A Tragic Week For The Cruise Ship Industry

Posted on February 15, 2013 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Two Strikes in One Week

The cruise ship industry had two major blows this week. The biggest tragedy occurred in the Canary Islands where a lifeboat plunged to the sea during a safety drill involving the crew. Meanwhile, off the coast of Mexico an engine fire left a ship full of people adrift without propulsion or power.

Thomson Majesty

Lifeboat Accident in Canary Islands Kills Five, Injures Three

Often times while cruise ships dock in port, the crew conducts lifeboat safety drills so they are well practiced in the event of an actual emergency. While docked at La Palma in the Canary islands, the Thomson Majesty of Thomson Cruises, a discount cruise line from the UK managed by a company called Louis Cruises, held a routine lifeboat drill. At the conclusion of a their drill a cable snapped as the lifeboat raised from the sea. A hook on a second cable gave way, and the lifeboat plunged about 65 feet into the sea landing upside down and trapping the crew members aboard underneath. The captain called for divers from the port, who arrived at the overturned vessel. Five crew members died and three were taken to local hospitals where they are recovering.

Mechanical failure could have caused the accident, but more diligence in the maintenance may have prevented it. Terry Dobbins, a passenger on the ship a week before the accident, made this comment about his observation of the safety drill then:

“The lifeboat was coming halfway down, then lurching to a halt. They were bouncing in mid-air. The winches were seizing up. It was really worrying.”

Carnival Triumph

The Carnival Triumph experienced an engine fire while off the coast of Mexico on what was supposed to be a four day cruise. The ship’s automatic fire extinguishing systems quickly put out the fire and nobody was injured. It did leave the vessel adrift with no power or propulsion though.

At the beginning of their ordeal, passengers had no running water or working toilets. It’s a good thing cruise ships are well stocked with hand sanitizer! Over the course of their long slow journey under tow to Alabama most of the public restrooms and some passenger cabin’s bathrooms did become usable meaning they no longer had to use plastic bags. Odds are the crew was happier about that than the passengers, as they had to collect the used bags. Crew members likely worked very hard trying to keep the ship as clean as they possibly could, though they could do nothing about sewage leaking through walls.

Many passengers camped out on the deck to escape flooded rooms or the heat inside a ship with no air conditioning.

On a cruise ship full of food, why did this ship have short supplies and need deliveries from other vessels to keep the passengers fed? The answer to that, like all their other woes, lies in the lack of power. Giant freezers and refrigerators need power to keep the food cold, and the galley needs power to cook it. Cruise ships often even bake their own fresh bread daily rather than stockpiling packaged loaves.

Why Tow a Ship All The Way To Alabama Instead of Disembarking in Mexico?

In conditions such as those faced on the Triumph, why would they take the time to tow the ship all the way to a US port rather than letting the people off at the closest Mexican port they could tow a ship to? The answer to that lies with passports. People who did not fly across national boarders to embark on the ship may not have their passports with them. Passport cards and enhanced driver’s licenses work just fine for ID for those flying locally or traveling by land or sea to a number of international destinations. They don’t, however, work for international flights.

Keep this in mind whenever cruising. Not only is a passport necessary to fly home from a foreign country if the ship should have some sort of difficulty, but it could also be needed to get to the next port. Cruise ships routinely leave port at the scheduled time and inevitably people get left behind at port stops. If a passenger does not return to the ship on time, the crew may look in their room safe for their passport (so always keep it there if you don’t bring it with you). Carnival will have a representative meet passengers who missed the boat at the dock with their passport and help them along on their journey to the next port. I don’t know the policies of other cruiselines, but they may do so as well. There’s also the possibility of a medical emergency causing a sudden need to fly home. So the point being, always bring your passport when cruising!

Passengers onboard the Triumph likely felt like they had the vacation from Hell. No doubt they couldn’t wait to get off the ship. Some even kissed the ground as they left – something I would not recommend as kissing dirty ground where thousands of people walk with who knows what on the bottom of their shoes is a very good way to get sick.

On the bright side of the Carnival Triumph engine fire, nobody got injured, nobody died, and the ship did not sink. Carnival compensated the passengers well – refunding their cruise, providing travel arrangements beyond Alabama, and giving them a free future cruise and $500 each.

