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

[HallsofVA]

Some more snow pictures from Virginia!

Here's what we woke up to on Saturday morning (view from my front door). Got 6 more inches on top of this!

Looking down our street

What's on our roof (shed and screened porch)

No barbecue for the Super Bowl tonight!

 

[pilk]

I always used to look forward and be happy to find the "Christmas Box" annual tip money for the Postie...and the Dustbin man...but now we never have the same Postie or Binman longer than a month running..go figure!

Guess that is part of the problem here too. With cost cutting measures, streamlining of services, and personnel turn over you never have the same person more than a short period of time doing something. Things are also so "inpersonal" now that you don't get to know those who serve you regularly.

Dont worry too much about tipping in UK! I'll be happy with 10% in Lyn's kitchen, or a free load up of the dishwasher

Will a couple tins of Tim Horton's French Vanilla cover the cost

Jon

 

[KermitRocks]

Some more snow pictures from Virginia!

Here's what we woke up to on Saturday morning (view from my front door). Got 6 more inches on top of this!

Looking down our street

What's on our roof (shed and screened porch)

WOW!!! That's a lot of snow!!! And what a beautiful scene! Hope you are warm and still have power.

 

[nacho1337]

Some more snow pictures from Virginia!

Here's what we woke up to on Saturday morning (view from my front door). Got 6 more inches on top of this!

Looking down our street

What's on our roof (shed and screened porch)

No barbecue for the Super Bowl tonight!

Well we only got 15 inches this weekend. We have some snow drift and piles of snow to 3 feet. Now the calling for another blizzard with 14 to 18 inches Tuesday into Wednesday night.

I wanted snow, but no this much

 

[pilk]

Some more snow pictures from Virginia!

Here's what we woke up to on Saturday morning (view from my front door). Got 6 more inches on top of this!

Looking down our street

What's on our roof (shed and screened porch)

No barbecue for the Super Bowl tonight!

Wish it was like that here. All we have is a light dusting.

Jon

 

[nordkin]

Some more snow pictures from Virginia!

Here's what we woke up to on Saturday morning (view from my front door). Got 6 more inches on top of this!

Looking down our street

What's on our roof (shed and screened porch)

No barbecue for the Super Bowl tonight!

Looks like our neighborhood across the river. What sub-division do you live in in Herndon. I worked out of the Herndon
office for Virginia Power for 25 years before transferring to the Alexandria office in 2007.
I know Herndon well.

 

[1DisneyQueen]

WOW! I thought the snow we had last week at the beach was bad, but you guys win. This is the very reason I left NY. Seems there is no hiding from the snow unless I go farther south. It snowed here on Saturday and covered the ground and cars, but not the roads. YEAH! It is supposed to snow here next weekend, again. Hope you guys are spaired.

 

[TA2]

Wish it was like that here. All we have is a light dusting.

Jon

I love Florida

TA2

 

[renegade7]

Used to have long hair - never again... can we see some before/after pics?

Will see what I can do about pics. There is one from last week on my facebook, but none so far since I got it all cut off.

I got the 15" and seems really large to me, even though my last laptop was a HP Pavilion Multimedia POC (Piece of Crap). The stupid thing, besides being a virus-ridden paperweight, had a design flaw (just out of warranty I might add) that caused the CPU to overheat the hinge of the screen, meaning it couldn't shut and the frame around the screen peeled away. Nice. A real POC.

I have a Dell - got it for my 2008 PC Cruise. I have had nothing but problems since I got it. I don't get viruses, but it crashes alot and it is now crashing at least 1x a week. I have rebuit it 2x already, getting reading to wipe it clean and rebuild again. I have called tech support, but they can't do anything as it is not covered under my warranty as it is a "software" issue - in other words Microsoft Visa is a POC and they only support the hardware - maybe they will do something about my battery since it is not holding its charge anymore. I am so over Microsoft so highly considering a Mac as my next computer. I hope their customer service is better then Dell's. Still holding out hope that a friend can get me a cheap copy of Windows 7 from his connections at Microsoft so I can get off Vista.

 

[paulasillars]

Just got back this morning from the Magic!!! It was a wonderful week and very relaxing. Amanda is worried about the crossing and being bored while at sea. I know that there are some folks on this thread that have done a long cruise. Is there any words of wisdom out there?

Well speaking for me, I'm totally exhausted getting off the ship and need a holiday afterwards. Between what DCL arrange and in the past "group activities" there is plenty to do.

