What is your fav. Souvenir you got on a cruise

[ShmuelCharlie]

On 7/4/2019 at 8:43 PM, clo said:

Didn't get these, well, maybe one, from a cruise....  But when we travel we've started picking up small flags from countries we visit.  We didn't start this way back so the Western Europe ones are missing.  But here's what we recently did with them.

 

Oh, what an interesting way to display your flags. Did you know that the current flag of the Russian Federation is based on the one from The Netherlands? When he went on his Great Embassy tour of Europe during the 1690s, Tsar Peter the Great adopted used The Netherlands' flag as the basis for the Russian flag, and reversed the stripe colors (white on top, blue in the middle, and red on the bottom. [Source: Peter the Great, His Life and Times, by Robert K. Massie.]

[clo]

11 minutes ago, ShmuelCharlie said:

Oh, what an interesting way to display your flags. Did you know that the current flag of the Russian Federation is based on the one from The Netherlands? When he went on his Great Embassy tour of Europe during the 1690s, Tsar Peter the Great adopted used The Netherlands' flag as the basis for the Russian flag, and reversed the stripe colors (white on top, blue in the middle, and red on the bottom. [Source: Peter the Great, His Life and Times, by Robert K. Massie.]

It IS kinda funny how many have red/white/blue in some combination.

 

That's actually the best those flags looked.  First I stuck each one in Play-Do and down in the dirt.  They fell over.  Then we duct-taped them to the outside wall of the planter.  They blew/fell down.  I think next year we'll put them in the planter - like that one - across the back of the house.  Less wind.  But it IS fun, weighs almost nothing and takes up no space.  

[clo]

On 10/14/2019 at 2:42 PM, ShmuelCharlie said:

Regarding magnets, I have a lot of them. Some are on my file cabinet and others are affixed to the sides of my fridge (they won't work on the front door). 

We have a second home (small apt in SEA) and both fridges are getting filled.  One is completely.  I've even donated some non-travel ones.

[clo]

On 10/13/2019 at 1:25 PM, cruznjan said:

My DI charms. They used to be free, but the last two I got were $5.

What's a DI charm?

[cruznjan]

28 minutes ago, clo said:

What's a DI charm?

Sorry, Diamonds International. They used to give coupons to get a free charm bracelet with a charm for that particular port. You also got a card with other ports where you could collect a charm.

[clo]

13 minutes ago, cruznjan said:

Sorry, Diamonds International. They used to give coupons to get a free charm bracelet with a charm for that particular port. You also got a card with other ports where you could collect a charm.

Were those charms made in the countries visited?  Or another "Hecho in China"?

[cruznjan]

7 hours ago, clo said:

Were those charms made in the countries visited?  Or another "Hecho in China"?

I don't know. Anyway, I only wear the bracelet on cruises.

[lenquixote66]

10 hours ago, clo said:

We have a second home (small apt in SEA) and both fridges are getting filled.  One is completely.  I've even donated some non-travel ones.

We have two refrigerators totally covered by magnets.We have never had more than one home at a time and in fact lived the majority of our lives in apartments.

[lenquixote66]

On 10/14/2019 at 5:42 PM, ShmuelCharlie said:

The only decent watch I've ever bought is the one I wear now on my wrist: a Citizen EcoDrive purchased at Boolchand's in St. Maarten in the fall of '08 while on a Southern Caribbean cruise aboard Adventure of the Seas. Subsequent watch purchases have not worked out so well for me because they were either too heavy for my wrist or too complicated to set, e.g.,, too many buttons to work on either side of the crown or the dial. 

 

Regarding magnets, I have a lot of them. Some are on my file cabinet and others are affixed to the sides of my fridge (they won't work on the front door). 

I have never been into jewelry.I am very happy with my Timex watch that I have worn for years.

[lenquixote66]

9 hours ago, clo said:

Were those charms made in the countries visited?  Or another "Hecho in China"?

Those are similar to the charms that all the jewelry stores on the islands give out.

They have no value and are very likely made in China

I bought a silver dollar from the Bermuda Mint and one from the Canadian mint years ago .

I have tee shirts from every place I have traveled to.

[ShmuelCharlie]

51 minutes ago, lenquixote66 said:

I have never been into jewelry.I am very happy with my Timex watch that I have worn for years.

One problem I've encountered w/jewelry such as rings I bought in the islands is that their stones are more glass than actual precious stones such as emeralds, rubies or sapphires. I wonder how many customers are scammed in that manner when they attempt to sell the jewelry to fund short-term cash needs and discover that their jewelry is worthless. 

[ShmuelCharlie]

11 hours ago, clo said:

It IS kinda funny how many have red/white/blue in some combination.

 

That's actually the best those flags looked.  First I stuck each one in Play-Do and down in the dirt.  They fell over.  Then we duct-taped them to the outside wall of the planter.  They blew/fell down.  I think next year we'll put them in the planter - like that one - across the back of the house.  Less wind.  But it IS fun, weighs almost nothing and takes up no space.  

