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

[dani negreanu]

6 minutes ago, h20skibum said:

It looks like the promenade in front of those cabins

 

Thanks, Mark.

Weird design "all around". And to pay for a mini-suite to boot 😕

[grapau27]

25 minutes ago, dani negreanu said:

 

Thanks, Graham.

 

I really have trouble understanding the promenade cum lack of privacy "thing" of those mini-suites. Those balconies do not "border" with the sea? Is the promenade between the sea and those balconies????

This gives you an idea of the wrap around deck 8 promenade deck Dani.

You walk around the 1000 metre long promenade and you can look into the balconies.

[dani negreanu]

4 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

This gives you an idea of the wrap around deck 8 promenade deck Dani.

 

NOW I understand.... For free I wouldn't book one of those.

 

My friend's friend thanks you very much. So glad I've thought to ask you about Iona.

[grapau27]

27 minutes ago, dani negreanu said:

 

NOW I understand.... For free I wouldn't book one of those.

 

My friend's friend thanks you very much. So glad I've thought to ask you about Iona.

Thank you Dani.

The sunbeds in front of the conservatory suites are actually on the promenade deck for anyone to use.

I'm always happy to help you and pleased it is helping your friend too.

Graham.

 

Edited April 8 by grapau27

[Ocean Boy]

55 minutes ago, dani negreanu said:

 

NOW I understand.... For free I wouldn't book one of those.

 

I agree.

[Jimbo]

59 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

Thank you Dani.

The sunbeds in front of the conservatory suites are actually on the promenade deck for anyone to use.

I'm always happy to help you and pleased it is helping your friend too.

Graham.

 

What category cabin is the deck above, that balcony looks like there is no promenade wrapped around it?

[Arzeena]

12 hours ago, h20skibum said:

t was a beautiful day for hiking today, so we traveled to Nelson-Kennedy Ledges State Park in Ohio. They had four short trails.  One listed as easy, two listed as moderate, and one listed as extreme.  

 

 

 

This is really beautiful! Love the waterfalls.

The picture of those two rocks reminds me of the Baths at Virgin Gorda.
How far are you from the Ohio border?

[h20skibum]

14 minutes ago, Arzeena said:

How far are you from the Ohio border?

We are about 2 miles from the border, which is nice, because we can get gas $0.70-$1.00 a gallon cheaper than here in PA.

 

The place we hiked was about a 50 minute drive for us.

[Etta1213]

18 minutes ago, h20skibum said:

We are about 2 miles from the border, which is nice, because we can get gas $0.70-$1.00 a gallon cheaper than here in PA.

 

The place we hiked was about a 50 minute drive for us.

Why the gas difference? Is PA taxing it?

[brookmill18]

With our daughter in London for the three years, we have also been looking at P&O but it seems to be very difficult to book from the US. I think I'll keep looking at their UK site to see itineraries and get a sense of fares and then try to see about booking through their US site. @grapau27 photos over the years have been wonderful and I like the idea of doing some European ports outside of the US summer season.

[dani negreanu]

1 hour ago, Jimbo said:

What category cabin is the deck above, that balcony looks like there is no promenade wrapped around it?

 

No, there is no promenade. BUT, come to think of it, I really don't like the whole layout of the ship. It seems to me that even the pricier cabins on deck 9 and above do not look down to the water, they look down on the promenade....

 

Deck 9 is in the middle

 

 

 

I rest my case....

 

 

 

[HBE4]

1 hour ago, Jimbo said:

What category cabin is the deck above, that balcony looks like there is no promenade wrapped around it?

 

9 minutes ago, dani negreanu said:

 

No, there is no promenade. BUT, come to think of it, I really don't like the whole layout of the ship. It seems to me that even the pricier cabins on deck 9 and above do not look down to the water, they look down on the promenade..

 

It looks like from the balcony above, you can look down into the balcony below as well as the promenade.

 

Not my cup of tea but I guess if someone likes people watching or meeting new people as they stroll the promenade, this is the balcony cabins for them.

 

Or if they are an exhibitionist! 😲

[FromSea2ShiningSea]

Tomorrow, 4/9/2024, we board the Celebrity Millennium for our cruise.  We have been busy the last 4 days with private group tours that were planned, organized and set up by a fellow passenger.  Everything has been amazing so far.  
 

I will try to get caught up from where I left off with Day 11- 4/5.

[Sea Dog]

8 minutes ago, FromSea2ShiningSea said:

Tomorrow, 4/9/2024, we board the Celebrity Millennium for our cruise.  We have been busy the last 4 days with private group tours that were planned, organized and set up by a fellow passenger.  Everything has been amazing so far.  
 

I will try to get caught up from where I left off with Day 11- 4/5.

Have a great cruise and please let us know what you think of Millennium. 

[h20skibum]

44 minutes ago, Etta1213 said:

Why the gas difference? Is PA taxing it?

PA has the second highest gas taxes, just behind California.  They also say that our higher prices is due to our stations being supplied by the New York market vs. Ohio getting theirs from the Chicago market.

 

Our local stations try to keep their prices a little lower than stations in our county that are not as close to the border.  For us, it makes sense to make a short drive and save.

[Ozark_Kid]

I woke up at 5am and it looked like the eclipse had already started.   😆 

The hourly forecast shows it to be 80⁰ an hour before the eclipse gets here and then dropping to 75⁰ then back up to 80⁰.

