This Monday I have so many dreams. Most of them involve traveling to many places with my family.

The most vivid one for me today however is the dream of going back on the big ship and cruising again to fun places in different port of call. I wouldn’t call us an expert in cruising by any means. We have only been to Disney Cruise and Carnival Cruise with our kids. But I can say that cruising with kids is one of our favorite non-stress vacation we have had.

It also helps to have been following Randy from The Lollipop Road as he is live-blogging and tweeting from the sea.

Check out a month long event from his blog as he talks about his experience on board 3 of the most popular cruise lines – Carnival, Disney and Norwegian.

So far, I have enjoyed reading about the shore excursions which Randy provided insightful information on DIY vs Cruise Line tour, the review of kid’s programs from both Camp Carnival and Disney’s Oceaneer Club, and the tips & tricks for family cruising.

Now, there is more to this month-long program than just information to help family understand and gain more information on cruising with kids, they will also give out the prizes at the end of this event. All you have to do is check out their event page to see how you can enter for a chance to win a prize.

Check out other travelers’ dream at Mondays are for dreaming at Mother of All Trips.

Thanks for reading my feed. Please stop by to say hi or leave a comment! :) Dreaming of: Cruising with Kids (Again and again and again) is a post from: The Q Family Adventures Travel Blog

One of the fun thing we looked forward to on our Carnival Cruise was the towel animal that would be waiting for us on our bed or inside our room. We didn’t know what we will find so it was a big fun for the kids.

Here are animals we found in our cabin on our Carnival Cruise a couple years ago. Enjoy! :)

Check out other travelers’ Photo Friday at Delicious Baby.

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Thanks for reading my feed. Please stop by to say hi or leave a comment! :) Little Zoo Aboard Carnival Cruise is a post from: The Q Family Adventures Travel Blog

This post continues on my cruising saga in the past couple weeks starting from why we love cruising with our kids and showing how I save on planning our cruise vacation.

Once all the planning is done, you would think that you are done with spending. Not so fast! It’s true that cruising is All-Inclusive which mean everything is included in the cost except your own spending on the boat and off the boat.

So today I want to share 5 Expenses that you might not have thought or aware of when planning a cruise vacation and ways to keep the lid on those expenses so you won’t have to come home with a huge bill waiting after the fun vacation.

1. Watch Out those Fancy Drinks

We don’t drink period. Mr. Rojo has some scare about his liver enzyme a few years ago so we practically cut out all alcohol beverage from our house. So it does help us cut down dramatically on the spending in this category.

Some cruise line will provide free soda drink (like Disney) but some cruise line will only provide water and ice tea. So if you can’t live without soda, you can bring your own in your suitcase.

As for wine and other beverage, I’m not quite sure since I didn’t even bother to check. But I believe you can bring one bottle per person. Check with your cruise line on their rule.

Check on cruise boards like Cruise Critic or Cruise Mates on more tips to cut down on beverage cost.

2. Portrait Picture? What pictures?

Family portrait on the cruise is a big business and a money maker for cruise line. You can end up spending a fortune if you blindly pick every single pictures ever taken on the ship.

If you think you absolutely must have those portrais, check out a package and see if you can get discount.

I have seen the light and aren’t too crazy about those pictures so we came out pretty good at the end with a couple pictures of our whole family. That’s pretty much what we got.

3. The Shopping Spree

In each port of call, you will most likely have a flyer in your room the night before about the great discount if you shop at certain approved store. I rarely look at those. I LOVE to shop. Who doesn’t. But I also love to explore and spend my money on something else that I couldn’t have when we are back home. Buying a watch or jewelry isn’t high on my list.

But if it’s what you are looking for, then shop smart and watch out for your budget. This one is a big one that can blow a big hole in your wallet if you are not careful.

I don’t have much self-controlled myself when it comes to shopping. So I set a limit on 1 sourvenir per person per port. At least they will get to pick something from each place that we visit. For the kids, I told them $10 maximum and Miss J has learned that rule by heart. It’s all about training them young. :)

4. Tips

Alright, yes maybe they did tell you about tips. But most people forget or didn’t think about adding it up until the last day. The cruise line is pretty good at providing the information of suggested tip per person per night. The tip ranges from $10-$15 per person per day.

I have also heard that some cruise lines have moved to add service charges instead of tipping. So make sure to check your cruise cost before shelling out those cash at the end of your trip.

5. Expense on Port of Call Day

The port of call day is pretty much a free style day. You can do whatever you want. Majority of passengers choose to disembark and enjoy sightseeing or exploring the city for a day.

If you plan to explore, don’t forget the cost of food and transportation during the day as it does not include in your cruise cost. The ship still provided food on board but most countries have strict rule of bringing fresh food, fruit and vegetable to their countries. So you can either eat before you leave, plan and budget for local food (which I love to do. Otherwise why visit if you didn’t get to taste local food), or pack package food that allows through custom.

Another expense during the port of call day that can be a major budget buster is the excursion fee. Try to avoid the idea of doing it all. I try to limit to one excursion per port. You will have less than 5-8 hours at the port so make sure that you check all the excursion time and length before signing up. Remember that the excursions provided by local companies are for all cruise ships so they might not know about your ship time.

