tiny blonde

Thanks! 😎

Thanks. I have no idea what the parking fees are . . . I'll look into them. I'm happy to know there is parking close to the terminal.

I'm handicapped (walking) and would like my husband to be able to drop me off at the terminal and park nearby. I don't know the lay of the land . . . what do you recommend?

I'm counting on it! I think we'll have a wonderful time . . . and that it will be NOTHING like the navy!!! 😀

Thanks for all your responses. My hubby claims to be coming along on this cruise very reluctantly, because he hated every one of his 1,461 days aboard a U.S. Navy oil tanker. He's the one who wanted to know if he could bring his headset. I plan to send him on a reconnaissance tour of the ship while I soak up the view from our balcony. I expect he'll relax and find great spots and then we'll both have a wonderful time.

If it's for health reasons that you're thinking of switching to the Impossible Burger, you may want to consider this (copied from https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/health/diet-nutrition/a27286383/impossible-burger/ , which please see): " Is an Impossible Burger healthy? Compared to a same-sized beef patty, an Impossible Burger contains a comparable amount of calories (240 to 260), but it scores lower in a few regards. The first is that it contains way less protein — 19 grams versus 28 grams — which may make it less filling, London says. "The bigger downside of the Impossible Burger is that it’s also 2 grams higher in saturated fat, likely because of the coconut oil that's added," she adds. "Coconut oilcontains the highest saturated fat content of any plant-based oil, despite its super 'health halo.'" The Impossible Burger also contains a lot more sodium — about 15% of your recommended value, compared to just 4% in plain beef.

i'm a pescatarian (who doesn't always want to have seafood) . . . and I've found that by reading the whole menu I can get a picture in my mind of what they have in the kitchen and can order something wonderful that isn't on the menu . . . such as pasta with broccoli or spinach and grilled shrimp, or hold the shrimp and toss the pasta with some delectable cheese, or ask for a stir-fry of vegetables with rice or quinoa . . . in other words, just ask myself what I would put together for myself if I had access to the larder. Sometimes I order just sides, or two entrees, or soup plus an appetizer. Thinking outside the box can be very rewarding.

"Associate of the family" = small-time lawyer reaching out to a big-league lawyer in return for a cut of the fee.

The ship was tied up to a pier, in port, and there may not have been a breeze there, that day, coming from that direction. Which does not change the fact that an open window does not look the same as a closed, tinted window, which all the other windows were. He lifted the child and held her up to an open window over 100' above the ground. My heart aches for them all.

If there is a jury trial (which I doubt will happen), RCCL it will be in RCCL's interests to allow the jury to visit the ship to see for themselves where the accident occurred. I've never been on the ship . . . . how far away from the "kids area" are the windows?

Oh, well, then, isn't it nice that we have this blog on which to meet!

I'm still quite new, here, so I didn't know anyone had shut down the discussion and deleted all posts. I've appreciated having some friends to talk about it with here. So the grandfather is actually the STEP-grandfather - oh, the poor man. I'm a step-grandmother and I know that being a step-anything is yet one step farther from being totally accepted, we're on probation for a long time, until all the results are in . . . . and this is the worst result possible. Have marriages ended over incidents like this?

The police in Puerto Rico could charge him in a criminal case, but I doubt they will, seeing how he suffered the loss of his granddaughter in what was apparently an accident. And the parents could sue him in a civil case, but I don't think they would charge their own father/father-in-law unless they thought he did it deliberately. There's no one else to bring suit against the grandfather. RCCL will do what their lawyers advise them will be best for the cruise line, which could be to settle and pay to make the case go away. I trust RCCL.

Very well stated! Thanks for the validation. I think we're pretty much in agreement, here.

I totally agree that Grandpa used poor judgement resulting in a tragic mistake. But I don't think the family is necessarily trying to "strike it rich" - because I remember how I felt when tragedy struck my family, albeit under different circumstances. One of the early symptoms of grief is anger, and certainly this family has a lot to be angry about (Mom is angry at Dad for letting Grandpa take the baby over to the window, Dad is angry at Grandpa for lifting the baby up to the window, Grandpa is angry at himself for being responsible for the tragedy, Grandma is angry at Grandpa for causing the death of the baby, etc.) and when people are angry, they flail around looking for someone to blame. When my daughter was killed, I was angry at EVERYONE with whom I could find anything to be angry about, and her father was so angry he drove people away (a phenomenon you may have observed in other bereaved parents), but that was just a normal grief reaction that gave way, eventually, to the deep grief that comes when the energy provided by anger is spent. The only person I blame is the lawyer, who I think is the one trying to get rich by inventing this cockamamie story of it being a "kids area" and parading this family in front of the media. I don't hate lawyers, by any means. My dad was a lawyer, but he never chased an ambulance or a cruise ship or dragged his clients into the limelight. He honored the confidentiality of the lawyer/client relationship, that this lawyer apparently never heard of.