[Jimbo]

18 minutes ago, Ozark_Kid said:

I woke up at 5am and it looked like the eclipse had already started.   😆 

The hourly forecast shows it to be 80⁰ an hour before the eclipse gets here and then dropping to 75⁰ then back up to 80⁰.

Very cloudy here, not even sure we will see the moon or the sun today.

[HBE4]

42 minutes ago, h20skibum said:

PA has the second highest gas taxes, just behind California.  They also say that our higher prices is due to our stations being supplied by the New York market vs. Ohio getting theirs from the Chicago market.

 

Our local stations try to keep their prices a little lower than stations in our county that are not as close to the border.  For us, it makes sense to make a short drive and save.

 

I thought for sure New York would have been number 2 behind California but after a bit of some confusing research, we are actually ranked 9th (all taxes including local sales tax) or 13th (just state tax) in the nation.  And because I live so close to NYC, there is an additional tax to support mass transit but that's minimal, 3/4 per one cent on the gallon. Why not just round it up to a penny per gallon? 

 

The one good thing is that - with the exception of the sales tax -  most of the other taxes are based on per gallon, not price, so as prices rise, we don't pay more tax.

 

I grew up in Rockland County, NY which borders NJ. Back then, New Jersey gas was significantly cheaper so it was worth the drive to get "Jersey gas" as we called it. This was back when driving big old American cars with big engines and big gas tanks, getting 15 MPG.

 

Plus it was an excuse to visit some of our favorite diners such as Park Ridge Diner @BonTXNY

Edited April 8 by HBE4

[Ozark_Kid]

6 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

Very cloudy here, not even sure we will see the moon or the sun today.

That stinks. 

Right now we have thin scattered clouds.  It should not effect things.  I  am thankful how warm it will be and that the path of it goes over our town.  

[jmh2006]

56 minutes ago, FromSea2ShiningSea said:

Tomorrow, 4/9/2024, we board the Celebrity Millennium for our cruise.  We have been busy the last 4 days with private group tours that were planned, organized and set up by a fellow passenger.  Everything has been amazing so far.  
 

I will try to get caught up from where I left off with Day 11- 4/5.

Bon Voyage Helen and Marty!  Can’t wait to hear and see more about your lovely trip!

[jmh2006]

15 hours ago, Lionesss said:

Hi everyone. 
 

I am so happy my life centers around retirement. With so much free time. NOT!

 

This past weekend I was in charge of the cookie table for  our parish center dedication for one of the best Priests a Catholic Community could ask for. 
 

Now I made the buckeyes, nut keiffels, Kolachi and Almond soft batch. 
 

 

 

 

 

The women of our parish  also baked for a combined total of 34 varieties. 
 

Need I say it was a great success. 
 

Today I drove for one of my few remaining babysitter for Zoey as my daughter and son in law will be relocating to a new city. 
Brandon was accepted as the new assistant strength and conditioning coach at ………..(to be shared soon) as he makes the official announcement. 
 

Let’s just say it will make my travels much shorter 😁

 

And tomorrow here in Oxford Ohio I have my eclipse glasses in preparation of the sun event. 

 

Plus getting ready for our Symphony cruise in a tad under 2 weeks. 
 

Take care. 
 

Be safe. 

 

 

Excited you can be closer to your daughter, son in law and granddaughter!

[jmh2006]

@dani negreanu  Dani I follow YouTube bloggers Cruise with Ben and David.  Perhaps you have heard of them?  They are from the UK and did a very detailed review of the P&O Iona.  Specifically they stayed in one of those mini suites you were looking at and hated them.  I remember thinking what a stupid placement!  

[Ozark_Kid]

Speaking of eclipse, a week ago we celebrated a few family birthdays. My oldest DD made some eclipse birthday cupcakes!

[HBE4]

Busy day yesterday. Took the train into the city. BTW, trains in and out of the city are also the beneficiary of the 3/4 of one cent per gallon of gas tax so figured I should get my moneys worth.😀 Plus, I hate driving & parking in the city.

 

Anyways, festivities included attending the New York Auto Show with my nephew to begin the day and ended with attending the New York Ranger game. Final game of my regular season package, an impressive 5-2 win over Montreal. Next game for me will be playoff, sometime after April 20th.

 

In between, I spent an hour waiting on line to buy a 4 pack of Solar Eclipse glasses from B&H Video. No exaggeration, the line stretched an entire city block, around the corner, down another city block to the end. As long as you got on the line before the stores 6:00 pm closing time, they would let you in. Once inside, the line zig-zagged up and down every aisle until it finally divided into two, for those that pre-ordered online and those (like me) that did not.  The pre-order pickup line was 10 times longer than mine so I lucked out there.  Of course, good old American capitalism was alive and well as some people would buy a few 10 packs, step outside & then sell the individual glasses to those waiting on line for $10 for one pair of glasses that cost $1. And people were buying them!!!  Someone told me he was heading over to Time Square where he knows he could get $20 per pair.

 

And in between all that, I found time to grab 2 beers at an Irish Pub and watch the beginning of the Catlin Clark show.  I know very little of basketball and even less of college basketball but she looked like a pretty good player. 🙂

 

Edited April 8 by HBE4

[BonTexasNY]

25 minutes ago, HBE4 said:

 

Plus it was an excuse to visit some of our favorite diners such as Park Ridge Diner @BonTXNY

YES!!!