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: 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

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

And here are links to the posts that I’ve written since our return home

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

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

Canada & New England: Newport, Rhode Island

Canada & New England: Boston, Massachusetts

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

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

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

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

Canada & New England: Collage Picture Tour of the Regal Princess

Packing – 8 Day 7 Night Cruise Series: “Suitcase Packing Tips & Tricks”

On September 4, 2016September 4, 2016 By ArlynnIn Country Decor, VacationsLeave a comment

Our Canada and New England cruise is getting closer and closer every day and it won’t be long before it is upon us which means it won’t be long before I try my very best to pack just *one* suitcase…albeit a large 29″ spinner suitcase, but just one none-the-less. 🙂 I do plan to have a Vera Bradley Weekender bag handy just in case I have any overage and if I don’t end up using it going, I know I’ll be able to fit it into my or Chris’s suitcase and will utilize it for souvenirs for our trip home.

Here are the bags I have set aside and am anxiously waiting to fill!! 🙂 (I’m excited, can you tell?) 😉

I know those of you who follow me know that I’m now a HUGE fan of packing cubes and packing folders. Here are links to the items that I use: Shacke Pak (packing cubes) & the Medium Eagle Creek Packing Folder. I know that I will definitely, ***easily*** be able to fit every item of clothing into these spiffy packing mechanisms because I am taking literally half of the clothes that I took on our 15-Night Hawaiian cruise…Here is the packing folder filled up nicely with over 20 tops that I took to Hawaii; I will take less than half of that amount on the 8-Day Canada and New England cruise.

And here is what my suitcase looked like filled to the brim with my packing folder and cubes:

–I needed that ^^ entire suitcase just for clothes–I used another smaller suitcase (below) for all of my “Must Haves” for that trip.

I am bound and determined to fit all of my clothes and must haves into my one large suitcase…..a-n-d yes ***IF*** I absolutely cannot fit everything into that one suitcase, my Weekender bag will be there ready and waiting for me–As y’all saw, it has a lovely sheath that fits over the suitcase’s handle which will make it easy to maneuver (I only have to get it from the car to the Princess folks on the dock–We are driving to NY and parking in a close, secure parking lot).

I will be packing 5 other small bags to go into that large suitcase as well, one for my cosmetics, this Thirty-One bag:

One very small Thirty-One bag for my jewelry:

And the other three bags will hold my hair products and perfume, my Must Haves, and my hair brushes and accessories:

Fingers crossed that I will be able to fit everything into that one suitcase. 🙂 I’m ready to roll now, and as I said in my other post…I’m trying NOT to wish my life away…BUT, I just need for the time to pass so that we can once again be off on an amazing adventure. One that will collect memories for us to cherish and relive for the rest of our lives. 🙂

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

~Arlynn ❤

Packing – 8 Day 7 Night Series: “What’s In My Carry-On”

On August 23, 2016August 23, 2016 By ArlynnIn Country Decor, VacationsLeave a comment

Continuing on with my 8 Day 7 Night Series of blogs here with my What’s in my Carry-On entry. Truly, I do not take any less in my Carry-on bag on an 8 day cruise than I would on a longer cruise; but, I’m going ahead and writing this post so that folks don’t have to peruse through that massive-all encompassing-rather overwhelming other post of mine…haha. 😉

Let’s get started. This is one of my most important pieces of luggage and one that stays with me from the moment we leave the house until the moment we arrive at our destination and beyond because I will use this on Excursions and such as well. It is never out of my sight. Now for a little discussion about the type of bag I prefer to carry. On our last cruise to Hawaii, I took a Vera Bradley Campus Backpack <~~~That is a link to Amazon as it seems that the Vera Bradley website isn’t carrying this particular bag in the pattern that I have. Regardless, this bag worked out perfectly:

And yes, I have placed all of my Captain Circle Pin’s on my bag:

This is also the bag that I will be taking on our next cruise to Canada and New England–We will be driving to that port thank goodness–I cannot tell you how thrilled I am that we don’t have to fly–my long legs do not care for that attribute of traveling–flying that is. You know when we were kids and it was an exciting adventure to get on a plane and jet off to wonderfully fun places. Yeah, well, I still love to go to the wonderfully fun places, I just wish I could do it without being made to feel like a sardine smashed in a can…lol. 😉 (I will admit that the last couple of times we’ve flown, Chris, bless his sweet heart, has upgraded us to 1st class for a nominal fee (he watched the price of the seats each day and when he saw them drop, he jumped on them and moved us—I was SO grateful!!)

