the penguins

The joy of being retired we could just stay on.

On Silhouette 2022. We booked 8 nights Norway (nearly 2000 pax.) A few days in we learnt that the next sailing (12 nights Baltics) only had 800 pax. We decided to stay on and, after a bit of back and forth with Miami, agreed a price for an inside with a £400 per person discount and a free upgrade back to the balcony cabin we were already in. The following sailing was fully booked with 600+ kids.

Towel animals are something any room steward is free to do at any time. On our last Silhouette cruise our Steward made us several just because he liked doing it and with only 800 passengers he had a much lighter work load than usual.

We are English not British - there is a difference. I used "conceded" as he let in/ failed to stop a goal he thought he should have stopped. Our grandson will be 13 in June and Covid robbed us of 3 years of his life when we were banned from travelling to the US. Interesting about "being bombarded" because when I asked his coach why he thought Jack had the potential to be a good goalie his reasons were: 1) When faced with players hurtling towards them holding a large stick any right thinking person's first first reaction would be to retreat. A goalie's instinctive reaction is to go forward. 2) Saving shots has a lot to do with angles which is something that's hard to teach. Jack worked it out for himself in just two periods of his first game. We think it's down to his love of maths (sorry math) - he and his grandma do math for fun. 3) you mustn't dwell on mistakes if you make an error you must just blank it out and get on with the game. 4) he continually talks (shouts at) his team mates to organise the defence - Jack doesn't realise he does it. His dad has been threatening to wire him up so he can hear it afterwards - just hope his language is suitable for mixed company. For us as long as he enjoys it we will continue to support him although getting up at 5.0 am to go training before school isn't our idea of fun.

with all the different versions that have been introduced to make it a "one day" game that the TV likes it's hard for even the most devoted fans to keep up.

thanks. Not so time consuming for us as we only get to Dallas twice a year. We keep in touch via Skype and follow his stats on an App. He is never more animated when he is talking about his latest match unless he has conceded, what he deemed to be a, soft goal then we stay well clear for about half an hour.

There is always hope. How Premiership teams identify potential stars at 6 and 7 years old is beyond me. Our grandson has just finished his first full season as a goalie and was the top one in the league for most shut outs, least goals conceded and best % saves ratio. Not that we are biased.

He likes teen. It's just that Ice Hockey (it's just Hockey Grandpa!) is or was a complete mystery to us. At least now he plays in goal we can always spot him on the Rink. We also know his dad has "heart failure" every time Jack has a Shut Out - he offered to take Jack to dinner at a restaurant of his choice for every Shut Out. Was OK when Jack chose Cracker Barrell but now he picks up market steak houses at $150 a head. Our long term retirement plan is also tied to Hockey as our Grandson frequently tells us about the mega dollars top players earn to which we remind him that as we pay a third of his fees a third of that money would be ours. He is not convinced 🤣 but he has agreed to pay for us to do 2 cruises as year.

Unfortunately we can't hold the shares ourselves and the brokers don't offer the reinvestment option on US shares. We don't cruise as much as you but we have made 25 claims which in total has given us back more than double our original investment. On our 100 shares the last full year dividend in 2019 was £225 around $270 and the last to date (Jan2020) was £59 approx $70.

to put the $20,000 insurance bill in context the whole 90 day trip (flights London/LA/Auckland, Seattle/Dallas and Dallas/London), 5 x cruises, 14 nights touring in New Zealand, hotels, tours, 10 days in Dallas with family and all our spending money) came to $21,000.

they caused no problems to anyone else and they certainly turned heads as the 8 of them arrived in the restaurant in full evening dress (men in tux's, the ladies in a variety of dresses) every night. They also added a touch of glamour in the Casino on most evenings.

We have a champagne bucket full of ice every night. We take of the lid and as the ice melts it helps keep the air moist - works for us.

Better suggestions welcome.

Not the way we had planned to kick off our retirement vacation. Total cost to our travel insurance was $20,000 (medical, extra hotels and new flights LA to Auckland) all settled without fuss and no increase on our next year's premium.

Anyone older than you is old. I had POA for 2 friends who died aged 99 and 97 within 5 weeks of each other having celebrated their 74th Wedding Anniversary and not a single cruise.

A bit pricey now at $136 per share - was great when we bought at $22. Hope we live long enough for Royal to restart paying Dividends - wouldn't that be great?

on one cruise a table of 8 near us had a Celebration almost every other night. I got talking to one of the group who explained they just liked to dress up and so dressed formally on every night. Then to make things extra special they just invented anniversaries to get the cake and the waiters singing.

Sorry intended to include longest cruise - Solstice 5 x B2B - 3 cabin categories, inside, sea view and first balcony - Auckland to Seattle - 60 nights. Fantastic. Oh yes and the 90 day total trip started off with days 2 and 3 with both of us in hospital in LA with food poisoning.

usually applies on cruises that are sailing in areas with water restrictions i.e. where the amount of water the ship can discharge is restricted. One example is the Baltics.

Our first was out of Miami to Cancun on Royal Majesty, Majesty Cruise Lines to Celebrate our 25th Wedding Anniversary. The ship seemed huge. First Celebrity in 2008 - Constellation We Celebrated our Golden Wedding Anniversary on Eclipse B2B from Buenos Aires to San Diego. We had an overnight in BA on our actual Anniversary and celebrated by going to an amazing Tango Show with a group from the Roll Call.

maybe a language difference but to me that's a reference to dancing and that certainly doesn't apply to our grandson. Now if you have an American phrase/ word for a Goalie in Ice Hockey we would be happy to try that.🤣

I used to commute in and out of Liverpool Street Station, London and the delays became so frequent that the Station Announcer used a different reason for each day of the week i.e. Monday was always signals, Tuesday was always driver shortage etc. Made no difference to us and she she got a cheer from the regulars each time. The Bosses removed her from the job but not before she said good bye over the station system.

we, or at least I, have the advantage of a "Boss" to keep us in check. Inevitable it's the Posts that the Boss hasn't approved that get me in trouble. After over 50 years I am still "in training".

Not left over it came with all the leaflets, daily planner etc - just a human error we all saw the funny side off

on our last Silhouette we had a special leaflet from the Excursions Dept. with 4 or 5 special offers. Unfortunately all the offers were for the previous cruise. I took the leaflet to Julie, the Guest Relations Director who is famous for her sense of humour, and she phoned the boss of the Excursions to tell him she had " two special clients who were interested in one of the excursions but what time would they need to be ready to get the flight?" Happy memories. As an aside never miss Julie when she is in Liars Club.