8/17/08 Captain Jack's Repossession Repo Cruise to PC thru TPC #15 /Life After the PC

[tom31b]

Did anyone get any pictures of the jumping rays in Cabo? They would stop when I got my camera out. Then I would give up and put it away and they would start jumping again.

I did, will post once I find it.

Either Cabo or on way in

 

[tom31b]

and a know-it-all PITA Cub parent who never shows up for planning, just hits "reply all" to the entire pack when she doesn't like something...

I use bcc: to send those e-mails and then she can only respond to me

 

[GatheringNoMoss]

I did, will post once I find it.

Either Cabo or on way in

That would be great. I kept missing them w/the camera!

 

[tom31b]

Can anyone help me I'm unsure how to add pics to the smugmug site, do I have to join if so where and how?
Thanks Lynn

Full instructions at http://www.thepiratezone.us/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=305

 

[allshookup]

C'mon over http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1951490

Lisa you rock!!!

Thanks for posting this Jill. Very interesting...especially the part about the chum!

Were you looking for a picture of the full moon? Here's one:

There are a couple of others in the pictures that I posted on the photo sharing site. It's actually from the first Sea Day - Aug 18th, not embarkation day. But it's a pretty good picture, and there are a few others. These were actually taken by Betsy (Bets19), but I pirated her memory cards and pictures at the airport before she left! Hope this helps.

Beautiful pic Mike!

This is one of the things that I completely missed! I was so excited that it was going to be a full moon on our cruise, but I never saw it! I imagine it was on the port side of the ship most of the night so I didn't see it from my verandah, but apparently I was never up on the top deck the first couple of nights either?

I also missed going downstairs while we were in the locks so I could see what it looked like from down below! This is like some of my nightmares come true! How did I miss this stuff?

 

[dahuffy]

Ok this is so wrong.
They are interviewing evacuees that came here from Houston/Galveston. This woman in a large SUV said "I left my animals at home and now I am so glad I did since the storm surge is even higher than expected". WTH is that supposed to mean? Those poor animals were left to fend for themselves. I can tell you with complete certainty that there is no way my husband would ever leave the animals. I think he would leave me before them.
OK- vent over!
I was glad to see all the shelters here taking animals.

 

[dahuffy]

One of the most handy, however, was the pocket watch. I don't know why DCL thinks that one propeller clock is sufficient for the whole cabin, but it was inevitably buried on the desk under the mounds of stuff we accumulated daily, so to have the watch on the little table by us was wonderful!

I thought the watch was really cool too(thanks Mike). But I thought it was just supposed to be a "prop" because ours doesn't work. I think ours has a broken stem,when you try to turn it,it's loose and doesn't move the hands at all. That's ok, it still looks good in my china cabinet.

 

[Esteri]

Howdy Crew!

Are we still flapping our traps here??? Like I should be surprised??

We got back to a very balmy and pleasant Central Valley evening (mid-80's, low humitidy), and as we're sitting outside the airport waiting for my brother to pull around from the waiting lot the boyz (in long pants and t-shirts!) are complaining.... "Mom, I'm Freeeeezing!!!"

George's contract with the Sacramento Opera was in the mail - so it's official, he'll be singing in La Bohem (chrous) in the spring. One of the benefits he gets is buy 3 tickets, get the 4th free.... They're doing Pirates of Penzance this fall. We're going to the Nov 23 (weekend before Tgiving) Sunday Matinee (2pm) with the boyz. It's a GREAT show for kids. Who's up for a NoCal Pirate Reunion??? (He was pretty bummed that he won't be singing in that one.)

The boyz started school with their usual aplomb. The 6th graders had to write, and perform, do a short skit about one thing they did during the summer. Jakob chose his first scuba dive in Aruba. He says it got a lot of laughs, and was well received. It was a good choice as several of his classmates gave him birthday gifts of cash to help pay for the lessons. It was nice for them to see what they contributed to. He's compensating for his less than easy social skills by being uber competent. He has his classmates' respect, and it appears he's not being bullied as much - so it must be working.

As for 1st grade and Issac. Well, Issac slips easily into anything, and he's been looking forward to 1st grade for many months. They're currently doing form drawing (straight lines and curvy lines) in preparation of learning how to write the alphabet. He brough home is pages from the first week, and on one there was a drawing of a car (and a very nice car it was too!). "Were you supposed to draw a car?" "No, We were supposed to draw cruvy lines, but my curvy line looked like a car, so I finished it."

