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

[Coralc]

31 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

....Jewel(12 nights) gets over on 11th of June, fly to Barcelona,2 nights pre, plus 2 nights post cruise in Rome after Equinox(9 nights)

 

• • Day 1: Barcelona - Spain
  • Thu Jun 13 2024 | Depart 05:00 PM
• • Day 2: At Sea
  • Fri Jun 14 2024 |
• • Day 3: Provence(Marseille) - France
  • Sat Jun 15 2024 | 07:00 AM To 06:00 PM
• • Day 4: Nice (Villefranche) - France
  • Sun Jun 16 2024 | 08:00 AM To 07:00 PM
• • Day 5: Santa Margherita - Italy
  • Mon Jun 17 2024 | 08:00 AM To 06:00 PM
• • Day 6: Florence/Pisa(Livorno) - Italy
  • Tue Jun 18 2024 | Arrive 07:00 AM
• • Day 7: Florence/Pisa(Livorno) - Italy
  • Wed Jun 19 2024 | Depart 06:00 PM
• • Day 8: At Sea
  • Thu Jun 20 2024 |
• • Day 9: Naples - Italy
  • Fri Jun 21 2024 | 07:00 AM To 06:00 PM
• • Day 10: Rome (Civitavecchia) - Italy
  • Sat Jun 22 2024 | Arrive 05:30 AM

Since you have to fly all the way there, you might as well make the most of your time. It sounds like a fabulous trip! 

 

I never did get my big retirement trip. Stupid cvd. And then we spent the money on the houses. We are always fine with money, but that was all refunded and then spent. 

Edited August 28, 2023 by Coralc

[George C]

3 hours ago, Ocean Boy said:

I'm really sorry. My first cat, Lily, was more like a dog too. They are hard to find.😔

 

It’s so hard to lose your kitty , our Gracie passed last year her brother Joebob looked around for a couple of weeks to her hiding places wondering what happened. 

[Ozark_Kid]

Jewel is back in Amsterdam. 

 

[ReneeFLL]

We are live coming to you from Amsterdam. Sorry, but Helen, Marty, Mike and I are sitting in the theater for turn around. Will keep y'all updated. 😁

 

[taznremmy]

@jagsfan I'm so sorry to hear about Cooper.  Brought back memories of losing Mr. Kitty a couple of years ago.  Still miss that guy.

 

@mo&fran Thoughts and prayers that each day gets easier.

 

@dani negreanu I'm so sorry to hear of your cousins diagnosis.  Timing sucks!  Please try to enjoy your cruise.

 

 

.

[FromSea2ShiningSea]

Greetings from Amsterdam!  We’ve finished our British Isles portion of the cruise.  Getting ready for the Transarctic to NY.  I had intentions to post but have not had a chance because of either being out all day with tours and excursions or exhausted from them or not having internet.  We have a free moment now.
 

It is a beautiful day here in Amsterdam this morning.  

 

 

I get the gym all to myself.

 

Edited August 28, 2023 by FromSea2ShiningSea

[sgmn]

15 hours ago, Sunshine3601 said:

My neighbor that is selling her home, listed Thursday, has officially sold the home.     Traffic of prospective buyers has been crazy busy.    Definitely still a sellers market in our area.    She was getting exhausted with the non stop showings and told her Realtor to shut it down and tell everyone to make their best and final offers by 5 pm yesterday. 

She ended up accepting an offer for $45K over list price.    As she had so many people come through she has no clue who the buyer(s) are at this time.     We just hope it is a nice family and not someone that turns the home into a rental property.   

Overr here in the last 9-12 months it seems the opposite, a buyers market. Interest rates are high, something anyone under 35 hadn't seen before. My neighbour daughters have had their dad's house on the market for four months and have dropped it by £30,000 , then accepted an offer of another drop of £10,000. 

