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

[ValerieJo]

1 minute ago, h20skibum said:

 

I had to look up that drug, after reading about it here.   Yikes, almost 20k a year for it when I put it in the Medicare search for a drug plan. 

 

It's so sad that it's extremely expensive.  I've had very good luck with it and I feel it's almost a miracle drug.  Hopefully, it will be covered soon.   Luckily my insurance covers it.  I pay $25 a month.  However, when Doug retires and I have to switch to Medicare, I'll probably have to stop taking it. 😞

 

[Sea Dog]

30 minutes ago, George C said:

I don’t believe Harmony has playmakers but pub should have it , most likely it will be on tv in our grand suite which has a nice tv . 

The more I think about it you are right. It was Sabor on Harmony in the space where there is usually a Playmakers.

[George C]

1 minute ago, Sea Dog said:

The more I think about it you are right. It was Sabor on Harmony in the space where there is usually a Playmakers.

Harmony will be our third oasis class other two was oasis and allure and none had playmakers, at least none when we sailed them. 

[DaniDanielle]

45 minutes ago, Luckynana said:

Good on Owen and his team!  Congratulations on a game well played!!!!

+1

[helen haywood]

@Ozark_Kid Thank you so much for the video!!!  I was not following the correct steps.  This is the file I created using the cut and paste method.  So I see they are JPEG. But, as you can see, when I selected the one in the left it resulted in my usual black square.  Maybe the white circle on the picture means something…. Anyway, I’m not going to try anymore until after the holidays.  Thanks ever so much for your help!

 

Edited November 21, 2023 by helen haywood

[grapau27]

31 minutes ago, George C said:

Harmony will be our third oasis class other two was oasis and allure and none had playmakers, at least none when we sailed them. 

We were on Oasis in February 2023 out of Miami and there was a Playmakers on the boardwalk.

[brillohead]

23 hours ago, bobmacliberty said:

We've barely touched the outside other than pressure washing the sidewalks and continually battling leaves from 2 large oak trees.  It seems like it's taking 3 weeks to drop all of the leaves. 

 

Oaks are notoriously slow droppers.... we still get them in January! 

Landlord just mows them every week -- way too many trees and way too much area to rake, and they're good for the soil if you just mulch them up and let them compost themselves.  

 

Even worse than the leaves, though, is "acorn season" -- sounds like a hailstorm 24/7 for a few weeks, and you have to run from car to door and vice versa to avoid getting pelted by the little bombs!

[brillohead]

22 hours ago, akcruz said:

For all the Bucees lovers, seems about right

 

 

This is SOOOOOOO accurate!!! 

 

[Luckynana]

13 hours ago, Coralc said:

Colon is kind of icky/sketchy. There are tall buildings like most cities, but a lot of the windows are broken out. I read that Carnival had people in orange vests, warning people out of some of areas of the city. When we were there with Royal, we were just advised not to leave the port area. It might be better to take an excursion if you do get off. The Cristobal Terminal Area was large and secured, with a lot of vendors and bars, so we didn't need to venture out. 

I had read that there are demonstrations going on all around Colon and that cruisers should just stay onboard.

12 hours ago, patattack said:

I did a tour with Dora in October.  YES it is hot there.  I was thankful I had a couple tissues in my pocket to wipe the sweat.  Our guide was her Niece and she was very nice and we enjoyed the tour.  I do wish I had brought my portable fan that goes around my neck.

I'm hoping to find a light sundress or something along those lines to wear.  If not, definitely something white!

[Luckynana]

20 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

We were on Oasis in February 2023 out of Miami and there was a Playmakers on the boardwalk.

They couldn't make my Kraken Colada there.🤨  I settled for a Vodka and Tonic.

[Luckynana]

20 minutes ago, brillohead said:

 

Even worse than the leaves, though, is "acorn season" -- sounds like a hailstorm 24/7 for a few weeks, and you have to run from car to door and vice versa to avoid getting pelted by the little bombs!

Oh, the never-ending acorns!  Nonstop for months now!  The basketball court in the backyard has been cleared too many times so far.  Did I mention it is completely covered again?  and with the leaves as protection, covering them all.

[Luckynana]

Okay, my breaks over!   Time to get up and start baking my oatmeal cookies.  

[George C]

29 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

We were on Oasis in February 2023 out of Miami and there was a Playmakers on the boardwalk.

I thought I read that oasis added playmakers, I sailed her in 2018, my harmony cruise will be my 20th rccl cruise. 

[lenquixote66]

My granddog who had a successful cancer surgery last Tuesday has another malignant tumor.My daughter and her were told this last night.

[grapau27]

1 minute ago, lenquixote66 said:

My granddog who had a successful cancer surgery last Tuesday has another malignant tumor.My daughter and her were told this last night.

I'm so sorry Lenny.

Prayers 🙏 for another successful surgery.

[grapau27]

[brillohead]

20 hours ago, ValerieJo said:

@brillohead  Debbie, have you thought about looking into some of the new drugs that are on the market for weight loss?   I've been able to drop about 40lbs in about 6 months.  Still a long way to go, but I feel like I've gotten a jump start.

 

17 hours ago, Ocean Boy said:

The meds are pretty expensive and many insurance companies won't cover them if the patient doesn't carry a diagnosis of diabetes.

 

16 hours ago, Keksie said:

Hopefully with the research showing other benefits of the drugs and more drugs being approved for weight loss like Wegovy the insurance companies will cover more.  That is what I am hoping for anyway.

