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@arzzWe also have the GE side by side and are happy with it. I love this thread everyone here is so nice. Seeing all the different ports and pictures have changed what future cruises I have booked - now if I can only manage to actually go on them it would be wonderful. Our travel insurance approved our cancellation of the Panama Canal cruise and according to them the 'check is in the mail'. I have already spent the $$ booking a new Panama Canal cruise for next year - we decided to do a full transit vs the 1/2 way one. It will allow me to see to my friends in San Diego where I used to live.

I must weigh in on the refrigerator discussion, when we built our new retirement home everyone told us to get the french door refrigerator with the freezer on the bottom. I opted for the side to side and I am very glad I did. We have an inexpensive top freezer refrigerator in the garage. If you have any sort of hip, knee, back issues my recommendation is to not get a bottom freezer. Marshhawk - what a sad day yesterday but you know that your beloved pet is now in a better place. All of us need to recognize that we need to take the time to care for ourselves so we can care for others. Sending healing thoughts to all.

Thinking of everyone today, those that are having a hard time and those enjoying travel or just being home and safe.

There is a room where they offer Mah Jongg every day that has card tables. You can play there every day. As best I recall it is on deck 2 starboard side towards the front of the ship, it used to be the computer room.

Hope everyone stays safe in the storm. Annie so sorry about your dear cat. It is so hard to lose our pets. Thank you for the pictures of the port of the day, we are heading to Iceland this summer of a BHB but this is not one of our ports. I hope everyone's medical tests go fine and the results are all good.

Yes they are horrible and I don't think blood type matters, not sure what the chemical is that makes us all "so sweet". Have a fabulous cruise RM Lincoln. Roy hope the providers come w/in a reasonable period of time for you. I wish sweet dreams to all who don't sleep. If not we can gather here at 3 AM to say hi to each other :).

On this class of ship for warm cruises, we pay for the retreat since like you I cannot stand the constant music at the pool. It really enhanced our stay on this ship.

Thanks for the skin so soft hint unfortunately it doesn't work for me. I am allergic to the bites so though I try to avoid them it is not possible for me. My husband doesn't get one bite and I get them all over and even with Deet the bugs just say hmm - she's delicious. St John is one of the most beautiful islands we have ever been too. We did loads of great hikes there as well as beach time. I loved seeing the pictures. The devastation of the island after the hurricanes is so sad to see.

Hello to all on the daily. Eurodam is in dry dock. I know this because our cruise that we had booked for this week on the Eurodam was canceled and well you know what happened to the one before. Weather in South Florida has been beautiful and it looks like we will have another beautiful week. No complaints here about the weather. Glad to hear Roy that you are feeling better. Sandy sorry to hear you aren't sleeping well. I don't know how you function on so little sleep. We have been to Rio and agree with those here, I was surprised at how dirty it was and the petty crime is horrible. We stayed with friends of ours (my Brazilian sister - she lived with my family as an exchange student - I lived in Santiago, Chile the summer I turned 16). They now live in a community that is gated with guards. We were told to take off all of our jewelry except if we were with them, when we were in Rio, since the thieves prey on tourists. We have been to St John's on a land trip and stayed in a wonderful condo there. My only issue with most of the Caribbean now is the sand fleas. Many beaches are infested with them, and if bugs like you, they will bite you all over and are very itchy and you develop welts all over your body. Though St John's was beautiful I will not ever go back to the beach there, having learned the hard way about the fleas. Terri - sorry about your bathroom not being done. I am sure you are beyond tired of living with construction. Prayers to all of those in New Zealand, Turkey/Syria and Ukraine.

Sorry to hear about Sarah's friends passing. So sad to hear how many people are missing due to the cyclone. I hope the rescue crews are out now and searching for people. Sad to hear about the passing of CC members. I don't know what corn nuts are but I will be sure not to eat any given the risk of losing a tooth to them. Watched the finale of All Creatures Great and. Small tonight - I wish it would continue. I guess now I will watch the new Vera's on BritBox. Glad that Sandy is home safely. The Carnival in Rio looks fabulous. We have been to Rio but not on a cruise. I was an exchange student in high school (to Santiago, Chile) and the girl who lived with our family was from Rio so as an adult we went to visit her and her family. Terri I think you are on your way home now, safe travels. I copied down the potato salad recipe, it looks fabulous. Thank everyone for the daily.

