Well, they were generous with the points this afternoon, and we managed to get a t-shirt, a picture frame, a wine stopper and a business card holder. All very nice items.

At lunch, I enjoyed the teriyaki chicken wings. After trivia, I attended a spa lecture about nutrition.

We are getting ready to go to the India dance show. I love how Shani admits when something doesn't work out. She said the Arabia show added 3 years to her life!!!!

I know I probably missed this somewhere along the way, but who is Shani?

Your cruise sounds like quite an adventure!

Shani Reay is the cruise director.

The Indian folklore show was very good last night.

I had the Indian favourites dinner, and Todd had tenderloin.

We have had to get up at 4 am. We are going to leave with some internet minutes left.

I put some India pics up but have a lot more to put up when we get home.

We are starting the trip worn out and unrested. This will not be good.

Debbie, I am mesmerized by all your posts.
To follow up on Diane's question about single sipplements, it seems so unfair to pay double the cost, but it seems more cruise lines are doing this and there are more single travellers than 5 years ago.
But back to your trip/s. I can't believe that you are practically doing back to back cruises.
Hope you have a great time, and do not suffer too much jet lag.
Lynn

Have a safe trip home, Debbie and Todd. Thanks for letting us tag along on a memorable trip. I've had my eye on that itinerary; thanks for all the impressions and experiences.

Cheers, Anne

Great reporting Debbie - all the details are fantastic!

They will be more back to back than I intended, as we are stranded in Chicago. Air India decided to hold the plane in London (we didn't even know we were going to London) for 19 people coming from Delhi. They said 20 minutes. Then the people came in like 45 minutes. We thought we were leaving, and they said they had not got the bags down. We waited another hour and a half and they shut the cargo door.

Our flight was to leave O'Hare for Houston at 7:55. We got in at that time and got our bags well after 8. Nobody would talk to us at United, and Air India was nowhere to be found, no reps at their desk.

We went upstairs, as we were told, and the Air India people said we should be downstairs. This happened to many people. Anyway, then ALL the Delhi people were in line as not one bag from Delhi was on the plane after making over 40 people miss their connections.

They were going to put us on American tomorrow but could not confirm the seats because the American people closed right as we got to the front of the line (though we had been first in line when nobody was at AI).

We are on a 6:45 a.m. flight, so we have to pay for our own cab tomorrow. It is 20 degrees here. We have no coat. We took the blankets from the plane and took turns standing in the freezing cold waiting for the shuttle. Of course it will be too early for the free breakfast.

It was 10:45 when they got us all over here. We got $12.50 for vouchers and bought everything in sight from the $3 happy hour menu and are having our Silversea welcome champagne that we never got around to drinking. We have pizza, chicken fingers, etc.

PLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSEEEEEEEEee be careful of Air India. If you take them, get trip interruption insurance and also expect no help, no direction, etc.

On the plus, they have limitless drink service (unlike Delta that lies about it) and all the wierd food you can eat. If you think you have had authentic Indian food...fly Air India.

So we have 5 hours here in the hotel. Whoopie! The plus, I would recommend this as a park n fly. Free internet on two pcs in the lobby, and if you have your own laptop, the internet works free anywhere in the hotel on a fast wireless.

The room is decent. We have a really nice recliner and ottoman and a big bed and TV and a very comfortable desk and chair setup. The shuttle driver was the nicest driver I have ever encountered.

They have an indoor pool.

They also tried to send us to Hobby instead of Intercontinental.

On the 2nd flight (from London), we had 7 seats (2 sections) to ourselves. Todd slept most of the flight (first time ever), and I slept about 3 hours. He is supposed to work tomorrow.

Anne, feel free to discuss this itinerary with me at any time. As you can see, I have many thoughts.

There is snow on the ground here in Chicago. I had clients delayed getting in here yesterday, so I guess it could have been worse.

Regarding the single supplement...the 2009 ones she mentioned were all that were for sale, and those are the Grand Pacific Voyage. Of course, they want people to book the whole 92 days. We have a 14 day segment on hold, but Todd swears he is never going to go anywhere but the Caribbean ever again. Hopefully, in 6 months, I can bring up that I have this booked. Otherwise, a river cruise or an escorted tour may be in my future to get to Vietnam.

