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

[c-leg5]

19 minutes ago, BonTexasNY said:

Thanks.  $1700 is a lot of OBC!  I would cash out at the casino after making a trip to the jewelry and handbag shops IF they accept OBC. 😁 

 

We were on a weird Liberty cruise out of Galveston a few years ago.  A few weeks before cruise date we got a letter that there would only be one port stop, Nassau to repair something,  They offered either a full refund or 50% off with some OBC.  We were cruising with friends and we jumped on a great deal.  We didn't much care about the one port since we so love being on the ship.  At the end of the cruise whatever OBC we had left on our account was credited back to our credit card.

 

We had a lovely few days in Nassau, meandering around The Atlantis, gawking at the impressive yachts, the straw market, shops, and just hanging out with friends.  It was a treat not having to rush back to the ship. I think we were there 3 days.  

 

 

We also enjoyed that cruise! It made a change from the regular Cozumel/Costa Maya/ Belize/Roatan route we have done so often and we found some nice surprises in Nassau.
 

As I recall we left Galveston late due to fog (?),we arrived Nassau late and left late due to repairs taking longer than expected?

[Sunshine3601]

2 hours ago, Arzeena said:

Hello from Nassau!

The Odyssey and the Edge are neighbors for today. Edge leaves at 1 pm. Only cruise line excursions allowed.  We are staying on board and enjoying the day.

Mo and Fran, we are at the aft, enjoying a late breakfast. Wave to us....we are looking at the yellow thingy on the Odyssey. I am in red shorts wellll coral to be exact. I am watching to see if I can see someone waving.

How fun is that!       Hope you beautiful sunny skies while relaxing onboard.     

I wonder if more things have opened up in Nassau yet.

[Jimbo]

 800 flights cancelled Saturday and  another 1000 flights  this morning cancelled by Southwest Airlines , hope no one on this thread  had flights scheduled yesterday or today for cruises this weekend were effected.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/southwest-airlines-flight-woes-continue-150820206.html

Edited October 10, 2021 by Jimbo

[Sunshine3601]

30 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

 800 flights cancelled Saturday and  another 1000 flights  this morning cancelled by Southwest Airlines , hope no one on this thread  had flights scheduled yesterday or today for cruises this weekend were effected.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/southwest-airlines-flight-woes-continue-150820206.html

@Ozark_Kid is stuck in Miami.  Their post cruise flight was cancelled yesterday.     Worse places to be stuck🤪

Feel bad for all the cruisers trying to get to their sailings this weekend and the ones trying to get home.  

 

Fyi, we had another wonderful breakfast at mustache Bill's this morning.  Today is last day open.  Have to wait till next may or june for them to reopen.

Edited October 10, 2021 by Sunshine3601

[island lady]

17 hours ago, Sunshine3601 said:

I'm sure its the overhead painting of ceiling and the constant up and down motion with painting walls.  When he initially had the break he was told he probably wouldnt have full range motion but after his pt and doing extra exercises at home he did have full range.  

Not sure that casting a surf rod was the best idea to give a break but he says its feeling better than this morning.   But that could be the long island iced teas he had at happy hour😂

 

 

Oh yeah...best meds he could have been offered!  Cure all for sure...I am with that!!  😉 

[island lady]

20 hours ago, Ozark_Kid said:

Flight out of Miami canceled. SW took off with are bags.  No SW flight until Monday..... They just announced they unloaded the bags.  Another thing I have two more days of meds.   This sinks. 

 

Oh no...so sorry to hear that!  Travel frustrations never fun.  

 

Never been a fan of SW.   Some love it, I don't.  My sister, who has to fly quite frequently, gave up using them years ago.  She calls them "Scuzz West".   😮😉 

[Jimbo]

Debbie guess we missed that about Southwest cancelling flights, we spent yesterday afternoon in Blacksburg, Virginia, Home of Virginia Tech University.

 

We went there for lunch around 1pm half knowing there was going to be a college football game within 1 mile where we had lunch.

