StLouisCruisers

Wonder which ship's horn that as I just heard a minute ago? Rotterdam saying move it to some boat, or Eurodam announcing her arrival?

Nice photos Vanessa @JazzyV. Very colorful! Too bad about the knee though. It would have been nice if you could walk a little further but... Speaking of knees, my knee (baker's cyst?) is feeling a little better. I still do my physical therapy exercies twice a day three times a week. But won't be doing them on the cruise I would suspect so hope it doesn't flare up! We decided not to go get groceries this morning. DH was not in the mood for rushing around. Instead he checked that there were no leaves clogging the drain in the backyard, and in the gutter over our deck which required getting a stepladder out. Then he tied the gas grill to the deck railing with bungee cords and unattached the gas line to it. Expecting winds through 7 pm tomorrow.

Can you just sit in the lobby after checking out while still on the hotel Wi-Fi?

Ironically I just looked at the Port Everglades Webcam since I'm waiting to see the ships come in. AND, I saw an airplane landing at the airport.

Thank you @cat shepardAnn for that report on the condo situation. Praying that @JAM37Julia and her DH (and MIL?) are all safe and have a plan for their future residence. @Quartzsite CruiserLenda good luck with Steve's move back into the rehab facility. That's great news! Thanks for your photos of Cartagena, too. I went back and didn't see any posted by you last time Safe drive to Waco. @ottahand7Nancy somehow I missed today's wine was white so might like to try that one. @HeartgroveJack thanks for the info on the USS Independence. It's very cool looking.

Good morning friends! We are having a fairly calm morning with temps about 57F and not expected to raise more than 10 degrees. Cloudy too and rain coming in around noon and continuing into tomorrow. We may or may not make a dash to the grocery for a few supplies we need to tide us over until we leave in a little over a week. Or wait until Saturday. I hope everyone there in Florida is holding on and not experiencing any storm damage at your places. Glad @HAL Sailerarrived safely. Oh, I hear some wind picking up just now so there goes that calmness. Thank you Rich @richwmnfor the Daily! Also thanks to Roy @rafinmdfor the Care and Celebration lists. A salute to forget me nots, accountants, and vanilla cupcakes ( I like chocolate ones, too). I would enjoy the pork chops and even the bok choy and maybe even the coconut rice. I can't commit to the quote. No thanks to the drink and another red wine. I said early prayers for our Care list plus the folks affected by Nicole, Ian and Fiona as well as the Ukrainians. Cheers to all on the Celebration list! Hoping Eurodam and Rotterdam arrive today as planned and everyone gets away as scheduled. Kudos to the Rotterdam for their rescue of refugees who most certainly could have lost their lives out there. Now it's up to the Coast Guard to figure out what's next. I imagine they're already pretty busy! Today's destination is Cartagena, Colombia which was port of the day on November 28, 2021. Here is a link to Rich's post that day. Lenda if you need me to look for your photos I can do that for you. Awaiting word as I'm not sure of your daily schedule right now. Hope Steve is doing well by the way. Haven't read yesterday's Daily since last night. Everyone have a great day, and a safe one too! We visited today's port of Cartagena in 2016 on Westerdam, which was only our second HAL cruise. We took a tour that day so got to visit quite a few spots around the town. Here's the ship at dock as wel left for our tour. There is an aviary outside the gates next to the parking lot. Interesting! Our first stop was at the Convento de la Popa, a 400 year old monastery built on the foundations of a razed Indian temple. It sits on a 500 foot hill. Our guide This is a rather chilling statue of a speared Padre Alonso Garcia de Paredes, a priest who was murdered along with five Spanish soldiers for trying to spread the good word. The view out the window. Moving on to our next stop we were given views of the poor neighborhoods many people lived in. But a little paint goes a long way We parked alongside the next stop where the vendors tried to catch our eye. A view of the Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas, a fortification built by the Spanish to protect the city from pirate attacks. The tour did not go inside which was fine. Flat Stanley was along with us this trip so I can't forget about his photos. This was for our grandson who had to report at the end of the school year about everything Flat Stanley did that year. Next they drove us to go shopping at Las Bovedas, known as the "Dungeons". It contains rows of handicraft stalls. I have to admit I'm not much of a shopping enthusiasist. Next we walked through the walled city to see the colonial homes, churches and squares. I love seeing the unique architecture of the old cities. So pretty! I could do this type of tour all day. This is one reason we try to do our own walking tours when the ship docks close to the Old Towns. Not true in this case. Interior of a small church for @HAL4NOW I love this woman's outfit After this cruise the Amazing Race included a stop in Cartagena and the task for the teams included finding some of these colorful bags with clues in them. How exciting to realize I'd recently been there too. There's so many pictures! I think I must stop now before you have overload! I hope you enjoyed my pics of Cartagena! That is a lot of photos! Sorry!😳 Should have done two posts.

thanks for the report. I'm sure the people involved on the vessel are extremely glad to see their rescuers arrive!

