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42 minutes ago, orville99 said:

We typically do the WJ as well because they actually carve the whole turkey and DW can get the dark thigh and leg meat that she loves. Every time she asks for dark meat in the MDR they give her Banquet dinner “dark” meat turkey roll.

 

On Serenade at Thanksgiving, we went to the MDR, fiddled with what they served for a while and then went to the WJ for real turkey.

I’ve always wondered why the WJ can bake a real turkey and even the Solarium Bistro on Oasis class has had an excellent turkey, although it was being carved at breakfast😳 but the MDR can’t seem to do it!  
 

I guess it could be blamed on serving a large number of people?

Sherri🙂

I hope work goes well for you, Kat!  And that vacation fund gets bigger😉

Soup sounds deliciou, Melody! 
 

Funny, Lois, when you were graduating from high school in 1976, I was graduating from IU School of Nursing.  And six weeks later, our first son was born.  Very hard for me to believe in 2026 I will have a son who is 50!
 

Sherri🙂

Lovely picture and granddaughter, Melody!

Nice to see you getting back to normal, Lois! 
 

Have another great cruise, Cynthia!  
 

Christy, is there a “hell week” #4?  Our hospital tried each year to limit scheduled procedures over Christmas Eve and day but that did not go over well with the doctors.  I remember one doctor said if he had to work those days then he could schedule as much as he wanted to.  And did!

Melissa, glad the Covid was mild!

Kat, do you work over the holiday or do you, hopefully, have some time off?

We are currently in South Carolina with our youngest son’s family, and will go up to Virginia on Christmas.   Then will come back to SC to stay with grandkids while our daughter in law goes to Hawaii for a week.  Our son is going over there to work for three weeks so she will be there for a week with him.  We will not get back to Florida until the 17th! 
 

In case I get busy with grands, I want to wish everyone now a very Merry Christmas and an amazing New Year filled with lots of travel and good health!  2024 used to seem so far away but here we are😂.

Sherri🎄

Glad everything has gone well for you Lois!   Too bad another stone is developing, I hope you can get it taken care of before it can cause any problems.  
 

Wow, Melissa, the whole family?  I hope you all have mild cases and recover quickly!  

Don’t you just love health care games, Christy?😂. The unit I worked in for 27 years is going through a difficult time.  Upper management reduced the size of the pediatric unit  causing several of their experienced nurses to leave so now they have mandated cross training for the post partum staff. As a result, several friends have decided to retire and others are leaving for jobs elsewhere.  So of course, they been swamped with new babies, they are short of help, and management is having to pay bonus to bribe staff to come in extra.  Fun times!

Sherri🙂
 

25 minutes ago, KALCJ1 said:

I was on Oasis last week and didn’t receive any invites.  I did see the paper you attached, but must’ve missed the top tier/information, so this is good to know.  We are 7 points from Diamond Plus and I thought it was odd not to get any invites or a description of our Diamond Benefits.

On our Oasis 12/03 cruise, only D+ and Pinnacle were invited to the top tier which I did not  think was fair.  Lots of empty seats.

Sherri🙂

8 hours ago, firefly333 said:

Top tier party was the top aerialist not any divers. Idk if it was planned or the weather. I am sure more would have attended I talked to, who just didnt know about it. We had a medical emergency and during the event we docked in cozumel through out all this. If you peeked below the big tv screens you could see cozumel. 

 

Top tier party. Took lots of pictures, not sure which are best but this is what we saw. 

That is what we had fit our top tier party, just an aerialist for a few miniutes.  This was on 12/03 Oasis.

Sherri🙂

2 hours ago, firefly333 said:

Do pinns get a different free laundry than the D+ free laundry dry? I saw John's all neatly folded laundry vs my friend sent out last week and got a mess of wrinkled clothes. 

 

Are there 2 different free services. .. something to look forward to. I thought john must have tipped well as his stuff came back nearly folded, wearable. 

Our free bags have always come back looking as though everything has been neatly ironed, not just folded, even my husband’s boxers.  It’s always impressed my husband as I have not ironed anything for at least 30 years😂

Sherri🙂

3 hours ago, Steeler Nation At Sea said:

Does Oasis still have the Jazz Club?  Other ships still have it?

