Are you in the frame? We're all cheaper's crime need. Well hello everybody and welcome back to my channel. The favorite mama's here today. She's having way too much fun already. But we are going to be talking about our Alaska vacation. We're both wearing our Alaska shirts. I'm pretty sure we plan this. A lot of you guys have been asking about like an honest review of how things were on sea and on land and vice versa and a lot of other details. So I'm going to get into like some of the facts first and then we'll answer some of your questions and then maybe we'll answer some of your questions as we kind of go along with just discussing some of our you know highlights, some of our lowlights of you know hits and misses and uh let's go from there. So we went from Minneapolis to Vancouver on Tuesday June 19. I have my planner here. If y'all want to see my planner video I'll link it up in a card for y'all. And then we actually got on our cruise on Wednesday June 20th and we did not come back from our cruise and back to Minneapolis until late Sunday July 1st. Actually we physically got here on the second but it was like a red-eye flight. And we did a sea cruise first and then we did a land cruise second. We chose princess. The reason we went with princess is I think that she can answer that a little bit better but my mom and aunt went to a local travel agency and we looked at a couple of different cruise lines and just decided that princess seemed to fit our needs better. There was also a good recommendation from by the travel agent. She had been on their cruises before and said that they were really good. Basically was either Holland or princess is really the two that we were considering. So by really I guess the lack of a draw we chose princess and it was a good choice. Well we kind of looked over all the excursion options and things like that and it seemed like princess was the way to go for what we wanted to do. I think the other cruise had maybe just a little bit more like adventuring things like you know I don't know like more zipliney and stuff that we didn't necessarily want to do but I don't I mean they have that on ours too as excursions but we just chose not to do those ones so. We weren't that adventurous. No we just. I let my mom and aunt. We just went and saw a lot of stuff. Yeah you know. Yes. So we did book through a travel agent so I will not have any recommendations booking directly through princess cruise lines because we didn't do that so we won't be able to tell anything about that. Best recommendation. Talk to your local cruise or cruise director. That's what I was gonna say. Wow. Losing it. Talk to your local travel agent and get their recommendations and they can you can talk to them about what you want to do and what's important to you whether you're booking a cruise to Alaska or any other cruise or any other princess cruise and you know they can tell you what other people have said that they've booked cruises on or maybe something that they've experienced themselves. Booking directly through princess I won't have any recommendations for y'all. Biggest question from people is what was your favorite part and what was your least favorite part about the cruise. We'll answer that and then we'll get into some other facts. I'll let you go first. You're my guest on this channel. It's her channel anyway guys. First of all the trip to Alaska was on my bucket list and had been for a long time so but just going on it was just like you know something extraordinary but I will say we were just talking earlier and I think the most wonderful spot that I stopped and was just overwhelmed with the beauty was actually in Denali not actually looking at Denali but just in the park um in that national park it was just gorgeous. Yes and we just stopped to take a scenic tour, got off and there was a valley and mountains and mountains and mountains and clouds and trees and nature and animals and everything. No roads, no electrical wires, no telephone communications anywhere and it was just so overwhelming and just awesome. I mean you just look at it and you go look what God has created and this is this is here for us and that I think was probably the highlight of of my trip that one spot I was just overwhelmed yeah with the beauty.  It was only till like one or two you know 12 31 but it was very impactful like it was just like she said it was just very untouched. I go back to the point of like all these people that live in not every single person that lives in Alaska but it's like living in a postcard it's just very overwhelming to someone that doesn't live there that's like oh my gosh there's like mountains everywhere and there's so much nature and it's just like whoa off the grid and it's just so different than like Minneapolis St. Paul from what I'm used to and then you're used to Florida so it's like living in this kind of lower 48 is very different than the life up there so it's just the matter of like oh my gosh I get to experience this too and it's it is an overwhelming experience it's very good and it's very humbling in a way like it makes you feel really small but also like part of this bigger thing it's really really neat so I didn't think I mean I mean I walk outside and my like skin freaks out so I didn't think I would enjoy the nature part of it too much but I really did enjoy like that was probably my favorite day too and I thought that like by far I would like doing something else like you know excursioning in Juneau or like you know I thought it would just like one of the excursions the most that was like probably my favorite like memory day of just like I can't see this at home you know I can't see this in my backyard but it's just kind of amazing so wasn't the lumberjack show or no like a train ride or no I mean those were cool those were fun but so many different things that we did we did unbelievable yeah but it's like that was just so like that's what you go to Alaska for like you want to have that experience of seeing that nature and we saw a couple of animals it was a little bit difficult on the day that we went it was a little foggy that morning still we didn't see as many animals as they had seen in the past but it didn't really matter like the animals were just kind of cool to see but you didn't need to see them it was just I don't know I feel like this is one big like run-on sentence but it was just the nature was just overwhelmingly gorgeous but there were also so many animals that we did see not necessarily all in Denali but in other locations as well and we saw eagles and fox and bear black bear not grizzly bear um thankfully we saw a dog sheep didn't someone see a little frog oh yeah oh we saw a lot of moose caribou yes um I mean there was we saw the reindeer there were those sled dogs I mean that wasn't like nature but that was you know just like a little show thing but it was just like it was just so different you wouldn't come across any of those animals here I mean eagles maybe but but there were so many eagles I mean it was yeah they call them pigeons up there yeah I mean there were so many of them I mean they were just like there was flocks of them flocks I remember we pulled in the ketchup can that was the first port that we went to I walked out on our little like terrace thing that was facing where we poured it and it was like there was like three or four of them just hanging out I'm like what the heck and it was all day it was like you couldn't like get a shot of like a non-scenery shot without one in there so it was just kind of nuts I'm like whoa they're all over the place and it's just very different for people that don't live there it's just like everyone that lives there is like oh yeah whatever no big deal all right you know it's like oh there's a bear in town like whatever it's fine you know like that's just like a no big deal we're like the fact that you saw it yeah you know and sometimes you had to really look to try to see some of these things you know and the buses would stop occasionally and go oh look up there there's a den with a fox and we probably were there for five minutes waiting to find that den because they had some kits in there as well so it took quite a while to actually see them moving around in the