Bahamas Cruise Part 1

Wow, a week in the Bahamas was a great experience! Especially while on a cruise. Total price for a one week cruise, including airfare ran me about $1000, but if you considered the fact that I would have had to pay to fly there anyway, if I had stayed in Florida, my cruise cost me roughly $700.

The $700 included unlimited amounts of food, room, room service, shows, activities and all the water, iced tea, drip coffee and vanilla/chocolate ice-cream I could want. Additional fees for my on board cruise included drinks/food from the coffee house, novelty ice-cream, alcoholic beverages, bottled water, soda, playing at the casino, bingo, some exercise activates, and specialty dinning.

The cost of the cruise also included passage to three islands located in the Bahamas, Nassau, St Thomas and St Marteen. All Three islands were lovely and each had their own unique flavor.

Nassau- the first island we visited

After disembarking, I ended up wandering around for quite a bit, unfortunately this was when all the shops were closed and the immediate shopping seemed more 2nd or 3rd world with the amount of burned down or rotted/vacant lots. Since all the shops were closed that early in the morning (8:30 am), we ended up dinning at a Starbucks for breakfast- which was delicious especially with the muggy heat so early in the morning.

We ended up taking a horse drawn carriage ride through town for a brief tour. It was $15 dollars a person and the hacky was enjoyable and full of surface information about the island and had a great sense of humor. The ride was brief but enjoyable. After the cart was returned, traveling on a street in a carriage with cars swerving in and out and pedestrians unafraid of being trampled was an experience, the shops were finally open.

We browsed briefly through shopping center before heading towards a local beach to get some sun and have a dip in the water. The beach we ended on, wasn’t the one indicated by the hacky, it was the beach next to it, but it was still enjoyable and there was food at hand if anyone was hungry, all beer had to be consumed in designated areas.

We ended up lounging around for a bit before the rest of the group met up with us. They didn’t seem that interested in the water, but the beach was the 2nd best we visited during the vacation.

After beer was consumed, we headed back towards the shopping lane and meandered are way back to the ship. If you’ve never watched any shows where a person travels into a foreign country that is not one of the major players in Europe, then you’re in for a big surprise. You are constantly bombarded with requests to purchase items by shop owners, or their children. This does not change no matter what island you go to, although St Thomas had the least. You have several options for these occasions:


Number 1- Ignore them. They will not be insulted if you say nothing just keep on walking.

Number 2- Politely but firmly say “No thank you” or just shake your head no. That’s it, do not explain why. Do not say you purchased something somewhere else, they do not care or will ask why you didn’t purchased from them. They are only there to sell their wears. If you are not purchasing anything, please do not take up any more of their time then necessary, you might be costing them money.

Number 3- Do not make eyes contact with them. I know this sounds harsh, but on several of the beaches, if you ignored them, they left you alone. If you made eye contact or indicated in any subtle way that you might be interested, they were all over you like a hawk and would not leave you alone. Sunglasses help. Especially if you are lounging by the water as the hawkers there were particularly persistent and quite frequent.

Do not get made at these people, unless they are being unduly rude, they are just trying to make a living and tourists are a large commodity. I will say that none of the hawkers were rude to me, although they are persistent. In fact, on my entire trip, the only person I had a bad experience with was a fellow tourist on St Thomas.

After passing the bombardment of shops, we were ready to board the ship, until my mom decided that she wanted a rum cake from the original shop. So she and I went off to find said shop. It was crazy, it was hot and it was a bit difficult to find. I will say, just look for the Burger King as it was right next door. I’d also suggest bring a map, they are provided on the ship, even if they are marked with ‘suggested’ shopping stores. We had to almost circle the shopping center twice before I asked for directions and even then, I wasn’t sure if they were correct.

But we found the rum cake shop and purchased our fair. The price for the cakes were the same no matter where we went, even our ship had them for sale at the same price. So if you’re in the Bahamas and want to buy a rum cake, don’t worry about being ripped off, as none of the locations I saw them at were priced any different. But if you’re not sure, hold off until you’ve seen them at two different locations, so at least you can confirm for yourself that you’re getting the correct price for them.

Book Review- Branded Sanctuary

Branded Sanctuary by Joey W. Hill

Like all her novels this was an emotional story that created an amazing connection with her characters and provided a glimpse into the writer’s soul. This is book 7 in the Nature of Desire series.

In This novel, Chloe is recovering from a viscous attack by her managers father (at the end of Mirror of My Soul) and can’t seem to attain her previous joy and laughter in life. One night, with a severe panic attack on the rise she impulsively calls Brendan, the gorgeous man she met at her bosses wedding. And what starts as an unconscious cry for helps turns into a quickly heated relationship with a sexy teacher that could be the man of her life.

