Norwegian Cruisers -- How are things where YOU live?

[All-ready2cruise]

48 minutes ago, lenquixote66 said:

We are having summer weather prior to Spring weather.I just put away my winter coat.

Yea, wonderful weather here too, my son just opened his backyard pool yesterday.  My youngest GD went swimming today.  

 

On another note, our vaccine roll out is going well and we're getting fewer Covid cases.  So hoping we have a great summer for the kiddos.  

Stay safe everyone.  Have a wonderful fun spring and summer. 

[lenquixote66]

40 minutes ago, All-ready2cruise said:

Yea, wonderful weather here too, my son just opened his backyard pool yesterday.  My youngest GD went swimming today.  

 

On another note, our vaccine roll out is going well and we're getting fewer Covid cases.  So hoping we have a great summer for the kiddos.  

Stay safe everyone.  Have a wonderful fun spring and summer. 

The 3 outdoor pools in the condo development that I reside in will be opening in 13 days.

[All-ready2cruise]

1 hour ago, lenquixote66 said:

The 3 outdoor pools in the condo development that I reside in will be opening in 13 days.

That's great! The indoor pool in my condo complex will open when our lock down ends, hopefully, June 2nd.  

Enjoy. 

[eileeshb]

On 5/16/2021 at 9:43 PM, lenquixote66 said:

We are having summer weather prior to Spring weather.I just put away my winter coat.

Total opposite here in Ireland, flood warning across all west coast counties today and a howling Gale along with the wind. The weather this month in Ireland has been unseasonably cold, complete opposite of last year when it was scorching. 
up side of the bad weather is we’ve been eased back into dealing with walk-in customers at work.

On the covid side of things over 45’s can now book vaccine appointments even though our health service is in the midst of dealing with a ransomware attack that shutdown pretty much all their other IT infrastructure. Oddly though they haven’t actually had direct contact from the hackers asking for the ransom, but Bloomberg has! Bloomberg is not a media outlet many people here would even consider referencing, so it’s all a bit odd. The only covid element affected by the hack has been doctors referrals for tests, so they said people could just walk into test centres if their doctor tells them to, obviously test results are taking longer too. 

[Cruzinnana47]

We have been experiencing summer-like weather here for this 2nd half of May - the 1st week was cool & rainy, so this is nice....even with higher humidity arriving.  We'll take it, for sure.

 

Just reminiscing today about the cruises we've taken in this time of the year....just exactly 2 yrs. ago today we were in Havana, Cuba (NCL Sun).  What a great memory--so glad we had this opportunity as who knows if/when cruises to Cuba will be possible for USA residents again.

 

Covid vax has been going well, but lately the numbers of those getting vaccinated has slowed down.  Good new is that our state has reported only 2 towns are left in the high-risk "red" zone.

 

 

 

[lenquixote66]

86 degrees today in Smallville,USA

[All-ready2cruise]

Hi all, I feel so happy that things are changing here, for the better!!  Our numbers have really improved, yes, I'm knocking on wood as I say that but honestly, I feel really good for our community!  The number of deaths are down... rip to those we've lost and deepest sympathy to the families who've lost loved ones... we don't think of them enough. 

 

We seem to have turned the corner on the covid numbers... my area has only seen 1 death in the last few weeks; we are showing a lot fewer numbers of cases (really hope this continues) and we've had a lot fewer cases reported lately. 

 

The number of vaxcines are beginning to become more regular and our senior deaths have reduced dramatically. 

 

Thanks to our healthcare workers, we now know we'll survive... I am so proud of our community. 
Cheers 

[ysolde]

Starting to return to a slow sense of normalcy here in NYC.  People are back out on the streets, in restaurants, in shops.  It's going to be a long time before anything feels the same as it was before (if it ever does), but my husband and I are fully vaccinated, as are most of our friends.  We went out to a restaurant for lunch for the first time in over a year with friends earlier this week.  I expected to have a small sense of panic at some point, but nothing.  It's going all right.  Went to the dentist yesterday, and same thing.  There is still masking and social distancing going on where appropriate (waiting room at the dentist's office, when on the sidewalk and close to others, in the cab/car service, in stores, while reading menus, when finished with a meal at the restaurant).  The City is coming alive.

