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

[Itinkso]

T.O.P.

Great photo Vickie! I don't know how to do that yet either.

Jenny, Speaking of kids doing too much, Jessica decided to quit the 2nd play in our town last night that she was going to do (Joseph) but we will still go to it and bring flowers to her friends. She is still going to the theater day camp for lessons and to do "Once Upon a Mattress". She was feeling overwhelmed with camp 9 to 4pm and then the other play 6 to 9pm weekdays. She has to read three books and write a paper this summer for her honors courses next year (not even summer school just pre-homework).

We went out to dinner tonight with a group of friends, one couple visiting from Georgia for a niece's graduation. They are going on a cruise from Port Canaveral on the Glory on July 16th. Two of the couples including them are planning a cruise for next July out of NYC on the new Princess ship (will have to do some research). We may plan to go too and I won't have as much withdrawal. I can always book Disney for two years from now. How exciting!

Cathy - Wow, those were really long days for Jessica! That is really mature of her to know she had too much going on; you must be proud of her! It is amazing that she has all that schoolwork over the summer. When Traci went off to college she felt very behind compared to the students who were East Coasters! Jessica will find college very easy for her!

I'm also researching Princess for our Alaska cruise. Have your friends cruised Princess before? Our neighbors just got back from an England/European cruise and said Princess was becoming more like Carnival. I've only experienced RCCL so I won't have anything to compare it with until after our Magic cruise.

 

[wongmao]

Stacey

Thanks for the wonderful report and the lovely photos. I just finally caught up with all the reading of the thread. I hope that you and your family and your home are safe and sound.

Lisa

 

[Catnip0113]

Barb - That is a good idea to book and move it. Can you also cancel it later with no penalty? I don't remember putting a deposit down but I might have.

Jenny - I will tell Jess that all this work will give her a good head start for college later. She likes reading and writing the best, I hope her Math and Science teachers don't send her work! I had heard from another parent that the beginning few months of 9th grade honors are tough because it is a lot harder than the Middle school (where they only offered honors in Math and English). It gets easier once they get in the swing of it.

I think one of the couples had sailed Princess before, they seem to love all cruises. They only had good things to say but they've never done Disney. I was talking up the adults only features of Disney because two of the couples have no kids and one has a grown son.

My manager at work is Hawaiian but she has lived in CT 10 years now or so. She is taking an Alaska cruise the 1st 2 weeks of September. I'll have to ask her what cruise line and get her opinion afterwards.

Cathy

 

[jilljill]

Cathy you do have to put down the $250. per person deposit, but you can cancel it within the normal DCL guidelines without penalty.


My parents did an Alaskan cruise about 9 years ago and I think they went on NCL. They loved their cruise and especially enjoyed the helicopter excursion to a glacier. They did one of the first cruises of the cruise season, late May.

 

[Catnip0113]

Cathy you do have to put down the $250. per person deposit, but you can cancel it within the normal DCL guidelines without penalty.


My parents did an Alaskan cruise about 9 years ago and I think they went on NCL. They loved their cruise and especially enjoyed the helicopter excursion to a glacier. They did one of the first cruises of the cruise season, late May.

Oh, that's right, the $250 deposit. It was so long ago I forgot (April 2004). I think I will rebook then, Steve would like to do the Western since we did the Eastern Caribbean last year.

Jessica and I went shopping for some cruisewear for her today. She got a few tops and a jean skirt, but no dress which is what we went for. We couldn't stay too long because she had an appointment for her costume measurements. We plan to go another time before the cruise though. I need to shop for me too, but I'd prefer to go alone or with my sister who is more patient in my section (rather than Juniors).

 

[Itinkso]

Jenny - I will tell Jess that all this work will give her a good head start for college later. She likes reading and writing the best, I hope her Math and Science teachers don't send her work! I had heard from another parent that the beginning few months of 9th grade honors are tough because it is a lot harder than the Middle school (where they only offered honors in Math and English). It gets easier once they get in the swing of it.

I think one of the couples had sailed Princess before, they seem to love all cruises. They only had good things to say but they've never done Disney. I was talking up the adults only features of Disney because two of the couples have no kids and one has a grown son.

My manager at work is Hawaiian but she has lived in CT 10 years now or so. She is taking an Alaska cruise the 1st 2 weeks of September. I'll have to ask her what cruise line and get her opinion afterwards.

Cathy

Cathy - I would like to hear your co-worker's opinion on her cruise. I'm trying to decide between a cruise and cruise/tour. I don't know how much time we can set aside because Brynee may want to do another summer musical. DH would like to not have to schedule around her schedule especially because his school starts up earlier in August than ours...Aug 10 this year!

Let Jessica know that she will be well-prepared for any college...Traci went to Claremont McKenna which is considered "West Coast" Ivy League. It seemed to her that the East Coast students had higher standards in regards to their high school education.

