Introduction There’s something you should know about me. In high school I was in the Pep Club, which was a fallback for those who weren’t coordinated, pretty, or popular enough to be a cheerleader. We wore outfits that looked just like cheerleader outfits though, so when someone would approach me in the grocery store and say, “oh, you’re a cheerleader for Skyview?,” I’d totally lie and say I was. Shrug. Anyway there’s this cheer we used to do that went like this: We’ve got spirit, yeah, yeah We’ve got spirit, yeah, yeah We’ve got what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what wha ..read more

Introduction A lot of weird, fluky things have happened to my family and I recently and they have me seriously considering two ideas. First, pitching a new, original series to CBS called, “The Twilight Zone.” Wait, what? That’s already been done? Shoot! Well hear me out on my second idea with an open mind and a shorter memory. I’m going to invent a mobile bubble suit, wrap myself and each of my family members in one, and use this as inspiration for a comedy screenplay called, “Bubble Boy.” What do you mean Jake Gyllenhaal starred in that Touchstone Pictures movie in 2001? I suppose I’ll just ..read more

The 411 on the Panorama Here’s how the Panorama would describe herself on a dating app: Plus-sized and proud!  Able to accommodate up to 5,146 guests on 15 decks!  Loves travel, children, theme parties, cocktails, amusement parks, eating out, movies, and sunsets.  Looking for someone who is fun, patient, and who enjoys long stints at sea.  Could you be the passenger for me? Introduction My mother/son cruise onboard the Panorama can be summarized as follows: While only 1 of the 1,000+ kids onboard was mine, I lost the right to complain about children the moment my 9-year-ol ..read more

My 9 year-old, “H,” and I recently disembarked from a special week long mother/son cruise onboard the Carnival Panorama. And while “H” was excited for a kid-friendly Fun Ship (after our 10-night Christmas cruise on Holland America’s ms Zuiderdam where he almost didn’t get any gifts because Rudolph trotted off the job arguing that five kids in the middle of the Pacific wasn’t worth the risk of a sea landing and the possibility of getting quarantined in a cruise ship cabin with eight colleagues too large to fit in the bathroom and a rosy-cheeked man who would remain annoyingly jolly in spite of ..read more

Introduction and Context You’re probably wondering what a photo of a dog in an elevator has to do with an inside cabin on the Carnival Panorama, right? First off, he’s not a dog. That’s Henry, the best good boi in all the land. And sweetest too – he only looks mad in this photo because we’d been trapped in the elevator of our high rise apartment building in downtown Seattle for 45 minutes following our morning walk and he wanted his breakfast! But while Henry would instantly forget about this little incident with his first post-rescue bite of kibble, I was quickly descending (not from a sudd ..read more

My son and I are just back from a spring break mother/son cruise onboard the Carnival Panorama. And one of our favorite activities onboard was the Sky Zone. My son, as a prodigious basketball fan, loved it because he got to channel Vince Carter in his 2000 NBA slam dunk contest win (minus thousands of fans and hundreds of thousands in prize money). And I got an hour of glorious time to myself during each of his four booked Sky Zone sessions to do the two things I enjoy most about cruising: eating without a nine-year-old’s filthy fingers defacing my food because he “might want to get some of t ..read more

Are Carnival Cruises Just Giant Parties? I have a reputation for being cheap and nerdy and Carnival has a reputation for offering cruises with a wild, party atmosphere. So is either actually true? Yes and partly. You’ll likely find me doing one of two things on a cruise. First, gorging on complimentary food and calculating how much the same meal would cost me on land in my home city of Seattle (sometimes I actually cheer when I determine I’ve reached the break even point on my cruise fare). And second, reading, walking while listening to an audiobook, or looking for wildlife on an outside dec ..read more

This review is of an inside aft cabin on deck 8 of the Carnival Miracle from my cruise to Alaska from Seattle.    A Video Tour Of An Inside Cabin On The Carnival Miracle I dressed up as Wilma from Where’s Waldo for a high school Halloween dance once because I figured no one would notice me stuffing my red and white striped clutch with bat cookies while my date, Waldo, filled up our to-go mugs with spiked punch.  Then we high-tailed it outta there and took off for the mountains in my parent’s 1992 Ford Explorer before anyone could question the whereabouts of the illusive Waldo an ..read more

I’ve waited 17 months for this day. And I wasn’t just waiting. For much of that time I was living in lockdown in Seattle near the first confirmed Covid case in the United States. One of the very first outbreaks of the virus was at the Starbucks in my building! Long days in a small apartment in a downtown high rise with Mr. Cruise, my 8 year-old, and my elderly dog. No yard to scoot them out into, no tinkering opportunities in a garage, no school, no work, no visits to the dog park or play dates. But more challenging than all of that? NO CRUISE SHIPS! Five years ago I retired as a college prof ..read more

Introduction There’s something you should know about me. In high school I was in the Pep Club, which was a fallback for those who weren’t coordinated, pretty, or popular enough to be a cheerleader. We wore outfits that looked just like cheerleader outfits though, so when someone would approach me in the grocery store and say, “oh, you’re a cheerleader for Skyview?,” I’d totally lie and say I was. Shrug. Anyway there’s this cheer we used to do that went like this: We’ve got spirit, yeah, yeah We’ve got spirit, yeah, yeah We’ve got what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what wha ..read more