Spring 2011 – Day 1



On the west balcony

After seeing our Grandson Jacob play his last high school basketball game for this year, we had a few hours sleep and then it was up and out in the dark to the airport for our flight to Porto Rico.

The flights were uneventful and we landed in San Juan about 45 minutes ahead of schedule.  It was 87 degrees out under clear skies when we arrived - how can it get any better??

A quick cab ride and we were at the hotel, checked right in and took the elevator to the 19th floor to get to our room.

As you can see from the picture, the room is a corner room overlooking the ocean to the north and Old San Juan to the west – what a view. It is the same room that we have had the last three times.

Inside our room

One balcony is about 30’ long and the other balcony is about 15’ long. After unpacking, we headed to the Executive Lounge for snacks that turned out to be our dinner. This lounge is one of the best of any Marriott and we filled up on a variety of food.

Then it was off to the beach for a walk along the ocean. About a mile away is another Marriott so we walked through it, stopped at their casino and then headed back by the street to our hotel.



Dinner on the balcony of the Executive Lounge

We changed clothes and went down to the casino to meet our host, Jose and set up our line of credit. Jose is really, really nice and after chatting we played for just a little while.

We headed back to the room early to get a good night’s sleep and tomorrow the real vacation of sun and fun begins.

Night from San Juan 







The view from our balcony



Our Spring 2011 Trip

The map of the trip

Tomorrow morning we head to the airport to catch a 6:30 am flight to San Juan.  Then we have 3 nights to once again enjoy the sights, sounds and sun of San Juan.  We are staying at the Marriott on the beach and we are looking forward to seeing old friends in the casino.

Then it is on to the Celebrity Summit on Saturday for a 7 Night Southern Caribbean Cruise from March 5, 2011 to March 12, 2011

Here is our itinerary:

Departs: San Juan, Puerto Rico

Sat, Mar 5 San Juan, Puerto Rico Depart 8:30 PM

Sun, Mar 6 St. Croix, U.S.V.I. Docked Arrive 8:00 AM Depart 5:30 PM

Mon, Mar 7 Basseterre, St. Kitts Docked Arrive 8:00 AM Depart 5:00 PM

Tue, Mar 8 Roseau, Dominica Docked Arrive 8:00 AM Depart 5:00 PM

Wed, Mar 9 St. George's, Grenada Docked Arrive 8:00 AM Depart 5:00 PM

Thu, Mar 10 Scarborough, Tobago Docked Arrive 8:00 AM Depart 5:00 PM

Fri, Mar 11 At Sea

Sat, Mar 12 San Juan, Puerto Rico Arrive 6:00 AM

We leave San Juan at 5:30pm on Air Tran on Saturday afternoon and will arrive home at 11:41pm

Chicago – February, 2011 - Barb's Birthday Present Weekend



Part of our room

This was our trip to celebrate Barb’s birthday and we picked the first weekend in a long time that the weather was at least manageable. There was still a lot of snow, but at least the temperature was not below freezing.
We started Friday with lunch in the suburbs with our friends Dale and Judy Hammersmith at a California Pizza Kitchen and spent a couple of hours with them catching up on each others lives.

Then it was downtown to check into a new hotel for us, the Springhill Suites located at 410 North Dearborn, in River North a couple of block north of the Chicago River. We switched to this hotel because we had been dissatisfied with the Courtyard that we had been staying in.

Wow – did we ever make the right decision. Not only was the room much better, the service and breakfast beat out the Courtyard without any question and we had a great stay. They upgraded us to a corner room on the 26th floor so we had wonderful views.

Ready to go out for the night



Friday night we went to see the musical, The Million Dollar Quartet. This is the story of the only day, December 4, 1956, that Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins were ever together in one place. It was a day at Sun Records and it was a fun show.

On Saturday morning, we took a two hour walking tour of the historic downtown to discuss and view the rise of the skyscraper led by a guide from the Chicago Architecture Foundation. It was fun to walk about the downtown and see buildings that we had seen before but had not known their history.



Inside the Rookery

Then it was a quick lunch and a cab ride to the giant Chicago Auto Show where we fell in love with several new cars – will we buy one – probably not, but it was fun to see all of the new models.

