As most of you know, my next cruise is in August leaving from the Port of Mobile, Alabama. It was significantly less to leave from there, enough that made it worth the extra 2.5hrs drive to Mobile, over what it would take to get to Galveston!
So if you are a budget cruise traveler, such as myself, it pays for you to check other ports to get more competitive pricing! And booking as far in advance as you can guarantees that you will receive a great discount!
This particular cruise I have booked has gone up $600 since I booked it in Feb. That's a big difference.
But for this particular blog, I am going to share with you a tip that I discovered last year.
CRUISE & HOTEL PACKAGES.
This is not booked through the cruise line, but through hotels within the area of the port. My first experience with this was out of Port Canaveral. We stayed at a wonderful hotel RADISSON CAPE CANAVERAL that overlooked the port. When we walked outside that morning, we could see our ship docked! How exciting that is !!!
So how is this a great bargain, you might ask. Well, when you park at the terminal you are probably going to pay something like $15 per day parking (varies per terminal) but thats a good basic amount. You can research this by pulling up each specific terminal.
For Port Canaveral, I read about the hotel on a cruise forum, so I called, and for $15 more than I was paying to park directly at the ship terminal, I could stay in a really nice hotel the night before and they would drop me off at the terminal front. Well, that is a bargain if I ever have found one... we were going to spend the night at a hotel anyway the night before, so why not book the Cruise Package at the hotel and get a really nice place for just a few bucks more. And you might find that you are actually staying with more cruisers than you expected!
We took the shuttle to the ship that morning, and the guys that drove the shuttle loaded and unloaded our luggage for us, so we just grabbed our carry on bags and walked to the ship. Our bags met us later in the afternoon at our cabin door.
So this year, going out of Alabama, I began to research hotels in the area that offer this type of package. Since we are just taking a 5-day cruise the savings is not quite as significant as the one in Port Canaveral, but I ended up paying an extra $44 for a pre-cruise hotel at the Radisson Admiral Semmes right near the port. This hotel includes a breakfast certificate for $20 to use the morning of the cruise, and it has covered parking and the shuttle to the ship.
So when you get ready to cruise, if you live far enough that you want to drive in the night before I suggest you begin researching hotels near the port with Pre-Cruise packages. It's definitely worth it, and you don't have to deal with the pre-cruise traffic! Shuttles tend to be able to just breeze right by everyone else ;)
That's it for now...
Katrina
Friday, March 26, 2010
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Grasping Your Vision
So many times I see people wandering aimlessly through life with no real direction or purpose within their heart. Just letting life "happen" around them, and then mumbling because it's not really what they wanted.
I challenge you to stop and take a minute to evaluate your life. What is your overall vision? Do you even have one? Even God says it's important that people have a vision. "Where there is no vision, the people perish." (Prov 29:18)
A Vision is an inspirational outlook on life, your ultimate goals, your achievements that you seek to accomplish, your dreams that perhaps have been hidden deep within the crevices of your soul.
Once you locate your vision, write it down. Who cares if it sounds crazy, it's YOUR VISION, not someone else's.
Now how do you grasp that vision and make it a reality? Figure out a plan, it's probably not a short distance, so you need to map it out. You would never decide to take a road trip to Alaska and just start driving with no direction, plan, or map. You have to create in your mind the journey, envisioning the stops along the way, thinking about the people that you will encounter, those who will help you find direction when you get lost, those less fortunate than you who perhaps you can impart something into their life, whether it be so simple as just a smile.
There are many times you may be on your journey where you take a wrong turn, or miss your exit, but just keep going, let your internal GPS reroute your destination, and as soon as possible get back on the right path. There are no short cuts, your whole life is the journey.
But once you grasp your vision, let it guide you throughout your days. By doing this, you will no doubt be able to accomplish more. So that in your last days you can reflect on your life to see that indeed you lived a most fulfilling life, rich with experiences & opportunities, and only very few regrets.
Have you grasped your vision yet?
