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

[Ozark_Kid]

21 minutes ago, bobmacliberty said:

I've been off CC for a few days while we visited Key West.  I tried posting once but had problems posting from my phone and just decided to wait until getting home.  I'm now caught up with this thread.  I'll make a few posts about Key West...sort of like a mini review...but have a few other things to get done first.  I'll just summarize by saying happy that we went, had a good time, may or may not go again (one and done?), absolutely will NEVER drive there again.

Welcome back!  Thankful you had a safe trip.  Looking for to the Key West summary.

[Sunshine3601]

6 hours ago, Arzeena said:

We are going on the Anthem Thanksgiving cruise on Sunday.

Did the test via E Med proctor. Tested negative. Now to pack!

Wonderful.   Have a Great time.  😍   Every year I say I am going to cruise for Thanksgiving so I don't have to cook but then I love to cook and don't end up booking as the rest of the family relies on me to cook or they would starve 🤣

[HBE4]

36 minutes ago, bobmacliberty said:

I've been off CC for a few days while we visited Key West.  I tried posting once but had problems posting from my phone and just decided to wait until getting home.  I'm now caught up with this thread.  I'll make a few posts about Key West...sort of like a mini review...but have a few other things to get done first.  I'll just summarize by saying happy that we went, had a good time, may or may not go again (one and done?), absolutely will NEVER drive there again.

 

Looking forward to your review. Driving down the keys to Key West is on my bucket list so I'll be interested in your driving experience.

[Sunshine3601]

5 hours ago, reallyitsmema said:

Has anyone tried Amazon Key for their Prime deliveries?  We just had our new garage door opener installed yesterday and it has the My Q app that will allow us to have deliveries put in the garage with a one time code that the Amazon driver would get to open the door.  Not sure what I think about trying this but don't like packages hanging around outside as their are too many port pirates.  Would love to hear anyone's positive and negative experiences using Amazon Key. 

I heard of this but not sure I would feel comfortable with letting a stranger into our garage as we keep a lot of expensive tools, freezer full of meats, etc. in the garage.     Whatever I am buying from amazon isn't worth the risk of what they could steal.

Edited November 19, 2021 by Sunshine3601

[Sea Dog]

44 minutes ago, bobmacliberty said:

I've been off CC for a few days while we visited Key West.  I tried posting once but had problems posting from my phone and just decided to wait until getting home.  I'm now caught up with this thread.  I'll make a few posts about Key West...sort of like a mini review...but have a few other things to get done first.  I'll just summarize by saying happy that we went, had a good time, may or may not go again (one and done?), absolutely will NEVER drive there again.

 

I'm so far out of the loop I had no idea you were gone. I would like to visit Key West as I've never been there. Looking forward to your mini review.

[Sunshine3601]

4 hours ago, Ozark_Kid said:

We have a neighbor a couple houses down who keeps an eye out.  Last week a box was delivered to a house between us.  They were gone for the week so he decided it would be best to push the box out of sight on the porch.  As he was doing it he noticed the box was delivered to the wrong house.  It was something Sharon ordered!  He is a great neighbor.  We let him know when we will be out of town.  He has even watered my garden without me asking at times we have been gone and it hasn’t rained.

That's a great neighbor.    All my neighbors but 1 are very nice and considerate.     

the 1 who is nasty is an elderly member of the Genovese crime family.    His brother has been serving life sentence in San Quentin as he was a hit man.     I was personally told by Township manager to avoid speaking with him or his wife since he made personal threats to us a couple years ago.   No one says even Hi to them anymore.    

[Coralc]

47 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

 

Thanks Maryann looking forward to meeting you and Jim.

 

 

Patti did you see where they cancelled our cruise on Jewell to Tortola? I am bummed but switched over to the Bella cruise.

Yes Greg. Thank you for posting the cancellation information from Ken. Royal Caribbean has not notified us directly of the cancellation. I'm not sure what we will do instead.  We are also very disappointed.

[Sunshine3601]

1 hour ago, lenquixote66 said:

I have had free health insurance since 1972,medical,hospitalization,dental,drugs,ambulance with no co pays.

You are very luck there.     We pay about $350 for the platinum plan thru our employer and that is considered to be very reasonable from what I hear other friends and family pay per month.     

[bobmacliberty]

30 minutes ago, OnTheJourney said:

How come? Did you go across the Keys?   Doing so was one of my favorite road trips. 

