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

[Ocean Boy]

Below Deck reunion is starting.

[A&L_Ont]

22 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

Below Deck reunion is starting.

Watching tomorrow on PVR, that way we can fast forward the painful parts… and I don’t mean the ads. 

[Sea Dog]

31 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

Below Deck reunion is starting.

Don't tell me what happens. I'm recording to watch on my Friday night cruisn' with cocktails.

[Ocean Boy]

59 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

Below Deck reunion is starting.

Part 2 is tomorrow night at 9PM.

 

Now they are having a show on Sandy's favorite outrageous moments of Below Deck. Unfortunately, I have to go to bed.

[MJSailors]

Luckynana

   We spend some of the Winter in the Hutchinson Island- Jensen Beach area , so a trip to Naples for pizza would be a long trip for us!

     I am understanding that you and DaniDanielle are from Staten Island. I have a dear friend who is in her nineties and lives with her daughter in Miller Field on the Island. She tells me that she can see ships sailing from her place after they have gone under the Verrazano Bridge. I have told her that we  wave to her whenever we take a cruise from the NY harbor or Bayonne.

     One of my HS friends, Maryann Raneri moved from Queems to Staten Island when she married about forty years ago. It would be a small world if either you or Dani knew her !

cruise wizard

      I hope you enjoy your cruise ! We have had Aft balconies on the Summit and enjoy sitting out and watching the wake. It can be mesmerizing and very relaxing. I think you wrote that you will be posting about the cruise.coukd you please repeat where we might read your postings on CC? Since we aren’t traveling yet, it would be great to cruise vicariously with you on the Celebrity cruise !

[sgmn]

17 hours ago, dani negreanu said:

 

 

We're booked on Edge (after being xlled 3 times on Apex) exactly 11 months from today....

 

4th time will be a charm?  Time, and Covid, will tell....

Dani,  I thought I read somewhere that double vaxxed Israeli citizens can fairly easily do international travel now.

 

Do you have any plans to travel this summer?

[dani negreanu]

Just now, sgmn said:

Dani,  I thought I read somewhere that double vaxxed Israeli citizens can fairly easily do international travel now.

 

Do you have any plans to travel this summer?

 

Hi Sue,

 

No. Too much risk, too much hassle with all the pre- and post- checks required....

 

Moreover, what I was fearing all the time, has "arrived"....  The "delta" variant.

 

People arriving from "red" countries are not thoroughly checked, and they don't keep quarantine, so from 4 positive cases a day, we had yesterday 200. Mainly in schools, where the majority of kids are under 12 years, and they spread it to teachers/parents, etc.

 

Just last week masks inside were no longer required...

[dani negreanu]

@grapau27

 

I hope you and Pauline had a nice vacation, you usually post daily....🥰

 

[grapau27]

1 hour ago, dani negreanu said:

@grapau27

 

I hope you and Pauline had a nice vacation, you usually post daily....🥰

 

Hi Dani.

It was nice to get away but some issues with Paulines sister and her husband soured the break. 

We went to the beach and garden centre on Sunday and most of Monday was spent dealing with the issues caused by them.

Last night we got a McDonald's takeaway and sat looking out to sea at the beachfront.

It is 57°F and sunny this morning.

I have been out to collect my heart medication prescription and now ringing a few customers while Pauline is working from home too.

Hope everyone has a nice day.

Graham.

[sgmn]

2 hours ago, dani negreanu said:

 

Hi Sue,

 

No. Too much risk, too much hassle with all the pre- and post- checks required....

 

Moreover, what I was fearing all the time, has "arrived"....  The "delta" variant.

 

People arriving from "red" countries are not thoroughly checked, and they don't keep quarantine, so from 4 positive cases a day, we had yesterday 200. Mainly in schools, where the majority of kids are under 12 years, and they spread it to teachers/parents, etc.

 

Just last week masks inside were no longer required...

Sorry to hear about the Delta 😒, it is an absolute  .........!!!

Hope they can nip it in the bud before it gets out of hand 

[sgmn]

20 hours ago, bobmacliberty said:

 I'll usually check it out online using BBC World News.  Seems to me to be more neutral than the US based news sources.  I'd be interested if you UK people think the same.  

It gets accused of bias by both left and right wing so I guess they must be doing something right.  I have the BBC app on my phone as well as the more right of centre ' The Times'

BBC seems to be more factual reporting without all the analysis 

[Momof3gurlz]

10 hours ago, Tree_skier said:

I'll listen to a mix.  Comedy, News/Talk and music. I'll catch a hockey game too when it is in season and I'm on a long road trip.  

We also love XM radio for the many choices it offers, but our favorite is when on a road trip. No need to scroll or scan to find a station we like. 

[Keksie]

17 minutes ago, Momof3gurlz said:

We also love XM radio for the many choices it offers, but our favorite is when on a road trip. No need to scroll or scan to find a station we like. 

I love XM too.  I mostly listen to Dr. radio or Fox Business News.  I really liked it when I was driving between Texas and Florida and didn't have to look for channels.

[A&L_Ont]

Popular XM channels here.  Any comedy, hits one, 80s, 90s and the blend. Owen only likes hits one. We actually sold all our old CDs years ago in a lawn sale. Any music we have bought for some time has been from iTunes. 

[A&L_Ont]

6 minutes ago, Keksie said:

I love XM too.  I mostly listen to Dr. radio or Fox Business News.  I really liked it when I was driving between Texas and Florida and didn't have to look for channels.

Like you, I loved it when driving to Western Canada. Comedy was good because nothing lasted longer than 5 minutes and filled  multiple days of 12 hours of driving. 

