Our 2013 NCL cruise vacation is only about 281 days away. We have managed to just about pay the actual cruise off but still need to get our soda passes for the cruise and our transfers from the disembarkation port in Rome to the airport in Rome, which from what I have read and heard is approximately 1-1 1/2 hours away from where the ship will be docked.
The transfers are $75 per person but it is well worth the money to ride a large comfortable bus and have our luggage stored under the bus. I find this arrangement to be much better than trying to get a taxi for the long ride to the airport.
We will just have to make sure that we can get an early transfer shuttle so that we can arrive at the airport with plenty of time to get checked in and go through customs in Rome. I have a feeling that it will be hectic and busy at this airport.
We won't be able to arrange for these transfers until we have purchased our airline tickets.
We checked out various flights and we have kind of decided to stick with Delta for all of the flight segments on this trip.
We found several options for our "open jaw" flights for our arrival into Venice Italy and returning home from Rome, Italy.
We have our eye on one particular set of flights but we are waiting a bit to see if the prices go down some. The tickets have already dropped $50 a piece in the last 2 days, which was when we initially started our airline ticket search.
Another reason for flying Delta is that if we fly Delta and use our American Express Delta credit card, we get double rewards points.
We recently found out how nice it is to have these reward points. We recently purchased our upcoming August plane tickets for our flights to Minneapolis...on our way up to Canada for a week long relaxing fishing adventure. By using our Delta rewards points, we only had to pay $7.50 a piece for each of our plane tickets and this was for round trip tickets. That alone kind of endeared us to being loyal customers and reward points enthusiast.
Besides purchasing the flight tickets, we need to decide whether or not to do any shore excursions for the ports of call that we will be visiting.
We usually like to go off on our own without paying the price for these excursions but there have been times when it was better to be on a paid excursion through the cruise line. We will have to look carefully at each port and see what is available and what the cost is compared to having the freedom to go where we want and spend as much time at any give location as we choose and not having to pay a cent to do it.
There still is a lot of logistical research that I need to do especially for our time in Venice. Options of getting from the airport to a location near our hotel in Venice are plentiful but each has its own price and benefit, getting from our hotel in Venice to the pier where our ship is docked, arranging a gondola ride with serenade (a must for any visit to Venice), arranging travel from our hotel to the islands of Murano and Burano...these are just a few things that must be researched still and fully arranged.
One major thing I got accomplished was to make our reservations at the Hotel Papadopoli in Venice for 2 nights prior to our cruise actually starting.
I will most likely go through the hotels concierge service as far as the arrangements for the gondola ride and the visits to Murano and Burano. Hopefully a long distance telephone call and a few emails will take care of those arrangements.
And of course there will be the final task and probably one of the most important, gather up enough Euros so that we can totally enjoy ourselves during this next cruise adventure.
A Day In The Life Of A Retail Santa Part 2
Today I donned the jolly mans red suit for the last time of this holiday season.
It wasn't near as busy as what I expected especially so close to Christmas.
I mean there were adults there but hardly any kids at all.
About an hour into my gig, a lady pushing a cart started walking by in front of me.
I wished her a Merry Christmas and it was at this time I noticed that she was trying to talk but was also fighting back tears and emotions.
She was finally able to tell me that her 28 year old son had very recently passed away while serving our country in the military.
She continued by telling me that everyone kept telling her to get out of her house and get out into the public and that is what brought her to this store.
I was completely caught off guard by what she told me and I told her how sorry I was to hear about the death of her son and gave her my condolences.
Before heading into the store further, this woman asked me to make sure that her son received a gift up in heaven tonight.
She made this request to me a couple of times and because of the situation and what she was going through, I promised her that I would make sure that her son would get a special gift from me, Santa, up in heaven.
Although I knew full well that I could not physically complete my promise to her, I knew that I could fulfill my promise by saying a prayer tonight for this lady and for her recently deceased son.
After we had our brief conversation, I found it rather hard to portray the happy face of Santa to kids that are still very innocent and still believe in such things as a jolly old man dressed all in red and white. Young kids whose reality is based upon their innocents and beliefs compared to an adults reality that is based on much different feelings....an adults reality that is based on sometimes rather cold hard facts of life that must be dealt with...like the loss of a son.
And it wasn't just what this one woman was going through that weighed on my mind but all of the other senseless tragedies that have occurred recently and most especially the recent loss of children's lives. Children whose most likely biggest worry in life was if they were going to get all they had asked for for Christmas or maybe all that they asked Santa to bring to their Moms and Dads.
After this lady had left my area for a while, I decided to walk the store to see if I could locate her and to see if she could use someone to talk to.
I noticed that she was at the jewelery counter but there were several other customers standing right next to her too.
Because I did not want to impose upon her and especially since there were numerous customers in her immediate vicinity, I decided to hold off on contacting her at that moment.
A short while later I was wrapping up my time as being Santa and I headed into the back offices to change into my street clothes.
After changing my clothes I grabbed my gym bag and headed out onto the sales floor in an attempt to locate this woman.
Unfortunately she was gone.
I left the store feeling somewhat empty and as if my purpose for the day had not been completed.
I felt that there must have been a reason for this lady to happen into this particular store while I was doing my Santa gig and us sharing those few moments together.
So tonight I will keep my promise that I made to this woman...in the best way that I can.....and say a prayer for her and her recently lost son. I will also say a prayer for all of those other parents who had their children taken away from them way before their time and all of those innocent kids who were still young enough and innocent enough to believe in something.
There are days when I feel that all of us could use something to believe in.
I can tell you this much...there have been days recently when all a person can do is walk around and ask why?...a simple one word question with so few answers. Those are the days when a person needs to find something to believe in the most....on those days when all you seem to do is ask WHY? and no logical answer exists or comes to you.
