the penguins

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.

A quick stop at Guest Relations will get you a refund for any items damaged - Amount credited to your OBC. On a recent cruise we had the hilarious incident of a "small" hole as follows: Phone call from Cabin Steward: did you put a red Dress in the laundry Me: No CS: I will call back. Second Call " Did you put a red top in the laundry Me: No. CS: I will go to the laundry and call you. Third call "did you put a pair of red mens pants in the laundry. Me: if you mean Tartan under pants yes. What's the issue. CS: The laundry says there is small hole in the pants do you want them washed. Me: If it's small yes. When the laundry was returned the pants had 200 plus holes - more holes than material. I took the pants to GR - more amused than annoyed just to get an explanation GR: We can only find out what happened if you make a formal complaint. Me: OK,I wiil do that. GR: thanks we will complete the form and call you when we get a response. Me: Thanks. Straight back to the cabin and the Boss (Anita) had had a phone call. The complaint couldn't be processed as I hadn't given a price for the item. She told me the pants were part of a three pack making one pair £3 ( say $4). Back at GR Me the pants cost $4. GR: Sorry we don't deal in 4's c an we put $5 Me: OK. GR: So you are agree to $5. Me: Yds. GR: Thanks the sum will be credited to your account tonight. Complaint closed. That night we were credited with $10 - appears the Accounts Dept don't work in 5's. I then packaged up the pants and took them back to GR labelled as a present for Julie the Director of Guest Relations. Anyone who knows Julie will know she has a wicked sense of humour so I knew this would come back to haunt me. PS If you don't know Julie you have heard her as on most Celebrity ships she is the "voice in the lifts" as well as on most pre recorded announcements. Her most famous saying is " If I can't fix it, it ain't broke". You can look her up on line - Julie Sherringham. On one cruise another passenger gave Julie a gift of an empty box of chocolates (she can't eat chocs due to a medical issues) she responded by delivering a bottle of wine to his cabin - needles to say the bottle was also empty. We never did get an explanation as to what had caused the holes

You can - don't log in to the WiFi, put the phone in the safe as soon as you board, take real pics and make a photo book when you get home. Leave nothing but footprints wherever you go and take memories home to share. If there was a dire emergency at home the ship can always be contacted.

the wording is correct basic WIFI can only be purchased pre boarding. Once onboard you can only purchase the Premium WIFI option.

Surely your "splitting hairs". In my example we had paid for a package. For 3 days using that package we were unable to send any messages i.e. we could the type them, press send but the messages went nowhere. That is my definition of having no internet connection.

thanks - well I think it's thanks. None of the posts refer to "intranet" only "internet". But does that mean that what I said was correct? I do hope so.