09/18/11 - DVCers Take Over the Dream (S.S. Member Cruise 2011) - Thread #4

[friends with mickey]

Sometimes Lara comes back after a week or two here, and has trouble driving on the right side of the road. So I bet it will be a challenge after 3 months.

We have about 4 round-a-bouts near the house in Indy (not including the track), but they are nothing compared to the multitude and apparent chaos they have here.

Good night to you too John or should i say cheerio

 

[M & N Potter]

Nope ... I can't even get used to saying 'Cheers'. Old dog and new trick, maybe. Just darn lucky they speak (a version of) English. Driving is a whole 'nuther trick. No problem when you're going with the flow, but you really must stay alert when you're in the lead. It would be impossible to get anywhere without GPS! Even a having navigator with a paper map would be a challenge. The GPS shows which lane you should be in. When you're not on a motorway (interstate), which is most of the time, you go through round-a-bouts every few miles. And some of them have 3 to 5 entry lanes, for which you need to start in the right one.

We took the approach to roundabouts that we are comming into at 6 o'clock and worked from there ... Nancy was our navagator with a paper map. (and for while the gear changer). I was challenged by the idea of "Slow Traffic Keep Left" on the motorways ... It was so wrong on one level ... but then, that seems to be the way people drive here in Wisconsin any way.

 

[lilliansmommy]

Night Night, John!

 

[lilliansmommy]

We took the approach to roundabouts that we are comming into at 6 o'clock and worked from there ... Nancy was our navagator with a paper map. (and for while the gear changer). I was challenged by the idea of "Slow Traffic Keep Left" on the motorways ... It was so wrong on one level ... but then, that seems to be the way people drive here in Wisconsin any way.

Hey Michael! How are things up north??

 

[lilliansmommy]

Why aren't my tickers and logos showing at the bottom??? Anyone know?? Anyone having this problem too???

 

[friends with mickey]

You are not alone. The DIS tickers have all been effected. They are trying to resolve the problem. We have to wait and hope thet get it resolved. We may have to recreate them once they determine what caused them to go invisible.

 

[Mantle1509]

Yes maam!

I have been going nuts because JetBlue only was accepting reservations up to September 6. Of course, I could not make Magical Express reservations or car service reservations to get to and from my home airport until I could book my flights.

JetBlue opened the next booking window at 0900 Eastern, I had my flights booked at 0904

Haha us too. I was going nuts! I checked at midnight but it want up yet. I did it when I got to work in the morning.

 

[Mantle1509]

I was checking rental car prices today for September and realized just about all of them had gone up OVER $1000 for the three weeks we are looking at. I'm hoping they come back down, because that's just CRAZY! It's double what it was last week and we're still 6 months out.

So, I made a reservation with Enterprise for $468. They aren't my first choice. I'd rather go with National. But National is almost three times more!! So, now I'll be checking rental sites daily to see how much farther down I can get that price.

We use to always use national/alamo but we just switch to thrifty and we loved them the lady 2 times. Good prices and good cars.

 

[DizDragonfly]

Nope ... I can't even get used to saying 'Cheers'. Old dog and new trick, maybe. Just darn lucky they speak (a version of) English. Driving is a whole 'nuther trick. No problem when you're going with the flow, but you really must stay alert when you're in the lead. It would be impossible to get anywhere without GPS! Even a having navigator with a paper map would be a challenge. The GPS shows which lane you should be in. When you're not on a motorway (interstate), which is most of the time, you go through round-a-bouts every few miles. And some of them have 3 to 5 entry lanes, for which you need to start in the right one.

I _loved_ the roundabouts! I grew up in a town that had a rotary at the center of town, so it was second nature to me. Cheers threw me too.

My best friend and I went to England, Scotland and Wales for three weeks a few summers ago. We had the best time, but driving was ... interesting. We picked up a rental car in Glasgow and within an hour had a flat tire from hitting the curb. My friend did all the driving and I did all the navigating. CURB!!! became the keyword of the trip.

We went and saw The Holiday at the theater and were those really obnoxious people who are seemingly laughing MUCH harder than the scene deserves. However, the scene with Cameron Diaz driving was exactly what we experienced and at the very same moment we both let out our "CURB!!!" cry. OMG, I'm sure you had to be there, but I've never laughed so hard in my life.

