Ripheus

Non-Retreat Dining & Drinks: On this cruise, we experienced Celebrity Specialty Dining for the first time. We also took full advantage of the various bars on the ship, as DW has noted earlier in this thread. I'll rate all the restaurants we visited individually and collectively. I'll do the same for the bars. I'm not going to go into the detail @Moochi did, as I generally agree with her assessments. I'll finish out this section with my general thoughts on the dining program and drink program. Le Grand Bistro: We visited LGB on the first sea day for lunch. The drinks were delicious. The appetizers were tasty. The entree gave me a mild case of food poisoning. Also, the steak frites was not seasoned at all prior to cooking (this is something I noticed at other venues as well). The service here was atrocious. Rating 5/10 Eden Restaurant: The food and drinks were both fantastic and fantastical. It was a wonderful evening full of way too much, perhaps way too much drink, and lots of chocolate. Service here was top notch. Rating 9/10 Le Voyage: Like Eden, Le Voyage was terrific. The food quality was great. The service was on point and anticipatory. It may be a really, really small thing, but I truly appreciated that their butter was salted. Oh, and the desserts were out of this world good. Rating: 9.5/10 Cafe al Bacio: The coffee is great. The alcoholic drinks are not. Rating: 2/10 (alcohol rating only) Sunset Bar: The space is incredibly well designed. There's lots of seating and shaded areas. The view is unbeatable. The drinks were decent. The olive oil fat washed G&T was tasty, but it was not a fat washed drink; it was gin mixed with olive oil. That's not the same. The pina colada was good, especially with the giant rum floater. Rating: 6/10 Martini Bar: This is the centerpiece of the ship. It's quite beautiful and comfortable. Unfortunately, the drinks are not up to snuff. I order a drink with 3 ingredients at every bar on the ship because it's a hard to drink to mess up. The Rusty Nail requires a glass with ice, scotch, and Drambuie. Fill a glass with ice, add 1.5oz scotch, 3/4oz of Drambuie, and stir. Well, the Martini Bar folks made the most awful Rusty nail I think anyone could possibly make. Plus the bartender was rude to DW, which neither she nor I appreciated. Rating 1/10 Craft Social: This the sleeper bar on the ship. The main bartender here, Nemaja, was just fantastic. Both DW and I appreciated that he measured his drinks. When an ingredient for a drink on the menu needed to be substituted, he made thoughtful substitutions. He took the time to shake or stir drinks properly. He has a little advantage over every other bar insofar that he has draft beer too. He was equally happy to make good but time consuming drinks for DW and me during slow times as he was to make sure everyone got served during the busy times; and he did both with great care. Rating: 10/10 World Class Bar: The drinks here are very, very good. Ilyas is the main bartender here. He has lots of fun and takes his time making his concoctions. The Above the Clouds was my favorite. It's simply smoked rum, but the smoke really elevates the drink. The only problem with this bar is that it's too small. As Celebrity shoots to be more and more upscale, venues like this will need to get a bit bigger to accommodate its more discerning alcoholics. Rating: 9/10 Overall Dining Program: There's a good range of restaurants and types of food. The quality is good overall, the service is also good with a couple of misses. Rating: 8/10 Overall Drink Program: I was very happy to see well stocked bars on Beyond. Our previous cruises on Millennium had barebones stocks of liquor. The drink program is, rightfully, geared to what the masses drink. DW and I have a bit more appreciation for great cocktails and drinks than what most people appreciate. And while we don't expect Celebrity to cater to us (or the few people like us), we are very thankful that Celebrity is starting to develop products that suit our palates. I'm excited to see how the drink program develops over the next couple of years to cater a little more to those of us who appreciate - and will pay for - an elevated cocktail experience. 9/10

