If you’re a fan of the original Star Wars franchise and haven’t already seen this, then take the hour or so and watch the first season of Space Janitors. Great web series that has a lot of fun with the trilogy. Written by the Toronto based writing team Davin Lengyel and Geoff Lapaire it has been renewed for a second season and airs on the commercial YouTube channel geek&Sundry Tuesday nights.

Hope you enjoy this as much as I did!

Since our failed attempt in 2010 to take some culinary classes in Cozumel, we had hoped to try again when we went down for Nicole’s 2013 birthday. Unfortunately the chef in question wasn’t available while we were down there, and so we ended up deciding to play it by ear when we got to the port. And while we didn’t manage to get out of the port itself, we did get a lot of shopping done, and discovered some of the best Margaritas we’ve had in some time. Tucked away at the end of the port harbor Pancho’s Backyard offers a quiet place to sit and enjoy some music along with your traditionally made Margaritas’ and authentic Mexican food.

Short video of us feeding some of the birds while we were at Pancho’s Backyard (runs just over a minute long). Our apologies for it initially being shaky.

These drinks however are no joke, and just after one and a half each left us pretty drunk. So much so that there are actually parts of the trip back to the ship that I don’t remember, which has frankly never happened before, and included us trying on Lucha libre wrestling masks, to which Nicole had to show me the photographic proof before I’d believe her, and a visit to the Ron Jon’s surf store. So while you should certainly stop by and enjoy a drink and some Guacamole, be conservative with the number you decide to have. Otherwise you might end up coming home with some things you hadn’t planned on.

Whatever the line, cruise ships always ensure the days have a jam-packed itinerary, and Carnival’s Glory was certainly no different. The usual classes are available at the fitness centre while the spa offers a number of health workshops in addition to their standard assortment of services – though if you are going to indulge in some treatments keep an eye on your daily itinerary for specials. On the upper decks you could even find a basketball court or take a whirl on the mini-putt green if you ended up tiring of the pools, water slide, and poolside games.

For the less athletically inclined you could take advantage of the onboard casino though the Glory had the very nice addition of a pool table that quickly became popular as people became aware of its existence between the casino and the EA Sports bar where you could also get some console time with one of your favorite console game. And at $3 for half an hour or $5 for the full hour, some of the cheapest table time I’ve ever enjoyed. Due to the younger demographic that tends to frequent the Bahamian routes there was a nicely stocked arcade onboard as well.

And with so much to do day and night I would highly advise the “flex” dinning when you cruise. Not only does it give you the flexibility to schedule your trip to the main dinning room around the various shows, DJ’s, bands, and karaoke scattered around the ship, but the multitude of other distractions available onboard, and an opportunity to meet some of the other cruisers, especially if you opt for breakfast in the main dinning room. And often makes for some interesting conversation if you’re feeling social first thing in the morning – plus the food is much better there and usually made on order. Up on the Lido deck there were even movies running when they weren’t serving some feast of “local” fare or teaching the passengers to line dance.

However it does appear that they realized the galley tour and chef’s table is better served toward the middle of the cruise rather than the last night like our experience a few years prior on Carnival’s Imagination.

For Nicole’s 2013 birthday we decided to take a weeklong cruise out of Miami. Here’s some fun footage of Nicole bustin’ a move on the seven seas (video’s just over 4:20 long) as she performs Young MC’s ‘Bust a Move.’ Perhaps a mainstain of cruise line entertainment, karaoke is almost always on the day’s itinerary. Apologies that the footage is a little dark.

While we’re still getting back into the swing of things since returning from our cruise last week – pictures and video to follow soon – I thought I’d post this great video I came across which explains the history and evolution of typography. Video runs just over 5 minutes and does an awesome job covering the major innovations that have occurred in typeface since the fifteenth century.

We’ve been on a couple cruises – and barring any surprise birthday trips (there’s time!  It’s next month!), that’s likely the next trip for us.  If you’ve taken a look to the right, you might have seen our next scheduled trip is a cruise out of Istanbul – we’ll be going with my mom and dad, who are pretty fun to travel with.  I’m also weirdly fascinated with the larger and larger ships – Royal Caribbean’s Allure and Oasis are currently out of budget, but I’d really like to get onboard for a look.