in the wild up there but once you saw them it's like oh my god look at that yeah and it was just so cool just so cool to see that you saw a fox and her kits in nature yeah and where where would you see that yeah I'm not gonna like see that in downtown Minneapolis like I'm just like it's not gonna happen you're not gonna see it in like Florida yeah and nobody caught it on camera you know it's all just in our minds at this point right but it was just I don't know just an interesting to see that like because that was that whole day of being in the Denali National Park and just seeing everything so like authentically untouched by nature and I think the tour guide was saying that they're still trying to build some roads but they're trying to go about it in a way that it doesn't disturb any like nests or any like areas that certain animals have kind of taken over so that's becoming a little bit more difficult to kind of get in some of the other places you know they still provide a quality tour but it's very very small considering the vastness of Denali National Park yeah so it was just really really cool yeah so they are really considering the conservation of the animals up there too as a part of their development of the the the roads to get the tourists in and out because once you get the tourists in and out that's that's where you get people appreciating that area um and the more they come the more appreciate it yep exactly so what was the worst like your not worst part but maybe your your low point of it might be the same it might be the same thing specifically me so so um we had just a phenomenal cruise Emily and I had never even been on a cruise before so you know it's like you hear about him from people but you just don't know what it's really going to be like and it was just so positive so many different things that were just so wonderful throughout that entire experience then we got off the boat and then all of a sudden we were we were on the land and everything changed the um the cruise line was still part of it but all of a sudden we were paying for everything separately um and that was due to the way that we had booked the cruise they did say on that train ride that sometimes if you booked through a travel agency they didn't know to provide meal vouchers when you were on the land that was something that was just an oversight with our travel agent really had nothing to do with anything but also we're seeing the on-land prices and it was like what was like 17 dollars for like a cheeseburger I mean was ridiculous and that didn't include like anything it was like a bad cheeseburger too yeah that's not even good we I think are the nights that we spent in um was it Fairbanks and yeah you were over it in Fairbanks you were like I was ready to go yeah because we spent one full day in Fairbanks it was already winding down like that was the last like day and a half two days anyways yeah but it was just like I was all over it at that point but there was like nothing else to see I mean not to say we couldn't have seen Fairbanks a little bit more but there was just like nothing else to do yeah you know it was just kind of like yeah it was time to go we'd been gone for two weeks I mean it was like it's time we had a meal in our our hotel that was um just really the server was just so so bad horrible he was so bad I didn't even talk about it on the vlog at all did not he he was not busy at all I mean he couldn't have cared less there were he maybe had two tables yeah including ours and he was so slow and didn't didn't really care and seemed very like put out that we would like ask for like a bottle of ketchup with our french fries like it was strange it was very straight and he was just so slow I'm like oh my gosh I think because we when we decided when we were all on land and paying for our own stuff we all just like paid for our own bills I think each of us might have given him a dollar like it was that bad yeah it was that bad and the food was so expensive too it was like oh my gosh and we're not those people no I'm like 20% minimum is like how I roll because I've been there you know you want to make sure that the servers are accommodated for for what they do for yeah but this guy was it was blatantly bad so terrible yeah it was like oh yeah it was I was so happy to finally walk out of there and it's like oh good at least I got something in my tummy yeah boy oh boy I'm sure I'm glad to walk out of this place like I can get over bad food but I can't get over bad service as well so it was just like a double edged sword it's like you know clearly the server is not the one making the food I understand that because I've been there before but it's like okay well if you're still providing good service and trying to be as accommodating as possible that's great but he was not accommodating and the service was bad the food was and it was very expensive yeah and I mean we all spent over $20 on our like BLTs and burgers I mean we didn't get anything extravagant at all I mean it was mediocre to be the best you know and then you're spending that kind of money and then uh poor service yeah and it was just like it didn't feel good to spend the money it was like you handed them the debit card you're like oh that's like kind of hurt yeah it's like oh I'm so glad to be leaving here pretty quick yeah it was a couple more hours and I'll be heading to the airport and I'm for sure I was ready to go yeah yeah so my issue was our sleeping issue and it was my issue because this one over here apparently she's getting a sleep study done soon so that's exciting tomorrow night by the time you guys see this it'll already happen I'll keep you updated anyway but um yes I mean it was louder than that oh let's be real so I mean I sleep with the sound machine I know a lot of you guys that watch the vlogs and like just watch the vlogs in general hear my crickets and stuff in the background sometimes but I have already issues sleeping and I've done the thing of being on sleeping pills and I don't want to do that anymore she snores so loud and then my aunt would chime in with her snoring as well but like my aunt snoring was like very much like monotone snoring where it didn't like go up and it didn't go down but hers was like I was just like I can't I can't get into it because it would just keep keep waking me up and um so that was probably like my most year because I was so tired every morning I woke up I was so tired because I was waking up when she that one over here would have these like gasps for air or also have these like huge fluctuations it would wake me up because it wasn't like part of what was going on in the background of the noise so it was so different that like my ears would be like wake up wake up so you know I was like that's so basically about every half hour I was waking up and then I would try to go back to sleep and then I would wake up and then try to go back to sleep you know a lot of times in the morning is I'd be like you two get the heck out of here I need to sleep for like like an hour uninterrupted and even then I was still quite tired so anyway but I did you know take a couple of naps and stuff and that was fine but yeah and everyone's like oh we want to take naps too I'm like get out and you guys don't need a nap you want a nap so I'm like I'm gonna fall over thankfully we got the soda package because I drank a lot of soda just to save probably like my low portion um and just to talk about the rooms a little bit too um do you have the specifics on the room well I believe we were in a state room we were actually on the 14th floor and we were on the coral princess I don't remember if I said that before but we were on the coral princess so we actually had a balcony yeah um but there was a um uh a deck actually above us but on our on our deck you could actually see the floor above us so sometimes it was really a little tricky to try to take pictures if you were trying to do like a wider shot like a wider landscape kind of a thing because the floor above us was actually um where the pool was as well as the dining halls and things yeah um so it was down below there was those bigger massive decks that didn't have any restrictions like if you looked down so it was actually a walkway