Sept 18 2010 WB TransAtlantic Pirates/Capt Jacks Re-Repoing Repossession Cruise Pt.4

[dolphingirl47]

Goodness, you guys have been talking up a storm. I had about 200 pages to carch up on. So much has happened between people being sick, going through bereavement or losing their jobs. I can’t comment on every thing that has happened as this would turn into a novel, but all of you are in my thoughts and prayers.

I was extremely sorry to read that Hadley and family will no longer able to join us. I was so looking forward to meeting them. I have to say though that unfortunately I am not surprised. I expected this to happen ever since they moved to Germany. In Germany it is actually a criminal offence to keep children out of school outside the school holidays. I remembered the amount of hassle my parents had to even take me out of school for one day for a family gathering. They were threatened with all sorts by the school. The way it was done in Marika’s case, was extremely sneaky. There is a huge stigma attached to redoing a grade in Germany. The school would have known this. This really is not fair.

On a happy note, I want to say “hi” to all our new cruisers. I hope that I will get to know you a bit over the next few months.

I have had a tough few months and have spent very little time on here. Things are slowly going back to normal and I have started to look forward rather than backwards. There is lots to look forward to.

As some of you know, I was booked on both the Eastbound and the Westbound Transatlantic cruises. Doing both cruises was tight with leave, but I had just about enough. Then at the 11th hour, they decided that we would have shorter opening hours over Christmas and we would only have a skeleton staff. I was one of many people who was put on enforced leave over Christmas. Me did make the best out of the situation and went to Dubai over Christmas and New Year, but it meant that I had to cancel my Eastbound Transatlantic Cruise as I no longer had enough leave. I transferred the deposit and onboard credit to a Mexican Riviera cruise on the Wonder in 2011.

Shortly before Christmas, I saw some fantastic offers for some of the Mediterranean cruises. We discussed the possibility of doing one of those instead. After a lot of backwards and forwards, we decided to book this about 10 days ago. We are going to be on the first Med cruise. We booked a category 12 GTY. I am not overly keen on staying at deck 2, but as there are only 13 category 12 cabins and siginificantly more than this have been booked on the cruise meet thread for this cruise alone, I am hoping that we might be upgraded to a category 11 and can therefore move to a higher deck. Still, even if we do end up on deck 2, it will be worth it. Heck, I would sleep in a lifeboat if necessary. We are flying to Barcelona early in the morning on April 22nd. The flights and the cruise are booked, but I still have to sort out the hotel. I have started to look into what to do in Barcelona. One of my team members used to work for a cruise line in Barcelona and he has given me some ideas about things to see and do and also lent me a guide book. The Magic will already arrive in Barcelona on April 23rd so I definitely want to go somewhere on that day were I can see her. I will do some serious planning over the course of the week. We have not even started to consider what we will do in the various ports. I can’t wait to find out my room assigment though.

This leads me to this cruise. For a long time it looked like I would have to cancel this cruise. On December 1st, two departments merged. Unfortunately at the same time they reduced the maximum leave that can be taken on any given day. This means that more people are now competing for the same amount of leave available. Add to this that we are only able to book leave for the year from January 1st onwards and I had a problem. We now have two team leaders that are a couple. Unfortunately they requested leave for the same dates as the cruise just as soon as they could. With only two team leaders being allowed leave on any given days, I had a problem. By the time I returned from my leave on January 4th, I was unable to book the leave that I needed. Fortunately my boss came through for me and authorized the leave on Friday. So we are definitely coming now.

My 7 months window for DVC opened on Tuesday. We were originally only going to stay in Orlando until October 4th. However, as it is DH’s birthday on October 6th, we have decided to stay until October 7th. I got an annual pass last year that is still valid until October 10th, so I am covered in this respect. Anyway, I had asked permission from one of our operations managers to call DVC from work just as soon as Member Services opened as we had our heart set on Bay Lake Towers at the Contemporary Resort and I knew this would be hard to get. Sure enough, we had wanted a Bay Lake View and for the first two nights, only a Magic Kingdom view was available. I agreed to this readily enough and the cast member I spoke to said that she would waitlist those two nights for me for the Bay Lake View. Unfortunately as each booking category requires a separate reservation, I was told to ring back on yesterday to try to book the remaining three nights as you can only book 7 months from your check in date anywhere but your home resort.

