Back from 9-5 Wonder Cruise.....

[natsmom125]

Cast: DH, Jim; DD Natalie (9 1/2), me, Phyllis

I am writing a detailed report but just wanted to check in for
those waiting for the report.


We had a simply WONDERful time. The weather was a little OFF
at times, but being from the tropics..we're used to it.

We finally got to meet Shirley from The Perfect Gift and she took us under her caring embrace and we are all three now so in love
with her and Norm.

We had the pleasure of crusin' with Barb and Tony and had many great times of fun and laughter with them. We also cruised with a couple on our last cruise, Kathy(Tinkerkat) and her dh, Alex...
well, the 6 of us adults had a great time...that's all I'll say right now!!

I had a beautiful Birthday basket from Shirley filled with the most
exquisite things. DD's gift was a Mickey backpack filled with all
kinds of goodies(more on this later).

We had great service, our room hostess was the sweetest and our servers were great.

Barb and I did Ladies Night in the Spa and I had the most wonderful masage...I was like jelly the rest of the night and the
champagne and munchies weren't bad either!!

Palo's was as wonderful as ever. I surely do wish I could make
those souffles!!!

My only complaint...as is my usual....is about the elevators. I try to teach Natalie to let the people who are getting off...GET OFF..
before we get in. There were many adults who did not abide by
this...and it's hard to teach your child when she sees adults just
barging on the elevators and not being courteous enough to wait.
The elevators are also very slow. I would press the call button and stand and wait. The elevator would come and people would
rush ahead of me and leave me standing there. Well, I won't go into what happened to me on this post....but let me tell you it
wasn't pretty and I WAS NOT NICE. I work around a bunch of
firefighters...and yes, they are our heros...but I can sling some
pretty MEAN and HOSTILE words when I have too....and my child
was involved here too.

But we had a great time...and cannot wait until December, 2003.

Stay tuned for a detailed report.....

Phyllis

 

[prymsu]

Phyllis,

I will be looking forward to your trip report in the near future. I will be lucky enough to cruise with TinkerKat in October since that lucky duck got two voucers...

 

[jiminyC_fan]

Yes, firefighters are firefighters, but they too must use manners. I hate it when adults over power children. No excuse! Happy to hear you had a good time, though. Honestly, we never have encountered elevator problems on our cruises like so many have reported. Guess we are lucky!

 

[disneyholic family]

glad to hear you had a great time...we had the pleasure of meeting Barb and Tony on our july 4th cruise...they are truly lovely people.....

as for the elevators.....we almost never used them even though we were on deck 8....i preferred dragging my derriere up the stairs rather than die of old age waiting for the elevators to come...
besides, the stairs are so nice i didn't care.....not to mention the real reason -- the fact that i'm deathly terrified of elevators so i avoid them at all costs anyway.....possibly as a result of the time i got stuck in an elevator on the way down from windows on the world 20 years ago......and you should have seen me in august when i got stuck in an elevator on the 25th floor of the waldorf......not a pretty sight....
so not riding the elvators is not that much of a trial for me...but i totally agree with you about people barging into the elevator....however, living overseas, that's kind of standard behavior on this side of the atlantic - i.e., no manners at all.....that's why going back home to america every summer is such a pleasure.....the luxury of people actually standing in line rather than pushing around you.....or waiting to get on the elevator...or not smoking in a no-smoking area (rather than sneering at you when you politely point out that they're smoking in a no-smoking area....)....etc etc etc etc etc etc.....

 

[natsmom125]

Jiminy....what I meant to say about my firefighters..is that they sometimes use WORDS if you get my drift and since I've been
around them so long...I tend to say the WORDS myself.

And the "elevator" people I used them on...certainly deserved the WORDS.

My guys are the best....it's like having 103 brothers and 2 sisters..
our dept also adopted some FDNY guys and now they are a part of our family too.

Disneyholic....At this partiular time I would have used the stairs if I had been going up ONE FLIGHT as these people were. I was on Deck 3 going to Deck 9 to get Natalie(DD) at the Spa. I fell a few years ago in one of the parks(not WDW) and I have a knee problem, so I can't do too many stairs at one time.

More on the elevator story later.

Phyllis

 

[mrsltg]

AHHHHHHH!!! ELEVATOR ETIQUETTE!!!! Is it soooooooooo difficult to let people off before barging on??????????????

A definite pet-peeve of mine!