Is there other expenses that I might have missed from your past cruise experience?

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As most of you guys know we love to travel with our kids. I love to try different kinds of adventures for my kids whether it’s just a day trip or a weekend trip. But most of all, I always always dream up our vacation trips. I try not to stick to one type of vacation. I believe in exploring different kinds of traveling like cruising, city sightseeing or road trips and going out of our comfort zone like camping.

We have done various types of traveling but still have yet many more to explore. One of many memorable trips we had and have been on top of our list is Cruising.

Here are our 5 reasons why we love cruising with kids and I think if you haven’t done so at least you might want to consider it.

1. Great Kids Club

There are plenty of activities for them to do on the ship that are organized by staffs. It is a great way for them to have fun with kids of their own ages and a great escape for us to have some time alone.

Don’t like organized activities? Kids can also enjoy swimming in the pool, explore the ship, or playing putt-putt on the deck. And sometimes, just sitting at the back of the ship watching white foamy wave from the ship can take up the whole afternoon.

2. No more ‘What to eat’ question

Deciding what to eat each day is one of the most stressful for any family vacation. For cruising, this problem is solved and I don’t have to worry about planning. Food is easily accessible 24/7. There is something for everyone even the most picky eater of the family.

Our absolute favorite is unlimited soft serve ice cream. We could live on those!

3. Set Budget

We *try* to set our budget for every vacation trip. But most of the time, we ended up spending more than we plan. It’s just what it is. Cruising helps us sticking to our budget because everything is pre-paid. Food, accommodation, transportation and excursion can be paid in advance. So we know how much our vacation will cost. Plus most of the time, you will have to pay certain amount before cruise date. So it helps not having a big bill at the end.

4. Destinations Buffet

I consider our cruising to each port of call as ‘Destination Buffet’. We get to see what each city is like. Try it out and we can come back later for longer stay. It gives us a chance to visit several difference places without going bankrupt. It’s a great introduction to different cultures and experiences.

Also traveling with kids to various cities in one trip can be a hassle. Cruising helps eliminate that issue. You don’t have to check-in your luggage to the airport to fly to different cities. You don’t have to pack and unpack your luggage at each location once you arrive. If you are the only one who pack and unpack, you will really appreciate this benefit!

5. You can do Nothing or Everything

A lot of times, I have heard people who said they don’t think they will like cruising because they afraid they will get bored. Well, I can say that there are more activities than more days on the ship. So you will never get bored. And at each port of call, you have options to do NOTHING or do ANYTHING that you love. It’s for both adventurous and non-adventurous type.

For family with kids, just spending time at the beach at the port of call can be the most amazing time for them. The best part it’s free. And if your kids are older and want to do more then you can also plan excursion that suit them.

Just talking about it make me want to start planning our next cruise.

So have you cruised before? If so, tell us why your love cruising.

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This is the picture from our first cruise experience with Disney Cruise. It was one of the most memorable vacation with our kids. At first we didn’t know what to expect and weren’t sure if we would enjoy stuck in a ship for the full 4 days. I guess if we had to be stuck anywhere, Disney was a good bet to be stuck with.

The Disney ship is not as big as other more popular cruise lines like Carnival or Royal Carribean.  But what lack in size, they made up in design, deco and services. As soon as we stepped on the ship, we almost forgot that we were on a cruise ship instead on another one of Disney Theme park except it was floating! There were plenty of activities everyday that we lost count and couldn’t possibly do everything. One of the fun activity that kids of all ages would enjoy was meeting the characters. It was like our little treasure hunt game.

When we went on the cruise, Mr. Z just turned 2. People might not feel like it’s worth the money to do the cruise when he was that young. But with Disney Cruise, it was well worth it. we didn’t have to pay for the kid price so we only had to pay for tax and port fee. Money saving alert!! :) There were plenty activities for him to do and they also provided baby sitting service if we required. Another big plus for parent with toddler was a separate pool that Disney built just for the baby and toddler who are still in diaper. In other cruise lines, kids in diaper are prohibited to use the pool and there are no other options for parents.

A private island – Castaway Cay was one of our favorite as well. We could roam the island and enjoy a relaxing day on the beach. There were food serving all day. There were plenty of water and beach activities for the whole family and there were also kids club lead by Disney employees for youngster to enjoy time alone from the parents.

I can’t wait till we plan for another cruise trip. This time I want to stay longer!

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Thanks for reading my feed. Please stop by to say hi or leave a comment! :) The Happiest Place on Earth (or Water?) is a post from: The Q Family Adventures Travel Blog

There is a saying about cruising that you either hate it or love it. We are on the LOVE IT camp. We have been to 2 cruises so far and both of them on the Carribean.

