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

[lenquixote66]

59 minutes ago, Luckynana said:

Happy Birthday wishes to your daughter, Lenny!

Thank you,MaryAnn

[lenquixote66]

39 minutes ago, h20skibum said:

Happy birthday to your daughter, Lenny

 

+1 @DaniDanielle

Thank you

[TravelGirlinDallas]

There were a couple of very happy Astros fans at my house last night. Brian needs his Altuve jersey washed before the next game because he's sure that wearing it is helping. 😄

[bobmacliberty]

13 minutes ago, TravelGirlinDallas said:

There were a couple of very happy Astros fans at my house last night. Brian needs his Altuve jersey washed before the next game because he's sure that wearing it is helping. 😄

 

Nooooo.  Don't wash it.  You'll wash all of the mojo out of it and the Astros will lose as a result. 😜

[TravelGirlinDallas]

1 minute ago, bobmacliberty said:

 

Nooooo.  Don't wash it.  You'll wash all of the mojo out of it and the Astros will lose as a result. 😜

I should point that out to him. 😂

[Tree_skier]

5 hours ago, FromSea2ShiningSea said:

Thanks, Dave.  Are you getting excited for your Hawaii cruise?  That’s going to be a great cruise.

 

Very excited.  It's been an experience dealing with NCL.  They do things differently than Royal and Pride of America has things that are different than the rest of the NCL fleet so there has been a bit of a learning curve.

[HBE4]

23 minutes ago, TravelGirlinDallas said:

24 minutes ago, bobmacliberty said:

Nooooo.  Don't wash it.  You'll wash all of the mojo out of it and the Astros will lose as a result. 😜

I should point that out to him. 😂

 

Or maybe you don't. 😉😇

[TravelGirlinDallas]

14 minutes ago, Tree_skier said:

Very excited.  It's been an experience dealing with NCL.  They do things differently than Royal and Pride of America has things that are different than the rest of the NCL fleet so there has been a bit of a learning curve.

Very interested to hear about all of this.

[Tree_skier]

1 hour ago, FromSea2ShiningSea said:

Florence is famous for their Florentine steaks.  It is one of the most popular dishes of Tuscan cuisine.  Since it was our last day in Florence, we had to give this dish a try.  We went with Trattoria La Gratella based on the great reviews.  Even though we didn’t have reservations, the waiter sat us down at a nice table for two anyway.  
 

The T- bone steak was 1.5 kilos we were told which is equal to 3.3 pounds.  Holy cow!  That’s a lot of meat for just 2 people.

 

A glass of Chianti Classico

Got to balance the meal with some spinach 

Leftovers for dinner.  This was the best we could do 

DH joked that we used forceps to pick up the meat 

How would you rate the steak for flavor?  It looks great!

[HBE4]

5 hours ago, A&L_Ont said:

It makes no sense to be because both teams would get the same advantage.🤷‍♂️

 

3 hours ago, Jimbo said:

 

I think by leaving the roof open it greatly helped Houston win that game last night. Because the wind knocked down Judge's long fly ball to the right field wall in the 8th inning which would have been a 2-run home run and would have gave the Yankees a 1 run lead and they might have won game #2 instead of being down 2 games to 0 right now. So leaving it open turned out to be a good move by Houston.

 

In theory, both teams should have the same advantage with the roof open.  However, I can see Jimbo's point. I'm not enough of a baseball geek to get into the analytics of the game but let's say for arguments sake that the majority of the Yankee power hitters are hitting to right field and the winds are blowing to the left, that negates their power advantage, as proven by Judge's long fly out that was almost a home run.  If the winds are blowing to the right, then keeping the roof closed would also negate the Yankees power hitters.  The very definition of home field advantage.

 

From what I read, most managers prefer to keep the roof closed as to cut down on unpredictable weather events.  You could see that in last nights game with some of the swirling winds making a few routine pop-ups more exciting than they should have been.

[Tree_skier]

9 minutes ago, HBE4 said:

 

Or maybe you don't. 😉😇

So many superstitions in sports.  Years ago I had so many lucky "whatevers" that I was sure helped me win.  

 

Cleats, underwear, knee brace, pre-game meal... just about anything could become lucky if I noticed a new item, worn consistently, coincided with a win streak.  

[Tree_skier]

5 minutes ago, TravelGirlinDallas said:

Very interested to hear about all of this.

I'll probably post a few updates here if no one minds.  I still don't post much on the NCL board and didn't really want to do a "live" on that board.  I certainly won't overwhelm the thread with the whole trip but a few highlights and a few contrast and compares, NCL vs Royal sort of thing.  

[HBE4]

3 minutes ago, Tree_skier said:

So many superstitions in sports.  Years ago I had so many lucky "whatevers" that I was sure helped me win.  

 

Cleats, underwear, knee brace, pre-game meal... just about anything could become lucky if I noticed a new item, worn consistently, coincided with a win streak.  

 

I attend about 12-15 Yankee games a year with my older brother and we always buy 2 hot dogs with mustard from an vendor outside the stadium.  One year, they happened to win the first 4 or 5 games we attended when I decided to get ketchup instead of mustard on my hot dog. The Yankees lost that game by some ridiculous score. 

