Cruise vacations are SO much fun! We live for a good 3-7 day cruise on an ocean liner or on an amazing river cruise. 

We answer all of your top questions in this episode including, “how much are cruises?” and “which vacation to go on a cruise?” We have had some really fun times on cruises from Mexico to the Caribbean to European river cruises during the Christmas market season.

All cruises are fun, but in this episode we talk about some of the best cruises to make so you can plan your first cruise travel experience!

One thing to know about cruising is the rooms are small! Even if you have a suite with a balcony, space is still limited on cruise ships, so we give you some of our cruise packing hacks (which may or may not include how to sneak alcohol onto a cruise ship). 

This episode is going to convince you to take a cruise vacation and with all the best cruise hacks to sail your life away in paradise, you will be set to relax and have fun on international waters.

Note: We agave not cruised since the pandemic so things may have changed (as most things did), but we’re certain cruising still has the glitz and draw it did before.

The Best Cruise Vacations 101 – Episode Transcript

3 (1m 10s):
Cruising is so much fun. I’m a big fan of cruising and there’s a million reasons why, and we’re definitely going to go into all of them. My first cruise ever was last February to Riviera. Maya went to Cabo, Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta. And haven’t you guys done that Cruise?

4 (1m 30s):
We have, yeah,

1 (1m 31s):
I haven’t done that Cruise actually. I’ve done that. Cruise my family.

3 (1m 35s):
He was there in spirit.

4 (1m 37s):
When you said where you were going, like you were listing all these spots in Mexico and you were talking Mexican Riviera on the west coast, but I’ve been kind of Mexican east coast and Playa Del Carmen Cozumel. And so I just got so excited with you while you were saying there again, that like I was saying, like, yeah, I’ve been there.

3 (1m 54s):
It’s funny. Cause I, I stopped at at lawn, but that was the one port stop. I didn’t get off the boat. What other cruises have you guys been on?

4 (2m 2s):
Well, so the last cruise that we went on was actually some locations in Mexico for us. Like I said, we did apply the Carmen Cozumel, but it also went to ROA tan, Honduras, which is an island off the coast of the mainland as well as Billy’s.

3 (2m 20s):
I want to go to Bali so

4 (2m 21s):
Bad. And the, that last one was actually January of 18. So it’s been a long time since I’ve cruised and it’s been a little bit too long. That’s how much I love cruising. Actually.

3 (2m 32s):
You’ve been on a lot of cruises. Haven’t you?

1 (2m 34s):
I have been on a lot of crews total. I’ve been on nine cruises. Eight of them have been ocean cruises and one of them was a river cruise. So I’ve cruised between the islands of Hawaii. Been to the Caribbean Bahamas, Jamaica. We want an Alaskan and Canada cruise.

3 (2m 52s):
Oh, that’s so cool. Isn’t Alaska where you guys got engaged.

1 (2m 60s):
And then I also Jamal and I went on a river cruise for our honeymoon and it was on the Danube river and Europe and it went to Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, and Germany.

3 (3m 11s):
It’s so interesting when people think of cruising, I always think of ocean cruises. I never think of river cruises, but are they big in Europe?

1 (3m 19s):
So river cruises are big in Europe cause there’s a lot of different rivers that run through like the Rhine and the Danube. And there’s a lot of destinations that you can go to. And my dad actually went on one where it was focused on wine and it

3 (3m 33s):
Goes typical. Mr. David Harvick,

4 (3m 36s):
South of France,

1 (3m 37s):
France. And it was focused on wine, which I think you’d like him.

3 (3m 42s):
I would love that. That sounds amazing.

4 (3m 45s):
And zany, tell us about your cruise experience. I know we did it kind of as a family and Kim wasn’t there, but that one was your first one and you didn’t know kind of what to expect when you went into it and you loved it. Right?

2 (3m 56s):
I did. I’ve never been on a cruise and I just always felt like, I don’t know. I just didn’t think it was going to be that great. And so you guys were pretty much hyping it up and I thought, okay, well we’ll see what happens, but I loved, loved, loved the cruise life. And the fro-yo

4 (4m 13s):
Got to love that. We’ll talk more about that and the food section coming up.

1 (4m 17s):
So in this episode, we’re going to tell you about why cruises are the perfect vacation from food and drinks, onboard activities and entertainment and shore excursions, cruises offer activities for everyone.

4 (4m 30s):
Yeah. You know, I honestly think cruises are the perfect vacation and I don’t even think it’s a bias opinion. Granted, they were kind of the first bigger vacations Brittany and I started taking together. So because of that, they kind of have a special place in my heart. But beyond that, my favorite thing about a cruise honestly, is the cost. They’re one of the most inexpensive in my view, all inclusive vacations that you could take in terms of it’s your lodging, it’s your food and it’s your transportation and wherever they go, you know, wherever

3 (5m 7s):
Your entertainment

4 (5m 8s):
And entertainment. Absolutely. I love the entertainment on board. That’s for sure.

2 (5m 12s):
Yeah. You know, when I was in my early twenties, I was feeling pretty lost and I was traveling around a lot and I wish that I knew that there was an option to work on a cruise ship because how cool would it be to work on a cruise ship and travel for free and go to so many countries at such a young age

3 (5m 27s):
That would have been a cool trip or a cool school experience.

2 (5m 31s):
Yeah. You’re not spending money on food or living or anything like that.

1 (5m 35s):
Just save all of your money.

2 (5m 37s):
Yeah. Seriously. And you get tips.

4 (5m 38s):
I’ve often thought about that myself. Like man, if I was younger, like I would love to work on

3 (5m 44s):
Well past the age of wanting to live in such tight quarters and worked for six months straight. Yeah. Would have been nice.

1 (5m 51s):
Speaking of small quarters, if you’re doing it right, you should only be using your state room to sleep. So one of the best ways to save money is to actually get an inside state room because they are the cheapest. And if this is the first time you’ve gone on a cruise and you get an inside state room, you actually know no better. So why not get it? They’re a little small, but the experiences outside of your room.

3 (6m 17s):
Yeah. I got a, the last cruise I went on, we had little peoples. I’m not sure how we swung that, but you don’t need them. And my friends that were on the cruise had a balcony and they didn’t even use it. And Brittany said the entertainment’s outside of the room, but there is one amazing thing that happens inside of the room. And it doesn’t matter what size room you get. And that is that every day when housekeeping comes to your room, they clean everything up and they make the most adorable little tell animals. And every day there’s a different one. So there’s like a frog

1 (6m 52s):
Or Swan,

3 (6m 53s):
A monkey. And our last day was the best day because we had the monkey hanging from the pole above our window. It was so cute. And by the end of the trip, we had a whole family of tele animals Every day we took pictures of them. So,

4 (7m 7s):
Oh, the towel animals are cute. You know, I just remember coming in one time and it was a day at sea, so we didn’t go to land. And I definitely didn’t have my sunglasses with me. So they took my sunglasses that they saw sitting on the vanity and they put it on the stuffed animals. So I came in and my little dinosaur had shades on it’s supposedly ears. I don’t know if dinosaurs even have yours, but they were sitting there and it was actually pretty cool, but circling around to the tight quarters and the state rooms. So when Brittany says an interior or inside state room, what that means is a room that’s not on the edge of the ship that doesn’t have like windows or a balcony.

4 (7m 48s):
Now these are the going to be the most cost-effective rooms that you can actually get because of the fact that there is no view, but like Brittany said, realistically, the room’s going to be for sleeping. You’re either going to be at port somewhere or there’s tons of entertainment, activities on board. So we’ve always pretty much done an interior state room to save costs. When we go on cruises and the one time we actually did get a balcony, one, we barely even used it. And so I don’t want to say it’s like a waste of money because it’s nice, but you really don’t use it. And it’s a good way to save money by taking the inside state room.

2 (8m 25s):
So the great thing about the cruises is you don’t have to plan anything. You just show up every single day, they give you a daily itinerary, which is really nice just in case you want to know what you’re doing, because there’s always going to be something going on somewhere on the ship at all times. Yeah.

3 (8m 41s):
I’d say from like 10:00 AM to probably midnight or later, there’s something planned for anyone of all ages.

4 (8m 48s):
They do. So when housekeeping comes in, they’ll give you the daily itinerary for the next day and all again, list all the times of the activities shows, et cetera. But one thing that I think we should all want to touch on is there is what’s called a cruise director on board, which is basically kind of like your host throughout the entire cruise. And on most cruise lines every morning, they’ll kind of like come over the PA throughout the whole ship and say, good morning, lawyer mates or whatever it is and tell you pretty much like we’re going to be starting off the day with this and these activities. Please check your daily itinerary. And so if you don’t ever read it, you could always find out what’s going on by the ownership PA when they kind of announced what’s going on.