~K
I challenge you to stop and take a minute to evaluate your life. What is your overall vision? Do you even have one? Even God says it's important that people have a vision. "Where there is no vision, the people perish." (Prov 29:18)
A Vision is an inspirational outlook on life, your ultimate goals, your achievements that you seek to accomplish, your dreams that perhaps have been hidden deep within the crevices of your soul.
Once you locate your vision, write it down. Who cares if it sounds crazy, it's YOUR VISION, not someone else's.
Now how do you grasp that vision and make it a reality? Figure out a plan, it's probably not a short distance, so you need to map it out. You would never decide to take a road trip to Alaska and just start driving with no direction, plan, or map. You have to create in your mind the journey, envisioning the stops along the way, thinking about the people that you will encounter, those who will help you find direction when you get lost, those less fortunate than you who perhaps you can impart something into their life, whether it be so simple as just a smile.
There are many times you may be on your journey where you take a wrong turn, or miss your exit, but just keep going, let your internal GPS reroute your destination, and as soon as possible get back on the right path. There are no short cuts, your whole life is the journey.
But once you grasp your vision, let it guide you throughout your days. By doing this, you will no doubt be able to accomplish more. So that in your last days you can reflect on your life to see that indeed you lived a most fulfilling life, rich with experiences & opportunities, and only very few regrets.
Have you grasped your vision yet?
~K
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Expanding Your Horizons
This morning I was talking with someone about traveling, and the upcoming cruises I have planned, and through comments that he made it brought back to memory the first time I ventured out on my own, beyond my comfort level of traveling.
When I was married we took a few small trips, but my main memory of vacations comes from my childhood. I remember standing in awe at the bottom of the steps of the Lincoln Memorial (Washington DC) and then seeing how many I could run up without stopping. I remember waiting in line at Disneyworld to meet Mickey Mouse and how exciting it was to finally get his autograph! (Wow and he wasn't even real! LOL)
But it seems that when you get divorced, a part of your world stops. For me, that part included vacations. I was too scared to go anywhere, venture out on my own. I probably didn't have enough money to take a trip anyway. After all, we had food to buy and bills to pay.
Then to make things even more risky, I quit my job and decide to persue movies. Wow, what was I thinking? My first film was one my brothers made that sparked my interest (that's a whole different blog on that one!) but then they moved to Los Angeles and was going to be screening that movie at Universal Studios Backlot. So a couple of my friends and I decided to fly out there, we had someone give us free southwest passes and off we went. And boy was it amazing! I didn't do any driving, but one of my brothers friends let us borrow his car, and we just went everywhere (got lost several times, but that was all fun!)
While on this trip I saw so many things that I wanted my kids to see, so I talked with my brother and I began planning a trip to LA for the summer with my kids. Since he & my other brother drove back and forth from TX to LA alot, I knew it was possible, picked some stopping points, and decided to press my limits.
This was summer of 2003, divorced for 4 years, kids were 11, 9 & 8. And we head out on our 11 hr drive to El Paso for our first stop of the trip. This was the fartherest I had ever driven in my entire life. I got so sleepy about 30 min from the hotel. I would keep stopping walking around the car, I drank probably 4 red bulls, and at this point I was "NEVER AGAIN!!! This is our last trip!"
Well after getting a good night's rest, I swung open the curtains of the hotel room, and suddenly found this newfound freedom that I had never known before. "I DID IT! I DROVE 11 HRS!!" Wow... it was amazing! It was exciting! And to top it all off, I did it by myself, I realized that I didnt' have to have a man to take vacations!!! We completed our trip to LA, my brother was a wonderful tour guide, and on the way home I distinctly remember telling my kids "Next year, we are going to Disneyworld." And next year, we did. Spent 2 weeks out in Orlando.
After that trip I asked where they wanted to go next, and my oldest wanted to go to Colorado, so we planned a Denver (& area) trip in 2005 and spent 3 weeks out there on vacation. Realized 3 weeks is way too long for a kid vacation, LOL.
So here I have been taking roadtrips all across the country just me and my young kids. Who would have thought? Not me 15 years ago!
