bonniemari

I am Platinum with Harrah's/Caesar's and received the cruise offer in September from Harrah's (now Hollywood) in St Louis, MO. Strange since I live about an hour away from several Harrah's/Caesar's properties in Tunica, MS. When we went up to St Louis for the weekend, included in the offer was the chance to earn $$$ based on your play for that weekend. I ended up getting $200 "spending" cash for my cruise.

You have 60 days to book the cruise and up to a year to sail. The only blackout dates I saw were Christmas and New Years. The offer was for 3/4 day on the Sky/Miami, 7 day on the Pearl/Miami, 7 day on the Dawn/Tampa and 7 day on the Star/NOLA. We ended up choosing a cruise out of NOLA on the NCL Star for March 3rd. We upgraded to Category BA and with the upgrade fees, port fees and taxes I ended up paying about $1200 for a 7 day (4 ports) cruise. I priced out the same cruise and it was about $1950-so a savings of $750. Not too bad.

I was also told by the very nice lady at CAS I booked with that my DH would also receive the drink card for the casino.

So far, this has been my most memorable waiter team. Martina, and her boys. Martina is from Czech Republic, Srdjan and Jovan from Serbia. We've known each other, on the Carnival Magic, a total of 37 nights. They are not only great waiters but they're SUPER friendly and fun. Did I mention that Martina has incredible BLUE eyes? :D

We had Martina on the Magic last November. Occasionally I will set the plate down in from of DH and say "Bon Apetite" in my best Martina impersanation. She was great. I think I read somewhere that she is on the Breeze now. Yep-it would be hard to forget those beautiful blue eyes.

My friends and i take an annual girls cruise every year. Depending on who can go there have been as few as 3 and as many as 12 of us that go. I will admit to missing my DH (and my dogs) but I have never felt guilty about cruising without him. We take several vacations together every year so leaving him home once or twice a year doesn't bother me.

Pulled out (and dusted off) my Carnival Cookbook. They had the recipe for Cream of Brocoli, Cream of Asparagus, Navy Bean and Minestrone but no recipe for the Mushroom:(.

Darn it-now I'll have to spend next week on the Elation looking for "the coin".

How many are milestone 25+?

I will reach Milestone on my 11/15/10 Elation cruise.

We were on the May 2-7 Fascination cruise out of JAX and wanted to let CC's cruising out of JAX about my positive experience with the Holiday Inn Express-Blount Island. This is the closet hotel to the port-about 2 minutes away.

We were not sure what time we were leaving to drive to Jax from Memphis so we did not make hotel reservations. We had a long 11 hr drive (not so sure about my new GPS now) and actually ended up getting lost once we got to Jax. We were trying to find a hotel near the airport. Anyway, I remembered the Holiday Inn Express being near the port and not wanting to take a chance on getting lost the next morning I called information and got the number. My call was promptly answered by a nice young lady. She said yes there was "room at the inn" and after I explained that I was geographically challenged, even with my GPS, she asked where I was and then gave directions that got me to the Holiday Inn Express without any problems. After being on the road for 12hrs my 2 friends and I were glad to see a smiling face when we checked in.

The room she gave us was right near the stairs on the second floor and spotlessly clean. The beds were comfortable.

I got up early the next morning and went down to the free breakfast buffet to get my morning cup of coffee. I took it out front and sat on a nice bench and enjoyed the nice Jax weather. I also noticed that the grounds were immaculate. Every employee I encountered that morning said a hearty good morning with a smile on their face. I am not a breakfast eater, but from what I saw there was just about anything you wanted for breakfast. They even had eggs in the a heated case. My 2 friends ate breakfast and said the cinnamom rolls where really good.

There was a Wendy's next door and a convenience store about a block away.

I highly recommend the Holiday Inn Express-Blount Island if you are staying the night before you cruise out of JAX.

I fried some home grown okra (not my home but farmers market) last night. I soak it in buttermilk for about 15 minutes then I coat it with cornmeal, a little flour, salt & cayenne pepper. It was so good.

Back to the question-I have never seen fried okra on a cruise.

Wonder if the cake is the same as Chocolate Lava Cake??? The Lava cake when cut is filled with soft/liquid chocolate ... one of my hubby's favorites.

 

I found a recipe with lots of photos of the Chocolate Lava Cake. Hope this helps:

http://www.pastrychef.com/htmlpages/recipes/chocolate_lava_cakes.html

Don't know if any of you have Kroger's in your area but in the freezer section (next to the frozen pies/fruit cobblers) Kroger sells its brand "Private Selection" Chocolate Molton Lava Cakes. All you do is pop them in the microwave for 45 seconds and you have Chocolate Lava Cake. They are really good.

Me too from TN

Please send it to me a bham827@aol.com

Thanks a lot

Going on the Valor 1-1-2006