The big project for September is the 6th grade Dragon for the Michaelmas celebration on the 26th. I volunteered to do the dying for the dragon skin. What was I thinking?? So you have any idea how much fabric it takes to cover a 60 foot, 6-7 foot high dragon?? Yikes! Fortunately, last years 6th grade gave us their dragon skin (they bought SILK!), I was able to remove their dye and get it to a light yellow. We'll have no trouble overdying it. Especially since the class picked Purple, Blue, and Green - and in dark jewel tones for the dragon. And red wings. Since we didn't have to buy dragon skin, we had the idea of spending our budget on a light weight silk gauze (think curtain sheers). Dye that the same red as the wings, add scales, and lay it over thedragon skin. That way the color transition should be easier, and it we think the colors will shift in the sunlight - giving a really cool effect. We have a sculptor and anamotronic wiz doing the head. Apparently they've figured out a way to make it look like fire coming out of it's mouth. This is going to be one scary dragon! Hum.... I should probably be mixing up dye right now rather than goofing off here. We're dying all the red today.

I see a number of folks are sick??? Issac got congested at about day 10, kind of like allergies - in his head, not his chest. It hasn't gone away. He's not acting sick though. Is that like what everyone is suffering - or has he developed an allergy to something? Thoughts?

Well, I'm busy with dye work and today. George told me last night.... "Um. I'm down to my last pair of underwear." Sigh. Time to wash the beach off our clothes. (We did laundry right before getting off so that there wouldn't be as much when we got home.)

Don't remember if any of you remember the house we put a bid on, and didn't get right before I left for camping/cruising. The second day we're back we get a call from our realtor... it fell out of escrow, are we still interested? Heck yeah! So we're keeping our fingers crossed that we'll hear good news early next week.

Well, I'm off to organize dragon skin. TTFN!!

Okay so I have booked the Disneyland Hotel for the nights of 12th ,13th and 14th , So Saturday the 14th we will make the Date for the DIS meet , now we always go to Disneyland in March to celebrate our Birthdays , and I think Stace does too , so we hope that all that can will join us for the Pirates Reunion and also could be Future Cruisers meet as by then I am sure we will all probably be booked on other cruises after Oct 7th , Speaking of which

It does look like DCL is going to the Baltic so our plan is that we will do the last Baltic cruise and then do the Repo back to Port Canaveral , I am hoping that on the Repo that stops will include Ireland , England and France .. If they do we are so doing back 2 back ....I hope that many of you will be on one of these 2 cruises as I enjoyed many of your guy's company and look forward to seeing you all again ......

So , What say You !!!!


TAKE WHAT YOU CAN !!!!!

Don't know about DL in March. But I am so all over a Baltic cruise!! I lived in Finland for 18 mo, and have wanted to take the family there for some time. But, darn, now I'm wishin w'e booked a second imaginary room on that imaginary cruise. Only one of these will be discounted... Rats.

Perfect! Can someone send me the smaller version for my signature?

To me the funniest thing is that Diane wanted an imaginary Cat 6 on the imaginary cruise. But the imaginary Cat 6's on the imaginary cruise were imaginarily sold out. So she had to book an imaginary Cat 5.

Oh, that is hysterical!

Well crap.

Looks like I have a good chance of joining Monica, K and Kim in the pirate unemployment line.

Hmmm, we are cutting back next year...we aren't raising enough money to do all the work we want to do...let's layoff a fundraiser...

There are a few jobs on the chopping block for next fiscal year and mine is one of them. It makes sense, I make more $$ than everyone in the development dept. besides the VP, but huh??? I'll know for sure next week. If it's over, it's over Sept. 30.

I'm happy to report that they will be hiring for the two NEW positions I secured funding for. I'm bummed for many reasons, but if I'm gone, this will be the first job where I haven't set some sort of record - that was my personal goal for next year. This year all I did was beat my position's annual goal, with 3 months to spare.

Are we chatting tonight? I could use a few drinking buddies.

Bah!! Ug!! Pththththt!

They make 4,000 chocolate chip cookies each day.....yes....DAY! And he made a point in telling us there were only around 600 kids on board so obviously the adults like them! LOL


The food garbage is ground up and dropped under the propeller at sea (minimum of 12 miles out) Talk about Chum!

