Jen's Top Five Cruise Tips of the Month

1. Specialty restaurants cover charge includes the gratuity. Even though there is a line item to add an extra tip, its just that: "extra".

2. Leave valuables, excess cash and unneeded credit cards aboard while on shore excursions.

3. On debarkation day try to RELAX. Do not wait in the stairwells with all your bags as it will only only lead to frustration. Get yourself some breakfast or sit in one of the lounges as you wait for your color to be called.

4. As for Embarkation, try not to get to the port too early. For Caribbean cruises they usually let you start checking in at 12:00pm. If you arrive earlier than that you will end up waiting in a boring sitting area with no entertainment.

5. The elevators are going to be crowded around dinner and show times. A bunch of crabby people waiting for the elevators will only stir each other up even more; why not walk off that crème brûlée and take the stairs — or maybe do a lap on the Promenade Deck.

**If you have cruise tips of your own, add them as comments to share with other cruisers. They may even end up as one of next months top five cruise tips!

Jen's Top Five Cruise Tips of the Month

1. Passport requirements continue to change so always check with your travel consultant to make sure you have what you need to take your cruise.

2. Notify your travel consultant of any special dietary restrictions or requests at least 60 days prior to departure.

3. Let us know about any medical needs. You might need to fill out forms to get letters from a doctor. Your travel consultant will help you with that.

4. Arrange for a pre night hotel stay before your cruise. You never know what might happen as far as airline delays, who wants to miss the ship?

5. Got your eye on that something special in the onboard mall? Resist the urge to buy until the last day of the cruise. Many items inevitably go "on sale"

**If you have cruise tips of your own, add them as comments to share with other cruisers. They may even end up as one of next months top five cruise tips!

Jen's Top Cruise Tips of the Month

1. Make your spa and specialty restaurant reservations on the first day of your cruise.

2. Bring walkie talkies if you are traveling with others you want to keep track of on the cruise. (make sure they have good range)

3. Book your shore excursions in advance that way you get to do what you wanted once you get to port. (You wouldn't want the excursion you looked at before the cruise to the sold out or wait listed)

4. Tell us if you or your loved one is celebrating a special occasion, we will give you ideas if you want to do something extra special on your cruise.

Check back in February for next months travel tips!

**If you have cruise tips of your own, add them as comments to share with other cruisers. They may even end up as one of next months top five cruise tips!

Mel's Bachelorette Cruise on the Sovereign

My sister is getting married March 15! I am so happy for her! So what better way to have a party than to take a cruise with 7 of your bridesmaids???? We decided to take our cruise on a short 3 night cruise to the Bahamas on the Sovereign of the Seas. What a trip that was......


Ill tell you right now it was not the typical cruise for me. Usually I am with my husband where we have full days at port and have dinner...ma bye a show...and to bed we go. This cruise was a big party! We started by decorating her cabin with all kinds of streamers and stickers.....we also decorated the bachelorette so all were sure to notice the purpose of this trip for her :) She had on her veil, tierra, sash, and blinking accessories of all kinds. She was definitely noticed by everyone.

Some highlights:

We did Karaoke and sang "Its My Party"....Oh did the crowd love us!!!haha between both of our terrible voices we surely were not candidates for American Idol, that's for sure!

Dancing till close every night in the Voltage disco...I guess there was no need for the fitness center this cruise :)




We sampled food from all areas of the ship :)



4 hour Sail and Snorkel trip on a catamaran and got our base tan...





Went to Senior Frogs Saturday night where Mel headed up a Congo line around the club where they poured shots in her mouth :)

We spent our last day at Coco Cay laying in the sun getting a tan listening to Calypso music. I rented myself a raft and floated in the Caribbean for a while.



I know she had a blast and so did all the bridesmaids on this cruise!!!!

Celebrity Mercury 2007

This September Will and I went on the Celebrity Mercury out of Seattle. It was my first time to any of these places and my first time on Celebrity. I loved it all! I loved the hotel that we stayed in, in Seattle! It was the Grand Hyatt and I will always recommend it to my clients. The bathroom was huge with a deep tub and a separate shower. I had a bit of free time to roam downtown Seattle (the hotel was situated smack in the center of downtown) and all the high-end shopping. I even went into Barneys, and Nordstrom’s and bought myself and beautiful pair of crystal earrings. I can’t help myself when it comes to sparkly things :) I could not believe the number of Starbucks there. I think one day Starbucks will take over the world...hehe. Of course we also went to the famous Pike St. Market and bought ourselves a little snack. Later that night we went to dinner at the Space Needle which had a spectacular view of the city.



