4/29/06 Eastern Magic...We're Going!!!!!

[carolina_yankee]

It looks like the internet ecotplasm devoured a previouis posting.

Thanks, CG for the welcome - you can put Jim & I down for two adult bands. How does payment work? Given what I spend on pins, a little moving in the band price is fine.

PartyPat - thanks for the birthday greetings. My brother lives in SF, so I know it's a great place for New Year's Eve. The Russian River area is gorgeous. I need to get to know it better - always wanted to get out to Pt. Reyes Lighthouse. We drove all the way up to it, parked, and walked the remainder before reading a sign that it wasn't open that day! Great hike, though.

Above all, here's hoping the rains don't wash everyone away out there. My thoughts are with you.

It'll be great to see people on the cruise.

Peace!

 

[mketting]

Happy New Year, and welcome to all the newbies.


OK, I'm ready to get back on the Biggest Loser Wagon. Today was the last Hourrah, we even told the kids that we were cutting out sugar for awhile. My goal is 20 pounds in the next 4 months.

I can't believe we can actually make excursion and Palo Ressies this month!!!! I can't wait for the trip but all the planning is part of the fun for me so I'll be a little sad when the trip comes becuase it will be over so fast.

 

[mketting]

Ok someone tell me how to post pictures. Or where do I look to read how.

 

[jewelgrrl]

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone! So nice to meet so many friendly people who will be along on the cruise. We are in a category 9 and our room is #2068. I had read that it was supposed to be a good one so I requested it specifically through the travel agent I used...mouseforless. Also, we're going to try to do the palo brunch and dinner as well. And I think I've figured out the excursions for us....let me know what you think...
St. Martin- Taxi to Marigot and back on our own.
St. Thomas/John- paradise point tramway on own and Trunk Bay Beach & Snorkel Tour through disney
Castaway Cay- Getaway package.

Sound good? Thoughts? Still not sure about anything with the spa. I finally filled out the budget worksheet in the passporter and things sure do add up, don't they! We really wanted to stay 2 nights at Pop Century and go to MK and AK(Expedition Everest will be open then you know) and I just hate to pass up the chance since we're 13 hrs. away from the world. If you don't mind me sharing my budget with you all maybe you all can ease my mind and let me know if you think I've figured everything about right...
Cruise fare(already paid)-$2,216.26
Insurance(already paid)-$112
Gas for drive down and back-$250(we'll fill up 5 times I think)
Parking at terminal-$70
Excursions-$202
Alcoholic beverages on board(we're not huge drinkers)-$25
Palo-$20
Tips-$190
Meals on the way down and back(nothing sit down)-$80
2 nights at Pop with 2 day passes-$400
Not even sure about souveniers???
So the total for everything but the cruise, ins. is $900! ~phew~
That's not even souveniers. I was hoping for like $700 with everything. I guess the only other thing I can think is to get 1 day hoppers and see our faves at MK and AK. That would save $130. I guess when I first booked I thought --hmmm, the cruise is all inclusive, this price is pretty good. I never thought about all this extra stuff. Oh yeah, one dog we have to board so that will be another $100.

Okay, off to earn some money now....lol....april

 

[Belle&RellasMom]

Wow jewelgrrl...only 25.00 for alcoholic beverages on board for two people for the whole trip??? Our budget for that is more like 25.00 PER PERSON, PER DAY!!!!! Maybe we have a problem???

Oh, and by the way, WELCOME TO OUR CRAZY THREAD!!!

 

[partypat]

I'm probably in for the $25 a day, sadly to say, but when your on vacation with so many choices its hard to resist.

Jewelgrrl, you've made me think about how it all adds up...quickly. I'll have to do some figuring myself.

Mketting, I'm back in on the BIGGEST LOSER . Need to start over as I gained 3 lbs back this holiday season. It must have been all those burgers and pizza I had while my sister and I were on the Road Trip with our granddaughters. Went back to Curves today. Thats a start....so good luck 20 lbs sounds right to me.

As to posting pictures, here goes.....if it works I'll post again as how to do it.

This is the Russian River running thru my town at 17 feet. Flood stage is 19 so a lot of homes were spared. Usually this is a calm much smaller river.

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PartyPat

 

[partypat]

Ok, I did it, but why is it so BIG? Anyone have any ideas how to shrink it?

