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

[HBE4]

22 minutes ago, Milwaukee Eight said:

You should try Cracker Barrel or Metro Diner. Lots of specialty local diners/cafe around that have much better breakfast than Denny’s. IMO

 

M8

 

Cracker Barrel is good comfort food. Also, good old fashioned, down home gift shop. 

 

Great way to have a meal and knock off half of my christmas list in one shot.

[DaniDanielle]

Love Cracker Barrel but we don’t have any nearby.

[xpcdoojk]

So, yes those of you from non American shores, if you are at a freeway interchange and you are wanting breakfast, I can steadfastly recommend you stop at Cracker Barrel.  I would not recommend any other meal at Cracker Barrel, but breakfast, I can and will.  I took a customer, my salesman and his main guy to breakfast for about two years almost every week, and of all of the greasy breakfast places I had to go to, Cracker Barrel is the best.  We did IHOP.  We did Denny’s.  We did Village Inn.  We did several local joints.  We did the Waffle House.  We did the Belgium Waffle House.  Etc. etc. etc.  

 

The gift shop is for Baby Boomers and it is quite nice if you want some Route 66 Americana, excellent choice.

 

 

[Ourusualbeach]

10 minutes ago, xpcdoojk said:

So, yes those of you from non American shores, if you are at a freeway interchange and you are wanting breakfast, I can steadfastly recommend you stop at Cracker Barrel.  I would not recommend any other meal at Cracker Barrel, but breakfast, I can and will.  I took a customer, my salesman and his main guy to breakfast for about two years almost every week, and of all of the greasy breakfast places I had to go to, Cracker Barrel is the best.  We did IHOP.  We did Denny’s.  We did Village Inn.  We did several local joints.  We did the Waffle House.  We did the Belgium Waffle House.  Etc. etc. etc.  

 

The gift shop is for Baby Boomers and it is quite nice if you want some Route 66 Americana, excellent choice.

 

 

Went once for dinner on our drive down to Florida many years ago.  Dinner took well over 2 hours....that was the last time that we ate there.  Might have to give them a try for breakfast.

 

 

[xpcdoojk]

9 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Went once for dinner on our drive down to Florida many years ago.  Dinner took well over 2 hours....that was the last time that we ate there.  Might have to give them a try for breakfast.

 

 

Ken, would you please reread my post.  I said and I quote myself....”I would not recommend any other meal at Cracker Barrel, but Breakfast”

 

So, if you had asked me... Hey JC where would you recommend we stop for dinner on our way to 

Florida... I can assure you CB would not have been my recommendation. 🤣😂

[Ourusualbeach]

1 minute ago, xpcdoojk said:

Ken, would you please reread my post.  I said and I quote myself....”I would not recommend any other meal at Cracker Barrel, but Breakfast”

 

So, if you had asked me... Hey JC where would you recommend we stop for dinner on our way to 

Florida... I can assure you CB would not have been my recommendation. 🤣😂

I know, that’s why I said I might have to give them a try for breakfast.  I wasn’t impressed with the one and only time we went for dinner. 

[xpcdoojk]

Breakfast can be a bit slow too... but the food is really good if you like pancakes, bacon (streaky bacon to the Brits) hashbrowns, omelets and that sort of thing.  It is not a cheap breakfast, but everything is well prepared.  At our CB, on the opposite side of town off one of those freeway interchanges, so it is really inconvenient for me.  That said, the 4 to 5 of us that I bought breakfast for once a week for a couple of years it is the best of the chain restaurants.  My in-laws, want to go there for lunch or dinner... I am like really do you people not have a clue.  Yet I dutifully go when they are in town.  Sigh... freaking ... sigh.

[Milwaukee Eight]

51 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Went once for dinner on our drive down to Florida many years ago.  Dinner took well over 2 hours....that was the last time that we ate there.  Might have to give them a try for breakfast.

 

 

Seldom do we eat dinner there but they do have good Southern Fried Chicken. They can get very busy at times. 

