8/17/08 Captain Jack's Repossession Repo Cruise to PC thru TPC Part 2

[dahuffy]

I am still looking for airfares.. We can drive to Milwaukee too. I'll check into that

Still looking on this end too. Kev wants me to book the return flight first. He seems to think that because it's a holiday,it'll fill up faster.

 

[winotracy]

Thanks Terri! We also try to fly non-stop since there is less risk of problems and it is quicker. Being near Chicago, we can nearly always get non-stop flights. I'm glad to hear you are happy with AirTran - I am so used to flying SouthWest and United that I just don't know much about the other airlines.

Pamela (pdarrah)

We've flown AirTran a few times and have been happy with them. Our flight was $99 plus tax of course so I couldn't go wrong with that. I know a lot of people that go to Chicago from her to fly but I haven't found the savings when you add on the time and parking/gas or bus to get there.

 

[dahuffy]

Thanks , its good to be missed ..LOL



Monica - from Destin,Dylan , Melissa and I .......

Wanted to ask, how is Dylan doing by the way? I seem to remember you saying that he won't be joining you, because of band,wasn't it?

 

[m&m's mom]

Still looking on this end too. Kev wants me to book the return flight first. He seems to think that because it's a holiday,it'll fill up faster.

Debi- you may not want to come down but I am getting fairly good rates out of DFW.
Can you flight straight from OKC?


Coral

 

[pdarrah]

We've flown AirTran a few times and have been happy with them. Our flight was $99 plus tax of course so I couldn't go wrong with that. I know a lot of people that go to Chicago from her to fly but I haven't found the savings when you add on the time and parking/gas or bus to get there.

We are "lucky" to live almost equal distance from Ohare and Midway. With the traffic here, it takes about 1 hour to get to either airport and the parking costs are crazy. I'm willing to park for a 4 or 5 day trip - but no way for a trip this long! We'll use a limo to get to the airport when we fly out (probably Ohare) since it will be an evening flight and bad traffic and beg my father to pick us up on the return since we get in during the middle of the afternoon and it shouldn't be too bad.

Pamela (pdarrah)

 

[GoofyontheHiSeas]

Geez I hope we don't spend that much. We're not good at budgeting. In fact we never budget, but fly by the seat of our pants & hope for the best! I'm thinking that if I keep my bar bill down by bringing on some wine, only do a couple of excursions, keep the kids in check at the arcade & gift shop, & prepay our gratuity that maybe we can keep our on board acct. around the 2k mark? Of course I have to factor in a couple of games of bingo, Palo, etc. and I haven't decided about the spa yet. I'm not a spa kinda gal, but I might be tempted, Anyway all in all, it shouldn't be too bad I hope!

Looking at the online tip calculator I find the minimum recommended tip total would be $650. Knowing that we will be adding to the total will be somewhere between $750 to just under $1000 just for the tips. A couple of trips to Palo (We are interested in the couples brunch as well), excursions hopefully under $250/port, souvenirs and a minimal bar bill could add up to a couple of thousand without really trying. Last year for our trip to WDW I made out a complete spreadsheet with everything that I could think of and had that much put away. It was the first trip that I did not look like this when the final bill came. I will be starting a new one very soon.

 

[pdarrah]

Looking at the online tip calculator I find the minimum recommended tip total would be $650. Knowing that we will be adding to the total will be somewhere between $750 to just under $1000 just for the tips. A couple of trips to Palo (We are interested in the couples brunch as well), excursions hopefully under $250/port, souvenirs and a minimal bar bill could add up to a couple of thousand without really trying. Last year for our trip to WDW I made out a complete spreadsheet with everything that I could think of and had that much put away. It was the first trip that I did not look like this when the final bill came. I will be starting a new one very soon.

Hmmmm... I'm just trying to extrapolate rough numbers based on our past (shorter) cruises and extrapolating.

