Author: flgirl338

Trish Berry, April 7, 2025

You have a cruise planned from Miami, Florida, to Cartagena, Spain. You will be at sea for 12 days crossing the Atlantic. No leaving the ship at any port until you get to Ponta Delgada, Azores, (an autonomous region of Portugal) on day 8 and then back at sea until you get to Spain on the 12th day.

Packing should be minimal for the cruise. Two pairs of walking shoes, two pairs of shorts, two blouses, two swimsuit coverups, two swimsuits. Throw in a couple of non-wrinkle polyester dresses for main dining, which can be enhanced with two scarves that you have packed.  Two long pairs of pants and a hoodie. (Do not forget any medications and toiletries you need and pack enough to get you there and back.)

The cruise ships have a laundry service where you stuff a white bag that is provided by the cruise line, so your underwear packing can be flexible. The laundry service has a fee of $39.95 at this time, but if you are at a higher tier level with your preferred cruise line, there will be no charge. We use Royal Caribbean, and we had no charge for our laundry.

Check the weather in Spain and other countries you might visit for their weather during your stay. You will know what to pack according to their weather. You can rent a car in Spain and travel to other countries, much like driving from Florida to South Carolina. You can take a cruise around the Mediterranean Sea while you are there.

When it is time to return home, you can fly with your lightweight suitcase or take a cruise ship back for another 12 days.

There will be a time change. Adjust your watches.

Check the weather in Spain and other countries you might visit for their weather during your stay. You will know what to pack according to their weather. You can rent a car in Spain and travel to other countries, much like driving from Florida to South Carolina. You can take a cruise around the Mediterranean Sea while you are there.

Check the style of clothing in the countries you are going to visit. Sundresses are preferred over shorts of any type in many countries.

When it is time to return home, you can fly home with your lightweight suitcase or take a cruise ship back for another 12 days.

There will be a time change. Adjust your watches.

While you are on the ship for 12 days, you will have plenty of ways to be entertained. There is always social interaction at the main dining room or other dining venues.

Most transatlantic cruise ships have libraries, so you can read a book while in the solarium. Below are pictures of the solarium, a quiet, restful place to relax.

A cute guy to watch over you in the solarium.

All Royal Caribbean ships have arcade rooms where you can play video games. The games are like the ones you find on a boardwalk on a beach in the USA.

There are putt-putt golf courses on almost every Royal Caribbean ship.

There are rock climbing walls.

There are a number of water slides.

There are card rooms and libraries, especially on a transatlantic cruise.

There is almost always a Starbucks. There is almost always a Karaoke Bar.

There are Royal Theaters where Broadway shows can be seen, as well as Las Vegas performers. The ice skating shows are phenomenal, very elaborate and breathtaking.

There are multiple swimming pools.

There is always a gym for workouts on every Royal Caribbean ship. The gyms are large. The picture below only shows one side of the gym. Multiple treadmills, weights, and any kind of workout machine invented is available.

There are many shops to walk into and feast your eyes on pretty things, much like the malls of yesteryear.

Trish Berry, January 7, 2025

I worked as an extra in theater movies on occasion when we lived in the Washington, D.C., area.  Our son was a model/actor for two years.  Parents of the young actors were contacted when adult stand-ins or extras (those standing around in a crowd, dining at a table, sitting at a bar) were needed.

The first movie I was in was ‘Broadcast News,’ a movie starring Holly Hunter and William Hurt, a 1987 movie.  The filming was at the Marriot Hotel in downtown D.C., a ritzy hotel at that time.

We lower-paid cast members were required to bring our own clothing, a ball gown in my case for Broadcast News. I had no ball gown, so I went to the nearest thrift store (this is how I got hooked on thrift stores), and found a beautiful blue ball gown.  I felt like a princess in blue floating above the floor.  After filming was concluded on the movie, I returned the dress (after cleaning) to the same thrift store.  It was resold to someone else in need of a ball gown, and the money was given to me.  Using that dress for that movie shoot did not cost me any money.

When I arrived at the movie set, I was sent to the makeup station where my hair was updo-ed, my makeup applied, and they adorned me with fancy jewelry.  My photo was taken.  The photos were taken to ensure that an actor is identical in appearance if a shooting lasts for more than one day.  The next day, I would dress the same, wear my hair the same way, have my makeup applied the same way, and this could be verified by looking at the photo from the day before, or the day before that, or the day before that.  We had to always look the same for each day of filming.

