9/23/06 Let's go!!!! Who's with us???

[Euphscott]

Welcome aboard Lisa.

You will love the ship and experience without children. My wife and I took 4 cruises without kids. This sailing will actually be our first with, so it will be a new experience for us.

 

[sftnslky]

Good morning everyone. Hope your Friday is going well. We SURVIVED the Wiggles last night ... THE KIDS LOVED THEM. I think everyone small child in Stockton was there, but we had a BLAST

What is on for everyones weekend? We actually are leaving the kids with a family member overnight so we can go down to Earls parents house and met with the Realtor. The contractors have finished remolding the WHOLE house... We havent seen it yet...wonder what it will look/feel like to not see it in the 60s/70s look to actually see it looking clean and modern. ..I know his Mom is loving it... Just wish she could have done it before they passed . Hopefully I can get hubby to go out for seafood for dinner... He HATES seafood but will go to Red Lobster since they have chicken stuff.

Have a great Friday all.... xoxoxoxo

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

Howdy everyone,
we just finished painting stencils of, , and on our pool deck. They came out really good considering they were drawn free hand by looking at figurines of the characters. After I get back from our 3 day cruise next weekend I will try to post a picture of them.
That really got me to thinking about a disney cruise!!!
Not much else going on around here this weekend, hope all is going well for the rest of you too.

Kathy

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

Good morning everyone

It is May 1st,

We are now one month closer to our cruise


It will be here before you know it!!


Hope you all have a great week,

Kathy

 

[Euphscott]

Happy Monday.

It was a busy weekend in Texas - lots of fun spring storms, but no damage.

I noticed a thread talking about Cozumel and the port. It sounds more likely we'll be going there without any further hurricane activity.

Happy new week!

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

Howdy everyone,
well I found the clothes I wanted ,and I am all set to cruise on Thursday.

I wish you were all coming too, but since that cant be this time ,I will make sure we eat extra desserts, , steaks, and for all of you.

I am on today.

Have a great week everyone.

Kathy

 

[yazee1]

Hi, Heidi, Becca, Scott, Angela, Cheri, Kathi, Valerie, Lisa and I know I'm forgetting someone,

The red links of the trip chain are gone! May is yellow. I don't know about you all, but with so many spring things to do, the time really flies. Before we know it, blue, I mean June will be here.

I noticed a thread talking about Cozumel and the port. It sounds more likely we'll be going there without any further hurricane activity.

That's what I was thinking too, Scott. At this point, it's six of one, half a dozen of the other as to how I feel about either port. Any port would suffice. Too bad we're not leaving in 4 weeks instead of 4 months.

Kathy, I hope you too have a great time. We'll be on a water craft this weekend too, but not on the scale of a cruise ship. It's my son's Scout rafting trip this weekend.

Hi to Lisa. If you haven't been to the yahoo group site, yet, check us out. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sailinginseptember We've started posting pictures and there's a "cheat sheet" in the database that any member can add their information to. If you'd like to join, drop me a line.

Until later, Monica

 

[strawberryblonde]

Kathy - have a great time on your cruise!

Monica - are the kids remembering to rip off the links now? How fun to be into another color.

We still have our company. We set up camp on the beach tomorrow so I'll be offline all weekend. I am finding it hard to stick to healthful eating while they are here. Too many Hawaiian sweet rolls and ice-creams .

 

[Euphscott]

That sort of diet is simply training exercises for cruising!

 

[sftnslky]

Good morning every]one...I hope everyones Thursday is going well, probably not as well as Kathy's since she left us all behind Actually I hope she is having a blast. But she better be thinking about all of us

This week has been SOOOO busy. Between kids, hubby, hubbys parents estate stuff, church, and having shelving and cubbards put up in our garage it has been a whirl wind week, and its not even over But on an EXTREMELY happy note... after 13 years I am getting a BRAND new washer and dryer... The HUGE ones they make...that washes like 26 extra large bath towles and king size bed comforters. I have been trying to do wash for 6 people with a medium size washer and a small dryer... not fun....not fun at all Home Depot was running a special.. 12 months NO payments and NO intrest as long as you pay it off before the last day of the 12th month.. Did that just make sense?? Well, i'm sure you all understand. So we bit the bullet and ordered them...

