7th January 2007, Dancing Queens Thread CONTINUED

[mandymouse]

so true, you left me an out right there

 

[mandymouse]

Hey Dancing Queens

Yay, it's nearly the weekend

It's Becky's 17th birthday today, and she has just had her first driving lesson (she enjoyed it). Tomorrow we're taking her to Southampton for a day of shopping, a nice meal and to stay over.

What are you up to ? Anything fun ?

Have a great weekend girls, whatever you get up to

 

[Cruisin]

I know it's a bit late now but .......

Happy Birthday Becky

What a way to celebrate, taking your very first driving lesson.

Good luck

Mandy, enjoy your night away with your birthday girl.

I have no definite plans for the weekend.

It will be just waiting to see what happens I guess

 

[Cruisin]

Okay, Mandy, now I know it's not June yet but here are some pictures for you

Pre-Disney cruise at Ann and Tom's house:

On our way...

Our favourite place on this cruise. The new addition to the Cove Cafe.

 

[Cruisin]

Platinum Castaway Club member gifts:

dinner:

Castaway Cay day:

Happy Anniversary, Ann and Tom:

Ann and Pikey:

relaxing on sea day:

thanks for the gift Tom. I still have it

We had so much fun

So sad to see it end

A couple more from after the cruise:

 

[Cruisin]

next up will be the Norwegian Cruise on the Jewel of the Seas....hopefully you don't have to wait until December to see those Mandy

 

[Cruisin]

Our 7 night Norwegian Jewel Cruise:

Our cabin, not exactly up to the Disney standards but we managed okay. The bathroom was suprisingly spacious though.

The Miami harbor and some around the ship pictures.

bridge viewing area when the blinds are open:

Saw these on one of the life boat signs. Was a bit scary looking to me

 

[Cruisin]

more ship pictures:

The hallways outside our cabin....... a bit gaudy for our taste.

This was kind of neat though. There was a little dial thingy on the wall outside the cabin that you spun around to leave a message for cleaning cabin, do not disturb etc.

turned down for the night

Norwegian's equivalent to Wavebands.

These look a bit strange but I actually found them quite comfortable to lounge on.

The free style sundeck

Rick relaxing but notice again with the quite wild decorating scheme, not really relaxing material.

Is that a familiar character that I spy in the crew pool

Churning up the sand in Belize.

more around the ship

 

[Cruisin]

The main atrium..... definitely a let down after you know where

Hmmm, I wonder who they hired as their decorator

The library.... I spent a lot of time in here.

Look at the spray coming from the back of the boat. And we were sitting still at the dock at the time. You would have sworn it was a sea day the way the ship rocked and bounced all day long.

The port area of Cozumel. It is totally set up just for the cruise ship tourists.

One night we came out of the theater and there were seasick bags on all the garbage pails at all the elelvators I wonder if they were expecting a problem We were okay but I don't know if others had problems or not.

 

[Cruisin]

That is all that I plan on boring you with.

I have several hundred pictures, so if there is something in particular you want to see or know about the Norwegian Cruiseline, just feel free to ask.

 

[mandymouse]

Robin, thanks for posting your photos, they're all great, and I am really impressed with the Norwegian Jewel, it looks lovely. Would you sail on her again ? Be honest, was it any better than the Wonder

It was nice to see pics of Ann and Tom again too

When are your next adventures away ? Did you rebook a cruise when you were onboard ?

Girls ~ I hope you had a lovely weekend. We had a great time in Southampton, I just can't believe that the weekend is over already

Have a great day everyone

 

[Brer_Papa]

Ahoy Cruisin' !

Very nice....I can see a good time was had by all....

 

[Cruisin]

Robin, thanks for posting your photos, they're all great, and I am really impressed with the Norwegian Jewel, it looks lovely. Would you sail on her again ? Be honest, was it any better than the Wonder

It was nice to see pics of Ann and Tom again too

When are your next adventures away ? Did you rebook a cruise when you were onboard ?

Girls ~ I hope you had a lovely weekend. We had a great time in Southampton, I just can't believe that the weekend is over already

Have a great day everyone

While we did enjoy our cruise on the Norwegian Jewel there were a lot of things that we were disappointed in.

