Welcome And A Surprise Guest

Speaker 3 0:00

Hi, and welcome to my Z Mikelson Travel Podcast, a ZMax Travel Radio production presented by Collage Travel Media Network. This is your space for inspiration, confidence in travel, and a little bit of luxury. So whether you're traveling across the world or simply dreaming about your next escape, I hope we can help guide you. And of course, I'm Z Mikelson. I'm a travel advisor, a media host, and an advocate for all those who love to travel and who refuse to wait to see the world. But coming up in this episode, I have a little surprise for you

0:39

We're gonna take a little break from our solo travel episodes because I brought in today Jay Lawrence. He's been doing some world traveling, and we wanna hear all about his latest trip. Where'd you go, Jay?

Speaker 2 0:53

Well, the thing started with the Panama Canal. That was the issue. We can go through the Panama Canal. Now, I know a lot of people are doing Panama Canal, but they go in one, and they turn around and come back the same way.

Speaker 1:07

Right.

Speaker 2 1:07

But what we were on was a repositioning of a ship from Miami to Los Angeles.

Speaker 1:13

And who were you on?

Speaker 2 1:14

Virgin.

Speaker 1:15

You were on Virgin Voyages?

Speaker 2 1:16

Virgin, and we were on the ship called the Brilliant Lady.

Speaker 1:20

Oh, yes, the Brilliant Lady.

Speaker 2 1:21

Yeah, so this was gonna be a 17-day cruise, but again, the first thing out was the Panama Canal.

Getting To The Miami Cruise Port

Speaker 1:28

So where did you leave out of?

Speaker 2 1:29

Miami.

Speaker 1:30

You left out of Miami?

Speaker 2 1:31

Yeah. I hope C- uh, Cape Canaveral or Canaveral gets more ships because it's, it's like heck to get into Miami.

Speaker 1:40

Yes. You

Speaker 2 1:41

know- Did,

Speaker 1:41

did you take the Brightline down or you took a car?

Speaker 2 1:43

We rented a car-

Speaker 1:44

Okay

Speaker 2 1:45

in our, in our Clermont location- Great and dropped it off at the Avis lot in Miami.

Speaker 1:51

Right.

Speaker 2 1:52

And the great thing was Avis did, give a shuttle service to the port-

Speaker 1:56

Right

Speaker 2 1:57

from there. But y- they had two trucks leaving, two buses, and they were all full. And so a- another travel agent-

Speaker 2:06

Right

Speaker 2 2:07

who was with us, you know, he stood out. He, you know- just the way he was talking, I knew. So I started talking to him. We, we gathered together eight people, got in a taxi, and got to, got to the port.

Speaker 2:21

That's nice.

Speaker 2 2:21

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:22

Okay.

Speaker 2 2:22

And friendly people, all friendly people. Well, that's good. We weren't... He was going on, on our, my cruise.

Speaker 2:28

Oh, he was gonna be on your cruise?

Speaker 2 2:29

Yeah. The other k- the other kids were going on a Carnival cruise.

Speaker 2:32

Oh, so they were going on a different ship line.

Speaker 2 2:34

Yeah.

Speaker 2:35

Okay, so you boarded the Virgin Voyages, the Brilliant Lady, down in Miami, and I hear that, that, their port is really beautiful lately. They've really updated

Speaker 2 2:43

it. Well, they're working on it, yeah, a lot of construction.

Speaker 2:45

They're still

Speaker 2 2:45

working

Speaker 2:45

on it,

Speaker 2 2:45

okay. And yeah, the, the, at least the taxi driver knew where to go. That was, that was one of the issues, yeah. Okay. And so Brilliant Lady is a large ship. It, well- It's, it's

Speaker 2:55

a decent

Speaker 2 2:56

size ship it's, it has 2,700 people, uh, capacity.

Speaker 2:58

Right,

Speaker 2 2:58

that's not considered

Speaker 2:59

large.

Speaker 2 2:59

Yeah, but it's, okay- That's

Speaker 3:00

considered medium.

Speaker 2 3:01

Okay. Yeah. Well, it was perfect. Right. Okay, and Brilliant Lady, and Virgin-

Speaker 3:07

Mm-hmm

Speaker 2 3:07

is childless

Speaker 3:09

Right, and- You have to- nobody under 18 was allowed

Speaker 2 3:11

yeah, and there was certainly no one under, uh, 18 or, you know, it was all-

Speaker 3:16

It's all adults

Speaker 2 3:17

all adults. Yes. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3:17

An adult only ship.

Speaker 2 3:19

Mm-hmm. Yeah, and that was, that was comfortable. That was comfortable.

Speaker 3:21

Right, and it's, it's an easy navigable ship where you can get around pretty easy. Y- So you got on the ship and you guys set sail out of Miami. They, that was a beautiful sailing. I'm sure they

Speaker 2 3:33

always- Oh, yeah set sail right around

Speaker 3:34

5:00-ish sunset.

Speaker 2 3:35

Yep. Oh yeah, sunset, yeah. Got a, yeah, and, I think we were two days of on sailing right out of Miami.