I had a pretty heavy schedule yesterday, so I went on the website on Wednesday night to submit a reservations request. The first thing that I noticed was that I had more points than I expected. I checked it out and realized that my waitlist had come through and we now had the first two nights booked in a Bay Lake View. So I decided to give them a call as this should now allow me to add on the extra three nights that I needed. I spoke to a very nice cast member, but as soon as she checked the availability she realized that now the 4th October was fully booked. We were discussing my options, when suddenly the tone of her voice changed. I could not make out if she was scared or excited. She asked if she could put me on hold as she needed to speak to her supervisor. While she was gone, I had visions that she had accidentally cancelled the two nights that were already confirmed. When she came back, it was very obvious that she was excited. While we were on the phone, she realized that a studio with a Bay Lake View had become available, but she was not sure that she was reading this right. However, we are now confirmed for 5 nights at Bay Lake Tower. I am so excited.

Our flights from Manchester to Barcelona are also now booked. We are flying in on September 17th and will arrive at around 11:00 AM, so this should give us some more time to explore Barcelona. On the return, we have decided to make use of my staff travel privileges. I priced standby tickets from Orlando via Frankfurt to Manchester in business class with Lufthansa and this comes to around GBP150 per person. I spoke to my staff travel department today and they recommended I also get back up tickets with Virgin Atlantic from Orlando to Manchester. This will be less than GBP70 per person. Whatever tickets we do not end up using will be fully refundable. This will safe us a lot of money.

About two weeks ago, we also got the letter offering us the extra OBC. We booked via the website on the first day this could be booked and then rebooked this about a week later as category 11 had become available. We can only dream of being paid in full.

Corinna

 

[dolphingirl47]

Looks like we have done some introductions while I was away. So here is ours:



I am Corinna and I am 35 years old. I was born and grew up in Germany and moved to the UK in 1996. I work as a team leader for a big international airline. DH is called Graham. He is 51 and is British, but lived in lots of different places as a child as his father was in the army. Graham is a probate lawyer.



We met while I still lived in Germany. I had come over to the UK during my Christmas break from university to do some voluntary work at a holiday centre for disabled people. Graham volunteered at the same place during my second week there. I met him shortly after he arrived and chatted to him and thought that he was a rally nice guy, but then kind of forgot about him. Halfway through the week, we bumped into each other again and we really got on. We then ended up spending a lot of time together, both at work and in our spare time. All too soon the week was over and we both had to leave. He was going to cycle across Europe and I was going to Nottingham to stay with my ex and his family for a few days. We had split up in September, but I had promised that I would still come and stay with them for old times’ sake. A week late I went back to the centre where I had met Graham to help out over Christmas. When I got there, a parcel was waiting for me. Graham had not even made it out of the UK before he came off his bike and hurt himself. He was OK, but would no longer able to continue his journey as he had dislocated a finger. It was so nice to get the letter and he also had sent me a stuffed alligator toy.



In the morning of Christmas Eve, I was at breakfast when I suddenly became aware that somebody was standing behind me. I turned around and it was Graham. He was on his way to the south coast to spend Christmas with his family, but just wanted to see me before he went. He also had arranged that he would come back on Boxing Day, to help out for the rest of the week. We were still telling everybody including ourselves that we were just good friends. We both had recently split up from longterm relationships and did not want a new relationship.



Once the week was over, the centre closed for a few weeks. I went to stay with one of the nurses from the centre until it was time to go back to Germany. Graham decided to book himself a room in a hotel in the same town and we spent virtually every minute together. On New Year’s Eve, we finally both admitted that we had fallen in love with each other. Unfortunately the next day I had to fly back to Germany.



I was supposed to come to the UK for a year the following July anyway. In the meantime, we were never apart for more than 3 weeks. Graham came over to Germany 4 times and I spent our 2 months spring break in the UK. Once I moved to the UK, he moved to be near me. We got engaged on new Year’s Eve 1996 and moved in together the following spring. We got married in February 1998. I never went back to Germany.



As for Disney, Graham had been to both Disneyland Paris and Disneyworld before he met me. For my 22nd birthday, he took me to Paris and we spent my actual birthday at Disneyland Paris. For me it was love at first sight. He also promised that he would take me to Florida one day. In the end it was his mother that made it happen. She invited the whole family to Florida for a week. As we left the day after our registry office wedding, she treated us to a second week. We must have had the strangest honeymoon ever as we shared the first week of it with 6 members of his family. Still, the seed had been sown and we have been back many times since. In November 2007 we became DVC members. Our home resort is Old Key West.



