April 30, 2023

I did my last talk of this cruise this morning, the Ghent Altarpiece, part 2.  And for the rest of the cruise, we are just passengers.  We have two excursions scheduled, one for Marseille, France and one for Florence and Pisa.  We were going to go ashore tomorrow in Malaga, but it is a 40 minute walk into town (as Bonnie says, we must be going to be docked in the boondocks).  The option is take a shuttle, $25 each.  We have seen Malaga several times, so we are going to spend tomorrow on board and do activities we’ve been unable to do so far.  Or at least some of them :-) We will definitely pass on the LGBTQWXYZ+-!() meeting and the Colorful World of Peter Max Exhibition & Sale.  Maybe take in some trivia, and get out our cards and play a few hands.  She is up 3 games to zip – I’m pretty sure there is some skullduggery  going on.

One thing we haven’t done on this cruise is ride the North Star, an observation capsule that lifts passengers 20 or 30 feet above the top deck and then goes in a circle, giving you 360 degree views.  It is really fun at sea, not sure what it will be in dock.  My cruise buddy is wondering if they will do it in dock.  Stay tuned to this blog for more information.

You’ve all heard about the Cruise from H-E-double hockey sticks from last December.  Well, there’s one thing that Carnival has RC beat and that is the dessert item known as Melting Chocolate Cake.  I had the local version today, and while it was good with two scoops of vanilla ice cream, it was as my Daddy used to say, “Nothing extra.”  The appetizer of scallops prepared in a garlic sauce and the entre of Thai curry chicken were quite good (I’m tired – I just speeled chicken as checken).

Well, as Porky Pig says, “Buhdit da dit, that’s all folks!”

And now, here she is the blogging queen of 7513, She Who Must Be Obeyed, the Number One Bonnie Belle!!

TTFN.  Hug each other.

Good evening. Okay day. Up at the usual time and did the ususal stuff to get ready. The sun was actually up at breakfast, yeah. At breakfast they had baked beans and I had a small helping with a slice of butter bread. Had some yogurt with strawberry stuff in the bottom and granola on the top. Took off most of the granola. Had two pieces of bacon. Kind of a miss mash of a breakfast. Back to the room and I took a 20 minute power nap and then off to the talk. 

His microphone was giving him feedback so after the captain stopped taking and the mike was still funky I had to go out, find a phone and call Luciana because the tech had left. So up the stairs and outside the theater to a phone and a call. She said she would come. She arrived a couple of minutes later and all was well. After the talk a lot of people wanted to stand around and talk but the dancers were all coming in and wanted us to leave. So we did. Off to the room swap stuff and head to the 270 to hear the last progressive trivia. Thanks Amy and Jennifer for your input on 2 questions. I had some of both. After the trivia we decided to go up to the Windjammer for lunch. I visited taco loco and made a taco salad. It was so so. There chips definitely left a lot to be desired. Tasted stale. After lunch we had an ice cream cone. It was pretty breezy outside and even though the sun was out everybody around the pools were wrapped up in towels. They were setting up for a pool volleyball game between crew and passengers but it was way to windy and cold to stay and watch.

As we were leaving the Windjammer I noticed they had chocolate cookies with peanut butter chips. I took 4 in a bowl wrapped in a napkin with me back to the cabin. I saved them for a late night snack, very yummy. We had a great nap and then when we got up he watched the highlights from the 2 Pirate games yesterday. He was in hog heaven. Two wins and the second one of the double header was a blowout! 

Then, we dressed and went down for supper. I wasn’t very hungry so I opted for no appetizers and just had stirred fried rice and vegetables. Unfortunately there was plenty of rice but only four or five little pieces of corn and peas and 2 tiny green beans and some slivers of onions. I asked for some soy sauce which helped the taste and ate about a half cup of it.  There was red and white cheese cake with a base of red velvet cake and one of David’s 3 scoops of ice cream for dessert.

We had decided not to go to the show which was a comedian/juggler. But after not really being able to find a place to sit and play some cards he decided we would go. The theater had already opened but he went on ahead and amazingly we got our regular seats. I was not impressed with the young man’s juggling talent or his comedy. For the most part he juggled 3 things at a time. One time doing 7 balls, one time doing 6 rings, and the old ping pong ball in the mouth trick. 

I don’t remember being in Malaga and having such a long walk to get to town. They say it is a 35 minute walk and we are not up to that. The shuttle fee is a little much. So we will enjoy our time on the ship. If I am up in time I will go watch the docking. He may be doing it when we go to breakfast. I would watch all aboard but it is at 5:30 and that is suppertime.  

We are both okay and enjoying our time. The people we have met and talked too have been very nice. Nothing extraordinary about the ship. This the 2nd time we have been on the ship and we will sail on Symphony of the Seas in October coming from Barcelona to Ft Lauderdale.

