Today we are in Cozumel Mexico, and we did some barefoot cooking on our beach excursion. It was a great time! We had margaritas while prepping and then sharing a meal while barefoot on a beautiful Cozumel beach. We highly recommend this excursion if you are in Cozumel.
After our fun on the beach, we went to the wonderful restaurant on Allure of the Seas, “150”. It did NOT disappoint!
Then after our amazing dinner we had some drinks and competed in the game “The Prefect Couple”. It was some real ‘adult’ fun.
As mentioned, before the barefoot beach cookout was announced, we were originally going to go on the Cozumel Bar Hop which is an excursion to book on your own. It is not available through Royal Caribbean or other tour group. We had planned this until this special President’s Cruise Excursion came available. Here is the link to the Cozumel Bar Hop: https://cozumelbarhop.com/
Welcome to Day 5 of our Royal Caribbean President’s Cruise.
Today we are in Costa Maya Mexico on Allure of the Seas. Being on the President’s Cruise we got to swap cruise ships and tour our home for the world cruise, Serenade of the Seas.
There was even a Costa Maya Port takeover! Royal took control of the entire port, and we had a great time with free food, drinks and activities.
Upon returning to the ship, we enjoyed some great food at Chops grill and amazing entertainment from MO5AIC. They were incredible. Here’s a link to find where they are performing. http://www.mo5aic.com/
Continuing enjoying these adventures on the 2023 Allure of the Seas President’s Cruise.
Today we partied with Michael Bayley the President and CEO of Royal Caribbean as Royal Caribbean hosted a beach party in Roatan Honduras. It was an amazing day!!! There was delicious wide variety of food with open bar and a beautiful beach! We had such a fun time. After our day on the beach the delicious food didn’t end there as we ate at Chops, the steakhouse on board Allure of the Seas. This was followed by a great show in the ice rink, Blades. The skating performers were amazing! We hope you enjoy this overview of our day 4 on the Royal Caribbean President’s Cruise. Here is a link to Turquoise Bay Resort where the party was held: https://www.turquoisebayresort.com/Please leave a comment. We’d love to hear from you.Have a beautiful day,Mike and Nancy
Today is day 3 of our Royal Caribbean Presidents Cruise. We enjoyed a fun and relaxing sea day on Allure of the Seas before our 3 port days in a row. Time was spent relaxing by the pool and we had NO issue getting a chair, even with a full cruise. Our day getting some exercise with aqua aerobics and fun in the pool. After that we enjoyed the excellent piano player at the Schooner Bar, followed by dinner at Sabor. After dinner and a little dancing we went to the Aqua Show which featured special guest Victor Kee from the Ukraine. Watch for more from Victor on Icon of the Seas in the near future as he will be involved with the entertainment on Royal Caribbean’s newest ship. We LOVE the aqua shows on Royal Caribbean’s Oasis Class Ships. They never disappoint. Here’s a link to Viktor Kee: https://viktorkee.com/If you enjoyed the video, please leave a comment. We’d love to hear from you.Have a beautiful day!Mike and Nancy
Today we fought off a pirate attack on Royal Caribbean Allure of the Seas! Well not really, we enjoyed a great parade down the promenade. It would rival anything Disney would do on their ships. It was a ton of fun for all ages. Today was day 2 of our amazing Royal Caribbean President’s Cruise our of Galveston Texas on Allure of the Seas. We enjoyed a relaxing day by the pool, some great food and excellent entertainment. Come along with us to see Day 2 on the 2023 Allure of the Seas Royal Caribbean President’s Cruise and all the fun activities.
Join us on our Royal Caribbean Allure of the Seas President Cruise adventure. Today we cruise with Royal Caribbean’s President Michael Bayley on the Oasis Class Ship Allure of the Seas. We will show you our boarding and all the first day events and how we almost over did it with everything going on. Come tour with us and see our crazy first day on Allure of the Seas President Cruise 2023.
Today we go cave tubing on of the best Belize cruise excursions we’ve tried. After attaching our headgear with lighting and our life jackets, we headed intothe dark cave tunnel. It was a great time and an amazing experience which we highly recommend.
So come into the caves of belize with us and enjoy the natural beauty below the ground.
Today we are talking about what electrical items you can bring and plug into your cruse ship cabin electrical outlets. What is allowed and what is not? Many cruise ships ban certain electrical items. The biggest reason for banning items is a concern over causing a fire. We’ll not only help you to learn what you can and cannot bring, but WHY.
Lets help keep ourselves and everyone else safe on our cruise ships.
