Category: News & Info

Today we did a little of everything and cruised all day. So we saw a bunch of this.

Some time between breakfast mid morning snack we checked out the sea water swimming pool. Let’s just say it was very refreshing to get into. Well, parts of me considering it very refreshing. Soon after it was the hot tub to warm up. The weather was very nice, mid eighties, but very windy. Some time later there was a parade on the main promenade. The below is the crowd dispersing afterwards. No photos of the parade but if was every Disney movie character for the last 10 years or so. If you live under a rock and don’t know them, go watch the movies and you’ll get the drift…..no pun intended considering our current….ha, did it again location.

This place is a little like the Burlington Mall on that fir tree holiday. Except a lot warmer, people are wearing beach wear and lots of them are carrying drinks and many are 1/2 tanked, some fully cocked. At the end there was a confetti shower, just for good measure. For a few minutes I was expecting to see the little robots from the Fifth Element coming out and clean up the mess…as this ship is the closest thing to Fhloston Paradise as I’ll ever get.

In order of what we did here’s a few more shots from today.

JMan and I took in some horse back riding, but the horses only went around in a circles, and I kept hearing carnival music…..weird.

I found a little slice of heaven in the middle of a huge pond. Thumbs up care of Jess.

Making it look good was never this easy.

The boys found the arcade and GMan appears to be going all gangster, or perhaps all Hollywood.

The boys on the walking/running track that I said I was going to use every day. However, eating ice cream is much easier and requires far less effort. Besides, the track is a tad plain….and the ice cream comes in many flavors.

Jess shot this on off the port side, or was it starboard, or aft…should be easy enough to figure out. Here’s a few clues. 5 pm heading to St. Thomas from Nassau Bahamas.

Jess relaxes while the kids are…well somewhere else.

Tonight we ordered room service and ate on our balcony. A good day was had by all. Tomorrow is St. Thomas and some real beach time.

We pulled into Nassau Bahamas this am around 7. Apparently those lads with the oars are doing a mighty job. Hope the pay is good!

The above image was day break over the harbor. Shortly after that it was breakfast then off to the cattle mart. Well, human mart. I’ll say one thing for Disney, they know how to move bodies. These guys could learn a thing or two from Walt.

Today’s excursion was swimming with Dolphins on the other side of the island. Jess booked the whole trip and given my dislike of water I opted out of swimming with Dolphins for waist deep water and Dolphin patting. Never happened! Instead it was propulsion by Dolphin noses while laying flat on your stomach.

I’ll admit it was a fun, but a little weird and since I had a life vest on I figured even if I died of shock they’d find my lifeless body floating. However, after 6 months of no gym I’d make some good chum for the sea life. Photos coming on this adventure after we sell our first born to pay for them.

After that it was off to the beach.

Nothing like a Palm Tree for some shade.

Family shot before before we got back on board.

We were the only game in town this am. Since then 3 more ships arrived. Ours is the big one at the end, Allure of the sea.

Covered roof.

Here’s a better shot of our tub. Well, at least part of the rear end and port side. Those life boats hanging off the side hold 370 easy m …that is. The Allure has 18….so if all goes well 6,660 souls will be saved! Where are you now Jimmy with your 18 run-a-about and Evinrude outboard. Like I said, this thing is huge.

After a much needed coffee then nap (did you notice the order) it was time to eat. Basically you can eat all day long if you like. After that I tested out the shower. I’m admit its far better than “on demand” or flipping the switch on the immersion and waiting two hours for a twenty minutes shower.

Tonight is Captains night. Which really means all the guys dress like James Bond and the gals like Grace Kelly. I’m happy to say the Quinn/Miller household is doing a wonderful job of lowering that standard. Not that we are showing up in ripped jeans and tee shirts, but we refused to pay Jet Blue for the extra suit case of “so called” good cloths. Besides, collar shirt and pants will do according to ship staff. We got this on covered.

GMan beats into a man sized meal. Speaking of meals….all the food so far is really good and the wait staff are wonderful.

After dinner the above was waiting for us in our room. The below is a view from the 15 floor down into the Aqua Theatre. I always get a little nervous when I see blue light but figured I’d never get caught behind the wheel of this ship!

Who said old farts can’t go to FL for Spring Break!

Right…we brought the kids.

Bonus….the sun is out and no snow. Great, I think I’ll stay…

GMan chose to build a boat for his school’s Winterim Project. The parts were precut so it was more of an assembly job. Unfortunately he missed a few day due to illness but the team chipped in and helped out.

The above are all the boats awaiting pick up. GMan’s is at the end, in the raw as we’d say. He needs to paint it to gain the required credits.

I enlisted my good buddy Bret and his very handy truck to haul it home.

I’m very impressed with G’s work and can’t wait to get her out in the water.

I’m officially over winter…bring on the daffodils! This tree limb greeted me this am when I opened our bedroom blind.