 

Game Time was 7:30pm, game was against Norte Dame.

 

It was pretty exciting around there even 7 hours before game time. Ton's of people around walking the streets, Parking lots full of RV's with Grills set up.

 

Made us feel young again with all the excitement in the area.

 

We had lunch at Cabo Fish Taco

https://www.cabofishtaco.com/blacksburg/

 

I had 2 different kinds of their Shrimp Taco's, the food was excellent and priced great. $13.00 for 2

 

After that we went home and on the way looking for some pumpkins. Wow, did we find some pumpkins. They said they had 2000 acre's of pumpkins, that is all you could see for miles.

Edited October 10, 2021 by Jimbo

[davekathy]

South Worse. 

[Sea Dog]

57 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

800 flights cancelled Saturday and  another 1000 flights 

Reading that even though Southwest denies it that there were over 300 pilots and crew call in sick in protest to vaccine mandate. 

[island lady]

17 hours ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Smoked kingfish sounds delicious.

We had a bunch of 1/2 price appetizers at happy hr so Eric only grilled up 3 of the fish tonight and our neighbor is going to cook the other 3 tomorrow for dinner tomorrow.    The ones we had tonight were delicious, so good catching your own fish and cooking up a couple hours later.

 

How is your trip?  I hope it stopped raining.  Do you or Bucky go fishing?

 

We used to be fishing "fin-atics" year ago.  Then we retired, and started traveling, plus moved into a planned community and much smaller house.  We used to have large house on the water with 3 boat lifts.  Any of our time back then, ....we spent fishing.  Mostly the favorite boat was our custom "flats" boat which we used in shallow water.  It was me up on the casting platform, Bucky on the "poling" platform pushing us quietly along the shorelines of the coastal river in shallow water looking for Redfish, Sea Trout, and Snook.  Almost never failed to come home with dinner.  😉   I even tossed the cast net for our fresh bait on the way to fishing grounds each time. 

 

Sold the two boats before we left, and then kept the flats boat in the community storage area...until we realized we just were not using it anymore and sold it.  Bitter sweet to see it go down the road with the very excited new owners.  

[BonTexasNY]

1 hour ago, c-leg5 said:

We also enjoyed that cruise! It made a change from the regular Cozumel/Costa Maya/ Belize/Roatan route we have done so often and we found some nice surprises in Nassau.
 

As I recall we left Galveston late due to fog (?),we arrived Nassau late and left late due to repairs taking longer than expected?

I knew we had fog at one cruise, didn't remember which one! I do remember something about leaving Nassau later than usual and I don't recall what time we arrived back in Galveston.  We drove so no airplane to catch.

 

The only downer was how crowded the MDR was during MTD.  Tables were packed one next to the other and we could never get the time we wanted so MY TD really was THEIR TD,  Wait staff was overworked with more tables than usual.  Ours always rushed, made errors and you could see how stressed they were.  It still didn't deter us from having a great cruise.

20 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

@Ozark_Kid is stuck in Miami.  Their post cruise flight was cancelled yesterday.     Worse places to be stuck🤪

Feel bad for all the cruisers trying to get to their sailings this weekend and the ones trying to get home.  

 

Fyi, we had another wonderful breakfast at mustache Bill's this morning.  Today is last day open.  Have to wait till next may or june for them to reopen.

At least he was able to complete his cruise.  Agree about feeling bad for cruisers trying to get to their ships.  Southwest is not being very transparent about the reason for delayed and cancelled flights. The following is their explanation:  

• The Dallas-based airline blamed the disruptions on air traffic control issues in Florida and bad weather.

[island lady]

10 minutes ago, davekathy said:

South Worse. 