Our first cruise had set the bar pretty high seeing that we went to Disney Cruise Line. It was everything you expected from Disney and more. The food was amazing and abundant. We loved to order milk and cookie to end our night. The cabin was arranged in a way that you didn’t feel cramp even for a family of 4. It was our first cruise so we were pretty green and I didn’t do much planning on the excursion. Nonetheless, activities available on the ship were plenty to keep the whole family entertained.
The next cruise was with Carnival Cruise Line. That trip we headed to Jamica, Cozumel and Grand Cayman. The ship might not be as nicely decorated as Disney Cruise but the service was up to par. We had as much fun as our Disney cruise. Surprisingly, Miss J and Mr. Z seemed to feel more comfortable with the kid camp program with Carnival. Maybe because they were older or maybe because it was more intimated. We don’t know but we would like to find out by going on a cruise again.

So today I’m dreaming of getting on another ship, being greeted by cold drink and cool breeze, enjoying pool side fun, eating till I can put any more food, getting to know other destination even for one day, oh.. so many things to do.

Picking a ship is almost as important as picking a destination. Not all ships go to the same destination so it depends on your preference.

So if I want to pick based on ship, I would love to try Royal Carribean Cruise Line next. I have heard so much great thing about them as one of the best cruise line for family. The Freedom class ships will allow us to try the surf board, the rock climbing and the water slide. What fun would that be!

If I want to pick based on destination, my other dream cruising is Hawaii. I think it will be a good introduction to see all the islands. It doesn’t mean that it’s the way to do it but I think it’s a great start. Then we can use that experience to explore our favorite island.

This post is part of Monday are for Dreaming at The Mother of All Trips. Check out other traveler’s dream.

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Sometimes (or most of the time) the best experience we have had during our traveling is when we didn’t plan for.. This is one of the case. During our cruise trip on Carnival, after we had checked the kids in for their kiddie program, we walked around and stumbled upon the English tea at the cigar room. Typically, we probably wouldn’t pay attention or have enough interest to go check them out ourselves. But the setting and the little pieces of pastries were calling our name. We sat down and enjoyed our little quiet time san kids in the afternoon over the sea.. Ah.. That’s what I call ‘vacation’…

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A family that drinks together, stays together? Ok.. Maybe a family that cruises together, stays together. :)

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The view of Nassau port with very vibrant color of the Bahamas. This was our only port during our 4-night Bahamas cruise with Disney 2 years ago. It was our first cruise so I didn’t know what to expect and didn’t prepare much. We walked to the straw market and spent sometimes there. Then I had to find Hard Rock cafe to get my pin. See.. I’m a HRC pin collector. But I only buy the pin that represent the city or country that I have visited. We didn’t do any excursion to Atlantis. Probably next trip. :)

We did throughly enjoy our time there so much that 2 years later we got on another cruise vacation. I love cruising. It’s such a great way to travel as a family. You plan in advance and then just enjoy your time there.

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During our recent Carnival Cruise, we enjoyed our last day on the cruise with this beautiful view of the Sunset over the Atlantic Ocean…

Check out other WW participants here.

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Welcome to Jamaica. It’s our final port on our 7 nights cruise. Oh.. I couldn’t believe that we had been on this big, huge ship for over 6 days already. We took the Jamican Irie attitude to heart. We woke up late and grapped our breakfast. No rush here.. We booked the Bamboo Club excursion which basically a beach club. I knew from some of the cruise forum that the beach club is just a stone throw from the pier. So we weren’t that worry about being the first one off the ship.

:: Getting Around ::

We knew that first thing we had to do was to get my Hard Rock Cafe pin. We missed it in Grand Cayman and I wouldn’t want to miss it again here. We got off the ship and checked out the excursion tent to find out what we need to do. The lady there from Bamboo club told us that she would prefer us to go directly to the beach club. But after we insisted that we really wanted to walk around first she said she will wait for us. We headed out the pier area and walked to Hard Rock Cafe. I have heard about how Jamaicans are very persistent in offering you their service. I can totally understand that. It’s their livelihoods. I have no problem with that.. A big smile and a polite ‘no’ will do. We walked a good 10 minutes to the cafe and picked my pin. Mr. Rojo got a teddy bear. Yes.. that’s right.. Teddy bear but he is so cute.

:: Things To Do ::

Then we walked back and checked out the Island Village. Basically, it’s a compound with a lot of stores in a nice setting. We walked around and got a few more shopping here. I think we made the most damage here than any other ports. :) I guess it was the last port and we missed out on the shopping in Grand Cayman so we felt obligated to shop to make up for the missing opportunity. We were also looking for a place to get Miss J hair braid. But believe it or not, we couldn’t see one. We got approached by one lady but she wanted us to follow her to her place.. Ehhh.. No. Thank you! Guess she will be one of a few kids who didn’t get her hair braid in the Carribean. Well, we can’t get everything we want in life. Good lesson here, heh?

After about an hour and a flat wallet, it’s time to head to the beach. When we got back to the excursion tent there wasn’t that many people left and the lady from Bamboo beach wasn’t anywhere to be found. No problem… Another lady showed us how to get there. It was really easy. We signed in and they quickly found us a host to take care of us. The food and the drink weren’t as good as what I expected. Basically, you had 2 choices of drinks (lemonade and rum punch) If you want something else then you would have to buy it from the bar including soft drink. Doesn’t make sense too me.. I would think soda is cheaper than alcoholic drink. Maybe not. Food was some chicken and pasta.. It wasn’t that great.

