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

[dani negreanu]

18 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

Your husband and I would get along well.😉

 

@jagsfan

 

May I join you and Dick? 😁

[Sunshine3601]

50 minutes ago, bobmacliberty said:

We are also fans of the Park Cafe for day 1 lunch.  As any true Buffalonian would tell you, the beef sandwich there is not a true Buffalo style beef on weck sandwich.  The meat is too thick and not tender enough.  But I still eat it and it tastes good.  Micheline likes to start the cruise with one of their salads.  Makes her feel like she is going to eat healthy for the week.  🤣🤣🤣

I always start each cruise with the kummelweck and ask for the meat to be sliced thin.   I definitely need salads today.   

Just finished several laps on walking on Sun deck.   Beautiful day so far.   Happy the wind has died down.

[A&L_Ont]

14 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

Sorry if I missed it, but when did signatures start appearing in our posts🤔

I don’t seen anyones.  Does anyone see mine?

[Jimbo]

3 minutes ago, A&L_Ont said:

I don’t seen anyones.  Does anyone see mine?

 

 

 

Next Muster: Symphony - October 17, 2020

 

To see my past LIVE reviews, expand my signature below!

 

Edited March 29, 2022 by Jimbo

[Biker19]

2 minutes ago, A&L_Ont said:

  Does anyone see mine?

Yes - I think the default setting in the CC account is to have sig display OFF - you can enable it there.

Edited March 29, 2022 by Biker19

[h20skibum]

2 minutes ago, A&L_Ont said:

I don’t seen anyones.  Does anyone see mine?

I do see yours. and they show up on my iPhone now. 

[Ocean Boy]

4 minutes ago, A&L_Ont said:

I don’t seen anyones.  Does anyone see mine?

I see yours.

[Jimbo]

3 minutes ago, h20skibum said:

I do see yours. and they show up on my iPhone now. 

I hope this doesn't turn into I will show you mine if you show me yours thread.....🤣🤣

Edited March 29, 2022 by Jimbo

[A&L_Ont]

Just watching Below Deck Sailing, we’re dragging. OMG. They are lucky it wasn’t worse. 

[Ocean Boy]

[A&L_Ont]

Thanks everyone. I’ve updated my signature, and can see others when I turned it on. I just have to link a few live past reviews to the list. It seems so strange to see signatures again after a few years of not seeing them. 

[Sunshine3601]

Guess I have to check out my signature as I haven't seen it in a long time and have no idea what's there.

[John&LaLa]

41 minutes ago, A&L_Ont said:

I don’t seen anyones.  Does anyone see mine?

Yep, Bella cruise

[John&LaLa]

20 minutes ago, A&L_Ont said:

Thanks everyone. I’ve updated my signature, and can see others when I turned it on. I just have to link a few live past reviews to the list. It seems so strange to see signatures again after a few years of not seeing them. 

 

I could always see them if I turned my phone sideways.

[ownedbypets]

13 hours ago, jagsfan said:

What a fantastic cat! I’ve never seen coloring like that!

We are at the end of Day 2 of our cruise. The first of two days at sea. 
We went through the terminal at PC so fast it was a blur. We stopped in a couple of places for maybe 30 seconds so someone could scan a sail pass and our passports. One did try to counsel us on renewing because they expire in 23. 
We thanked him and went on. 

We stopped outside Voom which had about 30-40 people in line. We sat on the padded seat near the line and I signed into Voom and then booked our shows. 
Took about five minutes max. 
Then Windjammer for lunch to make Dick happy. He would eat every meal there if he could. I had a very unbalanced lunch. 
Roast beef, roast pork, Caponata and cauliflower. Then I was too full to look at anything else. 
Love our Grand Suite. Very comfortable, and I always like to read while he watches tv. Now I don’t have that flicker and bright to dark and back again yo distract me. 
I slept at least 9 hours, which is amazing. 
Breakfast was maybe the only time I eat in the Coastal Kitchen, and it was excellent Eggs Benedict. I didn’t have to saw through the English muffin. 
I took my Kindle, sat in a corner at a two top and enjoyed my breakfast. 
Maybe I will make it back!

Dinner in the Grande has been good, but I am mad at all of you who have already cruised this year. You never mentioned the really awful change!
Namely, happened to the hard rolls? We’re being given namby pamby soft rolls any restaurant might serve. 
Royal’s hard rolls were something we looked forward to, especially the pumpkin seed ones.  
Why hasn’t anyone mentioned the devastation wrought  by the change in the bread?
Other than that,.which is HUGE,

the food is ok. 

