spleenstomper

I meant today we were upgraded to a suite. Downtown Boston. 
 

In Montréal we stayed at Hilton garden inn. A lot of closed shops and plenty unhoused around. Like a lot. They didn’t bother us but we had to walk around a few. 

12 minutes ago, Mary229 said:

Where is your hotel?

3 minutes ago, cgolf1 said:

So is anyone interested in this? I have all the daily sheets and the main dining room menus. 
 

I will include the exceptional to the head scratchers and give our honest opinions as a first time Hal cruiser, but our 19th overall. 
 

It will take a week plus to get it finished, and I will start tomorrow as I start going through pictures. For some reason just tired today after traveling all day home. 
 

Overall it was a great cruise. 

We are really tired today too. Hilton upgraded us to a one bedroom suite so that’s been nice. We didn’t live Montréal like we thought we would. 

On 5/1/2023 at 2:04 PM, jeh10641 said:

Hi, spleenstomper,

On our last HAL cruise, I purchased the laundry package. Boy did it make a difference in packing! I packed clothes for 4 or 5 days (11-night cruise) and sent out our laundry about 4 times.

We did send out laundry 3 times for a 7 day cruise lol. Laundry service had us spoiled! 
 

Oh ! It snowed in Sydney! It all melted when it hit the ground but it was a pretty good snowing 

Thanks, everyone, we debarked today and are exhausted in Boston! It was a great cruise. I didn’t post while on the cruise because we decided not to buy internet this time. 
 

I”ll post some pics in a bit. About to take a second nap lol (why is it the day I leave the ship, I nap all day?  Lol )

You should probably use arrivecan though. We just arrived in Montréal today and it sped up the process 

We made it to Montréal and met 4 people on the last flight that are also on the cruise. 
 

I’ll post pics from the ship. Thanks for everyone’s support. 

24 minutes ago, OlsSalt said:

Rome2Rio -  as your failsafe last back up - 500 miles, you can rent a car and drive to Atlanta in about 7 hours. 😎  Have a great cruise.

 

https://www.rome2rio.com/map/New-Orleans/Atlanta

Lord, I haven’t done that run in a while! You are right though… thanks

Ok. I’m packed and went and had a manicure and pedicure. Just waiting for DH to get home so we can go to Nola. 

Just please say a little prayer or send positive thoughts that we can get to ATL tomorrow. I gave buffer time in case we were delayed or missed a connection, and it does look like we will be flying out during predicted heavy thunderstorms. I want to be safe, so as long as we can get to ATL, we can probably get to Montréal without a lot of issues (whether the same day or next morning)…

Thanks, I’m tired today and am struggling to pack. We did buy laundry service so I don’t have to worry too much about packing. I don’t know about you, but a few weeks before, I like to start pulling things out and setting aside… I haven’t been doing that. The house is a mess since I’ve been sick and DH over scheduled himself at work in the run up to the vacation. I have very bad ADD lol and I haven’t been taking my adderall since I’ve been sick.
 

I’m feeling very overwhelmed right now. 

I’ll be fine, first world problems and all of that….I’m eating this elephant one bite at a time. 

I’ve been sleeping normally and actually getting some real good quality sleep.

I just got back from my two appointments and it’s nap time. 
 

I still have to pack. 

I’m curious how many days long is this cruise you are on? Thanks 

I believe it’s 5 days if you are triple vaxxed. 

Old rules: 

When my daughter caught Covid overseas last year, she had to wait the ten full days and couldn’t fly until day 11. She couldn’t pull a negative until after we were home. 

I board on Saturday. I’ll let you know.

Interesting, I had to take valerian in Ireland since they don’t sell melatonin and I didn’t feel like it did anything. I also have arrhythmias and went into a fib once and no one said anything about Melatonin. I will ask my EP next month about it; thanks for the tip.

I feel a lot better today but as with every morning so far, I spend about 45 minutes clearing debris from my lung. But it’s super productive and getting more and more up, so that makes me feel good to see it clearing out.

I have two rescheduled appointments today, so I’ll be interested to see how I do stamina wise. We fly out Thursday, but going to the Nola house tomorrow hopefully arriving around 6 pm or so. I have a LOT of packing to do. 

11 minutes ago, Navybikermom said:

I have traveled with my Charlotte’s Web CBD gummies (no THC mentioned on the label) out of the country to Canada, and on cruise ships, with no issues. Sometimes I have them in the original container and sometimes just in a ziploc baggie. So far it’s never been questioned. 

That ‘s good to know because CBD does help me sleep

3 hours ago, YourWorldWithBill said:

On our Alaska cruise last September there were men wearing coat and tie on gala night, but I did not see anyone wearing a tux; but the cruise was not full, and we were early dining. Many were not wearing even a jacket; but as others have said, you might not be the only ones in formal attire. I don't think it would stand out, even if you were.

What week did you go? I went solo on 9/11. (Seattle to Seattle) I agree no one in a tux. 
 

