ottahand7

Some Rio photos from yesterday. No news on the status of my house yet.

Good Sunday morning. A steamy morning I'm Rio. We finally got our laundry back except for one bag that I mislabeled 6202 instead of 6206. Our intrepid steward Bobby is working on it. No one wouldn't know who it belonged to because it was a pale blue tunic with the Atlas of the World printed all over it. We enjoyed yesterday walking around Rio. Lots of graffiti and people dressed for parades. @grapau27 sympathy for Sarah on the loss of her friend. Prayers for all on our Care list and for Jimmy Carter and his family at this time. Prayers for the people of Ukraine. We just got a post from our neighborhood FB page that a large box truck backed into the front of a neighbor's house and when the lights and message came on they fled. I will contact my across the street neighbor to see if our house is Ok. Have a great day! Nancy

We are back on the ship after we walked around town for a couple hours. Got some great street view and flower photos. Having never been here before I didn't know that many young people dress up early in the morning. It made our walk more colorful. Both the grand science museum and the modern art museum were locked up tight. The beautiful monastery nearby is also closed. I am sitting on my balcony thank goodness offloading is forward so I don't have to smell diesel all afternoon. We are having laundry problems on this ship. I got my 8 unmentionable items yesterday because I told them I was out. We have had jeans and t shirts gone for three days. I called guest services and they said they were. having laundry issues. Will be out of non dressy hot weather clothing soon. I wish HA would show just one NASCAR race and show the Daytona to kick the season off right.

For whale day. Probably Paradise Bay.

Good morning from Rio. We arrived an hour late and ate sitting in the terminal while John backs up his photos. No tours for us. Two of mine were cancelled due to Carnival traffic issues and the the remaining tours took us to great heights that I am afraid to see. We will use Google maps and walk around this area. Really afraid to take a taxi die to the traffic problems. Thanks for the Daily and Fleet Reports Ann. Thanks for the cares report @JazzyV. Prayers for all on our list and for the people of Ukraine. Prayers for a ship friend who had to disembark yesterday because of severe breathing problems. She had been using her portable oxygen for the last couple of days and now she is too unstable to return to the ship. I hope that that they can get her stable enough to fly home soon. 😿 We saw fire works last night over the neighborhood across the river. I hope that is ongoing each night. Have a great Saturday! Nancy

Good Friday morning from Santos Brazil. I don't know what we are doing but while waiting I am enjoying our balcony. It will be in the 90s today. Thank you for the Fleet Report Ann and for the tasty looking cocktail. Prayers for all on our Care list and for the people of Ukraine. I hope they can secure more ammo. There is still spotty Covid cases on the ship. I ran into a hallway neighbor and told him I missed seeing his wife. He said he had Covid then she tested positive so she remained in isolation until she clears. I saw her last night and she said she had just had the sniffles. Very sad they missed 2 stops in Argentina and 2 in Uruguay some of the best on the trip. There has been no testing since we neared Panama. A few photos from yesterday. Have a wonderful day! Nancy

Good morning everyone. We are off the coast of Brazil heading into Santos tomorrow. Have a wonderful day! Nancy

I hope your niece gets an employment attorney. After working in big business in the US nothing like your DN seizure disorder should have been shared. Her company that did that should be sued then give her full disability. They got her off their insurance and never having to have her on temporary disability again. Terrible and an HR nightmare. Sitting here enjoying our balcony looking out at the Atlantic. We had a great dinner with a wonderful wine we bought ashore. Big shakeup in our cellar masters. We now have 2 on a 1400 passenger ship. We have Fernando who was with us from the beginning and now we also have cellar master #2 Patricia I think formerly from the Rotterdam. Hmmm @StLouisCruisersthanks for the photos of Roatan. We are going there next February and have never been. Saw a whale this afternoon while stretching in the gym. Got a great look at it really close bilit by the time I grabbed my camera and got out on the balcony it had dove. Dinner tonight. Fried calamari, mozzarella salad, petit filet, mahi Diablo and sugar free raspberry mousse. Early seating very busy probably because of new people boarding in Buenos Aires. Have a great evening. Nancy

Good Wednesday morning. We are almost back into the Atlantic with a bit of Uruguay coast still in view. Beautiful sun and the high 60s. Ann @Cat@cat shepard thanks for starting us off morning and @JazzyV for doing our Care and celebration lists. Prayers for Roy, Tana and Kathi and those needing prayers. Prayers for the people of Ukraine, Syria, Turkey and NZ and for the families impacted by the train derailment and the MSU community. Thanks for the food and drinks each day. We had a lovely Valentine's Day dinner in the Pinnacle Grill. I like that many of the special dinners don't have wine added so it mediates the cost. We always bring a lot from home for these events. It was lovely. We had a beautiful sunset leaving Buenos Aires yesterday. Have a nice day! Nancy