I've taken many other travels with friends over the years as well, for a while I was going to LA every year, sometimes twice. Can't seem to get enough of that place! But I've gotten to meet Brad Pitt, George Lopez, Jay Leno, and so many other amazing people!
But back to my family vacations..... in 2006 we took our first cruise. A 5-day to Bahamas & Grand Turk. To check it out. And it was amazing! The kids had so much fun at the Camp Carnival, and made friends right away, and so it left me to have lots of time by myself to relax. Wow, I had never been able to relax before with the kids there, it was always "what are we going to do now?" or "I'm bored." So cruises quickly bumped up to the top of my vacation list.
Planning my 2007 vacation I opted on a 7-day itenarary with different ports. This time we went to Costa Maya, Belize, Honduras & Costa Maya. We did something different at each port. Always ate dinner in the dining room.
At this point I was wanting to venture out into international travel, but wasn't sure if I was ready yet, so I signed up for a Mission trip through Fellowship Church to go to Brazil for 10 days. Wow that was so amazing (would take a whole blog post just for that trip!) But while there, I did learn that I am not ready to take my kids to different countries for more than the cruise day trips. We could not leave our hotel (women) without a man with us because even tho we were at a nice hotel on the beach with gorgeous views, rape was very common in the area for tourists, so we were strongly cautioned against going anywhere alone.
2008 was our big Hawaii trip, I won the hotel, but had to pay for everything else. This trip easily cost me almost 2 times what a cruise costs. So back to cruising. I had won a cruise (#3) to Cozumel, took that in December. And then planned our 2009 Cruise #4 to St Thomas, St Maarten & Bahamas.
I currently have 2 cruises booked, one for this summer (Cruise #5) to Cozumel & Playa Del Carmen. And then I have finally stepped out and booked my Dream Cruise .... August 2011 we are taking the 12-day Mediterraean Cruise. 8 Fabulous ports, and overnight in Venice.
I said all this to say this..... even though you may look at your life as being not able to travel, I would like to encourage you to take that first step. Look at my story. I started with something that was familiar to me (visiting family out of state) and slowly over the years I have progressed to where my comfort level has expanded and I am able to save and plan for larger and more exciting vacations for my family.
Some of my favorite childhood memories come from vacations. It's not that difficult to plan and if you do your homework, you can make those dream vacations more affordable for your budget. I always create a budget, and i have gotten so good at it, I usually bring home money! Which is always exciting!
I encourage you to expand your horizons, and take a vacation this year beyond the usual. Your kids will thank you for it later. And the experience and overall value that it adds to the quality of your life is amazing!
Isn't it time you saw the world?
~K
When I was married we took a few small trips, but my main memory of vacations comes from my childhood. I remember standing in awe at the bottom of the steps of the Lincoln Memorial (Washington DC) and then seeing how many I could run up without stopping. I remember waiting in line at Disneyworld to meet Mickey Mouse and how exciting it was to finally get his autograph! (Wow and he wasn't even real! LOL)
But it seems that when you get divorced, a part of your world stops. For me, that part included vacations. I was too scared to go anywhere, venture out on my own. I probably didn't have enough money to take a trip anyway. After all, we had food to buy and bills to pay.
Then to make things even more risky, I quit my job and decide to persue movies. Wow, what was I thinking? My first film was one my brothers made that sparked my interest (that's a whole different blog on that one!) but then they moved to Los Angeles and was going to be screening that movie at Universal Studios Backlot. So a couple of my friends and I decided to fly out there, we had someone give us free southwest passes and off we went. And boy was it amazing! I didn't do any driving, but one of my brothers friends let us borrow his car, and we just went everywhere (got lost several times, but that was all fun!)
While on this trip I saw so many things that I wanted my kids to see, so I talked with my brother and I began planning a trip to LA for the summer with my kids. Since he & my other brother drove back and forth from TX to LA alot, I knew it was possible, picked some stopping points, and decided to press my limits.
This was summer of 2003, divorced for 4 years, kids were 11, 9 & 8. And we head out on our 11 hr drive to El Paso for our first stop of the trip. This was the fartherest I had ever driven in my entire life. I got so sleepy about 30 min from the hotel. I would keep stopping walking around the car, I drank probably 4 red bulls, and at this point I was "NEVER AGAIN!!! This is our last trip!"