Yeah, I agree w/the red, white, and blue colors in various European countries' flags: French, Dutch, Russian Federation, UK's Union Jack, etc. Have you also noticed how the South African flag uses all the colors in the Olympic flag? Also have a look at how similar Belgian and German flags are: black, yellow and red in different stripe configurations.

 

Two other points: 1. Have you noticed just how similar the Argentine and Uruguayan flags are w/respect to using a smiling sun? The Uruguayan flag has the smiling sun in the upper left field while the Argentine flag has the smiling sun in the middle white stripe. 2. The Aussies and the  New Zealand flags are almost the same except for how the Southern Cross appears. On the Aussie flag, the Southern Cross is at an angle to the star representing the island of Tasmania, while the New Zealand flag has the Southern Cross in a straighter position. 

 

One last item before I post this message: the study of flags is called vexology, something I learned a few months ago doing those fun online quizzes. So now you have a fun trivia response for the next time your family plays Trivial Pursuit or Jeopardy!: What is Vexology? 

[ShmuelCharlie]

11 hours ago, clo said:

We have a second home (small apt in SEA) and both fridges are getting filled.  One is completely.  I've even donated some non-travel ones.

Yeah, you can have too many magnets. I gave a few of mine away to work friends and donated many of them as Secret Santa gifts at work holiday parties. Unfortunately like the broom in the Mickey Mouse cartoon "Sorcerer's Apprentice", for every few magnets I gave away, they kept multiplying. Finally, I stopped buying the magnets, which stopped their multiplication like the real sorcerer stopped the brooms carrying the water that flooded his house. 

[clo]

1 hour ago, lenquixote66 said:

Those are similar to the charms that all the jewelry stores on the islands give out.

They have no value and are very likely made in China

I bought a silver dollar from the Bermuda Mint and one from the Canadian mint years ago .

I have tee shirts from every place I have traveled to.

We avoid mass merchandised items.  As I pointed out to someone you can go on Amazon and get similar things.

We stopped buying tees years and years ago.   I've been to around 50 countries and Bob has far more (lived in Germany in the army and traveled for business). And again, most aren't made in the country they advertise.  We buy little 'arts and crafts' for probably no more than $10.  Have 'collections' all over the house 🙂

[ShmuelCharlie]

10 hours ago, cruznjan said:

Sorry, Diamonds International. They used to give coupons to get a free charm bracelet with a charm for that particular port. You also got a card with other ports where you could collect a charm.

I thought those charms were offered by Pandora, the charm and bracelet jewelry store. Now I know that they're offered by DI. Thanks for correcting my memory of who offered those charms in the Caribbean ports. 🙂 

[clo]

34 minutes ago, ShmuelCharlie said:

One problem I've encountered w/jewelry such as rings I bought in the islands is that their stones are more glass than actual precious stones such as emeralds, rubies or sapphires. I wonder how many customers are scammed in that manner when they attempt to sell the jewelry to fund short-term cash needs and discover that their jewelry is worthless. 

Someone (you?) recently brought this up.  A friend who knew his jewels, pulled out his loupe, and was told to leave the store.  My husband over the years spent some time in Sao Paulo and eventually was introduced to a woman who had made her fortune selling good things to, at that time, "American businessmen."  She sold out of her wonderful home, in a great area, by invitation only.  We got an aquamarine.  Couldn't afford the precious stones.  A nice memory.

[clo]

19 minutes ago, ShmuelCharlie said:

fun trivia

Thanks for all of that.  Our upcoming cruise will stop in Montevideo and Buenos Aires so I'll have to check those out.

[clo]

15 minutes ago, ShmuelCharlie said:

Yeah, you can have too many magnets. I gave a few of mine away to work friends and donated many of them as Secret Santa gifts at work holiday parties. Unfortunately like the broom in the Mickey Mouse cartoon "Sorcerer's Apprentice", for every few magnets I gave away, they kept multiplying. Finally, I stopped buying the magnets, which stopped their multiplication like the real sorcerer stopped the brooms carrying the water that flooded his house. 

I think we're done with magnets also.  Here's something to consider:

https://thewanderclub.co/

We have a very fun world map in the kitchen that we'd been putting red pins up.  Now we have these.  I'll post a photo later.

[ShmuelCharlie]

3 minutes ago, clo said:

We avoid mass merchandised items.  As I pointed out to someone you can go on Amazon and get similar things.

We stopped buying tees years and years ago.   I've been to around 50 countries and Bob has far more (lived in Germany in the army and traveled for business). And again, most aren't made in the country they advertise.  We buy little 'arts and crafts' for probably no more than $10.  Have 'collections' all over the house 🙂

One thing about arts and craft items such as Native-made handicrafts is that places like Alaska requires that stores offering Native handicrafts display a special sticker or decal. The decal certify the store is selling merchandise made by the tribes who live in Alaska and are not imported from China, Japan, Philippines, Korea, etc. I wish other ports would follow Alaska's example.  

