cage for the kids in the barn and everyone took turns hitting. It is going to be a great place for the kids to have somewhere to go to hit.

Before dinner, we celebrated Bre's birthday. 

After a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner, we formed a line and Jason went into the attic and we passed out the Christmas boxes full of decorations from the attic to the living room and the porch. That is a lot of help so Barb and I don’t have to carry them down ourselves.


Bre's Birthday



Relaxing at Thanksgiving

After thanksgiving, Ed put out all of the electrical lines for the outside lights and Barb worked on the inside. After the lines were all laid out, Barb and Ed worked to put up the lights. In 1 ½ weeks, everything was done and ready for the Christmas season. The lights are on and the inside is a Christmas wonderland.

Barb unwrapping a new cake plate



MaryTherese and Cedric

At this time, we also had the enjoyment of spending the evening with an AirTran  stewardess MaryTherese and her husband that we had met on several AirTran flights over the past couple of year. It was one of those times when you hit it off with someone you meet and say – when you are in town call and she did. We took them out to Beningos for dinner and then spent the rest of the evening with them at Jumers. It was a fun night.

The stockings are hung



The tree with all our memories



On Saturday, December 2, Barb baked cookies for sending out to relatives and for the parties.  After church on Sunday, Barb and Ed decorated all 25 dozen and packed them up for mailing.



Christmas Cookies



It is now December 9 and time for our weekend of parties. We have our church Cursillo party on Friday night and our Bloomington Gold party on Saturday night. Barb has done a wonderful job in preparing for the party, as always. 

Well we made it through the Christmas Parties. We had 16 at each of the parties, including Mrs. Burroughs at the Bloomington Gold party who is 102!!! She is the mother of Bloomington Gold’s CEO, David Burroughs and is a delight. The stories that she can tell are simply wonderful.


Now we get to relax for the next couple of weeks leading up to Christmas and we will enjoy our Christmas time together.




Mrs. Burroughs who is 102 and Barb






From the back of the barn

The bears on the stairs standing watch!!

The drive and west side of the house

From the back of the house





And then there came Christmas!!

How wonderful it was that eveyone was home for Christmas.  Following are some of the pictures from Christmas Day. 

Jeff and Kris

Yes - we did have fun
Jacob, Breanna, Bill & Jackie, Jason & Sharon

So that Barb knows what Big Ben looks like

Jackie with a new vest

Playing games

Cooper & Alex



Everyone needs a bear for a friend!!



All the kids by the tree



November Cruise – Day 5

A day at sea and the last day of our cruise. Yes, we both would like to stay on and yes we are both ready to come home!

Going out for lunch

The weather was perfect when we awoke. Ed went for breakfast and saved deck chairs while Barb got up and then we both sat on the deck working on our tans until a little past noon when the clouds started to come it.

So we cleaned up and went to the Grand Buffet and stuffed ourselves for a huge lunch.

At 1:30pm, Ed played in the blackjack tournament and won. (for Jason – Ed was in second place going into the last hand and the leader made a betting mistake which allowed Ed to double down on 16 to win!!)

Then we both played in the slot tournament and while Ed (there is no skill involved) qualified for the finals, he came in third and only the first two places paid money.



A watermelon at the buffett

A few snacks later we headed up to the room to pack. After packing we took a short nap, and then got ready for people watching, dancing, the show, dinner and the casino – a typical night on any ship for us.

The show was a big production number that everyone enjoyed. We had problems last night with our steaks at dinner so tonight the chef cooked us new ones himself and they still weren’t very good – but we had a great time at the table.

This is without a doubt one of the best dinner tables we have ever had. A lawyer and his wife, Jeff and Vera from New York city and a retired lady Rita and her lady friend Sue from Florida. We really hit it off.

Then it was onto the casino to close out the cruise. To make things even better, four of us at our dinner table totally took over a blackjack table each night and we all did well. Also, Barb was our chief cheerleader. That is the first time we have ever had a group working together like we did – it was a wonderful memory. Jeff and Vera will also be on the same ship we are taking starting New Years Eve so that will be fun to see them again.

Ed and his new trophy



We ended our night early because had a good run at the tables and after losing a couple of hands we said good night to our table mates. We ended the trip on the positive side and that is always good.

It is time to call it a night, post the blog and get ready to travel home tomorrow. We miss you all – see you soon.



