CAC104

That is a terrific picture of Egon. He remains my role model for growing older!

As for my eyes. They are just bad. :p I had Lasik done 16 years ago because my eyesight was considered "legally blind". I ended up with 20/15 and 20/10 vision about 6 hours after they did it and was amazed! Over the years, I had to start using reading glasses, then several years ago, my vision started decreasing far away as well. I ended being put back in contacts again (something I never wanted to happen ever in my life after wearing them for over 21 years with multiple infections and issues with blood vessels filling up from over-use and I was told right before I had the first Lasik procedure done that if I continued to wear contacts, I would go blind...as in completely blind. This is due to the blood vessels in my eyes constantly filling up with blood and they said it was "so many mm from reaching my pupil and once that happened, there was no turning back=blindness". That's when I elected for Lasik.

Fast forward to the last few years...mono vision contacts so that I could somewhat see far and near PLUS reading glasses on top of that. :mad:

Since I have had Lasik before (which is cutting a flap on the cornea, peeling it back, reshaping it with a laser, and putting the flap back to heal) and already had the flap, they could not do this procedure again due to it messing up the flap and was too risky. Instead, I had to have prk (photorefractive keratectomy). The way it was explained to me is they put a solution of some type of alcohol somethingorother on the surface of the eye, which disintegrates the cells, they push them around, they laser the eye, then place a contact bandage on it for healing. The difference is, since it's done on the outside of the cornea, it exposes all these cells and nerve in the eye and takes months to heal and regrow new cells. YUCKY POOEY!

So vision is going to be crappy for awhile, but they assure me that my vision will return to perfect again BUT I will still have to wear reading glasses. I'm ok with that I assume. :)

All I can say is thank goodness I only did one eye this time. I would not be able to function at this point with both of them like that. :(

I have never heard of this procedure before, and I hope it does as they say it will. We have had plenty of experiences with eye surgery. DH had lasix in both eyes when he was younger and then had cataracts in both eyes that had to be removed. No complications for either. I had strabismus surgery when I was 12 and then used to teach tennis and got hit really hard in my eye with a tennis ball (I wasn't looking) and it ruined my cornea, so I had a cornea transplant 20 years ago. So far it is doing well. But, I never knew about what they just did to you and I hope you are satisfied with it.

I hope your eye surgery went according to plans with no complications and you are resting comfortably this evening.

If you ever decide to do a land trip instead of a cruise we all will want you to post a review comparing cruises to resorts so you can still post it on CC.

Do you want a lot of Face Book friends? I would love to have you for a friend. Carol Silhan Cayce

This is going to be an unusual question, but I have been reading all of your reviews and have enjoyed seeing all of your family having fun on all of your different cruises. You name all of the kids and grandkids that sail, but you always refer to your husband as hubby or Daddy. I am so curious to actually know what his name is:confused::rolleyes:

I have been to Puerto Rico many times and when Sakari gets older you should take her to the forts to learn about the history of San Juan. There actually are free hop on hop off buses that stop right by the cruise ships and do a loop around San Juan. It is also interesting to walk around Old Town and see the different Churches, Shops and Buildings. Of course this is something for the future because your little mermaid wouldn't appreciate this yet. San Juan is right on the Atlantic and the water is usually pretty wavy. The place you found is probably the best deal in the close in area because you would have to travel much farther to find the better beaches. The Condado beach area is another close in area with nicer looking sand, but it is still the rough water.

Thank you for taking the time to write such great reviews of your cruises.:)

I really enjoy your reviews. :)

Whnever I feel like reading cruise reviews, I always look to read or reread yours. :)

I was wondering how your hubby found such a good price for this cruise? Does he have a special link to find low prices? I never see anything so inexpensive as you got this cruise.

Re: Runny Eggs

The problem with the eggs is that they do not use real eggs. They use an egg mix and it never really has the same taste or consistency of real eggs. If the Jade had an omelet station where you could also ask for fried eggs, then you could ask them to use real eggs to make up an omelet. Even the egg mixture they have in the bowl they dip into to make the omelets is not made with fresh cracked eggs....At least this is what we learned on the Carnival Dream and I imagine it probably is also done on the other lines.

I am doing my happy dance because I now have another great review by you to read :)

You have been busy booking cruises:D. Will the whole family be going along again, and have you started a link on CC with any planning posting?

KIm....Have you booked another cruise yet or started another link on CC?