ANYway, I digress, I loved that ^^^ bag when I carried it to Hawaii, but, I do want to show you one other type of bag that I will utilize as a Carry-On every now and again. This bag is a Trimmed Vera Tote <~~ Again an Amazon link to a different pattern than I have. Here is a picture of my bag in Parisian Paisley–IF you go to order this bag, please, please, please be careful and be sure to get the Vera Tote that measures: 18″ Wide, 15″ High, & has a 12″ Strap drop (Vera has many totes, most of which are smaller than this one). Here is mine:

As you can see, it has tons of pockets inside to hold all of your goodies and beyond. 🙂

This bag also holds my 13″ MacBook Pro very easily and that is always my consideration when choosing a Carry-On bag. Don’t judge please…:)

Here are the other things that I routinely take in my Carry-On, I’m sure your list will vary slightly to meet your needs. 🙂

When flying we all have to adhere to the TSA’s liquids rules, so I always take a quart-size ziplock bag to utilize for our liquids:

This is the bag I use for my computer and iPhone chargers, it is a Vera Bradley Double Zip Cosmetic Bag:

I take a catch-all bag to carry small possible necessities. 🙂 The bag I use is a Vera Bradley Medium Zip Cosmetic Bag:

Of course I take a wallet with cash, credit cards, ID, and Passport…This is a Vera Bradley Kisslock Wallet:

My Kindle Paperwhite:

Earphones:

A crossword puzzle book—I’m always trying to do something to stimulate my brain, I really love doing crosswords and I even play a game on my iPhone called Words With Friends…I’m constantly working on expanding my vocabulary and challenging myself–a girl is never too old to do that right? 😉 🙂

I take one of these Pocket Folders with me to carry all of our travel documents, i.e. travel insurance papers, boarding passes, and the like. I do carry the other couple of folders in my checked baggage and I use them to save our daily cruise paperwork like the Princess Patter, port informational sheets, etc…

I take a pencil case…Vera Bradley Brush and Pencil:

Let’s face it, we all could use a little something to freshen our breath and clean our teeth when traveling…I try to take something like this along:

And that about does it…Other than I will throw in a small packing cube with some unmentionables—*just* in case we have any flight delays and such. I don’t usually take an entire outfit though–unless we’re heading somewhere where I couldn’t go and buy a quick outfit if absolutely necessary.

I hope that this little post will help those of you who are getting ready to head out on a trip. Whether it be by plane, train, or automobile, these little items should suffice nicely to help get you to your destination.

Happy Traveling ALL!!

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

~Arlynn ❤

Packing – 8 Day 7 Night Cruise Series: “My Must Haves”:

On August 18, 2016August 23, 2016 By ArlynnIn Country Decor18 Comments

Yes, yes, I know, I have already written a extremely long blog post expounding in great detail about *all* of the things that one might need to pack for any length of cruise. And when I wrote it we were preparing for a 15-Night Hawaii cruise, so those were the parameters in which I was working, 15 days seemed like an eternity to be away–well for this country girl anyway. Admittedly, there is a plethora of information in that one post and it might be a smidge over-whelming. 😉 All that said, since most of our cruises are 7 day adventures, in this new “Series” I want to show how I’m planning to downsize that extreme list and share how I am going to try like crazy to consolidate everything into one large suitcase. In that other blog monstrosity, I covered “What’s In My Carry-On Bag”, tons of “Must Haves”, and I even included my “Packing Tips & Tricks”. I thought it was time to break up the monotony of that long post into several separate, shorter, more succinct, and a bit easier to peruse through posts, especially since I’m going to be downsizing the amount of ‘stuff’ I take which will work well for a 8 day cruise–yes, I do count embarkation day as Day 1 and disembarkation day as Day 8–I’m talking Saturday to Saturday cruises here (or whatever other day of the week a cruise starts on and ends on exactly a week later). For Hawaii, I took a small’ish’ Spinner suitcase ***just*** for my “Must Have” items. Here is how that suitcase looked right before I closed it up:

Whew–I took A LOT on that cruise…I will admit though, I did utilize every single item I took. BUT, my goal is to downsize a bit considering 8 days isn’t that long to be gone, so, I have gathered the following items to take along with us on our next cruise which will be to Canada & New England on the gorgeous Regal Princess this Fall. So let’s get started.

Disinfectant Wipes:

The very first thing that we do when we enter our Stateroom is to wipe down all surfaces, door knobs/handles, the telephone, the tv remote, the balcony railing, etc…

Hand Soap:

Bar Soap:

We do not care for the shower gel that they provide in pumps in the shower, so we bring our own favorite bar soap…

Odor Eliminating Spray:

I think the reason that I take this is obvious… *wink*…

(there are no exhaust fans in the bathrooms on a cruise ship)…

I never use Tums off of a cruise, but I always use Tums while on a cruise…

A Pop-Up Folding Laundry Hamper

This fits nicely into the Stateroom’s closet and collects all of the dirty laundry so that it is not spread all over the floor–Compact to pack too…

Clothes Peg Clip Pins

I mostly use these to hang up my shower cap on one of the towel racks inside the shower, but, they could also come in handy to hang things up on their provided clothing line (that is located in the shower–you can pull it out from a receptacle on the shower wall and attach it to the other end of the shower–I’ll show you a picture below:

Here is that clothesline:

I always take my own hairdryer, yes, Princess does provide a hairdryer in every room, but, for my hair which is fine but rather thick, well, it just doesn’t do the job in a timely fashion.

