10/24/2009 Bash On the Boat (I'm with B.O.B.) - Thread #26

[captchris]

Good morning everyone. Hope all is well with all of you.


Steve Good luck on trying to sell the Explorer. What bad timing on everything! I was always a Ford guy until I had some minor problems with a Ford van that the dealer couldn't fix, and then my dad had major problems on a Ford Windstar minivan. I am kind of hoping I get one of a 2010 Taurus when I rent a car to the Port on 10/23. they look nice and I am curious to see how nice they really are. I think Ford is really turning things around, so I may come back. Right now though, there are no Ford vehicles on our offical vehicle list except for the full size vans and Fusion sedan. In my appointment we need a minivan.

I want a vacation in WDW too. Can I go?

Funny story, DS is out of camp after Wed and I'm home with him until school starts next week Wed. DW asks what he'd like to do in Milwaukee this Friday and his reply, "go to the airport, that's in Milwaukee, right, and get on a plane to FL and go to WDW for a long weekend".

Gotta love kids. If it were only that easy.

My kids say stuff like that all of the time. We cancelled our regular week at the beach this year as we couldn't afford to do that and the cruise, but DS is always asking, "Dad when are we going to Rehoboth? I miss Rehoboth"

Has any one cruise Holland America? What about a hotel near the port in Tampa?

DH's two sisters and their husbands are going 12/27-1/3. So we are going too!! It will be the last family vacation for us with Ds # 2 before he ships out to germany. I was pricing Disney cause that is my favorite, but Holland America was much cheaper. So we will give it a try. We cruised Holland America on our Honney moon, but that was sooooooooo long ago.

We cruised out of Tampa for our first cruise and many of the hotels in the area offer cruise packages. We actually stayed near the airport and Steinbrenner Field as I went to a Yankees Spring Training game the night before our cruise. We walked from our hotel to the ballpark.

There are so nice places near the cruise Port area in the neighborhood called Ybor City I believe. It looked like a nice area.

 

[Timon]

Anyone else owning up to have started packing yet?

I've been throwing some stuff in there that I know I won't be using before then Plus my Dis Tag gifts have been in there for about 4 months now

 

[JOANNEL]

It's the last day of Summer for the Mitchell's...

School starts tomorrow!

My kids are ready to get back to their routines. It'll be a tough one, though. Emily is carrying a heavy load of classes this year (Junior year), and Alex has the crappy teacher of 4th grade (according to some). We'll see how that goes. I may be supplementing at home. Derek should be fine though. He is back to having a tough teacher for Language Arts, after having an easier teacher last year, but I don't mind. This "tough" teacher is a good teacher-very organized, fair, and the kids learn lots from her. He just hates language Arts. He's a Math kid.

Anyway, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to getting my house back, but I will go through tomorrow wondering how the first day is going. I am trying to hold each memory of all of this close to my heart. I know tomorrow I will be sending my youngest off for his senior year of college, right Joanne?

You better believe it, enjoy every soccer game, swim meet etc!! It's over before you know it!!

 

[GOS]

It's the last day of Summer for the Mitchell's...

School starts tomorrow!

My kids are ready to get back to their routines. It'll be a tough one, though. Emily is carrying a heavy load of classes this year (Junior year), and Alex has the crappy teacher of 4th grade (according to some). We'll see how that goes. I may be supplementing at home. Derek should be fine though. He is back to having a tough teacher for Language Arts, after having an easier teacher last year, but I don't mind. This "tough" teacher is a good teacher-very organized, fair, and the kids learn lots from her. He just hates language Arts. He's a Math kid.

Anyway, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to getting my house back, but I will go through tomorrow wondering how the first day is going. I am trying to hold each memory of all of this close to my heart. I know tomorrow I will be sending my youngest off for his senior year of college, right Joanne?

from across the Pond

 

[GOS]

Has any one cruise Holland America? What about a hotel near the port in Tampa?

DH's two sisters and their husbands are going 12/27-1/3. So we are going too!! It will be the last family vacation for us with Ds # 2 before he ships out to germany. I was pricing Disney cause that is my favorite, but Holland America was much cheaper. So we will give it a try. We cruised Holland America on our Honney moon, but that was sooooooooo long ago.

Sorry Joanne. Have you tried Cruise Critic for information?

 

[GOS]

Plus my Dis Tag gifts have been in there for about 4 months now

Talk about organised.

 

[JLDSMD]

Have they definitely changed the ports of call then?

From what I've read on their DIS Meet thread (Andy actually posted something on there that he found on another thread), they did CC on Sunday and then were heading to Grand Cayman and Cozumel. Then depending on the weather, CC again on Friday, but if bad, Key West.

 

[JOANNEL]

Sorry Joanne. Have you tried Cruise Critic for information?

They have nothing for tampa, and only three people are on the cruise meet thread!!!! What is wrong with them???

 

[JLDSMD]

They have nothing for tampa, and only three people are on the cruise meet thread!!!! What is wrong with them???

www.parksleepfly.com does cruise ports too I believe. Give them a shot.

You can always research any specific property on Trip Advisor then.

 

[gstroop28]

I just looked up cabin availiability for our Cruise on the DCL site.
Here's what I found. Prices are remaining stable That leads me to believe that the ship isn't filling well as they would have increased prices if it were nearing full. (they've only got about 30 days until they need to move things around a bit to open up lower cabins for discounts.) Cat 12's are now availiable on the website whereas they were not availiable before. But they are only selling GTY. This tells me that they want to have a low price-point to advertise. So opening the category means that all you CAT 12's have an excellent chance of upgrades.
You can still pick rooms in Cat's 8,9,10,11 So lots of availablility there. Cats 5 and 6 are GTY only which means scant availability there. Not good news for Cat's 8,9. The fact that Cat 4 is not GTY means that they have a lot of inventory there. So, some 5 and 6's will get upgraded making way for a few lucky 8 and 9 upgrades.