I was so surprised when a new posting popped up on my saved threads. It is amazing after so long how people are still finding this wonderful saga to enjoy. Egon remains my role model for the future, and I hope to continue to cruise as long a he did. In Jan. I took a 10 night Caribbean cruise and am now looking for my next one to book,:D

Re:Schools.....Does your school system get funded by the daily attendance, or are they funded by how many students are enrolled on the first day of school? Most schools who depend on the daily attenance count for funds are extremely strict about absences because if the student is absent they do not get the daily stipend for him/her.

Schools who are funded by the total enrollement are not as worried about kids missing school, because they are being paid whether they are there or not. When I lived in Kentucky they were daily funded and they were always checking to see if a student was really sick. The elementary school Principal used to go and visit houses to check up on the kids. Now in Maryland, they are really laid back and just like parents to take school work with them if the kids are going off on trips. They are funded by the yearly enrollment.

Hi Everyone! I had followed Kim's review of the Dream, I am home now from my cruise and land vacation with my friends and had a wonderful time with nice weather. We started out in San Juan and went to St. Thomas, St. Kitts, Dominica, Grand Turk, and Jamaica. We ended up in New Orleans and stayed a few days to do the "Big Easy."

I was really pleasantly surprised at how nice the Carnival Dream was. It was lovely and not at all over the top garish like their early ships. Food, Cabin and service were great. I would definitely sail Carnival again on a similar ship.

Carnival had what they called a "Social internet package" for only $40.00 for the whole cruise and it allowed unlimited access to Facebook and Facebook messenger, so I kept in touch with FB and it saved me a lot of money by not trying to get on the internet to send e mails.

The only down side was that my cabin mate started to get sick on Sat. I had Zicam with me and started sucking on those zinc lozengers. When we got off the ship in New Orleans on Sunday she was able to go around with us, but that night she got really sick. I was really worried about her. On Monday she was too sick to go out with us. Of course I was concerned because I was sharing a room with her, but I kept on sucking those zinc things and vitamin C Hall's defense lozengers. She was so concerned about getting me sick and tried really had to stay away. We had lysol spray and kept using that. We took a cab together to the airport on Tuesday morning and she still wasn't feeling well. I believe when she got home she still was having chills and fever, so I hope she gets better.

So far, I am okay so stopped taking the zinc. I guess it works, but it also completely destroyed my ability to taste anything. I had a metallic taste in my mouth that pretty much made everything taste awful, even wine and beer. Lunch today finally started to taste right again. I was thinking that could be a really great way to lose weight because having things taste so bad I didn't want to eat or drink So, I will always sail with Zicam again. If you hear about illnesses going around the ship, this really does help to keep a person healthy.

Hi Everyone! I had followed Kim's review of the Dream, I am home now from my cruise and land vacation with my friends and had a wonderful time with nice weather. We started out in San Juan and went to St. Thomas, St. Kitts, Dominica, Grand Turk, and Jamaica. We ended up in New Orleans and stayed a few days to do the "Big Easy."

I was really pleasantly surprised at how nice the Carnival Dream was. It was lovely and not at all over the top garish like their early ships. Food, Cabin and service were great. I would definitely sail Carnival again on a similar ship.

Carnival had what they called a "Social internet package" for only $40.00 for the whole cruise and it allowed unlimited access to Facebook and Facebook messenger, so I kept in touch with FB and it saved me a lot of money by not trying to get on the internet to send e mails.

The only down side was that my cabin mate started to get sick on Sat. I had Zicam with me and started sucking on those zinc lozengers. When we got off the ship in New Orleans on Sunday she was able to go around with us, but that night she got really sick. I was really worried about her. On Monday she was too sick to go out with us. Of course I was concerned because I was sharing a room with her, but I kept on sucking those zinc things and vitamin C Hall's defense lozengers. She was so concerned about getting me sick and tried really had to stay away. We had lysol spray and kept using that. We took a cab together to the airport on Tuesday morning and she still wasn't feeling well. I believe when she got home she still was having chills and fever, so I hope she gets better.

So far, I am okay so stopped taking the zinc. I guess it works, but it also completely destroyed my ability to taste anything. I had a metallic taste in my mouth that pretty much made everything taste awful, even wine and beer. Lunch today finally started to taste right again. I was thinking that could be a really great way to lose weight because having things taste so bad I didn't want to eat or drink;) So, I will always sail with Zicam again. It you hear about illnesses going around the ship, this really does help to keep a person healthy.

