Cold Open On Dangles And Teeth

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back to just an epic life podcast YouTube channel, whatever all the other things are. Yep, I got dangles on. I got dangles. And I got dangles. Let's get that out of the way because Nick wants to whine and complain about it.

SPEAKER_01 0:14

And now eat some potato some plantains. There are people who You have something in your teeth right now. Oh no. What if they zoom in?

SPEAKER_00 0:22

Which tooth?

unknown 0:24

Look it.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

Don't worry, I won't pick it. No, one more over. Yeah, right there.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Who let me lose? I looked in the mirror.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

I don't know. Uh so right after lunch, uh, I went to the restroom. And you had to smile. I'm like, uh apparently no one at that table is my friend.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

There wasn't so much talking going on. It would have been like, hey, stop talking if there's something you need to tell me.

SPEAKER_01 0:43

Were you allowed to say the thing from the other day? The woman.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Oh my god. First tell me if I got the thing out of my tooth.

SPEAKER_01 0:49

Okay, you're good.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

Am I good?

The Awkward Dining Room Moment

SPEAKER_00 0:51

Yes, you're perfect. Perfect. Okay, so we are on a cruise. Uh we are at day, I think this is day seven. Whatever. This will be the seventh night on the Carnival Jubilee. And we uh did uh a couple of stops and we've had three C days. So two nights ago, three nights ago, we're at a restaurant, and you know, it's a hot vacation. It's a hot boat. It is like humidity is like a hundred degrees, and we are like Phoenicians.

SPEAKER_01 1:19

Yeah, 50% of the people are in bathing suits, maybe cover-ups.

SPEAKER_00 1:22

Maybe. I mean, and for the dining rooms, you have to be a little more dressed up, but a little more dressed up isn't like, you know, some of the winter cruises you see are like full-on, full-length dresses. No, no. People are figuring out how they can wear the least amount of clothes while still being formal. There's my ear quotes. Anyways, we're sitting at this table, and there's these two ladies sitting across the table. It's a two-top, so one on each side. And I look over, and this woman, her freaking nipple, no joke, is hanging out like no bra on, which is fine. Like free, free boobing it is fine. But she's sitting across from her friend, and I'm like, that is a bad friend. And I I lean across the table because I uh Nick and Liliana are across the table, and I don't even think Isaiah's there, which is good because he would have been mortified. I lean across the table and I said, That woman's nipple is hanging out. And Liliana turns to her and left and goes, Oh, and we're debating.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

We're like, okay, do you go talk to her?

SPEAKER_00 2:22

I know, yes, because at that point I'm like, hey, how does she not feel that? Also, I understand that nipple stuff, people don't always have some stimulation in there. Uh, but then it's like two, maybe two to five minutes. I don't know. Time goes by very fast.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

I'm uncomfortable telling someone, hey, your fly is down. There's nothing exposed about a fly being down. That's like, hey, I can see the two sides of your zipper. That's not that's nothing compared to this. Tittying.

SPEAKER_00 2:51

It's two to five minutes later when her friend must say something, because I see her eyes almost bug out of her. I don't I don't think I told you that part. Her eyes almost bug out of her, and she does one of those like swoosh, because it's coming out on the on the right. Okay, so the right side of her, again, it's addressed, but it's like one of those that like kind of curves.

SPEAKER_01 3:08

I think Marcy's one is explicit.

SPEAKER_00 3:12

Because I said the word titty. Four-year-old. Uh uh, anyways. So I don't care. So I'm sorry. I normally do tell you have food in your teeth, but I felt like the conversation just kept going and going, and I didn't want to be like, hey, stop talking so that you can get the food out of your teeth. Well, thank you for but I'm quite sure that our two friends were sitting there going, Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01 3:31

So and I so I did my practice smile. Like in looking in the mirror, I'm like, okay, if I'm talking, you can't see it.

SPEAKER_00 3:36

But if I'm grinning, I only saw it like two or three times. Okay. Honestly. It was not a big deal. And I felt like we were nearly done hanging out. So it was like you were, I was gonna tell you at some point. Thank you. And you went to the bathroom. Fine. Okay. So now that we've gotten all the things out. So by the way, when you got the bag of chips and you started crunching them, I'm like, our daughter used to listen to somebody who that's like what they did.

SPEAKER_01 3:58

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:59

It was kind of annoying.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

The YouTubers, but that person had long they had more followers than us, so good job to you.

SPEAKER_00 4:04

Yeah, yes, 100%. So I suppose I'll take some of these out.

SPEAKER_01 4:08

Oh, hallelujah.

SPEAKER_00 4:09

But I'm keeping the bracelet on.

SPEAKER_01 4:11

Okay. Um, yeah, but that one like literally four inches from the microphone.

SPEAKER_00 4:14

Okay, well, you're so dramatic.

SPEAKER_01 4:17

Do you hear how peaceful it is now?

SPEAKER_00 4:21

Okay, if you are a cruiser or maybe you haven't cruised before, here's my pro tip for the day. Um, Carnival, and I don't know if all the cruises do this, they hide ducks. So when we cruised with the kids, there's one over there. I thought about hopping up to get it, but anyways, like the little rubber duckies. Um, and some people put their stuff on it and put their hashtags on it, and some people don't, it doesn't matter. Uh, but they're fun to hide, and so we have found a few, and then we go and rehide them because we think the kids should find them because it's way cooler.

SPEAKER_01 4:46

So on the week. The last cruise we hit a bunch.

SPEAKER_00 4:49

We hit a bunch. This time I totally forgot, so we didn't hide any. And it's okay. We watched other people do it.

SPEAKER_01 4:54

Uh, I did see somebody I sent links for purple rubber ducks to people who asked, Hey, what should I get Kessler for a birthday?

SPEAKER_00 5:00

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:00

But no one bought that for you.

SPEAKER_00 5:01

Oh, well, I'm sure they were like, What the heck?