Everybody take care I miss and love you all. I have been able to keep up with my emails and that is great.

Mom, Granny and Bonnie.

 April 29, 2023

Let’s see.  Where was I.  Oh yeah, somewhere on the Atlantic Ocean.  As I type this we are a day and a half from Malaga, Spain.  Scheduled to dock at 0900 on Monday.

Well, as I said in the mini “non blog blog” the ship switched the order of my last two talks (they had the last two really messed up when we got on board – part 2 of the Ghent Altarpiece was dropped altogether and the Civitavecchia talk which is for emergency use only, as in bad weather makes us miss a port, was scheduled for tomorrow).  The reason for the old switcheroo today is that the “Purple and Picasso” talk which was scheduled for tomorrow was in the Cruise Compass for today.  And even though they harp on the app, the CC is official.  So, there you go.  I didn’t have as much time as usual to rehearse, but it is one I’ve done several times, so that helped me to get ready.

I mentioned this morning, as I always do when a guest points out a mistake I’ve made, that I made a mistake.  After the talk, one lady who has been to them all came up to me aghast, “They point out your mistakes!  That is really petty!”  I told her it’s okay, because usually they are just spelling mistakes on a slide, and those I have looked at over and over and never see them.  If PowerPoint has a speel checker, I have never found it.  

I know this will cause naptime to come on early for some of my readers, but one of the questions (not really a mistake, but a mistake nonetheless) was a math question about the overall size of the Ghent Altarpiece, open and closed.  I searched 29 websites, found conflicting information but found an answer that suits me – it’s 12 feet open and 6 feet closed, which means the two side panels are 6 feet each.  Bonnie says we’ll take a tape measure the next time we go to Ghent (and I would really like to – go that is, not fool with a tape measure because the Mystic Lamb is behind glass).

Oh, here is a picture of our duck collection.  Two you can see are towel creatures, and two are not.  She Who Must Be Obeyed will regale you with that in a future blog.

I’m sure there’s other stuff we’ve done in the last day and a half, but popular demand, hereeeeeee’s Bonnie!

Well, I really haven’t felt like blogging. We are all set to blog last night when the cruise person called  and said David would have to do Picasso and purple talk instead of the part 2 of the Ghent altar piece which he had been working on all day. We got the message at 10 pm. They goofed but we had to pay the consequences!  So he spent the next hour and a half working on purple and we delayed sleeping till after 11:30. I finally got to sleep about 12:30. Not a good night. Well, despite all the aggravation it went well.

Now Brian this is for you. Evening dining rating a C or C+ depending on the dessert. Most of the appetizers get a B or B- depending on whether they are hot and as described.  The main courses get a C or C- depending on whether they taste good or served as described.  The desserts get a B or B-. Sometimes the desserts are very small and hardly more than one or two bites.  One salad was served with just oil and was yucky, the Caesar salad had no taste at all as if it had no dressing or so it seemed to me. I like the tomato soup with croutons but it was only luke warm while the French onion soup is so hot it burns your mouth and there are no onions. The shrimp cocktail was good but tonight they had what they called baby shrimp and they were almost invisible. Mozzarella cheese sticks were good. I have had a main course of steak Diane which was good, gave the mushrooms to David. The fried chicken was a joke it was just like Banquet frozen chicken tasteless and mostly breading and very little chicken.  The stir fried vegetables and rice were fair but almost no sauce. The chicken pot pie with chicken and vegetables had mostly large mushrooms. It was hot but there was little else in it. Their jerk pork chop which is usually very good was just a big bone, fat and little meat. The mashed potatoes and vegetables with it were good.

Most of the chocolate mousses for dessert have been good. I have had mostly unsweetened desserts and the have been okay. There tarts are very small and the shells are made of very hard graham cracker.

This is for Jen and Amy and anyone else who has been praying for our friend Angie from Macedonia. She got up and took a step. Progress. Please continue to pray for a complete recovery.

Well, our day mainly begins at 6:30. We get up and shower and head to deck 14 from our small room that is the  most front inside, inside cabin on deck 7. Since I have had to stop doing so much walking because my right leg was not happy and we have 2 tours which have walking, we ride the elevator to deck 14 and walk from the front of the ship to the back passing the 2 pools. The last 3 or 4 days it has been pitch black with sunrise at 9 or later and it is quite breezy. The high tomorrow is to be in mid sixties. But there has been some sun. After breakfast we head back to the room, he studies for and hour and we head to the theater, now, about 9:30 for his talk. The first 3 talks were in the 270-degree lounge which is very nice. Farther to walk but worth the hike. Where we are now in the theater they don’t open the doors till 9:45 so I usually get a drink and then follow after him.  Crowds are not as large as other times but losing one hour for six days in a row takes its toll and he is the first thing of the day. Everyone who has come has been very complementary. Also, for some reason they will put one of those only one of these events that everybody wants to see at 10:30. Right in the middle of his talk. And the Captain comes on at 10:00 and takes about 10 minutes of his time.

