Tuesday, December 24, 2013 (A Day At Sea) Exciting stuff today. We were able to sleep in some this morning, except for me, I was up at 5:00 am. All our activities for the day will be on the ship. After a late breakfast in the Symphony Dining Room, Michael and I joined the trivia contest they had in the Vista Lounge. Couple of the trivia questions asked was “how many sides are there on a banana? Or what was Mickey Mouse’s name going to be before his name was Mickey? During the trivia game, Cindy was getting her done for our formal dinner this evening. Jenny was checking the Internet Cindy and joined late the specialty cooking showcase. They were demonstrating how they prepare some of the day’s specials. Even though we arrived late, we ... read more

Sunday, December 22, 2013 (Ft. Lauderdale, Florida) What a fun day and upcoming week it will be. I was up at 3:15 am this morning to finish some last minute things I was not able to finish the last few days. Everyone else was up at 3:45 am. By 4:45 am we were out of the house and on our way to Houston Bush airport for our 7:15 am United flight to Ft. Lauderdale. Cindy’s parents were meeting us at the airport. Since our flight was last minute, we did not have the best seats on the plane, however at least we were able to secure a flight. After we boarded the flight and settled in, a gate agent came up to me at moved me to first class. This is hilarious because even though I ... read more

Thursday, March 14, 2013 The girls slept in this morning until 730am, however Michael and I were up at 630am so we could run on the beach. We ran for 30 minutes at the water’s edge. Wow, this was a ton of fun, but extremely tiring. I think I used muscles I have not used in a while. The sand was partly soft, however I preferred running on the hard packed sand close to the water. When running Michael and I were joined by a pack of three black dogs, one of the dogs was a bully to the other dogs, quiet funny to watch them run with us for a while and bark at each other. Another time a single black dog came running up to us and just started barking, not a nice doggy. ... read more

Tuesday, March 12, 2013 We were all up by 700am this morning. Today would be a busy day traveling to Phuket. We ate one last time in the Executive Lounge and enjoyed the country cuisine. Our friend in the lounge gave us the sweet rolls we enjoyed the first day. We did not eat at many this day, however Todd took it for the team and at two of them. Before we departed the Conrad Hilton hotel at 930am, we finished packing and doing one last sweep of the rooms. It was sad we were leaving the hotel because we were really lucky that we had this type of room. By 930am we were in a car and on our way to the Bangkok airport. The ride was only 30 minutes. It seemed like the driver ... read more

Sunday, March 10, 2013 Considering the late evening arrival the prior evening and excitement over our suite, still managed to wake up at 630am. We still can’t believe we have the “celebrity” room. By 730am we were in the Executive Lounge for breakfast eating breakfast and talking about what we were thinking about doing for the day. Breakfast was quite good for an Executive Lounge. Most of us tried the local cuisine (eggs, bacon, rolls) however some of us ate fried flat noodles with pork, fried rice with eggs, dim sun (petite pasta shell with stuffed pork), Chinese bun with red pork (the bun looks like an egg). The service here at the Conrad Bangkok Hilton was fantastic. After our relaxing and adventurous breakfast, we headed to the lobby to talk to the concierge about the ... read more