Cruise Round Up: January 3- Sea Day/ San Juan

Half Sea Day, and San Juan

(Yeah, the towel animal should come at the end of the post, but I had another picture for the end, so you get to see him now...)
Today we woke up to a telephone call that our travelmates would be seeking a clamshell chair in the serenity area, so they were going up there and not doing breakfast with us. Having been woken up we decided to stick with the original plan and go up to the Posh restaurant for breakfast. We were seated at a table for 2 and had a lovely, relatively quick breakfast. I had the waffles which were fine but too sweet for my liking and some excellent pineapple juice. Then we headed up to the serenity area. We were told that the clamshells all were taken quite early, and that by the time they got up there about half the chairs had a flip flop or a towel on them. Being new cruisers and not message board stalkers, this was their first encounter with early morning chair hogs. At least the clamshells had actual people in them.

Anyhow, the two lounge chairs next to them had 2 towels on them, but they said they had been empty since they got up there- and it had been over an hour. I took the two towels (which I can say with a clear conscience were not actually on the chair- having been thrown off by the wind and were wrapped around the wheels) and gave them to the towel booth. We took the chairs. (I feel a bit bad since they were the $22 room towels- but don’t leave them lying around!) Anyway we laid battered by the wind for about 45 minutes (it was warmer today) before I decided to go downstairs and try to take a nap- having not slept much the night before.

Unlike yesterday, today seemed to have a lot more planned, but we missed Decades trivia to go up on the serenity area (so nice and quiet this morning, no beverage waiters coming around, couldn’t hear the big screen, most people sleeping). We missed the Rock and Roll quiz, but came up to the lobby during the answers, so we still go to answer all the questions Apparently there were quite a few trouble makers during this trivia, including one girl who was shouting answers from the upper level and had to be chased down… The man hosting the trivia was obviously having fun admonishing the guests for playing wrong.

Right after rock and roll trivia (which included a garth brooks song- weird) we did musicals trivia, to song clips. Being a group of theatre/musical fans we did surprisingly poorly, but it was fun.

Afterwards, we decided to go to the Lido deck for lunch and our travelmates decided they had a better way to get there then we did and took off in another direction- we haven’t seen them since then… we got up to the Lido at 12:00, right as lunch started. I gave the Tandoor another chance, and while one thing was too salty the other was okay… I’m basically just eating sauces as I don’t love to eat meat, and the vegetarian thing is what is too salty. Today the naan was delicious. Afterwards I had an ice cream and we headed first to the guest services desk to get change for 2 20s then quickly to the casino. We were disappointed by the casino as you now have to use a sign and sail card. Our last cruise we played $2 a day, and the minimum to put in now is $10. When I saw that I backed off and didn’t do it, but Kevin played, saying you can just cash it out. The machine quickly ate $5 (even with him winning a few- this was 2 cent slot, it’s amazing how fast the money goes) and we decided that at $10 minimum it was just too easy to lose money, and we cashed out and left.

Then we realized that the sound bite trivia would be in the casino bar, and since the casino wasn’t that full (weird, it’s a sea-ish day) there wasn’t too much smoke so we stopped and stayed. Kevin wasn’t sure what the theme of this trivia was, so I told him it was “things you know the answers to”- he got all of them right! 2 other men did as well and there was a “shout off” for the answer. The final question was a spongebob squarepants character that Kevin would have never gotten, and then man with children won. The guy doing this trivia (after cruise edit: Nate) was a bit crazy and kept playing the “I see dead people” clip over and over while having us all point at people walking past the stage- it was quite funny, mostly that this guy still thought it was funny after 20 or so times! (You know how some entertainers are clearly enjoying their jobs, but still, it’s their job? This guy seemed like he was having more fun than ever, like it was his first time ever touching a microphone and sound system. He is clearly perfect for the job.) So
the other guy got the ship on the stick and Kevin was sad….

Up next was USA trivia, which we did alright at. It was also a fun round of trivia.

Then, was “Super Duper Trivia” which apparently is cumulative –and we missed the first day. We teamed up with the people next to us, who had won USA trivia, and formed “Team Awesome”. It started off as U.S. trivia, until 2 questions in he realized he had the same questions as the trivia before-seeing as how the guy we were teamed with won an autographed copy of those answers (LOL) we were pretty happy with this! (The two that were asked again we had both got right anyhow)- then he changed to food trivia- some of it was quite obscure, but we did really well (I got Bernaise sauce only due to Kevin prompting me with the Friends episode where Monica and Joey go to cooking class) and then the second half was song lyrics- spoken not sung- we did really well here too. In the end, we got 15 right and won a ship on a stick for the round of trivia!!! Since the other couple just got one, they let us keep this one (and points to the purple team- as we were red team and they were blue team… I think it was surprising to the director that we were a team who didn’t know each other) I don’t think we have a chance at the super duper prize, but ship on a stick!! Go Team Awesome! And we’ll meet up with them for the final round and give it a try. Wish we had known the first day, of course we wouldn’t have known them at that point, so it would have all turned out differently and perhaps we would not have a ship on a stick.

From there, we went to the Love and Marriage show where we learned that the eldest couple likes to do it in the ocean and the middle couple once did it in a monkey cage (cave?) at the Miami zoo. It was an amusing show, but not too many questions that yielded really fun answers.

After that, we returned to our room to get room service and ready for San Juan. Room service, Kevin got the Beef and Brie and I got the chicken Fajita wrap- both were amazing. The side of potato salad was just eh, so I won’t get it again. Then we also got cheesecake (just okay, a little spongey- but the raspberry sauce and the cream on the side were amazing) and a fruit plate, which was very good.

While eating room service we noticed we were pulling into San Juan quite early and he ran up to get pictures- I think he may have missed the rocks just at the entrance though. Since we were early for San Juan, we took pictures and killed time a bit to wait for our excursion.

