Monday, Jan. 9 - Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2012
Getting to Atlanta was a breeze. No issues. At ATL, I called the Holiday Inn Express for my ride there. I had heard from Betty in Houston, that they were having heavy rains and her road was flooded. Her husband couldn’t get out of his parking lot at work to come home to get her. With her cold/crud, she decided to stay in Houston and change her flight for Tuesday.
The ride to the HIEx was fine, with a very nice lady showing me all the shopping centers and restaurants close to the hotel. When I checked in, I noticed that I had been given the King Suite, having requested 2 Queens. Being Betty-less, I thought the King Suite would be just fine for me. This was my first upgrade, even using Priority Points. The room had a king size bed, the bathroom is quite nice with a granite counter and tub walls and tile flooring. There was a couch and chair and a wet sink, microwave and small frig.
After making a few phone calls, I went down to the Breakfast area and got a cup of coffee and looked around the main floor. There is a nice huge deck off the back of the hotel with a view of a private lake, found the fitness room and inside pool. Went back down later for a second cup, saw the fresh baked cookies and went to the front desk for one. Had a nice conversation with Linda at the front desk who offered me 2 cookies. A few minutes later, Franck, who had checked me in came up and it seemed they were in competition to get mentioned on TA. Since I had posted reviews here before, they charmed oozed from these two… it was really funny. I left with my two cookies, but turned around, returning and said I was disappointed there was no cocktail party tonight. Well, Franck bent over backwards and had a glass of red wine delivered to my suite. Now that was service!!
Lucky for me, I have cruise friends in the area, so I had made plans to eat dinner with Wes & Ida and Sue & Tom. Sue & Tom had had the crud, so didn’t feel like venturing out. Our original group of six, was whittled down to three. They picked me up and whisked me off to Malone’s a nice sports bar/restaurant nearby. We had a delightful time discussing life, retirement and exercising.
Tuesday, I woke up and enjoyed a relaxing morning with breakfast and a nice shower. I ventured out to the local shopping center and purchased a pair of sandals to wear for evening on the ship. Then went to Subway and got a salad for lunch.
At 3pm, the shuttle took me to ATL. Check in and TSA was quite easy and I was at the Delta Sky Room at Terminal E in no time. There, I had my travel friends paged and had a relaxing time chatting with them about our adventures t come in Antarctica! Betty arrived, so the wine drinking began with more laughs. Since Betty was still under the weather, she had a wheel chair to get her to the plane.
The Delta agent allowed the four of us to get on first, which delighted us tremendously. Betty was in Business and Arlene, Marc and I were just across the aisle from each other in Economy Plus (extra leg room and free-flowing alcohol). Lucky for me, after watching the first movie, my ambien allowed me to get three hours of sleep. We landed in Buenos Aires and now our adventure was beginning.
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