Celebrity Solstice welcomes Lady Bug and travel professionals

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...

       It is very spacious and nicely decorated.  There is an open bar area, full dining table, living room with sofa and chairs and a 52" plasma tv.  there is a half bath for guests.  All opening onto a lovely verandah with a jacuzzi tub.

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!

Lady Bug attends Leisure Travel Expo

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...

Lady Bug travels with NashTrash

What an adventure this is going to be...    I am so excited about this upcoming cruise!   We are traveling with the famous Jugg Sisters, Sheri Lynn and Brenda Kay.   They own and operate a  tour company in Nashville Tennessee, NashTrash Tours.    (www.nashtrash.com)

Penney and some of her friends boarded the big pink bus back in January (no I didn't get to go on that one), they had such a fabulous time that when the 90 minute tour was over, Penney asked Sheri Lynn and Brenda Kay if they would be interested in hosting a cruise... and that is where this idea was born.

Shortly after they met and chose to do a NashTrash Cruise for Halloween.  You can find more information about the cruise at the official website  www.nashtrashcruise.com   but I am going to give you many of the highlights as we go along.

I will be traveling with Penney and her family, Kevin, daughter Andrea, Mother Winnie and friend Holly as well as 60 other friends, family, and NashTrash fans on the Carnival Fascination, October 27th for 5 nights.

 

October 27, 2008

This morning as we headed to the Jacksonville port to board the Fascination.   The check-in process was quite easy until we heard an announcement asking Kevin and Penney to come to security.   They were asked to site in an area until the port sheriff arrived.  Oh No... Kevin asked Penney, 'what did you pack that you shouldn't have'   (you know his nick name for her is   Rule Breaker)  hahaha    We sat for what seemed like forever speculating on what we had done, when the sheriff arrived he asked about a bag that had a tag on it for John (Kevin) Rudicil but also had another tag for someone named Andrea Perry (their 13 yr old daughter had used the bag when she went to church camp and the tag was still on it)  Anyway, he asked to take Andrea to to a secured area to search the bag.  Penney asked if she or Kevin could go with them, (kind of afraid to let them all off her 13 yr old) so Kevin and Andrea followed the security officers.

About 20-30 minutes later, here they come, all smiles. it seems that it wasn't Penney after all :)   They had found a pair of handcuffs (which Kevin says were are part of his costume for the Halloween party).   They had to take them and that was that.

Once on board, it was right to the buffet for a scrumptious lunch and then to explore the ship.   The Fascination is a medium size ship at 70,000 tons, with a capacity of 2,100 guests.   The ship was built in 1994, but had a multi-million dollar renovation in 2008.

This evening, we had a meet and mingle party for the NashTrash Fans.  There are 60 of us traveling together.   The party was fun and the Jugg Sisters entertained us... boy are they entertaining!

Then off to dinner, where Penney ordered me my very own Chocolate Melting Cake... my favorite desert in the whole world!!!   I heard that Rory, Jeff and Susan like this dessert too.

After dinner we strolled the decks but retired early as it was a long day.   When we arrived back to our cabin we found a new friend awaiting us.

October 28,2008

Today is a fun-filled day at sea.  There is so much going on on this ship, where to begin?

There was trivia going on, a scrapbooking class, pictionary, pool games and of course, the casino, shopping, fitness center and spa are in full swing.

A yummy breakfast in the dining room and then out to the pool area to enjoy some relaxation and great people watching.   

                      

Oh no, 3 hours have gone by... is it time for more food?   Yep, we decided to have a lighter lunch, so we went to the deli for sandwiches.  Met some very nice folks from South Carolina and visited for awhile.  

We then wandered upon a huge crowd out by the pool, it was the men's hairy chest contest...  and guess who were the judges?    Yep, several of our group.   Even Momma Jugg and Sister Cindy got into the action :)                               Here are some of the judges and the winner.

This afternoon we went to the Newlywed/not so newlywed game show, Penney & Kevin were actually chosen to play... AND WON!  They may even let me have a sip or two of the champagne they received, along with this lovely 24 carrot gold plastic ship on a stick. 

That was a lot of fun.

This evening is the Captains cocktail reception and dinner, I am sure I will get left in the cabin, but that is ok, I am stuffed and don't think I can eat another bite.   But I bet Penney has another melting chocolate cake!

While everyone is gone, I take time to meet another new friend.

Penney took some pictures tonight at dinner, everyone was in their finery...

and a special birth wish goes out to Lois Mills

 

October 29, 2008  -   Key West

This morning we docked in Key West.  What a fun and beautiful place.   Everyone is buzzing and getting ready for Parrot Head Week.

After breakfast we decided to walk into town and do a bit of shopping.   We ran into several folks from our group wandering around and shopping.

Brenda Kay, Rob, Doug and Butch were spotted enjoying themselves on the conch tour.

 

Andrea made friends with a local...

Kevin found a souvenir that he wanted to take home...

Back to the ship for some lunch and pool time.

 

Before dinner many of our group met for a photo opportunity in the main atrium.

 

We will post the professional photographers photo later.

This evening, I was invited to dinner in the main dining room, those Jugg Sisters are a hoot!

 

After dinner, we met in the Passages of India Lounge where the sisters entertained our group. 

They are so funny...  and actually have great voices too.

At the end of the show, the 'sisters' sisters joined them on stage to sing.

Then I got to have my picture made with Momma Jugg, the Jugg Sisters, and their siblings...   Doug, Cindy, Sandy, Butch.

October 30, 2008 

Today we pulled into Nassau, Bahamas.   It was a bit cloudy when we arrived, but soon the sun came shining through and it was a beautiful day.

Many of our group went snorkeling, to the Atlantis Resort, to the beach and shopping.   A few even braved driving the Bahamian Streets, renting a Bahamian Harley                                        (or as we call them, mopeds)

Kevin, Penney and Andrea took a horse and buggy ride around the city of Nassau.

Donna and John had lunch at a nice restaurant overlooking the main street...   great people watching.

After some shopping in the market we headed back to the ship for more fun a the pool.

The waitstaff on the Carnival Fascination are fabulous.  They are all so attentive to our needs, and they even sing and dance for us. (and in some cases with us)  

This evening their was a passenger talent show.   Our group has A LOT of talent, but Miss Sarah showed her stuff tonight.

October 31, 2008    HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Today was another FUN DAY AT SEA...

                         Some enjoyed morning coffee by the pool, while others enjoyed their morning in the hot tub.

This afternoon, Penney was able to get our group a private tour of the Galley.   It is so amazing how they can prepare such good food for so many people.   Freddie welcomed us.

Then onto our Farewell Party (we gotta go home tomorrow, pout)       

On to dinner and another party...    The Travel Planner and NashTrash hosted a Jugg's look-a-like contest and costume party.   What fun!!!

Well that was our adventure...  tomorrow we must head for home.   To all of you that were with us on this cruise I want to say...  It was great to meet you, we had tons of fun and look forward to seeing you again really soon.

Hugs,  

Lady Bug (and the Travel Planner Team)