This story is a rollercoaster ride into Chloe and Brendan’s souls. They discover parts of each other and themselves that require a level of trust that can be attained with only a few others.

I love all of Joey Hill’s books and practically salivate every time I hear that she has a new novel being released. Her novels always have wonderfully deep characters that expose pieces of personality and emotion that is at the base of every person.

She manages to convey a level of trust in between her main characters that I have never read before. She explores every part of them and makes them face their own faults and discover that it is okay to lean on someone, to expose the center part of yourself and trust another with it.

I give this a 5 out of 5 storyline/romance, a 5 out of 5 bedroom steaminess.

Please note, this novel contains relativity light BDSM elements between the couple but showcases the full extent of BDSM in portions of the story, light female/female sensuality and a brief ménage encounter.

Click here to visit Joey W. Hill website.

Book Review- Serpent's Kiss

Serpent’s Kiss by Thea Harrison

Her books just keep getting better and better! This is the third book dealing with the Elder Races and it was a fantastic read.

In this novel you have an ancient Wyr Sentinel, Rune Ainissesthai who has made a deal with the devil, well its really a Vampyre Queen named Carling who isn’t know as being the greatest person around. In the previous novel, Rune became indebted to Carling and is required to complete one unidentified task.

Hoping to take care of his debt with something as little as taking out her trash, he is determined to keep his bargain, no matter what is asked or however long it takes. He arrives at Carling’s home to discover the Queen’s power is becoming unstable and is liable to kill all those around her.

With Carling being one of the few standards in a life with mortals and immortals whose lives are so fleeting. Rune is unable to leave Carling to her lonely demise. He decides to stay and help find a cure for the serpent’s kiss, a disease that kills all vampyres who quire it.

Fighting each others desires, it’s a race against the clock to find the answers and stay alive when enemies draw near.

I loved this book! Her writing keeps getting better, and her stories more involved with every story she writes. You get drawn into a world that is so similar, yet so different then the one we live in. I wish I could look up into the sky and see the Wyr flying in the sky, touch his wonderful shifted body and live in the world she has created.

I give this book a 5 out of 5 for storyline/romance and a 4 out of 5 for bedroom steaminess.

Click here to visit Thea Harrison website.

The End and a New Beginning

Well my eagerly awaited wedding is no longer happening. My fiancé and I decided that after 4 ½ years together, we both wanted different things in life. Although it’s more of a ‘when’ we wanted events to happen.

This was my first serious relationship. I wasn’t very big on the dating scene when I was in high school and even once I got out I had two or three small relationships that lasted less then three months. It was a bit devastating at first when we initially broke up. This was the man I was planning to spend the rest of my life with, the man who was going to father my children and who couldn’t stop talking about what it would be like when we retired and lived on a farm together.

It all happened on a Tuesday night, I had just gotten done cooking dinner for us and he dropped the big bomb. “I don’t want to be seeing anyone right now” was one of the things he told me. The other was “I’m not there for you”. Initially I thought that it was an easy cop out for him to tell me that’s why he didn’t want to be together, but I’m not going to argue with someone who has decided that they don’t want to be getting married to me anymore.

I ended up staying with my mom and dad for a few days, then on Thursday he texted me and said he couldn’t do this anymore and wanted to meet up and talk about getting together. We decided to give it another shot, as he claimed he was sorry and should have spoken to me about what was bothering him instead of letting it all build up. We were together for half a week when I was finally able to understand what I wanted from him if we were going to be spending the rest of our lives together. And after asking him to think on it and come up with his own ideas for what he wanted in life, the end result was a final breakup.

The second breakup was defiantly a lot less devastating as I figured when he was avoiding answering my questions about what I wanted and what he wanted out of life/our relationship that our relationship probably wasn’t going to work. In the end the ‘I’m not there for you’ was pretty close to why I wanted to break it off. We split in a relatively calm manner, with only a few things in both our names, mostly bills.

So now I’m on the market, not actively looking but enjoying wondering what if’s in my head. The major down side of all this is moving back in with my parents as I enjoyed living out on my own, but I think that I’ll take pleasure in not having to pay rent for a while before looking at a place of my own. If I can save up enough, it’d be cool to purchase a home instead of paying rent.

I can’t wait to see where my life takes me next!

And oh yeah, I’ll be going on a cruise (my first) in October with my sister, her boyfriend and their fun family, now that I can afford it. Yeay :)

Let’s Start Anew

A couple of month ago, we decided that it would be better to move back the wedding date. I immediately picked a day in May that was a year from our original date but now that I have a bit more time, it might be nice to have the wedding close to when we actually started going out, at the end of January.