above right above our um our balcony yeah so you could hear people going down with carts or basically running down the yeah down the hallway you know on their way to wherever they were going and there weren't a lot of kids on our trip something to like also note which I was kind of I was kind of expecting more children but there weren't a lot of children there was a lot of like generational groups so there was like grandma and grandpa and then like mom and dad and like kids but most of the kids I mean we maybe saw like three or four babies like infants and all the other kids were you know at least five and up I mean yeah they all would like be able to remember the trip and enjoy it and all had an experience there were some teenagers and stuff too this was definitely not like a like a rock out party kind of a cruise it was more like educational and informative yeah and um even the things that they had to do on the cruise were more geared towards educating about Alaska or parts of Alaska or other experiences or you know kind of more mature things it wasn't really like four children but they had stuff for kids yeah but and it was educational for adults and kids too they did have a a kids area on the ship itself I think they had like a kids club too yeah but they had educational things going on for the kids there as well too to help them understand what was going on around them so that they could appreciate the cruise um as well but it was it was more adult but I think any alaskan cruise is going to be more adult anyways because we're all wanting to see the beauty and look at the animals and look at the scenery and you know it's like you don't necessarily go back most of the time but it was really cool to see like those families of those big groups of people that came on the cruise together and it's like you know it was like mom and dad and grandma and grandpa getting together it's like okay we're doing this once we're doing it right let's do it now you know it's like take the kids they're of age or we can go and we can all have a great time it's kind of like when you take the whole family to Disney you know it's like okay we're all doing it everyone's like the right age to get on the rides and have the good experience well and it was good so many passengers were from different countries and stuff yeah so I mean you had people from Japan and China and Germany and um of course Canada and the US uh but also the Philippines and I mean people from all over and particularly the crew yeah they're from all over I think I think I only saw one crew member that was from the United States yes I only met one and it was the gal at the jewelry store yeah and everybody else was from someplace else the captain was from Poland and then many of the crew were from the Philippines a lot from Japan and China and Jamaica and you know Caribbean area a lot from the Eastern European countries yeah I mean they were from everywhere all over the world all right so speaking of the crew I want to touch on and I'm sure you do too of the service that we got on the ship versus the service that we got on land I mean we kind of already talked about the service on land for I mean I think we both are in agreement of the service on the ship I mean it was like a different it was so different unbelievable it was amazing it was just like you walked in and there were people to help you with anything they all answered every question you had they like you're on this base I mean you're on this like floating village basically and you know we had the same server almost every night um and he was awesome we had the same our room person I can't remember the stew or whatever he was called I can't remember um anyway but it was the person that like serviced our room he wasn't this person that cleaned it but he was like the overseer of all of the rooms but I mean we basically talked to him every single day and I'm sure he talked to everybody every single day but he remembered what we needed added to our rooms every night and like different requests and stuff that everybody had but it's like you develop these relationships with these people and they're just so incredibly kind and very generous with their time and energy you know explaining stuff to us when we got our nails done we actually got to chat with our the gals that were doing our nails and come to find out that most of the people are on contract for nine months so they're on the same ship for nine months there are some that have shorter contracts depending on their job but you know even the like the food service people and you know the front desk people and like just maintenance and there's so many different people that we didn't even see too right um but what was the ratio do you remember what the ratio was per passenger uh there were 2000 passengers and about it's like 900 eight or 900 um crew members so basically almost two to one so every two passengers had um at at least one employee to help them out yeah so basically if you needed anything they were there they were right there yeah and you didn't have to look far to find somebody that had a little logo on their shirt and that would help you out with something so yeah but that was awesome um the only gripe I have about the physical ship I've got like two specific ones um the outlets oh my goodness it was like charging central and I was like the ringleader of charging everybody's devices there were two outlets right next to each other just like this the regular you know us outlets they were so tight that you couldn't even fit another device in the second outlet so the challenge became it was like a really one outlet is really what it was so that was really challenging I don't know if they did that because they wanted to conserve energy since we were like on a ship or if that was just something that kind of predated some of the technology stuff that we have nowadays because this ship was built in like the early 2000s I want to say it was built in 2002 yeah 2002 so it kind of predated that little back sheet right here she's got all the facts coral princess and then in the bathroom the bathrooms were very small which is to be expected I didn't know really what to expect the showers were quite small I didn't really have an issue in the shower you did bang your you know elbow but whatever yeah you're not gonna fall unless you're going out there um but in there there was one outlet but it was like this weird like razor outlet it wasn't like a standard outlet like a us outlet at all so really that outlet was just not really existent so you know someone that like maybe you had a curling iron or something you had to go to like where the desk was to get an outlet that was it and there was no outlets by the bed or anything like that there were lamps but not lamps with outlets um so when we got on land it was like oh my gosh there was outlets so it was like very exciting so that was probably like my biggest like gripe with that but it's like that that's me like really picking on something um but also I'd never been on a cruise I didn't know what to expect so next time I go on a cruise I'm bringing a power strip that's what I'm doing like I ain't even joking that's exactly what she even suggested to the folks that ran the gift shop I was like dude put these things on your shelf man you could like sell them out and I know you could charge like no 30 bucks for them and people would buy them because it it was bad it was because everyone kept losing juice to their phones or devices or whatever have to work with things and it was like even though we weren't didn't have service people were still using their phones for other things and it's like because we were all taking pictures yeah it was a rotation constantly about whose whose device would be actually hooked up so that we could try to get juice back into it to make it you know work enough so that we could get back get back in business yeah so that was it was challenging but it was okay I'm gonna pull up some of your questions now but I know that the question was like you know what's your best part worst part all that good stuff but let's pull up the Instagram questions and see if there's anything and there might be some things that we already talked about this