 

That works as well.  😉 

[jagsfan]

7 minutes ago, island lady said:

 

We used to be fishing "fin-atics" year ago.  Then we retired, and started traveling, plus moved into a planned community and much smaller house.  We used to have large house on the water with 3 boat lifts.  Any of our time back then, ....we spent fishing.  Mostly the favorite boat was our custom "flats" boat which we used in shallow water.  It was me up on the casting platform, Bucky on the "poling" platform pushing us quietly along the shorelines of the coastal river in shallow water looking for Redfish, Sea Trout, and Snook.  Almost never failed to come home with dinner.  😉   I even tossed the cast net for our fresh bait on the way to fishing grounds each time. 

 

Sold the two boats before we left, and then kept the flats boat in the community storage area...until we realized we just were not using it anymore and sold it.  Bitter sweet to see it go down the road with the very excited new owners.  

It must have been an awful wrench to say goodbye to that boat. 

[BonTexasNY]

9 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

Reading that even though Southwest denies it that there were over 300 pilots and crew call in sick in protest to vaccine mandate. 

That's what I read.  They also said it was weather related.  I guess only SW was the only airline affected by the faux bad weather.

Before covid we used to fly SW about twice annually.  Never a problem.  Loved flying out of Love Field instead of DFW.  The free luggage was a plus.  We will find another airline in the future.

[Sunshine3601]

13 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

Guess we missed that spent yesterday afternoon in Blacksburg, Virginia, Home of Virginia Tech University.

 

We went there for lunch around 1pm half knowing there was going to be a college football game within 1 mile where we had lunch.

 

Game Time was 7:30pm, game was against Norte Dame.

 

It was pretty exciting around there even 7 hours before game time. Ton's of people around walking the streets, Parking lots full of RV's with Grills set up.

 

Made us feel young again with all the excitement in the area.

 

We had lunch at Cabo Fish Taco

https://www.cabofishtaco.com/blacksburg/

 

I had 2 different kinds of their Shrimp Taco's, the food was excellent and priced great. $13.00 for 2

 

After that we went home and on the way looking for some pumpkins. Wow, did we find some pumpkins. They said they had 2000 acre's of pumpkins, that is all you could see for miles.

Tacos look yummy.   Menu looks like some great options.  Probably somewhere you will visit again.🌮

I bought a pumpkin the boring way, at the food store.  We used to go to a pumpkin farm every year in Solebury, with our boys and walk all around to find the perfect pumpkin.

[Ozark_Kid]

40 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

@Ozark_Kid is stuck in Miami.  Their post cruise flight was cancelled yesterday.     Worse places to be stuck🤪

Feel bad for all the cruisers trying to get to their sailings this weekend and the ones trying to get home.  

 

Fyi, we had another wonderful breakfast at mustache Bill's this morning.  Today is last day open.  Have to wait till next may or june for them to reopen.

You can imagine how mad.  We have to eat Grouper and Steak tacos again at Coyo Taco.  When we are done we have to go on the Metromover. A free transit the tkaes you around the area.  I will try to keep you updated. 

[Sea Dog]

6 minutes ago, island lady said:

Never been a fan of SW.   Some love it, I don't.  My sister, who has to fly quite frequently, gave up using them years ago.  She calls them "Scuzz West".   

We've generally had luck with Southwest even though I hate their cattle call boarding.  I do like free luggage. To fly to San Juan on Delta was going to cost us a whole lot more. Sounds like I may need to rethink using SW.

[Sea Dog]

3 minutes ago, BonTexasNY said:

  They also said it was weather related.  I guess only SW was the only airline affected by the faux bad weather.

 

 

That's exactly what I thought also.

[Ozark_Kid]

12 minutes ago, BonTexasNY said:

I knew we had fog at one cruise, didn't remember which one! I do remember something about leaving Nassau later than usual and I don't recall what time we arrived back in Galveston.  We drove so no airplane to catch.

 

The only downer was how crowded the MDR was during MTD.  Tables were packed one next to the other and we could never get the time we wanted so MY TD really was THEIR TD,  Wait staff was overworked with more tables than usual.  Ours always rushed, made errors and you could see how stressed they were.  It still didn't deter us from having a great cruise.