The only problem with this is that it’s a week away from my sister and her wedding anniversary. Might not be a problem, but you never know.

We’ll be viewing the site this weekend and I’m hoping that it’s great. It's right on the water front and it houses a kitchen as well as a hall and they only want $600 to rent the location. The only down side I’ve seen so far is that their website isn’t up to day and it was hard to contact anyone at the building for information. But once they have been contacted, the response time has been fantastic.

I can’t wait to see it this weekend!

What to do when you realize you can’t afford the catering

One of my many woes as I plan my wedding is the response time it takes to hear back from the location and the catering staff. I had wanted to get married at the local zoo carosel room, it’s a beautiful room with hand carved wooden horse and wonderfully painted walls. The down side, it took the events person 4 ½ months to provide me a contract from when I originally requested one. One of my friends stated that she was having the same problem with her facility choice, so naturally I assumed that it would be the case for all wedding locations. I was wrong.



My fiancé found this wonderful building called ‘The Ruins’ located near Alki Beach in Seattle. I requested some pricing information and asked some questions, basically resulting in 4 or 5 emails back and forth and every email was answered the same day. This was also over the Christmas holiday, Dec 23rd to the 26th. That was when I learned that not all locations where the same.



The Zoo makes most their money on everyday admissions, so they aren’t too worked up about ensuring that the facilities are rented after hours as it really isn’t their bread and butter. The Ruins on the other hand makes most their money hosting events and are most likely more liable for when people slip through the cracks as its important income they wouldn’t normally be generating.



Break down of prices I received from the Zoo and pricing estimate I received from the Ruins

Point Defiance Zoo

Facility: $638 ($250 an hour minus 15% for off season)

Fully refundable deposit: $500 ($300 w/out alcohol)

Catering for cocktail reception: ($2325, 75 people) $31 per person (appetizers ($25 per person) and dessert bar ($6 per person), price does not include wedding cake)

Cash Bar: if $350 in sales isn’t met, out of pocket price for bartender $150



Facility rental contract: Price paid in full when signing the contract, the $500 damage deposit due 30 days before the event.

Catering contract: $500 due when contract is signed and payment received in full 20 days before event, final attendant number due then.



Positives: The room is wonderful and a fun location, plus it’s the zoo! The actual rental price of the facility is amazing considering all tables and chars and plain table cloths are provided.



Negatives: The response time from the sales/rental correspondent, 4 ½ months to work up a rental contract is a bit extreme. The price of catering was a bit much for a cocktail like setting I wanted. I had assumed that they would be less then the Ruins, but they where more and dessert had even been priced out separately. $25 a person for a cocktail party seems a bit extreme for the five items I wanted, one of which was fruit. They also still wanted to charge a $3 per person set up fee even though the reception wasn’t going to be sit down. The contract also had listed a $485 service fee, and I still haven’t heard back on what that fee entails. The prices of the open bar, $5.50 for domestic beer and $6 for importuned, was a bit much. The bar pricing reminds me of stadium beer pricing.



The Ruins

Facility: $1300 +$150 (ballroom and bridal room)

Catering for cocktail reception: ($1875, 75 people) ~$25 per person and the wedding cake is included

Open bar: only option available if a bar is desired



Facility rental contract: Room price paid in full when contract is signed.

Catering contract: Half the estimated price of catering needs to be paid about 30 days in advance, the final attendance numbers supplied three days before event, and the remainder of the bill needs to be paid 30 days after the event.



Positives: I love the ballroom and its wonderfully colored theme. They are excellent at responding to emails and answering all your questions. Everything is taken care of by the Ruins, including decorations and flowers, except for the bridal party. The rental information they sent me broke everything down, right to the amount of servers I’d need for my size of group and the hourly wages I’d be responsible to pay for the servers and the bartender. I love the contract and payment schedule at the Ruins, especially the amount of time you have to tell them your final group numbers.



Negatives: Open bar is not going to happen with my friends and family, the bar tab alone would probably cost more then the catering. If you wanted a cake from a specific location it won’t be happening here as everything must be done through the facility including decorations and flowers, except for the bridal party.



So now that I know my fiancé and I don’t want to take out a loan to help pay for the location and catering, and not enough time and extra cash to save up in the amount of time left before the wedding (~5 months), I’ll have to start my search again for a location that would fit our needs and allow for the wedding party to supply the food (since this is what he had wanted to do from the beginning).



I personally didn’t want to do a potluck like event for my wedding, but if we supply all the food, it turns into not quite a potluck (I keep telling myself this) and into more of a hosting party. So I’ve been given a dead line of February 21st to find a new location (he’ll also be looking) or else we’ll need to reschedule the wedding. What fun!

