RMLincoln

So good to hear something about Kathi. Thanks @HAL Sailerfor your efforts working through Pete. We’ll continue to be with her in spirit. Maureen

As others have said, a lot of the noise is people at tables. But the servers areas on Koningsdam are large and few. But they generate a constant noise level of clatter. I have never experienced this before. From what OP was told, Rotterdam has more server areas and maybe that will help. m—

@iflyrc5 thanks for all your posts! Boarding Feb 25. Haven’t heard Cantare yet, was hoping. More especially hoping Lincoln Center Stage quartet is still doing almost-daily concerts. But if that has changed we’ll be ok hanging out with family! I think when the entertainment shifts Lincoln Center quartet to a main stage show, it won’t be worth it to us to make the extended trip to Florida for a HAL cruise…. we’ll likely cruise out of closer ports for pleasant getaway trips. Too bad, I like HAL but without the music it’s just not so different or better…. I can enjoy a balcony on a different line instead. But very excited to be cruising with the family this time! There’ll be 8 of us! Probably never happen again so it’ll be grand! m—

Oh how excellent Karen! We’ll pray it keeps going! Thanks for the report!

Ouch! Plural space is the space outside the lung sack. The space needs to be clear so the lungs can expand and contract easily. Fractures can be hairline cracks that can close up, or displacements which are harder to close. I hope you get proper guidance on a path of how best to deal with these for long term healing. 🙏. —M. anterior = to the body front, lateral = to the side

Greetings Dailyites! So good to check in with you all. Blessings to all in need of healing, comfort or hope. And smooth travels to all those away from home. Can’t begin to imagine the needs in Turkey or Urkrine… prayers for miracles there and wherever needed! I was in Boy Scouts longer than either of my step-sons because I followed them both through the whole process. Was the only mom on some of the winter campouts. A lot of work and commitment but good years, good times, good memories. @Seasick Sailor ? I hope I got the right person…. there are other things that could cause pain than cracked ribs. I hope you hear something soon or can call for the report. @ottahand7 sad to hear that your room is not being redone, dried out and with new carpet. Do not risk an asthma flare up. Happy it’s warm in Puerto Madryn. It was cold when we were there and I had been sick so I didn’t get off. I hope the warm sun helps lift you. @marshhawk You are a busy woman. Hope DH’s recovery and all your day’s happenings go well. @rafinmd Sad you had to cancel cruises but better to be recovered when your next one comes! Hope you can rest today. We leave two weeks from today, but have to get through dental fix today- new crown. yay. And still no passport for son…. still time 🤞 Cheers to all celebrating! Life is good! —Maureen

Thank you Sandi! You are amazing us! @StLouisCruisers Annie, @marshhawk lifting you and DH up for a successful day. Thank you for sharing your wisdom here! Terri, @Cruzin Terri Beautiful morning in Miami. Bon Voyage . Mailing Valentines today. Sending out the Love. I try to send them to all my single friends, most especially the widows and widowers. My most recent widow friend is in her 50s, has MS, now in a wheelchair, had to quit her job as an Occupational Therapist. She needs to know Love is all around! Humbles me and Makes me grateful! Sometimes it’s actually more effective to wave with the whole hand than just one finger! 😉 Especially if you smile. 😁👋 Blessings to all in need of healing, comfort and hope. Especially Kathi…. Roy, Jacqui, those in pain, those without a path forward yet, those dealing with loss, natural disasters, war. And an edge of protection around all the rescuers and protectors. Congrats to all celebrating. 🎉Life is good. Smooth travels to all away from home. 🚢🚘✈️🏨 I have nothing on my calendar today! Yay! Maybe I can actually get something done 🤣. Leaving in 2 weeks for the big family cruise, there’s plenty to do around here…. —Maureen

You may have to be sure to not dispose of it onboard. It is single use water bottles and the like that they confiscate at security. If one has food allergies, one is allowed to bring aboard special-needs foods. I’d say, be prepared to have it confiscated but I’d lay odds that you’ll be passed through, no guarantees. Happy cruising! m—

