Blogs from Pacific, Oceans and Seas - page 7

Sunny 73°F Awakening in the morning, I refrain from checking my watch and continue to lie in bed, enjoying the new mattresses just upgraded by Princess a few months ago. They are nice but it's now 9am and breakfast is over at 10. Karen's up first, buying me 20 minutes of time to contemplate the best way to get out of this bed. Staying in an inside cabin or "tomb" as we call it, there is no perception of time or space except for a clock. No light from a window, no open door offering fresh air from a balcony. Nothing. The only way we know what's the weather's like is by turning on the TV and tuning to the ship's camera station for the latest ship stats and a glimpse outside. Here we can view ... read more

Forecast: 68°F & partly cloudy, rain I know it’s Halloween but the candy is wiped out again. Now Karen wants to dip into my private candy stash to feed the masses. That’s not happening. Call me “The Grinch that Stole Halloween” but that candy bucket is done. From now on all it’s getting is my empty candy wrappers. Deep breaths, Al, deep breaths! I’m OK. The alarm wakes us at 7:20am. We ordered room service for this morning between 7:30-8am so we need to be ready. Just coffee and 4 milks. Nothing like Queenie and Jonathan would order. We just wanted the small milk cartons to put in our refrigerator for later on, accompanied by a few oatmeal cookies we’ll get later. I’m all dressed when our meal arrives. What's this? These guys are killing me. ... read more

September 28, 2017 – Autumn Leaves in the Rockies. We began our adventure on September 27th, leaving Victoria shortly after moving all our belongings into storage and cleaning our condo into pearl condition (thank you so much Anita and KPL – you rock!). The familiar trip through the Rockies was a fabulous new experience with the autumn foliage shining brilliant yellows, reds and orange against the evergreens and majestic mountains. We stopped briefly in Jasper reacquainting ourselves with Alberta and the beauty of our home province. We arrived in Edmonton to celebrate Darold’s birthday with his family at the Moose Factory in South Edmonton. After a wonderful visit, we stayed with Darold’s brother, Shawn and Karen (thank you for your gracious hospitality) who live in Downtown Edmonton on 104th street. We were amazed at the transformation ... read more

Hello everyone. If we have kept track correctly, this is Saturday and you are all probably enjoying the weekend. For us, it’s just the next day of vacation – actually it is one week exactly since the day we left St Louis. We have gotten a couple of comments about the blog and apparently it is being enjoyed by at least some of our readership, so we will continue to post these entries. As we’ve explained on previous trips, we could not possibly bring enough clothing to last for the whole trip, so today was laundry day. It’s not fun and hardly warrants any details, but we got it completed and have a full supply of clean clothes again (except for one missing sock). Janet went to the International Café for a quick breakfast sandwich because ... read more

On and around Arcadia Thought you would like some photos from around the ship There's been a full program of lectures and entertainment since leaving Southampton. Whilst we haven't seen the shows some of the lectures have been worthwhile. Eric Knowles from the Antique Roadshow gave three lectures and Carol Klein the gardener has been on recently. So there has been plenty to do, the cinema has had some recent movies and the cabin tv has had some good programs. The weather on the most part whilst at sea has not been the best, last night the 8th Feb we sailed through a Force 10 gale having left Papeete in 30 degrees C and flat calm. Two days till Auckland... read more