At 4:45 we went to the terminal to join the queue for the Bioluminscent Bay Kayak Excursion. There were more people then we expected- at least 25 ahead of us, and I think in total there were either 2 (50) or 3 (75) buses. Our bus had a nice driver who gave a bit of narration - All of San Juan is very clean and very safe "oh, yes"- as we passed by graffiti covered buildings with bars on the window… (I’m sure it’s just as safe as any other city though…) We stopped for a quick bathroom break at a KFC, there was no toilet paper in the women’s restroom, so I sent Kevin out to the bus to grab my pack of tissues (lesson learned in Mexico, when I thankfully had them then too). Another woman asked a restaurant employee for toilet paper, but she didn’t speak English, so she asked another employee to come help us. He said they didn’t have any, so most of the women were left thinking Puerto Ricans don’t use toilet paper. The line for the women’s was very long, so I used the men's- which had plenty of toilet paper. Very odd…

(This picture is at the port... it was dark when we stopped for a bathroom break... besides, it looked like a KFC.)

We loaded the bus back up and noticed that across the street was “Kinky’s Condom Shop”- possibly the best name for one of the most oddly specific stores I’ve ever seen. And now I’ll probably get weird hits on the blog for having typed that…


Then after a bit longer we made it to Farjado, where the Lagoona Grande is located, and met up with our kayak outfitters. We probably waited at least 45 minutes to get into life jackets (real nice ones, not crazy blow up ones like Mexico) and get kayaks, because there were quite a few other groups, but it was fine as we all chatted, and it was a moonless night so the stars were just gorgeous. The guide gave quick instructions on how to paddle, and told us should we fall out of the kayak, not to panic, just stand up- it’s only 2 to 3 feet deep. Getting into the kayaks the water was smelly and cold, but the kayaks were relatively nice and had backrests (by the end of the trip, my butt would be in a lot of pain, and my knees from being cold and locked). The guide then had us all go out and link together and then we played follow the leader to the channel through the mangroves.

Kevin and I quickly realized we had a bit of a problem- if both of us paddled together we generated way too much power (normally I paddle a bit, and then let him do the hard work- there was no hard work here!) So I’d paddle a bit, he’d paddle a bit, we’d coast, he’d paddle, I’d put on the brakes, it was an exercise in trying to keep up with the person in front of us, and also not run him down. Still we kept a pretty good pace going to the lagoon. As we hit the channel through the mangroves, the water started to look like the moon was reflecting on it, but there was no moon, and even if there was- we were under complete cover, the stars were no longer visible. This was the first hint of bioluminescence . As we paddled further, it became brighter and brighter- and the kayak strokes became glowing. The best way to describe it is the glow of a glow stick (convinently tied to the front and back of the kayaks to help us follow each other) The trip was mostly good, we kept in a single file line on the right of the channel until a returning group came at us, not in a single file line. Our boats got messed up with theirs, and a few people ran into the trees and got turned around and didn’t know which group to follow. The rear guides
kept most everyone in line, but from the sounds of the shouting in Spanish that included “Brendon” at least one person must have gotten lost in the other group- but was eventually retrieved.

Anyhow- after we got through the channel we came out into a large lake (lagoon). Once again, we could see the gorgeous stars, and there was only one set of lights in the distance to pollute the darkness. We could dip our hands in the water and see the bioluminesnce running down our arms, shimmering the whole way. The further down you could dip your hands the brighter it got. Our guide grouped us all together and gave a small talk about the biology of the organisms, and about how Puerto Rico has 3 of the brightest year round biolumninces, and this one is the 2nd brightest at 1 million organisms per liter. (They gain there light from the sun during the day, and the even temperature allows them to stay all year round). He also talked about what used to be the brightest spot is now not even close- less than 1/5 (maybe more) than what it had been, due to pollution of recreational vehicles as well as people swimming (due to sunscreen, deodorant, bug spray etc). This particular bay doesn’t allow swimming. We were then left to paddle a bit more, and then we heading back.

At first Kevin and I got right behind the guide and were able to paddle at a good clip across the lagoon, but as we entered the channel we stopped to wait for everyone and then slowed down to the slowest possible paddle. We’d take like 1 stroke and then just float, still bumping the people in front of us. This was the most difficult part of the tour, because the kayaking was painfully slow, and the people behind us were shouting and having a water fight. I just wanted to shout back for them to shut up “You’re ruining the nature!” But I suppose everyone enjoys things differently, and already this was one of the coolest things I had ever seen- easily a natural wonder of the world.

There are no pictures from the kayaking because it is not possible to catch it on camera without a really really awesome one (and even then, I bet it's tough). Kevin does have a pretty good camera, and maybe he could have tried, but we brought our not so good camera, in a waterproof case with us. Actually it served us quite well this trip.

We got back on the bus and the driver recommended we complain about the wait to kayak- but really, someone had to wait as it would have been a madhouse if we were all in the water at the same time. We took the 1.5 hr drive back to the ship and were still back with time before the ship left port. Since the excursion lasted so late at night, when we got home we showered all that bay water off of us, had some pizza, and went to bed.


(Story behind the picture- I tend to close my eyes in like 80% of pictures, or stick my tongue out when I smile. So here, I did both!)

Cruise Round Up: January 2- Sea Day

(Double rainbow across the ocean... I missed it because I was napping!)
“Fun” Day at Sea

Now, I picked this cruise because I knew I wasn’t a sea day person (lots of ports on the itinerary), and today really confirmed that. Fun days at sea are downright boring. I had brought knitting with me and made plans to do a lot of that, but in the end it turns out that while I enjoy the motion of the ship, trying to read a knitting pattern while enjoying that motion makes me nauseated, so my plans were ruined. There was not much to do today.