Retreat Experience This was the third Celebrity cruise we've been on and our third time in the Retreat. Our experience in Beyond's Retreat was overall very good but also very different than the experience we had in the Retreat on Millennium. I really liked how the Retreat amenities were all designed to be seamless and free-flowing. Having the Retreat Lounge connect to the Retreat Sundeck made a lot of sense and made it easy to take advantage of these areas. Both spaces are very beautiful and well designed. I really appreciated the staff too. As always, the Retreat staff did not hesitate to go above and beyond, even proactively, to make our stay wonderful. We did not use the Retreat sundeck as much as we had planned, which was mostly due to my unwillingness to walk up there with my hurting foot. Had I not been in pain, I'm sure we would have taken advantage of this area more fully. That said, we did use the Retreat lounge quite a bit. Within a day of being on the ship, the waiters and waitresses there knew exactly what I was going to drink and usually brought me a Rusty Nail before I could even ask for one. Luminae was as good as ever. There were a few service hiccups here and there but nothing major. We were also charged for something in Luminae a few times, but I don't know what the charges were for. It was only about $30 total over the course of the week, so I'm not too worried about it. Still, I wish they had clarified what we were charged for. The downside to the Retreat on Beyond versus the Millennium is that the total experience feels less intimate and exclusive. On the Millennium, there are many fewer suites in total, so it seems like the staff really goes out of its way to make each suite guest feel special and pampered. That's not to say that the Beyond staff don't do the same. They certainly do; just not to the same degree and in a less connected way. Perhaps it's just that the smaller ship with a smaller proportion of suites makes it seem more intimate and connected. I would not hesitate to sail on Beyond again in a suite. It was a wonderful experience, albeit a bit different than what we had on Millennium. Rating: 8.5/10

Last post to wrap things up... We've been home for a week now, and I think we both are missing our time on the Beyond. The time away from the ship has allowed me to clarify in my own mind what I think about the various aspects of the Beyond. Below are my thoughts, and ratings, of the various things we experienced on the ship. Room: Aqua Sky Suite 10112 We booked a suite guarantee and ended up with well sited Aqua Sky Suite. For the money, the room was phenomenal. The bed was extremely comfortable. I'm not sure it it's an actual king size bed; it seems slightly smaller than the king at home. I particularly enjoyed how the bed faces the door, and that the door/outside wall was entirely glass. It was very serene. The bathroom was also a welcome surprise. It was huge! I'm a big guy (6'3" and 350lbs), yet DW and I were able to share the space easily when needed. I especially appreciated that the toilet was in its own water closet and that the bathtub/shower was large enough for me. I never felt cramped or claustrophobic. We did not take advantage of the special Aqua amenities. There was a yoga mat in the room, but we didn't use it. If there were other amenities, they weren't well communicated. I don't think I'd book an Aqua Sky Suite intentionally, unless it were the only well sited room and the price was right. The storage was great: many closets and the divided drawers were well thought out and useful. The only thing I wasn't crazy about was the lack out outlets near the bed. DW had one on her side of the bed, but there was none on my side of the bed. The charger box is located above the mini-fridge, which is fine. But I would have liked to have had an outlet on the left side of the bed too, especially because walking the few feet to the other side of the room was very painful in the mornings. The only reason I noticed this was because of my injury to my foot. Otherwise, I'm not sure I would have had this (minor) gripe. Rating: 9/10

On Honeymoon #1, I took a nice phot of DW in the hallway of the pre-cruise hotel. I found a suitable location on Beyond to replicate that shot, and I think I'm going to make these photos a tradition on our trips together. DW is very beautiful.

Onto the last reports from Saturday evening and Sunday morning. After our mission to visit all the bars, DW and I returned to Luminae for what we thought was our penultimate meal on the Beyond. DW had what she says was a very tasty bit of fish...some sort of salmon. For my app, I had the buccatini and sausage from the entree menu. For actual entrees, DW had the Daniel Boulud Duck 'Char Sui.' DW has already revied that dish above. I had the filet mignon. Very tasty with a perfect crust and melt in your mouth goodness. For dessert, DW had the almond cake. I had wine poached pear. Both were extremely tasty. After dinner, we wandered the ship a bit more. We found ourselves at Craft Social to close down the night. The head bartender there was outstanding and attentive. He received a decent tip and we headed to bed so we could get up early. Unfortunately, we did not get up quite early enough to make breakfast in Luminae. We had a pastry in the Retreat Lounge, got our bags, and headed off the ship. We had a bit of a hectic run to the airport, got through security, and to our gate just in time to make our flight back to the DC area. DW got an upgraded seat. I had to sit in the back. We got back and it started to snow. I picked up a pizza because we were both hungry but tired. And promptly, after eating (of course), fell asleep for 6 hours or so. One miscellaneous post and then the next one will be the last major post: my overall review of our tour on the Beyond.

