tjcox9

2 hours ago, Vict0riann said:

Good morning, Dailyites, thanks to Rich, Roy, Jacqui and all who post such interesting stuff.  "Me, too" on all the good wishes and prayers - I wish there were a "Me, too" button on the Like site!  

 

My thesaurus is beside my place at the table, as we are cryptic crossword fiends.  Pat prefers his dictionary.   In 1996, Canada Post issued a set of Winnie-the-Pooh stamps.

 

 

 

 

In 2014, on our Atlantic Adventurer Maasdam cruise, we stopped in Valencia and had a tour of the St. Joseph caves and Valencia.  I have a lot of photos!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Best paella I ever had was in Valencia. The multi paella picture makes my mouth water!

11 minutes ago, Navybikermom said:

The site is live now, so I ordered mine already. It didn’t ask about insurance and had a total of $0.00. Won’t ship until later this month, and can’t be used for cruise travel, but hey - they will have their uses in other ways 😁

Just ordered as well. I thought it wasn't going live until tomorrow but a friend let me know she had just ordered. 

Ours were ordered on 11th, shipped by Fed EX and supposedly going to arrive on the 13th. Now, the 15th and delivery date is pending..............not too worried as our cruise is a bit out and these are just for back up and now we have potentially serious weather ahead of us. Will wait a few days before requesting further tracking.................

Thanks to all who shared their photos of Stornaway Scotland yesterday. Interesting comments regarding the people not being particularly welcoming as we've found all our Scottish ports in the past to be quite friendly.

Once again, we are sorry to read of so much illness and hope and pray for the best for all of you and friends and family who are suffering. 

19 minutes ago, durangoscots said:

I have been to Stornaway .... but no pictures, sadly. And I need desperately to organize my house.... when I get really going on project something always interrupts the process. Got to get more focused.

 

 

So hoping to see photos of Stornaway as we are booked on a cruise that calls there this August. Images I see doing a browser search look wonderful! 

Thanks to all the regulars that input daily into this forum! And thoughts and prayers with all those suffering and their families. 

We were fortunate enough to actually have Port Arthur as a port in November 2010 on our Volendam Australia circumnavigation and made it in without traveling from Hobart. It was a somber day at a beautiful place. We were asked to be very respectful and quiet due to the fact that some of the relatives of the 35 people that were killed in the mass shooting with 23 wounded in 1994 are still employed there. 

As I recall, it was on another itinerary later and we had to skip it due to weather conditions and went directly to Hobart.

We visited Beijing on a Sapphire Princess cruise tour way back in 2006. Gotta admit that I'm not sure about what all the pictures are............that's a long time ago. I'm glad we did it, but we won't be there again any time soon.

We did have a wonderful trip with great hotels and food, but then we really like Chinese food. The Peking duck was especially good, carved right in front of us. Also, it was two years before the 2008 Olympics. And of course, the Great Wall pictures speak for themselves. 

1 hour ago, dfish said:

 

There are several threads about this in the Help Forum.  One of them has been going on since 2020, which gives you the idea how long the problem has persisted.  I think those of us having these issues should let the powers that be know on a somewhat regular basis.  You can email them at help@cruisecritic.com.    And let them know that clearing cookies and caches is only a temporary and constantly annoying solution.  There needs to be a fix.   

Here's my tale of frustration. I am a normal Chrome user but several months ago, I had to start logging in with every visit to CC and then that may not hold for my entire visit to the site. So, I started using Firefox - although slower loading, it was reliable. Suddenly, a couple of days ago Firefox started being the culprit and Chrome is once again the champ with at this point no problems at all in a two day time period. Who knows what gremlins live in our various systems? 

1 hour ago, shark b8 said:

No more than 10 minutes after I posted the last message….the Captain comes on the P.A. system and announces that our call to St Martin tomorrow has been canceled.  He will keep us updated as to whether we will visit an alternate port.    Grrrrrrrrrrrr.