Well, after the talk it is back to the room, drop off stuff and he changes clothes. Then, we usually go to the 270 and sit in on the progressive trivia contest. It is a fun thing to do. We, of course, cannot participate because we would be competing against the guests. But we have had fun and done pretty well. Then time for a bite of lunch. We have had lunch in 270 bistro (sandwiches, soup, salad), or Sorrentos for pizza or the Solarium which is like  a mini Windjammer. Then, some cards if it isn’t too late. Score (3 to 0 ). Then, back to the room for a short nap and when he gets up he studies for about an hour. Then, dress for supper and have supper at 5. We have very nice waiters and the pair who sits at our table are nice. They are from a retirement community in Florida, His wife died and her husband died and they married(or David says they are cohabitating). The four had been part of a larger group of couples that did everything together in the community. So it made sense for them to get together.

We have only gone to about 4 of the shows. One night there was only a late night R rated comedy show. The shows have been okay. Tonight was a ventriloquist with a cock-a-too bird and an old man and a buzzard as dummies. He was really funny and very good. The show is at 8 but the doors don’t open till 7:15. We try to stand in line from after supper (which we get out of about 6:30) til the doors open. If you don’t it can be hard to get a good seat because of all the people who will save whole rows with only one person there and there is a very large section is reserved for the upper classes. 

After the shows it is back to the room where he studies for about and hour and then off to bed.

We had a surprise in our bathroom today after we got back to our room. We had stopped in the hall to talk to our cabin steward who was getting ready to get off duty. When we got in the room and I went into the bathroom there was a large soapy puddle extending out from under commode. It seems water from cabins ahead of us had been forced out a drain on the floor because of the back and forth and side to side motion of the ship. The steward was very quick to come in and clean it up. He is a very capable young man. We only have him clean the room once in the morning while we are at David’s talk. We are really very clean. Not too much to do.

Well that is it for tonight. Oh by the way my wonderful, darling hubby bought me a very expensive Citizen watch today. It is bigger than the one I was wearing and I like it a lot :),:),:),:)!!! My present for the cruise. 

Love you all, miss you all. Hope Maggie is enjoying the strawberries. 

Granny, Mom and Bonnie (Hi! Karen!)

* * * * *

Stay safe.  Hug each other.

TTFN

 April 27, 2023

We didn’t see it happen, but something took place on board today that we’ve never experienced on a cruise.  We’ve seen similar needs, but nothing like this.

When the Captain was giving his 10 a.m. summary of position, weather, sea conditions, etc. – and interrupting my talk – he said that there was a medical emergency on board and he had changed course to be able to get the person to land and to the medical attention they needed.  We’ve detoured to other stops before to get someone off – starting for Europe once and turning for Puerto Rico because that was the best option; going back to a port we had just left to get someone medical attention; dropping a port altogether and putting the proverbial hammer down, arriving back home 18 hours early; and there have been others.  But this is the first time that a cruise ship we were on stopped in the middle of the ocean to allow a helicopter to land on the foredeck and take someone off.

Like I said, we didn’t see it – we think we know when it happened because for about 30 minutes the seas were rougher than they’d been for the whole cruise, as the ship stopped for the helicopter to land.  No announcement was made for security and for the privacy of the person involved and for his or her family.

I did “Lady in Gold” this morning to an appreciative audience, and the first part of the Ghent Altarpiece story is tomorrow.

Last night’s “Cruise Compass,” the ship’s newspaper, said that this evening’s dress was formal – and the Captain and the Cruise Director both said it – and at dinner tonight in the main dining room, I saw 3 sports/suit jackets, mine being one of those.

I told you earlier about the snafu at the hotel in Fort Lauderdale.  Yesterday I gave my receipt to Luciana, the Cruise Program Administrator, my contact in the entertainment department, to give to the finance people.  This morning when I checked our balance, the full amount of the hotel had been credited to us.  Thank you Royal Caribbean – that was class (and I remember it taking 4 months to get my stipend from Carnival).

Well, our clocks are going ahead again tonight – for the 6th night in a row – so we are just 10 minutes away from lights out.

Stay safe.  Hug each other.

TTFN

 April 26, 2023

We are two wild and crazy cruisers.  We blew off the soloist last night for some extra shuteye and tonight there is no show, so we will get some emore xtra shut eye.  I am glad someone else is paying for this cruise!

