spunkyhungry

I competed in karaoke idol a few years ago, and it was a real disappointment. The winner was determined by whoever has the loudest friends, irregardless of talent.

244 days until our Bermuda cruise on the Norwegian Breakaway! I'm so excited!

As soon as you board the ship head to the dining reservations desk and book all your dining reservations for the cruise. You should be fine. We did this on a norwegian cruise and had no problem getting reservations we liked for every night of the week.

266 Norwegian Breakaway to Bermuda!

It was 2002, and I was 17. I went on a Western Caribbean cruise on the Grand Princess with my mom and my cousin. We had a balcony room with bunk beds. Before this cruise, I had never been to the Caribbean, and it had been my dream to visit the Caribbean and swim in the beautiful blue ocean there. This cruise made my dream come true! And it introduced me to cruising. I never realized how fun cruises are. Since then I've been on 6 more cruises.

$15/$16 a day is cheap for Boston! I think you should do that unless you know someone in a suburb who will let you park in their driveway for a week.

For St. Lucia do a jungle tour. I did one with Princess, and it was so much fun! It was one of my favorite excursions ever.

Other than on formal night, I always wear sandals in the MDR. What else is there to wear?

We take one large suitcase and one carry-on backpack per person.

I had a negative experience with the steakhouse on the Liberty, and I didn't even get to eat there. Due to a medical condition I was experiencing at the time, I couldn't wear nice shoes/sandals. I could only wear my sneakers with my orthopedic inserts. Despite wearing a nice shirt and pants, the host said my sporty look would detract from others' experience in the restaurant, and I was turned away, even after explaining my medical condition and why I could only wear sneakers. Afterward my husband complained to Carnival, and we only got a vague apology without any mention of staff training or anything else.

I have had a couple stressful name situations at the airport.

1) My dad bought tickets over the phone, and the agent spelled our last name incorrectly (missing 1 letter). We didn't realize there was a problem until we arrived at the airport and received our boarding passes. It took a while, but eventually we were cleared to fly.

2) My dad bought me round trip plane tickets in my maiden name (he must have momentarily forgot about my married name?). I realized it as soon as he emailed the ticket to me, but they wouldn't let us change it without paying more money, and it was already more than we could afford. The airline said to bring birth certificate, passport, marriage document, basically every document I had, and it would be ok. I was so nervous about it, but luckily I had no problem at the airport. All my airline passes (for 2 flights each way) were originally in my maiden name, and at the first airport I was able to change them all to my married name.

My parents have given me two surprise cruises. For one, I opened up a wrapped present containing print outs of plane tickets to Florida. Then they gave me a wrapped Princess Cruise catalogue. Just receiving them was a surprise on its own. I don't think you have to surprise her any more than giving her the gift.

I'm so sorry for your loss. :( I wish the best for your family.

I've taken an electric heating pad on several cruises and have never had it confiscated. It wasn't even an auto-shut off one. I wrapped the cord around the pad and hid it in an inside pocket. In the room I made sure I kept it hidden as well. No one ever noticed it.

I've found the Grand and Golden Princess ships to have the best pools. They each have two main pools (one with a retractable roof, so you can use the pool in bad weather) and a smaller adult pool in the back of the ship. It was really easy to find a place to swim on those cruises. At least this was the case when I cruised them in 2002 and 2004.

I'm sorry to hear your daughter is dealing with this. :( I'm glad your family will get to enjoy going on a cruise together. :)

I would recommend packing 2 bottles of sunscreen per person for a 7 night cruise. That's the amount we seem to use each cruise. As others suggested, pack them in a ziplock bag in case they leak. And I've brought the spray sunscreens on planes with no problems.

the French fries!

What is wrong with these people? They are so selfish, entitled, and poor role models for their kids to have this kind of attitude.

Bring ginger candies. I'm pregnant, and they've been really helpful with dealing with nausea. I recommend the chewy Gin-Gins, but there are plenty of choices. You can get them at health food stores or even order them online on Amazon.

I'm a teacher, and we've had Norovirus outbreaks at school since December. In fact, I just got it! Yesterday was miserable, but I feel a lot better today. It sucks to get it on vacation, but at least the worst is usually over within 1-2 days.

I've never found the Princess pools to be cold. Since I spend my summers swimming in Maine, where the ocean temperature is always in the 50s-60s, anything feels warmer than that! I will happily swim in any "cold" Princess pool. By the way, as you swim in cold water your body gets used to it, and you stop feeling so cold. It helps to go underwater a few times, too, to make your whole body feel the same temperature.

Go ziplining in Belize. It was incredible! However, I suggest you do not do cave tubing. I did a combined ziplining and cavetubing excursion in Belize. I loved ziplining, but the cave tubing was extremely uncomfortable. They make a human chain of tubes, and you're connected to everyone around you. My ankles were on the shoulders of the person in front of me, and the person behind me had his ankles on my shoulders. I couldn't move for the 30-45 minute duration of cave tubing, and I was so uncomfortable. My upper back/neck ached for hours afterward.

How many people are in your condo complex?

I'm not sure. Maybe there are about 100 condos? Not sure how many people in each one.

I thought the pizza was decent - much better than NCL's gf pizza.

I'd rather spend more time exploring the ports than relaxing on the ship.