Never too old!

[rav4lady]

I too check for the postings very frequently! Sorry the organ deal didn't work out for him..hope he has great table mates rest of his trip.

[yellowbird23]

Nothing new to post. Waiting to hear from Egon.

[travelinggrandma]

Please continue. I think there are a lot of us that read, but don't post. I have told so many people about his adventures and about you keeping us updated. Thanks for taking the time to do this.

[yellowbird23]

Originally Posted by travelinggrandma

Please continue. I think there are a lot of us that read, but don't post. I have told so many people about his adventures and about you keeping us updated. Thanks for taking the time to do this.

Thank you...

[Host Kat >^..^<]

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[foxglove]

I will be boarding Egon's ship on Sunday for a two week cruise. That means I will be there for the Superbowl party, Egon's birthday, Valentine' day and all of the parties invented just for cruise shps.

I promise to post when I have the chance but I do not travel with a computer and know of only a few internet spots in the ports we will be visiting. It will have been about six weeks since I helped Egon find that first hotel in Cozumel and I am very anxious to see him again.

Dick Young

[Okie1946]

It has been a while since we have heard from Egon and I know some of us are starting to worry. I know we all wish we could have been of assistance when he needed all of the help on shore - but am really glad that you were there at that time and place.

Enjoy your cruise and please tell him for me, that he has become an important part of my day, even though I have never met him. I so enjoy his postings and hope his cruise is living up to everything he had hoped for.

[yellowbird23]

Originally Posted by foxglove

I will be boarding Egon's ship on Sunday for a two week cruise. That means I will be there for the Superbowl party, Egon's birthday, Valentine' day and all of the parties invented just for cruise shps.

I promise to post when I have the chance but I do not travel with a computer and know of only a few internet spots in the ports we will be visiting. It will have been about six weeks since I helped Egon find that first hotel in Cozumel and I am very anxious to see him again.

Dick Young

So glad you could help him. I KNOW from his e-mail that he really appreciated it. You must like Poesia better than I did. The only reason I took that cruise was to meet him. Tell him I said hi and to behave himself when you see him. Still haven't heard from him either and that isn't the norm and I, too, am getting worried. May have to e-mail Steve.

P.S. After I wrote this, I received 3 e-mails and I am assuming that he is scooting along and enjoying himself. As long as I hear "something" from him, I can assure you that he is okay. As soon as he let's me know, I'll let you all know. I think he is enjoying keeping us in suspense!!

Patty in PA

[yellowbird23]

Originally Posted by Host Kat >^..^<

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Kat [IMG]http://skins.***********/skins/mailskins/em/070106/070106YA43_prv.gif[/IMG]

Cool! Thanks...learn something in here every day.

[yellowbird23]

# 34 Jan 28 - Mar 6, 2011

In Philipsburg (St. Marten), there were six huge ships moored side by side and head to toe, including the largest Cruiseship, the Solstice, which has over 6000 passengers. Next to us were two P&O ships (English), behind us the German "AIDA" to whose free WiFi signal I was able to latch onto which made me very happy because in this place there were only very expensive possibilities otherwise which I could find on previous visits.

At 2.30pm I watched the departure from deck 14; repeated announcements just before called for two probably French Canadians that obviously hadn't returned tobu the ship. So departure was actually delayed some 15 minutes but then started to back away from the pier. Just as it was about 1 meter out, a golf cart with two people raced up and then the ship actually reversed itself, got back close enough to the pier for the gangplank to reach and the two got on. A few minutes later and they would have been out of such luck.

Jan. 29, a sea day. Did my 20 laps and jaccuzzi massage this morning and feel pretty smug about it.
Jan. 30, ditto. Now in Fort Lauderdale going through the immigration mill once again. Huge change of passengers.
They sure try to streamline things, but it's complicated with so many people disembarking, staying for another cruise but having to leave the ship for the i mmigration procedure, and then being ready for the new crop to board.
The "new crop" at the dining room table turns out to be 4 men: Cyril from England, Elliot from Toronto, Bob and Jeff from the States. They all enjoyed the champagne and strawberries, like expected. I brought three of the berries to Angelica, together with the music to "Phantom of the Opera", which Dennis had bought for her, and a little stuffed dog, which I did, having been with Dennis since noon when he came to get me at Terminal 4 in F.L. We did a lot of cruising around and finally found the Toojay Deli where he invited me for matzoball soup and a chopped liver sandwich. But I was pretty tired when we got back close to 6pm.

