Canada & New England: Last Day On Board, Shopping, TV Tutorial, Disembarkation Morning, and Welcome Home

On October 28, 2016October 31, 2016 By ArlynnIn Vacations5 Comments

I have had such a good time sharing our time on this cruise with all of you! I can’t believe that in this post, I will be telling you about our last day on board the beautiful Regal Princess, and then I’ll move onto telling you about our disembarkation morning, show you a little entertainment, and share with you a tv tutorial. I will then show you a little video of how we were greeted when we walked back into our home. I ***thought*** that I would also add the collage picture tour of the Regal into this post, but, I have way too many pictures and that post is going to take me quite a while to compile. Also, I think that post should stand alone simply for the fact that I may be able to point folks to that post who might be traveling on the Regal but to a different part of the globe. She is a big, beautiful, grand lady and she deserves and is definitely worthy of her very own stand-alone post. 🙂

All right, let’s get started. When I woke up on the morning of our last day on the ship, I knew that it was going to be a day at sea and that I’d be trekking around the big ship taking tons and tons of pictures…and…then…yes…begrudgingly, I was going to have to pack… . This morning started out just like the 5 other mornings on this cruise had started out, with Chris out and about getting his coffee and gathering my tea. And I was pulling myself together for the day’s happenings—I pulled out my leggings, poncho, and boots for this day (btw, I didn’t wash one stitch of clothes while on this cruise…what? I know, right? It’s a miracle—BUT, I do have pictures of the laundromat that I’ll share in that big collage picture post). Here is how this ole girl looked on that day:

Chris and I headed off for some brunch–We’ve decided that we enjoy eating two (as opposed to three) meals a day while cruising. I’m telling y’all, one could eat one’s self to oblivion while aboard one of these floating cities…We tried our best not to do that—NOT that we were dieting, but, we certainly weren’t stuffing ourselves either. Anyway, here is the Patter for this day:

We’d also received our disembarkation paperwork, we’d be “walking off” (instead of doing any kind of transfer to an airport–when we have to go to the airport, we always use Princess transfers and in that case, we are always directed to one of the lounges to wait for our number to be called and then we’re escorted to our awaiting motor coach).

So off we trekked to get our brunch and to do a little shopping because I knew there was one sale (the 75% off sale) happening that I wanted to hit, and then we started taking those aforementioned pictures. 🙂 We stopped several times in the Piazza as well, here is a little smattering of the entertainment that we heard and witnessed throughout the day–There was something happening in the Piazza all of the time btw…

Here are a couple of little things that I picked up from that 75% off sale:

A Regal Princess Pin–That went you know where…haha:

These 4 pins because we are going to be traveling with 3 other couples in 2018–We’ll be leaving out of Ft. Lauderdale and I wanted to get myself and each of them a pin:

And I got myself this scarf:

And here are some of the other things that they had to offer at that sale (this picture was made with the same iPhone app with which I’ll be creating the ship’s collage pictures in my next post):

I also purchased myself some Clinique make-up and my girls some OPI nail polish sets from Essence:

Their make-up was a really great deal btw, I purchased enough of the face lotion to last me until our next cruise to Alaska. 🙂

While we were perusing through all of the pictures that had been taken of us through the week in the Photography center (only purchased one that I will not share as it truly was awful, but, I always purchase at least one just for memory purposes…haha–I promise, they are not always awful), we ran into my new friend Jill who I’d met on Facebook and connected with via cruising forums. She and I paused for a few minutes and enjoyed each other’s company (along with her friend Barb too), and we got a couple of pictures clicked off of us. Here we are standing in the Piazza. 🙂

That was so much fun and I know that she and I will keep in touch moving forward in time–No one can tell me that you can’t make lifelong friends on Facebook, my experiences are proof positive that that is definitely not the case. 🙂

After we were finished shopping, we decided it was time to start taking those many pictures, so we started at the top of the ship and that is where we stopped and played a wee bit of golf. NOT my sport to be sure, but, as I’ve mentioned in some of my other blog posts, my 80 (soon to be 81) year old dad is a scratch golfer and is phenomenal. So, I was hoping a tiny bit of that talent rubbed off on me…ehhhhh, well…not so much…BUT, I gave the club a swing or two and I showed off how I knew how to grip the club, and yes, believe it or not, I actually hit the ball! LOL

And here is the worst golf swing in the history of the world! LOL BUT, I tried, and that is what is important huh? 😉 We had a fun few minutes here at this little golfing venue. 🙂

We were heading through the ship deck by deck and as we were walking on Deck 16 on our way to take pictures of the SeaWalk, we ran into this little “Flair Show”…Check this out:

The SeaWalk is on the other side of the bar there…They have stools on both sides, it is a spiffy little place. 🙂

As our day was winding down, there was one thing that we wanted to make sure that we did, and that was stop at the Passenger Services area and fill out a few “Consummate Host Recognition Nomination” cards…There were several folks who really went above and beyond the call of duty for us on this cruise. It only took us a few minutes to do this, and it really makes a difference to them to be given a good word or two. 🙂 Here are my two cards, Chris wrote out two others as well.

And then, it was time to pack…erg…I look thrilled her while I show my packing cubes (another “Poll” request…haha):

And as our day was winding down, I realized that I had never created a video of how the Regal’s TVs work…So here we go, this is what I created right before the sun sent on our last evening on board…

This was the last sunset that we saw while on the Regal, and what a beautiful one it was!

The next morning dawned way too quickly for my taste, although Chris was out and about way before the sun rose, check out some sights he captured as we were sailing back under the Verrazano Bridge and on into the Brooklyn Cruise Port…

And before I knew it, it was time to disembark our ‘home’ for the week…Yes, indeed, I was a sad lady, this cruise whisked by way too fast!

Disembarkation was so easy it barely begs a mention here…We literally walked down the hallway, got on the elevator, went down to deck 6 and poof…walked right off. We stopped in the cruise terminal to pay our parking bill for the week, and then headed right on over to our car that was in perfect shape (cannot tell a lie, we did have one or two thoughts that it might not be once we returned, so we were relieved). 🙂 Here are two of my favorite shots of the entire cruise. Chris took this one of the the Statue of Liberty with the morning sun shining brightly on her…

And I took this one of the front of the Regal with Manhattan and the One World Trade Center Building shining brightly for all to see—I’m telling you, that building is such an inspiration and seeing it, even from the distance from which I gazed, left me with a very full heart and made a huge impression on me–We will NEVER forget!!! ❤

And sadly, our cruise was over…. So off we traveled back to our wonderful home where our sweet daughter Christin (who had cared for our pups and home while we were away) was there waiting for us. The pups were a smidge happy to see us…Here was how we were greeted…

We were of course happy to see them and glad to be home, as much as I love to travel, there is truly no place like home! ❤

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I will be compiling one more blog post to add to this Canada & New England Series–A collage picture tour of the Regal; gonna take me a while to create that one though as one of those collage pictures can take me 5+ minutes to make and I have tons of pictures. But, I’ll get ‘er done as soon as I can. 🙂 **UPDATE**: I’ve now finished that Canada & New England: Collage Picture Tour of the Regal Princess .

