Going On a Cruise? Read This
Nov 24 at 8:08pm by Andrew Benton
Are you going on a cruise this summer, or thinking about going on one? I just got back from mine, and it was a blast! I had little to no bad experiences, and I thought I’d share some of the information I collected, and some I wish I’d have known prior to going. This guide is based on my experience with Carnival Cruise Lines, so it may be slightly different with other lines, but I doubt that it’s too different. If you have any questions, you can feel free to contact me, I’m a pretty nice guy.
Quick Tips
While I left out some things to do with locations, I visited Costa Maya, Mexico, Ochos Rios, Jamaica, and the Cayman Islands. If you have any questions about any of those places, let me know. Here are some quick tips to help you out. I go into detail on these later in the article, but here are the important points.
- Get to the dock with plenty of time to spare, you’ll be in lines for eternity.
- Don’t bring alcohol in your carry-on bag, they’ll confiscate it.
- Eat as much as you want, it’s free, and make sure you go to your Dinner, it’s the best food on the boat.
- Know that soft-drinks aren’t free, so be prepared to pay for them (more than $1/can).
- Know that alcohol is also expensive, budget accordingly.
- Attend or watch the Debarkation video, it talks about what Customs allows, and what you cannot bring in the country.
- You should tip your staff well, they usually automatically include a tip on your bill, but it’s customary to give extra because they really go above and beyond expectations.
What to expect when you get to the dock
When you arrive at the docks (I left from Miami, FL), don’t expect to walk directly onto a boat. My experience was different, but I’m guessing not that unfamiliar to most. When I arrived it was pouring rain, and the previous passengers were getting off the ship, as we were trying to get on. First thing to know is that there is no real place to “check your bags”, they just have these huge metal containers, and you throw them on, find someone who is staff (they are everywhere), and make sure you’re in the right area for your cruise ship.Once you put your luggage in one of the containers to be loaded onto the ship, you go in to check in. This is where you’ll need your tickets, and either a Passport or a Photo ID and a birth certificate with a raised seal. This part doesn’t take too long, and expect a security checkpoint.
After you go through this checkpoint, you wait in line to get your card you use on the ship. This card will be used for everything on the ship; from getting into your room, to ordering food, to paying for gifts in the gift shop. This line I found to be the longest, since you have to give them a card to use to charge to. You can use either a Credit/Debit card, or prepay on your card. Anyway you do it, it’s pretty simple at the end, so use whatever is most convenient. I used my Debit card, quick and painless.
After this, you just wait in line to have your ID and Passport/Birth Certificate checked once more, then guess what? You’re on the ship.
What to do when you get on the ship
This part is kind of self-explanatory, but when I first got on the ship, you expect to get orders or instructions, nope. Just go check into your room, walk around the ship, and start enjoying yourself. Don’t get too enthralled, however, because the most boring part of the cruise is upon you.
The safety drill (a.k.a. the most boring, crowded, useless thing ever)
Now I’m not saying its useless, because you get to see where the rescue boats are, but they make you stand in little painted off areas, with life jackets on, and watch them explain that if the ship was going down, that you have to stay single file, calm, and get on the boats. Sorry, but it will never, ever work like that. Oh well, the Coast Guard requires them to do it.
The Food
This is one thing I still have a hard time getting over. The amount of food you will consume on your cruise will disgust you. Let me reiterate. You eat so much food that you eat and eat, then just because it’s free, you eat some more. And it’s all usually really, really good. Make sure you go to your scheduled dinner time, because that is the best food on the whole cruise. I’m not talking normal restaurant food, but rather things like Veal, Crab Legs, Lobster Tails, NY Steak, basically anything you would get at a top tier restaurant for $50+, you get at dinner, and you can have as much as you want. They also have absolutely killer desserts, trust me, you’ll be ordering 2 per meal by the end of the week.