Jan 30, at Key West, I took a taxi to the hospital emergency in hopes that there I could get the spot on my nose excised but after the usual hospital waiting and roiutine I was referred to Dr. Berman in town whom I had already fingered on the internet as being one of two dermatologists and because he was listed as being associated with the hospital, I went there first. Another taxi to his office in a private house in town, much ado about insurance and payment, finally saw him and he agreed that it was very likely a skin cancer and should come out - anyway, an appointment for this procedure has now been made for Feb 14 at 11.30 am. I wonder how big the hole in my nose will be and how I could avoid that my nose becomes the focus of my personality!! After that I will only be in Key West once more on Feb.28.
Taxi fares alone came to almost $60 and I also paid for the visit to Dr. Berman $ 98. Whether I'll be able to recover this or the hospital charges (which they'll send per mail to Canada) is doubtful. Poor Steve and his inheritance.

Feb 3. Georgetown (Cayman Islands ), sitting in front of Starbucks and have an erratic Wifi. We had to tender in this port. Next to us is Holland America's Niew Amsterdam, which is only some 6 months old. As a souvenir to my hospital visit a few days ago, I caught some sort of bug - anyway, coughing my fool head off - what a bloddy nuisance. Found a way to make the "spot" on my nose almost invisble: take only tape from a Bandaid - it's the same colour as the skin. Just now I got hailed by a couple: Dr. Wessel who was an optometrist in Osoyoos had rercognized me! The world sure is small!

Well, I got a message from Pat chafing at the bit because too much time has elapsed since I sent the last report. So here it is, with love and greetings to all! Tomorrow I'll be in Cozumel again. Don't make me get on that darned Poesia again Egon!!! lol



















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[Host Kat >^..^<]

Originally Posted by yellowbird23

Cool! Thanks...learn something in here every day.

You are most welcome!

Glad to be of service,
Kat [IMG]http://skins.***********/skins/mailskins/em/050103/050103cat_prv.gif[/IMG]

[INCHARGE]

Hi Pat, and everyone who frequents this post. It was so good to hear from Egon. I hope he is feeling better, and gets to enjoy seeing Foxglove again. This time it should be a better time for him, with less pain. I can't wait to hear from both of them. I hope Egon likes football, and was able to enjoy it. Dick sure was looking forward to seeing the game on the ship.

Pat, thanks again for keeping everyone up on his adventures.

[yellowbird23]

Originally Posted by INCHARGE

Hi Pat, and everyone who frequents this post. It was so good to hear from Egon. I hope he is feeling better, and gets to enjoy seeing Foxglove again. This time it should be a better time for him, with less pain. I can't wait to hear from both of them. I hope Egon likes football, and was able to enjoy it. Dick sure was looking forward to seeing the game on the ship.

Pat, thanks again for keeping everyone up on his adventures.

You're quite welcome INCHARGE! I am more concerned with the cancer that he has on his nose. My father (who is soon 92) has had skin cancers and now has a prosthetic nose due to it. He needs to watch this closely.

[woodboat]

Thanks to so many of you who took time to email/contact Dad on occasion of his 94th Celebration. When I talked with him today he expressed his enjoyment of all the direct contacts & messages and also the onboard events on POESIA today.

All the Best to You and Yours ~ Steve Landsberg

[yellowbird23]

Happy (belated) 94th birthday to Egon....2/9/1917....

[yellowbird23]

