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

[George C]

59 minutes ago, Tree_skier said:

I had to cancel my cruise on Liberty doing the Canada/NE cruise because the folks we were going with had some health issues and one of them couldn't fly so we changed over to Navigator so they would be able to drive in and still travel with us.  I'm pretty gutted about not getting to NYC. That is a bit of a bucket list item for me.  I have booked it again for 2025 now but just Sharron and I so I don't have to depend on other people to make it work.  

 

I knew you were on the Navigator one on the 18th and I actually looked at changing to that one but my schedule just wasn't changeable for that month.  Sitting with you in the Schooner and being school on Whiskey/Bourbon/Scotch would have been a treat 🙂  

There is just one negative thing about my favorite city , just reviewing my credit card statement from our vacation, now have thousands of extra Hilton points since a use a Hilton Amex for everything , lots of free stays .

[Tree_skier]

1 hour ago, George C said:

There is just one negative thing about my favorite city , just reviewing my credit card statement from our vacation, now have thousands of extra Hilton points since a use a Hilton Amex for everything , lots of free stays .

Oh yeah it is not cheap...  This cruise is going to turn out a lot cheaper since no flights involved and no pre cruise hotel but not near as interesting or unique.  However, I'll be on cruise ship so it is not something to complain about. 

[harryfat1]

12 hours ago, lenquixote66 said:

I lived in NYC 60 years.In 2007 I organized a school reunion .The majority of those who attended never left NY and had never been to the Empire State Building,Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.We did all three on our reunion.

Costco did not exist when I was in college,There were many pizzerias near the college that I went to.It was 10 cents a slice.

Yeah. I'm a firm believer that most tourists see more of a given city than many locals as the tourists spent thousands of dollars to get to the place and they want to see as much of the place as possible. 

 

I used to work in SF years ago and now only a bridge away but I have never been to Alcatraz or Ghirardelli Square that millions of tourists visit yearly. Tourists sees the city differently than locals, which is fine.

[harryfat1]

Perspective of a tourist in NYC:

 

 

 

 

[Coralc]

28 minutes ago, harryfat1 said:

Yeah. I'm a firm believer that most tourists see more of a given city than many locals as the tourists spent thousands of dollars to get to the place and they want to see as much of the place as possible. 

 

I used to work in SF years ago and now only a bridge away but I have never been to Alcatraz or Ghirardelli Square that millions of tourists visit yearly. Tourists sees the city differently than locals, which is fine.

LOL. Went to Ghirardelli Square quite a bit. But we never went to Alcatraz until our friends from Massachusetts came for a visit. We did the whole tourist thing GG Park, GG Bridge, Fort Point, Chinatown. It was fun. It was funny about Alcatraz...that we had never been there. It was new to us.  ☺️

[Coralc]

23 minutes ago, harryfat1 said:

Perspective of a tourist in NYC:

 

 

 

 

Why are they all wearing Red? 

[ReneeFLL]

On 6/27/2024 at 8:05 PM, Luckynana said:

Love your pictures.  Beautiful area!  Did you buy the Vermont Seasoning while there?  My Mom always bought spices, jams, etc. from the many places she visited.  Years ago, Mom brought back a Vermont Seasoning spice for each of my sisters and sisters-in-law.  What a great seasoning!  It goes in all of my salads and soups, etc.  All of my daughters and nieces all use it in their recipes, also.  I just ordered another six for myself, my 3 daughters, another one for my Condo, and one for my girlfriend.  It's called Vermont All Purpose Country Seasoning. It's by Seventh Generation of Descendants of Early Vermont Settlers

Yikes, they want 17.00 shipping for a 5 oz seasoning. I was going to order some until I saw that.

[ReneeFLL]

On 6/28/2024 at 1:59 PM, helen haywood said:

At my six week followup from my ankle surgery I was given the OK to walk with the boot…no walker required.  This will require some readjustment.  It’s not that I’m off balance with one leg weighted down with the boot…it’s that at the moment I feel like I’m missing an appendage.  There is supposed to be something attached to my arms!!  Six weeks with this plan…and then I’ll be walking sans boot.  

Happy to hear you don’t need the walker anymore. I hope I never have to have ankle surgery. I would go nuts if I had to use a walker that long. After my TKR surgery I was supposed to use a walker for 2 weeks and then a cane after that as needed. The hospital required the walker so they made sure we brought it with us before the surgery. I ditched it after the first day. It was more of a nuisance than being helpful.