Tips: $500 (3 people)
Bar/Palo: $100-$150 (I can't have alcohol and DH brings his own wine and has maybe 2-3 drinks on a 7 night cruise. DS8 and I might have a few smoothies!)
Excursions: Aruba = $140 (already paid), might do 1 or 2 other DCL excursions (maybe Cartegena & Puerto Vallarta) - worst case maybe $300 (Not planning any dolphins!) We'll probably just see the fort in Acapulco and if there is any extra time walk around Old Acapulco and the Zocalo. No plans yet for Cabo, but probably will not do a DCL excursion.
Souveniers/Shopping: We don't shop much at the ports, but we tend to get some DCL stuff on board. I would be surprised if we went over $300.
Bingo: Usually DH plays a couple of times. DS8 has been saving his money for nearly a year so he can play Bingo and go to the arcade. We might give him money toward those at his b-day in May, so I am only counting DH's spending which should be under $100
Spa: I'm not really a spa person - I do like the Rainforest Room, so I will probably pay for that a few days - so maybe around $50.
Internet Access: Happily, DH's work will pay for that!

I think this totals out around $1400-$1600 (including Aruba which isn't really an "on board" expense). Unless or course I have missed something!

Pamela (pdarrah)

 

[arlenesp]

You are all going to make me start my list aren't you!!!!!!!!!!!


evil just evil i say!


Chrissie

No list yet, too soon.

LOVE MY MAC ...I cant even begin to explain , I have been waiting to convert for awhile and I am so happy we finally did ...Im still learning but its getting easier by the day , and more simple too ...We kinda splurged since it was the end of the year and we changed our whole office so I got the 24 Imac My sweet Melissa got the 20 Imac and we also got the macbook so we would have a laptop when we travel ...so if you have any questions I will try my best to answer what I can , as I am still learning all the cool and easy things you can do with a mac ...

DD has a macmini and laptop. She loves it.
DS got it for her when she went back to school. The look on her face was priceless when he gave it to her. First he brought in the monitor, then the keyboard and mouse . (He had put the macmini in a bag and put it on the desk before she got in there). For those not familiar with it, this is what it looks like http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APP...USB4786733&esvadt=999999-0-54169-1&esvid=2001 She was looking all over for the usually large case and you could tell she was confused When she saw how tiny it was she couldn't believe it. She absolutely loves it.

Just a FYI. Listening to the news this am Southwest is cutting back on their flight to OIA. Here is the link http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/orl-southwest1008jan10,0,5456818.story?track=rss
Looks like just inbound is affected.

Monica, My thoughts are with you. Hopefully, things will be fine and work out for both of you.

 

[DisneyVegas1]

Wanted to ask, how is Dylan doing by the way? I seem to remember you saying that he won't be joining you, because of band,wasn't it?

Yes , He wont be on the cruise because of Band and Football...But he will be in Disneyland for the March Meet

 

[goofyforlife]

Personally, I blame it on the Rum...

But was it all done without a single drop of RUM?

BUT WHY IS THE RUM ALL GONE??????????????

Well Pirates, so much for my hope of 2008 being better than 2007. DS is in the hospital again for his depression. I really don't know how much more of this I can take. Please pray for us.

Many hugs Monica to you and your son. From how my dr explained it to me once, we all get depressed during our lives. However for some of us it takes some medication and more time to get through those bad times than others. It must be the moon. My dd hasn't been doing well the past couple weeks either.

I have widely estimated we will need $3500-4,000 not including tips.

We only spent $750 ish for our 7 day and that included tips (well that and we had a $200 OBC in addition to that 750.)

I think we saved alot by bringing our own drinks onboard (They never have the stuff my dh likes anyway. And i'm a mtn dew junkie who is picky about bottled water.)

The highest portion of our bill was the 3 trips to Palo.

 

[tom31b]

BUT WHY IS THE RUM ALL GONE??????????????

Ask Captain Swann

 

[MrsScooby]

Well Pirates, so much for my hope of 2008 being better than 2007. DS is in the hospital again for his depression. I really don't know how much more of this I can take. Please pray for us.