We need more emojis than CC provides in order to match the frustration you must be feeling, but thanks for trying to keep it light. 😪😷 Thanks for keeping us up to date as best you can and we so look forward to being at sea again.

I've enjoyed the many photos of Ushuaia and they bring back many memories.

Since no one has posted any photos of going on a small boat out into the Beagle channel, I thought I'd add a few  of those. We got really close the time we were in a really small boat, the oldest one doing the Beagle Channel tours - independent. Some of these up close and personal encounters were quite aromatic especially the ones with what appear to be white rocks!

Also, the centolla (crab) served the traditional way is wonderful. And the flowers are amazing as has been  previously stated. I think we have been there five times now. Last time in 20192010 we went to the park that so many have already posted photos. We should be back there in 2023 - fingers crossed.

Randomly from Star Princess 2008, 2010 - Veendam 2015 - Zaandam 2015. Also there on  Seabourn Quest 2019/2020 but that's when we went to the park and there are already lots of photos.

53 minutes ago, StLouisCruisers said:

Tony @sailingdutchy thanks for the nice assortment of photos from your visit to Kaohsiung.  I wondered if @tjcox9 would post some new ones too.

 

 

CC has not been kind to me today so I decided to take the day off. Half the time I can't react or quote so have just given up for the day. 😟

5 minutes ago, dfish said:

Good morning, everyone.  

 

It is kind of a gloomy day outside right now.  I hope it brightens up a bit.  A big welcome home to our travelers who are heading that way.   Prayers and warm thoughts to those in need.  

 

I've never had a meatball sub, so I don't know if I would like it or not.  My friend Tom adores them.   They look easy enough to make and a smaller version might be great for a party.  This first recipe gives you the basics for making your own meatballs.   Your favorite meatball recipe would work here too.  https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/giant-meatball-sub/

 

 

This next recipe steps it up a notch and puts cheese in the center of the meatballs and uses pesto sauce as well as a marinara sauce.  https://www.jocooks.com/recipes/godfather-meatball-sub/

 

 

And in this one, Melissa offers her Southern Style meatloaf sub.  https://www.melissassouthernstylekitchen.com/meatball-subs/

 

 

Any one of these would be great for any football games today.   Enjoy!

 

Just make sure to have lots of napkins on hand!

1 hour ago, Heartgrove said:

 

Viking has a very strict policy. It begins with full payment one year before, or when you book the cruise if less than a year. Then if you cancel, it is only cruise credit as they hang on to your money.

And that is why we have never booked with Viking river or ocean cruises......would have to be last minute if we were  ever to do so.

20 hours ago, cruiserchuck said:

I read on the NCL boards that NCL is allowing last minute cancellations with no penalty.  You get a future cruise credit, not a refund.  Hopefully HAL will follow suit.

I was talking with a neighbor yesterday who has a Viking cruise booked in January - less than two weeks from now.  She told me that they can cancel up to the day before. I assume they get a cruise credit and not a refund, but didn't ask for specifics.

41 minutes ago, Vict0riann said:

We went to New Zealand on the Statendam, out of Vancouver.  It was a memorable cruise!  Our second-to-last stop was Tauranga, and we took a ship's tour to a marai, where Pat and the other gents were persuaded to join in a haka.  A lot of my photos are like ones already on the thread.  We walked around after, and visited a beautiful beach, which seemed to go on for miles.  

 

We then disembarked  in Auckland, and flew to Christchurch where we joined DSIL and her hubby for a driving tour of a couple of weeks.  We spent a few days in Rotorua, what I remember most was the terrible smell of sulphur all the time, but it was a fascinating area.  I think we went to three different areas of thermal action, and also visited the Agrodome where they demonstrate all the different breeds of sheep, and shearing.

 

Tauranga

 

 

 

Rotorua

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mud Volcano.psd 2.42 MB · 5 downloads

Loved learning to do the Haka on one our cruises from the group that was on board with for us for some time. We were t good at it, but still fun.

These ports of the day bring back a lot of fond memories that have been buried for a while.

