A Rainy Rainforest Hike in Ketchikan, Alaska

Posted on June 16, 2012 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Bald Eagles in Ketchikan, Alaska

On the first page of the first book of the Twilight series, it states “In the Olympic Peninsula of northwest Washington State, a small town named Forks exists under a near-constant cover of clouds. It rains on this inconsequential town more than any other place in the United States of America.”

That statement, however, is not entirely true. It rains more in Ketchikan, Alaska than it does in Forks, Washington. Forks has an average yearly rainfall of 120 inches. In a really wet year they’ve had as much as 160. Ketchikan, on the other hand, has an average yearly rainfall of nearly 160 inches, about as much as a record year for Forks. In a record year Ketchikan got over 202 inches.

Par for the course, the Norwegian Sun arrived in Ketchikan on a rainy day. On a later-season visit there the next year on the Safari Quest, I did manage to see Ketchikan in the sun.

Bald Eagles in Flight

Since we had a group of three people on a cruise with three port stops, each of us picked a shore excursion for one stop. In Ketchikan, Chris picked a rainforest hike. In a parking lot next to the cruise ship dock, we found the bus for our tour. Although there on time, we were the last to arrive. We still managed to find seats together on the bus, which took us to a marina. Bald eagles flocked around that marina the way seagulls flock around the marinas at home. One sat so still on the top of a nearby piling for so long it looked like a carving on the top of the pole – until it flew away when approached with a camera.

What happens in a rain forest? Mostly rain.

After giving everyone a chance to use the restroom, the tour guides fitted each person with brightly colored raingear. The colors varied with each size, an easy system for them keep everything of the same size grouped together to make assigning gear to their frequent tourists a fairly quick procedure. While we all donned our much-needed protection from the day’s weather, the guide made a comment about 3 weeks of unseasonably nice weather having just ended. Oh well, it is a rainforest after all. We got rained on in the rainforest in Australia, (yes Australia does have rainforests.) Might as well get rained on in the rainforest of Alaska as well.

The guides escorted our group down a dock where we all piled into a very large inflatable boat. Looking at the people around us we noticed that not only was Justin the only kid, but other than him and Chris, I was just about the youngest person there. (I’m fairly young as far as grandmothers go.) A bit surprising for a hike.

Passing by the shoreline of a neighboring island, we saw a moose standing near some trees above the beach. Most of Alaska is fairly remote, although some places are more remote than others. Near to a city wild places need protection even there. The island where we landed is not only uninhabited, but also requires permission for hiking. Something the tour people take care of, cruise ship passengers just pay for the excursion and let other people deal with the rest.

Boardwalk Trail into the Rainforest

We all climbed out of the boat and onto the beach. Then the group set off into the woods single file on a boardwalk trail. Apparently south-east Alaska has a lot of boardwalk trails. I suppose they need it on the boggy ground from all that rain.

Trees of the coastal temperate rainforest

While we walked through the forest, the guides talked about the things that grow there. Much of south-east Alaska is part of the Tongass National Forest, the largest National Forest in the US. It is part of the larger Pacific temperate rainforest ecoregion. The main tree species growing in the Ketchikan area include Sitka spruce, western hemlock, western red cedar, and Alaska (yellow) cedar. Although logging this remote region is no longer profitable, and actually sustained by government subsidies, logging continues into old growth forest areas not protected by wilderness status.

Near Forks in the Hoh Rainforest of Washington State, in addition to the Sitka spruce, western hemlock, and western red cedar found in Alaska, the forest also contains Douglas fir (the predominant tree of most of western Washington) as well as some deciduous trees like cottonwood and several species of maple.

giant rootball of fallen tree

In the greenish light filtering through the canopy of the rainforest trees we saw giant rootballs of large trees upended in winter storms. These fallen trees become nursery logs as the next generation of trees grows on top of them, attaining their nourishment from the log in their early years before their roots reach the forest floor.

Lots of moss grows everywhere, although trying to determine north by the moss on the trees doesn’t work well there as it grows all the way around them. Large fungi often protrude from the trunks.

How slimy is it?

At one point the guide stopped the group to view some local wildlife. He’d spotted a banana slug just off the boardwalk. He convinced a skeptical Justin to hold the banana slug. Apparently he enjoyed it as he developed an affinity for slugs from that point forth. For awhile after this trip, often times after he came for a visit I would find a little brown slug on the swing in the yard. Somehow I really don’t think slugs enjoy swings. They do enjoy the plants in my garden though.

Justin’s new friend – the banana slug

At the end of the hike we stopped at a small clearing in the woods where one of the guides had stayed behind and made a campfire. Everyone sat around the campfire on logs circled there for that purpose nibbling on snacks and sipping hot drinks. Well almost everyone. As usual, Justin couldn’t find so much as a cracker to his liking, and he’ll never drink anything hot. They might have come up with some juice for him, but I don’t remember for sure.

After a boatride and busride back to the ship, we had some time left in port. We headed out to see the town, but having left the rain gear back at the marina for the next tour, we now got soaked before reaching the first nearby gift shop, so that was as far as we went. We bought a few gifts for people not on the cruise with us, and then hurried back to the ship for dry clothes and a warm meal.

Things to do in Ketchikan, Alaska

Ketchikan has a large visitors center right near the cruise ship docks that can set people up with a variety of tours.

Ships also offer an abundance of shore excursions including tours by land, sea, or air, fishing, wilderness adventures, and tours featuring local cuisine, active adventures, native culture, or wildlife.

things that live under the sea in Alaska

Try snorkeling in a wetsuit where you actually stay warm while seeing what lives under the surface of Alaska’s cold sea. Or maybe a crab boat experience on a ship once featured on Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch show is more to your liking.

Bears fishing at Neets Bay Fish Hatchery

Visit Neets Bay Fish Hatchery by boat or plane, where you might catch a glimpse of a bear come to fish in the river. Or you could book a fishing charter and catch Alaska’s wild salmon before the bears eat them.

