John&LaLa Live B2B from Symphony 10/26 and 11/2, Great Expectations 🎂

[John&LaLa]

Oasis?

 

I ran across this by accident. It seems Phoenix will take up residence on Oasis for a few weeks when she arrives in Ft Lauderdale.

 

But look at the dates. They start on November 21. That's three days before the first cruise.

 

Going to be rocking it in Freeport. 🤙

I need to drop Beatrice a line and see what's up.

Edited November 15, 2019 by John&LaLa

[Ourusualbeach]

5 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

I ran across this by accident. It seems Phoenix will take up residence on Oasis for a few weeks when she arrives in Ft Lauderdale.

L.A.Vation (U2 tribute) is on-board for the Dec. 22 sailing.  Looks like they are following the same programming as Anthem.

[John&LaLa]

2 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

L.A.Vation (U2 tribute) is on-board for the Dec. 22 sailing.  Looks like they are following the same programming as Anthem.

 

Music Hall would be cool, forgot about that.

 

Goodbye Dazzles

Edited November 15, 2019 by John&LaLa

[Ourusualbeach]

1 minute ago, John&LaLa said:

 

Music Hall would be cool

I’m looking forward to it.

[John&LaLa]

I think I'm done for the night. I need to order our Christmas card from Shutterfly. Happy wife, Happy life.

 

See ya tomorrow

 

I'll leave you with Laura's big hair audition for Hairspray.  It was a cute gift

[grapau27]

4 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Break out the winter coats.🤣  you can always tell the Canadians, we are the ones still wearing shorts and t shirts in that weather while the locals are bundled up.

Sunbathing weather in NE England.

[John&LaLa]

Vehicles of St Maarten

 

Cleaning up after the Zamboni 💩

 

If Studebaker designed cruise ships. 😉

 

1951 Commander

 

I thought this was a VW Microbus

 

Words to live by

 

I like how Holland re-uses names.  MB was asked about this at the common ground talk.  Won't work because of the 'of the Seas' naming they use now

 

This was the name of our third cruise ship.

 

How I remember her

 

[brillohead]

6 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

I like how Holland re-uses names.  MB was asked about this at the common ground talk.  Won't work because of the 'of the Seas' naming they use now

My second cruise was on the old Nieuw Amsterdam back in 1987....

[John&LaLa]

The Regatta

 

This was a lot of fun, I already posted a few shots earlier, but let me take a little time and expand.

 

Originally this was the normal 12 meter yacht race that Royal offers all the time in St Maarten.

I've always wanted to do it, and even signed up a couple of times, but it was cancelled due to lack of participants.

 

Once this became the president's cruise, they upped the ante (and the price) to include another boat, t-shirts, hat's and an after race party.  It was also now a competition captained by 3 folks from corporate. Then they decided to include a couple of spectator boats at a reduced fare, that's when I booked it.

 

We met in Studio B and waited around forever.  They were distributing T-shirts for those that needed different sizes than were available. I thought that was nice. 

Here is Molly introducing the team captains. Stars & Stripes, True North, and Canada2

A little bit of trash talking from Stars & Stripes

 

More waiting pier side. These are the racers

 

And the bored spectators

 

Our camera man Mark.  He ends up in the start boat

 

Pre race briefing

 

Apparently even spectators need instructions

 

Since it took forever to load the three boats, we motored around the harbor and started drinking. 🍺

[John&LaLa]

14 minutes ago, brillohead said:

My second cruise was on the old Nieuw Amsterdam back in 1987....

 

Ours was 1993

[HBE4]

21 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

MB was asked about this at the common ground talk.  Won't work because of the 'of the Seas' naming they use now

 

Interesting. I wonder way the "of the Seas" name has anything to do with re-using the name.  They could easily apply the "Splendor of the Seas" name to one of their upcoming ships. Granted, it might cause some confusion but just throw the number 2 at the end ala Cunard (QE2, QM2....).

 

I'm not a fan of reusing names or even similar names between cruise lines.  When I tell people I sail on Liberty, they'll think of Carnival Liberty or if I say Royal, they think Royal Princess.  So now I just say the full name.

[Ourusualbeach]

9 minutes ago, HBE4 said:

 

Interesting. I wonder way the "of the Seas" name has anything to do with re-using the name.  

He was most likely referring to older ships.

 

Song of Norway and the other older ship names do not fit with the “of the Seas”

[HBE4]

14 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

He was most likely referring to older ships.

 

Song of Norway and the other older ship names do not fit with the “of the Seas”

 

Ahh, gotcha'

 

Yeah, "Song of Norway of the Seas" doesn't really flow. 😀

[John&LaLa]

44 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

He was most likely referring to older ships.

 

Song of Norway and the other older ship names do not fit with the “of the Seas”

 

Correct

They did a good job with Nordic Empress,  though.

