Disney sheep go rogue - an allure-ing trip report - with a dcl lessons learned perspe

[Scraptographer]

Another cruise day, another casual approach to morning. DH and I once again woke up fairly early but were in no rush to get up and get moving. Realistically we did not find any of the cruise excursion options to be terribly exciting and in the end we decided that although we would check out the Falmouth area around the port, we were just as happy to spend our day exploring the ship and relaxing. In actual fact, the ship did not even dock until around 1030 hrs, so there was no need to rush at this point anyway.

As I started to get up and attempt to make myself presentable, DH decided to check out our cruise bill on our cabin tv. This is one area where RCCL is definitely ahead of DCL. There is actually a keyboard available in your cabin, and with a few keystrokes you can check your account and your reservations without ever having to get dressed. Unfortunately we discovered that there was a mini bar charge on our account - and we had not used the minibar at all! We immediately headed down to customer services to express our displeasure at these incorrect charges and the Guest Services staff were extremely helpful and the charges were immediately reversed.

We collected the kids and headed up to the Windjammer for another enjoyable and filling breakfast. Wandering along the pool deck the kids stopped to chat with their friends who were already relaxing in the hot tub and decided to join them. DH and I wandered around a little more, including walking through the Solarium, before settling into a couple of lounge chairs for some tea and relaxation.

Eventually we collected the kids again and headed off the ship to check out Falmouth. As we headed off the ship we collected two or three standard photo ops without a lot of effort or waiting in lines. The port area itself was fun to wander through. The kids were amused by the multi coloured 'still' as well as by the inappropriate knick knacks for sale - pigs and turtles and gorillas with bananas, oh my! We also giggled at the sign that stated: Don't walk on the grass in Jamaica, smoke it! There were musicians playing their music and artists painting pictures and carving and creating at their stalls and it all made a fairly friendly atmosphere. In the end, we purchased my cheesy touristic ceramic picture frame and called it good.

Back on the ship it was our standard routine, pop, ice cream, pool and hot tub - ahhh. And the crowd levels were fairly low at that point. Granted, a lot of the recreation areas weren't being manned until the afternoon either.

By mid- afternoon DD decided to try out the boogie board again and DS wandered off with his friends.

Overall, the pool deck on the Allure is very well designed with 5 pools (beach, sports, main, kids area and adult area, and 8 hot tubs, including two inside the adult area and two cantilevered hot tubs next to the adult area, plus one near each of the other pools. I love that there is a designated morning time for lap swim in the sports pool and that it is followed up by a daily water aerobics class. Granted I never did these activities during the allotted times/classes, but I managed to work it out on my own at times when I wanted to do them. There are an amazing number of pool lounger chairs, including kiddie sized lounger chairs, on a couple of decks, so lots of space to handle lots of 'pool sloth-ers'. And yes, the pools definitely get busy on sea days, but essentially, if there were a 'pool deck' competition between the Allure and the DCL ships, then DCL would get its 'Aft' kicked .

 

[Scraptographer]

Our evening followed the usual pattern, of dinner in the main dining room, various photo ops on the Royal Promenade and a show. This evening we headed for How to Train Your Dragon on Ice. There were no reservations for this show, rather it was first come first served seating. As we entered the theatre, a couple of characters were greeting guests, a female Viking (not Astrid) and a Gronkle (a little dragon). Once most people were seated and just before the show started, these two characters walked around the ice surface and did meet and greets with people sitting in the front row, both little kids and big kids alike (lots of adults enjoyed the opportunity to take a selfie with the Gronkle .

The show itself involved the ice skaters telling the story, essentially following the plot of the movie. The skaters were great, just as they had been during Ice Games. If there was a tiny problem with this show, it was that there were numerous fully enclosed costumed characters such as Stoick and Gobbler etc who for obvious reasons weren't skating, which limited the room on the ice that the skaters were able to use. Not a huge issue, but it just messed with the flow of the skating just a little. On the other hand, the little kids in the audience were fascinated.

Wandering back along the Royal Promenade later, looking for our usual tea and cookies, our kids ran in to their friends again. It is so strange (yet nice) to be on a cruise ship in the middle of the Caribbean, and yet run in to friends from home. It really was a 'small world after all' - bwah ha ha!

