Sunshine-n-Wine

Booked this last minute as an Inside Guarantee, which was a first for us.  Usually we like to pick our inside room, but the price was significantly higher to do that.  Total cruise cost for both of us together was $807 for 8 days.  Not too shabby! Parking Park N Go (Ft. Lauderdale) - Reserved ahead of time at $6.99 per day, payable when leaving the lot. Free shuttle.  Service was fast and convenient.  Only thing that caught us off guard was having to leave the key with the attendant.  We also learned on the way out that there is a pre-pay option.  Would definitely do that next time. Room The inside guarantee paid off for us.  We ended up in 7441, the same location we would have booked ourselves.  To us, inside is great because we'd rather spend our money ashore.  Our ninja-like cabin steward was very attentive and friendly, and the AC worked just fine.  Since Lido is on 9 and the Promenade on 5, deck 7 was perfect. Ship The Freedom was blessed with many of the 2.0 upgrade

Just home from a quick 3-day spin around Napa and Sonoma. If you can, download the Winery Finder app on your smartphone.  There are some interesting deals out there for a lot of different wineries (2:1's, upgraded tastings, extra pours, etc.).  Please note that, unlike a couple years ago, these deals require a public check-in and photo on either Twitter or Facebook.  I was not happy with this change since we never post about a vacation until we are safely home.  In the two instances we used the app, I deleted the post on Facebook soon after. We had to stay in two different hotels due to SpringHill being booked up for the NASCAR events Friday night.   Hotel SpringHill Suites Napa Valley  - There are probably some that will argue that this hotel is too far south to be convenient to wine country; however, we really enjoyed the hotel itself as well as the location. It is easy to get to either Sonoma or Napa, and it's closer to the airports (we flew out of Sacramento).  VERY c

I was very interested to see how this cruise line compares to Carnival.  I knew that we could carry on as much alcohol as we wanted, so for the first cruise yet, the rum rummers remained neatly tucked into the "cruise box."  I had also heard that the food is amazing, and that the private island is beautiful.  I love Coco Cay (RC's island) and Half Moon Cay (Carnival's island), so I was really looking forward to experiencing Castaway Cay. I couldn't help compare this ship to Royal and Carnival's 3-day cruise ships so I'm breaking my usual format to throw in some comparison tidbits. Parking We parked at the garage at port, which is different for us.  There were a couple of check points before even getting to the luggage and passenger drop-off point.  Drop off was easy, but it did take a while to get parked and walk back to the terminal.  The walk back to the car after the cruise was pretty nice though.  No shuttling back to the parking lot. We split the

This was a great Spring Break cruise out of Port Canaveral.  For the third time we used Park Port Canaveral at the Radisson.  As usual, it was much cheaper than parking at the port with great customer service and a quick shuttle.  $68 for a 7 night cruise. We booked Early Saver through Carnival directly last May, and we had 4 different price drops including an upgraded room before final payment.  If possible, we always book Early Saver.  For this trip, the hubs and I went with my coworker who stayed with us in our room.  She slept in a pullman bed, which was a bit of a climb up the ladder every night but tolerable.  The room did feel a little tight with three people, but the fare was much cheaper this way. The Ship On our 7 night cruise, there were two formal nights in the main dining room.  We selected Any Time Dining but never really had to wait for a table.  We were able to request the same waiter 6 out of 7 nights; one night it was a 45 minute wait so we decided to sit in an