Day 5 – Sunday, December 31

 Sun – The sun was out when we work up – YEA!!  We don’t think that we have ever had a cruise where the day before the cruise and the first day at sea were raining.  Well, that is behind us know.

Ed went up to the top deck, found a perfect place to sit for the day and then had breakfast as usual as Barb was getting ready.

We walked around the deck at a brisk pace every ½ hour until it was 1:00pm and time for lunch with our friends.  We spent an hour and a half just eating and talking – such fun!!

Then we went back up to the sun deck and watched the ship pull into San Juan for the evening.  We docked at 4:30pm and the ship left at 9:30pm.  We all made the decision not to get off the ship as there really wasn’t anything that we really wanted to see or do as we have been blessed to be on the island quite a few times.

The show tonight was a comedian and he was very good.

Then on to dinner where we had a wonderful dinner tonight.

Of course, after that we went to the casino where Ed and Barb both lost a little

Tomorrow, we dock at St Thomas.

From the warm Caribbean – Happy New Year to all

Hugs – Barb and Ed

There is a problem getting photos off the iPhone into the laptop so sorry no photos again tonight.

We hope to find the part we need tomorrow in St. Thomas

Day 4 – Saturday, December 30

Today is a sea day and we had hoped that we would sit out on the top deck in the sun all day.

Unfortunately, when we woke up it was raining and while it finally stopped raining at about 10am, it stayed cloudy all day – so, no sun.

We had lunch as usual with our friends on the back of the ship and walked around a little before heading to the casino where Ed played in the blackjack tournament.  While he qualified for the finals, he did not win.

Basically, we then when back up to the room and go ready for the evening.

Tonight is Chic Night so a lot of the people, including us were dressed up and it was fun people watching.

The show tonight was production number by the entertainment staff and it was very good.

Then on to dinner where we had a wonderful dinner tonight.

Of course, after that we went to the casino where Ed won and Barb lost

Tomorrow we are at sea until docking at San Juan at 4:30pm and for sure we hope for great weather.

Take care – stay safe.

Day 4 – Saturday, December 30

Today is a sea day and we had hoped that we would sit out on the top deck in the sun all day.

Unfortunately, when we woke up it was raining and while it finally stopped raining at about 10am, it stayed cloudy all day – so, no sun.

We had lunch as usual with our friends on the back of the ship and walked around a little before heading to the casino where Ed played in the blackjack tournament.  While he qualified for the finals, he did not win.

Basically, we then when back up to the room and go ready for the evening.

Tonight is Chic Night so a lot of the people, including us were dressed up and it was fun people watching.

The show tonight was production number by the entertainment staff and it was very good.

Then on to dinner where we had a wonderful dinner tonight.

Of course, after that we went to the casino where Ed won and Barb lost

Tomorrow we are at sea until docking at San Juan at 4:30pm and for sure we hope for great weat

The pictures will not load - will try tomorrow.  Night on the way to San Juan

Take care – stay safe.

Day 3 – Saturday, December 29,2024

After the rain day yesterday, we awoke to no rain – YEA!!

We had met a driver yesterday and he pickup us up at 10:00am and took us the short distance to the cruise terminal for us to board the Celebrity Reflection The last time we were on this ship was in January of 2020.  There are bitter sweet memories of that trip in 2020 as on this ship Ed won a large tournament and had one of the highest winnings of any trip.  At the end of the cruise, we travelled to Tampa and boarded the Carnival Horizon and on that trip, Barb got sick and was hospitalized in Aruba. 

But everything turned out all right, Barb is healthy and we are looking forward to a great trip this year.

We are meeting friends from New York, the Wurst and the Schlachters and we met them both on previous cruises and have sailed we think every New Years for quite some time.  Great times ahead with wonderful friends.

Check-in was fast and we dropped off our carry-on bags in our room and went to the back the ship to meet our friends and it was sooo good to see them once again.

We spent several hours just siting and talking and the weather was great – 70 and little wind.

Then it was time walk around and then go back to our room and unpack our carry-ons.