She told me yesterday that the buyers live abroad and will be renting it out 😧

It's a family home so hopefully it will be a nice family renting it out 

[sgmn]

12 hours ago, jagsfan said:

We’re having a sad week and weekend. 
our daughter’s cat, Cooper, had developed diabetes, and Lisa spent 4 weeks giving him a special diet twice a day and keeping him away from Jasmine’s (their black cat) food. She gave him insulin injections every day, but his sugar never went down, and he was losing weight. 
last Sunday Lisa took Cooper to the emergency vet because he was obviously in distress. They gave him an iv, and ran blood tests. 
Cooper was diagnosed with acromegaly, which causes insulin resistance and other problems. 
She picked him up Thursday to let him have one more day and night at home. 
He spent the entire time in her lap. 
Friday morning she took him back and sat with him till it was over. 
Lisa is devastated and we’re all horribly sad. 
Cooper was one of a kind, mellow but frisky at the same time. Cats are intelligent, but most of them, if they understand what you’re saying, they don’t let on. Cooper was more like a dog, responding to words like go for a ride (which always meant to the vet or kennel), came running when you called him, just a super cat. 
We’ll all miss him so much!

My granddaughter Hannah posted the first two photos on Facebook. I had never seen either of them. 
The third one Lisa took on Cooper’s last day at home. 
 

So sorry Mimi for you and your family. Its devastating when a much loved family pet dies. It leaves a real hole in the home 

[sgmn]

11 hours ago, dani negreanu said:

 

Why do u want to postpone this one? In those time, I wouldn't postpone anything....

 

We were supposed to cruise with my cousin and her DH this Saturday. I've mentioned last week that during a routine check-up, a "spot" was found in one of her lungs. Further tests negated TB, infection, funghi or spores. A lung CT assumes that 99% the "spot" is cancerous....

 

So, instead of cruising, my cousin will undergo an op (4-5 hours) to remove it, this Wednesday. Being in full penalty, we'll go on with the cruise, but our heart will not be in it.

 

 

Oh Dani, my heart breaks for you and your cousins family. Thank goodness its been spotted and hopefully she will make a full recovery and you can plan a holiday together next year . 

When I texted you yesterday I hadn't read this and had been wondering for a few days how things are .

Enjoy your holiday as best you can.  I'm sure your cousin will love to see all the amazing places you visit  especially as you plan another holiday together when she is better 

With love Sue

[sgmn]

11 hours ago, mo&fran said:

Thanks.  My chemo is about over, but still have a lot of Radiation to go.  It is getting a lot more difficult to swallow. We are basically one day at a time.

They will do a cat scan day after Labor day to measure the progress of the treatment.

 

Thinking of you and sending positive thoughts and good wishes for successful treatment 

[sgmn]

9 hours ago, grapau27 said:

We were on MSC Virtuoso from Southampton in April and the ship was very new and amazing.

Formula 1 simulators and Ten pin bowling.

Glad to hear a first hand report

 We're you in a normal cabin ? Everyone seems to say you have to be in the suite area, and as we can't afford that it's putting me off booking 

[sgmn]

9 hours ago, grapau27 said:

For my US friends.

Such a beautiful area. We've had a couple of land trips this year and it definitely has wetted my appetite to venture outside the normal West Country we do in the UK 

[grapau27]

11 minutes ago, sgmn said:

Glad to hear a first hand report

 We're you in a normal cabin ? Everyone seems to say you have to be in the suite area, and as we can't afford that it's putting me off booking 

We had an aft balcony.

I used our Princess Elite loyalty to Status match to their top loyalty which was Diamond a black card.

Our RCL D+ only qualified for their silver loyalty.

We got a free meal in their Butchers cut steakhouse.

Bottle of champagne and chocolates in our cabin.

09.30am cabin checkout.

The ship looked fantastic but we  were only on for 3 night's and didn't get all of the loyalty benefits.

Edited August 28, 2023 by grapau27

[sgmn]

Just now, grapau27 said:

We had an aft balcony.

I used our Princess Elite loyalty to Status match to their top loyalty.

It's a huge balcony. We have an aft one on Serenade next month. Our first aft cabin 

[grapau27]

6 minutes ago, sgmn said:

It's a huge balcony. We have an aft one on Serenade next month. Our first aft cabin 

We love aft balconies and had several now on different ships.

This picture is on P&O Britannia in June in the Fjords.

Edited August 28, 2023 by grapau27

[grapau27]

10 hours ago, Jimbo said:

What deck was your aft cabin on? If I remember right, you went to Norway  too didn't you?

Cabin 10418 on MSC Virtuoso.

We went to Cherbourg France and Portland UK in April.

In June we went to the Norwegian Fjords for 7 nights on P&O Britannia.

[Sunshine3601]

2 hours ago, sgmn said:

Overr here in the last 9-12 months it seems the opposite, a buyers market. Interest rates are high, something anyone under 35 hadn't seen before. My neighbour daughters have had their dad's house on the market for four months and have dropped it by £30,000 , then accepted an offer of another drop of £10,000. 

