Royal Caribbean Cruisers -- How Are Things Where You Are? (was "Routine" ​ 😁 ​day in lockdown... how was yours?)

[Milwaukee Eight]

1 hour ago, h20skibum said:

Just started my day by ordering 4 new iPhone 12’s.   It was time to move up from our 6s’s.  I will have something to play with when I get home later this week. 
 

Another day at the beach for me.
 

A nice photo from yesterday.
 

 

 

I just read an article that indicates Apple is going to bring back the touch to open phone on the 13 due to not recognizing one with a mask on to open the phone. 

Edited March 16, 2021 by Milwaukee Eight

[xpcdoojk]

12 hours ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Sounds like another great day.  I wonder what is the connection for this area to have a titantic museum.  Very interesting.   My Dh and I love this kind of stuff.  Sounds like we need to put this area on our to.do.list!

 

Same as the connection to Ripley’s believe it or not.  IE tourist traps have lots of the same types of places.  Branson has a Titanic thing, very similar to the one in Gatlinburg.  

 

Not saying that Gatlinburg or Branson isn’t worth visiting, I am just saying lots of non-authentic stuff at both. 😉

[h20skibum]

49 minutes ago, Milwaukee Eight said:

I just read an article that indicates Apple is going to bring back the touch to open phone on the 13 due to not recognizing one with a mask on to open the phone. 

I also read they may be doing away with all ports.  No more lightning connector.  That is one reason I didn’t want to wait on 13. I have some Bose quiet comfort noise canceling headphones (wired), that I never would fly without.  With the adapter, it gives me a few more years with those. 

[Milwaukee Eight]

21 minutes ago, h20skibum said:

I also read they may be doing away with all ports.  No more lightning connector.  That is one reason I didn’t want to wait on 13. I have some Bose quiet comfort noise canceling headphones (wired), that I never would fly without.  With the adapter, it gives me a few more years with those. 

Off topic but people thought removing the headphone jack was the end but as you can see, has not. 
 

It remains to be seen what they might do. 

[h20skibum]

So here is an interesting part of a menu we saw this morning.  It only caught my eye, because my wife is always ordering a hamburger without the bun. (Watching the weight thing). 
 

This place had a hamburger for the low price of $12.49.  They also had one, without the bun for the low price of $12.99.  So they charge an extra $0.50 to not give you the bun.  Looks like a win for them. 😂

 

 

 

[bobmacliberty]

33 minutes ago, Milwaukee Eight said:

Off topic but people thought removing the headphone jack was the end but as you can see, has not. 
 

It remains to be seen what they might do. 

 

Sometimes Apple leads (e.g. no headphone jack, no charging brick included with new phones), and sometimes they follow other phone makers (e.g. fingerprint reader behind the screen).  Eventually, all phones seem to end up with more or less the same functionality.  I think Apple clearly wants to go completely portless.  It allows them to make their phones smaller and/or pack more stuff into the same size.  Wireless charging and ear buds are the first steps.  When (and I do think it's when, not if) they do this, other phone makers will be closely watching to see how customers accept it.  As Rory said, I think people will adjust to having no ports, especially Apple zealots.  Third party companies will make various adapters to allow "legacy" devices like wired headphones to still work.  Good discussion on the whole portless concept:

 

[Sheal]

I just bought the mini 12 and the darn thing does not work with my wireless charger in my new car.  I googled it and saw others with the same problem.  Hoping Apple addresses it in an update at some point.  Knowing me, I will have the phone for at least another 5 years and the car for 8.  Plenty of time!

 

 

[Ocean Boy]

1 hour ago, Milwaukee Eight said:

Off topic but people thought removing the headphone jack was the end but as you can see, has not. 
 

It remains to be seen what they might do. 

Samsung had done away with the headphone jack also. I am still using my S8 that has the jack but have switched over to bluethooth ear buds anyway. I would be interested to know which uses more battery power, connecting with bluetooth buds or driving wired ear buds. 

 

I would not like going completely portless. I like being able to physically connect my phone to my laptop. But I suppose, just like with non easily replaceable batteries, these phone manufacturers are going to just do what they do.