After the kids headed off for the teen club, DH and I checked out our photos at Focus, having learned from our numerous DCL cruises that this is better handled a few minutes a day, rather than leaving the sorting all to the last minute! It was fun to watch all of the little kids from Adventure Ocean 'parading' through the Royal Promenade below us as pirates.

In our cabin we were greeted by our second towel animal of the cruise, this time it was a dog - we think .

 

[Scraptographer]

Unfortunately this was the day when our cruise really hit a bump in the road. DH woke up feeling like he was coming down with something and it pretty much went downhill from there - at this point it was mostly a sore throat and a headache. Fortunately after a quick morning shower and some Motrin, DH was able to wander downstairs to the Promenade with me in order to kick start his morning with our usual cup of tea. By this point we had discovered that take out cups were available by asking at the counter, and we often brought tea back to the room, including some for DS, which we would use as a motivator to get him up and moving .

Back in our cabin while we waited for the kids to join us (after we woke them of course) we noticed a screen on the TV, informing us that the Allure had conducted a rescue operation overnight, assisting a vessel in distress and taking aboard about 15 people. There was also an announcement over the intercom, but that was much later in the day.

While we waited for everyone to get ready, we played the 'evil time sucking' game that my kids introduced me to on this trip called Candy Meth! Ok, it may actually be called Candy Crush, but it was just so frickin' addictive that we were playing it all the time. Eventually we made our way up to the Windjammer, but I think we ended up dilly dallying so long, that it was a very early lunch vice breakfast. Although this made my daughter very happy, I was not feeling the love for the lunch menu - but then again, I am a breakfast kind of gal. I can often manage to make breakfast a 6 course meal, but lunch just doesn't inspire me all that much .

DS on the other hand was having a great time taking rogue shots with my DSLR. We also watched a group of teens playing basketball since our table was right by the windows over looking the Sports court.

After our 'brunch', the kids headed off to find friends and spend the day on the pool deck, while DH and I headed back to the Promenade to buy some cold medications.

LESSON LEARNED: Don't forget to bring the 'first aid medications bag', because over the counter meds cost a whole lot of money on cruise ships! And yes, it is the same thing on DCL as it is on RCCL - expensive. And, your choices are very limited.

 

[Scraptographer]

We also took the opportunity to grab a quick photo with the Mercedes Benz, since DH was wearing his Double Moo 7 t-shirt (Cows ice cream store PEI) and my sense of humour got the better of me . And yes, we also got another cup of tea at the Promenade Cafe, since DH needed to drink lots of fluids.

Eventually we found the kids in loungers up in the pool deck and we joined them. The mid part of the day passed with lots of reading, lots of lounging, some sleeping by DH before he finally headed back to the cabin to nap properly, some swimming and hot tubbing by me and the kids. Eventually DS headed back to the cabin to check on DH and I followed DD to the Flowrider to record her efforts at standup surfing for posterity. Happily, for DD, she was pretty good at the stand up riding. And unhappily for me, there was not a spectacular wipe out to photograph . That was probably all for the best though .

By mid-afternoon we were all cleaned up again, as DD and I had booked a 3:30 pm cupcake decorating class. It turned out that our class was creating puppy dogs. We each got two cupcakes as each puppy required one and a half, and lots and lots of butter cream icing. DH was feeling ok after his nap and overall relaxed day, so he showed up to take photos for us, although he mostly stayed outside the shop and took pictures through the non-window windows! It helps to have a telephoto lens. We named our cupcake puppies Timbit and Double Double, however the names Zeus and Appollo were also in the running .

DD and I also scored our one and only character photo this trip, a photo op just outside of the Cupcake Cupboard with King Julien. Again, the process was similar to our DCL experience (minus Minnie or Mickey etc), and the character Wrangler was happy to take a picture with our camera after the official photographer had taken his shot.

 

[Scraptographer]

Our evening followed the usual pattern, with dinner and photo ops before the show. Since it was our second formal night, our servers took really great care of DS - I think that they fed him three lobsters!! DS actually thinks that the lobster is better on DCL, but says that the shrimp are better on RCCL - something to do with the sauce it would seem. I definitely enjoyed my prime rib. I also amused myself by taking photos of the Britto art work on the slide show on the TV monitor that I happened to be seated in front of this night. It definitely made me want to do a little shopping at the Britto store, but DH was already concerned about getting the globe home in one piece without me adding say, an expensive teapot .