Today we travel to Franklin BBQ. This is said to be one of world’s best barbeque restaurants and we let you know if it truly is. Is travel to this BBQ restaurant and waiting in line for 3 hours worth it? Or is this just another Texas BBQ joint?
Come on our excursion to see the monkey and sloth sanctuary in Roatan, Honduras. The sloths and monkeys excursion was one of Nancy’s favorite, ever! Friends, we cannot stress how fun this was. We booked this tour through Shore Excursions Group, however you can get a similar tour through you cruise line or directly with Daniel Johnson’s Monkey & Sloth Hangout. Enjoy traveling virtually on this tour with us.
We recently tried the Cozumel, Mexico Bar Hop excursion and it was GREAT!
We hopped between 4 bars on the back side of Cozumel where it is much more quiet and unspoiled. Our hopping guide was excellent, and we had an amazing time. You might think this was an all-out party, but it wasn’t. It was all people about our age, having a great time. We met some wonderful people from a Carnival Ship as well as some form our Royal Caribbean Ship.
We are comparing Cruising on Carnival Cruise Lines with Royal Caribbean. Is Carnival the Walmart of the Seas? How does it compare to Royal Caribbean. We just got back from our first Carnival Cruise and (Spoiler Alert!) it was great! We will compare 10 areas between Carnival Cruise Lines and Royal Caribbean to see how they stack up. You might be surprised!
Today we are sharing the latest on selecting reef safe sunscreens that are best for you and for the environment. Don’t get burned when going to your long-awaited tropical vacation destination with banned sunscreen! Did you know your sunscreens may now be illegal in many areas you may be visiting? More and more places around the world that are implementing more and more strict regulations on sunscreen. Banning certain ingredients and only allowing certain formulations.
Sun protection is absolutely critical for your health and safety. How do you navigate the changing rules while still protecting yourself? We have dug in and reviewed all the latest regulations and also investigated what sunscreens are safe, effective, won’t break the bank, and you can use at that tropical paradise you are visiting!
Let’s go over each ingredient and are they reef safe or not:
Para-aminobenzoic acid (PABA): This was an effective UV blocker, however there are some people that have allergic reactions to PABA, so most sunscreens have gone away from this ingredient.
Oxybenzone: Again, this was a safe and effective UV blocker, however this is the first ingredient identified in some reports to have possible reef issues. Therefore, it’s the first ingredient been banned by some locations. Most “Reef Safe” sunscreens label themselves that way by not using oxybenzone.
Octinoxate: This was the next chemical UV blocker used, but again, there were concerns raised this may also impact reefs, so this was the next ingredient banned by some locations.
Now most “Reef Safe” labeled sunscreens will not have these three ingredients: parabens, oxybenzone, or octinoxate. Most will now use octocrylene.
Here is a list where certain sunscreens are banned, so you can prepare and purchase them in advance, where you can get the best price and availability.
Hawaii: Hawaii enacted a sunscreen ban on the over-the-counter sale of those containing oxybenzone and octinoxate. The state also has more legislation pending to broaden the list of banned sunscreen ingredients. So check before you go to see the latest regulations.
S. Virgin Islands: has outright banned sunscreens containing oxybenzone, octoerylene, and octinoxate. The island chain does not permit the sale or use of sunscreens containing any of those three ingredients. This basically dictates mineral sunscreens.
Aruba: Aruba has outlawed sunscreens containing oxybenzone since July 2020 and are contiplanting additional bans.
Bonaire: The island, which already charges steep environmental fees to divers in an effort to conserve its colorful reefs, now allows only reef-friendly sunscreen to be sold on the island. However, this is poorly defined and the guidance is that tourists only bring biodegradable sunscreens, which is best translated to mineral sunscreens.
Ecoparks in Mexico: Natural water parks like Xcaret, Xel-Ha and Cozumel’s Chankanaab Beach Adventure Park, require visitors to use only “biodegradable” sunscreens. Unfortunately, “biodegradable” is not well defined, however mineral sunscreens are approved. When entering these parks they will check and if you have any chemical sunscreens they will be confiscated.
Palau: The sunscreen banapplies to the sale and use of sunscreens containing 10 chemicals, including oxybenzone, octinoxate, octocrylene, and certain parabens (or preservatives). Again, only mineral sunscreens.
Key West: banned the sale and purchase of sunscreens containing oxybenzone and octinoxate. However, being a local jurisdiction, this has currently been blocked by the state of FL.
