StLouisCruisers

I don't have medallions mailed to my home. I pick it up at the port and it takes an extra 10 seconds. No need to worry about this.

Bon Voyage! Enjoy that sunshine!

Thanks for your comments. I'm not sure if we could be reconciling with them since they seem totally unaware that they were very unapologetically rude towards DMIL and us. It seems many others here have people they would rather steer clear of on a cruise! All your points are valid and I'm just not sure yet which way we are going to go. Thanks for your opinions and advice. Thanks Jacqui! We would certainly want to dine without them and just hang out on the ship alone and not with them. Like you said, it's gonna get messy if we bring up the past. Debbie, we would be honored to use you as an excuse for our lack of availability! 😄 I agree with your "oy" wholeheartedly! I hope they cancel too. They have done that in the past, but I don't know if I'm that lucky... Lenda, I've thought about bluntly asking if they are for sure going on this cruise or not. Then if they say yes, tell them we have had hurt feelings for quite some time over their past behaviors (listing them) and we hope we can take this cruise without being expected to spend all our time with them. In fact, we'd like to be left to ourselves so we can enjoy our Midland friends' company. 😇 I know they prefer eating dinner at 5 or 5:30 pm which we never do. We prefer late dining. I have visions of them walking out of the dining room as we're walking in though! OY! I don't think we should have to cancel our cruise either. 🚢 I hope your DH is feeling better soon from his treatments. Thanks for your advice, too. I think it would be much easier if they were "friends" instead of relatives. I hope you're feeling better soon, Ann. Interesting you have people booked on your cruise you don't care for either. Hope you can find a better cruise to fit your plans. Roy, thanks for the mention today but the cruise isn't Alaska, it's New England, Canada, Greenland, Iceland roundtrip Boston. No international airfare which the estranged relatives mentioned as a plus, too. Another oy!! I imagine sitting in the Ocean Bar listening to music which we did a lot on the Volendam, and the two of them walking in exclaiming "Why didn't you tell us you were on this cruise too?? What is going on??" Yes, it would be a scene. I tend to agree that we should speak up before final payment. Get it over with quickly as you said. Good advice. We have to make some decisions about flights and insurance, and those decisions are already hard enough to decide on without all this uncertainty. Thanks Debbie for all your advice. I'm sure glad we will have you and Sue on board! Oh, and I forgot to mention earlier, sorry about all those carrots in the recipes today. When I saw the photos I said oh poor Debbie! 😉 Charlene, @cunnorlthanks for sharing your photos of Nuko'alofa, Tonga today. They were great!

I'm so glad Tana seems to look and sound better today. Sounds like you can follow the dogs' instincts as to her condition. Amazing how they seem to know.

Graham, I knew you would understand our feelings about this problem. I can't imagine how awful it would be for you two to run into Pauline's sister on a cruise. You are right, we would be running into them all the time and looking over our shoulder while trying to enjoy ourselves. This person doesn't know the reasons why things are chilly between us because we've never confronted them about their comments and actions. They are pretty self centered individuals.

Good morning friends! It seems colder than it is but my phone says the temp is 49F. It's still dark but predictions are clouds and then rain beginning around 11 am. High temp will be around 62. Thanks to Rich @richwmnfor creating the Daily content and Roy @rafinmdfor keeping on top of it each morning. I don't make a bunch of resolutions each year, just try to live my best life. Kid inventors sound intriguing. There are a lot of smart kiddos out there! Good luck to the bootleggers out there. The quote is good, the drink sounds odd, and I don't care for chardonnay. Thanks for the menu suggestion, now let's see what Debbie @dfishrecommends we do with it. Prayers for all our Daily friends and family, and the people of Ukraine.🙏 Cheers to all on the Celebration list. Sorry to hear Bruce's @aliaschiefcruise is over but he always has another one in the works. We have a conundrum. A relative called a few days ago to ask about the tornadoes and if we had survived them. This is a relative and their spouse who showed their true colors during the long nursing home and hospice period of my DMIL's life. We have edged ourselves away from that relationship. However during the phone call this person mentioned their cruise bookings and mentioned the very end of July Zaandam booking we made in late December. 😲 My jaw dropped open when they said that and I decided at that time not to mention the fact we are booked on that cruise. Now DH and I have been thinking about what we should do. I would hate to be on a ship with this person and their spouse for 25 days. They would never leave us alone! But we really wanted to do this particular cruise. Right now I'm going to start praying they change plans. What would you do?? I hate to cancel because of them. Hard to believe but we have had Nuku'olofa, Tonga as our port of the day three times before! I was very surprised. I haven't been there before so having not been to the two previous Japan ports, I am sitting here twiddling my thumbs. LOL! Here are the three posts from Rich in case you posted photos once before and would like to show them to us again. Have a great day everyone!

