Salty Zebra

Carnival                                          V S                                 Norwegian      Last week my husband and I set sail on our first Carnival cruise.  He insisted on coming along because of the reputation Carnival has built for wild parties and brawls.  He just didn’t feel safe letting me solo cruise on this one!  I’m happy to report that I didn’t seen a single fight and while the parties have definitely had more energy than on other lines they were not over the top or inappropriate. I did not go out after 10pm though, so things might have been crazier as the night went on.      So, what are the differences between Carnival and the cruise line I have the most experience with, Norwegian (NCL)?  1.       The drinks package is more expensive on Carnival . This is a little difficult to measure exactly but if you just take the surface cost NCL offers their “Free at Sea” promotion which gives you unlimited cocktails bear and wine by the glass. This is not actually free as th

    We've just returned from a four-day cruise on the Carnival Radiance departing from Los Angeles, California and I learned so much about getting around in my new electric wheelchair.  If you're interested in hopping on one of these very affordable cruises and you have mobility issues, you might be wondering if it will work for you.     Carnival has taken many steps to enhance accessibility on the Radiance including: Providing maps with accessibility paths on every floor at the elevator banks (see images below)  They have added in many automatic sliding doors The stateroom hallways are the widest I've seen on any cruise ship They have tables marked for handicap use in restaurants and seats in some lounges In the buffet, staff watch out for people with mobility issues and offer to help When going up and down ramps to enter or exit the ship there were always staff there to help They had a special guest services counter window with a lower, accessible height They had an acces

      I came in here to start writing this post and thought that my app must not have updated because I couldn't believe that my post about the gastroenterologist was the last one I had uploaded. Turns out, when you hear certain things, a bookmark is placed in your life. I've heard about this concept in other arenas before, catalyst points. After them, you see your life as before x, and after x. I was surprised to not see any other posts because so much happened last week, and in my mind I had written several. I think I just felt like I couldn't actually post them here until after I had put them into context. It's funny, I have no readers for this blog at this point, but I was afraid that if I put my news up here before I shared it with my children they might hear about it the wrong way, and it was really important to me to not have that happen.      Last Tuesday I spoke on the phone with the dermatologist office about the results of my biopsy. I had fully expected it t