FoodieSeeker Friday - Carnival Vista Countdown!

Ok, it is official, the cruise excitement has well and truly begun! It is now less that 200 days until we set sail on Carnival Cruise's brand new liner for 2016, Vista! To say that I am excited is a slight understatement!

Preparation for the big holiday has really begun. Our passport photographs have been taken, our forms have been completed and they are ready to go in the post. If I am completely honest I still cannot believe that this is happening. This is going to be a dream trip come true. Italy is a country that I have always wanted to visit and I never thought that we would be going on a cruise together as a family.

As you probably know, Vista is Carnivals newest vessel. At the moment it is in the indoor preparation phase and soon to be going to sea trials. Then in April it will be delivered and ready to set sail with guests! Now that the vessel is almost ready we have got thinking about excursions.

When we set sail in the summer we will be going from Barcelona to Messina, Sicily Italy to Naples, Campri and Pompeii Italy to Rome, Civitavecchia Italy to Livorno, Florence and Pisa Italy to Marseilles France to Palma de Mallorca, Spain and back to Barcelona. As I type these destinations I am getting so excited. These are paces which I have wanted to visit for a long time. I used to live in Spain but I have never visited Barcelona. It has always been a must see for me as has Italy. So knowing that we will have the opportunity to spend time in these places certainly has got me thinking as to what we can do.

Whatever we decided to do will have to be child friendly. It has been a dream of mine to visit the Vatican, but unfortunately I do not think that this holiday will be the time to visit. The twins will only be four and will not thoroughly appreciate where we are. After all, they are children at the end of the day, so whatever we decide to do must be family friendly. As most children. the twins always need toilet stops and often want to do their own thing. So when it has come to excursions the ones that let you do as you want, in your own time certainly have been our preferred option. I envision us exploring the town or city where we are, the five of us, showing our children new cultures and simply taking in the atmosphere and discovering authentic places to eat. Who could possibly visit Italy without eating some authentic pizza, pasta and of course their tirimisu dessert!

When I sat and looked at the excursions that Carnival offer for our holiday I was amazed to see that they will be doing a whopping 75 excursions over the 8 days!

How will we be able to narrow it down?

There are so many places that I want to see and visit. I thought that today I would tell you about the tours that I think would be best suited to us as a family with an older child and smaller twins. Having children with a 7 year age gap it is essential that we do activities that please everyone and I truly believe that Carnival will definitely have what we are looking for!

Here are my favourite excursions that will be available...

Slimmerseeker Thursday - Starting Week!

As you may already know we have got an important summer holiday to go on this year! Last year we were selected as Carnival Cruise's Foodieseeker Family. That means we will be going on our first summer holiday abroad as a family of five!

Before the twins arrived I regularly went abroad and loved lazing by the pools and exploring unknown countries. Before the twins arrived I was slim and owned more bikinis than I can remember. Back then I was confident about my body. But after having children your body changes. As I was so big during my twin pregnancy by body and shape changed a lot!

Now I have zero body confidence.

I did gain back a lot of my confidence last year after doing the Juice Plus programme but as soon as I stopped and started to eat again the weight went back on and my body confidence went tumbling back down. Before I started having problems with my back I was regularly attending a keep fit class and started to see the weight coming off and was at the fittest that I have been in a long time. Then disaster struck and my back started to play up. This led me to feeling down, unable to walk far and yes I comfort ate! As my mobility was minimal the weight came on. Now I am at my heaviest and I am not happy about it. My body confidence has vanished and I love nothing more than hiding under a big baggy jumper to hide my body.

Now I want to change and I have a goal!

I want to loose weight, improve my fitness and feel confident to wear a swim suit while cruising through the Mediterranean. I want to wear pretty little summer dresses and skirts. I want to not only look good but I want to feel confident. I want to be happy to be in our holiday pictures and I want to like what I see.

Thank you Carnival for giving me the fighting spirit back!