Finally, our bags came and we unpacked and got ready to go to dinner. 

Dinner was excellent and we also celebrated the other Barb’s birthday.

After dinner we went to the show and it was a singer and she was pretty good.

Then of course it was time to go to the casino.  It is always fun the first day to see if there were anyone that we knew from before and there was.  The Casino Manager, Sol was there, the Host None and one of the Pit Bosses, Arthur were all staff that we had cruised with before so that was very nice.

Unfortunately, our luck did not hold as both Ed and Barb lost a little.

We are setting the clocks forward one hour so it is time to go to bed.

Night for now

                                            Ready to leave for the ship

                                            The view from our cabin

                                                    Ed's first plate at lunch

                        Left to right - Ed, Barb, David, Barb, Jeff, Vera

                                                    The center atrium

                                Going out for the evening

 

New Years – 2024 – Days 1 & 2 – December 27, 28

We started out day 1 by getting up at 5:00am, leaving the house at 6am and driving to the Peoria airport.

We are flying Allegiant Airlines for the first time and it flies out of Peoria and we are going to St. Petersburg/Clearwater Airport to visit friends.

The airport was easy to get to and check-in was just fine.

The plane took off right on time and 2 ½ hours later we touched down in St. Petersburg.  A great start and of course what could possibly go wrong?

Well, it did at the Budget rental car counter.  We had used Budget because they re-opened a return location just outside the cruise port and then have a shuttle to go to the cruise ship.  With everyone else, you have to take your rental to the airport.

The problem was even though we had a reservation, they did not have any cars.  The agent said they were out at 8am when he came to work!!  Of course, they didn’t tell us in advance.

The agent suggested we take an Uber to Ft. Lauderdale.   When Ed asked him if he knew even where Ft. Lauderdale was, he said he didn’t know and that was all he knew to do was to take an Uber to get somewhere!! So much for Budget customer service.

We also then found out that with all the rental car companies at the airport, none had a rental car at any price!!

The Enterprise agent did call to other locations and one in Clearwater about 20 minutes away had a car we could rent, so we signed up for it, took an Uber to the location and picked up our car.

We originally had allocated 2 hours on the beach at Clearwater to eat and walk the beach, one we had walked many times when our parents were still alive.  We ended up having only a few minutes as we were to meet friends in Ft Myers.

We were only ½ hour late when we got to the restaurant in Ft. Myers to meet Renee and Eric Degelau and Pam and Jeff Beier, both friends who we had met because of Corvette Adventures who were now living in the Ft. Myers area.

We had a fun dinner talking about traveling and families before we left them at 8pm.

It was a 2-hour drive across Floridia to get to Ft. Lauderdale where we checked into our room at 10:00pm and just collapsed into sleep!!

Day 2 – December 28

We had hoped to sit around the pool and just relax before boarding the ship on Friday.  Well, the rain spoiled that. 

Ed had breakfast and then ran some errands to pick up some “stuff” we needed for the cruise.

At noon we left to go eat at a great deli, went looking for sweater for Barb – didn’t find one and then we took the rental car back to the airport so we were only changed for one day.

 We ate dinner at a wonderful restaurant, the 15st Street a short distance from the hotel called the 15^th Street Fisheries.  This was one of the best restaurants we have ever eaten at in this area.  It is a huge restaurant right on the waterway and a wonderful setting.  We had a Swordfish which was, no question, one of the best we have ever eaten.

It was a short Uber back to the hotel and we packed and got ready to go to the ship tomorrow.

Night from Ft. Lauderdale

                                            Becker doesn't want us to go without him!!

                                                Clearwater Beach

                                                Leaving for the day - 65degrees and lightly raining

                                                    

                                                    From the #1 Deli in Ft. Lauderdale - Pastrami

                                                Salmon Poke Bowl for dinner appetizer

                                                That was a great Swordfish dinner!!

                                        Chocolate brownie, ice cream and berries

                                    Outside the restraurant - a direct path to the ocean

                                        Moon over Ft. Lauderdale

 

 

 

 

 

Europe – Day 17 & 18

 This day was to be a relaxing day with a couple of places we wanted to visit.

