20041218-cruise-friends-memories Part 4

[justmestace]

Jenny.....


One little girl was a pirate last night, and she had a real bird on her shoulder. Not a parrot, one of those big white birds (??)
Cockatoo or something?

We saw a dad in a great pirate costume, I wanted to ask if I couldbuy it from him for DH....but my friends told me I couldn't ask the guy to just drop it right there.

Ohminnie....I didn't thinnk anyone else in the world knew what Costrocondritis
was ......I get that...but I guess I never connected lifting heavy stuff with being a cause....hmmm...I wonder if that can be used to get me out of moving furniture to vacuum....since I no longer have a cleaning lady....

Speaking of which, LeiLani, glad nothing was broken! What did they tell you to do for it?

TTYL
Stacey

 

[tinksdad]

Originally posted by ohiominnie
Yup, driving. We originally planned to fly, but my parents are going and my mom HATES to fly. So, it seems rude to say "we'll fly, you drive, see ya in FL." We're now trying to figure out how to get all 6 of us (and luggage) into a car so we don't have to drive two vehicles like we usually do.

Ideas, anyone?

Drug you mother and you all fly........


rent a van?

 

[afff]

Originally posted by karaeric
Hi all...bear with me today, I need to vent a bit.

My MIL, who was supposed to come to our house during this trip to watch our dog and two cats backed out yesterday. We now have to scramble with only 40 days before we leave to find alternative pet care over the Christmas holiday, when most pet sitters are most busy and usually booked months in advance.

Worst of all, my DH is devistated that his mother could do this to us. I feel so bad for him. We asked her months ago, and she was happy to do it for us. We bought her a plane ticket and everything. Now we are out the money for the ticket and we have to find someone to pay to watch our "kids" on top of it all...I'm very stressed right now. We aren't even totally sure of why she changed her mind.

The only thing keeping me going is knowing that I need this vacation even more now!

Thanks for letting me vent.

Sorry about all your frustrations Kara...........

I am hoping that it will all soon work itself out.



Gus

 

[karaeric]

Originally posted by DVC4US
Kara - just to double check I called the Castaway Club this morning to see if they had anything on the theme nights. The lady told me it still says, "to be announced". So I guess they are still working on it. I will still try Debbie again on Monday.

Thanks LeiLani...sorry I am just now seeing your post. I really appreciate you taking this on for all of us curious overplanners!!

Kara

 

[afff]

Originally posted by WVMD
I'll chime in on the other side of the sign in - sign out. We let DD sign in last year on our first 3 day Wonder. She had specific rules that she had to follow including paging us when she was leaving the club, not riding the elevators, not going into anybody elses cabin without permission, etc. It worked fine for us. She knows that she'd lose her privileges if she breaks the rules, and she did fine. She'll have the privileges again this year (automatically as she'll be 10) but we'll still carry a pager and have her page us.


Kara.... so sorry to hear about your troubles.... Hope that things work out OK....

Virgil
TFD

Hi Virgil......I just had to call DCL after reading your post for verification.

DCL's policy is that parents are required to give authorization for their children's signing out privileges, otherwise they can not leave and must stay in the kids club.

Call us over-protective............ we shall see how it goes as the days go on.
As someone said, it all depends on the personality and maturity of the child.


Gus

 

[ohiominnie]

Originally posted by afff
Call us over-protective............ we shall see how it goes as the days go on.
As someone said, it all depends on the personality and maturity of the child.
Gus

Gus, and you can change their status if you decide to add sign in/sign out or remove the privledge. 5-7's cannot have it, no matter what. 8-9's can have it with parental permission. And 10-12's and up automatically get it, I believe.

I'll agree with whoever posted that it is VERY nice for them to have sign in privledges if you want to linger over dinner and let them go sign themselves in on their own. Must check to see if 10 yr old can sign in 8 yr old.

For those of you getting a pager....on the last night, you turn it in and get a receipt showing you've turned it in. DO NOT pack that in your checked luggage you set in the hall. Keep it handy. Once I turned in my pager and on the final bill was a charge for $150!!! I took my receipt to guest services and they promptly removed the charge. Had I packed my receipt, I wouldn't have had handy access to it.

 

[tkd lisa]

I'm BAAACK! Whew, what a week! I'll try to catch up, but I think you all did 1000 posts while I was gone!!

I did have a chance to meet Hercules 10 (Mark) and his wife Ruth. We had a nice dinner, and I don't think I scared them too badly!

