The Fleet Report and Daily for Sunday, January 7th, 2024

[Quartzsite Cruiser]

Good afternoon.  The rain has stopped and the wind is blowing the clouds toward the southeast, so we will have a sunny but cold afternoon.

 

Last night the clouds started moving in about sunset, and we had one the best sunsets I can remember with some strange cloud shapes and vibrant color.

 

2 hours ago, aliaschief said:

For the first time in our countless privately booked excursions the tour did not show at designated pick up spot. We are being reimbursed.

Plan B we have the ships pool just about to ourselves. No problemo!

 

Bruce, I'm sorry your tour was a no show. 

 

2 hours ago, mamaofami said:

Good morning everyone. I’m recovering well from having several tooth extractions. Thankfully no rain or snow today. Roy, good luck tomorrow My brother just went through the same treatment.

Stay safe everyone.

 

Carol, I'm glad you are recovering well from the tooth extractions.

 

1 hour ago, smitty34877 said:

Well,it got colder and the snow started to fall and stick.

 

 

 

Terry, my first thought was also, be careful on those steps.

 

51 minutes ago, JazzyV said:

Good afternoon. Thanks for the FR/Daily.

I'll salute the talent of the Harlem Globetrotters. As mentioned yesterday, mentors are important. I have mentored and I myself had 2 special ones. I will try to stand up for myself when needed; I used to be very shy, but have gotten over that a good bit. Not sure about the quote. Interesting side dish meal. Pass on the drink. The wine's a little pricey for me. I haven't been to Tunis. 2 good days.

 

It's 34F with light snow off and on; I don't think much accumulation. I took a Benadryl last night and got about 4.5 hours of sleep. Today I'm working on the contract for my restoration work. I also got a bill from the mitigation company, almost $1300, so I need to contact my insurance tomorrow as I thought they would also pay for that. Otherwise I might watch some football.

 

@kochleffel Bon Voyage!

@StLouisCruisers I'm glad DS and family had a good holiday and vacation together. Your travelogue has brought back great memories of my cruise in Antarctica.

@grapau27 I hope this anniversary of your late Mam and Dad's wedding brings back good memories for you.

@ottahand7 Thanks for the photos. Oh my on John getting a shower from the cleaners a deck above!

@rafinmd The day that will live in Infamy is Dec 7. Good luck with your radiation tomorrow.

@Crazy For Cats Be careful shoveling!

@aliaschief So sorry your tour guide didn't show!  Relax and enjoy the Azamazing Evening tonight.

@smitty34877 That was nice of your neighbor and his workers. I hope things are going a little better today.

@Sir PMP Thanks for the photo.

@superoma Happy Birthday to DGD, and to DGS a few days early!

@marshhawk Sorry to hear Bubbles has so many injuries. I hope you can get him to the vet. Wow on having to jump out of your friend's moving car!

@Cruzin Terri I hope you're doing ok.

@Mr. Boston I hope you feel better soon.

@RMLincoln I'm glad you can just stay in, with all that snow. 

@mamaofami I'm glad you're doing well after the extractions.

 

Prayers for the Care List and a Toast to those Celebrating.

 

Vanessa, I'm glad you got some ore sleep with the aid of Benadryl.  I hope the insurance company will pay for the mitigation too.  

 

Lenda

[quilty964]

Happy Sunday!  The Harlem Globetrotters have a game here on New Years Eve.  We've never seen them, but our DGD has seen them twice.  Her dance team did a routine as part of the pre game show.  She's 10, and has done and seen a lot more than us!  LOL!  Mashed potatoes in the slow cooker sounds good, I left the skins on once, and got some comments!  If I need to make them, we get them from one of the Big Box stores!  

Welcome home to everyone, and Bon Voyage to @kochleffel  Now I'm enjoying some of the blogs from the World Cruise, it's very interesting to read the different takes on things.  

@marshhawksorry to hear about Bubbles, hoping you can get him to the vet.  He's sure lucky to have you watching out for him.  

@mamaofamihoping you're feeling ok after the dental work.  I'm sure it's no fun.

@GTVCRUISERyour pictures look like a fun time was had!  

To those on the east coast dealing with snow, good luck and be safe.  We had a dusting yesterday, and more is in the forecast for Monday night to Wednesday, but they still aren't sure what we will get.  2 tv stations had different amounts this morning.  Good thing we have no place to go, except for handbell choir practice on Tuesday.  If it's bad, I stay home, or it gets cancelled.  