Often when something happens that causes bad press against a particular company its stock prices go down. Carnival gives onboard credit to those with 100 or more shares of stock each time they cruise, so for any avid cruisers looking for a way to save on cruises, watch the market and if the price takes a big enough temporary dive from this, it could turn out to be a good time to buy.

The question remains, Are Cruise Ships Safe? The answer is still yes. The passengers on the Triumph were quite inconvenienced, but well compensated for their ruined vacation. As for the Majesty, it was a horrible tragedy for the crew. No passengers were harmed in the Majesty’s disastrous drill. Even for cruise ship crew members the odds are still far greater of dying in an auto accident on land than on a cruise ship. We can only hope that such a horrible event as this unsafe safety drill will spur the owners of all cruise lines large and small to make more safety inspections of their equipment and insure prompt maintenance whenever needed.

Photo Credits: All photos on this blog are from the internet. The photo of the Thomson Majesty is from Daily Mail in the UK. The two carnival ones came from googling Carnival Triumph photos, the ship under tow is from the Christian Science Monitor and the camp on deck is from abc news.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bad cruises, Carnival Triumph, cruise ship disasters, cruise ship fire, lifeboat accident, Thomson Majesty | 21 Comments

Palma de Mallorca, Spain

Posted on February 9, 2013 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Visiting Majorca on Carnival Breeze

Carnival Breeze docked in Palma de Mallorca

The Carnival Breeze docked in Palma de Mallorca (Majorca) fairly early one morning near the start of our transatlantic cruise from Barcelona. Not having scheduled any shore excursions, we got ready at our leisure and set out to explore. After a trip through the duty free shop we got shuttle tickets for 5 euros each.

La Seu Cathedral

Cathedral Spires

The shuttle took us past the modern architecture in the area of Europe’s vacation homes and into the old town district across the street from La Seu, a massive ancient cathedral.

From just about any angle La Seu has something interesting to photograph. With giant doorways full of intricate figures and designs, to tall crumbling spires, there’s always a new view.

Who wants a ride?

Horse carriages waited near the cathedral, hoping for tourists wanting to go for a ride.

Construction on this cathedral began in the 1200’s on the site of a former mosque. It took until the 1600’s to finish it. Beggars dressed in a variety of colorful and creative costumes tried to catch the attention of passers-by in hopes of earning a few coins in exchange for the photographs they know people will take of them.

tourist shops in Palma de Mallorca

Many of the ancient streets still have brick paving. Some even had overhead decorations running the length of the street. Besides looking nice, tourists find these decorations helpful in recognizing where you came from when the time comes to find the way back.

2 swans a-swimming at the cathedral

Walking down narrow streets past quaint shops, we found the banks of the region quite paranoid. This is very unhelpful for the tourists in this touristy area. Most banks had double doors that locked prospective customers first out and then in. A single teller sat in a glass cage, and when confronted with a $100 dollar bill found themselves unable to exchange it for euros. On the fourth try we found a French bank that seemed much friendlier than all the Spanish ones. Not only did they have just one front door that opened easily, but the teller also sat out in the open behind his desk, no glass cage. This bank exchanged the money with no hassle. If you should happen to find yourself in Palma de Mallorca with a need to exchange dollars for euros, bring $20 bills for better luck.

coffee shop with free wi-fi

Down the road a bit we noticed an interesting looking building containing a coffee shop called merely Cappuccino. Along with a cup of tea we got free wi-fi, necessary because we found the ship’s internet much too slow for photos. We got a bit of work done and then moved on.

beggar in the square, sitting on air

put some money in my head please

A little farther on we found an outdoor plaza surrounded by hi-rise buildings. Here we saw the most creative beggar of all, a girl dressed in gold colored clothes who appeared to sit in mid-air supported only by a stick in her hand.

Other nearby beggars wore headless suits and one even had a head at his feet for the collecting tin.

the outskirts of the tourist shops

John wanted to find some wine, so we wandered about until we came across a nice little wine and cheese shop on what appeared as the outskirts of the touristy shops. They had quite a selection of local wines. He found a couple inexpensive bottles, and after returning to the ship and tasting one he proclaimed it one of the best wines he’d ever tasted. Spanish wines are free of the sulphites found in many American wines.

