Thanks for the happy banana dance. that's exactly how I felt about it too! LOL
In the midst of all the fluff that Roger was posting trying to get another
, question was raised if we wanted to pick a day and everyone try for Palo brunch that day when we are booking on the 19th, that way we would have a bunch of
s together for the same brunch (affectionately called a "couples brunch" although this should by no means be viewed as a disinvitation to the solo cruisers).
There is a planning
board thread here to discuss, complete with a poll for which day would be best.
Thanks for the link!!!
For us in the Lone Star State it would be 11:00pm on May 18th.
Coral
Wow thanks for that awesome info. that works out so much better for me because I'm so NOT a morning person. I thought if it's like 4-5am I'm in trouble... LOL I'm totally a night person though so this is per-fect!
Personally, I'm sure you have the legs to pull it off....but I have to say that I'm glad you have the good taste and sense to not try.
You're still young....but I hate seeing women in their 40's and up wearing short skirts and low cut tops....ewwww. And up here, we see a LOT of that. Money doesn't buy your age back.
Aw come on. I'm getting close to 40 and only JUST getting to the point where I don't care what other people think and now I can't show off the ta-tas? *pout*
(I'm totally kidding and if you knew me and saw how I dress you'd know that. Stacey knows... LOL)
Now that I am caught up (for the moment!) I'm remembering that a lot of us were posting our plans for the various ports. Here is our list...
Cabo - Still unsure. I'm leaning toward joining everyone on the beach and maybe the little boat trip to Los Archos, but I need to discuss with DH and get his thoughts. The ONLY thing that I've seen that might interest me there is the glass factory where you can watch them create art glass - but I'm not sure it is worth the effort to get a taxi an go over there since I don't get the impression it takes that long to "tour" the factory.
Puerto Vallarta - Zip Lining for DH & DS9. I will be staying safely on the ground as an observer. I'm hoping to have some DIS friends to chat with and will have my camera so I can play around with that while I wait.
Acapulco - We are just going to walk over to the Fort and look around there. I LIKE historical stuff. If the fort doesn't take long, then I am thinking of walking down toward the Zocala (central square) and stopping at the "House of Masks" museum on the way.
Cartegena - Hopefully a tour with our Pirate group and mr. Emerald. I really want to see the old walled city. If that doesn't work out, we'll take a
DCL tour but it worries me that will be 90% shopping - I've always avoided the cruise line "city tour" type thing. We usually do stuff on our own, but DH isn't comfortable with that in Columbia (and the in-laws think we should stay on the ship!).
Aruba - Pirate snorel trip with Jolly Roger! If there is any extra time, this is the one place I want to try and shop a little. We had a great time here over 15 years ago and I bought some inexpensive jewelry and DH bought really cool decorative masks. I'm not big into shopping and definitely don't care for the t-shirts and souveniers type stuff - but 15 years ago we found a lot of interesting and varied shops in Aruba.
Pamela
I was gonna ask what people are planning in Cartegena.
Did some "researching" on this- the majority of our excursions are gonna have to be disney sanctioned (or sponsored or whatever you call it) so we can use onboard credits from DCL and
travel agent to pay for them!
Anyway our plans may be a bit different than others- we're not big on shopping and we're also not really all that big on going to beaches. to us they are all the same. (sorry -don't mean to offend anyone!) we plan on doing beach time at CC....
so our plans... tentatively and depending on if the "times" for these things work/cooperate with one another are:
Cabo: We're thinking at this port DH and I are gonna do the B.O.B. underwater adventure together... might the only way I'm gonna get under water like that and looks like fun.
Not sure what we'll do after that -depends on what time this is.. but we were thinking go back to ship and get the kids and do a little "touring and/or shopping". We want to atleast say the kids got off the ship at the ports- if only for a short time. LOL
Puerto Vallerta: either dolphin swim together as family OR eldest daughter dolphin trainer for a day with me as observer since I'm not interested in doing all that stuff but parent has to be there atleast as observer cost. She wants to be a marine biologist when she grows up and specifically work with dolphins- so this would be a taste of that! She has to get those grades up for last 6wks of school though... we'll see.
