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

[bobmacliberty]

15 minutes ago, lenquixote66 said:

Graham:

My younger daughter is in the UK this weekend.She attended the Taylor Hawkins Memorial Concert

She has been to more Foo Fighters concerts than anyone that I know.

 

The video of Taylor's son Shane playing drums on My Hero had my eyes sweating.

[lenquixote66]

1 hour ago, Sea Dog said:

I’m weird when it comes to pie. While I’ll eat a fruit pie if I have to I’d much rather have a chocolate pie or even better a French silk pie. I love chocolate.

I love chocolate but I am not supposed to eat it because of my ocular migraines.Occasionally I do have a brownie .

[lenquixote66]

6 minutes ago, bobmacliberty said:

 

The video of Taylor's son Shane playing drums on My Hero had my eyes sweating.

I watched the highlights this morning on CBS.80 year old Paul McCartney in a duet with 70 year old Christie Hynde.75 year old Brian May .There is no such thing as old age in music.

[Luckynana]

13 hours ago, A&L_Ont said:

Another day down and our team is the only team 3/0.  Two games tomorrow, and at most three. The other three are 2/1 and it’s a double knock out tourney. 
 

We play at 10, 1, and 4 if needed. 

What an awesome team!!  Go Owen!!  Here's to another day of awesome games!  Enjoy!

[Luckynana]

10 hours ago, grapau27 said:

I love your photos.

G.

+1@aussie

5 hours ago, taznremmy said:

OMG!!  This brought back a memory from a long time ago.  We had a Siamese and she did the same.  Unfortunately for me, I had set the lemon meringue pie I had made up there. What a mess!!

I’m playing catch up from Denmark.  Arrived here 9/1 for today’s TA cruise on Voyager to Boston via Iceland and Greenland.  The weather here has been great.  A cloudy day yesterday, with some showers, but mostly clear skies and sunshine.  

 

Sounds like a wonderful trip.  Great weather is an added plus!

4 hours ago, sgmn said:

Thank you 😊 

It's all good now but was a bit traumatic. Baba was born on his due date, text book delivery, all going well until the last few minutes when he ingested some meconium into his stomach and lungs. So was floppy and not crying. Crash button was pushed and baba was whisked away for a few hours which was of course extremely scarey for them . 

He was on oxygen for 24 hours and antibiotics, but late last night they were told he can go home. 

We've had a couple of visits in hospital and got to cuddle him , very precious and perfect 🥰 

Hope to post some pics in a day or so

Congratulations Sue on the new addition to your family.  So glad all is well with your little love!

2 hours ago, grapau27 said:

Congratulations Sue.

Pleased Baba is well and you got to cuddle him.

+1

[BonTexasNY]

4 hours ago, sgmn said:

Thank you 😊 

It's all good now but was a bit traumatic. Baba was born on his due date, text book delivery, all going well until the last few minutes when he ingested some meconium into his stomach and lungs. So was floppy and not crying. Crash button was pushed and baba was whisked away for a few hours which was of course extremely scarey for them . 

He was on oxygen for 24 hours and antibiotics, but late last night they were told he can go home. 

We've had a couple of visits in hospital and got to cuddle him , very precious and perfect 🥰 

Hope to post some pics in a day or so

Congratulations on precious Baba's birth!

1 hour ago, bobmacliberty said:

 

I'm the same.  Much rather have some chocolate or peanut butter pie than apple or peach.  My fruit pie exception is key lime pie.  I can't get enough key lime pie.

Have you ever tried frozen chocolate covered key lime pie on a stick?  Ambrosia!!

[Sunshine3601]

5 hours ago, sgmn said:

Yippee,  good news. Really looking forward to meeting you and Eric after a two years of chatting. It is a great itinerary, last time we were in the States was Jan 2019 when we did the ABCs on Jewel. Nice to finish in Boston too 👍 

After we booked I saw you were on the roll call and was really happy too!  It will be really nice to meet you and Gary.   😀

Fabulous itinerary at a great price.

[Sunshine3601]

We had an amazingly easy disembarkment today.  We had breakfast in MDR, it was empty considering how full the ship was.   We walked off the ship little after 8 am and porter took our luggage to our car and were on the road by 8:23.

Easy drive home, less than 1.5 hrs

Unpacked and on 2nd load of laundry.

Off to the food store next.

 

[Sunshine3601]

@DaniDaniellehi Marietta,  it was really nice meeting you, Charlie and family.   Was great to see everyone having fun.  So happy they went on this cruise.  ❤️

[harryfat1]

4 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

We all were definitely plus packers, really, how much room does it save.  Now if I could only get Vikki into the "-'s" on her shoes......

