City ❀ Country ❀ Beach
Huli Sue’s BBQ & Grill will make you believe you are on a tropical Hawaiian island getaway. They serve some of the most delicious Hawaiian BBQ Grill on the mainland that will leave your mouth watering when you first see it. While we were in …
This bakery beat Bobby Flay with their empanadas on the Food Network! When I found out they had a location in my hometown, I just had to try it for myself. This is the view from the street when I arrived. I wasn’t expecting the …
If you’ve never been on a cruise and just want to try one out, I highly recommend going on the Margaritaville at Sea cruise where it’s 5’oclock all the time. It’s Jimmy Buffet’s themed cruise and it is so much fun! If you do your research you might run into pros and cons, but as someone who has cruised with Disney, Royal Caribbean, and Carnival, I will attest that this was a great, short, and fun cruise and I highly recommend it! It is smaller overall from other liners, but it has all the bells and whistles you’ll love.
The Margaritaville at Sea cruise only does 2 night/3 day cruises and they do have sailings throughout the week. They also have many affordable packages. The down side is that you do need to read what’s not included because you will pay for taxes, fees, port expenses, fuel charges, gratuities, and valet. I call these musts. Then there are extras like soda, bar beverages, casino, excursions, specialty dining, and phone calls. On our cruise, aside from the musts, we paid for one soda package and one cell phone device to make calls.
If you are either an educator, military, police, or first responder, make sure you check out the Heroes Sail Free program! You will get a free cruise per year, minus the musts and extras. I got approved as an ACSI valid certificate holder and substitute teacher!
Let me start at what we did at the port of Grand Bahama. You do not need to make any excursions directly with Margaritaville at Sea cruise unless you really want to. When we arrived at the Grand Bahama island (the only port Margaritaville by Sea docks at), there are many locals who you can tell what you want to do/experience. Since we live in Florida and only 10 minutes to the beach, we wanted to explore the island and what Freeport has to offer.
Unfortunately, Grand Bahama was still recovering from the destruction of many hurricanes. Therefore, tourism is their main source of income and Bahamians want you to experience the best that the island has to offer. It made sense to help them directly, so along with two other couples who also wanted to see the island, we hired a driver. The driver we hired for our city tour guide was Pamela. She was super friendly and knowledgeable.
Pamela made stops throughout our tour so we could get off to visit the beaches and shop. One of those places was a small beach in which the locals poke a hole in conch shells, remove the meat inside, and throw the conch shells back. We were allowed, by Pamela and legally onto the ship, to take a conch shell home!
Another stop Pamela made was at a small lighthouse at a beach. It was so tranquil there. There were benches facing the ocean that I could have been at for hours!
This marketplace was fun to explore because you could shop and eat here. It’s not as busy here as you may think because they’re still rebuilding from hurricanes, but nonetheless, the vibe here is welcoming and fun.
As you can see Pamela did an amazing job taking us through the island. It doesn’t stop there! We went through taino beach (the t is not capitalized) and got off at Pirates Cove to check it out. This is a beautiful beach with food, shopping, and beach activities. In fact, this is where both my husband & I tasted conch fritters for the very first time. I have to be honest. I wasn’t a huge fan. They were crispy, but it was just ok to me. They kind of reminded me of hush puppies.
As soon as you debark the ship there is a restaurant in which you can feed sharks. The sharks are not in a special tank. They are in the ocean swimming around. They hang out there because they know they get fed by the tourists. Although we did not feed them (ask inside the restaurant if you want to do this), we were just mesmerized by these creatures. It also makes for a great picture spot!
We stayed in room 6146 which is on the 6th deck. Excitedly, we were surprised with a free upgrade to an ocean view room! The cabin didn’t feel cramped at all. It was clean and the décor was beautiful. Our cabin steward was very nice as well. He greeted us every time we saw him.
It was meant for us to be on the 6th deck because it was appropriately named the Flip Flop deck. I literally wear flip flops all the time! I thought to myself “The Margaritaville at Sea cruise was meant for me!”