No jazz club but there was jazz concerts in Central Park several  nights.  And in the promenade.

Sherri🙂

On 11/26/2023 at 5:42 AM, Scottdalfonso said:

Yep- 10\1 it was on...I think it only showed maybe twice, though. BUT I also think it was still considered to be "in preview" so it may be doing more shows now. 

It was offered 2x on our cruise 12/3.

Sherri🙂

2 hours ago, crazyank said:

since when is Diamond not enough for Top Tier??

On our last two cruises, Odyssey TA in October and Oasis last week,  Diamonds were not invited to the top tier.   I thought maybe it was due to large number of D+ and pinnacles on the TA as it was a packed audience in the theater but the Aqua theater on Oasis had lots of empty seats.  And they were checking cards as we entered.

Sherri🙂

9 hours ago, MrToblerone said:

Hi Sherri

The downtown of Auckland has an area called Britomart and also Commercial Bay within walking distance if you are into shopping.If not a ferry to Waiheke and go to a vineyard .St Heliers is a nice area to get an uber or bus to and lunch at a waterfront cafe .There is a hop on hop off bus but I have not been on that. Hope this helps and happy to answer any questions regarding New Zealand

 

Thanks for the info Melissa, you’ve given me some good ideas.    We were in New Zealand on a cruise, I think maybe 2014,  and had a great time.  Beautiful country!   Auckland will be a first for us.

Sherri🙂

2 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

Just in case anyone wants to try one at home, the ingredients are vodka (a vanilla-infused one would be great but plain unflavored is fine), creme de cacao, peppermint schnapps and a splash of cream. Not sure how they do the chocolate rim, but a little cocoa sprinkled on top is also festive.

 

I will definitely give that a try.  Thanks!

Sherri🙂

4 hours ago, Lois R said:

I got through to my Dr this morning........I explained everything to him and that I was not going to pay 500.00 for 2.5 weeks worth of pills (end of the year)......he was pretty nice and actually had some samples in the office that he told me I could have and that would get me through year end.  And he put a referral in for me to see an Endrocologist (Sp)........my specialist is my Kidney Dr......boy, this is so confusing sometimes.

Medical care in the US is very confusing and expensive.  I’m glad you are recovering and home from the hospital, Lois. 
 

This has been a fast year, Kat, hard to believe you are back at work again!

Welcome back, Cynthia.  I agree with Melody, that martini does look fabulous!

And Melissa, I’ve been meaning you ask you what you would recommend we check out when we are in port in Auckland in February.  Anything we shouldn’t miss?

Sherri🙂

9 hours ago, Merion_Mom said:

Then there was the Mariner Around the Horn cruise in 2009.  It was a repositioning from Port Canaveral to Los Angeles, 46 nights.  Not global, to be sure, but an amazing journey.  (Mariner is too large to fit through the Panama Canal)

It was an amazing journey!  But we only had one grandchild then and he was in Minnesota, so 46 nights did not seem like too long to be gone!

Sherri🙂

23 minutes ago, MD_Dan said:

Likewise with adults

True. My husband was not a fan! I liked it but I would not go a second time unless I really needed something to do.

Sherri🙂

We saw The Book on Odyssey last month.  There was nothing in it that I saw that I would consider inappropriate for children, but I could see some kids being quite bored.  My 9 year old granddaughter would love it, my 8 year old grandson, probably not.

Sherri🙂

2 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

It’s good that you’re getting this looked at right away. Hopefully it will just require a tweak in your meds or something similar. Think positive thoughts. 🤞

Cynthia is right, Lois.  It could be something very simple to correct.  We are probably all sending positive thoughts to you. 
 

Sherri🙂

1 hour ago, orville99 said:

This ship was old long before we boarded it. Love the ship, the crew is outstanding, gaining weight from all the good food, but just not a world cruise worthy class ship  IMHO, rather than do a “Shakedown” cruise, they should have taken her out of service for the last month and refitted her stem to stern to a quality level deserving of a world cruise. Unfortunately, they decided to do it on the cheap.