SPEAKER_01 5:04

Speaking of birthday, the the win for the birthday season.

Birthday Gifts That Improve Travel

SPEAKER_00 5:08

Oh yeah. Okay, so Nick is not a gift giver. Quite frankly, we do not give gifts. Like, this is just our this is we're terrible at this. We do the experience type thing. And honestly.

SPEAKER_01 5:21

What do you want for your birthday? I don't know. Let's hang out.

SPEAKER_00 5:23

Because I may, I'll go buy it myself. And he's uh he is a he won't go buy it himself, but if he really wants it, he will, or I'll go buy it. So um this year, he decided was the year to give me gifts, which is so weird, I gotta say, because I think that it's a little it's not normal. It's very out of culture. The other one is in your left uh left hand.

SPEAKER_01 5:46

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 5:47

Um, anyways, so he did not buy me this, but this is so far. Turn it off.

SPEAKER_01 5:53

Those who are listening on the podcast providers, she is taking out the fan that I bought her.

SPEAKER_00 5:58

No, no, you did not buy this.

SPEAKER_01 5:59

You're right, you're right.

SPEAKER_00 6:00

He did not buy this for me. In fact, he asked my my mother asked, what can I get her?

unknown 6:05

No.

SPEAKER_00 6:06

Okay, well, whatever.

SPEAKER_01 6:07

I sent a link that said, hey, in case you haven't bought anything.

SPEAKER_00 6:10

Okay, so it goes in this, it packs up really nicely. It's maybe three inches deep by eight inches in diameter. Is that what the across is? Okay, so it folds up, it's a fan, it's battery powered, like rechargeable. Get it out.

SPEAKER_01 6:27

Got it.

SPEAKER_00 6:28

Um, and then it oh the brand is venty.

SPEAKER_01 6:31

Look, there's this there is so that way you can carry it like a fan.

SPEAKER_00 6:34

Yeah, so um, it's rechargeable, it has a uh remote control, and then you use it. And honestly, when my mom gave it to me, I didn't think you were gonna allow it in the for us to take it because it's kind of heavy, but it's fantastic. It has been a game changer. Anyways, so this is uh one of the gifts he bought me.

SPEAKER_01 6:55

So if on the cruise, being able to have it telescopic and then pointing at the fan. But one thing that we've done is we've used the ceiling hooks in case you've been a cruiser. Or you haven't been, and you know that the the the metal hooks connect to walls, ceilings, things like that. Uh that's out of the shot, but that's okay.

SPEAKER_00 7:12

It doesn't matter, so you can hang it up on the ceiling. I pulled it down on purpose, anyways.

SPEAKER_01 7:16

Yeah. Okay. Good times. That was a pro pro cruising tip.

SPEAKER_00 7:20

Pro, yeah. So that was really great. So since we're talking about birthday presents, pull out the other thing. So we went on the Sedona trip, which I'm pretty sure we did a podcast about, and we talked about how Nick somehow miraculously became really good at cribbage.

SPEAKER_01 7:33

Like, I won like six of the nine games.

SPEAKER_00 7:37

More than that. Oh, well, maybe. Okay, so, anyways, he bought me this really I mean, it this is a really thoughtful gift, I have to tell you. Because I I think when you've been married so long, and I think people who've been married a long time probably agree, you run out of things. So it's this leather-bound, really beautiful wood cribbage born. Beautiful, and so really just thoughtful. And I did not expect anything. And in fact, I told him, Don't buy me anything. And then he's like, Oh, do you want your birthday present? I was like, wait a second, please hold, sir. Surprise, I'm romantic. Yeah, uh, this sucks because now I will have to have an epic Thankgiving.

SPEAKER_01 8:10

Okay. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:12

Yeah, but I will.

SPEAKER_01 8:13

I'm the worst gift receiver. Our family will tell you.

SPEAKER_00 8:17

I'm pretty sure I'm bad.

SPEAKER_01 8:19

I'm very bad.

SPEAKER_00 8:20

I've gotten better only because your mom says you have to your mom? Who did? Was it you or your mom? You have to receive like you give. Yes, which is difficult because I like to give and I don't like to receive. So, yeah. So the the fan, by the way, if you are an R Ver, this could be great there. Honestly, I haven't thought of a place you couldn't bring it.

SPEAKER_01 8:40

Teachers, this easily fits under your desk on those hot, humid days.

SPEAKER_00 8:44

Yeah. Um or if you're working, like I want one in my office. It's cool because my office is hot. Yeah, so yeah, the cruise room is great. Um, yeah.

Big Stateroom And The Ship Coaster

SPEAKER_01 8:54

Speaking of the cruise room, like we're looking at our room. You those that are that are watching on a video provider, you know, nice balcony behind us. We're on the 15th floor.

SPEAKER_00 9:03

Yes, we are.

SPEAKER_01 9:04

Uh, and there's a couch, there's there's a bed, the bathroom, the closets. This is at least 50% bigger than our first cruise. Our first cruise.

SPEAKER_00 9:14

Which was a princess. We cruised to Alaska.

SPEAKER_01 9:16

In the year 2001.

SPEAKER_00 9:18

We had a we didn't have a balcony.

SPEAKER_01 9:20

We had a you could sit in the porthole.

SPEAKER_00 9:23

The porthole, yeah. And the bed probably went this way, and it probably was oh yeah, at least Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:29

The bathroom probably started right there where the bed is.

SPEAKER_00 9:31

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 9:31

It was a ed beatty. Now we were very young and on a budget.

SPEAKER_00 9:35

Uh a budget, our parents' budget.

SPEAKER_01 9:38

Thanks, mom and dad.

SPEAKER_00 9:39

Yeah, thanks, mom and dad's. Yeah, uh, yeah. So this is a very large room and easily could fit. I mean, we would not be comfortable if the kids had to be in here with us, and it would be fine.