HISTORY IN A NUTSHELL

Humans have occupied Palma since before the time of the Roman Empire. The Romans built a city on the ruins of a previous civilization there. After a sacking by the Vandals during the fall of the Roman Empire, the city later was reconquered by the Byzantines and colonized by the Moors. The city spent time under rule by Muslims, Christians, and Vikings through different time periods in history. Majorca spent some time as its own kingdom, but became split by infighting of rival gangs within the city. Spain took control in the 1700’s.

door at La Seu cathedral

Starting in the 1950’s tourism changed the island forever, adding to the population and causing major construction.

The average temperature of the island varies seasonally from 40°F to 87°F and rarely drops below 31°F or climbs above 93°F. Rainy days happen more often throughout the colder fall and winter season than in the warmer summertime.

THINGS TO DO IN PALMA DE MALLORCA

Palma de Mallorca is the biggest and the capitol city of the island of Majorca. Almost half of the island’s population lives in Palma. It is a major tourist attraction as well. Other Europeans keep vacation homes there. Even the Spanish royals spend summer vacations there. Cruise ship passengers have just a brief time to sample what this area has to offer. The ships offer some tours including sight seeing, wine tasting, train rides, or a visit to a cave. Some excursions include food.

inside one of Palma’s many old churches

Things to find exploring on your own include lots of old churches, cathedrals and other historic buildings, many touristy shops and some local markets. Palma also has a castle and Arab baths that are open to the public and numerous places to eat.

hop-on hop-off double decker bus

Like many other places that have a lot of tourists, Palma also has a hop-on, hop off double decker bus. In most places that provides a pretty good means of getting around to see the major sites of the area.

Posted in Breeze, Carnival, Europe, Port Cities, Ports of Call | Tagged Breeze, Carnival, cruise, Majorca, Palma de Mallorca, picture, Spain, travel | 10 Comments

Cruise Ship Decor on the Norwegian Pearl

Posted on February 2, 2013 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Norwegian Pearl displays strings of colored pearls in her hull art

The Norwegian Pearl, a beauty among cruise ships, has graced the banner of my blog pretty much since its very beginning. (The blog’s beginning that is, not the ship’s.) With most cruise ships decor refers mainly to the inside, but with Norwegian’s unique paint jobs for each ship, the decor begins long before ever setting foot on board.

Pearl’s Crystal Atrium all decked out for Christmas

Brightly colored pearls (what else) painted on the outside make the Pearl stand out anywhere. Once inside the ship, the decor stands out there as well. From the ornate atrium to walls intricately adorned with decorations or murals to the whimsical carpets – different for each area of the ship – there’s always something new to see while wandering about inside the Pearl.

birds with an embroidered look adorn walls near the theater

Wall near the entrance to the Stardust theater

mural at kid’s splash area

mural at Moderno Churrascaria Restaurant

Churrascaria Restaurant has dance steps outlined on their carpet

coffee beans on the carpet - no they are the carpet

Coffee Bean Carpet at the Blue Lagoon 24-Hour Cafe

Some areas have all the bling passengers come to expect from cruise ships while other areas have cheerful colors, and yet others bring quite unexpected surprises such as beds in random places.

Norwegian Pearl has odd beds in random places

random bed in the Spinnaker Lounge

We called this area of the Bliss Ultra Lounge the “Pimp Room”

Pearl Decor Slideshow

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Passengers on the Pearl always know when they have left one area and entered another by the change of carpet and other decor. The widely varying decor gives each area of the ship its own feel, whether elegant, casual, or a place to kick back and have fun.

waterfall cascades from Sky High Bar to Tahitian Pool

Posted in Norwegian, Pearl, Shipboard Life | Tagged bling, cruise ship decor, decor, inside a cruise ship, Norwegian, Norwegian Pearl, Pearl, photos, travel | 14 Comments

The Land Yacht

Posted on January 31, 2013 by LBcruiseshipblogger

the vamper

A different kind of cruising – on land! My Cruise Stories is mainly about cruising on the sea, and will remain that way, but motorhomes are sometimes referred to as land yachts (and some of them deservingly so.) In fact there’s even a motorhome rental company called Cruise America.

