Cranberry & Pineapple Continued.....Again.

[Jsme]

Did someone mention margaritas and a trampoline.......I am so there! 2 of my favorite things!

Mom - I am SOOOOOO HAPPY they are turning that into a Chick Fil A!!! Now I don't have to drive as far to get my fix. It will be a tough decision on where I would go, Chick Fil A or Del Taco!

I had my fix today. My dad drove an hour to just give Mac and I lunch. I felt horrible. I thought he was staying for dinner but he said he was going to go home.

Here in NC you can order a kids meal regardless of your age. I always get the kids chicken strips and if I am eating there I turn in my book or toy for a small cone of ice cream.

 

[jiminyC_fan]

Selena, how funny. You had Chick Fil A today. I buy kids meals at a lot of the fast food places. Keeps me under control. I do buy the grilled chicken sandwich at Chick Fil A.

Hey all you travelers, how do you pack? Anyone use a packing cube? Do you roll? I am thinking about packing cubes but am worried about wrinkles. Not that we are wrinkle free anyway

 

[Jsme]

Selena, how funny. You had Chick Fil A today. I buy kids meals at a lot of the fast food places. Keeps me under control. I do buy the grilled chicken sandwich at Chick Fil A.

Hey all you travelers, how do you pack? Anyone use a packing cube? Do you roll? I am thinking about packing cubes but am worried about wrinkles. Not that we are wrinkle free anyway

I roll.

 

[cristit14]

So, Rachel will be playing on a volleyball team every Thursday. We won't be doing GABF this year. I realized yesterday anyway that on the Thursday we were going to go, it is the same day that Rachel gets her braces off anyway. So, I am sure that we will be celebrating that evening

 

[jiminyC_fan]

Selena, PLEASE, please, give me hints how to roll. I hear that is the only way to go and Ted tried it one time and I can't believe the wrinkles he got. It was horribly embarrassing to me.

Cristi, volleyball is certainly popular right now. I love it. Years ago we watched girls professional volleyball games at Arapahoe High I believe. It is truly amazing to watch how they do it and how we do it.

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

Cristi - Maybe Rachel can give Emily so pointers since Emily is just starting out with Volleyball. She has practice every day and games on Mondays and Wednesdays.

Selena - It is Friday, hopefully you can enjoy your weekend and try and forget all about work for a couple of days.

 

[Jsme]

http://goeurope.about.com/od/packingtips/ss/packing_tips_2.htm

http://www.mahalo.com/packing-tips

http://www.fodors.com/news/story_1449.html

I have no clue what those sites say. lol

I just take a whatever I am rolling and make it flat and push out by hand the wrinkles. Then I roll the garmet. If it is a tshirt, I fold the sleeves in and roll. Sometimes I may fold the shirt in half and roll. It is all about common sense. You just make sure whatever you are rolling is flat and without wrinkles.

 

[Jsme]

Work is so screwed up.

The week is over and so far I have had an excellent weekend. My friends threw me a surprise party. SHHHH don't tell them but I found out about it. lol I acted surprised though.

We had a great time. We went to Childress Vineyard and had lunch and a bottle of wine. Then we all came back to my house for the second part of the part. Since it started so early everyone was gone by 9.

 

[jiminyC_fan]

Thank you Selena. I really want to pack different. Maybe I should do it on an AI vacation instead of a cruise which is more "fancy". Still thinking about packing cubes. A surprise party, how fun! Great friends!

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

Selena - glad your friends threw you a surprise party, you deserve to have a fun weekend! I hope you have an awesome week this week and no one bothers you.

 

[Jsme]

Sunday, August 9

Mac driving down to PC

We left early on Sunday morning. We made excellent time.

Only stopped once in Savannah to buy gas. We stopped on that exit because I was familiar with this exit. Gas was 20 cents more than the exits before and after. I was pretty ticked off at myself.

We checked into the Hilton by 2:00pm and looked around the place. We had decided we would eat at the port so we could watch the ships leave. The bellhop gave us coupons for free drinks to Rusty's.

Wonder Leaving

 

[Jsme]

Sunday, August 9

We were able to see the Sensation leave as well but our camera started dying, as did our phone battery. lol

Mac got a bit sick feeling so we left. I think she was really just bored so we left. As we were driving we did get to see the Freedom leave out.