@tupper10 So sorry you are in so much pain and had to miss your cruise. I’ve had great results from a steroid pack but they do cause insomnia, but I didn’t care because I didn’t hurt so much! Prayers for you and your son. And the turn of events so that now you can keep in contact with him is amazing. Hoping you can recover easily and he can get on a path to wellness very soon, though the path may take some time. Keep us posted when you can. M—

@marshhawk Thank you for sharing the long story a couple of days ago about your harrowing trip of hard lessons of the world in your youth. You’ve come a long way and gained a lot of wisdom! m—

@marshhawk Blessings for Fern and you, her sister and all her care team. @luvteaching You have the special privilege of caring for your spouse in the best way you see. Courage and confidence for you in your decisions right now! And an open mind that things can change in time, and that’ll be ok too. @cat shepard Sorry, meant to type DS for your sister. So hard to see a sister in pain but being alongside her now is the best. May we all have a good rest tonight. m—

First, blessings for @cat shepard and family, DD and DN. Loss is always stunning, numbing, surreal. And loss of people younger than we are is harder to grasp. Plus there is loss greater than the death of one’s child! Holding you all in my heart and prayers. Late yesterday @Copper10-8 posted a picture of Airabelle! The extra huge special-shape hot air balloon who is a local star of the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. She is sponsored by a Los cal dairy, Creamland. She is very difficult to fly because of her size and shape so when she is up it’s a thrill. Balloon Fiesta is always the first full week in October and both weekends. It attracts hundreds of thousands. At the balloon park there are usually 100,000 spectators on the weekends for the Mass Ascensions which begin just after dawn. Spectators are free to roam around the field watching balloonists prepare and launch their balloons, often being enlisted to hold a rope or assist. There are usually about 700 or more balloonists attending; they come from all over the world. I received a thoughtful Christmas present from a dear NM friend: a 2023 Balloon Fiesta calendar, warmed my heart! Blessings to all in need of healing, comfort or hope. Congrats to those celebrating! Smooth and happy travels to those away. Thank you @ottahand7 for your reports and pictures. So glad you have a dry cabin to relocate to! Impressed with your upbeat attitude, you are inspiring! Maureen

As for visiting Amsterdam, we did a couple of days pre-cruise on our own. Booked a hotel within walking distance from the train station and canal boats. Bought canal boat tickets. And used the tram too. Amsterdam is an easy place for touring on your own, in my experience. Hotels can be booked on line through any of several booking sights… hotels dot com, booking dot com, Expedia dot com, and others, for examples. Travel agents can make those arrangements for you too.

@Cruising-along I got that email too. Started the survey. It seemed legit. Then partway into it, it evaporated! Said come back in 10 minutes and try again. I went back to email for the link and the email was gone too. Very strange. I’ll watch for email from Amber 😉 @rafinmd thanks for the Strathmore directions. Was only on the Shady Grove side of the Red line once, saw the station. We’re closer to the Glenmont end but can drive over to Shady Grove just as easily. Would be easier! Good to see that you see to be feeling better! 👍

Not yet, hoping to figure that out. Have several sets of tickets for chamber music and national symphony. Maybe Strathmore would be easier to get to? Finding the trek into DC a bit long…. but worth it. Might be easier to go up to Baltimore if there’s parking. We drive to Metro for DC, then 2 trains plus the shuttle. Hour and a half. Like it was to drive from our mountain location into Albuquerque 🤣.

