*Sept 10th 2011 WB Transatlantic* From Spain to Space Mountain - Part 4

[melonz]

Ah so JB is Jimmy Buffet...............JB in this house is Justin Bieber

 

[GA-yaya]

We met a couple on the Mediterranean cruise last year who live near Atlanta (GA-yaya) and we are meeting them this week-end for brunch. They are also on the WBTA cruise in Sept. You get to meet lots of nice people on the cruise.

We're looking forward to seeing y'all!
No alcohol involved at this brunch, though....it might be a first for all of us!

 

[squitty]

Sarah sending you loads of {{hugs}}

I know when DD went to LV I was watching her flight and couldn't wait till she contacted us when she got there.

 

[Chris&Jeremy]

This morning we were all up early and took Taryn to the airport for her flight to Orlando ..... I have been feeling sick ever since and I can't wait for her to land at the other end. I am closely monitoring the Orlando airport flight arrivals website.

Sarah, I am an aviation nerd and love the website www.flightaware.com - you can track her flight in realtime on this site. While far off in the Atlantic the location data is estimated but once you near the shores of Newfoundland, it becomes accurate.

Just thought I'd throw that out!

 

[GA-yaya]

Happy Father's Day!

 

[GA-yaya]

Sarah, I am an aviation nerd and love the website www.flightaware.com - you can track her flight in realtime on this site. While far off in the Atlantic the location data is estimated but once you near the shores of Newfoundland, it becomes accurate.

Just thought I'd throw that out!

I'll second that! It's a great site.

 

[Rikersmom]

It's a nice day so far in Orlando, so I'm sure Taryn will land safely. Does someone meet her at the airport?

My son is a grad of UNC-Chapel Hill, so he always likes to meet folks from Carolina. He has always been a pirate fan, so there were many East Carolina shirts in his wardrobe when he was younger. Now the Carolina blue ones have taken over.

Looking forward to meeting all of you in person,
Karen

 

[granmaz]

This morning we were all up early and took Taryn to the airport for her flight to Orlando ..... I have been feeling sick ever since and I can't wait for her to land at the other end. I am closely monitoring the Orlando airport flight arrivals website.

Here she is taking off ......

You are bound to feel on edge Sarah. Roll on 2 weeks!!

 

[TotallyAngelic]

Ah so JB is Jimmy Buffet...............JB in this house is Justin Bieber

I don't know much about either ...... but wonder why do they call Jimmy Buffet fans Parrotheads ???

Sarah sending you loads of {{hugs}}

I know when DD went to LV I was watching her flight and couldn't wait till she contacted us when she got there.

Thank you for the hugs ... much appreciated.

Sarah, I am an aviation nerd and love the website www.flightaware.com - you can track her flight in realtime on this site. While far off in the Atlantic the location data is estimated but once you near the shores of Newfoundland, it becomes accurate.

Just thought I'd throw that out!

Thanks for this ... apparently she has 1 hour and 29 minutes left to go.

 

[Pinky166]

Hi Claire

Did everyone get their bookings for high tea on 13th?

I had a word with the palo manager about it. Let me know what the new developments are

Hi ya

Nope, no one managed to get anything for High Tea!!!

I have one more route which i'm in the process of trying to get a group booking but if this fails then I guess that we will have to cancel.

 

[TotallyAngelic]

It's a nice day so far in Orlando, so I'm sure Taryn will land safely. Does someone meet her at the airport?

My son is a grad of UNC-Chapel Hill, so he always likes to meet folks from Carolina. He has always been a pirate fan, so there were many East Carolina shirts in his wardrobe when he was younger. Now the Carolina blue ones have taken over.

Looking forward to meeting all of you in person,
Karen

Look forward to meeting you too Karen. Taryn will be hopefully getting a Mears shuttle with the other ICP group ... there were 20 odd of them on her flight today. I am glad there are no thunderstorms happening there at the moment.

 

[GatorMomInNC]

Sounds like a great idea! I'm traveling a lot in July, but my schedule eases up in August. The question is, with or without my kids

We live in unincorporated southern Wake County. Technically our mailing address Apex, for some reason, but you have to drive through Cary and Holly Springs to get to Apex, so it is somewhat misleading. I grew up in Orlando, just moved here 5 years ago. My father and 3 sisters all worked at WDW at some point.

