Gardener5b

We also really enjoyed Hunte's garden. Mr. Hunte is an amazing person to talk with, and is a very genial host. In addition to his beautiful plants, he also has some unique sculptures throughout his garden.

Your grandkids look like they have the most fun....how awesome that you are able to give them these experiences.

@ourusualbeach Do you know anything about Amadeus River cruises? Specifically the Amadeus Silver III? We got an offer from a local travel group for a river cruise on this ship with a great itinerary.

This was an interesting read on this topic. We started out doing balconies or Jr. Suites on our first few cruises. A lot depended on itinerary as to whether a balcony was needed. As we cruised more, we started doing interior cabins for Caribbean itineraries we'd done so many times. . Being that we both worked too many hours, the dark cabin where we could sleep late was a real luxury!!! In recent years, circumstances have required that we take separate vacations (elder care issues). I really didn't mind interior or promenade cabins when sailing solo. Promenade cabins seemed great for the extra light and space. As we've gotten older, we appreciate balconies more. We are now getting ready to sail together for the first time in several years (post elder care/post covid (hopefully)). We were fortunate enough to win a RoyalUp bid (first one we ever bid on) to go from a Jr. Suite to an Owners Suite. We will probably never be lucky enough to get such a great price on an OS. I hope it doesn't spoil us. Lately, Covid has us thinking our own balcony is a really good idea for a safer place to hang out.

We are on Adventure OTS. It appeared that there were quite a few Owner's Suites left, but Jr. Suites had been sold out for some time.

We only bid on an Owner's Suite (up from a Jr. Suite).

We were just notified of our win today for a August 18th sailing, so about 7 weeks out.

We received an offer to bid on 3 different suites (we were originally booked in a Jr. Suite) for our Aug. 18th sailing on Adventure. We got the offer about 10 days ago, and just found out we won the one bid we placed. I was surprised to hear so quickly!!

Love the promenade cabins--I prefer deck 7 for a little more "quiet". The extra light and space from the window seat make the cabin feel much bigger than an interior. You do have to close your drapes for privacy. When they used to do the parades, etc. in the promenade, it was a great place to watch from.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery for Owen.

Blu is absolutely the best perk of Aqua. Breakfast is wonderful (although the hours are somewhat shorter than other venues). Depending on the ship, the Persian Gardens can be great (less so on the M-class ships because of their location). You will absolutely enjoy your Aqua experience.

I'm a good cook, but very bad at recipes because I just cook by instinct. Does your scape pesto have basil in it? That mellows it a little. If it is pure garlic scapes, I'd probably try 1/3 cream cheese to 2/3 pesto. You can always adjust to add more cream cheese as needed. If there is pesto in with the scapes, I'd probably do 3/4 pesto to 1/4 cream cheese. It's all personal taste. Scapes are also great in stir fries!! Just replace your normal garlic with some chopped scapes.

Mix the garlic scape pesto with a little cream cheese. We do that as a base for a pesto-pizza. I love garlic scapes--one of the benefits of growing garlic, for sure.