April 17, 2004 -- anyone going with us?

[ehtpnt]

Hey this is the 300 th post on the thread. We are so great.
Do we have an official place to meet on embarkation day? That would be between boat drill and sail away. I think we do but can't remember what was decided. I don't want to go back and read the whole thread. Twenty or so pages is a bit more than I feel up to reading.

DH and I are spending a quiet evening by ourselves. The two DD have gone out with friends. Of course I have the dog and the three cats are pulling a Jan...they're lurking. Off to start the dinner for us. Estelle

 

[ehtpnt]

And a new page! Estelle

 

[rae519]

Ohhh, come on Estelle - go ahead and read all the pages!!!!


Actually, page 15 is the only one where we have our up to date listings and information. I am working with two cruise lists, so I don't want to mess US up by saying anything - but


We will be on Deck 10 - starboard side, mid ship (by the Goofy pool) AND waving to our dear friend Marie (who is making a sign for us) on the shore!

Possibly we can share shrimp and Mango Tangos at the embarkation buffet (Topsiders if nice/ Parrot Cay if not). I plan to be at the Port early (10AM).

Rae

 

[Luv2Dream]

Hello all...just checking in to say Hello. All this talk about shrimp is making me so hungry. Not too surprised that the Dolphin excursion booked in 1 hour, it does seem to be very popular and I hear they only take about 40 people. We got in that one at 8am when they opened. I didn't want to take any chances as my daughter talks about it constantly.

 

[ehtpnt]

I wanted to get to the dock early but I am having a bit of trouble convincing DH that he wants to be there as early as I do. Our friends plan to be on the first bus coming from the airport. So maybe I can convince him that early is goooood.
I will be the one wearing a shades of blue Mickey/Minnie Hawaiian print shirt. I bought it years ago at CB and love the thing. I always hope when we are at WDW that I'll see another I like as well but never have. And of course our lime green name tags which will go really well with my shirt...not. Oh well.

I will check out page 15 and see what the plans are. And I promise I will write them down. Then I will give them to the brains of the outfit. He'll remember.

Got to go as we have to go to the day care center and clean the dryer duct. We have bibs that an employee makes for us out of old jeans and they are heavy. Lately the dryer hasn't been getting them dry even when they are on the highest setting for an hour and a half. Dead giveaway that the duct is blocked. Oh this is such fun. Talk to you later. Estelle

 

[dianthus]

Rae~ We should post a recap a week before we sail of the who, what, when & wheres - 4 W's... I have pg. 15 bookmarked.

Wow! That dolphin excursion did go quick! After Taylor's little tango with 5 large Rays in Grand Cayman, she said she'd rather not this time. I think we're doing Beach Rendezvous, or Pinel- still not sure. Neither fill up like the dolphin one...

Jan~ you are too funny. When you asked about Little Louie, I just assumed you thought we had nicknamed something else! LOL! HA! HA! They are leather & a treated canvas. You've probably seen them all over & not know what they are- brown & gold, lots of it at airports. They make luggage too for the rich & famous... not for me. I use the no name bags now, as it gets so beat up traveling. Cheapo luggage is the only way to go...
AG Place. Took Taylor to the Chicago one a few years ago- it's awesome. We had high tea there in the Cafe, with the dolls. Pink, white. Black stripes & polka dots- adorable! Haven't been to the NYC one that just opened. Thank god Taylor's out of the AG phase now, except the AG Mini*s rooms. If was fun, but expensive. We're into fashion now, a la the little louie thing... Still fun & probably more expensive....

Deb- You are an atkins pro! Too bad I don't like tequila, but the margaritas sound good!... Someone told me about Rum & Pepsi Vanilla diet. That still sounds like cheating. I usually only drink a glass of wine now & then at home. I only seem to partake when I'm on vacation, or parties. I am a Cosmos woman~ as in the drink, not the mag... The chocloate martinis on the ship are really good too. Don't drink with the choc. lava cake... chocolate overload....

Estelle~ Can't look at another GS cookie after Taylor's 4 year stint with them. I was the brownie leader & cookie mom helper. At one point, we had 3000 boxes of those things in my friend's house... Those thin mints are the best though...

We will be at the port early too. Taking Happy Limo from MCO, as those buses are too slow. Taylor will bring the mickey mitts for the sailaway & I'll have my telephoto ready for Marie & her sign!

Zebra Stripes~ jealous of you in Orlando right now. We'll make sure we save some of the bad weather for you. Wouldn't want you to go soft on us now... only kidding.. actually we are having a georgeous day- almost 60 in the sun!!!! WOW. Believe or not, we have never been to Mohegan Sun or Foxwoods. We must be the only people in CT who haven't. We just don't gamble & the City is closer to us for shows. There was talk of bringing a casino to the old Union Carbide Complex here in Danbury because of the proximity to the city. It was squelched... Thank goodness. I don't think we need that in our little city... Too much traffic, right?!

