Royal Caribbean Cruisers -- How Are Things Where You Are? (was "Routine" ​ 😁 ​day in lockdown... how was yours?)

[island lady]

31 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Yes, looks like a perfect day for a hike around the area and a nice picnic lunch with all your homemade goodies 🙂       Glad you are enjoying and the weather improved for you this week.

 

Indeed with the last couple of day being a bit...not great...it was nice to get out and do some hiking and exploring!  🙂 

[grapau27]

6 minutes ago, ATG said:

Great game and outcome.  Kane’s rebound shot was beautiful.  I’ll be rooting for them next weekend.

 

Did you hear UEFA gave tickets to the final game to the paramedics that saved Erickson’s life?  I thought that was a classy thing to do.

Thank you.

The paramedics deserved to see the game.

Erickson played for Tottenham a London England team for a few years in the Premiership so a lot of us in England wish him all the best in his recovery from his cardiac arrest.

 

[dani negreanu]

@grapau27

 

Half my computer screen is geared to news, and I'm seeing lots and lots of news reporters commentaries, stating that England reached the finals "by right".😁

 

Everyone is wishing England good luck on Sunday, it appears it is a long time coming 🤞 🤞

[grapau27]

23 minutes ago, A&L_Ont said:

Thank-you very much.  The plants do all the work at our place, we just get to enjoy them. 
 

As for SF, I got to go down Lombard street when I was a kid and I kind of remember it as a passenger in the car. Would love to revisit it again as a driver. SF reminds me of some of my favourite movies… Bullitt and anything with Dirty Harry. 

You have a fantastic garden,patio,house and pool Andrew.

[grapau27]

3 minutes ago, dani negreanu said:

@grapau27

 

Half my computer screen is geared to news, and I'm seeing lots and lots of news reporters commentaries, stating that England reached the finals "by right".😁

 

Everyone is wishing England good luck on Sunday, it appears it is a long time coming 🤞 🤞

Thanks Dani.

Denmark were the best team we have played so far but England deserved to win.

Remarkably it is England's first major final since we beat West Germany at Wembley stadium London in 1966.

[dani negreanu]

1 minute ago, grapau27 said:

Remarkably it is England's first major final since we beat West Germany at Wembley stadium London in 1966.

 

Exactly, the reporters said it is 55 years... wow.

[Arzeena]

3 hours ago, island lady said:

 

Oh I Iove that Dutch cheese shop too!!  The tour I was just talking about is the starting point of the food tours.  They do the cheese samples and "bubbly" there, then load us in a small van for the tour.

 

No, the store I am talking about that Buck picks up his 2/5 buck beers is a little grocery type store inside the port shopping area near the taxi stands.  

I like that "cow" store and have bought little stuff from them for a long time. However, I mostly buy gouda from Curacao. The cheese store across from where the ship docks at Mega Pier is mostly my last stop.

[ReneeFLL]

3 hours ago, island lady said:

 

Bucky loves the little grocery/sundry type shop in the port shopping area where the crew members love to go.  They have Presidente Beer to go, 2 for 5 bucks...ice cold.  Great to stop by after a hot day on the way back to the ship.  They also sell a lot of big wheels of Dutch Cheese.  

The cheese wheels reminds me of a gift I brought back for a neighbor. I was on a 5 day trip with Pan Am out of Aruba and Mike was also on a trip. I don't remember how many days his was. The neighbors always watched our cats when we were gone. There was a hurricane and it was supposed to miss South Florida. While we were gone it took a turn and headed for Florida which was totally unexpected. The neighbor was super nice and put up the shutters for us and we didn't even ask. I knew he wouldn't take any money from us and I also knew he loved cheese. 

 

They always put us in La Cabana a time share and resort. It was a fabulous place to stay for 5 days. It's one of those places with a swim up pool bar (among other things, but that stands out in my head) and also on Eagle Beach. The bottom rooms had a grill so we always made sure at least 1 crew member had one of those. We were off more than we flew on those trips. We would always stop at this one store to buy food to grill and that's where I spotted some monster cheese wheels.

