Las Vegas: Day One

March 31, 2013

 

For this Spring vacation, we tussled with many ideas.  We finally settled on going to Vegas.  It was something I had always wanted to do although it was not something Tracy had ever really thought about.  I convinced him that it would be a fun thing to try.  It was a lot different from other vacations we have taken.

 

So, we drove to Chicago (about 2 1/2 hrs) and flew non-stop to Las Vegas.  We arrived in Vegas around 5:45 p.m., got a shuttle to our hotel, and began our adventure.

 

Las Vegas airport:

We stayed at the MGM Grand - it was a beautiful hotel!  Our room was great and we got tickets to a show.  Checking in was quite an ordeal - I can't remember for sure how long we had to wait in line but it was at least an hour!  After checking in (finally), we took our luggage to our room and then headed outside to see the "Strip".

Across from our hotel was the New York New York - looked so cool all lit up!

Looking down the Strip from our hotel

 

Me with the Strip behind - taken from in front of the New York New York

After looking outside for a few minutes, we decided it was time for dinner.  We ate at the Rainforest Cafe in the MGM Grand.  It was expensive but quite tasty.  The decor was pretty cool.  I don't know how often it happens but every now and then they have a "show":  you can hear thunder, rain, and the "animals" move and make noises.

After dinner, we walked a ways down the strip.  I found my favorite place:  The M&Ms store!  Woo Hoo!!

 

Then it was time to crash.  We had had a very long day and were worn out. 

Caribbean Cruise: Day 8

September 9, 2012

Disembarkation

Today, when we awoke, we were coming into the Port of Tampa Bay.  

It was a very stormy morning!

They had some cool murals...

 

Here is the door to our wonderful, wonderful cabin...

 

At the back of the ship, they were taking all the waste, etc. off from our cruise...

At the front of the ship, you could see all the semi trucks ready to load up for the next cruise which would leave that very afternoon.

They have many shops and restaurants in port for the cruisers...

Tampa Bay

 Our last breakfast on our cruise...

 

We each had a waiting area to be at until we were called to disembark the ship.  Our area was on the pool deck.  Luckily we had a nice place to sit and a roof over our heads because, as you can see in the photo, there was LOTS of rain!  We decided to carry our luggage off the ship so we did not have to wait and hunt for it later in port.  Our wait to get off the ship was quite long because they have to have all foreigners go through immigration before anyone else can leave.  They had to keep calling people over and over again - which is really stupid because you are told exactly where to be and when to be there!!!  Some people...

When we finally put out feet on dry land (well, it was actually quite wet from all the rain - lots of flooded streets), we called our hotel to tell them we needed a ride.  They told us where to meet the shuttle.  When we got to that spot, there was another couple there that we had met at the hotel before the cruise and had actually seen several times on the cruise.  We all soon realized that we were NOT in the correct spot.  Finally found our shuttle and got a ride back to the hotel.

We still had several hours before our flight.  We stored our luggage at the hotel, and took a shuttle, along with the other couple, and went to the mall for a while.  When it was time to head back to the hotel, we called for the shuttle - it was going to be at least a half hour before they could pick us up.  We decided to walk - the rain had stopped and it wasn't all that far.  We had a nice visit with the other couple as we walked back to the hotel.

The hotel shuttle then took us to the airport where we soon boarded our flight for home.  After arriving in Chicago and getting our luggage, we took a shuttle to get our van at the Thrifty Parking area.  Then it was the 2 1/2 hr drive home to Monroe.

We had a FABULOUS time on our cruise and will definitely do another one in the future!!!