1 (9m 34s):
One of my favorite things about get on the cruises is the daily itineraries. I love getting them after dinner and going through. Cause I’m such a planner and circling everything I want to do the next day.

3 (9m 46s):
I did that too. When I was on my last cruise. It’s so much fun.

4 (9m 51s):
Well, it just gives you so much excitement of what to look forward to for the next day. That’s for sure.

1 (9m 56s):
So cruises are ideal for both relaxation and adventure. There’s so much to do on board. There’s hot tubs there, spas. And when you’re not on a board and you’re at a port there’s excursions.

3 (10m 11s):
Yeah. When I was on my last cruise, I got like a little pedicure. And as I’m sitting in the chair, getting my toes done, you’re looking out of a window out into the ocean. So it’s a beautiful view while you’re getting pampered to

4 (10m 22s):
One of the cruises that Brittany and I had gone on on one of the ships there, jacuzzis, they obviously have multiple jacuzzis and pools. And you know, I know some people listening to this may think like, oh, I don’t want to be in a pool with like kids and whatnot. They do have some pools and spas sectioned off to keep kids out. And it’s adults 18 plus. So you can find that relaxation, but some of the hot tubs that Brittany and I went into on one of our ships actually hung over the edge of the ship. Yeah. So we had a big glass kind of window and it was hanging over the edge of the ship were really cool. That was Royal Caribbean.

2 (11m 3s):
And there’s another cruise error of the cruise that I went on, where they had an ice bar inside of the class. We didn’t do that yet.

4 (11m 11s):
So the give you like a big parka jacket, it’s like minus Minus five, minus 10 degrees, granted Celsius. So we’re talking obviously below freezing, maybe 20 something degrees, Fahrenheit, and basically it’s completely frozen in there and all your glasses are made out of ice. So if you want to shot your shot glasses, I’m sh well, we didn’t go in on it.

3 (11m 37s):
What the hell? Yeah. Didn’t go in the ice bar.

1 (11m 41s):
We did not go up on it during this vacation when Jamal and I went to Amsterdam,

3 (11m 46s):
I don’t want to hear it.

4 (11m 49s):
We went to the ice bar, the original one in Amsterdam. So we didn’t think cruise one. Wasn’t going to be good, but we didn’t go in it. But yeah, a lot of activities. All right. Well, I’m anxious for us to go on one as a squad. I’ll tell you that.

2 (12m 7s):
I think it’s going to be so fun if we do like a Panama Cruise. What’s that panel we now. Yeah, that would

3 (12m 13s):
Be awesome

2 (12m 14s):
With the booze package.

3 (12m 15s):
So one last thing I want to say about cruises before we kind of go into the details about them is that they are perfect for groups, families, couples, singles really there’s something for everyone on a cruise. And so my experience with cruises, you guys did a family one, but my, my one was with a friend and some other friends, but it was with his whole family too. So there was, I think his grandma was celebrating her 80th birthday and then there were kids on it. And then there was us who were just partying every night and this next cruise I’m going on, me and my mom are sharing a room. This is my mom’s first ever vacation out of the country. So that’s another thing about cruises that it’s a perfect kind of starter trip to get your feet wet with leaving the country and still be like in a safe environment if you’re kind of worried about that.

3 (12m 60s):
So we’re going to the Dominican Republic and Turks and Caicos, and we’re bringing friends, my friends along too. So it’s going to be kind of an interesting mix of demographics, but there’s something for everyone. So yeah.

1 (13m 15s):
And I’ve kind of done the same thing. I’ve gone with gesture mall. I’ve gone with my family without Jamal when I was in junior high. And when my mom was my mom’s a single mom. And so she and her other single Filipino friends, they would all bring their kids together. And it would be like four single moms all with all of their kids. So there was like two to three kids per mom and we would all go on a big cruise together. So it was like us and my like fake Filipino aunties. You know how that is?

3 (13m 48s):
I’m picturing that in my head. I can see it now.

1 (13m 51s):
Yeah. And so, you know, you could meet up with some of the other kids that are going along. You can meet up with your aunties. That’s like a big family dinner. So there was a lot of different things that we were able to do. And there was something for everyone there.

4 (14m 7s):
And what I like kind of about the cruises also as obviously, you know, if you go with friends or as a family, sometimes you don’t want to spend like 24 7 with each other. So in terms of, you know, like adults traveling with kids or family that you don’t have a kid, but one of your brothers, sisters does or something, there’s always something to where you guys can kind of split up and then reconnect all together, back at dinner or at shore. So they’re really good to make sure everybody has something to do, but not always having to spend time together.

3 (14m 39s):
And that goes to say for the food too, there’s so many different food options. Everyone can make themselves happy, which is a perfect segue because let’s talk about food, the food on the cruise. So the best thing I would about food on the cruise is the daily Boothbay.

1 (14m 56s):
Dana don’t you love a good buffet,

4 (14m 57s):
Especially when it’s breakfast, right?

2 (14m 59s):
I’m not a big fan of buffets. Coming to you live from the breakfast buffet.

3 (15m 7s):
Oh my God. When we take our squad cruise, we definitely have to a podcast from the crew’s breakfast buffet

1 (15m 14s):
Looking out to the sea.

2 (15m 15s):
Yeah. Oh my gosh. It was so good. Well, Jamal and I worked out every single day on the cruise. So after our workout, we’d go in our sweaty clothes to the breakfast buffet and just, and do all the work that we did. Cause I mean, they’ve got waffles, they’ve got French toast. They’ve got

4 (15m 33s):
Everything. I don’t

2 (15m 34s):
Even know

3 (15m 34s):
As being hung over one morning. Me and Chelsea just went to the breakfast buffet, loaded up a plate, went back to our room.

1 (15m 41s):
It’s not just breakfast buffets. There’s a breakfast buffet, a lunch buffet, dinner, a buffet a late night.

2 (15m 48s):
I mean, like they just

1 (15m 49s):
Start bay all day,

4 (15m 52s):
Stay all day. The best part about, you know, again, cruises, I want to circle back around on that is all your food is included. So that’s one thing that a lot of other vacations, you know, where the tally can add up and really get cost. Prohibitive is food that you have to spend money on. Whereas on the cruise, I mean, it’s a smorgasbord. If you will, a lot of things you can

3 (16m 14s):
Eat on the cruise. And

4 (16m 15s):
Do you know, do you actually know what the average weight is that you gain on a cruise on an average seven-day cruise, you hit it on the head with the first guest. It’s like five pounds,

3 (16m 26s):
Five pounds heavier. When I left that Cruise

1 (16m 29s):
To be one pound per day. Yeah,

2 (16m 31s):
That’s crazy. Let’s

4 (16m 32s):
Just assume five pounds. We don’t want to go seven for the most seven day cruises. That’s a little lie,

2 (16m 37s):
But I take the stairs all the time. So the cruise ship is really high and then it goes to a really bottom floor. So you can take the stairs instead of the elevator.

4 (16m 45s):
I mean, we’re talking up the buffet because we all love a buffet kind of like a normal everyday life. But if buffets really aren’t your thing, there is other options for you. It’s not just, oh, here’s the buffet you’re here. You got to eat. I mean, breakfast, lunch, dinner, some of the main dining rooms, you can actually do sit in dining and act. Yeah, you order what you want off of the menu and it’s not buffet style. So there are lots of options that way to do if you don’t necessarily want the breakfast or lunch buffet. But one of my favorite things to specifically, a lot of people go to dinner for the buffet.

4 (17m 27s):
But I don’t understand that. One of my favorite things actually is going to be the dinner service, the

3 (17m 33s):
Dining room service,

1 (17m 35s):
The dinner service is one of my favorite too. And I love it so much because even though it’s not a buffet, you can order what you want and you can order how much you want. Like you can order two entrees, two oh, dinner apps, whatever you can order five desserts. If you want, if you want to try it on the mall,

4 (17m 51s):
You don’t know if you want the steak or the chicken, just get both your waiters going to happily obliged.

3 (17m 55s):
When you guys got back from your cruise, you took as a couple, you were showing me the pictures and telling me about it. And you were telling me about how you can get apps and desserts and all this. And I was just like, mind blown. Like I need to go on a cruise right now.