person asked about money saving tips for the cruise ship slash stop offs um no no um just have fun just have a good time bring your money with you there were a couple there was a couple that we met from I think it was Australia that night at dinner and they had been on several cruises before and they said they went and had it wasn't an alaskan cruise it was like somewhere else I think it was in Germany or something they had already do you remember this conversation no maybe not okay she's looking at me a little glazed over like what are you talking about um but they were talking they were talking about they had like stopped off the cruise because they had landed in their port and they wanted to do this thing and it was all sold out and they were super bummed about it and they didn't book any okay she's I got it now you know she's getting older she's more careful but anyway they had like stopped off at this place and they were like all bummed out that they didn't get to do this one thing that they really were like passionate about that they wanted to do but it was like a limited amount of seats and tickets and they randomly ended up finding somebody else on the cruise that like rented a car and like they all went together and had this amazing time and a lot of the ports you can like there's a little most of them have like a little like visitor kiosk where you can I don't know book an excursion but it's kind of hit or miss not it's not always manned I don't know if that's even more cost effective or less cost effective I don't know I wouldn't say wing it I'll just put it that way well we um we actually scheduled excursions through the cruise line yeah um again it was our first cruise you know we didn't we didn't know any better you know and we'd rather go on the safe side and just schedule something yeah and that way we know for sure that that cruise ship isn't going to take off without us right because they know they have a bunch of other people they have to wait and tell all of these excursions get back into port um before they can take off because they do count noses going off and count noses coming back on um and if somebody is missing they will contact them um and say you know hey I don't know exactly what they say to them but um yeah this amount of time to get back on the show but they will contact people um same thing with the um emergency um information that they gave to people too you had to go through the emergency training to learn how to put your yeah the your uh life this location device and like all that and that was the first day we were there exactly where you're supposed to go and if people missed it yeah they they tracked you down oh yeah yeah because you like couldn't be on the ship without getting your little card scanned in that you were at that like meeting that we talked we you know I had they had like the muster stations they had to like explain everything to you because they didn't want I mean if something were to happen there would be chaos anyway but maybe there'd be like a little bit more organized chaos of like okay well at least you happen this is where I'm going yeah this is what I'm supposed to be doing you know blah blah blah excursion sorry you're not gonna save any money I'm sorry just take a bunch of money with you yeah there you go take your credit card you know pay it off later um oh this one's a question for you it says in your vlogs you mentioned that this was your favorite mama's dream trip are there any locations on her bucket list well um actually we've been kind of talking a little bit about the family not particularly my bucket list but we're trying to talk family into maybe doing a cruise down to Cuba yeah so if you're part of my family 2020 cruise we're thinking about it do it we'd like it talk you know who to talk to the guy that gets sick all the time yeah my dad yeah he's the worst that's the one talk to him convince him that's time it's time to do that exactly that is actually one of the other questions is if we are gonna be planning on going on another cruise we're thinking 2020 2019 is too too soon too soon for people um people got stuff going on kids wedding you know like it's just life it's too much so you know I think 2020 is easier maybe but but there are some other places I'd like to go um do you have any like specific places on your bucket list actually Niagara Falls I mean oh yes that's very accessible as like mundane as it sounds uh yes that's extremely accessible I have never I have never been to Niagara Falls well and I've always wanted to go well it's like so I need to go I could just go tomorrow if you could hey Marlene do you want to go with me tomorrow to Niagara Falls my honest riding in my dining room right now sorry we could do that if we wanted to yeah it wouldn't require a cruise boat no no it would require a plane ticket well I guess you could you could drive yeah I mean I guess and it works you're a big girl you have guard next question is did you guys get seasick on the trip I want to plan a trip like this with my mom but that's making me a little bit nervous okay so I think we all got a little bit motion sickness but not in a puky way my mom actually got some medication from her physician before we left I took it every night I don't know if you guys took it at all I didn't take it at all no I got it because I didn't know what to expect yeah I actually had it I didn't expect there was like 60 pills or something yeah I didn't expect to get sick because I'd never had an issue right ever with motion sickness like that but I said to my physician you know I'm going on this cruise and I've never been on before I don't know what to expect can I get something so I got it took it along with I can't get the whole time but there were times where I was just kind of like like the berries like moving around trying to figure out where are my feet because my feet weren't under me and it took a little well a little bit of maneuvering to figure out exactly where I was well and I actually captured this moment on one of the vlogs it was the first night we or the first yeah night we were there on the ship because we I think we like departed at like four or five o'clock or something and we were like yeah sitting yeah we were sitting and like watching like because there's like these big windows kind of just like watching the seat because it was just this big open space it was like I don't know seven eight o'clock or something she was standing up I was I think standing up and my aunt was sitting in one of the chairs and all of a sudden you're like oh my gosh I'm like why are you so dramatic like what's your problem like what is the problem I mean it was just like the eyes and the body were doing different ways I was and what I was it's like I had to hang on to something and all of us was glass and I had nothing to hang on to it was like oh my god but before I mean her feet were under her but then it's like looking out and being like oh my gosh we're really cruising like we're going fast I mean it's just one of those like things and then one day I can't remember which day it was hold on let me look Juno the day we were in Juno that bus ride we were in the bus a lot we did a couple of things we went to the rainforest garden men hall glacier and we went to the state museum there and we were in the bus a lot and it was like get in get out get in get out and I felt so ill just in like I I was just I felt drunk I was just like spinning um so I knew it was just this motion thing it wasn't anything else it wasn't like I felt sick to my stomach but it was just like I can't get my bearings right but I think you had it a little bit when we actually got on land and we were like in Anchorage and then we like went up and did all those things but it was like every day it would get a little bit better but it was like very jarring the first day it was like whoa yeah once you stepped on land is after being on the ship and just kind of right moving moving with the ship and what it does and then all of a sudden you're on solid ground it's like whoa what happened something yeah there's something different here yeah and it was the same kind of a thing and it it it took a few minutes to to get your bearings again for sure for sure