bobmacliberty

Same with us. We have a family cruise coming up on Wonder but then probably Oceania next for us to try out the "best food at sea". We'll stay with Royal for multigenerational cruising but want to try other lines as just a couple. Very interested in what Ken thinks (post cruise).

I couldn't see the pictures in the first two of your posts above (test 1 and 2) but the next 2 worked great. Looks like you have it figured out! 👍

Beautiful room Ken. I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts about this cruise.

It's not working for me either. All I see is the very long link. I'm not a Google Photos user, so everything that I'll say below is just a somewhat educated guess. For a photo stored in another location (not just Google Photos) to be displayed on a web page, you need what's called an embed code. This is different from a regular link to the photo. A little searching tells me that Google Photos does not (but maybe used to?) give you an option to copy an embed code. If you haven't already done so, try clicking on the "Other Media" drop down box (to the right of where you click to select photos to upload) when creating a new Cruise Critic post. Select the "Insert Image From URL" option. This should paste an embed code into your CC post from the link. This may or may not work. I used to have problems with this method when I stored all of my photos on Shutterfly or Amazon Photos. If the above doesn't work, there are a couple of other workarounds discussed on this web site: How To Embed Single Photos From Google Photos on Your Website and Notion Page | HackerNoon I found several references to using the Labnol site mentioned in the above link to convert a copied photo link to an embed code. I can't confirm that this is a safe site to use but would guess that it is based on the number of other sites that refer to it. The second manual method definitely works but requires a little bit of HTML code editing...manually adding <a> and <img> into the code. It's not hard once you learn but is definitely a lot more work than you want for more than 1 or 2 photos. The simplest option is probably what others have said...either take a screen shot or save the photo to your computer/phone and then upload it here.

Liberty was our first Royal ship (hence my screen name). Loved it. Caused us to get hooked on Royal and also try Freedom and Explorer.

You made me hungry for grouper Greg. Had to go to a local beach restaurant for a grouper sandwich lunch. It was very tasty, but would have been better with the onions, mushrooms, and cheese. I may need to try that at home.

That looks like a perfect lunch (hold the pickles). I love Grouper! If it's on the menu, in any form, it's usually my choice. Sounds like you're having a great trip.

Anyone looking for a great horse racing experience should try Keeneland in Lexington, KY. It's a beautiful track...nicer than Churchill Downs. The only problem is that they only race for 3 weeks in April and 3 weeks in October. It's a lot of fun with great tailgating before the races. Fun people watching also with some serious money floating around. It would match up well with a Bourbon Trail tour. 😁

There are a few other clips from the same interview that are worth watching:

We've been very busy lately. Our daughter and SIL came for a long weekend visit last weekend. They arrived Friday afternoon and left Monday night on what used to be a cheap Allegiant direct flight. Not so cheap anymore. We packed in a lot of activities while they were here. Our club's Member-Member golf tournament kicked off with a stag dinner last night and golf today, tomorrow, and Saturday. The tournament includes a lot of great food and drink in addition to golf, closing with a celebration dinner on Saturday night with spouses/partners. Lots of fun. Weather here has been perfect. Sunny in the upper 70s and low 80s.

Another duplicate page for me. 🤔 Working from a desktop computer using Microsoft Edge. 🤷‍♂️

I enjoy Rick Steves' shows and like his walking audio tours. We used his audio tours in Rome and they were very informative. As you know, he's about value travel. The hotels that he uses look to be clean but basic. I'd rather spend a little more on hotels and get A/C and working elevators. Have you looked at Tauck tours? They are more of a luxury offering and may be too expensive, but they are supposed to be excellent. They won't cover as much area as the Rick Steves tour you're looking at, but I'd rather spend more time in fewer areas to get a feel for each place. I love cruising but my biggest gripe is that you basically do a "drive by" for each port stop. For land tours, I'd rather spend 4 or more nights at each stop.

I love these kinds of restaurants. Sometimes, fried fish and hush puppies really hit the spot!

That place looks fantastic! Why rent when you can buy? 😜 It's a much closer drive to PC from there (think of the airfare that you'll save), better year round weather, and if anyone misbehaves, you can kick them out. 🤣

I used to have a full home theater when we lived in Ohio. I used a Philips Pronto remote. You needed a bit of programming skills to configure it, but I enjoyed that, and I loved the graphical touchscreen interface. I don't think the Pronto has been made for several years either. When we moved, I simplified to just a smart TV with a Sonos sound system (Arc soundbar, separate subwoofer, and rear speakers built into the ceiling). No DVD player or any other external boxes. Everything is controlled with the TV remote and/or software on my phone.