2 (18m 8s):
Yeah, yeah. I remember there was like one dessert. I didn’t like take a bite and then boom. I’ll just order a next one. And that’s the great thing about the cruise is because remember you’re on a big ass boat. So there’s a lot of restaurants. There’s not just one. There’s not just two. You’re going to have so many different choices. We just like to talk up the buffet.

1 (18m 25s):
Another thing to know is some of the drinks are free on board, so you can get water, you can get tea, you can get lemonade, you can get coffee. And that’s all complimentary with breakfast, lunch, dinner, anytime of the day, that’s all included.

2 (18m 39s):
Yeah. I was a soda drinker when we took that cruise that we went on and I did not get the soda package, but yeah, soda is not included on a cruise.

3 (18m 48s):
Did you end up buying soda?

2 (18m 49s):
I didn’t. I was pretty good because they do have the ice tea. So I think I did raspberry ice tea with just any sweet ice tea. And it held me over.

4 (18m 60s):
You did buy your Coke settle. When we were in Mexico though for 50 cents.

2 (19m 6s):
That’s because of the, the Coke in Mexico is so much better than the Coke here in the United States.

3 (19m 12s):
Let’s be real though. No one’s drinking soda or lemonade on a cruise. Everyone’s drinking alcohol on the cruise. So it’s really important to know that obviously, as you can imagine, the alcohol is going to be expensive on a cruise drinks are anywhere from like 10 to $15 per drink. But on most cruises you can get a boost package, which includes 15 drinks a day. I don’t know if it’s like that on every cruise or if it’s unlimited.

4 (19m 40s):
Oh, so they kept you at 15 drinks a day, really 15 so on Brittany and I have never cruised carnival on the ones that we have cruised. They don’t have a set limit of how many you can have per day, but basically what it averages to the cost per day. You have to average so many drinks to kind of make your money, but they have different packages where you could say, oh, this is just a beer package. And again, depends on the cruise line, but just beer or beer, wine and spirits combination. It’s going to be a little bit more so again, depending on your cruise line, but all cruises will have a beverage alcoholic package for you to potentially choose from.

4 (20m 21s):
But depending on how much you drink and you should do the kind of the cost average, like Kim said of like $10 a drink and really figure out, okay, this is how much it comes a day. Am I going to be really drinking this much? Some people, yes. Some, no,

3 (20m 35s):
It comes out to the ones I’ve been on have been about 50 bucks a day. And so, you know, think about it. If you’re going to drink five drinks a day, that’s about that. And so also you should know though, because you’re in a state room with two, everyone in the state room has to get the drink package if one person does. So me and my mom, like I said, we’re going on this cruise. I mentioned to her, Hey, it’s 300 bucks. Let me know if you want to do it. I’m down. And then I guess she talked to her friends and they said it was that the drinks were expensive. And she’s like, she texted me the other day and said, yep, drinks are a go. Let’s do it. Like that’s my mom. Okay. So on the topic of alcohol though, I have one last thing to say the last cruise I went on, we did not get the drink package.

3 (21m 19s):
And we were okay. We did still spend money on buying drinks, but we also snuck alcohol on and I’m not condoning any kind of unlawful behavior. But if you are trying to sneak alcohol on the way we did it was, we bought these plastic flasks off of Amazon, very cheap. They come in various sizes and we filled them with liquor. We stuffed them in our, our luggage and wrap them up in clothes and whatnot. And they go through the x-ray machine and they don’t get detected. So you’re good there. And then also when we poured it and put the verite though, we needed a refill because we’d already gone through it. And so we took those blasts with us and we bought a bottle at the liquor store and refilled them and just kind of like stuffed them in our backpack in the same way.

3 (22m 6s):
And it works. So if you’re trying to do it, I know you can do that. You can also bring like a couple bottles of wine on and that’s permitted. I’ve heard of people also like using a shoe to get the cork out of a wine bottle and then refilling it with liquor. So just get creative. If that’s your route, you’re trying to take.

4 (22m 23s):
Yeah. You bring up a really good point. Can because cruise lines do not allow you to bring your own booze on, except for what Kim said of like maximum, usually two bottles of wine. They don’t let you bring on beer, hard alcohol, if you think you’re going to get clever. And while you’re on at port on a shore excursion, actually buy booze and bring it back on. Nope. They x-ray you and your baggage, you know, every time you actually come back on the ship. So there are those ways that kind of Kim said to kind of circumnavigate that, but don’t think you can bring like a lot of booze on, they make their money by having you buy it on the ship,

2 (23m 1s):
You know, the best, the next best thing after the booze, what the soft serve ice cream. So I was warned about this pre cruise and I thought, oh, okay. Like whatever, you know, it’s not a big deal. But at the very top of the cruise, the ship that we were on is where the buffet was. And they have a soft serve ice cream station. And it was the best thing. I think I’ve probably even started my day with it. I end my day with it. If you’re bored, let’s

4 (23m 29s):
Go get it.

2 (23m 30s):
But you know what? Every once in a while they take off the handles to clean it. And when they’re off and you can’t get ice cream, you’re just like, what the heck, dude? Why can’t I get ice cream right now

3 (23m 40s):
In my fourth ice cream of the day,

2 (23m 42s):
Please,

4 (23m 43s):
That’s one of my favorite things about cruising is actually just like, oh, I’ve walked up all these decks of the ship. And I feel like I’ve earned myself a nice ice cream from all the calories. I’ve burned doing that because I mean, these ships are like 13 decks high, you know? And one of the things I do since there’s so much food is instead of taking the elevator, you know, take the stairs when you can. But after I’ve taken a flight of stairs, I’ve been around all day. I definitely love to spoil myself with the soft serve ice cream from the buffet. Yeah. Or he doesn’t deserve it.

2 (24m 16s):
You come back from the excursions to, you know, you’re, you’ve had a long day, you’re probably hungry. Maybe you didn’t eat while you were out and you just thought, Hey, I’ll wait until I get onto the ship. And then you just get on the ship and you just hit that ice cream bar, not ice cream or the soft bar.

1 (24m 30s):
And one thing to know too, that if there isn’t food available, like if the Buffet’s closed for cleaning and you’re hungry, there’s room service I’ve

2 (24m 41s):
Yes.

1 (24m 43s):
I know that on some cruises, there is a charge, like a small charge to use room service. If it’s after a certain hour, sometimes that’s midnight. Sometimes that’s 2:00 AM. So just being mindful of that. And when the people bring you your food, you should tip them. That’s the nice thing to do. But room service is available all of the time.

4 (25m 3s):
Even after dinners, most nights, what’s one thing we would always do when we got back to the room, Brittany, we would order. Yeah.

1 (25m 11s):
But

4 (25m 12s):
Yeah, we would, we would do a cheese cracker and fruit plate. We wouldn’t get like more food food, but we would get like, yeah,

2 (25m 19s):
Well I’ve never ordered room service. Did it cost you anything?

4 (25m 22s):
No, not at all. Like Brittany said certain times, you know, they may actually impose it. Like she said, usually maybe midnight or 2:00 AM, but usually that cutoff window starts back at like 6:00 AM in the morning. That way you could have breakfast delivered. If you don’t want to go to one of the sit-down restaurants or the buffets and whatnot. I mean, if you have a balcony, it’s definitely nice to start your day with someone, bringing your coffee and have your coffee on your balcony if you’re in a balcony. So that’s one of the cool things to do. Actually

3 (25m 52s):
One morning, I can remember on the cruise where we had been up pretty late. I wouldn’t say like four or 5:00 AM and we wanted food and I think it did start at 6:00 AM. And so we finally ordered food and we just ordered like BLT, grilled cheese, Turkey sandwich, Caesar salad,

4 (26m 11s):
The whole room service,

3 (26m 12s):
Brought it all up and we just ate, went back to sleep and you know, got up again. And then he went to a formal lunch.

4 (26m 19s):
One thing that we didn’t touch on though, as we talked about kind of the main dining room that they do have, you know, for the dinners. One thing I want to say on that, depending on your cruise line, sometimes they actually have formal nights at non-formal nights. And I would just want to make sure all our listeners are kind of aware of that. Certain days on the cruise dinner in the main dining will be formal. I mean, I’ve seen very few people come in, not wearing formal attire and whatnot

3 (26m 51s):
Dressed to the night. Yeah.