Panama Canal Excursion By Train

Speaker 3:43

Okay, so you went- You know? from Miami. Yeah, and, and- Did you land at any other ports before you got to, uh, Panama Canal?

Speaker 2 3:49

The first port we went to was in Colombia.

Speaker 3:52

Oh, Colombia.

Speaker 2 3:52

And then back to Colón, Panama.

Speaker 3:55

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 3:56

Um, so we did one excursion in Colón- Okay or Colombia.

Speaker 4:00

Right.

Speaker 2 4:01

And, uh, and then got back on the ship in the Panama Canal. So the, the big excursion for us around the Panama Canal off the ship-

Speaker 4:10

Right

Speaker 2 4:10

was we took a bus tour, and there's a train that goes from one side of Panama to the other.

Speaker 4:17

Right.

Speaker 2 4:17

And so we got that. The bus took us to the area, so we drove over the Panama Canal in one of the bridges, a new bridge- How cool that's there.

Speaker 4:28

How very

Speaker 2 4:29

cool. So we could see both of the new and the old.

Speaker 4:32

Right. A lot of expats move to Panama-

Speaker 2 4:35

Yes

Speaker 4:36

believe it or not, because they use the American dollar.

Speaker 2 4:38

Yes. Yes.

Speaker 4:39

Yes.

Speaker 2 4:39

Mm-hmm. And so that, to me, that was the best shot of the whole trip- was seeing both of those at one- Both sides yeah, both sides. So then we went to the visitor center for the new canal, um, locks.

Speaker 4:52

Right.

Speaker 2 4:52

Saw that. Got on the train, rode across Panama.

Speaker 4:57

Right.

Speaker 2 4:58

All the way across. Now, that's one of the oldest railroads in the country.

Speaker 5:02

I believe it.

Speaker 2 5:02

Uh, because that's the way they used to transport the gold back in the day.

Speaker 5:07

Right.

Speaker 2 5:08

You know? So then finally the French came in and tried to build a canal, and that didn't work.

Speaker 5:12

Right.

Speaker 2 5:12

And so then the Americans came in, what, early- Teddy

Speaker 5:15

Roosevelt

Speaker 2 5:16

Roosevelt, and-

Speaker 5:17

Mm-hmm

Speaker 2 5:17

and the rest is history.

Speaker 5:19

So now you've been on the ship for how many days before you got to the canal?

Speaker 2 5:23

Three.

Speaker 5:23

Three days?

Speaker 2 5:24

Yeah.

Virgin Dining Highlights And Test Kitchen

Speaker 5:24

So what was your experience like on the ship? How was the food? How was the activities? What did you do?

Speaker 2 5:31

Oh, that's the exciting thing.

Speaker 5:33

Okay.

Speaker 2 5:33

Th- there are five restaurants on, on Virgin.

Speaker 5:36

And you can eat at all of them.

Speaker 2 5:38

Well, you can eat at all of them. They're all

Speaker 5:38

included.

Speaker 2 5:39

And, and the thing is- as my wife says, you know, on some cruise ships you get signed to a table, and you have to sit at the same table all the time.

Speaker 5:48

Right.

Speaker 2 5:48

This way you've got five different restaurants. I think there's six, but I got five. I don't know.

Speaker 5:53

There, there's quite a few.

Speaker 2 5:55

Uh, but so you can... One's a steak place, one's Italian, one's Mexican.

Speaker 6:00

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 6:00

Um, uh, oh, and then the, the fun one, I wanted to get to this, it's called the Test Kitchen.

Speaker 6:06

Oh, I've been at the Test Kitchen. Yeah? Yeah. Yeah. So what did you do at the Test Kitchen?

Speaker 2 6:10

Well, w- uh, we, we kinda goofed in a way.

Speaker 6:13

How'd

Speaker 2 6:13

you goof? Because they... Well, on a 15-day cruise, or 17 that we were on, they have three different menus.

Speaker 6:19

Right.

Speaker 2 6:20

ABC menu. Right. Well, we actually booked it BB. Oh. We didn't realize-

Speaker 6:26

Right

Speaker 2 6:27

so-

Speaker 6:27

So you wound up with the same thing twice.

Speaker 2 6:28

Right, twice. And then the third time we got the the C menu I think it was. But it's

Speaker 6:32

pretty interesting-

Speaker 2 6:33

Oh, yeah. Yeah

Speaker 6:34

because of how they put together these entrees that they're testing.

Speaker 2 6:38

Yeah.

Speaker 6:39

And, and-

Speaker 2 6:40

Very unique

Speaker 6:40

it was very unique. One of the items that I had I couldn't eat because I just couldn't bear it, but there was some other stuff that was really good.

Speaker 2 6:48

Yeah.

Speaker 6:49

So tell me el- tell me what else you did.

Speaker 2 6:51

Well, the Razzle Dazzle, that was a, a, a- Ooh great restaurant. Yeah.

Speaker 6:56

Did you have the cookies and milk for dessert?