So with that, I’ll just say…Until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

***If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me…Psalm 139***

~Arlynn ❤

PS–Here are some pictures that we’ve taken of our pups and home since we got home–Fall has arrived here too:

Canada & New England: Halifax, Nova Scotia–Arrival, Lunch With Dear Friend, & Peggy’s Cove

On October 27, 2016October 29, 2016 By ArlynnIn Country Decor, Vacations3 Comments

When I woke up on this morning, I couldn’t believe that we were already at our last Port of Call in Halifax, Nova Scotia; this cruise had flown by way too fast!! As always, Chris was taking his morning walk, getting his coffee, doing his crossword puzzles, and catching some really great pictures.

Check out this pretty ship, the Seabourn Quest:

To show you how far away this ship really was, here is that picture before it was cropped:

Check out this pretty Lighthouse…

And here is another Lighthouse, only problem is, well, could they have put the cell tower out of the direct line of sight of the Lighthouse? Check it out…

Those cliffs are pretty amazing though huh? Wow!!

My outfit for the day:

Check out this Canadian Navy’s Submarine! The Captain actually came over the public address system to alert us to their presence. 🙂 We all walked out and waved to them. 🙂

Here comes the Pilot to help us navigate through the local waterways…

Here is the Carnival Pride again, she’d been with us at every port:

We’d noticed that several of the Ports that we had come alongside (not tender ports) on this trip had been very industrial in nature. Chris and I are more accustomed to the Alaska ports which cater more specifically to cruise ships where shopping and other cruising/tourist related activities are more easily accessible. Actually, we think that Alaska is the exception because Hawaii’s ports were similar to the ones that we experienced on this trip. One thing that we have noticed though is that because the ports are industrial in nature, the local folks have tried to make a more welcoming facade by providing tents or booths where they sell their wares. In Halifax for instance, the entire cruise terminal was full of booths from one end to the other–In St. John, they had a huge tent set up for their folks. Anyway, just an observation that we made while on this trip…

Here is the Princess Patter and Halifax Port information:

Here we are snugged up against Pier 21…

That bagpiper was awesome!!!

So now that we were securely moored up in Halifax, Chris and I made our way off of the ship–Of course, the elevators, as always, told the tale of where we’d be for the day.

As I mentioned in the video up there ^^, we’d be meeting my dear friend Nancy and her sister Jane today–I met Nancy via Facebook back in 2008, 2 days after I joined Facebook. She had a Newfoundland dog too and we had a ton in common and as we got to know one another better through the years, we figured out that we had much more than our pups in common. 🙂 Our first task after disembarking was to pick up our rental car from the Hertz place. (Chris made those arrangements online before we even left home) … The Hertz building—really it was just a small room inside of another building right off of the street about 2 blocks from the cruise terminal–easily enough found. 🙂

Here was our mode of transportation for the day:

We had printed off directions to where we were to meet Nancy and Jane so off we drove through the streets of Halifax. A pretty little city with very busy streets as there were several cruise ships in port on this day.

We managed to find the restaurant pretty easily and we parked and waited for Nancy and Jane to arrive. 🙂 I had butterflies fluttering around in my belly big time…I was so excited!!! They pulled into the parking lot and then the HUGS began!!! 🙂 It was so nice to finally meet Nancy in person!! ❤

Yes, the tears were flowing through those smiles!!! ❤

We had a lovely time together exchanging gifts, here is one thing that Nancy made for me…How talented is she?! Wow, I was blown away!! And I will cherish that very special gift forever!! ❤

One more picture before we said our goodbyes…I was so sad to leave her side, no doubt about that…:'(

–All right…Moving on to our next destination…Chris and I left there and started driving toward Peggy’s Cove–It was about a 45 minute drive–very pretty, and an easy trip to do on your own–it is really not necessary to take a planned (Princess) excursion, just rent a car and head on out. If you don’t have a cell plan that would provide you with a GPS, make sure your rental car has one or you print off the directions before leaving home.

The leaves were gorgeous on our way…

And before we knew it, we were arriving in the sweet little town of Peggy’s Cove…A very, very quaint little community that has been in existence since 1811—And the Lighthouse, that is still a working structure, was built in 1914—It is run by the Canadian Coastguard.

I am a real fan of music of all sorts, and bagpipes have always really intrigued me–I play a bad clarinet…haha…So blowing into those pipes seems to me like it would not be an easy instrument to master…this fella was doing a fantastic job at entertaining all of those who were there visiting…

And Chris put his wide angle lens to work–My favorite shots, pretty much of the entire trip, were shots like this one–I just think that this is an amazing picture (and we have probably 10 of them that look similar to this)…

And that was our day in Halifax…We really had a fantastic day, I especially enjoyed this day and the day that we spent in St. John in that we weren’t hurried or herded (like I do feel we are sometimes when we’re doing a more structured excursion). We headed back toward the ship and turned in our rental car (the Hertz representative wasn’t in the office, but they did provide a drop ‘box’ in which to deposit the keys when the car is returned). We then headed back onto the Regal, but, first, I stopped to do a bit of shopping at some of the booths that were set up in the cruise terminal. I met Chris back in the room and before long, we headed up to the Horizon Court to grab some dinner…It was Italian night—Some of my very favorite food on the planet thank you very much. 😉

I just love their ice sculptures! This one was dubbed “The leaning tower of ‘pizza'”…hahaha. 😉

Honest to goodness, we did not have a bad meal in the Horizon Court or Bistro all week long, everything was always great! Now that we had exhausted ourselves running around Halifax and then filled our bellies with delicious Italian food, we headed back to our stateroom, and we again, entertained ourselves with some movies from the massive selection available. (I’ll add a little video of said tv in my next post).

My next and then last posts in this Series will touch on our last day on board (including a video of how the Stateroom TV works and what it has to offer), then disembarkation morning and then, I will also include a little video of our welcome home committee…;) (Think large, furry, beings) 😉 My very last post in this Series will concentrate on the Regal Princess. It will include a detailed collage picture tour of all of the venues that I could find to photograph. It is probably going to take me several days to compile that one. But, it will be worth it when I’ve finished…:)

Here is a link to the next post Canada & New England: Last Day On Board, Shopping, TV Tutorial, Disembarkation Morning, and Welcome Home

Until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

***If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me…Psalm 139***

~Arlynn ❤

Canada & New England: St. John, New Brunswick (Canada)–Exploring, Shopping, Bday Tartan Cape, & More

On October 25, 2016October 29, 2016 By ArlynnIn Vacations3 Comments

This day was my 55th Birthday—Now that’s a milestone…haha…But, what better place to spend it than in St. John, New Brunswick? 🙂 Chris, of course, was up, out, and about gathering his morning coffee and my morning tea and taking pictures and videos before I even opened one eye. He actually caught the sunrise on this particular morning. 🙂

And he panned across the city from the very top deck of the Regal Princess:

We did not have a planned excursion to embark on today, instead, we were just going to get off of the ship and do some exploring and a bit of shopping. This was my chosen outfit for this nice, low-key day.

