Keksie

@dani negreanuI am so sorry you are having to worry about this. I do have to say the art in your condo is gorgeous.

I guess the old people will have to stick with the Ultimate Extreme Adventure or the Adrenaline Zip-Line Adventure which either have older age limits or no age limits. LOL

Time to vent just a little. Sigh. It was time to make all our reservations for the cruise. Hotel - check Parking - check Excursion in Belize - check Excursion in Roatan - not so easy First, I thought I had seen Maya Key as an excursion (only can be booked from cruise) nowhere to be found now. Ok, I will book Tabayana Beach instead, go to check out and my name is grayed out. Why you might ask Because I am Too OLD. What the heck. If I remember correctly it is an easy entry into the water, easy snorkel, food and drink so why would I be too old? Other excursions that require ladders to get in and out of boats don't have that restriction or if they do it is much older. ] I stomp off to tell my husband who then tries not to laugh at me. I start researching other options and go back to the Royal site and low and behold Maya Key is back and with no restrictions. I booked it quick as can be. Crisis averted but I am still peeved about being thought of as too old when I can work circles around many of the young interns at the refuge. Vent over and I feel so much better now.

The airport is about 10 miles to the west of the cruise port

Some swim the dolphins yes some no. It all depends on the circumstances. It is like our ambassadors at the refuge. They are not able to be released back into the wild for a variety of reasons. We have worked with them over the years to be able to take them to events etc. They have a diet designed for their individual needs, a habitat designed just for them and enrichment activities each day. So, with the dolphins if they are not releasable, carefully monitored with the swimming with people part and well taken care of I have no problem with that.

I think that this is what we will do. Except for the dolphin part. Thank you. It helps to hear about it from people I trust.

I think we are going to stay at the Holiday Inn Express at the Fairgrounds. It will take us a good day to drive there (Florida is a long state) so don't need to be at the beach. It seemed like a reasonable price, I like Holiday Inn Express usually and it doesn't look like too far from the port.

I was wanting to get to the port around 10:30 a.m. We are driving, staying the night before close to Tampa and parking at the port.

Sweet Jade missed you. When we got back from our manatee trip our cats and dogs kept going down the hall looking for the house sitters. I guess that is a good sign but it wouldn't hurt if they seemed to have missed us a little bit. Lol

We booked the Grandeur cruise and I have a couple of questions for those who have cruised recently. I have read about getting boarding times. How is that done? We will have the Key so does that just give us an early boarding time? We are struggling to find what to do in Costa Maya. We went to Maya Chan last time. It will be closed while we are there because of the seaweed. I don't think we want to do another beach club because of said seaweed. There is a river rafting excursion at Bacalar. It seems that the drive to and from will be long so we are not sure if that would be worth the drive. We do not want to do ruins or climb a lot of steps (my knees protest). Any suggestions or should we just stay on the ship?

Jade will be happy to see you. I love the enclosed solariums.

Congratulations it was all beautiful

Do you put your phone in airplane mode or turn off things so it doesn't hook up with expensive towers?

What about texts?

That is what we have done in the past and gotten the voom to be able to use the internet. This time I was hoping to get by with just the voom if we can.

The last time we took a cruise was the spring of 2019. We are about to book the Grandeur out of Tampa for June. I have a couple of questions for the people have cruised recently. How is muster handled now? Do we each have to have an app on our phones and carry them with us or can we do it on one phone? I like to keep my phone turned off and in the safe the entire cruise. While my husband usually carries his most of the time. We give the house sitter, my son etc. his number for emergencies. I know that he will need to make phone calls to a friend of his who is ill, we will want to check email and a few websites while on the cruise not necessarily at the same time. In the past we have had a voom for 1 device for the internet and took turns being online. Will that plan still work? Can he use wi-fi calling with the voom to call his friend? We have AT&T if it matters.

I crochet a little bit. There are good YouTube videos for all the stitches. If you have a yarn store close to you they may have beginning crochet and knitting classes. I know there are beginning knitting books so they probably have beginning crochet books also. Crochet is very easy to start and now there are some amazing patterns out there. A website called Ravelry is a good place for patterns and support.

Thank you. I make for myself, sometimes friends and some donation items. At Christmas I made hats and mitts for my son, girlfriend and her son.

Another project off the needles and blocked. So far I have finished 3 items this year.

@Jimbo Very well done and looks beautiful.

Chiggers are awful. That is amazing about what happened back then.

My phone doesn't do this justice but it was a spectacular sunset tonight.

I had to look it up. I wanted to be sure what it was. When we were in Homosassa we saw a model of a moss factory. They used Spanish moss to stuff automobile seats and other items. I would think that would make uncomfortable seating. Lol

Spanish moss is not parasitic: it is an epiphyte that absorbs nutrients and water through its own leaves from the air and rain falling upon it. While its presence rarely kills the trees on which it grows, it occasionally becomes so thick that, by shading the leaves of the tree, it slows the growth rate of the tree.

Just to be sure. For a regular 7 day cruise in the Caribbean out of Tampa you don't have to have a booster correct? On Royal Caribbean.