*Sept 10th 2011 WB Transatlantic* From Spain to Space Mountain - Part 3

[MandyGirl]

Thanks for the prayers! Grandma is looking good considering. I know it has not hit her yet, but I know Curt has been sharing stories with me. He grew up in a very small town where both sets of grandparents lived just a mile or two away, so he really got to know them (makes me sad our parents live so far away... for our daughters' sakes especially). Anyway, stories of golfing at the municipal course on a regular basis in the summer, working out on the farm with him (like one of those huge farms), skeet shooting and hunting, etc. Experiences I want my girls to have with their grandparents. Life is too short.

Does that ever sound familiar? On the Med cruise last year my husband was continually trying to one-up our server. Both of them would present their "bigger and better" table trick each night at dinner. It was hilarious! (And I'll venture to say no one at our table was under 40!)

Your husband sounds like a GREAT man!! We had so much fun with those table tricks. And on that cruise, our entire table was from Utah except us - devout Mormons - and absolutely no alcohol at all. They did drink some sodas... I was probably just as responsible for our behavior! One of our favorite cruise tables ever. (We usually book tables of 8 when it's just been us, and always enjoyed.) Now I can't eat crumbled blue cheese without thinking of a table mate on a different cruise, or think of mixed drinks without thinking of another tablemate in the best cabin on the ship who was sure to bring his own blender because he could mix his drinks better. Really fond tablemate memories

St. Maarten is easy. You can use US$ but also any euros you've got left from previous ports. The official currency of the French part (St. Martin) is euros but US$ should be of no prob. except for perhaps being dealt a bit less exchange rate. As far as the Dutch part goes (St. Maarten); the official currency there is ANG (antilles guilder) but they are so touristy they'll take both euro and dollars. For both parts of the island; be prepared to get your change in the local official currency though!!

Maybe we can abbreviate currency for each port and add to front page schedule?

 

[susie2]

just having a nosey round DCL website - there's three sideways cat 11b's on deck 6 available at the mo: 6019, 6011, 6521

where are they all going and what do they know that we dont lol

 

[MandyGirl]

There's still a few left isn't there...I thought they would've been snagged straight away.

I'm really thinking we are low capacity. Yes, some top cabins are gone, but the rest of the ship really has almost every category showing with 7 cabins (which seems to be the most they "show" when choosing a category). One-way airfares, unrest in the middle east, fear of Bin Laden retaliation. We cruised shortly after 9/11 from San Juan, and they ended up doing last-minute dirt cheap specials that were literally 75% less than what we paid. Of course, it was too far into penalty period for us to even upgrade or anything.

 

[birkner]

For those of us with E-readers; is it an idea to arrange an exchange of some books aboard? The usage of different types and different types of files doesn't have to be a problem. There are some great programs available like Calibre that can easily format any filetype ebook into another type, so for instance Kindle users can exchange books with Nook users etc. etc.

I'm doubtfull you guys will be lining up for the thousands of books I've got in Dutch but got a couple of hundred english ones also that will be going along anyway (I always travel with my bookfiles in a backup, just in case ). I'll be bringing along my netbook anyways so wouldn't mind handing out a copy for those interested.

I would be interested in doing a book exchange if you let me know how it is done. I have some new books I have downloaded to my Kindle. Perhaps you could keep a list and tell us who has what books.I will check out Caibre today to see how it is done.

 

[Tod&Copper]

i'm quite good with directions so will be able to find the room after 2 or 3 times of being there, gary on the other hand ends up on the wrong side of the ship half the time.
if anyone sees a lost looking scotsman wandering around, please send him in my direction......

I'll be bumping into Gary a lot then

 

[Chris&Jeremy]

I remember previous conversations on the boards about going to Maho Beach in St Maarten and hanging out at the bars (or on the fences) to watch the planes fly overhead.

Is this something that someone was putting together? I don't see it as an official DCL excursion but was wondering if someone had already been making arrangements with a company to do this?

