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He was low on cash; only had €30 when he started then spent €9.50 on the ramparts walk. Ron, you need to talk with Ann about a bigger allowance!

According to my Clear app, the Clear line in Terminal B at LAX closes at 10PM. No indication whether it is for the PreCheck line only, or both at that location. Good luck! Hate it when you get stuck on an airline that doesn't participate in TSA PreCheck! That definitely slows down the process.

It's fine in the winter too. Especially in the hot tub. Borrowed from Maxwell?

Hi @ural guy! Glad you're enjoying Portugal even though your trip is different from what you expected. That area looks like another place to add to the list of places to visit on our next trip there. Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Thanks QSS - I just added the show to my queue. We just got Apple TV a week or so ago when I changed my TMobile plan, and it's included. Lucky me! Looking forward to it; Eugene Levy is great. Portugal is an absolute gem. You must go. Bottle of Rioja or not. As you remember we did a week there on our own and it was one of the most fun trips - just full of incredible sights and so much good food. I hope you book something soon. ETA - just saw a post on the River Cruising boards (River Cruising Water Cooler) from someone who is in Portugal now. Check out his pictures if you need any more temptation!

Yum - foie gras! And that spicy curry makes me hungry too. A shame your lovely dinner was interrupted by a view of the MSC Gargantuosa but looks like you had a fun day!

Be careful what you wish for. We have walked the streets, so to speak, with Mysty and Myster. OK, just kidding, they were very well-behaved! And it was a pleasure.

Speaking of cats, zqtchas... This is a classic!

Terry - our "house" Sauv Blanc is Matua. It's less than $10 a bottle and goes well in almost any season. When there's a $2-3 rebate per bottle, we buy a case. Cloudy Bay goes for $25.95 a bottle at our local discounter. We're cheap too, so we don't splurge for it.

Enjoying the tour of Brazil, @Lirio! Our only visit to your country was a brief crossing from Iguazú to Iguaçu so we could see Las Cataratas from both countries. Would like to visit again! We had a nice relaxing weekend. The weather was cool but the sunshine was plentiful, so it felt very warm. Yesterday afternoon we took a walk by the Hudson and saw some wildlife. A scraggly deer who needs to finish losing its winter coat. And a bald eagle nest! Occupied! Closer to home, our old lady cat enjoyed the sunshine in her own way. Today the weather was even nicer. So we got adventurous and jogged most of the way along the river path. The eagle's nest was still occupied. We had seen a pair of bald eagles flying around our neighborhood two weeks ago so we're thinking it's the same pair with this nest. After the long jog we were hungry, so Easter dinner was soon underway. Grilled spiced duck breast with a blackberry and balsamic reduction. Chris made the salad. Very artistic. And dinner was served with a Finger Lakes Cabernet Franc which has been aging in the cellar for just such an occasion. While we ate, I browned the duck bones on the grill and now they are in the instant pot, cooking down into a rich broth for later. We are soaking our tired legs in the hot tub! Happy Easter and Happy Spring to all!

Here @zqtchas, someone else is making the same connection with Rapa Nui.

Happy Easter!

Good one; truly looks like Easter Island in that picture! Here's a photo of that site that isn't photoshopped!

I have that picture too; I use it in my talk about chest imaging!

Ron, those pictures look very familiar...If it's the place that I think it is, it's a great place to visit! We were there when we were in Barcelona before our Spirit cruise in November 2021.

That would be the DL flight which leaves annoyingly early... We looked at it a few years ago and decided against it. Too many things that might go wrong, even though KEF is a fairly efficient airport. It's far from the city. Even if everything goes perfectly it would be hard to get there before 9AM. We flew Iceland air instead, which has afternoon departures. Less stress.

Nicely done Ron! I agree. Looks like a lovely evening for the grill.

Ah! Saturday morning and Mysty posting funnies in the Cooler. All seems back to normal in the world. Happy Easter to all! I might watch Chris make Pysanky today.

Yes

Concur. Have never seen a list of included wines but after almost 150 nights on SS I can say that we've enjoyed the vast majority of them. A few have been familiar but most not, which is part of the fun of traveling. If the wine that's offered is not to our liking then we simply ask for something else. It's really not hard to say, "I don't like oaky Chardonnay, do you have something with more acidity?" You really don't have to be. You can always ask for something that you like. And be as specific as possible so they can find something close. They will not tie you down and force you to drink the included wine of the evening, if you don't like it. Exactly. "I'd like to have a (dry rose) (glass of Riesling) (bottle of Malbec) (dessert wine)" all would work very well in this situation. Ask and you will receive. Like the wine servers at any other dining establishment, they vary. If they can't help you to your satisfaction, the sommeliers certainly can. We usually make it a point to find the Somm early on in the cruise and maybe ask about (or order) something from the Connoisseur's List. Once you do that, they will check in on you for the rest of the cruise and often find "special" bottles of included wine for you to sample. This works on other lines as well; on our recent Ponant cruise we had a bunch of OBC to burn so we started ordering from the list early on. The Somm always came to us and made sure we were well plied with the included wines, and threw in a few extras as well. Yes and yes. It depends, IME. On the smaller ships (with only 4 restaurants) the wine selection seems to be similar throughout the ship on each given night, and the selection changes nightly. On our one cruise on Silver Spirit, the wines seemed to vary significantly between each restaurant, so the key to getting different wines was to hop between restaurants. Within each restaurant, the wines were somewhat similar from night to night. That made sense in some ways; a wine that goes well with spicy food in Indochine wouldn't necessarily go well with steaks in Atlantide, so it makes sense to keep it in Indochine because the menu doesn't vary all that much from night to night. But as someone else already mentioned, if the wine is available on the ship, they will bring it to you if you ask for it.

We Myst you too!

The bread, or the wine? After all, it is Friday!

Still missing Mysty. Hopefully her power will be back today! Some more cat humor. Wishing a pleasant Good Friday and Easter Weekend to all!

Not the way I understand it. The upcharge is for the food. You can get complimentary wines in La Dame with your meal (which costs $60) for no additional charge. If you want to buy wines from the connoisseur's list to go with your meal, that's extra. Every time we've gone, they have found nice included wines to match with the different courses. Things may be different now as we have not done La Dame since just B.C., back in January 2020. We have a reservation for June on our next cruise.

She is indeed without power. But doing well the last I heard. Since she can't post here are some silly cat cartoons to pass the time.