SPEAKER_01 9:51

It is feasible to sleep.

SPEAKER_00 9:53

Liliana has spent little or no time in a room. Isaiah, on the other hand, is so thankful to have his computer and like he's living his best life. Eight o'clock this morning, he said he was up and he was already on third breakfast by the time I hit the balcony at 9:30. He's like, Oh yeah, I've already had third breakfast.

SPEAKER_01 10:08

So uh we just did the roller coaster on this trip. Kesley didn't, but the kids and I and one of our uh travel buddies, we did that, and it was stinking awesome. The the roller coaster, it is not like a okay, you sit in and then you just you know, hands up, hold on. No, this you I sat in, I was riding solo because there's two seats and I was by myself. Uh, and I had my seatbelt on, and then throttle with the right hand, and then booster with the left hand, and you're like a motorcycle. Like a motorcycle, and this track on the very top of this cruise ship uh was I got to control the the speed, I got to control the boost. It was stinging awesome. The kids loved it. Our travel friend, he loved it. It was uh he said it was one of the highlights of his trip.

SPEAKER_00 10:55

Well, so was it worth the 15 bucks? Because it was both it was extra money on top of what you already spent on the cruise.

SPEAKER_01 11:01

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 11:01

What I spent on the cruise.

SPEAKER_01 11:03

Uh I think if we I think 15 bucks doesn't break the budget if you're traveling on a budget. It's just like, okay, do I want to have this beverage or do I want to ride the roller coaster?

SPEAKER_00 11:19

For a minute.

SPEAKER_01 11:20

For a yeah, for a minute. But I mean for$15 it was well worth it.

SPEAKER_00 11:24

And the anticipation, because we had to book it. When did we book it?

SPEAKER_01 11:26

Like four days ago, three days ago.

SPEAKER_00 11:28

Yeah, because they were sold out until today. So and maybe they just don't do it except for on sea days.

SPEAKER_01 11:33

Maybe only at sea days.

SPEAKER_00 11:34

There's a lot of sarcasm back there. Not to be confused with sarcasm.

SPEAKER_01 11:38

Yes, yes. They're there so the uh seaweedy stuff that collects. Um, those of you who have listened to podcasts when we're in the Caribbean, uh, and it just, you know, the smelly beaches, that's from the seaweed that just drifts up onto the shore.

SPEAKER_00 11:55

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 11:56

So it's that time of year, just like you know, when someplace with trees that change color and then the the leaves fall to the ground. It's seasonal. Same thing with this seaweed, the sarcasm.

SPEAKER_00 12:08

Although I called it sarcasm and was completely unaware until our travel people were like sarcasm, Kesley. Really? It's called sarcasm. I was like, oh my gosh, I meant sarcasm. So now we now they make fun of me and they call it sarcasm. And there's not enough sarcasm on the speech, or there's too much sarcasm on the speech. It's hilarious.

SPEAKER_01 12:27

Yes.

Ship Design Wins And Pool Frustrations

SPEAKER_00 12:28

It's fun. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:29

So uh overall the ship has been good.

SPEAKER_00 12:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:32

I uh we have done carnival. Uh back in the day, we did Royal Caribbean and we've done Princess. Those are the only ones. We've seen some ships that were like, ooh, we should try that brand. We should try that brand.

SPEAKER_00 12:43

This is our third carnival.

SPEAKER_01 12:45

I bet it's more pretty sure it's the kid's second.

SPEAKER_00 12:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:53

And Carnival is based on Thunder.

SPEAKER_00 12:56

Maybe more. Yeah. Although I mean, we talked about the good things. Probably one of my biggest things that I dislike about this boat is the lack of pool space. Yeah. It is so this is the largest boat in Carnival's fleet, and the pool space is just limited.

SPEAKER_01 13:15

There's a there's a uh pockets of pools.

SPEAKER_00 13:17

Yeah, but every pool is very small. Yes. It's not designed for the 6,100 people that are on the boat.

SPEAKER_01 13:22

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 13:22

So those are guests.

SPEAKER_01 13:24

That's not the I do enjoy the amount of outdoor space and the amount of indoor space. It's great. It's just the amount of actually being in water in the pools and hot tubs and whirlpools and stuff is limited.

SPEAKER_00 13:36

I do love the center stage. Like this the six, seven, and eight, what we'll call the promenade, which is I think an old term for what Abaddon cruise boats. But the uh the backdrop of it is the windows, and it's and you can look out and see the ocean. It's really cool. It's very cool, actually.

SPEAKER_01 13:51

Yeah, all the cruise ships that we've done before this, there were you know, that center promenade.

SPEAKER_00 13:55

Promenade Grand Staircase.

SPEAKER_01 13:56

That was that was the culture of cruising. Where you know, it's the glass elevators, and you know, you can see like eight floors down, and it's majestic and it's regal. The that has shifted.

SPEAKER_00 14:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:09

And the culture is now focused on entertainment, uh, digital technology. I really I think that they did a great job designing the boat. I would I would give it how old is this boat?

SPEAKER_00 14:21

I mean they said it was like 18 months. It set sail about 18 months ago.

SPEAKER_01 14:25

Do not know.

SPEAKER_00 14:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:27

But you're gonna give it a I would I would score it with uh uh probably an A. A minus? Probably an A. I think I'd give it a It's my favorite cruise ship so far.

SPEAKER_00 14:37

Oh yeah, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 14:39

But I you know, we do have a little bit of uh, you know, FOMO, jealousy, envy when you look like we just saw two of Royal Caribbean's massive ships. One that's the third largest in the world, one that's the fourth largest in the world. And as we're sitting on here on this amazing majestic ship, and then looking at another ship, going, are they having a better time than me?

SPEAKER_00 14:59

I don't think I have much of that. I'm just really and truly the pool situation for for again a hot trip, there should be more cruise space, more pool space, like the Serenity, which is an adult-only, the pool is not an adult-only ship.

