FromSea2ShiningSea

Too long. It was the worst show I’ve ever seen. I wanted my hour back.

I am so very sorry. I pray for Eric, you and family to be comforted at this difficult time.

I was wrong. It was Pride of Hawaii that we were on. I hope you both are enjoying all the natural beauty of Hawaii. Say Hi to Sharron. Yes, we will be on the same Harmony with you next December. That was exactly what we saw, too. It was really an awesome sight when you see the lava flowing and hitting the ocean. From far away, it looked like fire. And then you realize the mighty force of Mother Nature. Sorry to hear about how damaged your chimney was. Would your home insurance cover the cost of repair? (Sorry I quoted the wrong thing above) That was the year we were there, 2006. I did take some pictures but I think they turned out looking like orange glob. I'm sorry to hear this, Debbie.

Beautiful pictures! That was my experience on Pride of America in the main dining room also. The service was so slow. There was hardly any guests in there and it took forever to get even your soup. It was the most disappointing. And that was 16 years ago. I didn't want to give you any negative opinion on the food service before because I thought they'd improve by now. There are chickens everywhere in Hawaii. One time, they flew over my garlic shrimp plate at Giovanni's Shrimp Truck picnic table. Scared the heck out of me. We will miss you on Allure in a couple weeks.

Thank you, Dani. Wow, that is a long list of "little wonders" to discover on Allure. I will make a copy of the list and try to check off all the wonders and treasures I will find although I think it will take me all 7 days to finds all or some of them. I will need to involve my family in this fun activity for sure. I have always wanted to try this Texas fruitcake. I'm just afraid if I ordered it and didn't like it, I'd be stuck with it. What a coincidence is right! I wish I could be able to send you, @aussielozzie18, and @dani negreanumy MIL's fruitcake. I would love for you to try it.

I know I am a little late in posting Thanksgiving pictures but we just got home so I think I better do it while it’s still Thanksgiving weekend. It was DH’s Thanksgiving family reunion at his mom’s house. We started our drive down in the middle of the night at 3:00AM to avoid terrible Thanksgiving Day traffic. There were 21 people that came for dinner. All our kids were there so it was a blessing that we were together. We then had a chance to talk about our upcoming family cruise that’s in two weeks on the Allure out of Galveston. This will be our first time on an Oasis class ship. The kids are SO excited about the cruise. My son said he and his fiancé are so excited about the cruise that they talk about it everyday,. This will be her first cruise ever. They want to do everything on the ship. I caught the sun come up on the horizon on the way down The 17 pound turkey My MIL makes over a hundred fruitcakes a year to give out to family and friends. It is actually a very good fruitcake. Not your typical Christmas fruitcakes that people make jokes out of.

The fish was really good! That was actually my seconds on the fish. It was fresh, hot and crispy. I don't like the fish they serve in the MDR. Done it and I regret it. We will be on Allure for the first time ever in a few weeks so we will check out El Local Fresh in the WipeOut Cafe. It's considered a snack place. By the way, on the Specialty Dining on our sailing, we really wanted to try Solarium Bistro. I know that Solarium Bistro is not a specialty restaurant but you need reservations for dinner. But on this particular sailing, that restaurant was closed off to us regular folks and used for Pinnacles only - all day long- for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The reason they said was because there were too many Pinnacles on our cruise. They said it was orders from Miami even though there was hardly anyone in there any of those times. They could've been flexible and open it up. It was really a waste of food and there were a lot of disappointed folks.

We had the UDP for this Odyssey TA. We purchased it at a really good price several years ago when we booked the cruise. So my intent was to eat a lot and gain a lot of weight. The problem with this ship is that there are not that many different specialty restaurants. The usual Chops Grill, Giovanni’s, Izumi, Teppanyaki, Wonderland and Playmakers. You try to map this out on a spreadsheet and you’ll find that there is only so many times you can eat at any one of these restaurants before it gets boring. Besides that, it is a lot of food. You finish one meal and before you know it, you got to go to the next meal. So we ended up not going to a specialty restaurant every night. About half the time it was the MDR or the Windjammer for dinner. In the end, I did not gain any weight. We decided that we will probably think twice before we purchase the UDP again because it is just too much food. By the way, I don’t know how I missed it but I did not take any pictures of the gym. This was a nice gym with lots of exercise equipments. Filet Mignon at Chops done just right My favorite in the Main Dining Room- Beef Tenderloin- on Day 2 Also on Day 2 MDR- Seafood Linguine Lobster Night in MDR- Day 6 Playmakers Classic Burger Onion Ring Tower Chicken Wings- sauce on the s Poke Nachos We had the Touch Down Sundae with 5 scoops of ice cream (very small scoops) for dessert. We devoured it before I could take a picture of it. Izumi’s Sashimi

Food. First stop in the Windjammer is one of the most popular stations- the Stir Fry Station. I make mine with no meat, noodle or rice. I’ll even add more veggies to the dish. The other popular station- The Omelette Station. Make mine a soft fluffy scramble with everything in it. Fish and no chips. You can also go around the corner outside the Windjammer to El Local Fresh, get a tortilla and make a fish taco with this. Nachos with all the fixings’ from El Local Fresh Poor piggy… Sorrento’s made a custom half carnivore pizza for me Another popular station in the Windjammer is the Ice Cream Station. It is in the front in between the bread and the bar. They have the usual- Vanilla, Strawberry, Chocolate, some with no sugar added. Each day they will also have other special flavors such as Pistachio, Coconut, Orange Sherbet or Rainbow Sherbet. They put out the ice cream even in the morning. If there’s a specialty flavor that you like, you better get it early because it will go fast and will be gone later on in the day.