Here was the Princess Patter for that day:

Here were a few more pictures that Chris caught as he was traveling around the Regal that morning:

There was the same Royal Caribbean ship that had been shadowing us for the entire route, the Serenade of the Seas…

And then here came the Carnival Pride…

After a leisurely morning, we headed on out to go and see what St. John had to offer up. 🙂 Our little Steward had been busily about, and this Happy Birthday sign had appeared on our door…Sweet!

And Princess left me a Birthday card…:)

So off to the elevators we trekked, and I *totally* missed taking the “Welcome to St. John” picture, instead, I captured this one. Notice that it says that the gangplanks would be moved according to the tide, the tide change was ridiculous as we went through the day. We thought about going to see the “Reversing Rapids”, but, chose instead just to shop and explore…

As we were heading through the Piazza, we looked up and saw that they were preparing for the balloon drop that evening–and nope <big fail>, I did not catch that happening…haha…BUT, the balloons sure looked neat up there…

And through the tunnel we traversed…

Once we were off of the ship and walking through the cruise terminal, one gentleman stopped me and handed me this pin–Little did he know at the time that I’m a total geek and that that pin would have a very special place to be kept…

We were happily on our way to explore St. John, our first stop, a picture opportunity at this sign:

Local merchants has set up a tent right beside the cruise terminal and many local folks had booths set up and were offering all sorts of neat items. One of the first things I saw was this gorgeous Lamb’s Wool cape—And I dared to stop and take a peek at it, and poof that was all that Chris needed to see, he purchased it for me quick as could be as my Birthday present…What can I say, he is very good to this old girl. ❤ Here is a picture of the cape, and I have a snippet from my “Facebook Live” video below the picture showing you more of this gentleman’s wares…

Next up, we started walking down the street and exploring–Chris has mapped out a little route for us to take and as you could see in the video, that nice fella that sold us the cape had pointed us to a very nice place where we could grab some lunch.

This was a mall of sorts, and we had just walked up steps and saw the library there in front of us, and also at the top of the steps was this spiffy ship model…wow!!

This was a marvelous place with more of the local merchants all set up selling their wares, and believe it or not, I got all of the way through there without buying one little thing! I was surprised at myself!

And there was even a little entertainment…Below, another snippet from my “Facebook Live” video…

At the end of that little video, we were headed over to King’s Square…Here are some of the sights we took in while taking our leisurely walk:

And then, I found a tree with the leaves changing. Little story for you: I am one of the Administrators in the Facebook Princess Alaska group, and as we all know, I’m the “Selfie Queen”. 😉 Well some of my dear friends in that group took a Poll of places where “Arlynn should take a selfie in front of”…LOL…Well, “A tree with changing leaves” was one of the Poll requests, and I’m all for having a good time, and I’m always a good sport, so here I am in front of a tree with changing leaves. 😉 🙂

After that little task was completed, we headed back through the City Market and we were on our way to take a quick peek at the New Brunswick Museum and then we caught some lunch at a local restaurant…

On our way to the restaurant we came across this big guy…:)

And now it was time to catch a bit of lunch–The food was excellent here at Grannan’s:

The view from the restaurant’s window…and that big ship is where we were going next…

Wait!!!! I lost Chris…WHERE in the world did he go?!!! He was just here?!!! And me, “Mrs. Directionally Challenged” might have a little trouble finding her way down a one-way street with a sign!! 😉

OH PHEW!!! THERE HE IS!!!

Hahaha…I texted that picture to both of our daughters who got a huge kick out of that. 😉 ANYway, off we trekked back to the ship…

But, wait, as we were picking up my spiffy new Cape:

I also picked up one of those pretty scarves:

And then we climbed back aboard our home for the week and continued on with our nice and relaxing day—It has been a wonderful Birthday, one that I will not soon forget. 🙂

We were steaming toward Halifax, Nova Scotia, our last port of call on this wonderful journey. I’d be meeting up with a dear Facebook friend of mine and we’d be renting a car and heading to Peggy’s Cove…Here is a sneak peek and link to my next post Canada & New England: Halifax, Nova Scotia–Arrival, Lunch With Dear Friend, & Peggy’s Cove:

Until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

***If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me…Psalm 139***

~Arlynn ❤

Canada & New England: Bar Harbor, Maine–Lighthouse Boat Tour, Lunch at a Local Restaurant, The Crab Shack, & My Birthday Song

On October 24, 2016November 2, 2016 By ArlynnIn Vacations7 Comments

What an exciting and lovely journey we’d had up to this point! We were already anchored up right off of Bar Harbor by the time I stirred that morning. And oh what a sight it was to see when we opened our curtains and gazed out onto what God’s paintbrush had provided. It was so pretty and we were finally getting the chance to see some color in those trees. The scene was breathtaking!

My first task of the day as always was to try and pull myself together, this is the outfit I chose for this day, it was quite chilly:

And here were my first thoughts of the day:

Here was our excursion ticket, yes, we did sign up for this excursion via Princess as well:

Here are some of the other excursions that Princess offers in Bar Harbor…

We received a port guide and map as well…

And here is the Princess Patter for this day:

We spent a bit of time out on our balcony taking in the sights before we left to go on our excursion…

All right, enough lallygagging around, it was time to go to catch our tender and then our Lighthouse tour boat. 🙂

As always, if we didn’t know already, our spiffy sign at the elevators told the tale. 🙂

Here is a little video of our tender ride…

As always the crew was running those tenders like a well-oiled machine, and those little boats were running back and forth all day long…they never missed a beat…

Now it was time for our Lighthouse Boat Tour—This was one of my favorite things that we did on this cruise…Here are some pictures that we captured–with a video to follow…BTW–We got really lucky on this day to be able to do this tour, just the day before, the tour company was running the tour boat as a tender for another cruise ship, apparently the waves and wind were whipping and help was needed. 🙂

Our boat was also a Whale Watching boat, and its name as you heard me mention in the tender video was the Friendship V. 🙂

Here is a map/informational sheet that we were given on our tour:

And look what else we saw!!! This is a juvenile bald eagle! For those of you who might not know, the bald eagle doesn’t get its signature white head until they are 5 years old…

Here is a video of our time on the Friendship V:

I always love seeing our cruise ship from afar like this…What a beauty the Regal Princess is…I do have a treat for y’all at the end of this Series. I will put together a Regal Princess Collage Picture tour–I took SO many pictures of so many venues, I have no earthly idea how long it will take me to organize them and put them together into on cohesive post…but, I’ll get ‘er done, I promise! 🙂

Wow, what a wonderful tour that was…truly, the little Naturalist was very informative too, I loved listening to her stories and learning all about the history of those lighthouses and Bar Harbor itself. 🙂

Now, it was time to go to a local restaurant for lunch…Chris had been craving a lobster roll…me, eh, not so much…haha…believe it or not, lobster is not my favorite, crab yes, lobster, not so much. 🙂 We could see the restaurant that Chris had found online before we ever left home from the Lighthouse/Whale watching boat:

I know, I ***know***!! I should have stuck my face in that hole and had Chris take a picture…shoot…LOST opportunities you know? 😉

We chose to eat outside on the upper deck…That was one comfy seat right there…No, really it was. 🙂

And our view…

And our little friend! 😉

Here is the menu:

SO many choices!!!

