the cruise sucked.

How can all that be so good, but the cruise so bad? We had the worst dinner table companions in the history of mankind. We should’ve asked to be reseated after the first night, but felt that it couldn’t be that awful…the cruise was only 3 nights! Big mistake. Between food throwing, racial slurs, and one throwing up on the table, it was not the greatest trip ever.

There was a family of 8 and us assigned to the table. We weren’t wanted, and I guess they thought they’d show us. It was like dining with the Sopranos complete with Tony, Carmela, Meadow, and Meadow’s boyfriend, AJ and the cousins. All we lacked was Uncle Junior.

Moral of this story….if you are on a cruise with assigned dinner seating, and things aren’t working out between you and your tablemates, get a new table assignment! I guess we were a little naive, and probably lucky that this hasn’t happened before. Oh well…life goes on. We cruise again in November.

I’m sure you may have read or heard that Doug Parker, CEO of US Airways, was arrested for suspicion of drunken driving recently. The internet boards such as flyertalk and usaviation are abuzz with a whole lot of holier than thou thoughts about this.

While it shows poor judgement, I can’t help but wonder how many of us have been in similar situations but just didn’t get caught. I say let he that is without sin cast the first stone. Thankfully, there were no accidents, and no one was hurt unless you count Doug Parker’s pride. He will pay the cost when the judge rules, and hopefully learn a lesson. And when that happens, he and everyone with a snooty opinion on this should move on as well.

Yes, it’s true, Lady Astrojets and I are going on a cruise. It’s a short one…. 3 night, Bahamas on Royal Caribbean’s Majesty Of The Seas. This will be our 3rd cruise on Majesty. We’re very excited as the ship has been completely refurbished. In fact, our cruise, will only be it’s second revenue cruise since the refurbishment.

I’m breaking one of my cardinal rules of cruising by flying down to Miami the morning of the cruise, rather than the night before. I highly recommend arriving in the port city at least the evening prior to your cruise for peace of mind. There are just way too many opportunities for things to go wrong with air travel. But being that this is a short cruise, on an itinerary and ship that we’ve done before, not to mention that it just wasn’t possible for us to get there early this time, we are flying in the morning of the cruise. We are departing on American’s first flight from Reagan National to Miami this coming Friday. So at least we’ll have a few backup flights just in case something goes wrong. We also bought trip insurance just in case.

This will be our first cruise as Royal Caribbean Crown and Anchor Society Diamond Members. Royal Caribbean has a loyalty program that is organized in a manner not unlike frequent flyer elite status programs with varying levels of perks and privileges as your number of cruises goes up.

I promise to post more about cruising in the near future. It is without a doubt, our favorite way to vacation.

Just completed a 2 night stay at the Hilton Knoxville (TYS) Airport. I have no elite status at Hilton, so I can’t speak to upgrades, concierge level, etc., but I can certainly say that the staff was very nice. The hotel appeared to have undergone an upgrade of rooms to the latest Hilton standards. The lobby bar, Landings, had a fairly tasty happy hour buffet that was FREE. And the bar service was as good as I’ve seen anywhere.

While the airport location is not anywhere near downtown, the airport was where I needed to be for my project, and the price was right. The Hilton Knoxville Airport was a good hotel, with friendly service, and I’ll certainly stay there again if I need to be in the area near the airport.

As a side note, this was my first visit to Knoxville in at least 10 years. The city has obviously put some money into the airport terminal. It was very nice, security was easy, and T-Mobile wi-fi is available.