7th January 2007, 4 Night Wonder Cruise

[disallday!]

disallday - cudos to you for bringing in children to your home AND including them in a "family" trip! My twin brother has adopted 4 children and I appreciate how challenging it can be....I hope you feel as rewarded has he does.

Glad you liked the pic! We hope to find out next week a little more info! He is such a sweet kid! DH had a dream last night that we had a baby girl, sooo... hmm.... could he be wanting to add on to the family again?? I won't get my hopes up!

BTW - does anyone out there like to karaoke? Remember - it's not about talent, it's about FUN!

Count me in! As long as everyone remembers... talent, no... fun, yes!!

Has anyone ever seen the movie "My Best Friend's Wedding" with Julia Roberts and Cameron Diaz? The karaoke scene cracks me up!! If you haven't watched it then take a peek... that'll be me!

 

[disallday!]

Good morning shipmates!!!!

I've been pm*ing all on my cheat sheet and have gotten a good amount of responses. Some have changed/cancelled and the others are still going. I've posted the thread again, so maybe if they get time we will hear from them.

The cheat sheet is currently up-to-date, just waiting for confirmation from four others! I can't wait!!!

PM me if you would like a copy of the cheat sheet emailed to you!

Colleen, hope you guys are doing well! Pics will definately be posted for ya!

YEAH FOR DECEMBER!!!

And Betsy... I forgot to post a "thank you" for my card! It's sitting at home on the mantel next to Robin's!!

 

[mandymouse]

Hi everyone

It's great to hear from everyone, it's starting to feel so close now and I'm getting really excited about meeting everyone

I can safely say that I won't be putting my fellow cruisers through any karaoke, otherwise they may stop the ship and search for that poor cat that has trapped it's tail in a door - yes my singing is that bad

Betsy - it is very mild over here, according to the forecast it is going to stay the same until a week before Christmas - as long as there isn't any snow to stop me getting on my plane, then I'll be OK

Kelly - Have you heard from anymore Cruisers ??

Wendy and Jennifer - I hope you are both OK, and anyone else who we haven't heard from in a while

Take care

Mandy

 

[disallday!]

I can safely say that I won't be putting my fellow cruisers through any karaoke, otherwise they may stop the ship and search for that poor cat that has trapped it's tail in a door - yes my singing is that bad

So funny!!!

Just four left that I'm waiting on! I'm sure they are still going as they are the newer ones who have posted. They're probably busy little bees like we are trying to organize the holidays!

 

[Cruisin]

Betsy we are having really weird weather here today too.

I went shopping this morning and it was pouring rain when I entered the store. Came out an hour or so later to brilliant sunshine, beautiful warm temperatures Go to the grocery store and come out an hour or so later again and the wind is blowing so hard I was afraid the bags were all going to blow out of the cart

It is still blowing like crazy. Our power was out here for about 40 minutes. Rick called a bit ago asking for the shop's insurance company number. It appears there was some kind of power surge and now all the machines seem to be fried. Yikes, and we just got a whole pile of work in yesterday too. I hope he can get the problems fixed quickly but big machines big prices to fix them

Kelly I'd like to have an updated cheat sheet list when you get it finished.

 

[mandymouse]

Is anyone doing anything nice this weekend ??

I hope you all have a great one

Mandy

 

[Cruisin]

I'm hoping to just hang around home all weekend and do nothing exciting at all.

Lots of work to be done here though

 

[Cruisin]

Okay, everybody. Here is the continuation of my Adventure of the Seas trip report................

Day 6 (?) (been so long now I've forgotten ) - St. Maarten

Awoke to another beautiful sunny day. We had to set the alarm and get up this morning because today we are renting a car with some of our friends and touring around on the island.

Pictures of St. Maarten from the ship:

So after breakfast at the buffet we meet up with our friends, Don and Penny and their son James (age 11) on the pier outside the ship. We set off to get ourselves a rental vehicle.

Now we left all of the details up to Don when renting the car. He went down the line and finally got a vehicle from the last place. Hmmm, big mistake maybe

We get into this shuttle vehicle to take us to our rental car. We drive quite aways to this lot that is packed full of "rent a wrecks" I mean the car he offered us was so full of dents and bruises that if we had a huge accident they probably wouldn't even have noticed at all

We ask for a better car and the guy says, take your pick . They all look worse than the original one. So we get into our car and we are off.

