Royal Caribbean Cruisers -- How Are Things Where You Are? (was "Routine" ​ 😁 ​day in lockdown... how was yours?)

[akcruz]

58 minutes ago, bobmacliberty said:

I'm back in Florida, recuperating from helping my daughter move into her house.  I'm too old for that...stuff.  At my age, I'm supposed to write checks, not climb ladders and carry washing machines into a basement on a dolly.  I also like being back where the temps are in the 70s, at least for a few days.  Micheline decided to stay there and do more work.  We didn't get the kitchen painted and there is still more cleaning to do.  Not sure when she'll decide that she's done enough for now and give up.  Momma wants her baby girl to be happy. 😁

 

I took a few videos when the living room and bedroom were at their best...before move-in day and the explosion of boxes everywhere.  It's amazing what Scott's Liquid Gold Floor Restore can do to a  hardwood floor.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beautiful home,  nice work.  

[h20skibum]

23 hours ago, grapau27 said:

Good afternoon.

We woke at 5.30am and there was a massive burst pipe in our close.

The water board are still here at 15.45pm and dug a big hole and put a new pipe in.

I hope everyone is safe and well and have a better day than us.

 

Graham, just getting caught up here, but I hope they got the pipe fixed and all the cleanup done by now.

[h20skibum]

22 hours ago, dani negreanu said:

 

Thank you, Bonnie.

 

It is really hard to get back into the mood of air raids... We had 8 days of respite, and a modicum of happiness with some of the hostages coming home. Still waiting for the youngest, 9 months old "human shield" and his older brother, 4 years old.

 

We managed to replenish some of the "required" energy to keep going, even met a week ago dear HS friends, who came from another city, to eat with us our favorite ice cream 😉

Dani, sorry to see that the truce has ended.  It was nice that you had a few days of relief.   Our prayers are with you. 

[A&L_Ont]

3 hours ago, CruiszBug said:

I'm Lovin' it!

I was waiting for someone to say it. 😀

[dani negreanu]

12 minutes ago, h20skibum said:

Dani, sorry to see that the truce has ended.  It was nice that you had a few days of relief.   Our prayers are with you. 

 

Thank you, Mark. It is amazing how quickly you revert to "normal" and how hard is to "restart"....

 

At least, DH keeps delivering for our eldest son and me excellent and varied comfort food.... This Friday he tried for the first time stuffed peppers 😉 My "contribution was" mashed potatoes.

 

 

He managed to squeeze another small yellow pepper in the middle....

 

 

 

 

[MJSailors]

@bobmacliberty The photos of your daughter’s home look lovely. I think the blue room may be a dining room. I do like that wall with the wallpaper. The floors are beautiful- just needed some TLC to bring out the quality of the wood.

The house is quite an undertaking,but it has good bones and features.

Hoping you will post photos of ongoing progress.

I enjoy looking at homes for sale and home decor. In another life, I might have been an architect or interior designer.

Wishing your daughter many happy days in her new home.

 

Adding to the Christmas movies posts,here are some of our favorites,in no particular order-

Christmas Story with Ralphie ((You’ll shoot your eye out !)

Christmas Vacation (always hoping that Clark will be able to light up the house and get his Christmas bonus)

Elf ( a little bit goofy,but Will Farrel is the one to deliver that elf)

A Charlie Brown Christmas Story ( Linus’ heartfelt delivery of the Christmas Story touches us every time we watch the movie)

We plan to watch the new Eddie Murphy movie on Prime- Candy Cane Lane. It may be a good one!

  
We live on a Lane which is a dead end street. Is that the same as a close ? Thinking close sounds better than a dead end street.🙄

 

Wishing everyone a pleasant weekend!

MJ🙎🏻‍♀️

 

[Keksie]

54 minutes ago, akcruz said:

 

 

Another option is to check out your local library, a number of them have either classes or open session times where more experienced are there to help newbies.  My mom taught me crochet and have done a number of things through the years, I find it very relaxing.  Tried knitting but I never really took to it, have enough other stuff to keep me occupied.  Latest is crazy quilting and folded fabric ornaments, waiting on some ribbon, will share once done.

Do take pictures when they are finished.  I have quilted but I am not that good at it.

[Keksie]

14 minutes ago, dani negreanu said:

 

Thank you, Mark. It is amazing how quickly you revert to "normal" and how hard is to "restart"....

 

At least, DH keeps delivering for our eldest son and me excellent and varied comfort food.... This Friday he tried for the first time stuffed peppers 😉 My "contribution was" mashed potatoes.

 

 

He managed to squeeze another small yellow pepper in the middle....

 

 

 

 

That looks delicious.  I am thinking about you every morning and wishing for you a safe day.

[BonTexasNY]

2 hours ago, Keksie said:

Those floors are beautiful.  I love the wall colors.  What a wonderful house.

@bobmacliberty   Exactly what I was going to post!

1 hour ago, h20skibum said:

 

 

Icon is one ship I can never see me wanting to book. 