[Ourusualbeach]

7 minutes ago, Milwaukee Eight said:

Seldom do we eat dinner there but they do have good Southern Fried Chicken. They can get very busy at times. 

The other thing we realized is that with driving 24 hours straight through a big sit down meal at any restaurant does not work for us.  Too much food and an after dinner nap while driving don’t mix.

[mets07]

6 hours ago, Sunshine3601 said:

I, too, will have to check out Turn the Key - sounds very intriguing.    

I finished the Will Robie series on my last cruise this year and this summer I started the Amos Decker series.      Reading the last book of the series now,  The Redemption.     I asked for several James Patterson books for Christmas.      We'll see what Santa brings.

Just read Patterson's Deadly Cross. Great as usual. 

 

Awaiting Baldacci's Daylight from the library.  I started reading him more recently and this is the Atlee Pine series. 

 

Merry Christmas and happy reading to all. 🎄📚

 

 

[A&L_Ont]

3 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

Went out on cart to see Christmas displays

 

 

 

Photo posted for effect:

 

I would see these tea lights as a slalom challenge for the golf cart. I wouldn’t last long in the neighborhood.😉

[John&LaLa]

1 minute ago, A&L_Ont said:

Photo posted for effect:

 

I would see these tea lights as a slalom challenge for the golf cart. I wouldn’t last long in the neighborhood.😉

 

10 lights in a 30' string

 

A little tighter than Rory's cones

Edited December 24, 2020 by John&LaLa

[Bailey & Sophie]

35 minutes ago, mets07 said:

Just read Patterson's Deadly Cross. Great as usual. 

 

Awaiting Baldacci's Daylight from the library.  I started reading him more recently and this is the Atlee Pine series. 

 

Merry Christmas and happy reading to all. 🎄📚

 

 

 

I love Atlee Pine. She's a little rough around the edges and sometimes not very likeable but that makes her interesting.

[vettprincess]

20 minutes ago, Bailey & Sophie said:

 

I love Atlee Pine. She's a little rough around the edges and sometimes not very likeable but that makes her interesting.

HI: Thanks for all the book ideas. Here I am stranded at my daughter's house for days and did not bring one book from home. Never thought this storm would turn out so, so bad. I have taken notes on all the books everyone recommended and have read many of them.

So everyone have a Warm and Healthy and Merry Christmas.

And book cruises for the next year and year after and year after. Keeps us happy.

[IRMO12HD]

7 hours ago, dani negreanu said:

 

Amos Decker -- check. Did u try the "John Puller" series? Excellent.

 

J. Patterson (Women's murder club) - check.

 

I remember in one of the cruises, someone saw me binging on Robert B. Parker, RIP. She asked me if I knew T. Jefferson Parker too. I said "no", but went on to check and also enjoy his books...

 

 

Lee Childs' Jack Reacher books -- especially the early ones.  If you've seen either of the movies with Tom Cruise, strive to read the books without his image in your mind.  He's about as far from Jack Reacher as you can get . . . I think his earlier books were better.  Now he's passed the reins to his son; I have yet to read any of the new ones.

[Bailey & Sophie]

43 minutes ago, IRMO12HD said:

Lee Childs' Jack Reacher books -- especially the early ones.  If you've seen either of the movies with Tom Cruise, strive to read the books without his image in your mind.  He's about as far from Jack Reacher as you can get . . . I think his earlier books were better.  Now he's passed the reins to his son; I have yet to read any of the new ones.

 

Tom Cruise's expiration date was about 20 years ago.

[grapau27]

7 hours ago, Milwaukee Eight said:

You should try Cracker Barrel or Metro Diner. Lots of specialty local diners/cafe around that have much better breakfast than Denny’s. IMO

 

M8

Next time we come to Orlando we will check them out.

👍

[grapau27]

5 hours ago, xpcdoojk said:

So, yes those of you from non American shores, if you are at a freeway interchange and you are wanting breakfast, I can steadfastly recommend you stop at Cracker Barrel.  I would not recommend any other meal at Cracker Barrel, but breakfast, I can and will.  I took a customer, my salesman and his main guy to breakfast for about two years almost every week, and of all of the greasy breakfast places I had to go to, Cracker Barrel is the best.  We did IHOP.  We did Denny’s.  We did Village Inn.  We did several local joints.  We did the Waffle House.  We did the Belgium Waffle House.  Etc. etc. etc.  

