February 28, 2009 Bushwacker Banditos Magical Cruise

[RookieMouse]

Welcome cheflawrence and glasscruising families!!!!
You don't have to be crazy to cruise with us, but it sure helps (see Dave's picture...)

Dave, that picture of your town brings back so many memories of my time in Germany... now I wanna go back so bad. Mainly I remember this time of year being the season of fog so thick you can't see across the street, and cold enough that you had to scrape the ice off your car windows.

By the way, with these photos of you dressed up in various costumes, you realize you are setting the bar pretty high with regards to how we expect to see you for pirate night...

John

 

[DisneyPinDiva]

Hey everyone... negative 18 again this morning! Germany is in DEEP freeze! I can't remember ever having temps this cold for so long. Brrrr...we need our cruise escape!!!! At least it is bright and sunny during the day which is a nice change from the typical dreary, grey that we usually get in January.

I started getting our cruise clothes together just to distract myself.

I think we may go the rental car route in St Croix as well.... regardless of whether we wind up at a beach or go to town.

Diva... do you know if the car rental companies deliver the cars to the port like in some places? or are they right there? From the sounds of disorganization, I wonder.

We went with Olympic.. who promised me that the office was within walking distance of the cruise ship pier. They also gave me the best deal. With all of us chipping in.. the rental for the day is less per person than a cab ride to one place. Sorry.. but no room for hitchhikers... there will be six of us squeezed in there already!!
While doing the research, some of the places will deliver or come and pick you up. There are a couple that will not rent just for the day but most will.
Back to catching up.. you guys have been talkative lately!!!

 

[donmil723]

Beautiful!!!!! It does look like a fairy tale village! We hope to go to Europe someday and Germany is tops on the list! Of course, if this picture didn't convince me to go, I know your Carnival picture would push me over the edge!!!

Hip Hip Hooray! Welcome, glassfamily!

 

[Dave and Micha]

PMSL. I'm pretty.

 

[fairfax]

Well you all asked for a fun or silly picture...
This is Lauren enjoying the snow, it was so cold for so long though that we are not able to make any snowballs or snowmen!! Now it has warmed up a tad, but is now all crusted over and is not "fun snow" anymore if you know what I mean.
I love how I caught her in mid flight!!!




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This is a great picture! My DD is 5 and is longing to see snow. We've lived in Florida since before she was born so she's never seen it. I have to show this to her!

 

[ejkjmom]

OMGOSH!!!!!!! We feel to page 2
How did that happen???? I got us pulled back up

Hope everyone is having a great day!!!!

And Dave...I'm guessing Lime green is your color of choice LOL!!!! Can't wait to see your attire you chose for cruising LOL!!!
Your going to make all of us look BORING!!!!

 

[3Charbys]

Well we booked one excursion for St Thomas!
We are doing the Coral World Ocean & Island Drive at 8am. We thought it would give Lauren a chance to see some animals in the aquariums as well as a chance to enjoy Coki beach (Without the sun being at full strength too!) for a bit. It has us back at the pier at I think 11:40. Enough time to enjoy lunch on the boat and perhaps some quieter time at the Mickey pool that afternoon.

My question is this though... by booking this, does Disney add this to the charges on our shipboard account? They did not ask for payment of any kind.

What excursions are you all thinking of for St Croix?? We are a little hesitant to do anything Non-Disney from the trip reports we have been reading ...

 

[Dave and Micha]

Yes Wanda... it will appear on your ship board charges.

We are looking into a car rental in St Croix..

 

[3Charbys]

Thanks Dave!

 

[DMMarla07860]

so just heard on of my old teachers passed away

 

[donmil723]

Wanda--Lauren looked like she was having lots of fun in the snow. But, inquiring minds want to know....Did you make the same dive into the snow????

After talking to a friend of mine who went to St. Croix in 2007 and reading the reviews from the first DCL cruisers to the island, we booked the West End Highlights Tour. Although I have booked my own excursions in the past, I just didn't feel comfortable doing so in St. Croix but I wanted to see some of the island. This one goes to the Whim Estate Plantation, Cruzan Rum Distillery, and the Botanical Gardens. It leaves at 9:30 and gets back about 1:15.

On St. Thomas, we are doing the Water Island Mountain Bike Adventure. DH isn't comfortable in water over his head and I wanted to do something more active than just a beach so this is what we decided to do! It begins at 9:15 and ends at 12:45 p.m.