 

Driving across the Keys was OK, but very slow.  Weather was overcast heading to Key West and raining coming back, so the views weren't great.  The total trip however also included driving from Amelia Island to the bottom of the state and back.  Have I ever mentioned here how much I dislike I-95?  This is especially true in southern Florida.  We didn't need a car while there and paid $20 a day for parking.  Put that all together and if we go back, we'll either fly or take the ferry.

[Sunshine3601]

Took Eric to get a tooth pulled this morning.    It was a molar towards the front right side that had a filling then filling came out and tooth was cracked and unrepairable.       We are both working from home today which is good because it has been crazy busy at the office all week.     

Eric is doing well.    

[mo&fran]

We hardly ever use I95. Trips to the seaport or airport, we use a car service.

[Sea Dog]

32 minutes ago, Coralc said:

Yes Greg. Thank you for posting the cancellation information from Ken. Royal Caribbean has not notified us directly of the cancellation. I'm not sure what we will do instead.  We are also very disappointed.

 

Yes I am disappointed too but I will get there one way or another. I switched to the Bella Cruise. Why don't you join us? Talk to Ken.

 

25 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Took Eric to get a tooth pulled this morning.    It was a molar towards the front right side that had a filling then filling came out and tooth was cracked and unrepairable.       We are both working from home today which is good because it has been crazy busy at the office all week.     

Eric is doing well.    

 

Getting a tooth pulled is no fun. I'm glad he's doing ok.

 

 

[bobmacliberty]

Quick summary of our Key West trip before I go into more detail.  We left last Sunday morning.  We took our time driving from Amelia Island to the Key Largo Bay Marriott Beach resort.  We stayed there 1 night and then headed to Key West on Monday morning.  We stayed 3 nights in Key West at the Orchid Key Inn on Duval Street.  We checked out and drove Thursday morning from Key West to the Miami airport for our Global Entry interview, then drove another 2 hours to a Hampton Inn in Port St. Lucie.  We stayed there last night and made the remaining 4 hour drive home today.

 

Driving down, we stopped after a couple of hours at the Daytona Beach Buc-ee's.  This was our first Buc-ee's experience.  I think Buc-ee's are just a southern thing so for those not familiar, it's a massive gas station/restaurant/grocery/home goods/clothing store.  If I counted correctly, there are 104 gas pumps (with cars waiting) and the men's room had 14 urinals/12 stalls (I think...didn't want to stare and point while trying to count).  We bought some of their famous beef jerky and chocolate covered almonds to go with a couple of cups of coffee.  The jerky was delicious.

 

This must be Buc-ee (the beaver?):

 

 

We planned to drive away from I-95 and head out to one of the little beach towns along the coast for lunch, but decided that would add too much time to the trip and ended up grabbing a quick lunch at a McDonald's somewhere (can't even remember where).  Since it was Sunday, we were able to listen to the Bills win on Satellite radio.  Listening to football is a great way to make time go by in a car.  Our GPS eventually told us to take the Florida Turnpike which initially seemed like a big mistake as we went from 3 fairly open lanes on I-95 to 2 crowded lanes on the Turnpike.  That eventually cleared up and looking at how crowded I-95 became (according to Google Maps), the Turnpike was the right call.  I purchased a SunPass which allowed Florida to take money from me at very high speeds.

 

We made it to the Key Largo Marriott right around 5pm.  You can tell that it's a little on the older side but still in good shape.  It would seem like a nice place to spend more than just a night, especially if the weather were good.  There's a beach area, a restaurant, an on-site place to take boat/jet ski tours, and a nice pool area.  We ate dinner at The Fish House in Key Largo, which a lot of people recommend as a "must do" place when driving the Keys.  We were not disappointed.  I had the Mahi Mahi Black and Bleu (really delicious if you like the taste of blue cheese, which I do) and Micheline has the Hogfish Matecumbe, which she loved.  We originally planned to have a drink at the Caribbean Club about .5 miles from the hotel with live music, but we were tired and settled for a drink in the hotel tiki bar.  

 

[George C]

58 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

That's a great neighbor.    All my neighbors but 1 are very nice and considerate.     

the 1 who is nasty is an elderly member of the Genovese crime family.    His brother has been serving life sentence in San Quentin as he was a hit man.     I was personally told by Township manager to avoid speaking with him or his wife since he made personal threats to us a couple years ago.   No one says even Hi to them anymore.    