SPEAKER_01 15:14

It's uh uh a floor, a level.

SPEAKER_00 15:17

The pool is smaller than our stateroom. Well, actually, about the same size, it might be the same size as our stateroom. And every time I've been up there, there are so let's imagine 40 to 50 people in there. And it starts out as clean water and then it's gross. No. So I just I think they could have done a better job with the with more pool space. Yeah, that that would be my one thing.

SPEAKER_01 15:41

Two days ago when we were on uh in port uh Costa Maya, Mexico.

SPEAKER_00 15:46

No, no, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_01 15:47

I'm I'm saying something fun, something exciting.

SPEAKER_00 15:49

Okay, good.

SPEAKER_01 15:50

Okay, we got to port and I saw a ship that was porting the same time as us, and I'm like, oh, we've been on that style of ship.

SPEAKER_00 15:58

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:59

Have we been on that exact ship? And I had to quickly go through my mind, and I'm quite certain with at least 65% accuracy. I I would double down on this bet. Uh uh, we haven't spent time in the casino, by the way. Not like we didn't, we didn't gamble on a single thing. I would double down on this bet. I'm quite certain that in 2003, you and I took the Royal Caribbean Enchantment of the Seas from Ensonada, Mexico to Hawaii on that ship that we saw two days ago, because it had the circular deck, which was really cool for one moment, uh, because we got to watch the co US Coast Guard rescue for someone who had cardiac arrest on the ship, and they they couldn't wait until we got to port. US Coast Guard had to come out, like lower a basket, lower two people to then hoist this person up into the helicopter and take him to the mainland because this was four days at sea. So this it was so cool. The entire top decks, everything was shut down for when the helicopter came, but they they didn't shut down that circular bar up there, that viewing area. So it was really cool to go through memory lane and at port, yes, two days ago, we have cell service in Mexico. Uh, and I was able to go onto Dropbox and pull up like first by the way, Dropbox is getting like good with their search technology. Like, it used to be in Dropbox, you just search, you know, if back in the day when I uploaded that photo, which was probably a still photo that we then scanned, this is before the era of digital photography, I would label it as 2003 Hawaii Cruise 001. And you know, that's back in the day, that's how I labeled things. So then I'd go into Dropbox and I'd type those in. Now, like if you just go into my Dropbox and you type in Halloween, it's really cool because it will it will show you all of the images that it thinks is Halloween. I know this for a fact because Kesley has an LED mask that she bought, which you bought on red therapy. Red therapy. You bought on some cheap auction thing, so it's not like you invest in it. You're like, eh, what's that? And I think you look silly. And so does Dropbox. Because when I type when I type in Halloween.

SPEAKER_00 18:22

I think I look silly in 10 years when I have more elasticity to my face.

SPEAKER_01 18:28

So so Kesley wearing this red LED mask is quantified in the search algorithm within Dropbox as costume or Halloween. So, anyways, I type in cruise cruise ship and it shows every single image in my Dropbox photos of a cruise ship. It was really cool. So, all of our photos, you can see the shape of the ship is the exact same. So, whether it was the enchantment of seas uh or another sister ship, it we've been on that type, that model.

SPEAKER_00 18:58

I so I feel like I'm just gonna add this because you talked about how we used to label our photos, these kind of photos. Uh uh, we are one of the last people I recall getting married. Okay, who's making noise now, sir?

SPEAKER_01 19:13

Sorry, I'm just getting a bottle of water out of the fridge. Last people to get married.

SPEAKER_00 19:18

Yeah, with film.

SPEAKER_01 19:20

Our photographer would have to stop every 35 photos to take out the film.

SPEAKER_00 19:25

Oh, yeah. And she did we had a black and white film, uh-huh, which by the way, we had to take. And we had an incredible photographer who uh we paid her to give us the film at the end of the day. And so we developed it. So I'm pretty sure not us in a black room. Right. The color probably went to Costco and the black and white we had to go to, I think it's called Moto Photo, because it was one of the few places that would develop black and white photos. Uh, but I'm pretty sure most of the people, because we got married young young, right? And so that was in 01. So people after us, they have digital and we have legit prints.

SPEAKER_01 20:02

Yeah, and luckily we've we've scanned all of them, you know, getting the flatbed scanner and scanning one at a time. Now we have, you know, a feeder that.

SPEAKER_00 20:11

Do we still have the photo album? Yes, because I bet scanners are better now.

SPEAKER_01 20:16

Dude, yeah, yeah, cell phone, you just go like this and it it takes all three photos, separates it in their own thing.

SPEAKER_00 20:21

I think that I did that when I posted for our anniversary a couple years ago. I took a picture of my favorite couple of pictures. But yeah, so we're one of the few people who, and uh that's just I mean, our kids will never know that.

SPEAKER_01 20:33

I mean, as it is now, like we'll Liliana took a photography class this semester.

SPEAKER_00 20:38

This semester, last semester, last semester. It was her first semester of uh freshman year.

SPEAKER_01 20:42

They spent a little bit of time on that.

SPEAKER_00 20:45

Yeah. Well, and and we've been good. Like, we will take our favorite photos, we'll have them printed at Walgreens and and get them so Liliana can put them up on her wall and we can just have them and they're nice to have around.

SPEAKER_01 20:55

Apparently, Polaroid photos are now a thing again. Like the instance, like you click it and then it feeds out, and then you wait 60 seconds.

SPEAKER_00 21:03

Yeah, it's something we did that terrible quality at the daughter daddy vet.

SPEAKER_01 21:08

So fun and exciting.

SPEAKER_00 21:09

They're up on the fridge and they're already like black.

SPEAKER_01 21:11

Are they? Yeah, I mean that to my I'm sure the technology will be there to make them great. Yeah. But right now it's it's going for the aesthetic.