Well I need to go and finish making some deviled eggs and homemade potato salad to go with dinner... I am grilling some polish sausage and onions on the bbqer.... add some toasted garlic bread and you got yourself a yummy dinner!! Have a great afternoon all.... bye

 

[yazee1]

I am grilling some polish sausage and onions on the bbqer.... add some toasted garlic bread and you got yourself a yummy dinner!!

Yes, sounds yummy. Also sounds like heartburn if I was eating it. That's great about the washer and dryer. As goofy as it sounds, I can't wait for our appliances to bite the dust so I can get nice ones. When we renovated our last house, we had no idea we'd have to move to another state 2 years later. So be it. All our carefully selected appliances are making someone else's life a little easier. Meanwhile, we bought a house with cheap, old, noisy but damnedly reliable appliances.

Kathy must be loving life right now. I would almost consider moving to Florida if it mean more Disney cruises in our life.

 

[vpalmer]

Hello! I decided to hop on over here and introduce myself. I've been on the board since January, but have stuck with the main cruise forum and Disneyland forum. However, I have felt compelled to come over here and "meet" you all. You see, I'm the Original poster of the "My heart is breaking" thread about Dave and his family. There has been such an amazing response to that thread, that it made me realize there's some wonderful DISers I need to meet who I'll be cruising with. So, here I am!
I haven't had a chance to read through this thread yet, but I plan on doing so over the next couple of days (especially since my hubby is leaving for a business trip to London). My name is Lisa, and my husband is Dave. We live in Campbell, California, which is just on the border of San Jose in the Bay Area. We have two children, DD age 8 and DS age 6. Dave and I will be taking our first Disney cruise on 9/23 WITHOUT THE KIDS! We are going to be so busted, but we figure the kids will eventually forgive us. We're telling them we're "going to check it out" before booking a December '08 trip for all of us.
I teach Spanish part-time at the private school my kids attend, and really enjoy travel and scrapbooking (they go together nicely!). Dave works in manufacturing at a high-tech company. I'm a Disney fiend...I grew up 1 1/2 hours from Disneyland, so I tell Dave that trips to Disneyland aren't vacation....they're just a part of my family culture. Thankfully, he buys it! Now, we live 5 hours from Disneyland, but it's still close enough to go once or twice a year. So, to "vacation" with Disney, we go to WDW (we've been twice), or on a cruise (yippee!).
I can't wait to read more about you when I have a few (Or many) minutes...and to meet y'all in September.
Lisa

Hi Lisa!

It's so great to have you here! From your initial post, it sounds like we have a lot in common. I grew up in northern California in a little tow called Willits, I actually speak Spanish as well and my father is actually Hispanic, and I love scrapbooking! Oh, and I am Disney fiend as well. I actually just uploaded several scans from my daughter's autograph scrapboook to Photobucket. I may try and see if I can get them into our Yahoo group somehow since there is now a fellow scrapbooker on board.

 

[Euphscott]

Happy cinco de Mayo everyone. More importantly, it is Friday and pay day.

Of course we coudl be on a cruise ship and that would be even better, but we are in the 4 month and change range, so it's not so bad.

I am actually working a catering job tonight for a Cinco de Mayo party. It should be interesting and it's some good and easy money. It's never too early to grab spending money!

TGIF...

 

[yazee1]

Hey, Scott. Tell us about the party!

