Cactus527

I knew you would like the Away bag. Just like I knew @Jax would love the Monos. Well, I've apparently covered tequila and strip clubs so far, so coupled with @SweetPea's sea of farts, I think the live blogs have really covered the gammut of human morality today.

I want to flash my newly-earned Emerald status now with all this talk about statuses. Maybe I should get an Elphaba costume to wear and make myself obvious? The Hulk? Green Lantern?

ME TOO!!!!!

@Lovetocruise2002! I was watching Matt's livestream this week (1/6/25) and he totally called out your choice of restaurants in it. Go to about 16:00-16:30.

I had one in December ( I remember I messaged you about how to turn it off) and I was very unimpressed. The camera quality is terrible! And for the upcharge to stay in one, I wasn't impressed. I'm glad it works for you. I think Oceanview is my sweet spot, but I'm just not willing to pay Oceanview prices with some cruises. EXACTLY. I'm doing a JS in September on Jewel, so I'm saving my money for that!

There's a GREEN status? Must be from It makes me think that person loves to cruise frugally. Makes sense to me!

I've laughed myself silly trying to find "sea of farts" as an actual image and not the AI generated weird stuff. This is the best one I found so I thought I'd share. Have fun in iFly! (yes, that comment was meant to come directly on the tail end of the sea of farts to suggest...well, your iFly experience may have more air than you intended).