While we were in Florida for our honeymoon, we say adverts for the Disney Cruise Line all over the place. I knew there and then that I wanted to go on that ship. DH was not so keen on the idea of cruising. It took another 10 years before I actually got to cruise. Again, it was DVC that made my dream come true. We got double points that first year and decided to use some of them for a cruise. We had set our heart on the 5 night special cruise on the Magic, but that was fully booked in November 2007 so we booked a 4 night cruise on the Wonder the following weekend instead. In May 2008 I got a nice bonus at work and at around the same time I saw people posting on here that they were considering booking the 5 night cruise on the Magic. Cabins had become available again. I booked this and we ended up doing an almost back to back cruise. After those two cruises we were hooked. We also did a back to back cruise on NCL last year, but prefer DCL.



Apart from Disney and cruising, we both play chess. I used to play years ago, but only just started playing again at the end of last year. I also love to cook, read and make jewellery. I also joined a gym late last year and to my immense surprise, I really enjoy going. DH enjoys running, swimming, cycling and playing video games.



Corinna

 

[dolphingirl47]

Normally if I only had one day to spend at Disneyworld, then Epcot would win hands down. The fact that it is the Food and Wine Festival when we get back from the cruise would under normal circumstances make this even more tempting. However, there is a slight problem with October 2nd. On this day the Food and Wine Half Marathon will take place. The finishing line is actually in Epcot and there is a big after party. The race does not start until 22:00, butthe park might close early to prepare for all of this. So you might be better off at the Magic Kingdom. The Magic Kingdom is hosting a 5K family Halloween race that day, but the race starts at 7:00 AM so things should be back to normal by the time you get there.



Corinna

 

[dolphingirl47]

I am still catching up on all the posts. I have about 10 pages left to go. I will pass on the hot ot not as I am fairly ignorant on that topic.



My favourite Disney Memory is the first time I saw the Magic. As I have mentioned in one of my previous posts, I had waiting for this moment for 10 years and I still could not quite believe that I was really going. We spent the night at one of the hotels near the airport in orlando and were at the airport at the crack of dawn as our bodies were still on UK time. We were on the first bus to the port. When we were on a bridge near Port canaveral, we got our first glimpse of the Magic. I just welled up. I was so happy. I have loads of wonderful Disney memories, but this is the memory that keeps me going when the going gets tough.



Corinna

 

[dolphingirl47]

Hi Corinna

We live in Cheadle Hulme. I work in the centre of Manchester! If you drive out I bet we pass daily on the A34!!

We're flying out of Manchester on the Friday with Monarch at about 8am are you on the same flight? We're staying at a hotel called Reding near one of the universities. where abouts are you staying?

Sarah

Yes, we will be on the same flight. We have not booked a hotel in Barcelona yet, but are planning to do this over the weekend. We are also doing the first Med cruise and will have two nights in Barcelona before that and have not booked the hotel for that yet either.

I am finally caught up. Now I have to make sure that I don't fall behind again.

Corinna

 

[su_kraft]

Morning all

Well Im sat getting bored in work today as for the first time in ages I have nothing to do lol! Going to see Alice in Wonderland tonight so very excited.

Hope everyone has a good day

Sarah - I am sitting at work BORED as well... Actually, unmotivated is more like it... Lots to do and no drive to get started...

As for Alice... You will have to let us know how the movie is. It looks a little dark for the younger kids - but maybe ok for the older ones (like, um me!)

 

[gismo1554]

As some of you know, I was booked on both the Eastbound and the Westbound Transatlantic cruises. Doing both cruises was tight with leave, but I had just about enough. Then at the 11th hour, they decided that we would have shorter opening hours over Christmas and we would only have a skeleton staff. I was one of many people who was put on enforced leave over Christmas. Me did make the best out of the situation and went to Dubai over Christmas and New Year, but it meant that I had to cancel my Eastbound Transatlantic Cruise as I no longer had enough leave. I transferred the deposit and onboard credit to a Mexican Riviera cruise on the Wonder in 2011.

Shortly before Christmas, I saw some fantastic offers for some of the Mediterranean cruises. We discussed the possibility of doing one of those instead. After a lot of backwards and forwards, we decided to book this about 10 days ago. We are going to be on the first Med cruise. We booked a category 12 GTY. I am not overly keen on staying at deck 2, but as there are only 13 category 12 cabins and siginificantly more than this have been booked on the cruise meet thread for this cruise alone, I am hoping that we might be upgraded to a category 11 and can therefore move to a higher deck. Still, even if we do end up on deck 2, it will be worth it. Heck, I would sleep in a lifeboat if necessary. We are flying to Barcelona early in the morning on April 22nd. The flights and the cruise are booked, but I still have to sort out the hotel. I have started to look into what to do in Barcelona. One of my team members used to work for a cruise line in Barcelona and he has given me some ideas about things to see and do and also lent me a guide book. The Magic will already arrive in Barcelona on April 23rd so I definitely want to go somewhere on that day were I can see her. I will do some serious planning over the course of the week. We have not even started to consider what we will do in the various ports. I can’t wait to find out my room assigment though.

