The Daily for Sunday Apr 04, 2021

[Himself]

4 hours ago, kazu said:

Thanks for the Daily, Rich and our morning smile 🙂 

 

A very blessed and happy Easter Sunday to all who celebrate 😄 

 

 

Can’t hug anyone these days but I salute all of our news people (not just the men 😉 ) for all of their hard work and efforts.  I try to walk around things every day rather than bump into them 😉 

 

Love the quote and the meal suggestion.  Baked ham it is indeed for us tonight.  

 

@cat shepard that wine wine is going on my list too.  It sounds delicious 🙂  We’ve been to lots of spots in Italy but I don’t believe we have been to Messina.

 

This is our weather today (sung to the music of I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas):

 

 

While Easter is about much more than bunnies, the Easter bunny is very popular with children:

 

 

Prayers for everyone on Roy’s Care list & for those that need them and a big 🥂 to those on the Celebratory / Shout Out list.

 

No matter what your weather may be we wish you all a very happy Sunday

 

 

And, of course, please stay safe and don’t forget your masks 😷 

 

 

I never heard of that Irish Blessing before.  Have a Happy Easter.

[garlictown]

☕Good Morning and Happy Easter to all who celebrate! 🐇

Thank You for the Daily ✏️and ❤️ all the photos of today's port. Now, a bucket list port in Italy....we've been to a lot of other ports but missed that one (Princess cruises??)🛳️

🙏Prayers to all in need and have a good Sunday!😎

[Himself]

3 hours ago, summer slope said:

Happy Easter dailyites.  No hugging around here except the kitty and DH.  Will enjoy a walk around as the sun is shining and will warm up today.  No Ham for today, not sure what we will have.  Love the quote.

Prayers and toasts for our lists.

Stay safe, social distance, and please wear your mask.

I checked many sites for the drink to find a picture and there were none.

Blaze of Glory:

1 1/2 oz of Dark rum
2 tsp of dark creme de cacao (or chocolate liqueur)
1/2 oz of grand marnier orange liqueur

Shake ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Strain into a cocktail glass.

Sounds good. Will probably have a Whiskey Sour today.

[Himself]

TTo Rich and all DAILYITES, I want to wish all a Very Blessed and Happy Easter.  I am invited out to dinner this Easter day and I think we will be having HAM

[KirkNC]

Happy Easter to all  🐇 .

[richwmn]

21 minutes ago, Overhead Fred said:

So we went to Praia da Vitoria instead. It turned out to be a lovely little town that we would be happy to visit again -

It is a lovely little town and a nice place to live and visit.

This is the beach near where the ship docks.

 

 

[puppycanducruise]

Thank you to everyone for the wonderful pictures of Messina.

[lcand1923]

I'm old enough to remember and prefer the Pre-Vatican II Easter Greeting:

 

Christ is Risen,

Alleluia! Alleluia!

He is Risen Indeed,

Alleluia! Alleluia!

 

May everyone have a Blessed Easter!

 

And for those of you who do not observe Easter,

 

May you have a Wonderful Sunday!

[GeorgeCharlie]

 

We visited Messina in late May 2012, while on a 24-day Mediterranean cruise onboard the Nieuw Amsterdam.

 

This was a cruise which resulted in several firsts for us:

 

 - It was the first time we sailed with Holland America.🙂

 

 - Our first, and only, Mediterranean cruise.

 

 - And most importantly, it was our first use of Cruise Critic and our introduction to the many benefits this site offers.

 

We found out how easy it was to communicate with other cruisers, especially in arranging for private tours. On our previous cruises we relied on the ship tours - whereas, with this cruise we were able to arrange private tours for most the ports we visited.  

 

It was the Messina port where we arranged through Cruise Critic to share a taxi for a visit to Taormina with couple from Brisbane, Australia. Subsequently, the following year when we were on an Australian cruise, and when it stopped in Brisbane, they picked us up from the ship and gave us a tour of Brisbane. We continue to stay in contact with them (along with others we met on the Mediterranean cruise).

 

Where on our prior cruises everybody was strangers to us, on this cruise we arrived onboard with having already made contact through Cruise Critic with several people, which increased our enjoyment of the cruise immensely.

[durangoscots]

Warm here today with bright sun. The things I walk around here are the dogs. They always seem to lie just where I am thinking about going.

 

Lamb for me today... and for the next week too. It is supposed to turn cooler on Tuesday so some of that lamb may wind up as lamb stew.

