Yellow Bird Scrapbook Cruise

So here are a few photos I have. Notice none of any ports, boy did I work hard or what!!!
This is what we started out with
This is how we managed to make it look just like home!








Here's Leah and Pam having fun putting together our goodie bags







Once we settled in, it was time to have a few cocktails!!
















Just a few of the creative work on the doors How do you get in???
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Dinner, fun and PJ night!



Wow, looooovvvvveeee those slippers!!






Yeah I guess you can say we had a pretty good time!!! Can't wait to see the new outfits on the next cruise! Well ladies, until next time.

Mexico travel warning

Many of you travel to Mexico on a regular basis and have never had any trouble at all. This warning has just been issued due to the escalated violence from drug gangs towards the Mexican police. But there are others who have been targeted, so do take this warning seriously when you next travel to Mexico and remember to travel wisely.

A string of brutal murders of local police officials earlier this month along with other ongoing violence in Mexico has prompted the U.S. Department of State (DOS) to issue an official travel alert for all Americans planning to travel to Mexico.

The alert says, “While millions of U.S. citizens safely visit Mexico each year (including thousands who cross the land border every day for study, tourism or business), violence in the country has increased recently.”

According to the DOS, the greatest increase in violence has occurred near the U.S. border, which is where Mexican drug gangs were breaking into police radio frequencies to issue death threats to police officers, which they then carried out earlier this month, according to a Reuters report.

The DOS suggests travelers take “common-sense precautions,” which includes “visiting only legitimate business and tourist areas during daylight hours, and avoiding areas where prostitution and drug dealing might occur.” For the full travel alert, visit http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/pa/pa_3028.html.

Australia and Great Barrier Reef Cruise

Australia and Great Barrier Reef Cruise





As many of you have noticed, Royal Caribbean have yet again, put prices down, which makes this very good value cruise, even better! go to the Upcoming Cruises to check out the new rates.
Also, more good news, the flights over have gone down too! When we first checked, rates were up to $1900 per person, ouch! Well now that we have Virgin as competition for Qantas and Air New Zealand, the rates are down to $1200. Well there are a few less, such as United Airlines at $1080, but unless you wanted United, I would prefer to get Qantas (better amenities onboard for a long flight).

So now is the time to go and stop saying what I always hear, "Oh Australia, I'd love to go there one day" why not go now! Who knows what prices will be like in 2 years or even a year from now. It really will be a fantastic trip.

Yellow Bird Scrapbook Cruise

Yellow Bird Cruise

Well, it started out a little rough, weather wise and cruise wise, but we worked it out and things went well.
The weather, well it wasn't a great day to join the ship, very rainy and stormy day to start out, so sail away pictures were pretty dull looking.
Our first class was with Johanna, a photography class. I didn't get a chance to hear it all unfortunately, but what I did hear was great, so many good tips for even the novice photographer like myself. Now I guess we all have no excuses for bad pictures right!

The next was a class with Leah, again, another wonderful class and such beautiful work. Leah really knows her craft. Those boxes turned out great, good thing our goodies bags are big bags for this project to fit in! We also had a few make and takes which turned out so lovely. A very creative bunch of ladies in our group I must say.
We did have a fun night at our cocktail party, yes there were a few who really let their hair down on that night! But I won't give away too much, let's just say, we had fun.

Dinners were of course, a great social event. I had the pleasure of sitting with a few of the ladies who are all close family and friends with a couple of husbands to entertain us. The shows as usual, definitely well worth seeing and plenty of places to continue the party into the wee hours.

I enjoyed meeting all our ladies onboard and look forward to our next Yellow bird cruise to be announced soon. Will try to post some pictures and I promise ladies, they will not be any you wouldn't show your friends and family. No, I've kept those hidden (just kidding).

Have been lucky enough to get the dreaded cold that's going around, yuk. So when I'm feeling human again, I'll post an update on our last cruise, Yellow Bird Scrapbook cruise.

An online scam to watch out for

This was listed on a recent agent site, something I think you may find rather interesting!

Guests of top hotel chains targets of new Internet scam

A well-organized online fraud is scamming over 71,000 travelers each month as
they book rooms online at some of America's best known hotel chains,
including Hyatt, Clarion, TraveLodge, Comfort Inn, Red Roof, EconoLodge, Super 8,
Ramada, Days Inn, and Wyndham, according to an exclusive report by
fraudtip.com.
Findings released for the first time this morning show that the Internet scam
combines advanced online advertising, bogus hotel locators, third-party
reservation systems, and an Internet browser virus to redirect hotel guest
traffic to fake versions of well-known hotel chain websites.
The scam casts a big net and is evolving daily, reports FraudTip.com.
Affected properties include hotels and suites, budget motels, airport hotels,
luxury hotels, resorts, and casinos.
Hardest hit are Super 8 Motels, Days Inn, and Ramada, which are owned by
Wyndham Worldwide in Parsippany, New Jersey, the world's largest hotel chain. A
total of over 50,000 travelers seeking out these hotels are redirected to the
bogus sites each month.
Another 15,862 prospective guests are redirected from Comfort Inn, the chain
owned by Choice Hotels International located in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Econo Lodge and Clarion Hotels & Resorts, also owned by Choice Hotels, are
targets as well.
Red Roof Inn, headquartered in Kalamazoo, Michigan, is currently losing an
average of 4,441 visitors per month. In addition, Hyatt Hotels, headquartered
in Chicago, has fallen prey to the same fraud network.
FraudTip.com's preliminary findings show that the fraudulent sites are
attracting a higher-than-average percentage of female visitors, teens, as well as
adults 50+. The scam has also attracted a higher-than-average percentage of
African American visitors, and has proven effective in attracting an affluent
audience, and a high index of graduates and post graduates.

Back to the blog

Hi Everyone
well we decided it was time to start up the blog again. We used to have one on our other website for The Cruise Crew and thought we'd just do the forum on this site, which is going great. Love to read and chat with you all on the forum, it's a lot of fun.

But I will try, I will I promise, to keep you up with other things, information on the ships, any travel news you may want to know and news of our groups.
I do hope you will leave a comment once in a while, it helps to know some of you are reading it and I'd love to hear any of your thoughts and suggestions on what you may like to read on the blog. Feel free to email me too if you have any ideas you'd like to share.

Come chat with us on the forums too, we'd love to have you. The more the merrier!