so none of us really got seasick but I would just recommend talking to your doctor or giving some of those like over-the-counter options we didn't use any over-the-counter options but you know talking to your physician before and maybe getting some you know uh motion sickness pills just to have them be sure to get them before you get on the ship because if you have to depend on their gift shop um or or their like sick bay yeah or whatever you know it's going to cost you a lot more money yeah I can guarantee you that so just just get a take it care of ahead of time just take it with you this person says since I know you have issues with this did you wish you had done a different sleeping situation and then she writes also the favorite mama videos are the best well this is like clearly your channel um yes I wish that we okay here's here's the two things I would have like really wanted to change I wish my brother would have came with because he would have had an amazing time oh my god and I wish that Phil and I would have gotten a room together and then you and Perky would have roomed together that would have been like you could have snored together all night oh my gosh it was like no problem they would have been like two peas in a pot and my brother and I would have been like silent so yeah my brother I don't like my brother snores but anyway I I don't feel bad like hitting him in the middle of the night I do feel bad like hitting my mother in the middle of the night so I just didn't hit me by the way I did wake you up she didn't push me one night yeah I did I was like I really wanted to say some really colorful words at like three in the morning but I decided to just be like can you roll over and then you rolled over and then it was worse and I was like I'm not getting up again like I was just so I'm so sorry no you're not and that's what I am she laughs but she's not um that's the way I would do is sleeping situation differently so if well I shouldn't say if when we do the 2021 I think that like Phil and I should get a room together and then like you and whoever you know like I think it should be like two people in a room because I feel like two people is like perfect two people would be much better yeah we had three people it was tight but it was fine it was just it was very tight it was tight yeah yeah and we thought it was gonna work out okay you know again not we're having been on a cruise before yeah I mean we just we didn't know how tight it was going to be um I do regret um yeah that part of it but but oh well oh well we'll know for next time yeah right um this person says any tips for budgeting a trip like this or researching cruise lines I think the best advice would be to just talk to your local travel agent um they have all the prices there for you even the excursion prices I remember going over that like a year and a half before we went of like okay well this one's this amount of money and this one is this amount of money I mean you could spend thousands of dollars on one excursion yeah I mean there were some insane ones and then there were ones that were like $60 yeah and then it just kind of it depended on what you wanted to do so it's there's no real sticker shop there were I think the only sticker shop that we had was when we actually got on land and then things weren't taken care of because everything was paid for on the cruise except for like my mom and I got the soda package and then we just had had that added to the bill that was like the only extra thing that we did on the cruise ship I mean I guess you guys did bingo a couple times I only did bingo once but it wasn't like we didn't go crazy on stuff at all but it it was just that sticker shop was a little bit more but I would say talk to your travel agent about if you're gonna do the like sea cruise and a land cruise to see if that's an option and for some cruise lines it might not be an option to do that because it was really just vouchers for the place you were staying at one one tip on the excursions our travel agent actually put in put in requests for the excursions that we had requested when we actually got on the ship we actually went to the office where the excursions were being dispensed and come to find out that we didn't have anything out there at all so if I did find out later that if you actually schedule your cruise through the cruise line itself they will have that information available but for some reason our travel agent it was just a request and never really went through we still got all of the excursions that we wanted but we went there the first like right after we disembarked so it was that day if we would have waited there were some some of our excursions didn't get sold out on certain places so definitely stop at the you know excursion office it was like a little office area and talk to them the first day just just to make sure that you've got reservations for the things that you want to do because you don't want to be disappointed when you get to a port and go oh no they wanted to do that and now I can't do it that's what I came here for and now you can't do it because that's this person asks is the land cruise worth it as an add-on absolutely yes absolutely absolutely if you can go for it just do it was the cruise something you would do again or would you rather just fly to Alaska and travel I'm gonna add this to her you know that cruise was so awesome you know and there were so many things that we saw but so many things that we didn't that I think you could go up I think we could go on exactly the same cruise and do something completely different every single day oh yeah besides just the excursions themselves there were so many activities that were available on we couldn't go to all of it on the cruise yeah in for educational information just some of the shows and fun times yeah activities I mean there were so many things you there was no way that you could do everything yeah and I'm sure it would be different for every every single cruise but just so many different things like I'm sure it would be totally different the next time we would go yeah if we would do exactly the same thing so if you were to go to Alaska again would you do another cruise or would you just fly to Alaska and travel around I think I do another cruise I think so too yeah I like the structure of the cruise that there are excursions there's things to do but then other things are taken care of for you and you get to see more than if you were just to like fly into Anchorage or fly in like wherever you're gonna go and then have to be like kind of left to your own devices I do like the structure of the cruise adventures if you will I do like that it's kind of a failsafe thing so that you kind of pick ahead of time what you want to do and you just basically put your hands and you put your life in somebody else's hands and just say take me take me there you just get on the bus and you're like scottie you know and there you are and you're moving around and doing something else and then all of a sudden it's like okay we're back yeah now what are we gonna do like oh now we have lunch on the cruise ship and then we like you know cruise again at two o'clock it's like oh we can walk around town we can have an ice cream cone yes oh man oh man we had a few ice creams and it was very delicious I think we didn't like stop talking about ice cream it was pretty darn good it was so the next question is what was the best thing you ate I'm gonna leave it to her to talk about that deserve oh there was a dying on the crew like here hold I need to interrupt for a second all right when you're on the cruise wear stretchy and baggy clothing yeah it's gonna be very helpful because they will keep bringing you food until you say stop and there's dessert at every single meal if you want it you don't have to get it there's an appetizer at the sit-down dinners there's like a beautiful dinner every night in the dining rooms but anyway what we'll stop I will stop talking about that but yeah stretchy pants is amazing you're gonna gain like 10 pounds but just like don't worry about it it doesn't count right you're like in another state so you just like you just eat a bunch of salad when you get back but anyway so what was your