I got home at 3:00 am Friday morning, and we closed on our current house at 10. Ran a few errands, then picked up the kids, had dinner, and took them back to school so I could chaperone their dance.

I think my house is now just about back to normal. A week with Mom gone certainly takes some recovery time!

Looking forward to the Northern VA meets this weekend. I'll send out a pm to Sue, Charlotte and Tina later this week to work out details.

Now to catch up on what you've all been doing while I've been gone!

 

[ohiominnie]

Originally posted by tkd lisa
Now to catch up on what you've all been doing while I've been gone!

Good luck!! I STILL haven't caught up on the reading from when I was gone at WDW.

 

[afff]

And 10-12's and up automatically get it, I believe.


As per DCL.........they don't automatically get it.
Thats why I called DCL to double check after reading Virgil's post.
We do not want DD to automatically get the privleges because of her age.

Thanks

Gus

 

[tkd lisa]

Originally posted by seaulater
My strapping son-in-laws and DH have decided that they want to go deep sea fishing somewhere. Any suggestions? The can't go in Antigua as we are going with Eli on the Eco Tour.

Thanks all

Linda

Still holding with DVC.................................

Not sure if you got an answer to this yet, but my recommendation is to do Castaway Cay if it's still available. We tried it on our own the first cruise we took, and it was less that successful. Lots of money, a seasick mom, and only one bite (and it got away!). The port times don't work out well for most charters. You usually get in after the morning charters leave, and leave before the afternoon charters get back.

 

[ohiominnie]

Originally posted by afff
As per DCL.........they don't automatically get it.
Thats why I called DCL to double check after reading Virgil's post.
We do not want DD to automatically get the privleges because of her age.

Found my orientation pamphlet from DCL....
For the 10-12's it says:
10-12 yr old LAB PASS: we have created a special pass that allows them to come in and out of Programming events and activites simply by showing their KEY TO THE WORLD Card with a special LAB PASS STICKER. This sticker indicates they are a 10-12-year-old with this privilege and they can come and go as often as they like throughout the cruise.

Maybe you have to give permission for them to have a lab pass??? I was under the impression that once they hit the 10-12 group, they automatically got sign in/sign out.

 

[tkd lisa]

Originally posted by justmestace

I usually don't do Thanksgiving, our friend Phil usually does it at his house. He's building a new house, that will be done around Christmas time...so I have to do the bird!!
I'm a little rusty...
Let's see:
Turkey
Mashed potatoes
Sweet potatoes
Green Bean Casserole
Gravy
Rolls
Relish Tray.....lots of black olives to stick on the tips of my fingers!
Jellied Cranberry
Pumpkin Pie
Apple Pie

What did I forget????

Our normal Thanksgiving tradition is visiting a local bed and breakfast. Since we've moved away from family, it's just not worth the hassle of cooking, especially since my kids normally don't eat!

But our families traditional holiday meals (Christmas and Thanskgiving) include:

Turkey
Ham (DH's family adds this, mine just does turkey)
mashed potatos and gravy
sweet potatos (my family does marshmallows, his doesn't. I don't eat either kind!!!)
stuffing (plain and oyster)
homemade macaroni and cheese (DH's family)
Dressing (that's from my family, and usually it's got oysters in it. Dressing is sort of like stuffing made much runnier, usually by adding milk and eggs, then you bake it in a baking dish)
green bean casserole
pumpkin pie
pecan pie (my family)
persimmon pudding (DH's family but it's my favorite now!)

This Thanksgiving, we're going over to friends who were kind enough to invite us. And that DCL Christmas menu sounds perfect to me!

 

[tkd lisa]

Originally posted by kpros
Has anyone seen an inexpensive, small Xmas Tree with battery powered lights. I know some have been looking at the Telefloral tree. I guess I'm looking for something that could be inexpensive enough to toss at the end of the cruise if we didn't want to carry it home.

I've seen a couple of 2 foot, lighted, battery powered trees, mostly with white lights on the Internet. Just wondered if anyone else had seen anything.

Ken

Ken, our boy scout troop sells trees like that. They're listed as centerpieces. I think they were $26 if you wanted them delivered and $20 if you were picking them up locally. But I don't think you can take a living thing onto the ship? Not sure if that's true, but I know that Shirley from the Perfect Gift has some sort of license to be able to do this.

If you're looking for artificial, then I'm sure if you're willing to carry it, they'd be willing to let you do it. You might check into Franks or Michaels (they're craft store/nurseries).