The ship was midsize and I loved that it was easy to get around. I was greeted by a man with white gloves and a glass of Champagne. Now I was starting to feel the Celebrity treatment! Another thing I loved about this ship is at breakfast I was taking my tray to my table and a waiter came and helped me with my tray. Then, he offered to get me some coffee. I was impressed! That back area of the ship even had a waffles and pancake station by morning, and pizza and pasta by day. The buffet never seemed crowded either.

On the formal night of the cruise I even got my hubby Will to dress in his tux :) He looked so handsome!



The ports of Victoria and Nanaimo were wonderful. I especially loved Butchart Gardens. I have never seen so many beautiful flowers all in one place! I took so many pictures it was unbelievable. Nanaimo had a very quaint small town feel with little shops and coffee shops. Victoria seemed to have a ton of Gelato Ice Cream places so I had to see what all the fuss was about and was very satisfied with my mint chocolate flavor.

Jen and Wills Alaska Hosted August 27, 2007

All I can say is WOW! Well, actually there is a lot more I can say but the fact is this was the best cruise I have taken yet. Will (my husband)and I took a group of 50 wonderful people to Alaska and boy did we have a great time. I have to say this was a great bunch and they really kept us smiling....Most were from Tallahassee but some came from other places in the US and Jose Ma and Gin Tugas came all the way from the Philippines!

I know I should try to keep this short but there is just so much to say about our time there. I thought I would break it down almost by the places we went to keep my mind somewhat organized while typing this. So here I go...........

FLIGHT- While this was not the longest flight I have been on it sure came close. We flew in from Tallahassee to Atlanta and from Atlanta to Anchorage. The good news is we got to watch 3 movies which helped the time go by. We landed at about 7:30pm which was late my time ....11:30pm.


ANCHORAGE- When we got to Anchorage for some reason we were wide awake and ready to check out the city and quickly changed clothes and went to dinner at the Glacier Brewhouse. We also happened to see the best sunset ever! It was all colors of pink, red, orange and lit up over the mountains which were just amazing. Now back to food (Notice I’ll do this often)I splurged and had the king crab legs which I was thinking about for weeks before my trip. They were delicious! We also shared a peanut butter chocolate pie type desert. YUMMMM :) The food totally made me crash, mind you it was by that time 2:30 our time so we hit the hay for the night.

Funny thing happened the next morning....you know how jet lag works, and being that we are 4 hours behind in Alaska I woke up at what I thought was 4am thinking there was no way I could sleep any longer. Well, after getting up and dressed we found out the clock in our room was set to another time zone and it was in fact 7:00am...Great, just in time for our breakfast buffet! hehe

In Anchorage there was so much to do. We spent the entire day checking out Anchorage top to bottom, hoping to burn off some of the food we ate and were about to eat :) First thing we did was take a Trolley Tour which was a lot of fun and only $10 each, and we got to see a lot of Anchorage in just an hour. Than we walked into quite a few gift shops on 4th ave. What do you know its food time again...so we decided to have a quick reindeer sausage hot dog from a street vendor. We took a little longer walk to the Ulu factory to see them making the authentic Ulus and watch the Salmon running from the bridge over the river. For dinner we went with Ken and Marcia Stoner to a little Seafood place on 5th Ave. TIME TO MEET THE GROUP! After dinner we met with the group to answer some questions about luggage tags for the trip.





TRAIN DAY- This morning was an early morning but with the time change was not so bad. We all gathered in the lobby and boarded the bus to get to the train. We met our tour guide Grant, who I have to say was fabulous! He was funny and very knowledgeable about Alaska and its history. The train was one of the highlights of the trip. We were so lucky from the day we got there the weather was perfect. Since it was so clear we were able to get some perfect pictures of Mt. McKinley and all of its surroundings.





DENALI- We checked into our hotel McKinley Villages after a short motor coach tour of the area. We than went into town and had some dinner at Lynx Creek Pizza which was great and CHEAP! Our hotel was right on the river so not only did we have a nice view but we sat out by the river for a bit of relaxation. Will likes to take a little memento from everywhere we go he picked up a handful of sand and took that home in a jar :) To each him own I get. I guess that just means more money for my memento...hehe.

The next day we got up early, really early, and had a nice buffet breakfast at the hotel. We were the 3rd bus to go into Denali National Park which gave us a better chance at wildlife viewings. We saw Doll Sheep, Moose, Bears (real close up to the bus, and Caribou. Got some great snapshots on that trip.

Next day we took a motor coach back to Anchorage and on the way stopped at the Alaska Native Heritage Center. This was also fun and educational on Alaskan history. What I liked best was going into the authentic native houses they built to demonstrate how they lived.