Here is the hair dryer Princess provides on all ships I’ve been on so far:

(I do hear that on the Royal and Regal, there is a hair dryer in the drawer at the desk, I’ll let y’all know when we get back from our cruise how that puppy works)

Tide Pods and Downy Dryer Sheets:

Yes, I normally will do laundry onboard, yes, even on a 8-day cruise, so I throw a few pods and some dryer sheets into a zip-lock bag because they don’t take up much room or add much weight and I’d rather our clothes smell like I like them to smell rather than how they smell using the products that you can get on the ship…

Here are the laundry rooms on board the Star Princess’ Dolphin deck, most of the laundry facilities on board are pretty much the same and are on several of the Stateroom decks (check your ship’s deck plans to find specific locations for laundry facilities). On the Coral’s Dolphin Deck the washers and dryers were stacked, on the Star they weren’t. You use your cruise card to purchase tokens, one color of token that will start the washer and dryer and if you choose to purchase their products, another color token can be used in the vending machines–See pictures below:

Magnet Clips

The walls in the Staterooms are metal–I usually will hang up the day’s Patter or my Card Lanyard, etc…

A Flashlight

Just in case we lose electricity, one never knows you know…

Scissors

Travel Illuminated Clock

I like to be able to see what time it is if I happen to wake up in the middle of the night…

Sewing Kit

Zip-Lock Bags

We purchased these coffee, and in my case, tea thermos cups on board our last couple of cruises. Chris is so sweet, every morning, he takes these cups and goes and gets me hot tea and himself a cup of coffee from the Horizon Court’s self serve counter.

Now, I know y’all are going to chuckle at me with this next item, but, I usually will take a small bottle of dawn with us so that I can wash up those cups each day–Yeah, my anal retentiveness rearing its ugly head…;)

And believe it or not all of that stuff (minus the cups and the hair dryer) fit inside this Vera Bradley Grand Cosmetic Bag and will fit into my one large suitcase (hopefully, the jury is still out on whether or not I can fit everything into one large suitcase; if necessary I will add one Vera Bradley Weekender Bag).

BTW–As an extra precaution, I will put any bottle that could potentially leak into ziplock bags before placing them in my Vera Bags. Even though the Vera’s are lined and I doubt if leaks would escape, I don’t want to take the chance. 🙂

Now to finish up this post, there are two other things that I always take with us…

Small first-aid kit

And

A grab bag with different OTC medications, these things can cost you a pretty penny if you go to buy them at the Sundries shop on board, so I just take a smattering of things, pain relievers, cold meds, anti-nausea meds (we’ve never been sea-sick, but, this girl likes to be prepared) That Vera Bradley bag is a Large Cosmetic Case:

Well, that does it, I feel pretty good that I’ve been able to downsize the amount of items that I’m planning to take with us on our 8-day Canada and New England cruise.

I’m trying to wrap my mind around what other smaller more succinct posts to create, I do know that I will be doing these specific posts moving through the next several days/week:

What’s In My Carry-On
Tech’y’ Stuff
Packing Tips & Tricks

Beyond that, well, we’ll see what I come up with…haha. 🙂

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

~Arlynn ❤

Canada & New England Cruise Wardrobe Choices

On August 15, 2016November 1, 2016 By ArlynnIn Vacations20 Comments

Before I even get started here, I must say one more time that I’m no fashionista, but, I do like to try to look put together which helps me, a plus-sized girl, feel pretty–I think a nicely put together outfit can help those of us who might struggle a bit with our weight to feel a bit better. 🙂 So soldier on girls…of ALL shapes, sizes, and loveliness!! ❤

So let’s get started, our next cruise is fast approaching, we will be heading to New York–actually driving to the port this time– and will be climbing aboard the Regal (what?!!!) Princess that will then carry us to Canada & New England for our 7 night cruise.

Here is what our Itinerary will include:

I’ve been keeping an eye on our countdown and it is clicking along nicely. My Mama always told me to never wish my life away, and I try really hard not to do that, but, I will admit that when I’m looking forward to a cruise, I might do a little wishing that the time would move just a wee bit quicker. 😉 I’ve been trying to gather some clothes together for this trip and of course the challenge of not over-packing looms ahead of me…I will admit fully that I’ve overpacked greatly in the past. But, on our last cruise to Hawaii which was 15 days through all sorts of different weather, I managed to not over-pack too, too much. SO, I can certainly manage to pack for a 7 night cruise without overpacking…right? Fingers crossed folks, fingers crossed!! 😉 I’m approaching this packing challenge much like I do my Alaska Cruise wardrobe challenges only I’m going to try to go with more Fall-like colors. Also, as I mentioned above, we are driving to the Port, and we will need to get our luggage to the ship by ourselves and then we will be self-disembarking so I really need to try to fit everything clothes/must haves/shoes/everything in one large spinner suitcase — and if I need a bit more space, I’m planning on taking a “Weekender” bag to fit the little bit of overflow going if necessary and also provide a little extra room to add some souvenirs into on the way back. One great thing about the Weekender bag is that it has a sheath on the back of it that will allow me to slide it down over the handle of my suitcase which will consolidate both pieces and allow me to pull both with ease.

Here are the bags I’m planning to take:

The suitcase is a 29″ spinner from Samsonite. And the floral bag is from Vera Bradley and is called a Weekender…Here is a link . <~~ That link will take you to a Weekender bag, but not to the one I have pictured, as I couldn’t find one like it on the Vera site…what? (I bet you could find it on Ebay though–the pattern is called “Parisian Paisley”). As I mentioned above the Weekender has a sheath on the back that will allow me to place it onto the handle of the suitcase.