My very first cruise was the 14-day Panama Canal cruise. I loved it. I was not bored at all. DCL has tons of stuff to do. In fact, I had so much to do I had to find time to get some down time at the pool. I had a blast!!!!! My second cruise was a 4-day cruise and boy did it go by fast! I'm happy I'm on another 14-day cruise that's for sure. It's going to be great!!!

I've only ever been in the pool once - got in, splash about, got out... onto the next activity - no time for lounging by the pool

 

[orlandothebeagle]

Some more snow pictures from Virginia!

Here's what we woke up to on Saturday morning (view from my front door). Got 6 more inches on top of this!

Looking down our street

What's on our roof (shed and screened porch)

No barbecue for the Super Bowl tonight!

Thats a lot of snow

I love Florida

TA2

me too you lucky thing

 

[gismo1554]

I don't think you are mean, well at least when it comes to tipping. I can't speak to how you interact personally with people.OOCH, I just got hit by Candida for saying that. You are a very nice person (was that better)

First a disclaimer: The following veiw is by no means a statement/point of view/opinion of the pilk family, DIS Boards, Sept 18 2010 WB TransAtlantic Pirates/Capt Jacks Re-Repoing Repossession Cruise, or any of the entities affiliations. It is the sole opinion of the writer, (hey that would be me)

The whole thing about tipping has become such a grey area. Once upon a time tipping was for exceptional service, for virtually any service industry. Gas station attendant, paper deliveries, rest. service, taxi, and so on. But, around here it is now rare to see someone tipped for paper deliveries, gas station work and some food service places. Case in point most people tip when you eat a restaurant or buy something a coffee shop but what about your fast food places. I have never seen or heard of someone at Buger King or McDonalds getting a tip. Now I am seeing a mentality of some being of the view that tipping is a requirement. I have heard servers complain that someone left a "small" tip. But, the service the person got (from what I could tell) didn't deserve a "large" tip. The other thing is in some places the tip are pooled and then divided among everyone. So, is it far to tip poorly because of your server, yet the food was excellent and the cooks deserve something.

When it has come to tipping it is always hard because we all have different ideas about what is good or bad, tipping practices are different from one place to another. I have always tried to tip fairly for the service received, but it is still difficult.

No back to our regularly scheduled broadcast:
Knock, knock
Who's there?
Disney
Disney who?
I just stopped spinning so I am Disney.

Ok, so that was bad. Where is the gang plank gone? I walk myself off it

Jon

LOL Im a regular scrooge honest lol! I agree tipping is such a mine field. I still begrudge tipping in Starbucks no matter how many times they leave a jar on the counter. They've only made me a coffee!

Trouble is over here in the UK people are on a lot better wage than in the US. This being said I still tip around 10-15% depending on the service over here. If however a service charge is automatically added over here I ask them to remove it and tip seperately. In the UK service charge actually doesn't have to go to the server! In London especially this is the case! One of my friends worked for a well known sushi chain and none of them got any of the "service charge" people thought was a tip!

 

[gismo1554]

From these figures I worked out that the tipping for our 14 night cruise should be:

Stateroom host : $ 56 per person
Server : $ 56 per person
Assistant Server : $ 42 per person
Head Server : $ 14 per person

Which for us (2 people) works out as $336 in tips for the cruise

Palo I would probably tip an extra $10 if the service were wonderful and for room service $2 or $3 depending on what we were ordering. For bar drinks delivered to us by a server we would generally tip $1.

This is what I've gone on too.

 

[gismo1554]

Just got back this morning from the Magic!!! It was a wonderful week and very relaxing. Amanda is worried about the crossing and being bored while at sea. I know that there are some folks on this thread that have done a long cruise. Is there any words of wisdom out there?

Oh you lucky so and so!

Seriously you wont be bored! I am a complete fidgeter! Can't sit still even by the pool and I was never board. There is loads on board to do. Basically you can be busy 24 hours a day if you want. Honestly I never found any time not to do things. Some of the things I did:
Murder mystery at sea - well actually Stolen painting but spread over a few days
Behind the scenes at the theatre
Quizes (different ones each day)
Dance lessons
Spanish lessons
Food demonstrations (daily - please let Michael Jordan be back on this one - and no not the basketball player)
Q&A with Susan Egan
Deck Parties
Um probably loads more I can't remember lol

 

[nacho1337]

Will see what I can do about pics. There is one from last week on my facebook, but none so far since I got it all cut off.