Speaker 2 6:58

No.

Speaker 6:58

Oh.

Speaker 2 6:59

I think I missed that.

Speaker 7:01

Oh, gosh

Speaker 2 7:01

I did ask for ice cream once, and they had ice cream.

Speaker 7:04

That they do.

Speaker 2 7:04

Yeah. Um, the, the Extra Virgin-

Speaker 7:07

Mm-hmm

Speaker 2 7:07

is Italian.

Speaker 7:08

The Italian.

Speaker 2 7:09

Oh, that was very, very good.

Speaker 7:11

Was that Red Night, where everybody had to wear red?

Speaker 2 7:13

Well, that wasn't R- Red Night. Mm-hmm. The, the thing was, uh, being a 17-day cruise, they put it almost to the- Right end of the cruise.

Speaker 7:22

Right.

Speaker 2 7:23

So, um, uh-

Speaker 7:25

So you did the Italian restaurant?

Speaker 2 7:26

At, yeah. And Pink- You

Speaker 7:27

did Razzle Dazzle's

Speaker 2 7:28

Pink, Pink restaurant with bold flavors- Pink with a Mexican flavor. Right, Pink

Speaker 7:32

Agave or

Speaker 2 7:33

something it was called. Yeah,

Speaker 7:34

Pink

Speaker 2 7:35

Agave. Mm-hmm. Gumbe is- Uh-huh is, is kinda like a, uh, an hibachi grill- Was

Speaker 7:40

that the Korean barbecue?

Speaker 2 7:41

Yeah. Mm-hmm. Korean barbecue.

Speaker 7:43

I could not get into the Korean barbecue to save our lives.

Speaker 2 7:45

Yeah?

Speaker 7:46

Because it was so booked.

Speaker 2 7:48

Yeah?

Speaker 7:48

How was it?

Speaker 2 7:49

We, we did it one and done, and that was it.

Speaker 7:51

You didn't need it- Yeah you

Speaker 2 7:52

didn't

Speaker 7:52

need it again?

Speaker 2 7:53

Yeah. The best thing was our appetizers, they took'em away from us and served us a whole bunch of other stuff that we, uh, you know, it's so...

Speaker 8:00

And again, it's all included in Virgin.

Speaker 2 8:02

Right.

Speaker 8:03

Yeah.

Speaker 2 8:03

Right. And then The Wave is, was the- to me, the best.

Speaker 8:08

Yes.

Speaker 2 8:08

Prime, prime rib.

Speaker 8:10

My husband was cutting it with his fork.

Speaker 2 8:12

Yeah.

Speaker 8:12

It was so tender.

Speaker 2 8:13

Yeah.

Speaker 8:14

Did you have the- Oh, yeah the clam chowder?

Speaker 2 8:16

N- I believe I did. I believe- When

Speaker 8:17

they came over and poured it into your-

Speaker 2 8:19

Yes, yeah

Speaker 8:20

yeah.

Speaker 2 8:20

Mm. Clam chowder and, and then, uh, Baked Alaska for dessert.

Speaker 8:24

Yes.

Speaker 2 8:24

Yeah.

Speaker 8:25

Yeah.

Speaker 2 8:25

And it's, first night I had to have two Baked Alaskas. This was too good to pass up. So yeah, so i- it makes... You gotta have a reservation for the restaurant, more than likely.

Speaker 8:36

Yeah, because there, there are 2,600 passengers on board. Right. And it's a good idea to have reservations.

Speaker 2 8:42

Right, right.

Speaker 8:43

You know, you don't have to-

Speaker 2 8:44

But-

Speaker 8:45

but- Yeah it's a good idea to have.

Speaker 2 8:46

Yeah. Mm. One night we got back from an excursion later than our reservation.

Speaker 8:51

Right.

Speaker 2 8:52

W- we walked in, said,"Hey, we're late."

Speaker 8:54

Right.

Speaker 2 8:54

They certainly made room for us, and-

Speaker 8:56

That's one thing about Virgin, their customer service is excellent.

Speaker 2 8:59

Oh, everybody, the whole crew.

Speaker 9:02

Right.

Speaker 2 9:02

The whole... There were two, ladies who were servers- Right for us.

Speaker 9:06

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 9:06

We wanted to bring them home with us.

Speaker 9:08

The one server we had the first night on our trip-

Speaker 2 9:11

Yeah

Speaker 9:12

she was at a different restaurant three nights later.

Speaker 2 9:14

Uh-huh.

Speaker 9:14

She knew who we were.

Speaker 2 9:15

Yeah.

Speaker 9:16

Amazing.

Speaker 2 9:17

Yeah.

Speaker 9:17

Yes. Amazing.

Speaker 2 9:18

Yes.

Cabin Comfort And Balcony Hammock

Speaker 9:18

So Virgin Voyages is excellent, easy navigable ship. 2,600 passengers, even though you said it was large, is not considered a large ship. Yeah. That's considered a medium-sized ship. How was your cabin?

