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.

Day 7 – January 5, 2010

The pictures are:
1. Two ships already docked, we’re going into the vacant space.
2. Barb and the owners of Chalet D’or Jewelers.

St. Thomas was on the horizon when we woke up and it was interesting watching this big ship maneuver into the harbor. We came straight into the harbor and made basically a right turn into the dock. These modern ships that don’t have rudders are amazing to watch turning and even moving sideways.

We were able to leave the ship at 10:00 am and we immediately hopped onto a shuttle for the short ride into town. Barb bought a purse at the straw market – I think that this is the year of the purse.

We went into a lot of shops and it is amazing how high the prices were for gold jewelry because of the current price of gold.

Finally we made it to our favorite shop, Chalet D’or Jewelers and Barb purchased a set of earrings that match her square diamond necklace. As she only wanted one earring, they made the other one into a ring for her – they really look nice. Then as we were waiting for the ring to be sized, she found another ring she liked – so we bought it also.

By the time that we finished, the shop was closing for the evening and the owner was kind enough to give us a ride directly to the ship. As we drove, she talked about her arranged marriage with her husband and it turned into quite a love story. They have now been married for 40 years!

The evening was the usual – we went to the spa, watched people on the promenade deck, had a delightful dinner, saw a great stage production and finished the night having fun in the casino. Almost the entire casino staff came over and wished Barb a happy birthday.

Tomorrow it is St. Martins and the beach.

Day 6, January 4, 2010

The pictures are:
1. Barb in the slot tournament.
2. Our nightly towel animal

For the first time ever on a cruise in the Caribbean, we woke up to a cloudy and rainy day and it stayed that way all day long.

We picked up pictures and did a little shopping in the morning and then ate lunch in the dinning room instead of the buffet or sandwich lines and ate too much.

We tried the slot tournament but did qualify and did plan a session in the casino was really good. Later in day we went to the spa and just relaxed.

They changed our show time to before dinner so we went there and it was a juggler, comedian who was not very good. We left early to make the comedy club show and that comedian was really, really funny. He did a routine on State Farm that he said he could not do in the United States because when he did it, he received a legal cease and desist letter from State Farm.

Dinner was excellent as always and then it was on to the casino where we both did well.

Tomorrow is St. Thomas and Barb’s birthday – just what she wanted, all those jewelry stores as a gift!!