The final tally

+4 lbs.

Not so bad considering I'd lost 3 lbs before leaving. Maybe it helps when you get a room in the front of the ship and the food is in the back. Also, it helps when the elevators are full and slow and you have to walk 4 flooors up to eat and 3 floors down to eat more.

you must have stayed from the midnight dessert fest, if you kept it to 4 lbs. Congratulations on your self-restraint, but us lesser mortals succumbed

Tracy Whitney wrote:+4 lbs.

A family we know went ton Cruise and told me that they had Indian food available in buffet on daily basis. Is this true for your cruise too? What kinda food was provided all the days away from land?

yeah, I would be dozing by midnight... Well, we did out bit by taking the stairs as much as we could. Also, sister dear would sometimes make us walk/sprint to shops over 1 mile away, and then we would run back to catch the ship.

Regarding desserts, man did I hog. Since they were not repeated daily, I would scout for the ones that looked interesting, and if I liked them I would take 2-3 servings. In a day, I would find 3-4 of such interesting desserts. I did balance it by eating daal-rice on most days. And stock up the plates with watermelons.

By the 5th day though, I was oversaturated with desserts and didn't pick any new stuff, except the fruit cakes which are my weakness.

The Absolute Zero wrote:

Tracy Whitney wrote:+4 lbs.

A family we know went ton Cruise and told me that they had Indian food available in buffet on daily basis. Is this true for your cruise too? What kinda food was provided all the days away from land?

Yeah there would be desi food too.. usually some kind of daal and a curry, veg or non veg. And pilaf...
When we went for dinner (we usually had dinner in a restaurant), we would order from the menu and also the special indian orders which would include roti, raita, papad, daal. And there would be one veg and one nonveg dish... we would usually get 1 veg and 1-3 non veg ones and share them. The chef was from UK, and the only masala that he had was the garam masala... hence pretty much e'thing tasted the same.

One of the main chefs in the kitchen was a desi dude.

The Absolute Zero wrote:

Tracy Whitney wrote:+4 lbs.

A family we know went ton Cruise and told me that they had Indian food available in buffet on daily basis. Is this true for your cruise too? What kinda food was provided all the days away from land?

taj, you should go on a cruise. full 500% paisa vasool on the buffets!!!

4 lbs is not too bad.

That you drove alone from chicago to nj is pretty impressive. But, couldn't you have taken off on Monday and flew back a day later, instead of driving all the way.

Looks like K didn't accompany you for the cruise. Was it with your sisters and kids? Nice!

Well cross country driving from chicago to NJ was on my bucket list anyway.. so took this opportunity. There were no available flights before Thursday.

K didn't go with us this trip, we all sorely wished that he did specially on the drive back. But he did the scouting of the area for me so that when I hit NJ, I knew exactly what roads to take.

Sis wanted to take take rents to the cruise, and they said they will come from India only if I come along too, as my b'day falls that time. So I agreed. This was decided like 2 months ago, and K's calendar was set already. He also has a big chunk of days to take off for his parents who are visiting my BIL.

Propagandhi711 wrote: taj, you should go on a cruise. full 500% paisa vasool on the buffets!!!

500% vasool is not acceptable for me. Will consider adding another absolute zero after 500. BTW consider enrolling into "Reading 101."

not just the buffet, the sit down restaurants was free. The randome international cafes were free. The food was great quality. The last night, we had a special Lobster night, and it was awesome.

Tracy Whitney wrote:not just the buffet, the sit down restaurants was free. The randome international cafes were free. The food was great quality. The last night, we had a special Lobster night, and it was awesome.

taj will require free stuff in copious quantities and that too veggie friendly for it to be pura paisa vasool. can you confirm if the cakes are eggless?

maybe taz can try masala cruises.

Tracy Whitney wrote: not just the buffet, the sit down restaurants was free.

You guys lost it. What free? For each ticket how much they charged you? $5K? It is funny you say it is free after coughing up so much! Bery bery phunni. Huh?

It came out to be 1400 per person. Room service gratuity was about 23 per person per day... Except alcohol, all was free. WHich we didn't drink. I took ONE cosmo ONE time, and it was labeled as 'tracy drank daru that time'. Actually any kind of drink other than tea, coffee or water costed you, but for kids there were many times zones when soda was free.

