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

[Pinky166]

Have a great time in Hawaii Sandy.

I don't know about the opening times Claire.

I don't think he is willing by what he's just said

No I can't remember either. I have no idea where it was on the thread and I am not going through 500 pages to find it.

Oh spoilsport.

Aaaawww, you're so nice to offer! I'll wait til the cruise - one more thing to look forward to, then make a list for after. Do they have bulk shipping in the UK?

How is Stamy, doing - any news yet? I'm waiting to hear about George's blood work. As Monday was a holiday here, it's taking a little longer. He's always been fine with that (other than during his bouts of pancreatitis), but at his age they can develop diabetes very quickly. He seems to be doing well with the pain pills "Doc" prescribed for him. At $2.50 a pill (1 per day - do the math), he should be able to do back flips!

Okay, enough procrastinating. Time to get to work!

You are welcome anytime. The shipping prices from the UK are based on weight but several packets at a time shouldn't be too bad.


Stamy is doing good thanks, he has managed to rub his head on anything & everything at any opportunity and has finally got all the scabs off. We've stil not had the lab results back I called them yesterday to get it chased up but still haven't heard back, i'm going to call again in a minute.

 

[goofieslonglostsis]

Sandy, have fun in the sun!

Just weird you book on a carrier with assigned seats, they change the flight time, and they choose to separate such young children from a parent although so many seats are available right next to the parent.

I know it doesn't seem logic at all (doesn't in my world either ) but that's the way things are set up. It's no human doing the switch, but a computer. It can be human action to decide to switch type of plane or cancel a flight but the actual work that this causes is done by the computer. And those programs are not set up in a way that they keep track of parties which most of the times results in getting placed allover the plane. These systems act that way as one of those "we try to give folks the same or mostly alike as possible as they had on the original flight"-parts of the software totally does not work in practice. Some airlines have switched to other software by now that is a bit better but nothing avail that is failproof. So basically nobody decided to seperate you from the kiddos but most likely the system was actually trying to "do you a favor" per individual that worked out totally screwed up.

But honestly hun, do not sweat it. I'm going to assume here you wont be on the "suitflight" (read; early flight businessfolks take to get to NY causing there to be loads of FF to be on the flight) and even if you are; you are not flying on a monday or friday which are a lot worse. There will be prefered seatings left in the plenty, I could about about to pinkyswear that. Why AA will not make this work now? Simple; you are not worth enough to them. Sounds harsh, but those are the facts. If they were to assign preferred seats at this moment in time, they'ld have to do that for all misplaced parties or at least those with young children. Off which there are more than a few. Which would result in a lesser amount of choice options in preff. seats for the travellers that are more important to the airlines; the FF's they have onboard at least weekly but most likely a couple a times a week or even daily. They will complain loadly about any perk being taken away or watered down and will vote with their money if needed.

When september comes by this will all be not important. You'll get that seat for you oldest. I'ld be surprised if you wouldn't be able to get 3 seats together somewhere when doing online check in at the earliest possible moment, honestly. Needing the airport employees for this would be very unlikely when you check in online a.s.a.p. Great thing about that; you can then also check in online for the transatlantic flight! Read; before the masses can do that!! Because you are on a continuing ticket, you can check in online at that x-hours prior to first flight, for all of the flights at once. Read; you can then pick preff. seats for the second flight if they fit you and kiddos better than what you are able to select now. (hint; check out seatguru for specific info and particularly look into the bulkheads. While no storage room in front of you, there also are no seats in front of you! With 3 you should be able to get your own row, which would mean you'ld have some space in front of the seats for the girls to sit and play. The space tends to be limited (allthough can be quite large on some types of aircrafts with some airlines ) but with no reclining seats in front it is enough for your young girls to sit in front of their seat and feel a bit less restricted in their play.

Bring along a fleece blanket or something for the floor before they sit down and a nice added playing area. Same goes for some plane types in the back having some extra floorspace, but those tend to be used by all folks seated in those areas whereas with the bulkhead it's just your row. If that row has 4 seats; very very small chance you might find yourself seated next to a mom with young baby using a baby basinett. (read; risk of crying ). Most airlines open the bulkheads up at check in, also for online check in.



Question for those participating in the candyswap following;

ok, now that I've hopefully got your attention I'm interested in hearing participants opinion about the wrapping of the candy being exchanged. As of yet we have no allergies reported. As soon as we do I want to implement a "must be in original package"-rule for at least all candy given to that individual(s), so it is easy for them to check and make sure they can enjoy that. Not having received any such reports yet; would those participating in the swap so far prefer candy to be in original packaging or wouldn't they mind if some candy would be handed out in a packaging that is not the original one?