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Hi Everyone! I am home now from my cruise and land vacation with my friends and had a wonderful time with nice weather. We started out in San Juan and went to St. Thomas, St. Kitts, Dominica, Grand Turk, and Jamaica. We ended up in New Orleans and stayed a few days to do the "Big Easy."

I was really pleasantly surprised at how nice the Carnival Dream was. It was lovely and not at all over the top garish like their early ships. Food, Cabin and service were great. I would definitely sail Carnival again on a similar ship.

Kent and Kevin were alone for 12 days so I came home to a rather messy house. It will take me a few days to put everything back in order, including cleaning out the refrigerator from their left overs that are from the time I was gone. They did manage to do some wash and change their sheets, shop for what they needed and stay alive, so I have to be happy for that.

Carnival had what they called a "Social internet package" for only $40.00 for the whole cruise and it allowed unlimited access to Facebook and Facebook messenger, so I kept in touch with FB and it saved me a lot of money by not trying to get on the internet to send e mails.

I won't be able to catch up on CC for a while.]

When I first started cruising I wanted to try all of the cruise lines. Then we just took cruises as we felt like. When I found out how RC and Celebrity had such wonderful perks for repeat cruisers I wanted to kick myself because I had equal numbers on both RC and Celebrity and couldn't combine them, so I then concentrated on RC to get to the Diamond level.

That level reached, I would cruise another line if the price and itinerary were good. Celeste...let me know if you need a cabin mate for any cruises you see that you want to go on. I am on a 10 day cruise this Jan. with friends from out west. They made the arrangements and I agreed to go along for the ride :D

Sure no problem.

Thanks so much. You take such wonderful pictures that I didn't want to miss any. I have been to Chankanaab twice and we always went to the left of the baby beach. I never saw the variety of fish you took in your photos, so I am assuming you went to the right. Is that correct?

Breaking news.....

Maksim Chmerkovskiy proposed to girlfriend Peta Murgatroyd onstage Saturday evening at the Sway: A Dance Trilogy show in Miami.

She did say YES!

Could you please give the link to your older review photos? You had done this once before, but I forgot to copy it and now I cannot find it. When reading the earlier reviews the photos do not show up. Thanks.:)

Yep, still holds true. They know when Spring Break month(s) are and the prices rise. This year we cruised during Spring Break and we paid 3x the amount we normally do to cruise on the Pride. :eek: But I bit the bullet and did it because I really wanted to cruise the Pride and go to new places I hadn't been to before. We had a great time and glad we went. I'll just have to pay the price again. In the past, we have usually cruised during "off season" when the kids are in school, but I don't think they are liking it too much at her school (taking her out 2-3 times during the school year). They always approve it, she does her homework/make-up work, but still. :(

I am a former teacher and I still regularly substitute. The older the child gets, the harder it is to miss school because they miss so much new work that builds on each previous lessons. So, when they get back they have so much to try and learn to catch up.

A lot of people do not know this, but state school districts vary how they pay the schools. Some states pay based on the enrollment at the start of the school year, so much per child enrolled, and get their yearly stipend on that first figure. Other states pay based on the daily attendance. Meaning the school gets their money for the kids that are in school that day and each day is different.

In Maryland it was on a yearly basis so some travel absences were tolerated, but when we lived in Kentucky, that was a day to day one and they were so strict about missing school. The Principal used to come to houses to visit the kids to check to see if they were really sick. We lived in a small town. No way they would approve a vacation leave of absence.

We cruised during a spring break when my youngest was still in high school and it was about 40% higher than when we cruised when the kids are in school. Now that was back before computers and we relied on TAs for prices, so I don't know if it is still true nowadays.

A while back you had said that you hoped someone could get you a Dream Christmas ornament and someone did answer they were going on the Dream in Aug. Were they able to get you that ornament? I am going to be on the Dream in January and could see if any are there then if you still were needing one.

Here is another question....Do you have a place where you post cruises you are going to go on? It would be interesting to know where your next adventure is going to be.

I really enjoyed the final two nights. I thought that everyone looked wonderful and the dancing was outstanding. I am glad that Bindi won because she deserved it.

Did you hear the announcement that Alec is going to be traveling with the pros on their dance tour? I think because of the hero status he has been pulling in tons of votes and they probably think he will be a good ticket selling draw.

I like watching everything on TV. I am not sure if I would pay money to go and see the dancing live.