We ate 7 meals, which would cost minimun $50 but average $100 per person each meal in a NYC restaurant of the same scale and same food. We ate endless desserts, each costing atleast 5 dollars.

We watched a premium show or two every night. Included dance performances, musical performances, and comedy night... each would cost an entry of minimum 50 per person, i.e. if you are going for the farthest seat.

We got to hear individual music recitals... 4-5 going on at the same time on the same floor, changing from room to room. There was karaoking contests as well.

The kids had activities for many hours every day. Cost of such a day care would be about 400 per week per kid.

There was a gym, and many pools. Free. There was an open movie theatre with a new movie every day.

Everything denoted luxury, and there was not a single helper on the cruise who did not have a smile on their face.

And we visited 4 different ports. To fly there would take atleast 100 dollar per port per person.

Internet access available? I would not want to miss Mr Propagandhi's follow up posts, you know!

internet was paid. They had different packages. And on the ports, or near the ports, we would get the local 3G. To be honest, didn't miss internet at all.

How about some details about cruise line, links and pix (as bittu would say!)

it was Princess. google it. pix, you missed the great opportunity when I shared the pics on the chat.. can't access them from work. We went to juneau, skagway, ketchikan and victoria, canada.

side note: we learned that the entire cruise empire is owned by just two families in europe. The cruises are different, but total two owners.

Tracy Whitney wrote:it was Princess. google it. pix, you missed the great opportunity when I shared the pics on the chat.. can't access them from work. We went to juneau, skagway, ketchikan and victoria, canada.

side note: we learned that the entire cruise empire is owned by just two families in europe. The cruises are different, but total two owners.

and one day the ship went upto glacier bay and stayed there for half a day for a great view. The entire cruise to and from glacier bay was very scenic and we spotted whales etc.

can you skip on the tips? I would like to know so we can optimize fully.

Tracy, you enjoyed the trip because your primary focus, source of joy and ultimate happiness is FOOD.

HTH and EOD.

bittu, actually the parts I enjoyed were the excursions (and adventures) of the towns > listening to the towns' history and lifestyle by the tour guides and about the tour guides themselves > the scenic beauty of the place, and random wildlife > the part that I was close with the family > the entertainment on the ship > food on the ship.

Propagandhi711 wrote:can you skip on the tips? I would like to know so we can optimize fully.

misplaced here? shouldn't it be in the ' Kaltenbrunner's K2 expedition' post

awkwardness update.... so like there is this fat composition tool kinda thing e'one here plays with... first off, had to add age (am 4 years OLDER to my "seniors")... and weight (lied by 4 lbs) in front of others - (yeah I am way too game for taking such quizzes/things to avoid impending shame)... so anyway, my fat composition is 36% (used to be 30) and bmi is like 26.

dammit x 1200

Propagandhi711 wrote:
taj will require free stuff in copious quantities and that too veggie friendly for it to be pura paisa vasool. can you confirm if the cakes are eggless?

ah..seems to be softening, almost losing it ; how come no more 'vaaaater without ice..' appendage

how come you guys managed to contain all that food when i imagined you would all be throwing it up over the deck? are these some state-of-the-art cruise liners that don't cause sea sickness?

Another Brick wrote:how come you guys managed to contain all that food when i imagined you would all be throwing it up over the deck? are these some state-of-the-art cruise liners that don't cause sea sickness?

Only the second day of the cruise was very rough (we had got into the cruise the evening before which was fine, but technically this was the first full day). That day, we were sailing the whole day. We heard that it was rough even for the regular cruisers, and more coz the captain had decided to go a little faster.

I had woken up in the early morning with super class rocking, imagine rocking on planes in the turbulence, and imagine it go constantly for hours..... daughter and younger neice got scared that we would drown, so I had to explain them how we won't. Then I went to rent's room and had tea with them. I was fine until this point. Then, since I was excited to be on the boat the first time, I decided to go in their balcony and look out, and oh boy. I have never felt so dizzy before. Somehow I managed to take a shower and went to my hair appointment. There I took a glass of water and kept sipping some e' few minutes. Even if I looked at the mirror which reflected the window, I would feel dizzy again. Laying back to get hair washed was so hard. The hairdresser was this chatty (gayish) south african, and I got to chatting with him asking about their life as sailing crew and all. I was better after the appointment, and not so bad the rest of the day.