4 (26m 52s):
If it’s formal night and you don’t have the attire, cause you don’t want to pack it, like go to the buffet. Yeah. But they, they have that. But some cruise lines Norwegian, for example, which is the last cruise line that we went on, they do not have formal nights. It’s one of the things that they don’t have. So yeah. So that’s one thing to take into consideration. But beyond the main dining rooms for dinner, they do have specialty restaurants. Did any of you guys, you never tried any of the specialty restaurants on board, Kim, all you’re missing out. You’re missing out

1 (27m 25s):
Zayna you went to one of the specialty restaurants with us. When we went on our family cruise, it was your sister’s birthday. And we went to that Brazilian steakhouse and that was a specialty

3 (27m 36s):
Restaurant. That was a really great night.

2 (27m 38s):
It was so good. It’s kind of like a Fogo de Chao is it’s

4 (27m 41s):
Kind of like that.

2 (27m 42s):
Yeah. So if you’re familiar with that style

4 (27m 45s):
Yeah, it was Corvid at your table.

2 (27m 48s):
Remember the pineapple,

4 (27m 49s):
The pineapple was the best, one of the best things that they had there. It was like that roasted pineapple with like sugar and cinnamon and they would come carve it out your table. It was so good. Yeah.

2 (27m 60s):
It was insane. It was so good.

4 (28m 2s):
Yeah. But the specialty restaurants, they basically on all cruise ships, the specialty restaurants are extra costs. If you want to eat at them now, depending on the cruise line or which specific restaurant, sometimes it’s a flat dollar amount per person. Sometimes they charge you per the entree. Now the food is kind of like more specialty. So say for example, you know, in the main dining room, if you have steak, they’ll give you choice steak. But if you go to the specialty restaurants, they’ll give you prime cuts of steak and things like that. So,

3 (28m 42s):
Yeah.

4 (28m 43s):
So I don’t want, I don’t want to discredit any of the food in the main dining room because it’s absolutely so delicious. But in the specialty restaurants, they definitely do have higher quality. It’s not as crowded as obviously in the main dining room. So it just gives you a different dining experience that you can choose to have while you’re on board.

3 (29m 2s):
All right. So after you’ve eaten five pounds of food, every single day, you’re going to need to burn it off and they give you plenty of ways to do that.

2 (29m 11s):
So at the top of the cruise, they do have pools, hot tubs, water slide. I think it was the first day that we were out at sea. They had a hairy leg or hairy chest contest. No, no, Mr. Sexy leg. That’s what it was Hairy legs. It was Mr. Sexy legs. So that was exciting to watch men with all different styles of legs compete. And so don’t let it be intimidating, right? This is for fun. This isn’t like for real or for serious, right? It’s about who can embarrass themselves the, with whatever it is that they’re doing to show off the lakes. I think we even had twins.

4 (29m 47s):
Yeah. So the Mr. Sexy legs on that one was basically all the guys would kind of compete and they almost gave like a fake catwalk type of like model, runway ask feel to it. But some of them had hairy legs. Some of them were really muscular and shapes some of them not in shape, but it’s really just how you kind of like present yourself and whatnot is like who the winner is. So, I mean, they have little fun, things like that.

3 (30m 11s):
My favorite thing on board was the hot tub. I honestly didn’t do too much on this cruise. Just chill back, relax. Maybe a drink in hand soaking in the hot tub every single day.

1 (30m 27s):
I actually have a good story about the water slide. The board, the cruise. Yeah.

4 (30m 34s):
Why don’t you regardless? What the tale of you and the water slide on the cruise center?

2 (30m 39s):
I had a water slide on the cruise and it’s two racing waterslides but it’s not just like you get on the slide and you shoot down, they put you in a capsule and then they count it down and then they drop the floor out from underneath you. So you’re not sliding there. They’re they’re fucking dropping you and then

3 (30m 59s):
Frightening it it’s

4 (31m 1s):
It’s awesome.

1 (31m 2s):
And there’s a loop.

2 (31m 3s):
Yeah. And there’s a loop. And then the, the more you weigh, the, the easier it’ll be for you to go over the loop, the less you weigh, then there’s not as much weight to catapult you over that. So in case you can’t make it, they do have an opening right there before you go through it. So you can crawl out since you were unable to finish the slide. But Jamal did at first and you could just hear him as soon as they dropped the floor beneath him. Yeah. It was a good one. Right. And then his voice is echoing through the entire slide. So then Jamal says, you and Brittany have to do it. So I go up with Brittany and I’m freaking out. It’s really nerve-wracking being put in a capsule. So Brittany goes in first. So I don’t have to be in the capsule for as long.

2 (31m 46s):
And as soon as I step in, I was like, I can’t do it. I can’t do it. I can’t do it. And Brittany looks at me like, what the heck, man? And then they drop Brittany.

3 (31m 53s):
Oh, nosy know you’re being a danger ninja. Get,

2 (31m 56s):
You know,

4 (31m 57s):
She was being the opposite of a danger than John. This one, she was being a little scaredy cat.

2 (32m 2s):
So yeah. So I did the walk of shame down and I think Brittany was like, come on, man. I could have done it with Tamala. At least if you are going to chicken out,

1 (32m 9s):
I didn’t want to do it alone. That was like the whole thing. And I was going to do it with Zayna because she was willing to do it. And if she wasn’t going to do it, I would have preferred to do it with Jamal. But here I am all alone going through this water slide all by myself, Dana is doing the walk of shame down. So we actually tell her that if she doesn’t do it by the end of the cruise, she owes us all a drink.

2 (32m 32s):
Right. So I did it on the very last day.

3 (32m 36s):
No way. You’re going to spend all that

4 (32m 37s):
Money. 30 bucks buying us drinks.

2 (32m 41s):
I’ll swallow. My pride I’ll do it. I’ll do it. But wait, there was another time that Jamal did it. And Brittany and I were right there. What was this? Was it that same day? Or was it when I actually did it? Because remember you got in and they count you off 2, 3, 2, 1. And so you know that they’re going to drop the floor out from beneath you. So Jamal gets in and the girl who’s Manning, the slides looks at Brittany and I, And she says, watch this. So she lets the 3, 2, 1 go and she doesn’t hit the button to let Jamal go. Brittany. And I can’t see Jamal because he is standing up against the back of the slide. So the attendant looks forward at Jamal and she says that, oh my gosh, you should’ve seen his face.

2 (33m 26s):
He’s looking at me like, oh no. And then she did the countdown again.

4 (33m 30s):
I got it all I knew after when it didn’t drop the first time that she was just playing with me, she did it like a second time. And then obviously by the third time, the joke was clearly obvious. And then, so she let it go. Yeah. I think she was flirting with me if you want me to be completely honest,

2 (33m 48s):
But

4 (33m 48s):
No, beyond the floor dropout from below you water slides. I mean, they have regular water slides too for like kids and even non ones for kids that aren’t just as dramatic with the floor dropping out below you. So one of my favorite things, I mean, especially when you have sea days and what a CD is, it’s a day fully at sea where you’re not at port, what else sometimes is there to do, but it’s a nice sunny day. Let’s go to the top and, you know, ride some water slides. And this is definitely one of my favorite activities and things to do is definitely hit up the hot tub and the water slides two days. Yeah. Yeah.

3 (34m 24s):
There are a lot of fun games though. We did one, it was an 18 and older game that was kind of like, kind of like a scavenger hunt, but you got into groups and you had to do weird things like trade pants with someone and run up there and give them your number, take two bras off and run up there with them. Or like two girls had to kiss. You guys had,

4 (34m 46s):
Oh, it was getting risque on there. Whoa. I’ve never seen one quite like that.

3 (34m 51s):
Chelsea had to go up there and there was a line of women who had to get on the mic and do an orgasm, like the sounds of an organ.

1 (35m 1s):
I’ve seen ones like that or where like you have to put a balloon in your crotch and like someone has to come up and like hump you and it,

3 (35m 7s):
Yeah, there was one that they were like doing like sex positions. It got really weird, especially because we’re with our friends and friends, mom and stepdad and yeah. So it was real fun.

4 (35m 18s):
I got have no shame on these cruises. Apparently, you know what? The type of games.

3 (35m 22s):
And then there was another one in the nightclub. They had a torquing booty shaking contest.

4 (35m 28s):
I missed out, whoa, apparently I needed to go on Carl. Then I’ve always heard caramels the party cruise line. And apparently, I mean, I’m missing out on court competitions over here that would love to watch those. Huh?

2 (35m 39s):
How about competing at Jamal?

