For most cruises, use of the fitness center (gym), jogging and walking tracks, and wellness classes amounts to a token effort. We say this because the length of an average cruise is short enough that missing your normal daily workout during your cruise won’t have a major impact on your overall health. Continue reading →
Free Style means, well, free style. You show up for dinner whenever you want just like you would at any other restaurant. For at least Norwegian Cruise Lines, the days of assigned seating times for dinner is over. You will normally be asked if you want to share a table which is probably because some people prefer to share a table. It’s a good way to meet others. Some folks, of course, prefer not to share. In either case, our experience has been that seating is done almost instantly, depending on the time of your arrival. As with any restaurant, you can expect a wait time if you show up during peak times. Continue reading →
For many people, a cruise is a trip of a lifetime. It’s something folks dream about for years. For a large number of people taking cruises, it’s not something they do on a casual basis. They plan and save until they have enough to make the trip. Continue reading →
As an introduction to this week’s series of blog entries, we thought we would start by explaining what’s to come. We’re on a cruise ship that left Miami Florida yesterday evening. We were scheduled to leave at around 5:00 PM, but the ship actually left the dock at around 7:15PM. We were loading supplies until that time. Not to worry though. We’re crossing the Atlantic and there’s plenty of time to make up our lost couple of hours before our first stop in Ponta Delgada, the Azores. Continue reading →
We’re on board the Norwegian star at the port of Miami. This was by far the easiest boarding we’ve ever done on a cruise ship. We dropped our luggage off this morning at 11 AM and took car rental car back to the airport. We then boarded a shuttle bus and came back to the cruise terminal. Once back at the cruise terminal it only took 20 minutes to board the ship including check in.
The Rocky Mountains, in the beautiful state of Colorado have long been romanticized as the best and brightest example of the Rocky Mountains anywhere. When most people think of Colorado, or Denver, they most likely imagine vivid images of the pristine mountains with sunshine, snow, and blue skies. While Denver, Colorado , is indeed a nice place to live and visit, the image of the Rocky Mountains might be best served by a place that’s actually in the mountains. That place would, of course, be the Rocky Mountain National Park. Continue reading →
If you were blindfolded, taken to Goblin Valley and told that you had just walked through a Stargate and were now on the mysterious red planet Entrada Prime, it might just be believable. Goblin Valley State Park near Hanksville, Utah, is just that kind of place. Just a little imagination, and you can easily pretend that you’re not on Earth any longer. In fact, portions of the space comedy “Galaxy Quest” were filmed here because of the unusual shapes of the rocks. In the movie, some of the rocks were alive and attacked Tim Allen!
In our present day country, we drive about on our road system that’s probably among the best in the world, and give little thought to the hardships that must have existed when this fabulous land was a wilderness; when a wheeled vehicle had never crossed the landscape, and nothing was moved that could not be carried on your back. We drive through little towns like Moss Landing, or Sweeneys Crossing, and give little thought to how they got their interesting names. To us, they’re just names. It might be a surprise then, that the little frontier town of Knights Ferry in the California foothills between Oakdale and Sonora got its name because it was once home to a modified whaling ship used for carrying passengers, goods, and livestock across the Stanislaus River. Continue reading →