SPEAKER_00 21:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:21

Lily Alana will be proud that I said aesthetic.

SPEAKER_00 21:24

Okay. We did uh book two rooms, one for our kids and one for us. Uh typically we would do an an um an inside room.

SPEAKER_01 21:33

And then our referring to the hallway.

SPEAKER_00 21:35

Yeah, the hallway. So uh because what if what do I need to pay for them to be in a balcony? But when we booked this, we kind of booked it last minute. Um and the the balcony was like similar in price. I think it was it cost us like a hundred dollars more, so it was great. So we went ahead and booked that. So um so I mean it's been a great cruise, it's been really fun, it's been really hot, and I don't know that it's been hot. Hot, but it's in so humid, and like I was saying at the beginning, like this is early July, by the way. We're we're Phoenicians and we're we're we're so used to the dry heat, the humidity. My skin loves it. My skin is so happy.

SPEAKER_01 22:14

Uh we're getting our daily exercise frequently.

SPEAKER_00 22:17

Uh yes, intentionally, actually. Intentionally.

SPEAKER_01 22:20

Instead of us going to the gym like we talked about during yes, let's not uh disclose how many times we've been to the gym.

SPEAKER_00 22:26

We've been to the gym one time.

SPEAKER_01 22:28

We did walk through one time.

SPEAKER_00 22:29

Oh, that's another thing. So on this ship, that gym is probably the smallest gym I've ever seen on a ship. It's they know that we had good intentions. And that was it. Because it's it's all the buffets are huge.

SPEAKER_01 22:42

The gym is small.

SPEAKER_00 22:42

Actually, I don't even think the buffets are huge. There's my other complaint.

SPEAKER_01 22:46

Is they close food down too often, but there's like four buffet stations, and you know, during buffet times, maybe at max peak time, they might all be open, but then they stagger that. Yeah. Okay, so but the gym that we're referring to is the stairs. We've only taken the elevator once.

SPEAKER_00 23:05

We took it once. I said it was smelly and we were not going to do it.

SPEAKER_01 23:10

Yeah. Again.

SPEAKER_00 23:11

We so we're on the 15th floor, which is great. So the Leto deck is above us, so that's where your food and most of your other stuff is. To get to the serenity, the adult only pool uh is two levels up.

SPEAKER_01 23:24

There's also an 18.

SPEAKER_00 23:25

But remember, I said like the grand or whatever area is uh six, seven, and eight, which is where we spend a lot more of our time.

SPEAKER_01 23:32

And then disembarking and embarking. So getting off the ship, getting back on the ship, that's on level three for the most part, except for the very beginning.

SPEAKER_00 23:40

And we do not take the elevator.

SPEAKER_01 23:41

And so when like yesterday, when we got back on the ship in Cosmo and coming up to here, we're counting. And somewhere between 175 and 185. We've counted 175, 177, 185.

SPEAKER_00 23:53

Okay, well, maybe we'll have to do it again first.

SPEAKER_01 23:55

We'll have to do it again. But we we've counted, and that's how many steps up. So we we did our stairmaster, we do it all the time, and we combine uh exercises because we have the stairmaster and we have the steam room all at once.

SPEAKER_00 24:11

Yes, because it's so warm, it's like they do not cool the hallways.

SPEAKER_01 24:15

It's whenever if someone if we were to open the glass door behind us and open up our stateroom door, the warm air would just flow right through here. All the air conditioning would be negated for the next hour. And it would require our ship, uh our room to focus air conditioning to cool it down. Yeah. The challenge is when people are going in and out of doors, the more hot moisture comes into the ship. And specifically in the the upper floors of the stairwell corridors, yeah, it just retains heat. Heat, sometimes body odor. Sometimes, not often.

The Trivia Door Experiment

SPEAKER_00 24:55

Uh not often. One of the coolest things we've also done is so they recommend, or if you follow Facebook groups or whatever social media groups, they recommend you decorate your door because when you're walking down the hallway, whether it's early, late, whether you're intoxicated or not, all the doors start to look the same. So we actually have, I actually I love our, I have a love hate with our location because again, we're on the 15th, so we're just below the Lido deck, but we are straight when you walk into the hallway to the state rooms. And so you literally could walk straight off the stairs or wherever you're coming or up the elevator and walk straight into our room. Um, so I didn't want to do decorations. I mean, when we did the one at Christmas time, we decorated like an Arizona Christmas, and we that's how we did our doors. But this time I decided I was gonna do a trivia door, and I kept telling Isaiah and Nick I was gonna do this. And both of them were like, whatever, this is lame, I don't care. Well, so I throw up the first question on day one, and like within 20 minutes, people are talking about it and they're answering, and Nick's- They're gathering outside of our doors. Yeah, Nick's like, this is cool, not in a creepy way. No, no, no, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:58

But like they're walking in and they go, Oh, what's that? And then they're participating.

SPEAKER_00 26:03

Yeah. So my intention was to print the questions. And I ran out of time. So I bought whiteboards that I had a different idea for, which I don't even remember now. And then I bought like, I thought they were gonna be three by five. I thought they were gonna be smaller, but they were much they're four by six. Four by six. Um, so I bought a whole bunch of those, and so we write the magnetic little whiteboards. Yes, because everything in they don't want you to tape anything, so you can magnet everything. So I've got the big ones, eight and a half by eleven. We write the question of the day on there, and sometimes I've got a bonus question or we'll change out the questions, and then the dry erase boards with the dry erase markers that magnetize to the and that's been really fun. Yeah, it's been very cool. And we can stand here and look out and watch them answering the questions, or like we were leaving one day, and a little girl was with her dad and is like, this one's stumping me, and whatever. So that has been uh we also saw somebody had Scrabble. Of course, you can buy stuff on Amazon or whatever that's like magnetic and very cruise based. Um, I'm not for putting our kids' names or our names out on this, but some people put their names, which is great. Other people are saying things are celebrating, which I think is cool. Um, but I really like the trivia. Yeah. And it it's I think it's been fun and cool. Yeah. I'm gonna do that. That'll if we if we choose to cruise again, I'll do that again. I might have it a little more organized. Although it's been nice to kind of fly by the seat of our pants because then we can pick the questions whenever we want.