Erin

 

[rcomputer]

Just remember the Colonel's advice from the Adventurer's Club - the elbow is the pointiest part of the body

...and of course be polite "Excuse me"...

 

[Willowwind]

Can't wait to read the full report!

 

[TinkerKat]

Hey gang!
Well my "adult only" 3 day cruise was totally awesome.
Having nothing but adult conversations was a nice reprieve from the mommy antics of my boys.

Barbara & Tony, Phyliss and Jim and Natalie were a hoot to have dinner with. All I did was laugh. I actually felt as though I were cruising with "DCL Royalty" and am feeling a little spoiled! Now I just have to cruise with Michelle, Dave from Marietta meet Shirley
and I guess life will be complete

Went to Wilderness lodge after cruise. Found WDW to be almost a ghost town. So it completed a 1st rate weekend! Ahhhhh..... a week ago this evening were sitting in Tritons ordering everything off the menu

The weather was on again, off again. But thank goodness we got a full 5 hours of beautiful sun on Castaway (my favorite place to be)
Serenity beach is just that "Serene" Got a glimpse of some huge fish, and a stingray close to shore.

Oh I forgot to mention, I was super fortunate in that I did get an upgrade and got a room with a verandah. Where Phyliss encountered rude elevator etiquette, I encountered rude Verandah etiquette. Our neighbors felt the need to argue on the verandah with their neighbors (I guess they traveled together)
and it took the "serenity" out of our breakfast . DH and I always seem to be around "loud people who LOVE to hear themselves talk!" I find that the midship elevators are the toughest to get. The Aft ones always seem to come in a timely fashion.
Well that's it for now... And yes Sue , I can't wait til October! Already started packing!
Kathy

 

[atigeg]

We had a GREAT time cruising with you all!
I wonder if this is "rude cruisers" season...we ran into two ourselves. The first was actually on the four day...a guy who was dancing at the 80's party on a fully packed dance floor WITH A LIT CIGARETTE FLAILING IN HIS HAND!! And he was right in front of the non-smoking area. I saw a member of the cruise staff speak with him and make gestures that clearly indicated he was in the wrong area (and was lucky he didn't burn someone). We saw the same idiot the next day at Bingo...he plopped down with his party in the non-smoking section, then slipped over to smoking to bring an ashtray over to NON! They all whipped out their cigarettes and were getting ready to light up, but I asked a crew member to intervene. This was the exact same area where he had been spoken to the night before. Then, on the last cruise, a woman lit up on the Castaway Cay tram right in front of us. There were no workers around, so I just moved while loudly discussing with Tony how rude and discourteous some smokers are who have no respect for rules. I should havre just sat there till my allergies kicked in and sneezed all over the back of her head. Oh well, enough venting! Thankfully, the majority of smokers on the ship are courteous and respect the non-smoking area..
Barb
Visit the Platinum Castaway Club at: www.castawayclub.com

 

[disneyholic family]

natsmom125
i really do know what you mean.....and things like that totally drive me crazy.....rude behavior......living overseas i tend to make comments about how rude europeans are compared to americans......so when i get back home to america and someone pulls that rude elevator behavior, or pushes rather than wait patiently in line, or anything of that nature, i am sooooooooooooo disappointed....
and i almost always make a very loud comment to my kids about it...loud enough to make sure the transgressors hear (my kids go nuts when i do that....they'll say "mommy...those people heard what you said"....to which i respond " yes, that's the whole point of speaking loudly enough for them to hear...so they understand their behavior was unacceptably rude"....)

so yes, i can definitely empathize with what happened....

as for new york....we were just there in august and of course visited the site of the trade center (years ago when we lived in new york for a few years, my husband worked in the world trade center.....at the time i was one of the few people i knew who thought they were gorgeous buildings...i worked in midtown at rockefeller center)..
anyway, behind the trade center, on the way to the battery park riverside area, there's a separate site that's been set up for memorials for the firemen who died....there are pictures of lots of the firemen, but also lots of tributes that have been sent from fire departments all over the US and the world.....we stood there for the longest time reading through everything (and crying).....
it's not where all the other memorial things are (those are at the church)...this is on the opposite side of where the trade center used to be (by battery park city).....
it was also nice because there were no tourists there (since it's in a completely separate area where tourists don't tend to go)....so no crass picture taking and the like....just a handful of people paying tribute to brave men....

 

[poopie]

for the trip report.
I'm just counting down till I'm outta here.
I have 2 more shifts at one job and 4 at the other and I'm outta here.