5/27/06 "Il pochi il fiero i blabbermouths" We *will* sail again Part 5

[WDWLVR]

Good morning cruisers!




Happy Monday!

​

Pam - will keep you and your family in my prayers.

Stacey - thanks for the trip reports - can't wait to read more.

 

[tinksdad]

Although, isn't this a manatee??

Nice report!

and yes that is a manatee!!

 

[TiggerInNY]

Pam...prayers for your Aunt and your family. My friend (with the Banfi) just went through all that with her husband. They were told that his was an inoperable brain tumor. Turns out, they did operate and got most of it. He's had to have chemo, but is doing really well. Back at work and everything. And to think that at the start, they were basically giving him a zero % chance......

Stace - glad to hear someone beating the "C" word, as my FIL calls it. It IS possible, but you need to be positive.

TTFN,
Maria

 

[TiggerInNY]

Stace - BTW, love the cruise reports. That is pretty funny that they had a Manatee on the Dolphin deck. Ooops!! I think somebody goofed.


Gotta go now. Everyone have a great day.

Maria

 

[WVMD]

Pam thoughts and prayers with you and your family....


Stacey - Great trip report.... Definitely enjoying it!

Virgil
TFD

 

[BWVPam]

Thanks everyone,


Stacey - great reports

 

[Dancind]

Fun reports, Stacey. I like the detailed ones! Sounds like a beautiful ship. I'd like to see more ships, but without having to pay for a whole cruise to go on them! Guess that isn't possible, is it?

 

[mickeymo]

We had a chance to watch it a couple of times on the MUTS...but never made it up there. I'm only going by the previews that I'd seen....and no flames, please, but maybe "quirky" means the way Depp acts like a gay guy. Not to mention the basic gist of the movie itself. It's not exactly what you would call wholesome. The industry always seems to think a re-make shouldn't be as "cute" as an original.

Johnny Depp isn't as much of an intense maniac as Gene Wilder - this movie played closer to the book - if they can handle the book - they should be o.k. - I know, the visual medium is a whole different ball game than printed.

I thought he (Depp) played the character very similar to Michael Jackson's actions and mannerisms, don't know if that was his intention to draw similarities to Michael - but, it was effective...

I didn't think overall it was as intense as some of the original's scenes...nor was it as dark as I expected it to be...for a Tim Burton film...I can't say whether I liked one over the other - they both were two different films...

 

[justmestace]

Sue, you didn't miss any stories, I haven't gotten to the parts with the spoiled people yet.....

Monica.....maybe that's my problem....I don't like Johnny Depp, and I can't stand Michael Jackson. So anything involving either one of them turns me off.
Your review and analysis are great, though. You should get paid to review movies and get free cruises!

 

[mickeymo]

My defenses were finally worn down - we are now the proud owners of a 10 month old Basset/Beagle mixed dog named Abby.

She is a rescue dog - absolutely adorable, a big lover and cuddler, very quiet and calm and she minds well (Our previous basset 10 years ago was a wild thing)...We adopted her from 2nd Chance Pets so, her foster family was able to give us lots of information about her personality and her habits...

My #1 requirement was that she already be trained - I wasn't going to train a puppy and go through all that mess again...

She hasn't attempted to come upstairs to the bedrooms, so until the kids can keep upstairs clean and to save on my allergic reactions - I'm not inclined to show her it's possible any time soon...

But, since I feel guilty she's downstairs on her own - she doesn't complain - she just flops down and waits by the stairs- it's severly cut into my DISing...It's amazing how much I got down before 8:30 - including a 30 minute walk...without turning on the computer...

 

[mickeymo]

Sue, you didn't miss any stories, I haven't gotten to the parts with the spoiled people yet.....

Monica.....maybe that's my problem....I don't like Johnny Depp, and I can't stand Michael Jackson. So anything involving either one of them turns me off.
Your review and analysis are great, though. You should get paid to review movies and get free cruises!

cool, I can "thumbs up/down" with the best of them. I don't like Tim Burton - so, I was pleasantly suprised- can't review Zorro for you - I was too busy drooling over Antonio...

Mike liked it so much we discovered penciled "Z"s all over the house...He had to clean the entire house for that one...thankfully, it wasn't marker...I couldn't get mad, I was laughing too hard...

 

[justmestace]

Halloween....Day at Sea.....
I'm going to print the "report" in black, I think this pink is too hard on the eyes!

