MITSUGIRLY BREAKAWAY's 1 last time for the year-review/pictorial

[mitsugirly]

Off to the pool area we went.

 

 

I have to say I was SUPER nervous about this. I have never allowed Sakari in the pool by herself before. I either have to be in the pool with her or she has to have her puddle jumper on. This would be the first cruise we went on that I didn't bring the puddle jumper. This would be the first cruise I didn't get in there with her. But I sat on the side (of course there's no actual chairs) and watched her like a hawk never taking my eyes off her and gave her strict rules about where she could and couldn't go. Sakari learn to swim when she was 4 and she's pretty good for the most part. But still...being on a ship with unpredictable kids around her and not knowing what they might do worries me. She's super good at swimming under water. Not the "greatest" on top of water. But she did learn how to tread water on the Pride 2 cruises ago (in April), so she's perfecting that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before long Brayden would be joining us. Now he just learn to swim "somewhat" this year. He's getting pretty good at it, but still not strong. He can only paddle for a little bit before he has to stop. I would NEVER trust him in the deep in of any pool that he could not reach. Sakari, she can dive down to the bottom with no problems of a 9' pool and then swim back.

 

 

 

There were a few times that Brayden tried to test my authority and jump over the thing they have in the middle of the pool that leads to another side. Under no circumstance was I allowing this. He was scolded by mawmaw and was threatened to have to return to sit on the sidelines by his mother...who was back at the lounge chairs resting comfortable. Sigh

 

Now a big subject on these boards is always brought up during a drowning. There have been way too many children drowning on the ships...after all, 1 is too many. It brings about great debate, speculation, nastiness and pointing fingers. To my knowledge, Disney is the ONLY cruise line that has life guards posted at their pools. Speculation is that it becomes a liability issue. Parents are supposed to be the ones watching their kids.

 

However, I can tell you on the last 3+ cruises with NCL I have seen several employees watching the kids in the pool. I don't think they make it so obvious to many that they are keeping an eye out on them and they trade off quickly. But I do believe they have people watching. This time I would be able to get a few pictures of 2 of them (I wish I would have gotten some on the other cruises since this comes up regularly).

 

 

 

 

I know that the cruise lines probably don't want to employee people to watch the pools because that is the parents job. But I always say the more eyes the better no matter who it is. I always keep my eyes out on any children (or adults for that matter) around me. Maybe that's the nurse in me. Yes, the parents should be watching their kids, but that doesn't always happen and I couldn't live with myself if a parent wasn't around watching them and I wasn't paying attention and could have prevented a drowning.

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Another issue that is brought up on the boards is the lay out of the kids pool and water park area. There really isn't many places to sit down around this area and speculation is that they don't want parents sitting down when they should be up watching their children when swimming. However, I feel that if there are parents that are determined to sit, they will sit...even if it's away from the pool area. I find this a concern and it bothers me. I hate the design of this pool myself for that reason. Even though I'm a parent that is right there with my child and I will watch her like a hawk, I still would like to sit down and watch at times...right beside the pool.

 

So, people have asked where there are chairs. I have replied before in other threads...but now I have a picture. At the entrance of the pool at the end, there's a walkway. This time there were some chairs there. I have to say before on the Getaway, there were not any chairs there when we were on it. People were pulling chairs to that area and sitting. However, being down in this area does not allow you to watch your child. It's up and over a wall and the pool is down. It's also at the area that is very small before the wall that leads to the bigger area. So you wouldn't even be able to see over the wall at all when sitting.

 

 

 

Eventually Kenny & Michelle found us. Kenny was having an "ok" day and not as sick as the ride to Bermuda, but still a little queasy according to him. At least I was able to get a smile out of him.

 

 

 

At this point, I'm ready to leave the pool area...but the munchkins have a completely different idea...

 

 

 

They were off to try out the water slides.

 

 

 

...and it was a hit!! (Like I didn't know that already).

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

 

Sakari, being the daredevil she is, begged to go to the "big slides". I just knew this was coming. I did inform her that she would not be allowed on the BIG slide that drops and she was so disappointed. She really wanted to go on that one and it's so hard to explain to a 7 year old why she was able to do it before on the Carnival ships, but this ship won't allow her. At this point you all kinds of "but why, I did it before, why is this different....." the list goes on.