And what we chose…Chris’ Lobster Roll:

And my Crab Roll:

We really enjoyed our meals, we tried not to eat all of those french fries though honestly, we knew we had the Crab Shack that evening, so we just ate the Rolls and cole slaw. 🙂 We were happy campers. 🙂 It was now time to go and catch our tender boat back “home”. This is us up on the upper deck of the tender.

And here is a little video of our trip back to the ship:

We had reservations at The Crab Shack for later that evening, so we kind of just chilled until it was time for our dinner to start…For those who are not familiar with this special meal option, they close down part of the Horizon Court and put spiffy Crab Shack tablecloths on all of the tables, offer you a nice menu from which to choose your delightful meal, and give you fantastic service. 🙂 There is a $29 per person up-charge (and we were told that we could have as much as we wanted). Here are some pictures of our time at The Crab Shack:

Whoops, I forgot to take a picture of the appetizer…goodness gracious it was delicious though…fried shrimp and hushpuppies:

And they gave us this bowl of warm water and a lemon so that we could wash our hands…

And then, this happened!!!

HOW sweet was that?!!! My gracious, and all of those fellas spoke to us every single time they saw us for the rest of the cruise…such a nice crew…truly. 🙂

Here was my sweet treat:

After we finished eating, we went and did a little shopping and looking around in the Piazza…

We stopped and watched and listened to the entertainment in the Piazza–a video for another day–there was *always* something going on in the Piazza. 🙂 We were bushed, so off to our Stateroom we headed, once there, we chose a movie from the plethora of choices offered, put our feet up and were quite content to just sit and relax for the rest of the evening. 🙂 We had had a great day in the beautiful port of Bar Harbor.

On the itinerary for the next day was St. John, New Brunswick…Here is a sneak peek and link to my Canada & New England: St. John, New Brunswick (Canada)–Exploring, Shopping, Bday Tartan Cape, & More:

Until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

***If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me…Psalm 139***

~Arlynn ❤

Canada & New England: Boston, Massachusetts

On October 21, 2016April 26, 2017 By ArlynnIn Country Decor, Vacations5 Comments

As we continue on with our Canada & New England adventure aboard the Regal Princess, I’m excited to tell you about our day in Boston which was interrupted a bit by some inclement weather. As you saw in my previous post where I spoke about our time in Newport, Rhode, Island, the weather was starting to kick up pretty badly by the time we finished our day there. Well, the weather continued to worsen and to say that we had a rough night on board is an understatement. When I turned my light out and retired for the night, the seas weren’t too awful bad, but, then I was jarred awake (literally) by the rocking and rolling seas. I swear to goodness I almost got tossed right out of the bed…lol. My first thought was that we certainly were going to get called to our Muster Stations at any second, but, we never were. I will say that those were the worst seas that I ever remember being in on a cruise. Our Stateroom was pretty far forward though, so that might have added to the roughness of our night. Chris was up very early the next morning and he took this video out of the windows of the Vines Bar on Deck 5:

Chris estimated those waves to be in the neighborhood of 30 to 40 feet high and the winds were just a-howling. It was pretty intense there for a while, but, once I gathered my senses and woke up a bit more, I realized that we were just fine and dandy and that being jarred awake and the need to shake the cobwebs out of my brain was probably what contributed to my moment of terror (about the Muster stations…).

Once I was up and *trying* to walk around our stateroom and having my first cup of tea, it was time for me to get freshened up for the day–**Side Note: Thank the good Lord that there were handles in the shower…Without them, well, let’s just say I would have been splayed out in the tub lickety-split, I was holding on for dear life in there…lol…**. But, I did manage to get myself spiffed up for the day, here is the outfit I chose to put on that morning:

Next we skipped on over to our little mailbox and retrieved our Princess Patter for the day…Which had a bit of an insert — an amended Itinerary if you will — for the day. I will play you an announcement from the Captain after I show you the pictures of the day’s Patter.

This is the amended page, we were going to have a change in our regularly scheduled morning & afternoon ‘programing’. 🙂

Let me pause and let you hear what information the Captain delivered over the public address system that morning. Please forgive me for having my iPhone tilted throughout this little video–I was obviously intently listening to what our Captain was saying and not paying a lick of attention to how I was holding my phone—BUT, you’ll be able to see those rough seas zipping on by, and remember, we were way up on the 12th deck, so they didn’t look quite as bad as they really were; still, they look pretty angry:

As you heard in the video, the Captain had announced that they were working with everyone on shore with regards to excursions, they had to cancel many trips on this day because we truly were 4 hours late getting into Boston than was originally scheduled. This informational sheet was delivered to our Stateroom shortly after the Captain spoke to us, we were relieved to see that our tour was a go. 🙂

Here is what we had planned for the day with one slight change, we were not offered the “Optional drop off at Quincy Market”.

We didn’t do too much through the morning hours before Boston came into sight, of course, we headed to brunch and when we walked out of our Stateroom, we saw that Phillip (our stateroom Steward) had decorated up our door–celebrating Chris’ retirement…woohoo. 🙂

Yes, Msssss Smug had arranged for that via the Cruise Personalizer before we boarded…… 😉

We walked around the ship a bit, poked our heads into a couple of shops–and Chris got me this jacket (that is the Pilot Boat making its way to the ship to my left):

As we got closer to Boston the winds started to die down as did the seas. We were then able to catch some pretty pictures off of our balcony as we were approaching…

Then, I tried something new, I went “Live” on Facebook—What a spiffy little option…Here is what I had to say as we were making our approach to Boston:

I had to do a little research when I got home and I actually figured out how to retrieve said live videos off of Facebook…OF course that is IF Facebook didn’t REMOVE them…More on that a little later…:/ Here are some pictures that Chris clicked off as I was chattering away into my iPhone. 🙂

There are those tug boats greeting us, they stuck with us all the way, I love to watch them work! 🙂

And we took time out for a selfie:

Once we were securely alongside, Chris and I headed down to disembark, it was time for us to head out to our excursion. The Regal has signs like this at all of the elevators, they welcomed us to each port and gave other information on sea days…spiffy-diffy eh?!

And off of the ship we went:

I clicked off a real quick picture of the Seawalk from off of the ship (this was our first time off since we left New York):

Our mode of transportation:

We started heading toward the boat that would take us on our Harbor Tour—The Princess rep on the bus was as always full of fun facts and a plethora of information, unfortunately, I didn’t retain much info this time…haha…I do know that she said that they might open up this rusty bridge for crafters to sell their wares on the weekends…that was pretty cool. 🙂

Boston is a gorgeous city steeped in history and this is where I really got messed with by Facebook…Here is the boat that we went on for our tour:

And once aboard and on our way for our Harbor Tour, I had climbed up to the top deck and I started taking more “Live” Facebook videos–I took a ton of video, but, unfortunately it has since disappeared…been removed…been deleted (not by me), it is completely gone, gone, and gone—I am devastated because as y’all know, I love, love, love my facts to be correct and up-to-date–Sooooooooo, instead of trying to caption all of the following pictures, I will just show you what we saw because thank the good Lord, Chris was clicking off pictures the entire time that I was yammering away into my phone doing that ‘live’ and soon to be completely gone video. Yeah, I’m a little miffed about that disappearance, I cannot tell a lie……

Here is the USS Constitution–Unfortunately, it was in dry dock:

If you would like to read up on what one could do while visiting Boston, here is a great link. There is the Freedom Trail, the Old North Church, and a lot of other things to see…too many for me to mention, but it is a lovely city and as I mentioned steeped in history.

