I’ve spent a fair amount of time in Arizona. I’ve had some great times. I’ve seen some great stuff. But it’s certainly not one of my favorite places on earth. The dichotomy starts as soon I get off the plane – I have a love/hate relationship with the Phoenix airport.  […]

Since I’m currently flying back from my second trip to Seattle this year, I guess I should tell you about the first. My first Seattle trip of 2014 was actually my second time here.  I visited a couple years ago.  It was a whirlwind trip – true to form of […]

I’m so glad January is over.  I was really looking forward to 2014.  2013 was pretty rough for me.  I experienced some great things last year, but the lows were just as low as the highs were high.  At the end of 2013 I felt like I was finally in […]

The post you’ve been waiting for!  Or not.  Actually probably not since I’ve never done one of these before.  A friend of mine recently published his review of everything he watched and read over the year and I decided to give it a try.  This exercise has led me to […]

Shortly after my arrival to NatGeo I was told about an upcoming event that would be moderated by Ann Curry.  I grew up with the Today Show.  Ann Curry gave me the headlines everyday during junior high and high school.  Needless to say, I was excited that I might be […]

This blog needs a new title.  It all started when I was traveling with the Silver Ring Thing and sitting on a bus for over 100 hours a week.  I unofficially changed the name of it to “The Atlantic Ocean Lots Traveled” when I began sailing with Royal Caribbean.  I […]

Last summer I read a bunch of articles on how to become a travel writer.  To be honest, I found it so discouraging.  I thought I was a travel writer or at least was almost a travel writer.  But according to all of these articles I was doing it wrong. […]

I travel a lot.  A lot.  I traveled for 2 years via bus.  I’ve been on a ship for well over 3 years.  I love taking trains.  And I fly frequently out of necessity.  But I had never flown in a helicopter.  Until recently. I’ve written before about how Jamaica […]

Sometimes it’s hard to imagine a life beyond ships. A life beyond travel.  I have not gone more than 2 months without taking a trip since early 2007.   My name is Valerie and I am a travel addict. I often say that working on a ship is not a […]

I know I post mainly about fun things I do off the ship, but I get to do some pretty amazing stuff on the ship too. This is a video of me doing the zipline here on the Allure.  Yes, I said zipline.  We have a zipline.  On a ship. […]

Swimming with dolphins was never on my bucket list.  But that’s probably because I don’t really have a bucket list – except skydiving, maybe bungee jumping or cliff diving – anyway… Lots of people say swimming with dolphins is “a once in a lifetime experience.”  Why?  Did they die immediately […]

I don’t get off the ship much in Jamaica.  Sometimes I just need a day to sleep, do laundry, or catch up on work.  Plus there isn’t much to do in the port of Falmouth and there was that whole Corn Dogs and Robbery episode of last year.  But when my […]