[lenquixote66]

On 6/3/2021 at 5:49 PM, ysolde said:

Starting to return to a slow sense of normalcy here in NYC.  People are back out on the streets, in restaurants, in shops.  It's going to be a long time before anything feels the same as it was before (if it ever does), but my husband and I are fully vaccinated, as are most of our friends.  We went out to a restaurant for lunch for the first time in over a year with friends earlier this week.  I expected to have a small sense of panic at some point, but nothing.  It's going all right.  Went to the dentist yesterday, and same thing.  There is still masking and social distancing going on where appropriate (waiting room at the dentist's office, when on the sidewalk and close to others, in the cab/car service, in stores, while reading menus, when finished with a meal at the restaurant).  The City is coming alive.

Now if only the crime were to disappear.Many of my friends and relatives who lived in Manhattan left for the suburbs or safe parts of Brooklyn.

[ysolde]

54 minutes ago, lenquixote66 said:

Now if only the crime were to disappear.Many of my friends and relatives who lived in Manhattan left for the suburbs or safe parts of Brooklyn.

Agreed.  There are some structural changes that are long overdue in this city.  It looks like the upcoming election will be shaking things up quite a bit.  At least, I hope so.

[lenquixote66]

13 hours ago, ysolde said:

Agreed.  There are some structural changes that are long overdue in this city.  It looks like the upcoming election will be shaking things up quite a bit.  At least, I hope so.

I lived in NYC for 60 years.If I still lived there none of the candidates would appeal to me.

[craig01020]

Hot and steamy here in western Mass. Our first heat wave of the season, 95°F today.

 

My son recently got married in Jakarta, Indonesia, but I did not attend. I might have endured the 25 hour flights, but it was the mandatory 5-day quarantine that was the deal-breaker for me. Instead, I watched it on Zoom at 1:30 am...weird.

 

Things are returning to "normal" around here. No masks required most places.

 

Fully vaxxed and anxiously awaiting our October cruise from Athens!

 

 

[HowardK]

I was out today- I went to Barnes and Noble for the first time in 15 months. I wear masks in stores but a lot of people have given up.

I hope to make it to NYC in August for 2 concerts. 

[SuiteTraveler]

Texas opened up last year in May 2020.  People here have been out in droves since then.  We stayed home and got groceries delivered until we got our vaccines in March and April 2021 and now go out to eat and go to stores. My husband has been working from home since March 2020 and it has worked out great.  The mask Mandate was dropped in May 2021 and people who are vaccinated plus two weeks no longer wear masks here. The past 2 weeks, we were at 0 new cases in my county, although counties around us still had new cases.  This week we are back up to 104 cases although the total number of cases in the state has declined by 20% in the past week.  People here are going on vacation and travel between counties often.  We bought our house as a fixer-upper and this additional time at home gave us the time to finish all the projects so we have really been able to enjoy the house and our yard!  

[ysolde]

NY is at 70% vaccination, so vaccinated folks are no longer required to wear masks or physical distance in most public places (masks are still required on public transportation, health care facilities, nursing homes, and in large (more than 250 people) indoor venues).  We have made great progress.

[bkrickles1]

7 hours ago, ysolde said:

NY is at 70% vaccination, so vaccinated folks are no longer required to wear masks or physical distance in most public places (masks are still required on public transportation, health care facilities, nursing homes, and in large (more than 250 people) indoor venues).  We have made great progress.

Yep. New Yorkers have done a great job getting vaccinated.

Our infection rates are crazy low now, especially in Suffolk county, and just about everything is opened up to full capacity. I've only worn a mask at the dentist office since the mask mandate was lifted and that's been invigorating. Especially not having to wear them at the gym.

I have concerts to go to now and I just booked the Joy for January.

So happy to see things getting so much better.

[HowardK]

On 6/17/2021 at 7:51 AM, bkrickles1 said:

Yep. New Yorkers have done a great job getting vaccinated.

Our infection rates are crazy low now, especially in Suffolk county, and just about everything is opened up to full capacity. I've only worn a mask at the dentist office since the mask mandate was lifted and that's been invigorating. Especially not having to wear them at the gym.

I have concerts to go to now and I just booked the Joy for January.

So happy to see things getting so much better.

I hear you about the concerts! I have 2 in NYC in august

[bkrickles1]

42 minutes ago, HowardK said:

I hear you about the concerts! I have 2 in NYC in august

I hope one of them is Dead & Company. Lmao 

[HowardK]

10 hours ago, bkrickles1 said:

I hope one of them is Dead & Company. Lmao 

sorry lol. Eagles and Bruce. Billy later on

[bkrickles1]

10 minutes ago, HowardK said:

sorry lol. Eagles and Bruce. Billy later on

That's awesome too. I assume you mean Bruce on Broadway? It's a great show. It reminded me of the way he used to tell stories when I first started seeing him around 1980.