BTW, my DS 7 is having oral surgery next week for 3 root canals. We don't have dental insurance, but our medical will be paying for most of the anaesthesiologist (sp?) and OR room, but between our deductible and the dentist costs, it will be $4700 out of pocket

We just found this out a few weeks ago AFTER I had paid for the cruise in full because we have a GTY. I know for a fact that if I hadn't prepaid this cruise my husband would have put the kabosh on it after we found out about this surgery. So I guess it was a good thing everything is non-refundable

About 30 minutes north of Raleigh - Louisburg, NC. Where close to Raleigh? I grew up in Raleigh before my husband got transferred to here. Would love to maybe meet up with you one day and have lunch.....maybe close to Triangle Town Mall or Crabtree area (or anywhere for that matter). That would be exciting to get to know a fellow cruiser before we depart!

We met a couple on the Mediterranean cruise last year who live near Atlanta (GA-yaya) and we are meeting them this week-end for brunch. They are also on the WBTA cruise in Sept. You get to meet lots of nice people on the cruise.

Let me know if you want to meet one day for lunch! Have a great day!

 

[Chirpee]

Hi Lorraine

We just watched the grand prix this morning, the weather was shocking, not seen one like that that a long time!!!

Well done Jenson you would've been pleased with the results

I'll need to attempt my trip report soon once Stevie uploads and sorts the photos into photo bucket

Just trying to get use to the keyboad on this iPad, it might take a few days to get used to

We ended up leaving 45 mins after they stopped the race as we were soaked right through and knew we didn't have enough time to get to train station if it restarted. Fortunately though the train station had lots of TVs, so managed to see the 2nd half of the race there while slowly drying out. Awesome last lap and yes, a great result! Everyone on the train was handing in soaking wet tickets!!

The only irritant I have with the keypad is the auto spell feature, which can be turned off. Some of the words that the iPad thinks you are spelling are just plain weird, so if you have the feature on, make sure you proof read what you're typing before hitting send Paul tells me that some updated software is about to be released with a better spell check option and improved dictionary.

If anyone wants High Tea for the 11th September I am going to cancel the one we have as it's going to be too much of a rush as we're on Early dining.
It's the 2nd sea day, first formal night.

Now Cancelled.

Thanks for letting us know about your cancellation. I tried to snap it up but it was unfortunately already gone Ah well, will have to keep logging in and checking

I noticed the following changes since last September:-

Cove Cafe, now has a disabled access button you have to press to open the doors from the outside. I stood under the sensor for ages like a muppet before the waiter inside came over to let me know

The loungers have change at the family pools/deck 10, much better than the slatted plastic ones. They are now a solid blue plastic mesh type, but definitely an improvement. The old ones came out on the sea days when they were running short

The kids clubs are now called Edge (Tweens) and Vibe (older teens)

Drinks station at deck 9 is no longer an island which you can walk round, they have been put back against the Walls at the back corner

West End Gallery now has pictures being sold by DCL, the usual character prints, but not as many as before

Spy holes in room doors

Wave phones (which are brilliant and easy to use, basically your cruise mobile phone for texting and phoning everyone)

Palo has new crockery

Up Beat shop had no alcohol sales this cruise. Spanish authorities put the foot own and said it wasn't purchased in Spain, so no duty free for sale. Kitchen trinkets were gone too. On a plus side it had gorgeous pashminas for $12, i bought 2, and handbags, it was like a ladies accessory shop

New merchandise in the shops, so there's lots of new t-shirt styles to add to everybody's collection we bought 5 between us

Thanks for the update, Mary.

 

[PFlamingo]

This morning we were all up early and took Taryn to the airport for her flight to Orlando ..... I have been feeling sick ever since and I can't wait for her to land at the other end. I am closely monitoring the Orlando airport flight arrivals website.

Here she is taking off ......

I think I see her waving from a window! Hang in there, Sarah. She will be fine and two weeks will go by quickly. After all, I grew up in Orlando, and I turned out okay. On second thought... Never mind.

I don't know much about either ...... but wonder why do they call Jimmy Buffet fans Parrotheads ???

It's a play on the Grateful Dead fans calling themselves "Dead Heads." Back in the 80's there were people who followed JB's tour the way Dead Heads followed the Dead. As JB is all about the tropics, calling oneself a Parrothead made sense. And sounded better than a Reeferhead, though I always loved the fact that his backup band is the Coral Reefer Band.