 

She settled for going on the twister slides instead. Well, it was the only choice she had of course.

 

 

 

 

 

She went up and down and up and down...over and over again, rotating between the two. She loved it.

 

 

 

 

 

It took awhile, but Sakari managed to talk Brayden into going on the bigger slides. He's not as daring as Sakari to say the least.

 

[mitsugirly]

It wasn't long before the rest of the kids found me up on the floor watching the munchkins coming down the slide. The slide ends 1 floor up from where the pools are. You can't get out that way due to a glass wall and are forced to either walk back up to the slides again or down to the pool area when you are done sliding. In order to see them come out of the slide, you have to walk up 1 flight and stand behind the glass walls to watch.

 

I believe the kids were heading to get something to eat...late risers.

 

 

 

 

 

After awhile I was tired of just hanging out at the pool and knew I would have to demand that Sakari needed to leave in order to get her to get out.

 

I decided I wanted to stop to get a Toasted Almond before leaving and I made a deal with her since she complied with leaving without an argument. She had been asking during the day if she could get in the hot tub. I managed to spot a hot tub that had children in it. I told her she would be allowed to get in the hot tub for a few minutes (I knew she had to be cold because at this point it was getting cold outside and we no longer had that beautiful Bermuda weather), while I was getting my drink, under one circumstance. She used the steps, she sat down on the side that I could see her, she was not to go under the water at all (I have this fear of hot tubs with long hair getting caught and actually use to keep a pair of scissors beside our hot tub before we sold the house), no splashing and once I signaled her, she was to get out.

 

She agreed and off she went...

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

We headed back to the room and we have been greeted with this...

 

 

 

I am NEVER happy to see this. It signifies that the end of my vacation is nearing and it brings great sadness every time I see one of these.

 

But hey, we are priority...Sigh

 

 

Now I have never used this priority debarkation before. I have never needed it, nor did I ever want to immediately get off the ship earlier than I have to. However, this would be one of those "I have to get off right away" times. We had a flight at 11:20 (I think it was) and I had heard that their could be a traffic jam when leaving and getting away from the port. We also had to wait to call our transport service until AFTER we get off the ship. I have never had to do this before. We always just tell them what time we want picked up and they are usually waiting. I had no idea how this was going to work. There's also the fact that we knew we had to walk away from the port to be able to be picked up. I had no idea where this was or how far.

 

We decided to do self-assist. This would get us off the ship the quickest and less risk of making it to the airport too late.

 

I turn on the t.v. and seen this sad sight.

 

 

 

 

I decided we would take this opportunity to start our packing. I usually try to do this during the morning-afternoon hours so that I'm not forced to be throwing things together in the late hours of the evening...instead, I can be enjoying my night. However, Sakari had us at the pool a majority of the day, so I was a little late on this task that has become a ritual.

 

 

[mitsugirly]

I dropped Sakari off at the kids club, finished my packing, the hubby fell asleep....and off I went. :D I have a habit of sneaking off and it's become a game to see if he can find me at times. :p

 

I headed out with the girls and we started bar hopping. I mean it was the last day of "free drinking".

 

At one point we stopped outside at one of the waterfront bars. For the second time, Courtney was once again denied a drink and told it wasn't her card. Once again, she was pissed. Me, Kendra and Michelle received ours and I told her not to fret. We would just head right inside and try there.

 

SUCCESS! I think even the lady next to her was happy for her. :p

 

 

 

I did a little shopping because I still needed to buy all of my cruise pictures and I always purchase a scrapbook and the scrapbook kit.

 

However, they were OUT OF SCRAPBOOKS!!! Say what?!? How are you out of scrapbooks? Now this was something new to me. I know that the Dawn was out of a lot of things and not much of a variety and now this? Is it just something with the ships that are located on the east coast? I'm not liking it. But what could I do?

 

I purchased the small Breakaway scrapbook kit and decided to forgo the scrapbook pages kit since I've used them so many times in the past and it's getting a little old.

 

 

After a few hours, we decided to pick up Sakari from the kids club and head back to the room. We had an early dinner reservation to see the Cirque Dreams show and I knew this was something I didn't want to miss or be late to in order to get a good seat.

