It’s time for another round of Ask Stephany Anything! You can still fill out my form if you have any burning questions you want me to answer. I am pretty much an open book (with some exceptions, of course!). Today, I’m answering questions from Kyria, Cait, and Nicole, all about cruising and books (my two favorite topics!).
Kyria and Cait both had the same question for me, which is: Do you have any cruises planned for 2025?
Yes! My mom and I plan on taking some sort of cruise this summer. We will either do another Caribbean cruise or we may try to do a European one. It all depends on how things shake out financially the way I hope it will (sorry to be vague!). If it does, we’re looking at a cruise that starts in either Rome or Barcelona. We would spend a few days in the city before leaving on the cruise. We haven’t been to Europe since our first time there in 2019 so we are overdue for another visit!
Kyria had some additional cruising questions.
What is your favorite cruise so far?
My second cruise, which I took in May 2012 with my mom. It was a six-day cruise where we went to Key West, Grand Cayman, and Jamaica. I loved Jamaica. It was the first time I went zip-lining (I’ve been four more times!) and I still think Mystic Mountain in Ochos Rios has the best zip-lining course. Not only do you get to take an air tram through the rainforest to get to the mountain, but there are so many fun lines and the tour guides are exceptional.
We also did a bike ride through Key West where neither of us got injured (truly a feat!) and had a fun dolphin encounter in Grand Cayman. We really lived it up with the excursions! The ship was also pretty nice, and we had a really fun dinner group.
If I were going to do a cruise, which company would you recommend and why?
While I have yet to do a cruise on this cruise line, I would recommend Virgin Voyages. First of all, these cruises are for adults only. If you don’t want to be surrounded by screaming kids and babies, then this is the cruise line for you. Second, the food is supposed to be way better. On a typical cruise ship (like Carnival or Royal Caribbean), you go to a dining room for dinner where you select food from a limited menu (or you can go to the buffet). On Virgin, it’s all restaurants, baby! You can choose from a handful of different cuisines depending on your mood (they also offer room service for those nights you just want to take it easy). I believe they also offer helpful discounts for solo travelers, too!
I’ve had multiple friends cruise on Virgin and they are total converts that it’s the only way to cruise. My mom and I plan to book a Virgin cruise this year so I can give firsthand knowledge of what I think very soon!
And Nicole had some bookish questions for me.
What are your top five favourite books of all time, as an adult? What about as a child?
Nicole, this is such a cruel question but I am going to try my best to answer it. These are not in any particular order and I am certain I’m going to be mad at myself for not including so-and-so book as I look back on this post, but here we go:
- Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi – I want everyone I know to read this book.
- A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini – Ditto. Such a powerful story.
- Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed – I’ve reread this one a few times because the advice means so much to me.
- This is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel – Ughhh, I just couldn’t get enough of this book!
- The Hating Game by Sally Thorne – I have to include at least one romance novel on this list, and this one is my all-time fave.
Now, as a child, I was not reading great fiction. I read a lot of series with my favorites being The Baby-Sitter’s Club and Sweet Valley, of course. (I tried reading a Sweet Valley book a couple of years ago and hoo boy, it did not stand the test of time.) Other favorites included the American Girl series and the Dear America series, which probably fueled my love for historical fiction. I read a bit of Nancy Drew and Goosebumps. Oh, and my foray into romance novels definitely started with the Love Stories series. Does anyone remember those? Gah, I was obsessed with them and I remember the teen room at my library having one of those plastic spinning book displays with all of their trade paperbacks shoved into every nook and cranny. I loved those books and would reread them over and over again. I also read a lot of Christian series books like Christy Miller and the Mandie books.
My mom tried to get me to read at least one biography every month or so, and I remember tearing through biographies about the Magnificent Seven (the 1996 women’s gymnastics team) and Tara Lipinski/Michelle Kwan. I was also enthralled with Clara Barton for some reason.
What is the least appropriate book you ever read when you were young? (thinking about this as I am going to reread Flowers in the Attic, which I read at about age 11 or 12)
I remember there was an afternoon where I was at my great-grandma’s house and I must have been feeling unwell because I was cooped up in her bedroom. Somehow, I found a very raunchy romance novel that involved a woman giving birth on the side of the road and a very nice hunky man being there to help her. It was my first-ever romance novel and I don’t even remember how old I was when I read it (probably no more than 12). There were definitely some explicit sex scenes in that book that I was not supposed to be reading (and it also shocked me that my prim and proper great-grandma had these kinds of books on hand!), but wowwww, did I want to read more of these books!
If you’ve been on a Virgin Voyages cruise, do you have any further insight for Kyria? Did you read any inappropriate-for-your-age books when you were young?
Aw yiss we are getting the tea! Yay grandma!!! When I was a kid we had a room with built in floor to ceiling bookshelves, and by junior high I figured out that the good stuff was on the top shelf. Hey, I had to learn about it somewhere!
Good to know about the cruises. I have ambitions to do an Alaskan cruise someday.
I would love to do an Alaskan cruise, too! That’s the dream. <3
My mom also tried to hide her romances from me but I quickly found her hiding spot and very much enjoyed spending my summer days reading them!
I used to get dropped off at the library while my dad went and did grocery shopping and I would sneak into the back and read through Cosmo and other magazines of that ilk!
Sweet Valley High. Those books were like candy to me. I haven’t read one in decades; I wonder how they stood up? Probably not well. Of course I loved that one of the characters was named Elizabeth!
