10-14-2006 Cruisetoberfest IV

[Viking]

Thanks for providing that link, Nancy.
Sounds scary, but fortunately they explicitely state that P.H.U.K.E.T. had no such occurrences so far and neither had Bankgok. Nevertheless you may keep your fingers crossed for us
Nothing short of another tsunami will keep us from going there. We are so looking forward to see Asia for the first time and already did so much planning!!

 

[papa]

Good diving Eric and Anja. Guess that Kathy and I will have to break down and get our passports. Mike

 

[Viking]

This is so funny: Travelling between two countries as close as Canada and the US becomes more difficult and over here we can hop between 25 European countries with just our ID-card or no checks at all

BTW, the people in the Frankfurt area are mad at Bush: When he visited Mainz in February public life came to a standstill for 16 hours, because the city of Mainz and more than a 100miles of Autobahnen had to be evacuated for security reasons - And now he's going to Rome to be in a crowd of more than 4 million people with virtually no security at all

 

[papa]

Eric hope that you and Anja enjoy your holiday in Thailand. Take care and remember to just breath normally on ascent. After all no one needs to spend anytime in a decompression chamber on holiday.

Bette and Kim and the rest of our cruisers enjoy your cruises and take lots of photos for us to see on your return.

Rain is in the forecast for us today with highs in the 70's?F. Mike

 

[Viking]

Mike,
we are extremely careful divers. The dive-school we booked our dives with is one of the best - And it's lead by two German divemasters Believe it or not, it will be the first time that we're diving with Germs We did our dive-training in Florida, and dove in Cozumel & St Thomas with our American friends.

 

[papa]

Knowing the German insistence on details I hope that you still have time to dive after all the planning. Have to run as the grand-baby just came in toting a bag of dry baby Lima beans for me to cook. Mike

 

[Viking]

Mike,
we even haven't made any fixed plans for Bangkok yet. We have one half-day excursion of our choice included in our package and already know which we will do, but for the rest of our stay we will improvise We only know that we will do some serious shopping

 

[Tulirose]

......BTW, the people in the Frankfurt area are mad at Bush: When he visited Mainz in February public life came to a standstill for 16 hours, because the city of Mainz and more than a 100miles of Autobahnen had to be evacuated for security reasons - And now he's going to Rome to be in a crowd of more than 4 million people with virtually no security at all .....

I musta woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning because this statement bugs me. So, what do they want Bush to do, boycott the Pope's funeral? I'm certain there will be plenty of security there. There's going to be about 20 Heads of State attending. And, I'm sure I will be corrected on this, but couldn't the powers that be in Germany or anywhere else say, "um, I'm sorry. We would like you to visit our country/city/state/whatever, but that's just a little bit too much you are asking of us. We will do X and X for security for X amount of time and provide you with X, but there is no way we can possibly do everything you are asking for. Sorry, if you can't come because of this but we have limitations and if you can't come, then so be it". ?

Eric - Hope you and Anja have a wonderful, safe trip to Thailand.

Jean and Mary - Congratulations on successful, if not tiring, moves.

All is well in the Tuli household. Just other priorities pulling me away from my favorite internet website.

Off to work, dang it!

 

[fortierv]

Eric,
Have a Great Trip!! Hope your dives are beautiful.

 

[Viking]

I musta woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning because this statement bugs me. So, what do they want Bush to do, boycott the Pope's funeral? I'm certain there will be plenty of security there. There's going to be about 20 Heads of State attending. And, I'm sure I will be corrected on this, but couldn't the powers that be in Germany or anywhere else say, "um, I'm sorry. We would like you to visit our country/city/state/whatever, but that's just a little bit too much you are asking of us. We will do X and X for security for X amount of time and provide you with X, but there is no way we can possibly do everything you are asking for. Sorry, if you can't come because of this but we have limitations and if you can't come, then so be it". ? !