That is really sad. I hope the young lady passenger recovers fully. Thanks for letting us know. Looks like a very interesting place to visit. Glad we have some photos today to check out, so thanks for posting.

Ours said HIA too. Nov.-Dec. Volendam

We had the same type of band in the Ocean Bar during November and December on Volendam. Many people would dance to them and everyone enjoyed watching and listening to the band as well. Hope it continues, too.

Oh my. Since I got home we got some emails about neighborhood business and one that shows on a map the paths of the 5 tornadoes that passed through this county last Thursday. Four were on the ground at the same time! #3 had a very long path, miles and miles long, and is the one that went through the business area in town tearing the roof off the Hobby Lobby. But it continued on and went right past the south edge of our community. It had to have been only a mile from my home! I'm feeling super grateful now that everything we own wasn't destroyed.🙏😲

We actually left the house to get food! I feel like I've been home for over a week! We really didn't see anything at all destroyed until we got about a half mile from where one of the tornadoes touched down. Looked like they're trying to get work started in the shopping center where Hobby Lobby was. The signs were blown out at the street. We didn't stop anywhere around there even though we need some items at Walmart which is across the street from Hobby Lobby. Walmart is where the photo of the cars upended was taken last week. We moved on another mile or so to Kroger. It seemed like another tornado had come down around there but the store seemed fine. It was the trees along the road all broken off or lying down. Then I noticed the apartments across the street from Kroger had lots of damage. One apartment was totally crushed. Many other apartments had damaged roofs and blue tarps over them. With that many tall trees all around you can see how hard it is to prevent damage when they have high winds. Ironic fact is that Kroger moved from the store where Hobby Lobby is about 10 years ago. It was empty for quite a while then Hobby Lobby came in and put their store there. Many overjoyed crafters when that happened! So Kroger could have been the one shutting down to rebuild if they hadn't moved out and built a huge new store with fuel center 10 years back. I need to go read about Kathi @Scrapnanasince I haven't seen an update yet. Did I forget to mention Sarah this morning? Haven't forgotten her in my prayers. I hope she gets those injections soon!

Good morning friends! It's freezing, 32F and will rise to about 60 with clouds later today. Though I prefer sunshine I can live with that. Thanks Roy for posting the Daily and Rich for creating it. I appreciate the fact there are no real dragons nearby, and love the fact we are celebrating not celebrating according to Graham's @grapau27definition. We always honor Martin Luther King, too. The quote is ironic isn't it? The chicken marsala sounds good. And our port of Hiroshima City, Japan is another new one. But two Japanese ports in a row is unusual. No I don't think I've been there before. I'm sure someone will have some photos today. Prayers for all on the Care list, Jacqui, Kathi, and Tana, and the citizens of Ukraine who continue to suffer and die. Wasn't the Volendam in Peru yesterday? I feel so badly for the person who had to med-evac from the ship last night as Nancy @ottahand7reported. It has to be frightening that far from home with unknown medical care. Cheers to all on the Celebration list and everyone else enjoying good fortune. Have a great day everyone!

Wow, Annie that is interesting you were watching the news on 11 Alive when it happened down here. That's the kind of weather reporting meteorologists wait for, even if it can be devastating for some of their viewers. Well, we have continued to have outages for the last 2 hours. The internet is back, as well as the landline, but TV is still out. We've unplugged routers and DVR boxes, etc. but still nothing. I hope they plan on giving us a couple bucks off that huge Comcast bill we receive every month!!

