ATG

1 hour ago, jagsfan said:

There is no shell. They were just starting to grow a new one. 
So no crunch, and they’re delicious!

I have to ask this.  I’ve always shied away from soft shell crabs.  Do they remove the stuff you wouldn’t want to eat?  Like insides and head?  My son lives in Maryland now and we visit occasionally.  Now that more places are open I’d like to try some of the restaurants instead of ordering Uber eats.

10 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

 

We're doing the ABC trifecta in May on Mariner. 4 sea days to boot

We’re on that sailing too!  

We loved Portside BBQ, pulled pork sandwich was really good.  Playmakers was good also.  The nachos were tasty, but the burger looked a little greasy.

 I wasn’t impressed with El Loco Fresh.  I got a chicken quesadilla and it was a tortilla and chicken, no cheese.  I did like getting all the toppings, John had suggested getting a separate plate and using it for toppings.  Great idea.  Burrito was good.

We enjoyed the Music Hall, we saw the Beatles group there and it was a great place for that.

I’m currently sitting in a grand suite on Oasis.  We’re on deck 6 and really like it.  One stair down to royal promenade, around the corner to boardwalk and 2 up to Central Park.  I can no longer do lots of stairs due to knee issues, so I’m always going to use the elevator for coastal kitchen and pool deck.  Seven can be an issue since the boardwalk sign extends up.  Because of this you can’t get from one side’s elevator to the other.  So if your cabin is starboard and you take the port elevator, you can’t get there from here!  You have to go up and over and down.  We stayed on 7 once, and late at night I never picked the right elevator!

The announcement was that several Cats performers had been injured.  
 

We had lunch at Portside BBQ.  The food was really good, and more than we could comfortably eat.  We had the 2 meat combo and a pulled pork sandwich.  Brisket was juicy and chicken was good.  Corn bread was quite tasty.  Banana desert was nice and lighter than the chocolate brownie thing.  My only comment was they seemed unorganized.  Not efficient, they did everything with pen and paper, not cards.

And that machine is LOUD!  It sounds like a jet revving.

@BennyBrun

You are lucky you were b2b.  The Miami marathon was this morning.  Unfortunately, our hotel (Hampton) was right in the middle of it.  Uber, Lyft, shuttles and taxis were running about an hour late.  Our scheduled time was noon, but we didn’t get there until about 1:00.  We really felt like we deserved that first drink!

5 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

I wish that some of her family took their position in the family as seriously as she does. It is fortunate that Charles and William will follow her. I think they will both, especially William, be very good successors and do well for England.

And I think Kate is one of the best things that has happened.  She is lovely and seems so warm and caring.

5 hours ago, HBE4 said:

 

In 1990, I interviewed for a job working in the IT dept at UPS. Sames thing as you, they offered me a job but told me I needed to shave my beard.  I was okay with that but the deal breaker was no eating or drinking at the desk either. Not even a cup of coffee.  I was a coffee addict at the time so I turned down the job. It helped that I had 2 other job offers at the same time, for less money, but at least I could keep my beard and drink coffee at my desk.

I did consulting work for UPS.  The work was fine, but I hated going there for meetings.  Our office was business casual, but I had to wear a suit, pantyhose and heels for the day.  Yuck!  My older son has been working from home for almost 2 years, he transferred offices 19 months ago and has never been in the building!  He works in sweats and t-shirts.  At some point they will go back in.  That will be a shock.

@BennyBrun Thanks for all the pictures!  We passed our Covid tests today and will be joining you next week!  We are excited to get away!

2 hours ago, akcruz said:

 

We are in northern SC just off the coast and have a winter storm warning for tomorrow, not happy at all.  I moved south for the warmth, not the winter weather.  At least we know how to deal with it not like the locals 😜

We’re the other side of the state, about 40 miles north of Augusta and right on the border.  I agree, we moved south to escape the cold.  But, remember the end of December when it was in the 70s for a week.  New Year’s Day we turned the air conditioning on.  It will eventually warm up.  

How much do you tip for a private tour?  I was thinking about 10% or so.

6 minutes ago, nocl said:

Considering that the test are swab and wait, a relatively small staff can take quite a few tests.  Take test, print label, swab person, place in rack for 15 minute period, have person go to waiting area, repeat many times, figure labor time about 2 minutes per passenger. 