3 (35m 40s):
There was a guy though. He, I thought he could have been a male stripper because he was just like flinging his legs around, like putting his legs around someone’s neck and just like going stir crazy. He won the booty shaking content. Like he would, he had the movie crazy.

2 (35m 56s):
That’s so funny.

4 (35m 57s):
One of my favorite shows that they have is the newlywed game. Do you saw the newly what games and did you not? I did.

2 (36m 4s):
I did. Every single night. I was there watching the game.

4 (36m 6s):
Do they have it on the cruise that you went on to and knew the what? Oh, but did, do you, did you remember in the itinerary if they had one? Ah, so one of my favorite things on all the cruise lines I’ve been on is the newlywed game that they actually have. And what it is is basically obviously if anyone’s familiar with the TV show, but instead of everybody being newlyweds, they’ll have people audition live in front of, you know, during the show of okay, someone who is a newlywed married within the last two years and then, okay, we want somebody who’s been married maybe five to 15 years. And then the last couple to compete is somebody who’s been married to like 25 plus years, but they always choose that old couple who has been married 40, 50 years.

4 (36m 53s):
And they always admit the most risky thing that they did is bang on their balcony deck that they’ve had out there. But that’s one of my favorites as one of my favorite shows to actually watch and Brittany and I have always thought like, oh, should we, you know, compete in that one and whatnot, but I did end up auditioning for one to compete in, which was the a hundred thousand dollars pyramid. Do you remember that? Zane and Brittany? Yeah.

2 (37m 16s):
Yeah. I remember that you had gone up and what did you have to do to win, to be a participant?

4 (37m 21s):
So they were doing like auditions as they do always kind of for those shows. And I think you were like on a timer and the cruise director was going through and basically trying to say like questions, like, Ooh, name me like a fast food chain. It was going down the line and when the music stopped and if it stopped on you, that was kind of the audition process. But we played, I ended up winning, getting past playing a hundred thousand dollars pyramid. And if any of you guys aren’t familiar with what that show basically is it’s you have a partner. And when I got partnered with a stranger that I didn’t know, and you have to give them clues and they have to guess the answer and then vice versa just as well.

4 (38m 5s):
And we ended up winning and I ended up getting free cruise gear and definitely a free bottle of champagne, which was the highlight because yeah, who doesn’t want a free bottle of boost. So it’s a matter of fact, when we went to dinner at the specialty restaurant that was like Fogo de Chao. That’s where we had our champagne all as a family for remember that,

2 (38m 25s):
Well, you and your partner were perfect together because you gave the best clues and she knew how to guess. So the only time that you guys actually struggled was when you were forced to switch roles and she had to give clues because she didn’t necessarily give the best clues, but you knew how to do it.

4 (38m 41s):
Yeah. I mean, she definitely didn’t give the best, but without tooting my own horn, I mean, I picked up on that shit real quick. And I was like, yeah, at one point I think like I knew we had one and there was a hard clue that I had to give her. And do you remember where I said, oh, I’ll forget this. We already won anyway, because it was like, the topic was like dance moves

2 (39m 2s):
And you had to do the dance moves. She had to

4 (39m 4s):
Get she, yeah. She had a guest, the dance moves and then it was like robot and I was getting all self-conscious and I didn’t want to do the robot or whatever it was. I was like, oh, forget this. Like we already won. And then the cruise director was like, no, no, no, no, go, go ahead. Let’s see you act this one out.

2 (39m 18s):
Yeah. But no, no Jamal was right because they had gotten so many correct. Or she had guessed so many correct that Jamal didn’t really need to do anything. They could have sat there in silence if they wanted to, because they were so far ahead of everyone else. So way to be cocky about that. Jamal

1 (39m 36s):
And beyond game shows, there’s so much more to do. There’s comedy shows. There’s bingo. Who doesn’t love being. I

3 (39m 43s):
Love a good bingo game.

2 (39m 44s):
Bingo. We had to buy in though that wasn’t free.

4 (39m 47s):
That one wasn’t free. That’s correct. We had a buy in and unfortunately we didn’t win any money.

2 (39m 52s):
I ever, you know what we will, when we stopped doing the inkblots, when we let the computer do it.

4 (39m 59s):
Yeah. I’ll play computer bingo. One of these days in a casino and we’ll win.

2 (40m 2s):
Yeah. We love bingo guys, but that’s besides the point they also have an escape room.

4 (40m 7s):
Yeah. I mean, you know, I like to think I’m good at clues. And especially as we were just talking about, you know, how I played on a a hundred thousand dollars pyramid or their version of it on the ship, Brittany was the one killing it, like in the escape room challenge that they had kind of the clues. I know it was impressive, but you know, beyond the other activities, you guys, obviously this wasn’t any of the cruises that you were on, but Brittany and I, when we had gone on a solo one, as a matter of fact, it was our Alaska cruise. It was the cruise line that we went on one of their newest. And at the time it was built largest ship. I don’t know if, when we were on, it was still their largest ship, but they had an ice skating rink on that.

4 (40m 50s):
No. Can you believe that? We went, they had a show, they had an ice skating show. And then on top of that, you actually got to skate on the rink if you wanted later. So that was like one of our activities as well was to do some ice skating. I mean, crazy stuff on there.

2 (41m 5s):
You remember when we went to, we were at the buffet and you went up to two people and you let them know that I really enjoyed your guys’s performance. What show was that?

4 (41m 16s):
It was a dancing show. I forgot what it was. It was, it wasn’t ballroom dancing. It was like classical to anyway, it was a dancing show that they actually had. And I recognized two of the performers and I just told them that I, I enjoyed the show.

2 (41m 32s):
So there you go. If want to see dancers, they’ve got dances on the cruise. They got everything.

3 (41m 37s):
They have something for all ages. They do. They also have a lot of shopping every day. They seem to have some kind of new theme. You can get watches. I know they had a watch day. Then alcohol day, I have a tip on the alcohol though, from what I learned from my last cruise, you can buy it there. They’re supposed to give it to you when you leave the cruise. But they actually delivered it the night before the last night. So your last thing on the cruise, you get it delivered. You could drink it if you so wish

2 (42m 5s):
Kim, you would have been really disappointed in us because I think it was the first day at sea. We had signed up for tequila tasting, was it? And then we didn’t end up showing up because it was something else was going on. Do you remember that?

4 (42m 18s):
Yeah. But did they charge for the tequila tasting? I thought they charged for the tequila tasting. And then maybe in the end we just decided we didn’t want to spend the money for it because we were about to be in Mexico and let’s get cheap tequila in Mexico.

2 (42m 29s):
Maybe. I don’t know, but

3 (42m 31s):
They’ve got our tea disappointed a second time. Now.

4 (42m 34s):
Believe, believe me, Kim. When we were at port, we, we got our drink on, I mean, I went to a convenience store and there’s open liquor policies in Mexico. I walked the streets with my beer. We don’t even need to worry about that.

2 (42m 45s):
Right. What we didn’t do on the ship we made up in Mexico.

3 (42m 49s):
All right. All right. You’ve saved yourselves.

1 (42m 51s):
Another thing to know on board is that you can take your pictures. There’s pictures, stations everywhere. So on formal nights, they have like classic poses that you can take. Sometimes they look like prom, date, photos,

3 (43m 4s):
Paparazzi.

1 (43m 5s):
They’re there everywhere fun fact, Jamal and our save. The date photo was actually taken by the cruise line,

3 (43m 16s):
The pigs. And

1 (43m 17s):
That’s the picture we use for our save the date card.

4 (43m 20s):
Oh, I don’t know if I feel like I like that photo. I mean, Brittany looks radiant, but I don’t know about mine, but nonetheless. Yes. Fun fact. We got that one from like one of our cruise photos. So, you know, when you get off at shore, they’re always there to take a photo of you in the main dining rooms. They’re there to take a photo of you. Sometimes it’ll just be out kind of about the ship and be like, oh, we have a photo backdrop. Why don’t you take a photo? I think Kim, Kim, I saw one of your best photos was one of those ones right there at the piano,

3 (43m 50s):
The piano. Okay. So me and my friend, Chelsea were roommates on this cruise and we find her friend Jordan in the casino, pretty drunk, sweaty as fuck.

2 (44m 4s):
And I can see him, but you know, like he had his shirt on no.