Thank you Lenda I will ask about the one using the zip ties.

What a great set of days and I like the quote. Vanessa please take me and my son off of the care lists. I expect I will have surgery after I see the back surgeon in about 2 weeks. Loved the pictures of the port. I hope everyone has a peaceful Friday.

Thank you for the daily report. The recipes look great for the Tuscan chicken. Wishing everyone a wonderful day. I hope the weather doesn't get too terrible for everyone, these large storms are scary.

I would not do a cruise to Hawaii. First of all some of your ports are tender ports and if the weather is iffy you will not get to land. So essentially you will have a load of sea days and not see very much of Hawaii. I would pick one to two islands you wish to see and do those. We stayed in VRBO's which were much cheaper than the hotels. The food prices are high but by eating breakfast, lunch in our apartment it saved us a fortune. Decide which islands you want to go to, and then book intra island flights as well as the one from the mainland. As others have said I would try to stay at the islands you pick for more than a day or two.,or pick one island to see. If you do want to do a cruise than I would do the NCL one that goes to all the various islands, it will give you a quick taste of each island but not much more than this.

Thank you for the fleet report. Safe travels and fun to Joy and Allen. Lady Hudson your husband sounds like a gem. So nice of him to think of others on Valentine's Day. Kazu hope your elbow starts to feel better soon. You have such great neighbors and friends and the flowers are beautiful. I am going to try and do some much needed errands today, and then a nap later. I could have joined you Roy at 3:30 AM - my wake up time and couldn't fall back to sleep.

Thank you for the fleet report. Glad to see that a few of us are getting good doctor reports. Sorry to hear about Tana and Roy I wish your doctor had given you better news vs just more tests. My son is now home with a port and his drain but he is very glad to be out of the hospital. He has a visiting nurse coming to deal with everything. He is hoping to get back to work soon. I am going to see the doctor again. I don't think the epidural worked at all and I am essentially home bound due to the back pain. Since I can't really do much, I looked into another Panama canal cruise and had our TA book a full canal transit on the Zaandam. We really wanted to do a 1/2 transit but it looks like all of those do the new locks which we really didn't want. I used to live in San Diego so it is an excuse to see some friends pre cruise and my old hang outs. Terry and Sandy it looks like you are having a fabulous time on your respective cruises. Re issues with Holland America - and getting compensated - we didn't have much luck until we contacted corporate so I suggest if you don't get satisfaction you contact the president of HAL by email. Use the name elliot and then advocacy to get all the email addresses you need. So worrisome to hear about the continued gun violence in our country. Here in Florida there are memorials for the Parkland school shooting. Hard to believe it was 5. years ago it seems like yesterday that these poor children were killed. Prayers for those in Turkey/Syria and Ukraine.

We had to cancel our Eurodam cruise for the partial transit through the old locks this year due to medical issues. This year Eurodam has a couple of more partial transits through the old locks. I am not sure if they ship is sold out for these. Then some of the FLL ships leave for Alaska and do full transits going east to west. In the fall, the ships reverse and do full transits going west to east. Next year, the Rotterdam is doing the partial transits from FLL. When we called to re book our canceled cruise it was confirmed that the Rotterdam does the new locks. We didn't want to do the new locks so I looked at every cruise doing the partial transit for next year and only the Carnival Pride out of Tampa does the old locks. All the other ships on the main cruise lines -Princess, Celebrity etc. do the new locks for the partial transit. HA has a few full transits going from San Diego to FLL or FLL to San Diego in Jan, Feb March 2024. It is on the Zaandam one of their smaller ships. We ended up booking this one since we wanted to do the old locks and given that we live in Florida we only will have to fly one way. We were very disappointed that HA decided to have their pinnacle class ship do the partial transit next year and wish they would reconsider this decision. On CC under the Panama Canal board there is a listing of all the ships that do the old locks. For anyone booking a PC cruise I would make sure you check that before booking a cruise through the canal if you want to do the old locks.

We have been to Alaska numerous times. It is nice to get off the ship and do some hikes/walks in the ports if you don't want to do excursions. On our last Alaska trip, late August, we saw a huge whale migration. We were sitting on our veranda and saw a blow hole, we thought it was one whale at first but soon realized it was two to three lead whales, leading a pack of over 100+ whales, right next to our ship with the mothers, babies etc. It was one of the most fabulous sites I have seen in my life. So yes in Alaska it is being in the right place at the right time. You just never know. This is one cruise though where I would absolutely recommend a veranda.