I will also be taking a “Campus Backpack” from Vera (again, that link that I provided there is not the pattern I have, but Ebay is my friend when I can’t find what I’m looking for on the Vera website–This black and white pattern is called “Midnight Paisley”). I will use this to pack up my laptop, travel papers, wallet, a little bag of necessities, crossword puzzle book, my kindle, etc…

Of course, being the geek that I am, I have placed all of my Princess Captain’s Circle pins on the front of the bag:

Now, let me show you some of the clothes that I’ve chosen and put together as possible outfits for this cruise. I figure, since it is going to be Fall on the East Coast, it is likely going to be somewhat chilly especially the further North we travel. So let’s start with the jacket that I will be taking for this trip, it is a Columbia Arcadia Casual Jacket. I purchased it in a 2x which fits me fine (it is a little large on me–I usually wear a 2x/18w/tall–But, I like it that way, I can layer much more easily if I have a little wiggle room. 😉 🙂

Okie dokie–Here are some of the outfits that I’ve put together, these may be subject to change and if I do change anything out, I’ll update this blog accordingly. 🙂

Let me preface this by saying that I’m only going to be taking black slacks–no jeans, no skirts, no other colored ‘bottoms’, and no dresses. <~~~ My attempt at keeping my packing to a minimum. 🙂 Here are a couple of links to the black stretchy slacks that I wear all of the time and that pack up beautifully. They never wrinkle and they wash up perfectly every time.

Plus Size: Roz and Ali Slim Legged Pants

Misses Size: Roz and Ali Slim Legged Pants

As you can see, one of my very favorite accents is a pretty scarf–Adding one really brightens up an outfit and they pack so easily and take up practically no room.

I thought I might like to take a pair of boots to wear with a couple of pairs of leggings that I have…Here are a two more outfits that I’m considering.

Of course, I need a nighttime knock-around outfit (I’ve been known to skip on off to the laundry room in such an outfit… 😉

A friend of mine (thanks Pat!!) has introduced me to “Compression Socks”, but, these are not the “ugly-white-hard-to-put-on” compression socks of old. These socks are so pretty and will really help to prevent my feet from swelling (I never, ever have swollen feet when off of a cruise ship, but, on our Hawaiian cruise, my feet got terribly swollen for a time–They did go back to normal but, for awhile there they were not lovely and they were hard to fit into some shoes..haha). Here is a link to “Plus Sized Support Like Crazy Compression Knee-Highs“. They do come in regular sizes as well. Here is a picture of the ones that I purchased and that I will be taking along with me on all of our cruises moving forward:

Shoe wise, I will be taking my dress-type boots as I know I’ll have room for them:

And also, I’ll take these two pairs of shoes–I’ll wear the Skechers Performance Womens Go Walk 3 Unfold Walking Shoe on our Excursions off of the ship. And I’ll be wearing the Sam & Libby shoes while on the ship to dress up the outfits a bit. And that’s it for shoes…Honestly! 🙂

***UPDATE: I am writing this on the day that I’m fixin’ to pack everything up for our cruise, and I have to tell y’all about a pair of shoes that I found. I had worn these shoes years and years ago and for a time there, I couldn’t find a replacement pair as I wore them till they had holes in them. Imagine my delight, when I finally came across them here. These are the *most* comfortable shoes I’ve ever worn, and they will replace the Sam & Libby shoes that I have pictured above. They run true to size and literally mold to your feet when you put them on…I love them!

Jewelry wise–I’m not going to take a ton, I’ve picked out these pieces so far–I love Brighton jewelry and my daughter Christin usually gets me a set for Christmas; I pictured 2 of the sets she has gotten me first.

***UPDATE: Day of packing post here again..haha….I’ve added a couple of things to my jewelry choices. Christin (my oldest) had gotten me this Brighton necklace for Christmas last year, I’m definitely adding it to my choices:

***UPDATE: And then, how could I forget my old standby—I love this little choker necklace and earring set from 1928 jewelry, I’ve had this set for over a decade and they are one of my major goto pieces…classic and simple:

***UPDATE: And my bracelets–The large bangle is actually from Vera, the two Alex & Ani bracelets are from my daughter and my cousin Stacey, the Brighton (hearts) goes with the heart set above, and the twisted bracelet is one that Chris got me literally 20 years ago and I’ve worn it every day since:

Wow, I can’t believe that that is *all* I’m going to take, but, truly, that is it! I do want to add a couple of packing tips and tricks of mine here though in case some of you are new readers and haven’t heard me lament about how much I LOVE this Eagle Creek Pack-It Folder

Here is my Medium sized folder stuffed full with over 20+ tops (this is what I took for our Hawaii cruise):

And my Shacke Pak packing cubes–I cannot stress enough how much I was able to fit into these cubes. I highly recommend them!

So, there we go, I’ll continue to tweak my wardrobe, probably until the moment it is all packed up in that folder and those cubes, and, admittedly, I might change out an outfit or two, but, this is the ‘look’ I’m going for–Outfits that are casual but, ones that I can dress up with a change in jewelry/shoes/scarves/etc…

I *think* I’m getting closer to being ready to pack my suitcase…OH, but, wait…I still have to work on my “don’t wish your life away” skills for a little while longer until it is truly time to go! 😉 I will be blogging that entire cruise, so stay tuned for my “Canada and New England Blog Series”.