 

1 hour ago, ValerieJo said:

It's so sad that it's extremely expensive.  I've had very good luck with it and I feel it's almost a miracle drug.  Hopefully, it will be covered soon.   Luckily my insurance covers it.  I pay $25 a month.  However, when Doug retires and I have to switch to Medicare, I'll probably have to stop taking it. 😞

 

 

I actually just started Wegovy (Ozempic) a couple weeks ago -- it took over three months from getting the prescription written by my PCP to receiving my first dose because of availability issues.  My hospital (employer) doesn't cover it under their insurance, but our "specialties" pharmacist was able to use a federal program called 340B to get it for me at a reduced rate.  It "only" costs me $176 per four-week supply through the program. 

I'm not having any side effects at all, so I'm planning on expediting my dose escalation schedule, going up a dose every three weeks instead of every four weeks (provided, of course, that I don't have any side effects with this method - if I do, I'll just go back to every four weeks).  By only using three of the injections out of every four-pack, that makes my per-week price go from ~$45 to ~$60 per week, but it's still worth the cost to me if it works like it should.

 

 

 

 

 

I know some European countries have put a restriction on new prescriptions for weight-loss purposes for the next several months, in order to make sure that there is enough medication available for diabetics.  

Now that Mounjaro has also received its "official" FDA approval to be used for weight loss, I'm hoping that the price of Wegovy will drop a little -- supply and demand work for medications like they do for cruise ship fares!  Since Mounjaro is supposed to be even more effective than Wegovy, I foresee a lot of people "jumping ship" to Mounjaro now. 

Even more exciting are some of the drugs that are in the pipeline for future approval (still finishing clinical trials), including a once-a-day pill -- much more convenient than having to refrigerate once-a-week injections, so that will be a big draw for some patients.  And the more competition there is among the different types of drugs, the lower prices will drop for the consumer!



 

[lenquixote66]

12 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

I'm so sorry Lenny.

Prayers 🙏 for another successful surgery.

Thanks,Graham.

[brillohead]

19 minutes ago, Luckynana said:

Okay, my breaks over!   Time to get up and start baking my oatmeal cookies.  

 

With or without raisins for @A&L_Ont?  😂

[h20skibum]

48 minutes ago, brillohead said:

 

Oaks are notoriously slow droppers.... we still get them in January! 

Landlord just mows them every week -- way too many trees and way too much area to rake, and they're good for the soil if you just mulch them up and let them compost themselves.  

 

Even worse than the leaves, though, is "acorn season" -- sounds like a hailstorm 24/7 for a few weeks, and you have to run from car to door and vice versa to avoid getting pelted by the little bombs!

 

25 minutes ago, Luckynana said:

Oh, the never-ending acorns!  Nonstop for months now!  The basketball court in the backyard has been cleared too many times so far.  Did I mention it is completely covered again?  and with the leaves as protection, covering them all.

Oh, tell me about acorn season.  We have so many species of oak, that they they produce the majority of their crop every three years.  Of course, that schedule means some are dropping a bunch every year.  This year, I collected about 600 gallon of them.  They are for good luck, you know.

 

Our red oaks will hold on to a lot of their leaves until spring.  That way, we get to do leaf cleanup in the spring too.

 

[Arzeena]

6 hours ago, h20skibum said:

 

 

That is why I was up at midnight, last night.   To get that early check in time.  Since we are parking at the port for our December and January cruises, I want to be there early.

 

Speaking of the January cruise, we have so many hotel rooms booked for various trips, I asked Susan if she had the one booked at Port Canaveral.  Nope, she booked a couple rooms for August cruise, but not for January.  So, had to book one yesterday.

Hotels are asking for your first birn in January, especially in Fort Lauderdale area, last week of Jan. I don't know about PC hotel prices, since we live about 1 hr 15 minutes ish. This cruise, the Ascent is in Port two days doing its inaugural so parking garages were quite occupied (more than we have ever found before) but we did find parking inside the T25 garage and there were plenty spots on our level and other floors. I simply observed that it was quite "filled" than before.

[Luckynana]

1 hour ago, brillohead said:

 

With or without raisins for @A&L_Ont?  😂

Oh crap!  I forgot to put raisins in for Jim!  I usually make at least a dozen with raisins for him.  I just took the last of the cookies out of the oven.  All done!

[Luckynana]

1 hour ago, h20skibum said:

 

Oh, tell me about acorn season.  We have so many species of oak, that they they produce the majority of their crop every three years.  Of course, that schedule means some are dropping a bunch every year.  This year, I collected about 600 gallon of them.  They are for good luck, you know.

 

Our red oaks will hold on to a lot of their leaves until spring.  That way, we get to do leaf cleanup in the spring too.

 

I didn't know that acorns are for good luck.  We must've missed that here, since we need the new roof and just had the heating and AC all newly installed...lol!

[A&L_Ont]

2 hours ago, brillohead said:

 

With or without raisins for @A&L_Ont?  😂

😂

 

5 minutes ago, Luckynana said:

Oh crap!  I forgot to put raisins in for Jim!  I usually make at least a dozen with raisins for him.  I just took the last of the cookies out of the oven.  All done!

The first words from his mouth will be, these have never tasted so good. What’s changed. 

[Luckynana]

9 minutes ago, A&L_Ont said:

The first words from his mouth will be, these have never tasted so good. What’s changed. 

Too funny, Andrew!  I was just apologizing to Jim, and he said "well, now I won't be washing the bowl and cookie sheets for you!"!😁  He's my clean-up guy.