Back in Fort Lauderdale and through the chaos of immigration which again took over 2 hours until we could get back on the ship - in my case the first floor of the Terminal Building where I have WiFi. A very large number of people were disembarking this time and every time there is such an exchange of people it also seems the makeup as to their composition changes markedly: whereas the previous bunch was nostly elderly, the last one much younger.
On the way to here from Cozumel, the ship stopped in the middle of the ocean to pick up two Cubans on a raft;
later on they were taken off by the US Coast Guard. In Cozumel, I first checked out another Walmart-type Superstore and again bought two 1L bottles of Schweppes Ginger Ale at 8 Peso (about75 cents) each - what a bargain! I am stocking up! Then I drove the pretty long way to the Flamingo Hotel, where I was greeted with hugs by several employees - Thomas will only be back there today, Feb.6. Then I was able to do my email thanks to their WiFi, then drove by the "Sabores" restaurant for a soup and returned to the ship mid afternoon. In the evening, a lady from England named Paula had been added to our table which enriched the situation considerably. But I left the table early to have my dessert with newly found friends Cathy and Rob Walsh from Michigan and did so also at the Gala night and last night. I am really sorry to "lose"them - we got along like a house on fire and Cathy was a worthy Scrabble partner. Except for Burla, who stays for another cruise leg, all the others have left and it's always a surprise who turns up at 8 o'clock. With luck, they'll have champagne and strawberries ...
I did my 20 laps every morning these last few days, but do have to discipline myself to do it - the water is not very warm and neither is the air at 7.15 am. Then the jacuzzi -one of the two best installations I find: it has so many powerful jets, that, if you are alone, you can stretch out and get an almost complete body massage. The other is the bathroom in my cabin; it's well designed, roomy and well lit; the shower is ecellent and all the fixtures of top quality. Apart from that, towels get replaced sometimes twice a day, the white bathrobe (weighs a ton!) they replace (unnecessarily) every week - I am really spoiled. Of course the bed is turned up in the evening and my PJ's nartistically laid out - since I have rewarded my room- and bathroom-stewards, they really bend over backwards for me.
At the Dining Room table a turn-around: now, I am surrounded by three ladies: Paula, Carol and Sally. The champagne was flowing again and the chocolate-clad strawberries could have been effective seduction...
Huge influx of new faces, little beauty, lot of overweight and much physical handicap. Also quite a lot of kids.
French Canadians are in evidence (they usually talk and laugh too loud) and there are also a few black people.
Seas were rough and Temperatures cool this morning; did only 10 laps.
Feb. 8 - second day at sea, rough seas again so short swim but nice jaccuzzi massage. Have an appointment with Patricia this afternoon - she is the ship's representative at the Fort Lauderdale MSC office on whose desk I think my organ proposition landed and died. Later I'll play in the Atrium, as I did yesterday also. Patricia says that she forwarded the proposal to higher authority. I later also sent her a photo of the organ which she also sent. But I am pretty certain that this is a lost cause.

Feb 9, my birthday. I got what is obviously a form letter sent to anyone having a birthday by the Obelisc restaurant essentially soliciting business (have your birthday party with us!), listing the menu prices ($ 25 and $ 33). The letter was callously addressed "Dear Landberg, Egon" (including my misspelled name). I would never go there.
On the other hand, a very nice card came, inviting me to a "special Dinner to celebrate your birthday". While the dinner was the regular menu in the restaurant where I always eat, it was "special" in that it included Stefano, the Hotel Secretary, Alessandro, customer relations, Larissa, manager of the Spa and Patricia, Poesia's representative at the Fort Lauderdale office, who came very late, obviously quite stressed with the work she was involved in and also left early. Before the Dinner, I sat in the office with Stefano. Loretta (Ship's immigration office) , Alessandro and the dear Antonio, Hotel Manager. This was really very nice and we all had a few good laughs. Unfortunately, come March 23 in Genoa, all of them will leave (as also the Trio Cantanapoli and others) and new staff and entertainers will take over. Obviously, an entirely new beginning and probably experience awaits. While I look forward to the European voyages, this continuous loss of new found friends I am not happy about.
At the end of our dinner, a large number of the Indonesian waiters, with all sorts of utensils to make rythms started out, singing their own version of 'Happy Birthday', marching away from our vicinity only to turn around and come back to our table, where they stood, sang and presented me with a beautifully decorated cake with 2 candles. I am attaching a few pictures of nnice event. By the way, I was told that there are some 650 Canadians on board, vs. only about 1400 Americans; considering that Canada's population is only about 10% of America's, this is quite remarkable. The Canadians are mostly French speaking Quebecois.
February 10, Philipsburg. with six cruiseships in port including the 6000 passenger "Solstice", next to us is a Royal Caribbean ship; from some of the balconies (there are 8 decks of them the whole length of the ship) hang flags of the occupants and I see Swiss (!), Canadian, German, US and two others. On the other side of us is again the German "Aida", but it's WiFi, which at the last visit was free and accessible is no longer so and I spent quite a bit of time trying to find something other than the $10hr charge at the Telecom store or $7 at the place in town. Eventually I gave up since in two days we'll be in Nassau, where I am "home frree" and can send this out.
February 11 is another day at sea and I have a date for a Scrabble game with Mandy, my Favorite at the Reception Desk. However, it is now 20 minutes after the agreed on time of 10AM and she is not here. I guess she overslept.
But later in the afternoon I find out the real reason: she was given something for her ongoing allergies to which she had such a violent reaction that she actually passed out and was in a coma-like sleep for several hours. Poor girl, she was so embarrassed but I felt for her. Obviously, this was a pretty serious situation which could have easily been very dangerous.

