10/02/04 Antigua Cruise

[piglet33]

Hi fridayfun -

Mary (RellingTwin) posted this about how everybody got to meet a little while ago. It might help you explain to your hubby.

Renee'

Originally posted by RellingTwin
Izza...the story of "Cruisetoberfest"

WAY Back in early 2001 I booked the 9/22/01 7 night Magic cruise. I then began e-mailing others on this board who were sailing at the same time. Before long we had about 20 families who were sailing with us. As the sail date got closer we started talking about getting some T-Shirts made, planning some get togethers, ect. Eric (Viking) mentioned that 9/22/01 was the official beginning of Octoberfest in Germany. Since many of the original group were of German desent, we ( I can't remember who's idea it was) coined the phase "Cruisetoberfest". Our T-shirts said CRUISETOBERFEST on the front, and "WE AIN'T AFRAID OF NO HURRICAIN" on the back.
By the time we sailed we had over 100 internet friends to meet up with. The sailing took place just 11 days after the 9/11 attack and we were worried our German friends might not be able to make the trip, but almost all of us made it (a few folks dropped out due to the terrorist attack)! One of the group bought 100 American Flags for us all to wave at the sail a-way party.
We sailed again the following year (9/28/02) with about 5 families from the previous year (We called that cruise "CruisEars") and of course many other "New" friends. Once again we had over 100 people to enjoy our cruise with.
Then we heard from Eric and Anja...they were sailing again!!!So CRUISETOBERFEST II was born! Now we added some original CF(Cruisetoberfest I), and some CE(CruisEars) and we had a
"(Re)union Of Friends". Once again a FANTASTIC time was had by all! Last year Eric and Anja had said it would be a few years before they sailed again....BUT!!!!!THEY WON A 7 NIGHT CRUISE WHILE ON BOARD....SO...Cruisetoberfest III was born!

Papa...Mike and Kathy
@GoofyNut...Art and Cathy
and me RellingTwin...George and Mary (plus kids) have been on all the cruises,
Many more TwinAve,PADisneyFan,CheesePlease, Dan&Scott, CDMickeyLover,Hygiene99,Piglet33,SarahsMom,VideoMan,TuliRose,BetteMom (please forgive me if I've missed anyone!!) have been on (or are now booked) on 2 or more cruises.
Each time with old friends and new we have a fantastic vacation!

This might be a good time to mention that we in NO WAY want to "take over" anyone's vacation! We do NOT expect anyone to join any get together they don't want too, or feel obligated in ANY WAY!It's great to say hello to everyone at the sail-a-way party, then say hello when you run into them on board. As my very smart sister said "you ARE going to be on board with 2000 people.....you might as well get to know some of them before hand"
For people with children it has the added bonus of having pre-made playmates. The kids get to meet either via e-mail or at the Friday night before we sail and feel right at home with their new friends!For shy kids like my DD this was a real blessing!

Boy oh boy!!! I didn't mean to ramble on so!

Anyway...for Izza and anyone else who was wondering, that's my story and I sticking to it!

 

[@GoofyNut]

Happy April 's Day to Everyone ... try to keep the pranks to fun stuff. Suggestions .. glue the tops on a co-workers's pen;
leave a message to call Pete Maus at a garden center; disconnect the handset on the phone, then go call the person on another phone, etc, etc, etc. Needless to say my co-workers are afraid of me today!

Well just a few more hours of work before we can leave for the DC meet ... boy do I need this "re-charge". The more I think about it, the more I think it may just have to be an annual event every spring for a few years so we can get in all there is to see in DC ... hey I'm grabbing at an excuse for a meet!

Hope Anja and eric are having a good time in Englan on their "Holiday".

Mary ... hope your hubby was able to give his respects to his friend's family. So sad for such a young person .. Art's work friend was the same age.

Everybody have a nice day ... gotta finish some of this work before I have tomorrow off!

 

[cdnmickeylover]

I hope everyone has a great time in DC.

Fridayfun -- tell your DH (which is husband) not to worry.

Jim and I have said over and over to each other that we are so glad that we met these people on the boards and ate dinner with them. It really made the cruise for us. As there was just the two of us we knew we would be seated with others and this way we 'picked' who we would eat with. It was great talking to everyone at dinner and finding out what everyone else did during the day because most of the time we all did something different.

It's also great walking around the Magic and running into people that you know. Makes for a very friendly vacation. The CM's got to know us too since we all had t-shirts and name tags.

You can join us for as little or as much as you want. There is no pressure at all.