 

Anyway, on the way out I got the driver to stop at the store for a cheese wheel. I bought the biggest wheel they had. I don't remember how much it weighed, but it just barely fit in my arm from my elbow past my wrist and was at least 4" tall. It was frigging heavy to carry around like that. We were supposed to be going from Aruba to Orlando and back to Aruba. Due to the hurricane we didn't know what was going to happen so we brought all our luggage and the infamous cheese wheel with us.

 

That was going to be bad enough carrying this thing around but we ended up flying back to Aruba. The next day as per our typical schedule we deadheaded on AA to Miami for the end of our trip. (They also always put us in first class so any crew member not in uniform could partake in the free booze. Ah, those were the days.) This was before Aruba had pre-clearance so we had to walk the long way for customs and immigration in Miami. While it was in a sack it would whack the side of my leg and I didn't want that since I have a tendency to bruise easily. I ended up carrying it on my arm the entire time. Ugh! Better a hurting arm than bruises.

 

There also wasn't any room for it to fit in my luggage or on top since I already had a bag there. A couple of other crew members offered to carry it, but I was stubborn and determined that I would carry it myself. I also didn't want to have someone else carry it since it was heavy. Being guys it probably would have been much easier for them but I wanted to do it myself. 💪back then anyway. The only way to get it home was the painful way, but I was going to do it if it killed me. 😁  He was very happy to get it and shocked that I was able to carry it home. It also lasted him for months. 

 

Those 5 day trips consisted of -

1. Fly to Aruba.

2. Off.

3. The ABCs. Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao. We never hit 10,000 feet so we never left our seats. Super easy trip which didn't take very long.

4. Aruba to Orlando and back to Aruba. 

5. Deadhead to Miami on AA. It was like a vacation. 

Sorry for the long post, very fond memories and it all started with a cheese wheel. 😊

 

[Arzeena]

1 hour ago, George C said:

Vaccinated passengers do not need to wear masks anywhere , most employees wear masks . In St Thomas we were told masks were mandatory in stores but many had customers and workers without them, 

George, what did you do in St Thomas?

[ReneeFLL]

3 hours ago, davekathy said:

All the times we've been to St. Maarten I've never tried the guavaberry liqueur. I just googled it. Very interesting mix of flavors. I may have to stop in the Guavaberry Emporium (16 March) for a free sample to see what I think. Probably better mixed as tropical drink. 🍹

Guaveberry on it's own doesn't taste to good, but in a drink especially the coladas taste yummy.

[Luckynana]

1 hour ago, FromSea2ShiningSea said:

It was fun playing tourist in San Francisco the other day.  Visited the famous Lombard Street (aka the crookedest Street in the world).  This whole street is filled with hydrangeas.  It is almost as beautiful as @grapau27and @A&L_Ont‘s gardens.

 

 

 

Here’s an amazing view from the top.

 

 

While we visited Lombard Street around 10 years ago, we watched as a stretch limo got stuck there.  It took quite a long time for the limo to make it down.  They attracted quite a crowd, us included.

[mets07]

1 hour ago, xpcdoojk said:

OK, I was making the ladies on the boat this weekend cocktails with mango quava juice with Blue Chair (Kenny Chesney) Coconut rum.  They seemed to like them.  What is the difference between quava and quava berry?

Can not answer your question.

 

I mostly drink cabernet. 🍷

 

However, yes to the Blue Chair brand. Not a fan of coconut rum, but I like to drink the Kenny Chesney High Tide drink.  Blue Chair Banana rum (not the cream one), pineapple juice, Sprite.  

 

I will leave you all to the quavaberry.....

 

Cheers! 

[lenquixote66]

4 hours ago, Ocean Boy said:

It is still there, at least as of about 15 months ago when I was last there.

I was last there in Dec.2019.

[Luckynana]

1 hour ago, grapau27 said:

Absolutely delighted.

England win tonight.

England v Italy in the football final on Sunday night.

🙏😃🍺

Congratulations!!!

