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

[Arzeena]

22 minutes ago, Ozark_Kid said:

I was sent this pic today.   I don't know why they thought of me when they saw it. 

😁John you are the DAD of dad jokes.

I am very happy to read them! You make me smile. Thank you.

[sgmn]

5 hours ago, NHProud said:

 I wish I were there . The closest I’ve gotten is a tee shirt a friend gifted to me when she visited. I do have the tradition of serving strawberries and cream on the finals weekend. 

Gary's cousin and wife live close by and you can get 'returns' at a fraction of the cost after 5pm. Returns are tickets which have been handed back by people leaving early, corporate guests etc.   Money goes to charity. Otherwise you have to apply for tickets in a draw, months in advance.  My sister in law  applies to be in the draw each year but has only 'won' tickets a couple of times.

Currently watching the Djokovic/Popyrin match.

Notice for the first time there's some discreet advertising sponsorship from my old company Emirates, around the centre court. 

[sgmn]

7 hours ago, Ocean Boy said:

My longest are 8 nighters. Maybe longer ones will seem more appealing when I don't have so many obligations at home. However, at this point after a week away I still look forward to getting home and going back to work.

 

I also don't have a ton of self control while on a cruise. After a week of non typical eating and drinking, as well as not getting to the gym, I just don't feel that good.🤷‍♂️

I always take my gym clothes on cruise but don't always go.  I do try not to overeat but as I definitely eat more than at home I always put weight on.  Most of it goes quickly,  it's just those last few stubborn pounds that are difficult to shift. 

Though from the looks of your feet (all I've seen of you😉) you don't look like you have a weight problem.

 

I don't know how the World Cruisers have coped with all that food and drink for so long

Edited July 6 by sgmn

[NHProud]

30 minutes ago, sgmn said:

Gary's cousin and wife live close by and you can get 'returns' at a fraction of the cost after 5pm. Returns are tickets which have been handed back by people leaving early, corporate guests etc.   Money goes to charity. Otherwise you have to apply for tickets in a draw, months in advance.  My sister in law  applies to be in the draw each year but has only 'won' tickets a couple of times.

Currently watching the Djokovic/Popyrin match.

Notice for the first time there's some discreet advertising sponsorship from my old company Emirates, around the centre court. 

Discreet is right . How did that happen ? Rolex is probably the only product on display and that is the clock .  The Joker won at 37 yrs .  
 

Who will be in the Royal box for the finals? 

[harryfat1]

3 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

I like Jetblue. They claim to have the most amount of leg room of any coach seats amongst US carriers.

 

There's a web site called seatguru that you can check the seats of your flight as to the leg space and seat location as being good or bad.

 

Jetblue has TV screens on the flight if you care to watch that versus your own electronic devices but bring your own wired earbuds as it's not Bluetooth.

 

As I reported yesterday, you have free wifi for most of the flight (some dead zones) so you can keep yourself busy during the flight. 

 

I typically dread these cross country flights associated with cruising out of Florida, but yesterday's 6 plus hour flight went by really fast with free wifi.

It's weird quoting myself but just wanted to add one more comment about Jetblue or traveling credit card in general.

 

I git a Jetblue credit card last Fall when I knew I would be flying with them for the December in Florida.  They had a 75k points welcome promotion in getting the credit card. So I booked my flights and other travel stuff on that card (6X points for evert Jetblue airfare purchase).

 

That got me 90k points in total which I cashed in to fly the family of 4 to NYC one way (22k points one way/pp for our flights or 88k total). 

 

On top of that, by having the credit card, you get free check in luggage for yourself and 3 traveling companions. So at $99 annual fee, it's a great deal in getting free check in luggage and points for future flights.

 

Now that we are done with the trip, time to plan for the trip after the next trip. Meaning our final payment for the December cruise is due in September.  If I get another new credit card on a different airline or Chase points, those points will be used to fly us to Europe next summer. So it's kinda like leap frog system where you plan for the next next cruise as all these cards have minimum purchases (say $4k in first 3 months). 

 

So if I get the new card by end of August, pay for the cruise in September (sadly will be way over $4k for 4 of us), that will get me like another 75k+ points to fly on some European airline to help with the cost to fly to Europe next summer.

 

Did I mentioned that I'm cheap?

[Ocean Boy]

30 minutes ago, sgmn said:

I always take my gym clothes on cruise but don't always go.  I do try not to overeat but as I definitely eat more than at home I always put weight on.  Most of it goes quickly,  it's just those last few stubborn pounds that are difficult to shift. 

Though from the looks of your feet (all I've seen of you😉) you don't look like you have a weight problem.

 

I don't know how the World Cruisers have coped with all that food and drink for so long

No I don't have a weight problem but also don't want to find one. I have no idea what I would feel like at the end of a world cruise.