[h20skibum]

Ok, walked by this sign several times.  I can imagine his ads “If you find yourself in deep doo doo, who you going to call?”

 

Let Doody get you out of doo doo!

 

[sara mom]

All new windows being installed in our house this week. It’s a brisk 55 degrees inside, 34 outside.

 

We ordered them in September.

[Milwaukee Eight]

14 minutes ago, sara mom said:

All new windows being installed in our house this week. It’s a brisk 55 degrees inside, 34 outside.

 

We ordered them in September.

One of the reasons their is such a shortage of building materials and supplies. So many using this time to remodel and upgrade. Not to mention the Covid issues in the manufacturing plants. 
 

I have a cousin who works at the GE plant in Louisville. They can’t keep up with orders. Also they have supplier shortages and employees out sick from Covid. 

[sara mom]

10 minutes ago, Milwaukee Eight said:

One of the reasons their is such a shortage of building materials and supplies. So many using this time to remodel and upgrade. Not to mention the Covid issues in the manufacturing plants. 
 

I have a cousin who works at the GE plant in Louisville. They can’t keep up with orders. Also they have supplier shortages and employees out sick from Covid. 

The original install date was mid December- but with installers contracting Covid and others having to quarantine, that ate up a lot of time.   
 

All but one window was done in October.   The window that replaced the one below took time.   They installed this one yesterday, but are having challenges with the outside flashing.

[Lionesss]

We dodged a bullet today. Both Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge are great touristy destinations. But the connecting route “ Park way”  drive usually takes 18 min to get from one city to the other. 
Today with rain, traffic and throw a couple fender Bnders in it took some people bumper to bumper traffic 2 1/2 hours to go the 7 miles. 
Radio gave alerts we listened and took alternate route on a winding 2 lane highway on a road I will never go on again. It was hugging cliff edges no guard rails. But only took me 25 min. Guess it beat 2 1/2 hours. 
 

Lunch at margarita ville 

 

I would hate to see the crowds in summer. 

[Lionesss]

Lunch

[island lady]

18 hours ago, ownedbypets said:

 

We have had pets for over 30 years and it has always been a challenge to find a good sitter that I trust. It's not easy when you have multiple pets. We now have 2 Newfoundlands, 6 and 7 years old, that are our last babies. I don't wish for anything to happen to them but when their time comes we will not be getting another pet for a while. I want to be able to lock up the house and go wherever we want and for as long as we want.

 

I am not happy with being pet less, but hopefully will get some long distance travel under our belt for a few years.. and then maybe...later?   We got lucky with our cat sitter this last time.  She was wonderful!  Not just a cat sitter, but helped check on the house and even arranged for A/C repair when it failed while we were on a cruise.  She would email every day with detailed "cat adventures of the day" and sent 3-4 pictures with it daily.  Always looked forward to that email.  The girls loved her.  

 

But still....was tough to leave them, with 2 weeks being our max, even though they were in excellent care.  They missed us, and Momma missed her girls.  

 

Hopefully things will get back to some degree of normal over the next months...want to get a lot of cruises rebooked.  First attempt at international is not until end of 2022 for us.  

[island lady]

14 hours ago, singinalot said:

we haven’t heard back yet. 😩

 

It takes awhile.  Hope you have good luck...ours was just after the "bubble burst" causing many appraisers to come in way low.  Ouch.  

[island lady]

11 hours ago, Tree_skier said:

So the meat orgy continued. Tonight the SIL smoked tri-tip. It was exceptional 👌

 

 

All packed and ready to go. Tomorrow’s a travel day. DW is staying behind for more grandkid time.  She’ll catch up in a week or so. She might bring one along though so that’ll be nice.  

 

 

 

 

Oh yums!!  Carnivorously delicious looking!!  😋

[xpcdoojk]

1 hour ago, Lionesss said:

We dodged a bullet today. Both Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge are great touristy destinations. But the connecting route “ Park way”  drive usually takes 18 min to get from one city to the other. 
Today with rain, traffic and throw a couple fender Bnders in it took some people bumper to bumper traffic 2 1/2 hours to go the 7 miles. 
Radio gave alerts we listened and took alternate route on a winding 2 lane highway on a road I will never go on again. It was hugging cliff edges no guard rails. But only took me 25 min. Guess it beat 2 1/2 hours. 
 