The Alcohol
Let me warn you, alcohol on the boat is pretty expensive, don’t expect to get anything for less than $5. On my cruise, the cheapest thing you could get was a Coors Lite can, and they include 15% gratuity, taking it to ~$5 per beer. That is the low-end. Pina Coladas and Daiquiris are usually at least $9, and if you’re a big drinker with special tastes, expect a big bill. I found that the best thing to do, is if the countries you visit allow it, is to buy liquor there and put it on you carry-on and bring it back on the ship.
I’m not sure what Cruise lines rules are about bringing alcohol on the ship are, but I’ll share a story. When I went, I had two bottles of liquor in my checked bag. In the line to get on the ship, a couple guys behind me had put liquor in their carry-ons, and it was all confiscated. Lesson? If you’re going to do it, put it in your check baggage, much less likely to get searched, and you can save serious money on the ship.
Another cool thing about the ship is that buying liquor is tax and duty free on the ship, you can get some really good deals, but they usually won’t let you have the alcohol until your last day, still a good bargain either way.
The Entertainment
I found the entertainment to be decent on my ship. They had a few musical shows that were nothing to write home about. The real gems here were the Comedy shows that were on every other night at midnight. Very raunchy stuff, but really worth it, and they were good comedians. Also, another big hot spot was the dance club (which is also nothing special), and the karaoke bar. Unfortunately on our ship, the hot tubs always closed at Midnight.. just when you need them the most.
Conclusion
While I’m sure every single person will have a different experience, I think you’ll have a great time on your cruise. Take my points, apply them, and learn some stuff on your own. It’s a vacation, treat it like one. Do something you’ve never done before, explore different countries, and let me know if I’ve been of any help. Happy Cruising!
5 Wordpress Plugins You Can’t Live Without
Nov 16 at 10:10am by Andrew Benton
Wordpress is an extremely powerful CMS. It lets practically anyone with access to an internet connection post their thoughts, dreams, and ideas. Wordpress has revolutionized and pushed the blogosphere to new depths and continues to push the envelope on seamlessness with external social networks.
While out-of-the-box (while it doesn’t really come in a box) Wordpress is great by itself, you can make both the writers, as well as the readers experience infinitely better by installing just a few plugins. Below is a list of what I think are the cream of the crop in Wordpress plugins. Feel free to hop on the conversation and add your input, suggestions, etc.
- Akismet - View Plugin Website
This is by far an absolute essential, so much so that it comes pre-installed in Wordpress now. Akismet helps filter out spam from your comments, and helps your site appear more constantly clean, with great comments being the only ones allowed. - Adsense Manager - View Plugin Website - View Authors Website
This one is another essential for me. Adsense manager allows you to manage adsense campaigns on your blog by allowing you to save custom configurations of Google ads to use on your page. Basically, once installed, you create ads, in which you can change size, colors, types, etc. Once you create them, you easily insert them into your templates and posts by selecting them in the post editor or by including a short piece of code into you template where you want your ad to be displayed. - All in One SEO Pack - View Plugin Website
This plugin provides automatic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for your Wordpress blog. It basically saves you hours of work optimizing your website for search engines. A fear key features:- Rewrites title for optimization
- Generates meta keywords from your categories, built in tag-generators, etc
- Auto-generates meta descriptions for each post, making posts more directly findable by search engine searches
- Google XML Sitemaps - View Plugin Website
This plugin generates a XML-Sitemap compliant sitemap of your WordPress blog. This format is supported by Ask.com, Google, YAHOO and MSN Search. Absolutely positively a necessity if you are serious about getting listed on Google and Yahoo searches. - Social Bookmarking Reloaded - View Plugin Website
Social Bookmarking Reloaded adds a list of graphical icons at the bottom of every post that lets your readers submit your articles to popular social sites like Digg, Reddit, Facebook, etc. It can really help build the community of your site. You can customize the appearance of this plugin and select from a huge list of social bookmarking sites.