Mketting, this is what I did....I went to photobucket.com and created an album to put pictures in. To send the pictures I selected the thrid box marked IMG and highlighted...then right clicked and chose copy. On the reply tool bar there is a square postcard with a stamp and mountains. Click on this....in the box that comes up, right click and chose paste. This should insert your picture. When I was first trying I didn't know about the little box on the tool bar. Good Luck...I'm still a beginner, so maybe someone else can give us a shortcut.

PartyPat

 

[suziemva]

When you are on Photobucket, go to the picture and click on edit. You will see in the middle section where it says resize. If you picture is somewhere around 800/900, click on reduce at 25%. This will bring it down to a manageable size. BUT BEWARE!! YOU CAN NOT RESIZE BACK TO THE ORIGINAL SIZE ONCE YOU REDUCE!!!! When I was first learning resizing, I used a picture I didn't care about.

Good Luck!!!

 

[partypat]

Susie....Does reducing the photo in PhotoBucket also reduce the size of the photos on my desktop?

PartyPat

 

[suziemva]

I'm not really sure but I don't think so. I only use PB for posting pics. My desktop pics are from my imaging software on my computer. I wouldn't think so. Mine fills the screen with the picture, not the actual picture size.

Does anyone know for certain?

 

[castlegazer]

Wow jewelgrrl...only 25.00 for alcoholic beverages on board for two people for the whole trip??? Our budget for that is more like 25.00 PER PERSON, PER DAY!!!!! Maybe we have a problem???

Oh, and by the way, WELCOME TO OUR CRAZY THREAD!!!

Well, then join my club - or maybe we all have problems - My husband and I spent a whopping $700 extra last cruise and mainly on drinks but there were some excursions in there too, but cheap ones. We usually figure about $50 per day, but not just on drinks.

Your budget looks OK - but one thing that is hard to get a handle on and can be SUPER EXPENSIVE is photos. I would say take a look at the photo package prices as they may be the way to go. We may be doing that. They will refund you any money you don't spend.

I have a huge problem because I am a good long range planner and now as it gets closer I become a basket case and can't focus on it for anything. Tons of stuff will now get lost in the shuffle - so everyone, I need your help keeping me on board with the planning.

We appplied for our passports this weekend. I know a lot of you have them already, but I procrastinated as they aren't needed any more. I ended up doing it for the simplicity of it - plus the romance of thinking, maybe one day my husband will wisk me off to Paris.... yeah, OK, back to reality and two kids. I had a passport, but no one else did, so it was a HUGE freakin expense.

OK - hope everyone had a great New Year's eve! We did! I am now alone for a week with the kids - and I am hating it already (but don't tell my husband, I am always much more organized and everything goes a lot smoother when he's not around - shhhhhhh! - just tell him I am a basket case and can't live without him). BUt in all reality this is the longest we have gone being apart from one another which is sad because its so lame - but for some reason we just haven't had to be apart for long stretches. I know everyone else goes through this on a regular basis - especially you Julie - but it was a tough reality for me.

OK - me and my bottle of wine are going to play some Tomb Raider, watch some Dream Home, and head off to bed. See you all on the flip side.

 

[mketting]

My first try. This is Jared in his Pirate costume from Halloween, we'll be bringing it on the cruise.

 

[mketting]

trying again

 

[carolina_yankee]

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone! So nice to meet so many friendly people who will be along on the cruise. We are in a category 9 and our room is #2068.

We're going to be almost neighbors - we're in #2064. Our travel agent said ti really is a quiet location, and convenient to the midships elevators. It's a first cruise for us, so we'll find out.

Congratulations on your 10th anniversary coming up!

Dirk

 

[mketting]

Well, that didn't work. I'll try to upload to photobucket tomorrow. Gotta go to bed, tomorrow morning is going to be very ugly here, as none of us has been getting up before 9:00.

 

[suziemva]

Okay, Anal Annie is back out! Booked our flight for the cruise - kept waiting for Independence to open up their May rates, but well, our free flight went down the toilet! AARRGGHH!!

So, booked with United then decided we needed to book our resort stay since we were coming in early and staying a few days after. DH is about to kill me with all my anal-ness (is that even a word?!) about getting everything all booked, etc. He knows me and knows that I stress until everything is done. So, with it finally done (except checking the passholder best rates when they come up) I finally feel at peace - can you hearing the angels singing now?

Now, if I could only book my shorex's and get Tori checked into the OC, I'd be a serious happy camper!

Oh, BTW, anyone interested in Palo's? We didn't get to do it last time and really wanted to this time.

I too will be starting back on my BL diet tomorrow. I think we finally have all those little holiday villians out of the house now. So, getting back on the wagon and excercising. Fun, eh?