I was put in 5” heels. I stood on a marble floor for eight hours a day.  My feet were in agony the entire time during that filming. As extras, many of us stood around pretending to talk by just moving our lips, because there are only so many things to talk about for eight hours.  We smiled, we pretended to talk, we pretended to laugh, whenever shooting began.  That is the life of an extra.

Being in a movie, doing photo shoots for catalogs and newspaper ads, is a lot of hard work. The days are long.  The clothing not always comfortable.  BUT, there is always the craft table, where food is provided for all members of the cast.  My first time tasting a walnut tart was at a crafts table of food on a movie set.

My exposure to the glam movie world helped solidify my love for beautiful clothing, beautiful accessories and lower-heeled shoes.

Here is a list of some of my favorite stores:

Macy’s
Nordstrom’s
Lily Pulitzer
Zara
Neiman Marcus
Bloomingdale’s
Saks Fifth Avenue
Bergdorf Goodman

These stores are not located near where I live anymore, so I order online if I see something I really like. You can check Amazon.com or other online clothing outlets for something that fits your taste.

A maxi makes me look like a tall green bean. Below is me in a maxi. I look long. Midi is better on me.

Whatever you wear, make you you.  Be you.  Be no one else.  Your style in clothing is you.  If you choose to go high fashion, that’s great.  If you choose simplicity over complex, that’s great.  Just be you.  Have fun.

Smile at the ones sitting at the table with you. Laugh with the ones with you.  Have fun.

Thanks for reading.

Trish

Trish Berry, January 7, 2025

If it is a sunny day, you can’t stay out in the sun the whole day.  The sand gets hot, will burn the bottom of your feet or cause you to look like you are hopping over hot coals.  Wear shoes.  Wear sunscreen and reapply when needed. when you are on Perfect Day at Coco Cay.

Crew members from the ship go to the cay and cook fresh lunch for us.  Vegetarian foods are available, along with the meat and potato type foods. Crew members live on the island at all times.  This is a safety factor for the island as well as for maintenance of the rides and grounds. Royal Caribbean has left as much of the local flora as possible so there are tropical trees and bushes everywhere.  These need to be clipped so the tram can take you around to various places on the island.

One time when we were docked at Coco Cay on the Wonder of the Seas and were staying in a balcony room, we woke and were a little disappointed that sunshine wasn’t coming around the edges of the curtains. That meant a rainy day.  But it wasn’t.  When we pulled back the curtains we saw the largest ship at that time, ‘The Icon of the Seas,’ parked beside us.  It was so large that it blocked out the sunshine. That was the maiden voyage for Icon.  It only had crew members on board, along with some of the managers of RCCL and the managers’ families.  I heard one little girl say to her father in passing, “Daddy, you really have a great job.”  She was coming off the Icon of the Seas where the elite employees of RCCL were sailing. Yes, they have a great job.

Coco Cay has beautiful sand sculptures.

(This is an aside from cruising, but I wanted to tell you about it.  Any spare pocket change you have, toss it in a dish and save it for your local SPCA, that great foundation that takes care of unwanted, needy animals.  They always need old sheets, towels, and blankets.  Their linens are laundered so often that they wear out.  The animals need the warmth.  You can find these at garage sales, thrift stores and estate sales.

I make cat toys filled with stuffing and catnip and donate them to my local SPCA, a place of love and tenderness for animals, but which always needs funds and necessary items to house, feed and care for the animals. They do a wonderful job and are a no-kill facility.

We all love animals.  Dogs, cats, mules, pigs.  I love eagles, the American national bird.  I watch numerous eagle nests that have video cameras in place.  You can see the laying of eggs, the little eaglets breaking through the shell, the mother and father feeding and caring for the eaglets until they are ready to fledge. Nature is hard.  Rips your heart out at times, but it makes your heart grow big at other times.

Anything you can do to help the animals of the world do it.  It doesn’t have to be a big gesture.  Dropping a few cans of dog food or cat food in your shopping cart and then taking to the SPCA helps.  Any.  Little.  Thing.  You.  Do.  Helps.  Above is a photo of me with a kitty toy that I made, and the kitty that liked it.)