I recently read one of the SVH books and nope, do not make the mistake I did! Leave them in the past, lol. They were WILD and do not age well.
Ooh, the teen magazines! Oh yes. I was not allowed to read those either!
I read Harlequin romances way before I should have. And I have no regrets!!
Same, same! They were like candy to me. I loved them!
Clan of the Cave Bear for me– SEX WITH HORSES. CAVE PEOPLE. HAVING HORSE SEX. I was in FIFTH GRADE. (and did not have sex until college, so yay reading?)
OMG SARAH. I don’t think I realized that kind of erotica was being published then! It’s always been around, hahaha.
Oooh thanks for answering my cruel questions! Lol! I also love Homegoing and A Thousand Splendid Suns, I have read This Is How It Always Is and I liked it but don’t remember much about it. It was a few years ago, things get fuzzy, you understand!
I reread Sweet Valley High a few years ago and wow, they are so ridiculous. I loved them, though, so much! My grandma read Harlequin romances and she was the most buttoned-up lady you ever did see, so I think it was her romantic outlet!
I love ziplining, I’ve only been once but would go again in a heartbeat!
I don’t think I can do an SVH reread as an adult and in this place and time. They were definitely a book for the 80s and 90s kids in us, HA. I reread the first book in the series a few years ago and it was really hard to get through!
Your top four books are my faves too. I had a very similar reaction to _Homegoing_ I gave it to so many people!
Prim and proper older women reading racy and raunchy romances were a weird feature of my childhood too–probably weirder since all those women in my Indian family had arranged marriages.
Janice Radway’s work really helped me understand the phenomenon https://faculty.winthrop.edu/kosterj/engl618/readings/theory/radwayMatrix.pdf
I love gifting Homegoing and Tiny Beautiful Things to people. Such good book recs that most anyone would enjoy!
Thanks for the link – fascinating!
How is it possible that I have read NONE of your top five books??? That’s just wrong. Should I make The Hating Game my romance novel for 2025? Remember, you were going to recommend one.
Equally wrong, I’ve never been on a cruise (and I live in Florida right near a port???????) One of these days…
DAMMIT – I keep forgetting I’m supposed to recommend a romance novel to you. The Hating Game is a good one, although it does have some sex scenes so I’m not sure if you could hang with that – easy to skim but just fair warning!
I have never been on a cruise! My parents went on a Viking cruise this winter and they had the best time. It’s started in Barcelona and ended in London. I was so nervous about the trip for them because it was a big leap to go abroad, but they had a really wonderful time and already booked another cruise for the spring of 2026 I think?
I read and loved all of your top five books! It’s so hard to narrow it down to five isn’t it! I read the flowers in the attic series when I was probably around 11 or 12 as well and I was way too young to be reading that stuff. Plus, it’s kind of cringe since it involves incest between siblings!
Oh, this makes my heart grow 10 sizes knowing that your parents went on a cruise and loved it so much that they booked another one. YAY! Cruising is such a great way to travel for older individuals, too. You get to see all the sights but in a much more low-key way. <3
Yay! Actually I have heard good things about Virgin too, and they supposedly have a good solo vibe (and rooms!) I am considering doing a repositioning cruise on my way home which means that it goes from Europe to the US and is usually cheaper as they have to move the ship to warmer places during the winter. They don’t have a lot of ports though, and sometimes have a lot of sea days. The issue is that for solos often you basically pay twice the price!
I love your top books. Good choices. Also I reread SVH about a year ago and it was NOT good anymore.
Yeah, the prices for solo cruises is astronomical. I *think* Virgin may be less so, but I can put you in touch with my friend Amber who does a lot of solo cruises with Virgin (plus she can get you a great rate + some extras if you book through her!). I would struggle with a cruise that’s longer than 7-8 days and has too many at-sea days. How long are those repositioning cruises?
Interesting about the cruise lines! I don’t think I ever commented on your most recent cruise posts but I read them all and really enjoyed living vicariously through you guys! I have been on a bunch of cruises. Can’t remember if I told you this before, but in high school one of my best friends was the only girl in a family of 4 older brothers (she was an oops baby, lol). Anyway her family went on a cruise every spring break- it was their “thing”. But her brothers were all way older, so she was kind of on her own. So, they invited me along! I went all 4 years of high school. We did 2Royal Caribbean plus I think one Celebrity cruise and one Carnival. Then in college some friends and I did another cruise, and in 2023 we did a cruise for my parents’ 50th anniversary! I think they’re super fun, but we have moved into doing more other types of travels lately. But I’d definitely go on another one! It’s nice to not have to plan much or think and is a good way to just total unwind and relax. Actually, I’ve been mulling over the idea of maybe doing an Alaskan cruise in the near-ish future! I think that would be really unique. The boys LOVED the Caribbean cruise last year though- of course the hot weather is probably more fun than chilly air in Alaska… I also think it would be fun to do a European cruise sometime. Would be different from a typical European sightseeing trip, but could be a fun experience for sure!
An Alaskan cruise is on my bucket list! And a Mediterranean cruise. Hopefully I can make that one happen this year. I love how EASY cruising is and being within driving distance of four cruise ports makes it that much better for me, ha. I can be back at home within a few hours of debarking rather than going through the hassle of flying home. But I am trying to prioritize other types of travel these days, too.
I love learning these little things about people. Confession: You recommended The Hating Game to me and… I hated it. Sorry! I am a prude – hence, closed-door, prudish romance is the way to go for me. 🙂