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

~Arlynn ❤

***Final Update: Two other things that I did to prepare for this trip this week were, one, I got my hair colored as my grays were waving back at me when I looked in the mirror…and two, I got my nails done—I have “Pink & White” acrylic nails and my little technician did a lovely little design on my ring finger nails for me…:) I am ready to pack the rest of my stuff now!!

*****And we’ve sailed! Here are links all of my Blogs in this Series:

Canada & New England: Pre-Cruise Report

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

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

Canada & New England: Newport, Rhode Island

Canada & New England: Boston, Massachusetts

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

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

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

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

Canada & New England: Collage Picture Tour of the Regal Princess

Hawaiian Cruise: Disembarkation, Final Thoughts, & Home Sweet Home

On May 4, 2016May 4, 2016 By ArlynnIn Vacations13 Comments

My goodness gracious, I am finding that I am quite sad and melancholy as I begin to write this my last Blog post in my Hawaiian Cruise Series. I was pretty sad while I was packing up to leave the Star Princess as well. It is always harder for me to pack at the end of a vacation than it is to plan the trip, organize the particulars, and pack the suitcases at the beginning of a journey. <Sigh> Regardless of whether or not I was ready to disembark, it was almost time to do so. The hubby and I spent the last afternoon on our last sea day packing our bags, we were ready to go…We went ahead and placed our suitcases outside of our stateroom door right after dinner that evening.

We found our ‘End of the cruise paperwork’ in our little mailbox along with our “Red 4” luggage tags that we were to put on our luggage that Princess would be transferring for us. We had pre-arranged for Princess to transfer us from Canada Place to the Vancouver Airport, and it showed us where and what time we were to report (the Vista Lounge)…

While packing, I made sure to put some shampoo, and my hair gel, and other necessities in smaller disposable bottles so that I could pack up my full-size bottles. Our daughter Christin had given both my hubby and I disposable (carry-on compliant) bottles; Christin is an organized person like her Mama and she fixed us right on up with all of these sweet little extras this past Christmas. 😉 🙂

Here is a picture of that extra bag that I had packed in my big suitcase all those many days ago, I knew I would need it for this last night; we’d carry it onto the airplane with us. We put our dirty clothes (packed up in a medium packing cube), my makeup & toiletries, the hubby’s morning toiletries, my curling iron (I used the ‘lovely’ stateroom’s hairdryer that morning throwing in a expletive here and there while drying my hair because it took me forever), and anything else that we saw that we needed to take with us.

SO, I was as packed as I could be…We had eaten our last dinner in the Horizon, walked around the ship taking pictures, and did some last minute shopping. OH and I went to the Captain’s Circle desk and picked up a couple of “Ruby” Pins…I had lost mine along the way somewhere, they were happy to give me two more. I had received our two Platinum pins earlier in the day accompanied by a letter welcoming us to our Platinum status…woohoo. Here is where I put all of my pins along with a pin of the Star Princess (that’s my carry on backpack):

We came back to our Stateroom and headed out onto the balcony because we could once again see land…

And we also got a little treat! We *finally* saw a wee bit of wildlife…These cute little (relatively speaking) Dall’s Porpoises showed up and were playing right around the ship. 🙂

They were so much fun to watch, I was like a little kid in a candy store…I was jumping up and down and clapping and squealing. I’m sure the other passengers thought I was a loon, I didn’t care much what they thought honestly, I was just happy to see these cutie pies. 🙂 ANYway, we sat out there until dark taking in the sights and sounds of our last evening on our cruise; bittersweet thoughts along with mixed emotions were flying around in my head. On one hand, I was ready to go home because I missed my family and my pups, but, I sure wasn’t ready for our much anticipated trip to come to a close. OH well, all good things must come to an end huh?

The next morning, we woke up and our “Log of the Cruise” was in our little mailbox, check out the distance traveled!! Wow Whee!!

And here is my last outfit of the day, comfy and cozy to travel home in:

We stood out on our balcony and watched while we traveled under the Lion’s Gate Bridge one last time:

And onward to Canada Place we sailed:

That is a fake smile on my face, I really wasn’t too, too thrilled in that picture…my hair was sure BIG through…LOL…Again, if a girl can’t laugh at herself, then there is something wrong…;)

We had to be out of the room by 8am, so we complied and headed to the Vista Lounge to wait to be called to disembark. This is about how I felt about getting off of the ship…I look hateful mean…I’m really just sad…:(

ANYway, we waited for about 45 minutes, and then our number was called and off of the ship we walked, straight into Canada Place, and onto our awaiting motor coach.

We had an uneventful trip to the airport, we were familiar with this ride because we’ve always disembarked from Canada Place (we’ve done 4 Alaska: Voyage of the Glaciers Southbound cruises that all ended in Vancouver). When we got to the airport, we went through US customs there…pretty painless process and then we headed to our terminal and awaited our flight to leave.

There was our first plane…

And we were headed home…Which at this point, I was pretty content to be doing, this is what I saw out of the jet’s window…apparently this is Wenatchee National Forest, Stehekin, United States (according to the time and location stamp in my Photos on my Mac)…

We had uneventful flights home and we landed safely and got back to our house at around 2am the next morning…yes, to say we were tired is an understatement…but, it was good to be home. Here is what greeted us as we drove up our driveway and made our way into the house. 🙂 🙂 ❤

It was so good to be home!!