Thanks for reading.  I hope you are sailing and having fun, and I know you are loving your pets.

Trish

Trish Berry, January 5, 2025

Art can come in any form.  It is beauty expressed in words. It is creativity in imagination. It is skill in dancing.  It is skill with a paintbrush.  Art is in the way we dress.  Art is in our smile.  We can make art in our head by having good thoughts.  Art is all around us and inside of us.

The dessert chefs of Royal Caribbean display their art in the form of fabulous sweets.  Since we only sail with Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, I can safely say for us that nobody does it better in the food department than Royal Caribbean.  Breakfast, lunch, dinner and any snacks you want during the day.

The Windjammer is a restaurant/buffet that is open morning, noon and night.  If you don’t go to the Main Dining for breakfast, lunch and dinner, the Windjammer is there to offer delicious foods.  It’s usually located up on the top deck, or near the top deck, and you have a splendid view of the ocean while you dine.  The photos I’ve shown here all were taken in the Windjammer.

(In that top photo, those are chocolate dessert creations at the very top shelf. Wow!)

There is a main chef.  He does not cook.  He walks around with a very tall white hat on his head and supervises, looking around, making sure everything is in order. The tall white hat matches his white coat.  He is usually tall, authoritative looking and very kind and smiley.  He oversees all the other chefs who actually do the cooking.  There are many many chefs, there has to be to feed 6,000 or more passengers.

The dessert chefs are master artists in cooking.  They are creative in their designs.  I don’t eat many sweets, but I do take a whole slew of photos of them because they are art, pretty art, to me.  I am sure the desserts are as delicious as they look.  I’ll have to ask someone.

These photos were taken on Harmony of the Seas, a great big ship.  We were so busy enjoying the ship that we hardly ate.

Below is a photo of a tidbit plate that the chef sends to our room on each cruise we take.  The chef doesn’t know us personally, except to smile at us in one of the restaurants, but he always always sends us this cute little plate. And each ship has a different chef so he definitely doesn’t know us; it is just something that Royal Caribbean does as a reward for those who cruise often with them.

I do eat the chocolate-covered strawberries.  It is dark chocolate (good antioxidants and many helpful minerals for the body), and the strawberries are always fresh.

The ships always decorate for holidays.  Below is one of their Halloween displays.

Cruise ships have notorious reputations for people overeating and gaining weight.  We usually lose a pound or two when we cruise because we are so aware that this could happen.  As a result, I guess we undereat. We exercise a lot, going up and down stairs, walking around the exercise track and going to the gym.  On a big ship, you get in a lot of steps every day.  When you are in dock and get off the ship, you get in more steps. Thanks for reading.  Enjoy the fresh pears, apples, bananas, watermelon, cantaloupe and other delicious fruits available on every cruise ship.

Trish

(I’ve shown pretty photos of dessert, but I am 76 years old and do not eat sugary products, no matter how lovely they are.)

Below is how I feel about sugar.

Diabetes.  If you go to diabeticlive.com and type in any question on this horrible disease, it will take you to an article on the website that will answer any question you might have.

Here’s my short take.

People are under the misconception that eating sugary foods causes diabetes.  This is not true.  With a diagnosis of diabetes, you will need to limit your intake of sweets and carbs, but they didn’t cause you to get
diabetes.

Type 1 Diabetes (formerly known as Juvenile Diabetes Mellitus) is an autoimmune disease that causes the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas to go kaput.  The pancreas just stops producing insulin.  The only way to survive is to take artificial insulin by injection or insulin pump the rest of your life. Scientists have yet to discover why a person’s own immune system attacks and destroys its own Islets of Langerhans, those powerful cells in the pancreas that should produce insulin.  That immune system just kills those islets.

If you eat anything with sugar in it or something that turns to sugar quickly, like a carb (once called ‘starch’), always eat a protein at the same time.  The protein keeps the carb under control.  You are less likely to have a spike in your blood glucose level when a protein is combined with a carb.

Diabetes is an insidious disease that damages every part of your body.  The longer you have it, the more damage it does, even if you keep your A1C at or almost normal.  Diabetes just eats away, destroying, destroying, destroying.

