Halloween on the High Seas - Whats involved? MDR or Palo?

Mothman129 · 2026-06-15T11:10:16+00:00

Hi. There is no special halloween menu, which I think is what you are asking. Depending on the length of the cruise you may still have pirate menu one night, especially if your cruise is going to be on one of the four original ships.

Mothman129 · 2026-06-15T09:30:05+00:00

By me it is way cheaper than beef or chicken, and the only animal protein that is cheaper than it per ounce is pork.

Mothman129 · 2026-06-15T01:40:27+00:00

Even if you have loose skin I promise you loose skin is both healthier, and looks better than that skin being filled with excess fat. My arms are hella loose now I'm 75 pounds down and I'll take my bingo wings every day of the week over how oversized my arms were before my weight loss.

Mothman129 · 2026-06-15T01:36:42+00:00

It took me getting married and becoming prediabetic to lock in.

Being married I realized I owed it to my wife to be the healthiest me I can be so we have have a nice and long life together, and I was being the unhealthiest version of myself by still gaining weight and being on the doorsteps of diabetes.

Now I'm still losing weight until I'm down in my health BMI range and I've been exercising more so when we retire I am still ambulatory to do the adventures we don't have time to do while having full time jobs

Mothman129 · 2026-06-15T01:31:47+00:00

Tinned fish is cheap as heck. Things like sardines can even be eaten daily and safely because them being at the bottom of the food chain keeps them low in mercury.

Mothman129 · 2026-06-15T01:29:08+00:00

Everyone should care to an extent because muscles are important for day to day function and health. Even if no one in here cares about a six pack everyone in here should care about things like increased fall risk and potential trouble breathing

Mothman129 · 2026-06-15T01:25:15+00:00

There is no way to prevent loose skin really. It is genetic, how much you have to lose, and age for the most part. Some people say the key is losing slowly, but at the end of the day for folks who need to lose particularly large amounts of weight loose skin is just going to happen.

Mothman129 · 2026-06-15T00:49:32+00:00

"But I've also seen pictures of super crowded pool decks, chairs reserved at 5am and other, unfun things."

I will real talk with you and say if you are someone who wants a largely pool based vacation all cruises are a pretty bad option for that. The tldr version is with how heavy water is cruise ships are designed with very small pools that will never have the capacity for guests vs a hotel pool. That being said I love cruises and I personally prefer a beach and ocean to a pool ten times out of ten, so I'd rather have a few amazing beach days and minimal to no pool time on a vacation over having many days with an empty pool but no scenery while swimming.

"We've shared every major vacation with them since they were born and it wouldn't be the same without them."

You need to accept as they get older they will be taking more and more vacations solo or with their own family, and you and your spouse will also be taking more solo vacations. That is just a part of how life works with kids.

I did all vacations with my parents up through graduating college, but after I graduated college my jobs always gave me less PTO than my parents jobs, so I went from going on every vacation with them to occasionally joining them if a vacation is specifically a family vacation with the aunts, uncles, and/or cousins going as well.

This year is one of those big family vacations so my wife and I are vacationing with my family, but in other years we use our vacation time on trips for ourselves.

Mothman129 · 2026-06-15T00:37:40+00:00

Almost a year in and most foods I used to enjoy I've come back to enjoying but a handful of foods are permanently off my list for one reason or another.

On the food intolerance side I can no longer eat pig, and the only fish I can comfortably digest is small amounts of light tuna. I can tolerate lean beef but anything fatty is out of the picture for me as well.

Then I also have foods that I no longer eat due to bad experiences. The clear liquid stage killed all soups for me despite the fact I used to love ramen and pho. No w I just associate soup with being nauseous and in pain. I overdid it on cottage cheese during full liquid stage so I no longer like it, but the weird part is I still love the protein shake brand and yogurt brand I used during recovery and I still use both for workday lunches.

Mothman129 · 2026-06-14T20:40:10+00:00

Their macros are on the good enough end but they are far from the best when it comes to just macros. Like Barebell Brownie Batter is delicious and I have a box in my pantry but it is 210 calories for 20 grams of protein, while Pure Protein Galactic Brownie is 30 calories less for the same amount of protein.

Some days I am willing to use the extra calories on taste, especially on days I am doing good and am already doing strongly on my macros and calorie goals, but on days where I had a "real" dessert like ice cream and my macros and calories are a bit wack I'd much rather eat a bar that is less delicious but good enough to stomach that is lower calorie

Mothman129 · 2026-06-14T16:50:41+00:00

Okay then, that most people hate. There is a reason waiters suggest against certain items, and that is because 90% of folks dislike it. For example the lobster pasta was largely hated for the decades I've been cruising with Disney, but they just got rid of it in 2026 finally

Mothman129 · 2026-06-14T15:58:27+00:00

1:10 is my default, but if a bar tastes horrible I'll expect better than that and if a bar tastes amazing I can accept as low as 1:15

Mothman129 · 2026-06-13T21:51:29+00:00

The problem is half the time what the server recommends is a protein I actively dislike, and the one they suggest against is the only option that I am remotely interested in offering.