[lenquixote66]

6 minutes ago, Luckynana said:

While we visited Lombard Street around 10 years ago, we watched as a stretch limo got stuck there.  It took quite a long time for the limo to make it down.  They attracted quite a crowd, us included.

We visited Lombard Street 51 years ago,it was amazing.Earlier today I was telling my grandkids about all my vacations dating back to 1945.

[Arzeena]

31 minutes ago, ReneeFLL said:

Sorry for the long post, very fond memories and it all started with a cheese wheel. 😊

 

You flew with PanAm?

[lenquixote66]

1 hour ago, George C said:

I would have stoped there but it was closed , I hate cruise sponsored shore excursions, now I have a new reason to hate them they walked. 60 or so from the pier so we could take bus to Orient beach , after sitting in bus for 10 or so minutes we discovered there was no working a/c in the bus and we couldn’t open windows, so about half of us on the first bus got off , celebrity refunded our money but another bad cruise sponsored excursion, apparently second bus was ok. 
there are two rccl ships just parked here at the dock without passengers.

That reminds me of my days when we did not have home air conditioning or even fans .On hot summer nights we slept on the roof of the apartment building we lived in.

[Coralc]

12 minutes ago, mets07 said:

Can not answer your question.

 

I mostly drink cabernet. 🍷

 

However, yes to the Blue Chair brand. Not a fan of coconut rum, but I like to drink the Kenny Chesney High Tide drink.  Blue Chair Banana rum (not the cream one), pineapple juice, Sprite.  

 

I will leave you all to the quavaberry.....

 

Cheers! 

Bill buys Blue Chair on the internet, because he is such a fan. 

 

Kenny Chesney has been rescheduled for July 12, 2022 in Lake Tahoe. 

 

[mets07]

1 minute ago, Coralc said:

Bill buys Blue Chair on the internet, because he is such a fan. 

 

Kenny Chesney has been rescheduled for July 12, 2022 in Lake Tahoe. 

 

Yay..... and our Nashville Kenny Chesney concert moved to May 2022. We may add one or two more of his closer to home....  ☘️

[h20skibum]

1 hour ago, BOATBOI said:

Are the massive amounts of carp still a thing? 

They are.  We will make a trip there sometime this summer to let our grandkids feed them.  They love to do that. 

[Coralc]

And one of the inherited cats is gone. We had to have Grey Kitty put to sleep yesterday. He only had one eye, because the other cat had whacked him years ago. In addition to the renal failure and hyperthyroidism that we had been treating with IV fluids and pills...he apparently went blind in his remaining eye on Friday evening. The vet said probably from the kidney disease or high blood pressure. It was very sad.  

[ReneeFLL]

3 hours ago, xpcdoojk said:

They had a hurricane recently, and much of what we remember is gone.  Haven’t been there since, hope to see it on December 15, 2021 on the Allure.

We won't be there till January. Hoping things are being rebuilt.

[h20skibum]

1 hour ago, Sunshine3601 said:

I bet those homes are selling for a pretty penny these days.    I don't know that I would like living on that street with the constant tourists driving through

I know the residents wanted to have it closed to traffic. 

[ReneeFLL]

22 minutes ago, Luckynana said:

While we visited Lombard Street around 10 years ago, we watched as a stretch limo got stuck there.  It took quite a long time for the limo to make it down.  They attracted quite a crowd, us included.

That must have been hysterical.

 

22 minutes ago, mets07 said:

Can not answer your question.

 

I mostly drink cabernet. 🍷

 

However, yes to the Blue Chair brand. Not a fan of coconut rum, but I like to drink the Kenny Chesney High Tide drink.  Blue Chair Banana rum (not the cream one), pineapple juice, Sprite.  

 

I will leave you all to the quavaberry.....

 

Cheers! 

You can taste them for free if you want to.

[FromSea2ShiningSea]

17 minutes ago, h20skibum said:

I know the residents wanted to have it closed to traffic. 

There was a proposal a couple years ago to charge a fee of up to $10 to drive down that section of the street to control the congestion.  It was getting crazy with so much traffic, littering and vandalism.  But the proposal did not go through.