bennybear

Good morning and thanks all! We visited Oban many years ago, DS needed to see a Dr and the RX was free, such are memories when travelling with children. It is a cute port that has the ferry to the isle of Skye. @ger_77 glad you are home safely, quite a rude introduction to winter especially when I see some dailylites with temps in the 80’s! @kochleffelsafe travels! I am so happy you are home safely, may the healing progress quickly. we have a friend having similar surgery in a week so that is very encouraging.

Thank you so much for all your hard work, I had a blast following along. But the food looks amazing in the tamarind, drool! I’m glad you are home, safe and sound with dear Ivan!

@Cruising-along sadly it is just from one day! Some parts of our city got over a foot! It’s normally plus 9 Celsius and it’s been minus 14. BRRR. I’m not used to it, but I put the down comforter in the bed and it’s cozy. @JazzyV so glad you had a thorough appointment. Praying they get to the bottom of things quickly so you can ditch this pain!

Good morning and thanks all! We had an interesting experience on St Lucia, jellyfish stings. @RedneckBob I used the local spiced rum applied topically and in under a week you couldn’t see the stings, DH applied internally, and his marks were still visible nearly a month later. @rafinmd sorry for your difficulties, I think Cancer is like playing the game Whack a mole! Just something I’ve always been told, to get your bone density at the same place due to the machines calibration. Don’t know if that’s different in the US? @kochleffelhope you do get that upgrade! They are hard to come by. @StLouisCruisers ooh on that chocolate orange! I think I see Seaborn in my future, lol!

I would! Don’t wait too long as they are first come, first served. Also have a deck plan available as you usually get a choice.

Good day and thanks all! @Overhead Fred happy birthday! @Seasick Sailor happy anniversary! @smitty34877 so sorry to hear Tana is not well, I too hope you can find some more normalcy and calm soon. Good news on the oil cleanup. @kazuwelcome home, sorry that it was such a mess and now another loss for you! Hugs. @dfish hope you can get an early date for your tests and surgery! @JazzyVi am so sorry to hear you are in so much pain! @cruising sisterhope you recover quickly from your shots, good news on the stress test. @Cruzin Terriglad you got an appointment! Always best to see your own doctor. @aliaschief Bon Voyage! Thanks for sharing your wonderful Montreal experience, I think it’s time for another visit! @Haljo1935safe travels tomorrow ! Hoping @ger_77is safe and sound, we’ve had nasty weather here. I’m just waiting for our new mattress to be delivered. A talented artist painted one of DH’s photos!

I posted this link above, but it seems many would prefer to speculate. Agree It’s always best to go to the source.

You meet them face to face

Good morning and thanks all! @Seasick Sailor thanks for seeking an answer. I too like the daily thread, I am wondering if for a good compromise they could not close it until the end of the following day. That would allow those who are not able to read until later to still comment without making the current one too confusing? Right now it’s closing pretty quickly in the morning. And remembering we have people from down under part of our group that don’t usually read until much later. And a few members on Hawaii time part of the year. @Vict0riannhappy birthday to your son, I too love Mexican mole sauce so that’s what I was thinking! Sorry about your DSIL, hope her insurance will cover her to postpone. @Cruzin Terri I am sorry for your disappointment, but in my experience it is better to wait until things improve and then the replacement trip has been even better. Hoping your DH feels better soon. Well we have the four letter word for our forecast today, Sigh!

With the aft wrap, you have the best real estate on the ship. I’d just enjoy that!

This is so true, and people underestimate people to their loss. This happened to a friends father, at a car dealership. He was ignored and bought two brand new vehicles at the next dealership. He could easily have bought both dealerships.

There will always be one or two, sigh! Once we had a couple who were supposedly a travel agent ask us the first morning of our circumnavigation of Japan cruise, weren’t we just sick of Japan? And their constant complaints to staff and Maître’D prompted us to also have a conversation with the maître’D as the issue wasn’t really with the staff. But easy to avoid ever after. I could talk about travel forever, it’s a passion for me and I am always interested to hear others’ experiences.

Yup!

