mellowmarshmom

I bought matching his and her necklaces with an anchor and a ships wheel design and gave it to him on the deck in the moonlight after our dinner out at chops. We wore them the rest of the trip and they are a fun reminder of our romantic trip together.

We sailed on liberty of the seas, still the 3rd largest ship in the world. I was surprised at how much movement I felt. We got prescriptions for scopolamine patches that go behind the ear and last 3 days a patch. Other than dry mouth, no side effects for me or my husband. We asked the dr for extra patches because we were snorkeling, cave tubing, a lot of water activities and we did need the extra patches after all.

Here is a pretty comprehensive document I made (attached) "Tips For New Cruisers"

This was helpful. Wish I had seen it before my first cruise but will pass on to my dad as we are taking him on his first cruise next January! He is so excited to plan.

The Manhattan steak we had in the MDR was thin and tough. It looked like a piece of shoe leather next to the filet we had at Chops. We are from Kansas, where we pride ourselves on great beef, and that steak at Chops was one of the best steaks I've had in my life. Several items at Chops were amazing. Well worth the additional cost.

We had bad luck with our room steward, but didn't let it ruin the trip. One day we were leaving our cabin dressed for dinner and had our pool towels we were going to return. Another steward we were walking past asked us if we were going to the pool just to return the towels and she insisted on taking them back for us - told us we just needed to focus on relaxing and having a good evening. The next evening we asked our room steward if he could return our pool towels for us and he said he wasn't allowed to do that. We just looked at each other and laughed. I don't need to be coddled with twice a day service, but I was jealous of the passengers in that young lady's hallway.

Liberty of the Seas

Aft cabin 9406

My happy place!

Used our packing cubes on a recent cruise and were awesome! An extra benefit - were able to stack the larger cubes on shelves in the closet and it was like having an extra dresser with the cubes as shelves. Got 2 kinds of cubes - very inexpensive sharper image from TJ Maxx that were pretty basic, but worked fine, and some much nicer ebags brand that I bought on sale. The ebags cubes were much better quality, but twice the price, even on sale. You will be shocked at how much you can pack, especially if you roll your clothes instead of folding. Beware if you fly to travel as you can fit in so much in your bag it can quickly grow in weight!

I used this Vera Bradley lanyard wallet (on sale) and it worked great! Even accommodated my ever present blistex and some cash for port shopping. I stuck it under my shirt on excursions and put it in my evening clutch when we went to dinner. I got lots of compliments from other women passengers on the cruise that they thought my lanyard was cute. While at port I also had a cross body Vera Bradley purse (on sale of course) that is a crazy loud pattern, but I never left it anywhere and was easy to find when we stowed things on the bus on an excursion. Fit a lot of small shopping items.

My husband ended up using his passport lanyard as a man purse because things kept falling out of his shorts pockets. (He likes jersey material shorts.). He wore his cross body when we were on excursions.).

I found I did not even notice what anyone else was doing / wearing / thinking unless I was spoken to. I was having too much fun and relaxation. Re appearance I was most worried about how the humidity made my hair completely frizz out until I gave up and pulled it up in a bun the rest of the trip. A lanyard was the least of my worries!

Oh and I would add that I get up early and could not get a specialty coffee before 7 am and I was grouchy. Did use my Starbucks via a few times just to get by until Sorrentos started serving. My previous advice of adding via to coffee was a bust! So maybe I shouldn't give advice until I try it myself... [emoji12]

Sailed on Liberty of the Seas December 6 and I did not like the standard coffee at all. I am particular about coffee - not that what I prefer is necessarily better quality - I just really prefer blonde or breakfast varieties and the standard coffee is more of a dark roast. I found it too bitter and after several tries, ended up buying a drink package so I could get specialty coffees like cappuccino and lattes, which I really liked. The specialty coffees I got at Sorrentos and in the dining room were as good or better than most specialty coffee I have had in my hometown. I did enjoy getting an iced vanilla latte for sitting on the deck in the afternoon and enjoyed having cappuccino after dinner each night and with breakfast each day. Re breakfast. I enjoyed the made to order omelettes at Windjammer, I think there were a few more ingredients to choose from than the dining room. However there was often a sizable line. Overall, though, we preferred being served in the dining room and having a leisurely breakfast and chatting with whoever we were seated with and meeting new people. It was our first cruise, so we really loved getting advice and reviews from experienced cruisers. One man on our cruise was on his 65th cruise! My husband liked the eggs Benedict. I always had an omelette. The bacon was consistently crisp. At times the food was a little on the cool side, but I'm sure they try their best to keep it warm. The entire trip I never had an error with my order, which speaks for the level of service. Short story long - I did not like the standard coffee at all, but it is worth others trying and seeing what they think before buying a drink package. I much preferred the main dining room to the Windjammer for breakfast, but more for the ambiance and being served a meal than due to quality of food. The service I received in the main dining room was impeccable. How've fun!

I will be packing some Starbucks via for our upcoming trip. All you need is hot water and you get a super strong cup is whatever your favorite flavor. You could even add some to the weak coffee and it s so strong it would mask the other coffee.

I have a cute little Vera Bradley ID wallet that came with a lanyard and I have found it really handy. It carries ID, Cash, even a Chapstick. We go to a lot of concerts and I've used it a lot at outdoor festivals and it was really handy. Didn't have to worry about where my purse is or getting pick pocketed in crowds. Hope you have wonderful cruises, y'all!

I have an accordion file for all my papers and you can put smaller folders in each of the pocekts

Took 24 days from when I put in the application at the post office to passport arriving in my mailbox. One week later passport card showed up. Still have not received my birth certificate back yet and has been a week since the card arrived.

I read an article in a psychology journal that as women mature, we get a better neurotransmitter reward from long term planning of projects. Less spontaneous, but we enjoy the journey, not just the destination.

I love off beat people! If you bring a stuffed animal I will use that as an excuse to come talk to you and see what you're all about. I try to hang out with fun loving people wherever I go. When they are brave enough to be silly, I know they are up for a good time. I'll even pose for a picture with your stuffed adventurer!

Tried out the packing cubes on a 3 night trip this weekend and they worked great! So much easier to grab the things I wanted without making a mess of the whole bag. Really handy when gathering things like charging cords and making sure we had all of them. I would recommend getting cubes that have some kind of see through mesh - that helped a lot. One thing I will do differently when we cruise is to plan an outfit and then pack the items for that outfit next to each other vs. each type of item (tank tops, skirts, etc) together. I had to unzip a few different bags to get everything I wanted, when I had already planned the outfits ahead of time anyway. Overall a big thumbs up and I am so pleased with my bargain set of sharper image packing cubes from TJ Maxx so much that I'm going to buy more for gifts.

Now buffets. Those do creep me out a lot!

Whenever I am staying in a hotel I do check for bed bugs and I do wipe down frequently handled surfaces like remote, telephone, light switches with a lysol wipe.. But I mostly put my stock in hand washing. Lots of hand washing. There are good online articles on whether purell, etc is effective or not. My take on those is that hand washing beats them every time. Also you have to really saturate your hands for gel sanitizers to work at all. Typical 1 pump is not effective at all - more like 3 or 4. I think it's ok to take some reasonable precautions, just be sure to have fun.

Found sharper image brand packing cubes at our Tj maxx $13 for a package of 3. Will try them out next week and let you know how they work.

Just as an aside, we used the myvegas points in Vegas this last January and got much better deals than they seem to be offering on the cruise. If you go both places, save the points for Vegas. Between my husband and I, We got several 2 for 1 buffets @ MGM and saved a lot on meals. Also got 2 new seat free on Beatles Love. Overall saved at least $400.