 

[DizDragonfly]

We use to always use national/alamo but we just switch to thrifty and we loved them the lady 2 times. Good prices and good cars.

I got spoiled by the Emerald Aisle. I love being able to just walk out and choose my car and then drive to gatehouse to show my ID. Soooo EASY!! No desk, no kiosk. Love it!

Anybody know if any of the other rental car places are doing this now?

Is Thrifty on site at the airport?

 

[Truffle]

Hi Dan,

We will be in London sometime that weekend to bring DMIL and DSIL back to the airport. Looks like they depart LHR at 9:10 am on Sunday March 20th. I'll get with Lara and see about maybe lunch on Sunday? We'll probably be in town on Saturday, sightseeing, too. Do you have any commitments to dodge?

How are the twins progressing? I really hope Sue doesn't catch what you have. Not just because it's no fun flying with a cold, but she would be quarantined from the babies! Get well quickly.

I think we are good during the day. It looks like we will end up with the midnight shift.

Lunch Sunday sounds good to me. I know a few places... If Saturday works better for you, I'm sure we can work something out. I don't think they are that interested in seeing us, just our ability to change diapers!

 

[Luckymomoftwo]

Hey everyone!! Back from WDW a few hours ago.

Had a great time. Great weather and wonderful drinks!!! Boardwalk Villas might be my new favorite place to stay. Loved it!! Of course, had to make a trip to Jelly Rolls. Tommy, one of the musicians, called me up on stage because he saw me dancing at my table. I had to lead the place in a rendition of Ike and Tina Turner's, "Proud Mary"!! That was a treat for the eyes, I tell ya. Glad to be home. I missed Lilly so much...and Jim too, of course. Exactly 19 days and I will be back!!!! Can't wait!!

Hope everyone had a great weekend.

Kelly

HI KELLY!!!! I bet Lilly and Jim are glad to have you back home!! I'm glad you had such a good time!!! And thank you, again, for picking that Mickey wind spinner thing (or whatever they call it) for me. We'll have to make plans to meet at Spaghetti Warehouse. YUM!!!!

Jet blue got a piece of my mind this am. Had a flight to mco for 79.00 and return for 89.00. Put all my information in and hit submit then they said they could not process fight. Called and they said try again and prices went up 10.00. Hey 40.00 bucks is 40.00 bucks. Then they hung up on me. Then I had to go and deal with high schoolers. Not one of my best days. relaxing now getting my fix on disboards

Oh no! I hope today is better for you. Sorry to hear about the Jet Blue website malfunction!

I _loved_ the roundabouts! I grew up in a town that had a rotary at the center of town, so it was second nature to me. Cheers threw me too.

My best friend and I went to England, Scotland and Wales for three weeks a few summers ago. We had the best time, but driving was ... interesting. We picked up a rental car in Glasgow and within an hour had a flat tire from hitting the curb. My friend did all the driving and I did all the navigating. CURB!!! became the keyword of the trip.

We went and saw The Holiday at the theater and were those really obnoxious people who are seemingly laughing MUCH harder than the scene deserves. However, the scene with Cameron Diaz driving was exactly what we experienced and at the very same moment we both let out our "CURB!!!" cry. OMG, I'm sure you had to be there, but I've never laughed so hard in my life.

When Junior and I were on our very first trip to WDW, we both kept tripping over the curbs at the parks (mainly Magic Kingdom). We just weren't used to having streets and curbs and a theme park. So, 'CURB"! was our joke of the trip. We must have looked like a couple of dingbats tripping over those curbs all the time.


Well, I hope everyone has a GREAT day! I get to go to work and learn how to use our new paperless system. Our mortgage company got bought out and the new company is completely paperless. Wish me luck...I've never processed mortgages without having a paper file to look at.

 

[erionm]

Aren't those two stations in some kind of legal trouble with the county because of lack of signage?

The city of Orlando has passed an ordinance that requires stations to post their prices on the street. There was no legal requirement to do so until just recently. These stations are fighting the ordinance and just happen to be the only stations that don't have price signs.

