The Fleet Report and Daily for Friday, January 5th, 2024

[Mr. Boston]

Good morning folks.  Thank-you for the daily report, recipes and lists.  Three nice days to observe.  I installed new bird and suet feeders at my mom’s the other day and we’ve been enjoying watching the birds.  Th quote is great advice.  Think I will pass on the meal and drink suggestions today.  I haven’t been to today’s port.  Prayers for everyone on our prayer list today.  Cheers to those celebrating happy events today!

[travelingbums]

Thank you everyone for sharing.

Have a great Friday.

[cat shepard]

1 hour ago, aliaschief said:

Good morning! Our day has arrived. Onward has arrived. We will register in the hotel and will board buses around 12:30. Only thing we will have to at port is go through security.

The dinner got moved indoors last night after it got pretty windy and cold. The staff scrambled and it went well. The band was a bunch of old rockers but they had the place rocking and folks up dancing.

Azamara had some of our key crew members at the event. They were just as excited as us. We cruised for fourteen days last year on Onward and I was surprised when the Hotel Director recognized us and came over and greeted us with hugs. She will be on for entire cruise.

Time for breakfast. Thanks for the report. Bruce

 

 

Bon voyage to you & Sue, Bruce. Dailyites are recognized wherever they go for being the wonderful people that they are. 
 

 

[marshhawk]

Good Friday Morning Dailyites!  It's 33 degrees, and it's our Taco day!  And the run to the store before work emergency shopping day...we are out of coffee!  Truly an emergency.  I have enough for this morning and the afternoon work pot, and then...disaster!  

 

 

I did start the Fridays off when we got back from Italy, but since the Holidays gave me Mondays off, I need to make up the hours.  Monday I have an appointment with my endocrinologist who will yell at me regarding my blood sugar. I had one last sensor with my FreeSTyle Libre 2, and the scanner refused to work, well they think it's the sensor, but I think it's the scanner.  So I went back and tried to do the old finger stick, and that reader said no battery, charging the battery didn't work, so there is nothing to read from the scanner, and no way to test.  Should be an interesting meeting on Monday.

 

@ottahand7Thank you so much for the food porn!  

@NickelpennyGlad you are home safe and sound, and I loved the pictures that you posted while cruising.

 

Thank you all for your posts, pictures and funnies!

 

DH made some kind of mistake with his alarm clock, and the time is off by 45 minutes.  I got up and thought it was 8:45, and it was only 8.  But I wanted to catch up with yesterdays Daily and the 8 am wake up gave me the time!

 

I do feed the birds, and the squirrels, some mice a few rats, and all stray cats.

 

[1ANGELCAT]

Good cold and sunny morning. This morning we have a routine vet appointment with Houdini. His bloodwork was good, just a little change in his medication.

 The weather forecast is still for snow tomorrow but it might change to rain.

Blessings and prayers to all on our lists.

[smitty34877]

@marshhawk, Annie ! I meant to include the good news for  Chuck @catmando that I read yesterday. I am so sorry that the pain persists. Hope you can get your coffee. 

[cruising sister]

Good morning from sea,

It is 5:57 AM by the ship clock but 8AM my body clock.  I try to sleep in but I am having no luck.  We had very rough seas the first day.  I have no problem but I guess many did as the venues were empty.  We had a huge turnout at the M&G.  We will have a Daily meet up this afternoon.  We had a block party yesterday and everyone was very nice and excited.  Everyone is so well traveled I am the novice on my block.

 

My favorite waiter from my Norway trip recognized me and came over and gave me a big hug.  I have requested his table for the rest of the trip. I won’t eat until 7 but it will be worth it.  We will see what activities they will have today.  Many were canceled due to the weather. 

 

Everyone have a great day!

[VMax1700]

Good afternoon from Cork.