@smitty34877 Terry, I am sorry about Tana's disappointing news. Sandi @StLouisCruisersI am so sad to hear of the bad news about your DB. I am also sorry to hear your ship is so crowded. Roy @rafinmd I hope you have good news at your pulmonologist today. Ann thank you for doing the Daily and care reports for us. We will stay in Buenos Aires until 19:00. A nice surprise for many guests I am sure. We were in port with a smaller Royal Caribbean Shop, a Silversea ship and today so far it it is a smaller MSC ship. Happy Valentine's Day! We are having a Valentine's dinner in the PG and a special bottle of wine with dinner. We will walk around the city today. No message from Guest Services yet. Prayers for all on our Care list, the people of Ukraine and Tana, Jacqui, Kathi and Roy. @grapau27 thank you for the update on Sarah. I am glad to hear her pain is beginning to get better. We did a panoramic city tour and tapas and wine yesterday afternoon. It was a overview of some of the sights in the old town. Then we had our tasting in a restaurant cellar and had an informative talk about the growing regions of Argentinian wines. We didn't get to taste any chardonnay so we didn't buy anything there (the ship is currently out of decent chardonnay) so we selected a couple of Catena Mendoza chardonnays at the port facility. We were able to bring them aboard with no corkage because of our tour allowing a bottle each no corkage. The food and wine were very nice, the comments were excellent but the glasses were crummy. That is our last shorex until February 24. Very little in Brazil are compelling and after hearing of Sandi's experiences in Brazil with the heat I don't think we will be to disappointed. Have a wonderful day! Ours started with a beautiful sunrise. I always know when to get up when I hear cabin doors slamming.

@marshhawk great news on your work schedule!

Good morning. Finally a morning not having to have room service coffee at 6am. Ann thank you for starting off our daily reports! Prayers for all on our Care list and the people of Ukraine. Special prayers for Kathi. Our adventures continue with me as a solo yesterday. I rode a horse on the Pampas with 6 others on our tour. It was supposed to be 2 hours riding on dirt roads through the Pampas. For two of us it was riding an hour and a half and laying in a ditch under a poplar for a half hour waiting for a pickup. I bailed out first and shortly thereafter another lady bailed out. It took more riding to find some shade. Our ride took a half hour to show up but we still beat the other riders back. After I had poured bottled water all over me and then ran my head under cold water did I have the energy to look at AccuWeather, it was 105. I wish I had taken a screenshot. I drank about 5 glasses of water with a little orange juice before I felt human again. I did put a pretty good dent in the Argentinian BBQ they put in front of us and 2 glasses of Malbec. While the others swam I saw our minibus running in the shade so I sprawled out on the back seat and slept. We rode very well mannered retired polo pony mares and were given the opportunity to ride fast if we wanted. I managed to get a good trot going for a hundred feet a couple of times but it got to the point I was just hoping I didn't faint. My skin was powder white from evaporated sweat. Would I do it again yes but I would bail out if the temperature was going to be over 95 degrees. There was a group from our ship that also took polo lessons and got to play a little and then see a 4 rider match. Today we have a Tapas and Wine late lunch and a panoramic city tour. John started negotiations with Daphne from Guest Services. With my $1500 credit, the remains of my $1100 deposit and the cancellation of Volunteer Point King Penguins shorex I have $2650 credit. Seattle doesn't open till much later today so we will see if John can secure us a cabin upgrade on the Eurodam in 2024 in lieu of a credit I do not need. The food on the grill was the leftovers after 25+ people gorged on beef.

Good Sunday morning. We are in Buenos Aires for the next three days. I missed checking in yesterday because we had a long day in Montevideo and at the winery. It was a great shore excursion again. Ann thanks for starting us off with the daily and care reports. Prayers for all on our Care list and the people of Ukraine. Thanks for all the well wishes while we were kicked out of our home at sea. Their renumeration is $1500 on board credit. I had $600 remaining so I have $2100 to spend over 33 days. Fully booked on shore excursions and 3 Pinnacle Grill dinners prepaid. John is going to go to guest services today to tell them what we think of their offer. I am off to the Pampas to ride a horse in the 90 degree heat. Have a great day!

@Cruising-along those "littles" are darling. Thanks for giving them a home. The grey one reminds me of my Korat Tiny RIP.

Sandi, glad you made it down safely. Bon Voyage! We are back in our cabin but 2 trips to guest services to get it straightened out and then request them to deliver my bags back home. First sunset back home and a few photos of PDE.