Type 2 diabetes is just as bad, only it takes longer for the disease to strike one of your organs. Type 2 Diabetes is caused by your body’s inability to properly use insulin, or your pancreas doesn’t make enough insulin.  Type 2 Diabetes is not caused because you ate a piece of cake or two pieces of cake or even three. Type 2 diabetes is a malfunction in the way your body processes insulin. It just doesn’t do it the right way.  Why?  No one knows. (If you do get diagnosed with Type 2, that’s when it’s important to stay away from concentrated sugars.)

Diabetes causes heart problems, kidney problems, nerve damage to the outer extremities, eye problems. You name it, diabetes will do its best to damage/destroy the body bit by bit.

You might want to exercise a lot and drink a lot of water (dehydration leads to kidney damage).  This is the chicken soup advice for diabetes.  Drink water, drink water, drink water.

I see many people on our cruises with a round white circle patch, the size of an old half dollar, attached to their upper arm. Most of these people are slim and young. This is a CGM, Continuous Glucose Monitor, one of the greatest inventions in my lifetime for help in managing Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.

You attach it to your arm, connect it to your phone with an app, and it alerts you if you have a blood sugar spike or if your blood sugar level goes too low.  You learn from that what foods to steer clear of, or if you need additional insulin, or have too much insulin in your body, so you need to eat in order to prevent an insulin reaction  (too much insulin in the body that can lead to death and coma).

Some insurance companies do not want to cover the cost of a Continuous Glucose Monitor for those with Type 2 diabetes.  Fight that insurance company.  Have your doctor fill out the forms and get that CGM.  If the insurance company still does not cover the cost, then buy a CGM for yourself.  They are available for purchase.  You will learn so much about what the foods you put in your mouth do to your body. You will also learn what stress does to your body because stress can increase blood sugar levels.

I hate diabetes. I don’t have it, but I know those who do.  I see their battles.

Diabetes is a sneaky disease.  Once upon a time it was called the silent killer, but high blood pressure is now the owner of that phrase.  Statistics, facts, analyses, must have created the change. I don’t know.

I thought the ‘sneaky disease’ phrase was appropriate for diabetes.  It’s there, you don’t know it, much like cancer.  There are symptoms – extreme thirst, weight loss, blurred vision, breathlessness — but you’ve often had the condition for quite a while before these symptoms appear.  Eat what your heart desires but listen to your heart while you eat because your heart is the thing that is keeping you alive.  Your heart doesn’t like all that sugar.  Your heart wants to beat to the rhythm of wellness. A smooth beat, a steady beat. Your heart wants you to exercise, drink lots of water, skip an excessive amount of sweets.  Your heart wants you to stay strong and healthy.

If our eyes and stomach would just listen to our hearts!!

Happy traveling and thanks for reading this rant.

Trish

I am mostly a vegetarian. In Main Dining and all over any Royal Caribbean Cruise ship you will find vegan or vegetarian foods. Shown above is the vegan lemon curd tart that I used to order in the evening because it was listed as vegan.  It is no longer shown as vegan.  And, this photo shows when the crust was made from shredded coconut.  It was fabulous.  The last time I had it, the crust was a regular pie crust and was not as good.

At one time, there was a separate vegan menu, but now the vegan menu is combined with the regular foods offered.

There are three categories to order from the menu:  Appetizer, Main Entrée, Dessert.  A breadbasket, with multi types of bread, butter, are on the table.  Water is poured for you.  There are lots and lots of flatware and stemware and the beautiful linen tablecloth and linen napkin.   Ron has iced tea; I have decaf coffee.  You can order an alcoholic beverage at this time, but we are teetotalers, so we go with the tea and coffee. There is a charge for alcoholic beverages.

I can already tell you what’s on the menu because we leave again in a few weeks on another cruise.  I have a Royal Caribbean app on my phone that already shows activities for that week we are cruising and the foods offered that week. When in Main Dining, we order our food choices off the Royal Caribbean app on our phone.

Most people are handed elegant designer menus and order from that.  When we first started cruising again after the pandemic, we were all asked to use our phones to order in Main Dining.  Less chance of spreading germs.  We have continued that practice, although we see most other diners using the large designer menus.  Below is a photo of something I always order.  It is tofu tacos.  Air fried cubes of tofu, spicy sauce to dip the cubes in, and apple or pear slices. I never eat the crust cups, so I don’t know what they are made of, but it looked like a simple pie crust.  This is a filling meal.

Below is a photo of the vegan maple soy tofu and avocado salad with sesame seeds.

