My Carnival Cruise (Photo Heavy)

I'm baaaaaaaaaaack!!!!

To say I had a great time on my vacation (a birthday present to myself) is indeed an understatement. I spent 8 glorious days aboard Carnival Victory with a few friends (we were actually a group of 6 within a group of 77). It was something that I desperately needed. It's amazing how rejuvenated I felt at the end of my trip. I think everyone needs a little getaway every now and again.

I missed my boys like crazy while I was gone as this was the longest I've ever been away from them; but I can't lie, not having to cook, change diapers, or here my name called 50 million times a day for 8 days was a nice break.

I laughed like crazy, awakened early, went to bed late, watched movies under the stars, zoomed down a giant water slide, danced in one too many line dances, including a really, really long conga line, and ate and drank a lot...and I loved every single second of it. This was my 5th cruise, my 3rd with Carnival. I've always had pretty good experiences with cruises, but there's just something about Carnival's party/dancing good time atmosphere that keeps me coming back! The service on board is unparalleled!!

Our group flew to Puerto Rico to board the ship. We visited: St. Thomas, Dominica, Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Kitts, and St. Martin/St. Maarten. I'm happy to say that I actually came back home with money in my pockets. I saw a T-shirt in one of the shops that read "same shit, different island" which got a little chuckle out of me because it pretty much summed up the shopping atmosphere. I did purchase some beverages that you have to be over 21 to drink, LOL, a couple of dresses for myself and some things for the boys, which they loved. I took just over 500 pictures, but by the time I deleted some, I'm down to about 395. I'm sharing a few here in this post.

St. Kitts


A sunset I captured after sailing away from St. Kitts


Leaving St. Maarten-- I toured both the French and Dutch sides of the island and visited a butterfly farm. I'll share butterfly pictures in another post.


Donna, Cherre, Champagne, and me in St. Lucia


I saw this beautiful rooster on my walk to the flea market in Castries, St. Lucia


A fisherie in Castrie, St. Lucia


One foggy morning on the way to St. Kitts

Fun Ship Freddy joined us for one of the deck parties

St. Kitts from the balcony of my cabin


Captain's Night

One of the many delicious meals that I ate


After 7 years, I decided to say the heck with the flaws, I'm wearing a 2 piece damn it!!

Dominica


Dominica from the Lido deck


A steel drum player-- his smile is infectious and he sort of looks like Steve Harvey


Our cruise ship taken from the tour we went on in St. Thomas


me in St. Thomas

Sunrise on the way to St. Thomas


As you can see, I had a wonderful time!! There was one incident that occurred on my way back home...I was going through security at the airport in PR and I realized that the main diamond from my engagement ring was gone. I was so upset because I had worn that ring just about everyday for nearly 11 years, but there was really nothing that I could do about it. It was a big deal, but not enough to put a damper on my trip. I can only hope that one day Troy takes it to the jeweler for repair.

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today. I hope you've had as much fun looking at the pictures as I had taking them. I have more from the butterfly farm to share this weekend.

Awesome Teaching Opportunity

I cannot even begin to tell you how purely thrilled I am to announce that I'm going to be teaching scrapbooking classes aboard a cruise next year!!! My stomach is doing flip flops of happiness...I could just burst!!!

Want to know what will make me even happier? Getting the opportunity to see some of my online scrappy buddies on that cruise!! We would have such a crazy fun time and Croptopia Getaways knows how to throw an awesome crop!!! I just returned from their cruise a few days ago and let me tell you...spoiled is not the word! All of the cruise details are in this post! If you decide to join us, just let them know I referred you, OK!!

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Format of Event – based on your feedback, we are thrilled to announce that this cruise will again be a project based cruise! We’ll have a full schedule of classes, mini workshops and make & takes so there won’t be a need for you to lug all your scrapbooking supplies UNLESS you would like to use the open studio time each evening to crop. The schedule will be very similar to this year’s with the exception of one mini project each evening after dinner and then we are going to invite you to enjoy the shipboard activities with us (or of course you can take advantage of open studio time if you wish!) Sharon and Lisa from Right At Home will have a “Supply Bag” that you will be able to pre-order and in it will be all the products you will need for the week so you COULD come aboard with just your clothes if you wish. Details on this will be forthcoming.

We hope to see you all next year and don’t forget about our land event at the Hanover Marriott in Whippany, New Jersey March 26-28….

Date: October 9- October 14, 2010
Ship: Explorer of the Seas
Departure Port: Cape Liberty, New Jersey
Destination: Bermuda

Guest Instructors: Tanisha Long, Right at Home Scrapbooking and Cara Miller.

Your Ultimate Cruise Getaway Includes:
All classes, mini workshops and make-and-take projects
Open Studio time
Surprise gifts and goodies
Private Farewell Cocktail Party
Shop ‘til your hearts content in our Marketplace at Sea

Bonus: $50 per cabin shipboard credit to spend as you like!

Price:
955.15 inside cabin (Cat Q)
1,055.15 outside cabin (Cat I)
1,205.15 balcony cabin (Cat E2)
*Price includes all taxes, port charge and scrapbooking fee. (*Scrapbooking fee payable to Croptopia Getaways but is included in pricing)
*Platinum members deduct $50 per cabin for balconies, Diamond members deduct $100 per cabin for balconies.
Pricing for single supplement, triple/quad occupancy available.
Alternative cabin categories available, contact us for pricing.
Non-scrapbooking family and friends may deduct $200.

Deposit: $100 per person due with registration. $200 Scrapbook Fee payable to Croptopia Getaways prior to 7/15/10. Final payment due on or before 7/15.

As The Old Addage Goes...

There's no such thing as a free lunch. Remember the cruise that I won? Well, not included in the prize package were these pesky little fees called taxes and port fees of approx $254 per person that I have to pay. Well that little unforeseen price tag for my "free" trip left me in a bit of a tight spot. As you may know from reading my blog, as of August 7th, I will no longer have a job and right now, I can't see justifying paying over $500 for a trip that I hadn't planned on taking knowing full well that the money could be better used somewhere else.

I had actually thought about forfeiting the trip, which made me feel sad because I had already told my mom that I was taking her with me. She has never ever gone on a real vacation and I know she'll love the cruise.

So what's a girl to do, I thought? I decided to talk it over with the hubster and see what his feelings about the whole issue were. You know what? He offered to pay the fees! Isn't he awesome? I'm still a little leery about going though because it's still money unexpectedly coming out of our household at a really bad time!