We Are Cruising,

We received an email from Grand Circle Cruises yesterday indicating we are a “go.”  A bit of adjustment is necessary due to water levels.  We will embark on one ship and travel for 3 days, then on the 4th day while we are visiting a stop, our things will be moved to our original ship for the next 11 days.  The Vienna area is up in the air and if we cannot stay on the ship we will be housed in the Vienna Hilton for two nights before flying home.  Whew!  I will pack a small 3 day clothes and toiletries bag so we can leave the big suitcase intact until the second ship.  

I spent a lot of time on Delta this past weekend because our plans have changed.  First, we decided flying 3 days out of 4 with one a 9 hour flight was a bit much, even for us!  Our grandson was married at the courthouse last winter and this current celebration was the convalidation in the church.  The bride is not baptized or churched in any religion so there are different rules for this.  So no big Mass, no Communion, no big reception, etc.,  just a few prayers and vows.  Ordinarily we would be there but life has been pulling the rug out from under me!  So we had plane reservations we had to cancel.

In the meantime we have to be in Detroit 11/17 for Ted’s two day occulist appointments that were cancelled in June when the doctor was in an accident the day before he was to see Ted.  So we had more plane tickets with us leaving two days before Thanksgiving for Cincinnati to spend Thanksgiving with my brother.  So …

We cancelled our two trip tickets and booked another ticket Houston to Detroit, staying over Thanksgiving in Michigan (sorry brother, made my kids happy) and home the next day to avoid the chaos at the airports as much as possible.  

Then my brother announced he was getting married 12/19 in Cincinnati.  OK …let’s regroup!  Another ticket Houston to Cincinnati to (wait for it!) to Orlando!  Kara rented a VRBO to spend Christmas near her Happy Place (Disney) and encouraged us to not go home to spend Christmas alone.  So we will be in Florida once again starting 12/20 the day after the wedding for a week.  Now Kelly is talking about coming too!  

Reservations were going fine until we hit two stumbling blocks!  We have to do one-stops on two of the flights.  Delta has limited non stops and we needed to bite the bullet!  I tried Louisville, Columbus, Indianapolis, Dayton, all one stop!   So I get all of this chosen, even our seats and go to pay.  The last page is where I needed to use our two e-credits in addition to credit card from our cancelled flights.  Ted’s worked fine, mine stayed greyed out!  No amount of looking and pushing and checking didn’t work.  Ted called the Gold line (his Status that gives us two free bags each, better chance at upgrade and entrance to some lounges) and handed the phone to frustrated me!  The gal was super, put me on hold, then came back.  Apparently my e-tickets were for Donna Rae not Donna so the names didn’t match!  They only asked for first and last name!  I wanted to bang my head against the wall so at least it would stop hurting when I quit.  

So we are getting haircuts, I need a manicure and Pedicure before we head to Amsterdam (non stop I might add) a week from Sunday.  I have Ride N Go ordered coming and going to the airport, hopefully the GCT transfer pick up works well at Schipol.  There have been tremendously long lines lines with this new entrance and exit protocol.  Not sure if our England and Aruba QR codes from our travel last year appear and if they mean anything!  

Off to pack!  

On To the Disney Fantasy

Ted drove us Friday morning to Cape Canaveral to board the ship.  Morgan made things for our door.

 

Dumbo is the mascot for the Famtasy.  We  were a few doors apart because we had 2 occupants and they had 3.  We enjoyed two beaches, Castaway Cay and their newest island park Lighthouse Point.  We had been to Castaway twice before but Lighthouse was our first time and it is beautiful.  In Nassau we chose to stay onboard and visit Palo for brunch. It is supposed to be “the thing” to do.  However, twice the waiter gave Morgan the gluten plate and her gluten free to Bill. Not once but twice!  

We saw Frozen and Aladdin productions on two different nights. We played bingo on the last night and Ted got down to one number for $5000!  We sat at a table with a delightful couple from England! 

