ownedbypets

3 hours ago, HBE4 said:

 

Is Virgin just starting out in the Australian market?  If so, hopefully this can be attributed to start-up issues and can work out the kinks quickly while training a new staff.

 

Fingers-crossed things only get better from here.

 

They have been in Australia for about one week.

On 12/6/2023 at 9:05 AM, aussielozzie18 said:

Never a good sign when after making an online booking and the cruise line (Virgin Voyages) has taken full payment  from your bank account - you don’t get a confirmation email.  Instead,  you get “this is your last payment warning” email and “you need to pay xxx immediately”.  Spent  all day on hold trying to reach them via phone to no avail.  Stayed awake tonight  to call them at midnight my time and they could not  find the booking - despite repeatedly spelling my name, stating booking number & cabin number listed on warning notice. After 30mins of searching, they finally find the booking.  Phew!  

I hope things get better.

We just got off our 3rd VV cruise and they have all been great. Very different from other cruises. I'm sure it helps that our son and daughter in law both work for VV so they can eliminate any stress or concerns before we board.

Our son leaves for New Zealand in January to help with Resilient coming into port.

On 12/1/2023 at 3:02 AM, firefly333 said:

Lol we heard facial recognition was fixed last sunday. We were onboard about on time.

 

Hot hot hot. 97 in roatan. Forget those winter jackets. I'm so hot. 

 

I have a picture to prove 95, but missed a picture of 97. .. but it's hot.

 

 

We were in Roatan the day before you and the heat was brutal.

19 minutes ago, reallyitsmema said:

 

Foxboro has had issues with Waze and Google maps sending people through all the local neighborhoods causing gridlock, so I don't doubt that they had restrictions put on this concert and others.  Bigger more urban venues likely can handle it better.

That's a good reason to discourage it. My daughter just told me that they tailgated 2 nights ago in LA, just bought a parking pass online.

23 minutes ago, reallyitsmema said:

 

When she was at Gillette Stadium, home of the NE Patriots, they did not allow tailgating or entrance into the parking lots unless you had a ticket.  Pretty sure the parking had to be reserved in advance too.  They had roads in the local neighborhoods blocked off so people didn't try to live park there.  They really tried to discourage anyone from going into the area if they didn't have a ticket.

Some stadiums allowed it and some didn't.

3 hours ago, A&L_Ont said:

Unfortunately it was 20 minutes of cue waiting and 40 minutes of trying to get tickets. None in our hand. The same tickets now are 2-4 times more on StubHub than what they were originally selling for on Ticketmaster. Just the way it is. 

I'm sorry Lisa didn't get tickets. When Taylor was in San Fransisco my daughter and a few friends looked for tickets on Stubhub and the prices were ridiculous but the day of the show the prices starting dropping fast. Their plan was to tailgate in the parking lot so they could still hear her perform and still hope that the prices would drop to what they were willing to pay. They gave up looking because they were having so much fun with all of the other Swifties. After the first few songs the prices had dropped to the original selling price.

18 hours ago, A&L_Ont said:

Lisa is excited.  
 

The presale text from Ticketmaster just came through for the Taylor Swift pre-sale tomorrow.  She has her fingers crossed, as the concert is November of 2024. 

 I read that 31 million people registered for verifications codes for the Toronto concerts.  Everyone that I know got waitlisted.

My daughter was at TS last show in LA last night. She had already seen her in Tampa and Ohio but of course needed to see her one more time. I didn't ask any questions pertaining to the concert but found out she had the first row of floor seats behind the special guests, including Emma Stone and Adam Sandler.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for Lisa!

8 hours ago, Keksie said:

Ugh I am not looking forward to today.  It will be an almost double shift at the refuge.  Second baby squirrel season is in full force.  The baby board is full with most of them needing feeding every 2 hours.  Our interns leave a lot to be desired and most of the long term volunteers who have a good  work ethic are not in town for various reasons.  Sigh.

If I lived closer I would volunteer instantly! When we fostered squirrel they had to be fed every two hours.

13 hours ago, brillohead said:

This just randomly popped up on my FB feed, and between loving cruises and loving dogs, I knew this was the right audience for it!  LOL

https://www.facebook.com/reel/791869312615542

His posts on dogs are great and he is spot on with Newfoundlands. We have two of the gentle giants.

15 hours ago, Tree_skier said:

Sadly this is so and continues to get worse and worse.  SF was always my go to place for a day trip.  I loved the vibrancy of the city.  There were so many great restaurant.  There was a Burmese place called The Burma Superstar that was absolutely fabulous.  I'd make the 2 1/2 hour drive just to eat there. 

 

The last time I was there was back in November for a matinee presentation of Frozen with my GD.  I was quickly reminded why I hadn't been in a few years.

 

I linked The Burma Superstar above.  If any of you do find yourselves there I highly recommend it.  The owners are fabulous people.

Thanks. I told my daughter about the restaurant. She just finished her contract at Stanford and signed another one at UCSF so she will be living in North Beach area so maybe it's close enough for her to try.

3 hours ago, Lionesss said:

Our fantastic towel animal maker and greatest suite attendant. 
 

 

 

Sea ya. 

The best is yet to come with her towel creations! Tell her that Lori and Steve said hi. We made a t shirt for her grandson Bozi.

14 hours ago, Lionesss said:

 

We had Marijana on Harmony and she was amazing! 