Six Flags of the Seas.

[DaniDanielle]

Now Charlie is off to Toyota to get a new leased car.  Our lease isn’t up until March but they kept calling with these early return deals and he falls for them!  Like there won’t be another deal coming up.  Anyway, we didn’t win enough in Atlantic City to pay it off🤪

[DaniDanielle]

2 hours ago, Keksie said:

Those floors are beautiful.  I love the wall colors.  What a wonderful house.

Nice job!

[HBE4]

Been away for the better part of the week & with the exception of a random pop-in to like a post or two, I've fallen waaayyyy behind. Normally, I'd just read back 2-3 pages to see the current conversations but for some reason - probably too much time on my hands - decided to read all 25+ pages since I last left off. 

 

Glad I did as I found the conversations related to Cable TV costs, Internet Speed, Streaming Platforms & YouTube TV most interesting.  With XFINITY cable, I have middle of the road Internet (300 mps) and channel line up (175 channels but no premium channels) which is costing me $197 per month. I probably watch 10 channels at the most and would say 90% of my TV viewing is now thru a steaming platform. NetFlix, Hulu, Prime, Max, Disney+, Paramount and Peacock are the 7 streaming platforms that I either subscribe to or use a someone else's password to access.  I may cut the cord & get rid of the cable TV going and shop around for just Internet. From what I reading, I can easily save $100 a month, maybe even as much of $150. While I do like watching my local news stations, I can't really justify the cost anymore.

 

Funny thing is, XFINITY just sent me a new cable box as a replacement as they deemed mine too old. It's 4K capable. Great, I thought to myself, I finally can get the full benefit of my 4K TV.  Until the rep told me that they don't actually broadcast in 4K, so still same picture quality. 🙄

[HBE4]

Just wanted to add that I was at my brother-in-laws house this past week and he'd ditching his Direct TV service for YouTube TV. I believe yesterday was the first day so I'm interested to see what he thinks after a couple of weeks.

[Arzeena]

1 hour ago, dani negreanu said:

 

Thank you, Mark. It is amazing how quickly you revert to "normal" and how hard is to "restart"....

 

At least, DH keeps delivering for our eldest son and me excellent and varied comfort food.... This Friday he tried for the first time stuffed peppers 😉 My "contribution was" mashed potatoes.

 

 

He managed to squeeze another small yellow pepper in the middle....

 

 

 

 

Looks SO GOOD!

I wish you peace and a very Happy Peaceful Hannukah coming up.

[HBE4]

2 hours ago, h20skibum said:

My goal is to try to get caught up on this thread today.  It has been quite a week!!

 

Good luck. I've been trying to catch up since yesterday. For every 2 pages I read, a new one is created.

[Arzeena]

Checking cruise prices everyday and especially for the one where final payment is due soon......we paid $3000 for TWO of us on the Odyssey and now the same category cabin is $4500 PER PERSON !!!!!!!!!!!!!
WHO comes up with this at Royal Caribbean ????????????????????????????????

I am very thankful that for some sailings we have a great TA who has a great group. Thank you!

[ValerieJo]

1 hour ago, dani negreanu said:

 

Thank you, Mark. It is amazing how quickly you revert to "normal" and how hard is to "restart"....

 

At least, DH keeps delivering for our eldest son and me excellent and varied comfort food.... This Friday he tried for the first time stuffed peppers 😉 My "contribution was" mashed potatoes.

 

 

He managed to squeeze another small yellow pepper in the middle....

 

 

 

 

Your meal looks delicious.  I think about everything you are all going through every day.  I pray that peace will come soon.  Please stay safe. 

[HBE4]

On 11/28/2023 at 2:15 PM, Ocean Boy said:

Maybe it is just me but this is not my idea of a pretty ship...

 

 

The beauty is on the inside.  Don't be so superficial (light-hearted sarcasm 🙂)

 

Personally, I think the Radiance-class ships are the nicest looking, classic lines and well proportioned. Anything above Freedom class looks ungainly, like a floating apartment building, with a lot of fun & cool stuff within that building.

 

IMHO, of course.

 

[HBE4]

On 11/28/2023 at 9:31 AM, bobmacliberty said:

With the recent talk of internet "speeds", the perfectionist geek in me is going crazy.  I'll explain internet speeds in case it helps someone else choose the right speed option for them, possibly saving some money.  

 

When you get an internet service, it will be for something like 500Mbs, or 1Gbs.  That's not technically a speed number but instead a bandwidth number.  Some people refer to this as the size of the pipe, as in plumbing.  A 1 inch diameter pipe may not allow for water to flow faster, but can deliver a lot more water than a 1/2 inch pipe.  I like the analogy of roads (which isn't technically exact, but you'll get the idea).  More bandwidth means more lanes of roads.  You don't need a multi-lane highway to go fast...you can still travel 60 mph on a single lane road.  A 6-lane highway will allow several cars to travel 60 mph at the same time.  If you're downloading a large file, it can broken up into several cars that each travel in their own lane and then are reassembled into one file at your house.  This means that the download does happen faster and therefore you're seeing more "speed".

