Azamara Cruisers - How are things where YOU are

[Mackdogmolly]

1 hour ago, nordski said:

Both are also near Parc La Fontaine

Well, I do like that park, so may check them both out!

[Grandma Cruising]

Just had a lovely day out to Bempton Cliffs on the East Yorkshire coast near Bridlington. It’s well known as a nesting area at this time of year for Puffins, Gannets, Guillemots, Fulmars, Razorbills etc. We did see some Puffins, but only at a distance, but managed to see some of the other birds closer up.

 

  Nesting Gannets

 

Thousands of Gannets nesting on this cliff .

 

Guillemots clinging to the rock face.

Edited May 18, 2022 by Grandma Cruising

[Baynanno1]

7 hours ago, Grandma Cruising said:

Just had a lovely day out to Bempton Cliffs on the East Yorkshire coast near Bridlington. It’s well known as a nesting area at this time of year for Puffins, Gannets, Guillemots, Fulmars, Razorbills etc. We did see some Puffins, but only at a distance, but managed to see some of the other birds closer up.

 

  Nesting Gannets

 

Thousands of Gannets nesting on this cliff .

 

Guillemots clinging to the rock face.

 

Your post reminded me of a trip to New Zealand some years ago, during which we saw nesting Gannets at Cape Kidnappers.

[Grandma Cruising]

7 hours ago, Baynanno1 said:

 

Your post reminded me of a trip to New Zealand some years ago, during which we saw nesting Gannets at Cape Kidnappers.

Lovely photo, aren’t they beautiful birds!

[Tom47]

Nesting albatrosses, West Falkland Island, 2016  "In the Footsteps of Shackleton" cruise on Hurtigruten..

DW and I also read Louise Penny's Armand Gamache series.  I recommend that you start with book 1 if you are thinking of reading the series.  My review of book 1    https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1281167864

[Host Jazzbeau]

English Premier League Final – I have a question for my knowledgeable British friends here:  the Wall Street Journal report on the English Premier League says that Liverpool entered the day in first place, won their game (by a higher margin than Man City), but then ended up losing the league title to Man City.  Can someone explain?  [maybe our press got some detail wrong?]

[Grandma Cruising]

18 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

English Premier League Final – I have a question for my knowledgeable British friends here:  the Wall Street Journal report on the English Premier League says that Liverpool entered the day in first place, won their game (by a higher margin than Man City), but then ended up losing the league title to Man City.  Can someone explain?  [maybe our press got some detail wrong?]

Manchester City started off in top place, not Liverpool. In order for Liverpool to win the title they had to win and Manchester City had to lose. 

[Host Jazzbeau]

2 minutes ago, Grandma Cruising said:

Manchester City started off in top place, not Liverpool. In order for Liverpool to win the title they had to win and Manchester City had to lose. 

I knew there was a flaw in my scenario somewhere.  Thanks!

[joyride]

Things are good where I am. Thank you for asking. I live in Brentwood, CA close to San Francisco. Today, I am packing for my first Azamara Cruise on the Pursuit 5/31. It's currently Sunny and 99 Degrees in my backyard, and the pool is 82!! Getting ready to go for a swim. A week from now, we will be heading to the airport. I can hardly wait! 

[les37b]

18 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

English Premier League Final – I have a question for my knowledgeable British friends here:  the Wall Street Journal report on the English Premier League says that Liverpool entered the day in first place, won their game (by a higher margin than Man City), but then ended up losing the league title to Man City.  Can someone explain?  [maybe our press got some detail wrong?]

 

Liverpool fans will probably argue they are the victims of a conspiracy and been robbed. 

 

To answer your question, the league is the collective results of 38 games over the season from early August to mid May. (3 points for a win, 1 for a draw and cumulative goal difference is part of the equation and  can effectively becomes part of the positioning when points tally is the same .) Though as my team won by the largest margin of the day, I will gladly play by your rules and accept the EPL title. 🙂 probably an even better idea as we beat City home and away and Liverpool failed to beat us in either game.

 

Alas them's not the rules.

 

City were trailing 2-0 and fought back to 2-2 before getting a 3-2 winner near the end of the game. If it had remained 2-2, Liverpool would have won title by 1 point..... 

 

 

.

Edited May 23, 2022 by les37b

[Mackdogmolly]

16 hours ago, joyride said:

Things are good where I am. Thank you for asking. I live in Brentwood, CA close to San Francisco. Today, I am packing for my first Azamara Cruise on the Pursuit 5/31. It's currently Sunny and 99 Degrees in my backyard, and the pool is 82!! Getting ready to go for a swim. A week from now, we will be heading to the airport. I can hardly wait! 

Have a wonderful cruise, Joyride! Hope you will post along the way.

[Host Jazzbeau]

3 hours ago, les37b said:

 

Liverpool fans will probably argue they are the victims of a conspiracy and been robbed. 

 

To answer your question, the league is the collective results of 38 games over the season from early August to mid May. (3 points for a win, 1 for a draw and cumulative goal difference is part of the equation and  can effectively becomes part of the positioning when points tally is the same .) Though as my team won by the largest margin of the day, I will gladly play by your rules and accept the EPL title. 🙂 probably an even better idea as we beat City home and away and Liverpool failed to beat us in either game.

 

Alas them's not the rules.

 

City were trailing 2-0 and fought back to 2-2 before getting a 3-2 winner near the end of the game. If it had remained 2-2, Liverpool would have won title by 1 point..... 

 

What led me astray as this lede paragraph in the Wall Street Journal:

"For all of the drama the English Premier League has manufactured in its 30 years, the one plot twist it had never seen was a final-day lead change. Titles had gone down to the wire, and even been decided in the dying moments of the season, but never before had the club that started the day in second place ended the day holding the trophy."