It's almost time for my first back-to-back cruise, so I figured today was a GREAT day to start the blog. 17 days to go! WHAT CRUISE: It's two cruises, actually. First is a 3-night Ensenada cruise on Navigator, followed by a 4-night Ensenada/Catalina Island cruise on Navigator. I've done both itineraries before (3 night = 2 times, 4 night = 1 time), so I'm not visiting anywhere new and exciting. HOWEVER! I'm actually looking forward to turnaround day so I can explore a bit of LA/Port of Los Angeles (more later). So, technically, I'm doing a 7-night cruise across two cruises. SPOILER: I did the 3-night cruise the first weekend of December and DIDN'T BLOG IT. I look at that cruise as a taster/preview for this one (and building up my endurance!). WHEN: Friday, January 24th thru Friday, January 31st, 2025 WHERE: 3-night cruise - Los Angeles (Day 1), Sea Day (Day 2), Ensenada (Day 3), Los Angeles 4-night cruise - Los Angeles (Day 1), Sea Day (Day 2), Catalina Island (Day 3), Ensenada (Day 4), Los Angeles WHO'S GOING: Me, myself, and I. Not only is this netting me 14 Crown & Anchor points, it's also time for me to relax away from Spouse, two teenage daughters, three large dogs (one is a foster at the moment, so that's a whole other level of stress), and work stuff. WHAT ROOM: Windowless Cave Suite with No Suite Amenities (so many suite blogs lately, I didn't want my interior room to feel inferior!). It's close to the rear elevators, right in the middle of the ship both vertically and horizontally. BOOKING DETAILS: I actually booked both these cruises when they first came out, literally the first or second day. I knew I wanted to try a back-to-back cruise, I knew I wanted the end of January, and I knew I wanted to do either LA or Galveston (two closest ports for me). It's amazing to think I paid $580 and $530 total for each leg, with the 3-night being the more expensive one (!). That total includes port fees, taxes, and gratuities, so all in, I'm doing 7 nights in an interior for $1110. Would it have been better to wait until almost the last minute to book this cruise? I don't think it would have mattered, the prices have stayed about the same this entire time. I'm just glad I don't have to switch rooms in between cruises! While I have a Royal Up bid in for anything oceanview, I don't think it's going to happen so I'm just planning to stay in my Cave Suite. As always, this was booked through my awesome travel agent Brock with MEI Travel. TRAVEL DETAILS: My flight out of Tucson is around 1pm on Thursday, January 23rd. Southwest, yay! Since I'm already practically on the west coast, the flights are super fast and easy. I'm going from Tucson to Las Vegas on to Long Beach on the way to the cruise, and then a direct flight from LAX to Tucson on the way back. No flight is longer than 1.5 hours, so I'm not super concerned about getting a boarding pass right at the 24 hour mark - in fact, with my Southwest credit card, I could just buy an A1-A15 position when I get to the airport and have it automatically reimbursed by Southwest (4 x annually). Probably won't, not for these shorty flights. I'm staying at the Hyatt Regency Long Beach for the night before the cruise. It's comical to say because I'm such a low-key cheap person. Pro-savings? Cash careful? Anyway, I had Chase points that I could use with World of Hyatt points to reserve the hotel, so I did. The girls and I stayed nearby a couple years ago for our October 2022 Navigator cruise and I've always thought this hotel looked gorgeous. 15K points later, I have a night inside it in a basic room. I checked prices occasionally since booking the room on points and it's never gone lower than $600/night. In fact, I think I saw $820 recently. WHAT. The hotel is attached to the Long Beach Convention Center, so I suspect there is a big conference going on and most rooms are being used for that. On the morning of the cruise, I'm just going to Uber/Lyft over to the port as it's about 10-15 minutes from the hotel. On the way back, my return flight isn't until around 4:30pm, so I'm going to do a DayUse hotel near LAX. I settled on the H Hilton LAX, which shares a property with the Homewood Suites, as it fit the time I needed, wasn't terribly expensive, and has a shuttle to LAX in case I want to use it. I say "in case" because I can also just walk back with how close it is to the Southwest area in LAX. Super easy, and in daylight, not an issue. 8am-2pm. ALSO! I don't think I'll take Silvester my gigantic 28" Samsonite suitcase this time, but I probably will bring my new Monos Check-In Medium suitcase. I LOVE IT. It's a twin to my Monos carry-on plus (ocean blue) and it's fabulous. I also caved and got the Away Everywhere tote on sale at Christmas when I realized Spouse didn't get me a tote bag like I requested. So, now I have both Monos and Away, ha! ONBOARD STUFF: For the 3-night, I booked the Unlimited Dining Package (UDP) as it was only $98 (plus gratuities) at one point. 