More Blogs About Ketchikan

Dolly’s House
Duck Tour
Trolley Tour
Snorkel Alaska
Walking Tour

Posted in Alaska, Norwegian, Shore Excursions, Sun | Tagged Alaska, cruise, eagles, Forks, hike, Ketchikan, photos, rain, rainforest, travel, trees, Twilight | 3 Comments

How to Make Towel Animals – Folding a Towel Pig

Posted on June 9, 2012 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Towel Pig on Carnival Liberty

SUPPLIES NEEDED TO MAKE A TOWEL PIG

One bath towel, one hand towel, one washcloth, two eyes (paper, felt, googly eyes, whatever works for you.) Any other desired embellishments such as felt or paper nostrils.

HOW TO FOLD A TOWEL PIG

Making the towel pig body

roll each end to the center

Starting with the bath towel, make the standard towel animal body. Lay the towel out flat, and from the short sides roll each end to the middle. Start each roll with just a small amount of towel folded over. Make the rolls tight reasonably tight, but not so tight you won’t be able to pull the ends out of them later.

Fold towel in half with the rolled part on the outside

Fold the rolled towel in half, with the rolled part on the outside.

pull the tips out of the ends of the rolls

Pull the tips out of the end of each roll.

take the tips from the two rolls from the same side of the towel in one hand, and the two from the other roll in the other hand

pull on the tips of all four rolls at the same time until the rolls stretch into legs and the towel becomes an animal body

Hold the tips you just pulled out of the ends of the rolls with the two tips from one roll in one hand and the two tips from the other roll in the other hand. Pull all four at once until the rolls pull into legs and the towel becomes a body.

all four rolls stretched into legs to make a body

towel animal body turned over

Place the body into a sitting position.

place towel body into a sitting position

How to fold the towel pig’s tail

fold washcloth in half like a sloppy triangle

Use the washcloth to make the towel pig’s tail. Start by folding the washcloth in half like a very sloppy triangle in which the end points totally missed each other.

roll the washcloth, starting from the long straight end

Roll from the straight end so the points end up on the outside of the roll.

tuck one end of tail under body and position as desired

Tuck one end of the tail under the body and position as desired.

How to fold the towel pig head

fold a hand towel in half to start the pig head

Now comes the hard part for this towel animal, making a towel pig head. Use the hand towel for this step. First fold the towel in half crosswise (not too hard yet…)

fold down the corners of the folded side to make a pointy end

Next fold down the corners of the folded end so that end has a pointy tip.

fold the pointed end under

Tuck a fair portion of the pointy tip down under the towel.

roll both sides to the center

Now it starts getting a bit harder. Roll in both sides to the middle.

pig snout before sculpting

Pick the towel up and turn it to see the other side. The pointy tip previously folded under will sort of resemble a pig snout at this point. Sculpt it a bit rounder with your hands until it actually looks like a pig snout.

snout after sculpting

move each of the rolled ends off to the side a bit

Now the really hard part. The back of the head has two rolls. Bring the top of each one over a bit toward the side of the head it is on, as those bits will become ears.

fold the middle of the rolled part from between the ears down to the snout

Then fold both layers down to the snout at the middle. Sculpt the snout and ears as desired and place the head on the body.

place the head onto the body

Decorate as desired.

finished towel pig

To add more stability to the head if you want the pig to be easily transportable a safety pin or tape could be added to the back, or a pipe cleaner wrapped around it under the fold. Of course the tail isn’t attached either.

Click link for a list of blogs with instructions on how to fold a variety of other towel animals.

Next up in this series on how to fold towel animals is: Towel Elephant

towel elephant

Posted in Towel Animals | Tagged crafts, cruise ship towel animals, fun, photos, towel animals, towel art, towel folding, towel origami, towel pig, video | 9 Comments

Discovering Shipboard Activities while Cruising on the Norwegian Sun

Posted on June 2, 2012 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Norwegian Sun docked in Vancouver BC

On my previous cruises at this point, I hadn’t really made use of all the ship had to offer. Sure we had attended some shows, but that was about it as far as participating in the activities the ship has to offer goes. My first cruise to the Bahamas was so short, and most of the time spent cruising was overnight so there wasn’t time to do much. We did go to a show and Sheri tried singing Karaoke. That pretty much filled all the time we had other than sleeping and a shore excursion.

The next two were the Card Player Cruises to Mexico, on the Spirit and the Oosterdam. The poker room for the card player people gave us a full-time activity there for all time the ship spent at sea, so we didn’t investigate much the ship had to offer then either.

On the Reef Encounter, (except when the boat was in transit from reef to reef) we spent most of our time diving or snorkeling. When on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, the sea is pretty much where you want to be.

Finally on the Norwegian Sun with some sea days and nothing specific to occupy them, we started finding other things to do. Justin was 6 at the time. He loved the comedy shows, but not so much the production shows, even when they had one of Peter Pan. I guess he is not into singing and dancing. Unless of course he is the one doing the dancing. We went to bingo early one day and they let him dance to his heart’s content on the empty stage until more people came and they needed to get the bingo game started.

Since this cruise happened not only before I started this blog, but also before I owned a digital camera, I have a limited supply of pictures supplied by Chris. So in order to supplement things I don’t have photos for I’m ~~stealing~~ borrowing an idea from my daughter Sheri at mommy adventures and drawing some cartoons (which I am not very good at, hers were much better. Unfortunately you can’t see them as her blog no longer exists and the name has been taken over by another website).

Where’s the video camera?

At each bingo game they had raffle tickets, giving out so many for each bingo card purchased. On the last day of the cruise they had a drawing for a free cruise from those tickets. One day when Chris got to the line to buy the bingo cards at about the same time or slightly before another passenger on the ship, he did the polite thing and let her go first. The raffle tickets are all in numerical order, so she had the set just before ours. When drawing day came they had everyone stand up at the start and then sit as the tickets in your hand no longer matched the numbers called so far. Near the end it got down to just her and me. Then they called the last number. These were the tickets from that particular game, and mine was one number too high. Yup, had Chris not been so polite we’d have won a free cruise.

tanzanite and diamond necklace with tanzanite earrings

On this cruise we also discovered jewelry lectures where we first learned of the existence of tanzanite, alexandrite, and other sorts of rare stones. Also how to get free things at port stops. Interestingly enough, Justin seemed to like jewelry lectures, or at least did not get bored enough to misbehave. One would think a small child would find a stage show more entertaining than a lecture, but apparently not, at least not this child.

