Surprise! We are going on a Mediterranean Cruise!

Travelmista wanted to surprise me by going all out for our 10^th year Wedding anniversary. I was incredible surprise with what he came up with that I almost started to panic. Just to give you a little background, I love to plan and be in control, I even secretly planned our Honeymoon with out telling Travelmista about it until I accidentally let it slip one day before our wedding. So I am usually in charge hence why the panic.

Travelmista planned to take me on one of my dream vacations, a Mediterranean Cruise so while he was traveling in Asia, he planned the whole thing with a little help from my mother. First he set up a new private email address so that I couldn’t see any email then he got my mother to initially pay for the trip so I wouldn’t see the charge on the credit card. Then we would pay my mother back after he told me. (Still a little upset about the lost points on this one) When he booked the trip he made sure the phone rep had our Latitudes Numbers so we would get credit but also confirmed that nothing should be sent to our emails or address so that he had time for the big Surprise. She confirmed and wrote it in the notes not to send anything. Success the trip was booked and I had no clue about it.

But, not two days later I received an email stating that “Your cruise is now booked, Let’s start planning”. What?! I thought this is not right! This must be fraud and I need to check this out. So I call Norwegian Cruise Lines and get an agent but I have no way of looking up this cruise because I don’t know where I am going or when! So I suggest she looks it up with my Latitudes number. Sure enough she comes back with “Yes, You are booked on a two week Mediterranean cruise leaving on Oct 1” My heart was fluttering! “What? Who booked this trip? Where am I going?” She said, “Your husband booked it two day ago. “ I replied back, “My husband is in Asia traveling on business and he would never book a cruise without telling me.” Then there was a long pause from the agent. “Oh, I was just reading the notes and this is a surprise I wasn’t supposed to tell you about it. You must not tell him!” I was stunned. Never did I think Travelmista would surprise me. I know how hard he must have worked so I promised to keep it a secret. I knew he wanted to surprise me on our anniversary but then came more emails and our baggage tags in the mail. As a control freak, I knew he did not book airfare because I usually take care for booking award flights with miles. After two weeks finally, I just couldn’t take it anymore I had to talk to him about the flights. So when he came home from work, I asked if he wanted to tell me something? He played dumb but then smiled and we both knew what I was talking about. Frustrated that I found out early but happy that he could finally tell me because he too was stressed about finding award flights. We easily found Star Alliance Saver flights to Venice. Leaving from Chicago to Zurich then onto Venice all on Swiss Air. We able to this with Saver Awards that only cost us 30,000 miles plus tax. With Travelmista being a Premier Platinum member on United this also let us change our flights for free! So two days prior to our flight we decided to leave a day early so we had more time in Venice. All free of change plus we even saved $5 in taxes.

Once we arrived in ORD we checked in and then made our way to the Swiss Air Lounge. It was nice and simple but very small. As our flight got closer the entire room was full. There was a full bar including wine, soda and beer plus the hard stuff. The food delicious and included a cold section and warm section of appetizers.

The aircraft was nice but being that we just booked our flight the day before we were stuck with a middle and aisle in the middle of the aircraft of a 2-4-2 configuration. It would have not been so bad but I started to get claustrophobic after the people in front of us reclined their seats and there was not more than 6 inches in front of my face. There also was no individual air for the middle section so it got really hot and made for a long and uncomfortable flight for both of us.

The entertainment system was excellent and we both watched three movies on the away over. The bonus of the flying Swiss Air is that they give you a small chocolate bar. Yummy. We arrived on time into Zurich. The airport was very confusing in Zurich as we finally figured out that to get to our connecting flight we had to go through security again and take a train but again we fully enjoyed the Swiss Airport Lounge in Zurich. The lounge was much bigger and included three different levels. All the flights arrived on time and safely into Venice.