Sorry for the duplicate post which I have just deleted. Our cable, phone and internet dropped for about 15 minutes and when it came back on I had a duplicate post here.🤪

Extra prayers for Tana who is suffering once again from pneumonia. I'm glad the hospice nurse could come out early today, and hope you can get some rest. Gosh, I'm really sorry to hear the London trip is off and you need surgery. I didn't know they could replace shoulders - all I ever hear about are hips and knees. Fingers crossed the Hawaii trip can make up for it! I'm very sorry to hear the church member who managed the shop recently died. I'm sure you will all miss her and send my condolences to all who knew her. Sorry you are sick but am glad you haven't tested positive for Covid. Hopefully you can kick this cold to the curb quickly! Well, we are going to procrastinate another day and "maybe" go to the grocery tomorrow. One interesting thing this afternoon. I was just watching some of the programs that have been recording the past few days on my DVR. Instead of the Idaho murderer show that Dr. Phil had last Thursday afternoon, I had a recording of channel 11 weathermen in Atlanta going over all the tornado and thunderstorm watches and warnings in north and central Georgia. You could see everything moving towards the east and just at the exact moment they were pointing out rotation in our town, the recording stopped. The rest of the hour long program was gone. Very creepy!🌀

Good morning friends! It's 27F and a sunny start to our day. Should make it up to 52. If we decide to head to Kroger it should be a wake up call seeing the damage wrought by the tornados that plowed through our county Thursday. Otherwise I have sheet laundering and replacing on the bed on my agenda. Thanks to Roy and Rich for today's Daily. Bagels and hats are great but humanitarianism beats them both. I will be waiting to see Debbie's recipes for the soup. I'm sure the drink and wine are both awesome but I'll pass. More for you! Today's port is Tokushima (Shikaku Island), Japan which has never been port of the day before. There is a very long list of Japanese ports that we have highlighted here on the Daily but that is not one of them. No I haven't been there before. I've only visited about 2 ports in Japan. Let's see some photos today for Tokushima! For all on the Care list, especially Sarah, Jacqui and Kathi, we send our prayers to you all.🙏 Cheers to the happy folks celebrating cruises and other happy events!🥂 Nancy @ottahand7thank you for the very interesting photos of your tour in Lima and vicinity. Those horses were beautiful! Bruce @aliaschiefyou are doing a fine job of showcasing Azamara cruise line. Sounds like you've enjoyed every aspect and we appreciate seeing how other cruise lines are handling post Covid cruising. Looks like they're holding nothing back! Graham @grapau27it appears to be a beautiful day there. Wish I was there visiting! Thank you for Father David's sermon. Hope you all have a great day!

I'm so glad the lake house survived the tornado! And I appreciated your fair review, something we don't always see. A few miles from us was at least 1 tornado and possibly 3 of them. The business district of the nearby town was hit hard and we haven't been out to see the destruction because the county asked people to stay home and not get in the way of cleanup. We are so grateful our own home was spared.

So happy to hear that! Get a good night's sleep.💤😴

I arrived in time to see Rotterdam leave and definitely saw the shots of Gerry and company.

Jacqui, I'm so glad you're coping and doing okay. What great neighbors you have! You have some really great photos! @marshhawkAnnie you are going to love Cartagena. Show your DH and BF so they can get excited about it too. That's a beautiful butterfly kite! Good find. So cute!!

That is so cool you got to meet your lookalike on the WC! People often say I look just like someone they know, and I have to tell them I have a twin already. We just aren't identical though. Congrats on the casino win by the way!