Just got back.from our long day of shore excursion. I was thinking we would return to a blinking message light. Not so. John was so optimistic he carried his bag up there this morning and headed straight up to our cabin. Nope still on Dolphin deck. Last night something was protruding from the hull because our cabin was 5 times as loud as it was crossing the Drake Passage. Finally at 12:30 am I sent a message to guest services and let them have it. My main point is they gave us the worst cabin on the ship next to mid ship gangway and that it sounded like a freight train or sometimes a subway platform all night last night. I told the I paid for my balcony, my bathtub and peace and quiet. Not a message from guest services. I told them their skimpy renumeration was pitiful. Our shore excursion was great. Punta del Este is beautiful and we had a great lunch that started rocky due to crowding that could have been handled better but they fixed it with a lot of good food and wine. Thanks for the Daily Reports and for our Care list. Prayers for all needing them, the people of Ukraine and Roy, Jacqui,.Tana and Kathi. Photos maybe later have a Tamarind pop up.at 5:30 and another early long day tomorrow. Nancy

@kochleffelso sorry you have Covid. I hope it is a mild case. I don't want to jinx us but since our one early January we haven't had a Covid test so numbers must be low onboard. @StLouisCruisers Bon Voyage, enjoy your upcoming cruise! 🍾⛴️. No air cleaner in the cabin just those giant fans. Now they have one running in the hall about 12 cabins down from us on Dolphin deck. @Seasick Sailor I hope you can see a doctor who can help you. Captain Arno did his noon briefing and will be departing on Saturday in Montevideo. He said a captain who was on the Volendam previously will be returning. We have a 7:15 report time for our shore excursion tomorrow going to an art museum, a scenic lookout and then to a winery hotel for lunch and wine tasting. I hope it isn't three buses worth of visitors. No message on our answering machine so I will go up and shop my closet once more for clothes for dinner and tomorrow. Tomorrow is also a Tamarind pop up. Hope we return in time. Nancy

@kochleffelso sorry you have Covid. I hope it is a mild case. I don't want to jinx us but since our one early January we haven't had a Covid test so numbers must be low onboard. @StLouisCruisers Bon Voyage, enjoy your upcoming cruise! 🍾⛴️. No air cleaner in the cabin just those giant fans. Now the have one running in the hall about 12 cabins down from us. @Seasick Sailor I hope you can see a doctor who can help you. Captain Arno did his noon briefing and will be departing on Saturday in Montevideo. He said a captain who was on the Volendam previously will be returning. We have a 7:15 report time for our shore excursion tomorrow going to an art museum, a scenic lookout and then to a winery hotel for lunch and wine tasting. I hope it isn't three buses worth of visitors. No message on our answering machine so I will go up and shop my closet once more for clothes for dinner and tomorrow. Tomorrow is also a Tamarind pop up. Hope we return in time. Nancy

Good morning! Sandi thanks again for starting us off with our daily reports. Prayers for all on our Care list and the people of Ukraine. Roy so glad to hear you are slowly on the mend. Prayers for Jacqui, Kathi and Tana and continued healing for Roy. Day 5 begins on the Dolphin deck. Let's hope it is today we return to our cabin. When I went up to get more clothes yesterday it is getting drier but there still is something in the air that induced coughing. It doesn't take much to induce coughing with me though. We are planning to sit on our balcony this afternoon to get some sunshine and whale watch. Our shore excursion was fun although there were three buses at the sheep farm and the seal viewing area. First time we shared a venue with a bus from another ship. I would think they wouldn't want mixing of germs. Celebrity ship possibly Infinity in port with us. The city was beautiful and so were the environs of the estancia and the seal colony. It was a steppe area where we saw more wildlife on our bus ride to the farm than we had seen on our other land based shore excursions this trip. Patagonian Fox, many Rias, all kinds of land birds like quail and partridge and some prairie dog like ground squirrels. The farm had plenty of animals to look at too including a pet Guanaco. The seals were numerous and active. Ending with some food porn. Crispy pork belly and a chef special chicken appetizer on a potato salad and a fresh veggie relish. Both were great. Have a wonderful day! Nancy

Good morning from Puerto Madryn Argentina. A world of difference in temperature from Ushuaia and Antarctica. Highs in the high 80s. We have a close by shore excursion to a sea lion colony and a sheep farm. It is a beautiful day. We are still in our cabin on Dolphin deck. Another reason the cabin was probably unoccupied is because our cabin wall is on the other side of the mid ship gangway. Our morning started at 5 am with banging and dragging chains. I ran into two 6th floor neighbors and on one side our neighbor returned home yesterday. Our other neighbors are still out like we are. I made another trip up to our cabin to get that, sunscreen and cameras and the smell is dreadful. I have asthma we will see how that works out. Prayers for all on our Care list and the people of Ukraine. Prayers for Roy, Jacqui, Kathi and Tana. Have a wonderful day! Thanks for starting us off every day Sandi!