I would never be able to sleep with that noise either so I suggest you do as others have said, and tell Guest Services you will accept another cabin to sleep in at night, leaving your belongings in the noisy cabin. You would have to adjust to getting up in the morning and heading back to your first cabin for bathing, dressing, whatever though. We did that a couple nights when our cabin carpet was soaked from a problem in the next door cabin on Maasdam. You have to have some sleep! I can't believe you've been able to cope with this a month already. Just think about it. You may not have any problems with sea sickness at all in the extra cabin and could just move there for the remainder of your cruise.

Jacqui, I have tears in my eyes seeing the beautiful tribute to Jose at his burial at sea. Very special and moving.😢 I also want to thank you and your sister for the lovely photos you just posted. I can picture myself there taking photos in some of those same spots. She did an exceptional job of photography.

Good morning friends! Thank you Rich @richwmnfor today's Daily and Fleet Report. Hoping for safety for all the ships at sea, and that TS Nicole moves on quickly. Prayers for all in the path! Cheers for world freedom, and museums. A salute to Carl Sagan, a very intelligent man. The pumpkin and sage soup sounds intriguing. No thanks to the drink and wine. I haven't been to Ilfracombe, England and had forgotten we already had that port once. It was Feb. 27, 2022 and I am posting the link below. Hope to see the photos and would love to go there someday. Thanks to Roy @rafinmdfor the lists today. Hope you're not too bored waiting out the storm/hurricane. Special prayers to all on that Care list and it's a long one. Jacqui @kazu and her sister, Steve and Lenda @Quartzsite Cruiser, @MISTER 67and his sore finger, @ottahand7 Nancy's DB, @Lady Hudson's DH, @HAL Sailer's SIL, @cruzn single's stepson, @luvteaching's DH, @Cruzin Terri's home repairs, and @HAL Sailer's SW Florida home with damage. Hope our prayers help! Big cheers for all on the Celebration list. I send good wishes to you all. Here is Rich's post from Feb. 27, 2022.

Tina, I agree with Ann. Just gorgeous, and I bet everyone was so happy they went.

More prayers for your DB, Nancy. This sounds like a tough case, but I hope they can find the problem on the MRI and he can get back to good health and fast rehab. The weight loss is a positive note.

Carolyn, glad to hear the insurance is working fast for her. Just last week we got our renewal notice for home and auto insurance. The home insurance is up 50% over last year's number. Yes, that's 50%!

I would call that extensive damage! Poor Beth. You're right, it will take quite a bit of work getting that fixed up. I just hope her insurance company doesn't delay like Terri's did.

They will have to remain onboard until the ship can safely proceed to Port Everglades, I would think. This happened to my DD several years ago when their ship couldn't make it into Galveston due to fog. They had to change flights (3 times in one day) and the ship didn't get into port until a day later.

I'm very sorry to hear your poor DH is so congested and wheezy. I hope someone can figure out what the cause is and get him the proper medication to help clear it. Nice to hear you help your husband keep updated on who's on the ballot. So many people are uninformed and just vote for a political party without doing some research. Sort of like, well my parents voted for that party so I will too. We went next door to have our neighbors witness our signatures on our wills and chatted a bit. They spoke about seeing our late neighbor and his wife two weeks ago at the Shrimp Boil. They said Tom looked shockingly bad that day. He had a knee surgery in the past year, and was experiencing pain all over his body but kept going back to the knee surgeon to try to diagnose his issue. Turns out he had multiple myeloma and didn't even know it. Unfortunately he didn't get other opinions. Very sad situation.

Photos below are from Lenda on July 17, 2021. We have been to Bonaire once in 2000 on the P&O Oriana world cruise. At that time, only DH had a digital camera, and took a few pictures. We rented a car and drove around the island, then walked around town. All the pictures are from our drive. These were some of the former slave cottages in 2000 before any were restored. Other pictures from our drive. Finally, last year on the Rotterdam Panama Canal cruise, we completed seeing the ABC Islands with two visits to Curacao.

Oh Lenda, I am so sorry to hear of these latest complications for Steve! I hope and pray the surgeon can take care of the clot issue later on today. Of course you need to be there to support him and I'm sure he's happy to have you with him. I'll post photos for you whenever you need it. In fact, I'll go retrieve them now. Let us know later today how it all went. 🙏

Wow, Annie, 9:14 pm and no mail delivery! You beat our carrier's time by 2 hours. I thought almost 7:30 pm was terrible. I'm feeling sorry for the person working such a late shift though. Hope you start feeling more energetic soon. Sometimes our bodies just make us slow down and rest. I started to watch a 9 pm program last night and 10 minutes later turned it off and went to bed. I couldn't keep my eyes open for some reason. 😴

Annie @marshhawkI'm sorry for your losses lately, and totally understand reflecting on your life at this time. We decided when our second neighbor died unexpectedly within a couple of months time, that we needed to update a few things. We have a brand, spanking new will sitting here now and will take it to our next door neighbors' house today to have them witness our signatures. We used the software Willmaker which I believe @USN59-79mentioned not too long ago.

