islandgirlejfan

https://www.leibish.com/6-jewelry-cleaning-hacks-you-wish-you-already-knew-article-1466 I do number 3, Windex and hydrogen peroxide. I let it sit for a bit, then I take a toothbrush to them. They always come out looking fantastic!

Thanks for the replies! We are going to be in Bonaire on a Wednesday, so it should be all good!

I'm a light packer. My lightest was just last year when we went to Europe-23 days in a Delsey under seat bag and a backpack from Amazon. Our trip was a combination land and 7 days cruise trip.....7 airports in total! When I pulled my bags up a cobblestone area in Santorini, I was more sold than ever about keeping it light! When our flight was canceled to the UK for our trip home in Spain, we walked right off the plane with everything we owned. Most of my clothing was in the underseat bag...the backpack had our harder items in it. The way I select my clothing is that I stay with neutral colors. I have a black pair of knit slacks that are for chic nights, a dress from Goddess on the Go that has two toppers that will it change up and no, you would never know it was the same dress. You can keep it light with bottoms and go a little more overboard with tops pairing little light covers over tops or dresses. I have Columbia travel shorts that are very light and ExOfficio undies that can be washed out in the basin. I take one bathing suit and coverup. Most of my items are dressed up with scarves, jewelry and so forth. I bought a pair of Solely Jane shoes that have interchangeable tops without adding more shoes, however I also pack flip flops, sandals or flats and I wear my tennis shoes or orthopedic shoes. Poshmark has been one of my best friends....I get all sorts of neat things there! Speaking for myself, my stress level has went down considerably with taking less. The biggest reason is we clean out our bags as soon as we return home, put our hard items away such as tablets, chargers, make up, toiletries away and put the clothing in the laundry room. When I was a heavy packer (and I really was!) everything had to be washed and put away. It took days for us to reorganize. Now, I wash at the most 25 to 30 items of my own and the same for my husband. There is less to have to worry about leaving behind and I don't have to stress over packing the bag. There are many great videos on YouTube on how to pack. Everyone has their thing but since we downsized our lives, it's become very easy to just not stress over what I'm going to wear on a cruise any longer. This is SOOOOO true! My English friend Sadie used to tell me that Americans wash the life out of their clothing. I have to admit though that I have a tendency to spill things on me, so they hit the washer normally. At work, I have a bottle of Dawn at my desk. It pretty much will solve anything! I always take a little with me to wash out my *accidents*! =P

We will be in Bonaire in January. I watched a video recently on YouTube where a travel couple recommended Chogogo for a beach day pass and that is what my husband and I would like to do this time. My only concerns with this one is it sounds like they only take so many people and getting a taxi back to the dock. Can anyone weight in on this? The price is certainly great....$25 dollars, $10 or which is a food/drink credit. I found one other choice online which is Plaza Beach & Dive Resort Bonaire. They are a little more cash, $125 to be exact. They include the following: Sunbed Drinks (soft drinks, house wine or beer) Lunch 2 Snacks Pool & beach access Beach towel Does anyone have any experience with them by chance? Do you think it's worth the price? I like the fact that they are walkable even though we'd still probably get a taxi back. I'm trying to get opinions because Chogogo sounds like we need to be there Plaza Beach sounds like they want an upfront email. If you know about either, please weigh in. 🙂

My daughter is a chef and the liquid eggs are used for shelf life. They have added citric acid added to them. Personally, as someone who is really not wild about the texture of real eggs that these work for me. Bad food....well I've had things on Princess and Celebrity I didn't care for. I just didn't eat it and moved on to something else. We cruised on the Edge last year and because it was an intensive European itinerary, we pretty much found our way to the buffet daily. I think we ate in the MDR a total of 4 times. You can always find something you like there! 🙂

I just booked the Rotterdam for October of 2025 and being the light packer that I am (we will be taking advantage of the laundry service, because I'm just into having my stuff with me) I'm wondering if I can get away with something fleece like (think Columbia sportswear) as over clothing wear in Rotterdam, Brussels, Le Harve, Falmouth and Portland or do I need to think heavier? Should I be thinking add some Merino wool tops or do we need full on coats? I'm all over the leggings that are being mentioned. Nice and light for packing! You are speaking my language with them! How about yoga pants....mine are very nice from Land's End? Will I be ok? I want to get a jump on things because I live for the word clearance....buying end of the year doesn't bother me in the least and leaves me more money for cruises.....trust me, I'm whipping it up on Ibotta right now! =P I lived in Germany in the 80's, went back in October of 2003 and I do know it can vary, but we have really not been very far north other than Bremerhaven in July which I can honestly say was right cool for summer. Should I expect that crazy North Sea wind and find some warm clothes? We picked the northern route because my husband wants to go to Normandy. I wanted to go the southern route, but there are some reasons we cannot do that. I will say we have been to none of these places mentioned. Honestly, I had the Queen Mary on my mind (and that's going to still happen if we can swing it) even though the very dressy nights are more of an issue as we *do* pack light. This is a bucket list thing of ours. Looking forward to hearing your opinions.