Interesting about carrots in sauces. I am allergic to carrots, cooked and fresh. When we were in Italy both Northern and Southern I never had a problem because I was told carrots is a common food allergy there. They always have a sauce made w/o carrots. In the US I find I cannot eat at many Italian restaurants or pizza places because they use carrots as a way to sweeten the sauce even in their most basic sauces. Graham I wondered how Sarah was doing with her back. It seems that she and I may have similar issues and I wonder if the shot(s) helped her at all. I am better today but not pain free. Sad about the Eagles but it was a good game. It looks like the people on cruises are having decent weather and a wonderful time. Hoping that everyone who is getting ready to go away feels better and has a great trip. Healing thoughts to everyone not feeling 100%. Kazu - hope the bad weather passes you by.

We have want to do a transit through the old locks and this ship seems to be the only one that does the partial transit with the old locks now from Florida. We have sailed Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, and Holland America. We are not big party people and like the retreat areas - asking for advice would this ship work for us?

Thank you for the report on the devastating earthquake. It is hard to fathom the level of destruction and death from this event. When I read about these things and Ukraine I thank heavens for the luck of the draw so to speak. We are all so fortunate. Graham I appreciated your pictures of where Vera is filmed. I have read all of the books of that series as well as the other ones. I see that the newest ones are now becoming available here on Brit Box and plan to watch them. Shetland is also one of my favorites. We are going there on our cruise this summer and I am looking forward to seeing the area. We tried to book a private tour but all the guides have already been booked. We were surprised at this since I tried booking in December and thought that was well enough in advance. My back is not doing well today, so I am not sure what the prognosis will be. I was hoping the epidural steroid shot would work but it doesn't seem to be helping anymore. My son can be taken off the lists. He goes home (we hope) from the hospital tomorrow with a port so he can get IV antibiotics at home. His liver abscess is drained but they are concerned that it moved to his lungs so he has a month to 2 month course of antibiotics. We are all praying that this will work because the next step if it doesn't is very concerning. He is getting married this June and he wants to be well to enjoy this very special day. Sharon - just wow about the accident you described. I wonder if it was a drunk or drug impaired driver. Glad your home is fine. We have never been to Ireland though my step niece now lives there with her husband so hopefully one day we will get to visit. I hope everyone enjoys the day and that the super bowl commercials live up to their hype.

Sandi and Dennis enjoy your cruise. Weather here is much better than last week. Saw the picture of the Eurodam going through the canal- made me sad, but glad that others are having a great time. The cruise on RC looked like a lot of fun -you have been longer in Miami than we have ever been even though we live about 1 1/2 hours away. We keep saying we should go for a staycation but never seem to get around to it. It looked like you had a great time at the hotel too. Weather has warmed up here and it was a spectacular day today. Sorry to hear about lost jobs, and people still not feeling up to par, I think many of us get frustrated with ourselves and try to do too much and have to learn the hard way to take it easy. Have a wonderful evening everyone. Pizza tomorrow for us is super bowl tradition. I guess I am going to root for Philadelphia since I went to Penn State and then Penn. When I lived in Philly tickets were pretty cheap to see their games since they consistently lost.

We contacted norwayexcursions.com and they have been very prompt with their emails and bookings. We booked some tours with them for our Norway ports. We are on the Saga tour mentioned here - looking forward to it. We also booked with them for the Golden Circle tour. We sail from Amsterdam on July 29th on Holland America.

We are on this one as well and the one after to do a bit more of Norway. Can't wait.

I think Celebrity suite customers like their own private dining room which HAL doesn't have. I know most of my friends now have switched to Viking, Oceania, Azamara, etc. Unfortunately since Viking and Oceania still use latex gloves in their food preparation I can't go on any of their cruises. Holland America used to use latex too but finally switched. For years due to this allergy we could only sail on Celebrity/ RCL (with our kids). We loved Celebrity''s smaller ships, but once they went mega we stopped sailing with them. Every time I have gone to book with them the fares turn out to be outrageous especially since we want a refundable rate. I know others love the Edge class ships but they are not for us. Glad that you got a wonderful rate- enjoy your cruise. We did that one on Celebrity - but a small ship - fabulous cruise.