For people who are prone to motion sickness, you can buy a patch which you can put behind your ear. Works for 72 hours. My BIL had that on so he was fine. My mom took to the bed and would not move for anything. So BIL gave one to her too. My daughter and older neice took it the hardest, both of them threw up once each. In fact many people threw up that day in the ship. My daughter was half hysterical at a point and said let's get off at the next port and go back home. She could not imagine being like this for next 7 days! She was more miserable also coz it was the formal night that day and she had dreamed a lot about it, and she could not bring herself to get ready. We bought some meds and some wonder ginger meds for them so then they felt better. Guess older sailors used ginger to avoid sea sickness.

The funnest part was walking thru the corridors. You would involuntarily shift left then right then left then right, but you would not bump into anyone as they would be doing the same shifts. The hallways to the room were narrow, so mostly we would line up. It was so funny to be walking like this and see people infront of you also doing the same. Reminded me of this Charlie Chaplin movie where he is shown to come in a boat from England to US.. watch it if you haven't.

Once this girl was trying to pass us and I joked, 'sawwy we are all drunk'. So she laughed and said that she skies and what we are doing was good. Don't resist the rocking, go with it. She also said how to let the knees go loose but I think we were already doing that.

After that, the cruise was very smooth. My mom didn't need another patch. Sometimes, the ship would rock, but it wasn't as bad as the first day, or maybe we had become pros.

oh, surprisingly my son and nephew were not affected at all. My dad was fine too. He had sailed from UK to India when he was returning home in the 60s, and had kinda given us a prep talk beforehand. The younger niece was affected slightly lesser than my sis and I were. But we guessed she was having just sympathy motion sickness seeing her two older sisters.

E'body had diff sypmtoms. Some felt dizzy like me. Some felt nauseated like my sis. And some had major stomach cramps like my daughter.

Tracy Whitney wrote:
Only the second day of the cruise was very rough (we had got into the cruise the evening before which was fine, but technically this was the first full day). That day, we were sailing the whole day. We heard that it was rough even for the regular cruisers, and more coz the captain had decided to go a little faster.

I had woken up in the early morning with super class rocking, imagine rocking on planes in the turbulence, and imagine it go constantly for hours..... daughter and younger neice got scared that we would drown, so I had to explain them how we won't. Then I went to rent's room and had tea with them. I was fine until this point. Then, since I was excited to be on the boat the first time, I decided to go in their balcony and look out, and oh boy. I have never felt so dizzy before. Somehow I managed to take a shower and went to my hair appointment. There I took a glass of water and kept sipping some e' few minutes. Even if I looked at the mirror which reflected the window, I would feel dizzy again. Laying back to get hair washed was so hard. The hairdresser was this chatty (gayish) south african, and I got to chatting with him asking about their life as sailing crew and all. I was better after the appointment, and not so bad the rest of the day.

For people who are prone to motion sickness, you can buy a patch which you can put behind your ear. Works for 72 hours. My BIL had that on so he was fine. My mom took to the bed and would not move for anything. So BIL gave one to her too. My daughter and older neice took it the hardest, both of them threw up once each. In fact many people threw up that day in the ship. My daughter was half hysterical at a point and said let's get off at the next port and go back home. She could not imagine being like this for next 7 days! She was more miserable also coz it was the formal night that day and she had dreamed a lot about it, and she could not bring herself to get ready. We bought some meds and some wonder ginger meds for them so then they felt better. Guess older sailors used ginger to avoid sea sickness.

The funnest part was walking thru the corridors. You would involuntarily shift left then right then left then right, but you would not bump into anyone as they would be doing the same shifts. The hallways to the room were narrow, so mostly we would line up. It was so funny to be walking like this and see people infront of you also doing the same. Reminded me of this Charlie Chaplin movie where he is shown to come in a boat from England to US.. watch it if you haven't.

Once this girl was trying to pass us and I joked, 'sawwy we are all drunk'. So she laughed and said that she skies and what we are doing was good. Don't resist the rocking, go with it. She also said how to let the knees go loose but I think we were already doing that.

After that, the cruise was very smooth. My mom didn't need another patch. Sometimes, the ship would rock, but it wasn't as bad as the first day, or maybe we had become pros.

that made an entertaining read for me. btw, i did not know about the patch. i will keep that in mind and use it if and when i go on a cruise.

yes, that was a very entertaining account indeed. i am almost tempted to try out a cruise sometime but i think i won't for fear of sea sickness.