Rosemary,
A) The majority of the German people didn't want him to come - at least not at those conditions, but in the end our gouvernment was willing to pay for it to show our willingness to fix the German-American relations.
B) Our understanding of hospitality irequires us to take care of our guests according to their wishes.
And most important:
C) We're pretty sure that he won't come again soon You may be aware that he's not exactly popular over here and will most probably never be.
But I guess as long as his adminstration is driving the Dollar lower and lower, thus making vacations in the USA more and more attractive for us, I can live with it
But IMHO opinion this thread is not the right place for political discussions, so let's talk about something else:
How's your new RV? And where did you go on your first ride?

 

[Viking]

Eric,
Have a Great Trip!! Hope your dives are beautiful.

I hope we will be able to bring photographic proof of it. I now have a digicam rated for depths of down to 100feet. Next Thursday we will be diving at Shark Point. We hope to see a Shark's Whale. Those creatures can be 30 to 40 feet long and are very peaceful. But we will most certainly see Lemon Sharks and Leopard Sharks. Last week they showed a report on German TV about Shark Point two months after the Tsunami and everything was back to normal - With dozens of sharks. BTW, those sharks are often hatched and raised by humans in an aquarium in P.H.U.K.E.T. and then set free around Shark Point.
And on Sunday or Monday after that we will do some wreck-diving in depths between 35 feet and 110 feet, but we won't enter the wreck as we're not yet rated for it. I guess seeing it from the outside will fascinationg though. The ship sank in 1997 with no fatalities. There is already a lot of coral growth on it and it is home to many fish and other marine creatures.
Talking about fascinating nature, Van:
I saw some pictures of Death Valley in full bloom with millions of flowers due to surprisingly strong rainfalls. Is your part of the desert also affected by it?

 

[Viking]

Anja has to work her the nightshift today, I will shuttle her to the hospital in 20 minutes. Tomorrow morning I'll pick her up at 650am and take her home enroute to my office. I'll leave the office between noon and 2pm. The afternoon we will spend packing. We will travel 'light' to Thailand, but will be 'heavy' on our return flight We will take clothes for only 3 or 4 days with us, the rest we will buy there.
Saturday we will have a light breakfast, then go to them gym in the early afternoon to run 8 to 10 miles, and around 530pm we'll drive to my office to leave the car there. We'll then take a cab to the airport to check in. Then we'll go to the German Railroad' desk to make reservations for the highspeed-train to Cologne in July, because we will fly to Vienna from there.
After that we'll have a snack at Europes's largest McDonald's (Our second visit to McD in '05 ) and then we'll board our plane. We hope to be able to sleep through most of the nearly 11 hours of the flight - That's what we're doing aforementioned running for to be dead tired

 

[bettemom]

Hi guys, Kim here...


Well it finally happened, mom & I are no longer members of the Deck 4 chaise lounge Society, DCL just assigned us a stateroom for the Panama cruise in May. We will be deck 2 cabin# 2060.... This is so weird, that is the same cabin that DCL assigned us for the October 06 cruise with all of you...

 

[piglet33]

Hi guys, Kim here...


Well it finally happened, mom & I are no longer members of the Deck 4 chaise lounge Society, DCL just assigned us a stateroom for the Panama cruise in May. We will be deck 2 cabin# 2060.... This is so weird, that is the same cabin that DCL assigned us for the October 06 cruise with all of you...

Maybe it's a good sign, then. Glad you finally got your room. I was starting to think that maybe you really were going to have to sleep on Deck 4.

 

[papa]

Take care of that room Kim and Bette. We had that room on our disears cruise and we had 2058 last year and again in 2006. You will love the location, close to midship elevators and the dining rooms and customer service one floor up.