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

Howdy everyone,
we ll we made it back from another great cruise

It took a long time to get to the port due to the smoke from the brush fires. Lots of roads were closed but they didnt put up any detour signs. Everytime we went to another road it would be closed. Time was passing very quickly!! I am so glad we didnt miss the ship. we usually get to the port at 10 but it was closer to 2:30 this time. we finally found a couple of cruise buses that were full of people so we followed the DCL buses to cocoa beach and then to the terminal. By the time we got on board DH ran for the buffet, I dumped the carry on luggage in the room and dashed up to the 3 p.m. dis board meet. i met lots of nice people, several who had been having the same problems as us in getting to the port.
But after getting all stressed all morning it felt really good to relax after we got on board.
After the meet we had the safety drill and the life vests are much more comfortable than the old ones. Then off to the sail away party
High Frequency was the band this time, they did a good job. I think it is so funny to hear them sing because 4 of them dont really speak english! They sing english, but dont speak it at all. Gabor the drummer speaks good english, but he is it. We have talked with him a few times on other cruises.
Anyway the ship wasnt full so the party was good, but not super crowded as it usually is. Then we went up on deck 10 to watch us pull out, but we left 15 minutes late. Then the harbor patrol had to keep zipping out ahead of us to clear the little boats out of the way. I couldnt believe those small boats just sitting in the way!! No dolphins this trip, but plenty of Pelicans and a bald eagle flew just over head. He was huge!! We had late dinner seating so stayed up on deck for a long time. I waved at all of you on the two palms camera!!
WE had great weather the entire trip. We watched our friend Don and Tommie perform every evening which was great fun for us. we love it when we connect with them sometimes. Once while we were visiting with them the Captain came by and introduced himself to us. We had never met captain Henry before so that was a extra perk this time.
We also learned that the Charles Marshal band no longer works for DCL if any of you are fans of them. I am sorry but they wont be back.
Food was excellant, shows were awesome as usual.
At Nassau it was very hot, we just did some shopping and walked around. They did make the straw market larger when they re built it after it burned down. So that was nice. we did find some nice wooden carvings of fish for our tropical living room and a wooden ship that hangs on the wall too. So I was very happy about that. The straw market had lots of new items this year and a little better quality for the most part. Then we got back on board and relaxed for awhile. I did watch the ice carving event which was really fun too.
On CC it was very HOT!!! great for the swimmers though!!

We did the pirate scavenger hunt. Some of the clues were very obscure, so it was a little tricky on a couple of them, but it was fun. I ttook us about an hour to figure it out and then we got our pirate booty!!
We rode bikes around both the trails on CC. The new trail is 5000 feet long and it's a good wide, smooth path. we really enjoyed that. Then it was time for lunch. By now it was really hot so we snuck back to the ship for a quick dip in the adult pool while people were on CC. Only a couple of people there, so that was really refreshing. DH forgot he had his ID in his pocket and soemone found them in the bottom on the pool and found him to give them to him. We couldnt thank her enough!!!
Most of our trip was just destressing after moving and a job promotion adjustments, and that is what we did. we listened to lots of music all over the ship and just destressed. It was great. I ran into other disers all 3 days and it was so nice to hear all the fun they had been having. For most it was their first cruise. So that really added to the fun of the entire trip!! The ship had a strange quiet noise we couldnt figure out, then we found out from our friends that one of the ships propellers had been bent and divers had checked it out, but couldnt fix it so the entire propeller will have to be replaced soon.
we had even worse smoke on the way home, but we just drove up the coast for a few miles and then cut inland which worked just fine.
If I think of something else I will let you know, but it is late and i am tired,so I will get back to you.
Hope everyone had a great weekend, I know we did.
Kathy

 

[yazee1]

Kathy, that was a very interesting trip report. I'm going to read it again.