Lets talk about the motion of the ship- OMG, this thing moves non-stop. We were on the Carnival Spirit (Acapulco, Zihuateneo, Manzinillo) and except one day with very large waves, we felt nothing. This ship is like being on a non-stop roller coaster ride, and there are no waves in the ocean. We picked a room on the lowest floor because DH doesn’t like movement- there is a TON of it (we are quite far front). We go sit in the lobby because it is low and central, there is still a ton of movement.) There is nowhere on this ship that you don’t feel like you are on a 4-direction rocking chair, which I like, but my husband is feeling a bit ill (he did take a Dramamine, but we didn’t pack any since we thought our last cruise was typical- everyone always says except in bad weather you don’t feel it- and this being a larger ship, we thought that would hold even more true… we will have to pick some up in san juan). Up on the Lido deck- with the air blowing he seems to do the best, but that’s where I feel it the worst- go figure. (Not to mention it’s cold! I was laying up there in jeans and a fleece wondering if I’m on the same planet as the girls in the bikini a few chairs down…) Look at my hair blowing in the wind! How do people comfortably lay out in this?

So my other complaint of the day is my cabin creeks non-stop. Eeechk, irrrkch, eeechk, irrrkch- omg, what a horrible sound. I thought Freedom was a relatively new ship- it sounds like it’s an old wooden ship from the 1800s! Very disappointing.

Our worry from yesterday about trouble getting around and nowhere to hang out has also come true. The ship is a horrible pain because either the Chic restaurant or the Habana bar are always in the way of anywhere we want to go. You have to go up and around them constantly. We also have had a hard

time finding anywhere to sit. We live it over by the Bar Nouveou area, but the smoke smell is strong. The lobby often is smoke free, but for some reason the group has vetoed it.

A major difference from our last cruise is that we have had a hard time finding any live music. There don’t seem to be many groups out playing.

So other than the creeky cabin, rolling ship, and nowhere to hang out- how did the day go? Well, it was just kind of a boring one.

For those thinking I’m crazy, and that there are things to do, I just didn’t do them- I’ll go ahead and say we went to 2 trivias, and tea time. Trivia only takes about 15 minutes, and tea time only about 30. That’s an hour total. There is A LOT of time to fill on a sea day and not much to fill it with. (Edit to add: I think maybe a lot of stuff happened at the casino bar, which isn't really in the casino. It was really smokey so we avoided it, when we later just gave up and went there, there was a lot more to keep us busy. I think it boils down to us not loving the Freedom layout.) (This picture is from later in the day- hairy chest contest on the Lido. I am not a lido deck person, and I think they were just wandering and caught this... we didn't spend much time up there.)

Starting at the beginning, we woke up at about 7:00 and lazed in the cabin until we went to the Lido for breakfast. We were disappointed because both places that had “potatoes” labeled didn’t have any… I had a bagel and a “egg quesadilla” it was a little cold, but interesting flavors. The bagel was yummy. (For those wondering they did have bacon “police” doing the serving- but they would give you as much as you wanted.) DH had a few pieces of fruit and yogurt, and he found that the milk and yogurt helped him feel a bit better- apparently dairy helps sea sickness?

We then went walking around the ship a bit, and on the way back to the room happened upon 50s trivia in the Victioriana lounge, they were on question 2, so we popped in and joined them. There were only about 10 people in the room, including us, and Nate (who cracked us up all week) did make a few jokes about it being so "well" attended… (shouting out to anyone who walked past the doors "do you want to join us? Please!" or "We need friends, will you be ours?") We ended up getting 6 out of 10, tied for lowest, but felt we should have been scored on a curve, for being the only people in the room who weren’t alive in the 50s. (Edit to add: 80s trivia ended up being on a port day and we never saw 90s... major bummer! We skipped the other decades, as we clearly had no chance, and they were really early in the morning.)

Then we went down to our room for a bit, and discussed the activities of the day. At some point my husband was hungry, having had such a sparse breakfast, and we went up and he got pizza. The pizza place automatically handed him 2 pizzas of pepperoni – which is just a ton of pizza, but being hungry, he went ahead and scarfed it down anyway. He then got more frozen yogurt- I didn’t get anything.

At this point I decided I wanted a nap, and he went off to find his brother and our sister in law. From pictures, it looks like they went to lunch in the dining room, wandered the ship, and caught, from a distance the hairy chest contest.


I woke up around 1:00 and went to lunch on the Lido. I got food from the Tandoor, and was a bit
disappointed as it was all too salty for me. The naan was excellent, but a little cold. The lemonade was once again amazing. At this point I went downstairs, and despite having left a note that I’d be in the Bar Nouveou area or in the Lobby realized there was trivia at 2:15, and being only about 10 minutes away that was sure to be where my husband was. It turns out he had gone back to my room at about 1:45 to find me, found my note and checked the places I said I might be –oops- before turning up for trivia at 2:15. See, I knew he’d be there

We did turbo trivia, which turned out to be mostly “joke” style questions (who invented the toilet? Pooper or Crapper?) but a fun style of trivia where we stood on the stage and went to the different sides to determine our answers. (In this picture I am clearly pondering, as I look really weird...) Standing on the stage, I had a bit more respect for the dancers, as it is very wobbly up there, and I’d have a tough time dancing (well I definetly would now, but when I was in my prime) so I can see the issue (it’s just always surprising when they aren’t AMAZING because it’s pretty competitive to get those jobs.) Anyhow- standing on the stage for the game was fun- it’s always fun to be on stage. Up next was line dancing, but it conflicted with tea time, so we left the Victoriana to get to the Posh for tea.

(Edit to add: Later we realized this was also the time for the murder mystery clues and we missed it- clearly I needed to break out the highlighter to better schedule the fun times, which I did later in the week... But it really shows why this day wasn't the greatest, too many things we wanted to do were all at the same time, and there just weren't too many things overall...so the gaps of nothingness were pretty apparent.)