 

I would return back to the room to find the hubby gone. Oops. He would return a few minutes later with that look on his face and a "Why do you do that?" out of his mouth. I told him I had been sitting around waiting on him for hours..."Where have you been?" (He didn't buy it, but yet I'm pretty convincing at times. :D

[mitsugirly]

We headed to the show and of course Kendra and the kids are no where around. Late as always. We got in line and the line started moving. Once we made it to the desk to check in and told them a party of 10, they ask if all 10 were here. Um.... "they are headed down the steps"...yea, yea, that's what it was. Hey, it sounded good to me at the time. She said she needed all of us to be together because they could not hold seats. Plus with a group of 10 people, it would take up an entire table.

 

Well, I was there on time, so go ahead and seat us and we'd take our chances that we'll be able to have our family at the same table.

 

"Well, looky here...here they are! I told ya they were coming down the steps." Whew, that was a close one. We all walked in together and managed to get GREAT seats right in front and along the isle...which would be awesome for Sakari.

 

I have to say along our way in and winding around to our seat, there were a few tables with 4-5 people there and they were saving seats because the seats were tipped over and leaning against the table. So...obviously people were saving seats!

 

 

 

 

 

The menu. Just so you know, you don't pick anything on it. There's really no choices. You get what's on the menu so no ordering.

 

 

 

The stage and our view.

 

 

 

 

 

Our waiters:

 

[mitsugirly]

Sisters...

 

 

 

The waiter took our picture

 

 

 

I had no idea until just now that Sakari decided to be a clown in this picture and stick her tongue out. LOL I'm pretty sure it's because Kolin was taking the picture and this is usually what she does to him.

 

 

 

Loved the jungle decor in here

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

I have to admit, I'm really not sure the deal with the meals at all the Cirque shows. From the one on the Epic, the Getaway and the Breakaway. Not many people like them. I thought parts were "ok". People mention that "at least we have the option to go get something else to eat after or before the show". Why can't they get this right?

 

I do not really like meat like steak or anything "chewy". Some of the family don't like sea food, like the shrimp on the menu. We all compromised and when the food came, everyone was passing food around like it was Thanksgiving.

 

 

But everyone liked the bread. hehe

 

 

 

We thought the show was amazing...like always. It has the jungle theme of course and everyone had amazing costumes on dressed as animals.

 

The awesome thing about sitting in the isle was that the "animals" would interact with Sakari as they were coming or going. This would be the path they took to enter and exit the stage. They would appear in her face or tickle her with their feathers or touch her as they went by and she was LOVING it.

 

The only incidence "I" had (always me sigh) is that there is a "line" of tape in the "path" and your chair has to be passed the line. At one point, before the show started, I guess 1 leg of my chair was a tad bit over the line and the waiter ask me to scoot up. When I did, my hand slipped off the chair and my nail didn't. I yanked part of my nail off passed where it should be and man was it painful. I took a deep breath and told him to give me a minute to compose myself as my nail just hung from my hand. He waited...............until I finally moved and then he walked away. What, did he think I wasn't going to move?

 

The show was over and we were very pleased with it. Awesome show. Worth the money, not for the food but for the show itself. I highly recommend it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

After the show, the kids headed to the kids club and it was time to adult!

 

We headed to the casino to donate our last bit of money we had brought for these purposes.

 

However, tonight would be a decent night. I played some of my favorite games and managed to hit bonus rounds on most of them. Although they may have not been "big" hits, I walked out with about $389 that night. (More on this later)

 

I took pictures of some of my favorites when I hit the bonus rounds. Although they weren't any big wins, I like the look of the coins going crazy and everyone wants to see what's going on...."haha, just kidding, it's not that big of a win but had you fooled" is what I want to say to them when they turn around.

 

 

This game the hubby did pretty well on earlier in the week. I think he put in $10 and walked out with around $80+ when he stopped playing.

 

 

 

I did pretty good on this boogie 70's machine during the week. It was always hitting bonus rounds and never disappointed me. However, it was never a really big win.

 

 

This was another jungle game like the one I played on the Dawn and won over and over again. But it did not treat me as well as the last time. But I'll take it. I came out ahead.

 

 

 

 

So back to my winnings. I probably won about $120 that night. However, with it being the last night of gambling, I made sure I had brought all of our "winnings" tickets so that we could cash them in. It's always a big game we play with the kids, especially Courtney on every cruise, because I'm always winning and she's always losing. So, I took my winnings from that night and also put in the winnings from the rest of the week and printed off 1 ticket. I waited for her to come over and hit the cash out button. BOOM! I just won almost $400 Courtney. :D To this day, she doesn't know I didn't win all that on that night. LOL Kendra knows, but not Courtney.