Star Wars Yoda as a towel (actually a towel as Yoda, but whatever)

my own creation – towel Yoda

We also tried attending the towel animal folding demonstration, but we didn’t get good seats so we really couldn’t see much, and the steward doing the demonstration didn’t speak English very well so we didn’t really understand a thing he said and gave up on it. We remained clueless about how to fold cruise ship towel animals at that time, though I have since learned and now I even make up my own.

Fun With Hand Sanitizer

You never know what might entertain a 6-year-old. On this cruise, one of Justin’s favorites turned out to be the hand sanitizer. At the entrance to every food venue, in addition to a stand filled with hand sanitizer you could use on your own, they also had an employee stationed with a spray bottle of it to insure that each and every person got their hands sanitized before going in. They took every precaution they could to keep people from getting sick since this was the year of the big swine flu epidemic, at about the time it had started migrating north from Mexico (where a lot of the boats going to Alaska at that time had just come from.) Justin would get a spray of hand sanitizer from the person and then still use enough for about 10 giants from the sanitizer stand and enter the food venue with his little hands oozing and dripping with the stuff. Sometimes he probably would have ran the stand dry if someone didn’t stop him.

one kid could use up the entire ship's supply of hand sanitizer

Did I get enough?

Cruise ships have lots of stairways and this one had someone going up and down them all day cleaning the handrails to try and prevent passengers from spreading germs that way as well. They did all they could to keep anyone from getting sick.

When mistakes make the best photos

Justin loves to pose for photos and although Chris and I are both totally unphotogenic we had fun posing anyway. Most of the port stops had someone dressed as a moose or some such character for the kids to pose with.

greenscreen photo shows ship in green shirts

Ship in Shirts

When we first boarded the ship they took the photo against a green screen and then added the ship in later. Ours had the ship going through people where Chris and I had worn green shirts. They offered to fix it, but Chris said then he wouldn’t want it. He bought that one and liked it so much that we all wore green shirts for the initial boarding photo on our last cruise hoping to get a photo with a ship through us all, but it didn’t happen, we were just people in green shirts.

It worked for other people

Whenever Justin picked a Kid’s Club activity he thought he wanted to do, we would drop him off there early for the free play time when he could watch cartoons or play video games and then try and use the casino coupons the ship had given us while we had some kid-free time. We never did get to use all the coupons…..more about Justin and Kid’s Club in a future blog.

Fun and Games Cruise Ship Style

There’s some activities I have yet to discover though. Other than Sheri’s one crack at singing karaoke, we haven’t gone to compete in, or even watch, any of the various games or other competitive events ships offer for passengers to do. I hadn’t really given this much thought until reading in Canadian Bald Guy’s blog about winning a ship on a stick at such an event. Not that I need a ship on a stick or any other such bauble, but the events themselves could be fun. (I’m currently in de-clutter the house mode, selling everything I think we don’t need on e-bay.)

Come to think of it, a couple teenagers passing us in the hall one day on our last cruise asked for a towel animal for a scavenger hunt, but as the ship charges for missing towels we declined going back to our cabin to get them one of ours. Good thing they didn’t pass by early one morning when I was actually carrying a towel animal around to take photos for my Towel Animals Tour the Ship album on My Cruise Stories facebook page. If they’d had a towel in hand and a couple minutes to spare I could have made them a snake.

Cruise Ships are perfect for Indoor Explorers

We also spent some time on our Alaska cruise doing one of my favorite shipboard passtimes, exploring the ship. The Sun had a lot more dead end passages and places where you had to go up, down, or around things to get through than any other ship I have ever been on. It also had a lot more eateries scattered about the ship, though a number of them cost extra. (Chris splurged for the sushi a couple times saying the $10 was well worth it. Justin and I ate at the buffet those nights, as neither of us had any desire to eat raw fish.)

The Norwegian Sun had a small children’s waterslide which Justin eyed longingly. The weather on our trip was just too cold to let him use it. We never used the pool either, as this ship did not have one of those sliding covers some ships have that make the pool area indoors. It would have been a definite advantage on this trip. We did use the hot tub some nights. We’d make a run for it from the nearest door, drop our towels and jump in. When done we got out as quickly as possible, slipped on the flip-flops while wrapping ourselves in towels, and made a beeline for the door back to the warmth of the inside.

Like all the major cruise ships, the Sun had some shops. We didn’t make any large purchases, but we did find a few trinkets we liked. Justin found a book about a cruise ship named Peter who took an Alaskan voyage. And I found a Norwegian Sun Christmas tree ornament.

Norwegian Sun Christmas ornament hanging on my tree

Posted in Alaska, Norwegian, Shipboard Life, Sun | Tagged Alaska, bingo, cartoons, cruise, family vacation, Norwegian, photos, shipboard activities, Sun, travel | 8 Comments

Cruising to Alaska from Vancouver B.C. Canada

Posted on May 26, 2012 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Norwegian Sun in Vancouver BC

Several years back, I decided I’d like to go to Alaska and see some glaciers before they all melt away. Having been to Alaska quite a few times on fishing trips, my husband did not want to take a cruise there. My son, on the other hand, also had never seen Alaska and decided to come with me. We also brought his son, my grandson along. This is the last cruise I took before starting this blog, and since Alaska cruise season starts about now, it seems like a good time to write about it.

As usual with us when booking a cruise, budget pretty much topped the priority list. We also had to make sure our itinerary included Skagway because grandson Justin loves trains so we wanted to take the train ride there. We found that most of the ships departing from Seattle did not have Skagway as one of their port stops, while the ones leaving out of Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada often did. After searching the internet for the best possible price we could find, we booked through NCL on the Norwegian Sun, making sure to choose a cabin that slept three.

