LeeRB

Will have look into this a little more when I get the time.

AMEN !

I have not been on a ship since March 7th 2020; but in the 34 cruises I have completed I think I have eaten breakfast in the MDR less than 10 times at most and that was early in my cruising. My wife and I concluded early on that the buffets of the three lines we sailed had a better selection and we could get the individual items we wanted, not what came as part of a menu item, for breakfast; or seconds on a given item easily if we wanted more.

First, I got off my last ship (Rhapsody OTS) March 7th 2020 which didn’t have a pub so I am not familiar with what the ships are currently carrying. Also, being normally a bourbon drinker, I don’t drink that much beer onboard a cruise ship; but there are those times when bourbon just doesn’t fit. In those cases I go for either Boddingtons Pub Ale or Newcastle Brown Ale (preferably Newcastle draft). It may be all in my head but, I think the Newcastle draft taste better than the bottled. Boddingtons has a capsule that generates a large, fine bubbled, head that requires the pint to be poured into a 20 oz. glass when the can is opened. I think I ran across Boddingtons on a Princess ship 7 or 8 years ago and was introduced to Newcastle Brown Ale in a bar in central Ohio by my son and one of his friends even farther back than that. While I was born and raised in Ohio, I am not a big fan of American beers. I guess being stationed in Germany for over 6 years in the 1970’s increased my appreciation of beers from other parts of the world. I think it was the Mariner OTS in Sep 2019 that I kept the bartenders in the pub confused by drinking in Newcastle draft some time, Boddingtons other times and Four Roses Single Barrel bourbon still other times. My son makes his own beer, or at least he used to until the girls came along. He is tied up with daddy things these days. Him and his wife are both nurses, while they both work days now, but not necessarily the same days. One of the girls is almost 2 ½ and the other is 4 months. Before the girls came; he had modified a medium size chest freezer so the internal temperature could be adjusted from the outside to an exact degree and he kept his beer in it; it holds three kegs and each keg was connected to a tap on the outside of the chest. Most of what he made was pretty good, but there were a couple things I didn’t care for. They were too heavy on the hops for my liking. Rick

I haven’t a clue the only beers I have bought in store in years has been Boddingtons, Newcastle, Guinness, Killian’s and a couple Mexican brands.

I may be telling my age, but I have drank 7 of those beers. Rick

Sid I tried that Don Julio Anejo neat last night and it didn’t pass. The Tequila dragons made an appearance. I tried a second time with a very, very small dash of agave syrup and the dragon didn’t show up so it’s right on the border line. I have a friend down in the Florida panhandle, every few weeks we get together, I either go down there or she comes up for the weekend. She keeps saying she wants me to take her on a cruise and I keep telling her get a passport and we’ll go. She’s be a bit of a drinker at times, to be honest she can drink most of the guys I know under the table if she is drinking bourbon or rum; but she has a problem with tequila. Have you heard that Joe Nichols song from the early 2000’s that went to #1 ‘Tequila makes her clothes fall off’ if I didn’t know better I would swear it was written about her. I think I will save the Don Julio for her after all it does make a great Margarita. That will also keep her out of my bourbon. I really enjoyed the ride and I picked a couple tips about a place I thought I knew. My next real cruise isn’t until next April. Have a safe flight home, I will ketch you the first part of December for the Celebration cruise. Rick

I can remember back when I was maybe 11 or 12, my folks took me and my grandmother to the city to meet my cousins and their folks at the big pool (they were season ticket holders, we were their guests). After an hour or two it started raining and my grandmother came out on the covered area next to the pool and yelled me “can’t you see it’s raining; get out of the pool you’re gonna get wet”. Bless her heart; she was in her late 70’s at the time. If you are in the pool when the rain starts, you don’t need to get out unless it is thundering and on the last day of a cruise and you want that last dip; go for it.

It wasn’t the storm itself that kept us at sea, it was the security and safety checks that the Coast Guard and Port people had to complete after the storm to make sure the harbor was safe for ship traffic that took the 2 1/2 days and Mobile is a very small port compared to Miami.