Yes, I slept late. And I missed some of the fun activities that they had each day:
Ceramic Painting at the ceramic cart
Beginners Ballroom Dancing
Line Dancing Class
Jigsaw Tourney
Disco Power Hour (darn!)
Bridge Play in the card room
Adult Battle of the Sexes (Whacky pool games....too funny)
Ping Pong Tournament
Doctor Bob and Bill W meeting (I know about Bill W, but what is DOCTOR BOB?)
Friends of Dorothy (again, what is this?)
Digital Photo class
Computer Classes
Scattegories
Ice Carving
Pictionary
Several different trivia games each day
Golf Lessons and tournaments
Belly Flop Contests (I might have won that one!)

I'm thinking....do they do all this on the Magic?? If so, where am I through all of it??
Probably sleeping, just like I was on Princess!

They didn't have:
A Scrapbook Party
An Ornament Exchange (guess it wasn't Christmas)
A Stateroom Tour
"Tag" You're It
Character Meet & Greet
Private Wine Tasting Party

 

[WVMD]

They didn't have:

You forgot the most important part!!!

They didn't have "US"!!!!

I think that is what has made our cruises special and will make this one so!

Virgil
TFD

 

[WVMD]

Doctor Bob and Bill W meeting (I know about Bill W, but what is DOCTOR BOB?)
Friends of Dorothy (again, what is this?)

Doctor Bob - impaired physicians, dentists, medical staff (AA type meeting)
Friends of Dorothy - Gay/Lesbian meeting

Virgil
TFD

 

[justmestace]

I had booked a facial for the 31st....so I headed up to the spa. It is a Steiner spa, laid out differently than DCL. One nice thing is the adult-only pool just outside. The entry to the spa isn't as pretty as DCL's....but the changing room & waiting room was nicer.
I used the trick of writing "No Sales Please" on my health form, and it worked to some extent. She still tried to talk me into a couple of items.
The excercise room is bigger than DCL's....maybe not now, since the Magic increased theirs. The couple of times we were up there, there were always a ton of people working out. Sick....excercise while on vacation!

We had a 6 pm party to go to with the Mirage people, but we were on our own for dinner....we didn't have costumes, but a lot of the people onboard did, including the crew.
This was one of the ship's photographers:

And I finally had a character sighting!

Pretty scary, if you ask me.
But I did see Tinkerbell when the kids were having their costume parade:

 

[justmestace]

You forgot the most important part!!!

They didn't have "US"!!!!

I think that is what has made our cruises special and will make this one so!

Virgil
TFD

Excellent point! But I've already said that a bunch of times!

T.O.P. with TFD and the DIS CRUISERS!

 

[justmestace]

Doctor Bob - impaired physicians, dentists, medical staff (AA type meeting)
Friends of Dorothy - Gay/Lesbian meeting

Virgil
TFD

Ohhhh..... As a physician, you have to know these things, right?

Funny story....one of the Mirage ladies is a fairly recent widow. She saw in the Princess Patter (navigator) that there was a singles meeting. She thought it was time that she met some people, so she went to it. I'm guessing that she went to "Friends of Dorothy".......she felt rather out of place!

 

[justmestace]

This is a fellow from Romania that Jay & I got to know...crew member....at the very end there is a story about him.

This picture was taken in the lobby by the coffee bar.

And this guy REALLY was Popeye....he had the little laugh down pat:

He wasn't a crew member, we sat with he and his wife on the tender to Princess Cays later.

 

[ohiominnie]

Making sure all my cruise friends know that NOW is the time to request Narnia pre-screening tickets from disney visa. log onto your disney visa account online and there is information there....somewhere (I stumbled upon it)

 

[justmestace]

This was the day that I started to hear the rumblings of the malcontents. The ill-behaved Mirage people.

Princess and the Mirage had gone out of their way to make things special for our group. I felt really bad for the people who paid to go on the cruise, because it must have seemed that everywhere they turned, there was a roped off area, special line, special sign saying "Private Party"....it really was kind of embarrassing.
Anyway....Jay & I had been going to the cocktail parties, not so much that we wanted to, but we knew that since they had gone to the trouble of hosting them, we should show up and be polite. We noticed that each day, there were less and less people showing up. And less people coming to dinner with the group also.
I found out that many of them had become very rude with the wait-staff, some crew members, and the employees in the casino. I hadn't heard much of it first hand, when I was in the casino, I went to the far back.
Apparently, every single little thing that didn't go exactly the way these people wanted, turned into a major full-blown episode. There was a particular group of people who were really loud about their complaints. And a group of women who just plain thought they were better than everyone else.
It didn't help that their host (a woman) has a really bad attitude.
I just found it hard to believe that anyone could complain about anything, when the cruise was FREE.
Granted, I've told you guys that we weren't crazy about some of the meals, and the comparisons with DCL....but I would NEVER have said any of that to our host, to the head of the travel agency, or to the crew. Just bad form.