 

[Mantle1509]

Omg the dream has 6 horns Check it out

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/bl...P=SOC-DPFY11Q2TwitterDisneyParks09-03-11@0023

 

[Hoosier John]

We took the approach to roundabouts that we are comming into at 6 o'clock and worked from there ... Nancy was our navagator with a paper map. (and for while the gear changer). I was challenged by the idea of "Slow Traffic Keep Left" on the motorways ... It was so wrong on one level ... but then, that seems to be the way people drive here in Wisconsin any way.

We have always gotten an automatic for that very reason ... shifting gears with your left hand. At least the foot pedals are in the conventional location.

Kudos to Nancy if she was able to navigate for you (while shifting gears), through the round-a-bouts, and get you where you're going! While remaining a couple. They have freqeunt little roadside pull-offs. Sometimes there is a roadside vendor in them, other times people are taking a rest break, but I bet several of them are evaluating a map to figure out where they went wrong.

Ingenious (sp?) idea about the clock position for round-a-bouts. The GPS says 'take 3rd exit', but sometimes you miss counting a small road. However the GPS also shows an enlarged image of the rotary, visually depicting your clock, and where you are on it. On the other hand they have some rotaries that are over a city block in size and not circular. I would lose track of how far I was around the clock on those, without the GPS following me around it.

Oh yea, I forgot. It was hard to get used to slow traffic on the left. I guess I have adapted at least a little.

 

[Hoosier John]

I _loved_ the roundabouts! I grew up in a town that had a rotary at the center of town, so it was second nature to me. Cheers threw me too.

My best friend and I went to England, Scotland and Wales for three weeks a few summers ago. We had the best time, but driving was ... interesting. We picked up a rental car in Glasgow and within an hour had a flat tire from hitting the curb. My friend did all the driving and I did all the navigating. CURB!!! became the keyword of the trip.

We went and saw The Holiday at the theater and were those really obnoxious people who are seemingly laughing MUCH harder than the scene deserves. However, the scene with Cameron Diaz driving was exactly what we experienced and at the very same moment we both let out our "CURB!!!" cry. OMG, I'm sure you had to be there, but I've never laughed so hard in my life.

I know EXACTLY what you're talking about. The first time Laran and I came to England with Lara, after a long flight, Lara got a rental car to drive to Derby. Since she had been here and driven before (and I can't sleep sitting up), she drove. I felt like the worst passenger ever ... everything was backwards: I was sitting where normally I was in control, but no controls were there. I kept nervously telling her to move right more. She convinced me to shut up because I just wasn't used to being on the left side.

So we're tooling along on the motorway (interstate), approaching an off-ramp. We were continuing straight and the ramp diverged to the left. In the UK, for some reason, they place a curb just off the rather narrow shoulder. She drifted out of her lane, a little toward the ramp. I bit my tounge, for fear of being forced to walk the rest of the way. She hit the curb with both left side tires right at the point of the "V" at 60-some mph. We were dead in the water on the other side of the interchange where the on-ramp was. I had her back into the gore area there because the shoulders were only a couple of feet wide.

I unloaded the back of the Volvo wagon and waited for RAC (like AAA) to change out the tire. By the way, they were very quick at response, about the time it took me to unload. Luckily we only lost the front tire, so onward we went at 50 mph max on the spare. They came to her work and changed it out a couple of days later. I think they covered the cost of the tire?

We only hit one more curb on that trip (again left side), but that was on a bridge that continually shifted between one lane and narrow two lanes. So you had to time it so you passed oncoming traffic in the two lane portion.

 

[Hoosier John]

I think we are good during the day. It looks like we will end up with the midnight shift.

Lunch Sunday sounds good to me. I know a few places... If Saturday works better for you, I'm sure we can work something out. I don't think they are that interested in seeing us, just our ability to change diapers!

Awh, don't sell them short ... I'm sure you and Sue can also do some house cleaning, laundry, dishes, and cooking.

Forgot to mention it to Lara, but as I see it, Sunday lunch should work out well for us. If you know of some places to eat, that would be great!

 

[Carmouse10]

HELLO HELLO HELLO HELLO HELLO HELLO HELLO

 

[stitchnbead3]

HELLO HELLO HELLO HELLO HELLO HELLO HELLO

Hi - but I am actually going back to work now......so later!

 

[DizDragonfly]