From our last New Year's Eve at sea in 2019. This was taken a minute or so before midnight in Antarctic waters from Seabourn Quest while on our South Georgia and Antarctic cruise. Our last time at sea before our world changed......

Happy New Year and here's hoping for a better 2022 and healing for all those who are ailing.

44 minutes ago, StLouisCruisers said:

On Dec. 22, 2013 we stopped in Tauranga on the Diamond Princess.  The following day we would disembark in Auckland, spend the night at the Hilton located on the pier next door and fly home on Christmas Eve.  The longest day of my life!  We started the morning about 5 am getting to the Auckland airport and ended up at home in Georgia about 10 pm the same day!  Needless to say we slept in on Christmas Day, and drove north to visit family a few days later.

 

On that 2013 stop DH and I merely walked around the town enjoying the warmth of the people and the climate.  On Dec. 4, 2017 we returned to Tauranga on the Sun Princess, again our final port before Auckland and returning home to the U.S.  This time we decided to hike around the base of Mount Maunganui, the extinct volcano at the end of the peninsula in town.  A view of it from the ship.

 

Here is the visitor information center right by the ship and Mount M. in the distance.

 

Good information in case of an emergency evacuation due to tsunami.

 

You start on this leisurely walk along the shore.  No hurrying here!

 

The beginning of the hike.  Here it was a paved pathway.

 

An interesting statue just off shore.  Not sure what it was though.

 

As you went along this circular path around the mountain the path became rougher and you had to watch your step carefully.  No one wants to trip and break a bone on vacation, right @cat shepardAnn?

 

The scenery was beautiful, though.

 

 

As we came around the mountain we got to see the beach everyone was enjoying.  

 

 

Here is one of my favorite photos.  A rock formation that looked like a kiwi bird to me.  It even had what looked like a beak on it.

 

At the end of the hike we walked past a campground at the base of the mountain.  Looks like a nice spot to enjoy the water and the mountain.  Some hikers walked up to the top but we weren't equipped for that.

 

 

 

On into the town.

 

And from 2013 a few more photos of the town itself.  A nice park.

 

 

Everybody needs a bench now and then.

 

A Wi-Fi hotspot for tourists and crew members, perhaps even locals too.

 

I'm ready to go back.  Just have to talk DH into a flight to the other side of the world from us.  🤔

 

 

First time in Tauranga, we went to Roturua and then we climbed to the top of Mount Maunganui, next time there, we took the walk around it, and the last time we just strolled along the beach and around the town. We also found a great little Thai restaurant there and have enjoyed a couple of times.

Some pix from the top of Mount Maunganui if I can remember when we were there for the climb.

From the climb up to the top - Volendam 2010

Also, it's so sad to see all the reports of so much illness this holiday season. And the report of the drunk driver hitting the guard house and killing the person on duty is so sad. Thanks to Dad for doing the right thing! Our best to all of you who are ill or have a friend or family member who is ailing.

We also docked at the industrial port on the Volendam in 2010. This was the first circumnavigation that HAL did, so many of the ports were new to them as well as us.

We had planned on taking the shuttle into town, however, a day or so before the port, another shore excursion was added - to the Australia Zoo also known as the Steve Irwin Zoo, about an hour outside Brisbane. As we enjoy a good zoo, we opted to visit it.

It's very well done with lots of natural spaces for the animals. Here are a few pix from the zoo - a beautiful tiger, a Komodo dragon, giant tortoises, a dangerous Cassowary, free range kangaroos and a Koala bear. I understand that the knot on the Cassowary's head can be used as quite a weapon.

We also visited Komodo on this trip where we got to see the Komodo dragons.

2 hours ago, Quartzsite Cruiser said:

I have a few more pictures from our stops in Athens and Piraeus.  The first one is a church in Piraeus between the cruise terminal and the train station.