Australia, When you visit Australia it’s a whole different world when it comes to sunscreen. The short version is: In Australia any sunscreen listed with an SPF over 15 is considered a medical product and regulated as such. Therefore, all you find are SPF 15 or lower on the shelves. Since no manufacture wants have it regulated as medicine. It would be WAY to costly. Therefore, you have to actually compare ingredient concentrations to get an idea of what would be an SPF 50 everywhere else. Our recommendation here is bring a good mineral sunscreen from home, so know what you are using.
Our #1 pick for a chemical sunscreen that don’t contain Oxybenzone and Octinoxate
Walmart Equate Ultra Sunscreens. These are very affordable, highly available and are considered reef safe in most places
$5 for 5.5 oz. this is the best buy out there for spray sunscreen
NOTE: the Equate SPF 70 Ultra has Oxybenzone, so it wouldn’t be considered reef friendly, so stick with the other 2 that are SPF 50
We also recommend
Alba Botanica Hawaiian
Trader Joe’s Spray SPF 50+
These have the same formulations as the Walmart Equate Ultra products but are more expensive.
It’s important to note all these all still have Octocrylene which is soon being banned in many places. That brings us to mineral sunscreens.
Our pick for mineral safe sunscreens
If you are looking to go the mineral route, which is considered the most reef safe and are not currently banned anywhere. Here are our recommendations:
Coppertone Pure & Simple SPF 50 mineral sunscreen
This is nanoparticle zinc oxide based product that is water resistant to 80 minutes and goes on almost clear.
This is currently legal around the world
You can get this on amazon and some retailers
Here’s a link to the lotion which was about $10 for the 6 oz.
This is microparticle, not nanoparticle, zinc oxide product which is water resistant for 80 minutes. This is one of the latest and greatest meeting all the new theories on being a healthy and reef safe sunscreen.
We found on this was on Costco.com for about $10 at tube, in a 2 pack. This makes it about the same cost as the Coppertone Free & Simple
Here is your Coco Cay Beach Club review. Today we show you around Royal Caribbean’s Beach Club at their private island Perfect Day at Coco Cay. Is it worth the extra cost? How’s the food and the atmosphere and is it a perfect day? Come with us and see if this makes for the perfect shore excursion.
Here’s our best hints and tips to help you book your first cruise.
Whether you are booking Royal Caribbean, Carnival, or Disney, we will cover all the don’t miss points for booking you cruise. Should you use a travel agent or book yourself? How do you select a travel agent? We will talk about all the items that have to come together to make your cruise vacation a low stress success.
• Booking yourself or with a Travel Agent
• Transportation to your departure port city and our #1 tip!
• Transportation from your hotel to the cruise port
• Travel Insurance tips
Here’s a few links we mentioned to travel insurance sites:
Friends, we hope this series has been very helpful with booking your first cruise and has helped take some of the stress off what should and will be an amazing fun vacation!
Hi Friends. In this video we are covering selecting your first cruise as well as budgeting for your cruise. This is Cruising 102, the second in our series of classes to help you get the most out of your cruise vacation. We hope to help you learn the basics about cruising.
Today we will cover all the things to think about when selecting your fist cruise. We will cover setting your budget and all the items that go into budgeting for a cruise. We also hope to dispel some of the internet and social media myths related to cruising and take the stress out of booking your cruise.
Thank you so much for watching and enjoy living in Phase 2.
It’s a New Year with that comes a new resolutions, including being more healthy while cruising.
Here we pass on our best tips related to being more healthy when on vacation, especially on a cruise. Just click on the video above to be inspired to live a more healthy lifestyle.
We will cover our top 3 tips to help you cruise more healthy while still having a great time!
This is a port that often gets a bit of a bad rap. Most people look at it as just having some shopping, Atlantis resort waterpark, and some beaches, but not much more. Also, being such a close port to the East Coast, many cruisers stop there quite often and frankly don’t see much to do there.
However, we found a GREAT tour that explores the culture of the Bahamian through food, while walking around the wonderfully historic city of Nassau. We had an excellent tour guide LISA!!!!!!. She made the tour fun and well as educational.
We hope you enjoy this overview of our tour and that it encourages you to try this excellent tour.
Today we are aboard Royal Caribbean’s Wonder of the Seas attending the Royal Caribbean Leadership Coffee Talk Question & Answer Session with CEO Michael Bayley. This was a great session and the leadership team was open, candid, funny, entertaining, and quite informative. It was good to hear all about Royal Caribbean post COVID and the pause. Royal Caribbean has a lot of great plans for their future, some they could share, other not so much, like the plans for their next private island!
We hope you enjoy this glimpse into Royal Caribbean’s plans and leadership.