Servers are still wearing  masks, and Windjammer is still not self serve. 
They haven’t been told if and then that will change. 
It was rocky last night after dinner so we did the drunk walk. It sure put me to sleep. Smooth tonight. 

 

Ask you server for the rolls you want. They will usually make them for you.

Edited March 29, 2022 by ownedbypets

[grapau27]

15 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

Sorry if I missed it, but when did signatures start appearing in our posts🤔

Yesterday.

[grapau27]

1 hour ago, A&L_Ont said:

I don’t seen anyones.  Does anyone see mine?

Yes on my Android mobile phone.

I took a screenshot Andrew.

[brookmill18]

I am a daily lurker 😎 with a question for @grapau27 or other frequent Southhampton cruisers. 

 

My mom is going on the Anthem TA in May and is planning on staying an extra 3 nights before flying home. She loves Oxford and was thinking of spending the 3 nights there, but is having a very hard time finding a central hotel (she has some mobility issues) for the first night of the trip. She is beginning to think about staying the first night in Southhampton area and then moving on to Oxford. Is there much to do in the area? She would pretty much go from the Anthem, to the hotel in Southhampton, spend that day and then transfer to Oxford the next morning. She's not looking for an intensive sightseeing tour (which is why she's skipping London this time) and does have some mobility issues but was wondering if there was enough to do in that area to spend the day. Thank you!

[xpcdoojk]

8 hours ago, NHProud said:

If you go to Commander’s Palace then you have to try the bread pudding with whiskey sauce.  It has been decades since we were there last . We stayed at Harrah*s which was very nice .  We also ate at Mother’s, Central Market , Café du Monde that I can remember.  We listened to jazz at Preservation Hall . Fairly recently, we were supposed to cruise from NOLA to the Bahamas but Covid reared its ugly spiked crowns.  We had a reservation at the Westin near Canal St.  

 

i don’t know if the Will Smith thing was staged but it certainly got the show plenty of publicity.  However , the yelling of obscenities makes it unlikely.  Why risk an assault charge ? 

 

Really bad weather here . It’s raining in Southern California. 

 

 

We used to eat regularly at Commander’s Palace when it was in Vegas.  I will never forget the night we ate there before going to Mystere.  I had a giant plate of etoufee and an even bigger plate of creme brûlée.  I couldn’t stay awake during the show.  They had these gigantic Korean drums come down from the ceiling, they woke me up, for a few seconds until I went back to sleep.  

 

Man that was some good eating!

 

jc

[h20skibum]

13 minutes ago, brookmill18 said:

I am a daily lurker 😎 with a question for @grapau27 or other frequent Southhampton cruisers.

Not exactly a frequent Southampton cruiser, but we have stayed and sailed from there.  We will also be back on next year’s Anthem TA. 
 

We stayed at the Holiday Inn, which is a short walk to or from the pier.  
 

The Southampton area is rich with history, and we found enough for our pre-cruise stay.  Of course, Susan and I do a lot of walking, so seeing many places may be more of a challenge for someone with mobility issues. 
 

The first two pages of my trip report has some of the places we visited in Southampton 

 

 

Maybe some of these may be of interest.  I am sure others will be able to add their own experiences and recommendations 

 

 

[grapau27]

26 minutes ago, brookmill18 said:

I am a daily lurker 😎 with a question for @grapau27 or other frequent Southhampton cruisers. 

 

My mom is going on the Anthem TA in May and is planning on staying an extra 3 nights before flying home. She loves Oxford and was thinking of spending the 3 nights there, but is having a very hard time finding a central hotel (she has some mobility issues) for the first night of the trip. She is beginning to think about staying the first night in Southhampton area and then moving on to Oxford. Is there much to do in the area? She would pretty much go from the Anthem, to the hotel in Southhampton, spend that day and then transfer to Oxford the next morning. She's not looking for an intensive sightseeing tour (which is why she's skipping London this time) and does have some mobility issues but was wondering if there was enough to do in that area to spend the day. Thank you!

There is a new Premier Inn in Oxford.

Check in times at hotels in England is 3pm so when she gets off the ship around 9am she might have a problem.

Some people book the night before they get off the ship as well as the night they get off the ship to guarantee they could check in immediately after getting off the ship.

