Eli2abethD

Wad Rum is FREEZING. We spent the night at a camp in the desert last December. It may not be as cold for you being that you will visit a little earlier, but definitely prepare with a lot of layers and warm clothes.

I have been to South Africa, Tanzania and Zanzibar. I attempted to take malaria pills. They made me so sick that I couldn't function. (nausea and vomiting). So, in my case I had to use insect repellent and hope for the best. We found that in South Africa, we didn't need malaria pills at all because we were there during the dry winter and there were not any mosquitos. We were in Tanzania during July/August as well and found that we did not encounter mosquitoes there either. We did encounter tsetse flies though. Lots and lots of them. They can carry African sleeping sickness and their bite is very painful. Even if you do take malaria pills, you will still want to treat your clothing with something like permetherin and use deet wipes. Also stick with light colored clothing because they are attracted to dark colors. They can even bite through your shoes if they have any fabric on them. We did encounter a lot of mosquitoes in Zanzibar though. I suggest at least trying to take the malaria pills, but definitely take other precautions for insects as if you didn't have them.

Being new to NCL I could be wrong so please forgive me.

 

We booked our cruise and had the choice of 2 promo's we did the drinks (duh) and dining. I think I'm figuring out how the dining works by all the research Ive done. Though I keep reading the Jade has gone on to a al carte menu vs the normal menus.

 

Does anyone have copies of the new menus? I'm trying to decide where to book. Also which places my son might want to join us for dinner. i dont want to pay for dinners he may not enjoy. He is pretty plain jane burger and fry guy.

 

 

Thanks in advance

From what I understand, when you have the ultimate dining package, you can dine at the a la carte restaurants and just order as you normally would. The only restriction is that you can only order one entree. I found menus on the NCL website but I don't know how up to date they are. I heard that there were some changes, but from my research, it seems that the changes in the specialty restaurant menus were minimal.

I live in Tampa and this is what I would suggest for you:

Stay at the Downtown Courtyard Marriott. They have a free shuttle that will take you to Ybor City and a lot of the areas that you would want to go. When you want to return to the hotel, you just call. I believe it will take you anywhere within 5 miles of the hotel. Anywhere that it doesn't go, take Uber. The Uber prices here are great and you can get most places for under $10. You can also walk to many downtown restaurants from that area. I love Taps for a good beer or glass of wine on the patio and Anise Gastrobar and it's about a block from the hotel. There is also a park and a riverwalk in that area as well as the Straz center theater.

If you stay by the airport, It's all chain restaurants and basically a mall type area. It is nothing special.

Additional areas to check out:

Hyde Park - high end shopping and dining and beautiful historic homes (Bern's is located here)

Bayshore Boulevard - amazing waterfront homes and a great place to walk and people watch

Hope this helps! Let me know if you need more Tampa tips!:)

I prefer Europe in winter due to the fact that it is so much less crowded. You can actually see things and not have to fight other tourists and stand in line everywhere you go. We did a similar itinerary in December and had a great time!

So glad to hear that you changed your mind! Tanning beds are deadly. I was diagnosed with melanoma for the first time at only 23. I have had two more since then and over fifteen surgeries to remove those and pre-cancerous lesions. I live my life in the shadow of melanoma. It happens faster than you think and it's not always a simple matter of just getting it cut off.

Wrong thread~