favorite food well you know I that that dining room was just so wonderful the Santiago that was our waiter guide that it was awesome the dining room was so incredible I mean there was a different entrees every single day I mean there were maybe about three or four things that were on the menu every day yeah but then there were about five or six things that were specific to that night and that was it and they wouldn't they weren't going to bring those ones back so it was like so if you would choose your own adventure like that it's like you better pick that right now but but if you wanted if you wanted say salmon and you wanted the shrimp you could order the salmon and the shrimp yeah it's like bring it all so they would bring that yeah of course you'd have your salad and then you'd have beautiful vegetables along with it um everything was fresh delicious oh I mean I mean and it was so beautiful and so presented so wonderfully it's just like you looked at it and you go oh my gosh I mean it's like a work of art yeah and those desserts were good oh my lord they were so wonderful and so creative and so beautiful that you couldn't you couldn't pass them up I only passed up the ones that had whipped cream on them because they were nasty but then pass them pass them my way I know then she would eat them and then my aunt would eat them too yeah they were like oh there's whipped cream on them Emily can eat that oh I don't like oh yeah for sure so your favorite food was like in the dining room yeah that was your favorite yeah I mean um salmon is my go-to um it's her favorite yeah it is it is but by the end I was like salmoned out thought what the salmon you know do you want to talk about the color of the salmon because you couldn't stop talking about that when we were on the cruise anyways but there's a bunch of different kinds of salmon but she was like freaking out about the color of the salmon every time she it's so vibrant I mean it was so pink yeah so it was like technicolor I mean it was so fresh I mean oh my god it was just and it was delicious so I just I mean I just couldn't get over it and because I'm a huge salmon eater anyway it was just totally totally delicious but and then they put these great sauces on there and it's just like oh I mean it's just like they melt it in your mouth and um I don't know they're pretty good but towards the end I was just like uh maybe I'll have a hamburger well and here's the other thing too at the very end we were on land and if you wanted to get salmon it was like 28 dollars minimum yeah and a cheeseburger was 18 so it was like oh maybe I'll get that cheeseburger maybe I'll get that BLT like it was just like okay I already spent enough money on souvenirs to like support the state of Alaska I think it's alright I think yeah I got a lot of pins yes and I got a bunch of t-shirts this is one of them yeah I got I got this one too yeah um so my favorite food that we had I actually have it sitting I don't have it sitting up here but it was when we were in Juneau it was right outside of where the cruise ships port um it was this place called the twisted fish and that's when I wasn't feeling great oh and I had clam chowder and it was so good and I'm so mad because I got clam chowder and I was like oh I'm gonna get a cup of clam chowder and it was like a legit like trough like it was so big and of course it's like thick and delicious and amazing but then I ordered like a meal and then I wasn't feeling the meat like the meal was good but I just wasn't feeling like the most amazing so I had the soup and I'm like oh this is so good it can't get any better and it didn't I mean it was good but that was probably my best food experience there but I mean I just love seafood anyway so you know well and you know very well that that food came from that water that we were looking at right out there it's like you could see it and it's like there it there it is exactly because they had um this the salmon fisheries and the yep um the canning and they did all that kind of stuff they had everything right there so you knew it just it it had just come in on the boat all right if the frame looks a little bit different I had to switch out the battery battery died on us so I think we've been counting a little too long but that's all right let's go to another question see if there's any more well I don't know if there's any other questions that we haven't like we kind of rambled on and talked about a bunch of things so we kind of answered a lot of the questions I want to talk about another restaurant that we went through that was so awesome um do you want the name of it yeah it was called the bake yep and it was in uh it was right next to the Denali princess lodge and it was just such an unusual place I mean you looked at the restaurant and it was sort of like it was very tilted like the vlogs it's like and you walked up the steps and they were sort of like like this kind of going up and then you walked in and there were sort of like holes all over on the floor so you had to kind of be careful where and the floor was like not level if you put something on the floor like a marble it would have just like yeah taken off um but it was just one it was really good I mean the ambiance in there was just so cool and it's like a total hole in the wall it was really great place to eat um great place to eat good service good food yeah I mean it was same prices but it was like at least we got something different you know yeah but it was so so good and again just very very different but yeah and the reason that it was all kind of kitty wankas like that is because of all the permafrost underneath yeah that it just kind of keeps moving around and so all the footings were just like you know yeah so the restaurant just kind of goes you know and so I hope they never really get uh any inspectors in there to actually check the place because it probably would be condemned I think it's a little different yeah when you're dealing with Alaska just because it was pretty amazing yeah it was it was like is this right are we gonna like fall into the earth how's this gonna work out yeah I want to talk a little bit real quick because we haven't really talked about it yet of the lodges that we were at sorry this video is gonna be kind of all over the place but you guys know me so that's like kind of like normal right cruise ship we were on I already talked about but that was the coral princess built in 2002 and when we got on land we first stayed at a place called mount McKinley princess wilderness lodge so it was part of the princess brand and we stayed there for one night and then the next night we stayed at the Denali princess wilderness lodge and we were there for two nights and then we went to Fairbanks and the hotel we stayed at at Fairbanks I can't remember the name of the hotel but it was not a princess branded hotel um they clearly had contracts with uh princess and Holland and there was a couple of other organizations and stuff that weren't there it just didn't have the name princess on it it was just a national brand um yeah and it was it was a decent hotel yeah yeah that was a big huge room too um which was kind of cool that I just wanted to like give you the timeline of where we were and what we did so I think this should be the last question because this is our honest review of princess cruise lines would you choose princess again in a heartbeat yeah absolutely yeah uh they exceeded I I I didn't really have many expectations just hoping that I was going to have a good time but they did everything and anything that you needed them to do to make the experience um a good one yeah they did a wonderful job um I absolutely would would go again totally enjoyed um the crew was unbelievable yeah um the food was phenomenal the accommodations uh but that but again again it's a that was our own choosing yeah the two we could have gotten the you know we just didn't know we didn't know and that's okay but it was it was great um and the places that we saw were just unbelievable mm-hmm as for me yes and no and I'll explain why um yes to a cruise the land cruise I mean and I know you and I've talked about that was the service just service some par for me I mean we got so spoiled on our