Crystal Symphony – Arrest Warrant Issued!!

Perhaps a couple of red flags have gone up as warning signs. First it was the shutdown of the Crystal cruise operations after our ship returned to the port in Miami on Saturday morning. Today, Friday 1/21, the captain made an announcement that due to “non-technical operational issues” our ship would not be ending the cruise at the Miami port. What’s up now?

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Saint John USVI – 1st Stop

So far, so good! In fact, the luxury cruise of a lifetime has been great. How often does one have a 50th anniversary? All around, the vessel, the staff, entertainment, and obviously the chow have been great. And on top of that I feel very safe aboard. Actually, as a guy said yesterday, we feel safer here than going to a local Walmart. More on that later. St. John USVI was our first stop.

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Deerfield Beach

We found a small motel to spend the night near Miami. A five hour drive yesterday through some congested areas. Not too bad, but I am certainly glad that we chose to drive it on Friday instead the day of the cruise. Nothing like being stuck in standstill traffic while watching the cruise ship leave the port. At least that was my concern. But staying the night here will make a lower stress one hour drive to the port just after noon.

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Pre-Cruise Prep

It is just three days until we board the cruise ship Symphony, one of the Crystal Cruise lines floating palaces. And of course the new Omnicron has taken off like crazy all over the world. Well, we knew that cruising during a pandemic could be a risk, but all reports at the time that we booked were that ships were operating as normal, ports were open, and covid cases were minimal due to all the mitigating actions in place. How will Omnicron affect our cruise?

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Cruise

Happy New Year Everyone!! As I have mentioned in a prior post, this new year of 2022 will be our 50th wedding anniversary and wanted to do something special and a bit of a splurge. For this special event, we have been planning a Europe trip for several months now and have been watching the travel alerts. Currently Italy is at the state departments Level 4 or Do Not Travel. LINK But that may all change…

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Christmas on Anna Maria Island, FL

I hope that everyone had a great Christmas season with family and preparing for another new year. My wife Pat and I just finished celebrating our 49th wedding anniversary and Christmas with some family south of Tampa. This new year also brings in our 50th anniversary. Very hard for me to comprehend that. I remember my grandparents golden anniversary and they were old! Anyway, we have started to plan a huge year…

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Arrived at Winter Home

We are now at our destination for the winter months in the small city of New Port Richey (NPV). It has a population of 17,000 people and is about an hour north of Tampa and includes our RV park – Orchid Lake RV Resort (OLRVR). I’ll post something on the park at a later date. This year we stay at one place for almost four months instead of park hopping every month. We’ll see how that works having a base of operations instead of many areas of exploration.

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