3 (44m 7s):
Oh, it was unbuttoned. And his stomach was exposed. It was on though. And so we collect him and we’re like, come on, let’s go do whatever. So as we’re walking to go do whatever we’re going to do. There’s all these paparazzi hitting us up. And there’s a piano station to take pictures. So we get, we get settled. Jordan’s on the piano of me and Chelsea are leaning over the piano, staring at him as he’s playing. And that’s our beautiful photo. It looks legit. It’s

4 (44m 32s):
Actually really, really good photo. I love it.

2 (44m 35s):
Especially with Jordan, his shirt open and his, at

3 (44m 39s):
Some point they told him to close his shirt,

4 (44m 43s):
But yeah, so they always take those photos. And then the day they take the photos, they always have like a spot on the ship. That’s called the photo gallery where they’ll actually like print out the photos and you can actually go look at them, clearly purchase them for a ridiculous markup and believe me, they will watch you to make sure that you don’t take photos of the photos. But I know, I know, but can you snuck those out?

3 (45m 8s):
Every single one of my

4 (45m 9s):
Pictures, I know, I guess Brittany and I are the good people and we contribute to the economy and by,

2 (45m 15s):
Well, I mean, the cruises are so cheap anyways, you know? So there’s trying to make a buck. Cause I remember one day when we had a port stop, I forgot where it was, but it was in Mexico. It was raining really, really, really, really hard. So they were charging everyone $5 for ponchos, but they don’t take cash. They charge it to the room.

4 (45m 32s):
Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.

1 (45m 34s):
Speaking of port stops, there are a ton of things. Did you? Off-board the ship when you’re at court, including excursions. And there are so many activities where every single fitness level, sometimes there’s snorkeling ziplining, river floating bicycle riding. If you’re into garden walking, sometimes they aren’t in walking. I mean, for people that are

4 (45m 58s):
Like

3 (45m 58s):
Really fancy garden

1 (45m 60s):
Gardens, like when we were in Victoria, Canada, there’s famous gardens there. So you can walk through the gardens. So not all of them require a lot of physical activity.

3 (46m 10s):
What are some excursions? You guys have done

4 (46m 12s):
Everything except the garden walking that Brittany mentioned right there. I mean, we did snow. We’ve done snorkeling. I mean a lot of cruises, you know, tropical places, but clearly we’ve done the Alaska one, which included Alaska, Canada. It’s not tropical and you’re definitely not getting in the water. So we didn’t do that there. But I mean, we did zip lining in Honduras once we did river floating and Billy’s, which was fun.

2 (46m 35s):
Can I just say real quickly though, for the zip lining, I was terrified shitless. And at some point they even had us zip lining. I know, right. I did it though. I didn’t, I didn’t complain or anything, but they had us zip line upside down. So I did that with our tour guide. But I remember at the beginning I was sweating so bad. I was so scared. And the guys there saying, we’re going to take good care of you. We’re going to take good care of you. And I look at trauma and I’m like, oh my God, did you hear that? They’re going to take care of us. They’re going to be,

4 (47m 4s):
I didn’t think they were going to do otherwise.

3 (47m 7s):
No way I would do upside down.

1 (47m 11s):
They actually did it first out of our group because

4 (47m 13s):
You were the only one to volunteer.

1 (47m 15s):
Yeah. They offer, did anyone want to go upside down and no one else volunteered. And I’m like, all right, sweet. Pick me, pick me

2 (47m 23s):
The volunteer. Your hands just went up faster. And I know that sounds kind of crazy, but like once you go once, you’re fine. And I think there were like 13 lines. And so when they asked for a volunteer in Brittany, like her hand shot up so fast and I was like, shit, I missed my opportunity. So by the time we got to the next line, they said, anyone want to do it? Who didn’t that’s when I volunteered. So I was immediately next. I think Jamal’s the one who didn’t do it.

4 (47m 45s):
I didn’t do it because this was a different type of zip line where, you know, so I don’t know if anyone who’s listening. I’m sure a lot of our listeners would probably zip line before, but there’s definitely like two types. There’s the one where you’ll stop kind of automatically. And you don’t really have to do anything with your hands. And then there’s zip lining where you literally have to be your own brake system and you have gloves. And this was the type of one that we actually did where you had to break yourself on the wire with your own gloves. So if you wanted to do upside down zip line and you had to go with the tour guide and our tour guide was a male and you had to be kind of like bundled up. And I just did it just because of that. Like it just really, it wasn’t my time.

4 (48m 26s):
Let’s put it that way. I had to do the upside down. Zip lining.

2 (48m 30s):
Yeah. Because you know why, when you look at the pictures, they’re pretty sexual looking. You’re upset. Like basically his face is in your crotch because you’re like hands so far down. Yeah. Have you ever been supplying in case you’re missing? Huh?

3 (48m 47s):
The big Heights or speed thing. Do you remember me at Tron? Shanghai Disney.

2 (48m 52s):
The there’s one line where it was so fast that you don’t even get a chance to break yourself. So in order to break you, they have a blue, it’s not a block, like a brick or anything, but it’s like a woodblock and they throw it it’s it’s attached to the line and they throw it at you through the line. Right. So basically it’s shooting down the line and when it hits the, the cord that’s keeps you hanging from

4 (49m 18s):
The wheels kind of, yeah.

2 (49m 20s):
It breaks you, but you’re coming at such a fast speed down. So when they throw that block at you to break you, it just freaks you out because it looks like something’s coming at you.

4 (49m 31s):
Yeah. And then, I mean, one of the other ones that we did, Brittany and I have done was actually bicycle riding. This one was in Alaska. This one was pretty cool. When we were in Skagway, Alaska, they took us in a van up the Klondike highway, literally to the border of Canada. We didn’t cross into Canada, but we literally went to the border of Canada. And then this highway that flows, you know, or travels from Alaska into Canada called the Klondike highway. It’s all on a hill. So we literally wrote 16 miles downhill from the border of Canada, like back down into civilization. And I mean, you got to see obviously all the waterfall, waterfalls, the lush forest, there were some bears along the trail, things of that.

4 (50m 15s):
Well, they said we could see bears. We didn’t, I’m telling our listeners, if you go do it, you might go see the bears. We didn’t unfortunately see the bears, but I know Brittany had something that she loved, loved, loved when we went on a shore excursion one time.

1 (50m 30s):
So by far, my favorite shore excursion ever has to be the glacier tracking. So when we were in Alaska, we were in our support was Juno and we booked a helicopter tour to land on the Mendenhall glacier

3 (50m 48s):
Better or worse than the coy helicopter better.

1 (50m 51s):
It was just like a straight shot flying

4 (50m 54s):
16 minute flight, just to the

1 (50m 56s):
Glacier, to the glacier, landed on the glacier. And we got to put on crampons and got to Trek the glacier, the Mendenhall glacier in Alaska. And this is actually where we got engaged along the track. Jamal dropped 20 and asked me if I would like to be his wife. And I said, yes, of course. So we did get engaged on this shore excursion on the Alaska cruise.

2 (51m 20s):
Oh

3 (51m 21s):
Yeah. I remember when, before, or when you guys left my boyfriend at the time said, I know they’re going to get engaged. And I was like, oh my God. I was like waiting for the pictures. And you finally posted.

4 (51m 31s):
Yeah. Cause I had, I had told them, I was like, oh yeah, like everyone knew, except for Brittany that I was going to go ahead and do it. So yeah.

2 (51m 40s):
Your hand looked like it knew she had a perfect, a manicured hand in with the ring on it, posts on Instagram

4 (51m 46s):
For our vacation. I told her to go out and get a Manny

1 (51m 53s):
I just finished a semester of nursing school. I was out for summer break and he was like, babe, go get done. You know, get your hair done, get your nails done. Let’s go on this vacation. Enjoy it. So I did. And who knew he had a different motive behind it?

2 (52m 9s):
Because I remember when I saw the picture on Instagram, I was with a boyfriend at the time and he’s like, she looks like she knew, look at that hand.

4 (52m 16s):
I made sure she had the Manny for that. But yeah. But yeah. So at the excursions, like when you’re at poor, the cruise lines have stuff that you can actually go ahead and choose to do through guided tours through them. But beyond that, there are certain things that you can do. If you don’t want to do a guided tour through them to pay, you can explore on your own, which is some stuff that Brittany and I have done. I know Kim did that when she was at shore as well. But one of the things that Brittany and I did instead of paying for a specific guided tour, one time when we were on the island of St. Martin, we went specifically to their beach called Maho beach, which literally is at the tail end of like an airport.