A cold but sunny day here.  Some frost early on, but the sun has cleared it and we are now 'basking' in sunshine and 4°C/39°F.   Tomorrow is forecast to have more sunshine but cooler temperatures brrrrrr.

DW's visit to her GP yesterday was reasonable successful.  Her blood pressure has become extremely high recently and they want to try to understand the cause.  Monday she is to go for more tests.  

Last night's Panto performance was fun.  They have a mix of professional and amateur performers and they seem to gel together well.  

Happy sailing to all who are lucky enough to be on a Dam ship and for the rest of us, the HAL website seems to be working ok, so get booking 😉

Wishing everyone a great day!

 

[Quartzsite Cruiser]

@aliaschief  and @DWAliaschief  Bruce and Sue, I hope you have a wonderful world cruise, and I can't wait to hear how everything is going.

 

 

Lenda

[Haljo1935]

Interesting collection of days, like the quote; pass on the meal, possibly would try the drink and wine, not been to the port. 

Got mostly packed yesterday since I plan on getting off the ship this evening when we get to Ensenada and luggage has to be as soon as we get back - All Aboard is 1130pm. Will check in for my flight in a couple hours.

Since I've not been to the port, here are views from the K'dam west of CA enroute to Ensenada. 

From my balcony (I was moved from the inside cabin a couple days ago due to the dogs)

Bow Cam view 

Aft Cam view 

Weather

 

Prayers and positive thoughts for all. 

[Quartzsite Cruiser]

Good morning from a lovely sunny Quartzsite.  It is currently 37F with a predicted high of 58F.  Right now there is no wind.  Not much on the agenda except more of the same. 

 

Wednesday of last week, I put in a request on-line to have my prescriptions transferred from Texas to a pharmacy in Blythe.  It seemed like the request went through when I got an email saying they would email when the prescriptions were ready.  Yesterday, I still had not heard anything, so I first checked my pharmacy in Texas, and it showed I still had one refill left for each one.  I called the pharmacy in Blythe to inquire about the prescriptions, and they had no record of the request.  The lady took my information and said she'd call the transfer into the Texas pharmacy.  I think the problem stems from the change over from the old owner to Walgreens.  On line when I said Walgreens, the pharmacy site said there was no Walgreens at the Texas location.  The change over is happening gradually, and our pharmacy was one of the first to change.  I'm guessing putting in other for the pharmacy didn't work either.

 

I'll celebrate birds and screenwriters, but we're not keto.  I'm glad the diet works for controlling seizures.

 

I like the message behind today's quote from A.A. Milne.

 

If I made today's meal it would not be with tilapia.  We'll pass on the drink and the wine.

 

We sailed near Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, on our way to the Suez Canal, but we've never been to the port.

 

Two interesting days in history, but I'll not honor Benedict Arnold.  Harry S Truman turned out to be a better President than anyone expected, and he faced many challenges that were made more difficult by being kept in the dark when he was Vice President.

 

@Crazy For Cats  Jake, Tucker looks very proud to have claimed the box.

@seagarsmoker  I'm happy you are continuing to improve.

@grapau27  Graham, thanks for the information about the days.

@smitty34877  Terri, I hope today is a better day for everyone.  Dog heaters are the best heaters.

@Nickelpenny  Pennie I'm glad you made it home safely.

 

In honor of Bird Day, here are three birds that have visited our place in Quartzsite over the years.  We also get hummingbirds and Gambrel quail, but no pictures of them.

 

A Redtail hawk who was a little camera shy.  I was lucky to get this picture.

 

Another year this hawk killed a bird and ate it right by our front patio.  Sorry the picture is a bit blurry, but I took it through the storm door which has tinted film on it.  DD and DSIL were here, but trapped in the motorhome until the bird left.

 

Our most frequent visitor besides the hummingbirds and quail

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lenda

 

[Haljo1935]

Bon Voyage @aliaschief

[Haljo1935]

Thanks @0106 for the awesome pictures - that's a great stow away!!

