The Fleet Report and Daily for Sunday January 28th, 2024

[cat shepard]

@aliaschief

 

Bruce, my song choice would be a Led Zeppelin song. 😎

[dfish]

In the air on the way to San Diego.  It took forever for de-icing, but that is a critical part of the process.

[Sharon in AZ]

Good morning and Happy Sunday!  Lots to do today before we fly tomorrow. We had an early dinner at a Mexican restaurant yesterday for our almost DGD, Amaya, who is 17 today.  It felt like a late lunch actually. We tried to order light but that’s hard at a restaurant. I had cleaned out the refrigerator and took two bags of groceries to our DS and almost DDIL. I had no idea I had that much fresh food in the fridge. I didn’t feel like doing much when we got home so today is crunch day. Packing should be fast since I have everything set out. 
 

Eva @superoma, thank you for your recipes and for taking over for Debbie while she enjoys her cruise. Paul @kochleffel, thank you for the info about absinthe and for helping Dixie @summer slope while she enjoys her cruise. I have seen absinthe served on TV and some bars make quite a production out of it. 
 

I’ll pass on the meal. I’m sure it’s tasty but it’s just not my cup of tea. We are having leftovers and whatever is leftover after that goes in the trash. It’s going to be so nice not cooking for 3 weeks. 
 

I remember the Challenger explosion vividly. I was at home with DS who was just 4 months old and a neighbor told me what happened. I was fixed to the TV after that. 
 

I went to Puntarenas last April on the Volendam and will post some pictures separately. It’s easier on my iPhone and right now I’m on my iPad. 
 

Pennie @Nickelpenny, we tried to get another picture of Mt Lemmon yesterday.  Still not the best and that silly palm tree had to be in the way of the snow!  This is taken near the Hilton on Broadway. Even the Rincons had lots of snow. 

 

Have a great day everyone!

Edited January 28 by Sharon in AZ

[ottahand7]

Good morning everyone.   We are on our way to Bonaire.   Thanks for the daily reports and maps Jacqui and Roy.   Prayers for everyone on our care list and for those in war zones.  Safe travels to @summer slope and @dfish.   

We are having lunch in the Pinnacle Grill today and then pizza in the cabin for the Ravens game.  Trying to stay busy so I don't get too excited.  I went to the flower arranging class this morning.  I usually learn something each time today was put a penny in your Tulip vase to keep them from drooping.  Thanks for the P&O food porn @grapau27. 

[Sharon in AZ]

Bruce @aliaschief, wow!, Pitcairn Island!!  Absolutely beautiful. And I would enjoy either “I want to Hold Your Hand” or “Sherry Baby” on the jukebox. 
 

Graham @grapau27, Welcome Home! What a lovely cruise you and Pauline had. Thank you for your pictures and I especially enjoyed the video listening to your voice!

 

 

[superoma]

45 minutes ago, kochleffel said:

I would like the stew better without kale. Please substitute Swiss chard. It's just as well that I have no great desire to try the drink of the day, because today is the beginning of a period of two weeks or so during which I can't drink at all. For the wine, Thirsty Owl 2021 Meritage. I haven't been to Puntarenas.

 

 

 

Good suggestion with Swiss chard. Spinach would also work added at the very end. 

[Haljo1935]

Daisy Day?

Pass on the meal & drink, maybe try the wine, not been to the port.

More computer cleaning and PT today plus wiping muddy dog paws.

Currently 46° headed to 63°!!

Prayers and positive thoughts for all. 

[kazu]

1 hour ago, kochleffel said:

Absinthe

 

 

Wow!  What a great way to kick off your stepping up and filling in for Dixie.  Apologies - I forgot you were doing that starting today.  Thank you 🙂 

 

 

17 minutes ago, Sharon in AZ said:

We had an early dinner at a Mexican restaurant yesterday for our almost DGD, Amaya, who is 17 today.  

 

Happy birthday to Amaya.  What a pretty hame!

 

[Quartzsite Cruiser]

Good morning from a sunny Quartzsite where it is 45F.  The predicted high is 71F, so the laundry should dry nicely on the line.  The first load is about ready to go go outside, and the second is in the washer.  The sheets have already be changed, too.  The only other thing on the agenda today is getting the suitcases out of the storage trailer and into the house.

 

Because of the immigration mess, immigration lawyers are more important than ever.  I remember exactly where we were when we heard the news of the Challenger explosion and the death of Christa McAuliffe and the crew.  Daisy are nice flowers.

 

An interesting quote by Marie Curie, and I hope I understand more every day.