 

So while we didn't really "win" this time, we managed to not really lose a lot of money. We brought $500 for gambling and walked away with around $389 and some change I believe it was. So both of us gambling, all week, every day, and only walking away about $111 in the hole, I'll take it I guess.

 

[mitsugirly]

I took a picture of Kolin & Courtney on the GA by this beautiful light at 678 and I told them they needed to pose for an "updated" picture. They gave me the "Are you serious? We are not dressed for this right now." "Yep, you're gonna do this no matter what you are dressed in not pose!"

 

 

 

 

We gathered the munchkins from the kids club and stopped to get a bite to eat. Then it was back to our rooms to finish packing and cry a little of course.

 

Sakari had a bug kinda night (sorry, I had to blur out some writing that was all over it where I had wrote down some numbers and she decided to draw on that page lol)

 

 

She also decided to try (for the first time) to draw an octopus since we had seen one at Snorkel Park.

 

 

I guess one of them was from the 70's. :p Or maybe Sakari just decided to bedazzle it.

 

I remember telling the kids goodnight and that we would be getting up early, heading to breakfast, and getting off. I loved them and didn't know if I would be seeing them in the morning because I was on a mission to get to the airport. Of course they drove in and didn't have to be off at any certain time.

 

[mitsugirly]

Well that ends our last day on the ship. I hope you enjoyed it.

 

I will try to get our final and last day as soon as I can. Tomorrow starts a new week at school and new projects. I promised myself that I wouldn't open up the module for the week to peek before I got this day finish for you all as promised. I knew I would probably freak out and start working on it right away. But once I see what all I have to do this week will depend on when I return. If it's busy, I will probably be back next weekend.

 

Thanks to those that are still around. Have a great night. :)

[perfect match]

Always sad to see a cruise coming to an end. :(

 

I loved the carved food pictures! :D

 

The Cirque Dreams show sounds like something DH and I would really enjoy.

 

I'm sure your class will get better. I always found that my professors tended to "front load" the classes that only ran for a few weeks so they would be sure to get everything they needed to cover in before they ran out of time. You will get through it just fine.

[crusin fools]

You could tell that it was starting to get a little cooler than it was the day before. However, Sakari could care less about the temps. She will probably beg to get in the pool/hot tub if we ever take an Alaskan cruise. That's just her.

 

She begged and begged and I finally gave in. We headed up to the kids water area to see if we were the only crazy people on the ship allowing their kids in the water. Nope, we weren't (and there were even adults in the pools). So, that made me feel better. However, I knew I was not about to get in there. It just wasn't warm enough for me.

 

 

 

Like always, Sakari makes friends easily.

 

 

 

 

 

Sakari's Patrick imitation. She insisted that I wait for the perfect moment to get his "arm pits sweating out".

 

 

 

 

 

I ran into my friend from the ferry again and we sat down and talked for quite some time. She was so nice and we had some great conversations. I had only wished I had met her earlier in the cruise. It was so nice to be able to chat longer than our short convo in St George. It kept me occupied while Sakari did her thing instead of me being bored sitting there.

 

 

 

 

It was nice talking to you that day Kim and yes we should have met at the beginning of the cruise...your family is lovely and very well mannered...can wait to cruise with you all again...

[SuiteTraveler]

Thank you SuiteTraveler! Maybe that's why I like it so much because of the tingly. Or "effervescent" effect. It's very good. I used to live in Michigan and cannot tell you how many wine tastings I've been too in Traverse City. Wine is a big deal up there. Also I will be traveling to Napa Valley in March and I'm sure we'll be tasting a ton there. Hopefully I'll get adventurous and find another I like!

 

In Napa definitely call ahead and get reservations at the various wineries you want to do tastings at. Not too many do tastings without reservations anymore. I miss the old days when you would just drive up to the winery and meet the vintner and/or owners and tastings were free for everyone. Unfortunately, the bus tours spoiled that. At least with the reservations you can get through a tasting without a large herd of people in the way. The other thing, is they don't have spit buckets anymore - which I miss because I used to taste up to 60 wines in a day at 10 or more vineyards, and the ONLY way to do that was to spit it out. Now, doing 3 or 4 vineyards in a day is a lot.

