That Time I Had Funtimes on Carnival's Mardi Gras...

Here are all the daily schedules for Carnivals' Modified 7-Day Eastern Caribbean Mardi Gras cruises (San Juan, Amber Cove, Nassau)....

That Time I Made a Carnival Melting Chocolate Cake

If there's one thing that everyone misses from Carnival cruises, it's the chocolate melting cake.

Carnival has the recipe online, and it always sounded easy enough, but I never took the time/effort to try it...

That Time I Cruised at Home...

I know. I've been missing cruising too! My cruise in September was canceled. I booked a cruise in August to replace it. Canceled. Rebooked that for September. We'll see. I also booked a cruise for July because of the great prices Carnival was offering. I was so excited to go on vacation in the summer! Canceled. Harumph.

I got to thinking... that maybe, like everything else we're doing at home... we should all go on a cruise at home...

That Time I Had Funtimes on the Carnival Paradise...

Here are all the Funtimes-es for one of Carnival Paradise's 5-Day Caribbean cruises (Grand Cayman & Cozumel)....

That Time I Tried NCL's Le Bistro Restaurant...

Guest column: NCL's Le Bistro Restaurant

On my cruise on the NCL Pearl... which I still have yet to post about 3 months later... I wanted to try Le Bistro out since it's the only one I didn't try on the Gem. We didn't have the Dining Package, and were paying a la carte, so we got fewer items than at other other specialty restaurants.  But we loved everything we had. 

I'm not sure we would return without the dining package just because it runs up the price of the cruise. But I do really want to try some of their dessert. Check out the tasty treats I enjoyed on Cruise Radio.

More on cruising :)

That Time I Freestyled on The Norwegian Pearl...

Here are all the Freestyle Dailies for the NCL Pearl's 13-day Transatlantic NYC to Amsterdam itinerary (Cobh, Ireland; Dublin, Ireland; Le Havre, France; Tilbury, England; Zeebrugge, Belgium; ), 4/28-5/12/19...

That Time I Went on a Ferry...

Parking in New York is expensive, but sometimes you need to embark on a cruise there! I have personally cruised on Carnival and Norwegian from New York, and I believe Regent, Aida and some other lines do too. Royal Caribbean leaves from somewhere else in NJ. 

You can park at the cruise terminal for $40/day, or you can save nearly half your money by parking in New Jersey and getting a bonus boat ride - on a ferry!...

That Time I Tried NCL's La Cucina Restaurant...

Guest column: NCL's La Cucina Restaurant

I recently got to try out NCL's Italian restaurant, La Cucina on the Gem. I loved the atmosphere of the restaurant, but unfortunately, my selections weren't all a home run. Husband chose much better and enjoyed his dinner more, so I'm not going to say you should skip La Cucina, but maybe don't get what I got.

I would definitely return to La Cucina on a future Norwegian cruise, but not every cruise. But what did I get?! Read about it on Cruise Radio.

More on cruising :)

That Time I Made A YouTube...

I'm not sure yet if I'm going to put all of my YouTube videos on my blog b/c a lot of the content overlaps, but aside from my kind of crappy really amazing intro video, this is my first REAL video so I wanted to share it with everyone!

It's the first in what will be a series of videos from my cruise in February on the Carnival Liberty.  It's a little rough, but they *should* get better once I get more in tune with the whole process of making videos with basically no pre-production! Please let me know what you think!...

That Time I Went to Nassau Bahamas... Again...

This was the second time I visited Nassau. Last time was a year and a half ago. And I will be going back three times over the next 12 months.

It's hard not to if you want to go on an inexpensive cruise like I did on the Carnival Liberty, and/or leave out of the northeast.

This time was not all that different from the last time...

That Time I Cruised on The Carnival Liberty...

For Husband’s and my first wedding anniversary, we booked a little 4-day cruise on the Carnival Liberty.

This was actually the second cruise we ever booked even though it ended up being our 7th cruise. This one went to Nassau, and Freeport, Bahamas.  

We got engaged shortly after our first cruise ever on the Carnival Vista, which we loved so much that once we set a wedding date, we booked this anniversary cruise. It ended up being our 7th cruise by the time we got to it...

That Time I Went to Freeport, Bahamas...

