jimgev

How about "Club Orange"? If you add that on, does it count to Mariner Points? If you book specialty dining prior to the cuise, does that count for Mariner Points?

Hi Jacqui. Please add us to the following cruise: October 7, - 21, 2023 Rotterdam 14 Day Atlantic Sojourn

Bon Voyage!

Bon Voyage!

Bon Voyage!

Celebrating National Dog Day with our little guy.

Beeautiful spoonbill.

Bon Voyage!

Greetings! I've been to Copenhagen several times but, unfortunately, never as a cruise port. On my first vist (gosh, it was 50 years ago!) visited the Calrsberg Brewery. It was the most memorable part of my trip. The bee was very good, but that ws not what really impressed me. Carlsberg is actually (or at least was back then) a non-profit corporation. It is (or was) a little self-contined community within the city. In there, they provided housing for their workers, schools for the workrs children and medical care (cliic and hospital) for the workers. After paying for all the benefits for their empoyees, all the profits went to support for the arts. The "Little Mermaid" sculpture in the arbor is one the the donations from Calrsberg. Fifty years later, I am still amazed at this corporation. On something completely different, I , like many of you, am heartbroken over the news about Jacqui and Shadow. I can only wish that the pain will go away and a good home for Shadow can be found.

Greetings! I just had to respond to the wonderful celebratin of books. i have been an avid reader all my life. I vividly recall the fist real book I read. I was 8 years old and spending time at a lake in norther New Jersey. We had a rain front come through and it reained stedy for several days. With nothing else to do, I found a book that someone had left behind. It was a Hardy Boys mysetery entitled: "The Great Airport Mystery". I started reading it and immediately was hooked. I even actually wrote and published a book myself. These days I read an average of about three books per week. I don't know what I would do without books to keep my mind active. Books and music keep me going. My advice to young people is to learn to love books and becaome a lifetime reader.

Good Morning. Thanks for the fleet and daily rreport and for the care lists. Today we remember the horrors of war and nuclear weapons. May we all be advocates of peace. I love the blues. My band performs classic rock and blues but all our original material is blues. When I get around to writing a song it always seems to end up being a blues song.

Bon Voyage!

Yes, that was him!

Good Morning. Thanks for the daily fleet report and for the care lists. Can anyone remember the name of the comedian back in the 1960's who was known for "spoonerisms"? He recorded several of his routines and they were played frequently on the radio. Basically, he would take well known fairy tales and convert them to spoonerisms. Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty were the ones I remember. Sleeping Beauty became "Beeping Slooty". It's strange how memories are triggered. I never knew those routines were called "spoonerisms".

Greetings. It has been a long day . My Rotary Club held its annual picnic for foster kids today. Kids in foster care often do not have much. Their foster families are paid an amount to feed and cloth them but they are often isolated by their peers and by society in general. We have an annual "day" where we play games, give out sports equipment (volley balls, basketballs, baseballs, etc and school supplies and just try to make them feel like any normal kid. It is a "feel good" event for those of us who participate. As for the collection of days, I love spinach- raw, cooked, creamed, whatever. I also really like snakes. They are amazing creatures and, often, quite beautiful. One needs to respect them as with other wildlife, but they play an important role in nature. I was in Whittier only two weeks ago. The most amazing thing about this port is the tunnel. What an incredible piece of engineering! The quote for today is, sadly, all too true. Our society seems to be on track to become anti-intelligence. The more science discovers, the more people reject it. Einstein has been reported to say that there are two examples of infinity: the univers and the human capacity for stupidity. I don't know if he actually said that, but I would not disagree.

Good morning. Love blueberries, hate censorship. I find it interesting that the same groups that claim to love freedom are the ones most in fsvor of censorship. The meal suggestion sounds great. The forcaste for today here is sunny to partly cloudy with little chance of precipitation . (right now it is pouring)LOL.