 

In 2016 while on the Prinsendam, we took a tour to the Corinth Canal which included a boat ride through the canal.  The first picture is taken from the bridge over the canal.   On the tv show the Amazing Race, the contestants had to bungee jump from the bridge.  In the second picture, the small ship was stuck for a while and our boat circled the bay for a while until the ship was moving again.

 

 

 

On our first visit to Athens in 2002, when we were much younger, and fitter, we climbed to the top of the Acropolis.  I know there are similar pictures, but no visit to Athens should leave out pictures of the Acropolis.

 

 

The ancient theater that has been modernized.

 

The ruins of another ancient theater

 

 

Those seats do not look very comfortable.  I hope the performances didn't drag on too long.  😀

 

Lenda

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also did the Corinth Canal trip through the canal once out of Athens. Another fascinating excursion if you've done all of the Athens stuff.

2 hours ago, bennybear said:

Good morning and Happy Christmas Eve to all!    It’s our dear granddaughters birthday!  

Continued prayers for Jacqui and Jose!   Thanks to all who take the time to multiquote. 

@mamaofamiI am sorry you are dealing with this,  I am praying you stay negative you have done every thing right.  

@grapau27cannot say I liked your photo, may be it’s just me, but perhaps a tad TMI especially first thing in the morning.  Heal well. 
 

We had the pleasure of an overnight in Athens last trip so we left town and visited Meteora and  Delphi. I will attempt some photos. 
 

We visited Meteora once from the port of Volos. It's an amazing place if you ever get the chance, do it! We were on one of the small Princess ships as I recall.

I'll post a few photos from Athens and Piraeus that haven't captured here yet.

First is the changing of the guard at the Palace. White is their Sunday attire and as I recall from a previous visit, brown is the rest of the week. It's quite a spectacle.

Also, in Piraeus, it's rather interesting to walk down the street near the waterfront with one restaurant after the other. Some have octopi on display, hanging from the awnings! And I couldn't help  adding a picture of a beautiful Greek salad we shared.

2 hours ago, Quartzsite Cruiser said:

 

DH just read on another HAL thread that the Koningsdam was not allowed to disembark passengers in Puerto Vallarta today.  A few were allowed off early, but then told to return to the ship.  The comments from passengers on the ship say a few crew members tested positive and the Mexican authorities would not let anyone from the ship enter the country.  Someone else said there were 50 cases, and maybe even some passengers were positive.  As with any developing situation, the information is partly true and partly hearsay and speculation.  I just hope this doesn't turn into a situation like those in 2020.

 

Lenda

That person then revisited what they thought they were quoting and realized it was the RCL cruises, not HAL, as I read it. Sure hope that is the case. Not that I'm glad they are the one with that many cases, just that it's not HAL. 🙂

I have also been in CC prison until now. Let's see it this will work!

Thanks to StLouisCruiser, kb4683 and SailingDutchy for the photos of Falmouth. Sorry, but right now, I am unable to respond to posts in CC today with like and thanks - it comes and goes.

And I am so sorry to read of all the many illnesses and deaths in the group. We feel pretty fortunate with having only minor issues with which to deal right now, although that has not always been the case. Our thoughts and prayers are with all of you.

We too have visited Falmouth on the Caribbean Princess in 2012 and didn't see much of Falmouth itself as we did an independent tour - Magical Mystery Tour. It took us through the scenic countryside and then on to Port Isaac, better known to those who have watched Doc Martin as Portwenn. 

First are a couple of pictures from our drive through the countryside. And then we come to Port Isaac where some of you may recognize some of these pix ad Doc's surgery, the harbor, and the tea shoppe, which I believe is the pharmacy and also the only souvenir shop for Doc Martin merchandise. 

It was a really fun day!

37 minutes ago, Sharon in AZ said:

Today’s ornament isn’t really an ornament but I added a ribbon and hung it on the Christmas tree. It was courtesy of the Westerdam Crow’s Nest bartender from a Mexican Riviera cruise December 2016.  I thought it was cute. 

 

We have a similar ones along with a little table I think. Can't remember which ship though but that was quite a while back!