Gardener5b

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@dani negreanu Sending prayers of thanks you are safe. Continued prayers that you will have a restful night. Keeping all affected families in Israel in my thoughts that they remain safe.

@LadyZolt Thank you for sharing those amazing photo. It must have been an incredible experience.

That's crazy. We did mail order for our glasses and camera filters from B & H. Mail order service was very prompt.

Great photos

We were on Splendour (British Islands/Norwegian Fjords) during the total solar eclipse in August of 1999. It was a very different experience being out at sea, but it was just amazing. We didn't book specifically for the eclipse but it turned out to be an awesome benefit.

One of our local radio stations played a different rendition of Total Eclipse of the Heart each hour leading up to the eclipse

We had a great view of the eclipse...fewer clouds than originally predicted. It was so cool, yet eerie, how light it stayed until the first moment of totality. The temperature dropped over 10 degrees, and the wind picked up. Unfortunately, none of our photos did it justice. It was pretty cool that all of our neighbors were out, the church down the street rang bells for several minutes. An amazing sight to behold.

Sorry, not really sure. Everything I've read indicated the only "safe" time to be without special lens protection is during the few minutes of total eclipse. I'm amazed at how big of an event this has become in our area.

That should work. We ordered a set of glasses and a set of lens covers for our phones. The lens covers are just slightly larger versions of the lenses for the glasses.

We are in the path of totality, with expected time of 3 minutes 29 seconds. They are expecting crazy amounts of traffic in our area. Several major roadways have been designated for emergency vehicle access, and they are warning residents that cell phone coverage will probably be overwhelmed. They are even starting our weekly trash pick up to begin at 5am to be off the streets ahead of the eclipse. Thankfully we don't have to travel. We have our Eclipse glasses, so are all set to watch from our home.

So we are Diamond+ on Royal, and by association, Elite on Celebrity. Both have their strengths. The loyalty program on Royal appeals more to us than Celebrity, especially since we don't need go buy a drinks package. But Celebrity has some unique itineraries, and perhaps slightly better food (although we like to sail in Aqua class due to Blu). But prices can be less expensive on Royal, especially if you don't want to sail the newest/greatest ships, which we don't. Entertainment on Royal is good, and we like the adult only solariums. But we do miss the T-Pool on Celebrity M-class ships. I think the specialty restaurants are better on Celebrity. It really all comes down to price/itinerary.

I'm so sorry for your god daughter. What a sad situation.

I don't think we ever got a receipt to sign our our last cruise in February, unless we weren't using our vouchers. But service was the same either way.

We were watching these November flights, as we are on the Voyager transatlantic arriving in Port Canaveral on 11/26 (two days before Thanksgiving). We found a great non-stop price on Wednesday but would have required an overnight stay in Orlando. For only $40 more, we can fly out on Tuesday afternoon (same day as our arrival) with no hotel stay. And we can get our dogs out of boarding on Wednesday, which is a big win.

We just disembarked on Sunday after a 9-night cruise. Ship appeared to be in great condition; our cabin was in good shape and probably had the most comfortable bed we've had on a ship. We only ate in the dining room one night, but the Windjammer had some nice options at lunch and dinner. Shows we saw were good, and my DH said the bartenders were awesome.

We got another price drop today on our November TA. Took all of 5 minutes to save $900. Definitely worth the call.

After reading about everyone's adventures on their current sailings, it's finally our turn. We leave tomorrow to fly to Miami for Friday departure on 9-night Explorer sailing. It's been quite a few years since we've been on that ship, but love the Freedom class ships.

1. Radiance 2/2 Voyager/Freedom (this is a tie for me) 3. Vision

WOW!!! How exciting for you and your family. I love your reviews, and am very excited to follow along on this one. Wishing you a fabulous cruise.

Jade is absolutely stunning! Happy 2nd birthday to that beautiful girl.

@lenquixote66 IU is a great university--I hope your grandaughter loves it there. It's a beautiful campus. IU and Purdue basketball is amazingly popular here. The month of March "March Madness" is just crazy popular here.

@lenquixote66 Do you have a favorite sports team?

Yes, but it's often really tough being a Chicago fan. Our main team is the White Sox. They don't have very many winning years. I'm grateful to have seen them win the World Series (2005) once in my lifetime. Cubs and Bears are not much more successful, unfortunately.