Disney has you rotate dining rooms with your servers following you. With Morgan’s gluten free needs, Bill’s dairy issue, Ted’s wanting nothing extra put on top of his meal … I was the easy one. One starter, one entree. One dessert. No special requests or instructions!  I didn’t cook it. I wasn’t cleaning up, I wasn’t doing dishes. I ate what they put in front of me. 

After 5 glorious days at sea we were back at the dock to disembark.  One fellow loaded ALL the luggage for us 5 and pushed the cart all the way to the car in the garage!  We loaded up with their things on top so we could unload those things quickly at the airport. Then we were on our way heading west to Texas. 

We spent the night in Biloxi with a very early start the next morning.  Due to Hurricane Eduard SH105 through Sour Lake was blocked and flooded so we had to stay on major highways.  We normally get off I-10 just past Beaumont but we took it into the third circle freeway around Houston (99) to I-45 which brings us just 4 miles from home. 

Laundry!  Laundry!  Laundry!  Despite having a washer and dryer in the apartment we still brought several loads  plus what we had in the hamper here. Took a long time to get that caught up. 

Ted was off to his prison duties, we went to Church and ate at Subway just to have something simple. 

I played cards this week and came in second. 

My friend Irene (age 84) fell in Dallas at Walmart and is now home with a separated shoulder. She lives alone so needs constant care. I am set to stay with her Thursday and we will go from there.  She broke my 11th commandment. STAY UPRIGHT!  

We have a busy travel schedule starting 10/1.  We are flying to Detroit on the 1st to attend our grandson’s wedding all of sudden happening in Detroit on 10/2.  Since we were already booked out of Houston on 10/4 we have to fly back on 10/3 and then turn around and go back the next morning to use our original  itinerary. To fly Houston to Detroit to Amsterdam more than doubled our fare. Delta looked and looked and said going to Detroit and back was the best plan!  

The wrinkle in all of this is the water level of the Danube River is so low that all cruises scheduled for mid September have been cancelled. So that quick turn around may be for naught. I think in the next week or two the rug may be pulled out from under us.  

Then we leave the week before Thanksgiving to get Ted’s prosthetic eye replaced in Southfield MI and an early Thanksgiving with the kids before heading to Cincinnati for Thanksgiving with my brother. 

We made reservations for Christmas because Ted had originally planned to get his eye taken care of right before but that is no longer necessary but we decided to just go as planned. 

I think we will be laying low once winter comes!    

 

We Are Back!

We drove to Florida to join Kara, Bill and Morgan for their Disney vacation.  We stopped in Crestview, FL overnight then stopped in The Villages to visit Marge and Steve, our last neighbors in Cincinnati before we moved to Michigan in 1981.  We had a great visit, lots of laughs, dinner and then stayed in Wildwood, FL that night.  They were leaving on a cruise the next day and we declined their invitation to stay with them.  The last thing they needed was company that next morning.  And there was a beautiful church to attend Sunday morning just minutes from our hotel.  It all worked out great!

We met our family at Bay Lake Towers where Kara reserved a 2 BR, 3 bath apartment for us all.  We were given the master because it had a walk in shower, she and Bill took the 2 queen room and Morgan chose one of the Murphy beds in the living room.  It sleeps 9 so was very roomy for us all.  Our room overlooked the pool area.

Kristin joined us a few days attending a Keys to the Kingdom tour at Magic Kingdom.  We had dinner one night at Wilderness Lodge bringing enough leftovers home for dinner the next night.  We did eat at the Contemporary one night and Kara made spaghetti one night. The kids all have annual passes so bop in and out of the parks at will.  Ted and I rode the monorail and boats to the other resorts, swam in the pool, watched fireworks but didn’t go into the parks.  It is too much walking and too hot!  

On Friday Ted drove us to Port Canaveral to board Disney’s Fantasy, the same ship we took the entire family on 11 years ago for our 50th anniversary celebration.

Google is acting up so I will start a new Post to see if that works better.