This was my first visit to Freeport, Bahamas, and we didn’t make it very far. Admittedly, we didn’t try. We considered renting a scooter and scootering to the beach, but when we woke up that sounded a little hard and expensive so we decided to save that plan for next time we’re in Freeport… which will be in a year.

Instead, I thought it would be fun to stay within the inner harbor area and go to Señor Frog’s for lunch. I came up with this plan when I looked out our window and saw that we could practically spit on the Señor Frog’s from our balcony...

That Time I Tried NCL's Teppanyaki...

Guest column: NCL's Teppanyaki/Hibachi Restaurant

I recently got to try out NCL's Teppanyaki restaurant on the Gem. I'm actually torn as to whether theirs or Carnival's is better. I guess I have to go with NCL because it costs less. You get fancier dessert and appetizers on Carnival, but if you're looking for what you're used to getting at a land-based Hibachi restaurant, NCL's Teppanyaki is all that and more!

I also decided that Teppanyaki was my favorite of the 4 specialty restaurants I tried on the Gem.  How was it? Details in my article on Cruise Radio.

More on cruising :)

That Time I Had Funtimes on the Carnival Liberty...

Here are all the Funtimes-es for Carnival Liberty's 4-Day Bahamas cruise (Nassau & Freeport)....

That Time I Went to St Thomas...

St. Thomas was my last stop on my 11-day Thanksgiving NCL Gem cruise. What I was most excited about is that St. Thomas is one of the US Virgin Islands (as opposed to the British ones) which meant: cell phone service!!! 

**waits for reader's to get over the fact that I "should unplug because I'm on vacation" which is not something I want to do**...

That Time I Went to Cagney's...

Guest column: NCL's Cagney's Steakhouse

When I was getting ready to go on my first NCL cruise last year on the Breakaway, I kept hearing how great Cagney's was. But the cruise was already pretty expensive, so Husband and I decided not to spend any money on specialty dining. Wait. That's not true. We chose to spend it on not-a-steak-house (lobster and the Cirque dinner/Jungle Fantasy thing).

But then we had a dining package when we were just on the Gem this year so it was #1 on our list to try.

Ultimately we decided we like Carnival's steakhouse better *hides from angry NCL loyalists* but we very much enjoyed it and will return on future cruises.  How was it? Well, I'm not going to tell you here because I already wrote about it on Cruise Radio.

More on cruising :)

That Time I (Finally) Started My Video Blog...

The Lauren of All Trades YouTube Channel is a fact! I did all the graphics, it's ready to go, I even made an intro video! I think that having this will force me to actually make subsequent videos. I refuse to call it a "Vlog" because I hate that word. #videoblog #ftw

All I need now is videos.  And subscribers. Looking at you. Yes, you.

I hope people get that I was going for "funny."

That Time I Tried Traditional Cruise Dining...

Guest column: Carnival's Assigned Dining

Assigned dining is how cruises and resorts have been serving meals for decades. The idea is that you have a set time, and you sit at the same table, and have the same service staff every day. Large tables are used to fit in all the guests, which means that unless you are with a group, you will be eating with strangers.

Many cruise lines now offer Anytime Dining which is more like going to a land-based restaurant. There is an early and late Assigned dining time for each cruise. The early time at 6pm often fills up quickly, so for my first few cruises, I've opted for Anytime Dining over the late dining at 8pm.

On my cruise on the Carnival Inspiration, I finally got the chance to try out the traditional Assigned Dining which you can read all about on Cruise Radio.

More on cruising :)

That Time I Played Trivia on NCL...

Until last month, I had only been on one Norwegian cruise and the rest were all Carnival. When I went on the Gem last month, and we played our first round of trivia, I discovered we never played when we ween on the Breakaway last year (unless they changed their system...seems unlikely).

 So, Carnival gives out a trophy. Aptly named: Ship on a Stick.

This is my friend, not someone form google.
She was very proud to be cruise-famous on our cruise.

I assumed Norwegian also gives out one prize per trivia and never thought about what the prize might be...

That Time I Ate Thanksgiving Dinner On A Cruise...

Guest column: NCL's Thanksgiving Dinner

When I booked a cruise that took place over the Thanksgiving holiday, the only concern I had was getting a crappy Thanksgiving dinner. That would be worse than NO Thanksgiving dinner.

But I did it and it was actually pretty decent! Find out all about it on Cruise Radio.

More on cruising :)