Vict0riann

Good morning, and thanks to Rich and Roy and all the other Dailyites who post. So sorry about Allen, I'll say a payer for a speedy recovery for him. Great aurora photos! I hope we get a chance to see it on our cruise. Last time they said there was a possibility as we left Anchorage, but was a cloudy night. Bon voyage to Pauline and Graham. 😃 We have the suitcases upstairs now, but haven't started packing. I do plan to pack my manners! Love frittatas, I make them often, as I am useless with pastry, but I just do it on the stove, put a lid on the frying pan. Sometimes the bottom gets a bit darker than planned, but always tasty! We had a Cellar Master Dinner on Nieuw Statendam recently, but it was in Canaletto, organized by the Canaletto chef and the CM. It was excellent, not as many courses at it used to be, but still well worthwhile to book. We booked as soon as we heard about it on board and hope it will appear again on this next cruise.

Thank you for the Bon Voyages! We are looking forward to our fifth cruise in Alaska, after two road trips. Such a beautiful part of the world. 😁

Thanks. I didn’t realize they wouldn’t just update as time passed.

Canada certainly has it in for us cruisers. When we went to make appointments at the drug store for our tests for Sept.11 cruise, the nurse said "oh, you don't need to test", but we do, Here is what the Government of Canada website says about cruises. I check it every few days, in the so far vain hope that things will change.

Yes, thanks, I went partway through the process. I’ll be able to do it next time.

I was hoping to use an existing gift card to purchase OBC. I couldn’t find a spot to do that. It said I could buy crew appreciation but we already had that. I will check again for a future cruise, but for now I’m happy with the shore excursions.

I bought some gift cards a while back when we could do it in Canada at a discount. I wanted to use one for OBC on our upcoming Alaska cruise, but there was nowhere on my "Manage My Booking" area that gave me the opportunity. However, when DH went to buy a shore excursion there was the option to use gift cards to pay, so we did that. Worked like a charm! 😁

We were in 4045 on Koningsdam and loved it. I don't know if they are exactly the same on Nieuw Statendam, but check out Halfacts.com and see if there are any pictures.

Sounds like they plan to feed you? Or maybe just give you the opportunity to feed yourselves...

I wanted to add my congratulations to @marshhawk for all the sales. Quite an accomplishment. My DSIL in Australia makes calls for a polling company all about politics. She has some tales to tell! @lindaler, we will be on the Nieuw Amsterdam on the 11th. Was it you who mentioned a visit to Victoria? I'm sorry if I won't be here to show you around. We get back on the 25th. Now I'm back, curry is simmering, and I can add my photos from this morning. The floating dock... This was not the boat we took our ride in!

Ten days and we will be off to Alaska! Hope it's not too rainy. We've never done it in September. Good morning, all. I think I slept about an hour last night - I guess too much caffeine yesterday. Talking about rabbits, we have been besieged by them, and the deer, of course. DD says she is going to just give up on the dahlias and just plant artichokes. She has about 30 seedlings, and is trying to give some away. She did plant some of them around the edges of her dahlia bed, in the hope that they would deter the deer, but either the deer or the rabbits have now eaten the artichoke plants!. I am preparing a bed in the courtyard that may possibly hold three dahlias and I will transplant my favourites there when we get back, and just hope for the best. The rabbits are eating my asters, every day I find half a dozen stems cut down and leafless, lying on the ground. We are the rabbit buffet. We were in Boca da Valeria in 2019 on the Prinsendam. I was looking to see if I could see Roy in the crowds on the shore. The river was very high, they had had a lot of rain, but we did have a nice (hot) day there. We took school supplies and the ship delivered them to the school. I had ribbons and hair bands for the girls and stickers for the boys, and I was besieged by the children. We were also told we could give them (new!) dollar bills if we had our pictures taken with them. We took a boat ride on the river with another couple. I pulled out some pictures, but will post them later, have to get ready to go to coffee with a neighbour. Pat needs to bank, get some US dollars for the cruise, and I have to organize my Prolia shot at the drug store. TTYL! Oh, Happy Birthday @Cruzin Terri!

Just went back through my pictures, and I think this is the town that made the Panama hats (I like to take pictures of a sewer cover, etc., if it has the name of the town..)