And it was SO good to see our pups…

Now for some final thoughts about this cruise. As I have written these posts one after the next, I have found that I really didn’t have a lot of negative things to say and that’s because this was a wonderful trip that provided my hubby and I with many memories to tuck away and cherish for the rest of our lives.

A note all of you out there who have been so kind with your comments, thank you so very, very, VERY much, every comment has been taken straight to my heart and I am humbly grateful for the responses that I’ve received. ❤

So, sadly, it is time for me to close this Series out now, I have greatly enjoyed sharing our adventure with you. For now, I will go back to my crafting, decorating, and DIY projects (why I originally started this blog site…haha). More travel blogs will appears when we debark on our next journey…most likely with Princess, hopefully, sooner than later.

So for now, I will bid you all adieu and send you my love and say once last time…

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

Much, much love,
~Arlynn ❤

Hawaiian Cruise: Picture Tour of the Star Princess

On May 3, 2016February 12, 2017 By ArlynnIn Vacations13 Comments

As I was perusing through my literally thousands of pictures that we took while on our wonderful cruise, and when I started to pull pictures out to be used in this blog post, I realized that I had way too many pictures and that this would end up to be a very confused and discombobulated post. So “Ms Anal Retentive” herself < ~~~~ me, decided to make collages out of ‘like’ pictures via a spiffy little app that I have on my iPhone. I have literally spent this entire day making these collages, but, I’m thinking that y’all will appreciate my efforts once you start scrolling through this post. 🙂

First, I will show you this gorgeous ship, the Star Princess from a bit of a distance:

She is a big, gorgeous girl to look at isn’t she? I love the way that Skywalkers is situated on the back, I think that it really gives this ship a ton of character.

Now, let’s climb on this beauty and work our way from the bottom to the top. Here is a little map that will help us navigate (of course there are a few decks even higher than this sign depicts…I didn’t get a picture of that sign…lol). 🙂 Please know that as hard as I tried, I did not get pictures of every single venue, but, the hubby and I worked as a team and traversed around the ship a lot taking random pictures and did the best that we could.

Deck 4: Gala Deck–This is where we caught our Tender Boat:

Deck 5: Plaza Deck:

I’ll go ahead and insert the collage of the Piazza here–It was breathtakingly gorgeous!

The International Cafe…Yum, Yum!!

Vines Shop: The hubby got us a really good candy bar from here one day:

The Internet Cafe:

The Capri Dining Room:

The only time we went in here was to attend one of their spiffy little sales that they often have going on on sea days:

Deck 6: Fiesta Deck:

Grand Casino:

Passenger Service Desk:

Calypso Cove:

And at the far end of Calypso Cove, you will find the Sundries shop:

Essence:

This is also the deck where they would set up tables for different special sales…

Promenade Deck:

Princess Theater:

Shore Excursions (the Princess Captain’s Circle & the Future Cruise offices were down this same hallway:

Crown Grill (This was by far our favorite place to eat):

Meridian Bay:

Photo Gallery:

Vista Lounge:

Dolphin Deck:

Our Mini-Suite was on this deck, D620, if you would like to see a very detailed video tour, I created one on my YouTube channel, you can find it here.

The walls in the Staterooms are metal, so it is always fun to bring some magnets with which to hang things:

We used the Laundromat on this floor a couple of times while on board, you use your cruise card to purchase tokens ($3 a piece) which then can be used in the washers and dryers and also to purchase laundry soap and dryer sheets (I recommend you take your own laundry supplies though, much cheaper and they don’t take up too much room in your luggage) It is free to use of the iron and ironing boards :

Deck 14-The Lido Deck:

Prego Pizza:

Trident Grill:

Neptune’s Reef & Pool and Movies Under the Stars:

Sundaes:

Calypso’s Reef & Pool:

As you can see in the pictures ^^^above^^^ there is a terrace type thing that wraps around the indoor pool (one deck up). They have chairs up there along with some ping-pong tables…very relaxing little place.

Horizon Court Buffet:

The Self-Serve Coffee/Tea Station, there is one on each side of the Horizon Buffet:

The Crab Shack is also held on this floor, they close down one side of the Horizon Buffet in order to accommodate the Shack…SO, SO good, highly recommend!!

Horizon Terrace and Pool

And then a couple more Decks higher is Skywalkers Nightclub:

Unfortunately, we did not get any pictures of the Sanctuary, the Fitness Center, the Wedding Chapel, the Youth/Teen Center, or a couple of the Main Dining Rooms along with other places that I probably don’t even realize exist..haha. 🙂 BUT, again, we did our best. 🙂 It truly is a lovely ship, (a bit of maintenance is needed in places, but, that is to be expected on a ship this size and one that is ‘at sea’ as much as this one is–I’m not complaining, just stating a fact); the crew works extremely hard each and every day to keep it sparkling clean and in great shape! 🙂 Speaking of the crew…they were absolutely wonderful, everyone ALWAYS had a smile on their face, everyone ALWAYS had a nice greeting or a put forth a sweet “Have a nice morning/day/evening”, I never saw one of them in a bad mood or being grumpy…ever!