Well, I thought I was going to wrap up the daily reports tonight and wrap up with a general overview and my final thoughts tomorrow night. But the clock has advanced more than I'd like. Time for bed so I can be to work tomorrow at 6:45am. I promise I'll get caught up this week...maybe...

Saturday afternoon... TL;DR: Plants are nice. Celebrity's designers are clever. I'm a plant nerd, and I figured out where Celebrity gets its escargot. We proceeded with our mission to visit all the other bars we hadn't been to yet. When we made it to the top deck on our way to the Sunset bar, we started a side quest to document the Rooftop Garden. Now, the Rooftop Garden may be an interesting space to nearly everyone, but it is really special for me. As I've noted at least one other time, I'm a landscaper by trade. Specifically, I work in high end residential landscape maintenance. One of the things I absolutely love about Celebrity is its commitment to using real plants wherever and whenever possible. From the cut orchids in Luminae, to the living walls in Eden, to the Rooftop Garden and the planters around the Retreat Sundeck, Celebrity's horticulture team curates an excellent plant palate and layered design. There are a few aspects of the Rooftop Garden's planting that I find beautiful: 1) its simplicity, 2) its use to create practical and intimate spaces, and, 3) unobtrusive design of the surrounding area to protect the plantings. Celebrity has no chance to win any awards for innovative plant palate. However, the simplicity of the palate allows the horticultural team to swap out declining, diseased, or infested plantings quickly and without a gap being noticeable to all but the trained eye. Most of the plantings were a mix of boxwood, euonymus, yew, false yew, liriope, mondo grass, cheesewood, mint, lavender, rosemary, sage, Japanese holly, and, juniper. This may seem like a lot of different kinds of plants, but the average landscape typically has 20-100 different species of plants, and possibly many, many more cultivars. What they've accomplished with this simple plant palate and their free flowing design is a series of seemingly intimate spaces, separated from the bustle of the rest of the ship. However, if it were not for the sound-deadening aspects of the plant material, these spaces would neither look nor feel quiet and secluded. In other words, they've used plant materials to create expanded usable space from an otherwise (relatively) small and unused space. The final thing that impressed me was how the designers camouflaged their countermeasures to the harsh realities of being constantly exposed to wind, rain, salt, and heat/cold. The first, and most obvious, countermeasure used is the extensive use of planting walls and planters. Inside these planting walls and planters, the plants' roots are adequately protected, the irrigation system and the irrigation system can be hidden. Using these also allows the hort team to hide the fact that they're using primarily containerized plants, which allows them to quickly remove bad plants. The second countermeasure they use is the siting of the garden itself. It's located in the center-aft of the ship, between the smokestacks and the rear elevator banks. This site allows for longitudinal protection from the wind. For latitudinal protection, they use a very clever system of obvious windwalls at the outside of the ship along the waking paths/track and again between the walking paths/track and the garden. If you look closely in some of the pictures you may see that there are occasional breaks in the windwalls. These breaks do let air and wind flow freely. But here's where Celebrity got really clever. Those butterfly artworks located in and around the Rooftop Garden...yeah, those. They kind of look out of place in the space, except for Celebrity's propensity for zany art. Well, these monuments of absurdity are actually quite functional wind diffusers. It took me a minute to realize their function, but they are very strategically placed to catch any stray gale that may make its way into the garden area and slow the air speed down enough to mitigate leaf desiccation. I'd say that Celebrity's horticultural and design teams have been very successful at keeping the garden healthy. That's not to say there aren't some problems. And being the landscaper (and Cruise Critic) that I am, I set out to find them. Fortunately, I only found a few issues. There are a few plants that are suffering from powdery mildew. The euonymus, unsurprisingly, had the most powdery mildew issues. There were also more than a few boxwood and Japanese hollies that were suffering from mite infestations. Thankfully, they used Korean or hybrid boxwood throughout the ship, so there is little chance of seeing boxwood blight on these plants. Some of the yews and false yews had tip dieback as well, which is typically caused by fungal pathogens. The liriope throughout the ship almost universally had issues with rust and some had mild mite infestations. Most of the mondo grass had gray leaf spot, another fungus. And the mint was chock full of bacterial, fungal, and insect issues. Fortunately, the horticultural team seems to identify these issues and hide the worst of the affected plantings in inconspicuous places. I was a bit surprised with the dearth of snails on the leafy plants. But then I remembered all the delicious escargot... All kidding aside, I am amazed that they're able to keep the plant issues to such a minimum. I imagine the types of chemical and even organic controls they can utilize are severely restricted both from a regulatory and guest health standpoint. Next time I'm on the Beyond (or perhaps Ascent?) I'll have to make it a point to seek out the horticultural director. Overall rating: 436/10