Edited November 9, 2015 by SuiteTraveler

[SuiteTraveler]

EXACTLY! I go home and have a diet coke or pepsi. Caffeine me up! I so want to be able to say "I'm going home to relax to a nice glass of wine. LOL I swear every nurse I know constantly says this. I swear it's a requirement to be a nurse. I'm not fitting in at the moment. :p

 

Single serves. Now that's what I'm talking about. Can you get this in the grocery store? I sometimes buy the mixed drinks in the single serve. Those are pretty awesome. :p

 

I HAVE to have something that is cold. I just can't drink anything warm (unless it's hot chocolate). I don't do any tea or milk warm or anything else. So, (I'm not sure if this is right or not...) I was told many years ago that the red wines are room temp and white wines are chilled. I remember my very first cruise when I was 22 and the TA had a bottle of wine sent to our table at the MDR. It was the first time I had ever tried wine. Same reaction...yuck. It was a red wine and it was warm. Double yuck. I ask for a glass of ice and I thought the waiters eyes were going to pop out of their sockets. :p

 

Here's the thing with the wine we tried at La Cucina. I would say our palates were clear. We had the wine before we had our food and we didn't have anything to drink (even soft drinks) prior to that. We did also have some bread in between the first few drinks. :o

 

As far as the wine at La Cucina goes, well I would say that wine was probably not a good choice for beginner wine drinkers - I would have ordered the White Zinfandel for you and suggested you wait to try it until some food arrived. If you were still struggling, we'd go to the 7UP plus wine mixture. Wine coolers and also Sangria are a really easy way to begin to get into drinking wine. It is important to understand that wine drinking requires developing a palate and this doesn't happen overnight. I'm sure you have seen when you feed one of your babies a new food, a lot of times they make a funny face, even spit it out. That's because they are using taste buds for the new food that are firing off in excitement about the completely new flavor. However, often, later on, it turns out the child loves whatever food they spit out as a baby. And it is the same for adults and wine drinking. People used to be raised drinking wine every day because potable water was such a problem and there was no such thing as soda pop. Wine was really the ONLY trustworthy beverage and people would have it at every meal. Even kids would drink wine with each meal. Nowadays we have adults who have never tried wine in their lives and it is just a matter of giving yourself the time it takes to develop a palate for wine. You will not like it 100% immediately, but if you have it with some food and continue drinking it every day, in a matter of a few weeks, you will adjust to the wine and appreciate it and from there you can expand your palate to other wines. Going to local wine tastings is a great way to do that. Next thing you know you will be a oenophile and using wine to enhance all your meals, trying lots of different vineyards wines - because even among a variety, one vineyard's version will not taste the same as another's. So you will find that there is a great different in White Zinfandels among the various producers. As you learn more about wine, you will find producers that you like and others that you don't care for. There is a theory that the wine must fit with your DNA and I would say that theory is not so far off base. Sometimes we will find a wine that my husband loves and I hate. It's not the varietal (type of wine) it's the way the wine was made. It will taste good to him, but not to me.

 

I think Copa di Vino is in pretty wide distribution by now. Go to their website and choose the Find Copa option on the top left of the screen and it will take you to a screen where you can put in your location and find out if there are stores in your area that carry it. Or just order a case of it and then drink one everyday until you are used to drinking wine. It really only takes a couple of weeks to completely adjust.

http://www.copadivino.com

 

In general, all white wines and rose's should be 49 - 55 degrees. Red wines are served at 62-68 degrees for optimal flavor. Incidentally, this is why wine glasses have stems. In the later part of the 1700's the French revolutionized the wine making industry in the years leading up to the French revolution, when they discovered how to preserve wine by putting it in a colored bottle and sealing it with a cork and then wax. Prior to that, everyone had used oil soaked rags which only partially worked. Human's had once known how to use cork with wine, but the knowledge was actually lost during the fall of the Roman Empire in about 476. So this French discovery made wine all the rage as it enabled the production of higher quality wines which could be aged. Aging mellows red wine so it not so tannic or acidic. At this time the French also developed all the shapes and colors of wine bottles we have today as well as developing special glasses that had stems in order to keep the wines at the proper temperature for as long as possible. BTW, the correct way to hold a wine glass is by the stem, not the bowl so as not to warm the wine with your hand. Of course, these fancy glasses were adopted by the French aristocracy and used at their State dinners. Thomas Jefferson observed this trend in 1784 when he traveled to France and it is he who influenced George Washington to serve wine at State Dinners in the United States which has been done ever since. Jefferson also brought over French grapevines and planted them - essentially beginning the American wine industry in the United States at his home, Monticello.