There are lots of hotels in Southampton including the Leonardo Royal Grand Harbour hotel which overlooks the River Solent and nearby City and Ocean cruise terminals and about 300 metres to the main West Quay shopping centre.

Highclere castle the home of Downton abbey TV program is about 35 miles away near Newbury and just off the main A34 from Southampton to Oxford.

Edited March 29, 2022 by grapau27

[Sunshine3601]

@Momof3gurlz   Hi Deb,    I was at Solarium Bistro this morning and they confirmed they are only open from 8 to 10 am for breakfast.   No lunch or dinner served there and unsure when they will restart.  😔  He said maybe not until they are back to 100% capacity.

Per the Loyalty Ambassador (we skipped the top tier event) we have something like 3300 passengers (expected 3500 but the usual 100 to 200 that either failed their tests or cancelled at last minute).     Still expecting 3900 for April 3rd sailing. 

 

This morning I sat down next to a woman at pool deck who told me she has a nasty sore throat and bad headache.   She also said her 2 teenagers felt crappy last night and are still in bed.   She flew from Chicago to EWR on Saturday and is hoping she didn't catch a cold.    I cut my conversation short as I definitely don't want to take any chances, especially with Eric.

Otherwise, we have felt completely safe with no masks on

[BonTexasNY]

14 hours ago, Luckynana said:

Have a great time, Mimi!!!!

I second that and Maryann, YOU and Jim have a marvelous cruise too!

[lenquixote66]

12 hours ago, xpcdoojk said:

So, I don’t think the Will Smith thing was staged.  I think Chris Rock handled it like a pro.  I think he was probably ignorant that Will’s wife had a medical condition, so if you are going to make fun of the wife of a dude who is going to win best actor it is very non-professional to make a joke about how the wife looks.  Physical humor used to be allowed…. Love me some Three stooges, but in todays woke world, physical humor is a no go zone.  

 

The only movie I have watched of the current Oscar set was Dune, on the flight to Key West and finished it on the flight home a month ago.  Having read the book a long long time ago, and loved it, and then reading the other books and tolerating them, I was wanting to watch the movie.  This one was way better than the horrible David Lynch version.  And while the movie makes no sense and they cut a lot out to make the movie it was a really good opening act for the next movie.  Film magic stuff was, indeed, magic, and I hope they keep the level of stuff in the next one/s.

 

Not going to NOLA.  Going to previously booked Bill Engvall farewell comedy show, and then home to watch recorded Duke Carolina game.  Was just too much not going to be able to eat a nice dinner.  We will go back to NOLA when I can make a reservation for Etoufee at Commander’s palace, did I mention K-Pauls died with Paul Prudhomme when covid arrived. Very sad.  

Definitely not staged and the only reason Smith apologized was because the Academy is considering taking back the Oscar and removing his membership.

[jagsfan]

12 hours ago, xpcdoojk said:

So, I don’t think the Will Smith thing was staged.  I think Chris Rock handled it like a pro.  I think he was probably ignorant that Will’s wife had a medical condition, so if you are going to make fun of the wife of a dude who is going to win best actor it is very non-professional to make a joke about how the wife looks.  Physical humor used to be allowed…. Love me some Three stooges, but in todays woke world, physical humor is a no go zone.  

 

The only movie I have watched of the current Oscar set was Dune, on the flight to Key West and finished it on the flight home a month ago.  Having read the book a long long time ago, and loved it, and then reading the other books and tolerating them, I was wanting to watch the movie.  This one was way better than the horrible David Lynch version.  And while the movie makes no sense and they cut a lot out to make the movie it was a really good opening act for the next movie.  Film magic stuff was, indeed, magic, and I hope they keep the level of stuff in the next one/s.

 

Not going to NOLA.  Going to previously booked Bill Engvall farewell comedy show, and then home to watch recorded Duke Carolina game.  Was just too much not going to be able to eat a nice dinner.  We will go back to NOLA when I can make a reservation for Etoufee at Commander’s palace, did I mention K-Pauls died with Paul Prudhomme when covid arrived. Very sad.  

I noticed K-Paul’s was gone, but I thought that was back in ‘19 when I set up a Nola trip that we canceled in April ‘20. 
I thought it died when Prudhomme

did. He went downhill fast after his wife died. We always loved sitting upstairs watching the cooking. He would sit at the end of the stove with a container of clean spoons. 
As each sauce was ready, it was presented to him to taste. He would say ok or say what to do to correct it. Fun to watch. 

Edited March 29, 2022 by jagsfan