4 (52m 59s):
So you can watch the planes come in and the planes are literally 15, 20 feet above you. As they land, you can hold the fence to ride the jet blast as they take off, which I did. Yeah, I did. So I mean, even though with the cruises, there are the short excursions that you can book through the cruise line itself. I mean, just do your research. There’s always stuff you could do at port without having to pay that extra money and just do things on your

3 (53m 24s):
Own. You really don’t have to do your research either. Me and Chelsea, we didn’t get any of the excursions and import the Virta. We got off the boat and they have a range taxis right there. So your transportation, you can figure it out right there. And then we went and found good tacos. We found some of the best margaritas ever, where the guy would just pour tequila straight in your glass until you told him to stop. And then in Cabo, love it. And then in Cabo, we’re just like riding boats and went to a little beach bar. So yeah, you’re taking care of

2 (53m 57s):
Kim. You missed out on the river, floating in beliefs and I’m going to tell you why

3 (54m 1s):
It was insane.

2 (54m 2s):
Yeah. There was no current at all. So you pretty much had to swim down the river, but you had to put all of your clothes in the locker and then you get on the bus and only your bathing suit. Because from there you’re going to be going into the water. So camp or Brittany and I both have bikinis and you know, it’s not like we’re showing everything, but you know, it’s, it’s a tiny little swimsuit. Yeah. So we get on the bus. We’re practically the last two on the bus and everyone stops and stares at us. It was the most

3 (54m 34s):
Awkward

2 (54m 35s):
Walk onto the bus. Cause it’s all older people in like one pieces. And there we are with like our

9 (54m 42s):
Sexy bikinis

2 (54m 44s):
And Brittany and I were like, oh my goodness, it was so uncomfortable. And then my favorite part about the river floating in was w this isn’t the favorite part, but there’s a lot of iguanas, which they call bamboo chicken.

4 (54m 57s):
Yeah. Cause they cause they eat it like chicken again, I believe.

2 (55m 1s):
And while we were going down the river, there was a, an iguana who fell from the tree and landed so hard in the water. And it nearly missed us. Like we were like feet away from it. But anyways, our tour guide was telling us how jealous male iguanas get against other male iguanas going after females. So at the end, they needed to tie us up all together because we were running late. So they tied up Brittany and then they tied up someone to Brittany. So they missed time Jamal to Brittany. And so the tour guide apologized to Jamal that he wasn’t able to be with Brittany. And Jamal said, that’s okay. I don’t care. Just joking around. And the tour guy said, good job, Jamal.

2 (55m 42s):
Don’t be like via Guana. And I just love that.

4 (55m 47s):
And so one last thing I just want to say kind of before we move on, as we’re talking about the stuff that we can actually do when we’re at port, you know, on the cruises, but again depends on your cruise line, look into it. But a lot of the ships try to encourage you. Like if you’re not going to get out on poor, those are the days that most cruise lines will offer like substantial discounts. If you want to get a Manny, if you want to get a pet, if you want to get a massage and use the spa, the days that you’re at port, obviously majority of people are off the ship. So that’s when they give a lot of their discounts for activities on board. So if you’re just going on a cruise and don’t really care where you’re going, and you’re actually using the cruise as your vacation itself, definitely use that opportunity to look at, to see what they have on board for discounts and get, you know, a massage half off.

4 (56m 40s):
Why not?

3 (56m 40s):
Yeah. All right guys. My favorite part of the episode question,

4 (56m 49s):
Why do you love pushing so much?

3 (56m 51s):
I just love him because I love hearing from our listeners and what they want to know and I love being helpful. And so if you have any questions, please, please send them in. Make my day. You can comment or DMS on Instagram at Travel Squad Podcast. And we will answer them in an episode or we’ll just comment back to you on Instagram.

4 (57m 9s):
So one of our viewers asked us, and this is a really good question. It’s how do you access the internet when you’re on a cruise?

2 (57m 17s):
You can’t oh dear.

3 (57m 19s):
Oh

4 (57m 19s):
Dear.

1 (57m 20s):
Well, you can, but you have to pay for the internet packages, which are very expensive.

3 (57m 26s):
Mike wasn’t too expensive. I bought it cause I’m that girl. And it was, I think it was 15 bucks or A down and the whole, whole time.

2 (57m 36s):
Cause Nashua are Jamal and I have an older sister who was on the family cruise with us and she said that she paid like $20 an hour. And I think she only used it like twice. Yeah.

3 (57m 46s):
I would’ve been 30 for the whole trip. It was either 15 or 30, but it was the whole trip.

1 (57m 50s):
Well, that was the deal.

4 (57m 51s):
Yeah. I don’t know if they were given the special or what, because usually, maybe, probably, maybe. I don’t know, because there’s a lot of cruise lines. They charge like either you could buy an internet package or you can kind of buy it by the hour, which is at a ridiculous rate. But even beyond that, you’re at sea. So they even have as the disclaimer, when you’re about to purchase it, like, we can’t even guarantee like internet connectivity or like speed or anything like that. So Yeah. So I mean, it depends on where you go, but Brittany and I ourselves are fortunate enough that our phone service that we do have offers us data when we’re in Mexico and Canada and I’m fearing the Caribbean.

4 (58m 33s):
Yes. There’s some American islands, but for the most part, I mean, if you’re buying that package, you’re kind of really out of luck. And unless you’re trying to spend a lot of money, but Hey, it’s a vacation. And if you’re not really trying to work, like you don’t need the internet, you could save your Insta posts until you get back.

1 (58m 48s):
When you get to pour and you go to a restaurant and they have wifi.

2 (58m 53s):
Yeah. Next question.

3 (58m 55s):
What is a mustard drill? I don’t even know this.

2 (58m 59s):
Well, I think it’s very important to note Jamal. I think you’re going to describe this one the best,

4 (59m 4s):
Probably so, but Kim says she doesn’t know it, but I guarantee you, she didn’t leave the port without doing it.

3 (59m 10s):
I think they do in the beginning. Yeah.

4 (59m 12s):
So I mean, a lot of people ask, you know, kind of like about safety. I mean, not that we’ve heard recently of any ship sinking, but we all know the tail of the Titanic. So based off of that, you know, obviously there is some sort of safety that goes into play when you get on the ship. So your first day on board, literally within the first hour or two hours after you sail, they have what’s called the mustard drill, which is basically their emergency drill that they have in place. And so God forbid something were to happen and you need to evacuate to the lifeboats. It’s just a 10 to 15 minute drill where you go meet in, what’s called your mustard station, where you meet.

4 (59m 56s):
And from there, that’s your kind of group of people on what lifeboat that you’re actually going to be getting on. So it’s basically, if you want to equate it to when you fly and they always give you your pre-flight safety instructions, this is basically your version of it when you’re on a cruise

2 (1h 0m 12s):
Ship, but they make it interactive.

4 (1h 0m 14s):
You got to go that’s for sure.

3 (1h 0m 17s):
They make it mandatory. They will come and knock on your room. If you haven’t left your room to do it.

2 (1h 0m 23s):
And they have a checklist of names for every station

4 (1h 0m 26s):
That you went. Yeah.

1 (1h 0m 28s):
Well, there was a question directed specifically towards me, I feel. And that is, do you ever get seasick and how do you prevent seasickness? So I am the person in our Travel Squad that has the most motion sickness issues I would feel right guys. I

4 (1h 0m 45s):
Would agree.

1 (1h 0m 47s):
So when I go cruising, I wear see bands. And they’re bands that you wear on both wrists on a pressure point that helps prevent seasickness, but you can also use the scope, Palomino patches, Dramamine, and the newer and bigger your ship is the less you’ll feel it. So I always take these things off, like when I’m in the shower and whatnot. And I don’t usually take the actual medications. I try to use like home remedies before I use medications. But one thing to know is at some ports, your boat might not be able to dock to the actual island or station. And so it’s called tendering when they have to bring a smaller boat to your boat and take you from the boat to the island that you’re going to, and that boat, you can really feel the rocking and the motion of.

1 (1h 1m 40s):
So I would definitely prepare, especially for that short excursion.

4 (1h 1m 44s):
Yeah. I’m definitely fortunate that I don’t get motion sick. So when I see you, you don’t really battle through it. Cause you do have your bands and take the precautions, but you’ll always see people with the patches behind their ear. But one thing is, if you definitely do get motion sick, the good news is on the big ships and you definitely can feel this way, but it’s just not as much as if you were obviously on a smaller boat. But one thing to take into consideration just as well is if you can, when you’re booking your state room, try to get it in the middle section and lower section of the ship, because it has the least amount of sway to make you feel motion sick.