Tonight's show was labelled as the Headliner act, which for this cruise was MO5AIC, an acapella singing group who were absolutely amazing. There was a minor technical glitch to start, but once the group was on stage they immediately grabbed our attention with their music and their humour and it was wild what they could do without musical instruments. My favourite performance was by Josh, or Opera Guy as my family dubbed him. It would seem that he actually studied opera at university and has a degree in opera. As the other guys teased, he got to put his degree to use officially for 1 min 46 secs, his parents are so proud! They really should be . They also did a wicked version of The Lion Sleeps Tonight, which you would expect to be sung acapella, as well as Bohemian Rhapsody, which I was not really expecting .

We definitely called it a night right after the show - well, we parental units did. The kids headed out with their friends, with DD staying out until curfew once again. It turned out she had a very busy evening as there was a special Teen only Flowrider hour followed by the Aqua poolside party until late.

Unfortunately it was not a very restful night for DH or for me. Our conversation went along the lines of: OMG you are burning up! To which he would reply: No I'm not. Repeat. Ok, apparently DH had not heard about that river in Egypt called 'de-Nile' I spent a very wakeful night checking on him regularly, so neither of us got much sleep.

 

[vacationsitis]

Very good trip report. It inspired me to try something different. So, we are booked for 2015 Spring Break on Allure of the Seas.

 

[Scraptographer]

Morning was really really tough. Since we had previously done a land based trip to Playa del Carmen before and had visited Chichen Itza, Coba and Xel-ha at that time, our plan for the day was to catch a taxi to Paradise Beach and enjoy the water toys and the beach for a few hours. It was obvious very early that DH was not in any shape to travel to a beach, let alone to hang out there. I darted across the hall to wake the kids up and to let them know that a trip to the beach for all four of us was not looking good. I gave them the option of staying on the ship or heading out without DH. From the kids point of view, this was a no brainer and they immediately chose us staying on the ship with Dad. And I was more than ok with this.

We decided to get DH up and and headed upstairs to breakfast in order to see exactly what condition he would be in after we fed him and got him moving. We enjoyed another Windjammer breakfast (yay for breakfast foods) and then decided to head into the port area while DH still had some energy. We grabbed a couple of photo ops and decided to see if we could find some better cold meds than just the throat lozenges etc that we had purchased on the ship, since DH had a stuffy nose coming on. Without thinking, I approached a port official to ask him if there was a pharmacy nearby... And that's when I realized I was asking him to tell me how to find drugs in Mexico! Fortunately he must get this question often, as he directed me to the Drugs and Deli (?) just a couple of streets over! They must have just been going for alliteration with that store name, as there was no meat being sold in the store .

Since we could tell that DH was fading fast, we headed back to the ship where we left DS to watch over DH while DD and I headed back out to wander around the port area, this time bringing money with us. As we left the ship, the photographers once again corralled us through their photo ops and we willingly complied - as DD has commented, you can stand or you can pose! The background for one photo was interesting since just as the photographer clicked the shutter, a military truck full of soldiers drove through the back of the shot! We assumed that these guys were pulling up to the Allure to pick up the refugees the ship had picked up the day before.

I must say that DD and I had a delightful time together searching for a cheesy ceramic touristic picture frame in the port area . There was a guy in a Capt Jack styled pirate costume standing in front of a store, but when he turned around he resembled a skeleton version of Capt Jack! More than a little unexpected. When he politely asked me if I wanted to take a picture with him, I immediately replied: Nope, you're too scary for me!! There was also a guy dressed as a Mayan warrior taking photos for tips as well, but we did not jump at that opportunity either. In general, the shop keepers were a little aggressive to get you in to their stores, but they were fine once you were there, even though we did not buy anything.

 

[Scraptographer]

Back on the ship, DD and DS once again headed off to the pool deck, while DH and I wandered around the ship a little ourselves, mostly moving from area to area, finding a beverage and a spot to sit and people watch before moving to another spot to do the same. We joined the kids on the pool deck for a while and DH mostly slept (under the guise of lounging in the shade), while the rest of us swam or hot tubbed it or read. We brought back lots of pop and tea for him as necessary since we wanted to make sure he had lots of fluids.