Speaker 2 9:31

Well, we booked, uh, an extra large-

Speaker 9:34

Yes, an extra large sea, sea view or

Speaker 2 9:36

whatever it's called yeah, yeah. Um-

Speaker 9:38

That's what we had

Speaker 2 9:39

uh, it, that was comfortable. Yeah. Nice closet space.

Speaker 9:42

Yep.

Speaker 2 9:42

Best bathroom on a ship I've ever had. Yes,

Speaker 9:46

the bathrooms are very

Speaker 2 9:46

good. Shower and toilet area.

Speaker 9:48

Right, and you can fit into the showers.

Speaker 2 9:50

Yes, yes. That was, that was the best part. Um, yeah, of course, we had a balcony, which we- Right sat on a couple of times.

Speaker 9:57

Did you sit in the little hammock?

Speaker 2 9:59

And, or, couple of times. My wife actually went to sleep in it one night. Oh,

Speaker 10:03

my husband- One

Speaker 2 10:04

day slept

Speaker 10:04

in it. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 10:05

Yeah,

Speaker 10:05

yeah. Yeah, he was sitting on the, on the balcony in the hammock, and he was out cold, so apparently it's very comfortable.

Speaker 2 10:11

Yeah.

Speaker 10:12

I, I didn't chance it.

Speaker 2 10:13

Yeah. I tried it once, but I w- I didn't... I, I, I remember a hammock where you used to lay down.

Speaker 10:20

And you can open them up to lay down.

Speaker 2 10:22

Yeah.

Speaker 10:22

Yeah.

Speaker 2 10:22

But yeah. You

Speaker 10:23

just have to figure it out.

Speaker 2 10:24

I didn't buy... And you can buy them on the ship- Mm-hmm of course, takes all.

Speaker 10:27

So you had a nice cabin. You had excellent food.

Speaker 2 10:30

Yes.

Speaker 10:30

Um, you're still traveling towards the Panama Canal, where you did a lot of stuff on.

Speaker 2 10:34

Yeah,

Speaker 10:35

now I got a question for you. Did you do the ice cream-

Speaker 2 10:39

Yeah

Speaker 10:40

on board?

Speaker 2 10:40

Yes.

Speaker 10:40

Lick Me Till I Scream.

Speaker 2 10:42

Lick Me Till I Scream, yeah, yeah. Was-

Speaker 10:44

My husband and I had to go there every day. Really? It

Speaker 2 10:45

was

Speaker 10:46

delicious.

Speaker 2 10:46

Yeah.

Speaker 10:47

Yeah.

Speaker 2 10:47

Yeah. Well, oh, yeah, we, imbibed in the drink package too. So, you know, we had a quota on our drinks, so.

Speaker 10:54

Right.

Wristband Tech Drinks And Ice Cream

Speaker 2 10:55

But it was to be comfortable. Oh, and the other thing was the, uh, identification.

Speaker 10:59

Right.

Speaker 2 11:00

The little bracelet-

Speaker 11:01

Yep

Speaker 2 11:01

which is little, a little chip.

Speaker 11:03

Right.

Speaker 2 11:04

I think the next time they're gonna implant it in our forehead.

Speaker 11:07

Who knows?

Speaker 2 11:08

Yeah.

Speaker 11:08

You know what happened to mine.

Speaker 2 11:10

What's that?

Speaker 11:10

Well, my bracelet had our names on it.

Speaker 2 11:13

Yeah.

Speaker 11:13

You know? Yours had your names on it. Well, when I went out into the ocean, I was hit by a wave. The bracelet went flying- Oh, no and I lost it.

Speaker 2 11:21

Oh, no.

Speaker 11:22

So when I went back to the ship, I s- you know, I was in the water, and they went,"No problem," so they gave me another one, and on the bracelet instead of my name it said,"Naughty."

Speaker 2 11:32

Wri- your name was written on your bracelet? Well, mine wasn't. You must have had a custom

Speaker 11:37

one. I'm special.

Speaker 2 11:38

Yeah. Yeah. Um, and, and then all the servers, the, the technology on the board. Mm-hmm. I mean, when they ordered something, you know, you click, they click that little tab.

Speaker 11:48

Right.

Speaker 2 11:49

Your picture showed up.

Speaker 11:50

Oh, yeah.

Speaker 2 11:51

So they knew who you were. They

Speaker 11:52

knew who you were.

Speaker 2 11:53

And,

Speaker 11:53

uh- Yeah, the technology is, is excellent.

Speaker 2 11:55

Yeah.

Speaker 11:56

The service was fabulous.

Speaker 2 11:57

Yes.

Speaker 11:58

Uh, the food was delicious.

Speaker 2 11:59

Yes.

Speaker 12:00

Um, I did not try their pizza. They had a little pizza parlor. Oh,

Speaker 2 12:03

oh. Did you have

Speaker 12:03

it?

Speaker 2 12:03

Did you? Oh, we did that three times.

Speaker 12:06

Oh, cool.

Speaker 2 12:06

Oh, yeah.