I haven’t got plans yet for my next sea cruise, but there is a vague resemblance of a plan in the works for a land cruise halfway across the country next fall. My daughter and her kids plan to come over from Australia and we’ll all take a road trip to Minnesota for my niece’s wedding. We’re bound to see a bit of Americana along the way, perhaps even some majorly interesting places like Yellowstone (which is actually the caldera of a gigantic volcano) or Mount Rushmore. With two small kids in tow there’s bound to be some interesting blog-worthy moments.

oldie but goodie

So why am I writing about this now? Because we just took a major step toward this and probably many other land cruises to come. I bought a vamper. What, you may ask, is a vamper? After all even the salesman on the RV lot gave us a puzzled look when we said we wanted to see that vamper over in the corner. That’s our word for a camper van. We’ve called them that for years, long before we ever thought of owning one. (We did own a small motorhome once, but it blew up due to a propane leak.) Hopefully I never decide to buy an Airstream……we’ve always called those sausages, ever since I was a little kid.

So it’s not exactly new and somebody got a lot of use out of it, it’s not like we have the $50,000 or more it takes to buy a new one. Not only was the layout on this one about the best we’ve ever seen in a vamper, but the price was far less than I thought we’d ever find one for.

bathroom in the vamper

This vamper has an actual bathroom. Not a slide-out closet or a porta-potty, but a real flush toilet and even a tiny bathtub. All in a room where an adult can enter and shut the door while other people can still move about the van. Granted the tub is probably not large enough for an adult to sit in, just stand and take a shower, but when traveling cross-country with two small kids it will surely come in handy!

OK so I have some cleaning to do

It also has the most awesome couch that converts to a bed by rolling the back of it over to the other side of the seat on some sort of track that flips it over and lays it down on the other side with little legs that pull out and support it.

the back of this couch rolls over to the other side and lays flat to make a bed

I’ll have a bit of work to do making some cushions for the top bed as it hasn’t got any, and cleaning things up a bit, but that’s a small price to pay for the small price we paid.

the top bunk slides out into a full sized bed

OK so it might be a stretch to consider a vamper a land yacht, as that term is really for those enormous motorhomes. Perhaps this one is more like a small land boat. Whatever, we can now cruise on land as well as by sea.

Posted in Randoms, Uncategorized | Tagged camper van, camping, photos, road trip, travel, vamper | 5 Comments

Red Frog Pub on Carnival Breeze

Posted on January 26, 2013 by LBcruiseshipblogger

RedFrog Pub on Carnival Breeze

Most Carnival Passengers sailing on ships with the Funship 2.0 Upgrades are familiar with the RedFrog Rum Bar on the Lido deck. Perhaps one of the best kept secrets on Carnival Breeze could lie on deck 5 inside the RedFrog Pub.

Conch Fritters

Food of all sorts abounds on cruise ships. There’s something for everyone, and most of it quite tasty. It does all have one thing in common though – it’s made in mass quantities to feed a large number of passengers. Here’s where the RedFrog Pub differs. The RedFrog Pub makes every food item they serve to order. Just like most restaurants on land, they cook each plate of food individually only when someone orders it. This means the food arrives at the table fresh and hot straight from the pub’s own kitchen.

Where do fish fingers come from since they have no hands?

Grouper Fingers

Sadly, the very nominal fee of about $3 per item probably deters those passengers who don’t want to pay extra for any food from tasting some of the best food the ship has to offer. One or two of these items, sold as appetizers, makes enough food to serve as a meal to the average person.

if you haven't tried this sauce, you're missing out

hot wings with the best rum barbeque sauce ever

The RedFrog Pub makes their own homemade sauces served with some food items. The coconut shrimp comes with an excellent pina colada sauce, and they serve hot wings with a rum barbeque sauce to die for. The tasty sauce is not hot so it helps temper the spicy wings while adding excellent flavor. The RedFrog even makes their own tartar sauce.

icky sticky coconut cake: sticky yes, but far from icky – it’s yummy

The Pub Grub menu includes a pulled pork sandwich, beef sliders, curried chicken pockets, grouper fingers (who knew fish had fingers) and a couple of conch dishes. We did not care for the conch, but loved everything else we tasted there. For dessert they serve a wonderfully delicious sticky coconut cake that costs even less than their other food items and comes with optional ice cream. The menu calls it icky sticky coconut cake, but we found nothing whatsoever icky about it. Delicious!