SPEAKER_01 27:26

So you said if we choose to cruise again, why wouldn't you?

Roatan Taxi Strategy And Local Stops

SPEAKER_00 27:30

I don't know. I so I'm afraid we're missing out on the places we went. Like when we went to Rotan or Rotan, however we say this, in Honduras. Like um, when we got off port, apparently Carnival owns part of that port or something, that island. So we could they kind of shuffle us that way, which is fine. It's perfect for the person who wants the beach experience. Um it's just I want the beach experience, but I also want the people experience. And so, like everything when we got over to that beach was owned by Carnival. In fact, I'm pretty sure they were all wearing carnival name tags, all the staff members at the restaurants. So once I realized that, I was like, we have to get out of here. This is we can't see the place we're at. So I think we're missing those things.

SPEAKER_01 28:16

Um we love the idea of if we could wave a magic wand and suddenly be apparated or teleported to the the town square.

SPEAKER_00 28:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:26

In a small town of 10,000 people in this town. We would love that. But instead, we are dropped at a port where it is highly commercialized with the intention of entertaining and uh uh having tourists consume.

SPEAKER_00 28:46

Which is what I think most people who cruise want.

SPEAKER_01 28:49

Correct.

SPEAKER_00 28:49

By all means. So we are abnormal. We so we we rented a clamshell, which I'm glad we had because it started raining at one point where you kind of hit on a shade structure and two lounge chairs, and we said to the kids, Do you want to stay here? Do you want to because the water was kind of murky and you had to get through some slimy stuff in order to get to the less murky. Um, do you want to stay here? Do you want to get in a cab, or do you want to get back on the boat? So they were like, I don't really care. And so I said, Let's get in a cab. So we walked back out to the terminal. This is in Rotan Honduras, um, and realized that the cabs right there were privately owned. So they were charging, I don't remember however much they were charging.

SPEAKER_01 29:35

They were like there was when you say privately owned, what do you mean what you mean by that is these are the vendors that have been approved to be inside the port area.

SPEAKER_00 29:44

Correct. So they have a there's no negotiations, right? This is the it was I think it was like$15 a person per way.

SPEAKER_01 29:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:52

Um, so we knew get outside of the port. So we walked.

SPEAKER_01 29:57

The moment that you can get off of the property where any vendor can be there, that's when you can uh first of all provide work for people.

SPEAKER_00 30:07

I mean we could let's talk about the good things, which is you immediately start oozing money into the actual local community, as opposed to the people who are paying to be part of it.

SPEAKER_01 30:17

And which might might be owned from somewhere else in the world. Who knows?

SPEAKER_00 30:21

I I mean I explained to Isaiah that like everybody has their hand in this cookie chair, right? Everybody wants to get paid. Um, so it's fine. So, anyways, we walked five minutes, we got to where the local taxis are, which are for all intents and purposes, Uber and Lyft.

SPEAKER_01 30:34

And there's like like 30 people waiting at the gate. Yeah. Because they can't cross the gate.

SPEAKER_00 30:38

Right.

SPEAKER_01 30:39

And they they see us coming and we're like, okay, prepare yourselves. But they were very kind.

SPEAKER_00 30:43

Yeah, it was funny because you they got you, and and then we just kept following in line. And it's rare that I don't I don't exude being the boss. Correct. I was trying to figure out yeah, it's where I'm the doting wife, right in the background, and the mom, but I was picking up the rear, so the kids were between us, and so he's working out like what it's gonna cost us to get to wherever we're gonna go. And then somebody else says, Ma'am, do you need a taxi? And I said, Are you gonna talk to me the same as that person's talking to my husband? And and he's like, Yeah, and I'm like, Nick, is that guy giving you a good price? Because this guy wants to talk to us, and so that immediately gave Nick some negotiation power, but we did spend 80 bucks to have the driver with us for the whole day.

SPEAKER_01 31:27

The whole day.

SPEAKER_00 31:27

He he like he followed us, um not in a bad, creepy way, but I think it was a service that he provided. Yeah, like we got he um we told him we were hungry, so we drove about it, it said it was gonna be like 20 minutes, it ended up being like 40 minutes. Beautiful part of the island. He didn't know.

SPEAKER_01 31:42

And he said, Hey, you'll you'll this is what the the cost is, you won't pay me until the very end. And I and you know, some of the skeptical, I'm like, yeah, but then you're gonna be like, no, you owe me this much. Uh but you know, and I I didn't I led with skepticism to protect us, but in the conversations, I realized, wait, this is actually a reputable reputable vendor. Like, I had confidence in our experience.

SPEAKER_00 32:08

Yeah, yeah. So sorry to interrupt. No, it's totally fine. So we drove to the other time, we told him we were hungry, he takes us to his his friends, like it looks like a two-story house that overlooked the water.

SPEAKER_01 32:19

We were the only customers.

SPEAKER_00 32:20

We could see all the way to the bottom.

SPEAKER_01 32:21

Um on the way, we were talking about mangoes, yeah, and there was a mango festival. So as we're sitting there, uh he just comes in with four mangoes that he just pulled off of trees.