Speaker 12:08

Yeah.

Speaker 2 12:08

Oh, and, and they played Italian music w- out there. We sat outside while we ate. It was kinda shady, you know? So, oh, yours was... Mine is half that size. Half that size.

Speaker 12:20

I'm just showing Jay my little bracelet. It says feeling naughty.

Speaker 2 12:23

Yeah. And

Speaker 12:24

it has a little anchor on the end. Yeah. That's how they held on to it.

Speaker 2 12:27

That's cool.

Speaker 12:28

Yeah.

Speaker 2 12:28

That is cool.

Speaker 12:29

So-

Speaker 2 12:29

But how did they get you, how did they get you... How, you know, you're supposed to identify yourself coming back to the ship.

Speaker 12:36

Right.

Speaker 2 12:36

So, what did, what did, what did you have to go through to get-

Speaker 12:39

They took, they took my picture and I matched up with this-

Speaker 2 12:41

Oh

Speaker 12:41

passenger. Okay.

Speaker 2 12:42

So that

Speaker 12:42

was not a problem.

Speaker 2 12:43

Yeah, yeah. But I mean, I didn't,'cause they go through... They wanna make sure everybody gets back on the ship.

Speaker 12:49

Right. Right. So you didn't go to this, you didn't go to their island or anything like that. No, they

Speaker 2 12:53

have no island.

Speaker 12:54

You just, you kept traveling through. Well, they, they go to Bimini.

Speaker 2 12:57

Oh.

Speaker 12:57

But, um-

Speaker 2 12:58

But this wasn't one of those. We had three or four other, uh, excursion stops.

Speaker 13:03

Okay, so now you went through the canal.

Speaker 2 13:05

Yeah.

Speaker 13:06

You've gone through the canal, and where did you go after that?

Speaker 2 13:09

Uh, went to, went to LA. But don't ask me, I forgot the, uh, let's see if I- So you

Speaker 13:16

must have gone somewhere else. You're only, you know,'cause the canal took how long to get through?

Speaker 2 13:20

It took about a day. Eight hours?

Speaker 13:21

Yeah.

Speaker 2 13:21

Oh, no, a day, uh, pretty much. I mean, we got there at 7:30 in the morning.

Speaker 13:25

Right.

Speaker 2 13:26

Got into the canal probably by 8:00-ish. Right,

Speaker 13:30

right.

Speaker 2 13:30

And then by the time you get out on the Pacific side-

Speaker 13:33

Other side.

Speaker 2 13:33

Mm-hmm yeah, you know, it's, I think it was like 2:00 or 3:00, something like that. Okay. It took

Speaker 13:37

about eight hours.

Speaker 2 13:38

Yeah. And you know the fun thing about, um, uh, uh, Virgin?

Speaker 13:43

What?

Speaker 2 13:43

We celebrated. We, we had champagne.

Speaker 13:46

Oh, yeah. Oh,

Speaker 2 13:47

yeah.

Speaker 13:48

Oh, yeah. I had champagne when we were taking off from Miami.

Speaker 2 13:51

Uh-huh.

Speaker 13:52

You had the little thing where they come right to you and give you champagne.

Speaker 2 13:54

Uh-huh. Uh- Did

Speaker 13:55

you go to the aft deck where you can order tapas?

Speaker 2 13:58

Oh, yeah.

Speaker 13:58

Yeah.

Speaker 2 13:59

Oh, yeah.

Shows Comedy And Onboard Activities

Speaker 14:00

They take good care of you, and the food is excellent. Did you do any of the entertainment on board?

Speaker 2 14:04

Thank you. I was going to mention that. Great. It was phenomenal.

Speaker 14:08

Yep.

Speaker 2 14:08

It was phenomenal. Uh, and th- and they had one great show was called The Red, I think.

Speaker 14:14

Mm-hmm. It

Speaker 2 14:14

was called... But it was the story of Richard Branson. Richard Branson, the ma- guy that put- Right, the guy that put it together

Speaker 14:20

the

Speaker 2 14:21

thing together. Yeah. Yeah. To me it was the, it was kinda like Walt Disney, Richard Branson.

Speaker 14:26

Right.

Speaker 2 14:26

You know? Mm-hmm. And he's outdone Walt Disney in a way.

Speaker 14:29

Yeah, in certain things. Yeah, Walt, Walt was focused on kids. He's focused more on adults-

Speaker 2 14:34

Yeah

Speaker 14:35

which is kinda nice.

Speaker 2 14:36

Yeah.

Speaker 14:36

And the ship was clean and neat and-

Speaker 2 14:38

Oh

Speaker 14:39

beautiful. Like I said, easy to navigate.

Speaker 2 14:41

Okay, we had the, y- uh, talking about entertainment, there was the big, the big room-

Speaker 14:45

Right

Speaker 2 14:45

where, and they had entertainment, had a comedian one night, and bands another night. Mm-hmm. Uh, and then they have a lounge.

Speaker 14:52

Right.