 

We'll pass on the meal (kale), the drink and the wine because of the price.  I might try the meal with one of the substitutions mentioned.

 

We have been to Puntarenas many times, and I'll look for my pictures in a bit.

 

Two days in history to remember, one good and the other very sad.

 

@Crazy For Cats  Jake, I'm glad your reaction to the vaccine wasn't too bad.

@superoma  Eva, thanks for taking over for Debbie, and doing a great job.

@dfish Debbie, glad you are on your final flight to San Diego.

@summer slope  Dixie, glad you are on your way after that long line for security.  Hope the layover in Denver goes well.

@StLouisCruisers  Sandi, there was widespread flooding in Houston and even as far north as Conroe from the rains last week.  Houston was built on a swamp, so it is prone to flooding.  Also the underpasses on the freeways flood during a heavy rain.  I'm glad they moved the soccer match to College Station where my guess is they will be playing at Texas A&M.

@RMLincoln  Maureen, I hope there is not problem getting to the doctor tomorrow.

@marshhawk  Annie, the Pantheon is an amazing building.  Thanks for the pictures.

@grapau27  Welcome home, Graham and Pauline.  I'm sorry your are losing your Marks and Spencer store.  We've enjoyed wandering through several, and buying wine at the one in Hong Kong.

@Sharon in AZ  Sharon, the opening of skiing on Mt. Lemmon made the Phoenix news last night.  HAPPY 17TH BIRTHDAY to Amaya.

@aliaschief  Bruce, I hope you can land on Pitcairn as very few can go ashore.  My DFIL took two freighter cruises that stopped there, but they were not allowed to go ashore.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lenda

 

[JazzyV]

Good morning. Thanks for the Fleet Report/Daily.

I'll salute Immigration Lawyers and Christie McAuliffe. Daisies are pretty. Good quote. Maybe on the meal, pass on the drink and wine (due to cost). I was supposed to stop at Puntarenas (maybe Puerto Limon) in Costa Rica, but the port got cancelled, I think due to weather. I was disappointed at not going to the rain forest. 

 

Another cloudy day here, in the 40's. There's supposed to be some snow overnight, but they say with the ground being warm it won't stick. We'll see. I'm feeling sleepy. I had about 3.5 hours of sleep last night. I tried to nap yesterday but couldn't fall asleep. I want to try to do laundry today, at least half of it. And continue to pack breakables up. And of course watch football.

 

@StLouisCruisers Thanks for the photos.

@grapau27 Thank you for the link. I still have a jumper from Marks and Spencer (Marks and Sparks, lol). Welcome Home from what sounds like a great cruise! Thanks for the photos. Happy Sunday to you and Pauline.

@Crazy For Cats I'm glad you didn't feel too bad yesterday and are good today.

@kazu Thanks for starting us up today. Yuck on the coming weather. Stay safe!

@superoma I appreciate the recipes today.

@dfish Safe travels to you and Sue! Have a great cruise.

@GTVCRUISER Nice photos.

@Nickelpenny I hope your mood improves today.

@summer slope Ugh on that security line. Safe travels and have a great cruise.

@RMLincoln I hope your drive to the eye doctor tomorrow is uneventful. 

@marshhawk Nice Rome photos.

@kochleffel Great info on absinthe; I didn't know much about it except that it had a bad reputation.

@aliaschief I hope you get to set foot on Pitcairn Island, as not many do.

 

Prayers for the Care List and Cheers for those Celebrating.

[Quartzsite Cruiser]

We have been to Puerto Caldera (Puntarenas) many times.  It is the port for the interior of Costa Rica, and we've done many tours there.  Our last cruise in January 2020 on the Rotterdam, stopped there on both legs of the b2b Panama Canal cruise.  Since we'd been to San Jose, etc., several times, we just took the shuttle into Puntarenas and walked around.

 

 

Lenda

 

 

 

[aliaschief]

We are still awaiting a decision whether we can go ashore. In the meantime here are some photos of our dinner on deck last night and our morning sunrise this morning. Our dinner was even highlighted by a slight rainbow.

They seated us with our nearby neighbors so we could meet those in cabins near ours.

Edited January 28 by aliaschief

[kazu]

3 hours ago, summer slope said:

Sitting in the Orlando airport waiting to board in 45 minutes. Security line was 90 minutes long.

 

Ugh on that time in security 😔. I hope the rest of your trip goes much smoother 🤞 

 

 

2 hours ago, RMLincoln said:

 

Keep breathing Jacquie. Glad you corroborated my unsolicited advice!  Things pop into my head and out my fingers- I realized later I probably shouldn’t have posted that, but I did….  free advice can be freely accepted or freely rejected!  Hoping you’ll be beyond the rib injury very soon!  
 

