ottahand7

Today's Daily Activities. In port with a Celebrity ship. They got the good berth close to town. Balcony reading time for us today. Much less wind! We were here last March on the Volendam and took a long tour. I will share those photos later today.

Coming into beautiful Dominica.

As our tradition in St. Lucia we would always dine on our balcony to enjoy scenic cruising in Soufriere Bay if we were in a Neptune Suite. The day was of off and on rain squalls so I decided to set us up inside on the coffee table dragged in front of the balcony door, orange table cloth and all. John chose tradition and grabbed his room service food for the balcony. Sail away was smooth with a beautiful rainbow following us. As soon as we left the harbor the ship got into a gale. John had to grab his food and get inside. Here is my set up. Medium rare tri-tip with mashed and roasted potatoes. Plus a wimpy Caesar salad. Beef was great and usual room temperature warm. We brought the orange table cloth as we had planned on balcony dining a lot but this has been a very breezy cruise overall. I wonder how they are liking it up there in the cabanas this week. This post may be garbled having an issue with CC. Fingers crossed.

They will get turned away for jeans on Gala night. Sometimes I do a dressy top and some blingy sandals. I bring one long dress. @bandect I would say to the depth you like Italian food would be your guide. I think that the new menu is not as compelling and I said to John I kind of found it meh. He said we couldn't recreate our wonderful waiters on the Volendam. ( Our server Sui was wonderful). It wasn't that but it may have had to do with Chef Javier on the Volendam.

Today's Daily Activities and the port made. Heavy, brief rain showers throughout the day. Departing at 5 for scenic cruising of Soufriere Bay.

Arrival in St. Lucia this morning.

@seagarsmoker good luck today! @marshhawk so sorry Chuck has to go back for more surgery. Two rough nights, hallucinations and last night coughing I am under the covers in our cool room and try to get some sleep. Clouds and sun here in St. Lucia. We are going to try to have dinner on our balcony tonight, very windy this trip so far. Very high winds last night.

Our Canalletto dinner last night. John had Tiger Prawns (lukewarm but probably first plate out of the kitchen) and the Tretelle with three seafoods but at the end we couldn't be sure there was a third. I had the Veal Meatballs, pretty good and the osso bucco on a plate that wasn't generous enough for it.

Getting caught up from yesterday. We are backing into our berth in St. Lucia. It appears we are in a new one for us. Payless Shoe store visible. Here is last evening's dinner menu. We are in Canalletto last night.

I will try to check it out when I make it up to Explorations. I have been kind of staying on the down low for a few. The respiratory illness was much worse than I had thought. The infection is gone but as many people with asthma etc, the cough is now a horrible problem. I have been trying to keep my exertion to a minimum, less oxygen exchange means less chance of triggering a cough. But, once I get into the cabin I can let it rip. Once I get prone in bed the lungs start their house keeping and start sending the fluids up into the throat. I coughed so much last night I think I have strained or tore a pectoral muscle below my rib cage. I hope I can get a break from it so I can walk into town and get some straight Guaifenisin to add a Tylenol #3 tablet to get a fair facsimile of what I consumed. Best hope is Medical will sell me a bottle of theirs which is the same I have used up. I think taking the high doses of Prednisone it is clearing the inflammation faster than with any other respiratory infections. So the coughing will probably be compressed into fewer days but it has been hellish at night. I feel well and the Cefixime I self treated with has changed the evidence of bronchitis. I have 5 more days of those. Since I am no longer communicable the less interaction with medical the better, thus self treatment of bronchitis instead of the agreed $99 for consultation to start. My energy is great due to seductive effects of Prednisone but I am taking it easy. Everyone get your RSV vax. John is perfectly well. I wasn't vaccinated. This illness which isn't known to be RSV is on the scale of the illness that we both had after getting off the Zuiderdam December 20, 2019. The ship had come out of dry dock in early January with all all new crew most traveling the major airports in Asia. About a month later China came forward with what they shared with the world. Not for sure but we were sick for two months with that respiratory illness. Therefore I pounced on this with Prednisone as soon as my fever fell into the 99s. We live way back in the North woods in MI during the summer and the self doctoring is a big help at sea too. Long story.....

