November 1, 2008 "Election Day Castaways!"

[artesian]

My DD used to face plant alot and get those golf ball type bumps....believe it or not they reduced pretty quickly although they look scary. Don't let him stress about people looking at it....I bet it will be mostly gone by the time you leave.

ONE MORE WEEK!!!!

He pretty much had the same injury last year on the bridge of his nose that made him look like a klingon for a couple of weeks. He's gotten over the stress part and aside from the rainbow of colors that will be above his eye he'll be fine.

I just had an intense craving from one of those fruity frozen cocktails with the fruit and mini umbrella sticking out.

 

[Cmbar]

Is that they really discourage jeans in the dining rooms at dinner. You can always eat in some of the other restaurants if you want a more casual place. I believe there is a buffet restaurant that's open during dinner too (Topsiders????) My DH is wearing khakis on casual dinner nights and so is my DS. My DD is going to wear capris or a skort.

Thanks Mindy, That was our plan for our family too. I just don't want to get there and a majority of the people are in more casual clothes than us. Only because I know my husband will be more comfortable in jeans. He wears Khakis everyday to work, so for him it is like dressing up for work each day. Kinda not his idea of vacation. But he can buck it up for the evening.

 

[Cmbar]

Thanks everyone for all the civil responses on the jeans. I have checked out other threads and it seems it can be heated. We will probably stay with Khaki's. Dare I ask if Khaki shorts for my son is acceptable??? I know I am pushing it! I don't have that many Khaki pants for him as he wears mostly sweatpants to school. He does have some good jeans though. UGH. I hate packing!

Think I am going to have to get a couple wears out of the same pants for him. I am still stressing about what they could wear on the Pirate night. But if I go with a pirates T-shirt I can at least put him in jeans now.

 

[bfosbenner]

Only 48 more work hours until our vacation starts (end of work on 10/30)

We treat all the dinners as special occasions on our cruise and dress nicely.
We can wear jeans to McDonalds but jeans do not bother us... to each his own

 

[feenie]

Thanks everyone for all the civil responses on the jeans. I have checked out other threads and it seems it can be heated. We will probably stay with Khaki's. Dare I ask if Khaki shorts for my son is acceptable??? I know I am pushing it! I don't have that many Khaki pants for him as he wears mostly sweatpants to school. He does have some good jeans though. UGH. I hate packing!

Think I am going to have to get a couple wears out of the same pants for him. I am still stressing about what they could wear on the Pirate night. But if I go with a pirates T-**** I can at least put him in jeans now.

I personally feel like the khaki shorts would be fine for a child.
DH is only packing one pair of Khaki's and one pair of black dress pants and will just re-wear them. He will probably only wear them for 2-3 hours at the most each time so they should be fine. If he ends up being a slob, he can do laundry DH is not allowed to wear jeans to dinner, but that is MY rule for him! I like it when he dresses up and around here, there is just not that much opportunnity to do it.
Don't stress about pirate night. Don't forget they have pirate bandanas that they give everyone at dinner.
DH LOVES pirate night and goes all out. Year one, I felt like an idiot in my tropical dress standing next to MR Pirate, so I got a pirate-ish outfit for that night. But if he did not dress up, I would have kept the tropical theme instead!

 

[nobodycares]

It doesn't bother me if others wear jeans at dinner, as they will be seated and we won't see their jeans!!!

I did have DH get some nice Khaki's and dress slacks for dinner. The dining rooms are so nice, that when going to a restaurant like that at home, we wouldn't wear jeans. (Well, maybe to Parrot Cay )

No fashion police on board - they are officially banned.

I 've seen some of the pictures posted from shutters where family's even coordinate all their outfits so the whole family matches. Now that is too much like work.

 

[mindelmouse]

at work daydreaming that at this time next week, I'll be on a plane to Orlando. I have so much work to do here and I just can't focus. My boss is having a meltdown because our usual work for this month went long and everything isn't finished and probably won't be before I leave. He's afraid he's going to have to try to figure out how to do it himself because I'll be virutally unreachable. OH well.....they've only known about this vacation since March 07....no regrets on my part....just need to focus for 4 1/2 more work days....

 

[nobodycares]

I'm with you Mindy - my boss always loves to go into panic mode and try to have everything in the world done the week before I leave no matter how long the work was sitting in his office. It got so bad one year I refused to tell him what week I was taking off so he wouldn't try to kill me right before vacation.

I've mentally checked out - Procrastination on his part does not constitute an instant emergency on my part.

It's only five working days - the world will not end - I'll handle it when I get back.

 

[mindelmouse]

I'm truly the only person here that knows how to do what I do...I've been asking for a backup for years...I got some help, but he has a ways to go until he acquired the knowledge and experience to do it on his own. My boss can do it, but he claims to have forgotten how...I think this will be a good wake up call...that if I leave he has a void...not that I'm full of myself...I've just been in my career for 24 years and nothing can replace experience.