I saw the Eagles a few years ago, before Glen Frey died, and it was awesome. I don't love that they're still charging top dollar when it's his son filling in now but Joe Walsh makes up for it almost all on his own.

Have fun!

[HowardK]

On 6/21/2021 at 6:58 AM, bkrickles1 said:

That's awesome too. I assume you mean Bruce on Broadway? It's a great show. It reminded me of the way he used to tell stories when I first started seeing him around 1980.

I saw the Eagles a few years ago, before Glen Frey died, and it was awesome. I don't love that they're still charging top dollar when it's his son filling in now but Joe Walsh makes up for it almost all on his own.

Have fun!

I saw them both before and after Glen passed- ironically the last show i saw was Hotel California at MSG and it will be my first show back 18 months later- I do have mixed feelings about them continuing but they pulled it off. 

[4774Papa]

Here in South Georgia, things are almost back to pre-COVID shutdowns.   Most businesses don't require masks unless you haven't been vaccinated.   Only one doctor's office that I visit still requires masks for everyone.

Restaurants have been going strong for months and tourism is back this 4th of July weekend at the Golden Isles of Georgia.

[eileeshb]

Still lots of wrangling about the restrictions here in Ireland. Retail is back open as are accommodation and services. Hotels are allowed to serve their guests inside their restaurants and bars but non-guests can only be served outdoors. Suffice to say the body representing the restaurants and gastro-pubs have brought that decision to court. They were supposed to be allowed serve indoors from next week but that’s been pushed back at least 2 weeks because the delta variant is now responsible for 70% of new cases. Thankfully most of the more vulnerable have been fully vaccinated so the hospitalisation rates are much much lower than they were in the past. Pharmacies will begin offering vaccines from Monday even though they are very limited in supply of vaccines at the moment. The mRNA vaccines are still restricted to doctors and mass vaccination centres, but the health service has lifted the over 50s restriction for the Astra Zeneca and Janssen vaccines so those will be the ones used at the pharmacies.

the EU digital travel certificate went active this week *except* for Ireland. Our government isn’t turning it on until the 17th, so Michael O’Leary of Ryanair is reaming them out again. The official line is that the health service IT systems still aren’t fully recovered from the hack in May but that excuse is wearing very thin as the mechanism behind the digital cert is an EU project.  The hospitality and live entertainment industries are on their knees and if they can’t resume soon all too many of them will be wiped out. The bars and restaurants start preparing to open, get stocked up and then the re-opening date gets pushed time and again which is causing an awful lot of wastage and they’re losing staff to other industries. 
 

in parallel there are massive cost increases and materials shortages for numerous industries across Europe. The suppliers for our surf shop have seen the cost of bringing a container from Asia to Europe go from €1500 to €20,000 in the past year, 2 have slashed sections of their product ranges due to material shortages and others are having massive delays in supply. I’ve had a number of customers in store seeing similar issues in their businesses - cycling, food, construction, automotive.. etc.  We’re having to order technical products for 2022 up to 3 months earlier than normal, clothing seems to be staying much closer to normal but there’s massive increases in prices there too due to rising cotton costs. 
 

normally I’d be expecting to see winter stock beginning to arrive but instead I’m still waiting on massive chunks of our summer order of wetsuits and boards. 
 

these are the knock-on effects of covid that many won’t have expected, and aren’t limited to manufacturing in Asia. One of our surfboard suppliers manufactures in France  and due to material shortages they cancelled all their high end boards to concentrate on the beginner/intermediate boards.  I’ve heard the big freeze in Texas actually caused one of the materials shortages and backlogs when some plants there had to shutdown.
 

I’m going to be in dire need of the cruise I have booked for next year, here’s hoping 🤞 

[LADinCT]

On 6/20/2021 at 8:14 PM, bkrickles1 said:

I hope one of them is Dead & Company. Lmao 

Yep on Dead & Co 😎 NFA

[lenquixote66]

On 6/17/2021 at 7:51 AM, bkrickles1 said:

Yep. New Yorkers have done a great job getting vaccinated.

Our infection rates are crazy low now, especially in Suffolk county, and just about everything is opened up to full capacity. I've only worn a mask at the dentist office since the mask mandate was lifted and that's been invigorating. Especially not having to wear them at the gym.

I have concerts to go to now and I just booked the Joy for January.

So happy to see things getting so much better.

The PT facility that I go to in Nassau County still has mandatory masks to be there.