On February 2nd, Suzanne & Al picked Bruce & Dorothy Hoem at the Tampa Airport. They spent Monday thru Friday before the four of us drove to Ft. Lauderdale to board the Royal Caribbean ship, Oasis of the Seas and meet our other cruising friends, Larry & Cindy McHale.

Since this was the Hoem’s first visit to Sarasota, we wanted to give them a little taste of our life style.  Our first stop was spending the day at the Ringling Museum. We toured the miniature train station, the original wagons, John Ringling’s train car, his mansion on Sarasota Bay and the Art Museum. We ended our tour by visiting the replica of David then the Flemish tapestries.

Al took Bruce to the Ancient Oak Gun Club one day while the girls visited the new mall. The four of us toured downtown Sarasota including Marina Jack.  Another day, the girls when shopping in St. Armand’s Circle. Finally, we loaded the Lexus and left our home at 8AM on Saturday, Feb. 7th.

Upon boarding this monstrous ship, we headed to deck 8 where we met Cindy and Larry in Central Park. From there we headed to lunch in the Windjammer Cafe on deck 16.  While at our table, we faced the rear of the ship and watched people take turns on a zip line.

The first evening, we had reservations to the Ice Show. The following day, we were in Nassau.  But, since all of us have been there many times, we decided to stay aboard. Before leaving home, Suzanne and made reservations to see a full production of the play, CATS, that afternoon. It was truly a professional troop of players from England getting ready to go to Broadway In New York City.

The next day,we spent at sea exploring the ship.  Our days in St. Thomas and St. Maarten were spent shopping. Bruce and Dorothy each bought watches.  Al bought a Stars and Stripes tee shirt & hat. Al bought Suzanne and new Kabana necklace with a seahorse.

The last two days were at sea. The girls spent time in the solarium sunning. The boys roamed around doing their own thing. We had lunch at the Mexican restaurant one day and at the hamburger joint another day. Both were aft where the ship’s carousel was located.  Even though the ship was impressive, we had issues with the lack of good communication by the ship’s management. We missed shows, had incorrect bills. The one stand out was our dinner waiter’s staff. They were excellent as was the food.  Suzanne and Al ended the cruise deciding the ship was just too big for them.

Once back in Sarasota on Saturday, the 14th, Bruce & Dorothy just wanted to lounge around.  Dorothy did enjoy the pool’s spa a couple of times.  Suzanne and Al dropped them off at the Tampa Airport on Monday, the 16th.  It was an enjoyable visit with good friends.

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