[SteelCityCruiser10]

7 hours ago, Ocean Boy said:

My longest are 8 nighters. Maybe longer ones will seem more appealing when I don't have so many obligations at home. However, at this point after a week away I still look forward to getting home and going back to work.

 

I also don't have a ton of self control while on a cruise. After a week of non typical eating and drinking, as well as not getting to the gym, I just don't feel that good.🤷‍♂️

Our longest was a 9 night.  S. Caribbean on Jewel.  Loved that cruise.  For me it’s the dog(s) along with work that keeps that under 10 nights.

[Tree_skier]

41 minutes ago, sgmn said:

I always take my gym clothes on cruise but don't always go.  I do try not to overeat but as I definitely eat more than at home I always put weight on.  Most of it goes quickly,  it's just those last few stubborn pounds that are difficult to shift. 

Though from the looks of your feet (all I've seen of you😉) you don't look like you have a weight problem.

 

I don't know how the World Cruisers have coped with all that food and drink for so long

Every cruise I say I’m gonna be in the gym every day. Every cruise I’ve lied to myself. Best case scenario I walk past the gym and look inside.

[SteelCityCruiser10]

4 hours ago, Tree_skier said:

There’s been a bit of tourist talk about NYC on the thread lately thanks to @harryfat1. Sadly I had to cancel my Liberty Canada NE cruise in Sept.  Friends we were going with had a problem and couldn’t fly however they still wanted to cruise so we’re doing Navigator a week earlier with them.  I was really sad to miss that. I was really looking forward to a few days in NYC pre cruise. Several of you gave trip ideas to make the trip great. Thank you for that… it wasn’t a waste. I “accidentally” booked a Canada NE cruise for 2025. 

 

5 hours ago, Tree_skier said:

Here’s a short YouTube from yesterday as well. 
 

 

 

@Tree_skier This place looks pretty amazing 🤩 

 

 

 

We seem to have a real problem on our hands with all these cruises accidentally getting booked in our names.  Luckily we have some really brave  cruisers on this thread who are willing to bite the bullet and go on them!!  I blame royals IT dept for my accidental booking.  😇

 

 

[DaniDanielle]

Ok, this puppy decided she is going to pee on my rug. Suggestions?

[h20skibum]

Speaking of credit cards, anyone have any recommendations for a generous cash back perk?
 

I have a Royal Caribbean branded, no fee card that I only use for Royal cruises, and cash in the points for OBC.   I have a Princess branded, no fee card that I use the same as the Royal card.   We have a PayPal, no fee card that we use for most other things, because it has a generous cash back to use on anything.  Unfortunately, they are reducing cash back to 1.5% next month, so it is time to look for something better.

 

Anyone have a good recommendation?

[Sea Dog]

4 hours ago, Ocean Boy said:

That is is probably the case. However, when you have not met someone personally all you can go by is the character they portray. I guess that is the sign of a good actor. They can elicit a response be it positive or negative.

His character as a retired cop in the Christmas movie even has a little bit of a New York slash Fonzie confidence and arrogance but he was the most down to earth nicest guy I ever met from Hollywood.

 

My liking him also helps that he is a big KC Chiefs football fan. He kinda adopted the team as his favorite and has gotten to know Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelcie real well.

[ReneeFLL]

On 7/2/2024 at 1:46 PM, Ocean Boy said:

Are you all recovered now?

For the most part. No pain when walking and healing went better than I expected. I am having pain in my groin area when I do certain exercises such as moving my leg outward to the side. I think it started right after the surgery. I was taking pain pills, but that was usually just before PT and I would feel the groin pain in between. (I can now trash the ones from 2017 that I mentioned since I now have new extra ones. 😁) Since it has continued I will be seeing the dr on Monday and they can see what shows up on the x-rays. It’s been about 11.5 weeks so I’m very happy with the outcome.

 

[Sunshine3601]

7 hours ago, MJSailors said:

Over the July 4th holiday, my DH and I attended the wake and funeral of a dear friend.

She and her husband were dedicated Royal Caribbean cruisers since their first cruise in 1997.

At her wake, there were many photos displayed of them enjoying the cruises, usually with a group of close friends.

At the funeral Mass, the priest noted in his eulogy , her love of travel and cruising and her enjoyment of doing Karaoke on the various ships.

Our friend was full of life-she enjoyed her time spent with her family and friends, encouraging all of us to celebrate small moments and big events.

Unfortunately, she developed pulmonary fibrosis which led to her having a lung transplant almost two years ago.

As with everything in her life, she took on the surgery and recuperation with courage and hope.

She and her DH took a cruise this past April. She did say that some of their activities were scaled down from their usual cruise days, but she enjoyed the time on the ship. I think it was the Anthem of the Seas out of Bayonne. She and her DH booked another cruise for2025 while in the ship.