Reason for asking; I know there are quite a few different opinions about prepacked or not food. I also know that some (few??? many???) types of candy that are specific to region or country might not come in individual prepackaging which would mean deviding up portions into indiv. nonoriginal packaging. On our previous cruise we also had a member handing out diff. types of candy by making indiv. assortment baggies. I want to make sure all participating can enjoy the swap, so decided to ask this now might be the easiest way to make sure of that.

 

[Tod&Copper]

No I can't remember either. I have no idea where it was on the thread and I am not going through 500 pages to find it.

Oh spoilsport.

I did a search on thread 2 - found it

Originally Posted by TotallyAngelic
Hi everyone ... I know you already know this info but I received this email today from Morrissons PLC



Good Afternoon,

Thank you for your email.

The Gibraltar National day celebrations are always held on the 10th of September regardless of the day. As this year it falls on a weekend, the 12th has been named the bank holiday.

Unless the government announces otherwise we will close on the 10th but open on the 12th with reduced opening hours - probably 9-7. However the hours are yet to be confirmed.



I hope this helps.

Regards,
--
Sheema
Customer Services Department
Wm Morrison Supermarkets PLC

 

[Pinky166]

I did a search on thread 2 - found it

Originally Posted by TotallyAngelic
Hi everyone ... I know you already know this info but I received this email today from Morrissons PLC



Good Afternoon,

Thank you for your email.

The Gibraltar National day celebrations are always held on the 10th of September regardless of the day. As this year it falls on a weekend, the 12th has been named the bank holiday.

Unless the government announces otherwise we will close on the 10th but open on the 12th with reduced opening hours - probably 9-7. However the hours are yet to be confirmed.



I hope this helps.

Regards,
--
Sheema
Customer Services Department
Wm Morrison Supermarkets PLC

Well done, thanks hun.

 

[karentan]

i've added the opening hours to the calendar of events on the front page of part 4 of the thread.

Calendar of events
Date Day Port Event
10-Sep Saturday (Barcelona)
11-Sep Sunday (At Sea)
12-Sep Monday (Gibraltar) Gibraltar Dolphin Excursion (Totally Angelic) and Morrisons shopping trip! (opening hours approx 9-7pm)
13-Sep Tuesday (At Sea) Ladies Palo High Tea (Pinky166)
14-Sep Wednesday (Madeira, Portugal) Madeira Tour (Birkner)
15-Sep Thursday (At Sea)
16-Sep Friday (At Sea) The Magic Pub Crawl (Chris&Jeremy / Cliffy97)- Not Confirmed
17-Sep Saturday (At Sea) Champagne Girls!! (Pinky166)
18-Sep Sunday (At Sea) Pajama Breakfast (MandyGirl)
19-Sep Monday (At Sea)
20-Sep Tuesday (St. Maarten, Netherlands Antilles)
21-Sep Wednesday (Tortola, British Virgin Islands) Tortola Excursion to Jost VanDyke (Beach Day and Snorkeling) (MandyGirl)
22-Sep Thursday (At Sea)
23-Sep Friday (Castaway Cay, Bahamas)
24-Sep Saturday (Cape Canaveral, Florida)

 

[Dgentrysim]

i've added the opening hours to the calendar of events on the front page of part 4 of the thread.

Karen....Thanks for making it so easy for us "couch potatoes" to have all the cruise information/events right at our fingertips and not have to do a thing but click a mouse! Seriously.....we do appreciate what all of you have done to coordinate our activities on the ship! You are all doing a wonderful job and don't think for one minute that it is not appreciated!!!! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

 

[Pixie Dust for Me!]

[QUOTE Yeah I still think this is just crazy. At least you have one of the seats resolved, I'm sure that any reasonable person would switch seats so your 4 year old can sit with you as well.[/QUOTE]

Wanna bet? I had my DS booked into a middle seat...me in aisle and DS friend booked into window when we all traveled together to Disney World when they were 7 and 8....had the same issue, we all got split up, only I didn't know it until I printed the boarding passes. Sure enough, we were ALL split up all over the plane and each of us was in a middle seat!

I felt so bad for the gate manager who, to her credit, saw what happened and told a grown man to "suck it up" as she wasn't going to let the plane go with a mom split apart from her little boys.

Good luck Mandy! Got get 'em!

Karen

 

[squitty]

Question for those participating in the candyswap following;

ok, now that I've hopefully got your attention I'm interested in hearing participants opinion about the wrapping of the candy being exchanged. As of yet we have no allergies reported. As soon as we do I want to implement a "must be in original package"-rule for at least all candy given to that individual(s), so it is easy for them to check and make sure they can enjoy that. Not having received any such reports yet; would those participating in the swap so far prefer candy to be in original packaging or wouldn't they mind if some candy would be handed out in a packaging that is not the original one?