 

I was never allowed to get ketchup on a hot dog again. 😀

[Jimbo]

20 minutes ago, HBE4 said:

 

 

In theory, both teams should have the same advantage with the roof open.  However, I can see Jimbo's point. I'm not enough of a baseball geek to get into the analytics of the game but let's say for arguments sake that the majority of the Yankee power hitters are hitting to right field and the winds are blowing to the left, that negates their power advantage, as proven by Judge's long fly out that was almost a home run.  If the winds are blowing to the right, then keeping the roof closed would also negate the Yankees power hitters.  The very definition of home field advantage.

 

From what I read, most managers prefer to keep the roof closed as to cut down on unpredictable weather events.  You could see that in last nights game with some of the swirling winds making a few routine pop-ups more exciting than they should have been.

Exactly, I think Houston knew what they were doing...............Case in point when they were stealing signs a few years ago using a trash can lid.

[HBE4]

10 minutes ago, Tree_skier said:

I'll probably post a few updates here if no one minds.  I still don't post much on the NCL board and didn't really want to do a "live" on that board.  I certainly won't overwhelm the thread with the whole trip but a few highlights and a few contrast and compares, NCL vs Royal sort of thing.  

 

I''d love to hear your thoughts on NCL.  

 

Fun fact: many years ago, my niece was a bartender on Pride of America. For about 18 months. While she wouldn't do it again, as a recent college she loved the experience and since she had minimal expenses, saved enough money to pay off some very substantial student loans, buy herself a BMW when she came back and still had plenty of money left over.  As an American-flagged ship, it's the only cruise ship to employ an all-American crew. Also, no casino as gambling is not allowed in Hawaii.

 

[Sunshine3601]

4 hours ago, lenquixote66 said:

Today is the birthday of one of my daughters.We will be celebrating tomorrow evening.

Happy Birthday to your Daughter💐   I hope she has a wonderful birthday

[dani negreanu]

1 hour ago, Tree_skier said:

I'll probably post a few updates here if no one minds.  

 

Even more than "a few" will be more than welcomed, and thank you 🌷

 

46 minutes ago, HBE4 said:

I''d love to hear your thoughts on NCL.  

 

[FromSea2ShiningSea]

Another must-do in Florence is a visit to the Piazza Le Michelangelo which is atop a hill overlooking the whole city.  Since this was our last night in Florence, we had to make our way up there along with tons of other people to enjoy the view and wait for the sunset.  This was our finale to our visit in Florence.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jagsfan]

13 minutes ago, dani negreanu said:

 

Even more than "a few" will be more than welcomed, and thank you 🌷

 

 

it will be interesting to see the differences. It’s been a couple of decades since I sailed on NCL. 

[FromSea2ShiningSea]

1 hour ago, Tree_skier said:

How would you rate the steak for flavor?  It looks great!

It was excellent.  The steak was very tender and really only needed a little bit of salt.  You didn’t even need to tell them medium rare.  That is the way they will make it.  But of course, for me, I always eat my steak with ketchup but I did not dare ask them for it.  They would throw me out for sure.  🤣  So even without ketchup, it was great.

[Tree_skier]

27 minutes ago, FromSea2ShiningSea said:

The steak was very tender and really only needed a little bit of salt.

Too me, the sign of a good steak is it's lack of need for any additions.  A little sea salt is all I want to need to put on my steak.  Your's looked good.

[taznremmy]

On 10/20/2022 at 1:27 PM, Keksie said:

That is probably the Australian Possum.  I have a knitted a few things with that wool and it is very nice.

The thought of wearing an opposum scarf made me shudder🙀😹. Thanks for the clarification.  

[taznremmy]

23 hours ago, bobmacliberty said:

 

I'm loving your pictures, but they are also making me jealous.  We had a dream 30 day Italy/Greek Isles trip planned for Sept 2020, with a few days in Florence.  Of course...Covid.

So did I!
I am currently on Brilliance OTS fulfilling that dream.  Spent five nights in Venice then down to Ravenna (current departure port for Venice).

Start part 3 of my B5B tomorrow. 

[FromSea2ShiningSea]

20 hours ago, MJSailors said:

@FromSea2ShiningSea Thankyou for the lovely photos of Florence. I was fortunate to visit there during my college years with two friends one Summer. I always wanted to return there ,but it never happened. We toured the cathedral,saw David, shopped in the open air markets went to the Boboli (?) gardens and ate gelato. While we also visited Rome, I thought Florence was a more captivating city.

We stayed in a guest house near the train station -as I recall. Our room had French doors that opened onto a small garden. A continental breakfast was served in a heavily decorated dining room. We loved it !

That trip was fifty years ago ! Your photos brought back some very pleasant memories.

I have dealt with sciatica over the years. It can be very painful and unsettling. I am pleased for you that you could go on this vacation and you seem to be making it a good experience despite the discomfort.

Please continue to post photos !  Molto bene! Grazie!

MJ🙋🏻

 

 

Thank you for your kind words, MJ.  I’m glad you enjoy the pictures and they bring you back to simpler times with fond memories.  I hope you’ll get to go back someday.

We did not go to the Boboli Gardens.  It would have been too much for me to walk it and I wouldn’t have been able to enjoy it.

Thank you for your understanding of sciatica pain.  It is very hard to deal with.  Wish it was like a headache.  Take a Tylenol and it goes away. 🙂

[grapau27]

Good evening.

Some pictures from our dinner tonight.