Now nobody at work will understand what the heck you're talking about but that's ok -- even my family doesn't really get it.

Now wouldn't cruise without my DIS family.

Fiona

 

[Hygiene99]

Welcome Fridayfun ,,,


NO one will bite We met them all last year ....and u want to talk about a great time.......


It is kinda fun ....knowing so many people on the ship ...

it is like when u walk into a room full of strangers that feeling u get ............ welll when u walk around the ship u know u can say hi .... or chat for a bit..... it is a much nicer feeling....


last year Viking ( Eric) made it up on Stage for the contest ..

and Won a 7 Day cruise .... was reallly cool must have had 30 or so people in the place cheering him on Was AWESOME.....


Just a fun time Can do as much or as litle as u like......

 

[RellingTwin]

We are back from our trip. George is doing better, but the whole trip was very sad.It was discovered that our friend DID have a heart attack. A painless death in your own bed it NOT a bad way to go...but for someone so young it was a shock.

On to happier things!

Welcome to Fridayfun. I must confess my DH had the same reaction...but now agrees the DIS'ers were what made a good vacation into a GREAT vacation.Some people join in a lot of things, others join in very little. NO PRESSURE! It's your vacation, do as much or as little as you want.

1971visitor...how long were you in PR? We were there for an unexpected stop due to hurricaine Lilly. I thought it was very nice and wished we could have done a bit more research before going there. We did tour the Forts, and did some shopping. The people were very nice and helpful.

 

[Twinave]

Welcome to Fridayfun and your DH.

Glad to have you aBoard!

And happy to hear from 1971visitor again.

Glad your weather is warming up Fionna. Sending some FL sunshine your way.

Kathy, Glad you didn't break down on a cold dark road somewhere.

Cathy, Did you get your co-workers good. They must LOVE April Fools Day!

Go to go.
Later, Ave'

 

[1971visitor]

RellingTwin-We were there for 5 days. Stayed on the eastern shore (Las Croabas). Visited the rain forest and got soaked! It was great and we recommend it to anyone. We rented a Jeep and took the top off. I doubt the tour bus experience was quite as enjoyable! Sampled a lot of local seafood. Folks there were quite nice compared to other island folks we've experienced in the past. We're really looking forward to our third cruise in October and I'm really looking forward to St. Thomas so we can compare it to Puerto Rico. We have a group of 23 going from our hometown!

 

[ARLO1]

Wecome Fridayfun:

Last year was our first time we met any of the people on these boards but it was such a great experience that we signed up to do another cruise with everybody.

When I first started posting/reading this board I was very intimidated by some of the postings because of how close everybody already was.

When I first told family members and friends that we were going to the mini disney meet in Baltimore to meet some of the people they thought we were strange to do this. Not only did we have a great time on the mini meet but were looking forward to the actual cruise even more. Well when we go to the actual cruise we met even more people and got a warm feeling because everybody was so welcoming. The best part was that even though we were traveling just the two of us(we have no kids) we felt like we were traveling with a whole group. We still did things just the two of us but as you walked around the ship or did an activity there always seemed to be someone else to say hi to or to hang with if you wanted to..but you didnt have to if you didnt want to. We were so amazed how nice the people were and how much they did for the other people. We made some good friends that we still occasionally email just because.

Am I rambling or what? You can set your husbands mind at ease...we were apprehensive at first but it turned out to be a great experience and cant wait to do it again..

Arlene

 

[Izza]

Hi everyone. Been busy at work lately.

Fridayfun, I'm new here too. This will be my first cruise, and I joined this lovely group a couple of weeks ago. My husband feels the same way yours does. He told me not to make any friends on the boards. Ha!

Today is the 6 month mark!!!

 

[cdnmickeylover]

Ooo you're right Izza it is the 6 month mark -- didn't realize that. Yeah

Esp. since work is not going well today but it is Friday and we went out to lunch to celebrate a co-worker's birthday and the big boss paid for everyone!!! Chinese buffett and I'm not sitting here stuffed.

Couldn't believe on Survivor yesterday how scared everyone is of Boston Rob. Looks interesting next week. I didn't really like Jerri but don't think it was necessarily smart for them to let Boston Rob rule the game.

Was sorry to see Troy go on the Apprentice. I really liked him as he seems to be really quite nice. One of my co-workers has a friend that worked with Kwame and said that he really is a nice guy. I just want the jet -- that was really nice.

Back to work, have a few problems to solve before the weekend arrives.

