rrraydon

6 hours ago, earthchild618 said:

I am also cruising solo in June to Canada!

YAY!!! See you out and about in just a few weeks!!

8 minutes ago, dani negreanu said:

 

 

Sue and Donna,

 

Pls. help me understand... "12 hours shifts" -- does it mean continuous 12 hours, or 4 days [shifts] of 12 hours, and then 4 days off?

 

Same as 3 week end days in a row?

 

When I've served in the army, we had 7 hours shifts with 2 breaks of 20 mins of sitting down.

 

We're patrolling in what may be called the "Grand Central", checking suspects of terrorism activity.

 

I used to return home whipped out.

 

Since then, I'm sitting down whenever I have the possibility....😉

My shifts are every Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights from 7p to 7a...I work in the emergency department. It can be busy some nights and be 12hrs non stop or if slower some breaks in-between.

Magnifica last month we just watched the video, made the call and went to the MS and had our card scanned. No problem.

5 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

Plenty of people decline meds for colonoscopies. Though I understand it is more common in Europe. Angioplasty and stent placement don't require meds. I've never heard of someone being awake for a hip. Maybe Americans are just wimps.

A lot of my patients are so I'm gonna have to agree with you on that! lol

1 minute ago, sgmn said:

I use to do days and nights shifts , 12 hour shifts, four on four off. The feeling of going home and snuggling into bed as everyone else was going to work almost made shift work worth it. 

Yes! I feel the same way... 😂 Mine are three 12s also. Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.

58 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

Good morning.

It is partly sunny and 46°F here at 09.16am.

I hope everyone is safe and well and y'all had a great weekend and looking forward to a nice day today.

Good morning! However, I work overnights, so 2 more hours of work and I get to go home and go to bed. I guess it's like night time for me instead of morning. 😁

05:00am here, sunny and 86 here today.

I've not sailed X before either, I usually sail RC as well. My first sailing is in 2 weeks on Reflection. I'd go with Beyond.😁 She's a beauty.

26 minutes ago, BonTexasNY said:

Additional Key West thoughts: We had a Key West port stop on a Rhapsody cruise approx. 18 years ago.  We did the trolley tour, had a margarita and burger in Margaritaville AND frozen chocolate covered key lime pie.  Worth all the hype.  We wandered into a perfume shop on Duval St. and it turned out the owners came from Jack's home town in Israel and knew some of the same people.  They chatted for it seemed hours and the owner and his wife were disappointed when we had to return to the ship and turn down their dinner invitation. We were gifted with free bottles of perfume. Can't remember which ones. Good memories!

That's awesome!! I love the perfume shop, it's the first place I go...ok second, Frog & Onion Pub and then the Perfume shop. 😁

On 4/27/2024 at 3:08 PM, kaz828 said:

We are two adults, mid forties and doing our first Celebrity cruise on the Reflection in June. Anything we need to know? 
Anything we for sure should check out or do? 

I leave in 2 weeks for my first cruise on X (Reflection)...super excited!! 😁

2 minutes ago, A&L_Ont said:

Both photos are amazing. 

Thank you so much… Winnie thinks he’s a dog, as we found him outside when he was no bigger than your hand and Millie mothered him. They run around this house and play like 2 dogs! Lol

Besties… Winnie and Millie 💜 

7 hours ago, MJSailors said:

Going back to posts about Christmas and Easter cactus.

My cactus has had buds for days and is finally starting to bloom.

I am thinking that it may even be a Mother’s Day cactus as it will soon be May!

MJ🙋🏻‍♀️

I missed the original posts about the cactuses. I'm happy to see yours. I was just saying to my son the other day, this sis so weird my Thanksgiving Cactus is blooming right now. It bloomed about 2 months ago too. I was like what the heck is going on with this cactus???

I'm glad I see that others' cactus is blooming too. 😁

DESSERTS!!

Oh how I miss the desserts on Carnival. I switched over to RC a number of years back and although I find the main foods to be pretty equal to each other, Carnival's desserts blow RC out of the water!

I sail Conquest in October and am looking forward to eating nothing but desserts for 7 straight days!! 😁

Following along. Although I've been to Bermuda a number of times, I haven't been in quite a few years. I'm interested to see how things have changed. 

Thanks for taking the time to bring us along! 

4 minutes ago, brillohead said:

 

In addition to clear margins, which has already been mentioned, a lot of it has to do with how they're going to close the hole.  

 

Think of it like sewing....

You have a hole that is 1.25 inches in diameter that you need to sew together.  You want to sew the edges together, not just covering the gap with thread, like you'd do when darning a sock.

If you just sew all the edges together, you'd end up with a puckering in the fabric all the way around the hole (like a drawstring purse), with additional stress on the fabric in all directions.  On skin, this would make an UGLY bumpy scar, plus increase the risk of the stitches getting ripped out because of the excess pressure/stretching on the skin as your body moves.

Instead, you would want to make the incision longer on each side of the circle -- basically, it's going to look like a drawing of an eye (apologies, I am not artistic, and even less so with a mouse!):

 

So now when you sew the purple edges together, the fabric won't all bunch up and pucker in the middle, because the loss of fabric will be spread out along a greater amount of fabric.  Similarly, the stress that is put on the sewn edges is shared along the entire length of the incision instead of all focused in one area, so the stitches are less likely to rip out, and with less stress on the area, scarring will also be minimized.  