[js]

Thank you SO much! I loved reading your review! I wish you much success in school! You will be great! Thanks again!

[retiring soon]

HI all!

 

SuiteTraveler ~ great information about wines.:D I bought Jacob's Creek Moscato which tastes to me like Champagne without bubbles.

 

mitsugirly ~ loved your review as always. I found Snorkel Park to be quite interesting with a museum & swim with the Dolphins place for us non beach lovers.;) You sure saw a lot more sea life than I imagined would be there.

 

Found your list of ships quite interesting. I love Epic too & am back on it for the 4th time this Christmas. Seems there are many factors other than the ship that can influence how you feel about a cruise. Dawn was also my least fav NCL ship & I'm about to try Sky & Sun in 2016 so look forward to that.

 

I've just turned platinum too so look forward to free laundry. I have paid for a bag before & still have the little tags they put on the garments on some items to this day!:eek:

 

I'm wondering will Kenny cruise again?

 

Looking forward to your next cruise. Have you made a decision yet?

 

Good luck to you with your schooling.

 

~ Jo ~ :)

[bearette]

Wine is the perfect drink. It is the only beverage, other than milk that has all the components of food.

 

If you think you are only going to drink 1 glass of wine, then you might be best off with single serve Copa Di Vino White Zinfandel as it comes in its own glass and you can open them one at a time as opposed to opening a whole regular sized bottle which is 4 glasses of wine. Refrigerate before serving.

http://onlinestore.copadivino.com/copa-di-vino-c1.aspx

 

If you want to try a bottle, similar to White Zinfandel but with even more flavor is Gamay Rouge - this is one of my personal favorite sweet wines - it is really a treat and you can order it over the internet:

https://www.vsattui.com/product/GamayRouge

 

This Gamay Rouge is great with most food or just to sip alone. It is meant to be drunk young. It's just a wonderful drinkable wine that even non wine drinkers find delicious. Since 1990 I have always bought at least 1 - 3 cases every year and they have been consistently good. Serve chilled. This wine is ideal for Thanksgiving and great with pizza too. In fact, it goes with almost anything. I just opened one of these bottles of V. Sattui Gamay Rouge - this one from 2011. (An older bottle - so why not get rid of it? This is what happens when I talk about wine, LOL!) The wine is a beautiful light red color. The nose is lemon and strawberries. First sip, I get strawberry fruit punch and roses with a grapefruit tang at the end. The wine paints broad rainbow shaped fingers on side of my glass demonstrating the richness of its sugar content. When I hold the wine in my mouth centered on my tongue, I get the intense flavor of cherry pie. Yes, this is a very drinkable wine. But should you find it too overwhelming on the first try, try it with some white cheese such as brie or Swiss or even string cheese - whatever white cheese you like. This will bend the flavor of the wine to the sweeter side and the tartness in the finish will become milder or even disappear. As you develop your wine palate, the need to use food to bend the wine to your liking will go away. But using a little food when you are a beginner is very helpful.

 

The only issue with Gamay Rouge is that you are not going to be able to get this at most restaurants or on cruise ships unless you bring your own. There is nothing similar on the NCL wine list. So that is my only hesitancy about recommending this wonderful Gamay Rouge wine to you - but once you try this, I think you will be hooked.

 

Here are two high quality (and highly rated) White Zinfandels you can order online:

 

Copper Ridge White Zinfandel (California) $6.99 bottle (Peachy nose, berry flavor)

http://www.winelegacy.com/ItemDetail.aspx?Item_ID=350&Source=copp&gclid=CjwKEAiAgvyxBRDmuviAj67g-XQSJABTLMcHKHxkFWTVDh_WDjT4diSLOfZibdmMb9Tzg7MqvRGjVBoC0vDw_wcB

 

Round Hill White Zinfandel (California) $8.00 (strawberry, lime, watermelon)

http://shop.rutherfordranch.com/SHOP.AMS?LEVEL=MID&CATCODE=RHW

 

Serve the above wines chilled.