Some 50 years ago I hung out in a mafia owned bar , I was told the fbi took pictures of everyone who went in on opening day, my buddy was a bartender, about a decade later owner was found shot in a apartment building in queens , police reported he had several hundreds of dollars on him, also a gun and some expensive jewelry, it made all the major papers. I once played in a card game that lasted a couple of days in there back room. ( I only lasted a few hours)

[Keksie]

23 minutes ago, bobmacliberty said:

 

This must be Buc-ee (the beaver?):

 

 

 

 

 

Fun fact.  All the Buc-ee beavers are made at the art foundry in Bastrop, Texas.  Once or twice a year the foundry has an open house.  You get a tour and get to see a night pour.  Super cool and interesting.

[Sunshine3601]

9 minutes ago, George C said:

Some 50 years ago I hung out in a mafia owned bar , I was told the fbi took pictures of everyone who went in on opening day, my buddy was a bartender, about a decade later owner was found shot in a apartment building in queens , police reported he had several hundreds of dollars on him, also a gun and some expensive jewelry, it made all the major papers. I once played in a card game that lasted a couple of days in there back room. ( I only lasted a few hours)

Years ago when this neighbor first moved in he use to brag about his family..     Then about 2 months later I asked him if he knew anything about the suspicious looking car that is always hanging out on our block.    He said "Yay they keep an eye on me all the time.    They have my phones tapped too."   

Prior to him moving to our town, he was a retired police chief and prior to that was a personal bodyguard for a prominent person in Philadelphia.   

I have seen some very interesting looking people come and go from his house over the years but he is now in his early 90's and has a lot of health problems and hardly comes outside and it is rare to see visitors.

On the other side of me I have a County Sheriff (while he recently retired).   Let me just say these 2 guys have had lots of words over the years and there we are living in the middle of them.    One thing for sure is we feel safe (other than the neighbor that made threats awhile back).    

[dani negreanu]

43 minutes ago, bobmacliberty said:

headed to Key West on Monday morning. 

 

Driving to Key West was on our bucket list.... Having sea on both sides of the road seemed like a beautiful drive.

[Ocean Boy]

2 hours ago, bobmacliberty said:

I've been off CC for a few days while we visited Key West.  I tried posting once but had problems posting from my phone and just decided to wait until getting home.  I'm now caught up with this thread.  I'll make a few posts about Key West...sort of like a mini review...but have a few other things to get done first.  I'll just summarize by saying happy that we went, had a good time, may or may not go again (one and done?), absolutely will NEVER drive there again.

Looking forward to reading about it.

[lenquixote66]

2 hours ago, Sunshine3601 said:

You are very luck there.     We pay about $350 for the platinum plan thru our employer and that is considered to be very reasonable from what I hear other friends and family pay per month.     

As I posted awhile ago that was an incentive not to sue after being downsized ,free health insurance for me and my family for life.I would rather be working beyond the downsize date.

[bobmacliberty]

After a good night's sleep in Key Largo, it was time to head to Key West.  We were in no hurry because, well because we're retired.  That and we couldn't check into our Key West hotel until the afternoon anyway.  We did however have a Key West historic homes walking toured scheduled for 2:00, and wanted to park our car at the hotel and get lunch before the tour.  Monday morning was overcast, a little windy, and around 70F...a little cool for the Keys.  Because of the limited sun and wind, the water wasn't as attractive as it might have been.  We also got stuck in a LONG line of traffic for most of the trip.  We had just over 100 miles to travel and it took about 2 hours and 45 minutes.  I did the math, we averaged about 37 mph.  That's a slow speed to be traveling for nearly 3 hours.  There were a few places to pass, but not many.  It was big trucks and RVs that were generally slowing things down.  We were told that's pretty normal now.  We talked to a couple of Key Largo locals who said that they don't even think about making the drive to Key West anymore.

 

We got to the Orchid Key Inn around noon and headed down Duval Street to find lunch.  There was a tavern and beer garden about a block from our hotel and we had a good lunch there.  No pictures unfortunately.  After lunch, we walking further down Duval to where most of the stores and bars are located.  Our walking tour started near there.  We killed a little time in a few stores and then headed to our tour meeting point.

 

We really liked the historic homes tour.  The tour guide was named Rich and was a multi-generation Key West person.  His grandparents bought a house in the historic part of old Key West in the 20s for $2300.  He still lives there and it's worth around $2 million today.  Rich started with the history of Key West as it helps define the architecture of the area.  I don't know how much of what he told us is true, but it made for an interesting tour.