Lunch at margarita ville 

 

I would hate to see the crowds in summer. 

Oooh!  That sounds like a good road for my MINI!  Fun fun!

[island lady]

1 hour ago, sara mom said:

The original install date was mid December- but with installers contracting Covid and others having to quarantine, that ate up a lot of time.   
 

All but one window was done in October.   The window that replaced the one below took time.   They installed this one yesterday, but are having challenges with the outside flashing.

 

I love that style window!  Put one in our kitchen when we remodeled it, and want to put one in the office when we do that.  Little challenging doing the curved drywall (we do that ourselves) around the top...but oh so worth it.  🙂 

[dani negreanu]

3 hours ago, h20skibum said:

my wife is always ordering a hamburger without the bun. (Watching the weight thing).

 

I'm also ordering without the bun, but, in my case, they bring more french fries instead😎

[Sheal]

Dani,

 

I could help you out with the fries.

[ollienbertsmum]

4 hours ago, bobmacliberty said:

 

Sometimes Apple leads (e.g. no headphone jack, no charging brick included with new phones), and sometimes they follow other phone makers (e.g. fingerprint reader behind the screen).  Eventually, all phones seem to end up with more or less the same functionality.  I think Apple clearly wants to go completely portless.  It allows them to make their phones smaller and/or pack more stuff into the same size.  Wireless charging and ear buds are the first steps.  When (and I do think it's when, not if) they do this, other phone makers will be closely watching to see how customers accept it.  As Rory said, I think people will adjust to having no ports, especially Apple zealots.  Third party companies will make various adapters to allow "legacy" devices like wired headphones to still work.  Good discussion on the whole portless concept:

 

I love apple products but don’t like the ear buds.  They are so expensive and when I am walking or rushing to work I really think that they will fall.  I go to sleep listening to random stuff.  I get annoyed that I cannot charge my phone at the same time as I listen because I cannot fall asleep with ear buds in.  I love my iphone 8 but wish I could have had some control over the use of ports. 

[ownedbypets]

2 hours ago, sara mom said:

The original install date was mid December- but with installers contracting Covid and others having to quarantine, that ate up a lot of time.   
 

All but one window was done in October.   The window that replaced the one below took time.   They installed this one yesterday, but are having challenges with the outside flashing.

 

Love this window. We have the same one in the master bath.

[ollienbertsmum]

I have been away for a while.  My thesis is a never ending story that needs work.  

 

I thought that today’s news about COVID numbers would be of interest.  So we have a high vaccination (pfizer) rate in Gibraltar, we are just coming out of our second lockdown.  We had a horrible high infection rate in our elderly care setting which has affected many.  

 

So our infections have gone down from over 1000 to about 20, but this weekend we had 7 new infections.  The alarming thing for me is that 4 of these new cases had had one jab and one had had both jabs.  

 

I knew that vaccination itself was not going to guarantee that you don’t catch COVID, but frustrating to hear in real life that you can.  I hope that none of these 5 are hospitalised, because that is the main concern of the healthcare system.  The message is that it is OK for people to catch mild flu-like symptoms, we just cannot have an overwhelmed hospital.  

 

However if people do keep catching COVID even after vaccination - where does that leave cruising???

[dani negreanu]

My b'day "festivities" have started a day earlier....

 

"The Brussels gang" - those are friends ("embassy wives") I've met during our relocation to Brussels, and it turned out that we all live within a walking distance from each other 😁

 

They took me to a fish and seafood restaurant at our Marina. The "deal" is that you get as many mazets as you like, for the price of the main course.... 

 

The highlight was fish eggs salad with finely chopped fresh onions... we went for seconds and thirds. My main course was coquille Saint Jacques. Divine.

 

Tomorrow my BFF from high school managed to book us with our respective DHs for a special b'fast in Tel-Aviv right on the beach at a very "starred" restaurant. With the morning rush hour, it will take us one hour -- hope it will be worth it.