10-14-2006 Cruisetoberfest IV

[Viking]

Wendy,
the same goes for schools over here. Most of them are in the 700-1000 students range

 

[jeanneg]

Wendy: the term visiting professor is commonly used in medicine to describe a guest lecturer who has considerable knowlege in a particular field and comes to educate a specific group of people......he's not actually a "professor" which is how you address someone in the US who has a PhD! I have never read (or heard of, for that matter) "When Hitler stole pink rabbit" It sounds fascinating.......I wonder if it is available in this country or banned for some ridiculous reason. Libraries in the US are not allowed to feature "Little Black Sambo" which was one of my favorite stories when I was growing up. Whenever my Mom read it to us we always knew she was planning to make pancakes the next day for breakfast and so we REALLY loved to hear the story. I don't see how it's considered un-PC, but apparently it is, so a whole generation of children have never had the pleasure of hearing this wonderful tale.
Eric: If 400meters is equivalent to 8 lanes, you must be referring to a long course facility. Our pool is short course (25 mm) so 40 laps were equal to only 1000.......now you know why I said I was SLOW!!!!! I will definitely need to get some technique pointers from Jen. I think I may have found a good play to see: "Jersey Boys" is the story of Frankie Valli and the 4 Seasons and it sounds pretty good. I was looking over the cast and noticed that one of the stars went to HS with my oldest son, so that will make it even more interesting. I just wanna run it by John before I purchase tickets. Has anybody heard anything about it?
Eric, how are you and Anja and Peter and Jen arriving into the city? We already promised to rescue Nancy and Norm (or her son, if Norm chickens out) from Penn Station. If we know when and how you're arriving, we can be there to greet you.
The rates may be more expensive than normal because it is Columbus day weekend and the city has TWO very big parades which go from about 42nd St to 86th St. The actual Columbus day one should be on Monday, but the Hispanic one is either the Saturday or Sunday before.

 

[cdnmickeylover]

Jeanne - congrats on the swimming. We have a pool in the backyard but have to admit that we don't do laps in it. We laze around mostly but those days are probably over for the year here.

My Dad is in town so we'll be going out for dinner with him tonight. DS is actually coming which is good and hopefully he will leave his attitude at home. Sigh -- when does a teenager become human again??

Wendy - my highschool had about 1200 kids in it I think which is quite common here in the city. Where we live there are 2 public high schools and one Catholic high school. All are quite crowded.

Back to work. Crisis for the day is over but the fall is looking busy all of a sudden. Our local land registrar helped us over the latest crisis and her request for a 'bigger box of chocolates with just solid milk chocolates this Christmas' has been noted and will be granted. She doesn't like nuts, dark or white chocolate and said that sometimes a girl just needs 'solid milk chocolate' as we both laughed. They've updated the land registration software and the new update is causing some problems which everyone is slowly working through.

Fiona

 

[jeanneg]

I've just been researching hotel rates and they are off the charts! There are some in the Bronx and in Queens that are in the $139 range, but i'm not sure of the neighborhoods. We could get really cheap in NJ but the commute is difficult. The most important thing is to be near the subway lines. I'm still working on it.

 

[padisneyfan]

Fiona and Kim--- Hope you both are starting to feel somewhat better.

I also had never heard of "When Hitler stole pink rabbit". I have been wanting to go to DC to see the Holocast museum. Plus haven't been to the Vietnam museum and need to see the WWII one also. I only live 2 hrs from DC and haven't been there to visit for years. It is just a horrible drive even though we try to use the subway to get into the city from Silver Springs.
I-95 around Baltimore/DC is a nightmare.

Congrats to Jeanne on her swimming accomplishments. Does that mean you will be going on snorkling excursions next cruise?

Good luck with the hotel research. I need to research the NJ transit.

I have to share my big find this past weekend. I collect Dept 56 villages, do Dickens village for Christmas and now doing some of the Halloween village. Anyway, this past weekend I went on a quest to get Mickey's Halloween house. At the one store they directed me to a collectible store in Lancaster that is closing their doors after 30 years. So drove over and it was like I was in Dept 56 heaven. They had the complete retired Dept 56 Disney village that was only produced for 2 years as dept 56 and Disney had a fall out. I never bought it the first time around as I didn't like some of the pieces. However, for the right price I will buy anything. So bought the complete set which is 5 buildings, Mickey and Minnie and a Disney family (3 different groups of people). The entire thing cost me $90. The orginal price on one of the items was $145. So added some fall trees and pumpkins and having sitting on my hutch. I still don't have Mickey's Halloween house as they were sold out of it. This place is filled with Dept 56 so am going to make another trip in a couple of weeks and buy some Christmas building for my Dickens set. There Halloween stuff is really picked over so will need to find Mickey's house somewhere else and pay nearly what the entire Disney set cost me.

Lost starts tonight. At 8pm they are having a recap of last season so maybe some of the pieces that are missing for me will be filled in. I was going to buy the DVD but wouldn't get it all watched by the time the new season starts.