Given that, I tend to keep an eye out for cruise news.  Recently, Gadling’s Chris Owen posted Ten cool new cruise things you might see on a ship soon from his time at Cruise Shipping Miami.

One I think is smart, but unlikely, is wine in aluminum bottles.  As handy and easy as it might be to sip from an unbreakable bottle poolside, wine drinkers aren’t from-the-bottle drinkers.  Drinking without a wineglass is not going to happen, even with a risk of rough seas.  I also agree that ‘glacier ice’ in your drink sounds better than it likely is.

What’s definitely cool is the idea of another cruise ship docked and refitted as a hotel, this time in Miami.  This might happen to the SS United States – which would likely see a brisk business from the passengers headed to the Port of Miami.  Check out the rest at Gadling.com.

At Cruise Critic, there’s a post on the 10 Hidden Costs of Cruising – which could be retitled ‘the 10 ways the cruise industry makes tons and tons of money’.  They not only lay out the pitfalls, but tell you how to avoid them and keep your vacation on budget.  In my experience, the two most egregious examples of these costs are the shore excursions and the internet service.   You can usually tour a port on your own pretty easily, or recreate an excursion privately at a much-reduced cost.  Excursions are overpriced without exception – though I suppose they are selling peace of mind to some people.  If that’s worth $100+ to you, I’m cool with that.

And, well.  Being gouged for the internet is nothing new for a Canadian, but the time is expensive, and if you have to do any work check-in at all, it goes very quickly.  Cruise Critic offers port profiles with internet cafes close to the port and free Wi-Fi spots listed.  Check out the article for that link and more hidden costs.

What’s the worst cost you’ve seen on a cruise?  Or the coolest thing?  And please don’t say Starbucks!

Toronto’s still cold, I wish I were cruising…

I feel like a decadent capitalist pig when I tell people we’re going on a cruise – which is kind of counter to how I try to live and think, though it’s entirely possible, that under my bleeding-heart Pinko Commie vegetarian trappings, I am. However, despite the impression of dissolution, there’s a lot to like about cruises: you get to see a number of places while you and your stuff stay in one place; the food is pretty good and included; there’s stuff to do on the ship; and with some fares at less than $50 or $60 CDN a night for 3 – 5 day trips, it can be pretty affordable.

Like most people, we like to get the most we can for our vacation money, even while ‘cruising’ – so here’s five ways we’ve found can keep costs down onboard.

1 – Stay inside

Some people will tell you that it’s not a cruise without a view. Or a balcony. I say it’s not a cruise without a nap. And how better to nap than in a dark interior cave with no windows?

Interior cabins are significantly cheaper than ocean-view (window) or balcony cabins. The jump from window to balcony is higher than from interior to window, usually. The cruise lines are aware that people love those cabins and are willing to pay more for them – so cheap people can score great deals by just taking a walk on deck when they want ocean views!

(Warning for smokers: check the smoking policy on the cruise line you’re looking at – some allow balcony smoking and some don’t – if you decide it’s worth the cost, make sure you get what you think you’re paying for!)

2 – Avoid the extras

Cruise lines are good at giving you extras you can add on to your cruise right from the beginning. Would you like to upgrade your cabin for but a few dollars a day? How about a welcome gift, a spa experience, or a wine package or a shore excursion? A Behind-the-Scenes Tour? And the bigger the ship, the more there is – speciality restaurants (for a fee), ‘chef’s table’ experiences, rock climbing walls and flowrider lessons.

All of these are wonderful and fun – but they can sure add up. If you can skip spending on the extras you don’t NEED, you can save a lot of cash.  If you NEED to ride the hell out of that flowrider, go for it.

3 – Tour on your own

Speaking of shore excursions… if you’ve got your eye on a tour, check out online resources to make sure that you can’t get there and do it yourself. Shore excursion rates will be pricier due to more luxurious transport than public buses or taxis, and possibly due to a nice lunch or dinner they’ll add on if you’re out for the day. Some good notes from websites, or an iPhone and a Lonely Planet PDF chapter might do you as well as any tour group. (And if you feel the need for a tour, follow vaguely behind a paying one in your language…)

Sometimes, distance might cause you to consider a tour so you can get there and back before the ship leaves port. If you consider a private tour, make sure that exchange rates and entry fees still work out to be a better deal than the cruise line – on our upcoming trip, we’ve found the best & least expensive way to get from Malaga to Grenada and back in time is via Royal Caribbean, partially due to their pricing being in Canadian dollars.