Well after getting a good night's rest, I swung open the curtains of the hotel room, and suddenly found this newfound freedom that I had never known before. "I DID IT! I DROVE 11 HRS!!" Wow... it was amazing! It was exciting! And to top it all off, I did it by myself, I realized that I didnt' have to have a man to take vacations!!! We completed our trip to LA, my brother was a wonderful tour guide, and on the way home I distinctly remember telling my kids "Next year, we are going to Disneyworld." And next year, we did. Spent 2 weeks out in Orlando.
After that trip I asked where they wanted to go next, and my oldest wanted to go to Colorado, so we planned a Denver (& area) trip in 2005 and spent 3 weeks out there on vacation. Realized 3 weeks is way too long for a kid vacation, LOL.
So here I have been taking roadtrips all across the country just me and my young kids. Who would have thought? Not me 15 years ago!
I've taken many other travels with friends over the years as well, for a while I was going to LA every year, sometimes twice. Can't seem to get enough of that place! But I've gotten to meet Brad Pitt, George Lopez, Jay Leno, and so many other amazing people!
But back to my family vacations..... in 2006 we took our first cruise. A 5-day to Bahamas & Grand Turk. To check it out. And it was amazing! The kids had so much fun at the Camp Carnival, and made friends right away, and so it left me to have lots of time by myself to relax. Wow, I had never been able to relax before with the kids there, it was always "what are we going to do now?" or "I'm bored." So cruises quickly bumped up to the top of my vacation list.
Planning my 2007 vacation I opted on a 7-day itenarary with different ports. This time we went to Costa Maya, Belize, Honduras & Costa Maya. We did something different at each port. Always ate dinner in the dining room.
At this point I was wanting to venture out into international travel, but wasn't sure if I was ready yet, so I signed up for a Mission trip through Fellowship Church to go to Brazil for 10 days. Wow that was so amazing (would take a whole blog post just for that trip!) But while there, I did learn that I am not ready to take my kids to different countries for more than the cruise day trips. We could not leave our hotel (women) without a man with us because even tho we were at a nice hotel on the beach with gorgeous views, rape was very common in the area for tourists, so we were strongly cautioned against going anywhere alone.
2008 was our big Hawaii trip, I won the hotel, but had to pay for everything else. This trip easily cost me almost 2 times what a cruise costs. So back to cruising. I had won a cruise (#3) to Cozumel, took that in December. And then planned our 2009 Cruise #4 to St Thomas, St Maarten & Bahamas.
I currently have 2 cruises booked, one for this summer (Cruise #5) to Cozumel & Playa Del Carmen. And then I have finally stepped out and booked my Dream Cruise .... August 2011 we are taking the 12-day Mediterraean Cruise. 8 Fabulous ports, and overnight in Venice.
I said all this to say this..... even though you may look at your life as being not able to travel, I would like to encourage you to take that first step. Look at my story. I started with something that was familiar to me (visiting family out of state) and slowly over the years I have progressed to where my comfort level has expanded and I am able to save and plan for larger and more exciting vacations for my family.
Some of my favorite childhood memories come from vacations. It's not that difficult to plan and if you do your homework, you can make those dream vacations more affordable for your budget. I always create a budget, and i have gotten so good at it, I usually bring home money! Which is always exciting!
I encourage you to expand your horizons, and take a vacation this year beyond the usual. Your kids will thank you for it later. And the experience and overall value that it adds to the quality of your life is amazing!
Isn't it time you saw the world?
~K
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Cold Days on a Movie Set
Another chilly day causes me to want to bundle up and wear gloves rather than crank up the heat again.
I am sitting here wearing my (most attractive) red sweatshirt that I have worn on many a movie set over the past few years. I am reminded of the time that I was out in Havasau, Arizona filming a movie called "Razor." On this particular film I was casting extras, but since I had a connection to the Producers I also came on board as Producers Assistant and was on set the entire 3 weeks and it was a blast! COLD but oh so fun!