Good morning and thanks all! A very thought provoking quote. I have always loved fossils and am fortunate to have a few interesting ones. Welcome home @kazu@St Pete Cruiserand @0106! Hopefully you have no jet lag! What a bonus, sorry you missed a port, but it sounded like a wonderful cruise. We have visited Stockholm twice, the first cruise we were so jet lagged and with the continued eastward direction we nearly missed it, as that night we actually slept. @Cruzin Terrisorry you are still having a difficult time, I pray things soon resolve for you!

An interesting topic, we have not experienced this to any great extent. OnePrincess cruise out of Fort Lauderdale we did, to the extreme, The dining room was hard to get in and out of with all the motorized scooters. We think it may be more itinerary based. I had read about Celebrity’s cancellations, unbelievable the grief that must have caused you. Japan has been one of our favourite cruises. We too are booked on next years holy land as we had to cancel this years. I am not optimistic, but will look at Japan again instead. I don’t need these but have been using them and increased my spine density significantly. Wow, we have never experienced this on HAL. We have met some lovely people, some very well travelled, probably wealthy and extremely gracious. We have made some lifelong friends from our travels. On Princess we were constantly asked our status and on Cunard if we were in the Grills. So a different experience.

Sorry, this seems funny to me as we had a similar experience. Took our adult son on exactly one cruise as a third also and he got double cruise credits for the suite we were upgraded to while we didn’t. The one thing HAL is consistent in, is their inconsistency.

Highly recommend Carcassone as well. We found Sete underwhelming. Montpelier is a lovely city to explore.

My two cents, the taxi will likely want to charge you both ways unless they are willing to wait for you. I once needed to go to Naples from Salerno by taxi and return. I incurred two return taxi bills of nearly 500 euro total. I had no choice as it was medical and fortunately my insurance paid as the ships doctor walked me off the ship to the taxi. So make sure you check the costs.

We have used them twice with great success and reliability. We used them to go from Piazza Roma to Venice Marco Polo airport for a group. The second time we used them from Treviso to Venice and we found them again reasonable and helpful in a tough last minute flight change. We’ve also used and liked Rome cabs but don’t think they operate much outside of Rome and area.

Yes, we toured out of Catania. We used Giuseppe Leotta, and he was the owner and driver of the company. He was very responsive, reasonably priced and took us to a great place for lunch. We had some specific things we wished to see and do and he arranged it all. We visited the famous pastry shop in Noto, he arranged a wine tasting of Nero d’ Avila that we requested. When our ship docked early he changed things to accommodate us. We would highly recommend him. Here’s his contact information:

We took a private tour. We also visited Syracuse and beautiful Noto and a winery.

Good morning and thanks all! @Lady Hudson happy birthday! @smitty34877it takes a lot of time to heal, you’ve been through a lot. Give yourself time and rest. @RMLincoln you have a gorgeous view! Nice to see where people live, hope your upcoming move goes well and you settle in quickly. @HAL Sailerglad your husband is home, pace yourself! An interesting discussion on how everyone finds the photos. For me it’s just easier to use the choose files and search in my photos. We also have been part of the flat battery club after a long trip, great idea @StLouisCruisers

We thoroughly enjoyed both Split and Trogir. Missing Olympia will be disappointing but cruises often stop there and it a train ride away from the port. Split can easily be explored without further transportation, Trogir is about a half hour drive. I posted some photos when it was the port a few weeks ago. I’m sure you’ll enjoy your stop, all the best!

@Haljo1935 sorry to hear of your itinerary change.sadly these things happen before and during a cruise. Do you just have a sea day or any substitutes? @Cruzin Terri I’ve found layers, with one being wool works well. You can always buy a nice cashmere sweater in Italy. We enjoyed visiting Berlin from Watnemunde. A fabulously interesting city and very sobering. @Overhead Fred fabulous sunrise! Thanks for sharing such beauty! Not sure why so many countries names are anglicized? Couldn’t we just say Venezia, Firenze? …. @grapau27 probably just me, but I would much prefer seeing photos of your beach or local scenery. I think I know your dashboard better than mine, lol! I personally don’t think it’s necessary or expected to like every post, some times we just checkin quickly or not at all. My lovely thai dumplings