A few weeks later, she was hospitalized with pneumonia and left us at the end of May.

She left us all with the inspiration to never give up,always have hope and courageously face challenges.

Her lively spirit and love of life touched us all. 
She will be greatly missed, but we know that her pain has been relieved and she is at peace.

MJ🙋🏻‍♀️

Sorry for the loss your good friend.   May she RIP🙏

[ReneeFLL]

On 7/2/2024 at 1:44 PM, dani negreanu said:

 

Thanks, Maryann.

 

Truth to be told, I'm barely hanging in there. I have a recurrent nightmare of finding myself buried alive under our building rubble after a missile attack.

 

I think that if a war starts in the north, this will be the first time I'll be trying to run for our lives, assuming there will be flights, either to our son in Holland (our in laws are thinking along those lines too, so it might be a bit crowded...) or to my cousin in Germany...😢😢

 

Dani, I’m so sorry you, your family and so many others are having to live like this. I think of you often. Hoping things get resolved soon.

[derorim]

9 minutes ago, ReneeFLL said:

For the most part. No pain when walking and healing went better than I expected. I am having pain in my groin area when I do certain exercises such as moving my leg outward to the side. I think it started right after the surgery. I was taking pain pills, but that was usually just before PT and I would feel the groin pain in between. (I can now trash the ones from 2017 that I mentioned since I now have new extra ones. 😁) Since it has continued I will be seeing the dr on Monday and they can see what shows up on the x-rays. It’s been about 11.5 weeks so I’m very happy with the outcome.

 

I had to search back to see that you mentioned you had TKR surgery.  I'm considering the same.  My concern is timing between trips we have planned.  In your situation, is 12 weeks enough time to get recovered sufficiently to cruise?  I know everyone's experience is different so I can't bank on yours, but I thought I'd ask.  Anyone else is welcome to chime in (@Sea Dog).

[Coralc]

32 minutes ago, DaniDanielle said:

Ok, this puppy decided she is going to pee on my rug. Suggestions?

You can use pee pads temporarily. Are you going to train her to go potty outside? Clean the area with white vinegar. 

If you are training her, take her outside after she drinks water (or eats). Praise her and give her a treat when she does her business. 

[DaniDanielle]

Her first night she was so good, tried to trick us😳She went outside and did her business.  At least no poop inside yet! Thanks for the advice

[ReneeFLL]

On 7/2/2024 at 5:09 PM, FromSea2ShiningSea said:

I feel guilty posting about my trip going to the Arctic Circle to Norway on the Jewel in the midst of what Dani is going through.

 

@dani negreanu big hug and prayer for you.

Doesn’t that start tomorrow? Wished we could go, but the B2B in August is better for Mike getting the time off.

[ReneeFLL]

On 7/2/2024 at 5:14 PM, George C said:

All our posts seem insignificant compared to Dani’s , hopefully things will get resolved.

That’s how I felt about my knee surgery so I never posted about it. Only 2 CC people knew about it. I absolutely cannot imagine what she is going thru. Just horrible. It hurts my heart to know what’s going on over there.

[Ocean Boy]

1 hour ago, Tree_skier said:

Every cruise I say I’m gonna be in the gym every day. Every cruise I’ve lied to myself. Best case scenario I walk past the gym and look inside.

The major reason I don't go to the gym on the ship is I don't want to produce a bunch of sweaty clothes.

[Ocean Boy]

1 hour ago, DaniDanielle said:

Ok, this puppy decided she is going to pee on my rug. Suggestions?

Be patient!

[DaniDanielle]

Ok will try!

[Ocean Boy]

3 minutes ago, DaniDanielle said:

Ok will try!

Our house is all hardwood and tile. Only the room that goes over the garage is carpeted so that the floor will be warmer. The only place my dog ever had her "accidents" would be on the carpet. The only place the cat throws up is on the carpet. It is as if they know that tile and hardwood is easier to clean up.🙄

[ReneeFLL]

On 7/2/2024 at 6:20 PM, Husky1987 said:

14 long months later, finally in the process of moving back home. 
 

Reading this thread makes me doubly appreciative of how lucky we were/are, and that in the great scheme of things, having to live a few blocks away for a year isn’t so bad.

 

House looks really nice.

 

On 7/2/2024 at 2:26 PM, Ozark_Kid said:

I bet they would have fun!  They loved Disney.   They like Lakeside Ohio too.  Maybe someday they all go to Cedar Point together!

Here's a pic of them from Father's day.   Finnley is about Kenzie's size!  Finnley is 22 months, Kenzie 23 months older!  Crazy

 

Beautiful family. 

 

On 7/2/2024 at 7:18 PM, Ocean Boy said:

Just a beautiful evening here in Southern RI. It would be even better if @Sea Dogshowed up with a pitcher of anything.

 

 

Looks beautiful.