AmeliaAtSea

:DI am cracking up over the bacon salt window inner discussion. hahaha Some people will complain no matter what.. I enjoy my cruise, roll my eyes at them and go on :-):D

mmm...bacon salt.

Ah, not a universal tragedy. A personal tragedy for the bacon-oblivious lady. Not nearly so sad.

She must not have been a true and loyal devotee. She would have smelled it, sensed it, even.

+Travel Insurance? You'd need some kind of insurance, even if not the typical cruiser insurance that most people get.

I love my 150 year old Night Blooming Cereus too. ( originally a wedding present to my great grandparents) it has been cut at least 30 times over the years and given to all the grandchildren and great grandchildren. if you are so desperate for a 'natural' plant, give me a year to recover mine from having to live in Texas for 2 years and you can stop by and I will give you a cutting. thankfully I do have new growth although one of the plants did not survive.

You know what just occurred to me...with a supposed horticultural degree, the OP couldn't keep the plant alive more than 10 years.

Not only is it not "ethical" it is illegal. As in you can be fined - up to $1,000. And they are not kidding around. That's from Customs on the US end - no telling what St John would fine you for taking plants from their National Park. I live in SW Florida and have seen night blooming cereus for sale in several good nurseries. I have one in my back yard and it's just like the ones we had in our yard when I lived in Nassau - and it was bought here in Florida. Don't be one of those special snowflakes that the rules don't apply to because "I want it". I'm sure your parents would be proud. Find a good nursery and buy one.

Wait a minute...on second thought, OP, yeah--go ahead. lol

It's not just about taking plants from a US territory to a US state. There are regulations about transporting across state lines also. So just because it's US to US doesn't make it ok.

It's not just about whether it's "ethical" as if that's just something in print that you can choose if you want to follow or not. It's regulated, and sneaking them in is unlawful.

Third, who cares how much you love them. That doesn't entitle you to anything.

Didn't your horticultural degree teach you anything about this? Doesn't seem to have done you any good.

With Indian food, when chickpea flour is used, it is not blended with any other type of flour. (While I did not inherit the cooking gene, I spent years watching/helping my mom cook.)

Thanks!

Amelia,

 

Following is a link to a recipe for pakora (gram flour is chickpea flour). Aside from breads and pastries like samosa, all which are pretty easily identified, wheat isn't as common an ingredient in Indian cuisine. Dosa, uthapaam, vada, idli, etc. are all made with fermented lentils and rice, so gluten-free as well. I think anyone with a gluten allergy could do quite well with Indian, all long as they take care to confirm the ingredients with the kitchen. Just because something is normally prepared a certain way doesn't mean someone hasn't gotten it in their head to make a substitution or sneak something in.

 

http://www.vegrecipesofindia.com/pakora-recipe-basic-pakora-recipe/

 

Bechi

Thanks!

You didn't mention any cruise line specifically, but I can tell you that RC has a special needs department who can also help you out with making sure dining choices are available. I would assume the other lines do something similar. Just ask your travel agent or booking agent if you are dealing direct.

We'll be on Carnival Dream. There is a special needs team. I plan on speaking to them, and I've read a lot about how Carnival handles gluten intolerances, so that has been helpful. But since I know very little about Indian food and especially in terms of gluten, I want to educate myself ahead of time.

What ship are you sailing.

 

We booked thru the cruise line.

 

Which we always have done.

 

Never booked independent.

If you look at the Rose Hall website, you'll see that their excursions are done by a couple of different companies, both of which do zip lines. So just recommending Rose Hall, even through the cruise line, doesn't tell you which excursion company you actually used, and which zip line tour it was.

How does the library work? Do you check books out, or is it an honor system? Do people donate books?

You're just reemphasizing my point that the lines at a fast food place are longer than the lines in a cruise ship

 

Sent from my XT1254 using Forums mobile app

Yes, that was intended.

But there is a difference between the lines in a fast food place and the lines on Royal. In a fast food place, the machines are the only place to get a cold drink and there could be 4 or 5 in line ahead of you. On board, the lines were non existent in the promenade and at the most two people at the height of lunchtime rush in the Windjammer. Not everyone on board is getting soda, some are getting the free stuff such as iced tea or lemonade, while others are getting a beer or bottled water at the bar. 100% of people wanting a cold drink at a fast food place need to use the machines, whereas that percentage​ is substantially less on board the cruise​ ship.

(y)

At a land-based fast food restaurant, even when you just want iced tea, those dispensers are usually right next to the freestyle machine, often inadvertantly blocked by the people getting their soft drinks, putting a lid on their drink, getting straws, etc. And if you want ice for your tea, you still have to use the freestyle machine.

I booked our Nov 2018 cruise at the end of March of this year. FTTF opened up on April 12, 19 months before sail date. Some excursions started showing up a few days earlier.

Our bank card is listed as a debit, but can be used as a credit card. Of course, last year I used AmEx and there were holds put on this throughout the cruise.