 

Key West at one point was occupied by the Calusa Indians.  They were attacked by the Seminole tribe and almost all of the Calusa were killed.  The Seminole hung their bodies around the island and then eventually, made patterns of the Calusa bones.  No one is sure why, but it might have been to scare off others interested in the island.  This apparently didn't scare the Spanish as they eventually took the island and named it Cayo Hueso (Bone Cay in Spanish).  When some Americans bought the island from the Spanish, they thought the Spaniards were calling it Cayo Oeste and therefore began calling it Key West.  There are islands that are further west than Key West, so this apparently explains why the island is called Key West, even though it's not the west most Key.

 

After walking about a mile, seeing many houses, and learning a lot of history, we went back to our hotel and checked in.  The hotel has a nice little bar with a happy hour every night.  We met Chris, the bartender, who made a great drink for Micheline called an Elderflower French 75.  It's 3 parts gin (Hendrick's), 1 part St. Germain (elderflower liquor) and the juice of half a lemon.  Mix that up, pour it over ice, and then top with champagne.  We have a bottle of St. Germain at home and now we know what to do with it!

 

We went to dinner at a place called the Red Shoe Island Bistro, right around the corner from our hotel.  It's a small place with 2 seatings, one at 6:00 and one at 8:00.  The food was great and the key lime pie for dessert was fantastic.  Best that we had our whole time there.  Back to the hotel bar for an after dinner drink and then time to call it a night.  Sorry...no pictures from Monday.

[Luckynana]

2 hours ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Took Eric to get a tooth pulled this morning.    It was a molar towards the front right side that had a filling then filling came out and tooth was cracked and unrepairable.       We are both working from home today which is good because it has been crazy busy at the office all week.     

Eric is doing well.    

I'm glad to hear that Eric is doing well after having his tooth pulled.   Sounds like an implant or bridge may be in his future??  Ouch!

1 hour ago, dani negreanu said:

 

Driving to Key West was on our bucket list.... Having sea on both sides of the road seemed like a beautiful drive.

We've driven down to Key West from Naples twice so far.  The first time was 20 years ago, and we stayed in Key West for two nights.  The second time was around 7 or 8 years ago;  our daughter, SIL and grandchildren were staying in a home on a canal in Long Key, and invited us to visit for a couple of days.  A very pretty and spacious home with a bedroom and bath in the basement for Jim and I.  Sadly, the house is no longer there since a Hurricane made it uninhabitable a few years ago.

[Sunshine3601]

35 minutes ago, Luckynana said:

I'm glad to hear that Eric is doing well after having his tooth pulled.   Sounds like an implant or bridge may be in his future??  Ouch

Thank you.  Yes, he will need to do something in the future.  Not sure what yet.  He needs go back to dentist for a consult.  They said wait 3 mos before do anything.  Unfortunately he inherited his Fathers bad teeth.  

 

[HBE4]

2 hours ago, Sunshine3601 said:

One thing for sure is we feel safe (other than the neighbor that made threats awhile back).    

 

The old saying is that the safest place to live is the neighborhood with a lot of "Family" members.

 

They also seem to have the best private Forth of July fireworks too...better than some town displays.  I'm sure the stuff just, ya know, fell of a truck. 🤷‍♂️fuggedabotit.

 

Edited November 20, 2021 by HBE4

[HBE4]

2 hours ago, bobmacliberty said:

I think Buc-ee's are just a southern thing so for those not familiar, it's a massive gas station/restaurant/grocery/home goods/clothing store.  If I counted correctly, there are 104 gas pumps (with cars waiting) and the men's room had 14 urinals/12 stalls (I think...didn't want to stare and point while trying to count). 

 

Voted cleanest bathrooms in America. Seriously!

 

When visiting family in Texas, I always try to incorporate a stop at Buc'ees.  Love the freshly made pork sandwiches.  As does everyone else as it seems the fly off the rack as soon as some put them up there.

[lenquixote66]

16 minutes ago, HBE4 said:

 

The old saying is that the safest place to live is the neighborhood with a lot of "Family" members.

 

They also seem to have the best private Forth of July fireworks too...better than some town displays.  I'm sure the stuff just, ya know, fell of a truck. 🤷‍♂️fuggedabotit.

 

Have you ever gone to dinner at Rao’s? It is like living in The Godfather movie .