RedFrog Pub inside entrance

The ambiance epitomizes the Caribbean casual decor of the ship, but with a nautical theme. The pub has entrances both from inside on deck 5 and from outside on the lanai that runs completely around the ship on that deck. The lanai area just outside the door of the RedFrog Pub includes some outdoor seating.

outdoor seating at Carnival Breeze RedFrog Pub

On the Lanai Just Outside of the RedFrog Pub

The friendly staff insures their patrons have a good time. Sometimes they get snappy with their camera and you find yourself staring back at you from the video screen at the bar.

the video screens behind the bar don’t always show the RedFrog

sliders at the RedFrog Pub

curried chicken pockets

most items on this menu are well worth the nominal fee

Pub Grub Menu

Coconut Shrimp with wonderful Pina Colada sauce

conch salad

Posted in Breeze, Carnival, Cruise Food | Tagged Carnival Breeze, cruise, cruise food, food, photos, Red Frog Pub, travel | 9 Comments

The Grilled Cheese Pizza Sandwich

Posted on January 23, 2013 by LBcruiseshipblogger

grilled cheese pizza sandwich cut into easy-to-eat small pieces

As they sometimes do, my son Chris and grandson Justin came for a visit. Justin is about as picky of an eater as they come. So picky in fact that when we took him on a cruise he couldn’t find anything he wanted to eat at the chocolate buffet. Seriously, other than people with food problems that prevent them from eating chocolaty desserts, who couldn’t find more than they could possibly eat at a chocolate buffet? (On our recent trip on the Norwegian Pearl the chocolate buffet even included sugar free and gluten free selections and random non-chocolate items, so they did their best to provide for just about everybody.)

start with two pieces of leftover pizza

Anyway, back to the topic of this post, trying to feed Justin. He likes very few things and of those will eat very little so he is an extremely hard kid to feed. He does like plain cheese pizza and grilled cheese sandwiches though. So one day in trying to come up with something for him to eat after he had turned down every suggestion I had, I said jokingly, “How about a grilled cheese pizza sandwich?”

add some extra cheese

In spite of the fact that we did indeed have cold cheese pizza in the refrigerator and sandwich fixins, this idea met a resounding NO from Justin, and nobody could ever convince him otherwise.

The more the rest of us thought about it the more viable the idea became.

“You wouldn’t even need bread,” Chris said. “Just put the cheese side of two pieces of pizza together and grill the crust side.”

the grilled cheese pizza sandwich comes together

put the two pizza slices together and place it in a heated frying pan

“Add some extra cheese in the middle and butter the crust so it gets nice and crispy,” my husband John added.

need to get the cheese hot enough to melt

cover the pan while the sandwich cooks

Every idea still met with a firm no from Justin, who ended up just eating a banana, and very reluctantly at that. He actually said he wished the banana would eat itself so he didn’t have to eat it.

flip when one side gets toasted golden brown

I decided to give our strange new sandwich idea a shot though. It actually turned out pretty good. And if the pizza had toppings besides cheese on it, so much the better. Instead of grilled cheese it would become a gourmet sandwich!

Considering pizza is usually pretty greasy anyway, it probably could have done without the butter, especially in a non-stick pan.

whole grilled cheese pizza sandwich

Grilled Cheese Pizza Sandwich

Ingredients

2 slices cheese pizza*

thin slices of an easy-to-melt cheese (I used havarti)

*for gourmet grilled pizza sandwich use pizza with toppings

Directions

Select a frying pan with a lid. You need to hold the heat in all around the sandwich as it cooks to get the cheese in the middle to melt before the outside burns.

Heat the frying pan on medium heat. It’s ready when a few drops of water thrown in the pan sizzle.