SPEAKER_00 32:32

Yeah, it was great. We decided to get one plate of food to share just because we were kind of hoping we'd find some like local like by the street, something that my mother made and set up shop, so something like that. Um yeah, and it was just a cute little town. We we hung out there for probably an hour, hour and a half. It was warm. We did not get in the water there. We could have gotten in the water, but we didn't. Um and we just had it was funny. When we left when we left food, we said we're gonna go walking up. And it was, it had been raining, so it kind of stopped as we left. We said, We're gonna go walk up the way. And he's like, Okay. So we leave. We haven't paid this guy anything yet. We leave, we start walking up the beach slowly, goofing off. Nick, oh my gosh. What Nick goes to the bar, so we get a drink at the restaurant. We have we have we have three drinks. They have the kids have a fresh made lemonade, which it's rare that they will order a second lemonade because usually it's like it's lime a mole local lime, so they call it lemonade things. Yeah, but the it was so good, it's very good. So they each had one and then they shared a third one, which I thought Liliana was gonna kill Isaiah because he finished it and I thought she'd kill him.

SPEAKER_01 33:41

Without offering.

SPEAKER_00 33:42

Without offering.

SPEAKER_01 33:42

Like, hey, do you want some of the lemon?

SPEAKER_00 33:44

So we finish, we finish and we go off walking. Well, there's of course a bar, and Nick's like, I'm gonna go get us some more. What were we drinking that day, rum?

SPEAKER_01 33:52

We were drinking rum.

SPEAKER_00 33:53

Were we drinking tequila? I think it was rum. No, tequila. I don't remember.

SPEAKER_01 34:01

I don't remember.

SPEAKER_00 34:01

It was one of the two. Anyways, he comes back with these Pepsi cups. They're like a 12-ounce Pepsi cup.

SPEAKER_01 34:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:08

It was almost full.

SPEAKER_01 34:10

Dude, that guy poured. He hands me this and he goes, here's your And we're used to a very uh uh carefully poured ounce of alcohol here on the ship.

SPEAKER_00 34:24

And quite frankly, at home, we measure. Right, we do it when we're drinking, we measure it's a one to a one and a half ounce pour all the time. Yeah, period. Like then we know what we've consumed. So he hands me this paper cup, and it's like this, it's like under an inch, maybe an inch and a half from the top full.

SPEAKER_01 34:43

There's ice in there too. I'm just like that was a good five-ounce pour holy crap.

SPEAKER_00 34:47

It was rum. We were definitely drinking rum that day. Um yeah, it was oh the Florida Canya, that's what it was.

SPEAKER_01 34:54

Yeah, so uh but it costs well, it was much cheaper than buying alcohol on a cruise ship. 100%. But it was much more than buying a bottle.

SPEAKER_00 35:03

How much did we pay for that?

SPEAKER_01 35:04

Oh, it was like 14 bucks.

SPEAKER_00 35:05

Okay, so uh we ended up buying a bottle to drink later instead of instead of buying one at a time because then we could just fill up.

SPEAKER_01 35:13

Yeah, then we just go to a bar. Hey, can I can we have some ice? Yeah, and you tip a dollar.

SPEAKER_00 35:18

But yeah, so that was really funny. But then so we started walking down the beach and it was warm and we were trying to decide if we're gonna stay or go. We saw the fruit sand, all this other stuff.

SPEAKER_01 35:26

So I don't know, we were probably walking for 30 or 45 minutes, and here comes the car traveling right behind us, and I'm like, oh, because I when we were at the restaurant, I said, we are going to walk along this, uh, and we'll meet you at the end of this sandy area. Yep. Uh, and then you know we can travel back. So yeah, once he's getting to the end of that, then he arrived. He wanted to be there to provide service.

SPEAKER_00 35:51

And he took he took photos for us. We we told him where to stand because Liliana and Nick are very particular. We are they like I took the picture the wrong way, and Liliana was like, it was crazy. Uh, so it's fine. So then we said to him, Well, we're gonna walk back now. We'll meet you there. Give us like 30 minutes. It was almost exactly 30 minutes before we got back there, and he was ready to take us. He was very knowledgeable. Um, he provided great service. He was very nice. Uh, he took us across the island and then down and around. And then when we came back, we went back through the way we didn't see.

SPEAKER_01 36:21

Now, look and it was very fun because he's like, Hey, where are you from? We said Arizona. He's like, Oh, I was I was just there. We're like, Cool. Yeah, like this is someone who was born and raised on the island uh and has only traveled to a few places, but one of the places he went to was in Arizona.

SPEAKER_00 36:37

Yeah, and he picked one of the most rural places that people that's a fun word, rural that most people wouldn't know. And then he talked about Mesa, which I was like, okay, this guy And then he mentioned Yuma. Yeah, so he never said Phoenix, which is funny because when he said I forget where he said now, but whatever it was, I was like, oh my gosh, I know where that is, but it's like Thatcher. There you go. And I'm like, okay.

SPEAKER_01 37:00

Who goes to Thatcher and Arizona people don't even know? No offense to those of you who live in Thatcher, Arizona.

Travel Safety And Kindness Abroad

SPEAKER_00 37:06

Okay, so I wanted to talk about the pessimists that are listening about our exiting the terminal stuff and what they're thinking could potentially happen.

SPEAKER_01 37:18

Ah, kidnapping, yes, beheading.

SPEAKER_00 37:20

Yes. They're gonna thief you, they're gonna steal you away.

SPEAKER_01 37:22

You are protected in there. Yes, you are absolutely there. The risk is extremely low in that protected area. 100%. You are correct.

SPEAKER_00 37:32

And we the minute we cross the line, we give permission to be. I mean, I literally said murdered rapes. I did, I did, I did whisper to Liliana at one point. Uh, I said, This is where we die. This is where they buried our body. Because when he turned into his friend's uh uh restaurant, I was like, okay, I want to get out now.

SPEAKER_01 37:51

Yeah, we are no longer on the road.