It's happened to me a couple of times and others have noted the same thing. Doesn't seem to be consistent though in that one person will see it but another won't. Weird.

When a man says he is going to do something, he is going to do it. There's no need to nag him every year. 😜

Found it. They definitely are cute, especially all balled up together in their pen. https://www.facebook.com/reel/3247879512173030

We went to Key West a couple of years ago and enjoyed it. Although we're glad we went, it was probably one and done. We stayed at a nice hotel on the quieter end of Duval called the Orchid Key Inn, which I'd recommend. We did the Hemingway House, the Little White House, a walking history tour, and a sunset cruise. All very worth doing. We also had a couple of good meals (especially the Red Shoe Island Bistro...outstanding) and did a mini bar crawl from the top of Duval back to our hotel. Now that I type this, I'm sort of talking myself into going back. 😁 We drove from Amelia Island and broke up the trip with a stay in Key Largo. Driving was fine and again I'm glad I did it, but if we were to go back it would either be flying or taking the high speed ferry from Fort Myers. It's a long drive from Northern Florida just to get to the Keys, and then another long drive all the way to Key West. Flying into Miami and renting a car could be a good way to check out various places in the Keys.

Great view. Make sure you close your curtains. 😜

This is fantastic! I don't think I've ever seen this done before. I love that she has them all holding hands. 🙂 She definitely has talent. You can see it in the details of things like the faces and shoelaces.

I agree with everything said about Hunter and was rooting for him. I don't however think that he was strategic enough for Survivor. Combine that with how dominant he was in challenges, and I didn't think he'd survive very long. If I was in his shoes at Tribal, I may also have hung on to the idol. It seemed obvious that everyone was voting for Q, even knowing that you can't trust what you hear. He knew that he was vulnerable and was trying to stretch having the idol a few more days. If he could then get immunity again, the idol would last even longer. You could see how he really struggled with playing the idol or keeping it in his pocket. He took a risk though and got burned. Tiff did the same thing. She swore that she would play her idol to get the target off her back but in the end, decided to keep it a while longer. It worked for her.

I am physically incapable of providing just basic info when it comes to tech so hopefullt this isn't too much info for you. 🙂 I like to use a website called CNET for info about several things tech related, including TVs. Here is their most recent "buying guide". It provides a good, not too deep, discussion about features and other considerations when buying a TV, and recommends a few models: Your TV Buying Guide: Spring 2024 Edition - CNET You probably can't go wrong if you buy a mid-level or better TV from Sony, Samsung, or LG. We have all Samsung TVs so that the remotes and user interface are the same everywhere. They will all have about the same features and pretty similar picture quality. You may hear people saying that one brand is better than another but in this price range, that's mostly brand loyalty talking. There's not much difference. Here is a Best Buy feature comparison of 50 inch TVs from those brands that are about $500: Compare - Best Buy If you read the CNET buyer's guide, they'll tell you to ignore the tech specs. If you want to save a little and don't need the absolute best picture quality, there are models from these suppliers that are less expensive, and there are brands like TCL and Hisense (both recommended by CNET but I've never owned one). I picked 50 inch only because you mentioned currently having a 36 inch model. A 50 inch set will initially look huge to you, but you will quickly get used to the size. If you've got space and don't mind spending a little extra, I'd go even bigger. 55 inch has become a standard size and 65 inch would be even better for a living room. Note that these numbers are the diagonal length of a TV from corner to corner. When determining what will fit a specific space in your house, you'll need to get the width and height values online. You most likely currently have cable TV and can continue using cable with any new TV. If you want to cut the cable, there a few streaming services to which you can subscribe. New TVs come with apps (may be called something different for a specific brand) that you can easily install. They are very much like a computer...for example launch the Netflix app (by clicking on it with your TV remote), sign in to your separately purchased Netflix service (usually just needed the first time you launch the app), and you're good to go. You use the TV remote to navigate around the Netflix screen to pick what you want to watch. Same goes for YoutubeTV, Apple TV, Prime video, Disney, Paramount, etc, etc. You may have more difficulty picking which streaming services to buy than which TV to buy. Or you may end up (like we did) buying several different services which are starting to add up to almost the same cost as cable. 😁 Almost any brand TV will have an app for the above mentioned services, but you should confirm that in the online specs before buying. Happy to answer any additional questions.

So happy Dani to hear that you have the family all together for Passover!

Looks like an absolutely amazing trip!