Due to budget constraints, we picked an inside cabin. The taxes and port fees cost more than the room for the third person. Our cabin had the usual two beds that could be pushed together as one if a couple booked the room, plus a couch that made into a bed for the third person. We had our 3 little beds in a row, with a narrow aisle and a night stand on either side of the middle one. The room had lots of closet and drawer space, and between the closets and the beds it had a fair sized square of floor that gave Justin enough room to play with his toys.

The Electronic Window

We made use of the bow cam channel on the TV as sort of an electronic window. If we left it on at night with the sound off, the screen stayed dark enough throughout the night that you wouldn’t really know it was on, but when the sun rose and the screen once again had a picture we would know morning had arrived.

This was the only cruise I’ve ever taken where I really made good use of the gym. I normally woke up long before the other two so I’d slip out and visit the gym, then return and have a shower before they even got out of their beds. Now waking up early on a cruise means quiet time for writing blogs.

We booked this cruise months in advance of the departure date. Our trip took place near the beginning of the Alaska cruise season. Although we had heard that the weather in Alaska is normally better later in the summer, we had to go while Chris would be in the area.

But WE are NOT swine!

towel pigs don’t carry swine flu

It was 2009, the year of the big swine flu epidemic that started in Mexico. This was also before Mexico had so much unrest and at that time the majority of the ships doing the Alaska run in the summer went to Mexico in the winter. So whether or not our particular ship came from Mexico, we were bound to run across people at port stops whose ships had come from there.

By the time the whole swine flu thing started we had long since booked our cruise and weren’t about to cancel it even when my daughter called from Australia begging us not to go. She said they had a cruise ship full of sick passengers there quarantined out in the bay and not allowed to dock. We told her we’d be fine. We never have spent the extra for trip insurance, so cancelling wasn’t really an option even if we had wanted to, which we didn’t. We’d looked forward to this trip far too long to let a little thing like a major swine flu epidemic get in our way.

Neither of us had GPS in our cars yet, so we set out for Vancouver in Chris’ car with a set of directions from Norwegian’s website, and a second set from mapquest. We passed through customs without any difficulty, found Vancouver without any trouble, and set out through the city looking for the port. Vancouver has all sorts of signs posted directing people to cruise ship ports, but they have more than one port so you have to know where you are going or the signs could lead you astray. Having two sets of directions that did not always agree didn’t help either.

We found the ship without more than one or two u-turns from having gone the wrong way. Someone working in the parking garage there told us where to pull up to unload our luggage. Then he said we could either park in that garage, or for significantly less money go park in an outside lot a short distance away. Of course we opted for the less expensive choice. About the time we got our parking squared away, the shuttle to the ship left just before we could get on it. The workers said the next one wouldn’t come by for another 15 minutes.

It seemed like a good idea at the time

“The ship’s right there,” we said to each other, looking at the ship about a city block or so away. “We could walk to it in a lot less than 15 minutes.”

So Close and Yet So Far

Walk to it, yes. It did not take long at all to reach the ship. We could see people loading supplies onto the lower levels behind fences with locked gates. What we did not see was any sort of access to the ship for passengers. We finally ended up having to walk quite a distance past the ship to find an unlocked door into a place that looked something like a convention center where we could find a way up to a higher level. Then we retraced our steps back toward the ship, only this time higher up.

The street we had started out on passed through a tunnel under another street on the level where we ended up. We left that building and again saw the ship right there. We could walk around 3 sides of it on docks where people could stand to wave goodbye to departing passengers. What we could not do was actually get on the ship.

Eventually we found our way back into the parking garage, and from there finally did find where passengers go to get on the ship. Of course the shuttle let the people off right there, and several of them had come and gone since the one we hadn’t bothered to wait for. We did get on the ship in plenty of time before it left port though, and that’s what matters most. Next time I’d wait for the shuttle.

Things to do in Vancouver B.C.

Vancouver has a lot to see for those who have a bit of time to spend there before or after the cruise. It also has an international airport and hotels to fit any budget. In addition to buses and taxis, public transportation includes the skytrains, which move about the city on elevated tracks except in the downtown area where they go underground. In addition to the large BC Ferries that take people places like Vancouver Island, Vancouver B.C. also has small passenger ferries or aquabuses to take people to places like Granville Island, which has all sorts of things for tourists to see.

Shopaholics won’t want to miss the famous Robson Street, or some of Vancouver’s other many shopping areas. Vancouver has a host of other things to do. The many tourist attractions include an aquarium, museums, space center, gardens, Science World, double decker or trolley bus tours and much more. The famous Stanley Park, in itself could probably keep a family entertained for a week or more with everything from horse carriage or train rides to gardens, beaches, trails, and even a water park among its countless offerings. History buffs might like Gastown, the oldest part of the city.

Towel dog

Posted in Alaska, Canada, Norwegian, Port Cities, Sun | Tagged Alaska, boarding a ship, cruise, cruise dock parking, funny, how to get on a cruise ship, lost in plain sight, travel, Vancouver | 7 Comments

Cruising with Kids

Posted on May 19, 2012 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Fun With Towel Animals

Taking the family vacation on a cruise ship eliminates many of the issues of a road trip. No more bored kids tired of sitting in the car whining “Are we there yet?” Kids on cruise ships can run around and find many things to entertain them instead of spending their time strapped into a car seat. All the ships have pools, hot tubs, and most important, kids programs. Some also have water slides, arcades, and other fun things to do like mini-golf, sports courts, ping-pong tables, or even rock climbing walls, skating rinks or a carousel if you pick the right ship.