Me! I like 'em - more than I should. I dined in Topsiders one night. And nothing on the desert menu looked interesting. So, I asked if maybe the server could find me a chocolate chip cookie and a glass of milk? He smiled. And returned with FOUR cookies and the biggest glass of milk I'd seen onboard! I got the feeling I'm not the only one to order it. Yeah, I polished it all off.

I sure feel a whole lot better about not eating everything now. At least the scraps aren't wasted. Wonder of they get schools of fish following the ship around? Or if it sinks down to the bottom and sustatins the deep sea critters.

.

 

[allshookup]

Just a quick thank you to all the people who gave FE gifts! We enjoyed all of them--listened to the CDs, ate the candy, wrote with the pens, arranged the magnets, and left notes on the dry erase board (actually, we even got notes from people we didn't know on the dry erase board. We don't know who smileman is, but apparently he's evil.)



One of the most handy, however, was the pocket watch. I don't know why DCL thinks that one propeller clock is sufficient for the whole cabin, but it was inevitably buried on the desk under the mounds of stuff we accumulated daily, so to have the watch on the little table by us was wonderful! I even saw a number of kids running around with them--when we went to see Wall E in the Buena Vista, there were a group of them happily eating all manner of junk food. When they finished, there was a brisk debate over who was going to throw out the trash. Finally, the youngest one (who was losing,) in desperation, pulled out his watch and said "OK, how 'bout this: Whoever doesn't have a pocket watch has to throw it out. That's fair!"

It was a great cruise, despite some glitches with our servers, and I'm sorry I didn't meet more people, but I totally suck at mingling.

Looking forward to the next cruise!

I loved the pocket watch too! I didn't want to wear my Mickey watch when I was dressed up so I would throw the pocket watch into my bag. I got a lot of chuckles when I would pull that out & snap it open!

I'm not usually so great at mingling but this time I was determined! I just threw myself at people....sometimes literally!

 

[Stepht5]

Hi everyone!

It's a rainy day here. DD and I are going to the local Holliday Inn for her Ensemble "Bonding" sleepover at 3 PM. I got suckered into chaperoning, so this should be an adventure. From 3PM till 10AM tomorrow morning! Right now I doing wash and DISing! Hey I'm waiting for my loads to be done!

Take plenty of Tylenol.... Girls that age giggle and squeal way too much! LOL! I am the mom of 3 girls......

Howdy Crew!

George's contract with the Sacramento Opera was in the mail - so it's official, he'll be singing in La Bohem (chrous) in the spring. One of the benefits he gets is buy 3 tickets, get the 4th free.... They're doing Pirates of Penzance this fall. We're going to the Nov 23 (weekend before Tgiving) Sunday Matinee (2pm) with the boyz. It's a GREAT show for kids. Who's up for a NoCal Pirate Reunion??? (He was pretty bummed that he won't be singing in that one.)

What fun!

The boyz started school with their usual aplomb. The 6th graders had to write, and perform, do a short skit about one thing they did during the summer. Jakob chose his first scuba dive in Aruba. He says it got a lot of laughs, and was well received. It was a good choice as several of his classmates gave him birthday gifts of cash to help pay for the lessons. It was nice for them to see what they contributed to. He's compensating for his less than easy social skills by being uber competent. He has his classmates' respect, and it appears he's not being bullied as much - so it must be working.

That is wonderful that he has figured out something that works for him!

As for 1st grade and Issac. Well, Issac slips easily into anything, and he's been looking forward to 1st grade for many months. They're currently doing form drawing (straight lines and curvy lines) in preparation of learning how to write the alphabet. He brough home is pages from the first week, and on one there was a drawing of a car (and a very nice car it was too!). "Were you supposed to draw a car?" "No, We were supposed to draw cruvy lines, but my curvy line looked like a car, so I finished it."

LOL! Oldest dd (now 25) came home from Kindergarten with a paper she had written....SHe had done letters with circles/bubblles at every point. And small hearts as the dot on i's. The teacher had circled each letter with a red pen...yadda...yadda... When I asked dd about it she said *The teacher said to use your prettiest handwriting. That is my prettiest handwriting.*
Luckily dd wasn't the type to get upset by the teacher's red pen.