We got to the Posh and they seated us all the way in the back- which was just gorgeous looking at the waves. The vibrations were insane, like the dining room would fall down on us, so last night was not a fluke. I guess we’ll have that to look forward to every night. We were seated at a table for 4, and 2 more joined us shortly. We were presented the usual selection of teas, and given our own hot water to pour, a few of us got leakly kettles, and pouring became a bit of a challenge. Cucumber sandwiches (yummy) and smoked salmon (didn’t try it) were served. At this point, they brought around the sweets tray and the servers with the savory options had a more difficult time finding takers. There were so many choices, but I settled on a scone with cream (OMG amazing) and some chocolate layer cake (so good- but too rich to finish). There was live piano music at tea (the first live musician I’ve seen since we were greated onboard with a guitarist) and that was very nice. Some of the waiters would occasionally sing along too.

After tea we went up on the decks and walked around. We had planned to go to the Serenity area, but our cruisemates decided to just sit on a quite area near the back of the Lido deck (you could barely hear the big screen blaring back there). After sitting down, DH decided he’d rather go lay on the serenity area, and I agreed, as we were laying facing the sun, and due to an eye problem just before we boarded I couldn’t wear contacts, and thus didn’t have sunglasses on- so facing the sun wasn’t working for me. We went to the serenity area, and there were (like most of the boat) plenty of loungers available. We found some away from the sun, and laid down. It was quite windy, and very loud from the big screen (though not as loud as right in front of it), but a nice place to lay. We didn’t check the hammocks, but all the clam shells were taken, and all but one by just a single person. I really thing that those should be for multiple people, not just one. But whatever. We enjoyed this area for awhile, but were really being battered by the wind, and I eventually got to cold to continue laying out. (Most people In this area were either in fleeces like I was or wrapped up in the towels. I still don’t understand those by the big screen in the little bikini’s- it was just as cold there... maybe the alcohol warms them up!)

Getting board with being up on deck, we came down to the cabin where DH took a nap, and I typed this. After awhile I took a shower and put on my elegant night dress (isn't it pretty! $30 at JC Penny. I had to take up the straps, as the size I have to get now is larger than I'd like, and the straps at the length they came were clearly for someone much taller than me... but what a deal! You may also notice Clapotis shawl, which was featured heavily on this blog during the knitting ) to go sit near the photography and people watch. Most people were dressed very nicely, and I did hear one woman complaining they weren’t seated because her son was in jeans and a t-shirt. So I had thought standards were upheld, but then at the late seating the table next to us had 3 teenagers (no parents) in jeans and t-shirts. I brought some knitting and tried to do that by the Nouveou Bar, but reading the charts was once again making me sick, so I’ve had to give up those plans.

At this point, I went back to the cabin to fetch my husband and we went up for dinner. About 8:10 we joined the queue to the dining room, in a stairwell. The line never moved and we were amused at the number of people who pushed past us to get off the stairs into the atrium area- I’m not sure what they thought we were waiting for, because clearly it was time for them to be seated. At 8:20, they opened the doors.

Unfortunately it seems that last nights dining experience was not a fluke- as tonight was much the same. Instead of the steady vibrating we did have a rhythmic thumping, so that was new. Anyhow- dinner was very slow- it took us 2 hours to get through the meal. The head waiters clearly have too many tables as we rarely saw ours stop moving, and he rarely stopped by our table. Our assistant waiter took our orders, and after awhile the headwaiter came by to make sure that had already been done, so the system doesn’t seem to streamlined.

Our appetizers were all excellent- two people had the pumpkin soup, and they enjoyed it, and two of us had the mushrooms, which were fantastic. I also had a fruit plate, which came out later than the rest- I’m not sure if that is normal or not, but we thought it had been forgotten, and just decided not to ask.

After a LONG wait, our entrees came out. And like last night, parts of our order were forgotten and we had to ask for them. After we were served entrees we didn’t get the baked potato or steamed vegetables two of us had also ordered. We waited about 15 minutes to see if they would come out separately, and then asked for them (the only other time we saw our head waiter this evening). After a long wait, he told us they would be out soon. Another long wait, and they were set out for us- by this point everyone at the table had completely finished our meals, but now we had side dishes. (Steamed vegetables are a must- the vegetables on my plate weren’t even plural- I had a single flourette of broccoli). Anyhow, while the service was not good, the food was excellent. I had the lobster, and while small, it was enough. (There were also shrimp which I don’t eat), and the potatoes on the dish were good, as was the single piece of broccoli.

Dessert was disappointing, after seeing my husbands yummy looking warm chocolate melting cake last night I decided to order one myself (I never got one last cruise). Instead of a warm melting cake, I got a hot all the way cooked cake. It was solid and dry. The taste was sweet, but I only had a few bites and just ate the ice cream instead. Maybe if there is another night where I don’t want dessert I’ll give it another try.

At this point it was almost time for the production show, but based on the material (New Orleans) we decided to skip it. We had thought about going to karaoke or maybe the comedy club, but when we went back to the room to change, we went to bed instead. Oops. My husband slept very well, but the loud creeking kept me up until past 3:00. After awhile I moved from the bed to the couch so as to not wake him with my tossing and turning, and I was glad to have learned earlier in the day that there is an extra duvet under the couch in the drawer. I made myself up a little pallet and tried to get some sleep. It was off and on there, but I got a bit.

Also- last night we didn't get a towel animal, and we worried we might not at all, but there was no need for concern- he was there to greet us tonight (along with bedtime chocolates! We always save them for the morning.)

Cruise Round Up: January 1- Embarkation Day

(Okay, I warned you these were going to be long...likely full of typos as well, I'm fixing them if I catch them, but not really proofing- this is what I wrote on the cruise)

YAY! Embarkation day!