After a while DH headed back to the cabin for a real nap, and I followed him and read and played 'Candy Meth' while watching DH sleep. At some point I wandered off to the Royal Promenade to bring back tea and at another juncture headed out to bring back pop and ice cream, but overall it was a quiet day. Although I was not happy that DH was sick, realistically, it was very relaxing for me and for the kids, since once the decision was made to stay on the ship, we simply went with it - after all, it was a vacation.

Eventually the kids returned to check up on DH. DH decided to join us for supper - apparently those Mexican cold/flu meds were doing their job. After dinner we even managed a couple of photo ops, since this was the last day of the cruise that the photographers would be out taking pictures. Since we had a little time between dinner/photos and and our show reservation, we headed to the Promenade Cafe for tea. DD ran up to our cabins and returned with our puppy dog cupcakes, which we shared between the four of us. It was just the right treat at just the right time it seemed and they were very tasty .

At this point we headed for the Amber Theatre as we had reservations for Blue Planet. Although we had great seats since we got there early, the theatre was really really cold until it filled up with people. When Blue Planet finally started it was a 'cirque de soleil' styled show that included singing and performances by the same cast that did Chicago, as well as arial acts and other acrobatics.

We enjoyed the song choices, such as the Beatles music, but I wasn't crazy about the arrangements of the songs - don't mess with my 'classic' music! Granted DS had another perspective: The show really got interesting when the 'Power Rangers' showed up! Ok, there weren't really 'Power Rangers', but there were the acrobats/gymnasts who dressed in a similar style to the Power Rangers on the tv show that DS used to watch when he was little, so that plus their amazing physical feats got his attention .

This was once again another early night for DH. I enjoyed a few laps around the jogging track to top up my steps for the day, and yes, DD joined her posse of friends at the teen club until very late - or very early depending on your perspective .

 

[Scraptographer]

Very good trip report. It inspired me to try something different. So, we are booked for 2015 Spring Break on Allure of the Seas.

Thanks for reading along. Although we really found it hard to switch from DCL to RCCL, we really enjoyed the Allure, and I hope that you do as well. The most important piece of advice that I gained from others was to not expect Disney. It made a world of difference to our enjoyment. I hope you have a fantastic cruise.

 

[vacationsitis]

I had a question. I see that there is a Comedy show several times every night. It is just one show that is repeated about 16 times or is it different every night.

Thanks a bunch

 

[perfectmatch300]

OK, I'm back! DH and I just returned from spending a week in Grand Cayman, then a week trying to catch up with all the things that didn't get done while we were away!

I did read your report on Labadee carefully. I think I want to go to the same beach as you did, Columbus Beach. I'll have to remember to look for the ferry to get there. That sounds like a great idea to me! I also like the fact that you did not need water shoes. It sounds like a beach that DH, who does not like beaches nearly as much as I do, will at least find acceptable.

I am not sure yet when we are going to manage to fit either the Allure or the Oasis into our vacation schedule. Our plans are already made through 2015, so it's going to be a while. I do like to have a new adventure on the horizon, though. It gives me something to look forward to.

 

[Scraptographer]

DAY 7 - SEA DAY #3. The last day of our cruise was probably one of the toughest for DH as his cold was in full force now and he basically quarantined himself to our cabin. We did manage to breakfast all together at the Windjammer, but we did everything at a much slower pace than normal. We enjoyed lingering over breakfast and we watched the Teen club playing volleyball since our table was right by a window overlooking the Sports Court.

True to pattern DH and I headed off to the Promenade Cafe to enjoy some tea and people watching, while the kids headed off to the Teen club for noon to meet up with their friends as they had previously arranged. It did not take long before DH and I headed back to the cabin, where in a short time he was sleeping!

Mostly I enjoyed being a slug for a while, however as quietly as I could I started to sort and organize our stuff in preparation for packing our suitcases. And then while DH continued to spend quality time napping I headed off up on deck to look for the kids. I also used this opportunity to do a photo walk as the ship is pretty impressive overall, both in its layout and in its decor.

Finding the kids was definitely a challenge since they were busy trying to pack in as many activities as they could. By this point in the afternoon, DD and DS and their friends from home had done the zip line, and then they headed in different directions. DD and her 'posse' from the Teen club went to see 'Frozen' (yes, a Disney movie) in the Aqua Theatre while DS and his friend did the Teen Speed Climb on the rock climbing wall, before heading off to check out the Best of Flowrider show. I finally tracked them down on the mini putt course.

