ottahand7

For me it was Iberian Adventure on the Konigsdam. Truly wonderful weather and ports. Sadly it was when I decided I will never fly overseas again but there are always trans-Atlantic and RT cruises.

Good morning. Thanks for starting us off Sandi with the Daily and Fleet Reports and Happy birthday to your GS. I will pass on all the comestibles, bitters and IPA, a wine we can't get and vegetables as a main course. Thanks for securing these for us nonetheless. @JazzyV thanks for keeping our care and celebrations lists for us each day. Prayers for all on our list, the shooting victims and the people of Ukraine. We have a complete turnaround in our weather from 80s to the 40s tomorrow with light snow. I can run errands like groceries, Salvation Army drop off, manicure and buying more lettuce. Our diets cause us to go through a lot of lettuce. @GTVCRUISER Bon Voyage! Have a wonderful Sunday! Nancy

@kazu You sure can use the meme. I just find them on Google Images and copy and paste. Since this isn't for commercial use I figured it would be OK. I use a lot of them with my Powerpoints but with proper attribution.

Good morning. One more day of the 80s due here then 2 cold days Monday and Tuesday. My project today will be loading my truck with all the boxes and piles of clothing I am donating to the Salvation Army. I will drop them off on Monday when the weather will be bad and I can't work in the yard. Yesterday I didn't get a full day of yard work done as planned as John wanted to go someplace, so we piled in our beautiful day new truck and went through a drive through the countryside. It was worth the time and I have all day today. @Sharon in AZ, @AV8rix, @TiogaCruiser, and @Dismomx5 Bon Voyage! Thanks for all of the Daily Reports. It is always a great way to start my day! Thank you for the photos of Venice Sandi and I look forward to many more. The wine looks wonderful, a crunchy wine, but will pass on the cocktail and the salmon. Prayers for everyone on our care list and Vanessa I am glad that your knee is not too serious. Enjoy this spring Saturday! Nancy

Good morning and it's Friday! Usually it would be a trip out for a late lunch or happy hour at our local restaurant with great HO food but since we are on diets it frees me up to do yardwork until 3PM. Yesterday we had dinner on the back deck. It will be low 80s here today and near that at our cabin in the UP. That means snow is melting quickly in the woods and our road can dry out. We will be heading there around May 15. Thanks for starting us off each day Sandi and Rich. I have never looked at the "fine print" on the world cruise map but it was nice to see all the wonderful European ports they will be visiting. We would have to have a major life change (no cabin) to be able to do that length of time away from home. @summer slope, @cat shepard and @dfish thank you for starting us off each day. Arctic Char tacos sound great but I never see that fish in the markets. The vino looks good, I love wine from the Friuli region. Pass on the hot cocktail. @JazzyV I hope your doctor visit gets you something to help your knee. To all of our group trying to get to FLL for the Volendam I hope you are able to get in today. I have been working on the plants for my garden club plant sale and with the heat we have had and leaving them in a sunny spot all winter they are as far along as they usually are the first of May. Yesterday I moved them all so we could get all the collected leaves under them and clean the concrete. There are more plants and bigger. They were heavy and it was a real effort to move the last few. Have a wonderful Friday hopefully full of wonderful spring weather. Nancy

Good Thursday morning, three more days in the 80s so my plants are appreciating the warmth. Thanks for starting off with the Daily and Fleet Reports Sandi. I will pass on the cocktail, the obscure wine and today's dish. Prayers for all on our care list, the shooting victims and their families and the people of Ukraine. @TiogaCruiser I hope that you are able to get to Fort Lauderdale on time. Strange weather everywhere. After the 80s we drop into the 40s for Sunday and Monday. I have never been to Monaco but my late DH always talked about the beauty of the city of Eze and I think he said a lot of essences for perfumes are extracted there. Today is the anniversary of the day that he was released from the ICU to go to the hospice nearby. He lingered in the hospital with no improvement. The doctors thought he might pass when they took out his breathing tube but he kept on breathing for another 13 days. On a happier note I will appreciate some of my plants. I hope you do too. All from my garden in Maryland. Have a great day! Nancy

