xpcdoojk

We debated doing the UDP and ended up deciding to not do it. So, for the first time a a long long time we are going to eat every meal in the MDR at MTD. I am hopeful that the food, is not as someone posted this week. We have split time the last two cruises post covid, between MDR and specialty dining on the Allure and Adventure, and we found the food to be pretty good to better than good in the MDR. I was bored by the repetitive nature of specialty dining on the Adventure where we ate about half the time in Chops and Giovannis. The food was good, but the same menu on a 14 day cruise, became a cause of meh. jc

I bought a new Insta X3… so I might have some videos that will make you want to puke. I am not sure I am smart enough to edit those pictures. 3D tech is weird. jc

I just started a not A LIVE thread for our Harmony cruise. Back to the regular conversation. @HBE4, really sorry to read this. Life is precious as are our memories. jc

That title ought to bring out some folks who just adore me!🥰 Our trip is upcoming at 3:30AM when our friends have a limo service picking us up at that happy time in the morning. 😂. Our first flight to Charlotte departs at 5:25AM, we have a couple of hours to kill in the Amex Centurion Lounge at Charlotte. Our next flight gets us into FLL at about 12:30PM. We are traveling with friends for the first time since pre-covid. One couple has travelled with us a lot over the last 30 years. They are 8 and 14 years older than us… so who knows how much longer. The other joining us is a nurse who works with my wife, and this is her third cruise with us. So, she will be turning Platinum after this cruise. 🤪 I love these 8 night sailings at this time of the year, because the kids are still mostly in school, and I like the extra day. We traditionally seek out longer itineraries because for me it makes the pain of air travel to be worthwhile. Even on a lot of our 7 day sailings I have combined them with a week or more doing a land vacation. We did this with this same 5 some in 2018 flying to Alaska and renting an RV for a week to visit Denali and other bits of Alaska before a cruise to Vancouver. This one goes to Aruba, Curacao and Labadee. I booked the Dragon thing on Labadee, so for the first time I am actually going to get off the ship there. Normally, I just ride the FlowRider and watch the activities from deck 16. We are doing a ATV adventure on Aruba that I booked thru Viator (first non-cruise line tour I have booked since Covid). We are just going to wander around Willemstad, Curacao. Been there several times. We are eating Dinner in Aruba at Wilhelmina which is supposed to be really good. Last time we did a cruise to Aruba, we had too much Sex on the Beach (alcohol drink by the yard… what did you think I meant😆) at Carlos and Charlies. Afterwards walking back to the ship around midnight my wife fell off the sidewalk onto the cobblestones below, and was caught by a friend, but twisted her left foot, breaking a bone. She was giggling and wanting to cry at the same time. I piggy backed her thru security, fortunately they just figured she was drunk not injured, and in the middle of the night she couldn’t sleep with the pain. We spent the next morning in the infirmary, getting a wrap, wheel chair and crutches. On the upside, it helped a lot getting thru the airport in San Juan after the cruise. Is there a bar in Aruba on the way back to the ship pier that can replace Carlos and Charlies for some silly adult drinking? I need advice on this. I may plan on piggy backing her again, just to make sure we don’t repeat. We have dinner tomorrow at the Boatyard. We are debating if we want to do a water taxi loop after dinner. I will not be posting all of the time on this thread. I will read everything, because I can on my phone while standing in line for the next ride on the FlowRider. Since I will waste 8 hours a day in this line. I spend most of my time making sure I attend to my DW’s every need so I can repeat the same 8 hour activity the next day. So, not a lot of time to post. Please follow along. I am sure there will be some fun and silliness to occur that I will manage to share. jc

I remember a bus ride in the mid 80s from Munich to Innsbruck and the music was all yodeling all of the time. I swore never again. So, we usually rent a car or take the train.

We have sailed to Hawaii a few times, always as part of a repositioning cruise, a transpacific or a cruise to or from British Columbia or Ensenada. Some of those cruises will visit several islands. We end the cruise there and then spend time there post cruise. Friends of ours, who didn’t seek my sage advice, booked the NCLA cruise, and they have never cruised again. Hawaii, is one of the nicest places on earth that isn’t called New Zealand on the planet. jc

Here I thought the cookies were Jimbo’s???? welcome home. We missed you even if I didn’t know you were gone.🤣

I am thinking that comparing the NCL experience in Hawaii to anything is just a fail, because of the American Crew or lack of… to any other cruise experience is just never going to go well for it. I haven’t done NCL or NCLA, but have friends who have. You go on that cruise only for the experience not the cruise. jc

I like the big inviting white wall. Nothing says Welcome quite like that.