[ReneeFLL]

On 6/28/2024 at 5:38 PM, George C said:

We just returned from our normal Friday lunch , very upscale restaurant, we do it one or two nights a week ( live music) and Friday for lunch , when we just left my wife’s car said car temperature was 117 . Shelagh order a new coffee pot about 9 this morning was pretty shocked that it was delivered at 11:30 from Amazon, my big mistake was only buying a small amount of Amazon stock at 80 a share less than a year ago and it’s now selling for 193 a share. Going back to our favorite restaurant tomorrow to celebrate our 33/wedding anniversary.

Happy 33rd wedding anniversary.

 

On 6/29/2024 at 3:38 PM, derorim said:

This morning we said goodbye to our sweet kitty Marcel.  He brought us happiness for 17 years, along with his buddy, the late great Miss Priss. It was sad to see him go, but he was not doing well and we did not want to see him suffer any more.  He was a big Maine Coon, 15 pounds until a couple of years ago.  He was very strong and a good jumper.  He followed us around the house and liked to lay on our laps.  He and Miss Priss are together again now.  

 

 

 

 

 

I’m sorry for your loss of Marcel. It’s so heartbreaking to lose a pet. Such beautiful kitties.

[sgmn]

8 hours ago, Luckynana said:

 

 

@sgmn That's quite a trip that Gary does annually for the Royal British Legion Charity Ride on his bike!  

He enjoys the rides, been doing them for around 20 years now. Next year is the 80th anniversary of the end of the 2nd WW so he's doing the London to Paris in Sept 2025 but that will probably be his last as he will be 70 then. They are also getting very expensive, both with the cost and the minimum amount you pledge to raise. 

Yesterday they had a short service at the new British memorial overlooking the beaches.   Home later today

The service

[dani negreanu]

Well... it seems that my new step-kitty (Toffee) isn't a peaceful "character".... constant fights between her and the other two.... My friend is at wit's end.

 

 

[aussielozzie18]

9 hours ago, derorim said:

So precious!  Hope your daughter feels better soon.  And I love Tyler’s golf shirt. 🙂 

+ 1 @Momof3gurlz

[aussielozzie18]

@Keksie love your nails & happy 21st to your step-grandson. 

[aussielozzie18]

@Luckynana So nice that your lovely Ava invited you both out to a concert.  Shame you all had to leave early due to the weather.  It’s so lovely though that you have such a close relationship with your grandchildren.

[aussielozzie18]

50 minutes ago, dani negreanu said:

Well... it seems that my new step-kitty (Toffee) isn't a peaceful "character".... constant fights between her and the other two.... My friend is at wit's end.

 

 

Oh dear, I hope Toffee doesn’t have to be re-homed.

[Sunshine3601]

20 hours ago, cruiselvr04 said:

I was taught by the best on these boards.  Lol.  
 

We send out underwear, socks, work out clothes and pj’ s and sometimes DH swim trunks in the wash and fold bags.  We get 2 free bags per cruise.  I don’t send out anything “good”. The rest I hand wash.  I could send out dress clothes if needed but we got by without for 46 nights.  For Australia I took about 12 nights of dress stuff for dinner. Since we only wear those clothes in the evening they can be worn multiple times if you don’t spill anything on them. 
 

I take a 3 gal collapsible wash basin. It’s light weight and I just throw it on top of the suitcase.  I now use the bath gel from the shower.  Pre treat stains with shout wipes. Soak and agitate in the basin.  Rinse twice. Put a pool towel on the floor and roll up the washed item in it. walk on it to squeeze out the water.  Hang to dry from magnets or on a low humidity day at sea I’ve been known to put a few outside on the balcony. DHs job is to run exchange pool towels if I need dry ones. 
 

I found doing 3-4 basins every 3-4 days works best. Don’t let it pile up too much. For me it’s a sea day chore. I do not try to wash jeans like that so even in cold climates I don’t wear jeans much. Shorts and leggings are much easier to hand wash. 

+1. This is exactly what we do except I bring a small bottle of woolite.   The towel trick works great.

Also when I hang bathing suits on the back of balcony deck chair I use those big beach chair clips to hold in place.