The avocado salad above has a maple syrup and lime dressing that is delicious.  I make this dressing at home.

I’ve raved about the desserts, but I limit myself to one Main Dining dessert a week.  All that sugar, vegan or not, will get you in the long run.  Below is a photo of me tasting a vegan dessert.  Chocolate mousse with fruit.  I only tasted it.  It was very good.

Below is my favorite entree. Stuffed portobello mushroom with spinach in a marinara sauce.

I know you will all remember the people who worked so hard to make that fabulous meal for you, vegan or not, and that you thank them for their service, their kindness, their smiles, and their readiness to do anything to make your meal as pleasurable as possible. Snap a photo of the waiters’ identification block on the table that shows their names.  Remember them in the survey.  The manager of Main Dining always comes over to talk to you, to check on you.  Click a photo of the tag on his chest.  Remember him in the survey.  They don’t mind at all when we take a photo of their chests, male or female.

A big shout out to Jude, a Main Dining manager, with whom we have sailed with numerous times.  He is so very kind and helpful.  And your heart just puffs up with joy when a staff member remembers you from a year ago, two years ago, three years ago, four years ago. They work hard for their money, very hard.

Happy travels, happy trails to you.  May you eat what your heart desires and may your tummy be happy and may your blood sugar levels always be low.

Thanks for reading.

Trish

We began cruising shortly after the pandemic mandates were lifted.  Our first trip back was on a cruise ship that held 6,000 passengers. There were 650 onboard passengers. We were two of those passengers.  We rattled around in all that luxury like marbles in a glass bowl.  We met many fellow travelers.  We laughed a lot, had a ton of fun and hated it when the cruise ended.

Royal Caribbean gave us a bracelet to wear.  That was our welcoming gift.  It said “Royal Caribbean Comeback.” And they had come back from something awful.  An industry devastated by a pandemic, ships sitting out at sea with crew members stranded for months and months away from their families, the stock market crash on their stocks, maintaining the ships.  So many problems Royal Caribbean overcame.

We all wore our bracelets.  We were all proud of our bracelets.

Because of the limited number of passengers, the crew members took extra special care of us, as they always do.  We wore masks.  We wore gloves.  We used the hand wipes.

We did not touch anything, like the railing of the stairs, without some protection between our hand and the rail, usually gloves.

Royal Caribbean instituted new safety factors for the safest cruising possible.  There were Purell stands everywhere so you could pump a squirt in your hand without touching anything, just getting the Purell into your hand.

When going to dine, either in Main Dining or at the Windjammer and most other restaurants, we had new handwashing stations.

Sinks with water coming out of them where you had to “washy washy” before “yummy yummy.” These wash stations were similar to what you would see in a lady’s room or a men’s room. Below is a photo of two of the wash stations for use before entering an eatery.

People do things with their hands without thinking, put them in strange places.  As a precaution, after we have filled our plates, we use a Wet One to clean the sides of a glass or the handle of a cup someone else has touched. We clean the silverware (because someone had touched it before putting it in that linen napkin).  In other words, we clean everything that we are going to use that someone else has touched.

The restrooms have automatic doors. You do not need to touch anything when entering or exiting.  You just wave your hand in front of the black button.

Did we ever get ill? Yes.  But it was not from any cruise that we took.  We became ill from a lady at our local Publix Supermarket. Our cases were not severe, but they were not nice, and I don’t ever want to have it again.

Before each cruise you are required to answer questions on your health, a ‘wellness check.’  Fill it out and be honest.  You don’t want to be ill away from home, and you do not want to give your illness to someone else.

Norovirus.  An awful thing.  Up one way and down the other way. At the same time.  I’ve read that the best way to prevent it is by hand washing.  Many of the sanitizers cannot stop it.  Breathe in through your nose and out through your nose when in a confined space with others, like an elevator.  Your nose filters out the bad.  Norovirus can spread through the air, but it is mostly transferred by touch. Use your wipes, if you wish.

Have fun cruising.  Dress up, dress down.  Use wipes, don’t use wipes.  Wear masks, don’t wear masks. We are all different.  We are all unique.  What works for us might not work for you.  (We no longer wear masks, unless we are around someone who we can hear coughing in an ill way; thus, we always have a mask on our bodies.  Just in case.)

Thanks for reading.

Trish