 

[feenie]

I am actually kind of bored at work.
I have only the rest of today and Monday to get through, and everything is caught up.
I think the thing that helps is that my co worker was on vacation for a week and a half at the end of sept/beginning of october, then was back for a week and a half, then went away for another week, so we knew we had to be really on top of things before october even hit.
Now I am wishing for some things that NEED to get done so the time goes by faster!

 

[nobodycares]

That's funny Mindy how alike our situations are - I've been at my job 22 1/2 years and my boss relies me to do what he means - not what he says.

Regular absence is a good thing for both of us. Makes me realize I can go away for a week and the world will not stop spinning and also keeps him realizing that I do make a valuable contribution to the business.

 

[wuv tigger]

Don't forget to:

shut off main H2O valve to house
turn down thermostat
stop paper
stop mail
use automatic light timers
vote

 

[nobodycares]

I second the turn off the water valve. My parents went out for the day - water feed line broke - house flooded in one day. Imagine the mess which could occur in a week.

My to do list just keeps getting longer and longer.

Here are some more suggestions:

Make up address labels for your postcards
Go to the post office and get postcard stamps
Bring address labels for your home address for use on luggage tags when we disembark.

 

[LBIGirl67]

As far as I've heard, wearing jeans is acceptable in the dining rooms, although not on the formal nights.


I also just called DCL just now, and the lady I talked to said: "Oh absolutely jeans are accepted in the dining rooms, just not jean shorts."

YIPPEEEEE !!! I have all boys who looked at me like I had 2 heads when I told them they had to wear dressy clothes. I will let them wear jeans on first night and maybe last night so that they are comfy. At least I know I can wear now some of my fancy jeans with sparkles etc....
Thanks for checking on that.

 

[tinapomp]

I second the turn off the water valve. My parents went out for the day - water feed line broke - house flooded in one day. Imagine the mess which could occur in a week.

My to do list just keeps getting longer and longer.

Here are some more suggestions:

Make up address labels for your postcards
Go to the post office and get postcard stamps
Bring address labels for your home address for use on luggage tags when we disembark.

Forgive me, but I have to ask a dumb question. What are the postcard stamps for? Is that to just mail postcards during your trip to people? I'm just asking because I thought I had heard that on Castaway Cay you could only mail postcards with their postage? Or am I completely losing it (which is entirely possible!) and am I wrong?

Thank you!

 

[tinapomp]

YIPPEEEEE !!! I have all boys who looked at me like I had 2 heads when I told them they had to wear dressy clothes. I will let them wear jeans on first night and maybe last night so that they are comfy. At least I know I can wear now some of my fancy jeans with sparkles etc....
Thanks for checking on that.

You're totally welcome! I'm kind of a redundancy freak (has to do with my line of work), so I just wanted to call and confirm for me.

 

[artesian]

Been on a call for work for over an hour now. Mentally checking out i think
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/traveler/images/caribbean_drinks.jpg

 

[LBIGirl67]

Been on a call for work for over an hour now. Mentally checking out i think
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/traveler/images/caribbean_drinks.jpg

OMG....I SO NEED ONE OF THOSE !!!!! It's Friday, kids at school I think were all on Mountain Dew and Pop Rocks. DS14 has last football game, it's cold as well...further south than we are going. I have got a house that looks like a bomb hit it and I'M LOSING MY MIND !!! puff, puff, puff....
When do we leave again?

 

[nobodycares]

Forgive me, but I have to ask a dumb question. What are the postcard stamps for? Is that to just mail postcards during your trip to people? I'm just asking because I thought I had heard that on Castaway Cay you could only mail postcards with their postage? Or am I completely losing it (which is entirely possible!) and am I wrong?

Thank you!

You are right about postcards mailed from Castaway Cay. You have to buy Bahamian stamps at the post office there. Keep in mind the stores on the ship are closed while you are in port at CC, and they don't sell postcards at the CC post office (only 1/2 way down the beach at Sea Shells ). SOOO if you are gonna do postcards from CC my advice is buy your cards before you get to CC and have them written that way you can pop into the CC post office (you'll need money - no kttw card accepted at the post office) get your stamps at CC and mail them. The stamps are nice - they have a picture of the ship.

As for me, I'll be at MCO hotel the night before. I'm gonna get some postcards at the airport mall, fill them out and mail them at the desk as I check out. Finally, people will get their postcards before I've been home for 2 weeks that way.

 

[stampinshauna]

Tigger's got some good tips. The h2o valve tip reminded me that I want to turn down the water heater to vacation setting to save on natural gas.

1 week and we will all be in FL or at least on the way!