If she does that trainer for a day with me as observer- not sure what the other kids will do but probably on ship- DH scuba diving alone... or possibly DH and son doing extreme amphibian together. Poor youngest DD can't do a whole lot of stuff at her age/size on this cruise.
later -teen cruise for eldest dd..... and we're teetering between either evening horseback/bbq/show or rhythms of night cataraman/dinner/show
Acapulco: all of us cliff divers/tour
Cartegena: not a clue what to do here
Aruba: DH and son doing seatrek & DePalm Island (dive helmets- only dive that son is old enough without being certified diver- and it says min 80lbs, checked- as of today he weighs surprisingly 83lbs. He doesn't look it so yeah I checked LOL he better not go thru a "skinny" phase this summer.. which he sometimes does in the summer with all the swimming and activities! we might have to fatten him up a bit on the cruise before this port.
Me/eldest dd and youngest dd Depalm Island Getaway and HOPING that the two things will coincide at the island/waterpark at the same time so we can do that part as a family- all 5 of us. I wouldn't look forward to being on the beach and waterpark in a foreign place with the 2 kids by myself.. of extremely different ages so obviously they won't sit and play on the beach together or want to do the same waterpark slides/etc.- I need Jeff's eyes also LOL
CC: Jeff reluctantly playing rugby (He said he looked it up online and he's still confused how to play rugby.) I said no one will care. but I might be on the sidelines doing this
eldest dd thinking about letting her do The Wild Side (bike/kayak/snorkel) and teen banana boat. And spending time on the family beach/snorkeling/etc with the younger two like we did last time.
Those are our tentative plans...... again hoping that the times coordinate with one another.
Do our plans sound impossible or stupid or that we'll be disappointed? whatcha think?
There are a lot of tours to a lot of nice historic things we'd like to see- BUT after the super long excursion we did at one port on the last cruise and being so miserable walking around in the heat/humidity for hours... we decided that's not our cup of tea. LOL
Chris is getting the estimates this week . . . now that we have an idea of how many pirates/how many buses we are talking about we should have the per person price posted here soon. We are still working out how to get people to pay -- Paypal in advance and/or check/cash in advance, or as you board the bus with me on one and Wendy on the other (although we don't want to have a lot of people not do it at the last minute and end up eating the cost!). The best will probably be to require payment in advance in some way and then have me and Wendy each be in charge of checking people off a list at each of the buses.
More details will be posted SOON!
Thanks for the update on info/etc! What y'all decide is fine with us.
I have really slacked in the *life skills* teaching with the 3 still at home... My older 2 could clean, cook, do laundry, etc.... In fact when they thought I was in a bad mood the oldest would do all the laundry and his sister would clean the house!
17dd doesn't even understand *pick up the family room*
I guess that's what happens to youngest children (her big brother & sister di everything!)
LOL
My youngest is trying her HARDEST to BE like this (ie: not learn stuff)- she tries to pawn off any cleaning, even her own room, on her siblings. yes born a princess and fighting hard to stay that way. LOL (and we're fighting equally hard to keep her from being that way!)
all - today has been an experience.
Had the flight from heck but at least I am here.
I am bone weary - seeing as I got about 1 1/2 hr sleep on Wednesday am. We ended up at LAX at 8 w/o any problems and for once had the most friendliest personnel there. It was very nice to see them smiling. DH forgot to sign his new passport and the TSA employee was very nice about it and in a friendly manner handled him his pen to sign the passport. I thought for a minute that I was in the Twilight Zone.
Anyway, bad trip - there must have been about 12 kids on the plane, all in the back section with about 9 of the them being under 3 yrs old. A couple sets of twins and one set that didn't stop screaming, punching the seats and jumping up and down the whole 4 hrs and 15 minutes. His sister fell asleep about 1/2 way through the flight so it wasn't as bad as it could have been.
But then we hit some tubulence near Loveland, TX and then again near MISS. It as not a pretty sight. DH almost lost it - and I got a bit queasy myself.
Anyway, we are here at SSR. TOmorrow is our little mini-meet - hope all goes well, I am in zombie mode right now but DH is sawwing away and I can't sleep - surprise, surprise, surprise. Well, plenty of time for that later right?
Anyway, finally got a hold of our Cpt Jack and he may not get around to the meet as he has some family obligations. That's ok - we may try and meet up with him later. Depends on if I can recover - I think that for the last 48 hrs - I've had a total of oh - 4-5 hrs sleep. Am seriously debating on getting a massage since it looks like I won't be able to on the
.
OK - all the eyes are droopping - talk to you all later.
so glad you made it safely!!!!
Arlene has something to ask you!!
Remind her!!!
Have a great trip 
) and hem it up.
and prayers to everyone who is going to need it today
aboard to all the newbies