So excited! I never seem to hit these things at the right time, but thanks to this thread, I finally caught one! We've been planning a TA for awhile now and seems the planets aligned with a bunch of perks to sweeten the deal. We are going October of 2025.....we are still recovering from a month long trip of Europe last year, so this will give us some time to plan! As soon as I paid the deposit, I got an email from AMEX about the offer. Thanks for posting this!

We love the Martini Bar.....we usually have before dinner drinks there. Our last cruise was on the Edge last year when we went to Europe last summer. Had an aft stateroom....it was wonderful and a great end to traveling all over for 20 days! Our cruise was lovely and encountered a lot of wonderful people, but this year we are just very uninspired by the itineraries being offered to the Caribbean. I'm at the point that it's ok to try new things. The couple on YouTube reminded me a lot of my husband and myself, so I feel it's going to be a good match! 🙂

We are going to be *jumping ship* from Celebrity and will be sailing on HAL Rotterdam in January....we are looking forward to seeing how we like it. I just made final payment today. We are in an aft cabin for 9 days with all the perks for the same price that Celebrity wanted for 7 days. We are considering a TA on HAL or Cunard, haven't decided which yet. It's a bucket list thing. I watched a YouTube couple today give their thoughts on the Rotterdam and HAL, so we are feeling pretty good that it will be a good fit for us!

It's as comfortable as possible. Our trip last year I was fortunate enough to find business fare rather cheap. When we got off in Greece, we were rough due to no sleep. At least I was comfy! I had on JJill leggins and a larger top. I actually ended up throwing the top away!

I have three pairs....I love them, but I have a wide, size 11 and very flat these days foot. Can't do them. They probably will all be hitting a sale site like Poshmark or eBay this winter. The pink ones I bought are going to kill me. I have Tieks that I will be doing the same thing to. I hate my feet.

Just be you....I think it's awesome that you have a style. Truthfully, it sounds like a lot of fun! Life is way too short to even care what someone else is thinking.

I totally agree....I'm 61 and a much older gal than myself on a Celebrity cruise was a push for me to finally take the leap to get my own tattoo (she had several!). So many people have them in places that are seen that it's really a non issue.

I definitely get this....lol, even though I'm dieting and losing some, I'm still pretty much a size 22. Columbia travel shorts are thin and they dry uber fast! I bought some cute fast fashion T-shirts at Target that folded up nice, resisted wrinkles and weighed practically nothing. I have a cute dress from Goddess on the Go that has two covers and changes the dress completely. I think what I wish is that there were a little more reversible items made!

I have Solely Jane's. The convertible shoes make it nice to add without adding a lot to the weight of your bag and allow you to achieve a few more looks! https://trysolelyjane.com/collections/all-products

I have flat, wide feet and a pulled tendon that acts up from time to time among other foot issues. I've been buying from Orthofeet and I have a pair of Birkenstocks. I wore a pair of their MaryJane's and a pair of sandals from them all through Europe last year. My tendon can be quite troublesome, but I suffered no problems with it while there wearing the Orthofeet shoes.

Elizabeth- LOL, I really ❤️ that bag! The Travel Fashion Girls group swayed me!! I love that group....for the most part, a very positive, uplifting group of gals! It really was wonderful for Europe because it was easy for me to organize. I have to be honest, our trip last year to Europe is a blur....we canceled it twice and I think we were still shell shocked when it really happened! If the strap for the luggage is there, I may have tried to use it, however the other bag I used is from my brother's ex-girlfriend who works for Delsey. It was a bag they were in the testing stages with before making them available to the mass market. I'm thinking I didn't like the way the handle on the Delsey felt when I put the other bag on it. I know for a fact that Delsey improved the handle some, but mine is a little wonky. Funny thing is, I wanted to take the Lovevook bag with me on a trip this past weekend and I can't find it. Admittedly, I have to do some decluttering of the closet, but not in a rush on that at the moment. I'm on a weight loss journey and I don't want to keep going in to clean it out. The scarier thing for me right now is I have a cruise planned for January and I'm praying I can find a few things to wear and that I don't lose so much I don't have anything to take! I absolutely love the color of your bag!! You are going to love it!