We really enjoyed that boat tour, and I am so so very upset that my video was lost…But, maybe one day you’ll be able to do it and you’ll get to see the wonderful sights that we did. We climbed back aboard our motor coach and started heading back to the ship, we didn’t get back until after dark and right before the ship sailed. Yes, we normally do arrange our excursions through Princess because the ship will definitely wait if your tour is running late. Unless I’ve been to a location before and I know first hand that a certain tour company is reputable (like for instance The Bering Sea Crab Fishermen’s Tour out of Ketchikan, Alaska–I trust them implicitly ) we will not book from an outside source. Some might, but, we don’t…please don’t judge…that is just the way we choose to do things. 🙂

Here are some of the sights we saw as we meandered through the city on our way back ‘home’. 🙂

The Old State House:

Custom House Clock Tower:

And because I am an Apple user:

We were just about the last tour to climb back aboard the Regal Princess and we were rushing pretty quickly, but, I did manage to take a picture of the Seawalk at night while tripping on along to the tiny little metal (precarious…haha) stairs the lead back onto the ship…

Next stop…Dinner in the Horizon–We were famished! <~~~Not really, but, it had been a long time since we had something to eat. 😉 After dinner, we were exploring Deck 16 and it was getting close to 8pm, the time that the Fountain Show begins every night. Well, guess what I did? Yep, I took a LIVE Facebook video, and Facebook messed with me *again*. This time they were kind enough to leave my video in tact, but, they removed the sound…copyright worries and all of that (which I totally get and wasn’t too upset about). Before I show you the video that I did salvage of the Fountain show, here I am on the Seawalk at night. The reason I show you this is because I do want to mention something here for those of you who might be wanting to book a Stateroom near that Seawalk on the Regal or the Royal—The blue hue that emanates from that Seawalk is quite intense, I’m sure you could clip your room curtains shut and block it out, but, I did want you to be aware that it is quite intense (and yes, you can look through the floor and see right down into those balconies right under the walk). Just a little info for y’all…

And before the show started, Chris and I clicked off a few more pictures of things on and around that deck and also the Boston night-scape—It was awesome!!

We had had a lovely day–And we really enjoyed this Fountain Show put to the music of Michael Jackson (in this video’s case though, I added some music so that we didn’t have to worry about infringing on anyone’s Copy-write…🙄…

So in calm seas and following winds, we started steaming toward Bar Harbor, Maine where we’d be disembarking the Regal again and heading out on a lovely Lighthouse boat tour and having a sweet lunch at a local restaurant…Here is a sneak peek and a link to my Bar Harbor–Lighthouse Boat Tour, Lunch at a Local Restaurant, The Crab Shack, & My Birthday Song post :

Until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

***If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me…Psalm 139***

~Arlynn ❤

Canada & New England: Newport, Rhode Island

On October 18, 2016October 23, 2016 By ArlynnIn Country Decor13 Comments

Chris and I hadn’t planned any special off-ship excursions for this our first Port of Call, Newport, Rhode Island, we just hadn’t seen anything that interested us too much when we perused around the different options online before our trip. But, it turned out to be a God send that we didn’t have anything special planned as I woke up with a stupid migraine–yep, I’m a migraine sufferer, stupid headaches. Thankfully, I do not get them as frequently now-a-days, and they are not nearly as intense as they were when I was younger…I can thank my ‘friend’ menopause for that. Regardless, I took some Advil (I refuse to take prescription medication for my headaches–Advil works in a cumulative fashion for me, so I will definitely stick with what works) and went out onto the balcony to see what Newport looked like from a distance because we were anchored off shore. 🙂 Well, as it turns out, it wasn’t a very pretty day in Newport on that day, it was a bit windy and rainy and a smidge foggy–NOT that that bothered me that much, I was just so happy to be where I was in that moment in time; nothing, and I mean nothing, not a threatening hurricane, not a migraine, and certainly not a little rain was going to ruin my good spirits and positive attitude. 🙂 This is what I saw when I walked out onto the balcony…

What a cool schooner huh?! 🙂 I just love looking at old ships like that! 🙂 The next thing I did was to check our little mailbox for our Princess Patter, here is what it had to offer up on this day:

Princess also provides you with a map of the Port that also includes a list of shopping venues. This came tucked in with the Patter…

The day before, Chris had picked up some Excursion information just in case we wanted to sign up for something. Yes, there was still room on many of the excursions (we are used to needing to book online when going to Alaska, those Excursions can fill up rather quickly). We normally do take Princess Excursions, that said, we will and did this time venture out on our own as well.

Next up…Breakfast in the Horizon…Yum Yum!! I chose to go to the Omelet making center on this morning…

It is obvious that I did not worry about my diet during this week—Nope, I truly didn’t—And honestly, that is something that is usually rather prominent on my mind on a daily basis, but, I wasn’t going to allow the thought of gaining a few pounds keep me from indulging in some great food on this cruise.

Before we left the Horizon Court, I stopped by one of their self-serve drink centers and clicked off some pictures of what they offer for free all day, every day. They have several of these stations set up throughout the Horizon Court and Bistro. 🙂 This is where Chris came every morning with one of our thermos cups to gather hot water, tea bags, and Splenda for my cup of tea. Bless his heart, he’d always have it back in the Stateroom for me to drink when I woke up every morning.

OH yeah, btw, this was my outfit for the day…And I ended up wearing my red jacket with it, it was quite chilly, windy, and wet in the morning and the weather worsened as the day moved on along. 🙂

We took some more time to walk around the ship and explore, I’ve got so many pictures of the ship and I am planning to share them all with y’all, here are just some…

We headed back to our Stateroom to hang out in there for a bit and here are some of the sights we saw as we looked off of our balcony.

We also had a bit of business to attend to…We needed to fill out our “Disembarkation Questionnaire”–Hated doing that honestly, after-all, we had just embarked on our journey…but, business is business, and Princess runs like a well-oiled machine, they are very organized in just about every aspect. 🙂 For the first time ever, we checked the box to say that we’d be “Walking Off”. 🙂

Next up, well, guess what? It was time to eat again! YaY! LOL This time we chose to go to the Italian restaurant that is located right of off the Piazza called Alfredo’s. Boy oh boy was it ever good!!!! We greatly enjoyed our little pizzas.

Chris got “Pizza Capricciosa”—And he loved it!