 

That being said, now that we are D_+ we may start thinking out cutting back and making use of the free bag of laundry

Yeah, you never know what situation you run into such that you need 2 extra pairs of shoes on the a week long cruise.  Maybe there's a beach event somewhere on the cruise that a pair of boots is needed - just in case...🤪

 

I have always told my wife that women wear shoes to show other women - not other men.  Not too many men noticed what shoes the other women wear.  My wife would sometimes tell me - Oh, I like her shoes.  How many men looks other other women's shoes and said those are nice shoes...

 

As for the underwear, I didn't do a good job to explain the background in my question here as I laid it out in the trip report.  We normally do laundry on weekends and on the Wednesday night prior to the cruise where we fly out Friday morning, I counted 6 pair of clean underwear but the 7 night cruise + 1 night pre cruise hotel is 8 nights.  

 

So in theory I would need 8 pairs of clean underwear to cover the 8 nights of vacation. In my mind I was trying to see if I should be lazy in skipping doing laundry on a Wednesday night and just "Man-Up" and wear the same underwear for couple of nights in a row twice.  Maybe flip it inside-out on the second day to get that "fresh feel" and we are good to go.

 

Then the thought is if -2 in underwear is acceptable, how far "negative" can you go?

 

I mean with masks on and somewhat social distancing protocol in place, other non family member can barely smell you 6 feet away, right? Unless in tightly packed elevators...😝

[Ourusualbeach]

11 minutes ago, harryfat1 said:

Oh, I like her shoes.  How many men looks other other women's shoes and said those are nice shoes...

not unless shoes is a euphemism for something else.😂

[mo&fran]

This is for Dani, my young life in Pennsylvania.

To keep in perspective, I was born in 1943.  My dad and his brother operated a small dairy farm in the foothills of the mountain range that runs across western part of the state.  They sold milk and eggs in the town. 

 To expand , they bought an additional 70 acre farm about 4 miles away. It was located on top of a hill, and it was called Hilltop. the farm was landlocked, meaning it had no public  roads on its border, so access was a right of way through an easement  through neighboring property.  The farm kouse was built after the civil war.  It was built on a spring, so there was water. Most farm houses were usually with a spring located nearby for their water.  The house had no electricity,  there was a coal cookstove in the kitchen, and a coal stove on the second floor for heat. I think we used some sort of gas powered lamps for lights.  And the house  had never been painted, so the sides were just weather beaten wood.  And , to do your business, there was a good old fashioned outhouse close bye.

 US congress had a bill called the Rural Electrification Act, which helped to get electric to the house. Dad's uncle was a plumber, he installed a pump in cistern that stored the water from the spring, and built an indoor bathroom directly above, along with an electric water heater.  Also. an oil fired furnace and  baseboard heat. Because of the remote location, a 1000 gallon oil tank was buried in the yard, so it could be filled in the summer, and if it did run low in winter,  usually one more deliver took car of it when the weather permitted.

 The house had all termite damage repaired, it was insulated and siding was installed and painted, and all of the windows and doors replaced.  And of course, had to have a septic tank and leach field installed.

 

The dairy farm itself had a spring and cistern in a field high enough to provide pressure  for the farm, al though it eventually proved not enough for the dairy operation,. so I think that he eventually had to drill 2 wells. And at Hilltop, the spring became unreliable, and a well is drilled there also.  

[harryfat1]

4 hours ago, bobmacliberty said:

 

I'm a + packer.  The number of extra pairs of underwear depends on the length of the trip.  Always at least plus 1 but usually plus 2 if a week or more...especially if there's a chance of doing something that might make me sweaty.  Like Ken said, they don't take up much space.  Underwear/socks goes in first and fills in the spaces between the handles to build up a flat surface from which other clothes can then be neatly packed.  Once an engineer, always an engineer.

 

We still haven't figure out our packing strategy for our upcoming trip.  2 days in Seattle, 1 week Alaska cruise, 4 days in Vancouver, 9 day Vancouver to Hawaii cruise, 5 days in Kauai.  With travel days, 30 days total ranging from possible cold/wet in Alaska to hot/sunny in Hawaii.  We turn D+ on the Alaska cruise and may try the ship's laundry for underwear and t-shirts on the Hawaii cruise.  I've read that we shouldn't trust the ship's laundry for more than that.  Maybe we'll find a laundromat in Vancouver after the Alaska cruise is done.  We'll probably just end up taking 4 suitcases and overpacking.  We'll cross pack on the way there and seal up one of the suitcases with dirty Alaska only clothes after that cruise is done.  I'm really struggling with whether or not to take my camera bag.  What better places to have my real camera gear than Alaska and Hawaii, but it's an additional, heavy bag to lug everywhere.  I may just settle for shooting raw photos on my phone.  I've also been told that we need extra space for new things to come home with us.😁

Yeah, especially since you are going to Alaska late in the season, expect lots of "season end" discounts. Ketchikan has the best price for clothes from what I saw so load up while you are there.