 

[Scraptographer]

In the end, both kids were back in their cabin in time to join me for dinner. Not only was DH not in any condition to eat dinner in the dining room, but he was determined to start packing - and we have learned that when DH is sick it is easier to just agree with him at times like this ... especially with a nearby bed for him to crawl back into went he wears himself out . Our serving team were great when we showed up and were happy to bring us trays of food to bring back to the room for DH.

After supper the kids helped me carry food back to the cabin. DH had made some progress on the packing, but as expected it had been slow going given the condition he was in. Once DH was distracted by attempting to eat, the kids and I tossed the rest of the clothes and stuff into our suitcases and then DH put them out into the hall - similar to the DCL system, our bags disappeared later that evening, to re-appear in the terminal for us to collect prior to customs.

LESSON LEARNED: Unlike DCL's system where your luggage tags are based on your cabin location on the ship, on RCCL, your luggage tags identify the time you are allowed to disembark the ship. Check your luggage tags as early as possible after your Cabin Steward delivers them - earlier in the day we realized that although we had requested (disembarkation registration through the TV) a departure time of around 0800 hrs, the cabin tag number we received would not have let us off until much later. After we talked to our Cabin Steward he was able to switch tags for us with relative ease.

The kids once again headed off to hang out with friends at the Teen club for one last evening. There were lots of sad good-byes for DD since unlike DS whose main friends from the cruise were going to be in school with him the next day (!), most of DDs friends were from all over the place, including England and Texas as well as Toronto. There was a lot of text addresses/Facebook addresses being shared. One of DDs buddies drew a picture (caricatures essentially) of their group of six, and one of the Teen club staff copied it for each of them .

By the time DH and I headed down to the Promenade for our evening cup of tea, we realized that we had missed the final Dreamworks parade, but there was still lots of people watching to be done.

Note: on the final day of the cruise, there are no professional photo ops, that said, there are still lots of character meet and greets where the character wrangler (handler on DCL) will take a picture for you with your camera. And on the last night many people are running around frantically taking pictures of anything and everything!

We called it a night long before our kids did, however everyone made it back to our cabins safe and sound. And perhaps it was out of exhaustion, but DH slept well and therefore so did I.

 

[Scraptographer]

I had a question. I see that there is a Comedy show several times every night. It is just one show that is repeated about 16 times or is it different every night.

Thanks a bunch

We did not personally check out the comedians, however I believe there are usually a couple of comedians on board who share each show. On our cruise we had Kivi Rogers and Rick Corso and the routine was listed as improv and stand up in the Cruise Compass.

I heard from other cruisers that the material is basically the same for each show, however the venue is very small, I think I heard only about 30 people maybe, which is why they offer the show a couple of times each night.

Hope that helps.

 

[Scraptographer]

OK, I'm back! DH and I just returned from spending a week in Grand Cayman, then a week trying to catch up with all the things that didn't get done while we were away!

I did read your report on Labadee carefully. I think I want to go to the same beach as you did, Columbus Beach. I'll have to remember to look for the ferry to get there. That sounds like a great idea to me! I also like the fact that you did not need water shoes. It sounds like a beach that DH, who does not like beaches nearly as much as I do, will at least find acceptable.

I am not sure yet when we are going to manage to fit either the Allure or the Oasis into our vacation schedule. Our plans are already made through 2015, so it's going to be a while. I do like to have a new adventure on the horizon, though. It gives me something to look forward to.

I agree with you completely about wanting to have a next adventure planned out even before the first vacation finishes. As for Labadee, we really did enjoy our beach day there, but there were definitely a lot of people at Columbus beach - however RCCL seemed to be able to handle it reasonably.

 

[TonyMouse]

"in general though, our philosophy is that cruising is what you make of it. It really is. For our family we enjoy exploring new places, spending time hanging out together, watching shows, dressing up for dinner and relaxing"

Very well said, I couldn't agree more. I think we are a bit spoiled when it comes to enjoying time with family and friends. Thans for sharing that

 

[twindaddy]

Loving your TR, we are on the Oasis next March.

Looking forward to reading how it all ends, 6K people getting off the ship at once!

