brillohead

Regarding my earlier "norovirus" comment, I had read on another cruise-critic thread that stewards are required to be mindful of their charges' activities, and if someone isn't leaving their room, the steward is supposed to evaluate the room-bound person for illness and report it.

 

Also, sometimes I wish I could just leave a Do Not Disturb sign on my door so I don't have to worry about the steward interrupting me, or loitering around just waiting for me to leave. I prefer an undisturbed room. When travelling alone, I can use a towel more than once, and I don't need somebody turning down my sheets. But in their zeal to provide high level of service, the stewards hover around likes bees on flowers. To me the best service is giving me enough toilet paper and towels for the whole trip, then leaving me the heck alone!

I think cruising just may not be for you. If all you want to do is hole up in a room and never see another soul, why not just check into a hotel and order room service for a week?

A small fan to keep air moving helps a lot, too.

Not sure I understand. If you would not want another beach day, simply stay on the ship!

But that's not "cruising" -- that's "piering". :rolleyes:

I wanna be in the middle of the ocean, waves everywhere, fish and dolphins swimming alongside, with the ship gently rocking and lulling me to sleep.... :D

I'd rather have an extra sea day instead of an extra beach day. If I want a beach vacation, I'll go to a beach for a week. I want a CRUISE vacation... put me on the boat, baby! :cool:

There are a lot of books on the market (and available as e-books, so you could load them onto your phone or Kindle or iPod Touch or whatever, and probably apps too, for that matter) that give carb counts for generic food items.

With time you'll get good at guesstimating things like "how many ounces are in this bowl" and "how many cups of veggies would this be". Then you just look up the item in your book, and do the math to calculate the the carbs in front of you.

If your book says that a cream-based soup (like the garlic soup) is X number of carbs per 16 ounces, and your bowl looks like it contains 10 ounces of soup, then you divide X by 16 to get the carbs per ounce, then multiply by 10 to get the carbs in your bowl.

Millions of people do this every day.... it really isn't rocket science, and you WILL become proficient at it!

My boss is a relatively non-compliant Type 2, and his doctor really stresses the FIBER content of foods, to the point of calling them "almost like negative carbs".

For example, if my boss is going to eat a snack bar, he can have anything up to a total of X grams of net carbs, and to figure the net amount, he takes the actual carb gram count and subtracts the fiber gram count.

Don't limit yourself to meat/protein b/c veggies and fruits have carbs in them -- the fiber content helps to offset the carbs.

Your Registered Dietitian should be a big help to you. Also check to see if there are support groups in your area -- sometimes the best people to learn from are the folks who are already living the life!

It was something I saw in Señor Frog's; I forgot if it was in Freeport or Nassau. The bartender was leading a conga line through the entire place. At one point, he led the line behind the bar, to where bartenders worked. I snuck a peak at the cash register, which had a touchscreen resembling an iPad. Right above the screen, there was a sign: "Touch with finger only!". It may have been in a bar built for drunk tourists, but still makes you wonder what kind of things were going on, that the owners felt the need to put up a sign like that. It may have been just for humor. Then again...

If it's like the touchscreens they have for paying at retail stores, people were probably writing on the screen with a real pen and leaving ink marks all over it (or damaging it with the sharp point).

Can't believe how many people scrawl their signature with an ink pen on those things...

What are "zip strips"?

Some people know them as "cable ties" or "garbage bag closers".

There are all kinds of waterproof wallet systems out there -- check out Amazon and Ebay.

However, I'm curious why an ID or seapass needs to be kept dry... mine are all plastic, not paper. :confused:

If golf clubs are so dangerous to have on board, why is there a mini-golf course on most ships, complete with clubs?

A non-PR inside will be the same amount of room as a PR inside, but most likely will be significantly cheaper. Don't rule it out -- the window isn't that big a deal for many people.

Oh yah, we love Chops, all classes of ships, and children. We also love well behaved adaults;).

Sadly, they are few and far between these days! :(

Honestly, if it's a "special dinner" for the kids (celebrating a birthday or something), I'd want to do it somewhere that the kids would enjoy -- the MDR where the waiters will spoil them rotten and make it special for them with foods that they enjoy, or Johnny Rockets where they can have burgers/fries/milkshakes, etc.

If it's a "special dinner" for the adults (celebrating a birthday or anniversary or graduation or other milestone), I'd do the specialty dinner WITHOUT the kids -- make it an adults-only event where you can just relax and appreciate the specialness of the surroundings and the menu.

When my son was younger, he wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese for his birthday parties. <<shudder>> It's not my cup of tea, but it was HIS birthday, so we made it all about him -- I just swallowed a bunch of ibuprofen before we got there to ward off the headache that was sure to follow. Now that he's older, he enjoys going to Carrabba's and eating off the main menu.

As for areas of the ship where kids aren't welcome, I think that there are restrictions on the gym/spa as well, including the hot tub and steam rooms there.

I'm traveling with three girlfriends who have never cruised before, and we're all celebrating various stuff (birthdays, graduations, etc.), so I will be decorating our doors and insides as well to honor the "specialness" of the cruise for us all.

My stuff came from dollar stores. I have "decorative wall stickers" (the kind that are made to be removed easily) and anything that isn't self-stick I'll be affixing with 3M Command Poster Strips (you pull the tab and the adhesive releases itself without leaving any residue or color).