I got Pizza Regal Princess, and I ate every last bite, it was delicious!

They prepare the food right there on site (instead of carrying from one of the other kitchens on board).

And of course, as always, the staff was so cordial and nice. 🙂

Next up, a bit more exploring…

We climbed aboard an elevator and headed on up to 16 to take a look outside from there…

It was just a tad windy…lol…

Then we headed to the very aft of the ship so that we could take some pictures, we passed the Outrigger Bar on our way…Check out the cute fella behind the bar…LOL. 😉

We took these few pictures while we were fighting the windstorm, it truly was like a wind tunnel back there.

This was Fort Adam’s State Park–It has been in existence since July 4, 1799. It was named after President John Adams.

We headed back to our Stateroom and had a little bit more business to attend to, we had this Custom’s form and letter waiting for us in our mailbox. We needed to fill it out and hand it to our Steward (or leave it on the desk for him to retrieve), by that evening.

We then walked out onto our balcony and we noticed that there were several of the Tender boats bobbing around near the ship–it appeared that they were having some trouble navigating back to the ship. It was quite the show and Princess as always was being extremely careful and they were ever mindful of the people on those Tenders.

The weather was definitely deteriorating as the hours were passing by, here are some of the other sights we saw while watching those Tenders and other boats maneuver through some waters that were getting quite kicked up…

And here is a little video that I took spanning the afternoon into the evening–It took them hours and hours to safely get all of those Tenders back on board. But, in the end there were no injuries and all was well. Thank goodness…:) 🙂 The Captain came on often and kept us up-t0-date as to the happenings…

And that was our day in Newport, Rhode Island, we spoke to some folks who had been on those Tenders and they said that it was quite the harrowing experience, but, they always felt safe and well cared for. We ended up watching a couple of movies on the tv in our Stateroom and turning in a bit early (a ton of stuff is available on the Regal’s tvs…I’ll put up a little demonstration video that I made in another post–this one is long enough..haha).

As I said in my video up there…”And the saga continues”…Those seas didn’t let up and actually got much worse through the night, but, I will tell you all about that in my next post. Here is a little sneak peek & link: Canada & New England: Boston, Massachusetts

Until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

***If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me…Psalm 139***

~Arlynn ❤

Canada & New England Cruise: Mini Suite Tour, Muster Drill, Sail Away, Princess Patter & More

On October 17, 2016October 29, 2016 By ArlynnIn Country Decor7 Comments

My goodness gracious, somebody needed to pinch me, I could not believe that we were actually aboard the beautiful Regal Princess, and let me tell y’all, she surely is a gorgeous girl; I will be doing a collage picture tour of the Regal at the end of this Series so that you can see as many venues as we could find to photograph.

Onward we go with our adventure, last we left off, Chris and I were entering our Stateroom, so let me show you a few things that were waiting for us upon our arrival. Here is a sneak peek of our Stateroom, Mini Suite A214:

Of course the Princess Patter (sort of like a calendar for that day’s events–you get one in your little mailbox for each day of your cruise) was waiting for us.

And I had ordered a “Soda & More” package online before the trip, the cup in the picture below was a gift from Princess and the sticker on my room card shows whoever I ask for a soda or more that I do not have to pay (onboard). BTW, a Soda & More package costs $8.05 a day and look at all that you can get to drink with it…

***Indulge yourself with this premium Unlimited Soda & More Package, entitling you to unlimited fountain soft drinks, plus mocktails, juices, and complimentary hot chocolate throughout your cruise. Price includes service charge***

We also found this waiting for us…This was a new thing for us because this was the first cruise that we were at the Captain’s Circle “Platinum” Level. Believe it or not, we never went and indulged in those spiffy treats–We were so busy, we just didn’t think to go…haha. But, this is a nice little perk. 🙂

Also, Chris ordered a Coffee Card online before the cruise and waiting in the Stateroom was a white card (just like the one that I got with my cup up there ^^^). The card instructed him to take it to the International Cafe and once turned in, he was given his Coffee Card. He used that entire card, one punch per cup of specialty coffee and then he purchased another one later at the IC. 🙂 Note: With the Coffee Card, you do get get unlimited brewed coffee (no punches utilized) which is a bit better than what they serve in the Horizon Court for free. What can I say, Chris likes his coffee. 🙂

All right, now that we’ve seen all of the goodies that were awaiting us on our arrival into our room, here is a video tour that I created and narrated of our Mini Suite A214. 🙂

My goodness, that was such a nice room. I will admit that I didn’t care for the pillows and I ended up asking for others which truthfully, weren’t too much better…haha. I’m going to have to figure out how to take my nice, soft, fluffy, feather pillow on our next cruise. 😉

NOTE: I need to make a couple of corrections from what I mentioned in my video. I’ve been told that that couch does not pull out into a queen-sized bed, instead, the cushions come off and a mattress lifts up and covers the couch length-wise making it into a single bed; I didn’t pull it out when we were there…my apologies for the faux pas in the video. OH and one other thing, only one Princess tote bag is given per **Stateroom**, not per *Passenger*.

Next, we did a little bit of exploring around the ship–Here are just a smattering of pictures that I clicked off while we were zipping around:

All righty, it was time for my most favorite part of the cruise…The Muster Drill! 😉

I’m just kidding, it is certainly *not* my favorite part of the cruise, but, it is a necessary evil that comes with cruising, and I’m grateful to Princess that they do all of their Muster Drills indoors and this time around, our drill was held in the Princess Theater…And OH my gracious, take a look at the Regal’s beautiful Princess Theater:

Here is a little video of our time at our drill. 🙂

Now that *that* loveliness was completed, we sure felt safe and we sure felt HUNGRY…So off we skipped to the buffet for a light meal. I could NOT believe my eyes when we walked into the Horizon Court & Bistro–yep, they have a “Bistro” on the Regal too. It was massive, there was SO much food to choose from and there was plenty of seating available. Every single thing that we had at the Buffet throughout the entire week was scrumptious…no honesty, it was really, really good. So good in fact that we didn’t step foot in a Dining Room (admittedly we usually don’t) or a Specialty Restaurant (that we always do on every cruise). The only places we dined other than the buffet was The Crab Shack one evening and Alfredo’s–the pizza place in the Piazza–I’ll highlight both in a future post. I was amazed at the variety of food available in the buffet, the presentations were spot on, and well, pfft, there was no need to go anywhere else. 🙂

The difference in the Bistro and Court? Easiest way to tell you about that is to copy and paste Princess’ explanation…Here we go:

“Horizon Court – Buffet and Bistro

Horizon Court Buffet – One of Princess’ most popular casual dining options, the Horizon Court buffet on Regal Princess provides additional dining options, including action station choices such as Asian cuisine, Mediterranean dishes, a pasta corner and salad-tossing stations. For early risers on the go, new “Grab & Go” options are available, while healthy breakfast options offer the fuel guests need to make the most of a day at sea or ashore. Those who love to sleep in will even find a special “late, late risers” breakfast corner. At lunch, a variety of new live stations feature a regional flair, including a rotisserie, and Japanese Hibachi Grill.