Kelvin the Casino Manager and Bruce our Host

November Cruise – Day 4

Off the shuttle with two Carnival ships and our ship in the distance

I forgot to tell you about losing power yesterday. We were about 20 minutes from Jamaica and could still see the island when all power went out on the ship – including the engines!! After about a minute, the emergency lighting came on and at least we could see a little. We were on a floor where a number of repair staff came running through and we first thought it was just in the area we were in. It wasn’t until we went out on the deck did we find that it was the entire ship that was out – just a little disconcerting to say the least because we also didn’t know what was going on. The ship was literlly dead in the water.

Barb with a new pet!!

We walked up 6 flights of stairs to our room and then the Cruise Director came on the speaker system to assure everyone that they were fixing the problem and in about 20 the power came on and it gave everyone at dinner something to talk about.

Back to today. As we were up late last night we slept in and got up at 8am. This relaxing is really hard and is causing a severe lack of sleep. Oh well, we will be back to a normal life soon.

Anyway, went we got up, we were anchored outside the town of George Town on the island of Grand Cayman. George Town is the capital and it is famous for its tax haven and has hundreds of banks.

There are also lots and lots of shops as it is a very popular tourist destination.

Even though this is a major cruise ship stop, there are no cruise ship piers on the island so we had to use the ship’s tenders to go from the ship to shore. That’s fun but it is not very convenient to wait for a boat to pick up before you can go ashore.


Watch the teeth

After the boat trip to shore, we walked around looking at shops; however, we didn’t buy anything except a magnet and a Christmas ornament.

Then we walked a couple of blocks to the city bus station and for $2.50 a person, took a city bus straight up the coast to the Turtle Farm. The farm actually breeds turtles in captivity and releases them into the ocean when they are the right age. We saw literally hundreds of turtles, including a number of mature one who had their own beach to lay eggs in the sand. They were all in different size tanks depending on their age. The neat thing is that you could reach right into the tank and pet them or pick them up if you wanted to – that is all but the giant ones





That's our ship

We then walked up a little ways from the Turtle Farm to the Tortuga Rum Cake Bakery and Shop where we sampled the famous Tortuga Rum cake – it is really good.

Then it was back on the local bus for the ride back to the city center and to the pier where we caught the tender back to the ship.

It was now 1:30pm so we ate lunch at the poolside café and stayed out in the sun until 4:00pm and then went to the room to clean up for the rest of the day.


We left the room at 6:30pm to see the show in the lounge. The act tonight was a comedian named Jim McDonald who put on one of the best comedy acts we have ever seen – he was really, really funny.

After the show it was time to look at pictures that the staff had taken of us the night before and purchase the best one.

Dinner was in the regular dining room with the 6 or us. I forgot to mention that the two from Cuba moved to a different table to be with people who spoke Spanish. We are enjoying the company at dinner as we all have the casino in common.

Read for the evening

After dinner we all went to the casino and once again took over a $25 minimum table and played blackjack. We had a very good night in the casino and had a lot of fun with our table. Once again we had a table all to ourselves which is great because everyone knows how to play.

After a run, we left early at 12:30am.

Tomorrow is a day at sea and our last day of the cruise. It has been short but fun.

November Cruise – Day 3

The largest church - notice the vendors!

We finally went to sleep last night at about 2:30am so we were not that interested in getting up early to see the arrival of the ship in Falmouth, Jamaica. By the time we got up the ship was docked.

We eventually left the ship at 10am and walked into the port which is brand new and just opened up this spring. Falmouth is located between Montego Bay and Ocho Rios and at one time was the biggest port in Jamaica. After the demise of the sugar cane industry, the town and port fell into disrepair.

Royal Caribbean, the parent company of Celebrity Cruise Line decided that all the other ports in Jamaica were becoming too crowed so they build their own port in Falmouth.

There were lots of shops in the port that were open and there were also a number of sidewalk vendors selling Jamaican products.

A local wood carver

We then took an open-air trolley about the town of Falmouth and with that tour decided that other than main road to the center of town and the town square, we were not interested in going anywhere else. They didn’t even have a public beach in town and it is very, very poor and rundown. Most of the tours from the ship left the town and headed for either Montego Bay or Ocho Rios but we have been there so we stayed in town. There were also a lot of people who stayed on the ship because they had heard a lot of stories about crime and drugs in Jamaica. We felt very safe and there was a huge police presence in town and on the dock.

We shopped for awhile in town and found a supermarket for some Pepsi for Ed and a coffee-rum-milk type liqueur for Barb that was made in Jamaica and they do not sell Kahula on the island.


The dinner salad at the Olympic



We were back to the ship at about 1pm, ate on the ship and then laid out working on our tan.

