December 17, 2008 - This morning Penney (nope i didn't get to go today) went to her daughters to watch the new baby, Claudia, BUT she also had her other new grand daughter, Lydia... at only 7 weeks apart she says it was like having twins. Penney said they were both little angels and she was even able to get a little work done while they slept.
Claudia Katelyn 2 weeks and Lydia Izabelle 9 weeks
Later Penney found Lydia checking her my space account
Oops, busted... sorry Nana
December 3, 2008 - today, while Penney and I were attending the Home Based Travel Agent Expo in Las Vegas, Penney received a phone call that her daughter Crystal had been taken to the hospital and had given birth to her daughter, Claudia Katelyn at 11:57pm the evening before, December 2, 2008. She weighed in at 7lbs 4oz and was 21" long. Both mother and baby are strong and healthy.
Here is a picture that she received via email this morning.
Penney was bummed that she was not there for her birth but has a date to visit immediately upon her return home... and you know what that means, I will get to stay in the purse while all the pictures are of the new baby.
December 5, 2008 Today Penney went to see Claudia, and sure enough I didn't even get taken out of the car but Penney did show me all the pictures (bless her heart). :)
December 6, 2008 - Again today Penney visits with Claudia, sure that she will recognize her... sometimes she (Penney) is so delusional.
As with most 4 day olds, Claudia slept most of the time.
December 10, 2008 - Nana Penney goes to her daughters house today to help out. While babysitting she took the opportunity to take a few photos, who Penney, hahaha!
Claudia tried to hide, but Nana persisted...
December 2, 2008 - Las Vegas
This morning Penney and I are flying out to Las Vegas for the Homebased Agent and Luxury Expo at the Mandelay Bay Hotel and casino. I am writing this entry as we will hit the ground running as the show is actually starting this morning. Once we arrive we will head to the hotel to check in and then immediately register and hope to get into a class or two this afternoon. Tomorrow and Thursday will be really busy as Penney is working a booth at both shows with friends & colleagues Mike and Sue Goldberg.
Penney has been contracted to consult on a new travel agent website called Agents Sharing Knowledge. This site is a reference tool for travel professionals, including social networking, discussion groups, classifieds, as well as supplier promotions. The website, www.agentssharingknowledge.com is still a work in progress but is soon to be one of the top visited sites by travel professionals. She will also be working with them on the educational opportunities such as webinars and conference calls.
Well I am going to close this entry and get some rest as I know when we land Penney will be running my legs off (or should i say wings?)
December 3, 2008 - Whew what a day we had yesterday. We have run all over this HUGE hotel, had several meetings, and even ran into a couple of educational seminars before collapsing into bed at nearly midnight. This morning we were up early and running to the show floor to begin a day of talking with travel agents and suppliers BUT first Penney received a call from her son-in-law to tell her that Crystal her daughter had had a beautiful baby girl last night. I will do a new entry on the baby a little later tonight, when we get some pictures.
As we arrived at the showroom floor, there were tons of wonderful travel agents waiting to get in to talk to the suppliers. When the doors opened they began filing in and Penney started talking (as usual). She was/is excited to share with the agents all about ASK and they were eager to hear about all the things to come. It was a long day, and I didn't get to talk to many of the suppliers or friends I had made at the last show but I did meet a few new folks.
Penney and I had our picture taken near the ASK banner to send use in some email promotions... hmmm, do you think she may be using me for my pretty smile?
December 4, 2008 - Today was another long day at the show, however, because Penney was anxious to get home to the new grand baby she was able to change out flight to an earlier one and we are on the flight home now. We met so many great agents, and talked with many wonderful suppliers as well. Overall, a very good trip, although Penney is kind of a drag (maybe she deserves to be called Granny after all) as we didn't see one show, go out to any clubs or even do any gambling while we were in VEGAS... VEGAS BABY and what did we do... work! there is something wrong with that!
I guess I need to sign off as Penney is nagging to get her hands on the computer to do... you guessed it more work!
