Hogladyrider

@Greenpea2and @GirlWriter...speaking of differences between men and women....what about the "selective hearing" that men seem to have! @Greenpea2...why are you up so early.....VACATION, sleep in some!

January, February and March are known for being windy during a cruise. We always preferred Sept thru November during hurricane season, calmest seas and winds when no storms are about.

@Greenpea2....wow looks like you have great people watching from your balcony! Bring on the adult beverages and binnoculars!

@Jamman54.....another FANTASTIC review! Thank you, thank you for your devotion and time to sharing your cruises with us, We are right there with you on several of your wrap up points! January is not a favorite time of ours to cruise, cold and seas can be rough as well, plus often the water temperatures for swimming are cooler than we like! We too have drifted away from eating in the MDR for the same reasons as you! We no longer enjoy the sitting for 90 minutes or longer we prefer fix it eat it and move on! Spirit class remains our favorite class of Carnival ships. If we were to cruise Vista class again the only way I would cruise is in a Havanna inside cabin to have access to the Havanna area. We just felt the ship always felt crowded in all other areas all the time. I enjoy reading on the balcony, bring my faithful Kindle along all the time! We both enjoy the comedians but not the lines waiting to get into the shows. We don't follow any sports so that we will pass onto your pleasure. Being retired has its positives for sure, more vacation days for cruising! We are taking the plunge and doing an 18 day cruise to Hawaii from San Diego next January since we now winter in Yuma AZ. Enjoy researching what we will do in our new to us ports. Look forward to following along Patti and your future adventures! Susan PS - new knee is improving every day, today I am 4 months PO and yesterday I rode my street bicycle for the first time! 4 months PO feels so much better than 2 months PO!

@Greenpea2.....I got a chuckle when you posted "beet salad"....brought back memories of the "beet" discussion over on the TRIBE board! Looks like so far you are settling in just fine....ENJOY your day! Great pics!

@Jamman54....thanks to you Jeff & Patti for ANOTHER HOME RUN Review! I hated seeing this one come to an end. I so enjoy my morning coffee reading your reviews. Being retired and being able to have the time to drive to ports as you do is the only way to go! After having seen your visits to Resorts utilizing day passes that is now on my "cruise to do" list! We have taken several Carnival excursions that have been great. We are water people, we love snorkeling and the beach. My all time favorite excursion was in Antigua, where we partied, danced, yes I even did some pole dancing after so many rum punches and we dined on a lobster feast all prepared on the boat with several stops at several beaches. Life is so good on a cruise! Looking forward to following along your next adventure!

@arctickitty....thank you, thank you for this great review! We are taking our 1st cruise to Hawaii in January 2024 - 18 days on HAL. Yes we are "old" folks who LOVE HAL. Your bike rental info is fantastic I have added it to our spreadsheet of things to do. If I don't write things down it often gets lost. I am researching what to do in each port and renting bikes is right up our alley! We are NOT into crowds and we love being outside and we ride bikes daily in our retirement years. Did the bike rentals come with locks, or you felt the bikes were safe when you would stop someplace? We love the water so we might ride to the beach and the bikes might be out of sight. Loving all your adventures!

FYI anyone can and is welcome to join the TRIBE.....we stick together thru thick n thin!

Ready set let's GO!

@pirate4me2....you do realize that Bahama Breeze is a chain ILO a local place.

Welcome aboard!

Back to the "sauce" topic.....we like Frank's Sweet Chili Sauce, just right sweet and heat!

@arctickitty....saltine crackers were my BEST friend when I was recovering from TKR surgery last November!

OMG small world indeed! We started out as part timers, weekenders, our social activity was following along many fulltimers. We have been fulltime since 2015. We sold our stix n brix and bought an RV lot in Florida. We would return each winter, but we departed in 2019 and have not returned. We currently rent out the lot to snowbirds. We like it out west much better than east coast. We love the winter weather in Yuma and we travel to South Dakota or Utah area in the summer and we workamp for 6 months to stay active. We have a side by side we ride for our enjoyment. I absolutely LOVE the minimalistic lifestyle. It is amazing how happy one can be living with less "stuff". I can understand the clothing part, but I am not a clothing horse, I am more into cooking and I manage with what pots and pans we have. Best thing we did was get out of a stationary lifestyle. We know we will need to settle down one day but for now we are loving our lifestyle. Living debt free is amazing and we actually don't ever foresee living in a large home ever again. I am 70 and DH is 68. Our next cruise is 18 day to Hawaii. After than looking at a cruise from San Diego to Vancouver, then Vancouver to Alaska and back to San Diego! Life is GOOD.

@Saint Greg....assuming you are back at the ol grind of work today, preparing for your next travel adventure. Gonna miss all your wonderful postings this week....sigh. Have a great week.

Before we retired in 2015, we were Florida residents and we did a LOT of cruising. Now we are full time RVers living out west, cruising out of San Diego. We are platinum on Carnival but have moved over to HAL, up we are now "old" and we LOVE HAL.. We did a 7-day cruise pre Covid to Mexico and we never got off the ship. We met so many wonderful folks, sitting enjoying adult beverages chatting. We saw whales right from the ship. We truly enjoyed just being on the ship! We spent hours in the Crow's nest and hours in BB Kings lounge enjoying live entertainment. There is a lot to be said for the serenity of an empty ship on port days.....hope you ENJOY and get the R&R you desire.

All signed up and ready to follow.....I am right there with you regarding staying on the ship. There is a LOT to be said for just enjoying the journey on the ship!

OIA has expanded so much since I moved to Florida in 1980. I believe they just opened another brand new terminal! I'll take the "old" days for sure.

Respectfully disagree!

@Saint Greg...enjoy your time at OIA.....good people watching if nothing else! It should be pretty busy, start of winter break week.

@arctickitty...loving your review....great job!

@Saint Greg...you hit this cruise review out of the park. Each cruise review gets better and better! Really going to be a slow week without a review to follow. Enjoy your final hours in Florida and safe travels home!

@Jamman54...curious what is included in this day pass at the resort in Bonaire. Looks like a fantastic location!

It has been our experience that cruising in Jan & Feb is usually windy. Smoothest sailing is during hurricane season providing no storms

@Jamman54...great pics of arrival. I don't think many folks realize the labor intensive work involved in docking a cruise ship!