[ShmuelCharlie]

5 minutes ago, clo said:

Thanks for all of that.  Our upcoming cruise will stop in Montevideo and Buenos Aires so I'll have to check those out.

You're welcome. I'm going on a South American cruise, too, in several months. Two other trivia things about flags: 1. If you're sailing from Chile, check out its flag and tell me whether it resembles the flag of Texas w/that triangle in the left field. The difference is that Texas's flag has a star in that triangle while Chile's flag doesn't. 2. A trivia question: What's the only State flag showing a Union Jack along w/the red, white and blue stripes? Answer: Hawaii's flag. Reason: before it was a State and a Territory, it was a Kingdom, and it had a long relationship with Britain. That relationship is also why Honolulu has a Beretania Street and the Church of England churches on Hawaiian soil, decades before American missionaries reached the Islands. 🙂 

[clo]

3 minutes ago, ShmuelCharlie said:

flags

WOW!

[ShmuelCharlie]

24 minutes ago, clo said:

Someone (you?) recently brought this up.  A friend who knew his jewels, pulled out his loupe, and was told to leave the store.  My husband over the years spent some time in Sao Paulo and eventually was introduced to a woman who had made her fortune selling good things to, at that time, "American businessmen."  She sold out of her wonderful home, in a great area, by invitation only.  We got an aquamarine.  Couldn't afford the precious stones.  A nice memory.

I wonder if I ask a jewelry sales person if he or she had a spare pane of glass to test the stone to see if it cut the glass, would I also be told to leave their store? Answer: Probably yes. One other thing about glass and crystal: To test whether a piece was either glass or crystal, wet your finger tip and touch the item in a circular manner. If the item emits a musical note, it's crystal. Glass items make no sound. I learned that on an episode of CSI: NY, "Murder House." 

[ShmuelCharlie]

27 minutes ago, clo said:

I think we're done with magnets also.  Here's something to consider:

https://thewanderclub.co/

We have a very fun world map in the kitchen that we'd been putting red pins up.  Now we have these.  I'll post a photo later.

Yeah, I also have a travel world map that has pins. A friend warned me that sometimes those pins fall off and can create a hazard to anybody walking on a carpet in bare feet: they are risking their skin through exposure to unseen pins in the carpet's fibers. 

[lenquixote66]

1 hour ago, clo said:

We avoid mass merchandised items.  As I pointed out to someone you can go on Amazon and get similar things.

We stopped buying tees years and years ago.   I've been to around 50 countries and Bob has far more (lived in Germany in the army and traveled for business). And again, most aren't made in the country they advertise.  We buy little 'arts and crafts' for probably no more than $10.  Have 'collections' all over the house 🙂

I have never been to anywhere other than North America with the exception of one cruise to South America ,however,one of my daughters has traveled all over the world and almost always brings me back a tee shirt made in the country she visits.

Whenever Mrs.66 and I cruise we always endeavor to buy an article of clothing made where we are.

[ShmuelCharlie]

11 minutes ago, lenquixote66 said:

I have never been to anywhere other than North America with the exception of one cruise to South America ,however,one of my daughters has traveled all over the world and almost always brings me back a tee shirt made in the country she visits.

Whenever Mrs.66 and I cruise we always endeavor to buy an article of clothing made where we are.

When I started traveling w/my family, we had car trips to Boston; Springfield, MA for family Bar and Bat Mitzvahs; Lake of the Ozarks (in Missouri); the Poconos (in Northeastern PA); Hershey and Lancaster, PA; NYC for Passover and Bar Mitzvahs; DC, etc., along w/a first long flight trip to and from Florida (for a cousin's Bar Mitzvah). Later, in my late teens, I ventured across the Pond to Europe and then to Eastern Canada. Also in my teens, my family went to visit my maternal grandparents living in Miami Beach and other locales. 

 

My first cruise aboard Home Lines' Oceanic took me to Bermuda and the Bahamas (Nassau). Before that cruise, the only times I have been aboard larger vessels than power boats or sailboats were when I was aboard an overnight ferry to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia (Prince of Fundy lines) from Portland (July '75) and the Cape May ferry to Lewes, Delaware (August '69). By the time I returned to Europe in the mid-90s aboard HAL's Statendam for a 12-day cruise that visited the Aegean, Black Sea, and the Med, I had caught the "cruise bug" and never made myself cured of this wonderful "disease."

 

Cruises have taken more to most of the Caribbean, Mexico, and many European countries. But there are some places I haven't visited, like Scandinavian countries such as Norway  and Iceland; Asia, most of Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and most of South America. Now that I'm retired, I'm checking off a few countries from my bucket list.  🙂 

 

I do have a question for CC members: how do I insert the cruise ship names and dates in the signature area like other posters?

Thanks.