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

      I think that picture says it all... So I've been dealing with digestive issues since, well since I was born I think.  Some of it was definitely linked to anxiety and depression, but some of it was just how I was made.  They really came to a head in the fall of 2016. At that point ANYTHING I consumed, even plain chicken broth, had me doubled over in pain.  I kept finding things that helped a little, but they were band-aids at best and in the spring of 2017 I was diagnosed with SIBO for the first time.  There was a host of other issues present as well including a parasitic infection and a lack of digesting protein or fat.  We treated it aggressively with antibiotics, antiparasitics and a whole host of digestive support supplements as well as the most restrictive diet I've ever heard of.  It started off with me being able to eat a chicken breast (baked over a grate so there would be no fat present and with NO seasoning), ground beef cooked the same way, and boiled/pureed car

      This is a picture from Christmas last year.  I can count on one had the number of times it has snowed on Christmas in my life.  Yes, the grass is green, and the snow that came down was sloppy and wet and didn't stick much, but it snowed.  From the time I was a little kid, Christmas has been equated with snow, even though it almost never happens in the Pacific Northwest (at least on the West side of the mountains).  Every year I hope it will snow on Christmas, even if there isn't a snowball's chance in...  Well you get it.  If you asked me, I wouldn't admit it, because sharing my disappointment is so difficult for me.  I think it makes it more real.  If I don't tell you what I hoped for that didn't come about, maybe I can convince myself that I never actually hoped for it in the first place and I don't have to feel the disappointment.       This Christmas season has been a difficult one for me, and until recently, I wasn't even aware of why.  I have

      Beyond trying out a different cruise line, the other two major trials of this weekend cruise were an inside cabin and cruising alone.  I had avoided both in the past because I was nervous about how I would do with them, but I knew that if I was going to do as much travel as possible in 2023 these were the best options. I didn't want to start booking solo inside cruises for next year though without first finding out if I could handle it.       While I'm not claustrophobic, I have definitely experienced some discomfort with enclosed spaces.  I also have an irrational fear of being crushed under rubble.  This comes into play in parking garages and under bridges so I was concerned that it would be a factor in being in an inside cabin with many decks above me.  When booking my first cruise, my mother, who was traveling with me, wanted to book an inside cabin because it was cheapest, but I was uncomfortable with it and requested an ocean view instead.  Turns out the inside cabi

      After our cruise this fall, my husband encouraged me to try out solo cruising.  The reasoning was that I would like to travel more than he is available and cruising is a cost-effective and accessible form of travel.  So I booked my first solo cruise for April of 2023 on Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL).  You see, I had only ever cruised on NCL and I thought that I always would.  The logic is sound. When you sail consistently with one cruise line you earn loyalty points that equate to bonuses and potential savings. As I began to look into my dreams of travelling every month in 2023 on the $7,500 budget that my husband had given me though, I quickly realized that cruising on Norwegian wouldn't get me very far.  Between the one I had booked in April and the one I had committed to with my son in the fall I was down nearly half of my travel budget for the whole year.  I didn't need to budget for our travel in February because that was for our anniversary and it was coming out of a