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

I forgot to tell you guys that one difference this time was the smoking policy on the outside decks had changed.
all open decks are smoking on the Port side and no smoking on the starboard side. accept at the mickey pool which it totally no smoking, although we saw several people smoking there. This is a trial period for now to see how it works out. I dont know if it is on the Magci too. The signs are tiny to see, but it is listed in the navigator.
I hated the new Navigator. The basic navigator is ok but the part that lists events and the time and place of those events is terrible. You readit across the page and the time is sideways above it, some kids stuff is listed too, so that can add to the confusion althugh it is marked. But if your new to DCL you wont know how much easier the old one was. But also if youve never cruised DCL and you look at the navigator and it says "Walk the Plank" you will be thinking, what is that? So then you have to skim back through the Navigator to find a description of the event to see what it is. Before it was all together, so much easier that way. I know you will read all the descriptions at first, but there are too many to remember, so you will have to stop and go back and look them up. Not a big deal I guess, but very un necessary if it was done the old way. The CM's hate it too. The times were off on a few events everyday!! People were upset when they arrived at 2 and they found out it started at 1:30 and was over. This happened to us a couple of times, then we wised up and started asking CM's when things were going to be. Hopefully they will have this corrected by the time we cruise .
Kathy

 

[Euphscott]

Sounds like a load of fun Kathy - I am glad you enjoyed your time and are back safe and sound. Being a non smoker (and really bothered by it) I am thrilled with the smoking trial. It is a nice balance - here's hoping it works for everyone.

I've seen the new Navigator's online. I actually like the look of them. Then again, my brain works like a spreadsheet, so that probably adds to my appreciation. We shall see when get onboard.

As for my party Friday night - it was interesting. It was at a home in an exclusive area of Dallas. The homeowner was an investment service guy that I had actually heard of before arriving. His wife now owns an online dating service. The party was for employees of this service. The party was a Cinco de Mayo event. They moved it inside as we've been having a lot of rain and thunderstorms over the last week. Weather held during the party, but as we ended the heavens opened up. So, being indoors was positive. The house has a pool and pool deck indoors, so there was plenty of space and decorations. The party was kicked off by the host riding in on a donkey! It was a nice party. The hosts were very friendly and not the least bit condescending. They never treated us like hired help and were very thankful when we finished. It was easy money and decent fun (as much as one can while working in a service job!).

Happy Monday gang!

Oh - I forgot to mention we got our planning package from DCL this weekend. Having cruised before with Disney and checking online, there is nothing in it new to us, but it somehow reinforces that we really are cruising soon since the general public cannot get this package.

 

[yazee1]

Thanks for the report Scott. I'm glad it was a pleasant assignment for you. I think I would have liked to be there just to see the goings-on and to see what rich people wear to this kind of party. Dh and I were invited to a "bbq" at his friend's parents' house years ago. It turned out his friend lived in a family compound in an exclusive part of Virginia. The home was bigger than the middle school where I was teaching at the time, and there were more people on the catering crew than in the teaching staff at my school. Except for the fact that dh's friend gave us all helicopter rides, it was pretty ordinary event. The host family was really nice.

We haven't received our planning package, but we also haven't paid the balance of our bill yet either. Maybe, we'll get our package once we take care of that?


I never gave the smoking policy much thought. It didn't seem like it was much of an issue when we were on the Magic last April. Of course, there were places it might have been allowed that we just didn't go to. So, smoking is not allowed on one side of the family pool? The adult pool? I really should read the policy. I will later. There must be a storm coming, I'm getting a sinus headache and I can't concentrate.

 

[Euphscott]

Oh, the employees were not much to look at from a money standpoint. Frankly, my wife and I probably earn more than they do! Most of them are young folks in their first professional jobs. But the home was certainly something to take in. He is a big political contributor, so he has all the obligatory pictures with presidents and senators and so on.

My understanding of the new policy is that you split the ship down the middle and the right side is smoking, left is non (or reverse - whichever the case may be). That is a nice thing. While smokers will argue that once outside it all dissipates and harms no one, if you are in a deck chair and are down wind from a smoker that pulls up in front of you - it's not so pleasant. And conversely, those not wanting the smoke make it uncomfortable asking them not to smoke. Setting a designated area makes us all aware of our boundaries. And should everyone play by the rules, should be a terrific set-up.