What To Do When You Realize You Can’t Afford the Catering

One of my many woes as I plan my wedding is the response time it takes to hear back from the location and the catering staff. I had wanted to get married at the local zoo carosel room, it’s a beautiful room with hand carved wooden horse and wonderfully painted walls. The down side, it took the events person 4 ½ months to provide me a contract from when I originally requested one. One of my friends stated that she was having the same problem with her facility choice, so naturally I assumed that it would be the case for all wedding locations. I was wrong.

My fiancé found this wonderful building called ‘The Ruins’ located near Alki Beach in Seattle. I requested some pricing information and asked some questions, basically resulting in 4 or 5 emails back and forth and every email was answered the same day. This was also over the Christmas holiday, Dec 23rd to the 26th. That was when I learned that not all locations where the same.

The Zoo makes most their money on everyday admissions, so they aren’t too worked up about ensuring that the facilities are rented after hours as it really isn’t their bread and butter. The Ruins on the other hand makes most their money hosting events and are most likely more liable for when people slip through the cracks as its important income they wouldn’t normally be generating.

Break down of prices I received from the Zoo and pricing estimate I received from the Ruins
Point Defiance Zoo
Facility: $638 ($250 an hour minus 15% for off season)
Fully refundable deposit: $500 ($300 w/out alcohol)
Catering for cocktail reception: ($2325, 75 people) $31 per person (appetizers ($25 per person) and dessert bar ($6 per person), price does not include wedding cake)
Cash Bar: if $350 in sales isn’t met, out of pocket price for bartender $150

Facility rental contract: Price paid in full when signing the contract, the $500 damage deposit due 30 days before the event.
Catering contract: $500 due when contract is signed and payment received in full 20 days before event, final attendant number due then.

Positives: The room is wonderful and a fun location, plus it’s the zoo! The actual rental price of the facility is amazing considering all tables and chars and plain table cloths are provided.

Negatives: The response time from the sales/rental correspondent, 4 ½ months to work up a rental contract is a bit extreme. The price of catering was a bit much for a cocktail like setting I wanted. I had assumed that they would be less then the Ruins, but they where more and dessert had even been priced out separately. $25 a person for a cocktail party seems a bit extreme for the five items I wanted, one of which was fruit. They also still wanted to charge a $3 per person set up fee even though the reception wasn’t going to be sit down. The contract also had listed a $485 service fee, and I still haven’t heard back on what that fee entails. The prices of the open bar, $5.50 for domestic beer and $6 for importuned, was a bit much. The bar pricing reminds me of stadium beer pricing.

The Ruins
Facility: $1300 +$150 (ballroom and bridal room)
Catering for cocktail reception: ($1875, 75 people) ~$25 per person and the wedding cake is included
Open bar: only option available if a bar is desired

Facility rental contract: Room price paid in full when contract is signed.
Catering contract: Half the estimated price of catering needs to be paid about 30 days in advance, the final attendance numbers supplied three days before event, and the remainder of the bill needs to be paid 30 days after the event.

Positives: I love the ballroom and its wonderfully colored theme. They are excellent at responding to emails and answering all your questions. Everything is taken care of by the Ruins, including decorations and flowers, except for the bridal party. The rental information they sent me broke everything down, right to the amount of servers I’d need for my size of group and the hourly wages I’d be responsible to pay for the servers and the bartender. I love the contract and payment schedule at the Ruins, especially the amount of time you have to tell them your final group numbers.

Negatives: Open bar is not going to happen with my friends and family, the bar tab alone would probably cost more then the catering. If you wanted a cake from a specific location it won’t be happening here as everything must be done through the facility including decorations and flowers, except for the bridal party.

So now that I know my fiancé and I don’t want to take out a loan to help pay for the location and catering, and not enough time and extra cash to save up in the amount of time left before the wedding (~5 months), I’ll have to start my search again for a location that would fit our needs and allow for the wedding party to supply the food (since this is what he had wanted to do from the beginning).

I personally didn’t want to do a potluck like event for my wedding, but if we supply all the food, it turns into not quite a potluck (I keep telling myself this) and into more of a hosting party. So I’ve been given a dead line of February 21st to find a new location (he’ll also be looking) or else we’ll need to reschedule the wedding. What fun!

Dark Days of Winter Book Tour in Redmond 01/15/11

January 15, 2011 2:00 PM
Redmond - Borders
Redmond Town Center
Redmond, WA 98052
Ellen Schreiber (Vampire Kisses) brings us the first installment in her new series-Once in a Full Moon.
http://www.ellenschreiber.com/home.htm

Kimberly Derting will sign copies of The Body Finder.
http://www.kimberlyderting.com/

Cynthia Hand debuts her angel novel-Unearthly.
cynthiahand.blogspot.com/