The reason we booked the Hampton Inn is they included free airport shuttle and cruise port shuttle. The previous day we signed up for an 11:00 shuttle, and we left with a loaded van (they had a trailer for luggage) at 11:00. The people in the shuttle were very friendly, and we were all excited about the cruise. The drive to the port was short, maybe 20 minutes. Getting into the port was no problem, and we were dropped off and the driver unloaded our luggage to the porters. Then we tipped the driver for the ride, and tipped the porters for moving our bags 2 inches from where the driver left them into the luggage carts. What a racket! Of course, since the driver unloaded the whole thing, we probably could have gotten away with not tipping because the porters don’t know which luggage belongs to tippers and which doesn’t – LOL. But convention it is, so our money we parted with.

Then we entered the port warehouse and went through a pretty easy process of lots of lines. Line #1- passport check and line #2 metal dectors. The lines had waits, but they weren’t too bad. A few people were complaining about friends who were denied boarding because they did not have proof of citizenship- just US drivers licenses (the girl insisted you have to be a citizen to get one, but she wad wrong. I understand her stress, as it was her wedding and her friends were going to be missing it- but seriously, how do you not look this stuff up ahead of time? Especially if you are planning a wedding!)

So then, we went upstairs to line #3- which was to get sign and sail cards. This one took a bit longer. And then line #4 which was pictures for the cards- this one was a breeze for 3 of us, but the 4th ended up behind a toddler who refused to have her picture taken, until finally her mom and dad held her down while she screamed, picture was taken and our friend was no longer trapped in the queue.

Then we walked up the gangway and were on board. I would say we got onboard around 12:15-12:30. See- I told you it was pretty painless, just lots of lines.

When we go ton board a crew member was greeting people and handing out papers to children, so I assume camp carnival. There was no champagne being handed out, and I didn’t see any DOD either- but I don’t really drink, so no loss for me.

We headed up to Lido to eat lunch. I really wanted to try the tandoor, but knew the shortest lines would be at Fish and Chips so we went right up there, and just like cruise critic said, there was no line (none- not a single person) and plenty of tables (there were long lines and no tables downstairs.)

At fish and chips, I had some sort of calamari zucchini fried dough ball thing and chips (thin fries, not thick ones) and my husband had the fish and chips, plus tuna and watermelon (which was really watermelon with a thin slice of tuna, not tuna with some watermelon) having had no wait at all for the
food, we were thrilled to eat whatever. We also all got lemonade, which was really fantastic, better than I remembered from Spirit (this makes up for no fruit punch!). The food was great (well the fries were, I tried the calamari but only ate a bit, I don't really even like fish...), and the tables had ketchup and malt vingegar out on them- so we were able to dress them as we wished. We also got some ice cream and frozen yogurt. The FY was said to be excellent ,but my ice cream wasn’t really frozen, and was disappointing, but still tasted good.

After a bit of a wait the rooms were ready, and we got to our room at about 2:00. We had 1248, an Ocean View on the Riveria deck. The room was spacious, and the window a good size. Not long after we had our first bag delivered and got unpacked.

Then we went an explored the ship- our initial impression was that it was very difficult to get around and there wouldn’t be too many areas to “hang out” in that would be relatively smoke free.

At somepoint here, we had our first slices of pizza, exscellent as we remembered.

Then the boys did the martini tasting at Bar Nouveau and we sat nearby- not too bad of a sitting spot, but a smoky smell permeated, even though smoking was not allowed at these tables (outside of the disco). That martini’s were all very good, and it seemed to be a reasonable deal- $15 for 5 small glasses. I believe they were pomegranate, mango, blue curacou, cosmopolitan, and something else. My husband pointed out that there was no martini at all, just a vodka drinks tasting, but that’[s what we expected. They were all poured WAY too strong for me to even get past a small sip- yuck. DH really enjoyed the pomigrante, but also thought they were poured too strong (I believe he said they were all
quite good.)

During this time I grabbed sushi- and unlike spirit which had random things rolled in rice (yes, technically sushi) this had more “normal” sushi. I don’t like fish, so I had a shrimp nigri, and then took the tuna out of a spicy tuna roll and just ate the roll. There was also something with asparagus, and I didn’t know what the other thing was, and when I was about to pick it out, my BIL grabbed it and ate the whole thing. (DH ate the discarded tuna). Everything was quite yummy, but the pickled ginger was spicy (that’s not quite the wrong word) and not to my liking- usually it’s my favorite part of the sushi experience.

We were now getting nervous about our other piece luggage, but after returning to the stateroom and watching cartoons for awhile, it appeared- whew! Kevin also played with the mirror to try some photo tricks- it turned out really cool.

We had late seating dinner and were rewally diappaointed when we saw that most of the evening events we were interested in (trivias and such) conflicted with our seating time. What an odd schedule!

At 8:15 we went to the Posh lower dining room for dinner. This was both excellent, and very
disappointing. The Posh dining room vibrates like mad! It sounds like the ship will be falling apart at any moment, and never stops. It really ruins the dining experience, The other problem was that the service was just SLOW. It took us 2 hours to finish the meal, with LONG waits between the courses. Our waters were occasionally refilled, but after sitting empty for a long time. The biggest service problem was dessert- I was given a chocolate melting cake, and had to tell the waiter I ordered a crème brulee. The cheese plate didn’t get set out until all four of us had just about finished our desserts (I figured they forgot, and didn’t really care enough to remind them after already correcting once.) A tablemate’s hot tea never arrived.