This leads me to this cruise. For a long time it looked like I would have to cancel this cruise. On December 1st, two departments merged. Unfortunately at the same time they reduced the maximum leave that can be taken on any given day. This means that more people are now competing for the same amount of leave available. Add to this that we are only able to book leave for the year from January 1st onwards and I had a problem. We now have two team leaders that are a couple. Unfortunately they requested leave for the same dates as the cruise just as soon as they could. With only two team leaders being allowed leave on any given days, I had a problem. By the time I returned from my leave on January 4th, I was unable to book the leave that I needed. Fortunately my boss came through for me and authorized the leave on Friday. So we are definitely coming now.

My 7 months window for DVC opened on Tuesday. We were originally only going to stay in Orlando until October 4th. However, as it is DH’s birthday on October 6th, we have decided to stay until October 7th. I got an annual pass last year that is still valid until October 10th, so I am covered in this respect. Anyway, I had asked permission from one of our operations managers to call DVC from work just as soon as Member Services opened as we had our heart set on Bay Lake Towers at the Contemporary Resort and I knew this would be hard to get. Sure enough, we had wanted a Bay Lake View and for the first two nights, only a Magic Kingdom view was available. I agreed to this readily enough and the cast member I spoke to said that she would waitlist those two nights for me for the Bay Lake View. Unfortunately as each booking category requires a separate reservation, I was told to ring back on yesterday to try to book the remaining three nights as you can only book 7 months from your check in date anywhere but your home resort.

Corinna

Corinna Im glad you're staying with us and it all worked out!

 

[gismo1554]

Sarah - I am sitting at work BORED as well... Actually, unmotivated is more like it... Lots to do and no drive to get started...

As for Alice... You will have to let us know how the movie is. It looks a little dark for the younger kids - but maybe ok for the older ones (like, um me!)

LOL Im glad Im not the only one!

I think its going to be a really dark movie! Most Tim Burton ones are the the Red Queen (Helen Bonnam Carter) looks scary!

 

[TheCooksLuvDisney]

Sarah - I am sitting at work BORED as well... Actually, unmotivated is more like it... Lots to do and no drive to get started...

As for Alice... You will have to let us know how the movie is. It looks a little dark for the younger kids - but maybe ok for the older ones (like, um me!)

Unmotivated. Yeah, that works.
My 6 yo DS wants to see Alice as well, we'll be going next Sat as this one will be in the 50's (deg F) and no rain!

 

[gismo1554]

Ok well Alice I thought was good but don't know if kids will like it especially young ones. Its based on the Through the Looking Glass book more than anything else and isn't overly kiddy or funny but I liked it! Johnny was good - weird accent lol

 

[renegade7]

6 months today I will be enroute to Barcelona!

After my marathon day yesterday (got home at 11:30 pm) they sent me home early today "to make up for that." So sitting here having lunch and put the TV on and what is on the Travel Channel but the DCL documentary and a block of all Disney! I am taking that as good karma. So going to find someplace to go to dinner myself tonight with a nice bottle of wine to celebrate my 6 month mark.

Have a great weekend everyone.

 

[tig82174]

6 months today I will be enroute to Barcelona!

After my marathon day yesterday (got home at 11:30 pm) they sent me home early today "to make up for that." So sitting here having lunch and put the TV on and what is on the Travel Channel but the DCL documentary and a block of all Disney! I am taking that as good karma. So going to find someplace to go to dinner myself tonight with a nice bottle of wine to celebrate my 6 month mark.

Have a great weekend everyone.

You're flying out on the 5th? We booked Disney air and I think they have us on a redeye flight that leaves Orlando on the 6th (labor day)....so we have one more day before we're at the 6 month mark!

 

[kamgen]

renegade7- you can do it! It has been hard for me to lose weight but I decided to really focus on calories. I am not a stickler with counting them, but I do pay close attention to what I eat and eat a lot more fruit and vegetables. I also go over on the WISH board a lot! If you pay attention to what you eat and cut out fast food, it will really make a difference! Good luck!!!


Well, took both boys to the doctor yesterday. They both have strep throat. Liam also has a double ear infection and a sinus infection. Does not make for a happy 3yr old! And today, I decided to go to the doctor to find out what was up with me, thought it was just a cold...nope, I have bronchitis....ugh!!!! Well, we are all on antibiotics and it should be gone soon!

Corinna- glad everything worked out!!!!