How frustrating. Hope things turn around for the better

 

[Stepht5]

Anyone want to share what they are budgeting for their onboard acct?
We are planning on doing some excursion at every place but not the expensive dolphin swim etc.
I have widely estimated we will need $3500-4,000 not including tips.
We also are not planning on the most expensive spa options (spa villas) but will be spending some time in there.Since the qualifying cruise was for only 4 days it is hard to extrapalate into 15 days. Yal think I am inline with reality?
I know so much depends on a huge number of factors but I was just curious. I have the tips covered by my Disney credit cards rewards and I am putting my stock dividends the 1st 3 quarters of this year in a separate acct for other onboard expenditures.

Since your girls are young that is probably a good estimate.... For the 10nt with 4 adults & 3 children (one is a teenager) we spent 7 - 8,000. I'm hoping that with 2 less adults (I do realize that it is for 5 more nts......) that I can cut it by a couple of thousand....... We didn't do any mega expensive excursions (but, when it is 7 people it's alot of money no matter how you look at it! LOL!)
We only ate at Palo once for dinner & once for brunch.

 

[dahuffy]

Debi- you may not want to come down but I am getting fairly good rates out of DFW.
Can you flight straight from OKC?


Coral

The cheapest we've seen from here is on Frontier and nothing that's non-stop. We thought about possibly leaving from DFW but Kev has to work the 15th.

 

[Stepht5]

We've been a mac family since the 80's. Had one PC in the mid-90's and never again. I have an Imac and both dd's have mac books. Over the holidays we had all three going at the same time with the mac airport.

Barbara

We've had 5 or 6 Macs.... But, we had to switch to PC's in the mid to late 90's.... For gaming purposes. DH has an Alienware......

Dh & 27ds used to run a gaming server -- they still have a website, etc...

 

[Stepht5]

Debi- you may not want to come down but I am getting fairly good rates out of DFW.
Can you flight straight from OKC?


Coral

I offered to let her park her car at my house -- my IL's will be living next door and it is a gated community.....

 

[MrsScooby]

You are all going to make me start my list aren't you!!!!!!!!!!!


evil just evil i say!


Chrissie

I wasn't ready to start my list either, but now I'll have to just to stop worrying about it

Anyone want to share what they are budgeting for their onboard acct?
We are planning on doing some excursion at every place but not the expensive dolphin swim etc.
I have widely estimated we will need $3500-4,000 not including tips.
We also are not planning on the most expensive spa options (spa villas) but will be spending some time in there.
Since the qualifying cruise was for only 4 days it is hard to extrapalate into 15 days. Yal think I am inline with reality?
I know so much depends on a huge number of factors but I was just curious. I have the tips covered by my Disney credit cards rewards and I am putting my stock dividends the 1st 3 quarters of this year in a separate acct for other onboard expenditures.

That sounds like a pretty realistic estimate

Geez I hope we don't spend that much. We're not good at budgeting. In fact we never budget, but fly by the seat of our pants & hope for the best! I'm thinking that if I keep my bar bill down by bringing on some wine, only do a couple of excursions, keep the kids in check at the arcade & gift shop, & prepay our gratuity that maybe we can keep our on board acct. around the 2k mark? Of course I have to factor in a couple of games of bingo, Palo, etc. and I haven't decided about the spa yet. I'm not a spa kinda gal, but I might be tempted, Anyway all in all, it shouldn't be too bad I hope!

Fly by the seat of my pants is more my style too I have a Red Door Salon near home, so don't want to spend cruise money on spa treatments that I can get at home I'm also a light weight when it comes to drinking, so won't be spending much money there Andrew, Kelly and I have become pin collectors so that's where a good bit of our money goes

We've had 5 or 6 Macs.... But, we had to switch to PC's in the mid to late 90's.... For gaming purposes. DH has an Alienware......

Dh & 27ds used to run a gaming server -- they still have a website, etc...

My son Andrew is a huge World of Warcraft fanatic. He keeps asking me if anybody here plays.

 

[dahuffy]

I offered to let her park her car at my house -- my IL's will be living next door and it is a gated community.....

hmmm

 

[tiggrbaby]

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[m&m's mom]

I offered to let her park her car at my house -- my IL's will be living next door and it is a gated community.....

hmmm

Funny- me too.
Debi- I am on your way from OK to the airport. I am just a few miles off of 35. Fenced neighborhood but not gated (guess we were too cheap to pay for the gate ).