Gotta run! Ciao!

~ Linda

 

[rae519]

Good idea Linda - re: reposting all the info. I edit the Page 15 list when someone new joins or something changes, but it is back there!!!!!

Chocolate Martinis???? I'm into Lemon Drop Martinis - they are sooooo good!

Estelle - I'll be looking for you!!!

Thinking about cutting my hair to about 1 - 1 1/2 inches all over this week. Decided I'm tired of dying it red and want to see just how salt and pepper looks, but I hate the "growing out" look, so it's either shave it off or deal with it!


MOST excellent sweet wine on the DCL:

J&H Selbach Piesporter Goldtropfchen Riesling Kabinett, Mosel - sells for $25.00/bottle or $5.25/glass. We bought the wine package in August because our table mates were a young Marine just back from the Middle East and his wife and young daughter. We wanted to do something special for them - so we shared our wine package with them. That was our all around favorite and one evening we had two bottles because we all liked it so much!!!


By the way, we can ask Shutters or one of our own to take a group photo of us right after the Safety Drill and before the Sail Away. IF anyone is interested ----

Rae

 

[lsutigger2]

Rae,
Would love an updated list of activities, etc a week before sailing or sooner if it is "final".

Just checking in also. Been a busy weekend and haven't been on the boards much.

Also, email is possessed again and it doesn't let me know when I have messages. Got to get it fixed!

It was 8 weeks yesterday. DH and I started working on a "budget". Hope we didn't forget anything.

Rae, DH doesn't eat shrimp *but I do!!* so you won't be having to "fight" him.

Later - having a birthday party at our house in about 1 1/2 hours and have some things to do.

 

[dianthus]

I love the Lemon Drop Martinis & the Appletinis are good too. We sat in Promenade one night with another couple & tried one of each. Maybe we could get them to concoct a Mango Tango one just for you! Haven't tried that sweet wine, but tried ice wine for the first time recently at a friends- i think it's german too. It was very good, but apparently very expensive...

You are brave to go that short, it'll be easy to take care of! I would love to get rid of the length, but I'm a pull back type into a clippy when I'm running around doing errands. This is the shortest I've had it & it's just above my shoulders- collar length & it seems like my hair is all gone. I am a chicken with cut & color! If you want to do salt & pepper, just have them strip the color and do highlights & lowlights with color with foil. Then it can grow out naturally. If you cut it that short, it'll be easy to do.

That Shutters idea is cool Rae. One of the photographers on the ship, "NES" loves Taylor- takes a billion + of her everytime we sail. She's asked to keep a few of her portraits we didn't buy for her portfolio. I'm sure if she can find her before the sailaway, she would be happy to do it for us. Then everyone could go home with a copy if they wanted one.

~ Linda

 

[ehtpnt]

I guess it's time to confess. DH and I are not drinkers. Especially me. The one time I actually drank an entire Long Island Iced Tea, I sat on the stairs and giggled like a fool for about 1/2 an hour. My two older girls were in the early stages of the teen years. You can imagine what they said. So I am careful what alcohol I take in. I did share a bottle of Asti with Jan on the 1st cruise, and managed that with out any trouble. I would probably love the sweet German wine. We did an event at WDW one year where we had dinner and wine from various chefs both from the world and from various noted restaurants. There was one wine I fell in love with and of course neither DH nor I could remember what it was afterwards. It could have been the one you described. I have sampled chocolate martinis when we were out with the two DDs who drink that sort of thing. I figure that since they don't really taste like alcohol I could probably drink most of one of those. Personally however I tend to be a virgin strawberry diquarrie ( I know that isn't spelled right) drinker.

Rae-- My mother wore her hair that short all her life. She had extremely curly hair and found that with it that short the struggle to detangle was a lot less. A funny story about her hair... a new neighbor asked her one day who did her hair since she wanted curls like that. My mother responded, "God and my father." I was totally embarressed, I was 9 and thought she was not funny at all. Much later I realized that she wasn't trying to be funny she meant it.

I think the idea of printing out the full plan some time before the cruise is a great idea. Just before the 14th. Maybe the Friday before would be good. That covers anyone who might be leaving early. We are leaving on the 15th to drive down. I can't wait. Almost all the snow has melted and left behind all the stuff that is solid ice. Where is spring?

