Indigo--still thinking about you...
Remember to keep hydrated so if you are passing the stone(s), you can flush it out easily. When I had my last one, I felt it drop from my ureter into my bladder, but I waited several hours to even try to pass it the rest of the way (to build up a "power stream"
) so it wouldn't get stuck again, and I didn't even feel it pass at all.
I'm glad kitty made it home okay.
And Happy Thanksgiving, too!
Jane--hopefully the economy will turn around soon so we don't have to be worrying about jobs, money for the cruise, etc. Fingers are crossed for you!
Maybe the ship won't be as empty as I think it will be on sea days. My parents said yesterday what they're wanting to do for excursions, but we probably won't be joining them.
I'm wondering how some of you have your flights booked already. When I check online, I'm finding that they're not booking into May yet. I'm getting frustrated at the prices, too. I check prices for as far out as I can book (usually end of March or early April), and places like Travelocity, Orbitz, etc., give an option of $179ish, but when I click it, it says, "Sorry, that price is not available anymore." Then they go up to ~$450!
Aaaarrrrrgggh!!! I'm kinda waiting anyway to see what our local (very small!) airport is going to do with their flights, so it's probably not that big a deal that I don't have them booked yet. Unfortunately, we've had trouble keeping airlines at our local airport in the last 1-2 years, so we're hoping someone will come in very soon and give us some flights that will fit into our plans. Right now, the only departure flight we have leaves on Thursday for Vegas and comes back on Sunday (we used to have about 3 or 4 flights a day to and from Kansas City). We were hoping for one of those connecting flights from Grand Island to KC, but like Sherry had found out before, the only non-stop flight from KC to MCO leaves at 7AM, and I don't know if we could get there from GI that early. I'm getting way ahead of myself, though, because there aren't even any talks of bringing in any other flights yet. Bummer! Last time, we drove 2 hours to fly out of Omaha and spent $120 for 9 days of parking plus $100 for gas. Yowza! And we will be gone even longer this time! Sorry for all the rambling...it's just getting to be a sore subject with me.
If we can't get the flight prices any cheaper that what I've been finding, we might cut short our WDW stay after the cruise. We really want to do KSC, AK, and Cirque de Soleil, so if we just have a couple extra days, I'm sure that will be enough to fit in our wish list. Lennon is a little squeamish when it comes to rides, so I don't think MK will end up being a very good outing for us. I need to start doing more research and planning for that part of the trip...
I was excited about the possibility of doing a 2010 Med cruise with Disney and then when I saw the prices and the dates, that made it next to impossible to consider...not gonna happen
Those 2010 cruises are outrageous, aren't they?!?! We might just wait for the first new ship to do another one. I got the feeling this weekend that my MIL is a little jealous that she isn't going with us but that my mom is, so maybe she'll want to come with us next time. I just hope the prices aren't too out of control for the new ships.
Maybe we should dub this trip the "budget watchers on board" trip. Or something to that effect. I'm going to spend tomorrow creating a budget for the expenses that we need to save up for (tips, rental car, FKLP, etc) so we have a better idea of how much we should put in the vacation account.
Anyone know how much the alcoholic drinks are onboard? We don't drink much, but I'd like to try one or two of the drinks of the day while sitting in a deck chair and relaxing.
Be sure and budget that FKLP!!! That is a Must-
Not-Do-Without expense!
I was thinking that most drinks are about $4-5 or so. One thing that Justin didn't realize when he ordered drinks was that there's 15% gratuity already added onto the price, so he would round up his total to give a tip, but the tip was already on, so he gave
very nice tips, which I'm sure is why the waiters were all very happy to keep his glass mug filled the entire time.
I've convinced DS to go as a Pirate for Halloween so his costume can serve double-duty
Good thing he's still pretty easily manipulated! hee!
Now that's what I like to hear! Any way to save money is my kind of living! Why spend more money if you don't have to?!?! WTG on the convincing!
