Overhead Fred

From the Butterfly Farm in Aruba (https://www.thebutterflyfarm.com/index.html) -

@grapau27 - For Pauline!

My fourth cousin, far removed...

Here is Mitzi's birthday cake from yesterday - It was delicious!

Mitzi thanks everyone for all the birthday greetings! Niall and Emilee are coming over and they baked a Guinness chocolate cake for Mitzi. We are having chicken like Mitzi's mom used to make - bone-in chicken parts with egg/milk wash, dredge in seasoned flour, brown well in a skillet, put in the oven (covered) with onion and more spices, bake until falling off the bone, make gravy with the pan drippings. I am getting hungry just describing it! For Lenda @Quartzsite Cruiser -

I am going to petition Cruise Critic to add a Groan Button🙄!

We just had a similar experience. Our flights to FLL on April 3 for the 150th Anniversary transatlantic showed a "schedule change, check back later" error message when I looked at Flight Ease last week. And our reservation had disappeared from the Delta website. I tried putting in the airline locator code, but no such reservation existed as far as Delta was concerned. Our return flights from Amsterdam (on a separate HAL booking #) were still there. So in a bit of a panic I call the Flight Ease number (800-628-4771, note that you must choose option 3 or you will get routed to regular reservations and they will simply tell you to call the 4771 number 🙄). I gave my tale of woe to a helpful lady who said she would check into it and put me on hold. After several minutes, she came back on and said all was fixed! I asked what caused the problem, but did not get a clear response. It seemed like maybe some computer glitch in my case? Anyhoo, the flights were back on the Flight Ease and Delta sites with the original locator codes. We did loose our seat assignments (and FE offered to help with that), but I chose to redo them on the Delta site. So, other than the initial panic attack, it was not a particularly big deal in our case. Maybe I just caught it quickly enough. I guess it pays to keep checking; I can't imagine the stress if I discovered this when going online to check in for the flights!

Beauty, Eh?

San Juan, from three different visits -

Exactly!!

Well, very interesting. We are on the Rotterdam from April 3 through May 6 on a B2B. I just checked and Canaletto is no longer showing up for either segment of the cruise. Our April 8 Canaletto reservation still shows up on our itinerary for the first segment. This was one of our "free" HIA specialty diners (and our anniversary!) - very curious to see how they handle this...

The Crow's Nest might work during the day

Yes, you can get coffees etc much earlier than 11:30am. But I don't remember their exact opening time. They also have pastries then.

No shoveling! We pretty much don't use the patio and front door during winter. The side door by the driveway is more convenient!

Have a look at https://halfacts.com/. They have photos of lots of different rooms.

The big storm forecast for Saint Paul did not live up to expectations. We got a foot or so of snow yesterday and today. It seems that the really bad stuff went south of the Twin Cities. Lots of places closed down in anticipation of the sno-pocalypse including our tennis club. So I can't celebrate tennis day reliving all my brilliant shots from last night🤣! Even worse, no after tennis beer drinking! Here is a shot of our front patio. It was almost empty of snow a few of days ago -

Saint John USVI seems like a bit of paradise to me. We would love to do an extended stay sometime - maybe in one of the resorts....

Laissez les bons temps rouler! Unfortunately, both of these are off the menu for this year as we are cutting way back on carbs!

@leck57 - I have not sailed on the Westerdam but have been on one of its sister ships (Oosterdam) at least twice. We have been on the Koningsdam and Nieuw Statendam several times. The Pinnacle class ships like the Nieuw Statendam, have more entertainment venues and more restaurant choices. The music programs seem to be evolving and there has been much turmoil on the HAL forum about this. But nobody really knows how good or bad the changes will be. The Dutch Cafe does have very good coffee (and food!) and is fairly centrally located. The Lido on the NS seems more spacious and well organized to me. We usually only have breakfast or lunch there and try to go during off-peak times. The chaos, or lack thereof, for MDR open seating may vary a lot from ship to ship and cruise to cruise depending on passenger load (and temperament), staffing level, cruise length, and such. We always use late fixed dining, so I can't comment directly. Club Orange is worth considering. Tendering should be similar on the ship-side assuming the crew is well trained as per usual. However, weather and shore-side operations can have significant detrimental effects. I think you will be happy with your proposed Canary Islands/Baltic cruise on the Nieuw Statendam. Especially since you will be cruising the Canary Islands with @VMax1700 and us 😁!

Never met a BHB that I did not like and would sail on any of them if the itinerary was "right". Since we usually take longer cruises and enjoy sea days, the Pinnacle ships are our preference followed by the Signatures (Tamarind!). But we also did a circle Hawaii cruise on a Vista (10 sea days) and loved it. My one (and maybe only) complaint with the R class is the relatively high cost of veranda cabins since there are only two decks worth. And She Who Must Be Obeyed says - no veranda, no cruise!

We have been to Barcelona once and would gladly visit again! We did a tour that went by many of Gaudi's buildings, including La Sagrada Familia. Amazing architecture and incredible attention to details.