No, Tuesday? Ok that is also a surprising thing to say. Yes, we skipped directly from Monday to Wednesday because we crossed the International Date Line headed West. We had a breakfast, a VERY early breakfast on the plane. Since we are arriving at 5am we had to eat by 4am. We did get a very nice meal. A choice of a Cheese Omelet or French Toast which we all decided to try. It was very good and came with some nice sides. Again, the very best food I have ever had on a plane. We are very spoiled now and will judge all other plane food by Air New Zealand standards. No American airline even comes close to the quality. Sad thing to say but very true. Off the plane and off to get our bags and customs. We got our bags and then stopped at the Money exchange to get New Zealand dollars. Today, the NZ dollar is worth about 60 cents in US dollars. Customs was not bad but it still to an hour to process. The customs here looked VERY familiar. Guess that was from watching all the border control shows. In fact the customs agent that worked with us, said they were filming but they must have been in the back because we never saw the camera crew. Our shuttle picked us up outside and we were off to the hotel. Being so early, we asked that they hold our bags till the room would be ready. We took a short walk down to the Rose Café for some coffee. Very nice café with lots of locals. It is also popular with the police and fire department. A half dozen of each stopped off for coffee while we were there. The Rose Park is just across the road so we took a walk and looked at the roses. There are 5000 roses in the garden with a wide variety of colors. Behind Betty is our hotel. We can see the garden from our hotel room balcony. We decided to walk back over to the hotel and were surprised that our room was ready for us. The Rose Hotel is under renovations and our room is one that has already been upgraded. Very nice. I was so impressed with the bathroom that I took photos. We rested and napped then went to the Garden Restaurant which is part of the hotel. The view overlooks the Rose garden. Our food was great. Shawna had pan fried fish, Betty a large salad, and I had a hamburger. All the food was great. Today… Yesterday… Tomorrow ??? Ok when you leave on one day and skip a day entirely it is strange. Time for bed and try to recover from jet lag.
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Today, we start our travel to New Zealand and Australia. We have short flight from Amarillo to Houston then we change to an Air New Zealand plane for our long flight to Auckland. Fifteen hours on the nicest airline we have ever flown.
We drove off from Logan at 7am. There were some things we needed to pickup before the flight. Lunch with James before he dropped us off at the Amarillo airport to start the trip. The flight to Houston was uneventful but a small plane. When we arrived in Houston, we got a surprise. The “gangway” was an open walkway with a tent cover. Luckily for us it was not raining right then even though everything including the walkway was wet. Why is Houston so cheap not to have actual gangways instead of something the reminds me of a flight in the 70's? It might be reasonable at a very small airport but even Amarillo with only 7 gates has an enclosed gangway for each. Off to the International terminal to find our gate and grab a quick meal at a Mexican restaurant. As always airport food is generally OK but very expensive. The Air New Zealand plane, a 777-300ER, is HUGE. We are in row 49 and there were at least 10 more beyond us with 10 people per row. The plane holds over 360 people and I bet there were about that many people on this flight. Any other airline would have jammed as many rows of seats as possible. The economy seats were better than any other airline we have been on. The gap was bigger so I had plenty of room for my knees. Yes, that includes Southwest or any other airline. It is a limited comparison because I have never flown 1st class or Business. The seats even had a support that could be made to come out from below the seat to give some relief to your lower legs. The gap between seats was much better than even premium on other lines. The flight attendants were dressed up. The women in nice dresses and the men were in three piece suits. They were very helpful and attentive. We had easy access to bathrooms that were nicer than any other plane we had been on. Being tall, I can have some problems using the bathroom on many airlines. After all that, we had the very best food I have EVER had on a plane… PERIOD. The dinner meal was a choice of Beef Stroganoff or Chicken Parmesan with several side dishes. We were also offered New Zealand wine for FREE. The expectation by the airline is that people have wine with dinner and are not charged extra. After dinner, we reclined our chairs and extended our foot rests (each chair had a support for your legs). Put our pillow behind our heads. Blanket over us and tried to sleep. 15 hours later we arrived in New Zealand. NO, we were not in 1st or Business or even Preferred Economy. We were in regular economy which would have been awful on almost any other airlines. We had several firsts. 1. Flying Air New Zealand 2. Crossing the Equator. 3. Crossing the International date line. 4. Loosing a day. No kidding we left on Monday and arrived on Wednesday. Time travel. I guess another first for us anyway. The big downside was the turbulence. It was bad. Not the airline or pilots fault but no fun. It was bad enough that the wings were bouncing and I could hear loud bangs from luggage shifting and bouncing below the cabin. We got as much sleep as we could before the lights came up letting us know it was time for breakfast. It was another nice meal. We are really looking forward to our next trip. It should be warm since we will be in the southern hemisphere which is in summer right now.