@marshhawk glad Chuck's catheterization went well! We did miss night one, football and I was getting sick and I asked the concierge to call and cancel. I would have been on a "list" for BOLO for people escaping quarantine and we only had one night we didn't call. I wish we could be seated with Jaka and Ari again. It is crazy to change waiters around when they go to a new cruise. We had the same waiter, Lucky, for probably 70 days when we finally got assigned a table on the Volendam.

I think the boom box heard in the fast walkers room above a night ago was auditory hallucinating. I had a constant soundtrack of the same type of music last night until I switched to my iPod. Tiny's staccato purring was tuned to John's loud snoring, yay Tiny.

A pulse ox that works for people with asthma or COPD so easily is terrific. A great invention. I never thought I could use a watch device but I may start scouting one. Mine was 94 when I went to medical Sunday and I had to walk the length of the ship as a sick puppy.

On Saturday they took on many pieces of equipment and were an hour late departing. On Sunday we got a message that new AC was going to be installed and the system shut down at 10. It was back on in an hour. In our suite it seems to have been an improvement but someone in our hall came out of her cabin "boy is it hot". I almost regretted bringing a sweater as it was chilly in the Lido at noon but we were on the shady side. Last week everyone found the coolest areas furthest away from the Seaview Pool. The hallways are back to chilly for the most part. I hope it continues.

Thanks for the beautiful photos of Edinburgh! Some day! Lazy day for us we are back to St. John's next month. Rather cloudy here and muggy. Last night we dined in the MDR after a 4 night absence. It seemed like we walked into the dining room of the next door Nieuw Amsterdam. Front people looked different, new waiter but we sat down at 198 that we had been assigned "for the whole cruise". Did they intend to give it to us until late February and didn't enter it in or had no idea we were on for so long. Well squatter's rights worked for one night. A confused couple soon appeared and talked to one of the waiters who got the floor boss. The couple was seated and the floor boss came to us and asked why we were there. "We were given this table for the entire 52 days" "Who told you that?" Sheesh it was 14 days ago. Unfortunately Jaka and Ari had been relocated so they couldn't back us up. The floor manager came over and told us."someone else was here last week" Duh we changed cabins but the names are the same. More consultation and the FM came over and said we can't have this table after tonight. We figured that. I said I would appreciate a nice table for two at five. He seemed to agree and said he would get back with us. Nothing yet. I guess we will go get in the Club Orange no reservations line. This morning while hanging out in the Neptune Lounge John went and explained to our Concierge CJ. She said she would look into it. Yesterday I spent a lot of time changing 6pm reservations to 5 pm after our PG debacle and she asked if these were 5* benefits. I said I guessed it would happen at the and of this segment she demurred. Now that we have no table two or three more specialty dinners would be a big help. Our old table also appeared like the NA zone, 2 loud 8 tops right behind the banquette. I said to John I hope we lose this table. Who knows what is next but I know we will eat. N

This cruise itinerary. We have Dominica, St. Kitts and St. Lucia and HMC. I am going riding again. Should be all better by then.

Today's Daily Activities

I bet they do with all South America itineraries. I will ask, I bet we are going to one tonight.