We were going to have an adventure

We drive around trying to find a gas station since the tank is totally on empty. We found out afterwards that the gauge didn't even work right

Penny wanted to put a bag in the trunk but she came back to the front of the car and said..... not a good idea because it would probably fall right through

Car with some gas now and we are ready. We start to drive. We found the cool beach where the airplanes fly really low over the beach to land at the airport. I think they fly so low that you could almost see the passengers looking out the windows.

After that we headed over to the French side of the island. We were looking for a beach to stop at for a bit. We found a really nice one, after drive up and down some very steep hills. We thought we were going to have to get out and push the car because it really didn't want to go up those hills.

First we stopped at a little restaurant beside the beach for a bit of lunch. It was pretty good. Rick and Penny are not beach people so they sat at the restaurant and streeeeettttcccheeeedd their drinks while Don, James and I headed to the beach.

We walked along the beach and found a couple of chairs to put our stuff on. After a few minutes someone came along and asked 5 bucks for each of the chairs that we were using. We kind of hummmed and hawed and she changed her mind and let us use them without charge.

Anyways, I forgot something. Apparently as we were walking down the beach I was much more interested in the water than looking at what was on the beach. Don comes up and says.... did you happen to notice the sunbathers, James sure did Yup, there were many topless women sunbathing there. That's me, totally oblivious

Here is the beach we were at. James and Don snorkeled for a bit and I just walked along in the water up to my knees.

Since the ship was leaving at 5ish we headed back to return our rent a wreck and went back onboard the ship.

Again we had the usual evening dinner, comedy show and hanging out on the Royal Promenade.

Here is a picture just for you Colleen..... a St. Maarten sunset.

Tomorrow is our last full day of the cruise. We have to get up in the morning to clear customs in St. Thomas. So once again we must set a wake up call

 

[Hollyann]

Hiya Cruisers!

Tinknutt - I've not filled out my documents, but you can get them on the web page. Maybe we can do them tomorrow evening.

I LOVE the karaoke scene from My Best Friend's Wedding. That horrible song was a scene stealer and only proves my point of it's about FUN not talent! I hope we have lots of singin' fools!

DH made it to California and is kissing grandbabies as we speak. I'm about to head to bed - gotta work, but posting over with the threadkillers before zzzzzzzzz's.

Nighty-night!

 

[Cruisin]

Day 7 - St. Thomas

So today we are up and go through the customs around 8:30 or so. After that we are off to breakfast at the buffet.

St. Thomas from the ship:

Today the two of us are planning on getting off of the ship and going to the cable car up the hill to see the view. The cable car is within walking distance, so after breakfast we head off the ship.

As we were walking along we see this little fellow.

Here is a picture that shows where our cabin is on the ship. You see the very bottom deck with verandahs (above the lifeboats). Our was the very end verandah. The single one.

After we got up to the top of the cable cars we went for a walk on the nature trail. Here is the best side ( ) of Rick talking a stroll on the trail.

Here is our ship in the harbour below. Look at the size of that thing next to the smaller Royal Caribbean ship, whose name I don't remember at the moment.

Here is an interesting sign that I saw posted during our nature walk. Yikes!

This is the one and only picture that I have of me, taken with our own camera. There are a few that I purchased from the ship's photographer though.

After we were done with looking out at the beautiful island we returned to the ship. Of course to the buffet for lunch

After lunch I did something that I have not done before on any of my previous 10 cruises. I actually got into a swimming pool onboard the ship I arrived at the pool shortly before another couple in our group so we got in together. Didn't actually swim just sort of lounged near the edges. It was nice though. Rick stayed at the cabin and had a nap.

to be continued..................

 

[Cruisin]

Hiya Cruisers!

Tinknutt - I've not filled out my documents, but you can get them on the web page. Maybe we can do them tomorrow evening.

I LOVE the karaoke scene from My Best Friend's Wedding. That horrible song was a scene stealer and only proves my point of it's about FUN not talent! I hope we have lots of singin' fools!

DH made it to California and is kissing grandbabies as we speak. I'm about to head to bed - gotta work, but posting over with the threadkillers before zzzzzzzzz's.

Nighty-night!

Goodnight Ann.

I'm glad that Tom has made it safely to California.

How long will he be away?

 

[Cruisin]

.............continuation..........

After my swim, I went back to the cabin and changed and set out to take some more pictures around the ship.

The family pool and hottub area:

The wedding chapel.

The rock climbing wall.

The basketball court.