November 27, 2008 - Happy Thanksgiving
Today we spent Thanksgiving with Penney's family. Her wonderful husband, Kevin, mother, Winnie, and several of her kids gathered around the table to share a great traditional turkey dinner. After dinner everyone retreated to the living room where we share stories and some laughs before heading back to find some yummy dessert.
Much of the afternoon was spent ooo'ing and awww'ing over the newest addition to the family, Lydia. It was very interesting to watch so many grown adults making over this 5 week old baby that doesn't do much except eat and sleep. Although, you know Penney she captured every move on the camera :)
Lydia says... enough already!
November 19, 2008
Celebrity Cruises brings the BEAUTIFUL new Solstice to Florida to begin Caribbean Cruising. They have generously opened the ship to many travel professionals for inspections as well as 2 night pre-inaugural cruises. Penney and I were invited to sail from Nov 19-21, 2008.
What an AMAZING VESSEL! This is no ordinary cruise ship, it is a destination of its own. As we walked around and took everything in, Penney snapped tons of photos, but I must tell you they just do not do justice. You have to see to believe.
This evening we had a cocktail party in the Sky Observation Lounge. Dondra Ritzenthaler welcomed us and introduced her staff, including Cris DeSouza and Bo (silly Penney didn't get her last name). Also at the party were Mary Clegg and Lisa Wilson from NACTA.
Penney had dinner in the main dining room with the above, but she didn't invite me... she said that I needed some rest, but truth be told, she loves Celebrity's cuisine so much she wasn't about to share.
She did invite me to accompany them to the Cellar Masters which is a very unique wine bar, where you can taste several different types of wines.
The show was fantastic and everyone is having terrific time. Tomorrow is another full day so I will sign off for now.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
This morning I woke up early to see the sunrise, hear the waves crashing and feel the warm wind blowing. What a gorgeous day!
There is so much to do and see today... after dragging Penney out of bed, we went for breakfast and to the Building Bridges Session with Dan Hanrahan, President and CEO of Azamara Cruises and Celebrity Cruises, and Dondra Ritzenthaler, Sr Vice Pres of Sales Azamara Cruises and Celebrity Cruises. They shared information on their marketing campaign, the latest company updates and did a Q&A.
Next we were onto visit some staterooms.
The first was a Sky Suite
Then was an oceanview veranda
But the Penthouse is the best...
Then onto the bedroom... with another 52" tv
And look at the walk in closet...
You won't believe the bathroom... it is larger than most inside cabins on other ships!
With another jacuzzi tub... 
And look at this shower, hmmm I wonder how many people could fit in this?
We then walked around the rest of the ship enjoying some gelato along the way. Here are several pictures of this beautiful ship by a friend of Penney's, Jane Vickery.
Then off to a meeting on Celebrity CruiseTours. They have so many different itineraries and destinations. I think I need to talk Penney into one of those for our next adventure. Maybe Australia or South America.
At this meeting they raffled off invitations to the Blu specialty restaurant for tonight... no Penney nor I won but Penney's friend Jan Shaughnessy did and invited us to join her. Yep, even I get to go :)
This afternoon while Penney visited with other agents, I took some time to enjoy sitting on the veranda and write my blog.
Well enough work for the day... we are off to dinner.
Friday, November 21, 2008 1:21am
Yes, i said 1:21am! We met Jan for dinner at Blu, we sat with some new friends, Jim and Nancy. Dinner was really good, although as normal i didn't get much :) Penney seemed to enjoy herself. Below are some pictures of the restaurant and even some of the FOUR courses they tried.
Lucille Carter was at the table next to us... always having a good time.
After dinner we wandered through the spectacular shops onboard, marveled at the Solstice Diamond, which is a diamond only available on this ship. It is cut so there is a perfect 5 point star exactly in the center. Needless to say, Penney did not purchase one of these for me.
The show was quite good, it swas called Pulse and was kind of a throw back to the 70's and 80's with the wild outfits and fun music. At any moment I was expecting to see the Brady Bunch Kids run onto the stage.