Put slices of extra cheese on one slice of pizza, top with other pizza slice cheese side down.

Grease heated frying pan with butter if desired and place pizza sandwich inside. Cover with lid and cook until bottom side becomes golden brown.

Uncover frying pan and flip sandwich over. Cook second side until golden brown and cheese in the middle gets melty.

Remove grilled cheese pizza sandwich from pan. Leave whole or cut into smaller pieces for easier eating or to feed more people. Serve as is, or add ketchup or other dipping sauce to the plate before serving.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2013

Posted in Randoms, recipes | Tagged cooking, easy meals, food, photos, picky eaters, recipe, sandwich invention, using up leftovers, weird food | 17 Comments

Bowling on a Cruise Ship

Posted on January 19, 2013 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Norwegian Pearl in Cozumel

bowling alley on the Pearl

Modern cruise ships come equipped with a variety of ways to entertain their passengers. Not every ship has everything, but each ship does have quite a lot of choices. Looking at what different ships have to offer provides even more options for things to do during a cruise.

People expect to find things like pools and even waterslides. Norwegian Pearl has something completely different to do- go bowling! The Pearl was the first cruise ship ever to include a bowling alley at sea. Now some other Norwegian ships have them as well, including the Epic – a ship of…well… epic proportions.

bar in the Bliss Ultra Lounge & Night Club

On the Pearl, the bowling alley is located in the Bliss Ultra Lounge and Nightclub. This lounge has just about everything. In addition to the bowling alley it has a bar and dance floor, random beds which for unknown reasons the Pearl has scattered about the ship, and a couple areas that for lack of anything better to call them, we referred to as pimp rooms.

Where’s the harem girls?

The Bliss Ultra Lounge has four bowling lanes, two on each side of the lounge. The nominal fee for bowling includes rental of a pair of bowling shoes. Each bowling lane is completely automated. A television-like screen displays whose turn it is to bowl and keeps score. If anyone bowls a strike or spare a cartoon on the screen celebrates their success.

Norwegian Pearl has brightly colored bowling balls in a variety of sizes

Each set of lanes has a variety of bowling balls to choose from in an array of different sizes and colors. Passengers of all ages can enjoy a trip to the bowling alley. Younger kids may use the optional rails that prevent the ball from rolling into the gutter.

strike one ....in bowling that's a good thing

John bowling on the Pearl

We gave the bowling alley a try on our recent cruise on the Pearl. We’re not expert bowlers, but had a great time anyway. The fact that the people in the adjacent lane did not bowl any better than we did saved us (mainly me) from embarrassment. John did suggest putting up the kiddie rails, but I did manage to keep some balls out of the gutter and even knock down a few pins.

John bowls a strike

Bowling on a ship can be more interesting than bowling on land. A little movement of the ship this way or that could just send your ball right toward the middle of the lane….or into the gutter. Yeah that’s it, motion of the ship. That’s why most of my balls went into the gutter. At least it makes a good excuse!

Does this picture make my butt look fat?

Posted in Norwegian, Pearl, Shipboard Life | Tagged bowling, bowling alley, bowling at sea, cruise, cruise ship entertainment, fun, Norwegian Pearl, photos, travel | 12 Comments

How to Make a Towel Bear

Posted on January 12, 2013 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Towel Bear in Carnival Liberty’s Hot & Cool Dance Club

Supplies Needed to Make Towel Bear

1. One Bath Towel

2. One Hand Towel

3. Eyes (bits of felt or paper or googly eyes)

4. Any other desired decorations – tongue, claws, etc.

How to Fold a Towel Bear

How to Fold the Towel Bear Body

roll both ends of bath towel to center

The bear takes the standard body, same as the turtle, pig, or many other towel animals. Lay the bath towel out flat and roll both ends to the center from the short sides.

fold towel in half, rolls to the outside and pull tip ends out of each roll

Fold towel in half with the rolls to the outside. Pull the tips out of the end of each roll. I didn’t get a good picture of this step folding the bear, so I ~~stole~~ borrowed a photo from the cat.

take the tips of one roll in one hand, and the other roll in the other hand

Grasp the two tips that are the ends of one roll in one hand and the two tips that are the ends of the other roll in the other hand.

pull all 4 tips at once until the rolls pull out into the 4 legs of an animal body

Pull all four simultaneously until the rolled towel becomes four legs and a body.