 

Our first month long sailing I packed a suitcase and went to a laundromat.   It was a hassle and since then I just use the onboard laundry and do our delicates (blouses, bras, bathing suites, light weight shirts) in the cabin.   Works great.

 

[Sunshine3601]

Sending prayers for everyone impacted by the cat 5 hurricane beryl🙏🙏🙏

[h20skibum]

20 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Sending prayers for everyone impacted by the cat 5 hurricane beryl🙏🙏🙏

Have a friend that is scheduled to fly to Jamaica this morning.  She said last night her flight still showed on time.  Looks like the eye will be just south of Jamaica tomorrow. 

[h20skibum]

Had a busy day yesterday.   Our daughter was out of town for a couple appointments, so we were in charge of all three.  
 

Ricky was happy to see his cousin. 
 

 

Morning swim time. 
 

 

The kids took me on a trek through the woods

 

 

These guys are crack shots with laser tag. 
 

 

So, another day of fun.  More on the agenda today.  

[harryfat1]

7 hours ago, Coralc said:

LOL. Went to Ghirardelli Square quite a bit. But we never went to Alcatraz until our friends from Massachusetts came for a visit. We did the whole tourist thing GG Park, GG Bridge, Fort Point, Chinatown. It was fun. It was funny about Alcatraz...that we had never been there. It was new to us.  ☺️

Yeah. I was going to add Cable car and Lombard Street to the list of SF tourist places places that i have never been on but then I remembered I went on it once taking friends from out of town on it.

 

Also only walked across the Golden Gate bridge once with the boys when they were young during 75th anniversary of the bridge.

[dpostman]

On 6/28/2024 at 12:37 PM, George C said:

What is everyone reading? Just finished my second John Sandford novel “Dark of the Moon” thank everyone for recommendations. Just started Ken Follett book “Never” . 

 

It seems, most of my reading time is spent catching up on this thread of bunch of chatty folks 😉

As soon as I have a few busy days I find myself over 10 pages behind 🙃 trying to catch up and the finish line keeps moving...

 

But to answer your question, I used to read a lot of fiction but it seems for the past 10 or 15 years, I've been pretty much reading non-fiction.  I'm only 2 chapters into "How the Mind Works" by Steven Pinker.  It is one of his older books, but I just read his 2 latest ones "Enlightenment Now" and "Rationality".  I really liked those so I decided to checkout his back catalogue.  This is not what most would consider easy beach reading, but those of you who like in depth, bordering on academic literature would enjoy this. But if you try it and fall asleep mid page, don't say I didn't warn you 😉

 

So I'm posting this and now going back about 10 pages to try to catch up.

 

dp

[harryfat1]

7 hours ago, Coralc said:

Why are they all wearing Red? 

There are many young people's tours here from many parts if the world. I think the red folks are from Latin America.  Saw a German group wearing yellow backpacks at Statue of Liberty on Sunday.

 

I think they are required to wear the same color t shirt andback pack from the tour company so that if they wander off and gets lost in the crowded NYC, the guides can easily spot them.

 

It sounds like a lot of fun to be in a big group to go to a foreign land.

 

 

 

 

[Keksie]

2 hours ago, dani negreanu said:

Well... it seems that my new step-kitty (Toffee) isn't a peaceful "character".... constant fights between her and the other two.... My friend is at wit's end.

 

 

Has she tried using a squirt bottle of water on the offender at the start of the aggression.  A squirt and firm no may get it to stop.  

[HBE4]

14 hours ago, A&L_Ont said:

Same here. With this warm weather I’ve been spending less time on CC, so it is the right time of year to be “missing”, compared to winter time.

 

What's funny is that ever since I booked my cruise, which is fast approaching,  I'm spending less time here on CC.   I guess preparing for an actual cruise is giving me my "cruise fix".

 

And yeah, nice weather means less screen time too 

 

[BonTexasNY]

2 hours ago, h20skibum said:

Had a busy day yesterday.   Our daughter was out of town for a couple appointments, so we were in charge of all three.  
 

Ricky was happy to see his cousin. 
 

 

Morning swim time. 
 

 

The kids took me on a trek through the woods

 

 

These guys are crack shots with laser tag. 
 

 

So, another day of fun.  More on the agenda today.  

Your beautiful grandkids are growing up right in front of our eyes.  May they do so in good health and joy.