Tag Archives: Cruise

Bon bini or Welcome in the language called Papiamento.  This is the common language spoken the ABC islands, Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao, (off the coast of Venezuela).  I learned this recently when in Curacao & Aruba on our cruise.  It’s a rule of mine, when traveling, to learn about the local culture, learn a phrase or two in their language, eat local cuisine, experience as much local culture as possible.  This is difficult yet possible on a cruise.  You have to get off the ship pronto and get out of tourist fluff, grab a taxi and drive.  The drivers never let us down.  They want to talk about their country.  This is so much more intriguing then going to yet another Hard Rock Cafe’.  I mean really?

So, back to Papiamento.  It’s a combination of Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, English, French, and also has some Arawak Indian and African influences.  Neat huh?  The official spoken language is Dutch, we were told that the specific Papiamentu dialect comes from each individuals family background.

So next time you find yourself in a foriegn country, try talking to the locals for a flavorful experience:-).

Ciao.

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Well, somehow we survived the cruise. I’m not saying we stuck to our new Clean Eating program, we did not. But we didn’t go nuts either. I continued my herbal tea drinking, yes I gave up coffee to eat clean. You see, I was never an avid coffee drinker anyway, just my one cup in the morning and it had to loaded with cream and sugar. Well, no cream & sugar = no coffee, so done with that. I’m really enjoying the herbal teas, I have at least two a day, one with caffeine in the morning, at night a soothing herbal tea blend. For breakfast on the ship, we continued eating our egg white omelet filled with veggies, salsa on the side. I also found a wonderful whole grain bread I topped with lox, capers and a smidge of cream cheese (at home I use Greek yogurt cheese), squeeze of lemon, OMG, so yummy!

I tried to stick to a large salad most lunches, well, except those we spent on the islands when we ate local cuisine, I insist!

Here at the home front we are continuing to educate ourselves and experiment with healthy foods, super foods.  We have found that we all (PFkids included) really love some of the new items, and of course there have been those we don’t.  We are cleaning our produce upon arrival home from the CSE pick-up or grocery store and placing them up front & center in the fridge for easy grabbing.  The PFkids love ants on a log in their lunch, along with the Chobani yogurt.  Ezekiel bread products are a staple now, made with living sprouts, loaded with flavor and good things for the body.  We spread on a mixture of Chobani Greek yogurt combined with yummies like scallions, capers, sun-dried tomatoes, or herbs/spices, top it with sliced tomato and a side of egg whites scrambled with peppers and onion.  Or we load up our Steel Cut oats with cinnamon, warm skim milk and honey, maybe raisins or diced apples.  These are just examples of breakfast.  The kids are enjoying an Ezekiel English muffin with natural peanut butter, banana and honey.

Continuing to eat 5-6 small meals a day to keep our metabolism on high:-), lots of water with lemon and I just started a capsule a day to help cleanse my liver of toxins.  Gotta love your liver, it’s a work horse for you.

We’ll have to cover Mid Meals, Lunch and Dinner another time.  For now… Mangia!

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We recently returned from our annual family cruise. This year we opted for an itinerary to the Southern Caribbean out of San Juan, PR.  The ports: Curacao, Aruba, Dominica & St. Thomas (USVI).  Going into this we were most looking forward to Dominica, loving islands rich in lush foliage & rain forests, it didn’t disappoint.  We took advice from dear friends of ours, who’ve spent some time on the island, and we grabbed a driver who took us to Trafalgar Falls.  Here we spent our day.  While other tourists only walked to the observation platform to take a picture of the falls, we grabbed a guide who hiked us further in to the falls where we basked in natural hot and cold springs.  Our PFson calls them nature’s hot tubs:-).  It was truly stunning, miraculous to see.  We also learned that Dominica has 365 rivers, one for every day of the year they like to say.

On the way back to the ship we stopped at the highly recommended River Rock Cafe’. Here we were introduced to Kubuli, the award winning beer of Dominica. It was GOOD!  We met the owner Dennis who whipped us up two amazing dishes of fish & shrimp.  I tried breadfruit for the first time, kinda dry and bland, but I tried it, the creole sauce was amazing!

There is so much more to explore on this island, the downside to it being a cruise port, not enough time. I guess we’ll have to add it to our ever growing list of travel destinations.

Ciao!
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we go on a cruise:-).  So we’ve been on this extreme lean protein/complex carbs (6X daily) diet since Sunday the 2nd, amazingly have been doing very well.  PFMan and I have both noticed that we’re never hungry and never too full, our digestion is great, no issues & we’re both down about 4-5 lbs.  I’ve been doing a little Pilate’s, Zumba, other cardio and strength training, not as much as I need to, but way more than I was.  Feeling pretty good, but this morning we leave for San Juan to board a cruise, whooo hoooo & Holy food!

Of course we’ve known about the cruise for months, so when we began eating differently we knew this would be a curve ball.  We aren’t typical American cruise goers, taking two plates or more at the buffet, ordering two entrees at dinner.  We’ve always had our normal fill, yes dessert.  This time I’m going to try to temper it a bit more.  White egg omelette with veggies and no bacon, oh please give me strength, instead of my usual regular omelette loaded with veggies, cheese and bacon. Yes, drinking will be had, I love Margaritas, Beer, Mojitos and Bellini’s while cruising!  This cruise I will search out more activities, I know they have boot camps, Pilate’s, the gym.  YES I WILL!  I of course will share with you how I did when we return. (snicker)

For now I leave you with a few pictures from our last family cruise.

Bon Voyage!!

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Coco Cay - Royal Caribbean Private Island

Sickness? Maybe. I was around 8 or 10 when my parents took my sister and I on our first cruise. We took several more and I was hooked. There was an 8-year gap from our last family cruise, during my childhood, and 1995 when my husband (then boyfriend) and I took our first vacation together on the Carnival Sensation. He was hooked too, yay!! Well, 20 plus cruises later and I still can’t wait until our next departure. January 2011 on Royal Caribbean’s Adventure of the Seas leaving out of San Juan to the Southern Caribbean. Big Smiles inserted here!

Living in Florida, we are only 30min-4hours away from four different cruise ports, it’s hard not to cruise. It’s so easy, lightly pack, get on board and think about nothing for 4-7 days, it’s all done for you. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE an adventure vacation just as much, I think of it as being well-balanced, ha!

So what’s to love about a cruise. For us, everything, it’s the perfect family vacation. We have family time, adult time and the kids have their time too. Most cruise lines today have really amazing youth and teen programs which keep the kiddos happy and occupied for hours. Our kids have to be pried away to spend time with us sometimes. Then there are pools, mini-golf, rock-climbing walls (on some lines) and so many other things to keep you busy. The food is all planned out and available most hours of the day and many cruise lines are adding My Time Dining so you can now choose to eat when you’re ready instead of the predetermined early and late sitting being your only option.

Then the ports of call. We can’t get enough of the Western Caribbean, Mexico. Over the years I’ve seen Cozumel go from a beautiful mostly non-touristy destination to Cancun #2. But I still love it! I even love all the pushy sales people trying to lure you in the shops. It’s part of the charm and a simple No Gracias, a smile and keep walking works every time. But whatever you do, don’t miss Pancho’s Backyard!

As far as costs go cruising is an affordable vacation, especially if you go during off-season like September and January. Plan on spending top dollar during Spring and Summer Break.

I spend some free time on my favorite cruise site Cruise Critic. If you have questions about a particular cruise line, ship, destination or any minute detail, this is where you go to find the answers and opinions of other cruise addicts.

Here’s a lengthy review I wrote on Cruise Critic of a last minute Carnival Cruise we took once.