As we drove back to the Hilton Mac felt better so we went shopping.

 

[Jsme]

Sunday, August 9

We stopped for Starbucks but they did not have Strawberries and Cream so we left to hunt for Starbucks at Barnes and Nobles on 520.

While coming back we saw a lady in the road attempting to get a bird out of the road. The bird had been hit. Mac stopped and put her blinkers on and I got out and helped the lady move the bird out of the road. She was a local so she said she was going to call someone that will come help the bird.

After we went back to the hotel. Since we used points to stay I was given a coupon for any free drink I wanted. Mac and I went to the bar for my drink. I ordered a dirty martini but he put way too much vermouth in the martini. A man at the bar bought everyone in the bar a drink so I had one without the vermouth.

After we went back to the room and played baseball

__________________

 

[Jsme]

My title is wrong. It is Monday morning

Monday, August 10

We woke and went down for the free breakfast. I talked to some guys next to us at breakfast. They were with the government. They were down and getting ready to go on a fishing boat. It was fairly reasonably price with the coupon online. It was like $55 which include lunch and beer. The ships name is the Orlando Princess. We actually saw it at Rusty's the night before.

Mac waking up

Mac dressed for the ship

_________________


The night before we had arranged with the Hitlon to take their shuttle to the port. It is really not their shuttle but an outside company. They use Royal and the price was suppose to be $5 pp. For us it should have been $10 for both of us. Since we were leaving earlier than the shuttle normally Brandi at the front desk called to make sure the price was still only $5 pp. However, once the guy left us at the port he charged us $25!!! We had no choice but to pay him. However, when we got back I did go into the Hilton to make a complaint.

 

[Jsme]

Monday, August 10

We were on the ship by 11 and we dropped our stuff at a lounge chair and went in for lunch.

They had sushi at the pool

Mac enjoying the pool

We were in our room by 1:00

Our luggage was at the elevator before Muster so we took them to our room.

Muster was good and over all quick.

We did My Time Dining but after looking at the Compass we decided to make a reservation for 6. This worked out great for us. We had requested a table for 2. We were able to get in and out very quickly.

This way we made the show at 7:45. It was the Welcome Aboard Show. There was only one and that was at the 7:45 time. We were there early enough to have our choice of seats. Mac found a small front balcony seat in which we sat there for the rest of the cruises.

The show was good and the comedian was great. His name is Phil Tag. We enjoyed his show a lot.

After the show we found a place to sit and star gaze. It was so nice out.

We were in bed by midnight.

 

[Jsme]

Tuesday, August 11

Tuesday morning we woke and headed out to walk. We walked a mile. After we went up for breakfast to the windjammer for the buffet breakfast. Typical fare for breakfast.

After breakfast we headed out to RCI's island, Coco Cay. We found a nice place to stay. We got in the water and it was perfect. This is why I love fall time to cruise. No this is not fall time but the water is so perfect. However, there were jellyfish. We did not get stung nor did we get back in the water. lol

We did buy bracelets to use their bracelets for $20 pp. It was a lot of fun but there is a lot of exercise involved and we wore ourselves out quickly. This was a huge waste of money for us. Early the slide was slow but within an hour the slide had a 20 minute wait. We did not want to wait so we did not use the slide again.

We made this mistake of going to the ship early for lunch. They are very limited for lunch time. We finally ate some pizza and then we went to the diningroom for one of their famous chopped salads. If you have never had one you did to go at least once to the MDR for lunch. Only one of the MDR's are open for lunch. You chose what you want in the salad and then they chop it for you. It is a huge huge salad. Very good.

We hung by the pool the rest of the day. We made reservations again for dinner at 7:15. With MTD it is just easier to make the reservations. You do not have to but if you do not you may wait. While we did not mind the wait we wanted to sit alone so we made the reservations.

This was formal night. We both dressed up. We have a few pictures made and bought one.

However, the food was not impressive. Do not get me wrong it was ok but not great. I did not mind since I am just glad I do not have to wash the dishes. Mac had to come back and order room service. I was happy enough with my food at dinner.