Half deaf is a good thing….as I did not hear a thing. Jess on the other hand jumped up and ran around looking for damage. None found, power still on, back to bed.

Here’s a view from the outside. I made short work of it with a saws-all. It looks like it slapped the roof and slid off. I’m amazed it missed the power line!

The above is our back yard….so clean and white….now melt so we can move on to mud season.

Last night the upper school kids preformed Spamalot at JMans school and today was the 1/4 finals collegiate acapella concert at Boston Symphony Hall.

Spamalot was a blast, Jess and I, including all the other over 40’s in the room were repeating all the lines with the actors and actresses. The kids put on a great show and it brought back fond memories of hanging out at Goldsmiths Tavern in St Mary’s Square watching Monty Python. Every time the door would open we’d pause the movie and hide the pints! Never know when the boys in blue would appear….not that we were doing anything wrong!

Today’s concert was great. 10 colleges had 12 minutes a piece to wow the judges and entertain the rest of us. This was our first time in BSH and it’s a wonderful old world theatre. We were two rows from the stage, off to one side, but the kids made good use of the entire stage. Perhaps I’m getting old but some of the clothing choices were a tad revealing considering the matinee age of the audience. I was expecting to see at least one wardrobe malfunction but if it happened I missed it. Beyond that the singing and beatboxing was great.

Top: All the teams on stage prior to the awards ceremony.

Left middle: The boys.

Left bottom: Bach to front the stage dips at least 10″. Notice the height of the baseboard?

Right bottom: Bus drive and wife!

The one on the right is what locals drink, the one of the left is for the after life…..

JMan tried his hand at baking a few weeks ago and I forgot to post the results.

It was a good effort but I think leaving the dough overnight in fridge overnight was it’s downfall….let’s just say it was a bit doughy! However, that didn’t stop us from scarfing it down…something about warm bread!

My dear wife has many titles and this one is especially appropriate. Not that she spends quality time on QVC but every kitchen store from Target to William Sonoma is prime pickings. This Hanukkah a new gadget was mentioned as a possible gift. The item in question is an Instant Pot.

A quick search resulted in many choices and many more gushing reviews with all manner of tasty meals cooked in minutes. What could be better, except someone other than us doing the cooking, or perhaps a phone and a credit card….which is dead handy for whipping up a meal. Basically an instant pot is a modern pressure cooker that won’t blow a hole in your kitchen ceiling.

Anyhow, always one for a bargain (remind me to tell you about the time I tried to bargain with a cashier over the price of a gallon of milk) I found one on sale at Target, better yet in NH so sorry MA I’ll keep the 6.5!

Tonight was it’s maiden voyage and Jess decided on chicken. I’m not going to bore you with the entire recipe but 3 minutes a side in the pot, then lock on the top and cook on high for 5 minutes….done!

The results were very good and we were all very impressed with the latest addition to our kitchen gadget family. The naming party is in a few week, watch out for the invite.

It wasn’t as quick as “chicken good” in the Fifth Element, but 11 minutes and only one pot to clean….I’d say it’s a winner.

A few year ago while on vacation the resort we stayed at had a bunch of Xbox consoles. I spend all of my time in Forza, I think it was Forza 2 at the time.

Keep in mind I never got into video game as a kid, too busy turning turf or saving hay to wind away countless hours playing Astroids…..but I really enjoyed this racing game.

Fast forward a few years to the Microsoft Store at your local mall where I was reintroduced to Xbox. In the middle somewhere I also downloaded and played Real Racing on my iPhone but with a small screen it’s hard to really get into it. We have a Wii U but Minecraft and Mario Kart and not my kettle of fish.

A few weeks ago one of my Facebook friends mentioned a Black Friday deal on Forza 7, and the bonus is you can download and play on a Windows 10 machine…..so no console needed. Finally I found a use for a laptop I bought last Black Friday which was intended for Revit, but Win 10, 4K monitor and Revit do not play well together. So I ended up with a screaming laptop that happens to have great graphics!

So $84.99 later I downloaded and installed Forza Motorsport 7 Ultimate Edition. Might as well have it all if it’s on sale. Test driving on my laptop was a joke so I started looking into controllers then steering wheels/peddles. I’m guessing GMan talked to my better 1/2 and I ended up with an early Hanukkah gift, a Thrustmaster TMX steering wheel and pedal set. Call me a geek, but this thing is cool and very addicting. Not that I’m going to lock myself in the basement…..but since I have a few weeks off I will be taking in a few races.

I set up user account for the boys and we all had a turn. I later found a DCMI cable and hooked my laptop up to the basement tv. It’s not 4K but the graphics are still good.

JMan working it.

GMan having a go.

Yours truly at the wheel. The techie in me is very impressed with the game, graphics, steering wheel (with feedback) and peddles. Highly recommended for all you gamers.