Speaker 2 14:52

Uh, oh, which had great shows. Mm-hmm. Illusionists. Uh, w- one, one night, I, okay, I can't remember what it was called, but you had, they served five cocktails throughout the whole, the whole gig.

Speaker 15:05

Ooh.

Speaker 2 15:05

The dinner, you know. I saw plenty. It was a dinner show. Yeah, but they kept drinking and drinking and drinking and- Mm-hmm.

Speaker 15:12

And again, the Virgin Voyages are 18 plus. Yes. It's adult only cruise line.

Speaker 2 15:17

Yes.

Speaker 15:17

And you, you don't have everything that other cruise lines have. So if you're into rock climbing walls and things like that, and slides, they do not have that.

Speaker 2 15:26

Okay.

Speaker 15:27

Yeah.

Speaker 2 15:27

We-

Speaker 15:28

Mm-hmm

Speaker 2 15:28

the thing that, okay, there's a big gymnasium, there's the, the spa- Right. Mm and all that. Well, we didn't do that. Right. They, they offered bridge lessons.

Speaker 15:37

You're showing your age,

Speaker 2 15:39

There were about 20, 25 people that w- Right w- came to the bridge lessons. Mm-hmm. The bridge, bridge instructor is from LA.

Speaker 15:45

Right.

Speaker 2 15:45

And, uh, you know, a professional, and we went- So that

Speaker 15:48

was great. Learned more about bridge

Speaker 2 15:50

le- learned more about bridge. Met some couples, and we played bridge, and so we had a good time.

Speaker 15:54

Fabulous. My husband and I played... Did you, did you see the chess set?

Speaker 2 15:58

Yeah.

Speaker 15:59

The standup pieces?

Speaker 2 16:00

Yeah.

Speaker 16:00

My husband and I played chess. Yes. We were doing a whole bunch of other stuff.

Speaker 2 16:03

Yeah.

Speaker 16:03

And they have some fun things when we were younger. That's the

Speaker 2 16:05

social club. Yeah. That's the social club- Yeah where the games are.

Speaker 16:09

The game room where they have the s- I don't know what it's

Speaker 2 16:11

called. Yeah, shuffleboard

Speaker 16:12

s- sliding on, like a table. It's a

Speaker 2 16:13

shuffleboard.

Speaker 16:14

It's a table size.

Speaker 2 16:15

Yes. Yeah. But it's called shuffleboard. Shuffleboard. And they do all sorts of stuff. They actually had a shuffleboard tournament.

Speaker 16:19

Yeah.

Speaker 2 16:20

But, and I didn't get to participate in

Speaker 16:22

it- Aw

Speaker 2 16:22

even though it looks like curling.

Speaker 16:24

Curling f- on a table.

Speaker 2 16:26

Uh-huh, without the brushes.

Speaker 16:28

Right. I was watching. I was watching them. Uh-huh. And

Speaker 2 16:30

I was

Speaker 16:30

like,"This is interesting. I've never really seen this before." But the idea

Speaker 2 16:34

and the atmosphere- You haven't been in the bars that I've been in.

Speaker 16:36

Yeah.

Speaker 2 16:37

We, those were the big things.

Speaker 16:38

Well, you know me with drinking. Every now and then I have my cocktail. So- Did you go with another couple? Did you travel in a

Speaker 2 16:46

group? No, we were by ourselves.

Speaker 16:47

Oh, you were

Speaker 2 16:47

by

Speaker 16:47

yourselves.

Speaker 2 16:47

We were, we were by ourselves.

Speaker 16:48

Okay.

Speaker 2 16:49

Yeah.

Speaker 16:49

So- But,

Speaker 2 16:50

but we met a lot of people and it- Oh,

Speaker 16:52

yeah.

Speaker 2 16:52

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Scarlet Night And Quiet Ship Moments

Speaker 16:53

And is, if you just wanna go on board and relax, is there those areas as well? Did they have that big night where they had that octopus and everything else that comes out on the deck?

Speaker 2 17:04

Yes, that was called the Red Night. The

Speaker 17:05

Red Night.

Speaker 2 17:06

Mm-hmm. Red Night? Scarlet. I think-

Speaker 17:07

Scarlet Night

Speaker 2 17:08

Scarlet Night, yes. Yeah,

Speaker 17:09

Scarlet Night.

Speaker 2 17:09

Yes, yeah.

Speaker 17:10

Did you wear red?

Speaker 2 17:10

Well, you know I have a red jacket.

Speaker 17:12

Did you wear it?

Speaker 2 17:13

Yes, I did.

Speaker 17:14

Now, they also, when we were on board, and I miss it, I was so upset, they had pajama party night.

Speaker 2 17:19

Oh, yeah. They had a week.

Speaker 17:21

And we brought special pajamas.

Speaker 2 17:22

Oh, no. And

Speaker 17:23

we missed the party. Oh, yeah. I was so upset. It's like,"Oh, we missed it. We missed it."

Speaker 2 17:27

No, my wife bought a special r- red dress for the party, for the Red Night. For

Speaker 17:32

the Red Night.