She passed away at this time of the year 2 years ago, she was almost 22 years old

Reasonably sure nothing. I agree with what Dani said as well. I am just explaining how I view CC in general. I am not pooping on anyone. Feel free to ignore me. My cat used to as well. jc

I have been a member here for over 23 years. I am a bit snarky and I am a lot no-nonsense kind of guy. I enjoy most of the members of this forum, and I am glad that I know a bit about some of your lives. This forum and most others are anonymous forums. IE I am xpcdoojk. This is not Facebook. Many people post in this forum under many IDs and avatars. So, I go way out of my way to not try to make this into facebook. I am not a fan of FB, and I think the stalking potential in all of these forms of social media lend themselves exceptionally to it. So, I rarely join in on the happy birthday, happy anniversary, I hope you feel better soon, sorry for the loss of your loved one, what a cute cat, Billy Joel was at my bar mitzvah in 1965, etc. This thread is a nice respite from CC and its all around snarkiness, bullying, and tattling to the teacher nature. I like it. I read it when I can. I come to this forum for information, to squash misinformation, and to learn things about cruising that I can take away a nugget of information that will help me and my DW enjoy a cruise we are taking or planning. That said, I do it to pass time to as do many of you. I do worry about folks that I assume are older if they dissappear, but I am not going to do a door to door search. People come and go here all of the time for many reasons. If they want to share why, then maybe we know otherwise I THINK IT IS NONE OF OUR BUSINESS. as you were jc😂

LB what did you book? We are doing the Voyager East 2024 and the two following med/Adriatic sailings

So, in April it will be warmer in the med and starting from Miami… so that would be the deciding factor for me… O and two FlowRiders. 🤣

There is one showing April 21, 2024 from Miami, stopping in Malaga, Alicante, Valencia and Palma de Mallorca ending in Barcelona Spain showing now

So, TAs are typically cheaper on the older ships. The ports are incidental. TAs though are for those who have time to take a 3 week vacation, which usually eliminates a lot of kids and younger adults. The bulk of regular 7 night cruisers are families or younger couples or Floridians. If the point of a cruise is the ship, TAs are the best. I like TAs because I can FlowRide without guilt for 7 or more days. I am not missing anything by spending 6 or 8 hours on the wave. 😆 I am not typical.

I saw FM when I was 16 in a baseball stadium in 1975. Unlike some people she didn’t know me.

Cool. I like the bottom much better.

Top is new? What is box for?

There were several “service” dogs on my first cruise after Covid last December on the Allure out of Fort Lauderdale. It will be interesting if I see them in the morning in the Diamond lounge on the our Harmony cruise starting 12/10. I didn’t see any “service” dogs on our sailing from Galveston on the Adventure. 😆 jc

The problem is with not being able to plan ahead, you really need to do it as soon as you can connect the Royal app with the ship wifi system. You need to be aware of your dining plans and port times etc. It is much easier to do it weeks a head of time. jc

Toto from Japan makes the best toilets and seats. They are complete with bidet, heated seat, dryer for after bidet function. The one we had installed in our master, opens when you walk to it and sprays water on the sides of the bowl so number two doesn’t stick as much, and it has a UV light to kill germs. Truly, once you use these, the other toilets get replaced. Trust me on this as the proud owner of 4. Bemis, makes seats for any toilet that are pretty good and a lot cheaper. You do need an outlet near your toilet. Which is why the master just got one last week while we are on vacation in So Cal. We are waiting for the painter to come back to paint the wall and ceilings that were affected by having to run wire for an electrical circuit. JC

We sell them. I would definitely go to a plumbing showroom and talk to a person there. There are some great ones that are not sold on Amazon. I hate to say the word Ferguson, so find a good local plumbing wholesale house near you and visit their showroom jc

Yeah, what I figured you could see. On the upside, you are seeing flames from the volcano. Either that or a peaceful 2020 riot. Although at over 10,000 feet elevation, that seems unlikely!😂🤣

Seemed like quite a nice sized town to me. Big enough to have everything, small enough to not have homeless people on every sidewalk. Quite liked it. Would eat at the Goat and Vine regularly if I lived there.