2 (1h 2m 26s):
That’s right. If you’re feeling sick, do not go to the top of the boat, go directly to the bottom of the boat. You won’t feel it down there, but you know, I don’t get seasick, but that being said after we got off of the cruise there, it lasts for a few days of just feeling the motion of the waves. So like I said, I didn’t get seasick, but you’re like, whoa, I still feel

4 (1h 2m 47s):
Another thing too. If you’ve never been on a cruise ship before you just can’t even understand the amount of service and attention to detail that they actually provide to you. So one of our listeners also asked, is it customary for you to actually tip?

3 (1h 3m 3s):
And the answer would be yes, but not in the way you think a tipping, you don’t need to add on a tip to your bills. Normally you don’t have to leave it in your room for the housekeeper. The crews puts together a certain amount per day that they think is fair, that they divvy up amongst the whole crew. And so at the end of your trip, you’ll usually have a bill for a certain amount. They let you know about this at the beginning of the cruise. So you are expecting it, but you are expected to pay it. I’ve actually heard of some people going up there and asking it to be removed and they do get it removed. But don’t do that unless you actually have been tipping the whole time, because like Jamal said, they really do care about your experience and are doing a good job.

1 (1h 3m 44s):
When we say crew and who gets the tip, it’s the housekeepers that clean your room every single day. And they don’t just clean your room once they clean it in the morning. And then when you’re at dinner, they also turn down your room for the nighttime. So they’ll make your bed again. If you took it out,

3 (1h 3m 58s):
They did about those animals.

1 (1h 3m 60s):
Stay, make the little animal creatures. We’re talking about the waiters, the servers, the bartenders,

3 (1h 4m 7s):
The person at the help desk who answers your questions. They’re the person who helps you hook up your wifi every time you go be, cause it’s really slow and not working.

1 (1h 4m 17s):
And if you’re, you know, if you’re doing extra things like going to the bar and using room service, you should tip those people individually because they’re doing an extra service for you in that moment.

2 (1h 4m 27s):
Yeah. You know, when we were on the cruise, my parents tipped the gentleman who cleaned our room twice a day and they did, you know, my parents are really social people. So my dad was talking to him and he said that one, you know, when you’re the house cleaning crew, they don’t get to get off at the port like the other people. And they really aren’t getting tips the way that other people are. So my parents gave them cash every single day. So yes, it’s included at the end, but if someone’s going above and beyond or just making your life easier, it’s always nice to give cash to them. As a tip. The other thing is these boats are usually registered in the Caribbean, right? So instead of having to pay them minimum wage, American

4 (1h 5m 8s):
Minimum

2 (1h 5m 9s):
Wage, us minimum wage, they will register their boat in The Bahamas. And then that way they pay workers, the minimum wage required for The Bahamas. So they’re not really making that much money. And they do rely on tips because the boats are not paying them as much

4 (1h 5m 26s):
Did touch on a couple of things about that. I know Zayna had mentioned, like when we went on our family, one, my parents gave some of the servers or state room attendants, cash chips, but the cruises are a cashless system. They charge everything to your room. So when we say that the cruise lines have a preset amount per day, that they charge you for gratuities for kind of all staff, they charge that to your state room, depending on the cruise line that you go on, I’d obviously ranges, but what they charge you depends on your state room category. Is it interior? Is it a balcony? Is it a suite? And based on that, that’s the per day amount that they charge.

4 (1h 6m 6s):
Usually let’s just say as a base, it’s $15 per day. So to touch back on, on what Kim was saying, you know, if you don’t feel $15 a day is appropriate, you can go to guest service and say, no, no, just please make it $10 a day. But if you want to go above and beyond, believe me, they do work harder than you actually can believe until you’ve experienced it. So that $15 a day truly is worth it. But you can definitely add more if you want to, to.

2 (1h 6m 33s):
So is there anything that you can’t do on a cruise guys?

3 (1h 6m 37s):
Yeah. This is our last question and a great question, because we’ve told you about everything you can do, there’s so much to do, but there is one thing you definitely cannot do. So I mentioned my friend Jordan earlier, who we found in the casino, sweaty and drunk shirt off. And just as a little preview, a little teaser, he will be our very first podcast guest. We’re going to have him on the Cuba episode. So the one that you cannot do on the cruise, we found out the hard way. Well, Jordan found out So same night we found him, we took all of our pictures.

3 (1h 7m 19s):
We were moving about the casino because of the state he was in. He thought it was a great idea to high five, every single person he was walking by. And it was funny for the first hundred people

4 (1h 7m 33s):
There.

2 (1h 7m 34s):
If you’re drunk, it’ll probably be funny for the next hundred people. Right.

3 (1h 7m 37s):
I thought it was hilarious, but at a certain point, you know, people were like getting annoyed by it and there’d be someone that was into it. And then the next person was like, don’t fucking touch me. You creepy sweaty, man. Put your shirt on. But I guess at one point it was just too much and one or multiple people complained about it. And so security came and found him. Wasn’t hard, loud guy. High-fiving everyone picked him up right away

2 (1h 8m 2s):
Without a shirt.

3 (1h 8m 4s):
And me and Chelsea, I don’t know where we’re at. We’re in a comedy show. That’s where we were in Jordan disappears. And we don’t see him for the rest of the comedy show. And we’re like, all right, whatever. He’s just moving about doing sing. And so then we moved to the nightclub and this is about an hour or two later, he comes back and he’s like, I was just in boat jail. We’re like, what the hell are you talking about? He’s like, I’m being followed. They’re following me down. And we look over and security literally is following him. It’s like secret service on the side of the room. Always has an eye on. And apparently what they did is they took him to his room, escorted him to his room and they had a balcony room. So they drilled the balcony door shut.

3 (1h 8m 46s):
So he couldn’t go outside, left him in his room and stood outside of his door, put them on timeout for an hour because he was, he couldn’t keep his hands to himself. And then they finally let him out and he agreed to be good. And they

1 (1h 9m 0s):
Said

3 (1h 9m 1s):
They were going to follow him around for the rest of the night. And they also shut off his drink card. So he could, even though he had the drink package, he could not order any more drinks that

1 (1h 9m 10s):
Night.

3 (1h 9m 11s):
Yes. At night we had to buy him his drinks, which of course we kept buying them. And then the next day his drink card was still shut off. And he had to go to security and write a letter that said, I will keep my hands to myself and they finally turned it back on.

4 (1h 9m 28s):
So

3 (1h 9m 28s):
That’s pretty much the only thing you can’t do on a cruise

4 (1h 9m 31s):
Compose yourself. Do not let the alcohol take too much of a holder. That’s the lesson, the story.

2 (1h 9m 38s):
And maybe keep your shirt on,

4 (1h 9m 39s):
I guess so, but no, all in all cruises, I can’t say enough about them. I love cruises a lot and I hope we’ve inspired you guys to take cruises just as well.

3 (1h 9m 49s):
Any final thoughts about cruising before we say goodbye to our listeners?

2 (1h 9m 53s):
If you can go to the gym and run on the treadmill, you should. It’s a really trippy experience. Not with alcohol though.

3 (1h 9m 59s):
Okay. I’ll try that. My next one.

4 (1h 10m 3s):
Just book your vacation and go on a cruise. You won’t regret it.

1 (1h 10m 6s):
Sometimes. If you book your next cruise while you’re on a cruise, they’ll give you a discount for your next one. Tamale. I did

3 (1h 10m 14s):
That pro tip right there.

4 (1h 10m 15s):
Done that several times.

3 (1h 10m 17s):
All right. And if you do want to book a cruise, why don’t you book a Caribbean cruise leaving November 9th from Miami and joined me.

1 (1h 10m 26s):
Woo.

3 (1h 10m 27s):
We can hang out, But if not, maybe next time. So thank you guys so much for listening. We know that you enjoyed this episode and we hope that you will enjoy sailing the high seas. When you go on your next trip,

4 (1h 10m 40s):
Please subscribe to our podcast, leave a review and tune in every travel Tuesday for new episodes.

2 (1h 10m 46s):
And if you aren’t already be sure to follow us on Instagram and Twitter at Travel Squad Podcast,

1 (1h 10m 52s):
Like we earlier mentioned next week, we have a special guest joining us, Jordan, your bags, grab your passports because next week we are going to Cuba.

2 (1h 11m 1s):
Cuba.

3 (1h 11m 4s):
Bye guys. Bye