At least he was able to complete his cruise.  Agree about feeling bad for cruisers trying to get to their ships.  Southwest is not being very transparent about the reason for delayed and cancelled flights. The following is their explanation:  

• The Dallas-based airline blamed the disruptions on air traffic control issues in Florida and bad weather.

 

They also are not customer friendly.  My friend that I said was stuck in Arizona but it was New Mexico. They said they they could fly him out Tuesday but that's it no room no nothing.  Reimbursed flight and said bye. 

[island lady]

16 minutes ago, jagsfan said:

It must have been an awful wrench to say goodbye to that boat. 

 

Yes it was...but it was even more hard to see it ignored at the storage lot for two years.  😞   

 

Knew we needed to sell it, but it took that long to get up enough courage to do so.  Nice thing was the new owner from Ft. Myers was so totally in love with it.  She went to a good and loving home. 😉 

 

We had a "feeding frenzy" of buyers that wanted it.  And we did not give it away, like we practically did with the big ocean fishing boat.  That was the sad one, having to do that. 😳  Win some, lose some I guess.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 10, 2021 by island lady

[island lady]

9 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

We've generally had luck with Southwest even though I hate their cattle call boarding.  I do like free luggage. To fly to San Juan on Delta was going to cost us a whole lot more. Sounds like I may need to rethink using SW.

 

We are totally awed by Jet Blue's service from Orlando to San Juan.  

[Sea Dog]

9 minutes ago, island lady said:

 

We are totally awed by Jet Blue's service from Orlando to San Juan.  

Really tell me more. What did you like? I have heard a lot of complaints that there is no leg room and everyone is packed in like sardines.

[lenquixote66]

40 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

Debbie guess we missed that about Southwest cancelling flights, we spent yesterday afternoon in Blacksburg, Virginia, Home of Virginia Tech University.

 

We went there for lunch around 1pm half knowing there was going to be a college football game within 1 mile where we had lunch.

 

Game Time was 7:30pm, game was against Norte Dame.

 

It was pretty exciting around there even 7 hours before game time. Ton's of people around walking the streets, Parking lots full of RV's with Grills set up.

 

Made us feel young again with all the excitement in the area.

 

We had lunch at Cabo Fish Taco

https://www.cabofishtaco.com/blacksburg/

 

I had 2 different kinds of their Shrimp Taco's, the food was excellent and priced great. $13.00 for 2

 

After that we went home and on the way looking for some pumpkins. Wow, did we find some pumpkins. They said they had 2000 acre's of pumpkins, that is all you could see for miles.

A niece of mine who graduated Virginia Tech was there yesterday too.

[Ocean Boy]

8 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

Really tell me more. What did you like? I have heard a lot of complaints that there is no leg room and everyone is packed in like sardines.

I actually think JetBlue's Airbus 320 planes is more comfortable than SW B737 planes. I also prefer being able to choose my seat ahead of time.

[Jimbo]

45 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Tacos look yummy.   Menu looks like some great options.  Probably somewhere you will visit again.🌮

I bought a pumpkin the boring way, at the food store.  We used to go to a pumpkin farm every year in Solebury, with our boys and walk all around to find the perfect pumpkin.

Yes, we will definitely  be going back to eat there again, when it is a little less packed .

 

The pumpkin is pretty much a whole sale dealer, we were curious where the road went, so we must have drove 4 or 5 miles through fields and fields of pumpkins....... Just thought with so many pumpkins they must be selling them if people ride up in there........So finally get to this huge warehouse with about 8 bays with tractor trailers backed up to them, they were loading pumpkins in the trucks. They put them in huge cardboard boxes that fit an entire pallet. I'm sure you see these same kind of containers the grocery get their pumpkins in.

 

Well bought 6 pumpkins, they  were only  $5 each..........On road stands and grocery stores around here the same size were selling for $15.00 each

 

Edited October 10, 2021 by Jimbo