Saturday... was the first day DW got up before me. I slept so well, I didn't want to leave the Exhale bed, even for a delicious breakfast of applewood bacon, english bacon, and hashbrowns at Luminae. But get up I did. And I ate, and ate, and ate. (Gotta maintain my svelte 350lbs! jk) However, they were out of DW's favorite pastry at Luminae - the almond croissant. So we made our way to the retreat lounge and found one or two there. One came back to the room with us, and I made the note DW posted above to keep our room attendant from robbing DW of her sweet bliss. DW laid down to sleep off breakfast. Then it was time for lunch. DW had the borscht and I passed on an appetizer. For entrees, DW had the bronzino (fish, I think) and I ordered the steak frites with a side of lobster roll. When the entrees came out, the waiter gave DW the steak and me a lobster roll. It was quickly corrected, and we both ended up with a lobster roll. DW really enjoyed the borscht and fish. The steak was tasty, but I've found that none of the non-steak restaurants season their steaks before cooking. Oh, well, that's why there's salt and pepper on the table. I thought the lobster roll was tasty. DW wasn't impressed. To be fair, hers had much more watercress and much less lobster than mine. I think Luminae tries a bit too hard with their lobster roll. It really just needs to be a soft roll, lobster, some mayo, a little citrus, and something crunchy like lettuce or celery. All the super fancy ingredients look nice but don't help the flavor of the dish. For dessert, DW had the peach crumble. I had the chocolate mousse with mango. Both were very good. In the afternoon, we made it our mission to go to the other bars we hadn't yet visited. DW has posted extensively about that above, so I'll leave it at that. I will say that seeing Captain Kate and Bug was fun and entertaining. I don't fully understand the cult of Captain Kate, but I'm glad she's a good sport about it and seems to have a good amount of fun with it. Next up...dinner (of course!) and a tour of the rooftop garden.

Back to the cruise... On Friday, after the whole day in Puerta Plata, DW and I had a wonderful dinner in Luminae. The sommelier brought us a sparkling rose to celebrate the day (he even brought it to us in the nicer-than-usual Riedel glasses from Le Voyage). We ordered a couple of apps from the always available menu: french onion soup and escargot. They were phenomenally delicious. DW also had the smoked trout, which was equally tasty. For entrees, both DW and I had double portions of the lobster. The lobsters were small, sweet, and tender. However, the sauce used for the entree was not nearly as delicious as that used on the appetizer earlier in the week. For dessert, we both opted to skip the regular desserts and stick with just gelato for DW and sorbet for me. After dinner, we went to Craft Social and World Class Bar for a bit. We also decided to pick up a bottle of the "Beyond" edition of Veuve Clicquot from Spirited. Although we we allowed to bring bottles we bought onshore back to our room, we were not allowed to bring this bottle back with us. They were kind enough to deliver it to our pile of booze on our dresser on Saturday evening though. We hit the hay a little early around 11pm and got a very restful sleep.

I'm not entirely positive, but I believe I saw some Monin syrups behind the bar in the retreat lounge.

Thank you. We found it in DC last Summer.

DW and I still have a lot of catch up to do. But in the meantime, DW decided to try to replicate one of the cocktails we loved at WCB, Above the Clouds. Here is the video of @Moochimaking it. PXL_20230313_013923037~3.mp4

I know. 😭😭😭 We got home and 10 minutes later it was snowing. Hopefully, I won't have to go into work later to treat my clients' properties.

