Time Flies
Stephanie's Spring Cruise Recap: In Pictures
Yes, our group of five women packed a lot for our five day cruise!
Being silly during the Sail Away festivities on deck.
In the beautiful dining room on formal night.
I see more cruises in my future!
Having fun in one of the windows on the ship.
Good times at the Seven Bile Beach in Grand Cayman.
We had a great time in Grand Cayman.
I'm not quite sure why my mom was hiding behind me, but it was funny!
Mom, Cyndie and Aunt Janet after our delicious Mexican lunch.
Aunt Janet and Jenny did a great job during The Quest (the adult scavenger hunt).
With mom at dinner on the ship.
Enjoying our last hours on the beautiful Navigator of the Seas. It was a fantastic trip!
Until next time...
Cruise Tip of the Day: Ships in Port

In the meantime, I wanted to share a quick cruise tip with you. If you are going on a cruise and would like to know what ships (and how many) will be in your ports of call, you can check out this link:
http://cruisett.com/ships.php
You will just need to select your cruise line, ship and then the month of your cruise.
It's a great tool, especially if you are planning a beach day and want an idea of how many people to expect on the beach with you.
Happy Cruising!
Stephanie
Mental Packing
Maybe I'll put something in my suitcase tomorrow:)
Overpacking for a Cruise

I have been packing this week for my upcoming cruise (I fly to Fort Lauderdale tomorrow and the ship leaves on Friday) to the Caribbean. As I briefly mentioned in an earlier post, my hope was to not overpack for this trip. I went into the packing process determined that I would succeed.
Well, I'm sad to admit that I failed. Do I really need four pairs of heels (red, black, nude and blue), two pairs of comfortable Sketchers, one pair of water shoes and two pairs of flip flops for a five day cruise? I think not. But somehow, all of these items are tucked inside of my suitcase.
Do I also need three bathing suits, two cover-ups, five pairs of shorts, two pairs of jeans, seven dresses and numerous tops? Just writing these numbers out on this blog makes me uncomfortable. I should go home and lighten the load, but I somehow doubt that will happen. As usual, I will come home next week and realize that I only wore a third of what I packed. I will accept my overpacking once again and will strive to do better next time.
But maybe, just maybe, I will remove a few of the dresses and shoes from my suitcase tonight.
In an effort to be hopeful for my future packing skills, here are links to several sites online that provide tips for packing. Maybe one day I will take their advice!
http://www.ehow.com/how_5189_avoid-overpacking.html
http://www.wikihow.com/Pack-Without-Overpacking
Mary's Upcoming Cruise
I'm officially under the 2 week mark from SAIL-AWAY, April 3rd. I'll be going on the Caribbean Princess with my parents and my Aunt Jo Marie. This will be my 9th Princess cruise - how exciting!
Stephanie's Top Five Items to Pack

I am going to start packing this weekend and I will most likely do a post next week that will deal with my ongoing goal to not overpack (a goal that I have yet to achieve). But for now, I wanted to share my "top five items to pack for a cruise" that I simply can't leave home without.
1.) Joy Mangano's My Little Steamer
Royal Caribbean (and most cruise lines) does not allow irons since they areconsidered a fire hazard. Plus, I hate ironing. I am not ashamed to admit that I have not ironed anything in several years. Steaming is my preferred way to remove pesky wrinkles from my clothing. Joy Mangano created a portable/easy to use steamer and it is sold on HSN. This steamer works incredibly well and I absolutely love it. Joy created a "mini" version of the steamer that I also purchased and it is the perfect size to travel with. I take this mini steamer with me on all cruises and it truly is a handy item to have tucked away in your suitcase to steam your pretty dress for formal night!
Edited to add: Based on Mary's recent cruise, she informed me that she took the steamer and filled the water up to the line...and things didn't go very well. My advice for everyone is this: Please only fill the steamer up patricianly with the water. I usually only fill my steamer up to about an inch below the water line in the container. Think of it like filling a pot on the stove to the tip top. You can definitely do it, but when you do, the water is most likely going to boil over. Please steam at your own risk.
2.) Joy Mangano's Pack A Weigh Digital Portable Luggage Scale
I'm not obsessed with HSN. I promise. But, Joy Mangano does sell some handy products on this channel (I especially love her Huggable Hangers). As I alluded to earlier in this post, I have a tendency to overpack. This flaw also means that my luggage can easily go over the various airline weight limits. This portable luggage scale has been a lifesaver, especially when traveling overseas. I highly recommend this handy tool which will help keep you from paying additional fees due to heavy luggage.
3.) Surge Protector
I travel with quite a few items that require a plug-in outlet. These items include my hair dryer, flat iron, curling iron, the My Little Steamer, camera chargers, etc. That's quite a few items for one person...but the cabins are small and I always travel with a friend/family member who will also have a lot of items that they will need to plug-in. I learned early on after my first cruise that RCCL's cabins only have places to plug-in up to four items. That simply won't suffice! I have traveled with a surge protector on every cruise since and this easily solved the problem of not having enough outlets.
4.) Panasonic Lumix Camera
A cruise simply isn't complete without photos to remember the trip by. I realized several years ago that a camera with a 3x optical zoom just wouldn't do. However, I wanted the camera to be small enough to still fit in my purse. My needs were met when I discovered Panasonic's Lumix Camera. It has a powerful 12x optical zoom while still being small enough to easily fit in my purse. It's a compact camera with the power/zoom that is usually only found in much larger cameras.
5.) Address Labels
No, I don't take address labels with me for the purposes of mailing letters (though they will work great for that purpose as well). I was with my family once at the airport and we were all filling out about a dozen of the Delta luggage tags with our names and mailing address to help identify our luggage in the event that it was lost by the airline. We then had to fill out multiple cruise line luggage tags at the port. My mom said, "Wouldn't it be easier if we just had our address labels with us to put on all of these tags instead of handwriting our info over and over?" We made a mental note of this and we began traveling with address labels for every trip since then. It is such a time-saver and I definitely recommend taking address labels with you on your future trips as well.
Until next time, happy sailing!