Glad to see you back Ape. You’ve got me hankering to try a cruise now.
Same old thang here. Snow is everywhere, though temps are in the 40s today so a lot of it should melt. I am going to try not to walk in the slush, but chores beckon.
Rewriting chapter 5 today. Sigh.
Coffee and a…pancake?
Fire and Ice - A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words competition, first place
Monster - Survivor competition, first place
Quote by verbal
You’ve got me hankering to try a cruise now.
Try Alaska. Those cruises run out of Seattle and Vancouver which would be closer to you than the Southern ports where the Caribbean cruise homeport. The Alaska season is kind of May-September, vs. the Caribbean season which runs from November to March (basically outside hurricane season). If you're doing a warm weather cruise, though, most are out of Florida with Galveston and New Orleans as the main non-Florida ports. I haven't sailed from the former yet, but we did the Bahamas out of the Big Easy as our first post-pandemic cruise, as much because I know what it means to miss New Orleans as for the cruise itself.😋
As for lines, Carnival is good but my boss and son have both referred to it as the Walmart of cruise lines. Cheaper, and it shows in some ways. We did Celebrity and Norwegian last year and there are some noticeable differences. For instance, Carnival only has basic black, decaf, and green teas included while Norwegian offers a great selection of Bigelow's, one of my favourite bag teas. If you want any teas beyond the basics on Carnival, it's US$3.99 PER BAG!!!! I can get top grade loose leaf for less than that. They also skew a bit younger, with more families and a bit of a party scene. Celebrity, I think we had one family on board and we seemed to be among the younger cruisers. Forget what the age range on Norwegian was like but it was a Baltic cruise which is going to skew differently from the winter vacation crowd anyhow.
Most of the differences don't bother us and Carnival offers a great selection of itineraries so we usually check Carnival first, then go to other lines if we can't find an itinerary we like with them (which is how we ended up using Celebrity and Norwegian last year). Also we are Gold members in Carnival's VIFP frequent cruiser program so now get some mild perks (one free drink on longer cruises for instance) out of that.
FYI, Carnival seems to own like half the industry now, with Princess, Holland America, Cunard, and Costa being among the lines they own. Our ship this time was actually a Costa ship originally that they transferred to Carnival and rebranded. It still had the original Costa funnel as I realized when we docked next to a Costa ship in one of our ports. Not sure if that is why, but we didn't like it as much as some of the other Carnival ships we have been on.
Can she find the silence again?
Scream Away The Silence - The Sound of Silence comp entry
A "blog" on my winter stories from my profile.
I can't even with the news today.
Coffee please. Black and bitter.
Fire and Ice - A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words competition, first place
Monster - Survivor competition, first place
crickets
Okay, I guess I can get the can of Costco coffee and put it in the percolator. And we have Zoomies tea on the ready.
I hope everyone is well. My daughter has a potentially scary doctor visit today, if you wanna throw some good healing vibes or prayers in her direction, that would be lovely.
Me, I am writing, and on call if she decides she wants me to go to the doctor with her.
Sieze the carp!
Fire and Ice - A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words competition, first place
Monster - Survivor competition, first place
Sending good, healing vibes your daughter's way.
I've been a bit absent again. My dad got the flu and it turned into bacterial pneumonia. He's been in the hospital which is a nightmare for someone with dementia. He was doing so well adjusting to being in a memory care unit. Apparently your sodium being out of whack causes havoc. He was making no sense at all and lost strength and mobility. He's improved a bit, so they are hoping that continues. But I'm back to staying with him all day at the hospital. At least I can go home at night. They watch him all the time, but he fights everything they want to do for him. Hopefully this week they will discharge him and he can get back some strength. But he's 92, so not sure how much we can expect. It's awful to watch. It's exhausting and stressful.
I hope everyone else is doing well. I'm sending positive thoughts out into the universe, it can't hurt.