Speaker 2 17:33

Yeah.

Speaker 17:33

Yeah. And if you go by the pool, it's not, you know, they don't have 9,000 pools. They don't have all of that. They do have pool. They do have hot tubs. Um-

Speaker 2 17:43

Yeah, we were gonna do a hot tub. Never got to it.

Speaker 17:46

Never got to the hot tub?

Speaker 2 17:47

We, we were gonna do the pool. Never got to the pool.

Speaker 17:50

Right.

Speaker 2 17:50

Pool area.

Speaker 17:51

Right.

Speaker 2 17:51

But what we did do was went up to the 16th deck-

Speaker 17:55

Right

Speaker 2 17:55

at night, and it's very quiet up there.

Speaker 17:58

Yes.

Speaker 2 17:58

And looked out the back of the ship, saw the moon. Isn't it nice? Yeah.

Speaker 18:01

Yes.

Speaker 2 18:02

Yeah.

Mexico Riviera Sailing And LA Arrival

Speaker 18:02

It is, it is a beautiful, beautiful ship. So you went through the canal. It took about eight hours to go through the canal. You went to several different locations. You said you were in Colon and Colombia.

Speaker 2 18:13

Yes.

Speaker 18:14

Colombia. And where else?

Speaker 2 18:15

Well, uh, someplace in Mexico.

Speaker 18:18

You went to Mexico.

Speaker 2 18:19

And, uh, someplace before that. Went to

Speaker 18:22

a- you just go along wherever it takes you.

Speaker 2 18:24

Went to a, went to a, coffee plantation.

Speaker 18:28

In Colombia?

Speaker 2 18:29

No, this was in, uh, one of the, on the western side. One...

Speaker 18:35

Oh, on the western. Well, that- Yeah So you must have been in

Speaker 2 18:38

Mexico at that point Yeah. I, I forgot the, I forge- See, I, I know where I was, but I forget where I was.

Speaker 18:43

Do you at least take pictures?

Speaker 2 18:44

Oh, yeah.

Speaker 18:45

Oh, good.

Speaker 2 18:45

Yeah, so I know where I was, but, uh, you can't show them on this, uh, podcast, so.

Speaker 18:50

Oh, dang.

Speaker 2 18:51

Yeah.

Speaker 18:51

Okay. All right. So speaking of that, my podcast will probably be going video in the next several months.

Speaker 2 18:56

Well, great.

Speaker 18:57

Yeah.

Speaker 2 18:57

Great.

Speaker 18:58

Yeah, we're working on that.

Speaker 2 18:59

I, I have a face for radio.

Speaker 19:00

You do.

Speaker 2 19:01

Yeah.

Speaker 19:02

But you have all those pictures that we could show.

Speaker 2 19:04

Oh, okay.

Speaker 19:05

But we'll, we'll talk about that on another episode. So you got over to Mexico. You sailed up Mexico way, the- Then out of Mexico- the Mexican Riviera. Mm-hmm

Speaker 2 19:13

uh, Mex- out of Mexico was another s- two, two days sailing.

Speaker 19:18

Yeah, because you had a, you're, you're basically coming in and you're going up by the Riviera of Mexico.

Speaker 2 19:23

Mm-hmm. Uh-huh.

Speaker 19:23

So then you landed in- LA

Speaker 2 19:25

LA. And a beautiful dock.

Speaker 19:28

Oh, yeah. And,

Speaker 2 19:28

and I don't- Port

Speaker 19:29

of LA,

Speaker 2 19:29

absolutely.

Speaker 19:30

Yeah.

Speaker 2 19:30

I don't know if that's a new dock for them.

Speaker 19:33

Oh, yes.

Speaker 2 19:34

Because-

Speaker 19:34

Yes, they've worked on that

Speaker 2 19:35

that, I mean, V- Virgin, they were repositioning the ship. This is the first time Virgin's been- It's

Speaker 19:41

gonna be

Speaker 2 19:41

on that side on the west c- side. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Speaker 19:43

Yeah.

Speaker 2 19:43

And so then we took a bus from the ship to the airport, got on the airplane and came home.

Speaker 19:49

Oh, you didn't even stay in LA for

Speaker 2 19:50

a day? No, no. We had no desire to stay in LA.

Speaker 19:54

Party pooper.

Speaker 2 19:54

Yeah. Um, and, and we had the best day in, in the airport in LA. This was the day after Easter. Oh. So we,

Speaker 20:03

I,

Speaker 2 20:04

we kinda think... Um, I mean, we got off the bus, checked our luggage-

Speaker 20:08

Uh-huh

Speaker 2 20:09

at, at, you know, outside, boom, into the airport. TSA, I mean, was, like, four people in front of us.

Speaker 20:16

That's nice.

Speaker 2 20:17

Yeah, I mean- Yeah and everybody was happy and I was telling everybody, TSA agents-

Speaker 20:21

Right

Speaker 2 20:22

Hey, I'm glad to see you here." Right. You know?"Glad to see you here.""We're happy to see you." And they appreciated that.