All debit cards can be used like credit. Not all ATM cards are debit, though. If they're not, they can't be used like credit.

I would say that just about everything would be gluten-free except for breads and breaded foods, although anything breaded in chickpea flour would be fine.

Sometimes, in various cuisines, when a particular grain is mentioned as the breading grain, mention of the other grains used is omitted (except in the ingredient list). For example, something might have corn breading--but usually wheat is in there also.

Have you breaded anything in just chickpea flour? Does Indian foods that are breaded in chickpea flour contain only chickpea flour?

What Indian food would be naturally gluten free? (no wheat, barley or rye--this includes soy sauce) I have 2 kids who are gluten intolerant, but can stand a small amount of cross-contamination, so in general, common cooking areas are ok.

We have done a couple of the zip line tours thru RCI on Jamaica.

 

1. " Canopy" when we docked in Ocho Rios. It was our first one on this island, and we have done it on 2 separate cruises.

It was GREAT!!! The guides are awesome.

 

2. We did the one at "Chukka" linked to the tubing excursion and the zip line experience was a little disappointing. Only 7 runs little excitement.

 

3. We have done the one at "Rose Hall" twice and have had the time of our lives. Oh it is great, many long runs, and two surprises that are awesome!!!!

 

If you are able to get the one at Rose Hall you will not be disappointed.

 

Enjoy

 

I looked up Rose Hall--their excursions are outsourced to excursion companies...do you know which one you used for the zip line?

If you have done the waterfalls in Jamaica I would suggest doing zip lining, we have done zip lining a couple of places in Jamaica the only one I did not think was worth it was the one at Mystic Mountain. There are several places in Jamaica for zip lining so check and see how many zips they have and how long each are. We did one that was zip lining and tubing and I do not suggest it as the river there was so slow that you had to paddle most of it and it took forever (although this will have to do with how high the river is at the time you go) however the Zips there were excellent

Was this the one with the inflatable kayaks? I've been looking at this one as a possibility. What time of year did you go? Maybe that would make a difference in how fast the river is--like if it's more rainy at that time of year. I think a slow river would be ok for us--it would be me, dh, and our daughters will be 13 & 15, so should have no problems paddling.

So after reading this thread, I checked how my discounted gc purchases showed up on my bank statement--they say ALLSTATE REWARDS. So I don't know yet if my insurance would cover that since it doesn't say Carnival, as a previous poster said...I went into the Drivewise app and to the Shop with Rewards section and looked up my transaction history. It does clearly show that I purchased the cards and that they were charged to my card. So I took screen shots of each transaction, will upload them to my computer and then print out and file just in case.

Well how do you like that !?! I do have them!! Thank you so much.

 

P.S.

I'm really not as dumb as I look on this thread. LOL.

I get the confirmation email first and then a couple of minutes later I get an email with a link to the gc.

One of them is the other is unspecified.

The thread title says two 21 year olds.

Just remembered another thing that was very helpful--my PVP created my booking with my chosen cabin but put a hold on it for 2 days without a deposit--we were *this* close to a final decision on our cruise, but not quite ready to put our money on it. So this let us have a couple of days before committing, which was great. She told me to call her back to make my deposit on Monday, but I ended up wanting to do it on Sunday, and I wasn't sure about calling her on a weekend. On that Sunday I couldn't wait any longer and did my deposit online, using the booking she created. Then I read somewhere that if the PVP doesn't take the deposit she doesn't get credited for it. I called her the next day, so worried about it, but she reassured me that it was ok because I used her booking.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, when you have a PVP, you can still do as much as you want with your booking online. My PVP started my booking and took my credit card # for the downpayment. I've done everything else myself, so far. I changed the bed from 2 twins to 1 king, I chose our dining time, I put all the passenger info in. I booked one excursion. Etc. But my PVP can do those kinds of things for me if I want her to or need to. I imagine that if I'm away from my computer and need something checked or changed I'd give her a call and have her do it for me, as I may not want to do that sort of thing on a tiny mobile device.

When I first registered on Carnival's site (hadn't booked yet), I got a call from a PVP. He didn't say he was *my* PVP (I'm wondering if the phone call your friend got was from *a* PVP or *her* PVP--key difference there), but was offering his services as PVP. I wasn't ready to book yet, as I was still researching a few things. I knew already what a PVP was at this point. The next day I got the same kind of call (both voicemails) from a different PVP. When I was ready to book (within a couple of days of this last call), I called the 2nd one back. Now she's my PVP.

DINNERS

 

Day 2 - American Feast

 

Shrimp Cocktail

Pork Chop (From the Grill section of menu)

Malted Chocolate Hazelnut Cake

Fresh Tropical Fruit Plate

Did you ask what is the Malt ingredient?

...assuming we're looking for breakfast at brunch, and not a breakfast/lunch combo (going elsewhere on the ship for lunch later).