Day 6, January 1, 2024

We are in St Thomas and the weather is partly cloudy but still nice to lay out on the deck.

First, we went into the port to see if they had the part to load our pictures from the iPhone, and they didn’t so we will look for a computer store tomorrow.

Lunch of course was on the back of the ship with our friends.  The highlight of lunch was a huge tower of cold boiled shrimp, pealed and they were really very good.  Couple that with a chocolate tower to dip marshmallows, etc. in the fountain and that was a great way to have lunch.

When we finally made it back to the top deck, we had sun for an hour or so and then a light rain so we came into the cabin to shower, change and get ready for the evening.

We had a drink and watched people until it was 7pm and time for the show.  The show tonight was a production show by the Celebrity singers and dancers called Broken Strings and it was very good.  It was a musical with no plot, just fun singing, and dancing by the ship’s entertainers

After the show we went to the casino for an early session where Ed won and Barb did not play

Then it was onto dinner where we all had wonderful meals.  The waiter and assistant waiters are probably the best we have ever had.

After dinner it was back to the casino where Ed won for a huge win today and is ahead.  Barb has decided that she doesn’t like the slot machines that they have and will probably not be planning.

Night for tonight and tomorrow we are in St. Martins and we will be going to the beach.

Night - night

                                            Going off for a moment in St.Thomas

                                    The Celebrity Reflection

                                    That's a lot of shrimp for lunch!!

                        and then a lot of cakes!!   Happy lunch

                                    Going out for the evening

 

The first days - catch up pictures from New Years Eve and before

 

                                            Arrving in San Juan

                                            Going out for the evening the night before

                                    Arriving in San Juan

                         

Vera and Jeff

                                                    Barbara and David

                                                Ready to party!!!

                                                  Ed's Beef Wellington

                                            Out and about on New Years Eve

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