Kids Enjoying Giant Chess set on the Westerdam

Kids on Cruises

Bringing the kids along on a cruise does add extra considerations over an adults-only voyage though. When bringing older children, do you book adjoining cabins or sleep the whole family in one room? Ships can accommodate either option. Adjoining cabins have a door between them which stays locked if unrelated parties book them, but unlocked when a family uses both. Other cabins sleep more than the standard two people. Some have a couch that makes into a bed, others one or two bunks that fold down from the ceiling.

top bunk drops down from ceiling

Cost usually figures into any cabin decision from whether you want an inside cabin, a suite or anything in between to how many people to book into one cabin. If money didn’t matter, the adjoining cabins offer more space and an additional bathroom. In most cases though money matters a great deal. Often the ships give discounts or even free bookings to the third or fourth person booked into the same room so this can bring about great savings. Free or reduced fares do not, however, include a reduction in fees and port taxes, so those will probably end up costing more than the room did for the extra people.

Select an itinerary that includes port stops the kids will enjoy. When traveling with very young children it also helps if the ship docks at most ports to avoid the hassle of transporting small children on a tender as much as possible. Not to mention you can come and go from the ship as you please without having to wait to get on a tender if the ship is at a dock.

tenders might be difficult with very young children

tender takes people to shore when the ship can’t dock

Cruise Ship Youth Programs

The ships divide their youth programs into various age groups. Carnival starts theirs at age 2. Holland America, Princess, MSC, and Costa at age 3. Most cruise lines have programs for teens up to 17. Norwegian‘s youngest age group starts at 6 months, and they also offer group baby sitting, which has a fee in some situations. Royal Caribbean has programs for babies as young as 6 months, as well as in-room or group babysitting for a fee. Celebrity also offers paid babysitting for children over 12 months and their youngest age group for activities is under 3, with those still in diapers requiring a parent to attend the events with them. As anyone would expect, Disney has a multitude of children’s activities. They also have daycare for babies as young as 3 months. Links provided here are direct to information about the kid’s programs on each of the cruise lines mentioned except Carnival where it goes to a page full of programs where the kids things are easy to find, and Holland America where it goes to activities and you have to look at the bottom of the column on the left and click on youth programs because they did not have a direct link there.

Sit down in the dining room accompanied by a child, and a children’s menu often appears along with the regular one. It may even come with crayons. Children may order off either menu. Special requests will be honored, although cruise ship staff may have a hard time understanding plain means no garnish, no dusting of powdered sugar, nothing at all. They like to present an attractive plate after all.

Onboard entertainment may include early and late shows of the major presentations. Normally the early show will be family-friendly, where the later version of some things such as comedy shows may not.

Kids love the train ride in Skagway, Alaska

Taking Kids on Shore Excursions

Choose shore excursions carefully, as some have age, weight, or height requirements. Have the kids help pick the excursions. Parents have more fun on an excursion the kids enjoy than on one with fussy bored children even if that particular excursion wasn’t the parent’s first choice. The rest of the people on the excursion also appreciate well-behaved children and may resent a screaming child marring their (usually expensive) experience.

Ice Bergs up close with InnerSea Discoveries

Nature Cruises for Kids

For a different sort of cruise ship experience, InnerSea Discoveries/American Safari Cruises schedule special Kids in Nature cruises that include special prices and activities for kids. These small ship cruises explore the wilds of Alaska where the larger ships can’t go. Instead of port to port, they cruise cove to cove with plenty of wilderness hiking, kayaking, and exploring.

Cruising with Kids Can Mean Extra Paperwork

Cruise ships always have a number of required forms passengers need to complete before sailing. Bringing children also brings additional paperwork, some of which may require notarization, particularly if one or both parents don’t take the cruise. Make sure to have all travel documents required for any countries you plan to visit.

In addition to the ship’s paperwork, if boarding the boat in a country where you do not live, make sure you have all documents that country requires before crossing the boarder. In addition to the usual passports, and if required, visas, children traveling without one or both parents may require a signed and notarized document giving their permission to take that child across the boarder. Knowing what documentation you need far enough ahead of time to make sure you have it will ensure that you get to take your vacation as planned.

Wise choices from choosing the cruise line, ship and itinerary that is right for your family and planning activities for everyone to making sure all requirements are met will make your cruise a wonderful and memorable vacation for family members of all ages.

CLICK HERE TO SEE WHICH CRUISE LINES ARE THE MOST KID-FRIENDLY

Posted in Shipboard Life, Uncategorized | Tagged cruise, cruise ship youth programs, family, family travel, fun, kids on cruises, photo, travel, vacation | 8 Comments

Should Towel Snakes Take Over?

Posted on May 15, 2012 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Towel Snake

I’ve heard that people saving chairs and things others might want to use sometimes creates a problem on cruise ships. Particularly on transatlantic cruises where rumor has it they save everything from deck chairs to tables on the lido deck and even seats for the shows. While all this saving is not technically allowed, the “in the bathroom” excuse works in spite of the fact that 60 people would not fit into one bathroom, and it happens to be empty anyway.

Towel Goat on a Deck Chair

Since we don’t tend to hang out in those areas that much, we haven’t ran into the issue too often, with the exception of the hammocks on the Serenity deck, which had a total of only 4.

One day we went up to the Serenity deck thinking a bit of time on the hammock might feel quite relaxing after a spell in the hot tub.

The hammock next to the hot tub sat empty, but not wanting to be selfish we put our towels and things on some distant deck chairs of which none were in use. Before we even got back to the hot tub some random guy set his things on the hammock and proceeded to get into the hot tub.

Random People Enjoy Hammock on Serenity Deck

We spent some time in the hot tub while other people came and went, many of them sadly looking at the hammock occupied by someone else’s towels. When we got out, hammock hog stayed in the hot tub. The hammock on the far end away from the hot tub became available so we laid there for awhile. After we got up to return to our room for hot showers, the other hammock remained occupied only by towels, with hammock hog still in the hot tub. Other visits to the serenity deck often found the hammocks all taken, and usually at least half of them by nothing but towels.

Beach towels work best, but even a washcloth can make a snake

Perhaps “no saving” signs posted and enforced would help prevent people from using deck furnishings as towel racks for long periods of time, barring many disappointed passengers from their use. If crew collected towels left unattended for longer than half an hour and passengers missing said towels had that charged to their room it could put a quick end to that practice. It’s kind of a no win situation for the crew though, do that and irritate the savers, don’t and leave everyone else with nowhere to go. I think the amenities the ship has to offer should be available for all passengers though, and not just the selfish few who think the rules don’t apply to them. If the crew doesn’t enforce no saving rules, what are the other passengers to do?