It wasn't near as busy as what I expected especially so close to Christmas.
I mean there were adults there but hardly any kids at all.
About an hour into my gig, a lady pushing a cart started walking by in front of me.
I wished her a Merry Christmas and it was at this time I noticed that she was trying to talk but was also fighting back tears and emotions.
She was finally able to tell me that her 28 year old son had very recently passed away while serving our country in the military.
She continued by telling me that everyone kept telling her to get out of her house and get out into the public and that is what brought her to this store.
I was completely caught off guard by what she told me and I told her how sorry I was to hear about the death of her son and gave her my condolences.
Before heading into the store further, this woman asked me to make sure that her son received a gift up in heaven tonight.
She made this request to me a couple of times and because of the situation and what she was going through, I promised her that I would make sure that her son would get a special gift from me, Santa, up in heaven.
Although I knew full well that I could not physically complete my promise to her, I knew that I could fulfill my promise by saying a prayer tonight for this lady and for her recently deceased son.
After we had our brief conversation, I found it rather hard to portray the happy face of Santa to kids that are still very innocent and still believe in such things as a jolly old man dressed all in red and white. Young kids whose reality is based upon their innocents and beliefs compared to an adults reality that is based on much different feelings....an adults reality that is based on sometimes rather cold hard facts of life that must be dealt with...like the loss of a son.
And it wasn't just what this one woman was going through that weighed on my mind but all of the other senseless tragedies that have occurred recently and most especially the recent loss of children's lives. Children whose most likely biggest worry in life was if they were going to get all they had asked for for Christmas or maybe all that they asked Santa to bring to their Moms and Dads.
After this lady had left my area for a while, I decided to walk the store to see if I could locate her and to see if she could use someone to talk to.
I noticed that she was at the jewelery counter but there were several other customers standing right next to her too.
Because I did not want to impose upon her and especially since there were numerous customers in her immediate vicinity, I decided to hold off on contacting her at that moment.
A short while later I was wrapping up my time as being Santa and I headed into the back offices to change into my street clothes.
After changing my clothes I grabbed my gym bag and headed out onto the sales floor in an attempt to locate this woman.
Unfortunately she was gone.
I left the store feeling somewhat empty and as if my purpose for the day had not been completed.
I felt that there must have been a reason for this lady to happen into this particular store while I was doing my Santa gig and us sharing those few moments together.
So tonight I will keep my promise that I made to this woman...in the best way that I can.....and say a prayer for her and her recently lost son. I will also say a prayer for all of those other parents who had their children taken away from them way before their time and all of those innocent kids who were still young enough and innocent enough to believe in something.
There are days when I feel that all of us could use something to believe in.
I can tell you this much...there have been days recently when all a person can do is walk around and ask why?...a simple one word question with so few answers. Those are the days when a person needs to find something to believe in the most....on those days when all you seem to do is ask WHY? and no logical answer exists or comes to you.
Alternative Ways To Display Vacation Photographs
Because we have so many photographs, Veronica and I had to come up with a different way of displaying them all.
We decided to use a "line display" using a length of yarn which the ends were tied to hooks that were screwed into the wall. This line display is the same type that we used to display many of Veronica's artistic tags.
Both line displays are over the head board of our bed.
Upstairs we utilized an ornamental tree type of wire/wood art and decided that this was going to become our Travel Tree. Numerous photographs of our travels are now hung up on this tree. Some photos are back to back so no matter where or which side or what angle you view this tree from, you will be able to see various travel photos.
We also placed all of our "we were here" footprint photos. Everywhere we travel to we take at least one photo with both of our shoes that we are wearing next to let's say a manhole cover that has writing on it. The manhole covers that we choose usually has some sort of writing that shows the location of where we are at. Sometimes just the color of what we are standing on or near is enough to remind us of the location where we took that particular photo. A perfect example would be the photo of our feet at the Blue Lagoon in Iceland. The natural chemical compounds in the water at the Blue Lagoon turns the rocks and everything around the lagoon white in color.
By taking these traveling shoe photos, it reminds us of all of the amazing places we have been to.
We used yarn to connect the "branches thus allowing us more areas in which to hang our photos. Below are some photos of our Travel tree, our line display and a couple of Christmas Tree and stocking photos:
We decided to use a "line display" using a length of yarn which the ends were tied to hooks that were screwed into the wall. This line display is the same type that we used to display many of Veronica's artistic tags.
Both line displays are over the head board of our bed.
Upstairs we utilized an ornamental tree type of wire/wood art and decided that this was going to become our Travel Tree. Numerous photographs of our travels are now hung up on this tree. Some photos are back to back so no matter where or which side or what angle you view this tree from, you will be able to see various travel photos.
We also placed all of our "we were here" footprint photos. Everywhere we travel to we take at least one photo with both of our shoes that we are wearing next to let's say a manhole cover that has writing on it. The manhole covers that we choose usually has some sort of writing that shows the location of where we are at. Sometimes just the color of what we are standing on or near is enough to remind us of the location where we took that particular photo. A perfect example would be the photo of our feet at the Blue Lagoon in Iceland. The natural chemical compounds in the water at the Blue Lagoon turns the rocks and everything around the lagoon white in color.
By taking these traveling shoe photos, it reminds us of all of the amazing places we have been to.
We used yarn to connect the "branches thus allowing us more areas in which to hang our photos. Below are some photos of our Travel tree, our line display and a couple of Christmas Tree and stocking photos:
Our stockings are stuffed to the top with goodies
Our tree...many of the gifts around the backside of the tree, near the sliding glass doors are for our favorite little one...Savannah
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