27 September  2008 -  Jacksonville, Florida USA                                        

 

Day 2 - Sea Day and Formal Night

The formal night coincides with the exact day of our wedding anniversary which is September 8. Hence I get a little thrilled to dress up pretty only to find out that I didn’t have any beauty kit except a pair of pearl earrings and necklace to doll up myself with. But then again Ate G can attest to the fact that I am the woman who has electronic gadgets for toys. Yes, that's right; I am the techie girl, not the classic fashionable match-the-outfit-color-coordinated with too much ‘blings’ and colored face type of gal. I own one make-up kit compliments of a friend as Christmas gift which I only get to use once (during our Alaska cruise) in the last three years. I don’t wear make-up or any other beauty product on a regular basis except lip-shiner/lipstick. Ok, I used to indulge myself with whatever is new in the tech market to treat the obsession but now I am a reformed 'tech-aholic' other than that, I am basically a low maintenance wife ;-)   Did you hear  DH respond, 'yeah right'  or was I imagining his response?

So anyway, even though the weight gain has put me in a very unflattering feeling of wearing something pretty formal but I thank the fashion designer from David's Bridal who invented black bustier top that hides the unsightly flab in my tummy.  DH, on the other hand, is not comfortable wearing suit and necktie and I can never force him to wear something he doesn't want to... so to save some hurt feelings, I just let him be what he wants to be *badoy* LOL

DH is sweet to pre-order this mouth watering anniversary chocolate cake from Carnival that put another 5 lbs in my gut. The cake was served after the meal and few minutes later, four waiters came over to our table to sing and wish us happy sweet anniversary :-) 

*I was sitting in front of DH when I took this video. Click both pictures to see more photos and watch the video clip*

Here's an excerpts; continuation of DH's post at Cruise Critic Forum:

The food was mediocre to good. It wasn’t anything special. Every meal we had in the dining room someone at our table sent something back. On lobster night, my lobster was gritty and rubbery. Most deserts were tasteless or had funny flavors. The Melting cake was good though and offered every meal. There was really very little variety in the deserts. We stopped going to the dinning room after the third day when I saw a waiter from the Paris dinning room use the bathroom and return to work without washing his hands. After that I paid more attention to the sanitation and hygiene practices in the food service areas and was not pleased. No hand sanitizers, passengers getting their own food from the buffet line, in fact, there were no servers in the buffet except the guy carving the roasts and cutting the cheesecake. The line is not being cleaned frequently and etc. There were 4 lines as well as the Deli and Asian food bar at the buffet. According to the Carnival Cappers the buffet was supposed to close at 3:30 but seemed to always close early even though more people wanted something to eat. The hamburger and hot dog grill was good but then it is hard to screw up hamburgers and hot dogs, plus you can see them preparing the food. The Pizzas and calzones in the Pizzeria had no Italian seasonings and were very bland.

We went to one show in the Rome Lounge and it was so bad we left within 15 minutes. It looked like the singers and dancers were lip syncing. Be careful if you get a seat in the upper tier of the balcony because the steps are so steep many people turned away. There was always something going on around the main pool area mid ships. Lots of loud music, party and pool games and smoking, drinking and dancing.

We are not really party people so we didn’t hang around the mid-ship pool. Instead we went to the pool on the aft deck which is supposed to be adult only but wasn’t. There were lots of kids in the adults’ only pool and Jacuzzi even though there were signs saying no one under 18 is allowed. There were not many places in the ship to go for peace and quiet that didn’t smell of cigarette smoke..

Yeah, I wondered about all the kids on the cruise ship when they're supposed to be back in school already.  It's interesting to note thought that most of the passengers in Carnival Fun Ships are on mid 20's to late 40's with kids in tow whereas the majority of the folks that go to Alaska cruise are gray and retired folks. 

To be continued.....

 

    25 September  2008 -  Jacksonville, Florida USA                                        

 

8 Days on Caribbean Cruise: Day 1 - Embarkation

I seem to run out of words these days as I often come home tired from work so I am going to highjack DH's post from the Cruise Critic Forum.

Here's an excerpts:

My wife and I just got home from a 8 day Western Caribbean (Cozumel Mexico, Grand Cayman, and Ocho Rios Jamaica) cruise on Carnivals Triumph out of Miami. We have cruised before and enjoyed it very much. This was our first time with Carnival.   However we were disappointed in this cruise.