WHITTIER- We took a motor coach to Whittier where we picked up a Sea Life Cruise in Prince William Sound. I have to say the whole group loved this part of the tour! Again the weather was perfect and we got some amazing pictures of Seals, Otters, and Glaciers!

After the Sea Life Cruise we walked over to our cruise ship and set sail for 7 days! I could not wait for the next two days at sea to relax sit back and enjoy the view....



COLLEGE FJIORDS- On this day we did not have to wake up early but we chose to get up at 5:30 so we could watch the scenery from 6-10am. It was a bit more overcast the morning but also made for great pictures. I got my first of many hot chocolates that morning. TIP: On Princess Alaska Hot chocolates are not free so if you drink a lot of that or specially coffees you can buy a coffee card for 15 coffees/hot chocolate and a mug for about $28. Another idea is bring a box of your favorite hot chocolate and use their free hot water :)Ken gave a short but inspiring sermon that put us all in a good mood for the day...Thanks Ken! I also hit the gym this day and got a spinning package for $30 which gave me 3 classes on each day at sea. I’m telling you those instructors work you to death!



GLACIER BAY- Today was the first day I really slept in. Again perfect weather, now it is not normal to get weather like this so many days in a row in Alaska as it tends to rain quite a bit so we were lucky! We spent most of our time in the aft of the ship relaxing on our lounge chairs and those with balconies spent a lot of time there enjoying the view. I got my second workout on the bikes this day and boy was I feeling it :)We all met for Tea today and while sipping our tea we had some yummy scones and cream and party sandwiches all with white glove service...what a treat! Than a few of us headed for the sports bar to watch the FSU Clemson gave. Unfortunately we were not celebrating that night, but the comedian cheered us up some:)



SKAGWAY- We had our first rain in Skagway and from what I hear it is not that uncommon so come prepared with good waterproof shoes and a raincoat and you will be just fine. I had one but saw the cutest pink rain jacket at the Skagway Outlet for only $12 so I had to buy it :) We had an excursion on the White Pass Rail, which is their most popular trip over there. We had about 10 of us from the group do this and it was quite an experience up there even with the fog.





JUNEAU- Again we woke up to some rain so I got prepared and brought my rain jacket. I have to say though Ill take that cool crisp air, even with rain, any day over Tallahassee weather in August! We were all set for a hike, and had the best guides you could ask for. We took a 4 mile hike though the rainforest and stopped at several lookouts for Mendenhall Glacier.

Quite a few people in the group took off on some float planes to Taku Lodge for brunch ...Sandi opted for the helicopter ride landing on a glacier. Both trips turned out fantastic! I loved all your pictures...thanks Sandi, Vicki, Marie and Merrill.


I think we had our favorite meal was in Juneau at the Twisted Salmon....yummmm than we stopped over next door and bought some lox and smoked salmon to be shipped home. It was here the next day and we already made salmon dip with some of it :)



KETCHIKAN- On this day we had a group of 14 of us who took the Private Tour of Saxman Totem Village, Rainbow falls, and Herring bay. We had two mini buses and had a couple of very good tour guides. Today we were lucky and spotted a bear eating some fish and eagles up in the trees. I bought myself a little candle version of a totem pole this time as the real ones are quite pricey....



SEA-We spent our last day at sea relaxing from our balconies, or in the lounges or enjoying a meal with others in the group. Some of us went to go see Shek 3 in the Explorers Lounge. That afternoon we did a slideshow of our week and looked back at how much fun we all had.

VANCOUVER- I almost forgot about Vancouver! We stayed at one of the nicest hotels I have ever stayed at...the Airport Fairmont. Now if you are doing something like we did and only stayed one night to leave at 6am the next morning it’s a perfect place to stay. It’s not just close to the airport it’s just on top of the airport terminal so it only requires a escalator ride down to check-in.

There is just so much to see and do in Vancouver so since we only had one day we did a city tour to get a taste of many different places. We went to the Capilano Bridge (they had the best fudge ever!) this place was a whole lot of fun! We went downtown, through Chinatown, and Stanley Park and Granville Island. I could have spent a whole day doing Granville Island. There are lots of cute little shops and a fantastic farmers market.

That night we went downtown for a bite to eat and to window shop. There was so much going on but we were so tired we came back to the hotel early to catch some sleep.

Will and I truly had a blast and from what I have been hearing the rest of the group did too. Mission accomplished! Thanks everyone for making this trip so great!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Caribbean Princess Video

Here is a video clip from my Eastern Caribbean Cruise on the Caribbean Princess:

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com