So, there you have it, my essential 5 Wordpress plugins that I can’t live without. I’m sure there are a few more I’ll add to that list in the near future. Do you think I’m missing any? Let me know.
5 Tips to Speed Up Windows Vista
Nov 2 at 6:06am by Andrew Benton
So, you bought a brand new computer thinking it would run Vista like a champ? Think again. Vista is a resource hog, and by default will put a real hurting on every component in your computer. Here are some ways to help make your Vista experience a little better.
1. Overclock your CPU or Graphics Card
This one is a little bit edgy, something I don’t recommend anyone do unless you do your research first, but this can definitely speed up your computer.
2. Get Rid of Unneeded Programs
Open up control panel and click ‘uninstall a program’. In the pane on the left, click ‘Turn Windows Features On or Off’. Go through the list and un-check useless stuff you’ll never need (ex. Meeting Space, Tablet PC, Faxing, etc.) You should probably also get rid of any software that came pre-installed with your computer. Dell likes to put tons of useless trial ware and software on your computer that you didn’t ask for, so take it off and free up some disk space in the process.
3. Get Rid of Unneeded Services
Services that run in the background of Vista can eat up a lot of resources. Turning them off can help speed up your experience. To get to the services, click the start button, then hit run, then type in services.msc. Another way you can get to the run dialog box faster, by the way is holding down the windows key on your keyboard and hitting the ‘r’ button.
Once you are in the services dialog, here are a few you can almost always immediately turn off:
- Computer Browser
- Distributed Link Tracking Client
- IKE and AuthIP IP Keying Modules
- Offline Files
- Remote Registry
- Tablet PC Input Service (unless you’re using a tablet PC)
- Windows Error Reporting
And, you should never, ever disable or mess with these:
- Multimedia Class Scheduler
- Plug and Play
- Superfetch
- Task Scheduler
- Windows Audio
- Windows Driver Foundation
You will notice that there are a ton of services in that list. While I can’t go into them all here, you can find a great list of what does what here. You will also notice you have a few choices how to set the services:
- Automatic means that the service starts automatically when windows starts
- Manual means the service only starts when something else (program, etc) triggers it. For those things on manual, you really shouldn’t worry about.
- Disabled means the service is turned off and does not start when the computer is turned on.
4. Speed up the Vista Interface
Sure, the new vista theme is pretty to look at, but it really puts a hurting on your system, and changing it to look like the older versions of windows can make a very noticeable effect on your systems performance. Here are some easy ways to do this:
- Right-click the desktop, click Personalize, and click Windows Color and Appearance. Uncheck Enable Transparency. Click OK.
- The sidebar is a real hog, so Right-click the Sidebar, click Properties, and uncheck Start Sidebar When Windows Starts.
- The visual effects probably have the biggest impact, changing these can help you DRASTICALLY by just disabling some of the “neat” stuff in vista. Open Control Panel, click Performance and System Tools, and click Adjust Visual Effects. I suggest taking off any animations, shadows, etc. You really cant tell a difference anyways.
5. Control UAC
The User Account Control in vista is really, really annoying, and slows down normal usage. Here is how to turn off the part that turns your screen black, while keeping the security UAC provides.
- Open group policy by going to start> run, then typing gpedit.msc
- Go to to Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options
- Browse until you see the policy named ‘User Account Control: Switch to the secure desktop when prompting for elevation’. Set this policy to disabled.
So, there you have it. 5 easy and quick ways to speed up your Windows Vista experience. Got some of your own? Share them in the comments.!
How-to: Not Look New at the Gym
Oct 20 at 12:12pm by Andrew Benton
I’ve been a big fitness-guy for a while now. I’m slowly becoming religiously a gym-bum, I’m there like clockwork every day I can be, and if I’m not there, I make it out to the track or somewhere to get my workout in. I thought it would be nice to write a basic how-to of the gym lifestyle; some basics most people might not know, but will help you from embarrassment once you finally get motivated and into the gym.