Embarkation was easy and smooth with just a few bobbles. Getting to the port of Miami was easy and parking was plentiful. We arrived at the terminal at about 11:00 AM and there was still a lot of disembarking passengers and luggage milling around in front of the terminal making it hard to find the entrance for boarding passengers. The entrance is tucked out of the way around a corner but once we found it, things went smoothly. After check in, we only waited for about 30-45 minutes before they started allowing us on the ship. We were able to board around 12:30 and were told that our rooms would not be ready until 1:30 but we could drop off our carry-on luggage in our rooms. However, when we tried to drop off our luggage we were told by the stewards we couldn’t drop off our carry-on yet. We would have to wait until they were finished. Everyone had to schlep their bags for at least another hour while milling around on deck, exploring the ship and even in the lunch buffet line.

Delivery of luggage to our room was fairly quick; however it was very inconvenient for the passengers. The luggage delivery co-opted the passenger elevators (On other ships the crew has dedicated elevators to use for ship services). The luggage was brought up to the specific deck, and then left in the carts outside the elevators, for a couple of hours making it hard for passengers to use the elevators.

The ship itself was kept clean and fairly well maintained. The colour scheme and decorations were awful though. The cabins hallways were Pink and Purple. While pink and purple are supposed to be calming, they are also off-putting for a lot of people. Our cabin reminded me of an old Winnebago RV in pinks and purples. We had enough storage but that was because of a sacrifice in ergonomics. The bed was sideways in the room and pushed against the back wall with the tv at the foot. My wife had to crawl over me to get in and out of bed. The South Beach Club (Buffet) was supposed to be art deco but was tacky. (What is with all those “eyes”?).

The Buffet is between two pools so the floor is always slippery. My wife fell once and no crew member checked to see if she was ok. The clubs and bars are flashy and dark as clubs and bars are. I liked the warm woods and elegant feel of the Oxford Bar best and would have spent more time there except it was a cigar bar and I can’t stand cigar and cigarette smoke which brings up another negative. Smoking is allowed on the ship in certain areas which is fine except all those places are open to the non-smoking areas so there are very few places that don’t smell of smoke. Unfortunately you also have to walk through smoking areas to get to the buffet, the pools, the shops and most places on the ship. My wife who gets headaches from second hand smoke didn’t like to leave the cabin because of it.
 

To be continued.....

    20 September  2008 -  Jacksonville, Florida USA                                        

 

The first 3 days in Miami and Keys before embarking to an 8-Day Caribbean Cruise

DH and I drove almost 7 hours from Jacksonville to Miami Friday morning of September 5, 2008 and checked-in for 3 days stay at Hyatt Regency Hotel located in the middle of Brickell's business and financial district on the beautiful scenic Miami River.   The accommodation was not what I expected for a 4 star hotel though.  The building looked very high end from the outside but the inside room was a disappointment. Except for the lobby and common areas,  the rooms looked pretty old and needed serious renovations. Our room in the 5th floor was kinda big with a huge HDTV and comfortable king size bed but the bathroom is a little dingy and started to deteriorate badly.    DH and I have stayed in Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress Resort, Orlando during our 5th wedding anniversary and we were very pleased but this one won't even pass for 2 stars.

The next day, we drove down to Florida keys but got stopped somewhere in Key Largo because of the mandatory evacuations in Key West due to Hurricane Ike.  Instead, the guy at the Visitor Information Center talked us into taking the 2-hour bottom glass boat tour which costs $30 per person. 

So while waiting for the boat's schedule to depart at 2:00 PM, DH and I strolled around the place until we found this local resto called Coconuts that had fried key lime pie in their dessert menu (yes it's deep-fried pie and it is my first time to ever heard such a thing) but out of curiosity we ordered both fried and regular pies.  To me, the regular key lime pie is still the way to go...it tastes much better, creamier and not as loaded and greasy as the fried version but DH says it was good which doesn't surprise me a bit because I know he likes anything fried. Period.

After we had the dessert, we hopped on to the boat and sailed aboard the M.V. "Key Largo Princess", a 70-foot glass bottom, aluminum yacht. From the sun deck on our voyage to the reefs, we see a panoramic offshore view of the Florida Keys and the ever-changing colors reef the ocean with few big dolphins surfing (see video here) around the area.  

The skipper took us to the reefs looking underwater world of John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, the first and only undersea park in the United States. The reef which we looked through the large glass viewing window is about 60 feet below seawater. It's amazing to see corals, sea plumes and hundreds different colored fish ranging from baby fish to the large species sought after by fishermen. 

To be continued.....

 

    16 September  2008 -  Jacksonville, Florida USA                                        

 

Back from the Caribbean Cruise 

DH and I just got home yesterday and I still have hang-over from our 11 days vacation.  Glad I didn't have to go back to work until next week but somebody is not happy to go back to work today. 

