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

[grapau27]

1 hour ago, Sea Dog said:

@grapau27 Moving moment this morning as the Captain made an announcement of the Queebs passing and asked for a moment of silence in the main dining room. All the staff stood quietly and then they played “God  Save the Queen.”

Thank you Greg.

The funeral procession is just about to enter Windsor castle.

Her Majesty will be laid to rest here in a vault in St George's chapel alongside her husband,sister,mam and dad.

Best wishes for a fantastic cruise.

Graham 

 

[BonTexasNY]

Very moving and well deserved funeral for Her Majesty The Queen.  You could see the grief in The King's face.  An amazing tribute to a Queen well loved and admired the world over.

[dani negreanu]

15 hours ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Sending positive thoughts for all to be well with the colonoscopy😀🙏

 

+ 1 , Deb @Momof3gurlz

 

3 hours ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Beautiful service that has brought tears to my eyes.

 

Same here, the tears came very easily,   @grapau27

 

3 hours ago, Sunshine3601 said:

So very sad to say goodbye to the Queen a truly amazing woman.   God Bless the Queen.

 

😢

 

36 minutes ago, DaniDanielle said:

@h20skibum Hope your daughter’s treatment help her heal🤞🙏

 

+ 1 , M & S,  @h20skibum 

 

[lenquixote66]

23 hours ago, George C said:

While it’s possible , Brooklyn I am sure had hundreds of pizza places and I don’t believe we lived in same areas, I know we totally disagree, my main reason for post was your saying you have been eating pizza longer than anyone. I find it strange than anyone in New York not eating pizza before the age of 16.

You lived in Bushwick.We discussed a doctor that I went to there that you were familiar with.I also told you that my late BIL grew up in Bushwick on Willoughby Ave.I lived 15 minutes south of Willoughby.When I was 16 the father of one of my friends took his two sons and me to Jamaica Ave to eat a food that we never ate previously.It was called pizza.

We also discussed that you lived in Carroll Gardens and I hung out there with my friend Marsha.

Another discussion was about Ridgewood .I asked if you ever knew a guy who lived on Putnam Ave named 

Tony P and a friend who lived there who currently lives on Stanhope St.in Glendale.

Edited September 19, 2022 by lenquixote66

[lenquixote66]

5 hours ago, grapau27 said:

Thank you Lenny.

We went to Sorrento's every day on Anthem because the Pizzas were absolutely gorgeous and the best we have ever tasted.

We regularly have pizza's in the UK which are lovely.

We have had pizza's in Napoli,Rome and Venice which were nice but imo Sorrento's pizza's on Anthem September 4th- 12th 2022 were better.

My grandmother was Italian and a great cook.

Graham.

Thanks for the post,Graham.

[lenquixote66]

23 hours ago, Sunshine3601 said:

I hope you are to use your new walker and have some fun.  It is a gorgeous day here.  Enjoy😀

Unfortunately we never got there.Toby had a very bad reaction to the Covid Booster shot that she took Saturday Afternoon.She is fine now.

[lenquixote66]

23 hours ago, HBE4 said:

 

I understand why you say that & don't necessarily disagree with you as it does seem odd to me as well. I've been eating pizza as long as I can remember .

 

The only rebuttal I could offer is that I did not try New York's other signature food item - The Bagel - until I was around 16 or 17. I was working part time in a deli and customers kept raving how great the bagels were so I tried one. I was unimpressed - too dry, dense and doughy. It was probably another 16 years before I tried one again and even now only eat them very sparingly. The ones I like probably are not "true" NY bagels.

 

Granted, I'm not a city boy as I was born & raised in the suburbs of NYC but bagel places were plentiful around me.

I do not recall why I did not have pizza at an earlier age.I only have two friends from my childhood that are still alive .I recently discussed this with them.The three of us recall eating ice cream and White Castle hamburgers.

[lenquixote66]

22 hours ago, HBE4 said:

I have not cruise since before the pandemic so my info is hopelessly out of date but here is my contribution to the Great Pizza Wars Debate.