Eric enjoy the flight and just keep your fingers crossed that the person who proofed the pilots air charts was as good as you Mike

 

[Viking]

Eric enjoy the flight and just keep your fingers crossed that the person who proofed the pilots air charts was as good as you Mike

Now you scared the **** out of me, Mike: The Bangkok and P.h.u.k.e.t. charts were checked by my American colleagues
No kidding: I always printo out the charts of the airports we're using, so this time I have a set of charts for Frankfurt, Bangkok and P.h.u.k.e.t. I like to follow our way around the airport while taxiing. And I also carry maps of both Bangkok's and P.h.u.k.e.t.'s Airport Terminals. Although I never was a boyscout I like to 'be prepared'

 

[padisneyfan]

Eric and Anja------ Have a safe trip.

Nancy

 

[cdnmickeylover]

Eric and Anja - Have a great trip.

Back in the office after two days at a seminar. Work has been dumped all over my clean desk and it's Friday no less.

Am wondering what to attack first and decided - heck I've seen the first client of the day and the stuff can wait for a bit while I check the disboards!

Jays home opener is tonight so I'm not staying late to get it all done either. Hopefully it looks worse than it is!

Did anyone else watch the Apprentice last night? I thought for sure that Chris was going to get fired. Have decided that I like Tana for the job.

Back to work.

Fiona

 

[MDenn1213]

Hi gang. Sorry I haven't been on much. Very busy with life.

I have one question--I must have missed something. How do you pronounce P.H.U.K.E.T.?

Just had a nice IM Chat with Eric--they're busy packing. He tells me he tries not to get to a computer while on vacation. Has to prove once in a while that he's not addicted---YEAH, RIGHT!!!!

Mary & Jeanne--so glad your moves have gone well so far. I may be needing some tips sometime here. Nothing definite, but I know I won't be able to afford my house after all is said & done.

Arlene--uck! Termites! I don't blame you for not touching the wood. Serves Art right for waiting. And I'm glad to hear it doesn't affect your home at all.

Lots of weird weather going on--snow in Canada in April? David's going to be mad at me today. It was so chilly this morning, and I thought it was supposed to stay that way. I told him to wear his coat. Now it's, like, 66 deg & I'm sure he's sweating it up. Oh well. Spring in Chicagoland.

Visited w/Mom over Easter week. It was an okay time. How much of a vacation is it when you're visiting family? The kids & I went into NYC shopping on Thursday. The weather was beautiful. We hit Toys R Us, Hershey's, American Girl Place (try being a boy in THAT store!), and the Disney Store.

I had to laugh. Here we were in these beautiful, huge stores in Times Square. David couldn't find the Gameboy game he wanted, Heidi almost didn't find anything at American Girl, and there was very little "Pluto" at the Disney store. All things I could probably find here in Crystal Lake!

I'm really sorry I couldn't get to see many of you. But I did meet up with Sharon, Ciara & Adaria (ciadriamom). That was a good time. Sharon said, and I agree, you don't realize how much you've missed someone until you see them again. Ciara & Adaria both look great! Ciara looks like she lost weight, but she said no. Must be just growing up. Heidi was so excited when they walked up to us. Two 13-yr-olds roaming the mall by themselves. It doesn't get any better than that (except if Moms had given them money--which we didn't! ).

Well, that's about it for now. Hope all is well for everyone. Safe trip to Eric & Anja. Have a wonderful cruise to all of our cruisers (I'm so jealous!).

Marianne

 

[jeanneg]

marianne: good to hear from you again.....I'm still not used to your new screen name. Saw your message and i'm thinking who the @#$% is that?! I'm glad Sharon and her gang are doing well. She hasn't posted in ages.
Getting ready to leave for NY. We're staying at the Hotel Pennsylvania which is the old Statler Hilton where my dad used to work. Arlene, I checked out both those websites and Carmines looks like fun. It must be fairly new since I had never heard of it before. I also like Virgil's, but nobody else is a big BBQ fan so that wouldn't go over well.
We got tickets for Altar Boys on Sunday. I'm wondering if the humor will still go over well considering the recent death of the Pope. Oh well....
Talk to everyone soon.