First, we headed south to the far end of the old city of Rome where there was a flea market and church we wanted to visit.

We have visited this flea market several times and we were disappointed that it was not the same as before.

The good news is that was a stand, one of many, selling purses and Barb bought a new, brown big one to carry when we are going on trips to replace here black bag.

Then we visited the church a few blocks away that is the Church that the Pope’s go to.  We are always amazed at how beautiful this church is.

We took a taxi back to the center of the city and walked from the Coliseum to our hotel, about 2 miles.

After drooping off our purchases, we went to a neat little restaurant for lunch.

Then we went to the hotel and packed and we left our luggage there until after dinner.

Then for the next 3 hours we wandered the city down many little roads just enjoying and having fun.

We then looked for the restaurant where we wanted to eat for dinner, found it and made reservations for 7:30pm. 

We went next door to a bar and had a Limoncello.  While we were sitting outside, it started raining and they raining really hard.  They let us come into the restaurant and we sat for an hour waiting for the rain to stop and it didn’t!!

After another Limoncellos, it was 5:30pm and the rain was still coming down a little so we went next door to the restaurant where we had a later reservation and ate an early dinner.

After dinner, we went to the hotel and go a taxi to go to the closest Marriott to the airport.

We did this to go from a very expense hotel room to a less expensive one and much closer to the airport.

Taxis are sometimes hard to get and since we had a 6:05am flight we wanted to get close.

We woke up at 3:30am, got ready and were in a cab by 4:30am going to the airport.

We had a quick 2-hour flight to Paris and a 3 hour wait until our next flight.

I am writing this in the Paris airport.

We will get home to Merna probably around 7:30pm

                                                        Going our for out last day

            

                                                Shopping for her new purse

                                                    Just part of a very large fle Market

                                                            The Pope's Church

                                              Time for lunch -  Pizza - buy it by the ounce!

                                                    A nice walk by the river in the center of Rome

                                                    A little drink before dinner

                                                                        Onion Soup

                                                               Lasagna for the main course

                                                                                   Tiramisu

                                            `    It's 4:00am and ready to go to the airport

                                                    Just walking around on our last day in Rom

Europe – Day 16

 It was a beautiful day in Rome when we woke up and went up to rooftop to have breakfast.

Then we took a taxi to the Vatican as we had a tour booked for 10:30am.  We arrived there at 9:00am and the lines were so long to get in that we almost missed our tour time.

The guide we had, with 10 other people was very knowledgeable and told us a lot of things that we did not know before.

After the tour, we went into the Treasury and oh my gosh the riches that are in the Treasury are amazing.  Everything gold or gold plated, gold threads, and lots of jewels!!

Then we walked back to hotel area and had lunch before going to the Coliseum and Forman areas to see the excavations.

Then it was back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.

We took a cab because it was a long walk to dinner at the La Taverna Del Fori Imperiali, voted as one of the top 10 restaurants in Rome.

We met the owner when he came to our table and the restaurant has been in the family for over 100 years, 4 generations.  The 5^th generation is a boy and he is 14.  Amazing.

The food was delicious.

We have walked 18,647 steps for a total of 7.2 miles!!

Back to the hotel to go to sleep after having a glass of wine on the rooftop terrace.

Night from Rome.

                                                                At the Vatican

                                    long lines to get in.  40 minuites to  get to  this point!!

                                                    Some of the ruins being excavated.

                                                                Dinner

                                                        Seared Tuna

                                                        Then a pasta dish

                                                        Lamb Chops

                                                    A meat marked on the way to the hotel

                                                Part of the excavations

                                                            In the Treasury at the Vatican

                                                        Dinner - that's the owner

Europe Day 15

We were out of our room by 9:30am after having a nice breakfast on the rooftop terrace.

We had several goals to day and we met them all!

First, we walked to the Trevi Fountain.  On our first of probably 6 trips to Rome we went to the fountain and threw coins in and laughed that we would probably never come back.  Well, every time we are here, we throw coins in and this year was not an exception.