But the highlight of dinner was the food- everything we ate was excellent, I didn’t hear any complaints from anyone. I had the Vegetarian Indian Dinner and I believe it will be a highlight of my cruise. It was kind of like ordering a Thali plate- I got a pile of rice, a chickpea type thing, something with peas/cottage cheese cube, something red, and some white sauce/yogurt. Also a rati (chip) and a piece of bread that wasn’t naan, but very similar with onions. The only thing I couldn’t eat was the red thing- it was horribly bitter, but I imagine that it was just no to my tastes, not that it was bad. The onion bread was divine, and while I didn’t eat the cottage cheese cube, the curry? It was in was amazing! I didn’t finish all the chickpea stuff just because I was so full- this was a huge amount of food. (Forgot to take the picture before I started to eat... oops)

For my entrée I had the iceberg lettuce salad, and it was fine, nothing to write home about.

For my dessert, I had crème brulee and the flavor was excellent, but the actual dessert wasn’t well made- it’s like they forgot to toast the sugar- there was no layer to crack into, and when I scooped up some of the custard, the sugar topping slid like a liquid into the hole left behind. But the flavor was amazing.

After dinner we went to the welcome aboard show which was entertaining. Just before we got there there was bingo and one woman won the $750- she of course was thrilled, there was also a proposal on stage.

We sat on the side balcony which was a poor choice, due to the staging of the dancing, but we could see most things fine. The dancing wasn’t too impressive- very very simple high school drill team type moves, but it was cute and the theme of “fun” was hammered in. (Kevin tried out a new lense and it takes great pictures in a very dark room. Here is one of fun ship Freddy, not the most in shape dancer- but I still wish I looked like that... you can also see the risque boob baring top if you look at the corner of the picture- a bit random, really, as everything else was very family friendly and that was like "here are the boobs!")

The dancers should also probably be reminded of the theatre mantra “if you can see them, they can see you” as we saw one dancer in the wings adjusting her costume out of her backside… LOL. The man singing was very good, but the backup dancers singing was prerecordered and a bit silly sounding (very electronic). The “orchestra” was very good- I've heard they decreased the size, and I didn't count, but it looked the same as I remembered from the Spirit. They then brought up 4 guests and did a bit of a back and forth with them, that was quite humorous and made them dance- and it was very entertaining. I would see 2 of these guests over and over throughout the week, but didn't remember the other two well enough to see them again.

Afterwards we had plans to go to the late night comedy show (11:45 p.m.), but the lounge in the back of the ship was absolutely packed, so I headed off to bed. My husband stayed and said “it had it’s moments” but that it wasn’t that great. He didn’t end up finding a seat, so he stood with his brother in the back.

Cruise Round Up: December 31st

Happy Anniversary to me and Kevin! I can't believe it's been 6 years! (See, I look less tired here... this is why airport pictures aren't allowed!)We stayed at The Hampton Inn – Plantation and it was an excellent location. We easily walked over to the mall to have lunch at the food court and then with a bit of hassle to cross the street, over to Target to get Cokes and our 2 bottles of wine. (Carnival lets you bring on a 12 pack of Cokes per person and a bottle of wine per person- a good way to defray the sail and sign card bill, even if I wouldn't normally pay $4 a 12 pack for Coke- I always wait for a sale.)

They had a nice selection of Wine (I mean, for a Target!) and we got a Da Vinci Chianti and a Clois Du Bois Cabernet Sauvignon. (And a pack of Diet Coke and Barq's Root Beer.)

Then we walked back to the hotel. If you don’t go by way of the mall there aren’t any roads to cross worth noting, all easy to cross with no hassle (getting across from the mall there it was quite busy and took a while to wait for an opening)

The hotel had a nice pool, but we never used it. They have a teeny spa with a max occupancy of 3- what’s the point of that? It was the same temperature as the pool, but we didn’t use it either. Kevin meant to check out his snorkel, but time just got away from us.

The rooms in the Hampton Inn were very nice. We had a king size bed, a sofa, and a desk with chair (where Kevin worked on his thesis today...no rest for the almost doctor!). We also had a mini-fridge and the smallest microwave ever. (We never used them). There was an option on the website to pay $20 to upgrade to a room with the frigdge, but we didn’t choose it, and neither did our travelmates, so we wonder if they just try to sucker you into paying it, but all rooms are equipped with them, or if we just got lucky.

When our travel mates arrived from the airport via the shuttle, we walked (another easy walk) to Olive Garden. (Red Lobster and Chili’s are also a quick walking distance). We had a nice dinner, which was our official anniversary celebration- LOL. Kevin and I are just so romantic.

This was a pretty relaxing day, in between going places we watched some Animaniacs and Rocky and Bullwinkle Show (two DVDs bought specifically for this trip), and we were in bed by about 9:30- no New Year celebration for us. (It was especially embarassing as we texted good night and Happy New Year to family in the Central time zone- we looked like postive losers going to bed that early!)

Cruise Round Up: December 30th

(Note: the majority of this was written while I was on vacation, towards the end I got lazy and stopped writing, and just jotted down notes- but it should be a pretty good, and long, account of my vacation. This particular post was put on Cruise Critic in the Roll Call forums on Dec 31)

It was a hell of a day, but we made it to Fort Lauderdale eventually.

The day started with us planning on going to the airport ridiculously early- our ride has a dentist appt, so it was the only time we can be dropped off. Getting up too early is the best thing that happened all day- we are about to load up and leave and we found out our flight had been canceled- and the airport is closed, at least for most of the day (it may have reopened in the evening, but I have doubts).

We had a ton of snow the last week, and a warm front is melting it all- the fog is horrible.

So we get on the phone with American Airlines- and they tell us nothing is going out- want to take our chances for tomorrow? Nope! So we ask for other airports, and there is a flight about 110 miles away (in Des Moines) that we can make- good thing we got on this early, or else we wouldn't have had time to make the drive. We get to that airport about 1.5 hours before the flight, plenty of time to spare. The fog on the drive over is the worst I've seen, but it lightens up by the time we get over there.