 

[squitty]

I'm really thinking we are low capacity. Yes, some top cabins are gone, but the rest of the ship really has almost every category showing with 7 cabins (which seems to be the most they "show" when choosing a category). One-way airfares, unrest in the middle east, fear of Bin Laden retaliation. We cruised shortly after 9/11 from San Juan, and they ended up doing last-minute dirt cheap specials that were literally 75% less than what we paid. Of course, it was too far into penalty period for us to even upgrade or anything.

You may well be right Mandy.

I was thinking it was because it might've had something to do with the final payment deadline and that people that had deposits down decided not to go and the cabins have been released. The reason for not going could be just what you've said.

 

[birkner]

I remember previous conversations on the boards about going to Maho Beach in St Maarten and hanging out at the bars (or on the fences) to watch the planes fly overhead.

Is this something that someone was putting together? I don't see it as an official DCL excursion but was wondering if someone had already been making arrangements with a company to do this?

Last year we did an excursion with Bernards Tours. I don't know if anyone is putting together a tour this time. If enough people are interested, I can contact them again.

 

[squitty]

I remember previous conversations on the boards about going to Maho Beach in St Maarten and hanging out at the bars (or on the fences) to watch the planes fly overhead.

Is this something that someone was putting together? I don't see it as an official DCL excursion but was wondering if someone had already been making arrangements with a company to do this?

I know we've talked about going to Maho Beach and getting sand blasted ...not sure if we could organise something though?

 

[goofieslonglostsis]

Capacity is fairly low. I mean, it's all too clear. There are all kinds of concierge staterooms available, still no GTY there. There are enough of the cheapest staterooms avail, there are sideways 11B's avail, people are still shifting things around and currently grabbing secret verandahs or windows and also there are still HA staterooms avail. All of them are saying lots at this time out, let alone them all together.

I would be interested in doing a book exchange if you let me know how it is done. I have some new books I have downloaded to my Kindle. Perhaps you could keep a list and tell us who has what books.I will check out Caibre today to see how it is done.

It's easy to do. It's a very basic copy and paste of files after plugging a reader into a computer. For us Kindle users we can exchange within seconds/minutes (depending on amount of books). To and from readers that use different types of files takes a bit more time, but hardly any effort (the program converting files does all the work ).

I actually do this all the time for our whole family by now. Combine multiple Kindles, a few sony ereaders and multiple technical challenged family members and I soon found myself being the family librarian.

I've got Calibre running on my laptop, so can easily copy it onto my netbook for the cruise. With one point of access, we already have enough to convert books in whatever possible desired way. I would recommend getting yourself a copy at home though! It's a great tool to be able to read all files and exchange books with friends and family. And a lot of downloadsites have books in epub. Normally a Kindle wouldn't be able to read them. I now just run Calibre, grab all of my epubs in there, tell it to convert all of the books to Kindle readable files and that's it. After that's done, I sent them to the Kindle through the USB and can read as any .mobi file could be read normally. It's great!

This is a good motivation to finally make my english book list, never started that list after I ended my dutch list. I do know that I have all of the HP books, James Bond books, multiple of the "literature" books (good memories of reading some stuff in school), shakespeare and contemporary stuff. Would be willing to keep a list of what others would be willing to trade out, no prob. As long as I get the info needed (title, writer etc.) I'll keep it in a Excell file. I could email the file to those interested once we get closer to the cruise or publish it somewhere online we can access it, either way is fine by me. And as it's part of my own paperwork I would have a digital version with me on the cruise also.

Hmm, this gets me thinking. Would any CM's have begun reading digitally? I could see how it would be a great thing with the limited space, but knowing how many cultures are amongst the CM's not sure if these gadgets are within budget for CM's? It would be an easy thing for me to leave a USB-stick with a compilation of all of the books, even in multiple languages at guest services. Takes up very very little space and perhaps a nice adding to the onboard digital library if CM's are also beginning to read digital??

 

[TotallyAngelic]

I remember previous conversations on the boards about going to Maho Beach in St Maarten and hanging out at the bars (or on the fences) to watch the planes fly overhead.

Is this something that someone was putting together? I don't see it as an official DCL excursion but was wondering if someone had already been making arrangements with a company to do this?

W are planning on going to Maho ... just thought we could get a taxi there, as we probably won't want to stay there all day. I suppose we could all share taxis.