5 lunches/dinners at speciality restaurants AND I get Johnny Rockets and Playmakers credits every day for that price? Yes please! I actually did this same thing on the 3-night I did in December and it was wonderful. Not a lot of people, great food, fun experimenting with different options at the various restaurants (especially Playmakers, as I'd never tried it before), and learning what I liked and didn't like. The biggest thing I learned in December is I HATE HOOKED. Granted I have a shellfish allergy, but I just had the worst experience there both times I tried to make it work. They even put me in a corner of the (small) restaurant AND FORGOT ABOUT ME. So, this time around, I'm not going to Hooked. I have Izumi booked twice for dinner because it's way at the top of the ship and has fabulous views, Chops booked for lunch on the sea day, and Jamie's booked for dinner the other night. For the 4-night, I plan to utilize both the Main Dining Room (late seating) and Windjammer to mix it up. Beyond that, I booked the Refreshment + Starlink package that was offered around Black Friday for drinking and Internet. It was $40/day, but it gives me the chance to collect water bottles during the 3-night sailing in order to have plenty for the 4-night sailing (when I only have the Soda + Starlink package, which was $24/day during Black Friday). I've already started filling my schedule with various activities, but since I saw/experienced a number of them on the December cruise, I'm just going to hit the ones I haven't done in awhile this time around. EXCURSIONS: People ask me regularly about things to do in Ensenada and I never have something to say. The last time I actually ventured off the ship in Ensenada, I only stepped out of the cruise area and bought churros from a roadside vendor! Man those were good...so this time, I booked a RC excursion to La Bufadora (the blowhole). It was $43 during the July 4th sale and never got lower (though it sticks around $50/person). It's one hour to the area, experience the blowhole, shop there, drive back into Ensenada, do a little tequila tasting, and then back to the ship. 4 hours total. I'm excited to see this but also leery - since I live in Arizona, I am VERY aware of the cartels in Mexico and what they can do. While I realize there is a 0.0001% chance something would happen on the tour, I still have a bit of apprehension. This tour will be on Day 3 of the 3-night cruise. Then, I booked a third-party excursion on Catalina Island through Viator. When I saw that RC offered an excursion that was a "tour of Avalon and Catalina Island!," I thought would be great, it would be a sure way to get a seat on the tender versus lining up to get tickets. However, that tour was ONE HOUR. I don't see how anything can be accomplished in one hour! Viator was offering a similar excursion for slightly more but it is 2 hours with a limit of 8 people on the tour. It meets right at the dock where the tender drops off cruise passengers. Score! Let's do that. I have this reserved for $75 and it's on Day 3 of the 4-night cruise. Finally, on turnaround day between the cruises, I plan to disembark the ship, walk across the port, and visit the USS Iowa. I have seen it so many times when coming to the port, and I honestly love touring old ships. This time? I'm going to go tour it! Spouse and I have done ship tours in San Diego and Honolulu, so I'm really excited to be able to do this and potentially recommend Spouse come along next time. Then it's back on the ship for the 4-nighter. SHENANIGANS: As I said earlier, we currently have a foster dog. When we went in with our Doberman for a a vet appointment near Thanksgiving, they told me that they had a young Doberman in their kennels that had been abadoned there for four. months. I kid you not, I was livid when I heard this. They were trying to set him up with a rescue organization, but would we be able to foster him in the meanwhile so he could actually get out of his kennel? I said yes, but it took Spouse 30 seconds to say yes. That is how Dobby came to live with us. He's been here almost 6 weeks and he's definitely a young dog. Thankfully neutered! He's happy, bouncy, playful, loves to snuggle, and needs to continue learning some more manners. I cried when he came home with us - we let him in the backyard and he ran laps around the yard for a solid 15 minutes with a GIGANTIC smile on his face. He LOVES our other dogs, is both teenagers' best friend, and is goofy as can be. This week, he got an application that actually works/fit and they're coming to meet him on Thursday. So excited and hopeful this family will love him and take him!!!! Other stressors that I'm getting away from are the normal things - Bookworm's inattentiveness, DQ's teenage attitude, Spouse being Spouse , and our other two dogs. The college is back in session January 16th, but since I'm only there once a week, missing a week for this trip isn't going to be a huge issue. I just need time to decompress and do my own thing for awhile instead of taking care of everyone else and their stuff. I'm sure you understand. So, that's where we stand today! 17 days to go and I've already started putting things in my carry-on that I know I'll probably forget. Went to the bank yesterday for cash (tips) and I think the bank person's eyes popped out of her head when I requested 100 $1 bills. Spouse asked if I was going to a strip club? If there is a strip club on Navigator, somebody is going to have to tell me where because I'm not sure I've seen it on a map before (is that what the library is? LOL). Can't wait to board! (photos from the December cruise) Pub dog! So many kids came up to hug it when I saw it on the Promenade... The goat cheese salad in Chop's that I would literally trade either of my children for. I LOVE IT SO MUCH. The gingerbread town that they had set up in the Windjammer for the holidays. I loved coming up several times to look at all the details. The train was actually going around its track! They let me steer the ship for awhile on this cruise...LOL, just kidding, I did the Behind The Scenes tour on the cruise. It was great! 5 people, so many locations, and so much fun.