Onto to Friday... For our last port day, in Puerta Plata, we booked a 5.5 hour tour called, "The Best of Puerta Plata." It was a pretty good tour. We went to Ron Macroix distillery. They were very generous with their tastings. I think we each had about 9 mostly full shots of their various rums. DW and I both really enjoyed the 8 year rum, so we picked up a bottle before we left, along with a shot glass to add to the collection. Next up was lunch at a garden/musical conservatory/ballet school. It was a lovely compound and the food wasn't bad either. Then we found ourselves back on the bus for a short jaunt down toward the city center. We went to a chocolate store for a tasting and walked the streets to the city square. We saw pink street (and a monkey!) Then was the cathedral, which was beautiful. I picked up a rosary for my brother. Next up was a brief stop at a souvenir store where we tried yet another variation of mamajuana. Then we were back on the bus for a short trip to La Aurora cigar museum. I think this was the most interesting part of the tour, for me and everyone else (save for the pregnant woman!) We learned about the cigar making process, saw them make a few, tasted the fruit of their labor, and a few even got to make their own cigars. We unsurprisingly ended this portion in the gift shop for yet another rum tasting and cigar buying. For those wondering, prices are not significantly lower than in the States. At this point, many of us were in varied states of drunk, exhausted, hot, nicotine-rushed, parched, annoyed, and/or worried about making it back to the ship on time. So the guide (Rambo), wisely I think, made the tour around the fort a drive-by and promptly returned us to the port. This is a fun tour, but bring plenty of water and liquid IV. Overall score: 27/10

Here's a couple of pics from our thermal spa/sun deck day... IMG_2357.HEIC

Okay, back to the task at hand. Thursday, we had a 5:30pm reservation for Le Voyage. We loved it. It was by far the best dinner experience I've had all week. The service was attentive. The appetizers, entrees, and desserts were all very well thought through and delicious. Even the Brea was fantastic. DW had the tamarind and peanut crusted prawns. I had the Alaskan king crab salad, minus the avocado. Both were home runs. The crab salad was chock full of crab and had a satisfying crunch. The prawns were tasty too and just bursting with flavor. Additionally, we shared the onion tart appetizer. While it wasn't the home run the other dishes were, it was still quite flavorful. In fact, the onion was perfectly seasoned and delightfully tender. But the tart didn't exactly match the flavor of the onion. For mains, DW had the lobster casserole. I had the filet. Here again, we thought they hit it out of park. The lobster casserole was perfectly cooked; I never knew that filet could have so much flavor. For dessert, DW had the Sauerkirsche black Forest cake. I had the Coupe cafe. If you, for whatever reason, only get dessert at Le Voyage, get these two. They were accompanied by Madelinnes and petite fours. One are where Le Voyage does not shine is its cocktails. After dinner, we shared the Rye Compass and the Rum Voyage. Neither was particularly good. Perhaps that's why you can't find them on a menu anywhere other than right here. Overall score: 47/10.

To whet the appetite (for better pictures) a bit, here's a pic from our room:

I'm really bad at keeping up with this post, but I'm getting better and better at enjoying the cruise life. I have a lot to catch you all up on: the rest of Thursday, our day in Puerto Plata on Friday, and what we have in store for the remainder of this trip. There will also be a short review and my thoughts on the various plantings I've seen aboard.

Today, my foot is thankfully feeling a bit better. We started the day at Luminae again, with the same breakfast. Then we tried the Sea Thermal Spa for the first time this trip. It was very relaxing. We may make our way there again later or tomorrow. Then we got off the ship for a bit in St. Thomas and the adventure began. A very kind taxi dispatcher found us a ride. Unfortunately, it was a public bus and not going exactly near where we were planning on going. DW was not happy. We eventually got off the bus and found a taxi. We made it to our destination, Leatherback Brewing, in just a few more minutes. After 5 beers between us, we're going to be headed back to the ship shortly.