Well, back to putting the ornaments away.  The village got done yesterday.  

Have a good rest of the day, the Packers game will be on here in a couple hours!  Karen

[ottahand7]

@kazu  @rafinmd  @JazzyV @cat shepard  @summer slope and @dfish

 Well Cruise Critic is putting me to the test today.  It kept bringing up my previous content so I deleted all but the bubbles and they won't delete so thanks once more for all you contributions. 

 

@RMLincoln thanks for sharing your new view, very pretty. 

 

 

 

Edited January 7 by ottahand7

[rafinmd]

1 hour ago, JazzyV said:

 

@rafinmd The day that will live in Infamy is Dec 7. Good luck with your radiation tomorrow.

Yes, obviously I had not had enough coffee when I posted.

 

Roy

[VMax1700]

I am very late here today, as I am still trying to warm up.  It was minus 2°C/28°F this morning at breakfast time and just barely climbed into positive figure during the day.  I took DW to mass this morning and collected her monthly prescription from the pharmacist.  Later we had roast stuffed pork steak wth roast potatoes, roasted root veg etc for our Sunday meal.  We are trying to sate u

our youngest DS's appetite for the food he enjoyed when he lived at home with us and we were at least 10 years younger 🤔. Still, he has only 5 days left before he flies back to Vancouver.

 

And just as I thought I was thawing out and feeling a little warm, all you guys post pictures of snow!  Almost too much for me.  Nearly as bad as you all posting the results of the football games ......I am still watching the early December games on the PVR. 

Have a great day everyone!  

[kochleffel]

MANY, MANY THANKS for all the bon voyage wishes. I was pleasantly surprised last week when Vanessa listed my cruise, because I didn’t remember ever posting details.

 

The drive from the ferry terminal to the cruise terminal would be unpleasant even in good weather but this was not good weather. The only really bad part, however, was the line of about 1000 cars creeping up to the luggage drop-off. Nevertheless, quite a few people drove on past, parked, and then dragged their large bags back to the terminal, mostly bringing them inside and taking offense when told by the staff to take their tagged bags back outside.

 

RCI doesn’t serve Embarkation Day lunch in the MDR. I would have been satisfied with coffee and a snack in Café Promenade, but it was full and I went to the Windjammer. There was some pretty good roast beef, but the rest was WJ-Mediocre.™️

[Quartzsite Cruiser]

4 minutes ago, kochleffel said:

MANY, MANY THANKS for all the bon voyage wishes. I was pleasantly surprised last week when Vanessa listed my cruise, because I didn’t remember ever posting details.

 

The drive from the ferry terminal to the cruise terminal would be unpleasant even in good weather but this was not good weather. The only really bad part, however, was the line of about 1000 cars creeping up to the luggage drop-off. Nevertheless, quite a few people drove on past, parked, and then dragged their large bags back to the terminal, mostly bringing them inside and taking offense when told by the staff to take their tagged bags back outside.

 

RCI doesn’t serve Embarkation Day lunch in the MDR. I would have been satisfied with coffee and a snack in Café Promenade, but it was full and I went to the Windjammer. There was some pretty good roast beef, but the rest was WJ-Mediocre.™️

 

Just when we were beginning to feel safe from butternut squash, it's in our memes.

🤣  Butternut squash must have a good PR firm.

 

Lenda

[dfish]

6 minutes ago, kochleffel said:

 

Good one, Paul!  I did notice on the menu that @richwmn posted for the Grand Australia/New Zealand that they are offering Butternut Squash Soup as a starter in the MDR.  

[dfish]

1 minute ago, Quartzsite Cruiser said:

 

Just when we were beginning to feel safe from butternut squash, it's in our memes.

🤣  Butternut squash must have a good PR firm.

 

Lenda

I'm sure we could add some to our slow cooker mashed potatoes!  Add a few pecans and some maple syrup and we're good to go.

[AroundWithMAPTravels]

3 minutes ago, dfish said:

I'm sure we could add some to our slow cooker mashed potatoes!  Add a few pecans and some maple syrup and we're good to go.

And maybe a few carrots?🤪😂

[Quartzsite Cruiser]

1 minute ago, AroundWithMAPTravels said:

And maybe a few carrots?🤪😂

 

I'd like them, but that's a low blow for Debbie @dfish

 

Lenda

[AroundWithMAPTravels]

FYI.  I love both butternut squash AND carrots. I look at all of the recipes that include either.

but I couldn’t help “stirring the pot”…. Sorry🫢

[rafinmd]

On time departure for @kochleffel.