 

[ohiominnie]

called to get my excursions, only one of them was sold out...whew (the glassbottom boat in Key West)

So now Key West is up in the air...we may just explore on our own (get a packet from Shirley)
St. Maarten, under 2 flags
St. Lucia, Pirates
Antigua, Island Tour
St. Thomas, on our own
CC relax and maybe get bikes when we're there.

 

[ohiominnie]

Originally posted by tkd lisa
But I don't think you can take a living thing onto the ship?

Glad I read this. I thought you just couldn't take anything living OFF of the ship. So I'll nix the LLBean tree (balsam) and use my mom's fiber optic tree. Of course, the most beautiful tree will be in the Atrium, deck 3

 

[tkd lisa]

Originally posted by jhemond
One more. This is for all the parents of young kids (or older kids too I guess).

During a dinner party, the hosts’ two little children entered the dinning room totally nude and walked slowly around the table. The parents were so embarrassed that they pretended nothing was happening and kept he conversation going. The guests cooperated and also continued as if nothing extraordinary was happening.

After going all the way around the room, the children left, and there was a moment of silence at the table, during which one child was heard to say, “You see, it is vanishing cream!”

I love this one! I know I could imagine my kids doing this!

In fact..... deep dark secret here... when I was about 4, my mom was giving me a bath one hot summer night. I decided that I was going to see our next door neighbors, who I dearly loved. I guess I didn't wait for clothes before I took off. I interrupted a dinner party, and embarrassed the daylights out of my mom!

 

[All_Ears]

Originally posted by justmestace

Let's see: Turkey
Mashed potatoes
Sweet potatoes
Green Bean Casserole
Gravy
Rolls
Relish Tray.....lots of black olives to stick on the tips of my fingers!
Jellied Cranberry
Pumpkin Pie
Apple Pie

Okay, now that it is November and I am thinking Thanksgiving - here is how the Italians in Boston do it

It starts off with:
Cold Antipasto tray, eggplant, zucchini, olives, mushrooms, cheeses - all marinated and grilled
shrimp cocktail
Cantolope and grapes along with other seasonal fruit
wth bread and crackers
stuffed mushrooms
relish trays of asst other pickie items

then the escrole soup comes out

cesar salad

lasagna with a nice tomatoe gravy - not too heavy
meatball, brociale and sausage
stuff artichokes
A ham

rest...........................

then around 4:30 or so out comes
Turkey,
stuffing
gravy
mashed potatoes
green beens
turnips
sweet potatoes
corn
squash
pearl onions
peas

rest.........................

coffee with sambuca
italian cookies
italian cheese cake
cannolis
apple pie
pumpkin pie
lemon pie
minched meat pie

rest........................

then around 7:30
the home made wine comes out with
fresh peaches that have been soaking in the wine all day
and we roast chestnuts.

nothing is rushed - everything is eaten slowy and we enjoy alot of laughter

usually there are 25/30 peaple for dinner

We celebrate everything with Food! And surround ourselves with family! Holidays are wonderful!!!!

 

[seaulater]

So, while I am passing time in the Atlanta Airport at the newstand, I decide to look through the travel magazines. $4.50 later, I am caarrying the latest Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel Magazine, just so I can share this little tidbit with my friends!!!
(That would be all of you)

THE REAL PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN

"Everyone has the soul of a pirate in them" says sports commentator and motivational speaker Pat Croce, who has the skull-and-crossbones tattoo to prove it. OPENING DECEMBER 1 ON KEY WEST:

THE PIRATE SOUL MUSEUM, showcasing Croce's personal collection of memorabilia, including Captain Kidd's journal and "THE ONLY AUTHENTIC PIRATE TREASURE CHEST IN AMERICA."

Blackbeard rarely needed to flourish his blunderbuss--most folks surrendered after one look at his beard smoldering with firecrackers.
610-658-5270

Website: piratesoul.com

 

[seaulater]

Okay, so much for my $4.50

I called Pirate Soul and they have delayed the opening until January 5. AAAAARRRRRRRR........................

But, for those that want the info:

524 Front Street
Key West
Open 9 a.m. - 7 p.m. daily
Adults $12
Children $6

Guess we will have to wait until the member cruise to check it out!

Linda

 

[Hercules10]

Originally posted by tkd lisa
I guess I didn't wait for clothes before I took off. I interrupted a dinner party, and embarrassed the daylights out of my mom!

Wow....and now years later you show up for dinner with us the same way...guess we should've told ya huh?