No worry.. The staffs were so friendly and nice. So food wasn’t a big deal for us. Plus we weren’t that hungry anyway.. I mean.. come on.. After 6 days of all-you-can-stuff-in-your-face food.. we could possibly stay for a small meal for one day. The entertainment throughout the day was great. The DJ had the music on pretty much all day. I think if you love to party, this is the place. Also if you love to watch people dance and do funny things, this is the place as well. But some of the dance move could be non-kid friendly. Luckily Miss J was spending much of her time in the water and Mr. Z was busy building his sand castle.

I have said this before and I will say it again that I won’t judge Jamaica with just my one small trip to a beach next to a pier. I know I can’t expect much from that. And I’m glad I didn’t. The water was murky and had a lot of algae in there. It’s hard to not compare with Grand Cayman or even Cozumel. How could I not.. Either way, the kids still enjoyed the day there. We also enjoyed the music and had fun watching other groups danced. We spent a few hours there before heading back to the ship.

:: Back on The Ship ::

After walking in the high heel for a while, it was time to change to my comfy outfit. We headed back to our cabin and was greeted by our lovely monkey. We changed and dropped them off at the Camp Carnival. They had face painting and color bookbag. I got to do some laundry. I know.. I know.. I’m crazy that way. I like to get my laundry done on the ship. This way it won’t be too smelly. Plus it wasn’t as much as what I had waited for me at home.

This was the night I was looking forward to. The Midnight Gala Buffet. I wasn’t sure if *WE* will be up at that time. Well, I sure did. But after stuffed ourselves for the past 6 days, even the most tempting chocolate and cake couldn’t even get Mr. Rojo to eat after midnight. I was able to get in line to take pictures just to show that I was up! Maybe next trip we will eat less (yeah.. right..) and can enjoy the midnight buffet. ;)

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After about 2 hours, we packed up with a lot of resistence from the kids. I was sad to leave as well but was also excited for our next adventure to the Sting Ray City. We rinsed off at the restaurant and caught a taxi back to the meeting place. Now that we got accustomed to the time, we started to worry if we would get back on-time. The schedule for this excursion was from 10:30am-1pm so it means we would get back 2pm (ship time).. Very close to the last tender time of 3:15pm.. I was glad we did the beach first since I don’t see how we can fit the beach time after the excursion. So they were several fellow cruisers who were worried about the timing as well. They were talking about leaving earlier so we could get back sooner.

We got on a bus around 10-ish and headed to the pier. I guess it was the loading/landing site for all boats to Sting Ray City. The reason we picked this excursion with Captain Bryan was for the sail boat. And he didn’t disappoint us at all. The crews were very nice. The boat ride took about 30 minutes. It was a nice relaxing ride. Once we got to the Sting Ray location, we saw several boats from various companies. At first we planned to just take turn going into the water. But the water was shallow enough that we took the kids down with us. We still had to hold them but it’s manageable. Miss J was afraid in the beginning. But later on she felt clamer. I got to kiss one of the sting ray. They said I will have good luck for 7 years. We will see about that. :) The sting rays swam all around us. It was an amazing experience. So much fun.. The skin was as soft as velvet. It wasn’t what I expected. After 30 minutes in the water, we headed back on the boat and headed to the snorkeling sites. The excursion included 2 snorkel sites. I wasn’t too impress with what I saw though. There weren’t as many fish as what we saw in Cozumel. I guess it was more for diving than snorkeling.

Thanks for reading my feed. Please stop by to say hi or leave a comment! :) Carnival Cruise – Day 5 – Grand Cayman is a post from: The Q Family Adventures Travel Blog

Day 4 on our trip .. We got another Fun Day @ Sea. We took it easy today. Slept in and had late breakfast. Oh.. this is what I call V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N.. No set plan. After breakfast, we got ready to explore and enjoy the ship. We started off at the swimming pool. I found that the pool in the morning hours were more child-friendly. There were more kids in the pool than drunken adults. I guess they still hung over in their cabins.

After a good couple hours in the pool, we dried up and picked up a set of putt-putt ball and clubs. We didn’t get to try it on the first day. It was very busy. Mr. Rojo thought he was in a real golf course and felt the need to show golfer etiquette and wanted to let another group ahead of us. I had to remind him that.. it’s a putt-putt.. Plus we were on the ship.. what’s the hurry.. Also the group in front of us wasn’t gonna be any faster than us.

We dropped the kids off at Camp Carnival after the golf game and headed to our cabin for some power naptime. Mr. Rojo went to visit his familiar faces in the Casino. He did pretty well in the casino. We are not big gambler. We set a limit of the money we are willing to loose and that’s his fun money. It’s just like purchasing another ticket to an excursion. :)

After dinner, we went to the Bingo game and Magic Show. It was a fun night. We didn’t win anything but the kids enjoyed the show. The guy was pretty funny. After that we headed back to our room and was greeted by Mr. Dino.. A big day ahead of us tomorrow. Grand Cayman!