13 hours ago, voyager70 said:

Baileys was always our first stop when arriving on Sanibel. Always felt like home stepping into that place. I understand they were under 6 feet of water after Ian and they will be tearing down the original building and building a new one. The artist renderings are beautiful but it just won’t be the same. Hope your family and friends in Captiva are doing well post Ian.

Thanks. Everyone is getting back to their new normal. My brother had a yacht that was just removed from inside his home and now they are applying for permits to start rebuilding. 

1 hour ago, QueSeraSera said:

No missed it, never went out to Captiva except a single exploratory trip in our rented VW Beetle convertible (never will forget that).  I remember Cheeseburger-Cheeseburger and I think a place called the Lighthouse.  There's an excellent grocery store mid-island, and we would typically buy grouper or some other fresh seafood, and a bottle or two of wine, then retreat to our condo for some of the best nights by the beach I remember.

Baileys General Store?  I grew up in Ft Myers and my family had condos on Captiva. I have family and friends that still live there, including my daughter.

4 hours ago, QueSeraSera said:

We adopted a new puppy a couple weeks ago; she had a slight limp at the shelter that was improving in our home.  Then a few days ago she had a setback, walking on 3 paws, so we brought her to the vet for xrays.  Vet told us yesterday she suffered trauma at some point in her past that had probably been temporarily fixed but would now require surgery.  Was groaning about the costs, but then a friend sent this:

 

“No more lonely cold nights or hearing that I'm bad

No more growling belly from the meals I never had.

No more scorching sunshine with a water bowl that's dry.

No more complaining neighbors about the noise when I cry.

No more hearing "shut up", "get down" or "get out of here"!

No more feeling disliked, only peace is in the air.

Euthanasia is a blessing, though some still can't see

Why I was ever born If I weren't meant to be.

My last day of living was the best I ever had.

Someone held me very close; I could see she was very sad.

I kissed the lady's face, and she hugged me as she cried.

I wagged my tail to thank her, and then I closed my eyes and died……"

 

Author unknown

 

This is so sad but also the reason I want to foster Hospice dogs.

8 hours ago, George C said:

I think prices have went down for homes in Ft Myer where my brother lives hurricane damaged or destroyed lots of them , my brother’s house is still a mess , I don’t want to live in a hurricane zone . 
   Only reason I am in Texas was my job made me a very nice. Offer to move everything is way cheaper than New York City, growing up in a tiny apartment in Brooklyn and now live in a 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom house with a pool , when we bought our last two houses I told real estate agent to only show us houses with pools. 

I look at Zillow every day for homes in Ft Myers and prices have dropped very little. The inventory is small because of hurricane damage and homes are selling for a premium in the desirable areas. My daughter wants to buy because her one bedroom apartment that she pays $1800 a month for is being raised to $2200. 

We loved both and had a hard time deciding between the two on our last day. It might not hurt to ask first but we ordered take out from Portside and took it to Playmakers and ordered from there too.

14 minutes ago, masspector said:

And you had no issues with that? Thanks 

No issues. I was alternating between hot and cold so I also brought a hot/cold water bottle and filled it with ice but you could fill it with hot water. I would call and see what your options are.

1 hour ago, mo&fran said:

I posted yesterday that we could use a good 4-5 inches of rain.  We didn't get that  at all. but reports are FLL area got up to 14 inches, and the airport (FLL) is closed due to flooding.  

 Our forecast for today is 100% chance of rain, although weather radar shows little rain.

 Good thing there are no cruise ships departing today, although there is a Viking ship in port.

I just read that the airport is closed until 5 AM tomorrow.

12 minutes ago, masspector said:

My DH has a shoulder condition that he will have surgery on after our cruise in May.  One of the things that helps with the pain is a shoulder heating pad that he can put on.  I know it says heating pads are prohibited.  Does anyone have any experience if they will make an exception if he has a doctor note?  Also, I was thinking of a work around to use those chemical hand or foot warmers that you break the package and the pad heats up.  Would those be allowed on board?  BTW this is an Alaska cruise so I do not think the hand warmers would be too out of the ordinary for the climate. TIA

I was told no to a heating pad, even with a Dr note, but I did bring the chemical heating pads that have adhesive on them.

We like the side view better. I would rather the peace and quiet over people watching.

20 hours ago, taznremmy said:

Once again I am 17 pages behind, but  I had a great week on Celebrity Solstice (limited wifi access) and now I’m on Discovery Princess.  First time I’ve done a side by side.  I could get used to this.

I am catching up on all the posts I’ve missed, and hope this finds everyone well.

I'm with you. Forty pages to catch up on after our cruise on Virgins Valiant Lady last week.

We were on the sailing. VV handled the tragedy with a lot of compassion and professionalism and went above and beyond with the cruise credit as well as offering counseling to the crew and passengers. 

1 hour ago, flyerbrp said:

Just boarded this pretty ship. Efficient boarding 30 minutes early. Boarding time was 2:15 but let us on at 1:35pm. Muster completed and enjoying a drink. Lunch at The Galley was good. Pastrami sandwich was decent. The desserts were amazing. A s’more parfait was over the top. More tonight after Gumbae. 

Have a great cruise. We got off Valiant this morning.

11 minutes ago, A&L_Ont said:

We have Derick and he has been amazing. For us he is tied with another for top dog, and we have had some really good ones. 

We had Derick a few months ago and agree with you. He is definitely one of our favorites too! I'm happy that you have had a great cruise and thanks to everyone for taking us along.