This was our itinerary for day 1. However, I’m sure these change with every cruise.
We were one of the first ones to board the ship so this gave us ample time to take photos of the ship and we even had a private tour of the spa! We were very happy to see that the ship was so clean and beautiful.
The food on board was very good! There are a few places you can eat. There are some things I would recommend and some I would not.
One place you will want to visit time and time again is the buffet. We ate breakfast and lunch there. There is something for everyone at the buffet. From salad bar, pasta station, hot foods, soft serve ice cream machine, drinks, to desserts, they have it all. In my opinion though, the desserts were much better at Fin’s than at the buffet. For dinner, we went to Fin’s (the fancier dining room where they serve you).
Fin’s restaurant is a must. All the food was absolutely delicious, including the desserts! I will strongly recommend to go to the second seating as opposed to the first seating because the service will be much quicker on the second. We went to the first seating the first night and we were there 2 hours! It took a long time between each dish to come to our table. When you order, you tell your server everything at once including the dessert. The starter will come out first, then the soup or salad, next the entrée (this is where you can pay additionally for entrée enhancements if you so desire to, but we didn’t because it wasn’t necessary), then dessert.
If you are a soda drinker, you might want to get the soda package in which you’ll get a choice of refillable cup. You can walk up to any bar and they will refill it for you. My husband chose the shark head! I wish they had a parrot head. It would just make more sense. The other choice was an alligator.
The ship also has a pizzeria called Frank & Lola’s. You have to pay for the pizza. However, they do have 1 complimentary slice per person, but you’ll only get one slice once you’re in line. You’d have to wait for them to make more pizza before getting a second slice. We waited 25 minutes for just one slice! It wasn’t worth it so we didn’t go back. And why pay for pizza when you can go to Fin’s for a delicious sit down dinner?
The coffeeshop and liquor-infused ice cream were also not free. But, they are available if you’d like to go. This is on the same floor, next to the pizzeria.
There is entertainment all throughout the Margaritaville at Sea cruise. You will pass at least one thing happening on the way to wherever you’re going. There is never a dull moment. There are two things that I say you shouldn’t miss. The first one is the sail away party and the second is the main show that happens on the second night called “Tales From Margaritaville: Jimmy’s Ship Show.”
Like I mentioned, there are many other kinds of entertainment and these are a couple of others that we enjoyed.
Overall, I highly recommend that if you’ve never been on a cruise and you just want to try one out, I highly recommend going on the Margaritaville at Sea cruise where it’s 5’oclock all the time. Even if you are a seasoned cruiser, go!
PIN ME!
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Roosevelt Island is not as well known as Manhattan only because most people stay in Manhattan and don’t venture out further. This is a great shame because Roosevelt Island is a fantastic and historical hidden gem that is underrated.
Our family trip to NYC was nothing short of fun, but at the end of the day it was nice to come back to a quiet place where it felt like home. We stayed at the Graduate Roosevelt Island, which is a hip & trendy hotel situated next door to the Cornell Tech campus. It is the only hotel on the island and is fairly new.
If you are staying on Roosevelt Island or just want to visit, the Roosevelt Island Tramway is the best, in my opinion, and most scenic route to go. It is just about 7 minutes away from Manhattan. However, you can also take the subway.
Many movies have been shot in or around Roosevelt Island. One of the latest movies is “Spider-Man No Way Home.” The apartments just over the Queensboro Bridge, the bridge itself, and the Tramway were featured.
Queensboro Bridge is absolutely stunning at any time of the day or night!
The island actually has a lot to offer and that is why I call it a hidden gem. Roosevelt Island used to be called Blackwell Island. It is a historical hidden gem because it holds so much dark history that people should actually know about. We can learn a lot about its history. It used to be an island where they threw people with mental health problems into lunatic asylums. They even threw people who they didn’t know diagnoses for, like autism and dementia. It was a sad period in time, but we have come a long way from then. The island also had prisons and low cost community housing. It was basically a place to store the unwanted: the criminals, poor, disabled and sick people. To get the full details on all of this history visit the National Park Service website.
