Our life, our way

So as of last week, its official. Brian and I are headed on another cruise! This time we are taking my mom. She’s pretty excited. I think she wishes she had some of her friends that would go with her but she is excited nonetheless.

Back in college, she told me she want to go on a cruise. I had researched it a bit and realized that she better do it soon before they started requiring passports. It seemed to cost a fortune to me back in the day and we never made it.

Now that I know the truth about cruising and vacationing on a ship, it truly is my vacation of choice. Too bad, I can’t get everywhere by ship.  There is just something relaxing about knowing that no one is gonna call you. I miss the internet a bit but it forces me to not rely on my computer to be my source of entertainment. We get to spend quality time together. We chat and talk.

And its comforting to know that I can enjoy a cheap cruise line like Carnival for a quick get away.   I plan on trying the other lines like Celebrity and Holland or Princess one day, but for now, in our current financial situation, its nice to know Carnival is there.

For the price of what we paid for airline tickets to Seattle for two last year, we booked a 4-day cruise for 3. We selected the Carnival Fascination again because we’ve been on it before. Our hope is that a familiar ship and port will help us make Mom’s first experience 100% relaxing.

I don’t foresee her doing too much at port. We might see if we can get some shopping in. I think bingo and the casino will be big.

Bahamas here we come!

Okay, so its a bit delayed…well maybe really delayed. But here are pictures from our trip to Seattle to visit Lauren and Mike and also to join them on a cruise to Alaska! They are books. You can click on image and be able to flip the pages.

Returning from our second cruise, I felt I should write a little something about our experience.   We again chose Carnival because we had such an amazing experience last March to the Carribean. This time is was on an older ship, the Carnival Fascination, headed to the Bahamas. Half Moon Cay is a Private Island owned by Carnival’s sister line, Holland America. We also stopped at Nassau, Bahamas.  Motivation for this particular ship and itinerary was

1. It was in Jacksonville, FL and thus within driving distance. No flights needed. Yay!
2. You can’t beat the price. We originally were going to go in Jan which would have only been $600 for the both of us. But due to work schedules we ended up with a Feb cruise for $750 for both of us for 5 nights.

Embarkation/Debarkation:

We arrived at port around 10:30am instead of the 12pm listed in the Carnival paperwork. It was a good thing we did too because the place was starting to fill up. Overall, getting on board was quick and easy. I was worried about debarkation since we bought more liquor than the allowed duty free amount. The morning of debarkation, we had to go meet a customs agent and declare our items. I told him I had 8 liters, he initialed it and I was off. I didn’t have to pay any duty on it. After that, we basically walked off the ship and through customs with a 2 second delay just to had them the customs form. Much easier than we expected.

Half Moon Cay:

We seriously thought about getting an excursion, but after reading all the reviews we decided to just enjoy a beach day per everyone’s recommendation. I really wanted to do the horseback riding on the beach. It just sounds romantic but I guess reality might have been different. We had to tender in and since we got up late, we had a little trouble finding an “ideal” location to settle in at. But as we kept walking further from the tender, we were able to find some lounge chairs. The water was absolutely beautiful! It was shallow enough that I was comfortable hanging out in the water with Brian for quite a while. Staff from the ship brought food ashore to cook lunch for us. BBQ, burgers, hot dogs, etc. Not excellent but not bad either.

Nassau:

We were planning on getting up early and taking a bus over to Adastra but since we were on vacation that didn’t happen. LOL. We got up in time for lunch on board and then headed to the Gangway to get off and wait for our bus to go “Discover Atlantis.” I have to say the place was beautiful. The dig and Aquariam was really nice. We wish we could have seen more of Nassau itself but that can be for another trip.

On Board:

As always, we drank our fair share of alcohol. From the wonderful forums, we did find out that we can order liquor from Bon Voyage to have waiting in our stateroom. We opted for a bottle of Absolute Vodka. Speaking of stateroom, we had an ocean view. We really just wanted an interior. This is just suppose to be a cheap get away after all. But the upgrade fairy called and tried to get me to move up to a balcony for a fee. I opted to take a free upgrade to ocean view instead. I guess they needed the interior rooms to sell. The ship was full.

We opted for “Your Time Dining” so we can just eat whenever. The first two nights were loved the food but were disappointed in the wait staff. They weren’t very interactive. On our third night, we were seated with a wonderful head waitress named Nanka. We had such a good time we requested her every time afterwards. The beauty of your time dining allows us to sit by ourselves when we want or choose to share a table when we feel like being social. We sat with others one night and they were all very nice.

Carnival has changed a little since we last cruised. They have implemented a comedy club on all ships. There were two comedians on board and a show or two every night. That’s where we spent a good bit of our evening. Tommy Drake was amazing! Scotty K was pretty awesome too. Most nights we arrived early to get good seats but Brian didn’t want to sit in the front row for fear that we would be a target of a joke. By the last night, Brian decided it wouldn’t be bad and opted to sit in the front. Well……that would be the night the front row was targeted just a little more. Brian got called a red neck. After picking on Brian for a while, Scotty K pulled me in. I can’t remember the joke but it had to do with Philipinos and Vietnamese. It would have to be that moment I had to go to the restroom. As I got up he asked if I was offended.

Scotty K: “She must be Philopino.”
Brian: “No, she’s Vietnamese” (the entire room laughs as I quickly walk out)
Scotty K: “oh!!!! Me Love you long time!” (yes, of course….right?)