There was music playing all over the ship, people dancing and enjoying themselves. Penney, Jan and I headed to the martini bar and found a nice place to sit and talk for awhile, well they talked, and I had myself a yummy chocolate martini. Also, Penney did limit me to just one.
So now you know why I am writing this at 1:20am! Tomorrow we have to disembark and head home, so I guess I need to call it a night.
Well here we are at the Fort Lauderdale airport, our flight is at 10:55am, but the disembarkation process, the bus transportation, and even the airline check in and security went so smoothly that we are 3 hours early for our flight.
I am going to do some people watching, my favorite sport, catch up on emails and publish this blog. I hope you have enjoyed traveling with us on the Solstice and will follow us on our next adventure... which i think is LasVegas... but between now and then we have Thanksgiving with 'the family' which can always be an adventure too... so stay tuned!
On Friday, November 14 we (Penney and I) flew to Florida to attend the Travel Trade Leisure Conference.
The Conference includes many educational seminars, ship inspections as well as several days of networking with other travel professionals.
On Saturday morning CLIA held a seminar, Negotiating to Win, by Tom Cogan.
Then we departed for our first ship inspection, the beautiful new Holland America Eurodam. This ship is elegant with its rich woods, beautiful fresh cut flowers and of course the staff was so wonderful and welcoming.
Below are a few photo graphs of my visit, my friend Mr. Moose also accompanied us.
Let me explain about Mr. Moose, Penney had introduced me to Dave Stockert, from Holland America, he took an instant shining to me. Then in October when we were visiting my home town of Dubrovnik, Penney found Mr. Moose and brought him back for Dave.
Here is a picture of Mr. Moose and Dave meeting at the conference.
The afternoon was full of seminars, the first session Penney attended was by Keith Powell. He is the original Business Revivalist. in his session he discussed the importance of always having business cards with you... no matter if you are in the grocery store or the middle of the ocean. Also discussed were group ideas, where to find them, how to promote and finding your niche.
The next session was a technology panel moderated by Alan Gerstner, The Travel Doctor. On the panel was Revelex, Trams, Mailpound, Triology, .travel, and Amadeus North America. They all had good information to share with the agents, they discussed their products that will help in running a travel office.
Then we attended the Opening General Session, we were welcomed by Ian and Seth Gittitz, whom own and operate Travel Trade. They put together the Travel Leisure Show. Terry Dale, President and CEO of CLIA also spoke.
We then had the Travel Agent and Travel Executive of the Year Awards. Travel Agent of the year is Les-Lee Roland and Executive of the year is Maurice Zarmati, President of Costa.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
This morning we had a lovely breakfast sponsored by Sandals and then several featured speakers before departing for the ship inspections.
Penney and I visited the Carnival Valor today, but silly her she forgot to change the batteries in the camera so you will just have to trust us that the ship is beautiful. We had a very nice lunch and met some wonderful travel agents to network with. Of course Penney didn't share the famous Carnival chocolate dessert... the melting cake.
This afternoon I decided to take a nap but Penney, as the good travel professional she is, attended more classes.
Penney went to the one titled The Travel Agent Guide to Travel Technology and Increasing Your Bottom Line by The Travel Doctor. He shared cost effective websites and software programs that can be used in the travel business. At the end of the session, a light nearly fell from the ceiling, right over Penney's head...
The next session she attended was Excel at Retail by Scott Koepf, President of NACTA. Penney has taken this and many of his classes before but he always has so many great ideas and is so motivating that she continues to go over and over again. Always coming away a better agent!
This evening Jungle Island hosted a reception for us. It was dark so we didn't get any good pictures, but walking around and seeing the cute animals was a lot of fun.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Avalon Waterways hosted our breakfast and gave us a great presentation on River cruising. After we had several more featured speakers before attending a tour operators panel.
We then boarded the buses and departed for the pier where we had a tour of the Norwegian Sky. What a nice ship, so many dining options and things to do and see. Remember NCL is all about Freestyle Cruising!
Here is me visiting the ship
More to follow...