For dinner we met Mike and Sue Stypolkowski celebrating their first week of marriage at Bergoffs and spent a couple of hours with them before each headed for shows for the evening.

We went to see the new show Burn The Floor and oh my was it fantastic. This is the type of dancing as seen on “Dancing With The Stars” and wow could those dancers move. We had 3rd row center seats so we could really see the dancers up close. A wonderful show and would see it again when it comes close to Bloomington.

Sunday morning we simply checked out and headed for home to take down most of the Christmas decorations that were still up inside.

All-in-all, a fun weekend to celebrate Barb’s birthday.

Barb’s Christmas Present weekend in Chicago




The view from our room

Ed had given Barb tickets to the Bulls game for Saturday night, January 22 so we made a long weekend of it.

First we met our friends Judy and Dale in Aurora for a long lunch and then headed for downtown Chicago to check into the Michigan Avenue Marriott Courtyard.


As they have in the past, they upgraded us to a corner room and it was on the top floor, floor 24. What a great view of the lake frozen over.



Lunch at Bergoffs

 First we went around the corner to the Apple store and talked to them about a question that Ed had with his new iPad. Then we walked up to Water Tower and the Hot Tix booth but didn’t see anything that we wanted to see that night, so we had a sandwich in Water Tower and headed back to the hotel for an early evening. It was much too cold to walk around Michigan Avenue as we usually do.



Saturday morning we had a 2 ½ hour tour of two city theaters, the Cadilac Palace and the Bank of America, which was the Shubert Theater. What fun it was hearing about the history of these two great theaters.


Barb ready for the Bull's game

Lunch was at the Bergoff's on Adams. This is one of the oldest restaurants in the City of Chicago and a long time favorite of both of us.

Then we took a cab to Holy Name Cathedral to see it and it is very impressive as to how they have restored it after the major fire that they had.

We spent the rest of the day looking at coats for Barb and Ed but found nothing and then it was time to go to the Bulls game.



We drove out to Billy Goat’s Tavern to have their famous Cheese Burgers before heading over to the game.


We got to the game early so it was fun watching everyone warm up. The game should have been a blow-out but Cleveland kept it close in the last quarter before the Bulls got serious and won by about 12 points.

At the game

 We awoke on Sunday morning to a beautiful cold day. But at least the sun was shining and the entire city seemed ready for the Green Bay game, it was too bad they lost.

We met our friends Mike and Sue at the Trump Towers for brunch and spent the next 3 hours eating and catching each other up on our recent cruises. They left Ft. Lauderdale on a cruise ship the same day we arrived on our trip, so it was fun just sitting and talking about things we did. We also talked about their upcoming wedding - what a special day that will be!!

We left the city at 2:30pm and drove home to watch a disappointing football game with the Bears losing to Green Bay. But all-in-all it was a fun weekend in Chicago.

Lunch at Trump Towers

Day 11

Entering port with 4 cruise ships docked ahead of us

We were on the sea when we awoke and it was not very nice but warmed up nicely by 9am.


First we went to the photo department and picked up our pictures from last night. Then it was time to lie out. The weather was wonderful and everyone was waiting for the ship to dock in Nassau, which it did at Noon. As we have been here a number of times we stayed on the ship and ate lunch on the deck.

Finally at 1:30pm we went in and changed to into town. The major thing that we wanted to do was to go to the straw market because it is huge. Of course, Barb bought a purse!!

Then it was back to the ship to pack our luggage to be picked up in the evening.

After a short nap, we went out on the Promenade deck to have our picture taken and watch people.

Dinner was very good but of course a little sad as we have made some great new friends. Hopefully we will meet up with them on a future cruise.

Barb entering the straw market

We skipped the show and went to the casino where Ed had a great run and we left the casino at midnight to get some sleep before the trip tomorrow.

What a fun trip it was and prefect timing to get away after a very busy and wonderful holiday season. We have no idea what the weather is or has been at home because we do not watch TV or read newspapers when we are away – we will find out soon enough.

And everyone who is a part of our lives back home, thanks for taking care of everything for us while we are gone – without you, we could not be gone – we are truly blessed and thankful.