Don’t be afraid to ask
One of the main things I see are people who either are too proud, or too scared to ask for help. Most people don’t mind helping you by showing you how to use a piece of machinery, or do a particular exercise. Also remember that you pay money for this gym, and any good gym should have staff that can help you out with basic stuff like this. On that same note, if someone is nice, don’t let them be a crutch for you; no one likes someone constantly bothering them while they’re working out. I call them leeches, they trust you and hold on, and after a while you are basically getting free personal training.
Don’t try to show off
Hey, we all know the gym is full of muscle-heads, and people who think they’re muscle-heads, but let’s not add to that population. We are all there to get healthy/fit/big, whatever, and we all respect that other people are in there, so please, don’t show off; it makes you look like an arrogant tool.
Be courteous to your fellow gym-goers
Here are a few tips to not be labeled as “that guy” at your gym.
- Wipe down your equipment; no one wants your sweat, so please take it with you.
- Don’t hog a machine, if someone asks to work-in, let them, they have just as much right to that piece of equipment as you do.
- If you’re using free-weights, please take your weight off once you are done. If you are going to use it, take the extra 15seconds it takes to put the plates/dumbbells back on the rack.
Gym Lingo
Many times, people will approach you and ask “may I work-in”, or “how many sets do you have left”. Working in doesn’t mean “get off I want it”, only that they would like to use the machine and want to know if it’s okay to use it with you. It’s actually good for both of you, because this way you make yourself rest, which is very important when working out, and in-between sets.
A set is a group of “reps”, or repetitions, most people do 3-5 sets on any given machine with any number of reps, or particular times they do that range of motion for that set. For example if I had 2 more sets of 15, I would do the machine 15 times, get off, rest, and then do 15 more.
Conclusion
I hope this could be of use to someone, because I know many people are gym-shy. If you have any questions, I’ll be more than happy to answer them, and look forward to some of my upcoming articles on basic workout plans so you don’t wander aimlessly.
Below is a list of websites with great information on them. Feel free to check them out!
- Bodybuilding.com - Best source I’ve ever found for articles, workouts by body part, days per week you want to work out, also have workouts based on goals.
- MensHealth.com - another great source. More geared toward males, but an awesome source non-the-less
- Fitness.com - a more rounded fitness website, not as specific as the previous two.
What to Know Before You Go on That Cruise
Oct 15 at 7:07am by Andrew Benton
Are you going on a cruise this summer, or thinking about going on one? I just got back from mine, and it was a blast! I had little to no bad experiences, and I thought I’d share some of the information I collected, and some I wish I’d have known prior to going. This guide is based on my experience with Carnival Cruise Lines, so it may be slightly different with other lines, but I doubt that it’s too different. If you have any questions, you can feel free to contact me, I’m a pretty nice guy.
Quick Tips
While I left out some things to do with locations, I visited Costa Maya, Mexico, Ochos Rios, Jamaica, and the Cayman Islands. If you have any questions about any of those places, let me know. Here are some quick tips to help you out. I go into detail on these later in the article, but here are the important points.
- Get to the dock with plenty of time to spare, you’ll be in lines for eternity.
- Don’t bring alcohol in your carry-on bag, they’ll confiscate it.
- Eat as much as you want, it’s free, and make sure you go to your Dinner; it’s the best food on the boat.
- Know that soft-drinks aren’t free, so be prepared to pay for them (more than $1/can).
- Know that alcohol is also expensive, budget accordingly.
- Attend or watch the Debarkation video, it talks about what Customs allows, and what you cannot bring in the country.
- You should tip your staff well, they usually automatically include a tip on your bill, but it’s customary to give extra because they really go above and beyond expectations.
What to expect when you get to the dock
When you arrive at the docks (I left from Miami, FL), don’t expect to walk directly onto a boat. My experience was different, but I’m guessing not that unfamiliar to most. When I arrived it was pouring rain, and the previous passengers were getting off the ship, as we were trying to get on. First thing to know is that there is no real place to “check your bags”, they just have these huge metal containers, and you throw them on, find someone who is staff (they are everywhere), and make sure you’re in the right area for your cruise ship.