I have one more Blog entry that will end this Series and in that I will talk about Disembarkation, possibly some final thoughts, although, I’ve pretty much said all I need to say, and our trip home (including a video of our pups when we walked back into the house). For those of you who don’t know, we have a Golden Retriever named Gracie, and two Newfoundland dogs names Sophie and Samson (brown). Here is a picture that I took of them yesterday…

And…Here is a link to my final post in this Hawaiian Cruise Series:

Hawaiian Cruise: Disembarkation, Final Thoughts, & Home Sweet Home

Boy oh boy do we ever love our pups. 🙂

SO, until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

~Arlynn ❤

OH one more thing…Here is a link to my very first post in this Hawaiian Cruise Series — And as in this one, there is a link at the end of each post that will take you to the next one in line–in chronological order. 🙂

And ***one*** more thing…haha…I promise just one more. 😉 Here is a video that I created for my YouTube Travel Channel (Arlynn’s Travels) of the Star Princess picture tour:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYpeocL6jas&t=55s

Hawaiian Cruise: Maui – Tendering & A Bit of Shopping

On April 30, 2016February 12, 2017 By ArlynnIn Vacations13 Comments

I was awakened on the morning that we arrived in Maui with the oh so soothing (not) sound of the little “Tender” boats being lowered down into the water. As y’all know, our room was situated toward the aft of the ship, port side, and they chose to lower the Tenders right under our room down to be utilized to transport folks to shore. Of course, I didn’t mind being woken up, after all, we were in Maui! I will admit though, a wave of sadness came over me for a few minutes when I remembered that we were at our last port of call. I wasn’t going to think about that right then though, I’d think about that tomorrow when we were bob-bob-bobbing along heading back to Vancouver. That morning, I needed to get up and get ready for our day. 🙂

The stupid saga of my feet continues, grrrrr, we again had to cancel a day long excursion that we had had planned because my feet just weren’t recovering very well, stupid feet!

Honestly, we didn’t mind too, too much. Taking a little ride on a Tender boat, walking around town, shopping a bit, and having a nice lunch by the sea sounded really pretty perfect to us–we had been go-go-going for the last 3 days. We were content to have a bit of a more relaxing day planned. 🙂

***(BTW–My feet recovered completely after this day because the hubby pretty much wouldn’t let me stand, propped my feet up on a chair, and made me drink a copious amount of water for our 1st day back ‘at sea’..AND that did the trick, I haven’t had a problem since…thank goodness)***

Okay, so my outfit for the day…

Yes, I did wear those flip-flops, the next best thing to those pretty pink shoes. 🙂

And here is the Princess Patter for that day:

In the Patter there were instructions as to how one was to go about disembarking, we simply needed to head down to the Capri Dining room when we were ready to leave the ship, they’d give us a “Tender Ticket”, and we’d wait for our number to be called. All in all, it was a very smooth operation–not surprising because Princess has this stuff down pat. So off to the Capri Dining room we trekked…

And we were handed our Tender Ticket:

And then we sat down to wait:

It wasn’t long before our number was called (about 30 minutes), we were directed to go down a couple of decks (via stairs of course) to where we’d be loaded onto our sweet little **rocking** Tender boat…We saw this on our way:

Here the pictures will stop for a few minutes…That little Tender was rocking and rolling let me tell you…LOL…I took a look at it and then I looked at my hubby and grabbed onto him for dear life. It was going to be interesting getting ole “not so steady on her swollen, fat feet, bad knees, Arlynn” onto that ever moving Tender boat…

But, by the grace of all that is holy and with the help of the hubby and every Princess person’s hand that I could grab, I managed to step right onto that Tender. It was then that I saw the hubby climbing the LADDER to go up onto the top deck…OH JOY JOY…Okay, I was determined and I managed to climb right up (slowly) and pretty much fell right onto the little bench seat and proceeded to slide my rear to where it needed to sit. Whew, that was a little harrowing, but, dag nab it, I did IT!! Woohoo!!!

It was a lovely little ride to shore, and because I had managed to haul my ever so cumbersome self up that ladder, my vantage point was awesome. My favorite part was being able to see the Star Princess from the outside up close!

The view heading to shore was nothing to sneeze at either….

It was much less wavy when we pulled into the dock and I was able to climb right on off of that Tender with ease…The first thing that happened was that my hubby bought me a beautiful Lei…OMGosh, it smelled delightful!! AND the lady who made the Lei sweetly gave me a flower for my hair…BUT, it blew away within about 10 seconds of it being seeded not so securely into my hair (she had secured the flower onto a toothpick…now how in the world was I supposed to stick that in my hair and have it stay put with the gale force winds that were warmly blowing)? **Just asking…Silly of me I know…*** 😉 ANYway, here is that pretty Lei:

Windy? Yeppers, VERY windy! lol…

The hubby and I set off to do a bit of exploring and shopping, really nothing too astronomically interesting to tell you about that. We did see this school sign, it made me think of our daughter the teacher whose attitude is this almost every day of her life. 🙂

We were successful at buying some gifts for our girls on this day, we found some Vans shoes for a pretty decent price and they were really cute! We got the cupcake ones for one of our daughters…

And these spiffy tropical ones for the other daughter:

We also got each girl some pretty jewelry a necklace for one and earrings and a bracelet for the other. 🙂 My hubby treated me to some pretty jewelry too, he got me this pretty Plumeria flower necklace:

And then this necklace, earrings, and bracelet; a white plumeria flower just like the pink one up there…

After we had shopped for a little while, we stopped into a lovely, open and airy restaurant named Koa’s. It sat right on the ocean and upon entering, we, of course, climbed the ***stairs*** to the top outdoor deck. By this point, ***stairs*** and I were ‘one’. 😉

Here is the Menu for Koa’s:

And this was my lunch…OH goodness was it good, fattening yes, but delicious! That pasta salad was to die for!

