Vict0riann

We have found that if we want one-way tickets, Flight Ease can get better prices (we would be flying back to Canada), and we also like that if we book with Flight Ease, the flights are insured along with the cruise. For our cruises in December, though, we found we could do it better ourselves, Flight Ease was pretty useless, and we will just self-insure!

Which ship are you on, Chief? Is it by any chance an Emerald cruise? I ask because the day you posted you were in Avignon, an Irish cousin of Pat's sent a picture of himself in Avignon, and he was wearing a lanyard with key card saying Emerald. I wondered if Noel were with you in France...

Bon voyage, all! 😁

After the silkworms, we walked through the town of Hoi An. Lunch was in a fancy restaurant, but DD Cathy and I were so hot and exhausted, we couldn't eat, we found a hole-in-the-wall restaurant and had cold drinks and rested our feet! Then we met up with the others to continue our walk and ended up at the market; I was fascinated with the overhead wiring Vietnam. I think a lot of people just made their own! The ride to the ship was past another beach and the little round basket boats, to our own "parking place".

Then we went on to Hoi An, which I think is quite a touristy town. On the outskirts we stopped at a silk factory, where we watched all the proceedings. They pour boiling water on the cocoons, I felt sorry for the poor silkworms!

More from Danang Day... Re-reading Pat's diary, we were actually 20 in a comfortable air-conditioned bus. We drove from Danang through fields of rice paddies to the Marble Mountain - first a visit to the obligatory shop, which was interesting with all the carvings. Then, we climbed the Marble Mountain, actually, we didn't climb it, we went up in the elevator. Our guide, Mrs. Hung, had booked two rides for us, so we all went up together. There was a maze of caves at the top, and we lost one couple there. We waited and waited for them to go down, eventually we went down without them. They did turn up at the bus, they had found someone to help them and had actually climbed down the mountain! View from the top of Marble Mountain

That was Danang - do you want more of other places on that day?

Good morning, Dailyites. I'm so sorry there are ones still troubled with health issues, and when they conflict with cruises, that is so worrisome. Happy birthday, Graham! Thanks for the recipes, @dfish. I have quite a collection now of interesting ones stored in my computer, but I think this won't be one of them - I'm not a soup lover, and definitely not of Arborio rice. Just the regular long grain white rice for me, please! In 2014 we took a Far East cruise on Volendam with DD and Pat's DS and her hubby. As there were 5 of us, I organized a lot of private tours, I had never done it before, and I was terrified, but we ended up with about 10 "regulars" who went with us on some interesting days, even Rangoon, Pat's birthplace. We had a long day in Danang and Hoi An, just looking at the pictures now, I am amazed at all we did, climbed a mountain, visited a silkworm farm, museum, beaches, rice paddies, towns and markets, I could post a hundred pictures. The whole cruise was extremely interesting, but I have no desire to ever return! The "old town" The beach, and some fishing boats - those dots in the water are plastic water bottles, there was so much pollution. The "Harbour City" Danang The Dragon bridge - I was fascinated as I was born in the year of the dragon, I've got umpteen pictures! The garden of the museum, and a couple of pictures inside.

Good evening all, it is getting later here. We've had a hectic few days, hope things calm down now. At least we are having rain now, we have changed from "heat domes" to "atmospheric rivers" in the space of a week! Thinking of and praying for all the Dailyites and their loved ones with health problems. We met the guide dog, Joska, on two cruises, on Koningsdam and Nieuw Statendam. When she is not workings she is very friendly.

On our last cruise on the NA, a couple we had dinner with one evening said they had booked a vista suite, and when they got on board they decided it was much too small, so they went to the front desk and upgraded to a Signature Suite. I have no idea what the cost was, but I would imagine if there are rooms available, the ship would be happy with their money!

@summer slope, we had our yellow WHO booklets with our yellow fever shots from about 50 years ago, also a letter from the doctor saying we should not get it because of our ages. Then, it was never asked for, either in Brazil or Devil's Island.

What a worry for you, Lenda. But it will be wonderful to have the help of your DD and DSIL. Prayers for you all.

Hello, everyone! We've had a busy couple of days, and more to come, so I can pop in occasionally and do a bit of reading. Condolences to everyone experiencing loss. Pat's cousin in England died a few days ago, now only cousin John and Pat are left of that generation of cousins. And John is 92. It's funny, I sometimes say we're lucky to have DD living with us so that she can look after us when we get old, but I have a feeling we're already there. Cousin Vicki in California is failing fast. My other cousin has been looking for burial sites for her. Vicki wants a green burial where she can "feed the worms"! Janet found this place in Marin County which she thinks will suit perfectly. At the moment just a parched hillside, but it should be a lovely spot with a view of Mt. Tam, Janet says. It is very sad, Vicki is as bright as ever and uses her iPad to talk, but her body is betraying her. Video.mov Here in Victoria, we are also parched. We have set a Canadian record of 90 days with no rain. The forecast calls for some rain on the weekend, but they're not always correct in their forecasts... Welcome, @BrandelynCon! @grapau27, I think we all know where you are. Keep the food porn coming!

We took a bunch of school supplies with us, but handed then in and officers from the ship took everything to the school. I also took "scrunchies" for the little girls and other hair ornaments, and for the boys I had bought sheets of stickers and cut them up into just 3 or 4 stickers. I was absolutely besieged by the children! The other thing we were told was that we were allowed to give them dollar bills, so we took a lot of newer singles ashore with us. In many cases, if you had your picture taken with an animal, bird or child, you were expected to give a dollar or so.

