August 6, 2005 Mexican Riviera..Who's In?

[jilljill]

I had to take this T.O.P. and #600

 

[Itinkso]

Felt a fairly strong rolling jolt this morning as the epicenter was about 70 miles away! My rolling chair started moving and I could see the walls move! Kinda scary as my office is in a library with concrete walls and usually wouldn't expect to see them moving! Also, couldn't leave my office as the school's sports trophies sit on ledges above my doorway. Fortunately, all of the trophies were glued onto the ledges just last month and they stayed put!
Must be a season for "natural unrest!"

 

[Catnip0113]

Glad you are okay Jenny, I just found out about the earthquake prior to coming into the DIS boards. Natural disasters are all over. I heard Mt. St. Helen's may erupt again too!!

Jilljill, Thank your DH for all of us on this board. He is a keeper, my DH would have done that too. Our modem acted up and he worked on it for a long time even though I said it could wait. It was the last days of Big Brother live feeds. We ended up getting a new modem.

We had remnants of Hurricane Jeanne today, just heavy rain. The traffic getting into Hartford was horrible though.

Cathy

 

[SchultzFamily]

Hi everyone!
Jenny glad you didn't have any damage from the earthquake. We're quite a ways away and people here even felt it. I didn't but I was running around at work and they're hard to feel when you'r moving unless its real big or you're close.
Better go, just wanted to check in.
Vickie

 

[jilljill]

Hi everyone. We moved on Monday so it's been a very busy week to say the least. Just thought I would check in quickly to give us a bump up.

 

[Catnip0113]

Last night was our 15th wedding anniversary (9/30). DH cooked a delicious dinner of Fetticine Carbonara and brought me roses.

Our honeymoon was a cruise on Norwegian cruise line which was wonderful, we hadn't taken another one though until last April. We forgot how good it was, but also we didn't have the money when we were younger to go and then having a baby and all.

Now I want to go every year, or take a break to see the country and Europe maybe. DH wants to try a European cruise, I bet it is those smaller ships though.

Cathy

 

[jilljill]

Happy belated anniversary Cathy. You can celebrate #16 a bit early on the ship next year. We will be celebrating #17 a bit late then, DD's 11th b'day a bit late and my ?? b'day a bit early.

 

[SchultzFamily]

Happy Anniversary Cathy!

DH got a bonus from work yesterday so he called me at work and said his work just made a payment on our cruise! Just a small payment though, $1600 after taxes but anything I don't have to come up with is great! Now if I could just get them to pay the balance!
Vickie

 

[Itinkso]

Happy Anniversary Cathy!!

Vickie - Congratulate your DH on his bonus! That's great !! DH and I both work for school districts so we don't receive bonuses - public employees ! I haven't even received a cost of living raise for 3 years! Any extra money my DH has will go towards his TV as we don't have to pay for it until 2006.

Have a great weekend! I'll be at a college volleyball tournament to watch my older DD and will be at an honor choir audition and a performance to watch Brynee. Hope to fit everything in!

 

[Catnip0113]

Yes, Congratulations Vickie on the bonus. I used to get bonuses, but not lately. A lot of our programming jobs are now outsourced to India, but lately it seems things are turning around again. We are rehiring a lot of people that we laid off two years ago (or trying to, some found other jobs or became teachers and are happier).

Cathy

 

[Catnip0113]

My TA sent me my updated itinerary today. Seems the trip is close enough now for him to book the real dates! I still don't have airline information, I guess Disney does that closer to the time?

I also picked up the Birnbaum's Disneyland 2005 book. It is so thin compared to the WDW ones, but that will be much less stressful with the cruise and farther travel and all.

Cathy

 

[jilljill]

Cathy from what I understand, when you book your air with DCL you will get that information about 2 weeks before your trip along with all your documents. I don't know if you have looked around for airfare yourself but you may be able to find something cheaper and more to your liking in terms of airlines, times and number of segments flown. Just a thought for you to keep in mind.

The move is coming along, although there is so much we can't do since we have to have 3 rooms of carpet replaced and possibly 1 more. But, the chandelier did get installed yesterday - it looks very pretty.

 

[SchultzFamily]

Cathy
When we flew to Orlando for our cruise on the Wonder we saved just under $400 per person booking airfare ourselves and got to choose our own flights. The only concerns I had read about booking your own were if you got there late and you booked through Disney they had to hold the ship for you to arrive. Since we were doing WDW first and flying in a day early for that it wasn't a concern for us. Definately shop around!
Vickie

 

[Catnip0113]

Thanks guys, I don't know why I ended up going this way this time, last time I did book separately. Maybe my TA misunderstood something I said. I will call and ask him. I am not a good bargain hunter though. I never know how much things cost, I just go for convenience usually. I do get generic medicines and such, the kind of things where you just compare the label on two things right next to each other. I could never say what something cost at Stop and Shop versus Big Y or Shaws (grocery stores in CT). If I ever get laid off, I have to take a course from my best friend on saving money. She is great at it and actually has fun doing it!!

Cathy

 

[jilljill]

Cathy, your TA will be able to give you the amount DCL is charging for the tickets. Then you can start looking at the various arline sites or travel sites to see what fares are running. Just think of the cost savings as more money to spend on the cruise and at D'land. I am one of those people that actually likes to research arifares to see what the best fares are around. When we went to Australia last summer, I spent 5 days looking for airfare and I ended up saving almost $800. on 1 ticket by doing the research. It does take time but the savings is worth every penny.

 

[jilljill]

Sure will be nice when Stacey's life gets back to 'normal' and she starts posting on here again .

 

[justmestace]

Hey there! "Snuck" in......tomorrow's the day. Tomorrow night I can post to my heart's content, without being labeled as "addicted".......don't ask!

Haven't had a chance to go back and read yet, trying to hurry....
I'll catch up tomorrow evening.

Miss you all!!!!

Stacey

P.S. Jay and I will have been married 17 years this Friday, Oct 8th.
We have ball games that night so we're going to our games and having dinner at Arby's! Whoo hoo!!
He DID invite me to a nice dinner....we'll do that another night.

 

[jilljill]

Originally posted by justmestace
P.S. Jay and I will have been married 17 years this Friday, Oct 8th.

Yeah for you both!!! Probably more 'yeah' for you for putting up with the same man for all that time .
I can't say too much we have been married 16½ years .

 

[SchultzFamily]

Congratulations Stacey! If its anything like us, those years have just flown by!!! Have a great time at Arby's! Then take him up on a great dinner another night!

Our 24th anniversary is the 18th. We're going to Lake Tahoe for the weekend (kids too) but we will come home on the 17th so I will make Wick that me out to dinner on our anniversary too!

I've got the day off today, gotta call Disney. We purchased a lithograph on the Wonder (at the silent auction) and had it shipped. Still haven't received it yet. I called before and they assured me nothing inside the warehouse was damaged from the hurricanes but they made it sound like I sould receive it shortly and I haven't.
Vickie

 

[Catnip0113]

We all seem to have anniversaries around now. We can celebrate them on the ship next August a little early (and late in one case)...

Cathy