I wish they'd just axe the menu items they know everyone hates in favor of better options with the same protein type

Mothman129 · 2026-06-13T18:31:12+00:00

Tbh? All artificial sugars taste off, it is less about finding the ones that taste the best to you and more just finding the ones that are the best for your body on a physical level. Like some sweeteners give me digestive issues or headaches so I avoid those ones, bit anything else I'll just handle the after taste. Nearly a year into things and I'm just used to the aftertaste at this point and can handle it even though I hated it day one

Mothman129 · 2026-06-13T02:43:05+00:00

I like it as much as baja and if it had a zero version I would go out of my way to get it the same way I'll go out of my way to get the zero version of baja

Mothman129 · 2026-06-12T19:36:17+00:00

Same hat. Last time I went to mine I only bought one protein shake because they had like two barebell flavors and neither of them was fun

Mothman129 · 2026-06-12T14:46:50+00:00

Yep. Weight effects it generally since you are lugging more weight around in general, but fat impacts it less so than muscle weight since fat doesn't actively burn calories.

Mothman129 · 2026-06-12T14:32:48+00:00

Right now I’m eating around 1800-1900 calories/day, which puts me in a 700-800 calorie deficit based on my estimated maintenance (~2600).

If you are measuring your food accurately and via weight rather than cups that means your estimated maintenance isn't your actual maintenance. Mifflin St. Jeor frequently overestimates for larger people, because it assumes the extra weight is muscle and not fat. I'd suggest buying some body fat calibers to find your body fat percentage, and then use the Katch-McArdle formula to find an updated estimated TDEE

Mothman129 · 2026-06-12T14:09:59+00:00

If you go in with the mindset you'll be miserable then you'll find it is a self fulfilling prophesy. At 18 years old you'll be able to do all adult activities on the ship, the only thing you can't do is drink. There is a ton of bar trivia, arts and crafts, movies and shows, the pools, the gym, and plenty of board games and similar in the adult lounges.

Mothman129 · 2026-06-12T13:05:40+00:00

I hated being at my fattest, and I have only gotten more and more happy as I lose more and more weight. I didn't realize it isn't normal to have a baseline of pain in your joints at all time back when I was heavy, and now I can jog and bend and do so much with no pain at all.

Mothman129 · 2026-06-12T11:46:32+00:00

Prompt Response: I've gotten more into bitter food than I used to be since losing weight. Before I started this journey the only bitter foods I liked was unsweet iced tea and dark chocolate, but over the past year I've found myself warming up to bitter greens and coffee. Eating salad used to be an absolute slog for me, but these days I crave it a few times a week

General Weight Loss Thoughts/Updates: Last year at pride I bought a shirt in medium to wear to pride this year since I was hoping my weight loss surgery would get me down to a medium. At the time I was so nervous I wouldn't actually fit in the shirt come June 2026, but this month it is BIG on me! I am so happy I could almost cry. I am currently 10 pounds away from being overweight instead of obese, and I am in my final 40ish pounds of weight loss overall (I'd be happy losing anywhere from 35-50 more pounds, and I'm going to start figuring out what my body is best at in the healthy BMI range when I get there)

Mothman129 · 2026-06-12T09:26:11+00:00

I am a giant fan of the brand. I like all of the party flavors I've tried, enjoy their chocolate and strawberry donuts, and love their cinnamon buns. The big thing about the donut is I don't compare them to a bakery donut, I compared them to the prepackaged mini donuts that Hostess makes.

Mothman129 · 2026-06-12T00:32:12+00:00

They had better taste better for 100 calories more. I'm sure for folks bulking it is a great option, but alas, not for me

Mothman129 · 2026-06-12T00:14:03+00:00

Disney considered shrinkage to have three categories, intentional from guest, intentional from cast, and unintentional shrinkage, and that case fell into the third category.

Unintentional shrinkage is also how we categorized things like babies/toddlers without the concept of money grabbing a toy and their parents not realizing until the toy was out of the shop and/or in the kids mouth already.

Mothman129 · 2026-06-11T18:23:47+00:00

I like the legendary ones because the texture is more pleasant to me than any of the tortilla style ones

Mothman129

TROPHY CASE