We will be on 2 segments, one to Australia for 28 nights and the last one from Amsterdam for 22 nights.  In 2014, we cruised from Australia to Hawaii and then  Hawaii to Vancouver for a total of 30 nights on Serenade so I know what to expect, but the ship was in much better shape then.  We did a five night on Serenade in November, 2021 and were very surprised at how run down the ship was.  My husband said you would think with all that downtime during the pandemic they would have at least painted and patched.😂. 
 

I’m thinking if the cruise to Australia does not go well, we will cancel the one from Amsterdam.😂

Sherri🙂

We, too, were on the Odyssey TA 😂. The only places  we found really crowded were Giovanni’s Wine bar (very difficult to find a seat between 6 and 8pm every night) and the Solarium.  I couldn’t sleep one night so went for a walk and discovered the Solarium was packed with people’s stuff.🙄

And the Diamond Lounge was packed every night so we would just run in and grab a snack!

Sherri🙂

Lois, I hope you are feeling better this morning!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!  I decided since it would just be the two of us not to make a traditional turkey dinner, my husband is going to grill some steaks instead.  I did make a small pumpkin cheesecake yesterday. Should be just a quiet day. 
 

Sherri🙂

WhenI am in the mood for something on the strong side, I like the James Bond martini that is available at the pub.  It is vodka, gin and Lillet Blanc.  
 

The pub on our recent Odyssey cruise did not have it listed on the menu and bartender had no idea what it was. I showed him the menu from our Wonder cruise, he was able to make one for me.😂

Sherri🙂

48 minutes ago, lovesthebeach2 said:

I wanted to let you know (because we had discussed it once), that when we got off in FLL from the Odyssey TA, we just hopped in a cab to the Amtrak station ( a quick 10 min ride ) and got on the 8:30 train to Winter Haven, then a quick Uber home. The whole trip including cab, train and Uber was about $125.

Brightline  is new and beautiful, but when we booked the Amtrak, it wasn’t up and running yet and we decided to keep the Amtrak reservation. The travel time was the same for both, around 3 hours. Luggage was free on the train. Since we live south of OIA, it was much less hassle and quicker for us to get home from the train in Winter Haven.

 

For future cruises, Im curious to hear how you make out, I know you live fairly close to us and I’m interested in how you’re getting home from the airport and how it was getting out in Terminal C which I hear is a long walk.

I love terminal C!  Lots of room to get through security so you don’t feel jammed in with hundreds of people.  Everything is bright, clean, and spacious.  Gate area was nice. The walk isn’t bad, they do have shuttles for people who don’t want to walk. 
 

We have flown in to C several times and flew out for the recent Odyssey TA. I would much rather be at C than A or B😂.

Sherri🙂

Orville99, thanks for taking the time from your vacation to do this thread.  We are booked for two segments of the WC so I am very interested in any changes.  I was unaware the laundry rooms, if added, would only be available to WC passengers; this had made me wonder if there are any other things that will be off limits for us segmenters?

Sherri🙂

17 minutes ago, Ride-The-Waves said:

Interesting.  Do you think that is intentional on the part of RCI?  Trying to "encourage" you to move to the larger ships which are likely less costly to operate per person per mile.  We love the "smaller" ships.  Have cruised extensively on Azamara, our favorite line pre-pandemic.  Have also cruised on Hurtigruten to the Antarctic and the "smaller" celebrity ships.  It seems that RCI is focusing on its behemoths and letting the rest of the line disintegrate.  It also appears that RCI is charging small ship prices for sailing on the behemoths, especially the "nickel and diming" on board.  

Not sure I would say it’s Royal’s attempt to “encourage” people to move to the larger ships but based on the appearance of the ships we have sailed on since 2021,  the larger ships seem to be where their money is going. 
 

Sherri🙂

1 minute ago, Jimbo said:

Yes, that ship is lacking something. Like " Walking Dead" in the evenings.

That’s funny but true!

Sherri🙂