I know there were a lot of activities at night that we could join. But for me, that’s the beauty of cruising.. You can do as much or as little as you want. There is no rule.

Check out what we have done so far on this cruise here.

Thanks for reading my feed. Please stop by to say hi or leave a comment! :) Carnival Cruise – Day 4 – Another Fun Day @ Sea is a post from: The Q Family Adventures Travel Blog

I hope everyone still enjoys our journal for our trip on Carnival Cruise. Now that we were on 3rd day of our trip, it was the day at port of call – Cozumel. I had planed today excursion to be at Chankanaap Park. We woke up a bit earlier than usual but still not early enough to see the ship arrived at the port. We got off the ship around 8-ish.. if my memory serves me right. This is one of the reason I want to start our blog.. Gosh.. where did my sharp as a knife memory go? I can’t even remember what I had yesterday. Anyway, off topic.. back to Cozumel..

We arrived to the park fairly early. We didn’t have any problem finding a chair to sit. Actually, it was kinda lonely.. Just us and probably another group at the beach at that time. We settled down and tested out the water. I sent Mr. Rojo to the water first. Well, lucky him.. He found that his snorkel didn’t work properly. It was a new one and did I tell you that we hardly snorkel. So we couldn’t figure out what wrong with it just that it didn’t take in as much air as it should.

We had lunch at the restaurant there. La Laguna Beach Grill was right on the beach. The service was great. Along with music. Mr. Rojo couldn’t resist requesting La Bamba.. tourist! I had Fajitas which I think it was delish! Maybe I was too hungry or maybe it was the place.. Either way, it was paradise meal. The breeze and the food was so nice. I didn’t want to move.

Before we headed out, we walked the botanical garden. We didn’t really slow down to see all the plant. The heat was too much for us. Yup.. even us. So we caught another taxi back to the pier.

We decided to head back to the ship and had quick shower before headed back to town.

There were a few places that we had in mind.. First I needed to check out Hard Rock Cafe to get my pin. I was rather disappointed at the pins collection this time around. I loved to get guitar pin of each city I visited. They had a good design that really capture the city. But this time, I didn’t see anything that give me Cozumel feeling. So I was on the fence about getting the pin there. Mr. Rojo suggested that we should check out another HRC in town which is about 10 blocks away.

Then we walked around the plaza a little bit before decided to walked to check out another HRC about 10 blocks away. If we had more time, I think it would be really neat to head to town and really experience the town.

Then we headed to Starbucks. Mr. Rojo couldn’t resist order coffee in the 90 degree weather. Crazy man! He got his Cozumel Starbuck mug for his collection. It was a long day.

We got back on board and waited for the sail away. We were able to find a hidden door to access the front of the ship on a few decks. Unfortunately, the best one is reserved for crew member only. No chance to post for Titanic moment on this ship.

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This day was a fun day at sea. It was a day to explore and totally relax. Lots of you guys should try this sometimes on your vacation. DO NOTHING. It’s really enjoyable and addictive. We woke up not so early today. I decided last night to order room service for breakfast. It wasn’t such a good idea. Our family needs meat for breakfast and continental breakfast from the room service didn’t have any eggs or bacon.

After breakfast we made our way to the Camp Carnival. We didn’t get a chance to register the kids yesterday. The registration process was fairly simple. They gave you a cellphone that we would keep for the entire week and we would need to show that whenver we pick them up. Off they went… At last.. Time alone..

Mr. Rojo and I looked at each other with disbelief. We were alone. What were we gonna do by ourselves. First stop, we checked out the casino. It’s one of the to-do list for Mr. Rojo. Being New Jersey boy, he had spent countless hours during his college years in Atlantic City. So casino was one of the pro for the Carnival cruise over Disney for him. I walked around and tried to play some slot machine but they looked too confusing to me. Plus the smoke was unbearable for me. So we decided to take a quick nap. Then it was lunch time and we picked the munchkins up from the camp carnival. I anxiously waited to hear the verdict from them…. They LOVED it!

After lunch, we walked around and checked out other areas like the gift shop. It’s nothing much just a typical gift shop. I was hoping for more stuff. But I guess I should be thankful. :) Otherwise, our expense might get even higher. I spot the ornament that I will get later for my collection. Checked one off from my list.

Then we headed back to Camp Carnival for a build-a-bear workshop. It was a family activity that we got to do with them. This wasn’t a Build-A-Bear company but a Carnival version. You bought a bear and a set of outfit. Then they gave you an extra Carnival outfit. Then you stuff the animal with your kids. Mr. Z picked a fireman outfit for his pal. He named him ..whatelse.. Thomas. Miss J picked a girl sailor outfit and named her Faley. I have no idea where she got that name from. But it’s cute name. After the workshop, we dropped them off there for another hour. Then we promised them the pool time afterward.