Greetings and blessings to all, especially those in need of healing, comfort or hope… Smooth travels for all who are away…. Warming trends to those where it is way too cold…. Congrats to all celebrating milestones and memories! Thanks to who make this thread so meaningful. I had never heard of Frost Quakes, and hope to never hear them for real! Jacqui, you are stalwart! On so many levels! (I don’t have a ‘hats off to you emoji, and not a good day to take one’s hat off, 😉). Good news from @rafinmd that you slept better through chemistry… but those drugs will slow the GI tract, so add to the regimen whatever is needed for that. May you keep on the steady improvement track! I may not be too far from you, I’m near MD 200, the Intercounty Connector, here for next 2 and a half weeks…. happy to come up if I can be of assistance. Email is my cc name sent via hot mail dot com. @ottahand7 thank you for your effort to share your voyage. I think your pictures are as close as I’ll get to Antarctica. Really appreciate you! And applause for all the other great pix! I love stopping at Huatulco for the beach! Lucky to have been a few times. First time I saw officers with machine guns at the beach! Figured better to have them there than not! Long story about our first visit there, 2004, only our second cruise. We were on (old) Regal Princess, LA to FL. Left Huatulco 1pm headed to Costa Rica. Headed into stormy weather across the Bay of Tehuantepec +20’ waves, +70 winds…. Then a critical medical emergency onboard. Captain turned us towards Santa Cruz It was just before first dinner seating. Ship leaned so bad they lost all the place settings, 1100 glasses on the MDR floor. The liquor shelves in the bars, and the perfume and figurines shops had high losses. TVs came off walls. In our room the water glasses slid and shattered. No serious injuries! MDR cleaned up and reset in 25 minutes! BUT Santa Cruz port closed! So we had to head back to Huatulco! Disembarked the patient and left again, 1am. Lost 12 hours. Had to miss Costa Rica port so as to make our Canal time. Oh well…. BUT many passengers were livid. Petitions going around questioning credentials of medical officer, demanding his resignation! As an EMT I was stunned! Wrote a letter of appreciation to the Captain. Got invited to a personal Bridge tour! Yay for me! And we heard the patient was air lifted to Houston with a good prognosis. Cold is ebbing here and we’ll be in the balmy 20s F. Going to brave it into downtown DC for the symphony tonight! Kennedy Center is another of the many reasons we chose to move to Maryland! Life is good! Maureen

Thanks for the clarification. Glad Bermuda did away with the entrance fee and their whole testing and Authorization process. It was not easy. Sorry about missing the main port of your cruise! The forecast must have been both bad and high confidence for them to announce the change so early. At least you are out of the polar vortex! Enjoy! M—

Negative. Just that it’s “In progress”. DoS tracking has said this since early January. 🤞. Please let us know when you get yours! DH applied by mail Dec 27, first day after Christmas. (We came back from a cruise Dec 23; we waited until after Christmas rather than put mail in on Christmas Eve.) DH got his January 18! I’m trying not to worry, can’t do much about it. But I can’t help feeling concerned. 🫤Thanks! This thread helps in so many ways! M—

Wondering why Bermuda was canceled. We did a 6 day cruise to Bermuda in August with 3 adult grandkids out of Baltimore. If it had been changed to Nassau we’d have survived but been disappointed. At that time Bermuda was requiring covid tests and $60 entrance fee which they said was non-refundable. If they still require the entrance fee, and NCL just changed the itinerary for their own purposes, I’m guess all the pax are out 60 bucks. So my question is, Is Bermuda turning ships away? @kochleffelwishing you good lemonade out of lemons! Hard to have a bad day on a cruise ship! M—

@HAL Sailer Blessings of comfort to all grieving your loved one’s passing. Loss of a loved one is always stunning. @rafinmd Thanks for the update Roy! So glad to hear folks are walking this path with you. Remember that they have gifts to share, and your accepting keeps grace flowing. Blessings for a steady improvement. @luvteaching It can be so hard having a loved one hospitalized, but maybe better than trying to do it all yourself at home. Blessings for the best path forward for you both. Blessings to all in need of healing and hope, especially those in the very cold zones now. And please be extra careful, now is not a good time to need emergency help, it can be super difficult and dangerous for help to reach you. @kazu Celebrating even small miracles with you! Congrats to all celebrating milestones of life and memories. Hearing of these helps encourage all of us. Thanks for all the beauty shared in pictures. They are uplifting! Smooth travels for all who are away, on land, at sea and flying. We’re good here at +25F! Maybe 10 tonight. Bright sunshine today but windy. I’ll take it over the deep freeze so many are managing through. Maureen Post Script: DS still hasn’t gotten his renewal passport yet, needed for the family Rotterdam cruise Feb 25. Applied Dec 27 online expedited. I hope he has a certified birth certificate…. DDIL wasn’t sure…. 🤦🏼‍♀️. As soon as I heard they booked, I told them to check passport expirations… sure enough one was expiring. I suggested they check for birth certificates too, just in case, and apply immediately for new copies if needed. They’re 50 something… that’s about all I can do 🤷🏼‍♀️.