Good Morning. Still recovering from our vacation. The cruise and land tour were great but flying to and from was a pain. Our Alaska cruise tour started off with a flighht from our home airport here in Florida to Vancouver, BC with connections in Toronto. The first leg on Air Canada was delayed by almost two hours. As a result, we missed our connection to Vancouver. We went to the Air Canada customer service desk - there was a huge line (more than 100 people) we stood on that line for about 15 minutes and it didn't move at all. DW saw an Air Canada employee walking by and went up to her. She got on her radio and told us to go to a certain gate where they would re-book us on the next flight. But they told us that they coud not guraantee that our luggage would be on the same plane. Well, the next flight was delayed as well but we were abel to get on the plane and arrived in Vancouver (about 4 hours late). We were plesantlyu surprised that our luggage arrived with us. It was after midnight when we arrived at our hotel. We had an unusually eartly boarding time the next day at 10:00 AM. So we got to Canada Place at baout 9:30. The process of going through all the pre-boarding was smooth but when we had to show our vaccination papers I pulled out my phone and went to the Verifly app where everything was stored. But there was a problem, my phone showed there was no cell service inside that building! Luckily, I had the paper documents for everything. We showed those and got through without a problem. But there was one more glitch to come. Our boarding time was 10 AM. We were directed to a section of a large room and instructed to sit down until we were called. The first boarding did not take place until 11:30. Why HAL told people that they would board at 10 is a mystery. There was no way the ship could have been ready to board by then. So FINALLY, we boarded and were able to relax. It was a beautiful day and it was wonderful to be aboard. The next day (a sea day going up the inside passsage, was very foggy. We never broke out of the fog all day. The rest of the cruise, however, had great weather. On our frist stop at Ketchikan, we met a couple who were on their way to Walmart to buy clothes. Air Canada had lost all their luggage and they only had the clothes they had on (shorts and tee shirts). We realized that we were almost in the same situation. The rest of the cruise was what one would expect from HAL - great service, friendly staff, good food and spectacular scenery. Then we were on with the land tour portion.I can only say that it exceeded every expectation. The seamless coordination at every turn was amazing. The HAL resort at Denali was beautiful. We saw the big mpuntain and so much wildlife - we were very luck in this regard. There were no glitched flying home - just very long and exhausting. I used to enjoy flying but not any more. Despite the difficulties getting to and from, we had a great time.

We're home from our Alaska cruise and land tour. We had a great time. I'll post more about it tomorrow. Not into body painting but I was a motorcycle rider for many years. I finally sold my last bike a few years ago. It broke my heart but it was the right thing to do.

Good Morning. I will pass on the fish heads. Today we are finishing our packing. Tomorrow we fly out to Vancouver and will board the Noordam on Sunday. Last night I completed all the requirements on the Verifly app but the dang thing is so weird. It says I completed all the requirements and then, when I try to view the "pass" it says that I need to complete the requirements. It just keeps going in a loop like that. Technology is great when it works and incredibly frustrating when it doesn't.

Completed all the required information yesterday afternoon. We begin our cruise this Sunday. On one hand, the app says that everything is completed but when I click on "view pass" it takes me to a screen that says I need to complete the requirements. But the requiremes all show that they are comple and have been accpted. So, basically, I have a completed app that will not generate the pass. At this point I'm just not going to delete everything and start over. We don't have the time for such nonsense.

Good morning from sunny SW Florida. Thaks for the dally and a special thanks today to Roy. Roy, you are one of the great people who make this forum work. I wish you a very special happy birthday. It reminds me of a birthday I celebrasted on a BHB, it was my 64th. The piano player played the beatle song: "When I'm 64" to help me celebrate. We all sang "Will you still need me, will you still feed me when I'm 64" and had lots of laughs. The Hemmingway quote is interesting. I think he was responding to the popular saying: "Ignorance is bliss". He was very involved in polital movements around the worls and was very likely dismayed about the state of humanity at that point. He was, obviously, very intelligent and also disappointed in the failures of the human race. He, actually, is giving us a lot to think about with that quote. Stay safe everyone.

Debbie, you outdid yourself with those recipies. Every one of them looks fantastic!

Just received the same email regarding our 6.26/22 cruise on the Noordam.

Good Morning. As always, thanks for the daily and the care lists. I love the quote. Reading is essential to keeping ones mind sharp. I like cod but not the salted kind so much so I will pass on the meal suggestion. Ball poiint pen day took me back to the time before they were popular. Does anyone remember school desks with ink wells? When the day came to learn to write in ink the teasher carefully poured a small amount of ink into each student's ink well and distributed the ink pens. by the end of the lesson the ppractice papers were filled with ink blotches but even more ink was on our hands and cloths.

Bon Voyage!