 

[birkner]

It's easy to do. It's a very basic copy and paste of files after plugging a reader into a computer. For us Kindle users we can exchange within seconds/minutes (depending on amount of books). To and from readers that use different types of files takes a bit more time, but hardly any effort (the program converting files does all the work ).

I actually do this all the time for our whole family by now. Combine multiple Kindles, a few sony ereaders and multiple technical challenged family members and I soon found myself being the family librarian.

I've got Calibre running on my laptop, so can easily copy it onto my netbook for the cruise. With one point of access, we already have enough to convert books in whatever possible desired way. I would recommend getting yourself a copy at home though! It's a great tool to be able to read all files and exchange books with friends and family. And a lot of downloadsites have books in epub. Normally a Kindle wouldn't be able to read them. I now just run Calibre, grab all of my epubs in there, tell it to convert all of the books to Kindle readable files and that's it. After that's done, I sent them to the Kindle through the USB and can read as any .mobi file could be read normally. It's great!

This is a good motivation to finally make my english book list, never started that list after I ended my dutch list. I do know that I have all of the HP books, James Bond books, multiple of the "literature" books (good memories of reading some stuff in school), shakespeare and contemporary stuff. Would be willing to keep a list of what others would be willing to trade out, no prob. As long as I get the info needed (title, writer etc.) I'll keep it in a Excell file. I could email the file to those interested once we get closer to the cruise or publish it somewhere online we can access it, either way is fine by me. And as it's part of my own paperwork I would have a digital version with me on the cruise also.

Hmm, this gets me thinking. Would any CM's have begun reading digitally? I could see how it would be a great thing with the limited space, but knowing how many cultures are amongst the CM's not sure if these gadgets are within budget for CM's? It would be an easy thing for me to leave a USB-stick with a compilation of all of the books, even in multiple languages at guest services. Takes up very very little space and perhaps a nice adding to the onboard digital library if CM's are also beginning to read digital??

I would be happy to share some of my books if you want to be the point person.

I don't know about the CM's but that might be a post you put on the main board to get some feedback.

 

[birkner]

We are planning on going to Maho ... just thought we could get a taxi there, as we probably won't want to stay there all day. I suppsoe we could all share taxis.

I am going to do some more homework on options for St. Maarten as I don't think I would want to spend the day at Maho.

 

[karentan]

jane's info about the (paper) book swap has been posted on the front page

 

[squitty]

W are planning on going to Maho ... just thought we could get a taxi there, as we probably won't want to stay there all day. I suppose we could all share taxis.

I am going to do some more homework on options for St. Maarten as I don't think I would want to spend the day at Maho.

I don't think we were planning on spending a whole day there either.

 

[PFlamingo]

replying from phone. hate my phone. very slow typing.

we definitely want to do maho beach. thought we'd just cab it but a tour might be good.

to answer jacqueline's fe question, we haven't decided about splitting the list yet. we're at 31 cabins now. do we want to decide now or wait a while to see how many people sign up? i'm planning on gifts for everyone, so it doesn't matter to me.

oh and count me in among the "directionally challenged." i have to hold up my thumb & forefinger to tell my left from my right. on the ship, my problem is figuring out if i'm going fore or aft. and i'm usually wrong.

 

[karentan]

have we had many people joining in the last month or so? if not i'd be tempted to say maybe leave it as one group? if loads of people have joined recently, its probably best to split it?

 

[birkner]

I don't think we were planning on spending a whole day there either.

have we had many people joining in the last month or so? if not i'd be tempted to say maybe leave it as one group? if loads of people have joined recently, its probably best to split it?

I think you might want to split the groups now as I suspect now that most final payments are due, we are going to pick up more cruisers.

 

[squitty]

Anyone watching Pirates of The Caribbean (1) on Sky1HD?

I am off to watch it...see you all tomorrow...

 

[granmaz]

Anyone watching Pirates of The Caribbean (1) on Sky1HD?

I am off to watch it...see you all tomorrow...

No, not watching it but might have to turn over for a quick peek at Johnny!!!! We have the 3 set DVD so really could watch that!!! Mmmm, perhaps when John is at work on Thursday....