Deb I think you would have gotten home sooner by taking a ship vs. a plane! ;) Good thing you were able to get some sleep on the Air India flight. I hope you get home safely and get some rest before No-Name.

We flew home from Costa Rica yesterday evening via Dallas - it looked like most flights were delayed - the AA and UA Chicago-Albuqurque flights were running about 3 hours late when I looked at the monitor for our baggage claim # on arrival in ABQ.

We were really lucky to get out. We arrived at the airport well before 5 a.m. this morning for that 6:45 am flight, and they put us on the 5:30 am flight. We got to Houston at 8:10. We had to claim our bags and tram over to where our car was (parked where we were supposed to land had we been on United). We arrived home at 9:20, and Todd was on a meeting call at 9:30!

My whole family are iced in up in Missouri and Kansas.

Life lessons: don't EVER fly Air India across the world. EVER. Lesson 2, don't fly without a coat or jacket just because it is 90 at your departure and 70 at your "destination". Lesson 3, if you are roped into buying a $5 map that is too big for your suitcase, you WILL have to get home with it.

Thankfully, due to the free laundry service with our SS suite, we were able to get into clean clothes in our BRIEF stay in Elk Grove. We went to bed at 1:10 and got up at 3:35.

Wow, Debbie, what an ordeal. Sorry to hear about that! Hopefully you can get a little rest in before No Name.

It sounds like you are lucky you got out of ORD when you did Deb...the ice storm sounds awful. Is your Mom ok - it is in her area, too, isn't it?

Interestingly, with all the horrid weather in Chicago, we were not delayed there at all due to weather. It was simply due to Air India's incompetence.

While we looked silly outside in those blankets, we sure were thankful to have them.

Sue, Mom is affected, as is my whole family. She had been on NCL Majesty for a week and then in Jamaica at Beaches for a few days.

After that, she was at my sister's a couple of days working out things with her deer struck car. She is in a rental for 3 weeks. She drove home in freezing rain.

My 24 year old niece teaches 80 miles south of St. Louis, and her school was cancelled. The other two girls are still at college in Hannibal. Denise, the 22 year old works in Quincy, IL, and she spun out on the freeway and had to be rescued by a cop who put down salt so she could drive out. The whole state was declared a state of emergency yesterday. Dad is in the KCK area, but it is the same there.

It seems we got in between the snow storm and the ice storm in ORD, so we were lucky in that sense.

It was 80 here today with near record highs, but by no name, it will have dropped 5 to 10 degrees a day into the upper 50s. I am nervous now about same day travels for no-name. I know better but just knew I wasn't going to want another full day trek somewhere.

I slept from 12:30 to 6:30 this afternoon, so obviously my body does not know what time it is. I am hoping I will be tired enough to go back to bed later and cure my Indianitis

Kristin, I hope you made better arrangements for your Gaugin travels. I was thinking about you quite a bit.

I forgot to mention that Todd and I had a big security check in Chicago. Because we had been to so many Middle East places and India and then appeared to have a reservation made only 6 hours earlier, we hit some flags.

We were taken off with about 4 guards. Our laptop was targeted, and my purse and Todd's wallet went thru a machine. Also, they took some items out and dusted them down, and we had the full body scans, and we had to stand on certain footprints and such. We'd already had 5 checks in Heathrow. I am glad to see they are being cautious.

After nearly two weeks of hearing how self-proclaimed wonderful everyone is and hearing about the difference in world peace and radical Islam and Hinduism and Buddhism, it is nice to come home and see some Christmas decorations.

They took you off of the plane with 4 guards? Wow! Did the guards come onto the plane and specifically escort you off? Just you or other passengers as well?

Sorry, no, I mean they took us somewhere in the airport as we were trying to get thru security. It was just a place right next to the belt. It was us only.

I have integrated the commentary and a lot of pics here:

http://www.tropictravelonline.com/debbieh103_silverwhisper_dubaitomumbai_122007.htm

Also, if anyone wants this as a pdf, email me at debbieh103@aol.com, and I will send it to you.

Great missive and photos, Debbie. Thanks so much for sharing.