[bobmacliberty]

15 hours ago, Sheal said:

Forgive the ignorance but how does this work?  You have the soundbar and speakers but where does the music come from?  I'm guessing it is a subscription but to what company?  Maybe if I had Alexa I would at least have a clue.

 

I was thinking about getting one of those digital items that display photos along with time and such but I can't remember the name of it to even research it now. 

 

A soundbar has several speakers built in.  You mount it below and in front of a TV and then connect a single HDMI cable from the TV to the soundbar.  Most soundbars will recreate 5 speakers...a left, center, and right speaker across the front and then left and right rear speakers (sound projected to bounce off walls so that it sounds like it is coming from behind you).  It's not quite as good as a dedicated home theater system with a stereo receiver and 5 dedicated speakers but it still sounds very good and is a LOT easier to set up.  It doesn't require running speaker cables everywhere and no extra stereo components.  In the high end audio/visual world, which is mostly male, soundbars have a good WAF (wife acceptance factor), since it's clean looking without a lot of black boxes and lights.

 

There are several ways that you can play music.  One is through your TV if you have music stations in your cable service.  Soundbars are typically WiFi enabled and can use most internet sources.  The newest Sonos soundbars have Google Assistant and Alexa built in.  I use Alexa and Amazon's music service which gives you access to a huge library of music.  Just say "Alexa, play Joe Cocker" or "Alexa, play classical music", and she will deliver.  As has been discussed, Alexa (and probably also Google) can stream using the Sirius/XM online source, so you can listen to the same satellite radio stations that you like in your car.  They can also play Pandora and Spotify, and many, many other online sources.  Even Audible that can play a "book on tape".  Complete list here.  If you can't find something on that list to make you happy, you can also stream from your phone using Apple's AirPlay.  I'm guessing there's something similar for Android phones.

 

If you really want to use your CD collection, or your old vinyl record collection, Sonos has a product called the "Amp".  It let's you connect an external device like a CD player or turntable.  We will have a couple of amps that will send music to ceiling speakers and patio speakers so that we have whole house sound in several rooms, but they will be hidden in a closet.  It won't be practical to access a CD player in the closet where the Amps will be, so we decided against keeping our CD collection.

 

It sounds very complicated, and there's a little bit of a learning curve, but it's really pretty easy once you figure it out.  Micheline was never really an Alexa fan but now likes just giving voice commands and having her desires met.

[dani negreanu]

@George C

 

Wishing you a very Happy Birthday 💐🌷 and many happy returns 🎂

 

Hope you'll have a lovely day 🍷

[George C]

29 minutes ago, dani negreanu said:

@George C

 

Wishing you a very Happy Birthday 💐🌷 and many happy returns 🎂

 

Hope you'll have a lovely day 🍷

Thank you Dani, we are going out tonight to celebrate, will order surf and turf with a bottle of Caymus Cabernet to wash it all down, our favorite restaurant also has half price wines on Tuesday so birthday fell on a good day 😁

[grapau27]

4 minutes ago, George C said:

Thank you Dani, we are going out tonight to celebrate, will order surf and turf with a bottle of Caymus Cabernet to wash it all down, our favorite restaurant also has half price wines on Tuesday so birthday fell on a good day 😁

Sending you our happy birthday wishes too George.

[BonTexasNY]

55 minutes ago, George C said:

Thank you Dani, we are going out tonight to celebrate, will order surf and turf with a bottle of Caymus Cabernet to wash it all down, our favorite restaurant also has half price wines on Tuesday so birthday fell on a good day 😁

Have a wonderful birthday.  Sounds like a delicious birthday dinner.

[Sea Dog]

1 hour ago, A&L_Ont said:

Popular XM channels here.  Any comedy, hits one, 80s, 90s and the blend. Owen only likes hits one. We actually sold all our old CDs years ago in a lawn sale. Any music we have bought for some time has been from iTunes. 

Being a musician and life time lover of music, I save everything. I have over 500 Cd's, I have over 100 vinyl albums even though some of them I have the cd also. My iTunes collection of digital music is over 40,000 songs, 30K of it is Christmas music which I collect. I regularly use Spotify, Pandora, TuneIn and other streaming services. My taste goes from classical to jazz to electronic to ambient to rock. If it's good music it's good to me.

[Sea Dog]

59 minutes ago, George C said:

Thank you Dani, we are going out tonight to celebrate, will order surf and turf with a bottle of Caymus Cabernet to wash it all down, our favorite restaurant also has half price wines on Tuesday so birthday fell on a good day 😁

Happy Birthday that sounds like a wonderful meal. Love Caymus! Cheers to you George!

[George C]

9 minutes ago, BonTexasNY said:

Have a wonderful birthday.  Sounds like a delicious birthday dinner.

If you want to treat yourself need to try Table13 in Addison really good food, drink and live music ( but get a reservation) . 

[mets07]

I went to my first baseball game (actually games, it was a double-header) of the year last evening. What a great feeling after all this pandemic time!

 

The Mets won the first game and lost the second. I got to see Jacob deGrom do his usual pitching magic in the first game.  ⚾⚾⚾

 

As a point of interest, very few masks anywhere in sight. 

 

I only took one picture (attached) to show my husband I had arrived at Citi Field.

 

[A&L_Ont]

1 hour ago, George C said:

Thank you Dani, we are going out tonight to celebrate, will order surf and turf with a bottle of Caymus Cabernet to wash it all down, our favorite restaurant also has half price wines on Tuesday so birthday fell on a good day 😁

Sounds like an amazing day to me. Congratulations to both of you. 

Edited June 22, 2021 by A&L_Ont