Horizon Bistro – Dinner in the Horizon Court will offer an interactive experience with themed events and specialty dinners. On certain nights guests may find a Brazilian churrascaria, Argentine gaucho theme, German Beer Fest, a European bistro or British pub. Actions stations found here include a hibachi grill, rotisseries and carving stations, a taqueria, and a sandwich bar.”

Here are just a few pictures that I clicked off on that first day, I have plenty more that I will highlight in that collage post at the end of this Series…

After we were finished eating, we did a tiny bit more of exploring, it was almost time for sail-away, but, there was one thing that I wanted to check out first…

The Sea Walk!

And being the goober that I am, I had to take a walk right on across…;)

It was now time for Sail-Away–They moved the sail-away “party” into the Piazza because of the weather, but, Chris and I along with tons of other people stayed outside on deck as we sailed out of Brooklyn. Yes, we were a bit damp as it was misting, but, that didn’t dampen my mood at all, I was one happy camper to be starting this new and fun adventure. Here are a few pictures of our time on deck and then a video of our sail-away. 🙂

Manhatten:

Governor’s Island:

The Statue of Liberty:

And a little video–I recorded the first part of the video where I’m talking right after we boarded, and then I switch on over to our sail-away. 🙂 Listen for The Love Boat themed horn at the end of the video. 😉 🙂 SO cool!!!

And we were on our way!! I know I am a menopausal woman in her mid-50’s, but, I was so touched at that sail-away that I actually did shed a tear or two. I feel so lucky that we are able to go on these adventures. Okay, enough sappiness from me!

Next up, our first port of call, Newport, Rhode Island–To say that we had some rough seas…well…Stay tuned!

A sneak peek & link: Canada & New England: Newport, Rhode Island

Until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

***If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me…Psalm 139***

~Arlynn ❤

Canada & New England: Packing, Traveling, & Embarkation onto the Regal Princess

On October 16, 2016October 29, 2016 By ArlynnIn Vacations8 Comments

Hurricane?!!! “There is a Hurricane Matthew heading New England’s way!”. What?!! My goodness gracious, those are the words that I heard come out of Chris’ mouth a week before we were to leave for our cruise. Let me preface my following words by saying that my thoughts and prayers were with ALL of those that were in Matthew’s path, it was a horribly devastating storm and it left behind it major damage and many injured and dead–It was a terrible storm and I would never want y’all to think that all of those people and places that Matthew ravaged were out of my mind and I was only focused on our cruise as that wasn’t the case. I had many friends who were in the path of that storm and I spent much time in deep thought and prayer for their safety as it ravaged passed them. I will admit though, that when I turned the tv on and saw a map such as this, I started taking deep breaths and also praying that the Princess cruise to Canada and New England that we had been planning for the last 6 months wouldn’t be affected.

I watched with great interest and worry and saw many maps such as the one pictured above as we worked our way through the week prior to our cruise. Finally, on the Wednesday before we were to leave the following Saturday, Matthew decided that he was going to make a turn and go out to sea instead of heading over our home and then onward up the East Coast. This was a relief, not only for our cruise, but, also for our oldest daughter and pups that would have had to weather the storm in our home. I cannot express the sense of relief that flooded my very being. Yes, I’m a bit high strung at times and yes, the stress of worrying about that hurricane on all fronts just about caused me to go into full panic attack mode (literally) <~~~Not even kidding! I turned my attention once again to my planning and eventually to my packing for this lovely trip. 🙂 I was doing this while watching the devastation that that awful storm was reeking as it marched up the coast of Florida, onward into Georgia, and eventually touching South and North Carolina–I must pause here and say that both Chris and my good thoughts and prayers went out to all that were affected, it just broke our hearts. 😦

It did finally come time for us to get ourselves packed up and ready to go, I created a little video for y’all to watch and in it, I show you how I utilize my medium packing folder and my packing cubes. I then explain how I packed everything and that I had to change course from my original packing plan and adjust (NOT easy for me) to my new plan. 🙂 Here is that little video:

As I just mentioned in that video, I do not do well when I have to change course after I had one plan in my head for months and months…but…I managed to do so without having a meltdown…go me! 😉 🙂

Now fast forward to Saturday morning, very early on Saturday morning, like 4am on Saturday morning. EVEN with the excitement of heading out to hop in the car and drive to our cruise port, I am still not much of a morning person, but, hop up out of bed I did and before I knew it, we were in the car and on our way…YES, we got to DRIVE to this cruise port!! YIPPEE…We’d never been able to do that before…what a pleasure it was not to have to worry about airport security, rushing from one gate to the next, and being smooshed like a sardine in a can as we made our way to our destination. We drove out of our driveway at 5:45am on that Saturday morning and when the sun finally did come up it was a lovely day!

Our first stop was at the “Maryland House”, we grabbed a bit of breakfast and took a tiny break before continuing Northward to our eventual destination, the Brooklyn Cruise Port where Princess Cruises big, beautiful Regal Princess would be waiting.

Before I continue on, here is what our Itinerary would be for the coming week (the one pictured below is actually the Itinerary for 2017, but it is the same one for which we were fixin’ to depart):

After our little break, we hopped back in the car and got back on the road heading on out of Maryland and into Delaware…

Being very grateful that we had an E-ZPass…Makes going through toll booths so much easier not to mention quicker…

And eventually we made it into New York…

And over the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge:

That led us into Brooklyn…

And eventually, with a little help from our GPS, to the Brooklyn Cruise Port. NOTE: The route once you leave the interstate and are weaving your way to the cruise port it is quite challenging for a first time visitor (like us). I highly recommend that you have some sort of a navigational tool…i.e. Car Navigation system, GPS, Cell phone nav…***something***. It was a bit of a harrowing experience, BUT, we finally turned a corner and this is what we saw…

And listen to Arlynn the excited goober in this little video…haha:

The road led us straight to the cruise terminal and we dropped our bags off with the Princess representatives before we went to park…yay, we didn’t have to roll our suitcases across the parking lot after-all! I LOVE Princess! 🙂

Then we made our way around to the parking lot and parked our car. Chris found a lovely corner parking space where his car would be nice and safe for the next week. It is a secure parking lot too, just to let y’all know that. 🙂

Then of course “Ms Chatty Cathy” started talking to some folks who were parking their car close to us as she was trying to take a selfie in front of the Regal—To say I was a tiny bit excited at this point would be an understatement. 🙂

Chris finally grabbed a camera and clicked off this picture:

We then gathered our backpacks and walked to the cruise terminal which was no more than 2 blocks or less away…You can see the door that we entered through on the very right side of the picture above ^^^. 🙂

And for the very first time in our cruising history, we were directed to the “Preferred Check-In” line…what?!! My gracious, **that** was nice.

We were handed our “Platinum” room cards (the sticker means that I purchased a “Soda & More” package online before we left home) and a map of the Regal Princess…

We were pointed to the VIP room (what?), lol, and before we knew it, we were being told we could board the ship. The following is a little video that I took as we were boarding the gorgeous Regal Princess!