 

Tough call on the camera.  Guess it depends on what excursions you plan to see in Alaska and Hawaii.  Many of those places are "wide angle" scenery that you can just use your cell phone. Unless you plan to take some live animal shots, then you can bring everything and the kitchen sink.

 

My wife passed on bringing her SLR and various lenses.  I brought the zoom camera for the glacier pictures.

 

 

Hubbard Glacier:

 

 

Glacier Bay zoom in:

 

 

Mendenhall at various degrees of zoom.  So you can decide on how much is it worth to you to get a zoom shot or not:

 

 

 

 

 

You can be "That Dude" with your super sized camera equipment 

 

 

 

 

This dude stood in front of the salmon ladder in Ketchikan forever trying to get the pictures of the salmon jumping the ladder.  Guess this could be you...

 

Anyway, have a fantastic super long vacation in case I don't talk to you again before you leave.

 

 

Edited September 4, 2022 by harryfat1

[bobmacliberty]

58 minutes ago, BonTexasNY said:

Have you ever tried frozen chocolate covered key lime pie on a stick?  Ambrosia!!

 

Yes...Kermit's in Key West.  Amazing.

[harryfat1]

15 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

not unless shoes is a euphemism for something else.😂

Anything I said in addition to this comment will be used against me in my hearing at CC on banning me from posting here in the future...

[DaniDanielle]

We made it home.  Debbie it was a pleasure!  The trip was good, the kids really had fun.

Congratulations Sue on the new baby, very happy news.

[bobmacliberty]

1 minute ago, harryfat1 said:

Yeah, especially since you are going to Alaska late in the season, expect lots of "season end" discounts. Ketchikan has the best price for clothes from what I saw so load up while you are there.

 

Tough call on the camera.  Guess it depends on what excursions you plan to see in Alaska and Hawaii.  Many of those places are "wide angle" scenery that you can just use your cell phone. Unless you plan to take some live animal shots, then you can bring everything and the kitchen sink.

 

My wife passed on bringing her SLR and various lenses.  I brought the zoom camera for the glacier pictures.

 

 

Hubbard Glacier:

 

 

Glacier Bay zoom in:

 

 

Mendenhall at various degrees of zoom.  So you can decide on how much is it worth to you to get a zoom shot or not:

 

 

 

 

 

You can be "That Dude" with your super sized camera equipment 

 

 

 

 

This dude stood in front of the salmon ladder in Ketchikan forever trying to get the pictures of the salmon jumping the ladder.  Guess this could be you...

 

 

 

Yeah, that could be me.  If I bring the camera bag, then the 70-200 f/2.8L lens is coming.  That thing is long and heavy.  200mm (320mm equivalent with my crop sensor) is probably not enough so I'd probably also need to buy/rent a 2X extender.  Looks like you have a Canon SX60 which can zoom in  to the 35mm equivalent of 1300+mm.  Even with an extender, I've still only got a little more than half of your zoom capability.  

 

All of these fancy numbers are to try to convince myself not to bring the camera bag.  But why have an expensive DSLR if I'm not going to use it on a trip like this????  Decisions, decisions. 😖

[lenquixote66]

1 hour ago, Sunshine3601 said:

We had an amazingly easy disembarkment today.  We had breakfast in MDR, it was empty considering how full the ship was.   We walked off the ship little after 8 am and porter took our luggage to our car and were on the road by 8:23.

Easy drive home, less than 1.5 hrs

Unpacked and on 2nd load of laundry.

Off to the food store next.

 

Glad to hear that you and Eric had a nice cruise,Debbie and that you had a nice get together with Marietta,Charlie and family.

[Ozark_Kid]

2 hours ago, bobmacliberty said:

There's a big difference between good and bad key lime pie.  Not sure which version Symphony will have.  If you don't like it on Symphony, be sure to give it another chance somewhere else in the Caribbean or preferably, the Florida Keys

Soooo true.  I lucked out and tried my 1st key lime pie several years ago when we stopped in Key West.  If I didn't try it there 1st, I might not of been a big fan of it.  

