What You Missed – Weekly Recap for 10/27-11/2

Hello sunshine!

I’m waking up in a sun-filled hotel room in Northern California this morning after a lovely wine-soaked celebration last night hosted and attended by a few of my long-time friends originally met through FlyerTalk.com almost 15 years ago.  It was a wonderful reminder of one of the best things about all these years on the road – the friendships I’ve made in all nooks and crannies of the globe.

As I look at my weekly recap, it has been a busy week on the road – two back-to-back trips.  I was in Ohio Tuesday morning to Thursday night, hopped home and slept in my own bed (and repacked) and then flew out to California on Friday morning.  When I get home tomorrow I’ll get another five days at home and then I start a “mostly gone” cycle for the next month.

I rose to Hilton HHonors Diamond status last week, thanks to an unexpected cross-promotion with American Airlines AAdvantage.  Find out how I got that AND set myself up for 25,000 bonus miles.

Last week I shared a shameful secret – I don’t really like planning all these trips.  Don’t get e wrong, I love the travel itself.  I don’t mind reading about cool travel experiences either.  I just don’t have the time or patience to do it myself.

Sometimes not planning is a good thing, as I shared in a memory from Bulgaria from earlier this year.

Also food related, I shared a list of interesting flavors abroad from familiar food brands.  Some of these are things I want to try!

I wrapped up my review of my Golden Princess three-night cruise last month.  Find out why the giant inflatable penis was the brand impression that summarized my experience.

The report is in five parts:

• Part I – How Did I Get Here?! – planning & departure
• Part II – If These Walls Could Talk – cabins & balconies
• Part III – Please Pass the Salt – dining & drinking
• Part IV – Are We There Yet?! – activities and amenities
• Part V – Is That YOUR Inflatable Penis?! – how it all went down

Occasionally I veer off into the “only slightly related to travel” territory – but ladies, if you steal your boyfriend’s clothes, they DO enhance your wardrobe options on the road.  Men, it’s helpful to know what she might want to steal, er, borrow.  (Note to self… should maybe look for a boyfriend with good taste in clothes and a healthy frequent flyer account of his own.)

I didn’t manage to get around to all the hotel reviews I wanted to tackle, but I did manage to stay in another FOUR new-to-this-page hotels but I need to get on top of that soon!  I did have an unexpected stay at the Sheraton Cleveland Airport (this time with a much nicer room).

In case you’ve missed the main page at Prior2Boarding lately, I highlighted a few of my favorites from the past week.

This week I’m hoping for fewer travel gremlins (all three of my flying days last week turned out to be a mess) and more time to catch up now that I’ve cleared several project deadlines.

I hope YOUR week is fabulous!

xoxo