 

Figure for these kinds of tests a facility staffed to handle embarkation, lets say from 10 until 6 pm, allowing for set up and clean up would use maybe 4-6 people.  Test techs are not exactly high paid positions so maybe contacted at $25 per hour high end. 8X6X$25 = $1200.  

 

For facility costs if done in the terminal those space costs are already accounted for.  If a tent those costs are not very expensive either.

 

I would expect that your all in costs might, at most add another $3-4 at most for a normal cruise ship dealing with 1000 plus passengers.  Not anywhere close to your $20 all in costs.

At 2 minutes per passenger that’s 30 passengers per hour.  With 6 staff that’s 180 per hour.  If there are 3600 passengers that works out to 20 hours.  

2 hours ago, jagsfan said:

I have done everything but stand on my head to get this to post. Over and over. 
That old saying about the definition of insanity had to have been referring to CC!

The sad part is that I may have posted this before, but not recently. 
Anyway, I took a screenshot in case I was ever able to post it, so here it is!!

I loved reading Lewis Grizzard’s column when we lived in Atlanta.  His books were great.  He wrote often of his dog, Catfish.  When Catfish died I cried over his column about it.  Sometime later  Lewis died during surgery.  The AJC editorial cartoonist had the best cartoon ever.  It showed Lewis approaching the Pearly Gates and Catfish waiting for him.    I think all of us parents of furry children hope that’s what happens.

We cut the cord about 2 years ago.  Our small cooperative that provides cable, phone and internet sent a letter explaining why they had to raise cable rates.  They also strongly suggested we switch to streaming and gave us the sites to see which service was best for us.  We thought it was amazing they were advising subscribers to drop them.  Being a cooperative, we get a rebate each year.  Our electricity comes from a cooperative too.  

29 minutes ago, dani negreanu said:

 

 

 

"Fancy" that [since we're talking British 😉], I've read ALL the Brother Cadfael series by Ellis Peters and thoroughly enjoyed every one of them.

Have you read any other books by Ellis Peters?  She has a series with Inspector Felse that I really like. It’s set in modern times, and are very creative murder or crime mysteries.

1 hour ago, Arzeena said:

Ships I am considering if we decide not to go on the Jan 9  Anthem cruise. Suggestions please?

 

Allure 8 N E Caribbean

Odyssey 8 N S Caribbean

Celebrity Equinox 12 N Ultimate Carib

Apex 7 Night E Carib.

 

I would suggest either of the Celebrity ships.  Our cruise earlier this month on Edge was as close to pre-Covid as possible.  No masks anywhere onboard.  Our only Covid issue was Tortola where you had to take one of their excursions if you wanted to get off the ship.  None of them appealed to us, so we just relaxed by the pool.

1 hour ago, CaroleC said:

 

I did this on the Anthem last month. Never even gambled any, just cashed straight out and took the slip to the cashier’s window. As you say, no questions are asked at all.

I gambled about 1%.  Partially to “feel” better about it, but also to get small bills.  I don’t use $100 bills often.  Actually, I don’t use cash much.  I used some for additional tips and deposited the rest when we got home.

I just did this on a Celebrity ship.  I went to the casino service desk and asked how to charge slot machine gambling to my room.  They called over a gentleman who sat with me and talked me through it.  I set up $200, gambled about $3 and then cashed out.  No questions when I took the slip to the window 5 minutes later.  I did this periodically to use up all the OBC.  No fees, no questions, no issues.

This week there are about 1300 on board.  Our boarding time was 12:00.  We are in a sky suite and arrived at 11:30.  We were onboard at 11:45.  Ship is beautiful and staff are very friendly and helpful.

@mac_tlc Thanks for all the info.  Today we passed our Covid tests, bags are mostly packed.  Tomorrow we fly to Fort Lauderdale.  We’ve enjoyed seeing your pictures and are looking forward to seeing the ship.

Have a wonderful,  much deserved cruise.

I had a strange thing happen.  I made my final payment through my TA and suddenly it showed that I owed more.  I called TA and they called RC.  They not only got it corrected, but volunteered that there was a price drop.  They credited my card within a week.  If their system hadn’t made a mistake, I probably wouldn’t have seen it.  That’s good customer service!

Very interested since we will be boarding as you leave.

We did ours at CVS this morning.  We fly to Fort Lauderdale in 2 weeks for a Celebrity cruise (no masks).  I have the tele tests and an appointment at our doctor’s office for our 2 days prior test.  For the last week I’ve been wearing a mask whenever we’re out, just as a precaution.