Towel Turtle on Serenity Deck Hammock

We have a transatlantic cruise booked for the somewhat distant future. I’ve began to wonder, what if the whole saving things situation is really as bad as I have heard? If random towels spend more time using the facilities than actual people do, would it be better if it at least looked as if the towels were having a good time? What if instead of towels thrown over deck chairs, someone folded any towel left unattended for long periods of time into a towel animal so it at least appeared to have fun?

Towel Snakes

Most towel animals require more than one towel, but not snakes. It takes just one towel to make a snake. (And conveniently enough finding a snake when they return just might also suggest something to a person who would reserve a deck chair or hammock for hours on end while they were actually somewhere else.) Would it be less annoying to see a flurry of towel snakes using whatever it is you wanted to use rather than haphazardly strewn towels all over the place?

Make sure to click the vote button after choosing your answer to register your vote and see the results.

Snake in the Dryer

Click link for blogs with directions on how to fold towel animals.

Posted in Randoms, Shipboard Life, Towel Animals | Tagged cruise, funny, humor, people, poll, saving chairs on cruise ships, towel snakes, towels | 6 Comments

How to Fold Towel Animals – Making Towel Snakes

Posted on May 12, 2012 by LBcruiseshipblogger

towel snakes

Towel snakes are the ultimate towel animal. With just one towel, any towel or even a washcloth, you can make a snake. Anywhere, anytime in just minutes, a towel snake. I’m including two sets of snake folding directions in this blog. One set for a cobra comes from Carnival‘s towel creations book.

The other, more versatile snake is my variation of that. Carnival’s snake takes a large towel and the snake can only be positioned one way. Mine can use any towel or washcloth, and be positioned any way desired. That’s why I like mine better.

towel snakes in all shapes and sizes

Carnival’s Towel Cobra

how to fold Carnival cruise line's towel cobra

start with a beach towel or large bath towel

Lay a large bath towel out flat. You can use a beach towel (like I did in these pictures,) but it comes out better with the bath towel (like the pink striped snake in the top photo.) Fold over one short end of the towel. The book says 2 inches, but the amount isn’t all that critical.

how to make a towel snake using just one towel

fold over corner on the end where you previously folded the edge

Fold over one corner on the end where you already folded the edge. Fold it to the middle of the towel.

towel origami, how to fold a cruise ship towel snake

fold other corner to center making a pointy end

roll one side tightly to the center

roll the other long side tightly to the center

After folding down corners and rolling long sides to the middle it now somewhat resembles an arrow or spear.

twist the towel

Twist the towel so the whole thing is twisted together except the pointy end.

pull the end from one roll

This bit is not in the book, but if you pull the corner of the towel out of end of one roll it will look far more like the tip of a snake’s tail than 2 rolls ending abruptly does. Cover the end of the other roll with towel from the roll you pulled the tip from so it has just the one tip showing at the back end.

tie a knot in the rolled, twisted snake body

Tie a knot in the rolled, twisted snake body. This is what holds it all together and also what limits it to one position.

shape the pointy end into the snake’s head

Pull towel out or tuck towel in as needed to shape the pointy end into a snake head.

decorate as desired

Add eyes or sunglasses so it looks more like a snake and less like a towel. A forked tongue works well for this too. Use paper or felt to make eyes and tongue.

A Better My Towel Snake

fold down one corner

Lay towel (or washcloth) out flat. Fold down one corner.

make a pointy end

Fold a pointy end by folding over the both sides so they meet in the center of the corner you previously folded down. The folds won’t be even, they just need to meet at the middle of the pointy end these folds make.

start rolling from the side that has the most towel folded over

Start rolling on the side that has the most towel folded over. Roll all the way to the far end in just one roll.

how to fold a towel snake using one towel

towel rolled into one roll

When you reach the middle, just keep on rolling until the whole towel is rolled into just one roll. This is what gives this snake the versatility to position any way you like as it does not require a knot to hold two rolls together since it does not have two rolls.

how to make a towel animal using just one towel

shape a snake head from the big end

Pull towel out of the roll or push it in as needed to shape the snake head at the big end of the roll where all the folds were.

decorate and position as desired

Add eyes and a tongue. Snake can be stretched out long, coiled, draped over chairs, or positioned in any way that strikes your fancy.

rattlesnake

This snake is so versatile that someone looking for a creative baby shower gift could make one from a baby towel and insert a baby’s rattle into the tip of its tail, thus turning it into a rattlesnake. I had neither a baby towel nor a rattle, but this snake has a similar sized toy as a substitute.

use the same directions for any size towel, even a washcloth as shown

The same directions work for any size towel or washcloth. People use towel cakes as a means of giving bath towels as a gift at bridal showers. Why not towel snakes as a new creative way to give towels as gifts at baby showers or housewarming parties? Dish towels and dishrags could be substituted for bath towels and washcloths if someone wanted a creative way to give dish towel sets as gifts for a housewarming or bridal shower. You could even roll small gifts up inside the snakes and use them as wrapping. The possibilities are limited only by the boundaries of one’s imagination.

baby snake made from washcloth

Next up in the towel animal folding series is: Towel Pig

towel pig with goodies – it is a pig after all

I also have lots of other blogs on how to fold a variety of different towel animals.

Posted in Towel Animals | Tagged baby shower gift, bridal shower gift, crafts, fun, housewarming gift, how to, photos, snake, towel animals, towel folding | 6 Comments

Paradise Point Skyride, Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas USVI

Posted on May 5, 2012 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Cruise Ships and Skyride from Paradise Point

A few steps from the cruise ship dock in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas US Virgin Islands, we found a taxi to town. After a bit of shopping we ended up on an unplanned random bus tour of the island. Luckily we still had a bit of time left after the tour because we really wanted to try the St. Thomas Skyride before returning to the Carnival Liberty.

paradise point tramway, Charlotte Amalie

tram leaving the lower station, Saint Thomas

Our random tour bus let us off at the entrance to the St. Thomas skyride near the cruise ship dock on the outskirts of Charlotte Amalie. Expecting tickets purchased on sight to cost less, we felt a bit surprised to find they actually cost $2 more than they would have if we’d bought them on the ship.