4 – Don’t go to the casino

This falls under advice we don’t take, and it’s pretty simple. Casinos want to take your money, not give it to you. The truly cheap are too smart to gamble. If you are going to gamble, make sure you follow the best gambling tip we’ve ever heard for cruises.

5 – Keep a receipt tally

This is something we do on every trip, thanks to Gary, but it’s particularly important on a cruise. You aren’t allowed to pay cash for drinks or anything else, so it’s all too easy to spend and spend freely when it’s not ‘real’ money. Keeping a daily tally of your receipts from bars, stores, dining rooms and cafes will let you keep tabs on your spending before it gets out of control… or, like one morning in Key West, let you know you drank over $80 US in booze in less than four hours.

Bonus Tip: Make Friends With Your Bartenders…

And tip well at first as a sign of goodwill. Ten bucks and a chat on the first day will not only give you an interesting perspective on cruising from a person from a different part of the world, but is also likely to result in some decent drinks for the rest of the trip. On Gary’s birthday cruise, we met a woman bartending the first day, and went back to her for drinks for most of the trip – along with her husband, who he met on the second day.

Never: Skimp on Tips, suggested or otherwise.

Cruise staff sign on for six months plus, work long shifts and are often paid wages many would consider really low. Don’t screw them out of their tips – they do a good job 99% of the time!

Bringing some of my favorite things together I came across this and had to share. In an effort to encourage interest among inner city students in advanced science teachers in New York are using rap. Joining their cause is the legendary rapper GZA of the Wu-Tang Clan whose upcoming solo album ‘Dark Matter’ covers topics like the Big Bang. Performing some of the material at Bronx Compass High School, GZA has joined forces with Columbia University professor Christopher Emdin and ten New York City public schools where they intend to cover everything from biology to physics through hip-hop. Students will be encouraged to write verse about scientific concepts and compete with one another for recognition of best lyrics. You can even enter your own for a chance to win a PBS NewsHour mug signed by GZA and a personal video shout-out, entries to be judged by Emdin and two of his graduate students. The below video from PBS NewsHour runs just over 9 minutes long.

Watch Songs for Biology: Students Write Hip-Hop to Learn Science on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

West of the Alfama is the heart of the city in the Baixa Pombalina district. Primarily constructed after the earthquake it was named after the king’s minister Sebastiao Jose de Carvalho e Melo, first Marquess of Pombal, a key figure in the Portuguese Enlightenment, who took the lead in rebuilding Lisbon. The most notable feature of his design was the inclusion of the Pombaline cage, a symmetrical wood-lattice framework designed with the intention of distributing the shockwaves and movement produced during earthquakes. Baixa in fact represents one of the first attempts at earthquake-resistant construction.

The most famous of Lisbon’s districts is perhaps Santa Maria de Belem thanks to its rich history and tasty egg tart and maybe the one place in the capital you must-see above all others. Port of call to many of the great Portuguese explorers who sailed from the city during the Age of Discovery, the district would be the staging ground for individuals like Count Vasco da Gama who would go on to establish Portugal as an international naval presence as they founded trade routes with India. The district’s most famous features however are the Torre de Belem built during the early sixteenth century as the port’s lighthouse and to guard its entrance from pirates, and the Jeronimos Monastery constructed around the same time.

Originally a sixteenth century suburb of farms and palaces the Alcantara district became a popular industrial region quickly dominated by small factories and warehouses as the Industrial Revolution swept across the country in the nineteenth century. However with the introduction of clubs and pubs in the early 1990s the district has undergone gentrification and become a hot spot for loft developments and new apartments has begun the process of shifting Alcantara back to a residential area. It’s also home to the Ler Devagar Bookshop and the Objectos Cinematicos exhibit by our favorite Portuguese inventor Pietro Proserpio, who is definitely worth the visit.