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

[Sunshine3601]

9 hours ago, Coralc said:

 

How do they do that? Are they sprayed with something that keeps the sculptures from disintegrating? The surfaces are so flawless. 😃 They are incredible!

Hairspray is what some guy told me once.   

Takes a lot of hairspray but did work on some little stuff our sons made on the beach.  Nothing like these sculptures, these are amazing😀

[mo&fran]

12 hours ago, George C said:

Just talked to my brother in Ft Myer, many cars were destroyed besides the homes , my brother got a nice settlement from insurance on car but local car dealers were charging 10k over list price and getting it. At least there suv is fine thinking of going to another state to buy a car. There removing 4 ft of dry wall from first story which is the majority of his house. 

The scary thing about the cars is have they been flooded.  No Carfax if there was no insurance covered repair.

[John&LaLa]

3 hours ago, sgmn said:

In your opinion, which is the best of the big girls?  We tend to get a rotation in Europe each year when they come over for dry dock

 

Oasis, followed by Symphony 

 

But our newest favorite is Odyssey 

 

Allure should be nice once the finally do her drydock. Look to book her in a few years

[A&L_Ont]

11 hours ago, LucasLikesToCruise said:

Anyways, I didn’t want to this to be long and drawn out, but sometimes I just can’t shut up, maybe it’s because I only have Oliver to talk to on a daily basis for so long LOL.  And I thought that maybe if anyone else is going through that same sort of thing with their fa,I.y members that I could possibly help with any questions.  One thing I will say for sure, hospice is nothing like I thought it was.  
 

So, this has been my life the last few months.  Now that I have a chance to come up for air, I’ll be more likely to join in the regular conversations although I didn’t have any trips planned for obvious reason.

 

Lucas, you and your mom have quite the journey to this point.  

 

From what I have read, she is in the right spot for the best care possible and that also gives you some ability to recharge yourself between visits. I am sorry that all of this is happening to her and wish there was someway to undo all that is occurring.

 

This page is much like a family: there might be the odd moments of disagreement but when it is down to the wire, we are here to support each other. If you need a distraction or a break we will be here to help as best we can.

[A&L_Ont]

25 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

Oasis, followed by Symphony 

 

BBQ on Oasis and Playmakers on Symphony. 😋

 

25 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

But our newest favorite is Odyssey 

 

One wave. Booo.😉

 

25 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

Allure should be nice once the finally do her drydock. Look to book her in a few years

 

I'm curious to what she will have happen this go around. 

[John&LaLa]

11 minutes ago, A&L_Ont said:

 

BBQ on Oasis and Playmakers on Symphony. 😋

 

 

One wave. Booo.😉

 

 

I'm curious to what she will have happen this go around. 

 

Oasis has Playmaker's 😁

 

But FWIW, Indy had the best Playmaker's I've been to. It's huge, insane amount of screens

Edited October 11, 2022 by John&LaLa

[A&L_Ont]

1 minute ago, John&LaLa said:

 

Oasis has Playmaker's 😁

Yah, Lisa and I were wondering what replaced the Crab Shack or Fish House on the boardwalk. 

[John&LaLa]

1 minute ago, A&L_Ont said:

Yah, Lisa and I were wondering what replaced the Crab Shack or Fish House on the boardwalk. 

 

It was a Sabor before the most recent amp.

 

Just like Allure

[A&L_Ont]

A few Thanksgiving photos from Sharon’s. 
 

The table was set. Sharon loves all the holidays. 
 

 

For a feast.

 

 

We were also celebrating our oldest nephew’s 17 birthday, with pumpkin pie and ice cream birthday cake. 

 

 

 A great sunset…

 

 

makes for a great moonrise. 

 

 

 

[A&L_Ont]

2 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

 

It was a Sabor before the most recent amp.

 

Just like Allure

Wow, it’s been a while since we have been on Oasis. Missed 5 years.  

[h20skibum]

16 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

 

Oasis has Playmaker's 😁

 

But FWIW, Indy had the best Playmaker's I've been to. It's huge, insane amount of screens

I agree with that.  Indy was the first ship with Playmakers we were on, and it was the best one so far. 

[Vibe]

12 hours ago, LucasLikesToCruise said:

 

Good evening everyone,  

I’ve been thinking about the best way to respond since Dani first asked about a month ago. I started to and deleted many replies.  Then when Sunshine asked I figured I would take a few minutes to myself, which I really haven’t had the past couple of months, and join the conversation again. 

The past couple of months have been really hectic and kept me quite busy and frustrated.  From the end of July to the last part of August I had to call EMS twice due to my moms Parkinson’s Disease Psychosis. For a little old lady (barely 5 foot tall on a good day) with dyskinesia from the Parkinson’s she sure could go from Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde with no warning.  During the second time in The hospital she was started on Nuplazid, which is specifically for the hallucinations and delusions of PDP.  Since it usually takes four weeks before the effects of Nuplazid are seen, the plan was for her to go to a rehab facility for a few weeks to help build up her strength again as well and work on the doses of her other Parkinson’s meds and Seroquel and Haldol to help with the delusions.  

She was in a good mood when I took her to the rehab place the first evening, she ate well and settled into bed alright.  Well, the next day when I went there, she was a totally different person.  I just didn’t know what else to do anymore, I was beyond frustrated and exhausted from taking care of her 24/7 the past few years.  I spoke with the case manager there about options.  I said I can do almost everything myself with  her at home except when she goes bat ***** crazy on me.  That’s I hated having to call 911 but didn’t have any other options at the time.  She suggested going with a Hospice/Palliative care regimen.  With that we would have all the support that I needed to take care of her at home.  Especially since the last scans showed that the lastest chemo treatments were no longer keeping the tumors in check.  The only other treatments for trip,e negative metastatic breast cancer is very aggressive, and her body wouldn’t tolerate it any longer.