Speaker 20:26

Oh, I'm sure they did. Now, um, how long was that trip again?

Speaker 2 20:30

17 days.

Speaker 20:31

17 days.

Speaker 2 20:32

Yeah.

Next Trips Viking River Cruise Plans

Speaker 20:32

Now, I understand you're going away again this week.

Speaker 2 20:35

Well, I'm working on that. Well, it'll be a 15-day.

Speaker 20:38

A 15-day, and you're going

Speaker 2 20:39

overseas. Viking, Viking cruise.

Speaker 20:41

So now you're gonna go on Viking, which is a river cruise.

Speaker 2 20:43

River

Speaker 20:43

cruise. You're not going on an ocean liner. Right. You're going on their river cruises.

Speaker 2 20:46

Right.

Speaker 20:47

Okay, and you're gonna go from Budapest to Amsterdam? Uh-huh.

Speaker 2 20:49

Or

Speaker 20:50

are you going from Amsterdam to Budapest?

Speaker 2 20:51

Nope.

Speaker 20:52

You're doing the, you're doing the northern route.

Speaker 2 20:54

Well, we're going- You're going north Budapest to Amsterdam. Yes.

Speaker 20:58

North.

Speaker 2 20:58

Going north. Yes, okay.

Speaker 21:00

Well, that's good,'cause I'm thinking, okay, this season you might get to see some of the tulips when you get there.

Speaker 2 21:06

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 21:07

Um, so that's really cool. So you'll be back again to talk about that.

Speaker 2 21:10

Okay. Yeah. One of the things where I'm looking forward to is an excursion to Nuremberg.

Speaker 21:15

Yes,

Speaker 2 21:15

Nuremberg trials. To a World War II museum.

Speaker 21:18

Right. So. I'm working on a trip for me and my husband for next year, where we're gonna be going on, we'll be going Globus and Avalon. We're gonna be doing an Avalon river cruise, and Globus, it's part of the Globus family, and then we're gonna do an excursion over to- The Normandy beaches

Speaker 2 21:34

Uh-huh

Speaker 21:35

Yeah

Speaker 2 21:35

Uh-huh

Speaker 21:35

So we're gonna be doing that.

Speaker 2 21:37

Okay, that's a sidebar-

Speaker 21:38

Yeah

Speaker 2 21:39

um, for me. Um, on Virgin-

Speaker 21:43

Mm-hmm

Speaker 2 21:43

one day, you know you're sitting, we're in the back of the ship.

Speaker 21:46

Right.

Speaker 2 21:46

E- everything's just- The aft of

Speaker 21:47

the ship?

Speaker 2 21:47

Mm-hmm a couple, I said,"Well, you know, come sit with us."

Speaker 21:50

Right.

Speaker 2 21:51

Turns out she's a, they're both French.

Speaker 21:53

Right.

Speaker 2 21:53

Okay? And actually they're from Normandy.

Speaker 21:56

Wow. So-

Speaker 2 21:57

Okay it's amazing She works for Delta Airlines.

Speaker 22:00

Oh, cool

Speaker 2 22:01

And she's in charge of the Delta flight taking the veterans from World War II from Normandy back to Normandy-

Speaker 22:10

Nice

Speaker 2 22:10

on D-Day.

Speaker 22:12

Right, so they can see it.

Speaker 2 22:13

So they're going there.

Speaker 22:14

Yeah. It's, I've seen a couple of things that they've done before like that, and it's amazing to see how the French, uh, keep that- That's what- cemetery spotless.

Speaker 2 22:25

Yeah.

Speaker 22:25

Well- It's amazing.

Speaker 2 22:26

Yeah.

Speaker 22:26

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 22:26

Yeah.

Speaker 22:27

Yeah, but my husband's a big World War II buff, so he hasn't been able to travel for a couple years, so now he's able to travel again overseas, so next year- Yeah that's where we're going.

Speaker 2 22:36

Well, the thing is that they're trying to get the Freedom Foundation to get the youth involved so they know about- So they

Speaker 22:43

can learn history?

Speaker 2 22:44

Yes.

Speaker 22:45

Amazing.

Speaker 2 22:46

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 22:47

If you don't know history, it's bound to repeat itself.

Closing Thanks And Listener Call

Speaker 2 22:50

Yeah. Well, let's not get into that, all

Speaker 22:52

right? Well, Jay, thanks for joining me today, and I can't wait to hear about your excursions when you go overseas. So have a great day.

Speaker 4 23:00

Well, thanks to Jay Lawrence for enlightening us on his trip on Virgin Voyages and how he went through the Panama Canal. Can't wait to talk with him when he gets back from his European adventures on his river cruise on Viking. But I wanna thank everybody for listening today. I am Z Mikelson, and if you loved this episode, make sure you're following the Z Mikelson Travel Podcast, and you can share this with someone who always wanted to hear about all these little different adventures. That would be great. And like I always say, shoot for those stars, and if you only get to the moon, at least you made the trip. Happy travels. Have a great adventure.