[Sea Dog]

2 hours ago, bobmacliberty said:

 

Legitimate media will do what you said and verify truth before going public.  Unfortunately, there are many out there today who just want to be first with a story, whether they get the facts right or not.

 

I fully agree on social media.  It has so much potential for good, but I think it's doing a lot of harm to society and how people behave.  Even here on CC, people will say nasty things that I'm almost certain they wouldn't say in person.

 

There's a big difference between good and bad key lime pie.  Not sure which version Symphony will have.  If you don't like it on Symphony, be sure to give it another chance somewhere else in the Caribbean or preferably, the Florida Keys.  If you can find fresh key limes, or if you want to order key lime juice, I can recommend this recipe:

Copycat Kermit's Key Lime Pie Recipe - Recipes.net

 

 

I agree and thank you for the recipe. I will have to make that.

 

 

1 hour ago, Sunshine3601 said:

We had an amazingly easy disembarkment today.  We had breakfast in MDR, it was empty considering how full the ship was.   We walked off the ship little after 8 am and porter took our luggage to our car and were on the road by 8:23.

Easy drive home, less than 1.5 hrs

Unpacked and on 2nd load of laundry.

Off to the food store next.

 

 

 

Welcome back so glad you had a great time. Now you can start making those Kraken Colada's at home.

 

 

37 minutes ago, DaniDanielle said:

We made it home.  Debbie it was a pleasure!  The trip was good, the kids really had fun.

Congratulations Sue on the new baby, very happy news.

 

Welcome home. Glad you got to hook up with Debbie and had a great time.

 

[DaniDanielle]

5 hours ago, Arzeena said:

Welcome back Marietta, Charlie, Debbie and Eric.

Hope everyone enjoyed the cruise.

We enjoyed ourselves.  Kids really had fun!

[Ozark_Kid]

12 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

Spent today looking at various YouTube videos on tips and tricks on how to use some of the new features of the phone

I got the S21 Ultra over 1 1/2 years ago.  You are going to love the camera.  The 10x lens is a big plus.  No matter how many videos you watch you will be finding new features even a year from now.  Let us know how you like it after getting somewhat used to it.

[Luckynana]

1 hour ago, Sunshine3601 said:

We had an amazingly easy disembarkment today.  We had breakfast in MDR, it was empty considering how full the ship was.   We walked off the ship little after 8 am and porter took our luggage to our car and were on the road by 8:23.

Easy drive home, less than 1.5 hrs

Unpacked and on 2nd load of laundry.

Off to the food store next.

 

Glad to hear all went well.  Shopping already, Debbie?  I'd love to have some of your energy!😉

How wonderful you and Marietta got to meet up!

1 hour ago, DaniDanielle said:

We made it home.  Debbie it was a pleasure!  The trip was good, the kids really had fun.

Congratulations Sue on the new baby, very happy news.

So great that you all had such a wonderful time on your cruise!  Thank you for sharing the pictures of you and Debbie.   Welcome home!

[harryfat1]

46 minutes ago, bobmacliberty said:

 

Yeah, that could be me.  If I bring the camera bag, then the 70-200 f/2.8L lens is coming.  That thing is long and heavy.  200mm (320mm equivalent with my crop sensor) is probably not enough so I'd probably also need to buy/rent a 2X extender.  Looks like you have a Canon SX60 which can zoom in  to the 35mm equivalent of 1300+mm.  Even with an extender, I've still only got a little more than half of your zoom capability.  

 

All of these fancy numbers are to try to convince myself not to bring the camera bag.  But why have an expensive DSLR if I'm not going to use it on a trip like this????  Decisions, decisions. 😖

Yeah, if you are thinking this hard about it, just bring the whole kit and caboodle. 

 

What will likely happen is 95% of the time you will ask yourself, why did I listen to that stupid Harry guy and drag this crap half way around the world as I don't need it.

 

Then 5% of the time, you will say to yourself, glad I made the right decision to drag all this crap half way around the world for "these photos".

 

At the end of the day, it's not about the 10,000 pictures you did take on your vacation that you will remember but the few that "got away" that you would have had if you brought your equipment that will haunt you. 

 

Like you said, it's already paid and bought for, suck it up and take it with you.  Just cut back on the socks and underwear in other luggage to make it less heavy.

 

Go "commando" if necessary...🤪 

[Ocean Boy]

4 hours ago, dani negreanu said:

 

It seems that our friend Jimbo will enjoy for a week his (and his wife's) very tasty apple pies without being able to share their photos with us... 😢

 

What did he do now?