 

[Chirpee]

Came across this information today while researching St.Marteen; thought it might be of use to those of you planning to rent a car or take a taxi over to Maho Beach:

"Driving in St Maarten can be quite a daunting task. You might want to be armed with the bridge opening times of Simpson Bay Bridge.

Being 1 minute late for the bridge could mean the difference between catching your flight or not. You should pay close attention to the following time table.

SIMPSONS BAY BRIDGE OPENING TIMES

December - April

9:00am - Outbound
9:30am - Inbound
11:00am - Outbound
11:30am - Inbound
4:30pm - Outbound
5:30pm - Inbound

May - November

9:30am - Outbound then inbound
11:30am - Outbound then inbound
5:30pm - Outbound then inbound"

Source:http://www.discover-stmaarten.com/st-maarten-information.html

This bridge is between Maho Beah and the port, so this info' will hopefully help with planning for the day

 

[squitty]

Thanks for letting us know about your cancellation. I tried to snap it up but it was unfortunately already gone Ah well, will have to keep logging in and checking

Sorry you missed it Lorraine.

 

[hazelandannie]

Am slowly getting my head around the process of FE's but I am a little confused about the way it all happens!!
I've seen our group that we have been placed in so I take it we make a note of those people and room numbers etc ready for when we're on board.
My confusion is this ........ how do we know when todeliver the gifts? And is it just once per cabin or more frequently??

 

[PFlamingo]

We've already had a few additions to the groups. Please be sure to check back regularly to see the additions. I think I'm going to go ahead and open an another group and start filling it in.

There is one family that asked to be added to all the groups. I put all the repeated people at the beginning of each table, so please check your group carefully so you don't miss them.

pat - cant remember what the decision was about distributing FE gifts, but if a decision was made, can i be put in the "give gifts in the first couple of days" group please

The decision was to leave it up to the individual groups to sort out. I'll probably do mine mid to late first week. Depends on how cluttered up our stateroom gets!

 

[MandyGirl]

Ah so JB is Jimmy Buffet...............JB in this house is Justin Bieber

Who?!?

Sarah, I am an aviation nerd and love the website www.flightaware.com - you can track her flight in realtime on this site. While far off in the Atlantic the location data is estimated but once you near the shores of Newfoundland, it becomes accurate.

Just thought I'd throw that out!

Ditto that site!! I use it a lot from home. If you ever get to see an airline's flight ops center, it's pretty cool too.

BTW, my DS 7 is having oral surgery next week for 3 root canals. We don't have dental insurance, but our medical will be paying for most of the anaesthesiologist (sp?) and OR room, but between our deductible and the dentist costs, it will be $4700 out of pocket

Oh my! Good luck with that! I had a root canal at age 19, and couldn't imagine THREE! And OUCH for the out of pocket. It's always amazing seeing medical bills. My little end-of-pregnancy hospital stay last year came to over $50,000 - 8 days of bedrest plus c-sec. So thankful insurance covered most of it.

Came across this information today while researching St.Marteen; thought it might be of use to those of you planning to rent a car or take a taxi over to Maho Beach:

This bridge is between Maho Beah and the port, so this info' will hopefully help with planning for the day

That is definitely TRUE! So many horror stories. Luckily the taxi drivers know the schedule, and our ship does not depart until 5:30 that day. I'm also hoping with it being Hurricane Season in September that there will be more boaters taking vacation... and not like how crowded it can be in winter/spring.

 

[PFlamingo]

Am slowly getting my head around the process of FE's but I am a little confused about the way it all happens!!
I've seen our group that we have been placed in so I take it we make a note of those people and room numbers etc ready for when we're on board.
My confusion is this ........ how do we know when todeliver the gifts? And is it just once per cabin or more frequently??

The rules are, there are no real rules.

Unless your group decides otherwise, you deliver when you want to, with the exceptions of the first and last days. The first day gives everyone a chance to get their FE's hung up, and the last day everyone will be packing up. Again, depending on what the group decides (if anything) you can give to part of the list one day and part on another if you like.

As for how often, that is up to you. Some people give just once and some do a couple of little things over the course of the cruise. I've got a little something (a very little thing) for the first (well, second) day, and my main gift for later.

The idea is to make this as stress-free as possible.