How to Fold the Towel Bear Head

fold hand towel in half crosswise

Fold hand towel in half across the short side.

fold in half again

Fold in half again.

with finger holding down edge, fold corners of towel down the middle

Hold center down with a finger and fold each side down like a triangle.

flip towel over so folded parts of triangles are on the underside

Flip towel to other side and fold the center point over.

fold down center point of triangle

Pick towel up and invert while folding in half.

pick towel up and fold in half while inverting

Shape nose and ears as desired.

shape features as desired

How to Assemble a Towel Bear

place head between leg rolls of body

Place head between leg rolls of body.

bring arm rolls together and pull bear up into sitting position

Bring body up into sitting position. Position legs as desired.

position and decorate as desired

Decorate with eyes and any other embellishments.

I used small googly eyes, bits of pipe cleaner for claws, and felt for the tongue on this bear.

one towel teddy bear

If you are looking for instructions on how to fold a one-towel teddy bear, click here.

Easy Towel Bear

For an Easy Towel Bear click here.

Although the bear is the last animal from the Carnival Liberty series, I still have more animals to come. Next up is the penguin, inspired by a penguin Rosario, our steward on the Norwegian Pearl, folded for us.

penguin inspired by Norwegian Pearl towel penguin

my towel penguin

For instructions on how to fold a variety of other towel animals, click here for the towel animal page.

Posted in Towel Animals | Tagged cruise, cruise ship towel animals, photos, towel animal instructions, towel art, towel bear, towel origami, travel, video | 11 Comments

Shine On Award

Posted on January 10, 2013 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Now and then bloggers like to honor other bloggers whose blogs they enjoy with a variety of different awards.

Kris at The Panama Adventure nominated me for the Shine On award. She also gave me new nominations to the Beautiful Blogger Award and the One Lovely Blog award, but since I’ve already posted blogs on those I’ve just added her link to them on my awards page.

Since I could not find any more info about this award, I’ll just have to speculate as to the meaning of the Shine On Award. Perhaps that the blogs nominated are shining stars in the vast array of available blogs? Sounds good to me!

shineon

The requirements for accepting this award are to share seven new things about yourself. Also to nominate ten other bloggers for this award and alert them to their new award nomination with a comment on their blog. Plus post the award on your blog with a link to the blog that nominated you. And required or not it’s always nice to thank the person who gave you the nomination.

Seven Things to Share

1. I’m going to challenge myself to see if I can find 10 blogs to nominate for this award that I have not previously nominated for other awards.

2. I failed in a search for more information about the Shine On Award.

3. The Panama Adventure is of special interest to me because I personally know someone who moved to Panama.

4. It’s a major challenge trying to come up with something to say here that is interesting enough somebody else might actually want to read it.

5. If I could live anywhere in the world I wanted it would be somewhere in the Caribbean. Or on a cruise ship.

6. When I’m not trying to sleep I can fall asleep with the TV going, lights on, and people around, but when I actually want to sleep any tiny noise or crack of light keeps me awake or wakes me up.

7. No matter how long a cruise is, it is never long enough.

My 10 Nominees for the Shine On Award

These blogs are listed in no particular order. The number they have on the list is completely random, not a ranking.

1. The Other Ginger This is a brand new blog so I know I haven’t nominated it for anything else yet. Written by Amy, who also writes AfternoonPopcornSnack.

2. My Travel Tastes Travel stories and food reviews from all over the world.

3. Lame Adventures I recently discovered this humor blog so I haven’t read all that much of it yet, but so far what I have read is quite funny.

4. Ron Scubadiver’s Wild Life Lots of photos from lots of places.

5. Toemail A fun blog that posts all sorts of pictures people submit – all with toes visible.

6. Russel Ray Photos A photographer with a cat living in San Diego

7. Retireediary by Michael Lai, mostly a travel and photo blog

8. Meg Travels a blog about Meg’s travels, and lots of photos.

9. The Road Less Traveled by Ben and Francoise A nearly brand-new travel blog about interesting places most people never visit.