 

I appreciated the advice very much, Maureen.  If I hadn’t already looked it up, I wouldn’t have known.  thank you 🙂 

 

 

3 minutes ago, aliaschief said:

We are still awaiting a decision whether we can go ashore.

 

I hope you can 🤞 

 

3 minutes ago, aliaschief said:

In the meantime here are some photos of our dinner on deck last night and our morning sunrise this morning. Our dinner was even highlighted by a slight rainbow.

 

The ship seems to like to do a lot of their meals outdoors!  

 

 

[puppycanducruise]

@grapau27  Welcome back Graham and Pauline.  I'm glad you had a wonderful cruise, the food looks terrific.

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Thanks for the info.

[Seasick Sailor]

@aliaschief 

 

My mom owned a small restaurant in Algonquin,  I'll. We had a jukebox and weekends were filled with teens having fries, hamburgers and shakes.

 

Favorites I recall..

 

Uptown Girl

Hey Paula

This Diamond Ring

It's my Party

Crying in the Chapel

Good Golly Miss Molly

Dance with Me

Kind of a Drag

Hurts so Bad

 

I'll remember more at 2 am and repost..lol

[grapau27]

2 hours ago, grapau27 said:

Good afternoon.

We have just arrived home after a fabulous 14 night's Canary Islands cruise on P&O Iona.

We left Southampton England and visited.

Madeira.

Tenerife.

Gran Canaria.

Lanzarote.

Cadiz.

Lisbon.

Returning to Southampton.

We had a fantastic Aft balcony cabin.

I forgot we also stopped at Fuetuvenura too.

[Quartzsite Cruiser]

1 hour ago, aliaschief said:

We are still awaiting a decision whether we can go ashore. In the meantime here are some photos of our dinner on deck last night and our morning sunrise this morning. Our dinner was even highlighted by a slight rainbow.

They seated us with our nearby neighbors so we could meet those in cabins near ours.

 

Thanks for the pictures, Bruce.  It looks like the weather and the seas cooperated for a nice al fresco dinner.

 

Lenda

[rafinmd]

1 hour ago, StLouisCruisers said:

Speaking of Global Entry Charlene @cunnorl, this week we applied for a renewal of our Trusted Traveler Program (TTP) status.  The most important thing to remember to do before you sign in to renew "membership" is make a list of countries you've visited for 24 hours or more (not just a temporary stop) in the last 5 years.  Then you'll be ready to answer that at the proper point in the renewal application.  I had to go back and look at everything from 2019 on for overnights on cruises and places we'd stayed before or after cruises.  With Covid in the middle of it there were far fewer countries than we ever had prior to it.

 

We were surprised to get our approval emails back in only 2 days.  It was FAST!  They warn you it may take a while and are extending expirations because of it.  Shocking!  Thought you all should know in case any of you will be re-applying for your Global Entry.

I "sort of" have Global Entry.  What I actually have is NEXUS, a joint program of US CPB and the Canadian authorities which provides the benefits of Global Entry and more.  I got it in 2011 when I had a New Years cruise on Jewel of the Seas, and an Asian cruise on Zaandam in  February,  Fearing that my passport might be out of service for Zaandam VISA processing I needed a backup ID so that sounded like a good choice.

 

The disadvantage of NEXUS is that it requires a personal interview at one of a few cities where both US and Canadian personnel are present.  I managed to do it in Niagara Falls while on the way to a High School Reunion in Syracuse.

 

In 2016 I did it while visiting family in Montreal, but it was after my original card's expiration date.  They told me that since I had done the online renewal before the card expired it was still good until the time of the interview.  In 2021 I was not required to go for a third interview.

 

One other thing to keep in mind, and I assume is also true  for Global Entry is that it is tied to your passport, so when you renew your passport you should go to the CPB website and enter the new passport data.

 

Roy

[Quartzsite Cruiser]

I found a few more pictures of Costa Rica.

 

We have been Costa Rica many times docking at both Puntarenas and Puerto Caldera.   Some of our first visits were pre-digital, and there were a few post digital, with most docking at Puerto Caldera.  Since the tours to the interior of Costa Rica are the same, I thought I'd share some pictures from various tours.

 

In 2009 on Statendam, we visited the rain forest and did the aerial tram.  We could hear the people on the zip line as they passed overhead.  These are a few pictures of the tram and the rain forest.  We did see a few mynah birds and a couple of toucans, but pictures were difficult to get. 