As it was Sunday, it was very bust but we managed to get to the rail to take pictures and get coins into the fountain.

Then it was to the Spanish Steps because we knew there were good pizza places along the way.   We had their traditional pizza by the ounce and it was very good.

As we were walking all of a sudden we came apon the Leonardo Da Vinci Museum and we went it.

It was amazing.  Most people know him from his painting, including the Mona Lisa, but my the other things that he accomplished pale by comparision.  He is considered the greatest genius of all time and if you have time, read about him and what he did - we did not know all that he invented.

They just outside the north gate to the old city there was a flea market that we wanted to go to.  We did and it was disappointing,

Then it was time to walk back to the hotel, about 1 ½ miles with a lot of interesting places to see along the way.

Of course, during the day, we visited a lot of churches and each one was beautiful.

After we were back at the hotel, we went to the rooftop to have a class of wine and some snacks before heading out to dinner.

Earlier in the morning we had gotten caught in a huge rainstorm and we took shelter under the awning of a restaurant that made their own pasta for the 3 restaurants that they owned.  Barb talked the head cook while we were there and promised to come back for dinner.

When we got to the restaurant, we got the last table that they had and from almost that moment they had a line.  At one point we counted 40 people in line.  People who sat next to us said they only had to wait 40 minutes and that sometimes the wait was 2 hours.

The pasta was wonderful and after that we came back to the room and now it is time to say good night.

Night from Rome – tomorrow we are in Rome still.

                                               Breakfast on the rooftop terrace

                                                            Ready to  go our for the day

                                                                    At the Trevi Fountain

                                                        One of many churches

                                                    A drink and snacks before dinner

                                                             Dinner

           

                                                

                                                    Some Lemoncello for a bedtime drink!!

                                                         Breakfast on the rooftop terrace

                                                    At the Trevi Fountain

                                                    Making pasta and then at dinner that evening

                                                  

                                                                Dinner

                                           Making pasta for the restaurant we ate at for dinner

Europe – Day 14

It was a beautiful day in Genoa when we woke up.

They asked us to be out of our room at 7pm so we were up at 6 and out at 7 and to the inside restaurant. 

This was the first time we had eaten breakfast inside.

We had a 12:30pm train to Rome so we didn’t want to get off too early as the train station was only about 15 minutes away.

At 10:15am we asked our butler to take us off the ship and WOW was it easy for us. He took both of our carry-ons and walked us to the baggage area where he put the 4 pieces on one cart and took us outside where he arranged for a taxi to take us to the train station.

The trip was so quick that when we got to our train platform, we had 1 ½ hours to wait.  At least we were there.

The train was right on time so with the help of a big guy, we got ourselves and our luggage in our car.

We are in the first-class car and it has 45 seats and there are only 9 people in the entire car.  The 6-hour train trip only costs us $113.00 so it was a great but, in our view.

We were only 2 hours away from Rome when the train came to a complete stop.  After a little bit we heard the bad news in that there was a body on the track and the police were are the scene!!

After 2 hours we finally starting.  So now the train got to Rome at about 8pm and we took a taxi to our hotel.

This is the same wonderful hotel (The Pantheon Iconic Rome Hotel)  that we stayed at last October when Ed was sick so we are looking forward to it this time with both of us feeling tired but great.

We checked in, went to our room, and dropped off luggage and immediately went to a great pizza restaurant.

We are here for 2 full days and on the 3^rd day we will leave the city late to go to an airport Marriott as we have a 6:25am flight.

We have some places in Rome we are really looking forward to seeing and we will share them with you.

Our hotel room is very elegant with windows that look out over the front street and we have the windows open to get a great nights sleep.

It will be a relaxing couple of day.

Night from Rome

                                                        Time to leave the ship

                                                            Our butler leading us out

                                                        Heading to Rome

                                                                    Going to dinner

                                                            Pizza in Rome

                                                        This street is very narrow!!

                                                                The view from the rooftop terrace

                                                    Another view from the rooftop

Leaving the ship

Our room in Rome

We have also added some videos from the past several days to previous days on the blog