 

Sorrento's pizza has always been a bit "meh" and hit-n-miss in my opinion. Royal did embark on an effort of improve the taste & quality around 2017 or 2018 time frame (I think, memory is a bit hazy). Reformulated recipe with better, fresher ingredients from different sources/vendors.  It was gradually rolled out to the fleet so it was still a hit-n-miss proposition but I remember seeing signs touting the "new & improved" pizza on some ships and it was indeed "pretty good", all things considered. Not as good as some my favorite local pizza joints places but it certainly was no longer "horrible".  

 

The usual caveats apply: In My Humble Opinion, taste is subjective, not everyone is going to like vanilla, etc, etc, etc.

 

Maybe things have changed post-pandemic, with cost cutting & supply chain problems, rolling back the "new & improved" Sorrento's back to it's previous "meh" status?  Maybe @Sea Dog or @bobmacliberty or some other recent cruisers can do a taste test for us?

 

I last cruised in Dec.2019 but spent a lot of time in Sorrentos.

[lenquixote66]

22 hours ago, George C said:

Agree I learned a long time ago not to trust a Texan saying this Italian restaurant is great , long time ago one of my wife’s coworkers told her how good Olive Garden was , I took two bites of my lasagna and that was it , manager came and asked me what was wrong, I told him this wasn’t itilian food , they were very nice and offered me another entree which I turned down. Also trying to find a real bagel or a pastrami sandwich in 1982 was impossible, many of us did frequent trips to New York and brought back bagels and Italian bread or bailies .

When I was in Houston in 2006 and 2007 there were great Bagel stores

[lenquixote66]

22 hours ago, DaniDanielle said:

My brother lives in Pearland.  Every time we flew down we brought  Sabrett  hot dogs and onion sauce!  Every now and then he tells us some New York Italian moved there and opened a halfway decent pizzeria.  I love the chicken fried steak so I would survive😳

When visiting friends who relocated from Brooklyn to a suburb of Houston we were taken to a Pizzeria that had a sign on one of the walls reading “Pizza just like Brooklyn”.

We were introduced to the owners, 2 brothers who grew up in Brooklyn.

[lenquixote66]

22 hours ago, Ocean Boy said:

See how I have so diplomatically stayed out of this discussion? 🙂

Your opinions are always welcome to me.Did you ever watch the show I suggested :Doctors on Walks Getting Food ? In each episode the host of the show walks with an MD discussing the doctor and their love of food.

[brillohead]

2 hours ago, Jimbo said:

tmi

Oh, sweetie, you got the easy version.  🤣

[lenquixote66]

22 hours ago, HBE4 said:

 

I've never been to an Olive Garden but will try it one day. A buddy of mine described it as "pretty good food" as long as you don't think of it as "Italian food", otherwise its not that good. 😄

I will stick to Buon Amici.

[HBE4]

17 hours ago, dani negreanu said:

 

At least until Sept. 27 😢

 

16 hours ago, Jimbo said:

Kind of miss him in a weird way. 🤣 Miss the banter. 😉

 

Hopefully he hasn't found a hobby to replace CC. 

[lenquixote66]

22 hours ago, HBE4 said:

 

I actually find the food debates fun.  Maybe my idea is "fun" is a bit twisted?

 

But yeah, I do agree with your sentiment. Some take it a bit too seriously.

I have a neighbor who was a Baseball Coach for a school in Westchester who after retired became a Restaurant Critic for a LI newspaper.He recommended two Italian restaurants to me that in his opinion are the best in LI.I went to both.One in my opinion was great and the other not good at all.We went back a second time to the one we did not like and had the same opinion.

[Tree_skier]

On 9/17/2022 at 6:41 PM, Ourusualbeach said:

Made a trip to Home Depot yoday and saw this on my way out.  Guy had loaded 25 sheets of drywall onto the roof of his car.  Even scarier was he thought the twine that they supply to tie the red flags to long loads would secure it.  Thats about 1200 pounds he has on the roof.

 

Part of me wanted to follow him with the camera recording waiting for the  accident to happen.

You should have followed.  The video footage would have been absolutely viral on Youtube and made you a tonne of money.