It was a great time!

Overall:

There were several things that could be approved and it was definitely not as awesome as our first cruise. We will eventually try other lines but will to Carnival again. AND we would even go on the same ship and same or similar itinerary again.

Feb 24, 2011 – Brian and I got the opportunity to watch STS-133 Shuttle launch from Titusville, FL. It was Discovery’s last and final mission. We were fortunate to find a very quiet location with shade. It was fairly empty when we arrived whereas the beaches and Space view Park was already packed. It was perfect!

So its our first Christmas as Mr. and Mrs. Brian did such a wonderful job with all the lights outside (in freezing temperature).

We cruise in 189 days! Woot!

Oddly enough that is one of the things i enjoy about Carnival’s website. I log in and it tells me how many more days I have until we cruise. Weird…dorky…I know.

So where are we going? ( If you much ask then you must not visit our main site much)

We are headed to the bahamas. I’m so ready for a vacation. 5 days away from the world. No cell phones.

I am a bit saddened by the idea that I can’t go ahead and pick excursions. Apparently that kind of stuff is not available until somewhere between 90 to 120 days before the sailing date. I guess last time we did book a lot later.

We could have waited since we were going with past guest rates and not the early saver deal but the big thing was the rooms were filling up and the ship is smaller than before. We didn’t want to end up in a room that wasn’t ideally located.

It wasn’t bad but last time the floor below us was the casino and on the last night we could here the players screaming as they won. Wasn’t horrible but this time we picked a floor that is buffered on top and bottom by more rooms. Lets see how it works. We also wanted to make sure we were mid-ship. Lauren had a room at the front of the ship last time. It was not bad but you could definitely notice a difference in the amount the room moved. Fingers crossed and here’s hoping it will be yet another great vacation!

Okay, so perhaps we can’t. But our friends sound A LOT better than us.

Well….not really. So we went to see Dead Bob at the Shakespeare’s Tavern and what happens? Brian ends on onstage AGAIN! This is the third time since we’ve been together. We are averaging once a year. How can Brian deny that I’m his good luck charm? LOL

They were doing a short skit of Hamlet. Brian had one line and a death scene too. He gracefully fell to the ground. Perhaps if this whole IT thing doesn’t work out then he might have a career in theater.

Unfortunately we are not allowed to take pictures.

Everyone told me that the special day will go by very quickly. Most times the bride and the groom don’t get to sit down and take it all in. “Not me” I said.

Well, why else would we have a small wedding. I wanted to be able to see everyone…talk to everyone. AND WE DID!!!

It was such a wonderful wedding. I am so proud of my family and friends for being such good sports about everything. LOL. The weather was perfect…not too hot or cold. No rain. No missing vendors. All of our guests were able to come to town minus the few that told us ahead of time that they couldn’t come. Pics and video will follow soon…as soon as we get them that is.

The morning started off pretty quiet. Felt a little weird. My family had to go to the store. I was home by myself getting hair and make-up done. It was relaxing though. Promptly at 12:30 vendors arrived as we were putting our finishing touches up. I got a call from Lauren a little later that the limo was there and they were headed over. This is when I got a little nervous. Not that they were really headed over to pick up the bride but how was everyone going to do. We really had everyone participating in the event. They were magnificent! hehehehe

I even got a joke in when Brian was putting the jewelry on. I think I fooled a few thinking Brian hurt my ear with the earrings.

After the very short tea ceremony at the house we all (minus mom and phong) headed over to the Dover rental home. I have to say, Ian did a great job decorating. Yay! Good thing Brian didn’t have to. Tea ceremony there went well. Poor Ian, he drank his tea…gave his “words of wisdom” and then got up from his chair. What about our good luck money? No worries, it was in his pocket.

Off to the venue for the “white people” ceremony. We had lots of time for pics so that was good. 5 minutes till 4pm Krista pulled us all into the reception room to wait for the moment. All guest were rounded up and sent to the back to get seated.  This is when the officiant says he is very nervous…

The ceremony was short, sweet and to the point. I think it took a total of 7 minutes according to the videographer.

Brian sealed the deal with a dip-kiss. It was perfect.

We went off to take pics with the photographer and videographer while everyone else started on horderves and cocktails. I was a little sad. I really wanted some food too. I picked it out after all. We get back right before 5pm to get ready for our introduction and the lead in to dinner. Surely all the horderves were gone! We do our amazing first dance. Yes, I said, “amazing.” LOL Everyone had good things to say. I finally sit down at my seat and Jamie, the event coordinator, had made us some plates with horderves. She then even got us drinks and our meals. Bless her heart. That was wonderful.

We started the night with a karaoke song before opening it up for dancing. Most everyone did dance but more importantly, most everyone sang a karaoke song or more. I had such a great time. Thank you to all for coming and being with us on our day!

A selection of pics from our engagement/pre-wedding pics taken by Springfield Photography (www.springfieldphotography.com).

Thanks so much for a fun day!

We didn’t use any of them for a newspaper announcement or anything. But then again, how many people still do that? But its good that we wear able to were our ao dais because we will be selecting one to blow up for the signature frame at the wedding. We don’t need a guest book. I’d much rather have the frame. We can hang it in the room and everytime we see it,  remember everyone that will be able to be there at our wedding.