[yellowbird23]

My dear friends, I am forced to ask you all not to send me anything else but personal messages - I just cannot cope any more! I had over 40 emails here in Nassau, where I have already spent 3 hours on the computer with an agonizingly slow connection. Believe me, I will always cherish hearing from you, but just cannot handle the forwardings, much as I have liked so many of them. In every port I am faced with "iffy" internet signals and narrow bandwidths, usually aggravated by the many other passengers and crews from our and other ships using their laptops. I will let you know if the situation changes once we go to Europe in March (17 day cruise from Fort Lauderdale to Genoa, Italy with many stops in between on the Mediterranean coast of Spain).

Thanks for your understanding! I send my love !

Egon









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[yellowbird23]

This time in Fort Lauderdale I managed to escape the long waits everywhere by using several devious methods - suffice it to say that I was out of the Terminal Building in less than an hour. I waited there for Barbara who very kindly was going to pass by to deliver an envelope with several important items Leda had mailed for me;Barbara had an appontment at 10.30 and was going to pass by ebtween 10 and 10.15 but I sat on my scooter right where she would enter the extremely busy parking lot until she came after 10.30, handed me the letter and was off. So
now I have the Motor Vehicle DIvision Form for a medical assessment of my ability to drive a car and I have to see where this examination can be done while I am still onthis side of the Atlantic.
At the table tonight are four ladies: Sandra and Marlene from Australia and Diane and Muriel from Quebec, all between 55 and 70 (my guess). Of course the champagne and the strawberries were a welcome surprise but I really get tired of having to explain why I get this, which invariably leads to the entire story with the ever recurring questions. I am vaguely thinking of writing this out and pass it around!
Febuary 14: Key West, and my appointment with Dr.Berman. I get off the ship fairly early and walk (pretty far) to the Postoffice to mail a short letter to Dorchen, the good soul who sent me a congratulary bautifully decorated letter which had been enclosed with Leda's envelope. Then took a taxi to the doctor's office in a private house and had to wait about an hour. We had a good conversation before he started the operation; except for the initial inbjections there was no pain and I wound up with 5 or 6 stitches and a bill for $720. I don't know how much of
this I'll get back from the IMG Inurance company, but I already have printed out the claim forms they emailed me
and soon will submit them.
In the evening I was invited to a special little cocktail party for VIP guests; there was a lady from New York State named Susan with her boyfriend and an Italian lady Gina, also living in New York. Susan obviously has been cruising for a long time on many lines and kind of dominated the affair, hosted by Stefano, Alessandro and another officer whose name I forgot.
Why they insist on calling this a "cocktail" party escapes me, for the eternal champagne which they offer is no cocktail.

However, tonight, Feb 15, the first Gala night, is the General Cocktail Party, the only occasion where they offer Martinis and another cocktail besides champagne.
Last night was pretty bad because of my now painful nose and it is still so. I didn't go to swim today - was just too tired. This afternoon played Scrabble with very nice Beate from Germany who speaks good English and lives an
interesting life. She lived for a year in India, working I understand in business promotion but has been in many other coutries as well. Unmarried (but with a friend in Germany), she has a 6 month old girl and her mother with her and will stay for two legs. At 4 I played in the Atrium and while there were quite a few appreciative listeners, the ladies from my table, as well as Beate, didn't show even though they had said that they wanted to come and listen. (But later, at the Dinner table, I found out that they did come and were on the balcony where I didn't see them) and also Beate was on another balcony she told me when we met in Ocho Rios this afternoon (Feb.16) where I was at "my" WiFi Station.
February 17: This morning I went to the ship's Medical Center because where my leg was damaged in the scooter accident at Christmas time, I had developed a bleeding ulcer as it turned out. Now am on antibiotics (3 times a day) and have to have the wound dressed every day at the Center. The doc warned me of the seriousness of this situation. Obviously I've had a low grade infection for some time which would explain my lack of appetite and tiredness. Never a dull moment.

[yellowbird23]

From time to time, Egon sends some pics and if anyone would be able to help me by adding them here it would be much appreciated. I will send you the original e-mail with the attachments so that everyone can enjoy those pics. I do not have the patience to figure them out.

[Okie1946]

I don't know if this has been said enough and by others, but I do want to thank you for taking the time to keep us all up on Egon's adventures. He has become a very important part of my day and I so look forward to his postings.