Reason for asking; I know there are quite a few different opinions about prepacked or not food. I also know that some (few??? many???) types of candy that are specific to region or country might not come in individual prepackaging which would mean deviding up portions into indiv. nonoriginal packaging. On our previous cruise we also had a member handing out diff. types of candy by making indiv. assortment baggies. I want to make sure all participating can enjoy the swap, so decided to ask this now might be the easiest way to make sure of that.

I think original packaging Jacqueline

i've added the opening hours to the calendar of events on the front page of part 4 of the thread.

Karen, I don't mean to be awkward but there is no way of telling what the dates of the mixology and mojito tastings are going to be till at least 30 days before sailing. As I said in the PM to Dan, we are at DCL's mercy as to when they will be.

 

[karentan]

Karen....Thanks for making it so easy for us "couch potatoes" to have all the cruise information/events right at our fingertips and not have to do a thing but click a mouse! Seriously.....we do appreciate what all of you have done to coordinate our activities on the ship! You are all doing a wonderful job and don't think for one minute that it is not appreciated!!!! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

thanks, but i cant take credit for typing up the calendar - dan and bruce (cliffy97) did it, i just copy and pasted it

 

[karentan]

As I said in the PM to Dan, we are at DCL's mercy as to when they will be.

no probs - i copied and pasted what dan sent to me, but have edited it to take that info out. when you find out when they'll be, just drop me a PM and i'll put it back in

 

[squitty]

no probs - i copied and pasted what dan sent to me, but have edited it to take that info out. when you find out when they'll be, just drop me a PM and i'll put it back in

No problems - I know we have 5 dates to choose from, just hoping that they give us what we want.

 

[Dgentrysim]

thanks, but i cant take credit for typing up the calendar - dan and bruce (cliffy97) did it, i just copy and pasted it

Well....thank you cliffy97! My hat's off to all of you for taking the time and effort to pull these activities together! Thanks!

 

[karentan]

had to take my ticker off my signature so that i could put another image in so going to have to rely on you guys to be my countdown.

now how long have we got again?!!

 

[melonz]

Sandy, have fun in the sun!



I know it doesn't seem logic at all (doesn't in my world either ) but that's the way things are set up. It's no human doing the switch, but a computer. It can be human action to decide to switch type of plane or cancel a flight but the actual work that this causes is done by the computer. And those programs are not set up in a way that they keep track of parties which most of the times results in getting placed allover the plane. These systems act that way as one of those "we try to give folks the same or mostly alike as possible as they had on the original flight"-parts of the software totally does not work in practice. Some airlines have switched to other software by now that is a bit better but nothing avail that is failproof. So basically nobody decided to seperate you from the kiddos but most likely the system was actually trying to "do you a favor" per individual that worked out totally screwed up.

But honestly hun, do not sweat it. I'm going to assume here you wont be on the "suitflight" (read; early flight businessfolks take to get to NY causing there to be loads of FF to be on the flight) and even if you are; you are not flying on a monday or friday which are a lot worse. There will be prefered seatings left in the plenty, I could about about to pinkyswear that. Why AA will not make this work now? Simple; you are not worth enough to them. Sounds harsh, but those are the facts. If they were to assign preferred seats at this moment in time, they'ld have to do that for all misplaced parties or at least those with young children. Off which there are more than a few. Which would result in a lesser amount of choice options in preff. seats for the travellers that are more important to the airlines; the FF's they have onboard at least weekly but most likely a couple a times a week or even daily. They will complain loadly about any perk being taken away or watered down and will vote with their money if needed.

When september comes by this will all be not important. You'll get that seat for you oldest. I'ld be surprised if you wouldn't be able to get 3 seats together somewhere when doing online check in at the earliest possible moment, honestly. Needing the airport employees for this would be very unlikely when you check in online a.s.a.p. Great thing about that; you can then also check in online for the transatlantic flight! Read; before the masses can do that!! Because you are on a continuing ticket, you can check in online at that x-hours prior to first flight, for all of the flights at once. Read; you can then pick preff. seats for the second flight if they fit you and kiddos better than what you are able to select now. (hint; check out seatguru for specific info and particularly look into the bulkheads. While no storage room in front of you, there also are no seats in front of you! With 3 you should be able to get your own row, which would mean you'ld have some space in front of the seats for the girls to sit and play. The space tends to be limited (allthough can be quite large on some types of aircrafts with some airlines ) but with no reclining seats in front it is enough for your young girls to sit in front of their seat and feel a bit less restricted in their play.