Got to go day care workers are in need of the computer. Estelle

 

[rae519]

Not sure what I should do about my hair - DH is against the really short as is my Mom and Michael. Maybe Linda's suggestion will do it....will have to wait it out - have til Thursday!!!! AGGGHHH!

I also decided against buying the Sienna - something is nagging at me to "NOT GET IT" - I have learned from other premonitions that I have to go with what my gut feeling is. Dealership is being NASTY - the van hasn't even been made yet, and we've been waiting since December!!! So they aren't out any $$$$ - we gave a $1,000 deposit and I have asked for that back - they are balking, but I am sure they will come around....

Yes, the group picture would be very nice!!!!! If you can reach your friend, please do - in front of Lumiere's???

Anyway, time is getting short and I haven't even started packing - I think I need to get that going soon!!!!

Rae

 

[JLSE50]

I am eagerly awaiting the recipes for the Atkins-friendly mixed drinks--HINT !~! HINT !~! Can you use rum extract to make the run flavor?

Jan

 

[ehtpnt]

Jan-- rum flavor leads to run flavor? Okay that was poor even by my standards.

Rae-- too bad about the Sienna. We love ours. In fact this is the neighborhood of the Sienna. We have one and our next door neighbors have one. And neighbors down the street have one, they got theirs after we all got ours so we say ours are the parents and theirs is the offspring. How two green mini vans had a red one is nobodys' guess. LOL

Off now as DH just got home from running errands and wants lunch before he has to leave again. Estelle

 

[Skuba2]

Jan--you asked for it. A margarita can be done with crystal light lemon-lime drink mix. Mix it double strength and add tequila. No sugar needed. The rum punch I tried to fruitier crystal lights--but it doesn't taste as good as the real thing. And I am unsure if rum is carb free. Vodka is rum free and when mixed with pink lemonade is really good.

Happy drinking

Deb

 

[Skuba2]

Sorry--I meant I think Vodka is carb free--not rum free. LOL!

 

[dianthus]

Vodka, rum free? That's too bad! Talk about getting a bang for your buck, huh!? LOL!

 

[JLSE50]

Originally posted by ehtpnt
How two green mini vans had a red one is nobodys' guess. LOL Estelle

recessive genes

DEB: Thanks for the recipe ideas. I will add the crystal light to the shopping list. I have not had any since summer and then it was the raspberry one. (And that's the only raspberry thing I like--bad for someone whose favorite color is purple.)
There HAS to be a place to find out about carbohydrate content of alcohol. How about a google search?

Jan

 

[ehtpnt]

Okay here's a thought. It would seem to me that the carbohydrate level in alcohol would depend on what it was originally. In other words a lot of alcohol comes from various grains, rye, wheat or corn. The only one I can think of that doesn't is Vodka which comes, I think, from potatoes. At least real Russian stuff does. This information of course comes from the one who doesn't drink much except a very occasional glass of wine. That's from grapes and I'm pretty sure there aren't too many carbs in those. Of course what do I know.
Had a bit of a scare at the day care center yesterday. One of our babies spent the weekend in NICU. The word was that she had Whooping Cough. She is a little thing our youngest and the child of a staff person. She was a premie and at three monthes still only weighs about 10 pounds. However found out this morning that it is only a cold and she is doing fine. Of course then we learned that our grandaughter who we knew had viral Pneumonia actually started with Whooping Cough and they missed the diagnosis. Said it was a really bad cold first now they know better.

And to make matters complete it is SNOWING!! Could we have spring NOW...Please! Have to run. Estelle

 

[ehtpnt]

Okay, I talked to DD who is a college studen. She checked her Biology textbook. Alcohol is in a separate category. It does have carbs but a low number. Normally carbs are figured by using the number of calories and going from there. But alcohol has few calories so carbs are low. I think that means the drink is okay. Just don't eat the fruit floating in it.

It snowed here all day and we got probably 1/2 an inch. So it was really a non event.

Tomorrow is our trip to NYC so I will be gone for 24 hours. talk to you all either tomorrow night (unlikely) or Thursday morning. Estelle

 

[JLSE50]

ESTELLE: Hoping you enjoyed the outing to the Big Apple.

Glad the Daycare baby is OK.

When was Allie sick? Do you mean when she was a baby or recently? Is she OK now?

Thanks to Jen for the alcohol info.

I could not fine Lemon-Lime Crystal Light today, so I bought Kiwi-Strawberry and Lemon-Raspberry. I mixed them together--makes a good fruit punch. I am thinking that with some rum for those who want it, it might make a good tropical drink.

We had temps in the low 30s, but no snow! YAH!! My brother is bemoaning the fact that Syracuse NY is having it's 8th snowiest winter. He wanted to beat the record. Where did I get him?

Have a good day all,
Jan