Once you put your luggage in one of the containers to be loaded onto the ship, you go in to check in. This is where you’ll need your tickets, and either a Passport or a Photo ID and a birth certificate with a raised seal. This part doesn’t take too long, and expect a security checkpoint.
After you go through this checkpoint, you wait in line to get your card you use on the ship. This card will be used for everything on the ship; from getting into your room, to ordering food, to paying for gifts in the gift shop. This line I found to be the longest, since you have to give them a card to use to charge to. You can use either a Credit/Debit card, or prepay on your card. Anyway you do it; it’s pretty simple at the end, so use whatever is most convenient. I used my Debit card, quick and painless. After this, you just wait in line to have your ID and Passport/Birth Certificate checked once more, then guess what? You’re on the ship.
What to do when you get on the ship
This part is kind of self-explanatory, but when I first got on the ship, you expect to get orders or instructions, nope. Just go check into your room, walk around the ship, and start enjoying yourself. Don’t get too enthralled, however, because the most boring part of the cruise is upon you.
The safety drill (a.k.a. the most boring, crowded, useless thing ever)
Now I’m not saying its useless, because you get to see where the rescue boats are, but they make you stand in little painted off areas, with life jackets on, and watch them explain that if the ship was going down, that you have to stay single file, calm, and get on the boats. Sorry, but it will never, ever work like that. Oh well, the Coast Guard requires them to do it.
The Food
This is one thing I still have a hard time getting over. The amount of food you will consume on your cruise will disgust you. Let me reiterate. You eat so much food that you eat and eat, then just because it’s free, you eat some more. And it’s all usually really, really good. Make sure you go to your scheduled dinner time, because that is the best food on the whole cruise. I’m not talking normal restaurant food, but rather things like Veal, Crab Legs, Lobster Tails, NY Steak, basically anything you would get at a top tier restaurant for $50+, you get at dinner, and you can have as much as you want. They also have absolutely killer desserts, trust me, you’ll be ordering 2 per meal by the end of the week.
The Alcohol
Let me warn you, alcohol on the boat is pretty expensive, don’t expect to get anything for less than $5. On my cruise, the cheapest thing you could get was a Coors Lite can, and they include 15% gratuity, taking it to ~$5 per beer. That is the low-end. Pina Coladas and Daiquiris are usually at least $9, and if you’re a big drinker with special tastes, expect a big bill. I found that the best thing to do, is if the countries you visit allow it, is to buy liquor there and put it on you carry-on and bring it back on the ship.
I’m not sure what Cruise lines rules are about bringing alcohol on the ship are, but I’ll share a story. When I went, I had two bottles of liquor in my checked bag. In the line to get on the ship, a couple guys behind me had put liquor in their carry-ons, and it was all confiscated. Lesson? If you’re going to do it, put it in your check baggage, much less likely to get searched, and you can save serious money on the ship.
Another cool thing about the ship is that buying liquor is tax and duty free on the ship, you can get some really good deals, but they usually won’t let you have the alcohol until your last day, still a good bargain either way.
The Entertainment
I found the entertainment to be decent on my ship. They had a few musical shows that were nothing to write home about. The real gems here were the Comedy shows that were on every other night at midnight. Very raunchy stuff, but really worth it, and they were good comedians. Also, another big hot spot was the dance club (which is also nothing special), and the karaoke bar. Unfortunately on our ship, the hot tubs always closed at Midnight.. just when you need them the most.
Conclusion
While I’m sure every single person will have a different experience, I think you’ll have a great time on your cruise. Take my points, apply them, and learn some stuff on your own. It’s a vacation, treat it like one. Do something you’ve never done before, explore different countries, and let me know if I’ve been of any help. Happy Cruising!
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