We were in a steel rail balcony VH on Koningsdam. They are forward on deck 4. We heard music from the World Stage some afternoons for rehearsals and for the evening performances, which do not run late and didn’t interfere with sleeping. The balcony was quite large with some of it open to sun and some of it with good shade. We got it for the same price as an ocean view so it was a good deal. The view is not obstructed by life boats, just that from the railing down to the floor is not glass, it’s steel hull. Hoping you find something that works for you. Ask more specific questions here and we will try to answer. Call HAL to talk with a cruise consultant, ask questions and learn what’s available, may be better than trying to book online. If selection is thin, you could request to book a guarantee category and then be assigned a room in that category or better about a week before the cruise, but you will get a room, maybe save some money, but you will have to take what they assign. m—

Gray day in Maryland with temps maybe getting up to 40 before the cold plunge reaches us tomorrow night, forecasted to go down to 10. We chose to move here for many reasons, one being the temperate climate. Thankfully Maryland winters are generally kind. Santorini has mixed memories for me. Loved our tour of Akrotini, a Minoan Bronze Age city associated with Crete and probably Rhodes, abandoned when the volcano began erupting in ~1560 BCE, that’d be over 1600 years before Pompeii. We were so impressed with the multilevel engineering, water and sewer systems and the advanced bronze work, especially the bronze cooking pan with riveted handles. After the tour of the extensive ruins we were taken to town and DH and I spent time absorbing the fascinating and beautiful preserved ancient artwork exhibits in the archeological museum. But our way back to the ship was not pleasant. The gondola line would be 90 minutes so we walked down the “cliff” to the tender dock. Nearly got run over by a huge donkey on a sharp corner with nowhere to get out of his way. Had to watch our footing very carefully on the cobblestones often covered in donkey “stuff”. And it was quite surprisingly hot for October. Which also means smelly. But it is such a remarkable place, such a beautiful setting, that I’m so glad we got there. Blessings to all… those in need of healing and hope… Congrats to all celebrating milestones and memories…. Smooth travels to those away from home. Hoping we hear that Roy is improving, and that Kathi has a path forward. Winter or summer, whatever our situation, today is a good day to happy! — Maureen

@rafinmd great to hear you’ll be discharged. Means you’ve stabilized. More blessings for continued improvement, comfort and peace! (No more inappropriate night nurses…. geez that was insane!). Take things slowly! Happy for you! m—

@JazzyV Thanks for posting that your passport arrived! DS is awaiting his prior to our family cruise Feb 25! He applied (renewal) online expedited Dec 28. DH applied by mail Dec 26 expedited and received his about Jan 18! And his passport card came a week later. Roy just posted his passport arrived! Now he needs to be well enough to use it. 🙏

Rabbit Rabbit White Rabbit. I’m still trainable. Woke up to a surprise snow today in Maryland. Hoping the roads will be ok when I leave for the dentist’s. Sending blessings to all in need of healing and hope. No frowns from @kazuJacqui’s doctor, may the comment be “AMAZING!” Same from Roy’s doctors. Cheers to those celebrating milestones and memories. Smooth travels and happy adventures to those away. Thanks for sharing with us your travels of past present and future. Always Love the pictures of such varied places in the world. What a delight! Thanks to all who contribute their time, effort and spirit to this thread! — Maureen