Bring along a fleece blanket or something for the floor before they sit down and a nice added playing area. Same goes for some plane types in the back having some extra floorspace, but those tend to be used by all folks seated in those areas whereas with the bulkhead it's just your row. If that row has 4 seats; very very small chance you might find yourself seated next to a mom with young baby using a baby basinett. (read; risk of crying ). Most airlines open the bulkheads up at check in, also for online check in.



Question for those participating in the candyswap following;

ok, now that I've hopefully got your attention I'm interested in hearing participants opinion about the wrapping of the candy being exchanged. As of yet we have no allergies reported. As soon as we do I want to implement a "must be in original package"-rule for at least all candy given to that individual(s), so it is easy for them to check and make sure they can enjoy that. Not having received any such reports yet; would those participating in the swap so far prefer candy to be in original packaging or wouldn't they mind if some candy would be handed out in a packaging that is not the original one?

Reason for asking; I know there are quite a few different opinions about prepacked or not food. I also know that some (few??? many???) types of candy that are specific to region or country might not come in individual prepackaging which would mean deviding up portions into indiv. nonoriginal packaging. On our previous cruise we also had a member handing out diff. types of candy by making indiv. assortment baggies. I want to make sure all participating can enjoy the swap, so decided to ask this now might be the easiest way to make sure of that.

As long as it's in some type of packaging that's ok with me. For example I was going to open a bag of toffee or fudge etc and divide it out but they would already be individually wrapped iykwim. Do I want a handfull of M&M's or uncovered chocolate then the answer would be no thank you. I hope this makes sense!

 

[MandyGirl]

I know it doesn't seem logic at all (doesn't in my world either ) but that's the way things are set up. It's no human doing the switch, but a computer. It can be human action to decide to switch type of plane or cancel a flight but the actual work that this causes is done by the computer. I'm going to assume here you wont be on the "suitflight" (read; early flight businessfolks take to get to NY causing there to be loads of FF to be on the flight) and even if you are; you are not flying on a monday or friday which are a lot worse. There will be prefered seatings left in the plenty, I could about about to pinkyswear that.

Yep, not going to worry about it. I worked in the systems department of another carrier in the 90s, so understand the computer component, but it was sad that the human on the phone yesterday couldn't override it with 60+ preferred seats still available. We at least have the baby seated next to me now, which is better than several rows behind me as it had started out.

And yes... it is a Monday morning flight to be in New York by lunch. Someone else pointed out to me the FAA requirement of children with parents due to if there is an emergency. I will be taken care of at the gate... maybe some lucky passenger (who hasn't booked the empty seat next to me) will get upgraded to first class for their inconvenience. Just sad it gets pawned off on the front-line gate agents to deal with things that could be cleared up in advance over the phone. Zero logic.

 

[Pinky166]

As long as it's in some type of packaging that's ok with me. For example I was going to open a bag of toffee or fudge etc and divide it out but they would already be individually wrapped iykwim. Do I want a handfull of M&M's or uncovered chocolate then the answer would be no thank you. I hope this makes sense!

I agree with this.

 

[steamboat will]

Can anyone tell me what Morrisons is?

Hi liesbeth

As mentioned Morrisions is a large supermarket, chain in the UK. The reason we all love talking about it is, it stocks all of the main brands from the UK most of which will familiar to international guests too, it's located a short walk from the terminal in Gibraltar, right near the beginning of our cruise, many DISers here are planning to walk to the store during our stop in Gibraltar to stock up on cruise essentials...candy... Toiletries.... Snacks.... Water.... And did some mention alcohol

It's a Large supermarket where you could easily do you weeks grocery shopping...

Many DISers are planning to buy some essentials ( such as wine, champagne) as these are impractical to pack, and Morrisions offers a large range at a fraction of the cost of that available on board.

Some folks store a bottle or two in their stateroom fridge and then fill a glass to carry with them in the evening, which of course can save you some serious $$$ especially on a cruise of this length.

SW

 

[steamboat will]

Can someone remind me ...

Do you get changed for tea, coffee served at your table at the end of your meal or is this included....

Thanks

SW

 

[granmaz]

Can someone remind me ...

Do you get changed for tea, coffee served at your table at the end of your meal or is this included....

Thanks

SW

That is included unless you want a speciality coffee then you pay.

 

[LindaBabe]

Can someone remind me ...

Do you get changed for tea, coffee served at your table at the end of your meal or is this included....

Thanks

SW

no. Only things you;re charged for at dinner are alcohol and 'canned' soda (such as seltzer water)