The big project for September is the 6th grade Dragon for the Michaelmas celebration on the 26th. I volunteered to do the dying for the dragon skin. What was I thinking?? So you have any idea how much fabric it takes to cover a 60 foot, 6-7 foot high dragon?? Yikes! Fortunately, last years 6th grade gave us their dragon skin (they bought SILK!), I was able to remove their dye and get it to a light yellow. We'll have no trouble overdying it. Especially since the class picked Purple, Blue, and Green - and in dark jewel tones for the dragon. And red wings. Since we didn't have to buy dragon skin, we had the idea of spending our budget on a light weight silk gauze (think curtain sheers). Dye that the same red as the wings, add scales, and lay it over thedragon skin. That way the color transition should be easier, and it we think the colors will shift in the sunlight - giving a really cool effect. We have a sculptor and anamotronic wiz doing the head. Apparently they've figured out a way to make it look like fire coming out of it's mouth. This is going to be one scary dragon! Hum.... I should probably be mixing up dye right now rather than goofing off here. We're dying all the red today.

WOW!!! Can we see pictures when it is all done???

I see a number of folks are sick??? Issac got congested at about day 10, kind of like allergies - in his head, not his chest. It hasn't gone away. He's not acting sick though. Is that like what everyone is suffering - or has he developed an allergy to something? Thoughts?

That is what I have. Although it did suck the life out of me last weekend. We teased that we (our family) are allergic to Mexico.

.

Your children attend a Waldorf school, don't they? Years ago I read a ton of books on the method. My youngest attend a Montessori Preschool for 3yrs. I don't know of any Waldorf schools in our area -- I think the closet would be Austin and thats 3 -4 hrs away....
I like both of those methods. But, then I am a great proponent of *handwork* skills, etc....

 

[tom31b]

All -

Been MIA dealing with a situation at home - all is fine but the bomb is about to drop on someone here and it ain't on me (Or Andrew for once ) Anyway, just wanted to share that due to this circumstance, I have NOT uploaded anything but I fully intend to start hopefully this weekend.

Here's what happened today. DD tells me that her volleyball Chili Cookoff tickets $$ are due today, to I go and pay that and her uniform fee and while I'm there I'm told that there is a $225 ad fee, a $100 raffle fee and by the way, did you know your supposed to be working tonight at the football game? (No - this WASN'T the DD I was going to drop the bomb on but - you never know - things can change)

Then as I'm writing out a check for $350 bucks, I'm informed that "Casey" the Baseball coach was so very happy with my pictures I took on their semi-final game last May that he was wondering...........

Yeah, well now he wants to know if I could do it again sometime......... Did I neglect to tell you all that I only have a DD in school - no DS's. So of course who walks in but Brother Michael asking where his pictures from the Volleyball scrimmage is and when he found out that "Casey" loved the pictures happily volunteered me to take pictures - assuming "I don't have anything else to do right Mrs Elliott?"

Um........how do you tell your child's teacher and a brother no less - no thanks?????????? Then the magical words are spoken - of course there would be some sort of service hours in there for you. So now, instead of being like this: I'm like:

So I am not working snack bar tonight (football season) but instead will be "volunteering" my time to take pictures again. Although I did volunteer to chaperone the kids Study Abroad program this April 9 - 21, 2009. Of course, Mrs. Wilson (Spanish Teacher) turned me down flat. The one thing I really want to do and I get turned down. Oh well, I guess I've been traveling too much but darn it - the kids are going to Madrid, Barcelona, Carcassonne, Provence, Avignon, Nice, French Rivera, Pisa, Florence, Assisi, Rome & THE SISTENE CHAPEL! along with St Peter's Basilica... AND I CAN'T GO!!! And I got decent lenses this time.

That does it - I'm just going to have to go on another cruise when she goes. I can't have my child be a more seasoned traveler than I am.

I just want to know if they appreciate what they have - I couldn't have done this while I was growing up. But the SISTENE CHAPEL!

Oh well, on to finish unpacking.

Oh yeah - on to the real reason for posting - got my cell phone bill today, it was cheaper to talk on the phone in Aruba than it was to call from Castaway. My rate in Aruba was $1.69 and the Bahamas was $1.99. Mexico was only $0.59 so that wasn't bad.

Anyone else get any surprises? OK - hopefully I can make chat sometime and talk with you all - will catch up later. Phone's ringing - might be Cheryl!

Don't know how good you are with the controls, but Ed Martin's wife (name is excaping me right this second, will baffle my wife when I randomly remember and blurt it out later) was telling me you can program one of the rear buttons to do the focus lock and then lock with thumb and use the picture taking button (shutter release) to only do the high speed bursts. This way you can select your focus object, follow and not have to reselect/focus.

 

[tom31b]

I also missed going downstairs while we were in the locks so I could see what it looked like from down below! This is like some of my nightmares come true! How did I miss this stuff?