I didn't post any photos earlier from our 2006 Bonaire visit with DD. It seems we were enjoying ourselves so much we took more photos of the three of us than photos of the islands visited. Here are a couple of my favorite photos taken that trip. View from the ship of the lovely water and colorful town of Kralendijk. DD and myself Mom, Dad and daughter with Water Island behind us (St. Thomas). That was 16 years ago! Those years went by way too fast.

Yes, of course the Rotterdam and any other ships in the path of Nicole. I'm not sure if anyone here on the Daily is on or will be on the Rotterdam, but there is a good chance someone reading here will be so smooth seas for everyone!🚢

Good morning friends! It's a warm morning at 65F, with sunshine and 75 for an expected high today. Perfect for voting, though we did that week before last. I never want to risk being too ill to vote on election day or some other emergency coming up so always try to get it done ahead of time. We already have turned in our applications for absentee ballots for a Dec. 6 runoff, just in case. However they would have to be processed and mailed to our home and our final day receiving mail here before our cruise is a week from Thursday, Nov. 17 so there is a good chance we won't have a chance to vote again. A real shame because every vote means a great deal to the candidates. A day to support radiology seems a good idea since it's a big help in health care. I don't drink coffee but for those who do I appreciate capppuccino. It should be interesting seeing the galette which is the menu suggestion for today. The quote goes on and on doesn't it? Bonaire is a lovely island to visit on a cruise. I'll post a link to Rich's post on Kralendijk on July 17, 2021. Prayers for the many needing them here on the Daily as well as in our own lives. I'm concerned for those in Florida in the path of Nicole and hope the cruise ships get out of the way easily. Good luck to Roy @rafinmdand everyone on Eurodam tomorrow. @MISTER 67I'm glad the doctor took good care of your finger and I hope your pain is easily controlled as it was last night. I know you're anxious to get back to golf but sounds like it will have to wait. @Crazy For Catsnice to hear about your cruise. Hoping for smooth seas for you as well. Cheers to all on the Celebration list! Thanks to Roy for posting it. Here is Rich's July 17, 2021 post with Kralendijk, Bonaire listed. We were in Kralendijk the first time in 2006 on Crown Princess. Our daughter had had a difficult year having just gone through a divorce and having three youngsters, so DH and I took her on her first cruise. It began in San Juan and was a Southern Caribbean cruise. Our second time there was on Westerdam in 2016 and we went drift snorkeling for the first time. From our second trip as we loaded onto the catamaran for our drift snorkeling excursion (private CC tour). We headed to Klein Bonaire to this area to begin snorkeling. The current was strong and it wasn't easy to stay with our guide, so quite of lot of energy expended that day! We did this tour on a lark and didn't even have an underwater camera, but I can assure you we saw some amazing sights. The fish, the coral and underwater plants, and even the huge sea turtles. Loved it! After the snorkeling we walked through the town and checked out the people selling their hand made items like jewelry. It's a great stop on a Caribbean cruise.

Vanessa, your stomach problem sounds very uncomfortable to keep you up at night. I've been there a few times myself. I really hope the testing finds the problem and that someone can help you. It's very discouraging when they test and test but nothing seems to show up. Prayers for you to have a better night tonight. 🙏 And thanks for your photos of Cabo. The glass factory mosaic is beautiful! Oh what happy memories Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary brings to mind! 🐨 You will enjoy it for sure. Hopefully the upcoming storm doesn't do any damage to the poor citizens of Florida. Things can change as we all know, and I hope it does this time.🤞

Lenda, thanks for the info on the new Karma MIS system. I know too many people who have had back surgery with the rods and screws, etc. My pain is low on my back so I believe L4 and L5 would be the general area for me too. If I complain about it I'm sure they would have an MRI or something done. I'm glad to hear that area is the easiest to repair. Sometimes we can stay out of the sun so much that we need Vitamin D supplements.😎 You don't want to be low on Vitamin D from what I hear. I'm hoping the numbness will still decrease and disappear but to be honest most of the time I forget it's still numb up there. Early detection is right. My DD just had her first dermatologist skin cancer check and got the all clear. Such a relief to me because she is the same age I was when on my first check up, they found my melanoma on my upper back. I had no idea there was a problematic mole back there. Thank goodness it was early.