Nancy

 

[jeanneg]

Wow, Nancy, sounds like you made quite a coup with those purchases! Where do you set up your display. I know some people that have devoted entire rooms to their Dept 56 collections......of course, that's after the kids move out!
I need to get in touch with Peter and Jenn PDQ......if anyone has their phone #, please pm me! Thanks! The hotel situation in NY is not good, but I found a nice place for $219/night. I'm afraid if i don't book now before i leave for Maine, I'll have to sleep in the streets or we'll have to rent a car and stay in NJ. I can't believe this is all due to the parades......must be something else going on.

 

[wendym]

Nancy - I think you would enjoy the book, I am going to reread it seeing as I have been speaking about it. Found it on amazon http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...102-6380522-9816122?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
I would send you my copy but the postage is ridiculous, I would offer to take it on the cruise but I don't think it is really cruise material.
I really found the DC Holocaust museum moving. Mum came with me more because she felt she should (my Dad was more into history and encouraged my reading of that type of books) but did get a lot out of the experience. However I think she found Anne Frank's house more moving, especially when she saw some of the scraps Anne had on the wall were the same as the ones she had had on her wall - Mum was born only a couple of years after Anne.
Mum and I both love Dept 56 - found a great snowbaby on sale in Orlando that I had to have.
Wendy

 

[jeanneg]

Thanks Wendy, I just ordered a used copy for $1.16 (plus shipping, of course). Love that Amazon.com!

 

[cdnmickeylover]

Nancy - What a great deal on the dept 56 houses. I collect the Dickens Village but haven't added to it in a couple of years -- no space. DS puts it out every Christmas on top of the piano. Got a great deal once on the houses at the Christmas store at Downtown Disney.

Back to work.

Fiona

 

[JJsmama]

Yea! We'v decided on our dates for our next WDW trip and have reservations at the Polynesian for January! It will be just what I need to help me wait for our cruise--(what a long wait we've had.)

I'm excited about the Poly. We had dinner at Ohana last year but have not stayed there since I was a child. We only have a few weeks til we can make our PS for dinners. Last year we had dinner at Ohana, Whispering Canyon Cafe, Biergarten in "Germany" and Liberty Tree Tavern (for a character dinner.)

This year we want to do Germany again. (No one wanted to go there but me but it was the surprise favorite of everyone!) We're planning to add the California Grill this year and one sister is determined to do Cinderella's Royal Table for breakfast (in her defense, she actually was Cinderella for a couple years.) We'd like to do one other Epcot restaurant for dinner. Any suggestions? Keep in mind we'll have 6 kids (aged 2.5-11) with us, but they dine out in nicer restaurants fairly often. Anything loooong is not good though. Then we need one other dinner restuarant somewhere else. I research a lot and I've been there a lot, so I know what is there, but I want to know what is Good and what is Fun. Thanks

Jennifer

 

[wendym]

Jeanne - hope you enjoy it.
Jennifer - we have never gone with children (well my niece when she was 13 but we try to forget about that trip!) but how about Teppanaki (?sp) in Japan although I would probably freak out about the hot plate with young children. For a large group Prime Time at MGM may be fun. Or how about Boma's at AKL - it is a lovely hotel to look around.
Wendy

 

[JJsmama]

Wendy,
Boma is really tempting. I was reading about it today. We've always wanted to go out there. The long bus trip out and back does not tempt us though. Maybe we should do it and plan to take the car that night.

 

[Viking]

Jennifer,
one part of the German Pavillion at EPCOT is shaped to resemble my hometown's historic city hall. If you're interested to know which one I can dig up a picture and mark it on it. You can then show off your knowledge to your family by pointing it out

 

[Viking]

Jenn & Peter,
found an appartment near Times Square for us
Great job
Big Apple, here we come

 

[JJsmama]

Jennifer,
one part of the German Pavillion at EPCOT is shaped to resemble my hometown's historic city hall. If you're interested to know which one I can dig up a picture and mark it on it. You can then show off your knowledge to your family by pointing it out

Oh, yes, of course! I love to be the know-it-all. Actually, don't ruin your picture. You can just describe which part and tell me which city it is. Thanks!

 

[Viking]

Oh, yes, of course! I love to be the know-it-all. Actually, don't ruin your picture. You can just describe which part and tell me which city it is. Thanks!

It's a digital picture, of course. So there won't be any damage to it I'll dig it up soon and send it to you.

 

[jeanneg]

Jenn & Peter,
found an appartment near Times Square for us
Great job
Big Apple, here we come

Yes, that's where the party is going to be!!!!!!!!!

 

[Viking]

Jeanne,
I just booked the appartment for the four of us
What show will we go to?

Jennifer,
I just sent you a mail with the info about our City Hall -and I also sent it to all cruisers I have stored in my AOL as I thought that for Disney-fans it may be very interesting, too.

 

[Hygiene99]

Jeanne,
I just booked the appartment for the four of us
What show will we go to?

Jennifer,
I just sent you a mail with the info about our City Hall -and I also sent it to all cruisers I have stored in my AOL as I thought that for Disney-fans it may be very interesting, too.

This is the address of the Apartment we are stayying in ...

123 West 44th Street
New York, NY 10001
USA
Time Sq. 100 Yards

lol


We would love to see wicked but that probably wont happen.
but they have a place that sells half price tickets hours before the show ..
Luck of draw sort of thing..

Any comments or siuggestions ??

 

[Tulirose]

Congrats on the room!

Get to the TKts as early as you can for the best choices. Cash only, no charge.