 

[Scraptographer]

DISEMBARKATION DAY. We set an alarm for the first time in a week in order to make sure that we would be up and out of our cabin on time. Since we had an 11:20 am flight on Air Canada, we chose an early departure option and received baggage tags for slot number 19. Around 7 am we headed up to the Windjammer, and for the first time since Embarkation day a staff member escorted us to a table. By coincidence it was the exact same table that we sat at on the first day - things coming full circle perhaps.

Breakfast went smoothly and we had lots of time to retrieve our backpacks from our cabin and head to the Adagio dining room on the main floor to await our disembarkation time of 7:55 am. And then we sat and we waited, and we waited some more. Fortunately by 8:30 am we were headed off the ship and into a wickedly long line to retrieve our luggage and head towards customs.

It took another hour before we finally made it through to customs and out to curb side. In between we shuffled along slowly in a very long queue - they had a really really long snaking line, so just when you thought you were making progress, the line snaked back upon itself! Luggage was in groups based on the number on the tags that our cabin steward handed out. After you made it all the way down to the main floor, you collected your bags and then got back in line for customs. The customs process was pretty basic. During this hour, DD did end up running into some of her peeps from the Teen Club - and they would hug each time they parted ways - only to run into each other again and again each time the lines looped back on each other. Eventually the kids started giggling about it, but they still hugged, just in case .

Side note: Checking online afterwards, it would seem that there were either computer issues for the Allure or work slow down issues with the US customs agents, or a combination of both issues, and that this length of time for disembarkation was not the usual. As an example, it seems that the computer system was not recognizing about every tenth person maybe, when they swiped their SeaPass upon departure from the ship, so those passengers and their families ended up back at Guest Services having to straighten things out in order to be let off of the ship. Yikes. And then once they made it into line, the line moved very slowly, perhaps due to the rumoured Customs staff issues.

 

[Scraptographer]

By the time we got outside, the first vehicle we reached was a van shuttle who informed us that it would be $11 per person for the trip to the airport. We agreed and were loaded aboard the van with another family. It turned out that DD also knew these teenagers from hanging out at the teen club all week. Small world effect.

I commented later to DH that I had thought the cost for the ride to the airport should have been less than $44 (!), to which DH replied, well, there were taxis right across the street that would probably have been less expensive. LESSON LEARNED.

Once at the airport, the line up for Air Canada was not fun. There was only one agent (slowest agent we have ever experienced) handling 'regular ' passengers, while at least two agents were taking Business class and another single agent handled people who had completed web check in. This of course lead to a huge back up and the need to suddenly prioritize passengers for our flight and the flight after us.

LESSON LEARNED: Next time we will request an earlier departure time/number since you can walk off after your number is called if breakfast runs longer, but ideally we would leave ourselves a little more time in case of similar delays.

Happily our flight to Montreal left on time (unlike the unfortunate 6:30 am flight whose passengers were still waiting to be re-booked/re-routed). Our flight was a very bumpy ride, again, one of the bumpiest we have experienced - and we fly a lot - but we arrived safely and on time.

In Montreal the Holiday Inn Express shuttle arrived almost immediately and we retrieved our vehicle and picked up our Timmies in very short order - it's all about the priorities . Appropriately caffeinated and thankful for roads clear of snow we started to drive right away.

After a smooth drive home we slipped back into life and laundry and school and work. It took DH a couple of weeks to recover from his cold - and unfortunately DD came down with the same cold symptoms about a week or so later. She is definitely a Daddy's girl in many ways .

CRUISE SURVEY. Once at home we noted that we received our cruise survey from RCCL online - we are used to the DCL process of being requested to complete a paper copy survey and dropping it off prior to departing the ship. Yes RCCL has moved this process into the 21st century, but I wonder which is more effective, since we always complete the DCL survey prior to leaving the ship, but the RCCL one - it was on ourTo-Do list for for a whole week before it did indeed get 'ta done' .

 

[Scraptographer]

"in general though, our philosophy is that cruising is what you make of it. It really is. For our family we enjoy exploring new places, spending time hanging out together, watching shows, dressing up for dinner and relaxing"

Very well said, I couldn't agree more. I think we are a bit spoiled when it comes to enjoying time with family and friends. Thans for sharing that

Thanks for reading along. A very wise co-worker once explained to me that although work is very important and meaningful, one day when I retire they will probably thank me for a job well done (hopefully), they may even give me a plaque and a party, but I needed to choose who I wanted to go home to and who I would be spending my retirement with - some how that put everything into perspective for me very quickly!