 

Have not been to Messina and the pictures are wonderful. Added to the list for future travels. The list gets longer and longer.

 

Susan

[Vict0riann]

Happy Easter, all!

 

We have been in port in Sicily at least 7 times - three times in Palermo, twice in Messina, and once each Catania and Trapani.  The first time I was nervous, having heard all my life about the mafia in Sicily, but as it turned out I really enjoyed the whole island, and would love to have a "land-based" visit there.   From Messina we have visited Taormina, Castelmola, and Mt. Etna.  Messina itself is easy to walk around - we've done that, too.  Messina's other claim to fame (besides the astronomical clock) is that they say they have the very BEST cannoli in Italy.  When I mentioned our desire to check that out to our guide on one visit, he took us through the back streets to a little shop where your cannoli was filled while you watched.  Yum!

 

 

[Marmot@Sea]

Happy Easter.

 

Tonight will be ham with wild rice, asparagus and carrots.  Dessert will be lemon cheesecake.

 

This morning I came across this full version of Jesus Christ Superstar with Tim Minchin.

 

 

Val

[Sharon in AZ]

Good morning everyone and Happy Easter!  Thank you for the Daily Rich and thank you for your lists Roy. 
 

We are holding off on any family get togethers until later in April after DH, DM, and I are 2 weeks past our last vaccine. So, since it will just be the two of us today we are having a Rosemary Crusted Rack of Lamb with asparagus. 
 

We have been to Italy but not to today’s port. From the pictures it sure looks like a great place to visit. 
 

For those who missed the sail away last night of the Nieuw Statendam here are a few screenshots. It’s the first nighttime sailing I’ve watched on a webcam. 
 

 

I zoomed in for this one:

 

And she sailed by so quickly (no camera operator probably):

 

Have a great day everyone!

[StLouisCruisers]

I just remembered that the year I was born I just missed coming into the world on Easter Sunday.  I was born at 11:53 pm Saturday night and my twin was born at 11:59 pm.  Or so the doctor told my Dad and Mom.  Dad went home and told my older sister early on Easter morning she had two new sisters and that the Easter bunny must have brought us.

 

DD gave me this yesterday as a birthday gift.  She does crafts on the side (she's a teacher) and she told me she's sold plenty of these this spring.  Normally she does string art but she's branching out.

 

This is a piece she made for a customer who sent her a picture of a metal cross.  This is string art - wood, nails, colored string.  She can make just about anything.

[bennybear]

27 minutes ago, GeorgeCharlie said:

Where on our prior cruises everybody was strangers to us, on this cruise we arrived onboard with having already made contact through Cruise Critic with several people, which increased our enjoyment of the cruise immensely

So true!  We have made so many great friends onboard! 

[bennybear]

Happy Easter all!  It is a special time for us as we were also married on Easter weekend, many years ago. 
 

We had an outdoor wiener roast with ice cream cake yesterday to celebrate,  Covid is certainly making new ways to celebrate. I told the grandchildren one day they will tell their kids how strange this has been.    Luckily our weather cooperated!  
 

We’ve been to Messina and Sicily a few times,  I too would like to do a land trip!  
 

 

Edited April 4, 2021 by bennybear

[sailingdutchy]

A  Very Blessed and Happy Easter to everybody on the Daily !  Let us hope for a New Beginning for all of us ! 

 

I went back in my recollection  and tried to count the number of time we celebrated Easter on one of the Beautiful Blue Hulled Ships and I came to at least six times so now I am searching for pictures to share .

 

From the first couple on the Veendam in 2008 and the Nieuw Amsterdam of 2012 I must have lost those pictures or have to go back to my real photo albums .

 

 Here a couple from  Easter on the Eurodam in April of 2014 :

 

Look at this wonderful lady Nilla who we have met quite a few times on other cruises in the Tamarind and we hope to see her again when things start of again .

Sorry I don’t have the name of the Easter Bunny . Love all of those happy faces ! 

 

 

 

 

Two Bunnies …….

 

 

 

Next Easter we experienced was on the Oosterdam in March of 2016 

A wonderful Trans Atlantic accompanied by the Harry James Orchestra , a 16 men orchestra conducted by Fred Radke they performed almost everyday either on the Main Stage or in the Crows Nest and there was a lot of fantastic dancing going on , the real professionals were there ! 

 

 

This really felt like a “ Cruise from the Past “ with tunes from Harry James , Glenn Miller and others 

 

 

And when I returned to our cabin I found ......, should I say it , two Bunnies  ! 

