Category Archives: Podcast

EP58 – Liliana Gracia from the Aruba Renaissance to Lock N Roll Superstar

Liliana Gracia joins me on episode 58 of One Happy Podcast. Many of you already know Liliana from her work at the Renaissance where she specialized in making visitors happy. During her 23 years at the Renn, Liliana met thousands of Aruba visitors in the numerous roles she filled. Having worked everywhere from the reservations department to the front desk to her eventual position of timeshare coordinator at the Ocean Suites, it’s safe to say Liliana is well versed at making people happy.

Over the course of our 40-minute conversation, Liliana takes us on a journey from her beginnings at the Sonesta all the way to the present with Lock N Roll. She also shares what it’s like to be partially responsible for so many visitors vacation experiences and what that meant to her. Along this journey, Liliana has met so many Aruba vacationers that she thinks of as family.

EP57c – Aruba July 2016 Days 6, 7 and 8 Recap

Episode 57c of One Happy Podcast, the officially unofficial podcast of the island of Aruba recaps days 6,7 and 8 of our most recent trip. This episode is a combination of audio recorded on the island and also back here in the States. It begins with on Eagle beach recapping my first ever journey up “The Hooiberg” and concludes with us back in Delaware discussing the crying room.

As they say, time flies when you are having fun and this vacation to Aruba definitely proved that saying true. You’ve already heard about all the fun we had the first 5 days. Well, these last 3 days include the aforementioned trip up Mt. Hooiberg, the discovery of my new favorite rum shop on the island, another visit to Aruba Ray’s Comedy, awesome restaurants and plenty of beach time.

EP57b – Aruba Days 3, 4 and 5 July 2016 Recap

Episode 57b of One Happy Podcast is the second of our on island podcasts. This one is all about, days 3, 4 and 5 of our July 2016 trip. When we last left you we had just pulled into Baby Beach where we were set to enjoy a spectacular day. So we go through that day and all its events.

EP57a: Arrival Days 1 and 2 in Aruba July 2016

Episode 57a of One Happy Podcast is actually going to be broken up into 3 parts. This first part is a recap of our first two days in Aruba. It begins with us waking up in Baltimore on Tuesday morning getting ready for our flight. Then it progresses through days 1 and 2 of our latest Aruba adventure.
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EP56 – Important Aruba Stuff Like the Restaurants and Entertainment July 2016

Episode 56 is the last in our series on planning our vacation to Aruba. In this episode, Maggie and I go over what we plan on doing while in Aruba. So if you are into restaurant talk this is the one for you. That being said all the others are also informative and in my opinion pretty entertaining. If you haven’t had the opportunity to listen to those yet, please make sure you do.

EP55: Packing for our trip to Aruba

On this episode of One Happy Podcast Maggie and I continue our “Planning an Aruba Vacation” series, with the latest episode being about packing for your trip. Although Maggie and I always travel together we have two very different packing styles. Her’s is to meticulously plan out each and every step and then bring something for every possible contingency. My packing style is to bring what you feel you’ll use and if it’s not enough… you make it enough.

EP54 – Renting a car to explore Aruba

This episode is me exploring our options for rental car agency. I went to visitaruba.com to look at their list of rental car agencies. From that list, I eliminated the large chains like Hertz and Avis. I didn’t have a reason for eliminating those agencies I just want to go with someone local. The requirements I had was an agency that rented to vacationers not staying at a resort because some do have that rule. I am also looking for a good combination of customer service and price. Sending the email gives me a chance to test the service and I am using the prices listed on their websites for an apple to apple comparison. Please note that the price listed on the website may not be the actual cost of the rental but was the only fair way for me to compare different sites. Also, just because I do love tooling around Aruba in a big Jeep I also looked at the prices on Jeeps… you never know.

EP52: Aruba Vacation Planning Pt1 – Deciding when

This episode of One Happy Podcast the Officially Unofficial Podcast of the island of Aruba is going to be a bit different from the norm. Today Maggie and I are beginning part 1 of a multi-episode series about Planning a vacation to Aruba. More specifically on this introductory episode we discuss what goes into planning when to visit the island, how we book our tickets and deciding on where to stay.

It’s kind of funny because when we plan the discussion goes so streamlined that you don’t realize what all goes into these decisions. I guess once you graduate to Aruba regular status you have a pretty good routine down. Even so I think it’s interesting to hear how others arrive at their decisions. Today we are deciding on the timing of the trip, which is probably the single most important piece of the puzzle. We are also discussing how we decide on an airline, which is a large part of the expense. Lastly, we discuss how we choose where to stay on a visit to Aruba. These are all very important factors that need to be carefully considered when booking a vacation.