Author: flgirl338

Trish Berry

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

Travel Leisure Red Top, Coldwater Creek White Pants, Modified Flip Flops, Royal Caribbean White Wrap, Gold Necklaces and Charms, Gold Bracelets, Apple Watch, Sally Hansen Xtreme Nail Polish (#299, Pucker Up), Walmart Scrunchie in Hair

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

Trish Berry, January 2025

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 “The Royal Comeback.” And they truly 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

Trish Berry, December 2024

Ralph Lauren Dress, Ann Taylor Short White Sweater, Gold Rings, Bracelets, Necklaces and Charms, Gray Acupuncture Wristlets, Gold Diamond Studs, Gold Hoop Earrings

I was lucky enough to be given by Royal Caribbean Cruise Line a three-night stay at my local Seminole Hard Rock Hotel in Tampa, Florida.   The room was very luxurious.  We had a wonderful time of quiet and peace, loud and very noisy on the casino floor, dim lights and then bright lights.  It was a gift we treasured and will always remember.

The hotel has a large guitar standing out by the roadway, with the building in the back.  The guitar can be seen from many miles away.  It’s the lead-in photo that I shared above. The outside of the building is concrete and looks cold, but inside is warm like a pastry right out of the oven.

During our visit, there were many Christmas decorations. They were beautiful.  We have only been here a few times, mostly on the holidays, just to see the gorgeous decorations.

The Seminole Tribe of Florida owns all the Seminole Tribe hotels and casinos.  They deserve to have this source of income after what was done to the Native Indians of America.  Read about the Trail of Tears.  It will tell you how the Indian Removal Act of 1830 rounded up the Seminoles and forced them on a long trek away from their homes in Florida.  Many Native Americans died during that forced trip.  Horrors occurred during that trip.  It is a part of our history that shames me to the bone.

When we stayed in that quiet room, I hoped that every descendant of the Seminole Tribe currently had a room as beautiful as the one we stayed in.  They deserve it.  They deserve much more than I can ever give them.

It makes you grateful to be in a beautiful place like that.  And our stay was a gift from Royal Caribbean; otherwise, we would have never stayed there, especially for three nights.

The casino was bustling.  Always.  We were very careful.  Gambling can be a horrible addiction.  There is help for those with a gambling problem.  Seek help.  Google for a hotline number on gambling that can give you the information you need.

Thank you, Royal Caribbean, for being loyal to us by giving us this free weekend trip. We had a lot of fun.

Thanks for reading.

Trish

The only clothing you need for jet skiing is a swimsuit and a coverup to wear before and after and possibly rosary beads.  My swimsuit is old.  It is made by Jantzen.  It has lasted me a good 15 years.  Jantzen always, and still does, makes excellent, long-lasting swimwear.  Mine still fits and I still wear it.

Years ago, my husband and I were in the Turks and Caicos and went jet skiing.  We putt-putted around.  It was slow and easy and very controlled.  Very relaxing.  A line of about 15 jet skis following one another at a safe distance, never going at high speed.  Sort of like baby carriages being pushed in the park by their mothers.

Well, jet skiing has changed.  We made reservations to go jet skiing at Coco Cay, Royal Caribbean’s private island near Nassau, and found ourselves on something of a frightful ride.

But all went well.

Yes, jet skiing has changed a lot since our putt-putting days. We were required to take a safety course before getting on the Sea-Doo jet skis.  We all had to wear life jackets.  Then we were asked if we wanted to go fast.  All arms of the fellow jet skiers in the room shot up into the air, except for my husband and myself.  Mentally, we are in our 50s, but physically we are in our 70s, late 70s.  We looked across the room at one another wondering what we had gotten ourselves into.

We were led out to the Sea-Doos and mounted them.  They were comfortable.  We were told how to use the throttles on the handle.  The instructors helped us back out of the parking spaces.

Too late for us to chicken out.  We had paid a good sum for the excursion and were sitting on our water demons ready to go.  And go we did.

If you’re on CoCo Cay, look out there on the water and watch the jet skiers.  They are going fast, fast, fast.  There is a leader, you are in a row, but there is a great distance between each jet ski for safety reasons.  They are going fast, fast, fast.

Did I tell you they were going fast???

We went a little distance into the water and met in a group circle, our group leader watching, looking us over.  I bumped into someone else’s Sea Doo because I hadn’t figured out how to get it stopped. With a little help, I got the thing stopped before I knocked someone off their ride or broke someone’s leg when I ran into them.

Nervous Nelly on a jet ski. We were put in formation, with my husband and myself being the last two.  There was a professional follower who came behind the line of skiers.  She was to make sure we all kept up.

I lost my hat.  I hated that.  It blew into the wind behind me.  I never saw it again. It drowned.  My hat died.  I lived.

We couldn’t keep up.  I held on with my knees, like I was riding an angry horse.  Squeezed those knees until they hurt.

There are reefs out there in that dark water so you have to follow the line.  The line of skiers became farther and farther in the distance ahead of us.  The official follower urged us on.  We slowed more and more.

With age comes sanity.  We knew we were far out of our depth, but we hung in there and finished the ride about ten minutes after the YOUNG ones in front of us did.  There was a lot of hootin’ and hollerin’ and much laughter when we finally arrived at where they were already stationed with their jet skis.  Yes, the old folks had finally made it.

It was exhilarating.  It was scary.  We will never do it again.  Many will.

I discovered later that jet skiing is considered risky by the insurance industry.

We don’t regret going on those jet skis.  We just will never do it again.  We built a four-board horse fence around a two-acre property we once owned.  We will never do that again.  Some things in life are just not do-overs.

If you are extremely brave, courageous, have the will of an adventurer, would go into an arena alone with a starving lion, would fight Mike Tyson or join WWE, then jet skiing at Coco Cay is for you.

OR, if you are simply young, then jet skiing at Coco Cay is for you.  Young, that’s the key.  Lithe, agile, aching for the wind in your face, the water spraying around you, jet skiing at a high speed is the thing for you.  This is a young person’s sport, to us.

If I had a bucket list, which I do not have, but some people do, I would suggest that you do that part of your bucket list at an early age.  Get it behind you.  Mark it off your list.  If you survive.

Thanks for reading.

Jet ski and have fun.

Trish