'Never before' seems to imply that today was different.  But no, the second paragraph goes on:  "Sunday was no exception."

Still, nowhere does the article state who was in first place at the beginning of the day, leading to my confusion.

 

So [here's the vain attempt to segue this back to Cruise Critic relevance...] Azamara is not the only one with communications problems...  😉

[GoSeeDo2]

It is summertime in the Colorado Rockies. Such a beautiful time of year. As a disclaimer, the moose photo was taken through our home window, I would never get that close to one!

 

Looking forward to our second Azamara cruise in September.

 

 

 

 

 

[nordski]

2 hours ago, GoSeeDo2 said:

It is summertime in the Colorado Rockies. Such a beautiful time of year. As a disclaimer, the moose photo was taken through our home window, I would never get that close to one!

 

Looking forward to our second Azamara cruise in September.

 

 

 

 

 

Have you been experiencing the high temperatures that seemed to hit Denver last week?

[GoSeeDo2]

1 hour ago, nordski said:

Have you been experiencing the high temperatures that seemed to hit Denver last week?

We did have a day or two where it almost reached 80. But, no we have not had the heatwave that has hit Denver. At 9,000 feet we are usually much cooler. 

[TeaBag]

Sunny and lovely here in Vancouver for Canada Day and 3 ships in port.

[nordski]

15 minutes ago, TeaBag said:

Sunny and lovely here in Vancouver for Canada Day and 3 ships in port.

If you are watching the Blue Jays game today, you will see that Toronto is overcast and humid but the Dome is open. The Jays will be wearing their red uniforms to honour Canada Day.

 

We are expecting rain later in the evening.

 

Unfortunately, we have an uptick in Covid largely, it seems, because of the BA.5 variant. We can hope that the increase is temporary.

[Riocca]

Happy Canada Day to all our Canadian friends 🇨🇦

 

[the mice]

Yes, Happy Canada Day to all our northern neighbors.   We are just back 2 weeks ago from Montreal and Quebec City - we love Canada!! And the border crossings were a breeze - 2 other cars at the Northway crossing and 3 open lanes.   You know that's never happening again 😁

. 

[nordski]

All Canadians will certainly appreciate and be thankful for the good wishes.

 

Those uninterested in history and sports should skip the following trivia.

 

I mentioned that the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team has a home game today, and on July 4th our neighbours to the south will have a large slate of games to enjoy in various cities.

 

But why not cricket games?

 

The argument is that cricket was quite popular in North America before 1860. 
 

But the US Civil War created conditions where games needed to be shorter and the pitch not so carefully kept. And travelling cricket teams from the UK were usually having an easy time during their periodic visits.

 

So cricket was another victim of the Civil War.

 

Apologies for that digression which will only interest me. 😄

 

 

 

 

 

[Mackdogmolly]

1 hour ago, the mice said:

Yes, Happy Canada Day to all our northern neighbors.   We are just back 2 weeks ago from Montreal and Quebec City - we love Canada!! And the border crossings were a breeze - 2 other cars at the Northway crossing and 3 open lanes.   You know that's never happening again 😁

. 

@the miceso glad you got your Canada fix! We were so glad to go back too. Love our neighbor to the north!

[the mice]

48 minutes ago, Mackdogmolly said:

@the miceso glad you got your Canada fix! We were so glad to go back too. Love our neighbor to the north!

Hi Betsey, 

Yes, was so fun.  We drove around the Finger Lakes, Lake Placid, up to Montreal and Quebec City, down thru Vermont and Massachusetts and back in to NY and finally home - 17 days with mostly very good weather.  Met our Vancouver friends in QC which was special, too, especially since they had to cancel the Azamara cruises they were going to join us on in October. 

 

Enjoyed reading your cruise reports - glad you had a good time. 

 

Now just waiting for the 2 Inuit sculptures we bought to get from FedEx to us.   They always remind us of our trips to Canada. 

 

Happy 4th!

Marilyn 

[Mackdogmolly]

1 minute ago, the mice said:

Hi Betsey, 

Yes, was so fun.  We drove around the Finger Lakes, Lake Placid, up to Montreal and Quebec City, down thru Vermont and Massachusetts and back in to NY and finally home - 17 days with mostly very good weather.  Met our Vancouver friends in QC which was special, too, especially since they had to cancel the Azamara cruises they were going to join us on in October. 

 

Enjoyed reading your cruise reports - glad you had a good time. 

 

Now just waiting for the 2 Inuit sculptures we bought to get from FedEx to us.   They always remind us of our trips to Canada. 

 

Happy 4th!

Marilyn 

Sounds like the best trip! We had a great trip too with mostly lovely weather. Didn’t hear about any COVID cases onboard, and with such a small (310) passenger count it was easy to socially distance!

[nordski]

I am hearing that England, Wales, and Southern Scotland are going to experience a significant “heat event” this week. 
 

Temperatures at, or above, 40C are very serious indeed for health and infrastructure. Although this morning a commentator on BBC4’s Broadcast House rather breezily dismissed concerns.

 

Hope no one living in those areas suffers from any health issues.

 

On a much less important scale,  I also think of the photos of delightful gardens in the UK that posters have shared with us.

 

Is there a drought attached to the heat wave and are those gardens requiring even more attention to maintain their beauty?

[Grandma Cruising]

We haven’t had any significant rain for weeks. Our grass lawn is looking very brown and dry as we don’t water it. We’re watering all our bedding plants & they’re looking pretty good.

Its hot here today, (29C in the shade) but not as hot as other areas. They say it could get up to 40C on Tuesday.

 

Edited July 17, 2022 by Grandma Cruising