Good morning everyone. @marshhawkAnnie, Prayers for Chuck today. We have arrived in St. John's, Antigua and the sun is appearing. It appears there will be three in port today from what we can see. We had a shorex today catamaran ride to a restaurant for a a lobster lunch. Obviously that isn't happening because of my illness. I have bronchitis and have started cefixime on my own since all the symptoms point to it. I pick up these drugs whenever and wherever I am for my Bush Medicine kit. Plus my coughing is so bad it is causing my bronchioles to leak minute amounts of blood in my spit in addition to the other icky color. My doctor in MD warned me to throw the book at it and even gave me Vicodin (good old days) to use for it. I am reducing my Prednisone to 40 mg a day. What a night I had last night. I am sure this will be good fodder for Redneck Bob. I was seeing patterns on the closet doors before we turned the TV off. Once that happened the show began. I have never seen such things, tree branches blowing in the wind with all kinds of indistinct creatures. There was all kinds of backgrounds like fancy wallpaper and Chinese painted panels. One thing stayed through all the permutations both with eyes open and closed began as a Chinese brass fish. I tried to close my eyes to try to sleep but then it was brown tones, forms similar to bears and buffalo but distinct horses. I figured I was in for a night so I got out my iPod and headphones and settled in for the ride that lasted as long as my iPod battery about five hours with bathroom breaks. I never got to see my cats or Gary but consistently I had one guard pony laying down beside the bed ears switching as mine did. I felt my old cat Lydia alongside my left leg and Everytime the ship shuddered it felt like her biting her long hair. Tiny was in the background with her static purr. Gary was the ever constant fish. He was a Pisces. Make what you want out of it. It made me decide to lower the dose. At least I only had a great soundtrack and only had to fast forward away from a couple of rock songs. More on our dining room experience last night later. Nancy

Thanks for the review. The problem now is the ships are completely full. There were 389 people with contractors who stayed on for the following cruise. We are on the Eurodam and our 5:30 reservation in the PG resulted in us getting dinner at 6:40.

Company in port including the Celebrity Apex. Glad we got the pretty view earlier. Obviously we are not going ashore I get breathless and then start coughing when we walked to the Ocean bar. MSC Seaside, Nieuw Amsterdam and a small forgotten one.

Here is tonight's dinner menu. I changed all my specialty dining from 6-5 due to the long wait in the PG. All could be changed but one.

Thanks for the Papeete photos. That is part of our 2025 getaway on the Konigsdam. Sandi beautiful work on the stocking I hope DSIL now or future will appreciate the love you put into it. Wind. At the ski hill by our house the winds yesterday blew a chair off the ski lift. It is extremely windy here in St Maarten. I don't feel bad for keeping John on the ship. Celebrity Apex pulled in right after us.

Good afternoon. @marshhawk and @Cruzin Terri I thought of you both when I reached for that Prednisone bottle. Annie I remembered how sick you got on your cruise out in the Atlantic. I come prepared usually but 2 things I really should have, my nebulizer and my mucus breakup med never made it. I have compensated using my Combivent every two hours when I can get a good inhalation in. My story with medical was what I expected other than needing an appointment. I thought it was like a immediate care. Luckily only one appointment waiting to get in at 3. It was a very long walk from the aft of the ship. I was apprised of the $99 consultation fee. I got called back almost immediately. Had my flu test $33 and negative. She suggested the PCR covid ($88) test and I agreed. That was negative. No offer of RSV test - HA you are leaving money on the table. Probably wouldn't matter since there is no treatment other than what I was doing. Since my fever was 101 I was told to take Tylenol every 4 and that worked almost overnight. I started on three 20 mg Prednisone tablets spread through the day. The nurse called at nine and asked how I was doing. John talked to her. I think I already relayed John had gone to the Neptune Lounge and the Lido when a letter under the door that implied we both confined. The nurse called again at 5:45 and asks me how I am feeling I said much improved ,(thanks Prednisone) She asked me to take another one and she would call for the results in 15 minutes. I said I just sat down to my first real meal and could I have 30 and she said no. I rush and grab my test and get it completed and it was negative. No callback after 40 minutes my steroids fired me up and I sent a message through the Navigator and I used all of my words allowed minus a few and sent. Lo and behold not so friendly nurse calls and asks what my result was about 5 minutes later. She said I was free to go I asked why John was on the confine letter and she seemed bewildered. I asked her a number to call medical (we didn't know it was in the Daily activities) and she said call 911. Fat chance I would call 911 because someone didn't follow up. End of my medical story.

I forgot to mention we are out of quarantine. Long story for later today. I must have RSV because I didn't get the vaccine and John did, he is well. I am pretty sure I caught on our two hours on an old bus in Belize. The woman across the aisle one row back unrelenting mouth uncovered. My bad didn't bring a mask. MSC Seaside and Sea Dream Yacht Club.