 

[SchultzFamily]

Recently we were talking about not owning or looking good in lime green clothes, well today I went shopping for the cruise and it seems like lime green is everywhere! I guess its the color or something. Well I now own a lime green blouse. I didn't buy it for the color though, I liked the style.
Vickie

 

[Catnip0113]

I know what you mean about the lime green being in now. I bought a blouse that is lime green or close to it too. I will wear my DIS pin and I know what some of you look like. I have long dark red hair (almost brown now that it is losing pigment - that's how we redheads gray), but I am getting blonde highlights just before the cruise. Mine have faded and grown out now. I have bangs. DH has gray hair and DD has dirty blonde (but she is getting highlights too). When it gets closer, we will plan a meeting place during sailaway I hope. We might see each other before, but just in case. Some of us have dinner, but there are more of us than that.

I bought a Passporter today for the Cruise line!!! I was at a book store with DD and I saw it. It must be the new one, it has all the West Coast ports in it.

Cathy

 

[justmestace]

Hi! We're home and all is well. Thank you all so much for your thoughts and prayers, I know that had to have helped!

Will catch up later on everything that's happening.....same old/same old for now....laundry!

 

[Catnip0113]

Good to hear that your home is okay, I know prayers work. I have to do work on the PC tonight, I'll check back in later.

 

[jilljill]

Thought I better check in and move us up a bit before we slip off of page 1 .

Stacey are you actually going to be in town for a while month now?
Glad to hear you and your friends make out safely with the fires.

 

[justmestace]

Well, umm....actually.....we will be gone July 15-18......just Jay and I are going (back) to Las Vegas with some old friends of his (grade school all the way through college).........

 

[Kidoctr]

Hi Everyone! It's Rhys' birthday today and we spent the day at Celebration Station. WHEW! I'm pooped. His birthday party on Saturday was fun - 5 boys + DS + DD at Chuck E Cheese. It was a Star Wars theme and he was so excited to get a bunch of Star Wars stuff. The kid hadn't even seen any of the movies yet and he's a die-hard Star Wars fan!

Great news - we got our passports. Our final payment on the DL part of our trip is due July 1. It's really starting to feel like we're getting close now! Hopefully, we'll have the kids' passports in the next couple of weeks. We got ours faster than I thought we would.

Stacey - I'm so glad that everything is ok @ your house. We're not very religious but I would have had you in our thoughts....

Vickie - great picture! Thanks for sharing that. I'm going to make a note of which post # that was....

Jenny - there's also www.ripway.com where you can store pictures, files, etc for free and link to them. Just upload a .jpg file and it will tell you what the link is. When you're posting, just click the "insert image" button above the text window (bottom row, on the right - looks like the picture of a mountain) and cut/paste the link there. The picture should show up in your post. Also, we took a Celebrity Alaskan cruise about 3 years ago. We had a blast - did a cruise only, no land part. There was SO much to do we had a really hard time deciding on shore excursions. We went without the kids. That was how I ended up on the cruise critic message boards first before coming here - had met enough people at CC to have an on-board party.

Cathy - I got the most recent edition of the DC Passporter but was a little disappointed with the shore excursions for our cruise. It really didn't help me decide at all as I thought it would. Lots of great other info, though.

 

[jilljill]

Well, umm....actually.....we will be gone July 15-18......just Jay and I are going (back) to Las Vegas with some old friends of his (grade school all the way through college).........

Now that you mention it, I vaguely remember you telling me about that trip.

 

[jilljill]

Happy Birthday to Rhys
Eve that's great you received your passports. The children's always seen to take longer.

When I realized that Friday is July 1st I had this thought that the cruise will be right around the corner. I've never waited this long for a vacation.

 

[justmestace]

Happy Birthday Rhys!!



Very cool, a T.O.P. shared with Rhys !!!

 

[SchultzFamily]

I'm a day late but: Happy Birthday Rhys!
Vickie

 

[Catnip0113]

I called my TA today to see what airline we are on (did Disney air) and they said 30 days before (which is next Tuesday!!) Now it feels close. I have to make lists, I have to find things, I have to shop, I have to call my cat sitter, I have to stop the mail, I have to calm down!!!

Cathy

 

[justmestace]

Oh my gosh....that IS close! Now I'm going to start being really sad......

 

[Calliegirl]

Hi everyone,

It has been a long time since I had a chance to reply but I did really want to thank you Stacey for the wonderful trip reports. You don't know how helpful you are to those of us so new to all of this. I'm also glad that the fires didn't reach you - I have a friend in AZ who had his house burn to the ground in the terrible fires there a few years ago. Anyway, your pictures looked great -the one of you and your family is so nice.

Thanks everyone too - for all your help!

Lauren