@rafinmd I pray you continue to make improvement and are comfortable at home. @St 4711@StLouisCruisersthanks for starting us off each day. Late start for me today. Everything is messed up living like a vagabond. I bring a suitcase up to our cabin but I always forget something. Today it was my iPod charger. Then they pulled the rug from under us moving dressy night to tonight after we thought we evaded it 2 nights ago. I am going in jeans with no jewelry. I hope we can return home tomorrow. Expected 80s tomorrow. My sunrise this morning sadly through a clouded window.

Good morning from Day 2 waiting to return home to our cabin. We stopped in coming back from breakfast and the entire hall was ice cold. We went into the cabin and we found out why, the balcony door was propped open probably to facilitate cleaning the air in there. I stopped to grab my orange blouse for Orange party tonight but I couldn't find it. Will require a more diligent search or it got lost in the laundry. It has clear sequins on it just the thing that could have a mishap in the laundry. I have my orange shawl that I bought at Walgreens for $5 to wear on Orange night. Thanks for doing both the Daily and the Care and Celebration lists for us @StLouisCruisers! Thank you for the magical pictures of Bruges! Prayers for Roy, Kathi and Jacqui and for those on our lists. Prayers for the people of Ukraine. Our night was pitching seas but I slept well even with all the noise below us. It is now partly sunny and fairly calm seas. Another sea day, gym, more reading and Kindle "Scrabble" and dinner in the MDR. The kitchens have done a marvelous job mixing up the menus. Yesterday was a seafood extravaganza in the Lido at lunch. So many choices that all looked beautiful. Probably why there was zero wait at the salad bar. Food in the MDR has not been too repetitive. I am afraid we will be totally spoiled for our next trip which in 2024 which is winter escape going round and round the Caribbean. One place that could break the mold on long cruises is the PG. It never changes and for us folks that use it as an escape from dressy night it does get repetitive. Perhaps add in a few up sized entrees from their lunch menu. Have a great day! Nancy

@luvteachingyou mentioned bad bacteria and when elderly people get bacterial infections it can cause lingering confusion and weakness. I pray he continues to rally in cognition. @marshhawk I think I have figured out why these cabins on Dolphin deck are open. We are in extremely high seas and there is quite a racket below us so I am thinking the stabilizer. The cabin is in great shape other than a wobbly desk chair. I was able to take a nap through the noise. @durangoscots I am sure you were really frightened by the attack on your dogs. I hope that neighbor has them on a leash from now on. There are so many scary stories of dog attacks on humans and pets. The captain warned us on noon briefing the seas will continue to get worse through the afternoon. Seas too rough to go to the gym. I just got a call from guest services to make sure my laundry was delivered and we got an extension cord so we could change more than one device at a time. She apologized and said if our carpet doesn't dry properly we will get new carpet. For our inconvenience we have a complimentary dinner in the PG with a bottle of wine and $100 each spa certificates. Have a great afternoon. Someone was at Guest Services when I was there from 7060 wondering when they can return to their cabin as it has passed the estimated three days. We are in 6062. 🙄 Nancy

@dobiemomand @GTV @GTVCRUISERBon Voyage! ⛴️🍾

Captain Arno's talk was good with a brief overview of navigation and the weather. He showed the area of low pressure between here and the Falklands. He said 10 meter swells would be part of that system. He said big swells are in order for us this afternoon then quieter weather. Many good questions. Regarding our broken pipe on deck 6 he said repairs can be problematic because a 24 year old ship it is hard to get parts and the company that custom made parts for HA went bankrupt during Covid. Thankfully they have nice ocean view cabins for all of us displaced. It just isn't going to be an afternoon. Our room steward told us three days probably. We will have to go and pack up all our bathroom supplies, medicine and three days worth of clothes. All my cameras and laptop are still up there too. Thankfully I booked us dinner at the Pinnacle for tonight to avoid dressy night so we don't haul all the extra shoes and clothes down. I probably wouldn't have done a good job earlier standing in sloshing water. While waiting for the Captain's talk there were neighbors from three other cabins talking about the level of flood in each cabin and it seems ours is the only one that is so cold requires using the deck blanket to stay warm inside so maybe it can be fixed. One of the entertainers in a inside cabin was ground zero for the pipe burst and had all his clothes soaked. He was in the Lido in robe and slippers because that is all he had to wear. I don't know which would be better during 3 days of sea time which we are facing or days in port when we could break the monotony. Doesn't matter it is what it is.