Edited November 15, 2019 by John&LaLa

[dbancroft]

Since you are on the subject here is a picture of you and clr among others

[John&LaLa]

6 minutes ago, dbancroft said:

Since you are on the subject here is a picture of you and clr among others

 

Thanks, that's our Captain confiscating Laura's beach bag. Rick kept at least 10 grand of camera gear next to him.😱

Edited November 15, 2019 by John&LaLa

[jagsfan]

1 hour ago, John&LaLa said:

 

 

 

 

I like how Holland re-uses names.  

 

 

 

My grandparents sailed with some urgency on the Noordam. 

They came home to Papenburg Germany to show family their two baby girls who were born in the US. 

Germany was obviously preparing for war, and because he was not yet a US citizen, my grandfather was in danger of being conscripted. 

They went over the border into Holland and sailed back to New York. 

The Ellis Island manifest from the ship looks odd, two adults German citizens, a toddler and baby with birthplace NYC, but had to come through as though they were foreigners. 

My DH and I sailed on Noordam twice before I knew I had family history with that name. 

 

[John&LaLa]

1 minute ago, jagsfan said:

My grandparents sailed with some urgency on the Noordam. 

They came home to Papenburg Germany to show family their two baby girls who were born in the US. 

Germany was obviously preparing for war, and because he was not yet a US citizen, my grandfather was in danger of being conscripted. 

They went over the border into Holland and sailed back to New York. 

The Ellis Island manifest from the ship looks odd, two adults German citizens, a toddler and baby with birthplace NYC, but had to come through as though they were foreigners. 

My DH and I sailed on Noordam twice before I knew I had family history with that name. 

 

 

Nice story, thanks for sharing

[John&LaLa]

Let's go watch a race

 

No offense, but for me watching a yacht race is kind of like watching hockey. 

It's fun, but I have no clue what's going on. 

Luckily, our South African Captain kept us informed as to what was going on, where they were going, and who was in the lead. 

 

FWIW, I think Stars & Stripes won because they had more time in their boat and actually went out and practiced.

From what I could tell the two Canadian boats took to much time loading up and getting ready. 

My pre race favorite was Canada 2. She was sleeker than the other two, reminded me of a Ferrari.

Our Captain said she was designed to race in Newport with small swells. 

The other two were much higher out of the water.  It worked for them today.

It did seem like the racers were having a good time, and it was very exciting.

I know we enjoyed cheering them on.  

 

Here are some pictures

 

Stars & Stripes headed out to practice

 

True North loaded second

 

Guess who was the crowd favorite

 

My little sports car

 

Stars & Stripes was a beast

 

Canada 2 may have been 2nd for a brief moment

 

This ain't NASCAR, they don't 'trade paint'

 

They are definitely going at it

 

OK, the red buoy to the right is the finish line. Stars & Stripes has the edge

 

Practically a photo finish

 

We were first to food and adult beverages. More Heineken, and some barbecue

 

We didn't stay for the medal ceremony, decided to walk back, it wasn't far

 

I think Royal should do this excursion more often. Maybe just two race boats and one spectator if the interest isn't quite as great. 

 

 

[tinkertwo]

Where was the Consecutive cruiser lunch held?  We did a B2B last year and it was at Jamie's, which we loved, but this looks like a different menu altogether.  

[John&LaLa]

5 minutes ago, tinkertwo said:

Where was the Consecutive cruiser lunch held?  We did a B2B last year and it was at Jamie's, which we loved, but this looks like a different menu altogether.  

 

Main Dining Room. Probably due to the size

Edited November 15, 2019 by John&LaLa

[xpcdoojk]

My boss is a big time sail boat racer.  His really big boat he keeps on the East Coast and races several weeks a year, I have only made that trip 1 time.  I grew up sailing Lasers and small catamarans.  These were all single sailor capable, especially the Laser.  I was quite good. Then I crewed for the boss.  Pull the jib halyard.. what?  When you sail single handed you really don’t need to know the name of lines.  You just do it.  On a boat where there are 8 of you, the words are critical.  I never flew a spinnaker, but when they sail pull the spinnaker halyard, and you do.  You don’t realize that the poor guy running around on the foredeck needs it to be parallel to the deck about waste level, and when you pull it up to his head, it is really hard to attach the spinnaker to it.  

 

After a couple of seasons I figured out how it works on a bigger boat, and I managed to not cause the boss to lose the Governors Cup a few years in a row.  This boat doesn’t have the big grinder systems, but a hand crank system where you pull the crank out and hope you can find it when you tack again.  There is nothing quite like the fear you feel in a 10 boat fleet where boats are sailing at only 10-12 knots but all trying to hit the start line at the right moment with the best momentum... as two 40 foot yachts bare down on each other on opposite tacks while other boats are trying to figure out where they can go to gain an advantage when one of the two boats tack.

 

jc

[Ocean Boy]

30 minutes ago, xpcdoojk said:

My boss is a big time sail boat racer.  

 

jc

I never pictured you as having a boss.

[Andy C]

Very cool.  Now I want to go back to St. Marten for the 784th time to try this.  Nothing like it in St. Thomas?

[Mikew0805]

9 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

 

Correct

They did a good job with Nordic Empress,  though.

Song of the Seas would work as a nod to history, and fits with some of the recent names. 🤷‍♂️