We saw the end of their Headliner show, Johnny Thunder. It was fun but we did not want to go back to the other show. We both enjoyed the Love and Marriage show. Mac has never seen one so it was a lot of fun watching her reactions.

Our itinerary was changed. Instead of leaving the island and taking our time to go to Nassau we went directly to Nassau.

It was great sailing into Nassau at midnight. Once again we had camera issues. Mac brought up her camera and it does not take good night photos. Mine was in the room.

It was a somewhat full moon so the moon was gorgeous.

We sailed in but then they had to turn the ship. You know it is not real huge in that harbor. But they did it. No one new exactly what was going on but it was fun.

It was a lot of fun coming in because we were able to see the Sensation. We were on the Sensation in May of 2007 during Jeff's birthday right before their refurb. This gave us the chance to see the new adult deck, resort style pools and new slides.

 

[Jsme]

Wednesday, August 12

We woke late today. I had to wake up a very grump girl too. I told her fine if she did not get up we would not go to the Atlantis. This got her bottom up.

I had a plan. I figured we needed to be off the ship no later than 9:30 so we could catch a taxi to the Comfort Suites.

We got up and decided no exercise. I figured we would have enough exercise at Atlantis.

We took a taxi with 3 other people and we were dropped right off at CS.

We walked in and waited just a few minutes to checkin. I di dthe checkin and out at the same time. However, the lady who helped us told us if we changed our minds we could have our room at 3.

We were given directions and promptly got lost. lol

After being directed we were on our way. Please remember 2 girls that have direction issues do not need to go by themselves. lol Seriously once we found our way we made it to the Atlantis. Once again we got lost but this was not our fault. The lady in Atlantis gave us bad directions. Another guy took us to the pools.

We found the pools and found a nice shaded area to lay our stuff. We took our paperwork to the towel hut and got our towels and bracelets.

After doing this we did the first slide that you go straight down a drop. That was lots of fun. Then we did the shark tank slide together on a double slide.

One of those sharks swam above and below us when we went down. Mac was freakin out. The only thing that bothered me is how you are so included. This slide is fun but once you get to the tube it is very slow, similar to a lazy river.

 

[Jsme]

Wednesday, August 12

This is the pool we laid our stuff

After this we took a nap. lol Yes, we were very tired. We did not sleep long but felt great once we woke up.

We went to the Rapids, which is like a lazy river but the thing is a mile long and takes at least 45 minutes. You can not miss the Rapids. We went up the power tower and did a couple of slides from there. The first was the Drop and we did it as a double float ride. I can not say how important it is to do the rapids in the double float. The drop slide was a dark drop. I did scream during the first 5 seconds.

After coming off the power tower and doing a few slides there we bought lunch. You need to look for a stand that sales the value meal. The meal is less than $10 and include chips and a drink. It is a great buy. We bought the herbed chicken wraps. They were so huge. We could have easily shared one but then if you take in account you would have to buy a drink I am unsure if it would be any cheaper. For us we could have done this because I took a small cooler with us full of water and gatorade. Mac got a big cookie and that was $5. We spent a total of lunch $21.


Would you believe we then took another nap? lol

 

[Jsme]

The best way to be assured going to the Atlantis is by reserving a room. There are many ways to do this. We chose the Comfort Suites because you had 3 days prior to checkin to cancel. This can be expensive. We wound up spending $250 for our room. This includes the various energy fees and housekeeping fees.

The Atlantis does sale day passes for $110 but they only sale a limited amount. While we were there they had just started the Miss Universe stuff so we were warned we might want to secure a room verses attempting to get day passes.

You can also go online to one of the various hotel sites to get a room. I have read that these are nonrefundable. Supposely you will not have to pay the various fees if you reserve a room this way.

 

[Jsme]

Wednesday, August 12

We woke up and decided to go to the Dig. I had read the best time to go is in the afternoon after lunch. It is busy when the ship is first letting people off in the mornings. Everything I read was true. This was the perfect time to do.

We looked around and took our time. I do not see that the Dig is worth the fees and pricing to do alone. It was fun but not that much to see.

In late afternoon or early evening the Dig is free to enjoy. So if anyone wants to just go there they need to wait until it is free.

The walk up...