 

Roy

[Crazy For Cats]

Good Afternoon, this morning the snowblower was able to handle what fell much to my surprise.  Then we had a lull in falling snow. The roads were just wet so I ran an errand to the grocery store for some sale items and found some angus steaks at a good markdown price.  The car was much happier starting this morning with a new battery.  Now I’m not worried about being stranded.

The storm picked up again.  If you are watching the Patriots playing that is our weather.  We are 6.5 miles from the stadium.  I have a small spiral ham in the oven and after dinner I’ll make a second round of snow removal.

[rafinmd]

And out to sea:

 

 

Roy

[Oceansaway17]

44 minutes ago, rafinmd said:

And out to sea:

 

 

Roy

one of my favorite ships.  gone out of Bayonne three times with her.

She leaves in the Spring for good and will be replaced by Odyssey

[dfish]

1 hour ago, AroundWithMAPTravels said:

And maybe a few carrots?🤪😂

I'm thinking not!!

[Vict0riann]

Well, now it's afternoon, so Good day, Dailyites!  I hope Paul has a great cruise, and that Roy doesn't find it too difficult tomorrow.  Thanks for all the other news, always something interesting going on.  On our way to church this morning, there was a dead deer by the side of the road.  It is cloudy today, but I don't think it's going to rain.  It's pretty cold, something like Ireland, @VMax1700, but going to get colder, so warn your DS!

 

We have been to Tunis twice except once we couldn't dock, so only visited Carthage and Sidi BouSaid, the beautiful museum, carpet shops and souk once.  In the market one of the vendors offered us 300 camels for our red-headed daughter.  We decided it was a good deal but they wouldn't let us take the camels back on the ship (not service camels....), so we kept her.  She made a big purchase of a carpet in one of the shops and didn't have enough cash to pay, so the vendor went back to the ship with us, and she got money on board and took it back out to him.  He had let her take the carpet on with her, so she could have just not gone back out, he was very trusting!  We really enjoyed what we saw of Tunisia.

 

 

Ancient Carthage

 

 

 

 

Underground water supply for the baths

 

 

The museum had beautiful mosaics

 

 

Sidi Bousaid - a blue and white village, kind of like Santorini, with an Arab  flair

 

 

 

 

In the souk

 

 

Carpets!

 

 

[Vict0riann]

I wanted to add my bit to the Antarctic saga!  When we visited South Georgia, the beaches were littered with "weaners" - young elephant seal pups which had been weaned and whose mothers had left them behind to head out to sea again to mate.  The poor (not-so-little) pups were very curious and looking for love in all the wrong places.  We were not allowed to approach them, but if they came close to us, we were allowed to stay still, and of course the official guides could do what they wanted!  (Guide in red jacket - not us!)

 

 

 

 

 

Of course, once they got to full size, you wouldn't want to go near.  One big guy decided he was in love with one of our zodiacs, and had to be persuaded to move away.

 

[kochleffel]

For the northeast:

[smitty34877]

7 minutes ago, kochleffel said:

For the northeast:

That was the best laugh I had all day! Thanks

[Haljo1935]

3 hours ago, dfish said:

I'm sure we could add some to our slow cooker mashed potatoes!  Add a few pecans and some maple syrup and we're good to go.

Then that would be a whole new thing "slow cooker mash up" and we'd still need another day to honor slow cooker garlic mashed potatoes, lol.

[dfish]

3 hours ago, AroundWithMAPTravels said:

FYI.  I love both butternut squash AND carrots. I look at all of the recipes that include either.

but I couldn’t help “stirring the pot”…. Sorry🫢

My dad always said if someone leaves an opening, take it.  I'd do the same thing.

[AroundWithMAPTravels]

2 minutes ago, dfish said:

My dad always said if someone leaves an opening, take it.  I'd do the same thing.

All meant in pure fun….

land the “spirit” of this thread.

I do look forward to the daily recipes… and the ensuing comments.

cheers the F&B department!

[SusieKIslandGirl]

@SuslorFile away for future use: s.k.hill at comcast dot net 🙂

I just wish we were closer so we could meet ahead of time for coffee. See you on the roll call. -Susie