God morning from a wonderfully warm Michigan. It was 60 degrees according to our local news station and going up to 80 with big wind. We have fire warnings through at least Saturday when we may get some rain. A day of yard work here. I am also going to try to get some exterior painting touch up, something attacks the wood around our door to the deck. I don't know what it is either a woodpecker or squirrels. Last night it was a small raccoon that was trying to eat my bird suet hanging off the pole trying to reach it. I got tired of trying to scare him off so I just took my suet down and put it in the garage for the night. Now I will have to remember to bring it in every night. There is a Cardinal feeding on it right now. Thanks for the Daily reports! Prayers to all on our care list and for the shooting victims and their families and the people of Ukraine. Vanessa I hope you knee gets better soon before your cruise. I will pass on all comestibles today. Cocktail too sweet, wine too hard to find and pesto doesn't really do anything for me. Thanks Graham for your comment about grilled cheese sandwiches are cheese toasties and it brought me back to the happy exchange Queen Elizabeth had with Paddington for her Platinum Jubilee. @richwmn enjoy A Coruna. It is a lovely walking city and I have happy memories hoofing around to find Picasso's childhood home. No photos of Altar de Chao. After being in the Amazon for a number of days our patience for the heat and another tender ride we took a pass and savored one of our waning days on the Volendam.

Good Tuesday morning! I am running behind today because I wanted to get my taxes and estimates out to the mailbox before the usually very early arrival of our mail man. That is done, but we had a hiccup yesterday when we visited Morgan Stanley yesterday John had a 1099 that was missed either in our 3 months of mail or it wasn't sent. It won't happen again. We may drive them over to our tax preparer later today after my dentist appointment at 1. Today our project is putting our blue bird house back up. John hit it with the lawn aerator and the pole snapped. We have been working daily to get the 2' deep hole dug and today we will set the pole in the hole and pore in some Sakrete (bagged concrete mix). Thanks for the daily reports and for all of the comestibles today. All look really good but the wine is way too expensive for our blood. Prayers for all on our care list, the shooting victims in Louisville and Nashville and for the people of Ukraine. Have a nice day! N

We had one on the Volendam in a Vista Suite. Our little one we brought from home is much easier to bring on shore, especially on bus tours.

Sandi, thank you for the beautiful photos of Marseille and environs. Those charming streetside cafes make me miss France. Thanks for sharing the photo if young Ren too. Thanks for starting us off everyday our terrific Daily reporters! I will pass on the boats, not an avocado fan, pass on the cocktail , too much bitters and the wine kind of looks like a migraine. Never have tried it though. Continued prayers for all on our care list and for the people of Ukraine. We have a busy morning with a trip to Morgan Stanley and then Walmart for lawn treatments and lots of diet soda, and lettuce for our diets. Have a wonderful Monday! Nancy

@StLouisCruisers Thank you for sharing the darling photos of Elliot Rose! @cruising sister - some reason the blue balloons aren't working for you but thank you for sharing the photo of your cute grandkids!

I haven't found those yet. I will have to start looking what they are offering in 2024 to get an idea what will be going to SD from FL and vice versa in 2025. They have very few cruises listed for 2025 and most of them are Grand or Legendary, probably in a few months. Our friends on the Volendam looked into heading back to the west coast out of FL on a Panama Canal cruise but they were sold out at the last minute when they looked. I will let everyone know if we can pull this off as we really hate to fly. Nancy

That is a banana flower. On that whole tour it was one of the few flowers. Just the wrong time of the year.

@0106 straightened me out and this was the wrong port. We were in Puerto Limon on the East coast on the Volendam on the Grand South America. I think that Puerto Limon may appear on Panama Canal crossings and a few southern Caribbean itineraries. Hope this helps. Nancy

Puerto Caldera photos and thanks @0106 for getting me on the correct coast. I was there March 12, 2017 on a Panama Canal crossing on the Oosterdam. We took the tour up into the mountains for a tour of Pura Vida Gardens. It was very hot.

More from Puerto Limon.

We went to Puerto Limon on January 7 this year. I remember how very hot it was while waiting for our Monster bus tour. We had a great time seeing the countryside but only a sloth to see wild animal wise. The only photos I took with my good camera were botanicals so this is all I have on my laptop. I will see what I can find on my phone.