[Cruzin Terri]

Good morning,

Thank you all for your contributions to the Daily.

Hope everyone has a great day.

Terri

[Cruzin Terri]

@aliaschief

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Thanks for the info.

[Haljo1935]

Thanks @dfish for the shout out - I hope the Dailies are helpful in planning your cruise. There have been a lot of themed activities to occupy passengers on sea days.

I'm excited to hear about your next great adventure. 

[aliaschief]

195 of us awaiting transportation to ship. Thanks for all the kind well wishes.

 

Bruce & Sue

[puppycanducruise]

@aliaschief  @DWAliaschief     Bon Voyage! ✨

[Haljo1935]

26 minutes ago, Haljo1935 said:

Bon Voyage @aliaschief

Bon Voyage @DWAliaschief

[Cruising-along]

Good morning from the Volendam!

What a difference a day makes. After a wild first night out of San Diego, last night was perfect. I slept 11 hours (perfect rolling for sleep). The crew was even exclaiming over the first night. Many of us had bags under our eyes. I felt so sorry for the crew who had to get up and go to work. 
 

We had a large turnout at our M&G in spite of that, it was nice to put faces to names! And the Block Party was so much fun. There are a few other CCrs near our cabin. 
 

Today is a Mariner reception, Captain’s Welcome and our first Dressy night. We are getting things put away in our cabin but it will take awhile. I brought too much LOL!

 

Loving the cruise!
 

 

[Horizon chaser 1957]

Good morning, all! We are on a rare not- at- sea vacation in Puerto Vallarta, and my pictures from Sharm el Sheikh are not with me. I don’t think this winter’s GWV is stopping there after all. 
Today is packing up and heading home. It will feel cold, but a week from now the temperatures drop into the negative double digits, so our timing is lucky.

Happy Friday, everyone! Bon voyage to those setting out on new adventures. Prayers for those in pain, grief, or difficulty. My schedule has changed and I’m not often on early enough in the day to comment, but I still lurk and read later in the day!

[StLouisCruisers]

We went to get groceries this morning and on the way home had a dozen or so police cars from a county south of us went past us.  That reminded us that we got an neighborhood email yesterday about donations for a local police officer shot and killed last Friday when he went to a domestic abuse call.  The man pulled out a shotgun and killed the officer Sgt. Marc McIntyre.  Police cars and motorcycles  from all over Georgia met up at Atlanta Motor Speedway and started filing out of the parking lot there about an hour ago.  There were about 50 police motorcycles first and now I've seen hundreds (perhaps a thousand) police vehicles driving to my small town.  A distance of about 7 miles.  The front of the line made it to the church where the service is before the last of the police vehicles left Atlanta Motor Speedway!!  Cars on the opposite side of the road stopped and watched.  It's been going on now for over an hour and they're still driving into the parking lot at the church.  All their sirens are going and it's quite the spectacle.  I've been watching it all on a TV station live stream.  Quite the showing of respect for this slain officer who was beloved by many in the area.  

 

 

Edited January 5 by StLouisCruisers

[rafinmd]

Thank you Rich, Jacqui, Vanessa, Debbie, Ann, and Dixie.  Two of the leaders in my church are avid birders, and I'm pleased to see the screenwriters back on the job.  I'll pass on the Keto.

 

I like the quote but have not been to Sharm El Sheikh.

 

I'll celebrate Harry Truman although he is really before my time but little respect for Benedict Arnold.

 

I'll pass on the meal.  My alternative is Salad of Arigula and Frisee, Rack of Lamb, and Strawberry Romanoff as served on MS Prinsendam January 5, 2019:

 

 

I forgot to photograph the desert but got some nice cookies later in the Lido.

 

Roy

[rafinmd]

Today's sunrise is from my 2019 Prinsendam Grand South America cruise.  January 5 was a sea day from Fort Lauderdale to Santa Marta.

 

 

Roy