Please share your estimated budget if you feel like it. I am going on the 4 day Nassau cruise in December of this year and thought thought would give me an idea.... I am thinking about putting money in our OBC so that we have a zero balance when we check out. We have under two months to go and I could set aside some money for that.
I haven't figured out an estimated budget yet for this cruise, but here's what we spent last time, which, to me, was quite a bit. But now we know that we don't need to spend this much in order to have a great vacation. We had ~$900 total onboard expenses and had $200 in OBC. Here's what we spent. Drinks were a pretty big expense (for Justin mostly) and tastings, too, but we alo decided to cancel one of our tastings so we could do Bingo as a family instead for basically the same price. Just guessing, I would say maybe $200-250 was alcohol.
Palo brunch & dinner plus tips were probably just under $100 or so for both (I think we overtipped, but how do you know? We did have the same server at the same table, so that was a very nice surprise). We only bought 3 or 4 pictures from Shutters. We took our camera
everywhere with us and just had the CM's use our camera for those situations. We took almost 800 pictures in 7 days.
We did make quite a few purchases in the shops with 2 beach towels, a t-shirt for each of the boys, a shirt for me, 2 stuffed Plutos for each of the boys, a couple trinkets (my
DCL Christmas ornament is one of my favorites!), and Mother's Day presents for our moms--necklaces ~$50 each. (BTW girls, even if you don't think you'll need any FHP, bring them anyway because they are NOT cheap in the shops! Another big expense for me. Sorry if there are any guys reading this...) CC expenses were also charged to our account, which were 2 more shirts for each of the boys, postcards, snorkeling gear rental (we shared one set--$25 each--ouch!), and more sunscreen (also not cheap--bring plenty of your own!). We had enough cash with us that we just used that for tips (again, we overtipped, in my mind), including room service.
Shore expenses that were not on our account were ice cream & FKLP in KW, 12-pk of water at the drug store to bring back onboard so we could take them with us in GC & Coz, a t-shirt for each of the boys at Del Sol, stingray/snorkeling tour in GC ~100+, lunch in GC ~$65 (again, the tip was added automatically, but Justin added more without noticing! I'm getting the feeling that I need to be the one in charge of paying from now on! Sheesh!), a shirt for my stepdad at the Harley shop, taxi fare in Coz to get to Paradise Beach ~$15 each way, $20 for a buggy ride around the port shopping area, stamps from the post office at CC. That's all I can think of off the top of my head. I'm sure if I look through pictures or Navigators, I would probably find more.
I will definitely do things different this time and try to not spend so much. Of course we have wonderful memories and lots of things to remind us of those memories (the boys still fit in all of their shirts and still love their stuffed Plutos). Other than shore expenses, though, I don't really know what else I could cut back on onboard.
I'm planning on transferring my ressie to either DU or
AAA for even more OBC (hopefully up to $200 more--we got $200 for booking onboard last time), and we have a Disney Visa that we will probably be using the rewards toward our onboard account. They just ended a promotion, though, that gave 5% on certain purchases, so we ended up with quite a bit more in rewards dollars than we thought we would have, so I'm not sure if that will all go toward the onboard account or if we'll use some of it to pay off the cruise. We mostly use a 3% cash back Mastercard that we are using rewards to pay off our cruise, but that extra 2% helps in every way.
Sorry for rambling on and on...I tend to do that from time to time! I hope I didn't bore everyone to sleep!
In terms of the excursions, I have read up on them in the new edition of Passporters and none seem all the appealing to me (maybe I am just boring or picky). I have cruised before and the first time I went, I booked excurions in every port and thought that they were less than impressive for the price (and that was when I was single and only had to pay for one 
). The second time I cruised I hung out on the boat and thought it was just great - plenty to do and you can enjoy the boat without the crowds. I guess it all depends on what brother-in-law and his family want to do - if my kids' cousins are doing something, there is no way my two will allow themselves to be left behind for a second! 