Good Easter Sunday morning. It seems strange to have the Masters on so early. We have a lot of yard work to get caught up on but we have 8 days of warmth and sun predicted. I think we will clean sand out of our gutters and a few other things. We are so far behind because of the late spring. Thanks for all of the Daily Reports that start our days. Sandi, I hope you got a little more shut eye this morning and Vanessa I hope your power came on. We are having shrimp for dinner, very out of the ordinary but we are both dieting. The wine looks good if it could be found but I will pass on the sweet cocktail. Debbie the shrimp recipes give me some ideas for tonight's dinner. Prayers for all on our care list and the people of Ukraine. Last night while looking at the Google news feed I get on my phone there was an article about HA's Legendary Voyages so I clicked on it and it brought me to the offerings. I had been looking for a long cruise in winter 2025 and I found one RT from SD to Hawaii and French Polynesia. It isn't quite long enough but we could add on a Mexican Riviera prior. Or even better yet find FL Panama Canal transit to SD and when we return another SD to FL Panama Canal transit. That way we could still drive to Fort Lauderdale for our Pacific cruise. Plus the "threw the book at us" with Gratuities, Premium internet, Elite Beverage package, 3 shore excursions each and a specialty dinner. @aliaschief Happy Birthday @erewhon @ger_77, @luvteachingand @erewhon

Thanks everyone for making the Daily what it is. The vino looks wonderful but will pass on the high carb noodles and fruity cocktail. That being said I am having lasagna for dinner in my project of spring cleaning. Today it will be getting my December birthday lasagna out of the freezer. A little piece with a lot of salad. Prayers for all on our care list and for the people of Ukraine. We have been to Amber Cove several times but don't do shore excursions, at least not yet. It has some of the best non stress shopping in the Caribbean. I left with rum the last time. Somehow my files from our 2021 N Statendam must have been dragged into another folder so that is about the limit of what we can find. I think this was December 2019 on the Zuiderdam. Have a lovely day!

@Overhead Fred

Good Saturday morning! @StLouisCruisers

Good Friday morning and this is also Good Friday. We have beautiful sunny weather but had a frost again last night. I hope that will be the end of the cold nights and days in the 70s coming next week. We are both on diets so we will not be having an Easter celebration dinner as we usually do. My diet is less strict so I will meet my DS for happy hour later this afternoon. Thanks for all of the reports that this wonderful group pulls together each day. We don't drink beer in this house. Beavers have their place in their native waters. While touring the National Park in Ushuaia the damage from the beavers imported over a hundred years ago is very evident. They are native at our cabin in Michigan but we had a population explosion of them and one climbed way up our hill from the lake and crewed down 2" diameter spruces and hauled them away. They got so bad that they flooded two neighbors access roads. They hired a trapper and he legally removed 12 of them. I love caramel popcorn but haven' t had it in years. Todays swordfish and vino look like winners but I will pass on the Manhattan. @grapau27 Thank you for the Easter video and thanks to everyone for all the memes and funnies to start my days with a smile. Prayers for all on our care list, the lost in Nashville and the people of Ukraine. Nancy

@Cruising-along I hope you and DH get over the Covid illness soon.

@TiogaCruiser Thank you for the gorgeous poppy photos. I forgot to thank you earlier this morning. @kochleffel Happy Passover celebration and observance to you and to anyone else in our group of the Jewish faith. @kazu and @RedneckBob even though we don't hear from you every day we think about you and miss you. We look forward to when things get better for you both. @grapau27 Thank you for some great looking food porn! @marshhawkI am glad you scan is over and I hope that they uncover something simple that can easily be remedied. I had a busy day, two hours plus at the dealership, blood work and a EKG for preop for a minor procedure that is a repeat of one I had 5 years ago and filling the birdfeeders. Waiting for my tax preparer to pick up my taxes. Have a nice afternoon! Nancy

We were on the Volendam for 81 days leaving the ship March 18. The ship is older but we were pleased with the upkeep of the ship and the public spaces and the cabins. We had a Vista Suite for the majority of the cruise but we had a Dolphin Deck ocean view for a week and that cabin was very comfortable too. I agree with @Mary229 that the cabins seem slightly larger and the deck in the VS was better that the Konigsdam. The food was excellent but that depends on the Food and Beverage Manager and the Executive chef how it shakes out on each cruise.