So what am I going to do to achieve my goal? Well I have a few strategies in place and I want to tell you more and make Slimmerseeker Thursday a regular post to keep me going and to motivate me further.

Here are my Slimmerseeker, Project Swimsuit plans...

Foodieseeker Friday - Carnival Cruise Vista Update

This is the first of a new series of blog posts which are going to focus on our upcoming adventure with Carnival Cruise on their brand new ship, Carnival Vista.

The Carnival Vista has hit a major milestone. It is now floating in the wet dock. Now they are starting to preparing inside the ship. I was recently sent a few sneak peeks of both the building process, which I am going to share with you now, and some of the menus which I will be giving you a taste of in the coming months.

As you can see on the video below Carnival are going all out to make the whole eating experience on board you will never forget! As I mentioned before I have also been able to have a peek at some of the menus that we will be tasting while we are on our trip next year. I thought that it would be fun to pick a dish from each of the menus and cook the dish as I imagine it to be and then once we are aboard Vista I will order the meal and see if it was how I imagined it to be.

To say that I am excited about our trip is a huge understatement! Take a look at this video and you will see why I am so excited!

An Exciting Year with Carnival Cruise

On Wednesday I had the pleasure of venturing down to London to meet up with the Carnival Cruise team and the other bloggers who are their 2015/16 FunSeeking Families.

Since receiving the news that we had been selected as Carnival Cruise FoodieSeeking family at the beginning of the month it has all seemed quite surreal. But this trip and meeting has made it all so real!

My meeting was not scheduled until Thursday morning but I did meet everybody on Wednesday evening while having a delicious meal at Tutton's in Covent Garden. Glasses of prosecco certainly did help me to relax. I will admit to feeling quite nervous in the car on my way to the restaurant. But as soon as I got talking, I was fine!

It was great to finally be able to put faces to the people that we have been having contact with via emails and telephone calls. As the other bloggers at the meal had already had their meeting I did hear the odd bit of information. But I really am pleased that my meeting was after the meal. Having the meal before hand really did break the ice and I was a lot more relaxed in the meeting.

We Are Carnival Cruise Lines Foodieseeking Family!!!

Back in June I attended BritMums Live which was an fantastic two day blogging conference. While I was there I decided to apply to become an ambassador for Carnival Cruise Lines.

If I am completely honest, when I completed the application form, I never imagined that I would be selected. So when I received an email on Tuesday that had the subject heading of...

"Winner! Carnival Cruise Line Funseeking Family Competition"

I was gobsmacked! I literally needed to sit down to read the email that had the heading below...

I am so proud that I can finally announce and scream from the roof tops that we have been selected as their Foodieseeking Family!

Over the next year we will be working with Carnival Cruise Liners and will be going on a dream holiday, a cruise on their brand new cruise liner the Carnival Vista! The Carnival Vista is to be launched in 2016. At the moment the ship is in phase 5 out of 9 of the building process and is to be ready for April 2016. It will have a guest capacity of 3,954, will weigh a whopping 133,500 tonnes, it will be 1,055 foot long and will have 1,450 people working on board! 

We have never been on a cruise before and simply cannot comprehend how immense it is going to be!

To say that we are excited is an understatement!

There have also been 4 other fantastic bloggers that have been selected. They are:

• Sunseeker Family - Nadine from Juggle Mum
• Funseeking Family - Laura from Tired Mummy of Two
• Thrillseeking Family - Kara from Chelsea Mamma
• Chillseeking Family - Sonia from Mummy Constant

As we are the "Foodieseeking Family" you can be guaranteed to hear all of the foodie news from Carnival Vista and I will be telling you all about our adventure from beginning to end. I will also be documenting this milestone for the twins as this will be their first time on holiday abroad!

So bring on the passports, the sun, the fun and food!

Thank you so much Carnival Cruise Liners for selecting us as your ambassadors. I truly cannot wait to work with you all!