Geo: 28.5377, -81.3774May 11, 2010I was awake at 6:32 this morning!! We had yet to decide what park we would visit but I knew Universal Studios opened at 9:00. We kept throwing around the idea of Universal Studios today and Epcot Thursday or a 2-day, 2-park pass to Universal Studios and skipping Epcot or hubby wanted to see about a gatorboat ride, etc. We decided to get Universal passes. Went downstairs and purchased them (on sale) from the hotel concierge desk. Nice. I don't know why I was surprised by this but I was. Prior to traveling here I had been unable to find a discount on theme park tickets anywhere. Odd, I thought.Tickets in hand, we walk to Denny's for breakfast.. again, semi-across from our hotel, on I-drive, and an easy-breezy walk of less than ... read more

Geo: 37.209, -93.2916May 9, 2010It is Sunday night and we are packed, the car is clean and full of gas, and the alarm is set for 5:00 am tomorrow! YIKES! Of course, the one thing I've yet to do.... go online and actually purchase our park tickets. You see... I was fairly set on a 2-day, 2-park pass to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure ~ all owned by Universal and in the same area ~ 2 parks themed around movies, characters, etc. Lots o' roller coasters, lots of character amusement. THEN... I followed a friend in Orlando on Twitter last week and they spent the day at Epcot at the World Showcase ~ 1.3 miles, 11 countries, all showcasing various performers, drinks, foods, and entertainment!! How exciting I thought!! This is a park we must ... read more

Geo: 40.246, 12.1289October 3, 2009Today was a fantastic day of sleeping-in until 9:30am, going to the dining room and ordering a leisurely breakfast ~ omelet for hubby & blueberry pancakes for me ~ and then spending the majority of the day, in our pajamas, on our balcony or in our bed. It was wonderful! The ship was slowly cruising to our final return to port tomorrow so we had all day to do nothing and we enjoyed it thoroughly. I spent the morning buying pictures ~ Hubby and I had "lifestyle/casual" portraits made a few days ago ~ it's a thing they do where you schedule your portrait session, for free, they take pics of you in jeans or whatever, and if you like them, you buy them. It's basically a free professional photo session. We ... read more

Geo: 39.5695, 2.65002October 1, 2009 ~ The Island of Mallorca, SpainWell, if you read yesterday's blog then you know we had a wonderful, long day yesterday, ate dinner, and slept from ~8pm until ~5am. We both woke-up refreshed and hungry ~ we are used to our 1am or 2am room service meals. Ha! So, we took showers and hung-out watching our ship slowly arrive into the port of Palma on the Island of Mallorca, Spain (home of Michael Douglas and Katherine Zeta Jones ~ whom we did not see today, however). It was foggy and beautiful. The restaurants began serving breakfast at 7am so we ate and came back to the room waiting for the ship to finish docking. There was a small group of early risers eating at the tables, watching us slowly drift into ... read more

Geo: 43.7042, 7.31015September 29, 2009 ~ Nice, France ~ The Port of Villefranche, FranceAfter being awake again until super late last night, our wake-up call was for 7:15 this morning. Well, we awoke to the most beautiful site ever ~ France ! Wonderful! This is an absolutely beautiful area. The trees are gorgeous, the hotels and apartments are nice, the streets are clean, graffiti is non-existent - unlike Italy, which has graffiti everywhere, and basically, I loved France. Loved it. If we were ever to take a holiday somewhere and stay for a week or so, with money being no object, VilleFranche or Nice would be on the top of my list. That being said, our day was long and again, Hubby & I did a lot of walking but today we were much better at ... read more