 

 

 

 

In 2015, again on Statendam, we took a tour to San Jose along with stops in Grecia and Sochi.  But first, this pictures shows why along with road work tours are sometimes late returning to the ship.

 

San Jose

 

The National Theater

 

 

 

A reception room in the theater.

 

 

Grecia and the "iron church", Iglesia de la Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes,  which built using sheet of Belgium metal that were riveted together.

 

 

 

Another church, but I'm not sure if it is Grecia or Sarchi.

 

The factory in Sarchi where they make the painted wagons and other decorations.

 

 

 

We've also gone to the cloud forest, where it poured, a coffee plantation. and taken the train along with a boat on a river to see crocodiles.  All these were pre-digital tours.

 

Lenda

Edited January 28 by Quartzsite Cruiser

[rafinmd]

@aliaschiefone question.  Do you have any kind of Sunday services?  I think I remember you sometimes worship online at home, does your wifi make that a possibility?

 

Roy

[grapau27]

2 hours ago, Sharon in AZ said:

Good morning and Happy Sunday!  Lots to do today before we fly tomorrow. We had an early dinner at a Mexican restaurant yesterday for our almost DGD, Amaya, who is 17 today.  It felt like a late lunch actually. We tried to order light but that’s hard at a restaurant. I had cleaned out the refrigerator and took two bags of groceries to our DS and almost DDIL. I had no idea I had that much fresh food in the fridge. I didn’t feel like doing much when we got home so today is crunch day. Packing should be fast since I have everything set out. 
 

Eva @superoma, thank you for your recipes and for taking over for Debbie while she enjoys her cruise. Paul @kochleffel, thank you for the info about absinthe and for helping Dixie @summer slope while she enjoys her cruise. I have seen absinthe served on TV and some bars make quite a production out of it. 
 

I’ll pass on the meal. I’m sure it’s tasty but it’s just not my cup of tea. We are having leftovers and whatever is leftover after that goes in the trash. It’s going to be so nice not cooking for 3 weeks. 
 

I remember the Challenger explosion vividly. I was at home with DS who was just 4 months old and a neighbor told me what happened. I was fixed to the TV after that. 
 

I went to Puntarenas last April on the Volendam and will post some pictures separately. It’s easier on my iPhone and right now I’m on my iPad. 
 

Pennie @Nickelpenny, we tried to get another picture of Mt Lemmon yesterday.  Still not the best and that silly palm tree had to be in the way of the snow!  This is taken near the Hilton on Broadway. Even the Rincons had lots of snow. 

 

Have a great day everyone!

Happy 17th birthday to Amaya today.

[aliaschief]

Tender operations are going but conditions are of such that we have elected to stay onboard. Meet some of inhabitants who have come in aboard and setting up a market. If one goes ashore one has to climb a steep half mile climb then another half mile down to see anything. No facilities, places to sit etc. Think we will get more out a lecture and meeting the natives here onboard. We are not disappointed and not sure we would get off in perfect conditions.

 

[aliaschief]

28 minutes ago, rafinmd said:

@aliaschiefone question.  Do you have any kind of Sunday services?  I think I remember you sometimes worship online at home, does your wifi make that a possibility?

 

Roy

Roy, We have the Star Link stronger WiFi service. Yes we have been able to worship live through our church’s on line service. Now that our time zone locations are changing that’s getting harder. Our church does record services so we have that option.

First segment they had a non denominational service which was probably lead by a fellow guest. 

[rafinmd]

Thank you Rich, Jacqui, Vanessa, Ann, Tina, and Paul.  Happy Championship Sunday..  I'll salute our Astronauts and Immigration Lawyers and Daisys are nice to look at.

 

I like the quote. 

 

A sad day in American History and am glad Luther escaped without major harm. 

 

I will not be watching the game today.  It seems like whenever I watch the Ravens make major mistakes, so my not watching will be my contribution to their effort.  Way too superstitious but I would feel awful if something went wrong while I watched.

 

One of the leaders of my church livestreaming rotation never works when the Ravens are playing.  I thought he probably had season tickets but learned in our mens' group meeting that is not quite true.  It seems that his son is one of the younger coaches on the team so I expect his family borders on the royal treatment.

 

I'll probably pass on the meal.  My alternative is Chilled Coconut Nutmeg Soup, Sun-Ripened Pineapple Delight and Oven Roasted Chicken as served on MS Maasdam January 28, 2015

 

I have not been to Puntarenas but have been to Puerto Caldera on Crystal Symphony in 2012 and Crystal Serenity in 2018 but were unable to dock due to high winds in 2020.  The photo is from 2018 showing how close the Eurodam was to us in Puntarenas:

 

 

Roy