Thanks Debbie for your thoughtfulness and warm wishes. I'm glad we made it through unscathed! Terry, good to hear your niece's family were safe and sound. Basements aren't as common in Georgia as they are in other parts of the country. I'm happy we insisted on a basement lot when we bought here. It's very reassuring. And our electricity was only off for about an hour thank goodness. We had a pot of ham and bean soup simmering so we turned that off for a while because it just seemed like a smart idea in case a tornado came through. 😳 But once we headed back upstairs we continued on with it. Thank goodness for gas stoves! Your black cats are beautiful by the way! What a beauty Miss Camilla is! Thank you for the latest photo of her. Your photos are amazing! I love how clean those cobblestone streets are. They must be constantly sweeping. Thanks Lenda for your Napfion photos. Strange about the links to Rich's posts not working.🤔 We've definitely been staying home because local officials have begged people to stay out of the way for one thing, but mostly because there are so many trees here and they say trees and lines are down everywhere. Hard to tell from our little cul-de-sac because everything looks exactly the same as before. It will probably be a shock when we do leave here. We had planned to do some grocery shopping yesterday but after the storm decided we had enough of everything to get by for several days. Nice photos! Thanks Vanessa! That rubber ducky reminds me of the one my kids had for bathtime - but wow, so big!☺️ Annie, thanks hon but we had power (electricity) the whole time except for one hour. I hear there are a lot of people still without power though. There were actually 3 tornados here so it's supposed to be a real mess in parts of the town. I realized how much I depend on internet for communication and cable to keep up to date on news and weather. I hated being without it. And yes, it's turned really cold and the wind isn't helping things any.🥶 Bruno, glad to hear things are working out healthwise for DD. I hope you will come back and let us know what decision you make on a cruise together. 🚢

Good morning friends! Finally after 36 hours our internet, cable TV and home phone are working!! Yesterday I was so bored. I did Sudoku puzzles and read books all day long. Not being able to join in here whenever I wanted was no fun at all. Anyway I can now tell you that it's 31F and very windy. I have a lot to catch up with on this board so will get to that shortly. Thanks to Rich and Roy for our Daily and Fleet Report. Nice to see the photos of Nieuw Statendam and Rotterdam gliding into Port Everglades earlier today. Joy @Seasick SailorI'm sorry to hear about your friend breaking his wrist on those heavy doors. They are quite dangerous in high winds. Graham @grapau27I hope Sarah is not in too much pain as she waits for her injection. Sorry if I'm behind on the Daily news but want to reassure everyone they are in my prayers, including Jacqui and Kathi in addition to Sarah.🙏 Cheers for all on the Celebration list! 🥂 A salute to kites, and dressing up pets (if they allow that sort of thing), and organizing your home. I bet a lot of us need to do that job, including me naturally. The shepherd's pie sounds interesting so will wait for Debbie's @dfish recipes. Thanks for the drink and wine descriptions ladies! Our port today is Cartagena, Spain and those who have been there know what a lovely city is is. Rich last posted that city on Aug. 22, 2022 (Graham @grapau27 and Pauline's anniversary I noticed). Here is the link to that date to retrieve your photos. I have been to Cartagena and will post my photos next. We enjoyed Cartagena, Spain twice, in 2014 on Celebrity Constellation and Sept. 2018 on Prinsendam. Most of my favorite photos were take our first time there in 2014 on Celebrity Constellation. In 2018 as the Prinsendam docked we saw a submarine come into the harbor. Something I didn't see our first time here My favorite photo of the peacocks. The Elegant Explorer, Prinsendam 2018 Mom, Dad and the kiddies all dressed up for the festival that weekend. In November, 2014 we tried Celebrity Constellation out for a transatlantic back to the states. There were many things we enjoyed about the ship, but we didn't care for the food or price of a bottle of wine. This photo was the cover of my cruise photo book. It's the monument to the Heroes of Cavite and Santiago de Cuba. The date was November 8 so fewer tourists were in town crowding the streets. The historic Town Hall. You almost walk right by this church but it's beautiful inside. The Church of Santo Domingo. Ruins just below street level On the elevator bridge looking below while starting our visit to Conception Castle. The restaurant we visited for a drink and their very fast Wi-Fi.

Sad image of a roof missing.

Good morning friends! As I reported on the Daily last night our nearby town experienced a tornado (or possibly 3) late yesterday afternoon. The roof was blown off a large business and there was a lot of damage to the business district which is about 4 miles from us as the crow flies. Power was out for an hour and I’m grateful that’s back on but we still don’t have internet, cable TV, or our phone line. I need my news and internet!! Anyway, wanted to inform everyone we had the port of Nafplion, Greece twice before but I can’t get Rich’s posts from Oct. 10, 2021 or Sept. 30, 2022 from my phone. We have not been there and have no photos to share. Prayers for Sarah and others on our Care list. Guess we’d better get Comcast on the phone and make them aware of our issues. Happy Friday the 13th everyone!