Just a couple people already stood on the platform waiting for the next tram, and one more joined us before it arrived. The tram comes in a group of 3 separate cars bunched together. They loaded each group into a separate one since there weren’t many of us. With a longer line, they’d have filled the cars full.

view from skyride

We took some nice photos during the 7 minute ride to the top. An open spot on the side of the tram car offered a place to take glass-free photos. At the terminal the trams moved slowly through a semi-circular track next to a paved walkway giving people plenty of time and space for everyone to get out.

St Thomas skyride upper tram station

A gazebo perched high on the hill near the Paradise Point tram station looked like a good spot for photos. After disembarking from the tram we walked up some wooden stairs and headed toward the gazebo on a walkway lined with fragrant flower bushes.

flower bushes alongside walkway to gazebo at Paradise Point

fragrant flowers

A bright colorful ferris wheel never moved while we were there. Whether it was not open or just didn’t have any customers at that time I don’t know. A short looped walkway had a pen with peacocks and goats, a few caged birds and a sign pointing the way to a nature trail we didn’t have time to hike.

Paradise Point amusement park

peahens

On the other side of the tram station we found a gift shop above a bar and restaurant. The balcony there offered great views of the cruise ships at the dock. While taking a picture, the tram cars went by. That balcony made a great place to photograph them as well.

view from the balcony at Paradise Point

Suddenly it started to rain. The sky around the boats misted up, making it hard to take any halfway decent pictures. We tried the old if you don’t like the weather wait 5 minutes trick. Sure enough the skies cleared up and we took some nice pictures. Besides the cruise ships, Paradise Point offers great views of Charlotte Amalie harbor, Water Island, the hillside covered in tropical plants, the ocean, and Puerto Rico.

cactus by the nature trail at Paradise Point

A small group of heavily panting people joined us on the platform, appearing somewhat exhausted after having walked up the very steep 700-foot high hill rather than riding the Paradise Point Tramway.

near upper tram station

People say Paradise Point has great night views, however due to the scheduled time of our ship’s departure we could not stay to see that as we did not wish to miss the boat.

Photo taken inside tram car through the glass in the rain

We caught the tram back down. About half way there the wind kicked up and it started raining again. The open bit above the door glass that came in so handy for picture taking on the way up became a place for cold rain to blow in on the way down. Rain from which the tram had no place to escape, the raindrops hitting us no matter where we chose to stand within the limited confines of the tram car. By the time we got to the bottom, the rain poured down heavily and the wind blew, rocking the tram cars back and forth as they made their way back up the hill.

Feeling quite glad we had gotten out of the tram before the wind got quite so bad, we tried standing under the roof of the tram station for awhile, hoping the 5 minute thing would work again, but it didn’t. We had to hike the short distance back to the cruise ship dock in a downpour. Once we reached the shopping area we sheltered under overhangs wherever possible. By the time we reached the ship we were soaked. After waiting through the usual line to get back in and passing through the security check, we hurried back to our room for dry clothes.

Carnival Liberty in St Thomas

Posted in Caribbean, Carnival, Liberty, Shore Excursions | Tagged Carnival, Charlotte Amalie, cruise, island, Paradise Point, photos, skyride, St Thomas, tram, travel, view | 8 Comments

Random Bus Tour on St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands

Posted on April 28, 2012 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Carnival Liberty docked in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas

We got off Carnival Liberty on a beautiful sunny day in St. Thomas without any definite plans other than going on the skyride at some point. Sometimes we plan an excursion, but at other ports we just get off the boat and see what’s there. A slew of taxis waited by the dock, loading groups of passengers in a taxi van for a $4 trip to town. We hopped in, unfortunately the first ones in that van, so we had to wait for others to join in and fill it up before it left for town.

tourist shopping district, Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas

The van let everyone off in the touristy shopping district. We got out next to the shop that had free tanzanite earrings for people who had cards from the port shopping lecture. After visiting a few other stores to collect the free things they offered to entice shoppers in so they could try and get them to spend money, we wandered down to the road on the waterfront. We took a few photos of the Carnival Liberty, some including the Royal Caribbean and Celebrity ships docked near us.

Jewelry booth in St. Thomas

John spied a little flea market across the road set up under a sea of blue tents. Before we had time to look at much of anything, a little old local guy said he had a bus tour leaving in 10 minutes. We like random bus tours, and they’re cheap, so we signed up. We had just time to look at one booth before getting on the bus. I found a Larimar bracelet I liked for $10. Unfortunately it did not have the best clasp and I lost it at the airport on the way home.

random bus tour

Within minutes of getting on the bus, it started sprinkling a bit. We timed that right, getting under shelter since we left the boat in bright sunshine and had not dressed for rain. About as quickly as it started, the rain stopped and the sun shone again.

Saint Thomas has some pretty big hills with narrow roads winding steeply up, down, and through many Y-style intersections. When a truck passes by a bus, somebody hangs off into the dirt on the side of the road in some places because even though it is a two lane street it is not wide enough for large vehicles going both directions. That did not seem to bother any of the drivers. They’re used to it, they drive those roads every day. On the wrong side. The island did not always belong to the USA, so they drive on the opposite side like people in England or Australia.

Magens Bay from above

First the bus stopped at a viewpoint on a hillside where we got some nice pictures of the ship from above. Next we viewed Magens Bay. From there we could also see St. John and Tortola. St. John belongs to the US, but Tortola is British. We came in on the Caribbean side of the island. From the viewpoint above Magens Bay we looked out on the Atlantic side. The Virgin Islands lie at the border of the two seas. A little old guy with a donkey hung around that viewpoint, making his living from people who would give him a few bucks to pose for pictures. Some interesting plants grew there as well.

