Sept 18 2010 WB TransAtlantic Pirates/Capt Jacks Re-Repoing Repossession Cruise Pt.9

[TheDisneyGirl02]

I can't believe that in 4 weeks from right now, we'll be over the Atlantic Ocean somewhere...where did the time go?

As for as dieting is concerned. I had hoped to lose a bunch of weight before the cruise, but my thyroid and PCOS had different ideas. I lost 2 pounds last week and gained 1.6 this week. Next week, I'll probably lose .6 pounds and then the following week, I'll gain 2. I hate the fact that I only have so much control over the weight that I lose - I eat healthy overall and watch my portion sizes. It's just frustrating. Sigh...

I went to the doctor today for my shoulder. He ordered some x-rays and nothing is broken that he can see. I have an MRI scheduled for next Friday to see if there was any internal damage. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they find nothing.

I can't say that I've started to pack, but I've started a small pile! I have my FE kid's gifts and stuff in a bag on the floor in our bedroom. I'll probably end up packing like a day or two before we leave.

No documents yet...I wondering if they forgot about us?

I still have the Xanex prescription in my purse...I need to get that filled and add that to my pile!

 

[HallsofVA]

I really need to nail down my plans for Gibraltar because it's bugging me that it's not settled yet! I want to go to the Rock without the help of DCL, but I'm not sure how I want to go about doing it. I see so many options, but what I think would be easiest for my back is a "taxi tour". I would love to go up the cable car too, though, to film. See! I'm so undecided!

I fear the taxi tour won't be an option going single. I've read where you can go into town where there's a taxi line. For those of you who have been there before, do you know if they have like mini-vans that will take multiple people up and down the Rock?

For anyone else who's still researching their options for Gibraltar, I did find tURL="http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g187510-i1247-k3512671-Cruise_Ship_to_Cable_Car-Gibraltar.html"]this informative post on Trip-Advisor[/URL] that started with a DCL 2010 EBTA cruiser!

We're in the same boat, and I just canceled the DCL excursion that I'd reserved since none of their options really worked for us. I think we're going to try to grab a taxi to the top of the rock, and look into options for getting back down. I don't know enough about how large the taxis are, but if there is one that holds 7 (or not one that holds 6) then you're welcome to come with us. Even if you decide to ditch us at the top, at least you'd be at the top!

I'd like to do the cable car in either Gibralter or Madeira, but my MIL is decidely anti cable car so I doubt I'll get the chance. Plus, I heard horror stories of the line for the cable car in Gibralter, and I figure that if DCL even goes to the trouble to warn about it then it must have the potential to be bad.

 

[birkner]

WARNING THIS IS A LONG POST!!

READ ONLY IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN A ST MAARTEN TOUR

I have not been very happy with the DCL excursion in St Maarten so I have been chatting with grmmybetty (Bertty) about arranging a private tour with Bernard Tours. Most of the other people she has heard from are interested in parasailing on Orient Beach. John and I want to snorkel.

If after reading the text below and you are interested, either PM myself or Betty. If we get enough persons, we will do the tours.

Bernard Tours basic tour consists of the following stops.
1. Great Bay overlooking Phillipsburg and harbor.
2. Cayhill overlooking Simpson Bay marina.
3. Sunset Beach bar ( Maho Beach ) where you can see the planes land right over your head.
4. Marigot - open market (French Capital).
5. Hilltop at Orient Bay overlooking the beach.
6. Swim at Orient Beach for up to two hours, as time allows.
7. Return to Philipsburg.

A custom tour can combine part of the above itinerary and include either parasailing or snorkeling.

Betty told me this morning that she received an email from Bernard early this morning. Apparently the only place they have parasailing is Orient Beach. Dawn Beach and Baie Rouge have the best snorkeling on the island. She thinks the only way we can do a custom tour and hit both spots is to have 2 vans, one for each site. Since she have only 7 interested, it would be too difficult and expensive to do even one van with the numbers she has at this point.

Here is a snippet of their email conversation and our PM conversation:

BERNARD: The hrs will be from 9 to 3.pm we can hold up to 14 people on in the van but for every one to be comfortable i rather take 12 and if you get up to 12 people then it will be $45.00/per person, we also have 25 passenger van available.

The hrs will be from 9 to 3.pm we can hold up to 14 people on in the van but for every one to be comfortable i rather take 12 and if you get up to 12 people then it will be $45.00/per person, we also have 25 passenger van available..

BETTY: What is the difference between the private tour and the $35 per person tour booked individually? Are they both in the same size van? If so, why would one tour cost $10 more than the other?

BERNARD; Our group tour you only goes as per our itinerary on the website, you cant decide how long you can stay at any location, you will be joining other people on the van/bus up to 25 people and with your private tour the van is for you and your group only you can created your own itinerary stay as long as you desire at any location we will serve you drinks through out the day..

BETTY TO NOEL: Currently we have 7 people interested including yourself. The PROS of going on a private tour would mean that we are guaranteed in a van rather than a bus. We would have a choice on where else we would like to go. We would also have drinks served throughout the tour. The CONS are a higher price. $10 more per person doesn't seem much, but the cost would be higher if we do not get a minimum of 10.


Below in red text is the information I have compiled so far about snorkeling in St. Maarten:

The island of St Martin is surrounded on all sides by beautiful and unique coral reefs, which provide exceptional possibilities for snorkeling adventures the entire family can and will enjoy. St Martin snorkelingencompasses shoreline or boat snorkeling excursions with a large variety of unique marine life to explore. The most common things you will see underwater on your St Martin snorkel experience are surgeonfish, parrotfish, and grunts. However, on the south or east side of the island, snorkeling in St Maarten will allow you to view such marine life as hawksbill, leatherback, green turtles, and more.