I remember you saying that your mother's marriage came out of the blue (kind of) previously, but now that you've had time to see how things are for her, what are your thoughts? Is he a good match for her? Is her old fogie single friend still upset with her for getting married? Are you planning to visit them while in Florida? Also, cold = yuck. It's been 80F here for the past few weeks (unusually warm), and it's turning this week. I think the high tomorrow is only going to be 50! I may die, I own about one sweater. I don't know how people live in places that get snow anymore - the Midwest has been taken out of me after all these years in the Southwest. I've often thought about those caps/tops you can put on cans/bottles to maintain the fizz. Have you tried those before? I'm wondering how effective they are, that bottle you linked to is beautiful but pricey (to me). I love the fizziness! My kids used to call it "spicy" when they were little, so all soda was spicy, LOL.

TOO SOON AFTER THE TOILET COMMENT ( @asquared17 caught it as I was MIA yesterday) I asked AI to generate a sea of farts and...you don't want to see it. I'll just leave you with the image I had after the first blowout comment.

You know...WE have a foster puppy right now looking for a home. He's been with us for 5 weeks now (since Thanksgiving). Just in case you'd like a puppy where you already know how big he's going to be... Geography is not an issue.

Do specialty dining tonight! Great way to celebrate. Happy anniversary!

It's the hot Italian I picked up in Queens before embarking on this cruise. Pineapple shmineapple, I GOT ME A HOT BRANZINO. Happy cruise day!

When I was studying abroad in the UK, I did Inverness in March. Highly not recommended if you don't like cold weather, LOL. However, I *will* say that I loved it and the tour that I did up there. My daughters both cuddled with my stuffed Nessie I got on that trip when they were toddlers. If you get a chance, I also recommend Stirling - it's beautiful, Stirling Castle is lovely to walk around, and there was a tower? (I think) somewhere where you could climb and see William Wallace's actual sword (replica, I'm sure). It's GARGANTUAN. I'm overwhelmed by how huge the guy must have been...I digress, just...go to Stirling if you can! @asquared17 and @Lovetocruise2002, I don't know if this helps, but I subscribe to Going (formerly Scott's Cheap Flights) to see killer deals on airfare. It found me a one-way 1st class ticket this past fall from CVG to MIA for $200 (2 months in advance), for example, and 3 economy tickets from PHX to London Heathrow direct for $1800 (travel in October, purchase in February). Those savings alone definitely paid for the $35 annual fee I pay for the service. It might be a thought to consider? Sorry you're struggling to find tickets that work for you, @asquared17, and maybe @Lovetocruise2002 can find something there?

Yay cruise! My boss recently turned 67 as well, but HE decided to go on a 3-week backpacking trip through Indonesia. He and I definitely have different ideas on "birthday fun." I'm much more with you guys!!!

I bet there were a ton of people absent from work that day so they were working with a skeleton crew.

This made me laugh out loud. Then I tried to picture you and your brother wearing luchador costumes to the event. I'm sure casual will be fine - casual shirt, jeans, sandals?

All of you on these Oasis class ships make me question my dislike of them. I've tried Allure twice and, while it's fine, I feel like my heart belongs to Freedom class. I wonder if it's just a different experience since I tend to be with gen pop? Nonetheless, have loved reading this blog this week.

I totally read that as UTI and thought no! you don't want that!!!!

I can't do the Canes sauce they have, so I tend to go with the sandwich instead of chicken fingers. The fries are good though!

My Japanese grandmother is horrified, screaming, and rolling over in her grave. Sushi in bed! What next, @OCSC Mike turning up his nose to the Windjammer? @Lovetocruise2002 GOING to the Windjammer?????? THE HORRORS

I truly want to meet Batman someday to ask him about his underwear. Just because I think it would be funny.

I sneezed in the shower back in 2016 and herniated a disc in my back. ZERO STARS, WOULD NOT RECOMMEND. Sneezes are killer! Hope Lindsey is better today. ...and I may just be going to Canes for lunch today. EDIT: nailed it. Outdoor seating too!

Congrats on retirement, @SweetPea! May you and Batman enjoy this phase of life together and not end up on the 6:00 news trying to kill each other. I love the idea of a much longer sailing like what you're doing. Spouse and I did 14 nights in Alaska back in 2010, but we left our toddler with her grandparents and the other one was a bun in the oven. We agreed at the time that six nights wasn't enough but 14 nights was too much, so we're doing 11 this summer. You'll have to let us know what you think of the length of yours! (You know, like the three bears- too long, too short, or just right) Aaaaaand I just reread that and it sounds completely naughty. Going back to plans for my cave suite now...

It's a CAVE SUITE. Let's call it what it is!