 

I hope this makes sense... I know what I'm trying to say, but I'm not sure if it makes sense the way I said it.

 

 

Okay, I wasn't happy with my drawing, so I found an actual lesion excision on YouTube and took some screenshots (no gory pics, in case some have a weak stomach). 

To remove this mole, you can see that the surgeon drew the "eyeball" elliptical edges extending beyond the mole on both sides:




Then when it was stitched back together, it made for a smoother incision without the puckering:

 

 

The larger the area that needs to be removed, the farther out the incision needs to go in both directions in order to prevent puckering.  

 

Hope this helps!
 

 

Excellent description, I like it. 🙂

8 hours ago, cruiselvr04 said:

We spent 2 weeks in the Keys during covid when cruising was shut down.  We stayed for a week at a B and B in Key West and another week at a resort half way through the keys.  The water was beautiful.  Dry Tortuga was great. We spent time at several beaches, it was a super relaxing trip.  I doubt we could afford it now, the deals for lodging were unheard of at the time due to covid.  They just wanted people to come. We did a sunset sail and another during the day.  Visited no name bar. Sloppy Joes. We saw some beautiful sunsets. Great memories! 

We did a week in Aruba at an Airbnb during covid. You are correct, it was dirt cheap....so were the flights. We had a fantastic time, we felt like we had the beaches to ourselves. Definitely one of our most favorite vacations! 

I got off the ship this morning a little later than I planned…talking up on deck. 😁 I got off about 6:40 and got out to the terminal curbside about 6:45 and ordered the Uber, it was $13.50. He got there at about 7:05. We arrived at the airport at about 7:15. The whole process was easy and super quick. 
 

I purchased my flights through Kiwi. They did all of my check in and everything. I received my boarding pass in an email for both flights 24hrs before. My flight doesn’t even start boarding for 2 hours so I’m outside the terminal sitting on a bench in a nice sunny and breezy area. I don’t plan on heading in until about 8 or 8:15. 

Last night! 😞 Time to get back to reality tomorrow. I always have a great cruise, I just enjoy cruising. 😊 My next one is in 10 days. 😁

I’m getting off first thing with my tote bag and getting an Uber to the airport for my 10:15a flight to Philly, boarding starts at 9:30a. On the ride to FLL, because I did not select a seat, I was in the middle of the 3 seats. We were all three of us chub chubs…not a great flight. Last night I went online and booked one of the larger exit seats near the window. Should be a nicer plane ride home. I have the number for the shuttle from the Clarion, hopefully they’re quick and I’m in my car by 2pm. It’s a 2.5 hr ride home. Say hi to everyone, get my scrubs in and it’s ohh to the hospital… 1hr 20 min ride. 
 

Thanks for following along… looking forward to my June cruise here on LOS to Canada as I don’t believe it will be as crowded and not so packed on the pool deck or in the solarium. 🤞 

Also, I wanted to mention…. my waiters in the MDR and my cabin steward have been the best I’ve had as far back as I can remember. Service on this ship was outstanding!

5 minutes ago, elizabethbp said:

I am following your review as I booked the 4 night to Bermuda in August as first time we will be Diamond and fit into the schedule and I wanted a short, easy get away, though neither my daughter nor I really like Bermuda.    I have never been on Liberty so  your comments are very helpful. 

This is a nice ship, and I just may have chosen an inopportune time to cruise her. I’m sure you’ll have a fantastic time! 🥰 

As I was posting the last post, 2 kids come running through the smoking section, run right into the waiter with a full tray of drinks. He’s attempting to stop the kid from falling, tray hits the floor. Chaos, right in front of me. 
Yep, somehow I’ve ended up on a whale tail ship! 😝 

(not knocking Carnival, I’m scheduled for Conquest in November.. but I have a mind set for that booze cruise already!) 😂 

2 hours ago, Cherful59 said:

We will be going to Nassau in June, my sister and I are hoping to maybe get off for an hour then enjoy the ship and solarium! 

It turns out the deck was packed to the max by noon…not a seat to be found anywhere. In fact, families were using the chairs over in the smoking section up on the pool deck. That’s the first I’ve seen in all of my cruises, kids sitting around the smokers in the smoking section (there’s a toddler resting on those two chairs surrounded by smokers in the smoking section, there are others just sitting up at the tables with the smokers). People throwing their towels and flip flops at the smoking tables to have someplace to put their things. I don’t remember ever seeing a pool deck as packed as I’ve seen here on this Liberty cruise (maybe Carnival Sunshine many years ago). I definitely feel as if I’m on a Carnival ship.
The solarium is no different, packed to the max. No kids over there though. 
 

My saving grace for my June cruise on Liberty may be it’s not going to the warm, beach part of the world but to Canada and not what one would call a family beach holiday. I’m hoping that cruise will not be as packed as this one. 
 

I am enjoying this cruise, any cruise is a great cruise. 😊 But Liberty is not a ship I would book again. 

.

The Solarium is looking like I should stay on the ship today!! I am noticing the first 2 rows have chair savers….

Sitting out here looking at Magnifica and looking for my future cabin. I booked an obstructed view OV window this time. Last month I had an interior and I wasn’t a fan, I needed some light. Now I’m hoping my upgrade bid to balcony goes through. Those boats obstructing are big!! 😆 

My July cruise on Magnifica I booked a balcony with the Aurea experience…access to spa and to the private top deck on deck 16.

Just came up on deck and noticed I missed one…the Carnival Dream is here, too!