To get a glimpse of how all of this went down, there is a historical fiction perspective of a woman named Nellie Bly that lived through this horror in a movie that is available on You Tube called “Escaping the Madness.” I watched it and it was very eye-opening!
At the north end of the island are commemorative writings and statues of Nellie Bly along with the lighthouse.
The lunatic asylum today is now a beautiful apartment building named the Octagon Tower. The staircase is the original design! Inside the lobby are photos of what it used to be and is worth a visit.
By the way, the best way to get around the island is to take the red public bus that is free for residents and tourists. It has many hop on/hop off stops about every 15 minutes. This was such a great service for us. The island is walkable, but after long days in Manhattan, we were very appreciative to have this!
The Blackwell house was the highlight of our Roosevelt Island exploration! It truly is a historical hidden gem! We had a fantastic tour guide of the house and SO much history of the island! He was very knowledgeable and took his time with us.
We did visit during Christmastime and the island was beautifully decorated. It actually reminded me of a Hallmark Christmas movie!
There are many places to grab a drink and eat breakfast, lunch, or dinner. We actually ate twice at a restaurant that we, unfortunately, forgot to take photos of. Our first meal, once we settled in to our hotel, was there and our last meal before leaving NY. It was delicious! The restaurant was Granny Annie’s.
There is also a Subway and a Starbucks on the island, as well as a few other restaurants.
One other restaurant we also enjoyed was Nisi Kitchen. They have a HUGE menu selection! Their food was also delicious. We ordered an appetizer and I order the Rueben sandwich which was open-faced. I had never see an open-faced Rueben sandwich before.
This was the first major hospital in the U.S. to take care of those with the smallpox disease. These ruins of the hospital is also the place that the climax scene from Spider-Man vs Green Goblin is set. It is actually a really cool place to visit. You won’t be able to go inside because it is very dilapidated and it is surrounded by a fence.
This is the current regular hospital on the island, but it is situated on the north end of the island. The smallpox hospital ruins are on the south end of the island.
Four Freedoms Park Conservancy is the newest part of the island, aside from the hotel. It is a place to commemorate President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The views of Manhattan are fantastic from here and it is situated at the very south end of the island.
PIN ME!
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If you’re in Las Vegas, make sure to stop by this famous chef’s restaurant located on the Las Vegas strip. It is inside the Tropicana Las Vegas Casino Hotel Resort. It’s a great place to hang out with your friends, eat delicious food, and possibly even meet Robert Irvine himself!
Las Vegas is known for having many billboards and signs on their buildings. You can’t miss some of the signs for Public House that are illustrated as well. While we were on our family vacation in Las Vegas, we saw these signs and decided to call to make a reservation to the one night Robert Irvine was going to be there to celebrate his one-year anniversary bash! We were in luck and we were also in for a treat!
The restaurant was very nice! The atmosphere was welcoming, lively, and lovely. There were a lot of people and for good reason.
Robert Irvine was in the ‘house’! He was very friendly and came to our table to meet us. Of course, I had to ask for a family photo with him. I’m not shy when it comes to things like this. He was making his rounds to different tables. That night had a few dinner and drink specials.
My husband and boys ordered the steak & fries and I ordered the reuben sandwich & fries. Let’s just say that I’m sure that the steak was delicious because all three of them left an empty plate. I love to order the reuben sandwich whenever I go to a new restaurant if they have it on the menu. I like to compare and contrast which reuben is the best and I have to say that this one is on my top 3 list. It was packed with beef and the sauce was amazing! It was so big I had a little bit of a hard time fitting a bite into my mouth. The fries were also very good. They were crispy, salty, and not soggy. I can’t stand soggy fries!
In conclusion, if you’re ever in town try out Public House on the Las Vegas strip! You never know who’s going to show up!
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