Soon after we arrived back in Logan, it gets colder. We get more snow. The deer are frequently visiting the park and walking by on the road. Just a few days later, we warm up, the snow melts, but the deer are still frequently seen. We had a busy December in Logan with lots of snow and cold weather. Visits to Amarillo and Lubbock for Betty's doctor visits. Also, we had some pretty sunrises and sunsets. Weather was cold and we are very happy the skirting around the RV is working for us. Even with the outside temps near zero we are able to stay connected to water and not have a cold floor. We will be planning our next cruise and flights for January 2024.
After a great visit with family and celebrating 45 years of marriage, we head back to Logan. After a stop over in Dallas to change planes, we head out to Amarillo. Well, the people at Southwest still have a sense of humor. And patriotic. Before we arrive, we have a nice sunset.
After a nice visit with Kelly and Leon, we fly out of Orlando to Pensacola. We will be there for Thanksgiving and visiting with family. The three of us will be staying with Michael and Niki and children.
Time to disembark. BOO! Off ship we go. We need to be off by 8:30am. It has been a fantastic month or nearly a month. We left Logan one month ago and have been out of the country for almost an entire month. Starlink was fantastic. It was not great all the time but we were able to make WiFi phone calls almost consistently. With the Upgrade package, I could access anything as if I were on a regular hotspot. Even with 1000 plus passengers, the up and download were consistently 3Mbps even in the middle of the Atlantic. A quick breakfast and then drag our luggage down to the ramp. The line was really long it wrapped up from the ramp through the Rolling Stone lounge almost half way down the ship. Even with all that it only took us 45 minutes to get off through Global Entry which was no faster than the regular line only because there was only one person checking us and 6 or 7 checking everyone else. Even with all that and the cab we made it to the station with plenty of time to spare. Taxi to the Brightline train station. Cab cost us $35. Ok but I think he fudged the numbers a bit and it should have been less than $25. When we got on, we found a family about to sit in our assigned seats on the train. When I told them they said people were in THEIR assigned seats. I let them know that was not our problem. What makes people think, "Someone is in our seats so we will take someone else's"? After we had been out of the station for about 5 minutes, someone came by from the train and checked tickets making sure everyone was in their assigned seats. We had a nice ride and very comfortable. We snacked a bit and napped a bit. The trip to Orlando was about 3 hours. Kelly picked us up at the station which is at the Orlando Airport. Wow, that is a HUGE airport and growing bigger every year. We will stay with Kelly and Leon for 5 days.
This is our last day at sea.
It may be a bit weird being on dry ground again after being at sea for 8 days but we have not missed having hard ground under us. The crossing was great.
I just realized I have not had cash or even a wallet in my pocket for over a week. You don’t need money on a ship unless you go to the casino. You only need your Cruise Card to charge anything you do buy on ship.
We went to our last Enrichment Talk. This one was Among the Maya of Tikal given by Olga Stavarkis who was part of the original research group to the site Tikal. Very interesting. I have got to look up the research she has done
Shawna is off to the Spa and I am working on the blog info before I forget. A did get a Wang Wang which is Vodka, Gin, White Rum, Scotch, Bourbon, Tequila, Brandy, Triple Sec, and a bit of orange and/or grapefruit juice. POW!
We put a deposit down on a cruise. You ALWAYS get a better deal on the ship.
The cruise is planned for May 18 2025. Of course that could change. We might add another cruise. You never know.
A little more of the Rolling Stone band. Great as always.
Cantare's show was fantastic. Again! The last show was “Stage and Screen”.
Next, a stop at Billboard Onboard (dueling Pianos) for a few songs.
We saw the singers of the Cantare just before heading to bed and thanked them for the entertainment
Sadly, we have to get our final packing done and bed.
Enrichment Talk: An Engineer’s look at the Titanic was very informative. Interesting choice of talks on a cruise ship in the middle of the Atlantic. Relaxed most of the day. Pool, Hot tub, … eat… Shawna spent some time in the Spa in the afternoon. Then a pretty sunset, but we did not see a green flash this time. Yes, we have seen it on a sunset one time in the Florida Keys. Dressy night for dinner and we went as Hawaiian Formal. That means our nicest Hawaiian style shirt for me with slacks and Shawna in her nice Hawaiian style dress. I wore my Kukui nut necklace. Shawna wore a necklace made of tiny seashells. Yes, we eat VERY well on ship in main dinning room. Music tonight but this time around the pool with most of the command staff. Chocolate Surprise tonight. This is where the servers walk all over with platters of lots and lots of chocolate desserts. Some were very good but after a while we just had to say no thank you. Yes, even I can get full of chocolate to the point I turn it down.
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January 2024
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