The Pool… hmm.. Don’t expect the Olympic pool size here. There are 3 pools on Lido deck. It’s not fancy pool. I think the time to go to the pool is also important and should be taken into consideration. After a few days we noticed that the pool in the morning had more kids and less rowdy. The afternoon time in the pool could be rather rowdy from adults who had worst behavior than kids. They enjoyed the whole afternoon with some break of frozen yogurt.. Oh… The frozen yogurt… We lived on them for the whole week. Now we are going through the withdraw phase of frozen yogurt. It’s that good!

Then it was dinner time. Tonight was a formal night. So Mr. Rojo needed to run to self-service laundry room for a quick ironing. We didn’t know about all the different props Carnival setup in the Lobby deck and Promenade deck. Maybe it’s a good thing! That’s how you ended up spend your child college fund from cruising. Each picture can cost up to $20. And sometime you are so into a moment that you forgot to even ask how much till they ring up the total. We almost made that mistake..

I didn’t want to bore everyone to death with what we eat every single night on the cruise. But tonight was special night. It was Lobster night. My poor husband now allergics to shell fish. He loved to eat lobsters. We think his quota for lobsters in this life is up. He has consumed all the lobsters allowed for life so no more. NO LOBSTER FOR YOU!.. Well, being a good wife I couldn’t NOT order lobster. I just wanted him to know that he didn’t miss out much. And I wasn’t exaggerated. The dish looked good but the taste was so salty even my can-eat-anything-and-everything taste bud couldn’t stand it. So I was only ordered one dish. No repeat for lobster like I was originally planned.

After dinner, it was nice to get back to the room that had been clean up before bed. That’s one of the thing that I will miss the most. Better service than a hotel in my humble opinion. They clean up your room twice a day. Plus we loved to see what animal will make its way to our room.

We were too wiped out to even venture out for the show that night. That’s one thing that we didn’t take advantage of that much, the nightly show… You can call me snob but I just didn’t feel like watching it after seeing Disney production on Disney Cruise. I’m sure it will be a great show. But sometimes and somehow I rather sleep in.. It’s my vacation.. so I can do what I want, right?

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Good morning, Miami.. We got up real early today and drove down to see our friend who generously (with no choice) agreed to let us park our car at their house and drove us to the port. Once we got to their house, we spent about an hour talking and catching up. Then off we went.

We got to the port right around 10:30am. The security check-in was painless. We got through within 10 mins. Then we went up to the terminal and checked-in at the Carnival counter. I already did all my paperwork online (Fun Pass and register for Sail & Sign). So basically, I just handed them our passports and 2 minutes later we were done. We got our boarding group # at number 4. Mr. Rojo thought we should have been here earlier and we might get group #1. Oh! well, I think it’s good enough.

After lunch, we just wandered around to get a hang of the ship and location of different places like Children playroom aka Camp Carnival. My first impression was not good. The room looks much smaller than Disney. But I promised myself that I won’t compare the cruise. Otherwise, it will ruin my fun. So I gave it a benefit of the doubt and would wait and see how the kids took it.

After the drill, we headed back and went up to the Lido deck for the sail away.. Woo hoo!! Bye bye Miami.. See you in a few days..

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We started our vacation one day earlier than the cruise. We traveled down to Florida on Saturday. It’s much cheaper to drive than to fly 4 people. We headed out around 8am and stopped to get our most important food for our trip – Dunkin Donuts. I hope to use donuts as my bribing chips.

The drive was very pleasant and we made a really good time. We got into one hitch when we ignored the advice of our faithful friend -Miss Magellen. There was a big traffic backup in downtown due to contruction. So you can guess next time we will follow her direction faithfully. Mr. Rojo took up most of the drive on this trip. I took the driver seat for about 3 hours and Mr. Rojo took care of it the rest of the way. What a big change a couple years ago. :)

We got into Florida state line by 1pm so we should arrive at our destination by 6pm. Right in time for dinner. We have driven from Atlanta to Florida for several times but we never stopped at the Florida Visitor Center. I have to say I was impressed. It was nice, clean and well organized. There was even free juice for travelers. A little break helped the kids to be able to hold up on a drive fairly well.

One thing I know for sure was that we can’t make it without our portable DVD player. It’s the best invention for modern day travelers with kids. I think they watched about 5 movies in all and it helped with the fighting and boredom. I also packed a few snacks and drinks so that we didn’t have to stop for drinks and snacks all the time. Food is always a good choice when they started to get fiesty. Also break time for them to spend their energy half way of the trip is always a good idea.

Once in Florida, we arranged to have dinner with a few friends. Florida was like a home away from home for us. We still have so many friends there. It was nice to meet them and catch. Maybe next cruise we can do it together with them. Dinner lasted a lot longer than we planned. We closed the restaurant at 11pm. We headed back to our friend’s home where we stayed for the night. Tomorrow we had to wake up early to drive down to Miami at 7am.. Hope we could wake up!

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We are back! Sorry if I haven’t updated the blog for over the week. We were just so busy enjoying our cruise. Plus I’m too cheap to pay for internet access to update on the ship. :) There will be more posts in detail of our cruise. The kids absolutely loved it!! We survived 7 nights together so now we are starting to look at the next one.