 

The gift shop is for Baby Boomers and it is quite nice if you want some Route 66 Americana, excellent choice.

 

 

Thanks for the recommendation.

We usually stay at the Hilton lake Buenavista Palace and Denny's on the SR535 is only 5 minutes drive and Pauline loves the Fit Fare Veggie Skillet and I usually get one of the omelettes usually the Philysteak omelette.

Graham.

[JamesEM]

I live by myself since my wife passed away and my children decided to visit this Christmas, so I spent the day running errands, bank, gas station, liquor store, grocery store, and then on to shop for presents, HO, HO, HO.!!!!  

[grapau27]

There is a thin covering of snow outside this morning.

It is our special niece Sarah's 40th birthday today.

We have a car full of presents for her birthday and Christmas so will take them through for her later.

[h20skibum]

7 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

The other thing we realized is that with driving 24 hours straight through a big sit down meal at any restaurant does not work for us.  Too much food and an after dinner nap while driving don’t mix.

Driving straight through is brutal!  We did that a few times, but now we have lengthened it out to a more relaxed three days.  That way we can explore some areas on the way down.

 

Yesterday afternoon hike in NC

Not sure what the high risk was. Maybe it was the few deer we encountered.

 

 

Supper last night, from a place we found years ago in NC.  We are still doing takeout, so the plating is not the best but the food is so good. 
 

Hush puppies 

 

[Ourusualbeach]

41 minutes ago, h20skibum said:

Driving straight through is brutal!  We did that a few times, but now we have lengthened it out to a more relaxed three days.  That way we can explore some areas on the way down.

 It is but with DW being a teacher and the kids in school we travel at Christmas and Match break which means leaving on a Friday at 4pm and getting down to Miami around 5 or 6 on the Saturday for a Sunday cruise.  Looking forward to when we have more time and can actually see some sights.  We pass through some of the nest scenery in the middle of the night both on the way down and back.

[dani negreanu]

11 hours ago, Milwaukee Eight said:

Denny’s is just above McDonalds. IMO

 

9 hours ago, xpcdoojk said:

So, yes those of you from non American shores, if you wanting breakfast, I can steadfastly recommend you stop at Cracker Barrel.   

We did Denny’s.  

 

Thanks. Last times we were in the Orlando area, to celebrate the bar-mitzvas of our boys at Disney and the water parks instead of a big party, were 1994 & 1996.

 

All the family enjoyed Denny's for b'fast, and.... Burger King for lunch.... Other times, other diets...

 

I can only imagine that the quality of food [like the RCL food's quality 😉] has diminished since then.....

[h20skibum]

14 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

 It is but with DW being a teacher and the kids in school we travel at Christmas and Match break which means leaving on a Friday at 4pm and getting down to Miami around 5 or 6 on the Saturday for a Sunday cruise.  Looking forward to when we have more time and can actually see some sights.  We pass through some of the nest scenery in the middle of the night both on the way down and back.

That cruise is the thing we will miss this year.  We are always on one the day after we leave the rental in January.  We have been doing remote learning with two young grandkids this year, so we return to that in January this year. 

[Milwaukee Eight]

8 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

The other thing we realized is that with driving 24 hours straight through a big sit down meal at any restaurant does not work for us.  Too much food and an after dinner nap while driving don’t mix.

I agree.  Having a big breakfast at Cracker Barrel would definitely require a power nap. Lol

 

First Restaurants/Stores open in TN 1969. We used to go North to KY for Christmas and summer vacations. Dad always made it a point to stop at Cracker Barrel on our trips. Good memories. Love their Country Ham. 
 

Dennys is a step above Waffle House and a step below IHOP for breakfast. In my opinion. Denny’s was great for breakfast after late nights out and about. 😇