A taste of DCL in Chicago - My Winnie the Pooh-ool Story

[atigeg]

After all the discussion of the Mickey Pool here lately, I felt like I had a little bit of DCL tonight at the health club. There is one large pool outside and two inside...a big one with slides and a lap pool. The big indoor pool was closed...turned out there was a Winnie the Pooh-ool situation during family swim. They didn't drain it completely, but they were pumping some water out with a huge industrial pump and adding chemicals. I ended up swimming outdoors, which is quite a feat in Chicago at this time of year! It's 73 degrees, but the pool outside is like bath water so you just have to make a run for it when you get out. As I was leaving, a noticed a man totally disregarding the "Pool Closed" sign and swimming in the Winnie pool. You'd think he would realize that it was closed for a reason...yuck!!
Barb
Visit the Platinum Castaway Club at: www.castawayclub.com

 

[DreamsDoComeTrue]

Euwwww!
(He must not be a CM. )

 

[Dave_from_Marietta]

Not exactly on the same topic, but this reminds me...

I thought of you recently, Barb, when I was traveling. I've been swimming for fitness about 4 months now, so when I was in Baltimore recently, I visited a sister health club to use their pool. The pool had just reopened after some chemical leveling... well, the chlorine levels were so high, my swimsuit became extremely faded. It reminded me of your warnings about how much chlorine they sometimes use in the spas onboard DCL... that Tony once had a suit become extremely faded!

 

[atigeg]

Dave,

several of our swimsuits have changed color (and also self destructed) from the chemicals in the hot tubs on the ship. To be fair, I've also lost them to hotel pools. But it's not going to stop me from using the pools and hot tubs. We just buy several new ones every year and they sort of last.

But because we now know about the chemicals, we each have one suit set aside just to hot tub. This year's cruise suit started out as a medium gray, on their first cruise they went to a bright orange, and now have settled to a burnt orange. It should hold together for the last cruise of year, but they lost a lot of color during the 3 peat.

 

[natsmom125]

HI Y'ALL...

Barb and Tony....remember on our cruise when Jim was with y'all in the Hot Tub??? He had on a new Tommy Bahama suit that was I believe blue with tan bamboo branches on it...well, it's now all TAN BAMBOO....I think that will be his hot tub suit from now on!!!!!

Gosh Barb....73 degrees.....it's 73 degrees here at Christmas!!!
It was 90 today.....thats a cold wave here.....lol

Miss ya'll.......

Phyllis

 

[FantasticDisFamily]

Hey Barb,

I just printed off that last post on losing color in the hot tubs as a reminder! DH had that happen once at a hotel and now that I read it I remember DD's lost some color during our last cruise but we didn't notice it until we came home and it came through the laundry. At the time I chalked it up a different problem.

DH just bought an awesome new Nautica suit - I printed your post to remind him to wear the OLD one in the hot tubs! We hope to have more time for such activities on this upcoming cruise as kids won't need as tight supervision - more adult pool time (fingers crossed!)

Deb

OOPPSSS! Sorry Tony - I just realized you were posting & not Barb!

 

[atigeg]

Tony forgot to mention that on our three-peat, my hot tub suit finally self-destructed! The hot tub chemicals also seem to weaken and eventually destroy the elastic. Unfortunately, since the swimming season is over here, I'm going to have to hope my other suits hold up or pop the big bucks to purchase one at Sportmart. Interestingly, the chemicals in the whirlpools at our health club don't seem to be as potent...no color loss yet. But as Tony said, we won't let the fading keep us out of the DCL hot tubs!
And Phyllis, I'm jealous of your temperatures...we might still be able to swim outside this weekend, but I think that will be about it. By Christmas I'm sure it will be in the 20s...brrrrr! Thank goodness we're sailing in Jan. and Feb. (and March, in case it's still too wintery here).
Barb
Visit the Platinum Castaway Club at: www.castawayclub.com

 

[shmoogrrrl]

Hey! Does that Gym happen to be Lifetime Fitness? We belong to one here in VA and I haven't heard of too many other Gyms that had a family pool.

Kathy

 

[atigeg]

Yes, it's Lifetime Fitness...aren't they great?!
The family atmosphere is one of the things we really like about them. Even though we don't have children ourselves, I'd rather be at a health club with the family crowd than with the hard-cores. Hubby and I are major water people, so the pools (and waterslides) are a major advantage for us.
Barb
Visit the Platinum Castaway Club at: www.castawayclub.com

 

[shmoogrrrl]

Barb,

Have you gone down the Water slide?!?! WOW! I haven't gotten the nerve to do that yet! We aren't even sure if they have an age requirement at ours!

We also love Lifetime. We joined before it was even built here and I can't imagine a better set up to get me to the gym. Before Katie came along, Jeff and I actually went to the gym at 1:00 in the morning on weekends sometimes, just because we could! 24 hours is quite handy! The Nursery is cool too but we've only actually left Katie there once and they had to come get us because the poor thing became inconsolable. Normally we just take turns.

We don't have an outside pool at our gym. I always assumed it was because the DC area isn't exactly warm most ofthe year but goodness! If Chicago has one I wish we did!

Anyway, sorry for the strange question but it just sounded like Lifetime Fitness! I guess it really is a small world after all!

Kathy

 

[mcnuss]

Originally posted by atigeg
I'm going to have to hope my other suits hold up or pop the big bucks to purchase one at Sportmart. Barb
Visit the Platinum Castaway Club at: www.castawayclub.com

Barb -- Check Lands End on-line in the overstocks section for great deals on swimsuits in the off-season. My mom got a beauty last year for about $20, marked down from $75. And the best part, their suits are actually sized for normal women!

ABN

 

[inkkognito]

Thanks for the tip, mcnuss! I will definitely check out their website. I had done an online search for swimsuits but I found a lot of websites that I didn't like...all in the $80 to $100 range. I love Lands End...we used to have an outlet store here and hubby & I both found the greatest stuff.
Shmoogrrrl, yep, we use the slides all the time! There doesn't seem to be any age limit. The outdoor pool is almost the same as the indoor one, except that the slides are a little taller. We love the 24/7 too, as we are nightowls and like to visit very late on the weekends. I think we got home from there around 11 last night! I was afraid to join before it was built because there was another healthclub accepting pre-memberships at the same time, and then the owner took the money and ran! Turns out he had done the same thing in another town previously. Lifetime has been here for a year now, and since we do so much cruising, Tony and I have committed to working out regularly to burn off all that food
Barb
Visit the Platinum Castaway Club at: www.castawayclub.com

 

[Dave_from_Marietta]

I would love 24/7 as well. I'm not the night owl I once was since we started a family, but there are some nights where I'd rather be at the gym rather than tossing and turning. The YMCA where we are members has pretty good hours during the week, but it's a little frustrating racing to get in a weekend workout before they close at 6pm.

 

[Anne34]

We're in the SW Chicago burbs and there is a Lands End outlet store in Lombard (behind Yorktown Mall). We also go to the Lifetime Fitness in Burr Ridge -- my kids love the pools!! It's wonderful to swim when its 20 degrees outside!