spleenstomper

I had a great time on my Westerdam Alaska cruise.one of my top 2 cruises I would say.

I’m glad we are doing Zaandam April 29 then. That third unknown ship was a talking point for us.

Right, it’s an early itinerary crowd. Everyone was in bed early and up and off the ship early.

I made it to Nola. Y’all take it easy.

I remembered, (I stopped for food) the first stomp breaks the ribs and the second stomp gets the spleen lol.

@SmoothFlying Oh goodness. I didn’t know there might be 20 years of hot flashes. However, it’s a gift to get older so I guess we have to give and take. Yes. New Year’s Day is usually a foggy one down the bayous and if you are familiar, much if I-10 is over or near water. It’s still a tad foggy where I live. I sleep with a Cpap and ear plus (DH saws logs all night) so I’ll bet that fog horn wouldn’t hurt me lol. Though I can imagine how high your wife jumped when they sounded it. ok. Time to get my driving clothes on and start loading the car. My target leave time is in about 25 mins. I was hoping DH might be able to sneak home for one last peck but it looks like that isn’t happening. and, yes. NOTE to all men: cruises are always welcome as gifts! Even thought it’s a vacation and you are going also. Quality time together is always a hit, at least with me. This year I received the HAL New England and Canada explorer.

That is a great idea. I thought I was doing that, but as you can see things walked away lol. I guess I’ll have to up the dedicated level like you did with it all in an actual container. It would help declutter my closet also. 🤩

Sure. lol. So basically any Spleenstomper online is either my husband or me. (unless someone took the name, I mean I can’t guarantee it’s only us but it is usually available). I am a woman BTW as you can probably tell from all the hot flash talk. He is a surgeon. During surgical residency at a top hospital, there was MANY a day that was long and weary and he thought about quitting. He decided if he quit, he would become a professional wrestler and the spleen stomp would be his signature move. It’s a double stomp: the first stomp gets the liver and the second one gets the spleen. (I think… it’s been a very long time). Maybe we can refer to it as his fever dream. DH gave me the Hawaii cruise for Christmas one year and so I registered here. The names I tried were taken, so I tired his old reliable of Spleenstomper and it was available 🙃 By the way, in his fever dream, no actual people or livers or spleens were harmed. It was a theatrical professional wrestling move/idea 🤪. He isn’t a maniac.

Ok, drumroll please…. I have everything on my list. The suitcase is closed and zipped, I giant disposable bag filled and an overflow of this and that’s. I’ll have to compress it all (I didn’t want to bring the giant suitcase, so I chose the medium one. I hope my son has room in his…. I find usually the guys have extra room 😂

Ok, found one extension cord by the Christmas decor. Lol. I have to leave by 2 cst, and it looks like I’m going to make it lol. I will have to repack and reorganize in NOLA, but at least I can likely get out of the door here in time. it’s not helping my hot flashes that It’s 70 degrees here with 100% humidity. I know that sounds delightful to me but I don’t need added stickiness. It’s part of the reason why I’m staying on the ship.

Dang it. My Cpap extension cords with the dedicated USBC ports aren’t where I thought they would be and DH is at work and can’t help me look. This isn’t a large problem, but these particular ones were just right for a cruise. GRRRR. Humpf.

It’s true. So much wisdom there. Like a little Ben Franklin quip

Isn’t that the truth? Even if I did forget something, as long as it’s nothing important like my CPAP, I can buy onboard or at a port. Heck, one cruise one of my tweens didn’t pack and shorts or pants so we had to buy the smallest adult size onboard and we cinched the waist with a belt lol.

Nobody better look at my Sasquatch toes when I get on board lol. Didn’t get a pedicure. Will consider adding that to my spa treatments.

Yea, ADD here too so yup, it’s been a steaming pile of goo ahead of me and it’s been hard to climb. I’m getting there. I’m cooling off from drying my hair. Lol

It’s actually very true. I kinda don’t want to go but that was also in the run up to Christmas. I have finished cleaning up after that whirlwind and did Marie Kondo— TKO everything goes lol. I have caught up on laundry and am now slowly making my way through my list. I am having bad hot flashes, so I have to take breaks after showering and then again after blow drying my hair, so that isn’t helping. I have booked 3 spa treatments and am only getting off the ship in cozumel, so I’m just now starting to look forward to it.

Thank you! I’m making headway. I’m of a certain age so I have to come in the den to cool off between showering and then again after blowing dry hair lol.

Thanks for the feedback. Yes, everyone who did the land portion were raving about it.

I am very slowly making progress. I need to leave here around 2 though because I don’t like driving at night. Plus fog.

This is the next Alaska cruise I want to do: anchorage to either Seattle or Vancouver. We seriously debated the New England cruise or the one way Alaska cruise, and NE and Canada won. One way Alaska will be next big cruise.

They don’t. With Westerdam, you don’t even get a grand lobby or staircase. One dining room, one (two maybe) speciality dining. You do get a spa and a mini bar in your room stocked with water, sodas, cocktails etc. Room service is amazing and you can order the dining room or speciality restaurant menus. They do have solo get togethers and lunches. I found a solo group and the ship is so small that you see them everywhere, so 5 of us still keep in touch. Smaller ships might not be your thing. Just know that you might have to give up some amazing experiences with a larger ship. NCL epic was in Alaska with us and that is a mega ship. So larger ships do go to Alaska and I guess that is what excursions are for.

It took me a while to figure out why we passed this celebrity ship at the glacier and after a while I realized it’s because they were larger than we were so they had to stay farther back. The camera is on zoom so it’s father back than it looks and we were still going toward the glacier.

Some Alaska pics from September

Large ships have more amenities, yes. But for Alaska, you want a smaller ship because smaller ships can go closer to glaciers and inlets etc. Same with New England and Canada. For Alaska, I took HAL Westerdam with 1200 people and for Canada, Zaandam with 1400. We can stop at Bar Harbor, Maine and larger ships have to skip that port because the city can’t handle larger ships so they made an ordnance about it. I booked this Alaska cruise a week or two before, so it was very last minute for me.

I’m due in Nola sometime today and my check in time is noon tomorrow on Glory and I’m sitting here half packed like I have all the time in the world. At least I have a selection of casual and dressy cruise dresses. That was easy. Now it’s the nitty gritty like where is my lanyard? It’s time to get down to brass tacks.