 

Since I know you drink a lot of diet Coke, be sure to clear your palate before you drink wine by drinking some water and eating a plain cracker such as a table water cracker or piece of bread. You want your mouth to be as neutral as possible before you drink wine. Even so, it is still possible that the first few sips might seem unpleasant. Drink more water and then go back to the wine and I think you will reach a point where your mouth finally adjusts to the wine and it begins to taste good. This article is very helpful in explaining how to taste wine:

http://www.winemag.com/how-to-taste-wine/

 

More wine information then you ever wanted to know....

I have had that Gamay and it is delicious. We had it in Napa Valley and I am still on their email list. Depending on your state they ship too.

[bearette]

I feel your pain with the school. I am in a doctorate program and it really kills the cruise budget and planning time!

 

Just know you are not alone but it will be worth it in the end.

[scrinchy]

I am almost as sad to reach the end of your cruises as I am my own. I really enjoy your reviews and love watching your family in the pictures. Thank you again for all the work you put in on your reviews.

 

Julie

[my_crib_too]

Then the driver said "I tell you what, one of you come with me and I'll show you and bring you back and then you can show the rest." Say what? How nice....or...someone was about to get kidnapped. LOL I would volunteer my husband. haha. The rest of the kids said "if you could just pile us all in there, we don't require seats and can even hang on the roof" hehe...of course they were just joking...or were they? He laughed and said he would get in trouble for having passengers in the work van and we completely understood.

 

The hubby got into the van with the guy we didn't know, I gave him "that look", kissed him goodbye and assured him that I would take good care of our daughter as she grew up. Of course he squinted his eyes at me and my last memories of him would be a cold glare from his eyes as he pulled away.

 

Since THIS time we DID know that we were at least headed toward a bus stop, we started back tracking and walking in the other direction again...while we all contemplated if the hubby would come back. Some said "So do you think he'll come back? Or do you think he'll have him drop him off at the end of the street so he don't have to walk that far and meet us there...because that's what I would do." LOL Other's said "You think it was safe to get in the car with a stranger? I'm glad it wasn't me." Others said "So what would you do if he don't come back?" Courtney, which the the weird one of the bunch said "So, do you think you'll ever remarry?" LOLOLOLOL Geesh people.

 

So I'm not a widow and we didn't spend the rest of the time in Bermuda with a search party...he returned and had to walk with us.

 

 

 

 

Kim:

 

Great review and like always, I enjoyed the read. This takes so much time to put together, thank you.

 

After reading your review, the comment above kind of stuck with me. (I am just joking from this point forward) After all the time you have invested in Cruise Critic with your many wonderful reviews, you are a Cruise Critic celebrity. :eek: After an appropriate mourning period, I think the people of Cruise Critic would step up. Everyone sees the fun you have on your vacations, you would get invited along on lots and lots of cruises. Plenty of Cruise Critic members would step up and being a celebrity here, you would have the pick of the litter. Only Heaven Suites and Garden Villas for Kim. :D:D:D

[antsnanny]

So excited to see your review Mitsugirly! I was on the Dawn a week after you and came home with bronchitis just like you - can't wait to read your comparisons of the two Bermuda cruises!

 

We did the Dawn to Bermuda in August and 5 days after getting off the ship I came down with Whooping Cough!

[mawvkysc]

I am cold natured too. So I was wondering if you need sweaters indoors at night on the ship?

 

Also, I was just flipping through a magazine of mine and saw this article. It is super interesting about parrot fish. Here is a link. http://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/g201506/parrot-fish-facts-sand-maker/#?insight[search_id]=f384f2bc-8a0d-4a89-80a6-f54c5e47a9af&insight[search_result_index]=0

[CAC104]

We did the Dawn to Bermuda in August and 5 days after getting off the ship I came down with Whooping Cough!

 

:eek::mad::(That is downright scary!!!! Were you very sick with it? I assume you are older and were vaccinated as a baby.

 

My husband has not sailed since having a lung transplant three years ago. He finally decided he wants to go again, and we are on the Summit next June to Bermuda. It would be a death sentence for him to get something like this. at least the Celebrity Summit has mostly an older crowd.