I also got "glow in the dark" fishies for each room (also going to be affixed with Command strips) because we have inside cabins -- I'll use the fishies to show the way to the bathroom.

I'll try to remember to get pictures and post back here in a month!

Best advice I can offer to newbie skaters (from a mom whose son started skating and playing hockey at 4yo): if you feel like you're going to fall, bend/squat and touch your knees. This lowers your center of gravity and stabilizes you, and prevents you from doing that flailing windmill thing with your arms.

I always give this advice to newbies during public skating sessions here, and the look on their eyes the first time they try it and notice the difference in stability is amazing! Once they have that confidence that they can stop themselves from wobbling and falling, they advance much more quickly.

Maybe I've been unlucky with the aersols - I've tried Ambre Solaire, Nivea, and Soltan (Boots own brand). I've seen one called Anthelios, but not tried it yet. Do you have any recommendations?

Try buying some in the US or Caribbean -- we have different brands here.

Trying to think of the ones I've had luck with... I think one was Coppertone Sport and another was a store brand version of the same.

I've been trying out the spray bottles of suncream (not that there's any sun here at the moment to protect myself from!). I think the problem is that factor 50 is just pretty thick, so even though it's in a spray bottle, it still doesn't cover as well as a thinner mix might.

Are you trying the "squirt" bottles (where you pull a trigger for each spray) or an aerosol bottle (where you just press the button and it comes out continuously)?

I've never had trouble with the aerosol kind not coming out easily, and I never use anything less than 50. It comes out in a wet spray mist and covers just fine for me. Try a different brand and see if you have better results.

I am travelling solo, but with an roommate arranged by the TA. What kind of groundrules and boundaries work for you. This will be my first cruise travelling on my own.

Think about living in a dorm room with a stranger in college....

What hours are "quiet hours"? If one is an early bird and one is a night owl, how will you respect the other person's needs for sleep, etc.? Along those same lines, when is "lights out" time?

What about having guests in the room?

How much time (and when) per person in the bathroom? If you're both planning on primping for formal night from 7-8pm, that could be a problem, so work out those details, maybe even post a sign-up sheet so there are no misunderstandings.

Don't touch the other person's belongings without permission (and don't leave your stuff in the other person's way so they need to be moved).

Set a signal for "Shhhh... napping inside" (ribbon on doorknob or similar) so one doesn't barge in noisily and turn on the lights while the other was getting some shut-eye.

If you snore, bring some of the silly-putty type earplugs (most comfortable, and quite cheap) for your roomie. If snoring bothers you, bring some earplugs for yourself.

Fair division of storage space (closets, drawers, bathroom countertop, desk). Also, fair division of electrical plugs (I recommend bringing a short power strip).

I just keep old t-shirts and wear those over my swimsuit if I'm going to be in the sun.

I've had others put sunscreen on my back for me but they didn't go "all the way to the edges" and I ended up with strips of burn anyway. :rolleyes: So an old t-shirt thrown on top covers anything that I can't easily cover myself, and I don't end up with any nasty surprises!

After traveling solo for the past few cruises, I posted on Facebook an open invite if anyone wanted to join me. My cousin responded yes, and is now joining me. I'm now more nervous having her join me than I am by traveling solo. I hope it works out! Lol....

This sounds familiar... I posted on Facebook as well, and ended up with three joiners by the end of the first day!

We have two cabins for four women from all corners of the continent, three of whom have never cruised before. I hope they enjoy it as much as I do, because I ADORE cruising.

Just work out some Ground Rules before you leave, setting boundaries, etc., and have a blast!

We were in Grand Cayman on Jan 3rd with 5 ships in port. We booked Stingray City and 1 snorkel stop at the dock for $25 pp thru "local stingray tours". The sign they were holding actually said $45, but they were offering $25. I would assume the price goes up and down depending on how many ships are in port.

Also good news for me -- our ship will be the only one in port that day, so there will be much less demand while I'm there! :D

We had an awesome time with Dexter and his mate, Simon. Dexter and his sign were easy to find at the docks and we were on our way very quickly. Dexter's catamaran is fairly small, but we only had 16 people in our group so everyone had space to spread out and lay out in the sun. We saw some other boats where it didn't even look like everyone had a seat. We motored out against the wind and sailed back. The water was pretty choppy on the day we went. I was a little intimidated, even though I have snorkeled a lot and am pretty fearless when it comes to water. We only made one snorkel stop and the stingray city stop, but the snorkeling was beautiful and the stingrays were friendly, although I don't think there are as many out there as there were 10 years ago. Dexter and Simon made sure everyone had the chance to feed, pet, and even hold a stingray (if you wanted to). Dexter provided squid for the stingrays and (non-alcoholic) drinks for the humans at no extra charge. We were out on the water 3-3.5 hours. At $40 pp, it was one of the best values of our cruise. :)

We just had a winter cold front blow in yesterday, and I'm jonesing for the Caribbean in the worst way right now!!!!

Check out this thread:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1724209

Sounds like a great option for people with a long "layover" between flight and cruise!

http://www.dexters-fantaseatours.com/

 

We booked with that site for $40 pp, and it's a catamaran with a stingray city stop and 2 snorkel stops. He has good tripadvisor reviews. We will be there in 2 weeks, so I will let you know how it goes! I was told my another company (Captain Marvin's) that their longer tour was booked for that day.

Can't wait to hear how your trip went... counting down the days until my own GC visit!