Johnny Rockets..... a restaurant with a 3.95 cover charge. We never ate there although we had get in free coupons. They serve burgers, fries, onion rings, milkshakes, that sort of thing.

The start of Christmas decorations.

The adult pool.

A sun deck.

Adventure of the Seas sign.

Our last night on ship, pretty much the same as all others. Dinner in the dining room, yet another comedy show and bothering Ivan (the waiter at the Duck and Dog)

Tomorrow we must return to reality. It's been a fun trip so far.

 

[Cruisin]

Back to Puerto Rico day.

Again we set a wake up call on the telephone. Today we must get up and head back home again.

It's been a wonderful trip for the most part. The weather was absolutely fantastic. The company was good (well, most of the company was good )

We saw and learned a lot of things. Saw the beauty of the islands and also the poverty. Very interesting things to be learned when you visit other countries.

So off to the buffet for breakfast for the last time. We meet up with Don, Penny and James in the buffet.

I think this picture of James at breakfast, pretty much sums up his vacation

The kid needs to learn how to party

We went to find the rest of our group and sat outside the Duck and Dog for a bit and then moved to the theater to comfier seats.

We had all used Royal Caribbean transfers and we all had later flights so we decided to wait and leave as a group.

We got off the ship and found our shuttle bus. Put our luggage in the back of this big truck, hoping it would follow us to the airport It was actually there before we were.

Since we were all flying different airlines, the group parted ways. Some of the group were checking in and then grabbing a taxi to a beach for a few hours. The rest of us were staying at the airport to wait for our flights.

Well, I'll tell you, I thought we'd be wandering around that airport for the rest of our lives. The signage there is horrible. We couldnt' find the checkin counter for Northwest. We asked a couple of times and were sent in totally wrong directions. We think that it was deliberate because they'd kind of look at you funny and say go that way

I finally asked someone behind another check in counter and we were pointed in the correct direction this time. I'm just glad that we had plenty of time.

We got checked in and thru security really easily. Once we got behind security we found Don, Penny and James again. We sat with them until their plane was boarding.

Then it was only another 1/2 hour until our plane started to board.

We arrived home to Detroit to extremely chilly temperatures, compared to what we were used to.

After waiting for our luggage and being told we were all waiting at the wrong carrousel , we finally were headed for the border.

The drive home was uneventful and we were home about 11 pm.

I guess that pretty much concludes my trip report. I hope you all enjoyed it.

 

[mandymouse]

Robin ~ Thanks for finishing off your trip report. It sounds like you had a fantastic time. Your photos are so lovely and I'm so pleased that you managed to take a photo on the beach in St. Maarten without any topless women in it

Your ship looks wonderful, was it busy ? because it doesn't look it

Thanks again

Mandy

p.s. Have a great weekend everyone

 

[Dalpal]

Good Morning everyone!

GREAT TR Robin....
It all looks so warm and beautiful.. .Thanks for taking the time to do it...

 

[Cruisin]

Good Saturday morning to all.

The ship was busy Mandy. There were times when you had trouble getting through the people. But amazingly enough there were plenty of times when you'd swear there wasn't anybody else on the ship but yourself

Have a good day everyone. I haven't decided yet what I'm going to do.

 

[tinknutt]

Hi All

Cant wait for the cruise and some R and R. I've been crazy busy with the house going up for sale and cleaning out closets for a yard sale

Chat more later

 

[Kay06]

Hey, Its been awhile since I stopped by here! I just read back a few pages, and I haven't seen that Wendy has been on here in awhile either. She told me to check in awhile back, and I never really got to it. College has taken over all my free time!

So we're getting down there on the count down, almost a month to go. Still doesn't really seem like were going, I've just been putting it off shopping and getting some stuff together.

I hope everyone is doing well, see you all in Jan.

-Kayla

 

[mandymouse]

I hope everyone is having a lovely day

Sue ~ that is a lovely piccie of you and your hubby in your signature

Kayla ~ It's great to hear from you, glad you are keeping busy and still looking forward to the Cruise. Wendy hasn't been on in a while, I hope everyone is OK and I'm looking forward to meeting you all very soon

Mandy

 

[Cruisin]

My not knowing what I was going to do today turned into a 3 hour round trip drive to pick up some parts to repair one of the machines

The drive was fairly uneventful.

I might have to go to the Toronto area either tomorrow sometime or very early Monday morning to get some more parts. The business opens at 9am on Monday and we need those parts to get working on those machines.

This is turning into a real pain in the patootie.