an overview of our cruise vacation

i really enjoy cruising.  i like the idea of visiting multiple destinations in 1 week without the hassle of lugging my carry-on all over town and packing and unpacking at multiple hotels.  i also like the fact that i can eat whenever i want and not worry about where to go for my next meal.  not everyone likes cruising but i would suggest that if you have a chance, at least go on one cruise and experience it for yourself.  they are inexpensive considering you have all your meals and your hotel combined in one price.  

this is our 3rd cruise, our 2nd time in the caribbean, and the 1st time with friends. 

we took the red eye flight from SFO to FLL on Friday night.  traveling to the east coast is easy - the flight is a 'short' 4.5 hours but since it's a red eye flight, that means less time to try and get some sleep before the cruise.  michelle slept throughout the flight and was knocked out even before the plane took off.  don't even ask me how much sleep i got.   

we arrived in fort lauderdale at around 7 am and checked our bags with a company called, Bags to Go.  they took our bags ($6 for each bag) and the next time we saw them was in our cabin on the cruise ship.  i highly suggest doing this if you arrive early before your cruise vacation.  we went to Denny's for some breakfast and then we took the trolly to see parts of the city.  at around 11 am, we went to the cruise terminal to check in. 

waiting for the trolley in fort lauderdale

in all 3 cruises, checking in has always been an easy process.  imagine the logistics they had to prepare in order to smoothly and quickly check-in all 2,000 passengers for a ship...it's quite a feat.  it did involve walking...a whole lot of walking.  in order to avoid 2,000 people piling up on each other, everything was spread out across multiple levels and wide floor space.  from the time we got into the terminal door and in to our cabins...it probably took no more than 20 minutes and that includes taking the 'obligatory' picture before you enter the ship. 

just girls

i find the caribbean sea to be a lot more motion-sickness inducing.  i got a few bad headaches during this trip.  chel battled nausea and lost the battle several times.  i have to remind myself to get a scopolamine patch before we cruise again...yes, we're already sort of planning our next cruise vacation with friends and family...2013, to alaska!

each night, michelle looks forward to the towel animals that the house keeping team puts together.  one night, i wasn't feeling too well so i refused the turn down service, but i requested for the towel animals so michelle won't be disappointed when she goes back to the room.


michelle is old enough to go to the kids area during the trip called Club HAL.  they have a full program to keep the kids occupied during the trip (it's like free baby sitting!).  i was looking forward to this, but of course, my daughter does not want to spend time there and chose to stay with the adults the entire time.  she was there for 1 event, for 1.5 hours, and that was it.  oh well!  the good thing about michelle is that she is very well adjusted and can hang out with the adults with no problems.  she became very attached to her tito rj.  buti mabait si tito rj.  =D

best buds on the trip

our cabin was nice and small...all cabins are small but very very efficient.  we even had a bath tub in our bathroom.  service is always excellent.  food was good.  we sailed on the Eurodam which is the largest Holland America Ship (capacity of a little over 2,000 passengers) but considered mid-sized by industry standards.  royal caribbean has two giant ships sailing right now, both can accomodate 5,000 passengers.  one of them, the allure of the seas (royal caribbean) was docked at st. thomas at the same time we were..our ship had 19 kids on board, the allure had 1,900 kids on board.  it was probably a lot more quiet on our ship than theirs.  =)


any way, more cruise blog to come shortly!    

invisalign

i'm getting my invisalign braces tomorrow!

hurrah!  i can't eat on thanksgiving day!!!!  woot woot!

=(




cruise vacation blog entries will be entered during the holiday break. 

am i spoiling my daughter?

sometimes i ask myself this question.

i don't know if i'm giving her too much...but i know i'm not giving her too little.  we provide all of her needs and i think enough of her wants so she does not feel deprived but i wonder where do we draw the line?

you know why i'm thinking about this?  last night, michelle fell asleep at her usual bed time while i was busy packing our things for the trip...she woke up at around 9 pm and i had to bribe her to go back to sleep.  now that i'm writing that down, i probably shouldn't have bribed her.  maybe i feel guilty about that.  do you know what i bribed her with????  it's not some extravagant toy or anything like that.  it's gum.  i bribed my daughter with gum!  she had just discovered the joys of blowing bubble gum and she had ran out of the sweet, chewy goodness.  i told her last night that if she goes back to bed and does not go to mommy and daddy's room in the middle of the night, that i would buy her some gum.  she asked me for 5 little packs of gum and i said yes (we're going on vacation and i'm sure gum would be expensive on the cruise ship!).  but she didn't do her end of the deal and she still went to our room in the middle of the night.  so this morning, i told her the deal was off the table and she looked so disappointed! 

so my question is, if i buy her gum, does that mean i'm spoiling her?  if i don't buy her gum, does that make me a mean mom?

you'd think these things were easy, right?  but it's the pattern of both our behaviours that i'm trying to make sure is aligned. 

i feel like i'm making a trip to walgreens in a few minutes and indulge my daughter's request for 5 packets of gum.  i'm a wuss.  =(

operation christmas child

i'm posting this to encourage you all to make a donation to operation christmas child.  


here's what we put together...

 for the little boy (age 2-4)

for the little girl (age 2-4)

we'll add some candy to the box (no chocolates!) and pray for each child.  we really have to share our blessings!

where in the world is carmen san diego?

do you all remember this? 

i remember spending hours in the computer room at my elementary school playing this game over and over until i caught carmen san diego!  back then, computers were too expensive for even a middle class family [in the philippines] to purchase but i was blessed to have gone to a school that had computers and offered classes as early as the mid/late 80s (oh wow, i'm dating myself too much!).  the game created in me a 'love' for geography, history, trivia, and travel!  and now that i am much older, i credit 'carmen san diego' for my ability to answer questions on jeopardy regarding geography, world capitals, and world cities. 

i read in the news today that j. lo. might be playing carmen san diego in the film adaptation of the game.  it got me excited and i feel like i'm 9 years old all over again!!!!  =D

i really hope they make the movie and recreate the game and the tv series so that my daughter can watch them.  i never saw the series...that was way before we moved to the states and it wasn't shown in the philippines, but i'm sure it was great! 

make a difference this christmas

ever since i became a parent, the plight of needy children has been even closer to my heart.  this year, at michelle's school, i learned about a wonderful cause called Operation Christmas Child from the Samaritan's Purse Organization where we are encouraged to put together one shoe box full of little things (toys, toothbrush, pencils, etc.) and send it to a child in need.  it is such a good cause and if you can see the video of the children when they receive their boxes, you'll see the joy in their faces.  i was moved to tears when i saw this and so, michelle will put together 1 box for a little girl and paul and i will put together another box for a little boy.  i know it's not much, but every little bit helps...and doing one little thing is better than doing nothing. 

so please, if you have $20 or less to spare, please consider putting together a shoe box full of hope for a child in need. 

the website again is www.samaritanspurse.org.  please go to the website and get the full details on how you can put together a shoe box for the children.  thank you in advance for your support and may God richly bless you for your generosity!