This was our view in one direction…

And check out what was over my head in the background …I actually moved to the other side of the table after I took this silly selfie so that I could look out over the water…

After lunch, we started to head back toward where we would catch the Tender boat that would take us back to the Star…I clicked off a few pictures along the way…

Check out these two ladies…I would have LOVED to do that, but there was a line…Next time!

AND the gorgeous palm trees, blue sky, and puffy white clouds…Exactly how I’ve always pictured Hawaii…

Getting a Tender ride back to the ship was as easy as could be, we just walked right up and climbed on (literally, because we climbed to the upper deck again…haha…BUT, I was able to take this little video—Well part of the video is of them lowering the Tender down in the morning, but then the rest of it is of our little ride back…

I’m such a goober, I was taking selfies right and left, but, how many times are you sitting on a Tender boat with a HUGE cruise ship in the background?

We were back to the ship…AND maneuvering OFF of that Tender was NO easier than the harrowing trip was ONTO the Tender…LOL…I’m lucky I’m alive to tell the tale…<~~~ Just kidding of course, but, it was really rocky and I again grabbed onto my hubby, any available Princess person, strangers, poles, the roof of the Tender… once I got DOWN the devil ladder, and well, I’m betting y’all can picture it. 😉 I was happy to have my feet back on that solid ship <~~~ Uh huh, that made good sense…LOL…Relative to the Tender, that big ship was like the Rock of Gibraltar! 😉

The rest of the day/evening was spent r-e-l-a-x-i-n-g and hanging out on our balcony watching the Tenders come and go—Scintillating entertainment huh? Well, maybe not, but, we were happy to just sit and bask in the sunlight that Maui was providing on this gorgeous day in April 2016.

Here is the last Tender returning to the ship:

The sun went down over the western sky and our Hawaiian Islands experience had come to a conclusion. The cruise was far from over, but, we had seen all we were going to see of the Islands…Kinda sad really, but, I do feel as if we will return again…Lord willing anyway. 🙂 Many thanks to the gorgeous Hilo and her waterfalls, to Honolulu for allowing us to pay our respects to all of our brave, fallen soldiers, to Kauai for her beautiful crater and gorgeous views, and to Maui for finishing off our experience with a calm, very sweet, warm, sunny day. Hawaii will never be forgotten and we will hold all of the memories that we made while visiting her close to our hearts and ever in our minds. ❤

I’m not quite done with this blog series yet…Next up, I’ll take you on a tour of the Star Princess–Via pictures of course. I’ll show you how we enjoyed “The Crab Shack” & “The Crown Grill”, and..wait for it…THE LAUNDRY ROOM <~~~ exciting stuff! 😉 I’ll also share with you some of the gifts that I brought home for my family, among other things I’m sure. 🙂 Then in my last entry in this series, I will give you a short synopsis of my all-over thoughts about this cruise.

Here is a sneak peek at the tour and link:

Hawaiian Cruise: Picture Tour of the Star Princess

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

~Arlynn ❤

***One more thing. 🙂 Here is a video that I created of our day in Maui after I had finished writing my Hawaii Blog—I also have a YouTube Travel Channel (Arlynn’s Travels):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mj8o476A0Dg&t=1s

⚜️ Arlynn's Country Craft Corner ⚜️

Tag: Princess Cruises

Canada & New England: Newport, Rhode Island

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

Canada & New England: Pre-Cruise Report

And here are links to the posts that I’ve written since our return home

Packing – 8 Day 7 Night Cruise Series: “Suitcase Packing Tips & Tricks”

Packing – 8 Day 7 Night Series: “What’s In My Carry-On”

Packing – 8 Day 7 Night Cruise Series: “My Must Haves”:

Disinfectant Wipes:

Hand Soap:

Bar Soap:

Odor Eliminating Spray:

A Pop-Up Folding Laundry Hamper

Clothes Peg Clip Pins

Tide Pods and Downy Dryer Sheets:

Magnet Clips

A Flashlight

Scissors

Travel Illuminated Clock

Sewing Kit

Zip-Lock Bags

Small first-aid kit

And

Canada & New England Cruise Wardrobe Choices

*****And we’ve sailed! Here are links all of my Blogs in this Series:

Hawaiian Cruise: Disembarkation, Final Thoughts, & Home Sweet Home

Hawaiian Cruise: Picture Tour of the Star Princess

Hawaiian Cruise: Maui – Tendering & A Bit of Shopping

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***And here are links to the posts that I’ve written since our return home***

Share this:

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Disinfectant Wipes:

Hand Soap:

Bar Soap:

Tide Pods and Downy Dryer Sheets:

Magnet Clips

A Flashlight

Scissors

Sewing Kit

Zip-Lock Bags

Small first-aid kit

And

Share this:

*****And we’ve sailed! Here are links all of my Blogs in this Series:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

And here are links to the posts that I’ve written since our return home