Fiona

 

[fridayfun]

Well, had my DH read the posts after work and he cracked up! He said that if I wanted to know who I was sitting with for dinner, I could, so hopefully we get to sit with everyone! I wanted to say, we have been on one DCL trip before (Sept 2000 - 3 land 4 sea), but this longer one seems so different and more exciting! We go to Disney World every year for vacation and everyone at work thinks we are crazy! It is nice to know others feel the same (and are not 12 years old!) and I can't wait for 10/02/04 to arrive!!!

 

[jeanniec]

Welcome, fridayfun! We re new to this group new and we are looking forward to meeting everyone in person.

I had my gallbladder surgery Thursday and seemed to have survived without too much pain. I have to keep shooing the cats away when they are ready to pounce on my stomach, tho. I get a week off from work -- actually thought I would be back next week, but the surgeon is kindly giving me a week at home.

 

[two-foxes]

I read here that some of you are doing a jeep tour in Antigua or something of the like, but is anyone else considering "Adventure Antigua Eco Tour?" We just reserved our spot, so I was curious if any one else had considered or booked this excursion?

www.adventureantigua.com

I was going to hunt through the pages of this thread, but 115 is alot of hunting!

 

[bettemom]

Originally posted by jeanniec
Welcome, fridayfun! We re new to this group new and we are looking forward to meeting everyone in person.

I had my gallbladder surgery Thursday and seemed to have survived without too much pain. I have to keep shooing the cats away when they are ready to pounce on my stomach, tho. I get a week off from work -- actually thought I would be back next week, but the surgeon is kindly giving me a week at home.

Hi Jeannie, Hope you are up and going soon. Take all the time you can squeeze out for your recovery. Mom says Hi too, however
she is in the hospital now also. She messed up her back real bad yesterday afternoon and is now a guest at our local hospital for the next 4-5 days.

Hope everyone who is at DC is having a great time..

Bye, Kim

 

[Viking]

George & Mary,
Anja & I want to expess our condolences on your loss 48 is really the wrong age to go!!! Tragedies like this make you think about your own mortality, don't they? One of the reasons why I left emergency medical service!!!

Jeanne,
good to hear that you're recovering from your surgery.

Fridayfun and 1971visitor,
welcome I'll check out the antiguaorbust-mail-box later.

To everyone,
As you can see: Ze Germanz are back!!!
London was great, but you won't believe the air pollution You really can see what you're breathing
More details later, gotta check the mail now

 

[Viking]

Fridayfun and 1971visitor,
there's no mail from you so far
Please send your info to antiguaorbust@yahoo.com
I'll do an update next weekend.

 

[Twinave]

Welcome back Eric and Anja! Glad you had a good time. We missed you.

Fridayfun, my DD said to tell you she loves your icon. The kitty remindes her of one of our cats. Glad your DH spent some time reading the boards. Hope he didn't go through all 115 pages. My DH felt the same way about meeting other people. On our first cruise he was like "you do what you what, but I am not interested in meeting anyone". On the drive home from the cruise he said, "you know I wouldn't mind going on another cruise" and I said "good, cause I've already booked us for next year!" Then we went on Cruisetoberfest II. I can't begin to tell you how much fun he had. Cruisetoberfest will be our last cruise for a while though. Of course that's what we said last year.
The planning, to me, is almost as much fun as the trip itself.

Busy day for me today, car wash, haircut, running DH into town to get his muffler fixed, and the ever present, ever mounting pile of laundry. I'm working at job #2 tomorrow, so I have to get everything done today.

Later, Ave'

 

[JanDave]

Jill and Tim: We are sailing on the 9/18/04 Antigua cruise and booked the eco tour through the web site. I read many positive reports regarding this tour on the RCCL website. We didn't want to wait for DCL to publish their Antigua excursions and not get a reservation for the eco tour.

Enjoy!

Jan

 

[jeanniec]

Kim -- Hope your mom gets well quickly!

 

[jeanneg]

Bette and jeannie: I hope you both are feeling better soon.

Eric and Anja: welcome back!

To all the DISers at the DC meet: I hope you're having a wonderful time. If my son from LA wasn't here right now, we would have joined you.

twinfoxes: I checked out that web site for the eco tour and was wondering if the full day tour will fit into our time frame. I believe the half day one had to be by private charter arrangements. I'm always wary of doing a "full day" excursion with someone other than DCL for the reason that if something goes wrong and you get unexpectedly delayed, the possibility exists that you could miss the ship's departure from port. At least with a DCV excursion you know that wouldn't happen. Just something to think about.......