Roger has some posted

http://thepiratezone.smugmug.com/gallery/5884656_fHW4d/1/365697702_zKaB2

 

[Stepht5]

After viewing Andy's video of y'alls Aruba adventure dh's remark was *Remind me if we ever buy a boat to get one of those swings.*

It looked like y'all had a grand time!

I know Dh & 17dd LOVED the snorkelling they did. SInce dh didn't have a dive buddy (in the family) for Aruba their snorkel adventure had to do.....

 

[KSDisneyDad]

Last weekend there was a picture of a statue of a pair of boots across from the fort in Cartagena. I didn't get a picture of it when we were there, but was going to save that picture but can't find it today. Was it removed and if so, would the person who originally posted it PM me if possible? Thanks!

 

[bellelinus]

Hi everyone! When I got back from the trip (and the 5 night following and a few days at WDW), my father had to have triple bypass surgery, so needless to say, things have been crazy and this is my first chance to log in here. He seems to be doing well so far, and was moved out of CICU today and into a regular room.

First of all, thanks to everyone for the friendly interactions, wonderful fish extender and other gifts, etc., on this cruise . . . what a special one it was.

A quick review of what we did and what I thought about it at the ports:

Cabo -- private beach horseback ride from Red Rose Ranch -- wonderful 2 hour ride on lovely horses and with an amazing guide (luckily we could handle Spanish since he didn't speak English -- but he sang to us in Spanish as we rode, too!). Beach afterwards was lovely.

PV -- Los Veranos ziplining was a highlight -- we were just watching the DVD today and it really brought it all back. Rhythms of the Night should have been canceled since it rained nonstop, but it was clearly an interesting excursion and could have been spectacular with better weather . The guys on the boat were hilarious and did a skit based on "Grease" on the way back.

Acapulco -- I wanted to see the cliff divers and did -- but the rest of the morning reinforced my dislike of DCL based bus tours . . .

Cartegena -- Baru Island excursion was canceled (even though it never rained after we docked), so we took a taxi to and from the old town and walked around. Very, very enjoyable.

Aruba -- Jolly Pirates was the best -- I think it would have been a lot of fun to be on the other ship for the increased pirate atmosphere, but it was a splendid experience nontheless. Got a great massage at the Intermezzo spa afterwards right there in a cabana on the beach for a lot less than DCL.

This cruise vs. the 5 night -- very, very different atmosphere -- far fewer experienced cruisers on the 5 night and most who were seemed accustomed to the 3 and 4 night sailings. Lot more quiet on that one -- good as far as rowdy teens and preteens go (and don't get me started on the things written on our whiteboard on the PC cruise before we took it down), but less fun in other ways.

Love and good wishes to all of you . . . "until we meet again" . . .

 

[sk8ingmom]

Don't know how good you are with the controls, but Ed Martin's wife (name is excaping me right this second, will baffle my wife when I randomly remember and blurt it out later)

Mrs. Martin

 

[tom31b]

Mrs. Martin

Kathleen even

 

[JoiseyMom]

Hey Monica - I'll go even though its not DCL - heck - Athens, Alexandria - those are two more places that I can scratch off my bucket list.

Heck DH had me price it out already. He called his mom and asked if she was available to watch the kids for 2 weeks. He said it would be his bday present. His birthday, if we went, would be spent in Athens. The price is awesome...with airfare...but once you figure in taxes and the excursions... . Anyone dream and good lotto numbers lately??

 

[blesidangl]

Last weekend there was a picture of a statue of a pair of boots across from the fort in Cartagena. I didn't get a picture of it when we were there, but was going to save that picture but can't find it today. Was it removed and if so, would the person who originally posted it PM me if possible? Thanks!

Chris,

We have that Picture that you are wanting, Russ took the picture of the boots. I sent you all the pictures in your personal email. Let me know if you need anything else.

Hope to see you soon.

Your friends,

Dawn

 

[got2travel]

Hi everyone! When I got back from the trip (and the 5 night following and a few days at WDW), my father had to have triple bypass surgery, so needless to say, things have been crazy and this is my first chance to log in here. He seems to be doing well so far, and was moved out of CICU today and into a regular room.

Hey Julie - your father will be in my prayers. I've been there. My mom has been through 2 separate bypass surgeries (4 the first time, then 3 9 yrs later), along with a bunch of stints and angioplastys in between. And she has made it through beautifully.

Hang in there and hugs to you and the girls.