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For our cruise, I have planned a couple excursions at the ports of call. Since we will be going to the Carribean, it is logical to have a good chunck of water activities. One of those activities is snorkeling. Then, it occurred to me that we don’t have an underwater camera. I don’t plan to be a professional photographer for National Geographic magazine.. But I would still like to have the ability to take some pictures underwater while we are swimming with the Stingrays.

So I started searching for our options. Basically, you can go two ways. One is to get a waterproof housing to protect our current digital camera. Now with this option, there are a cheap way and a right way. The cheap way is universal waterproof case. For less than $30 you can get a DiCAPac WP-500 Underwater Waterproof Digital Camera Housing Case. I have never used one but I have read a lot of horror stories about it. Plus, Mr. Rojo said.. why don’t we just use the Ziploc if we are gonna buy this! Point taken.. Next!

Next option for the housing is to buy brand specific housing that make for your camera. For our case, Sony has a Marine pack for our camera. But… yes.. there is a ‘but’. Ready.. Sony MPKTHE Marine Pack for the DSC-T Series Digital Cameras costs $199.. Ouch!!! With that much money I think I’m better off buying a new digital camera. Plus, Mr. Rojo said it didn’t actually list the model of our camera.

Hence, we moved on to our 2nd option. Getting a waterproof digital camera. There are several choices to pick from. I started to feel overwhelmed. But we have narrowed down our choices quickly by budget.

The first choice is Olympus Stylus 850SW 8MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom (Silver) for the price range around $260-270. It’s a better alternative than a Sony Marine pack. The nice thing about the Olympus is that it allows video recording for a wee bit of 10 seconds.. Hey.. 10 seconds is a good chunk of time underwater I might say. :) Also this won’t be a choice for a serious diver. It will only go up to 10 feet deep. But for us, we just want something for the snorkeling. I mean if Mr. Rojo decides he wants to take up on Scuba diving then I will be happy to oblige to a better camera.. shhhhhh

The second choice is actually another Olympus. Olympus Stylus 1030SW 10.1MP Digital Camera with 3.6x Optical Wide Angle Zoom (Silver) has bigger resolution and can go down deeper. With slightly higher price, I am still thinking about it. So it’s the tough decision that needs to be made soon. We are running out of time if we want to order it online.. By the way… This is the camera that Mr. Rojo is jockeying for. I guess this is his way of buying a high tech device for the trip. And no Mr. Rojo, you still can’t get those high tech infrared goggles…

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Thanks for reading my feed. Please stop by to say hi or leave a comment! :) 19 Days to our Fun Ship Cruise!!! is a post from: The Q Family Adventures Travel Blog

Budget friendly vacation is always my top priority. But I have never been the type who can totally stick to the budget. Hence, I’m really attracted to cruising since the cost is pretty much fixed. Unless, we go on a shopping spree at the port or have $100 meal. Typically, I don’t really budget on how much we want to spend on vacation. For this trip, I will be happy if we can keep it under $3000. Let’s see what is the cost so far:

Carnival Cruise cost for 2 adults and 2 children : $2,012.40
Port Excursion – Grand Cayman (Stingray City Tour) : $132.00
Port Excursion – Orcho Rio (Bamboo Club) : $168.00
Port Excursion – Cozumel (Chankanaab National Park tickets) : $48.00
Transportation in Cozumel approx. : $20.00
Food and shopping : $120.00

So I think this will be the first time that I will have rough idea of our vacation budget. So far if I can keep everything in this range we will come under budget by $500. Not bad for a 7 days vacation in the carribean for a family of 4!

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Don’t get a wrong idea! This is family-friendly blog after all. We have a confirmed room for our Carnival Cruise this May. When we booked a cruise, I opted for the cheapest ticket which is Guarantee Room. It means I am guaranteed a room for at least the same category as I booked but I won’t know my room until closer to the sailing date. I just checked my reservation today and found that they have assigned a room for us.

I was afraid that we will get a room at the bottom of the ship (which is probably where will be even if we reserve a room since that’s all we can afford). But to my surprise I have a room up on the Verandah deck. The location of the room is perfect as well. This deck is one deck below the pool and the buffet area. What a bonus!! We don’t need to wait for the elevator to get to food and fun!! I mean there is a chance that it might be noisy at night. But I’m sure that we will be too tired to care anyway. And based on information I gathered during my research the higher the deck the more expensive it is.. So I will say we got a good deal on this one!

I have also completed the pre-cruise registration and ready to print out my Fun Pass..

The last step on preparing for this cruise is comfirming the reservation for the excursion in Grand Cayman. We decided to go with Buccaneer Stingray City Catamaran excursion. The main reason is that I have never been on a catamaran before so it will be nice to get to sail in it. Now I just have to wait to get email back from them.

41 more days to go!!!!

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TGIF.. everyone!

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I know it’s still a few months away before I will go on my cruise. But I can’t contain my excitement. Along with my obsessive compulsive to have to start planning as soon as I can. Today Thursday Thirteen will be about 13 things I will pack for my cruise.