The first week was normal, during the day shoots, but then the second week bumped to all night shoots (dusk to dawn). Let me tell you , it gets COLD at night in Arizona in the early Spring. We had a day off in between the shift so that we could adjust our days/nights... however, it took me a bit longer than one day to actually get to where I would not be wanting to fall asleep by 2am.
I remember the first evening standing outside my hotel room and the DP walked by and said "Good Morning" and I reminded him that it was indeed EVENING not morning... and then after him, several other crew guys said the same thing "Good Morning." I thought it was very humorous that they were confusing evening for Morning! But sure enough the next evening I wake up at 5pm and step out onto the patio of the hotel and the first thing that pops out of my mouth when a crew guy walks by is "Good Morning!" Wow... did I just say that? LOL
I don't remember the temperatures back then, but it just reminds me that when you are working on a film you never know what to expect. I've worked on films outside in freezing temps that we are suppose to be shooting as "summer" so coats have to be removed for the scenes. I've worked in the rain, under tents and tarps, and I've also worked in the heat of summer out in the blasting sun..... I think I probably prefer the cold temps to the Texas heat... haha... but regardless, it's just another exciting facet to the world of movie-making! If ya can't handle it .... it's probably best you not sign up to be an extra :) But if you go with the flow, you will add many pages of memories to your book of life.
I am sitting here wearing my (most attractive) red sweatshirt that I have worn on many a movie set over the past few years. I am reminded of the time that I was out in Havasau, Arizona filming a movie called "Razor." On this particular film I was casting extras, but since I had a connection to the Producers I also came on board as Producers Assistant and was on set the entire 3 weeks and it was a blast! COLD but oh so fun!
The first week was normal, during the day shoots, but then the second week bumped to all night shoots (dusk to dawn). Let me tell you , it gets COLD at night in Arizona in the early Spring. We had a day off in between the shift so that we could adjust our days/nights... however, it took me a bit longer than one day to actually get to where I would not be wanting to fall asleep by 2am.
I remember the first evening standing outside my hotel room and the DP walked by and said "Good Morning" and I reminded him that it was indeed EVENING not morning... and then after him, several other crew guys said the same thing "Good Morning." I thought it was very humorous that they were confusing evening for Morning! But sure enough the next evening I wake up at 5pm and step out onto the patio of the hotel and the first thing that pops out of my mouth when a crew guy walks by is "Good Morning!" Wow... did I just say that? LOL
I don't remember the temperatures back then, but it just reminds me that when you are working on a film you never know what to expect. I've worked on films outside in freezing temps that we are suppose to be shooting as "summer" so coats have to be removed for the scenes. I've worked in the rain, under tents and tarps, and I've also worked in the heat of summer out in the blasting sun..... I think I probably prefer the cold temps to the Texas heat... haha... but regardless, it's just another exciting facet to the world of movie-making! If ya can't handle it .... it's probably best you not sign up to be an extra :) But if you go with the flow, you will add many pages of memories to your book of life.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Totally Random
Me? Blog ? Seriously? Whatever could I have to say that would be of interest to anyone?
Well, due to popular demand... ok one person said I should blog... but who's counting :)
I have decided to start a blog.
About what you ask? Good question..... I think I will not have a theme, but that it will be totally random thoughts and blogs on a daily/semi-daily basis. Who knows what I might come up with.
If you would have an interest in reading my random thoughts, then please feel free to follow.
If you get bored with my ramblings.... don't whine to me about it, just be an adult and unsubscribe!
So welcome to my blog! Let's get this party started!! :)
Well, due to popular demand... ok one person said I should blog... but who's counting :)
I have decided to start a blog.
About what you ask? Good question..... I think I will not have a theme, but that it will be totally random thoughts and blogs on a daily/semi-daily basis. Who knows what I might come up with.
If you would have an interest in reading my random thoughts, then please feel free to follow.
If you get bored with my ramblings.... don't whine to me about it, just be an adult and unsubscribe!
So welcome to my blog! Let's get this party started!! :)
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