So, It looks like if I want that Cat 6, I'll need to pay for it.

I wonder if I can get $5200 for that truck?

Steve - thanks for all this detailed info! Great stuff. I am in a Cat 6 room (with an assigned cabin number). Will they upgrade us automatically or will they call us to see if we are interested in "paying" for an upgrade?? (I kind of like the location of my cabin and I don't want to be automatically moved to a less desirable spot in a higher category...)

That's good news!!!

BTW...I copied you - I got Ohana90 to make me a sign too!

Jen - I'm ALL about copying from other people (that's what a good girl scout leader does!! )

It's the last day of Summer for the Mitchell's...

School starts tomorrow!

My kids are ready to get back to their routines. It'll be a tough one, though. Emily is carrying a heavy load of classes this year (Junior year), and Alex has the crappy teacher of 4th grade (according to some). We'll see how that goes. I may be supplementing at home. Derek should be fine though. He is back to having a tough teacher for Language Arts, after having an easier teacher last year, but I don't mind. This "tough" teacher is a good teacher-very organized, fair, and the kids learn lots from her. He just hates language Arts. He's a Math kid.

Anyway, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to getting my house back, but I will go through tomorrow wondering how the first day is going. I am trying to hold each memory of all of this close to my heart. I know tomorrow I will be sending my youngest off for his senior year of college, right Joanne?

Wow - everyone here in Richmond beleives that it's a state law that all Virginia schools start AFTER labor day... I don't beleive it - I think WE are the only ones! Drives me BATTY that we have to wait almost 3 more weeks before school starts! Oh well....

 

[JLDSMD]

www.parksleepfly.com does cruise ports too I believe. Give them a shot.

You can always research any specific property on Trip Advisor then.

Just checked, they are showing 2 on there. LaQuinta, $89, and Embassy Suites, $119.

 

[captchris]

I was just shopping for work related stuff at Walmart and decided to look at cameras and memory sticks.

I have a Sony camera and it needs the Sony memory Sticks. Right now, I have a 128MB. When I bought the camera that was huge, but now it is too small. I am thinking an 8GB might be the way to go, but think I need the adapter sleeve as my stick is longer than the new ones. When it comes time to buy, I will probably just take it with me to match it up and ask for assistance.

I would love to get a brand new SLR, but just don't have the money right now!

 

[ciao_gina]

I just booked a hotel room for the night before our Flight on the 22nd.

Our flight is out at 6:05 a.m. and we don't like waking up at 2 a.m. to make the drive to Sacramento to catch the flight. So, I've found that the pre-flight hotel in Sac is a good deal.

I did something that I've never done before though. I got a Park, Sleep, Fly deal. The Hotel will let us park our car for the duration of our vacation for a small fee that is rolled into our nights stay. Since parking at the airport would cost me $90 I figure that this may be more convienent. I don't figure that I have saved any money. But convienence is worth a lot. Their Shuttle runs 24 hrs with a 24 hr notice so we should have no problem getting to the airport. There was a reviewer who had difficutly with the shuttle service of the Hotel, but the Hotel made it good by paying the cab fare to the airport for the family. That's service.

That is a good plan. Where is Ceres? Last year we took that flight for our WDW trip and it was insane, getting up before 4:00 am to get to the airport. This year we are on a 10:00am flight but we get in late.

 

[JLDSMD]

Wow, lots of people on today:

captchris
ciao_gina
GOS
gstroop28
JOANNEL
millerpjm​

 

[JOANNEL]

Just checked, they are showing 2 on there. LaQuinta, $89, and Embassy Suites, $119.

Thanks, I will check.

 

[captchris]

Wow, lots of people on today:

captchris
ciao_gina
GOS
gstroop28
JOANNEL
millerpjm​

Yep, DISing from work. I will probably have a hard time getting work done between now and the cruise!

 

[JOANNEL]

Wow, lots of people on today:

captchris
ciao_gina
GOS
gstroop28
JOANNEL
millerpjm​

With working at home now, I have no one to talk to!!! So you guys are stuck with me!!!!

 

[JLDSMD]

With working at home now, I have no one to talk to!!! So you guys are stuck with me!!!!

Oh, so we're just here because you don't have anyone else, huh? I see how this is.

 

[B9erSteve]

Good morning everyone. Hope all is well with all of you.


Steve Good luck on trying to sell the Explorer. What bad timing on everything! I was always a Ford guy until I had some minor problems with a Ford van that the dealer couldn't fix, and then my dad had major problems on a Ford Windstar minivan. I am kind of hoping I get one of a 2010 Taurus when I rent a car to the Port on 10/23. they look nice and I am curious to see how nice they really are. I think Ford is really turning things around, so I may come back. Right now though, there are no Ford vehicles on our offical vehicle list except for the full size vans and Fusion sedan. In my appointment we need a minivan.

Funny you should say that. The majority of the vehicles that I have owned have all been Fords too. This PT Cruiser is the first non-Ford that I have owned since my Renault Alliance (What a peice of crud!) I agree with you that the Windstar was not well built. I owned one and would not have bought another. A new Mini-Van has been on our radar and we've actually liked the Honda Oddessy and the Chrysler Grand Caravan with our preferance for the latter. We'll be paying off the F250 with the money from the Explorer then paying off the PT with the payments from the F250 and then I'll be Throwing $1000/month towards paying off my 5th wheel. Once all that is done then we'll get our Van.

 

[JLDSMD]

Morning Steve. Gonna get your 7 out of the way early today?