StLouisCruisers

Today is Lover's Day, National English Muffin Day, and National Picnic Day The chief function of the body is to carry the brain around. - Thomas A. EdisonMeal Suggestion for today - Spinach Artichoke Mac & CheeseDrink of the Day - Harbor PunchWine of the Day - Giesen Pinot Noir Marlborough Single Vineyard Selection Clayvin 2019Destination of the Day - Alotau, Papua New GuineaToday in History:1968 1st decimal coins issued in Britain (5 & 10 new pence, replacing shilling and two-shilling pieces)Ship Locations Eurodam At Sea Destination San Diego, California eta 4-24 Koningsdam Hilo, Hawaii Island 08:00 Arrive Nieuw Amsterdam At Sea Destination Cabo San Lucas, Mexico eta 4-24 Nieuw Statendam Villefranche-sur-Mer, Nice, France Riviera 11:00 - 22:00 Noordam Honolulu, Oahu Island, Hawaii 07:00 Arrive Oosterdam At Sea Destination Civitavecchia-Rome, Italy eta 4-24 Rotterdam At Sea Destination Amsterdam, Holland eta 4-24 Volendam At Sea Destination Puerto Caldera, Costa Rica eta 4-24 Zaandam Portland, Maine 07:00 - 13:00 Zuiderdam Kristiansand, Norway 08:00 - 17:00Eastern Hemisphere Westerdam Yokohama, Japan 0630-1900 Sandi for Rich

Nice shot of the Volendam

Bon Voyage!!

Enjoy!!

Here you go Sharon. https://multimedia.panama-canal.com/Webcams/miraflores.html

They sure take a long time to go through the process, don't they?

Hoping you and all aboard have an enjoyable transit through the canal today! I'm sorry you and Tana have had such a hard time of it last night. That is inexcusable not having a person available to answer the phone with 24 hour service advertised. Hoping now that they've contacted you they arrive soon! Ann, I bet that was a surprise when the water line leaked, but I'm thankful you had a plumber close at hand to handle it. I hope the new refrigerator works out well for you. Now, have a fun time at the block party today! Carol, I'm sorry to hear about the pneumonia. Hoping the antibiotics take hold immediately and he is back to his usual self sooon. Love the meme proclaiming "waking up with no pain means I'm dead" is so appropriate for some! Me! Have to share that one! Thanks for posting and have a less painful day gardening today. Great lists and we appreciate you posting them for us! Love the story about your trip to Falmouth! Thank you for sharing it. And welcome home. Great job with the weight loss! Safe travels and have a wonderful cruise. Hope the family dinner goes off without a hitch and you all make happy memories of it. Priceless! I would love living close enough to see the Tulip Festival in Holland MI. Hope they are blooming for you! Enjoy your early birthday dinner with the friends!

The Volendam is headed toward the Gatun Lock right now in the Panama Canal. Our friends @Sharon in AZ, @TiogaCruiser, @Dismomx5 and @AV8rix are on board. https://multimedia.panama-canal.com/Webcams/gatun.html

Happy Birthday Sue! I love your family's sense of humor. I hope you have another enjoyable birthday with family and friends.

Good morning friends! I am sitting here at 60F and will see a high of 71 with a mix of sun, clouds, and possibly some rain drops. Thank you Rich @richwmn for our Daily information and the fun fact in history. I liked Barbara Walters and even watched her many years ago it seems like. She would find today's "The View" program unrecognizable. Anyway, I hope Rich is enjoying Oslo today. What a beautiful city! Today our days to honor are Earth Day, Girl Scout Leader Day, and National Jelly Bean Day. Certainly we should all love planet Earth and treat it with respect. Our Girl Scout Leaders do a lot of fine work helping girls challenge themselves as they grow up. I was in Brownies only and DD was in Girl Scouts. My big job with the troop was being in charge of the G.S. cookies which is a major job in itself. Finally for my sugar fix we can enjoy jelly beans today. Wish I had some now! The quote sounds familiar and also just like what Zsa Zsa would say. The Ravioli with snap peas and mushrooms is okay but I could eat it without the peas and mushrooms. What an odd name for a drink - tree trimmer! I bet the California pinot noir will go over well with the red wine drinkers. Thanks to our Food and Beverage Department for their reports today. Debbie @dfish, Dixie @summer slope, and Ann @cat shepard. Thanks also to Eva @superoma who is handling the Care and Celebration lists while Vanessa @JazzyV is away. First bon voyage today to Vanessa! Hope you arrived safely in Fort Lauderdale and are ready to go! I need to set up a reminder to watch her ship, Apex, leave. Otherwise I tend to wander downstairs to nap in mid afternoon like I did yesterday. Prayers for our Care list people, and also for Graham @grapau27 as he remembers his dear mam today on what would have been her birthday. I hope all who are ill will be improving soon. A salute to those on the Celebration list. Have a happy day and smooth sailing to the cruisers. And a big thanks to all who post here each day! Our port today is the charming town of Falmouth, England. We have seen it here twice before on Dec. 20, 2021 and May 11, 2022. I've copied and pasted the links to those dates for your convenience. Today my computer has been slow to wake up and is probably updating something so it's taken me three times as long to accomplish my tasks this morning. But my photos will be added even with all the delay! Hope you enjoy them! On May 8, 2019 we enjoyed a little visit to Falmouth, England. It was cloudy with a chance of rain but we had found if we took our Prinsendam umbrella (which was conveniently placed in the walk-in closet) the raindrops stayed away. That's what happened this day, too. I was surprised to see an American flag on the dock. We walked downtown enjoying the scenes along the main street of town. According to the sign on the window, this shop had award-winning pasties They looked good to me! At the far end of the street we came upon a lovely little wharf area. Across the water was this view which I just loved. The varying colors of green on the hillside, the large homes along the water, and all the beautiful sailboats made a very pleasing picture. I used this photo as the cover of my Shutterfly photo book of this cruise. And here we have a local ferry! Not so big, is it? I wonder how far the ride was? We walked around a little further. I noticed this little fella had a band around his leg. They're keeping track of seagulls? We went up to this point in town and turned back towards our home away from home, the Prinsendam. Nearer the ship was this line of row homes, all of different colors. They really caught your eye. And a boat full of rowers Leaving port that evening we sailed by this manor. And this lighthouse. An enjoyable day was had by all! In conclusion, go out and have a wonderful Saturday!