That pattern looks awfully familiar. It bears a striking resemblance to one I saw on the Carnival Fantasy back in October 2017 when Hurricane Nate came up behind us out of nowhere on our return to Mobile. That 5 night cruise turned into a 7 night while we spent two extra days doing circles off Sarasota waiting for the port of Mobile to reopen. I hope you guys will be able to get into Miami Sunday morning. Good Luck Rick

That was what I was thinking; I didn’t know if it was your choices in food or a completely different kind of cruise ship menu. It kind of remind me what Carnival used to be like back around 2000 when I started cruising (I refer to Carnival because, 12 of my first 15 cruises were on Carnival). You didn’t know what would be on the menu from day to day or ship to ship. They did have some basic stuff for those that were not adventuress back then but nowhere like it was when COVID shut everything down in 2020. In 2019/ 2020 I already knew what dinner would be based on how long the cruise was and what day of the cruise it was; and depending which line you were sailing you had a pretty good Idea what dessert would be without looking at the menu. The food was getting boring. While not everything I saw was visually appealing to me on this thread, I have found over the years that there will be at least one night on a 7 night or longer cruise there will be nothing on the menu that I like, plus I have eaten things over the years that would probably gag others. I also realize that everyone has different tastes. It also appeared to show there was something for everyone’s taste. IMHO this appears to be a completely new approach to the food onboard a cruise ship and several notches up from the standard cruise fare among the major cruise lines, only time will tell if it goes down to the older lines standards or bring the major lines standards up. Half or more of the stuff you had onboard this ship I have never heard of let alone seen before and I lived in Europe for 6 years, Hawaii for 3 and been to several counties including Australia, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Switzerland, The Azores and Viet Nam. Good job Sid. Rick

Sid, I did some extra shopping yesterday when at the store and picked up a bottle of agave syrup and some limes; I also went by the liquor store to pick up a bottle of Don Julio Anejo. I can understand why they want $17.00 for one of those margaritas on the ship. A bottle of that stuff is $70 plus tax retail here in Alabama. Anyway, last evening after dinner I made one of those margaritas; I didn’t salt the glass rim but I always request a bare rim. It turned out to be pretty tasty. I think the agave syrup tamed the Tequila dragon. I also had a few more before bed. I haven’t tried it neat yet but it may be added to my list of beverages even with that price if it passes the neat test, but not for everyday drinking. Rick

Probably has something with the projected track of the weather putting Nassau approximately 3 - 4 times farther away from it than Bimini. The ‘cone of doom’ shows it crossing Florida north of Miami between Melbourne and West Palm roughly centered over Port St Lucie.

I haven’t been to Key West since 2015 and forgot about that place up there, wasn’t it called “The Garden of Eden”?

Not trying to scare any one; just a heads up here that it may get a little rough out there. This is what was in the NHC’s morning weather outlook says. Tropical Weather Outlook NWS National Hurricane Center Miami FL 800 AM EDT Thu Jun 2 2022 For the North Atlantic...Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico: 1. Near the Yucatan Peninsula and Southeastern Gulf of Mexico: A broad area of low pressure located over the northeastern portion of the Yucatan Peninsula continues to produce a large area of disorganized showers and thunderstorms over the northwestern Caribbean Sea and Yucatan Peninsula. Despite strong upper-level winds, this system is likely to become a tropical depression or tropical storm while it moves slowly northeastward over the northwestern Caribbean Sea and southeastern Gulf of Mexico during the next day or two. Interests in western Cuba, the Florida Keys, and the Florida Peninsula should monitor the progress of this system, and tropical storm watches or warnings could be required for some of these areas later today. Regardless of development, areas of heavy rainfall are likely across portions of the Yucatan Peninsula and western Cuba during the next day or so, spreading across southern and central Florida and the Florida Keys Friday and Friday night, and the northwestern Bahamas on Saturday. These heavy rains could cause scattered to numerous flash floods across South Florida and the Florida Keys. * Formation chance through 48 hours...high...80 percent. * Formation chance through 5 days...high...80 percent. There is also a second area they are looking at but it is out in the Atlantic north and east of the Bahamas.