[Jimbo]

Next up break up the tile floor and tear down the walls

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This whole wall is coming down to open it up to the living room to have one Great Room

 

 

 

Gas Range will go on this wall, also refrigerator will be set in that corner, that door where the ladder is will be taken out as is that wall to extend the countertop and fridge into that corner.

 

Sink will be relocated into the 6'x 10' Island

 

 

 

Can't wait until that pony wall is gone, we always hated that.

 

Out with the Old and in with the New!!

 

 

Edited September 19, 2022 by Jimbo

[lenquixote66]

22 hours ago, BonTexasNY said:

Olive Garden>>>>blech, my opinion.  The best Italian food is a mom and pop owned restaurant, not a chain.  Eddy's Pizza Restaurant in Plano on 15th St., near Custer is a favorite but haven't been there in quite a while.

Katz's deli in NY ships!  My friend surprised me with a pastrami lunch.  Sublime, although I prefer my pastrami more thinly cut.

I have never been to Katz’ Deli .When I tell people that they find that strange.Growing up my parents had a friend who owned a DeliJoe’s South Shore and that was the only one we went to.

[lenquixote66]

22 hours ago, molly361 said:

If you grew up in the Suburbs of NY you probably would not be an Olive Garden fan.  I was raised in Eastchester, worked in Dobbs Ferry and White Plains.  Sister and 92 year old mother are in Yorktown Heights.  The rest of the siblings have migrated to Ct and Cape Cod

Buon Amici,one of my favorite Italian restaurants is in White Plains.

[HBE4]

17 hours ago, Momof3gurlz said:

 Tomorrow is fasting & prep day for my colonoscopy on Tuesday so the only thing I’ll be making is jello & chicken broth - yuck.  ( I have leftover beef stew from last night for him).

 

Chicken Broth is disgusting, beef broth was more tolerable. Actually not half bad.  I also ate a lot of apple sauce.

 

17 hours ago, Jimbo said:

Never heard of prepping 2 days before.............Usually the stuff you drink the night before does the trick........ If you eat like you are now, can't imagine how it is going to be for you tomorrow night when you drink that stuff.

 

I was started on a Low Residue Diet 3 days before my colonoscopy. The doctor recommended fasting & prepping the day before but I actually started that  2 days before a well. I have a slow digestive system and need the extra time to be cleansed and make sure everything is "all clear".

 

Am I over-sharing?

 

[lenquixote66]

22 hours ago, HBE4 said:

 

Born and raised in Rockland County where it seemed half the population migrated from The Bronx in the 60' & 70's before moving a bit north of Yorktown Heights where it seems the other half of The Bronx moved to. 😃.  Plenty of NYC style pizza places in both areas.

 

Worked in White Plans for 25+ years, plenty of good Italian places in the vicinity. I promise to keep my Olive Garden exceptions low.

I have friends and relatives living in Hartsdale and White Plains and have been to many restaurants there over the years.

[lenquixote66]

22 hours ago, HBE4 said:

 

 

I might be heading up to The Cape in a few weekends. Friends have a house there & have been trying to lure me up all summer.  Make fantastic lasagna & chicken parm.  Yes, they are Italian.

 

 

Our friends who lived in Cortlandt Manor had a time share in Cape Cod for many years.My wife and I have been there many times.We love the area.

[Jimbo]

22 minutes ago, brillohead said:

Oh, sweetie, you got the easy version.  🤣

I always am afraid when I get the results  the Doctor comes in with all his  interns gather around and besides saying everything is all clear and btw you have a "Nice Azzzzzzzzzzzz"   😁  🤣

[grapau27]

40 minutes ago, lenquixote66 said:

I do not recall why I did not have pizza at an earlier age.I only have two friends from my childhood that are still alive .I recently discussed this with them.The three of us recall eating ice cream and White Castle hamburgers.

The very first time I ate pizza was after we were married.

I believe I was about 25 years old.

[lenquixote66]

16 hours ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Send prayers for the people of Puerta Rico that are getting slammed by Hurricane Fiona.   The entire island is without power.  They are expecting up to 25 inches of rain.   DR will get hit sometime tonight per news station I was just watching.

My cousin Al and his wife moved to Sanrurce,PR after retirement .The area is unbelievable now due to the storm.