Today is Earth Day (U.S.), Girl Scout Leader Day, and National Jelly Bean Day I am a marvelous housekeeper. Every time I leave a man I keep his house. - Zsa Zsa GaborMeal Suggestion for today - Ravioli with Snap Peas & MushroomsDrink of the Day - Tree TrimmerWine of the Day - Hanzell Pinot Noir Sonoma Valley 2019Destination of the Day - Falmouth UK, England Eurodam Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Mexico 08:00 - 15:00 Koningsdam Kailua-Kona, Hawaii Island 08:00 - 18:00 Nieuw Amsterdam Puerto Vallarta, Mexico 08:00 - 23:00 Nieuw Statendam Barcelona, Spain 07:00 - 17:00 Noordam Hilo, Hawaii 07:00 - 17:00 Oosterdam Cartagena Spain, Murcia 08:00 - 16:00 Rotterdam Copenhagen, Denmark 09:00 - 18:00 Volendam Panama Canal Zaandam Boston, Massachusetts 08:00 - 19:00 Zuiderdam Oslo, Norway 11:00 - 18:00Eastern Hemisphere Westerdam At Sea destination Yokohama, Japan eta 4-24 Sandi for Rich

Love the photo! They're so precious at that age, and before you know it the 3 year old is 18!!

@bennybear Congratulations!

Carol, I pray your DH does not have pneumonia again! Hopefully they can help him with the fluid retention and get him back to good health quickly. I'm so glad the new aide was able to handle that emergency yesterday with Tana's oxygen. That must be a relief to the family. Keeping you, your DH, Tana and entire family in our thoughts and prayers.🙏

According to this site today is National American Red Cross Giving Day. Maybe every day should be a day to give money to the Red Cross! https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/american-red-cross-giving-day/

You did a great job with the lists Eva! It takes a little bit to get used to the job. I only did the lists for about two weeks before I went on a cruise, and then Vanessa @JazzyV took over for me. I'm so grateful for everyone who helps here every day! Great memes today! Are those labradoodles in the picture? Good luck with the trial run with Ivan!

No one seems to take the request to mask up seriously, at least on the cruises we were on. You are doing the right thing, and I agree - stay in your luxurious cabin and avoid their viruses. Yes, as long as we were in the fjords, we were all in the Fiordland National Park, even without stepping foot on land. Thanks for mentioning it. Oh no! I hope they will be returned home soon. No one wants to be in the hospital but especially out of the country. Good luck and prayers for your parents.