It's deep, but it has handles. I assure you, I never used it as a backpack. 🤣 LOL, my back would say big NO, because that is a bygone day! I will say I wish it had the strap to hook it to your pull handle to your other bag. I'm thinking that may be what you are looking for.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09W5ZMQQC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Hey Lois!! This is such a great bag! I loved that I could organize my paperwork and iPad, chargers and the like. It's a great price on Amazon, I think!

Travel Fashion Girls on FB is an amazing place. I will say I have learned so much from it! I'm a size 22 and just did Europe last year for 22 days which included a cruise. I had clothing only in the small black Delsey bag and I had our iPads, chargers, 1 pair of shoes, toiletries and folder with our tickets/itinerary in the backpack. I packed many neutral colored clothing-lighter t's and tanks, 3 Columbia travel shorts, a skirt, 4 dresses, cape/scarves, 3 prs. pants, Columbia cardigan, Ex-Officio undies, bras, nightgowns and a bathsuit with a cover up. I packed them Marie Kondo style and everything went in Europe was hot last summer, so the lighter fabrics were very easy to give a little swish to in the basin, even though as Elite on Celebrity, we could have sent wash out. We sent a few things to a laundry in Rome and paid like $10 I have a 22in Lipault I normally would have used for a 7 day cruise, however with the harder stuff that I knew we would want to use on the plane, tickets and so forth, I just made the decision to get the backpack out of ease in not having to open my actual clothing until we got to the hotel. In the end, I am SO HAPPY that I packed smaller, because Santorini was a tough climb to our hotel (incidentally saw a honeymoon couple struggling with 5 full sized bags and they were walking further than us!) and Venice was another torturous place to drag luggage around. There were about 5 travel days in our trip and of course the 7 days on the cruise. Our trip was suppose to happen in 2020 and I had a few health things change for me, so I ended up really appreciating packing light. Also, our plane did not take off in Spain due to problems and we had to fly out the next day. We walked off with our possessions while others scrambled the end of the day trying to get their stuff. Barcelona airport was a nightmare as were many European airports last year. Speaking for myself, there is no other way to go. I'll be back to my Lipault for our 9 day cruise in January.

I will take always just take a cheap hat with me and never my Tilley. My Tilley ended up coming off my head in the Panama Canal because I *did not* have my chin strap on. Someone got a great hat, because it really did float as they claim! My husband left his hat on the plane last year, so cheap is the way to go. I came home and ordered another Tilley....doesn't feel as good as the first one I had, but it's ok. They discontinued the style so at least I got another one.

While I want to do a full passage in time, we did a partial and LOVED IT! The extra days have always been an issue for us, but in about four years we will have all the time in the world! 😁 We went in the new locks and booked the shore excursion to go the rest of the way. We also touched the walls of the locks and had a HUGE container ship behind us which really put a size perspective on your trip. I think we got a lot of history out of our tour guide, we had a lovely lunch onboard and the drive back to Colon was very interesting. It is a very long day....I cannot remember being so tired. We went to Europe last year 22 days on a land and cruise trip and I wasn't half as tired, even with 3 time zone changes as I was on the Panama trip. We cruised in October and it was hot!

We've cruised on RCCL, Princess, NCL, and Celebrity.....we love Princess as much as Celebrity. RCCL and NCL are not as couple oriented. They weren't bad cruises, just different as they cater to a wider group. We are in our early 60's and we were very concerned about 10 years ago when we took our first Celebrity we wouldn't fit. Not sure now why there was even a concern! Dining is fantastic without having to do speciality restaurants. By the sounds of your post, you are already a great fit! 🙂

I love the Summit and the Constellation. I've really never disliked any ship, but I think it's the intamacy of these ships that makes is special.

I use Flamingo strips to remove mine. They come in a kit and it's cheaper and just as efficient as having it done at the salon. I actually have the wax and warmer along with the strips and applicators and have for years. I love the Flamingo because they don't make the mess the warmer does and you can travel with them easy! I know Target sells Flamingo products, but I've always ordered direct from them. I've been doing my brows, upper lip and chin hairs for years. My unibrow is pretty much gone, I do my upper lip every so often. The chin hairs I've taken to epilating. They are a little on the tough side.