 

[Terapin]

I had a funny moment this week: there was a local contest to win a Disney cruise that left 3 days later and I was convinced I would win! I thought the odds were very good because the contest ran only one day and you had to be prepared to leave just a few days later. I was disappointed that we didn't win, but by the same token I was kinda glad because that night I discovered that our littlest has chicken pox!

He's doing really well. Just a little itchy. Lots of spots, though. I am glad he got it young though as it seems to be worse the older a kid you are. And adults seem to get it in quite a serious form. So we can check off another childhood illness!

Our renovation is proceeding at an exceedingly slow rate. We have drywall up and partially finished, a ceiling up and partially finished, and a terrific tub. No lights, electrical service, toilet or sink. But hey, the tub is terrific!

The Canadian dollar is doing pretty well so we've paid off a good chunk of our cruise. Yay!

 

[su_kraft]

renegade7- you can do it! It has been hard for me to lose weight but I decided to really focus on calories. I am not a stickler with counting them, but I do pay close attention to what I eat and eat a lot more fruit and vegetables. I also go over on the WISH board a lot! If you pay attention to what you eat and cut out fast food, it will really make a difference! Good luck!!!


Well, took both boys to the doctor yesterday. They both have strep throat. Liam also has a double ear infection and a sinus infection. Does not make for a happy 3yr old! And today, I decided to go to the doctor to find out what was up with me, thought it was just a cold...nope, I have bronchitis....ugh!!!! Well, we are all on antibiotics and it should be gone soon!

Corinna- glad everything worked out!!!!

Kamy - I hope that you and the boys feel better soon!!

Corinna - glad that you are still with us!!

 

[su_kraft]

I had a funny moment this week: there was a local contest to win a Disney cruise that left 3 days later and I was convinced I would win! I thought the odds were very good because the contest ran only one day and you had to be prepared to leave just a few days later. I was disappointed that we didn't win, but by the same token I was kinda glad because that night I discovered that our littlest has chicken pox!

He's doing really well. Just a little itchy. Lots of spots, though. I am glad he got it young though as it seems to be worse the older a kid you are. And adults seem to get it in quite a serious form. So we can check off another childhood illness!

Our renovation is proceeding at an exceedingly slow rate. We have drywall up and partially finished, a ceiling up and partially finished, and a terrific tub. No lights, electrical service, toilet or sink. But hey, the tub is terrific!

The Canadian dollar is doing pretty well so we've paid off a good chunk of our cruise. Yay!

What is it with the kids of this cruise? They are sick, and in my case broken...

Seriously, glad to hear the renovatons are going well! Hope that you are all on the mend soon!!

 

[su_kraft]

195 days till we fly out to Barcelona... My staff is sick of the count down, but for me it is just beginning! I need a countdown calendar for my desk...

My Fish Extender arrived today!!! I am so excited!! I love EBay.. You can get anything! I have most of the gifts figured out, I have our new luggage (and it has aired out). I could pack tomorrow if we didn'thave to get through summer first... Hard to pack the clothes you will wear all summer... Think DH would notice if we all got new wardrobes for the cruise?

 

[alexandmaddie]

Normally if I only had one day to spend at Disneyworld, then Epcot would win hands down. The fact that it is the Food and Wine Festival when we get back from the cruise would under normal circumstances make this even more tempting. However, there is a slight problem with October 2nd. On this day the Food and Wine Half Marathon will take place. The finishing line is actually in Epcot and there is a big after party. The race does not start until 22:00, butthe park might close early to prepare for all of this. So you might be better off at the Magic Kingdom. The Magic Kingdom is hosting a 5K family Halloween race that day, but the race starts at 7:00 AM so things should be back to normal by the time you get there.



Corinna

Epcot is my favorite park too.

I didn't know that there is a 5k family Halloween race on October 2nd, we could have stayed in FL an extra day for it. Oh well.

Krista

 

[alexandmaddie]

195 days till we fly out to Barcelona... My staff is sick of the count down, but for me it is just beginning! I need a countdown calendar for my desk...

My Fish Extender arrived today!!! I am so excited!! I love EBay.. You can gert anything! I have most of the gifts figured out, I have our new luggage (and it has aired out). I could pack tomorrow if we didn'thave to get through summer first... Hard to pack the clothes you will wear all summer... Think DH would notice if we all got new wardrobes for the cruise?

It seems so much closer now that we are under 200 days!

Krista

 

[Terapin]

What is it with the kids of this cruise? They are sick, and in my case broken...

Seriously, glad to hear the renovatons are going well! Hope that you are all on the mend soon!!

I know, huh? With three kids we seem to endure illness etc quite a lot.

I hope everyone heals/feels better soon.