Good morning friends! I have 56F with a high of 79 expected and a mix of sun and clouds today. Thanks to Rich @richwmn for this Fleet Report and Daily. The weather there looks great, just a bit chilly but sunny. Great day to walk around the city. On the agenda today are Kindergarten Day, National American Red Cross Giving Day, and San Jacinto Day. I don't have fond memories of my kindergarten days because twin and I had a wicked witch for a teacher. After that grade I liked all my teachers. I hope you all had a great time in Kindergarten. At first I had National High Five Day posted but that was April 20 so I had to edit and change to National American Red Cross Giving Day. Sorry Graham @grapau27! I changed as quick as I realized it. I should remember to double check first! Thank you for your explanation of San Jacinto Day though. And now is as good as any time to consider giving to the American Red Cross. There are always disasters happening that they help out with. Another Emily Dickinson quote. So formal! The meal of Soy and Ginger Steamed Fish doesn't appeal to me right now but I bet Debbie @dfish will show us some great recipes and pictures. The drink is Apples and Bourbon and the wine an Italian wine from Tuscany. I'm sure both are wonderful and give my thanks to Dixie @summer slope and Ann @cat shepard for their reports on them. Thank you in advance to Eva @superoma who is presenting her first Care and Celebration list later. Prayers for all involved and let's hope things improve soon. Special thoughts to those who lost their loved ones. 🙏 Cheers to everyone on the Celebration list, and to those cruising or heading to their ports. Safe travels today Vanessa @JazzyV!! Our port today is Taiohae, Nuku Hiva, in French Polynesia. We had that port several times, on July 14, 2021 and July 24, 2022. Links to those dates are below and I will repost my photos. I hope you will post yours too because we can never get enough of a South Pacific island, can we? We visited Nuku Hiva, French Polynesia on our 2017 Maasdam South Pacific cruise. The Maasdam had a lot of problems with their tender operations on that cruise, taking up to 3 hours to get us all ashore due to using too few tenders or tender platform mechanical issues. That day we lined up at a platform and were told we had to move to a forward platform and wait for a different tender. Many unhappy passengers that day! View from the ship at breakfast. Taiohae is a tiny village. There were tours available using local 4 x 4's but not nearly enough to take a majority of the ship's passengers. This is a restaurant which had wi-fi but believe me not good enough to even load your email. Entertainment for everyone. A few of the trucks ready to take people on their tours. The remainder of the passengers decided to shop! Interesting carvings This was the food market But what we enjoyed was the view from shore. It is really a lovely area. As we lined up to tender back to the ship we were met with these dancers. As we tendered away we saw this interesting scene on a hillside. ((not real)) Hope you all have a great start to your weekend this Friday April 21st!

Today is Kindergarten Day, National American Red Cross Giving Day, and San Jacinto Day I argue thee that love is life. And life hath immortality. - Emily DickinsonMeal Suggestion for today - Soy and Ginger Steamed FishDrink of the Day - Apples And BourbonWine of the Day - Marchesi Antinori Solaia Toscana IGT, Tuscany, Italy 2014Destination of the Day - Nuku Hiva Island, Taiohae, Marquesas French Polynesia Eurodam Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico Riviera 08:00 - 15:00 Koningsdam Honolulu, Oahu Island, Hawaii 08:00 - 22:00 Nieuw Amsterdam At Sea destination Puerto Vallarta, Mexico eta 4-22 Nieuw Statendam Alicante, Spain 09:00 - 16:00 Oosterdam Malaga, Spain Granada 08:00 - 18:00 Rotterdam Oslo, Norway 07:00 - 16:00 Volendam Cartagena, Colombia 07:00-13:00 Zaandam at Sea Destination Boston, Massachusetts eta 4-22 Zuiderdam Copenhagen, Denmark 08:00 - 18:00Eastern Hemisphere Noordam At Sea Destination Hilo, Hawaii Island eta 4-22 Westerdam Hakodate, Japan 07:00 - 18:00 Sandi for Rich

Rich which one sounds tempting to you? Bruce, sorry to hear about all the Covid cases. I agree wearing a mask in public areas sounds like a good idea right about now. Do you get off in San Diego on the 24th? 10 minutes today is more than yesterday I would guess, so good job! Take it slowly and you will be surprised where you are a week or two from now. Glad to hear things are set in motion and you will have this taken care of. Sorry about the overnight stay though. Sounds like you're almost ready. We will miss you! Maybe you could check in occasionally (if you can find wifi). Thanks for the update Terry. At least it's laproscopic, but darn another overnight stay! I hope everything goes well and he is feeling better very soon. Thank you Father! That's so nice.

Quoting myself to note a clarificiation from Pete on his WC thread. The Pole to Pole on Volendam is not considered a world cruise, rather it is a very long Grand Voyage.

Thank you for all your reports today. Very informative and helpful @The-Inside-Cabin.

Speaking of cement, a cement truck just went up my street. Someone a few doors up is obviously doing some additions to their backyard. Anyway Eva, just wanted to say thank you in advance for stepping up and relieving Vanessa @JazzyV of her duties on the C&C list. She will surely enjoy her nice cruise and 3 weeks in Germany!! Very funny memes today Bruce! Glad to hear you're feeling better. Well, I've been trying to study the chart shown on the WC thread by Inside Cabin. Very hard to read with the blue lights shining on the screen during the presentation. I can see I don't need to sign up for the 133 day Pole to Pole cruise even if it only goes as far north as Honningsvag and no where near Spitsbergen or Ny Alesund. DH wouldn't approve of that long a cruise, and I think we've probably been to 95% of the ports already. A few are on the itinerary this summer. We are definitely slowing down on cruising with only one on the books. Unheard of a few years ago.🤷‍♀️

Interesting news from the Inside Cabin WC thread. Two world cruises in 2025. Volendam doing Pole to Pole from FLL 133 days and Zuiderdam doing a traditional WC from FLL 124 days. Should be popular.

That's big news. Thank you for reporting on it.