Another positive surprise of the day: 2 free checked pieces of luggage. We figure it's a gift from the lady who did the rebooking. This $50 savings will help defray the now $60 in parking expenses we will incur (not to mention the gas for 220 miles... thank you Civic, it's only about half a tank...)

The other random surprise- 5 jets taking off as we walked from the parking lot to the airport. I think that's more jets than I saw the whole time I lived at Wright Patterson Air Force Base- and we lived right below the flight line! (Of course, it's not really a jet base...) Kevin took a picture. Kevin took A LOT of pictures throughout this- most all of them I show will be courtesy of Kevin.

So at that airport, they are asking for volunteers to give up seats, because the pilot wants extra fuel. We try to see if they can rebook us (overnight- everyone who has gone up to the counter hasn't been able to get a flight to their final destination today) to DFW where I have family, but they can't (Detroit is the offer) so we keep our seats. It's a good thing the pilot wanted extra fuel, we circled Chicago for a long time, then go to land, but pull back up and circle even more. I was worried we'd turn around!

This photo is me at the Des Moines airport. I'm tired, as people often are at airports. There should be rules against these photos. Or I could just not share it, so I guess it's my own fault. But this post didn't have many pictures.

So we land in Chicago, I don't know if we are actually late or not, but no one is too antsy. We play the O'hare game of going to the gate to then find out that the gate changed to the other side of the airport, then go to that one (this happens everytime). Kevin and I also get Chinese food, as is our other O'Hare tradition.

Flight to FLL is completley full, but goes out on time and lands on time. But then we get to our gate and it's taken by a plane that had an emergency landing. They announce a 25 minute wait, we wait over an hour instead. People are yelling at the flight attendants- yeah that will help! They want to get off the plane too! Imagine being held hostage like that at your job, I know I wouldn't be happy.

Finally get to baggage claim and we pick up our two bags very quickly. Hampton Inn shuttle comes and gets us, and takes about 45 minutes- apparently we were waiting in the wrong place, and I don't know if she told us wrong, or we went the wrong way. Still who is to complain? We get a free ride for a $2 tip. (Don't know if that is cheap or not, we just tipped $2 everytime we were in the shuttle- some people didn't tip at all, so I assume it's fine)

We check into the hotel- very nice room, very happy. We go downstairs to get directions to food, and a group in front of us takes their sweet sweet time getting everyone settled (seriously about 10-15 minutes longer then they needed) and finally we ask for directions to Olive Garden. They insist on us using the shuttle, but first the guy has to run towels upstairs. We get to olive garden 1 minute bfore they close. Damn. Same for Red Lobster... nothing else on that side of the road, so we come back (walk- don't want to spend another $2 tip to get a ride home when we can walk easily)- to bed with no supper

It was a LONG day- tomorrow we rest! It's time for vacation!

I regret being responsible.

(I'm back from my cruise- I'll be posting way too detailed accounts of it soon...once Kevin gets pictures processed)

Today, I am sitting here at work and I regret it. Not that I regret my job, I really like my job, I just regret that I am here today. It's always hard to come back from a vacation, an extended time away from work is just a nice thing and that first day back is always a hard one, but today it's not because of the work.

I had a bit of a nervous breakdown on the plane yesterday. Some of you might know that I deal with severe homesickness from time to time. I don't have a ton of close friends in Iowa and the friends who were my close friends seem just further and further from me. Well, yesterday my best friend from childhood had her first baby- she lives in the DFW area. Although I got the news while I was in Fort Lauderdale still, I got the first picture of the new baby while I was sitting in DFW. And the gate agents were asking for a volunteer to leave the flight and take one today instead. I so wished I could have done that. I even asked Kevin if we could. But Elsa (our dog) had already been dropped off at our house, and we needed to get home to her (plus, you know, work). I got on the plane and cried. More than anything, I just wanted to stay in Dallas and see Sarah.

It hasn't gotten better today. Now I know that it will be six months or a year before I get to go back to Texas. I'll never see Sarah's first child as a young baby. Just like I wasn't able to see Courtney's twins as young babies either. I hate living so far away, and I hate that being responsible means I miss these moments that never happen again.

The hardest thing about this is the world tried to hand me an opportunity to be able to see my sister, my nephews, and probably visit Sarah in the hospital. But I didn't take it. That's going to be a big regret.

Merry Christmas!

Well Christmas is just about over. Surprisingly, I'm not asleep in bed yet- Kevin is out cross country skiing (he left at 9:00!) and I'm waiting up for him. So I thought I'd do a bit of a recap.

We stayed in Iowa for Christmas, and like all our Midwest Christmases, there wasn't much to this one. This was probably the sparsest yet- in Ohio, we usually put up stockings, but here in Iowa we haven't decorated yet. Usually Kevin makes a gingerbread house, but this year we didn't. So our house it was really more a 4-day weekend with gifts (my sister jokingly told me this is the best kind of weekend.)

So what were the gifts:
The number 1 gift: A serger!
Mom and Dad (who got me a sewing machine when I was a little girl -one of my favorite Christmas memories, I'll tell it at the end of the blogpost) got this for me. I feel like a real "sewist" (apparently the community doesn't like "sewer" I guess I understand why, and "seamstress" or "tailor" all have specific conotations, or something). I managed to break a thread pretty quickly, but Kevin came to the rescue and figured the instructions out to get it rethreaded very easily. Then I played with the settings, and set it to do a rolled hem. I'm making a headscarf in a floral batik to wear on my vacation. Nothing wrong with the one on my head, but I wanted something more Carribean :)

So what else did I get? Lots of sewing stuff.
My MIL gave me a $35 gift certificate to www.gorgeousfabrics.com and I bought 2 yards each of
a daisy design and a pink fabric that caught my eye. (GRRR! Both are on sale now for $7.50 a yard! I paid $10!!!)