On NS in July Happy Hour was 25% off the second drink. On NA in August it was 50% off every drink. I have no idea why, and if it is the same now.

Good morning, Dailyites. Pat has gone off to golf, so I am on my own for a few hours. Yesterday the smoke descended on us and we now have an air advisory. It's coming from the mainland somewhere, and is due to hang around for a few days. Then there is the "possibility" of some rain on the weekend. I'm definitely praying for rain. Happy Birthday to @Seasick Sailor and @SusieKIslandGirltomorrow, and I hope for good memories for Pauline, 4 years after her mother's passing. My cousin here and I talk often about our parents and what fun they had. We miss them; we're much more boring! I think of the words of St. Thomas More "Pray for me, as I will for thee, that we may all merrily meet in heaven." I'm sure they are all having a merry time up there. I haven't been to the port of the day, and I like the sound of the meal. We have a cruise booked next year which includes an overnight in Istanbul, and I think that might be a good place to look for it. Hopefully, I will remember....

Soup Salad Spicy main! Dessert (banana fritters, yum) There was a special flight of four wines available, too, I drank the whites, Pat had the reds...

Cat Day The dog thinks to himself: "These beings feed me, pet me, love me, they must be gods." The cat thinks to herself: "These beings feed me, pet me, love me, I must be God!"

Good morning, all. CC hates me today, made me log in and then wouldn't accept my password and kept locking me out for 15 minutes at a time. Eventually I had to set a new password. I could read this forum, but couldn't post or see my roll calls. Now I'm back. But I'll have to see what has happened with my smaller devices! We use the dictionary and thesaurus all the time, as we do cryptic crosswords, and learn a lot of new words doing them. Have you ever noticed that when you learn a new word you keep seeing it or hearing it? I guess that's "global consciousness". Today we are going to the church barbecue and I am taking cole slaw as they said they were short on salads. What do you want to bet all the salads are cole slaw - more global consciousness! We have been to Christchurch, but not on a cruise, so don't know the port. We were there before the terrible earthquake, and we went to a little museum in the main square and saw kiwi birds. I have to wonder if they survived the earthquake, as most of the square was destroyed. Some of the countryside near Christchurch.

We had it on the NS, too, this summer, but I don't think it was offered on the NA in Alaska, so perhaps it is on longer cruises or only the "big" ships? I have pictures, if you would like to see them...

I'm keeping those pictures as blackmail material, and I can hold them over her head!

@summer slope, when we lived in Kenya we took malaria meds weekly. The company gave us chloroquine when we arrived and we took it on Monday mornings (Monday = malaria). After a bit we realized that on Mondays I was being called to pick up sick children from school. We discussed the situation with our doctor and he explained that chloroquine was a malaria cure not a prophylaxis, and we should be taking Maloprim instead. The "cure" was making the children ill... Weirdly enough, the company wouldn't pay the extra for the Maloprim, but we switched over to it anyway. No more sick children!

We have only used the mobile passport in Seattle. There, when we get off the plane we find a bench, and Pat gets on line and opens the app. People walk past us and look at us as if we are crazy, just sitting there.... Once Pat has it organized, we get up from our perch and walk past everyone else waiting in line, go to our "private" entry point - there is usually no one there - and head for the baggage carousel. We are there before anyone else, and then we wait for our bags. I was so happy to read that we will be able to use it in Vancouver now. I'm not sure how the luggage thingy will work there, though, as we will be checking the bags in in Victoria to go to SD. Good morning, Dailyites! Happy Birthday week, Joy, @Seasick Sailor! I posted some of my pictures from Bora Bora the last time, I may have few others to show you. It certainly was a beautiful day and place. Patrick's "fleet" "Disembarking" at the motu. On the island Lunch on a banana leaf

I've only ever had the opportunity to "jump the queue" and get a piece of jewelry cleaned.

Good morning, Dailyites. Another interesting day. I'm happy to hear about all the events and celebrations, and I pray for those undergoing hardships and losses. My cousin's caregiver feels Vicki will not last the month, she is home, but very weak . It is so sad, of all of us cousins when we were children, she was one of the youngest, we called her "the brat"; she was full of mischief. She had a full life, she painted, wrote books, she was a race walker in the LA Olympics, and very involved with Sheltie rescue. She showed many of her dogs and trained them all in agility. She has a huge china bowl in her study of ribbons she and her dogs won. Her husband visited, but now will not return until after she passes. They think his brother will then put him in a home near him in Monterey. Jacqui, I posted on your other thread, but that was an invitation to stay with us, we would love to have you any time you are making your way to SD. BTW, I used Air Miles to get us to SD on December 27th. The prices were horrendous otherwise - more than the cruise! We are pretty much in a disaster zone here. So dry, our reservoir is down to about 70% and if we don't have a really rainy winter, we will be in trouble next summer. The salmon are dying in the hundreds of thousands, they are unable to make it up their spawning streams as there is no water. DD is cooking today - it will be Mexican, but I'm not sure what it will be. I have not seen sweet potatoes in the fridge, though, so I don't think it will be today's recipe. But it will be spicy, I'm sure! Malaga is a lovely port, we have enjoyed it every time we've been there, especially doing "tapas tours"! We