Stay tuned, the fun is *just* beginning! Next up, I’ll tell you about our Sail Away out of Brooklyn and share with you a tour of our Mini Suite. 🙂

Here is a little preview of what we saw as we were sailing out of New York City:

Until next time, y’all take good care!! ❤

***If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me…Psalm 139***

~Arlynn ❤

Here is a link to my next Blog post in this Series:

Canada & New England Cruise: Mini Suite Tour, Muster Drill, Sail Away, Princess Patter & More

**And if you are interested in checking out the wardrobe that I chose to take on this cruise and my pre-cruise packing report, here are a couple more links for you to peruse through:

Canada & New England Cruise Wardrobe Choices

Canada & New England: Pre-Cruise Report

I also have a Facebook travel page, please feel free to join! Here is that link:

Arlynn’s Travel Blogs & More

And one more, I also have a YouTube travel channel, please like and subscribe if you’d like!

Arlynn’s Travels

Fall Leaves & Burlap Wreath (Video Tutorial Included)

On September 30, 2016September 30, 2016 By ArlynnIn Wreaths10 Comments

All right, I couldn’t stand it one second longer! As y’all know, I finished my Fall decorating a few weeks ago and I thought I was going to be able to stand *not* switching out at that big burlap wreath that I had hanging up on the mirror over the mantel to something in a fall themed design. Well, I was completely wrong, it was driving me ***crazy*** to not have a wreath that matched the rest of the Fall decor!

Here is what the fireplace/mantel/mirror looked like before with the rest of the fireplace/mantel done up for Fall:

And this is a close-up of that wreath that turned out beautifully, but, did not match the Fall decorations:

I have now remedied the confused decorating state that my fireplace,mantel, & mirror were stuck in and have replaced the above wreath with this one that I created after purchasing all supplies on sale yesterday:

Here is a list of the supplies that I utilized:

Large Metal Wreath Frame
2 Large Skeins of Burlap
2 Leaf Garlands
3 Resin Pumpkins
Coordinating Wired Ribbon
Grapevine Pumpkins
Orange Berry Stems
Floral Wire & Pipe Cleaners

Here is a video tutorial for you. 🙂

And here are a couple of pictures of the finished product:

I know it may seem silly to some of you that not having a wreath to match the rest of the fireplace/mantel decor would drive me so crazy, but, as y’all know by now, I’m a very anal retentive person who strives each day to pull my decor together into one cohesive design–I feel like I have now done that in the family room. All is well now, and I can breathe a lot easier and not cringe with frustration when I look at that mirror. 😉 🙂

**In crafting there are no mistakes just unique creations**

~Until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

~Arlynn ❤

Canada & New England: Pre-Cruise Report

On September 18, 2016July 30, 2017 By ArlynnIn Country Decor4 Comments

Good day to all of you happy travelers out there! Well, the tick, tick, tick of that clock that I mentioned in my Canada and New England Wardrobe Choices post has really started to move fast now! We are less than 20 days out from our cruise—I’m SO excited I can hardly stand it and I’ve been itching to write a little post to bring y’all up-to-date on what I’ve been working on to prepare for our next amazing journey on the Regal (what???) Princess.

Before I get started, I wanted to share that I’ve met a person online that will actually be on the cruise at the same time as us. Her name is Jill and we met through a cruising forum on Facebook; we are going to be making arrangements to meet at the International Cafe while on board the Regal for a cup of coffee/tea <~~(in my case). I can’t wait to meet this sweet lady as she and I have done a lot of conversing and she sounds like a wonderful woman! I’m hoping that she’ll allow me to share a picture of the two of us in one of my trip blogs. 🙂

Here is what our Itinerary will be:

We’ve made a few Excursion reservations through our Personalizer on Princess.com, we will not be doing scheduled excursions out of every port, instead, we are going to venture out on our own renting cars when need be. As a matter of fact, I’ve made arrangements to meet one of my dearest Facebook friends Nancy when we’re in Halifax. I met her through our love for our Newfoundland pups…she is an amazing lady and I canNOT wait to give her one of the biggest (((hugs))) ever!!

Here are the Excursions we’ve chosen (so far…we might definitely change these up, we’ve been known to do that once aboard):

Anticipation!! A-N-T-I-C-I-P-A-T-I-O-N!!! That feeling really ramped up when my travel agent Joy called and told us that she had printed off our boarding passes, travel insurance info, and luggage tags…yes, yes, I know, I had the ability to do that myself a while ago, but, it is always fun to go and pick our travel docs up from Joy and discuss any last minute items or ask any questions that we might have. When I got those luggage tags home, we put them in our spiffy new luggage tag holders, and placed our paperwork into one of my folders. 🙂

Wow, that was exciting!! Okay, so maybe not all *that* exciting…lol…but, I was pretty happy to have taken one step forward that would bring us closer to heading out on our cruise. 🙂 For those of you who have gotten to know me, you know that I am a pretty organized person so it will not come as a surprise to you that the planning process for our trips is one that I embrace wholeheartedly. I decided today that I would start to pack up what I could and those packed items would sit on my cedar chest for the next 20 days waiting for me to pick them up and carry them to our car on the day we debark on our adventure.

I’ve packed up my Carry-On bag, well as much as I can get it packed that is. 🙂

And I’ve gathered everything else that I think I might possibly need into a basket and have set it out on my cedar chest. Here is a shot of that basket:

As you can see, I have gathered our Princess thermos cups to be used for our morning coffee/tea (Chris carries mine up to the Horizon Court every morning and makes up my tea—bless his big heart). Then next, I packed up my three Vera bags that I will use for various things:

My “Must Haves” in the first bag:

Our medications in the middle bag, and the last plastic bag will be used for my perfume/shampoo/hairspray/etc…I’ll wrap the breakable items in bubble wrap to pad them a bit:

I’ve also included my small Thirty-One jewelry case:

And I’ve set out my Make-up case, also from Thirty-One:

As I mentioned, all of these bags will sit right like this on my cedar chest until it is time to finish packing all of them:

Then I will place them into my large 29″ Spinner suitcase–and if need be, any overflow will go into this Vera Weekender bag:

As I’ve mentioned before, that Weekender bag has a sheath on the back of it and it will slide nicely down over the handle of my suitcase:

I placed our luggage tags on my luggage and I’ve put an extra one in the front pocket just in case the one on the handle is lost:

And one more thing that I’ve collected to take along is this magnet of my pups that my dear friend Liz gave to me as a gift when we were visiting with her and her hubby last April in Vancouver:

Also, I ordered myself up another magnet from Shutterfly, this one is of my human family to take along as well–Remember the walls in the Staterooms are metal:

OH one last thing, I’ve already picked out my outfit for the car ride up there…*This* outfit is definitely subject to change though, but, for now, this is what I’m planning to wear:

AND now, I will watch that time tick, tick, tick on down to GO TIME—Again, I’m not wishing my life away **^^Mom^^**, but, I wouldn’t be sad if that time would pass by quickly. 😉

Happy Traveling ALL!!

Until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

~Arlynn ❤

PS–Here is my Blog post covering my Canada & New England Cruise Wardrobe Choices