actual like cruise part of it yeah I mean it was just a whole another world of service and everyone had an amazing personality and just was so kind and just kind of came from a place of yes and you know it was and it wasn't like we were like asking for a landish thing it was it was just more like informational stuff or whatever I mean it was just everyone had a smile on their face everyone was friendly and helpful um even if you didn't need help they would help you you know but once we got on land service was fine it just wasn't great anymore so it was almost like we were just back in the lower 48 going to a hotel that's why it felt weird because these other lodges had the princess name on it so you thought oh gosh these are gonna be like the same service and same everything everything was just fine it wasn't bad it wasn't good but it was just fine so it was almost just like I don't know going to a regular hotel in Michigan or like I'm not picking on Michigan I'm just picking on the lower 48 it was just kind of just any any city it was wherever yeah and it wasn't nothing was bad but nothing was outstanding like it was on the ship so for me the land crews if I were to do Alaska again I would probably start the land first because my expectation level would be normal because I'd be coming from Minnesota so it's like oh that's just how all places are and then I would get spoiled on the like actual you know sea part of it I that's the thing that I think um I would change but I would choose princess to go on like another um you know cruise cruise again it was a great time I'm so glad that we went um I mean the three of us had a wonderful time together and I'm glad we had the opportunity it was a trip of a lifetime yeah it really was probably not going back but would love to princess cruises if you want to sponsor us we're here 2020 we want to go somewhere else here we are we are here we're on the cruise we are we had a great time yes but I will link my vlog series down below for you guys if you want to watch any of the vlogs I believe it starts on day 19 is the day that we traveled into uh Canada and then after that if you want to watch more they will be down below but anything else you would like to add okay okay we're working on it maybe I better save up some nickels and dimes first yeah yeah exactly exactly save your money folks we'll have to wrap we'll have to ration Doyle's bacon budget it is a little expensive so yeah you know but have a good time so anyway that is going to be it for our honest review of princess cruise line to Alaska if y'all have any questions feel free to post them down below feel free to give my video a thumbs up if you liked it if you didn't like it you can thumbs it down too but I don't recommend it um but you can also subscribe if you'd like to see more from me and um hopefully in 2020 we'll take you on another adventure it could be fun it could all right well we'll see you guys later thanks for watching bye but anyway I think that's going to be it for our honest review of oh my god I just can't with you right now Jesus I have to like get you a diaper the hell is that all about waited like three more minutes we wouldn't talk so much why do I let's chill out start again oh goodness all right it's going to be it for our honest review of princess cruise line you've got white pants on you need to think about like belly button oh my gosh all right oh you look a look over this what you not laugh we're distracted we need to get looking distracted oh my god don't like look off it's gonna be weird center your cheek and relax all right don't like relax too much but just like it just well folks it's time to kick it old school


Yeah, we on Boss Talk 101. Hi, I'm Pastor Anita Jawa. I am here today with ECO and Mr. Maker on Boss Talk 101. You all are welcome to see us. Ms. Anita Jawa, she's in the building, man. How are you? Hey, man, I'm good, how are you? As a child, what did you want to be growing up? I don't really. I can't remember exactly what I want to be. I just know that I didn't want to be what I saw around me. And what I mean by that, I didn't want to be less than. I didn't want to be talked about. I didn't want to be mistreated. That was your environment? Yes, I didn't want to feel threatened or violated. Because I saw that a lot.  And I never forget that we stayed across the street from the cafe because, you know, we was in East Texas. Already, y'all cafe over there, could you go in it? Because some of them down there, we couldn't go in. No, I wasn't supposed to be in the cafe because I was a child. You deal with him being gone because there's so many people who are watching who have lost a loved one or is losing a loved one, a husband, a child, and can't deal with it. I would say that my faith has been activated now more than ever. And as you said earlier, is that God prepared us. So even before he transitioned, God was preparing both of us. And I thank God for that, that he just didn't leave us unknowingly. We didn't know the exact time. We didn't know the exact date. Don't get me wrong with that. But along the way, God was showing us. And God was even, because we do a daily prayer at 6 a.m., a corporate daily prayer. And God was showing us even with that, like when the pandemic first hit, he said that it was going to be hard, but that he was going to give us the grace to get through it. And I didn't quite understand it. When he gave it to me early one morning, I'm like, I don't understand this, God. But he said the more and more he kept talking to me, he said, I need for you to come closer to me. I need for you to find out more time. And this is going to be an unusual time, not only for you, but for the world. And so God just kept showing us and just kept talking to both of us. And in doing that time, Bishop said, okay, I'm going to start doing Heal America even the more. I'm going to go every month somewhere else. And I was like, no, you can do it at home. You can do it in the studio. He said, I can't. I can't. He kept saying, I can't. I'm going to run out of time. I just, I can't. And I didn't understand what he was talking about the time. I thought he meant, hey, I'm going to run out of time on minimum, I'm going to get too old for it. I didn't understand that he was talking about God's timing for his life. And I don't even know if he understood all of that. But he kept saying, I gotta go, I gotta go. And every city we went, as a matter of fact, the Heal America that was in Dallas was last year on June 24th, 2020. That's our wedding date. Wow, wow. And so when he said, I gotta do it and I gotta do it this date. I said, we're not going to celebrate. He said, we're going to celebrate afterwards. But we're going to do the Heal America. We're going to do the Heal America. And I was like, okay, well you want to do it?   And so it was during those times where, where I wanted to say something, I wanted, I wanted the Anita to come out. And God said, no, because I got him. I got him. And God kept saying, I got him. And I didn't know what that meant. But he was just going from city to city to city. And so October came up and I never will forget, October came up. And this is when we both contracted COVID. And October 12th was the first day that he ended up from an urgent care to an emergency room. And that was the last day. That was the first and the last. He ended up in the hospital and did not come out of the hospital to March 11th when he transitioned. But the October 12th was when he flew out of town. He was in another city in a whole other state. And so we were apart two weeks. He's fighting for his life. And he didn't realize how much I was fighting for my life. Because of course I didn't want to call him because I felt like he was in a worse condition. And he had different, you know, things that were already going on in his body. And so I stayed at home and I stayed away from my children, which our baby girl did get it, but she didn't have any symptoms. And so we walked through that, got through that. And so I wasn't even cleared by the doctor before I boarded the plane. The doctor said, do not get on the plane because we don't know. And I said, well, I gotta go see him by my husband. And so the moment that I got there, one thing