Their so called free style, eat whenever you want, wherever you want, with whomever you want is really a farce. The first night we went to the dining room and ended up having to sit with others which turned out okay. Another time we went and were told there would be no table for two available for the rest of the night. You pretty much need a reservation but to us that takes away from eating when you want If I have to decide the day before when I want to eat the next day, it sort of takes the spontaneity out of it.

We ended up eating most of our meals in the buffet which turned out okay for us.

We ate one night in one of the specialty restaurants (an Italian style place) and my meal was awful. I am not a food snob of any sorts but I could get a much better meal at one of the chain restaurants on land.

The entertainment for the most part was not to our liking. They had a couple of good shows but the rest were horrible. There was one that I would have gotten up and left if I hadn't been seated in the middle of the row

There was a bunch of other stuff too but I won't go into it all.

I think that I would choose Royal Caribbean over Norwegian but Disney is by far our absolute favourite.

It's just too bad that Disney is so expensive but then again, maybe it truly is you get what you pay for.

Bottom line......... would we do another Norwegian cruise.......... yes probably but try a different ship.

We only paid $369.00 per person for this 7 day cruise. Couldn't beat the value even though the total cruise experience fell below what we are used to.

 

[mandymouse]

Wow, that was an amazing price for your cruise Robin, but I can totally understand that you felt you lost the spontaneity if you had to decide when to eat the night before

When are you hoping to take your next vacation ? Did you rebook when you were on the Wonder ?

 

[Cruisin]

I know the price was amazing. That's why we couldn't pass up the chance to try it out.

It definitely was worth it for the price we paid. I can't really argue about that.

We don't have another vacation planned at the moment and we did not rebook while we were onboard the Wonder. We really should have but we didn't even think about it at the time.

It is coming up to airplane season, so weekend away will start up again soon. I don't think there will be as many of those as in previous years.

Maybe a trip somewhere in the fall with my mom. It will be to a place of her choosing and she likes Florida and Disney and Disney Cruises, so who knows

I don't think I've mentioned here that I have to have surgery in June.

That will put me out of commission for up to 6 weeks. It involves a 5 day hospital stay.

I have some sort of soft tissue mass between the linings of my stomach and the doctor wants to remove it. No way to tell for sure what it is until that time.

Unfortunately it involves taking up to 15% of my stomach off the top and stapling it back together It's just a bit intimidating thinking about it.

So I'm thinking by September/October, I'm going to want a vacation

 

[mandymouse]

Sorry to hear that you're going into hospital in June Robin. Knowing you, I would imagine finding 6 weeks out of commission hard work, as you're always on the go with work and your dancing. I hope you make a quick recovery

At least you can plan your trip with your mum, it's great that she loves Disney too

 

[Cruisin]

Yes, I am very used to always being on the go and it will probably be hard to slow down and take it easy for several weeks.

I planned the surgery so that it would be after my main dance season of the year and after the annual recital I wasn't about to put all that work into a dance year and have to drop out a couple of months before the finale

The doctor was absolutely okay with that decision too.

I will have to miss my summer dance classes but that's okay.

I'm hoping for a really good sunny and warm summer this year. I am planning on utilizing my deck to it's fullest potential

One good thing about this is that I don't have to mow the lawn for most of the summer I don't know who is going to do it but I know it won't be me.

 

[Cruisin]

Well I'm off soon to see Alex's very first home that he has to pay the mortgage payments on

My baby is all grown up

Have a fantastic weekend Mandy.

Betsy, I hope you are having a wonderful time at Disney. Can't wait to hear all about it.

Kelly........ wherever you are.... here's hoping all is well with you and yours.

 

[mandymouse]

Happy Saturday girls

I hope you're having a lovely weekend. We're having a quiet one, though Kerry is back from Hungary tonight, so it'll be great to see her

Robin ~ Have a nice time at Alex's new home

Betsy ~ I hope you're still having fun in WDW

Kelly ~ Hey hun, where are you ? I hope you are all keeping well

 

[Cruisin]

How did the reunion with Kerry go Mandy. Did she have a wonderful time?

I hope you weren't too buried beneath all that laundry

We got Alex all moved into his new house.

It's very nice and the property is pretty.

I hope they will be very happy there.