We could only lay out for about 1 ½ hours because the sun is very direct. Then it was back to the room to shower and catch up on some of our lost sleep from last night.

We then headed to the lounge to listen to listen to music, dance and people watch. Then it was back to the room to dress for dinner. Before dinner we went to the main show. It was a comedian, guitar player and juggler and he was not very good.

Dinner tonight was by ourselves in their specialty restaurant called The Olympic, named after a 1936 luxury liner and this is a reproduction of its dining room. While it is an extra charge to eat in The Olympic, it was well worth the experience.

Desert



After dinner, we headed to the casino and didn’t do that well but had a lot of fun with three people from our dinner table who are also here compliments of the Blue Chip Club.

We left the casino a 1:00am and tomorrow we arrive in Grand Cayman Island.



Night from the middle of the ocean somewhere!!







November 2011 Cruise – Day 2

Barb in the slot tournament

We awoke cruising south towards Jamaica. Ed was up at 8, and went to breakfast and Barb was up shortly afterwards and joined him on the deck.

The sky was clear, in the low 80’s with only a few clouds so we sat out working on our tans until Noon. Wow – what a way to relax.

Then it was time to get cleaned up and get some lunch.

After lunch, we went to the casino for the 1:30pm blackjack tournament.

There weren’t a lot of entries like on Carnival ships so both Barb and Ed entered. Ed qualified but didn’t win.

Then at 3:00pm both Barb and Ed played in the slot tournament and Ed again qualified for the finals but he didn’t win. Oh well, there is one more set of tournaments on our last sea day and we will try again.
Then it was time to walk around and have some snacks and back to the room to take a short nap – remember naps are good!!!

After dressing for dinner we had our pictures taken and then went to the main lounge to dance and people watch. We had a good dinner, went to a really good show and then onto the casino.


Our favorite snack place



Neither Ed no Barb had any luck tonight so we finally went back to the room at 1:44am

The only problem with this ship is that there is no internet in the cabin so when the blog is ready; Ed has to go to the computer center to enter it.

Well night from our second night – tomorrow Jamaica.


On our waery to dinn







November 2011 Cruise - Day 1

Here we go -

Our Room

This was not a planned cruise but through the Celebrity Blue Chip Casino Club, they offered us this cruise for free and we just couldn't pass it up.

We left Bloomington on AirTran at 6:45am and were to Ft. Lauderdale by Noon. Celebrity had a shuttle bus to the ship which was docked in Miami so we took it to save renting a car or taking a cab.

Check-in was smooth and we were in our cabin by 2pm.

We explored the ship and as it is the same class as the Summit we were on last year, it is easy to find everything.

Miami Beach as we were leaving

It is a lot nicer when you can relax a couple of days before heading to the ship but we didn't feel we could take off the extra days this time.


We sailed from Miami at 4:30pm and that was fun watching the ship sail out of the harbor and into the Atlantic.


We had an invite to a casino party at 5pm to meet the casino staff and that was fun meeting and talking with them in a more social setting as the party was outside the casino in a private area.

By the time the party was over, our luggage came and so we unpacked. It is amazing how much clothes we have for just a 5 day cruise. But, as Barb says, you can never have enough shoes on a trip!!!
Following is our iteneary:
         Day 1 - Miami, Florida 4:30 PM
         Day 2 - At Sea
         Day 3 - Falmouth, Jamaica - Docked 9:00 AM 6:00 PM
         Day 4 - George Town, Grand Cayman - Tendered 8:00 AM 4:00 PM
         Day 5 - At Sea
         Day 6 - Miami, Florida 7:00 AM

So it will be a very quick trip and should be very relaxing.

After that we walked around more of the ship to see what it was like. Even though it is going into dry-dock to refurbish it in April, it is in really good condition.


The show was before dinner this time and we went and enjoyed it and it was good to sit for awhile. Then it was off to dinner to meet our new tablemates. It looks like it will be a good table, with people from New York, Miami and Cuba.

After dinner we went to the casino where Ed got off to a really good start. Also, the Assistant Casino Manager who is also the Lead Pit Boss was on our last Celebrity cruise so it was fun talking to him.

After Ed’s run, we decided that we had been up long enough for the first day and went to the room to go to bed. Tomorrow is a day at sea and we need some good relaxation time.

This is the first time we have left home and boarded a ship the same day and probably the last time we will do it – it is just too exhausting, but a day at sea will help catch up.a

It is a lot nicer when you can relax a couple of days before heading to the ship but we didn't feel we could take off the extra days this time.

Don't forget, you can click on any picture to make it bigger.


Night from the ocean!!