That to me looks like something out of Star Wars.

Just a few more Odyssey pictures and maybe some food pictures and then I will stop. I thank Dani and you all for putting up with what seemed like a gazillion pictures from me. I hope you weren’t bored to tears. We had quite an adventure the last several weeks and I thank you all for allowing me to share part of that with you. A sea day sunrise The Solarium Deck 4 Royal Esplanade From Deck 5, you can look down into the Main Dining Room on Deck 3 A giant pool table Night of dancing in Music Hall Early before the sun came up And of course…this

On this one particular morning, we were so far out in the ocean that a helicopter had to come take a passenger that needed more care than the ship can offer. It had to circle around twice. The Captain had to steer to the north a bit so to create the right condition for the helicopter to drop the basket.

Two70 is a great venue for many activities such as Bingo, lectures, dance parties and the show The Book which you need reservation for. Lecture series on spies Captain’s Corner 70’s Party Dancing With the Stripes The Effectors was in the Royal Theater. A very well done show with outstanding lighting, staging and special effects. Other than that, I did not care for the show.

Valencia, Spain was one of the three ports we visited on the TA. Here is the City of Arts and Sciences. It is a cultural and architectural complex in the city where it is an important tourist destination. Valencia’s Central Market Walking in the neighborhoods

Thank you! I use my iPhone 14 Pro. This is where I sit to rest and people watch on Deck 4 Royal Esplanade. Get my Cappuccino from the Diamond Lounge and find me a seat near Starbucks and watch people shop for T-shirts, watches, etc. Somehow, I still call it the Royal Promenade though.

We just got back from a TA on Odyssey. Any questions, just ask away. We really like Odyssey. It seemed like a long ship but it was manageable, even for me. On Deck 5, from one end of the elevator in the back to the front where the Royal Theater and Diamond Lounge is really is not that long a walk. People say that this ship is narrower than the others and that’s why it rocks a little more with motion. The captain didn’t agree with that theory. DH did the FlowRider on the first day. There were so serious riders here. Always long lines. Then he tried the iFly. Free on the first day of the cruise. One of our favorite spots Another favorite spots Halloween cupcake decorations on boarding day10/31 in the Windjammer Sunset on 10/31

We’re back! I am about 70 pages behind and don’t think I’ll be able to catch up. It is so good to be home after being gone for 5 weeks. Still waiting for more pictures to be downloaded onto the iPad. I’ll just share a few photos for now. I’ll share more about the cruise and photos later.

Tonight is the last night of our impromptu Tuscan Holiday adventure. While we missed our Holy Land/Greece cruise, we really did enjoy these last 12 days of visiting the Tuscany areas. Everything happens for a reason and I don’t regret the sudden change in plans. It gave us the opportunity to do this land tour which we otherwise probably would not have done. We will get to the Holy Land another time. So, tomorrow we will take the train to Civitavecchia and try for Odyssey 2.0. We did the Abbott eMed test yesterday and both are negative so we should be good to go. We will see you onboard. Until then, here’s a few more pictures… Sunrise this morning… The swimming pool A view of the resort from the water Sunset tonight

Some food pictures from the last few nights Herb Cake Pappardella- Egg pasta with wild boar sauce Baked veal strip loin Dessert- Baba’ al limoncello

The sun goes down… And the moon comes up

Thank you, Dani! I guess tomorrow we can test to see if we board Odyssey Monday. Thank you, Graham! I’m feeling fine. No more symptoms. It seemed like the cold got better and now gone. DH is the adventurous one. He’s really taking advantage of the amenities here. He’s out there paddle boarding and kayaking again. If there were any waves, he’d try to surf. I came back inside because there’s too many mosquitoes for me. I get bit left and right. He’s rode the bike into town to explore yesterday. This morning he rode the bike to the golf course and played golf. He claims he played pretty good. He tested negative a few days ago so he’s making the best of everything. It’s been 10 days since I tested in Civitavecchia so I just did a test today to see where I stand. I am very pleased to let you all know that I tested Negative! I just hope it stays that way for the eMed test before we board the ship. I feel like I won the lottery.

The last stop of our Tuscan Holiday Adventure- Follonica, at the Sense Experience Resort. It is beautiful out here but in fact, it will actually close for the season November 1, right after we leave. DH kayaking… Paddle boarding… Oops… My spot for the day… It was less cloudy than the night before for a nice sunset.

Inside the City Wall of Lucca There is a ComicCon event in Lucca this weekend and they are prepping for a big crowd. It is the only ComicCon in Italy and only the second one in all of Europe. We will be returning this rental car so we can go onto our next destination. This has been a cute little fun car to drive for DH. It’s a Fiat 500. It is a stick shift and reminds him of his Mini Cooper which he misses a lot. We cross the Arno River to get to the airport car rental place.

My deepest sympathies, @h20skibum. I’m so sorry for this devastating news.