Thanks for following our trip with us – it has been fun.

Barb and Ed

Our final towel figure

Day 10




Towel animals from the last 3 nights

Carnival started a complete ships tour this year at an extra cost. We had signed up for it and it was this morning. They only take 12 on each tour and only schedule it on the last sea day. The tour takes 3 ½ hours.

Just walking around

So, at 9am we were up and down to the library to meet our tour guide and the other passengers going on the tour. It was too bad that they didn’t allow any photographs. They even walked us through a metal detector to make sure we didn’t have any cameras or cell phones.
During the tour we covered the crew's quarters, there food servicearea, the lounge and other areas that are normally off-limits to a customer.  Then we went into the food service area and saw the massive storerooms and freezers.  The head storekeeper met us and took us through this area. They purchase $300,000 worth of food each and every week and it is all purchased in the US. For example, 65,000 eggs, 10,000 pounds of chicken, 3,000 pounds of shrimp and 8,850 pounds of flower, just to list some of the items they buy each week.

Our table for dinner

Then we went to the showroom and the technical director talked about how the stage, lights and special effects worked. After that we went into the changing rooms and the head dancer talked about costumes and her work in the shows.

After that, we went to the engine control room and heard a discussion about the engines and all the systems by the Chief Engineer. At this time we were several floors below sea level. Some of the things we were told were they producing 528,344 gallons of water a day and burn 41,475 gallons of heavy fuel oil a day.

Finally we went up to the bridge where we met the Captain and he gave us a tour and in-depth discussion as to how the bridge works and his duties.

A great tour finished after 3 ½ hours and was really worth the time and money to see these areas that the public does not get to see.

By this time, it was time to eat lunch and we went to the main buffet. The second buffet was an entire line dedicated to chocolates so we stopped there also.

Next we went to the slot tournament where neither of us qualified, but as always we had fun.

Finally we played a session in the casino and we are now up for the entire cruise – a great feeling.

Then we went back to the room to rest before getting ready for our second formal night.

A snack

The only bad thing about the day was that the sun was beautiful and we spend the entire day inside – but that’s ok considering what we did.

We got dressed and out to the Promenade deck to have our pictures and people watch – that is always fun. We also ate at the Sushi Bar for a before dinner snack.

The dinner was wonderful and we had a really good time with our tablemates. After dinner we went to the show which was a Beetles tribute and quite good. Then it was on to the casino. Barb was down but Ed was up so the world as we know it is good. One of our table couples happened to stop by as Ed was making a good run so that was fun.

It’s 2:00am so it is time to go to bed.



Tomorrow is our last port, Nassau and we arrive at noon so Ed needs to get up at 7 to get lounge chairs that will be close to the room and in the sun.

Night for now.

















Day 9



The beach

We awoke in Tortola, part of the British Virgin Islands. What a delightful little island with a big mountain range right in the middle.

First it was off the ship at 8 and shopping in the local craft market right off the ship, right where you can’t miss it – surprise,surprise! Then we walked about 5 minutes into town for some more shopping.

By this time it was 10am and time to catch a shuttle to take us up over their mountain and to the beach on the other side with most of the tourists in town for the day.



The beach from the mountain

The ride was almost straight up and down the mountain, but after 20 minutes we made it to the beach. It was a very pretty beach, but with lots of people. We were there in time to get beach chairs right at the water line. In fact, there were waves that came up and under our chairs a lot of times, but it was fun in the sun there.

Back on the ship we had a late lunch and then sunbathed out on the deck until about 3pm when we went to our cabin to clean up and watch the ship sail.

We were out of our cabin early in the evening and watched people on the promenade deck, picked up our pictures from last night and then went to dinner.


Barb at the beach

After dinner, we skipped the lounge show so that Ed could enter the blackjack tournament. While qualifying was going on Ed played with friends who are good players and the entire table did well. Unfurl, Ed was bumped from the tournament on the last qualifying round while he was playing regular blackjack. But winnings from the table made up for not getting into the finals of the tournament.

That’s it for now – tomorrow is a day at sea and relaxation.

Our ship and a Princess ship in port



Sushi - was it good!!