Back to posting after a little hiatus... Yesterday, in St. Maarten, we had an eventful day. We started at Luminae for Breakfast with DW having the potato pancakes and an almond croissant. I had a chocolate croissant and 2 orders of hashbrowns and 2 orders of bacon. It was a perfect way to start the day. After breakfast, we made our way to Phillipsburg via the water taxi. We wandered around until we found Gulmohars. We picked up a couple of bottles of rum and a bottle of Woodford Master's Collection. They said they'd send it back to the ship. (We inquired this morning to make sure it arrived.) Then we went back to the ship and found that nothing was open for lunch. Our lovely butler, Simi, arranged for us to quickly get room service. And we made our way to our afternoon excursion...a bus tour around St. Maarten. During honeymoon #1, we did this same tour. It was fantastic then, but even better this time around. We were especially looking forward to the stop in Marigot. There's a little liquor store there called Bacchus. When the bus arrived, it was around 1:20 and we were supposed to leave at 2:05. Unfortunately, the store is closed between 1 and 2 everyday. But after much consternation and maybe a couple of drinks at the bar nextdoor, we were able to get inside at 2pm on the dot. We shot to the back (well, DW did...I slowly ambled) and found what we came all this way to get: Chartreuse! We picked up a bottle of VEP Yellow and a bottle of 9th Centenary. A bottle of Goslings Old Rum Family Reserve also caught my eye, so we picked that up as well. We were back on the bus at 2:07 and back on our way. When we arrived back in the room, we found a bottle of Veuve Cliqot Rich Rose. A special treat for our honeymoon #2. It was delicious and refreshing after a hot day in the sun. Next up was dinner at Eden. It is a beautiful venue with beautiful food. We were seated directly across from the kitchen and got to see how they put together all the dishes. It was like its own little show. We made a mistake by ordering way too many appetizers. DW had the crab cake and the shrimp. I had the gnocchi and the beef tandoori. The waitress also brought us the risotto. All were great, but the gnocchi and the crab cake were especially divine. For mains, DW had the lobster casserole, and I had the filet and mini wellington. The lobster was very tasty, except for 2 pieces that were undercooked. The filet was perfect. The wellington didn't quite hit home. I'm not sure that short rib is the best choice for a wellington. For dessert, DW had the lemon tart, and I had the Azteca Chocolate pie. Again, both were very tasty...but we had no room left! Just when we thought we were done and had nothing left to eat, 3 sets of petite fours showed up. Fortunately, they sympathized with our plight and wrapped these to go. I discovered when we got up that my foot was back to extreme pain. It took me about 35 minutes to get from Eden back to the room. We had planned on going out to WCB for a couple of drinks and maybe to the Martini bar, but I was hurting more than a bit and was, admittedly, more than a bit tired and cranky. DW was disappointed, but we both decided to call it a night.

When it comes to steak at least!

TL; DR: LGB is good, but skip the steak. We went to Le Grand Bistro for lunch yesterday. Overall, it was a good meal. We both had the lobster bisque. Not much lobster but tons of flavor. I had mussels; DW had the escargot. They do not skimp on portions. For entrees, DW had the trout. It was tasty, but not quite perfect. I had the steak frites. It was not good. The steak was cooked to the right temperature (medium rare) but it was too mushy. And it seemed like they didn't preseason it at all. So it had no flavor and had the wrong texture. Additionally, it may have been bad meat. After lunch and a beer or two at Craft Social, I started to feel ill. Other than an attempt at going to dinner, I was in the room for the rest of the day. I am eternally grateful to my Dear Wife for being patient with me and am glad too that she was still able to go enjoy herself for the evening while I was indisposed.

A couple of drink recommendations. Ask for a “Kracken Colada”. Another is a Zacapa Old Fashioned. If you like rum, I think you’ll enjoy those I'm an equal opportunity drink connoisseur. I'll definitely try these out. Any particular bar I should try them in?

We finished out the night 1 with me doing a little gambling. I lost my budget. Maybe DW will allow me a little more later... It was great fun. DW enjoyed her drinks last night and somehow found the OVC for some late night pizza. I was very impressed, both with my beautiful (and drunk) wife and with the pizza. We woke up this morning a little after 8 and scrambled to make breakfast at Luminae. I had hashbrowns, bacon, and mushrooms. DW had the potato waffles. After breakfast, we tried to get some gelato, but went to the wrong place. When we got to the right place, we were informed that we were too early. Oh well. It will be a good (but still slow) walk this afternoon. We saw the OV Bar. It's nice, but we weren't quite ready for a drink at that point. It only took us a few more minutes until we were at the Sunset bar though. I promptly got myself a Pina colada with rum floater and a Mediterranean G&T for DW. The pina colada is always a solid choice. The G&T was not exactly as advertised. The description says it has olive oil fat washed gin, but it's really just gin mixed with olive oil. Not quite the same thing. Still, DW seemed to enjoy it. We then made our way to the Magic Carpet to enjoy the vast views of the sea before it got too sunny for DW. Then we were off to briefly check out the spa. We'll be back later to have a more thorough looksee. Now we're back in the room for a quick nap and rest before we go to le grand Bistro for lunch at 1.

I wholeheartedly agree! You and Bob were wonderful neighbors. We had a blast with both of you. Hopefully, we'll meet again in future travels.