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As the Winter is coming to an end and we are approaching Spring, I have been busy checking and planning our little getaway. So here are some deals I found from Expedia. Don’t wait till the last minute as good deals and great price will get snatched away. It pays to start early!

How about Spring Break on the beaches:

Pacific Mexico: Flight + 4 nights from $431 – Expires 3/17/08
Hawaii: Flight + 4 nights from $486 – Expires 3/31/08
Cruises from only $199, Plus up to $100 shipboard credit – Ongoing
Caribbean: Book early and save! Packages from $441 – Ongoing

Or how about explore the Cities:

Vegas hotels from $40, Flight + 2 nights from $262 – Expires 3/14/08
Paris: Hotels from $170; Air + 3 nts from $869 – Expires 3/18/08
Orlando on sale: Save 30% on 3+ nights! – Expires 3/28/08

Remember you snooze, you loose!

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Royal Carribean is launching a new Theme Cruise – Nickelodeon Family Cruise.

Can you take 7 days with Dora and SpongeBob?

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As our cruise vacation is approaching (Yeah!!!), I have learned so much during this process. A lot of people might wonder why since this is not our first cruise. True. But this is the first cruise that I handle all the booking and planning myself. Our Disney Cruise was handled by a friend so I didn’t have to worry about shopping for the cheapest one or learning other tips from other cruisers (much to my regret though). So this time, I determined to learn more and be a more educated traveler (or cruiser in this matter).

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Yup. That’s my countdown for our cruise this May to the Carribean on the Carnival Victory. Well, finally I have made up my mind on the excursion on Ocho Rios. One port down and 2 more to go…

The Bamboo Beach club seems to be a nice, low-key, all-inclusive beach club that we can spend the rest of the day after the Dunn’s River Falls. Plus it doesn’t hurt that we don’t have to worry about food and drink. The kids will get a chance to enjoy some beach time there. The price of this excursion is not bad for $45 if that price will remain the same after they upgrade the system. :)

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Hawaii has been one of the destination that I have been daydreaming about for years. I don’t know what with it. Might be all those travel shows and articles that talk about how beautiful it is or might be just something that might help me feel more like my homeland a little bit more. Thailand is a tropical country and where I grew up was in the South that we have beaches everywhere. So in the sense, Hawaii has that and more.

So my first choice is Hawaii Cruise with NCL America. I know.. cruising won’t give you justice what each island has to offer. But I consider this as the sample trip so that I will get a chance to explore Hawaii. And if God provides, I will have a chance to revisit each island again.

Currently, there are 3 ships that cruise around Hawaii islands but I believe NCL America will retire one of the ship this Feb. Well, I sure hope that they will keep the other two ships till I can save enough money. :)

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Planning the Carribean cruise for this May, bring back fond memory of our first cruise with Disney. It was our first cruise and we were so new to this cruising stuff. I don’t think we had planned it properly. But overall the trip went well hence we are back on the cruise planning again.

Amazingly enough, the timeframe for this cruise is almost the exact same time as our first cruise. It was in May. We booked the Disney Wonder – 4 night Bahamas cruise through our friend who handled everything. So the booking part was easy enough for us.

With the help from comprehensive online site, I got several tips from experience Mouse cruisers. For one, bring a white T-Shirt or pillow case and you can drop it off at the guest service. They will have all the characters sign the T-Shirt for you. Free souvenir!! The chase to get pictures with different characters was fun as well. It is one of the unique thing that you can’t get from other cruises especially if you are a big Mouse fan.

We didn’t book or plan any excursion in Bahamas. Just walked out to the port area and then got back on the ship. I would have done it differently next time. I will probably spend more time in researching on what else we can do in the Bahamas.

My favorite was a day at Castaway cay. The beach was crowd but the kids had so much fun in the Sun. Eventhough, we got a bit of overcast day in the beginning of the day and had to wait to dock for about an hour. Overall, we got our relaxing and fun day on the beach.

Then we got a full day at sea to explore and really enjoy what the Cruise has to offer. We walked to every corner of the ship just to see all little things they have hidden that make it truly magical. The pool is one of my favorite since at that time my son was still in diaper and this is the only cruiseline that has separate pool that allow kids with swimming diaper to enjoy the pool as well.

And don’t get me started on the food. With so many choices and so many snacks you can get, I didn’t even bother to check my weight when I got back. Why bother since I know that it will go up anyway! It’s a vacation so let it go!! Service is off the chart which is to be expected when you have Disney stamp on it. I loved the little touch of animal towel in our room every night. You never know what animal you will find in your room!

What can I say. If you don’t know it by now, we are a Disney fan family!

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After our first cruise experience with Disney, we were hooked. It was nice to be able to just enjoy a vacation without having to plan so much about what to eat and what to do. Well, we did have to plan a bit but not as extensive. Plus the idea of knowing exactly how much we will be spending for a vacation is a new concept for us. As we always ended up with more than we anticipate. So cruising seems to be a good vacation choice for us.

Thanks for reading my feed. Please stop by to say hi or leave a comment! :) Watch out The Carribean – The Q is coming! is a post from: The Q Family Adventures Travel Blog