That Time That Hard Work Actually Paid Off For Me...

I did it. It only took forever three years, four months, and 16 days... but I am at last monetized on YouTube! 

I think it's actually impressive to have been able to get monetized that quickly, but it felt like so long and so much work. (SO much video editing)...

First I thought getting 4000 watch hours in a 365-day period would be hard. But then a couple of my videos did really well and I knocked that out of the park. 

So then getting 1000 subscribers became such. a. grind. There aren't really any good ways to get more subscribers than to make good content that is search friendly. Oh and by guilting your family and friends into subscribing on your birthday. 

But now it's done. And my channel brings me 1s of dollars per day. And I love it. 

Subscribe!:

That Time I Went on a Staycation...

I'm not actually sure if it counts as a staycation as we went to a different city, but the majority of our plans included being at our hotel, which feels like a staycation to me.

The main goal of our trip was literally just to stay at the hotel for a series of days without it costing a lot of money. This is officially my new favorite thing to do...

  

That Time I Cruised With A Group...

Booking multiple cabins with your friends or family is not automatically "booking as a group" on a cruise. There are additional steps, but then you get some extra stuff if you have enough cabins booked. 

The extra stuff and requirements to get it are different for every cruise line, so that's why I wanted to make this post!...

That Time I Cruised on the Carnival Paradise...

I apparently lost my ability to write about my adventures... or maybe it's more the sifting through all my photos so that I can then write about them... but I did finally edit my video footage from this cruise and got all most of them on my YouTube Channel! I posted them all below for you, or you can go to my playlist and watch them on YouTube. Likes and subscribes are deeply appreciated!

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Embarkation, Cabin, & Pizza Pirate

Tour of Interior Cabin G26

Sushi at Sea

Room Service

Tea Time

Back to Back Cruising

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That Time I Stayed in a Suite...

I've never been so excited about a hotel room.

I feel like it's not worth fully explaining - but basically, in a Perfect Storm of Marriott loyalty program circumstances, Husband and I were able to book a hotel room at the Sheraton Miami Airport Hotel & Executive Meeting Center (are you out of breath reading that? I'm out of breath typing it.) for a really (relatively) small amount of points, and then upgrade to a junior suite for FREE...

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 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 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 (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 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 :)

That Time Thanksgiving Was on The Norwegian Gem...

After thoroughly enjoying my cruise on the NCL Breakaway and especially being able to drive to a cruise instead of flying, I decided it was time for another Norwegian cruise.

I found an 11-day cruise on the Norwegian Gem that took place over the week of Thanksgiving which meant that I'd only have to use 5 vacation days in exchange for me and Husband ditching both of our families...

That Time I Became a Travel Agent...

Basically. I love talking about and booking cruises so much that I decided to see if I could make money doing it!

Seriously - I start so many days asking Husband "can we book a cruise today?..."

That Time I Went to St. Lucia...

I recently visited St. Lucia on an NCL Gem cruise. St. Lucia was the third port stop and we actually went on an excursion!

 

As a promo when booking the cruise, I had $50 credit for excursions which made me more inclined to go on one. I still didn't want to spend a lot of money as it's $50 total for me and Husband, not each, so I looked at the least expensive options in each port...

That Time I Went to Ensenada...

West coast here I am was! 

I got to be on the West Coast for the first time since I was like 3, and took the opportunity to go on a li'l 3-day jaunt to Ensenada, Mexico via the Carnival Inspiration.

None of the excursions seemed worth the cost so we decided to just do some exploring and get some delicious tacos!...

That Time I Visited Venice...

So I already made a post about the "Time I Went To Venice..." but I only talked about one thing that happened. Decided I should probably write about what else we did there!

 

We landed at the Venice airport, bought tickets for a water bus and were taken to the island. It was already such a cool city, even from just the edge of it...

That Time I Went To Bermuda...

I just visited Bermuda for my first time as a port stop on a 4-day Carnival Horizon cruise from New York. It was a special sailing that unfortunately won't be offered any more in the future as the Horizon has permanently moved to Miami. 

Since we'd already spent a fair amount on the cruise, I didn't want to add any cost to our trip by booking excursions. Instead I found out where the ship would be docking and used Google Maps to find some stuff to do...