 

But you reach a limit with how many lanes you can use if all you're doing is watching YouTube TV on one device.  2 lanes may be "fast" enough to watch a video stream.  Paying for 6 lanes doesn't do anything for you.  However, if you have one person watching Netflix in one room, another person having a work video call in a second room, and another person doing online gaming in a third room, having all 6 lanes will be important so that each of these activities can happen simultaneously.  

 

We only have 2 people in our house and for the most part, will max out at watching TV on 2 different TVs at the same time, or one person Face Timing while the other person watches online videos.  We could probably get away with only 200Mbs.  We have 1 Gbs service just for the occasional time when we have guests or may have other internet needs.  I'm also impatient and hate staring at the spinning thing in the middle of the screen showing that a download is buffering, so I'll err on the side of paying for more bandwidth.  

 

So how much bandwidth do YOU actually? It depends on the number of people and internet connected devices in your house, whether or not you work from home, whether you do a lot of video streaming, whether you do online gaming, etc.  Check with your internet provider to see what they recommend.  They may over-estimate what you need so that you'll pay for more, so here's an online site I found that will give you an estimate, based on answering a few quick questions.  I have no idea where this site came from and can't verify its accuracy.  The other option is to pick a service level with less bandwidth and see how well it works.  If it seems like you don't have enough "speed", bump your service up to the next highest level.

 

Hope this helps someone.  It certainly helped my inner geek to get it out. 😁

 

Can you unleash your inner geek again if I ask 2 questions?  

 

1) Does distance matter? To clarify, I know it does as I've done a speed test sitting next to the WiFi router and clock in at a 150+ mps. Then I head upstairs to the "far end" of the house so there is a few walls between me and the WiFi router and the speed test shows 40 mps.  Still sufficient but wonder if I upgrade my service to double the bandwidth, will it also double at that distance to 80 mps or stay at 40 mps due to  distance and walls & floors blocking?

 

2)  With only 2 people living in this house, only 2 devices may be actively in use at once but 6 more devices sitting passively (cell phones, tablets, Alexa, etc).  Are the passive devices much of a draw on bandwidth as they are "always on"?

 

I can't find any definitive answers to these questions so any thing you can share will be appreciated. TIA.

[bobmacliberty]

17 minutes ago, HBE4 said:

While I do like watching my local news stations, I can't really justify the cost anymore.

 

If you live within range of your local TV broadcast towers, you can use an antenna to get your local news and ABC/CBS/NBC/PBS "over-the-air" (OTA).  Plug your zip code into this website and you'll see where your nearest towers are located.  The site also recommends specific antennas but there are many antennas available (Best Buy, Lowe's, Amazon, etc.) in the $30-100 range that will work, depending on how far away you are from the towers.  You can even purchase a box that will give you DVR functionality for your OTA signals so that you won't miss Survivor. 😁

[HBE4]

23 hours ago, Tree_skier said:

< insert drum roll here>

 

 

 

1. Die Hard. (1988)

 

And all this time I thought it was a just a Bruce Willis movie😁

[h20skibum]

On 12/1/2023 at 11:55 AM, DaniDanielle said:

My favorite along with Charlie Brown Christmas 😃

 

23 hours ago, Ocean Boy said:

A Charlie Brown Christmas is sooo good.

Charlie Brown Christmas is one of my favorites.   
 

My one grandson drew this a year or two ago, so we framed it and it hangs in our foyer at Christmas time. We have had lots of comments on it, when people see it when they come in our house. 
 

[h20skibum]

22 hours ago, Ozark_Kid said:

I posted the above last Sunday.  I started to post the following a couple of times but couldn't hit submit.   

Early the next morning (Monday) she passed away.  She was diagnosed with ALS a month after I was in April.  Please pray for her family.   They have had a hard journey. 

So sorry to read this, John.  Prayers to her family.  And know that you are in our prayers also. 

[HBE4]

20 hours ago, bobmacliberty said:

 

Since we've definitively ended that argument, let's move on to the next one.  Is a hot dog a sandwich?

 

20 hours ago, lenquixote66 said:

In my opinion and food traditionally sold between two pieces of bread is a sandwich.

 

According to the ultimate authority, the NHDSC (National Hot Dog and Sausage Council) gives 12 solid, scientific and logical reasons as to why a hot dog is not a sandwich.

 

https://www.hot-dog.org/culture/hot-dog-sandwich

 

😄

[George C]

Decided not to book harmony for next year , last week owners suite was a couple hundred less . We have our rock and romance music charter in March , then I want to cruise MSc yacht club again either early or late summer from New York or next December from Florida. Had a nice hit yesterday playing Caribbean poker had 4 aces, currently even for the week. Might do Jamie’s for both lunch and dinner on our last day of the cruise.