Local’s homes in St Thomas

After a short trip downhill, the bus pulled into a parking lot. From the balcony behind a small local fast food place and gift shop, our guide pointed out areas on the hillsides and in the valley where local people live and shop. The gift shop had a shirt that would have been the perfect gift for my son, Chris, if it had not had long sleeves.

too bad this wasn’t a t-shirt

Finally he took us to Iggies Beach Bar at Bolongo Bay. He said the resort next to it was the top resort of the area. It looked pretty peaceful. It had a nice sandy beach, lots of iguanas wandering around, a hammock strung between two coconut trees for laying in the sun, and jet skies sitting in the serene blue water of the cove with a kayak paddling around behind them. If anyone wanted to stay for a swim and join the next tour through on that bus, they had that option. One family considered it, but then decided not to because they did not want to get left that far from the boat in case the next tour ran later than planned. We had some time to relax on the beach, taking photos and testing the hammock. Some of the other people tested the drinks at Iggies bar instead.

Iggies Beach Bar at Bolongo Bay

After the tour, the driver dropped most of the other people at the shopping mall near the cruise ship dock and the rest a bit closer to the ship. We stayed on the bus just a bit longer than everyone else. He let us off in front of the St. Thomas Skyride on his way back to town.

Lizard at Bolongo Bay

beach at Bolongo Bay

Posted in Caribbean, Carnival, Liberty, Port Cities, Ports of Call, Shore Excursions | Tagged Bolongo Bay, bus tour, cruise, larimar, Magens Bay, port shopping, shore excursion, St Thomas, tanzanite, travel | 9 Comments

Saint Thomas, US Virgin Islands

Posted on April 21, 2012 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Carnival Liberty in Saint Thomas

The US Virgin Islands include St. John and St. Croix along with St. Thomas. They create the boarder between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, 40 miles east of Puerto Rico and 1100 miles southeast of Miami. Cruise ships from a variety of cruise lines including Carnival stop in the port at Charlotte Amalie, the capitol city of St. Thomas. The city got its name from a Danish queen in the 1600’s when the island belonged to Denmark. The US bought it in 1917 as an outpost to help protect their control of the Panama Canal during World War 1.

view of St Thomas from Carnival Liberty

Shore Excursions offered in St. Thomas include a variety of snorkel or dive options and trips to nearby St. John, most of which is a National Park with the pristine beauty of undeveloped land and beaches. St. Thomas has a number of island or shopping tours and some powerboat options. Other choices include beaches, dolphins, kayaks, golf, or a pirate castle. The St. Thomas Skyride is both popular and inexpensive. Quite a cluster of gift shops sits right near the dock, and the skyride is within walking distance as well.

Many passengers choose to explore on their own, often piling into one of the many taxis waiting near the dock. Group taxi vans fill quickly with whoever comes by. They take the group to the main part of town, each passenger paying a lower fare for the shared cab and choosing where they wish to get out. Those who prefer not to share or not to wait for a van to fill can take a private cab if they don’t mind paying the price.

Waterfront, Charlotte Amalie

The main tourist shops in town lie just a short cab ride away from the dock. Besides all the usual cruise port shops on the main street, we found a group of local booths nearby under a tented roof by the water. They sold local handcrafted items including blue jewelry from the Caribbean stone Larimar. We would have liked to look around the booths a bit more, but got an offer of a random bus tour of the island for $20, which left nearly right away.

Shopping Booths

St. Thomas has many jewelry stores to choose from and some great deals on prices, making it an excellent place for jewelry shopping. Jewelry lovers who attend the port shopping talks on board also find out where to get things for free. They will say only to shop at the cruise ship approved stores, but often the others have some excellent deals. The main difference is the guarantee given by the ship on merchandise from the stores which have paid the fee for approval and promotion by the ships, though things can cost less at the ones that haven’t.

St. Thomas has an average temperature of 77 degrees Farenheit. It has great beaches, with coral reefs close to shore for snorkeling from the beach. Magen’s Bay is listed as one of the top 10 beaches in the world. I’m not a golfer, but if I was I would boycott any oceanside golf course, including Mahogany Run on St. Thomas because fertilizer kills coral and coral has enough trouble trying to survive these days in the warmer more acidic oceans we’ve created.

Charlotte Amalie at night

The Virgin Islands have a long and often bloody history. Like much of the Caribbean, they were once occupied by the peaceful Arawaks, who were already under attack by the violent Caribs before the Europeans arrived. Columbus discovered and named the Virgin Islands on his second voyage. It was all downhill for both tribes after that. Spaniards raided the Virgin Islands for slaves and many died off from European diseases they had no immunities to or fled to Cuba. By the time other European nations came to colonize the islands, none remained and colonists brought in their own African slaves to work the plantations.

Pirates found haven on St. Thomas, loving the deep port at what is now Charlotte Amalie. Blackbeard and Bluebeard both get mention in island lore. Bluebeard’s castle has become a resort.

The Danish first colonized the island, building a fort and plantations. Slave labor made the plantations profitable. The deep harbor made an excellent trading port, with taverns and warehouses built around the harbor. Initially St. Thomas was a safe haven for pirates, the residents profiting from trading with them. After piracy no longer affected the economy the port remained busy until the abolition of slavery due to its status as a duty-free port.

Shopping District, Charlotte Amalie

Hurricanes, fires, and a tidal wave hit Charlotte Amalie in the late 1800’s to early 1900’s. The former warehouses once full of trade goods sat empty, abandoned, and in great need of repair for years until finding new life rebuilt as shops for tourists.

Posted in Caribbean, Carnival, Liberty, Port Cities, Ports of Call | Tagged Charlotte Amalie, cruise, photos, port, shopping, St Thomas, travel, US Virgin Islands | 7 Comments

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Copyright My Cruise Stories 2012

Paradise Point Skyride, Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas USVI

Random Bus Tour on St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands

Saint Thomas, US Virgin Islands

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