She told me yesterday that the buyers live abroad and will be renting it out 😧

It's a family home so hopefully it will be a nice family renting it out 

What are current interest rates for a home in your area?   

Last I heard our rates are around 7.50% and expect to be 8% by October for a standard 30 yr mortgage.

 

I bought a condo when I was 20 yrs old and The rate was 10%.  Eric's is 7 yrs older than me and his first home was 16%.

 

[Sunshine3601]

2 hours ago, sgmn said:

It's a huge balcony. We have an aft one on Serenade next month. Our first aft cabin 

I'm jealous, I love aft balconies, especially on this ship class.

We have one of those extended balconies on deck 7.   We love these too!  It comes with a full size table on the balcony so we can enjoy breakfast on our balcony.

[bobmacliberty]

1 hour ago, Sunshine3601 said:

What are current interest rates for a home in your area?   

Last I heard our rates are around 7.50% and expect to be 8% by October for a standard 30 yr mortgage.

 

I bought a condo when I was 20 yrs old and The rate was 10%.  Eric's is 7 yrs older than me and his first home was 16%.

 

 

Our daughter is buying a house right now.  The best that she could get was 30 years at 7.125%.  That's a new buyer rate.  At least the mortgage company covers some of the closing costs.  She's hoping that rates will drop in a couple of years and she can re-mortgage.  I remember that we started at around 6% (30 years) in 1992 and switch to around 2% (15 year) after 4 or 5 years.  Our monthly cost dropped a bit and it was so nice being mortgage free after 15 years.

[Arzeena]

13 hours ago, Jimbo said:

The Jewel / Equinox combo ................ thinking of Cancel 2024 to 2025

I missed reading about that combo too.

The Equinox has change of itineraries and will be sailing from starting PC end of 2024. Was your cruise during that time?

[Jimbo]

31 minutes ago, Arzeena said:

I missed reading about that combo too.

The Equinox has change of itineraries and will be sailing from starting PC end of 2024. Was your cruise during that time?

  This is what we have now, would like to postpone it though to something like below to 2025 dates.

 

Jewel  May30th -June 11th  2024     12  nights

Equinox is before she moves to PC  June 13th -June 22nd  2024   9 nights

 

 

Edited August 28, 2023 by Jimbo

[Keksie]

@jagsfani am so sorry to hear that Cooper has passed.  My heart goes out to your family.

 

@mo&fran

You have a large cheering section sending positive thoughts for good test results.

 

@dani negreanuTry to enjoy your trip.  Your cousin is in good hands and  can be treated.  When you return you can share stories and pictures and plan the next trip with her.

[MJSailors]

2 hours ago, Sunshine3601 said:

What are current interest rates for a home in your area?   

Last I heard our rates are around 7.50% and expect to be 8% by October for a standard 30 yr mortgage.

 

I bought a condo when I was 20 yrs old and The rate was 10%.  Eric's is 7 yrs older than me and his first home was 16%.

 

On the flip side of the interest rates- when mortgage rates were at 16%- investment rates were high also.

People holding bank CDs and Treasury notes or bonds did well.

In the past few years, investment rates have been dismal-under 1% in some cases.

We just renewed a 12 month CD and are getting 5.50% APY.

All part of the financial equation.

MJ🙋🏻‍♀️

[MJSailors]

@mo&fran Hoping today is a good day and that you continue to have good days.

@dani negreanu Hoping your cousin has a full recovery and that you can plan a future vacation together soon.

The video of your grandson is adorable!

Wishing everyone on this thread a pleasant day!

MJ🙋🏻‍♀️

[Ocean Boy]

16 minutes ago, MJSailors said:

On the flip side of the interest rates- when mortgage rates were at 16%- investment rates were high also.

People holding bank CDs and Treasury notes or bonds did well.

In the past few years, investment rates have been dismal-under 1% in some cases.

We just renewed a 12 month CD and are getting 5.50% APY.

All part of the financial equation.

MJ🙋🏻‍♀️

I agree. Times are not so bad for people who know how to control their spending and not live off of credit. At least now one can park some money risk free in a bank and get some return on it.

 

I can't remember the last numbers I heard but credit card debt is astronomical in the U.S. A lot of people don't like to deny themselves anything regardless of their inability to pay for those things.