Good morning, Dailyites, and thanks to Rich, Roy, and all the Daily posters! Praying for those with troubles now, and as I think I am back to normal, I will raise a glass this evening to those celebrating - anybody celebrating? Actually, I am, because Pat went to the doctor yesterday, got a few keratoses zapped, and told the doctor about his bee sting in Reykjavik and the doctor prescribed an Epipen. Pat is very nonchalant about the danger, so I will be carrying the Epipen for him! He used to always take one with him on his business travels, but got very lax about it. Now I imagine his histamines are elevated again. Another celebration will be our cruise in 10 days! Just got an itinerary change last night - Sitka for Glacier Bay day and vice versa. Any ideas why they would do this? I wondered if it meant there were too many ships in Glacier Bay on the 19th, so we had to change? We visited Manta in 2017 on the Zaandam. I seem to remember mainly HEAT! We went to the fish market, too, and then to a park to look for monkeys - they were mainly sleeping in the hot and humid jungle. Then the village where they make the Panama hats. I didn't check to see which pictures I posted before, hope I'm not repeating too much. Fish market, I think they were having fun.. Trudging through the jungle I forget the name of the village.. They made hammocks, too I really miss these screens

Just booked our flights to Fort Lauderdale in the Spring! I used Air Miles as I got tired of waiting for a quote from FlightEase. Three flights, but we get in at the respectable hour of 8:30 p.m. And Pat booked our hotel for two nights. I just hope that by then missing bags are a thing of the past. @kochleffel, Pat is often addressed as "Sir Patrick" and I get "Madame Ann", I'm not sure why (do you think it might be our ages? lol). We always tell our room stewards just to call us Pat and Ann, but the wine and MDR stewards are more formal!

In honour of National Beach Day, the beach we landed on in Antarctica, and a few feathered friends landing at the same beach

Good morning, Dailyites, hope everyone is having a good day today. Thanks to Rich and Roy, and all who post. Nice to see Gigianne here! I haven't posted for a few days, but reading when I can. Trying to get my eating habits sorted with this new problem, and thinking about our upcoming cruise in less than two weeks. I did get a call yesterday with a date for my colonoscopy, October 3, good thing it won't interfere with the cruise (cruise comes first!) and I had a phone appointment with my doctor this morning to organize a new prescription for my Prolia shot, due the beginning of next month, which is almost here. On the news the other day was that a cruise ship was stuck in Vancouver harbour overnight as the tugs are on strike and refused to move the bunkering barge that was attached to the ship! Hope that doesn't happen with us. I imagine most of the ships going to Alaska from Vancouver bunker there. We are taking the bus over on the day of departure, so we also have to hope that the ferries are running. At least we won't have to worry about our bags getting lost or flights delayed, but there's always something, isn't there? I grew up with four boy cousins, so read a lot of their science fiction, "ABC"s - Asimov, Bradbury and Clarke. Classics now, I guess! We've been to Bridgetown a few times. And I have not added tomatoes into my diet for the time being, still staying "white" - pretty much the BRAT diet, mashed potatoes, rice, white bread and fish, chicken, etc. If I misbehave, I have problems! Have to get back to normal for the cruise, though. At least I lost 8 lbs., so some good has come out of all this. I'm sorry there are those suffering loss and other ailments on the thread. Everything seems magnified with Covid around. Prayers for all.

Bon voyage! Hope you have a great time and find the time to tell us all about the ship and cruise. 😀

Thanks. My iPhone is newer, so I will do it on that.

It was the best we could find, an upgrade with CO. Very last minute. I voted for a different C, but DH and our PCC both voted for this one. There wasn’t much left.

What app would that be? I'm interested because our next cruise we (again) have a connecting room, and may need some white noise!

I missed her, too. Slept in....

It looks like a gorgeous day today in Juneau (the 24th), hope it's as nice tomorrow. I will be interested to see her, as we are sailing on her in September for the first time, it's a 2-week cruise, and strangely, does not stop in Juneau. We will have stops in Valdez and Prince Rupert.

Good morning, Dailyites! Thank you to Rich, Roy, and everyone who posts with interesting information. I think I learn something new every day. Of course, by the next day, I've forgotten it, and so am happy to learn it all over again! I hope I don't repeat myself too often, but, with my DC, who is 3 years younger than I am, I notice that she often tells me the same story 2 or 3 times in the same conversation. I hope I'm not doing the same with her! Anyway, hoping not to repeat myself, when we were in Naples last year on Eurodam, Pat took a ship's tour and I took a sea day, on deck I noticed that Vesuvius seemed to have moved closer and was looming over Napoli, it must be a bit scary living there. I've never seen it so close! In 2011, on a driving holiday, Vesuvius seemed much further away as we drove from Sorrento to Naples.

Thanks, Roy, I am determined to eat food tonight. I have a piece of halibut out and will have mashed potato and green beans. And Jell-o. It is my birthday! I'll let you know tomorrow how it goes, or maybe you don't want to know....

I'm back, and thank everyone for more birthday wishes! I had an email from my DSIL this morning; she got my age wrong , and I'm not going to correct her... I had my haircut, my hairdresser had sent me to a co-worker last time, I think I told you, because she had laryngitis, although she was feeling fine. I was not happy with the new cut and fussed with it the whole cruise. I told my regular today that I would not be switching hairdressers, and she was happy about that - then she told me she had actually discovered the next day that she had Covid. So her thoughtfulness saved me, I imagine! No one in the beauty parlour was masked today except the two of us.