led to the other and I was able to go in. They cleared him because he was already in the medical induced state at that time. And so I was the first person to see him, to lay hands on him, to touch him, to kiss him and all of that. And then we stayed there from that time all the way up to December 23rd. We finally got the green light for him to travel back to Dallas, which was Careflight, which was really, we prayed through that. We had prayer warriors all around the country praying because that wasn't, the doctors wanted to do it, but they didn't want to do it because his condition wasn't all the way better, but it wasn't worse, but it wasn't all the way. And the air could have did anything to his lungs. It was a lot of things going on, but we managed to do that. We came back. My daughters wanted to be back here for Christmas because mind you, when I moved, they moved. So they're in school, but they're doing virtual online. One is in high school, one is in college. So everybody world shifted. No one was doing the same thing. His parents was there. His sisters, our older son was there. I love the support. Yeah, it was a lot of support there. And so we're staying in the hotel. We're not staying in the house. We're not staying with people. We're all in the hotel room. I know. And so we're eating hotel food. You know, we're going to Walmart to buy some clothes or we're trying to find a mall to get some more clothes because we're thinking week by week, we don't know. And we're gonna come back home or something else is gonna happen, but we're yet holding on to our faith. And so people from around the country, like I said, we're calling, taking up fast, doing all kinds of things. And so December 23rd, we landed here back in Dallas. And so we were here up until March 11th. And we had so much favor at the particular hospital. They were not letting everyone in, but they not only allowed us in, they allowed us to have access to my husband 24 hours a day, seven days a week. So that meant that I could spend the night with my husband. He could sleep in his bed and I could sleep on the cot or whatever. I had stayed so long to where I went out and I asked my assistant to buy me a cot. So brought the cot in and I could stay there at night with him, just to make sure he was good. And he felt that connection as well. And I thank God for that. And so he did go on, but the day before he went on, we were on our prayer call. And God gave me this as if he was standing right before me. And the scripture says that, what can separate you? What can separate you from me? And is it death? Is it life? Yes. So he gives me that and I'm thinking it's for somebody else. I didn't know less than 24 hours, it was actually for me. Yeah, yeah. And so with that being said, of course I was devastated. Of course my heart was broken. Of course I felt like I couldn't breathe. I couldn't, I felt like I couldn't move because my heart was ripped out of me. My very soulmate, the one that I promised to be with for the rest of my life. And I would always tell him, I love you beyond my last breath. And this is not just a temporary love, but this is a forever love that I have for you. You said the fervent prayer of a righteous man developed much, that's what you was saying. You know when people were praying for you. And I like what you said about Romans chapter eight, how who can separate us from the love of God? No depth, no height, no possibility, no things in the past, nothing to come. Nothing can separate you. And this is something that we have to hold on to. That's the most important thing. But this is where, when we really look at things and what God has laid out before us, like I said, I value the times that I have with a person so much because we don't know. Sometimes I go to extra mile and doing extra things because people do pass on. You know what I mean? It don't matter who you are. You know what I mean? When it's time, it's time. And all you can do is love. That's it. That's all you can do is love. That's the most important thing is love. I use death as, if you're still here, you use it as an example of what you need to be doing in your life. Meaning when I lost my dad, I can't hold on to memories of us going hunting, fishing, I'm doing certain things. And this life makes you, or America, you would say, makes you wanna work all the time to create a future for your kids. Money, money, money. You know what I mean? And not really spend as much time with them. Oh, you wanna do basketball? Okay, I'll get somebody to take you over here. I'll drop you here, but I'm gonna go here because I gotta still go to work. I gotta do two jobs. I gotta do this to provide a good future for you. But at the end of the day, when you go, you leave all this money, but they can spend it off, leave it. You don't leave all that values with them. You don't leave all the memories. And I tell everybody, I said, as much as, yes, your memories can go because of Alzheimer's. God is still not a wicked guy where people who have Alzheimer's still remember when they were young. So all their memories ain't gone. They still remember those foundation years. You know what I mean? So if you can spend that time and really, like I tell our kids all the time, I said, tomorrow is not promised. You can go, I can go. I'm not only helping them, but I'm helping myself because that's have no age. So by talking about this to the ones you love, you're preparing yourself that if they might go, and no matter how much you prepare yourself, you still can never prepare yourself for that time, but it does help speaking about it and telling people what your wishes are. Like if I go tomorrow, I would like for you to move on with your life, don't soak. Move on, because life is here. There's a reason you're still here and I'm not. So remember all the times that we've had together and use that to move on. Raise the kids, things like that.  You know what I mean? So people need to always still look at things like that. If it had went the other way around, what would you want for that person? Oh yes. So all I'm saying is, man, yeah, yeah. We didn't just meet for no reason, right? No, no. Yeah, so there's always a reason. So we just gotta make sure we utilize resources. Amen. Yeah, just let me know. Y'all want to pray anything you want to pray? Y'all want to pray? Go ahead. Now pray. Father, we thank you. Thank you for this time. Thank you for this moment. Even thank you for this opportunity, Lord. Lord, we ask and we lift up these great business leaders, Father God. We pray for E and Stephanie, Lord. We pray for the vision that you've already blessed them and given them God. Lord, we pray for the overflow, the abundance for the latter day reign, Father God, for the refreshing and the renewing in this place up on their lives, up on their children's lives. Lord, we just ask that you bless this podcast, allow it to reach and to go further than they could ever imagine, Lord. Allow this to trigger someone's heart, Father God. Allow it to penetrate someone's thoughts, Lord. Allow it to be mind blowing, life changing, oh God. Allow it to be the fresh wind of them on this trip in this journey, Lord. Allow them to know, oh God, if we can make it as Bishop Omar would say, if we can make it, they too can make it, Lord. You have no respect or persons. You reign on the just as well as the unjust, Father. We thank you and we praise you right now for what has happened, what will happen, oh God, and what has already happened, Lord. We thank you right now, oh God, for the ministries that are being birthed, even through this podcast, God. We thank you for every individual, every business that is connected, Lord. Thank you for indirect, indirect, Lord. Thank you for the flow, even the abundance. You said there was no lack in your kingdom, God, and we stand on your word. There's no lack, oh God, in this business, in this area, Father God, that we are producers after our own kind, oh God. And we thank you right now that it is so, oh God, that it is so in the mighty name of Jesus. We dare to believe, amen and amen. Amen, amen. Hi, I'm Pastor Anita Chawa. I am on Boss Talk 101. Today, I'm asking you to check us out later on. Thank you for joining us. God bless. Yeah, we on Boss Talk 101.