Blue Planet Journey

  A "veggie burger" in the Windjammer buffet.  If I wanted mashed potatoes, I'd choose mashed potatoes. After spending a month on the Anthem of the Seas , I was looking forward to a trip on a different ship. And this trip was going to include the entire family, some of whom had never cruised before, so I was looking forward to them being impressed with a week on the Voyager of the Seas. Voyager is a smaller ship than Anthem , so I knew in advance there were some missing amenities. Still, they were all part of the Royal Caribbean corporate ecosystem, so the overlapping elements, like the quality of the food and service or the accuracy of the "Cruise Compass" (a digital or paper calendar detailing everything there is to see and do onboard, from dining times to the location of trivia contests to where all the many musicians are playing) should be similar. It wasn't. The week we returned home, we canceled our future transatlantic cruise on the  Voyager. We neve...

  Everyone has had to adapt to the 2020-2021 Covid-19 pandemic. Wearing masks (single or double layers), trying to interpret muffled speech, and avoiding or being avoided by family and friends are all part of this new reality. Thankfully, with vaccination programs well underway, life will soon be a bit more relaxed - and less deadly. However, I am concerned about the stall in the decline of active cases nationwide, the surge in some countries, and those pesky virus variants that may be more transmisible. Our adaptations may continue for the year. One company that has been a boon during the past year (and the stock price increase reflects this) is Zoom . Zoom is a video communications company, and has both a free basic version and a fee-based professional or business version. This means it is available to practically anyone with a device that has a camera and can connect to the Internet. I've used Zoom on a regular basis, for everything from a weekly family visit, to church service...

Mo'orea!  This island in French Polynesia is only 11 miles from Tahiti.  About 17,000 people live here, which makes the arrival of a ship carrying 3000 guests a big deal.  Clearly, French Polynesia is the preferred location for those magazine shots of romantic cabins over the water, although no one mentions that boats can buzz by and peer within (we did). The topography is dramatic, as erosion has been working on this extinct volcano for 2 million years.  And the circling fringing reef inspired Charles Darwin, looking down at Mo'orea from a mountain on Tahiti,  to hypothesize a process for the formation of coral atolls. NASA Photo ID: ISS006-E-39837. One day isn't enough to even begin exploring these islands.  Since we had gone tramping in Tahiti, it was time to explore the water.  With friends Carla and Michael, we booked a lagoon excursion through Albert Transport.  This was to include 2 snorkels, 1 with sharks and rays, an...