I have a Dell - got it for my 2008 PC Cruise. I have had nothing but problems since I got it. I don't get viruses, but it crashes alot and it is now crashing at least 1x a week. I have rebuit it 2x already, getting reading to wipe it clean and rebuild again. I have called tech support, but they can't do anything as it is not covered under my warranty as it is a "software" issue - in other words Microsoft Visa is a POC and they only support the hardware - maybe they will do something about my battery since it is not holding its charge anymore. I am so over Microsoft so highly considering a Mac as my next computer. I hope their customer service is better then Dell's. Still holding out hope that a friend can get me a cheap copy of Windows 7 from his connections at Microsoft so I can get off Vista.

it sound like you have a bad hard drive. You need to run a diagnostic test. On boot up there is a button you need to hit. On mine it is f12. It tell you on the Bois screen. There it should give you an error for the hard drive. If it does give the error code to Dell and they should send you a new one, if it is still under warranty

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Some more snow pictures from Virginia!

Here's what we woke up to on Saturday morning (view from my front door). Got 6 more inches on top of this!

Looking down our street

What's on our roof (shed and screened porch)

No barbecue for the Super Bowl tonight!

Looks like our neighborhood across the river. What sub-division do you live in in Herndon. I worked out of the Herndon
office for Virginia Power for 25 years before transferring to the Alexandria office in 2007.
I know Herndon well.

I didn't catch that you are in Herndon before now. DH (Mike) is going to be staying in Herndon for a couple of days in July when he visits Washington DC before going down to work at the Boy Scout Jamboree at Fort A.P. Hill. He says he's pretty sure the weather will be a little warmer by then!!!

 

[GOS]

LOL Im a regular scrooge honest lol! I agree tipping is such a mine field. I still begrudge tipping in Starbucks no matter how many times they leave a jar on the counter. They've only made me a coffee!

I wouldn't mind if they ever got the order right...but I never get what I ordered so why should I give them a tip!

 

[renegade7]

it sound like you have a bad hard drive. You need to run a diagnostic test. On boot up there is a button you need to hit. On mine it is f12. It tell you on the Bois screen. There it should give you an error for the hard drive. If it does give the error code to Dell and they should send you a new one, if it is still under warranty

Thanks for the input. I have run the diagonsitcs test a few times (in fact when I call Dell they have me run it everytime). Everything shows that is it working fine. I get a bunch of Microsoft errors all the time that Windows Media has stopped running and once and a while something else. I have looked for fixes online, but nothing. Going to try the rebuild 1 more time, as I think it was one of the Microsoft downloads that caused the problem, hopefully they have fixed what ever it was, but will be doing the updates 1 by 1 and see where it goes wacky and go from there. Oh the joys of a Windows computer.

 

[tinker1bell]

Hi everyone,

What a way to start my week. I nearly kill myself getting to work only to be "Let Go" because of budget cuts. so to work at 9am home by 11:30am. I am so shocked I cannot even think. My co-worker Awilda couldn't even speak!! I did post on Facebook that I was let go, but I will not go into much detail there.

This came out of left field because I really thought my job was secure with all of the things I do. I even asked the director who was gonna do it because she sure can't think Awilda is going to do that plus all of her work. It is very time consuming and very exact. Her words were, "we will spread it out over other people. That will be interesting since no one likes doing my job. Their comments are you are doing just fine. You keep doing it just like you do it now. I dealt with so many parents about their accounts and do a weekly electronic fund transfer and I just cannot wait to see who screws things up. I hope they lose a few parents because of this that is how mad I am right now.

But I am not giving up this cruise!!!!

 

[su_kraft]

Wow Terry - that is quite a Monday morning... Best of luck navigating the job market. What line of work are you in?


Sue

Hi everyone,

What a way to start my week. I nearly kill myself getting to work only to be "Let Go" because of budget cuts. so to work at 9am home by 11:30am. I am so shocked I cannot even think. My co-worker Awilda couldn't even speak!! I did post on Facebook that I was let go, but I will not go into much detail there.

This came out of left field because I really thought my job was secure with all of the things I do. I even asked the director who was gonna do it because she sure can't think Awilda is going to do that plus all of her work. It is very time consuming and very exact. Her words were, "we will spread it out over other people. That will be interesting since no one likes doing my job. Their comments are you are doing just fine. You keep doing it just like you do it now. I dealt with so many parents about their accounts and do a weekly electronic fund transfer and I just cannot wait to see who screws things up. I hope they lose a few parents because of this that is how mad I am right now.

But I am not giving up this cruise!!!!