My talk today, and for the rest of the cruise, was in/will be in the Royal Theater.  The venue is much larger than the 270, and basically the same size crowd in attendance, but they were spread out far and wide.  Today’s talk was “Red: The Color of Desire,” and afterwards a lady told me she was an art teacher and had learned a lot to help her in her class (pat on the back for me – and now my arm hurts).  A couple came down and asked questions and we chatted for a long time.  Jim (his name is Jim) and Shannon said they wished I was still preaching so they could come and hear me.  I told them I was the first and third Sunday of the month.  They said they were planning a trip from their home in Florida to New England, and asked for directions from I-75 to I-20 to Crawfordville.  That will be a long drive to go to church.

As my cruise buddy says, the Captain has found some waves, and we are staggering around a little (stone cold sober – stone cold, stone cold).  The two stone colds are for all of the fans of the WWE out there.  I told one lady who was as wobbly as we two, that it is the drunks who are walking straight and the sober who are wobbling.

There is a sound outside our stateroom that we thought was stuff being moved around in the supply closet next door, but we have figured out that is waves against the side of the ship.  We are the last room down the corridor on this deck, so that seems to make sense.  Anyway the motion of the ocean should facilitate sleep.

Until tomorrow then, and “The Lady in Gold.”

TTFN

 April 25, 2023

Springing forward is a bother when it is done one time in the spring of the year.  Springing forward every day for 6 days is a pain in the bed – lack of time spent therein.  We have so far sprung forward 3 hours and this morning dragging the old carcass out of the sack was a chore – and I am typically an early riser, but this was 3 hours earlier than usual.  I considered reaching for the house phone, and asking Ana, the cruise director, to push my 10 a.m. starting time back to 11,  but we got up anyway.

Breakfast was toast, oatmeal, and coffee for me, a cup of fruit, an English muffin, bacon and a cup of hot chocolate for my cruise buddy.  I was sitting so I could see our direction of travel – to the east (Juliet was the sun) – and the sunrise was spectacular.  At the farthest part of the horizon the sky was shades of red.  As the light spread out it became purples and pinks, and then blues, and then all was light.  I took a picture, but the real thing looked so much better.  God was painting the morning sky in spectacular fashion.

I did my John Harrison talk this morning and forgot to tell my technician to hook up sound for this one.  I was talking about longitude being influenced by the sands of time and clicked to a slide which showed sand pouring through an hour glass accompanied by the theme from “Days of Our Lives.”  Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives.  But there was no sound.  My mistake.  I looked up to the control booth, saw my tech, and asked him if he could come down and hook it up.  He was there Johnny On The Spot (actually his name is Mio and he is from Serbia – and for all of you readers of DK Pittsburgh Sports, he knows DK, who is also from Serbia).

It has been chilly here at sea today with the temperature reaching only 66 degrees (AccuBon did not tell me that; I told her – I read it on one of the ship’s electronic displays).  If you’ve sailed on Royal Caribbean you’ve seen the lifeguards dressed in long sleeve shirts and long pants.  Today they were wearing overcoats.  I hoped they wouldn’t have to jump in and safe someone wearing all those duds, but the pool is only 4 feet 9 inches at its deepest part, so they would have been okay (soggy, but okay).

Well, tomorrow I am doing “Red: The Color of Desire,” and this will be the first time I’ve given this talk, so it’s off to rehearse.

Oh, we our towel creature today is a duck:

Stay safe.  Hug everyone in your house (if no one is home, go outside and hug someone who looks like they need it).

TTFN

 April 23, 2023

Sorry for the sparsity of news from your favorite cruisers.  Since you haven’t heard from the coast guard or any law enforcement agency, you can believe that we are onboard the Odyssey of the Seas and sailing towards Italy.

We had no problems getting to Fort Lauderdale, but once we arrived at the hotel we learned that although Royal Caribbean had reserved a room for us they had not set up payment.  The rack rate was $399 plus tax.  I got them to a more reasonable price of $250 plus tax, and now I am waiting to hear from Miranda, our agent, about getting a refund.

We got on the ship with no difficulties, even though we had not been able to get the Royal Caribbean app to work on Bonnie’s phone (she had not completed the health questionaire, but the check-in lady handled it – nyet problem).  Today, finally, I got someone at Guest Services to get it working, although it took him almost 30 minutes.  The app said Bonnie had signed in before, but she doesn’t remember it.  Anyway, it seems to be working now.

I did my first talk in the 270 lounge this morning.  It’s a huge place at the stern of the ship with glass that stretches for 270 degrees, hence the name.  It is one of the largest venues on the ship and there were some 200 folk out for “Tempest in the Atlantic.”  Tomorrow is “English – the World’s Language.”

Our inside cabin is the last one down the corridor.  The next thing is a storage room where housekeeping keeps sheets and towels.  After that, it is the Atlantic Ocean.  Small, but comfortable, and we get our steps in.

Well, we are springing forward every day for 6 days, so it is two hours later than it was Saturday and I need to rehearse for tomorrow before turning out the lights.  My cruise buddy will blog soon.

TTFN