So it’s been about two months now since we’ve started hospice, and she is slowly goi g down hill.  Seems everyday I notice her a bit slower with thinking, moving and talking.  It’s just the nature of the beast with Parkinson’s, dimentia and cancer.  So far the nurse comes twice a week and an aid comes twice a week to help with bathing so it doesn’t fall completely on me.  There are several others in the office for the case manager or social workers that call and check up on how I am doing with everything.  This is the first time in all the years that I have been taking care of her 24/7 that anyone (including family)has asked how I am doing or if there is anything they can do for me.  

Anyways, I didn’t want to this to be long and drawn out, but sometimes I just can’t shut up, maybe it’s because I only have Oliver to talk to on a daily basis for so long LOL.  And I thought that maybe if anyone else is going through that same sort of thing with their fa,I.y members that I could possibly help with any questions.  One thing I will say for sure, hospice is nothing like I thought it was.  
 

So, this has been my life the last few months.  Now that I have a chance to come up for air, I’ll be more likely to join in the regular conversations although I didn’t have any trips planned for obvious reason.😎

 

 

Sending you hugs and comforting vibes.

[Ocean Boy]

1 hour ago, A&L_Ont said:

 

BBQ on Oasis and Playmakers on Symphony. 😋

 

 

One wave. Booo.😉

 

 

I'm curious to what she will have happen this go around. 

She will lose her awesome Diamond Lounge location for starters.

[Ocean Boy]

49 minutes ago, A&L_Ont said:

A few Thanksgiving photos from Sharon’s. 
 

I momentarily forgot your date for the holiday and when I read this thought what the heck is he talking about.☺️

[TravelGirlinDallas]

1 hour ago, A&L_Ont said:

A few Thanksgiving photos from Sharon’s. 
 

The table was set. Sharon loves all the holidays. 
 

 

For a feast.

 

 

We were also celebrating our oldest nephew’s 17 birthday, with pumpkin pie and ice cream birthday cake. 

 

 

 

What a lovely holiday table and spread! Now that's a pumpkin pie I would like. The more whipped cream, the better!

[TravelGirlinDallas]

1 hour ago, Ocean Boy said:

She will lose her awesome Diamond Lounge location for starters.

And I'm glad we are sailing on Allure before the big purple slide ruins the view.

[Arzeena]

3 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

 

Oasis, followed by Symphony 

 

But our newest favorite is Odyssey 

 

Allure should be nice once the finally do her drydock. Look to book her in a few years

I was about to post that our newest fav is Odyssey too.

And I did!

 

[DaniDanielle]

14 hours ago, Arzeena said:

Lucas who likes to cruise, I am sending you a big hug. A lot of prayers. A lot of comforting vibes.

From here also.  You are one special person🙏

[Sea Dog]

15 hours ago, helen haywood said:

@Sea Dog I can’t imagine driving that far in one go…you and your wife have more stamina than we do!  Our drives to Ft. Lauderdale would be 12 hours if we drove straight through but I don’t want to do that so we drive 6 hours one day, to Jacksonville, and then the other 6 the next day.

 

 

We may end up regretting doing it in one shot but we figured it's worth a try. We will probably sail out og Galveston again. If it's too much we will split it up over two days.

[George C]

3 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

 

We may end up regretting doing it in one shot but we figured it's worth a try. We will probably sail out og Galveston again. If it's too much we will split it up over two days.

In the 31 years we have been married longest drive we have done is 3 hours , we fly to Houston when cruising out of Galveston.

[jagsfan]

16 hours ago, Sunshine3601 said:

When our shore house was flooded by hurricane Sandy the insurance company tried to tell us they would cover removal of 4 ft of drywall (which was about 6 or 8 inches higher than the water marks).      We said No way and demanded they cover removal of all sheetrock and insulation as we did not want to risk having mold issues behind the walls.   After some back and forth with the insurance adjuster they agreed.

After our daughter’s house had 4 feet of water in it from Hurricane Matthew, their insurance company flat refused to pay for drywall replacement above 4 feet. 
Lisa and Jon paid for the rest to the ceiling, both to prevent any future mold issues, and because she was sure there would be an obvious difference looking at the wall. 
 

[OnTheJourney]

36 minutes ago, George C said:

longest drive we have done is 3 hours

We love car trips, and have done some that, over a span of 2+ weeks, often total 3-4k miles. As for any one particular segment of a trip, though, I don't like to push it more than 350 miles. Start to get a bit fatigued after that long especially if extended parts of the drive are in heavy traffic. Luckily, for cruising, we're only 2.5 hours away from either Baltimore or Bayonne. 

[Sea Dog]

41 minutes ago, George C said:

In the 31 years we have been married longest drive we have done is 3 hours , we fly to Houston when cruising out of Galveston.

 

I think in the future we will do that. Airfare has been crazy. Since we are doing two cruises in two months we decided to go cheap on the second one.

[jagsfan]

16 hours ago, Ocean Boy said:

This weekend we had a sand sculpture contest at the beach. Welcome to Atlantis Rising....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Those were some that I thought were pretty impressive.

Sand sculpturers are artists, for sure!

[jagsfan]

16 hours ago, helen haywood said:

@Sea Dog I can’t imagine driving that far in one go…you and your wife have more stamina than we do!  Our drives to Ft. Lauderdale would be 12 hours if we drove straight through but I don’t want to do that so we drive 6 hours one day, to Jacksonville, and then the other 6 the next day.

 

@jagsfan All our friends from when we moved here are gone as well.  I need to start making younger friends…

It really helps that my women’s club is attracting younger members. 
When I was talking to one of my Bunco groups members, she commented that we now have two young women playing. 
Those two new ladies are in their 70’s!!!