SPEAKER_00 37:52

We were just in a no no, just wait. I'm like, no, no, I'm getting out now. Because when he said no, just wait, I thought, no, no, now you're not in control. And I'm I want to remind you, I'm in control. So he was very nice. At no point did I feel uneasy. And so here's the things I want to say. This part of the of Honduras probably relies heavily on tourism. And so in the places like that, like the one of the ports we went to was Cozumel. And so that place also relies heavily on tourism. Um, Costa Maya, I would assume, relies heavily on tourism based on the accosting we got uh at that port. Um everybody wanted to sell us something. Aggressive. Uh yeah. So I think when when you're in those places, uh, and somebody in Mexico talked about what they call magical towns. Um, so I'm sure those exist everywhere. So these places you're probably a little more secure. They don't want to be on the news for having killed Americans or something. I don't know. Maybe not.

SPEAKER_01 38:48

Maybe I'm naive, but a place that we're going in a few weeks to a little small town in Mexico. Yeah. It is a tourist destination.

SPEAKER_00 38:58

And they don't want to But also it's a hidden tourist destination.

SPEAKER_01 39:02

But they don't want that to be in the headlines about this is an unsafe place. So, like, like when you when I go on the United States government's website to figure out what their travel recommendations are. Because you can do that, by the way. You just quick Google search and it should lead you to, I don't think it's Homeland Security, but they tell you this is if you're traveling to Canada, right now it's like a level two out of four. I I made these numbers up. If you're traveling to this country, it's a level whatever. With Mexico, you can specify which region you're going to, uh, and it tells you if it's hey, just be aware of your surroundings, or hey, take caution, or take extreme caution, or do not travel. There are some places that were that we go to, it's you know, a two or a three, but the the neighboring state or territory, whatever the province, it might be a four. We're like, okay, we are not going to cross over.

SPEAKER_00 40:00

No detours, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:01

Yeah. So I mean, just there is something to be said about being safe. And there's something to be said about being cautious. And it's like bubble wrapping your kids. You can keep them safe, but is that really life growing up?

SPEAKER_00 40:20

And look at, I mean, we live in Phoenix. I believe if my math is correct, we're like the sixth largest metropolitan largest city in the US. Crime happens there.

SPEAKER_01 40:30

Crime happens.

SPEAKER_00 40:31

It I mean, I think that if you ask somebody, they would say things like LA is probably worse, probably because it's in the news more. I don't know. Um, but crime happens everywhere, and I think people think somehow we are we don't have it. It it happened. I mean, uh, since we lived in our home, we moved into our house in 2004. And I believe that our cars have been broken into six or eight times. I mean, we don't keep anything in our cars, so uh nothing was no harm, no foul, and yet it happens. Yeah, it happens everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 41:07

We wouldn't allow our children to just go off by themselves walking down the street.

SPEAKER_00 41:13

Hell no.

SPEAKER_01 41:14

In our neighborhood? No. Well just on our street, that's fine.

SPEAKER_00 41:21

But I remember I used to walk to Circle K half a mile.

SPEAKER_01 41:25

Yeah, I I would I I would leave a note on my kitchen counter. Hey, I'm going to the mountain.

SPEAKER_00 41:31

And yet your parents tell a story about some a police chase ending almost in your driveway. Yes. So, and you were how old?

SPEAKER_01 41:39

11. Okay. I pulled that number.

SPEAKER_00 41:41

Okay, well, so uh I'm pretty sure the police have guns.

SPEAKER_01 41:44

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 41:44

Uh, and I'm pretty sure the police have guns in other places too. Uh and it was funny, I did say to Liliana, um, if something I forget which which stop we were at, but if something terrible happened, because these places are such tourist-found places, I do believe they probably handle it at a local level. Like you messed up, you're ruining my tourism, you're ruining my how my family is fed. I'm going to beat the you know what out of you.

SPEAKER_01 42:10

So I mean it could be.

SPEAKER_00 42:12

Which could also happen in Venus.

SPEAKER_01 42:14

But to your point, it it's not that these places around the world are more dangerous than your local neighborhood.

SPEAKER_00 42:20

Correct.

SPEAKER_01 42:21

It's just you might hear on the news something happened in this country or something happened in this city. Oh, don't go there. That's where they're doing this and this and this. You're like, didn't that just happen in your town two years ago?

SPEAKER_00 42:35

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Well, I say something about Phoenix.

SPEAKER_01 42:38

I'm not exactly sure it's 100% true anymore, but I mean, it used to be the sex trafficking is massive.

SPEAKER_00 42:46

Yeah. Sex trafficking, it used to be number one. And yet there's people worried about traveling outside of Arizona and outside of the country. And we have the number one in the world, or it used to be it's high. Yeah. It's high. So, anyways, be safe. Be safe. Um, be kind. Kindness goes a very long way when you're traveling, especially internationally, um, because everybody's cultures are a little bit different. And so uh I always say that people are making fun of us stupid Americans because we are very entitled. So we do our best not to be entitled, but to be um hospitable and receiving of the hospitality that is given.

SPEAKER_01 43:23

And being gracious. Yeah. Yes, and seeing people.

SPEAKER_00 43:26

See people. That is so important, especially when traveling.

SPEAKER_01 43:29

And if they're wearing a name name tag, call using their name.

SPEAKER_00 43:32

And if you don't know how to say it, ask.

unknown 43:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:34

Don't say Kelsey. Say Keslie.

SPEAKER_01 43:39

Yes.

Wrap Up From The Balcony

SPEAKER_00 43:40

Uh yeah. Hey, this is fun. It was a little bit longer than we probably expected, but we had a good time. Did you have a good time?

SPEAKER_01 43:45

I had a great time, and I hope that you enjoyed the view, just the nice calm seas behind us. If you're listening on the podcast provider, we hope that you had a quiet experience with limited noise. Because I know our last recording. Oh, shut up, you stinking earrings. Our last recording was an airport turn. Terminal. Uh, and I'm looking forward to seeing how good that was. And maybe you'll get to hear that, and maybe that will just go in the archives that are not published. We shall see. Uh yeah. Thanks for having fun with us. So until next time.

SPEAKER_00 44:16

Enjoy an epic life.