 

[partypat]

Removed Christmas from the house. It took me all frigging day. The twinkle is gone. I think I'm going to miss the nutcrackers the most. A Co-Worker started giving them to me years ago and now I have 7. They say you have a collection after 3, so I guess mine is well on its way.

Hope everyone has a Prosperous New Year.

PartyPat

PS.......Mketting....keep trying....maybe your forgetting the postcard on this toolbar. Thats what I always forgot. You'll get it eventually.....and maybe even twice like me, not to mention how big they are.

 

[PhillyJen2006]

Happy New Year Everyone! Biggest Loser competition started at our house yesterday. HGP is doing body for life- I am doing WW and working out. We'll see how it works out.

I was reading Jewelgrrls(Welcome BTW) post about the budget and that got me thinking about last time. I was so happy we'd paid for the cruise that onboard expenses hadn't occured to me....(that was our 4th cruise so I should have known!!). We paid an additional $1100 to the mouse on our last day. Most was alcohol-the hair braids in CC, photos( you are right about that)...a massage on CC. I wish I saved our receipt. The problem with us was we were traveling with friends and we just alternated picking up the tab and I swear you spend more like that. Oh and we bought tons of Crown Royal on board-and some Stoli-although many of you know most of it didn't make it off the ship!

About the hair braids- if you haven't been on a cruise and are thinking about getting your daughter's( or your) hair braided like bo derek(ok so I am dating myself)... I would highly recommend making arrangements with Disney either on the ship-they do it on sea days by the pool, or on CC. They just seemed to be much more sanitary than those doing them in St. Maartin or St. Thomas- for a dollar a braid. Disney is WAY more expensive- but they do a better job, it lasts longer and I just felt better about the whole situation. The other thing to keep in mind is doing it too early will require sun screen in the spaces between the braids(ick). We did ours late in the day on CC and it was great! We got all of our important pictures taken(formal and semi) with the girls having normal hair, they got to go home with fresh braids that looked great for 2 weeks. Just my 2 cents- I think each of my girls were $45.00 so all in all an expensive day for the budget- the 2 for one Bahama Mama's on the beach didn't help either....

Anyway-off to wake up Sleeping Beauty. School in an hour.

Jennifer

 

[castlegazer]

Oh, BTW, anyone interested in Palo's? We didn't get to do it last time and really wanted to this time.

Well, if there are any slots left by the time us loser first time DCL'ers get to book, I will be trying to book it for St. Thomas night or St. Maarten night depending on the most recent navigators I can find and what is happening that night and depending on our Flounder's slots. I want to do the brunch the most so that will take priority and I will try and book that early on in the cruise - that way I won't already be a bloated whale. I will be trying to book this on our own to have some quiet alone time together.

partypat - I removed the tree from the house this weekend - and it took me almost a full hour to vacuum up all the needles - that thing had been dead as a door knob for weeks now. I have never seen so many needles in my life. My vacuum cleaner smells awesome now, though. I will remove all the other stuff next weekend. That was a big enough job for now.

Dirk - (funny, my first cruise when I was younger I played a video game a lot that has a main character "Dirk" - your name always makes me smile) I still owe you a welcome sign. I had a big post about this a day or so ago, but it got lost in the "ectoplasm" too. I have no idea why either.

But here goes (I thought this one fits you and I don't even know you YET)

 

[Belle&RellasMom]

UGH!!! That 7:00 am alarm sure did SUCK this morning!!! It was a rough one since not only did the girls sleep 'til 9:00 every morning on break, but their Mom did too!!!

I am in the process of un-decorating today...now that's a job that really stinks! I've got the ornaments off, but not packed up yet, and am in the process of taking the lights off...we'll let Tom finish taking the tree apart and packing it up tonight...it's the least he can do after a hard day at work, right? Besides, I'll be busy at my Girl Scout Cookie Mom meeting tonight. That's right, I'm the Cookie Mom for Sarah's Brownie troop. I've done it for Lindsey's troop for the past three years, but she didn't continue in Scouts this year...Tom was so excited because he thought that the whole cookie nightmare was over...but nope, I had to volunteer to handle it for Sarah's troop this year for two reasons: (1) the Cookie Mom for her troop SUCKED last year, and (2) her daughter isn't in the troop this year! It's really not that bad though...last year I had 2200 boxes to pick up and bring back to my house and sort, but since Sarah has a smaller troop we're probably only looking at 1200 boxes or so...not too bad!!!