The 8 Day Western Caribbean cruise on Carnival's Triumph out of Miami, Florida was a so so.   We have cruised last year with Princess and we both had a blast.  But this time with Carnival, there's really nothing much to rave about the whole trip except nice waterfalls and beaches in Jamaica. This was our first time with one of the Carnival Fun Ships and I was so disgusted of the cigarette/tobacco smoke everywhere except inside our cabin and the formal dining room. 

I suppose Caribbean is not the place for us to enjoy because we are not either a party goers nor fond of the beach.  Heck, we live very close to the few nice beaches in northeast Florida.

Anyway, here's the snapshot of our itinerary:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day		Port of Call		Arrive		Depart
Day 1, Sun - Sept 7		Miami, Florida				4:00pm
Day 2, Mon - Sept 8		Fun Day At Sea
Day 3, Tue - Sept 9		Cozumel, Mexico		8:00am		10:00pm
Day 4, Wed -Sept 10		Fun Day At Sea
Day 5, Thu  -Sept 11		Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands		7:30am		4:30pm
Day 6, Fri   - Sept 12		Ocho Rios, Jamaica		8:00am		3:30pm
Day 7, Sat - Sept 13		Fun Day At Sea
Day 8, Sun - Sept 14		Miami, Florida		8:00am

Anyway, I'll blog more and post photos about it next week or so because I have a very special visitor this week to attend to.  Ate G is in town to pay me a 5-day visit.  We are having a ball... Thanks Kuya D :-)

 

    1 September  2008 -  Jacksonville, Florida USA                                        

 

Celebrating 9 years of  'I do'

Even though DH and I have only been married nine years and this may not be one of the milestones compared to some couples out there but in today's world of broken relationships/marriages happening around the world every day, making it another year is as much as necessary to celebrate than life itself.  

I'm a pragmatist. Oh, I'm a hopeless romantic too but never did it occur to me to settle for the first man that comes along even though he sounded too good to be true. If truth to be told, I prayed real hard and waited so long for the right man to walk with me side-by-side because God knows I would never put up with a man who takes control over every aspect of the relationship.   I'd much rather stay solo than being tied to a man with issues and hang-ups on the “macho image” or has this controlling behavior of “I wear pants in this household” type thing.   Martyr was a thing of the past you know--- and growing up, I deride my very own mother for being one although in fairness to her, she never let dad lay hands on her but man she puts up a lot of crap from him beyond belief for 47 freaking years now and counting!    I am so very grateful that DH treats me as his equal partner; never made me feel less of a wife/woman and has never showed any superiority and control in the entire duration of our relationship up until now. 

Remember that a happy and healthy marriage takes the commitment, trust and respect from each other.  It is also equally important to  set aside time for intimacy and celebrate your anniversary to nurture your marriage whether it involves just talking, walking around the neighborhood, dining out or just spending time together with each other every once in a while without kids in tow because I can truly say that no relationship can grow deeper without time and effort from both spouses.

Speaking of celebration, this year's anniversary pick is the Caribbean.

The flight from Jacksonville to Miami is about 1.5 hrs whereas if we go by car, one way drive would take us about 7 to 9 hrs depending on the traffic. DH as always prefers to drive anyways because he enjoys the sceneries around different places.  Plus if we go by car, we can always do a side trip to the Florida Keys in which we have been meaning to do for a while to savor the taste of the best original key lime pie in America.    The only thing that made me unhappy about this commute is the parking fee at the pier is $20 per day. 

So anyway, the first 3 days of our vacation begins trekking down Miami and explore further down south about 3 hours drive one way from Miami to Key Largo and  Key West.  Then we go aboard Carnival for an 8 day cruise to Mexico to Cayman Islands to Jamaica  and back.  We can hardly wait to go on this much awaited vacation and just have nothing but pure relaxing and enjoyable time for two weeks!!!

DH and I really look forward to celebrate our wedding anniversary every year to venerate the smooth sailing union that despite all the ups and downs and even without much romp these days; after all these years we still adore each other to bits.   And don't kid yourself by thinking other couples are doing it as often as other women would like you to believe.  I don’t personally think that a dry spell is a sign that you've completely lost your passion to your man. It’s probably just means that maybe this time, sleep or rest is more important than anything else. Maybe instead of worrying about how much we think we "should" be having the three letter word that starts with s;  keep the focus on figuring out how to connect with your spouse in some other ways... think of what our hands or fingers can do. LOL. The key is to make sure that even if you're not doing "it," you're still doing something with TLC  to bond to your spouse in a day to day basis ;-)