And she got me 3 Jalie patterns! 2 knit tops and jeans! The knit tops will be made out of cheap fabric first (to test the serger) then the Gorgeous Fabrics are earmarked for them. The jeans- well they might sit in the stash for awhile, but what a dream to be able to make ones that fit tailor made! (I found a woman in town that gives lessons... I'd need them for this project!)

Of course I got a few stocking stuffers- chap stick from Burt's Bees Wax, a Glee calendar, and two giant vanilla tootsie rolls (LOVE THEM).

I always got a horrible back ache from shoveling a TON of snow- I mean a TON. Where did this all come from? And I got very very homesick. I'm very excited about the upcoming cruise (and very glad that we have some family coming along- my BIL and SIL) and I know I can't go on vacation and go home for Christmas, but when Kevin left for the night I just broke down. I hate missing family Christmas, I hate living so far away from my family and so many of my friends, and I hate knowing that my 2 of my nephews and my niece will never again have a first Christmas, and missing one where the older nephews on each side had a great joy in receiving gifts and playing with them. (Not sure they have great joy in Santa- at least one of them is very unsure about the whole idea.)

Hey! It's 11:00 and Kevin's home from skiing! So I'll sign off now. I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas, with a bit less lonelyness than I did...

*Favorite Christmas memory: As children (and still) we were quite spoiled on Christmas, always lots of presents, and always the ones we want. One Christmas (maybe I was 8ish? I don't know for sure) neither my sister or I got the "big" gift we asked for. We of course were thrilled with what we did got, but I know I was, and she probably was, secretly a little sad. We went to the kitchen to help prepare Christmas breakfast. My Mom went into her room to grab something, and she starts yelling hysterically "Mark (my Dad) I left the water on in the tub! The bathroom is flooding!!! Come quick, bring towels, I need help cleaning this up." I figured this out right away- I'm not sure if it's true, but I remember my sister running for towels. But NO- I knew there was no flood... hopefully there was a sewing machine, and sure enough, I ran to the bathroom and in the tub was not a ton of overflowing water but our "big ticket" gifts- my sewing machine, and my sister's rabbit fur coat. In hindsight, it may be very possible these weren't the gifts we got that year, but that's what I remember. (I say that because I was 8 in 1990, and I'm not sure fur still would have been in fashion by then. Maybe that was when she got her leather jacket...)

Latest quilt top...

This one is for my friend Sarah's baby, due in January. I'm doing it in Aggie Maroon and White (I asked ahead of time, she's fine with the theme. The back will be actual A&M fabric I've had since college. I think it was supposed to be pajama pants, but never quite made it.)

I like the design- it's very bold, and I think bold geometric designs are good for babies- stimulating. Unless of course it's used for a nap. LOL.


Now for the part I don't like- actually quilting the thing! (Why can't people just get tops?) I'm not really sure what to do for the pattern. I'll probably just stitch in the ditch, but with all the turns, it's going to be a pain. I'm also worried that that won't get the quilting close enough, because it's been ironed so that it will wrinkle when it washes, for a vintage look. So I was thinking that I might do straight lines across the quilt on every other square. I just need to decide if I should quilt in maroon or in white- since you'll be able to see if I do the design across the squares. Probably white- since I have a lot of that thread, and the weather won't let me go get anything else!


In other exciting news, Andi (the one who got the rainbow quilt) had her baby girl!

Blanket Update

I am now (counting the end triangles) 300 squares into the blanket :) I had estimated 700-800 squares, so I'm not quite halfway... this thing may never end.

Today I spent most of the day piecing a quilt- hopefully it will be quilted over the holiday and then I can send it on to Sarah. I like the piecing design a lot, but am not sure how the quilting will go... that's always the hard part.

Quilt for Andi's baby...

Andi, who I've been friends with since middle school is expecting her first baby. As soon as I heard, I knew she'd need a rainbow quilt. This one certainly isn't perfect, but I'm mostly happy with it. I always hope the lack of perfection will mean my quilts get used, and not tucked away for safe keeping.
I quilted the baby's initials into the design. If they end up naming her something else (not M), I'm safe, as her last name is W, so it can be looked at from either side. Otherwise, I don't think I'd ever do this, because there is just too much chance for change.
And, of course, the back of the quilt, to show the quilting. I'm not too happy with it- my machine was having major tension problems. I do like how the rainbow thread looks on the black background.
Now I need to make a quilt for my best friend since I was 2- who is expecting her first, also very soon (I'll probably be late). I feel bad about the friends whose births I've missed- everyone is having babies at the same time! (My twin nephews didn't get quilts- but that was because their Mom said, that while they would love quilts, blankets were over running the house.)

As bad as I am at it (there are always puckers) I really like baby quilts- because I can get a finished project. I have a finished full size quilt top from college, and I don't know what to do with it. Quilting it will run $100, plus probably another $25ish in shipping (and I need to buy backing fabric!) and the quilt isn't exactly perfect, so it doesn't seem worth the expense. Not to mention, I don't even have a full size bed anymore. Baby quilts, as long as I keep them to 5' or 6' square I can shove through my regular machine and quilt just fine. I like the vintage "wrinkly" look, so you have to quilt fairly closely, just tying doesn't work.

In other news, my feet are not good in shoes. I've been wearing size 4 kids shoes from Lands End for a few years now (since after college, when Merrells starting looking expensive with my Dad not paying...) they usually run me under $15, but I can't fit into the adult sizes. The problem is the kids sizes have no arch support at all. After spending a fortune in time and money on physical therapy, I've decided to go back to Merrells, which have good support. Problem is- apparently no size fits me! Both the 5 and the 5.5 feel good in the length, and my heels slip in the back. I decided to stick with the 5.5, since my big toe touches the front of the 5, but it's definitely too big. It's just like skates- I need split widths. Stupid stupid shoes.