 

 

 

The next Easter we celebrated on a cruise was on the Zaandam in 2017 which went

from Chile to Vancouver with our good friends Ann and Pat we celebrated Easter on April 16th . Maybe  @Vict0riann has some pictures of that day ….

 

The last Easter was on the Prinsendam and a pretty special one because it also happened to be my BD quite unusual because it was a late Easter  ( April 21st ) 

This was the Prinsendam’s last cruise from the Mediterranean to Amsterdam before moving to Germany .

 

 

 

 

Rifki the Lido and Canaletto manager presented me with the traditional BD cake at breakfast ...And at dinner that day !  No wonder I gained weight that cruise ! 

 

 

 

 

Have a beautiful day everybody .

 

Tony 😀

[Vict0riann]

Happy Easter, Tony, @sailingdutchy!  From that Easter we were on Zaandam, I only have this picture, which makes me think there was the Indonesian lunch that day!

[dfish]

2 hours ago, kazu said:

 

Totally agree.  I often improvise on recipes 😉 The trick is remembering what I did the time before to change it 😂 

My sister and BIL came up with a great solution.  They make a copy of the recipe and put it in a loose leaf binder.  Then, they write their changes in on the same page.  Sometimes there are several iterations of changes, but then they have them saved.   That is their go to cookbook these days.

[Red Haired Lady]

This is the same cruise as @sailingdutchy mentioned - Easter on Prinsendam April 2019.  

 

 

 

[bobpatj]

Happy Easter!

I enjoyed hugging our DD & SIL yesterday!  
We have been on two cruises in Messina, but never toured there.  Our first time was in 2008, on Rotterdam, and we went to Taormina for the day, and in 2019, again on Rotterdam, we went to Mt. Aetna.

. Dinner tonight is takeout and everyone can choose what they want!

[Cruising-along]

Hello again!  Change of plan for us, DD decided to make a big Easter dinner and invited us down to share.  So I'll put off making ours. 🙂  We thought we wouldn't be seeing them for a few weeks because next week they're leaving on a road trip to OR and CA, so I'm happy.

 

DD has a squirrel problem in their neighborhood, and apparently some of the 48 plastic eggs with goodies inside that she hid in their yard were stolen by some squirrels.  Photos from this morning --

 

Squirrel escaping with one of the eggs

 

A squirrel stole the peanut butter cup that was inside this one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Copper10-8]

7 hours ago, richwmn said:

 

Today is Easter Sunday,......................................

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[USN59-79]

1 hour ago, Vict0riann said:

Happy Easter, all!

 

We have been in port in Sicily at least 7 times - three times in Palermo, twice in Messina, and once each Catania and Trapani.  The first time I was nervous, having heard all my life about the mafia in Sicily, but as it turned out I really enjoyed the whole island, and would love to have a "land-based" visit there.   From Messina we have visited Taormina, Castelmola, and Mt. Etna.  Messina itself is easy to walk around - we've done that, too.  Messina's other claim to fame (besides the astronomical clock) is that they say they have the very BEST cannoli in Italy.  When I mentioned our desire to check that out to our guide on one visit, he took us through the back streets to a little shop where your cannoli was filled while you watched.  Yum!

 

 

A very happy Easter to all.  One of the great things about the Daily is that it brings back memories of cruises to ports that we may have forgotten.  I thought that we had visited Messina, as the square and the clock tower looked familiar, but when Ann pictured the cannolis, that clinched it.  I remember buying some, going back to the ship and then coming ashore to buy some to bring back to the ship again.  They were the best we had ever eaten.

Ray

[kb4683]

We have been to Messina three times (November, 2009; December, 2017; and October, 2019).  The first time we took a tour to Taromina.  On subsequent visits, we just walked around the town and (of course) had cannoli.

 

No visit to Sicily is complete without cannoli IMHO 😉

 

We have also called in two other Sicilian ports -- Catania once (December, 2017) and Palermo once (December 31, 2010).

 

When we left Palermo on New Year’s Eve, 2010, we were heading to Piraeus via the Strait of Messina.  It was a late departure and the Captain actually stopped the ship in the Strait so we could see the midnight fireworks displays from both sides of the Strait.  It is a “battle” between the mainland and Sicily.  Everyone was on deck for the celebration and the champagne (sparkling wine) was flowing!

 

Apologies for the bad pics, my little point and shoot didn't do well in that lighting.

 

But, but...who's driving??