 

[3Charbys]

Of course I jumped in Donna!!! Mommies make the best snow angels don't 'cha know??

That tour you chose sounds so lovely, seeing some of the sights, and saying I have seen some of the island would really be my "cup of tea". However, we do have keep this little miss of ours entertained too. A long bus ride with limited access to "facilities" might not be our best choice KWIM? LOL We will still wait to see about some beachy easy day excursions and how the people liked them. I think I read somewhere that there wasn't any real great shopping near the port so that is out too. I will have to try to get a bit done in St Thomas in the afternoon! I do agree with you about booking...if we choose to do something it will be thru Disney!

I guess we have to remember that she is why we are even on this trip!! On Jan 31st we will be celebrating a very big day!! 1 year since her very last chemotherapy treatment!! The strides and changes we have seen in her in the last year has been amazing!! We are so blessed to have her here with us!

 

[Dave and Micha]

So... everyone is using these lovely, sweet little monikers of DH and DW... I have decided I'm going to start using GDH... "*******ed husband" because he is driving me crazy this week!!!

Sorry to hear about your teacher DMarla... I read that Ricardo Montalban also passed away recently... now they're both in the fantasy island in the sky... sad.

OK... so the crazy picture part is now over... for our next amusement and distraction to help the time pass until we get our butts on that cruise ship... now post your FAVORITE CRUISE PIC (with you in it) OF ALL TIME!

Here's me and the GDH in Bermuda

 

[DMMarla07860]

here's my favorite cruise picture of all time

^last dinner on the Magic with some of the best servers I've ever had

 

[donmil723]

Of course I jumped in Donna!!! Mommies make the best snow angels don't 'cha know??

That tour you chose sounds so lovely, seeing some of the sights, and saying I have seen some of the island would really be my "cup of tea". However, we do have keep this little miss of ours entertained too. A long bus ride with limited access to "facilities" might not be our best choice KWIM? LOL We will still wait to see about some beachy easy day excursions and how the people liked them. I think I read somewhere that there wasn't any real great shopping near the port so that is out too. I will have to try to get a bit done in St Thomas in the afternoon! I do agree with you about booking...if we choose to do something it will be thru Disney!

I guess we have to remember that she is why we are even on this trip!! On Jan 31st we will be celebrating a very big day!! 1 year since her very last chemotherapy treatment!! The strides and changes we have seen in her in the last year has been amazing!! We are so blessed to have her here with us!

That is a very important milestone to be celebrating!!! I was thinking about our cruise last night and everyone that is going to be on it and I thought about you. I can't even imagine how scared and worried you were about Lauren. My kids are 23 and 26 and I still worry about them!!!

 

[Dave and Micha]

Hey great pic!!!

 

[Johnna_Story]

Great pix everyone!! i'll do some research for my favorite cruise pic - there are so many...

And Dave - there are days when I have a GDH also. And I know there are days when he thinks I'm a GDW. (I just said that because he's on this board too, not because it's really true.)

Okay - it's going to be 19 degrees here tomorrow, with a wind chill in single digits. Colder than it's been here in a long time. So I will be in total cruise mode. Maybe we'll turn up the heat to 85 in the house, and have a pre-cruise party!

Marla - sorry about your teacher. A colleague friend of mine died Monday after a tough battle with leukemia. She was only 3 years younger than me, and her kids were almost the same ages as mine. Heartbreaking to lose someone so young. It will be a tough memorial service tomorrow.

Ciao for now! Johnna

 

[jbuckent]

I'm going through all my clothes today, it's so much more fun this year as A) I'm not pregnant and B) we booked this trip so far on advance I did all my summer shopping with the cruise in mind. I'm wondering though what do you plan on wearing to dinners long or short sleeves?

 

[DMMarla07860]

Marla - sorry about your teacher. A colleague friend of mine died Monday after a tough battle with leukemia. She was only 3 years younger than me, and her kids were almost the same ages as mine. Heartbreaking to lose someone so young. It will be a tough memorial service tomorrow.

Ciao for now! Johnna

He died from cancer, no one knew it was that bad he was truely a fighter and I know a lot of people are sad right now, we all should be. You could go to him for help with anything and he would help everyone. He was just great at life and everything. I know even after graduating high school myself and other people would go to him for help such a great guy and we wasn't much older then us only 27

back on topic looking forward to this cruise after the snow we got today

 

[Dave and Micha]

Ditto