OP, if you can fit it in the luggage, I would since you said it’s a special occasion and you like dressing up. 

6 minutes ago, Iamthesea said:

I've seen it all in Amsterdam!!! 😁   

Found this year old article. https://porthole.com/is-cbd-allowed-on-a-cruise-ship/

I guess I will stick to Magnesium supplements for sleep help.  I really hope that I will not have trouble sleeping because we will be, for the most part, very busy each day.

 I found this supplement on Amazon (not prime shipping but only took a few days) and I highly recommend it. YMMV. It has the magnesium and melatonin 

47 minutes ago, Iamthesea said:

I take the CBD edibles at night to help me sleep.  For obvious reasons, I was not going to take them on my overseas flight, but now you have me thinking about seeing if they have them in Amsterdam.  Are they not allowed on the ship?

 

So glad that you are going to try for the cruise!  😍  

I truly don’t know what their policy is for CBD gummies. I know many do contain a very small portion of THC. I accidentally brought an old vape pen on my last cruise… I didn’t know it was in my wallet crease. So it went onboard with me in my purse. 

6 minutes ago, YourWorldWithBill said:

Great to hear that you're recovering well! Hopefully this will end up as a memory of just how well you handled everything. One note: If you had to cancel, it wouldn't be "for any reason." You have a reason!

Thanks, yes, I would assume for an illness or injury, you can cancel up to getting on the ship? I’ll look at it again tomorrow If I’m still concerned about it.

meanwhile, I did find a few beach houses in Pensacola Beach that are available, some with docks (we could trailer our boat from Nola). But as of now, Montréal is on deck 

7 minutes ago, waiting2retire said:

@spleenstomper  I’m sure you are likely aware, but it may bear repeating since you mentioned using edibles for pain management. It is illegal to cross the border with your legal edibles. They should be readily available for purchase in Canada if you need them, you just can’t take them across the border, either way. 
 

 Hope you continue to improve and have a wonderful, much-needed holiday!

Thank you, yes I’m aware. The problem is in Quebec province, they are very strict about edibles apparently. They don’t want kids interested, so apparently I have the choice of infused figs or cauliflower. Lol. 
 

I’m definitely not brining anything over the border. Do not wish to spend my vacation in Canada jail lol 

I also know not to bring anything on the ship. I am still having stomach pains when I eat, but I hope that will be gone by the tIme we fly. 
 

Thanks for the warning! 

36 minutes ago, C 2 C said:

Be prepared for some very cool weather.

I have a pair of boots getting delivered today to my Nola house. Yeah, it’s going to be a lot cooler than we expected but ok. 
 

@jeh10641 thank you for your point of view and concern: I’m paying attention. There is some risk to me going, yes. Probably if I was 63 I would err on the side of caution. I still have to make it through a few more days before I get on the plane…. Things could still change. 

19 minutes ago, ktbraun said:

Best wishes as you travel!  Share some pictures with us! 

 

I sure will. Thus is a dream cruise! 

1 hour ago, cruising sister said:

Glad to hear you are going. My husband traveled and cruised all through his cancer treatments and as close as 4 months before he died. We were cautious, he rested when needed and he never got sick on a trip. He got sick in other places so go figure. The beauty of the cruise is you can do as much or as little as you want and your partner go and do things without you. Life is full of curve balls and we need to go with the flow. 

My husband is a cancer survivor (dx our late 20s when we had a 6 month old), so we have sort of BTDT (but poor residents lol). I’m sorry your husband died. 
 

I feel like I can do this and by 7 more days I’ll surely be feeling a lot better. It was just bad timing in the run up to the cruise. 
 

Thanks, everyone, for your support. It’s Canada and New England so that is also a large reason why we are going to do it. Not far from home and good health care in case and once we are back in the US, DH can prescribe me anything I might need. 
 

Also though, if I have a sudden down turn before Wednesday or Thursday, we will cancel. We have options. 
 

ETA: each flight leg is short too so I think it’s very doable 

Ok, as of right now I’m going. We don’t board until Saturday but we do fly out mid morning Thursday. So I’m starting to pack and all of that but we really have until Wednesday to change course. 
 

The pneumonia is gone— I’m still clearing debris in the morning— that is to be expected. I’m tired and I nap. Obviously I’m going to mask in the airports and on the plane. We have a 2 hour layover in ATL, so once I’m in that plane, I’ll be happy.

DH can run around Montréal and I can stay and nap in the hotel etc. my expectations for my part of the trip are low. I’m just going to play it by ear and spend a lot of time on our balcony.

I’m not on the ship until I’m on the ship though…. We can pull it up to the limits of the insurance policy (I have seen cancel for any reason on some policies needs to happen 3 days before the cruise, so I do need to double check at what point I need to cancel if we do). 

Hopefully me too as I’m back in the land of the living, but we are making the official decision tomorrow night.