10. Sarajevo in Pictures photoblog about Sarajevo written by an Aussie.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged blog awards, blogging, blogs, Shine On Award | 11 Comments

Hasbro The Game Show on Carnival Breeze

Posted on January 5, 2013 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Carnival Breeze in Malaga, Spain

Just about everyone grew up playing Hasbro games. Now some of those old favorites make a new appearance in life-sized splendor in the new Hasbro The Game Show, one of the Funship 2.0 upgrades available when cruising on Carnival‘s newest ship, the Breeze. These games provide a few lucky people the opportunity to live the games they once played.

Our recent transatlantic voyage on Carnival Breeze included three episodes of Hasbro The Game Show. We entered the theater to find the stage transformed into a giant game show set. Anyone sitting in the lower level of the theater may get an opportunity to play, those seated in the balcony can merely observe.

John Heald as game show host

First things first, the host must choose some contestants. John Heald, the cruise director on our transatlantic voyage, hosted the show, announcing at the very start that it was his first time acting as a game show host. Special lighting effects divided the theater into blue and red sides, shining blue or red light on each half of the audience. From the side in the blue light, members of the blue team were chosen, from the red side the red team formed.

wanna-be contestants try to attract attention to get chosen

John Heald asked questions alternately from one side to the other. Many people knew the answer. The key to getting chosen required getting his attention. On the first question a large women ran down the aisle, knocking him down where they both landed in a heap. Afraid of the consequences of not letting her play, she became a contestant, no answer required.

On subsequent questions people found ways to attract his attention until he had four members on each team. Those people played the first game offered that show. For the second game, a repeat of the contestant-choosing questions found eight new people. Neither of us played in the first show, but in the second episode my husband John got picked to answer a question by shining a light over himself. It did make him stand out in the audience of a relatively dark theater.

Did we get the right order that the colors flashed in?

Simon Flash contestants try to line up in the correct sequence

They have a variety of games gone wild so each episode can have some different games. Simon Flash involves people wearing large colored cubes that light up in four different colors and the first team to arrange themselves in the correct order of which the lights flashed for them wins. They had several turns at it, each time the lights flashed faster and the team who lined up quickest the most times won.

Hasbro Connect 4 Basketball

Connect 4 involved throwing a basketball into a giant connect 4 board. The object of course is to get four of your team’s color in a row, but of the teams we watched playing that game one of them struggled just to get a ball into the game board at all. The other team won easily.

John pushes the giant sorry game piece in Sorry Sliders

John played in Sorry Sliders, where each contestant got a chance to slide a very large sorry-style game piece onto a target area for varying amounts of points. His team won that game.

Operation Sam Dunk game

The last game we saw, called Operation Sam Dunk, resembled a cross between operation and skee-ball. Sam, the unfortunate character from the operation game, now appears larger than life on an apparatus resembling a skee-ball table. Instead of the usual circular target areas this game has separate holes for a variety of body parts worth differing amounts of points. Given a time limit, each team rolled the ball one after the other as many times as they could in relay fashion before time’s up. The highest collective team score won.

contestants line up to pick their Monopoly cards

After playing their game, members of the winning team choose cards inspired by monopoly game pieces. The four from the first game sit in winner’s row, the front row next to the stage which has seats reserved just for them. After the winners of the second game get their cards then all eight winning contestants insert their cards one by one into a giant monopoly cash machine and the card that registers the highest amount of monopoly money determines the winner. All players got prizes of some sort involving Hasbro games, the winner of the monopoly money of course receiving the largest prize.

the giant Monopoly money bank determines the winner of the game

We missed the third episode, but had quite a lot of fun at the two we attended. I would definitely recommend this activity for anyone sailing on a Carnival ship that offers it. Our ship had this as an afternoon activity on several of the sea days. Being a transatlantic cruise we had a lot of sea days, which we love.

Posted in Breeze, Carnival, Shipboard Life | Tagged Carnival Breeze, cruise, funship 2.0, game show, giant game pieces, Hasbro The Game Show, photos, sea days | 9 Comments

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