Trips, Pics, and Tales

Once we were moving we got ready for dinner. I'll mention now that based on our past experience on Norwegian we knew going in that we would want to eat most of our dinners at the specialty restaurants. We knew that the main dining rooms weren't going to have the variety that appealed to us. Their menu doesn't change during the week and they only offer one or maybe two changing menu items each night. Taste, Savor and the Manhattan Room - which are the main dining rooms,  all have the same menu, so even though they are in three different spaces, there's no variety in the food.  Knowing we'd want to eat at the specialty restaurants we decided to purchase the Ultimate Dining Plan. For us, this definitely worked in our favor. If you plan to mainly eat in the main dining rooms, it may not benefit you.  So, with the UDP, the Cirque Dreams and Dinner Jungle Fantasy is free the first night. Now, Megan is 12, so she was not on the UDP. We had to pay for her. No big deal. At t...

Megan and I are big fans of NYC, so sailing out with a view of the city was quite the site for us! We all enjoyed taking in the view from the port side.  The Breakaway has an area on both sides of the ship called The Waterfront.  This is a quarter-mile long, ocean front promenade, lined with shops, restaurants and bars.  We loved this area of the ship!  We ate dinner out there every chance we could and enjoyed the just taking in the ocean views sitting in the big, comfy chairs.  The addition of the Waterfront on this ship, really was great! We found our spot for the big moment, Sail Away!  And we were ready to start moving! I probably have at least 30 pictures of the NYC skyline, but I'll limit what I post! For anyone interested in seeing more, just let me know and I'll send you the link to my flikr feed! Once we passed the Freedom Tower, we moved to the other side of the ship for the view as we passed by the Statue of L...

Walking on the ship, we were brought right into O’Sheehan’s, and boy did that feel just like the Epic at first! But to be honest, even though there were many similar venues, other than that, the similarities for us ended about there. We walked through and knew we’d be able to drop off our carry on bags in our cabin, which was a standard balcony, all the way at the front of the ship, 13108. Made for lots of exercise for sure!  We passed through atrium area with the big chandelier and of course, had to take a picture! Then we made our way to our cabin. On the Epic we had a Family Mini-Suite and as compared to the standard balcony here, this was small. Very small. Even compared to other standard balconies I've sailed on other lines. We’d make do, it was just the three of us. But honestly, I was really surprised at just how small the cabin felt. And I’m sure you’ve all heard just how small the standard balcony itself is. Well, it’s true. It’s small. But hey –...

 Summer was fast approaching and we didn't have a plan!  Me?  No plans for a vacation?  This is unheard of right?   We had been tossing around summer vacation plans for what seemed like months – do we go to the beach, do we try to get to an all-inclusive in Mexico?  When do our schedules work out for vacation? Nothing seemed to come together just right. Why is it that winter weather seems to last forever but when you try to plan a week in the summer, the options are so slim? Well we narrowed our choices down to one week, June 8th! We didn’t want to risk going to the beach up where we live, which would be the MD, DE or Jersey beaches. Been there, done that and too much risk of rain or cold weather so early in the season. So we thought about heading south. We wanted to eliminate the cost of airfare because for 4 of us, that is more than half of the expense of a trip for a week. Also a long drive to a warm location didn’t appeal.   And so, the idea of cr...

I've decided that Friday's are going to be a bit of a different kind of a post day...I'm going to do a "Friday Feature" post - maybe a travel tip, or feature a new or unique location, or just something a bit different from the current travel journey posts that the blog is currently showcasing. So today's "Friday Feature" is Spring Break Day Trip Plans ....featuring ideas to get out and explore with your kids, and examples local to me - but switch out my examples with ones in your town and you've got a plan!  I know a lot of kids, especially in our area don't have too many days off, if any, because of make up days from all of the snow this past winter - but keep the plans in mind for next year or even this summer! So....what are some great things to do to get out of the house? For me, the weather if finally starting to be nice enough to be outside!  The flowers are starting to bloom....if you have a park or a garden nearby, now is the...

We were up early, our last morning at the Peace Lodge, and our driver, Wilson was right on time waiting for us.  He felt bad about taking us on the road that was in such bad conditions a few days earlier and to show how horrible he felt, he had a nice gift bag for us.  He told us he wouldn't be driving on that road again any time soon! We said our goodbyes to the staff, and were on our way to the Sansa terminal for our flight on the small plane to Puerto Jimenez.  We were making good time, so Wilson asked if we'd like to stop for some coffee and snacks at the Doka Coffee Estate.  Well, sure!   On past trips we'd rented a car, and liked the flexibility of driving at our own pace, but it was also so nice to have a driver to make suggestions of where and when to stop - at places we may not have thought of, and also to have him watch our belongings in the car as well.  Wilson had been fantastic through each leg of our journey! We didn't have time to take ...

After our visit to the Butterfly House it was lunch time.  We decided to go to the buffet restaurant.  We had a pretty good meal, at a reasonable price and everyone found something they liked.  The rain started during lunch, but that didn't stop us!  As my parents had come to realized, in Costa Rica, you don't let the rain stop you from anything - just just put your rain gear on and carry on!   We wanted to take full advantage of all of the other exhibits on the property, so we went to visit the snakes, the frogs, the Casita and the big cats! Alex and Megan at lunch The kids doing some chores at the Casita This is a replica of a traditional Costa Rican Casita Time to take the Ox out for a ride! The inside of the Casita, this is the dining room table set up for a meal This is one of the cats in the Big Cat area.  Each has a sign letting the visitors know its history, such as where it w...