You can find several St Martin snorkel shops offering you not only all the equipment you need for snorkeling or St Martin diving excursions, but will also give you all the pointers as to where you will find the best marine life, the best places for beginners, and even give you an idea of where the children will also be able to snorkel

St Martin snorkeling has visibility up to 100 feet and is many cases as far as 200 feet. The coral reefs are beautiful and unique as many offer sights that only exist in the Caribbean and sea life that call the area home.

The most popular places for St Martin snorkeling are Dawn Beach, Simpson Bay, and Mullet Beach.

Dawn Beach is a great place for your St Martin snorkel adventure with the reef running along side the beach. This area is often called the best diving spot on the seaside of the reef. If you plan to snorkel here, watch for the cross current and be careful when the trade winds are strong. Dawn Beach offers white powdery sand and is located on the eastern side of the island. This spot for snorkeling in St Maarten is not really the best for small children as the water can be rough at times. However, it is an awesome beach for the kids to build sand castles.

 

[birkner]

Hello all....well after a couple of tough days....well weeks actually....I am happy to report my DD is feeling better....know how I know....she is getting fiesty and argumentative.....she had another cath scan today and we do not have the results yet....but she now wants to eat and they are allowing her soft pureed food.....sounds wonderful....but she is making positive strides and I thank all for the pixie dust and prayers.....my wife and I were starting to talk about maybe having to cancel the cruise the other day.....but tonight we had a nice talk about 4 weeks from tomorrow we will be flying out....and we already have put a backup plan in place....my MIL lives in Georgia and in an emergency would fly in to stay with DD.....again....THANKS!
Tom & Marilou

I am so glad to hear that you DD is on the mend!!

 

[birkner]

Update on Dennis' dental situation....needs 3 crowns replaced and a root canal on one of them. So root canal tomorrow, temp crown on that one on Sept 2 after his cataract surgery on Aug 30. We did not have a dentist here in town and I gotta say we LOVE this guy. He is working thru his lunch tomorrow to do the root canal because he wants to get the pain gone before we travel. AND, he is going to show Dennis one of his guitars when we go in tomorrow. Oh, and does not demand the massive amount of money up front. Which is a really good thing because we have an amazing vacation coming up and will need a couple of months to pay for the dental expenses.

Poor Dennis!! What a lot of dental work!! However, it does sound like you have an amazing dentist. Good luck to Dennis on all that dental work!!

 

[birkner]

I really need to nail down my plans for Gibraltar because it's bugging me that it's not settled yet! I want to go to the Rock without the help of DCL, but I'm not sure how I want to go about doing it. I see so many options, but what I think would be easiest for my back is a "taxi tour". I would love to go up the cable car too, though, to film. See! I'm so undecided!

I fear the taxi tour won't be an option going single. I've read where you can go into town where there's a taxi line. For those of you who have been there before, do you know if they have like mini-vans that will take multiple people up and down the Rock?

For anyone else who's still researching their options for Gibraltar, I did find this informative post on Trip-Advisor that started with a DCL 2010 EBTA cruiser!

John and I are going to do the Skywalk Combo. I am quoting from I think mdwoodman's post.

•Cable Car ticket (options single or return and child or adult)
•Multimedia Tour (hand held guide included in adult ticket only and for use exclusively within the Cable Car Top Station)
•Apes (The apes are wild animals and roam freely throughout the Upper Rock area. However they are usually seen at both the Cable Car Top and Middle Station otherwise known as Apes Den.)
•Nature Reserve entrance ticket - Entrance to: St Michael's Cave, Great Siege Tunnels, City Under Siege Exhibition, Moorish Castle and 100 Ton Gun. (this ticket must be redeemed at the Cable Cart ticket office BEFORE entering any of the sights.) The Nature Reserve ticket must be used on the same day as the Cable Car ticket, see below.)
•FREE Gibraltar Bus Pass (adult or child one day bus pass). This must be collected from the Gibraltarinfo kiosk on the Spanish side of the Gibraltar/Spanish land frontier.

(Note that the Bus Pass isn't really worthwhile, since we won't be going to the land frontier. However, cruise ships normally provide shuttle buses or it's only £1 each for the public bus.)

John and I decided e are going to take a taxi to collect the tickets. You are welcome to take the taxi with us to the border pick up the tour tickets if you are interested. Check it out and let us know.

 

[eeyorelvr10]

I've heard other cruisers report that they 'ask' the school and are told they can't go. I'm not necessarily going to ask, I'm going to tell them he won't be there and find out what we can do to minimize the impact.

that definitely seems to be the route to go. If you tell them that plans are already done and can't be cancelled, they usually will not be so put off. But do offer a solution and offer to be in e-mail contact. At least if they see that there is some effort, they won't resent it as much. There is a girl in April's class that goes to Columbia each Christmas and doesn't return until the last week in Jan. Her parents also just "tell" the school and it has always been ok'ed. Good Luck!

I really need to nail down my plans for Gibraltar because it's bugging me that it's not settled yet! I want to go to the Rock without the help of DCL, but I'm not sure how I want to go about doing it. I see so many options, but what I think would be easiest for my back is a "taxi tour". I would love to go up the cable car too, though, to film. See! I'm so undecided!

I fear the taxi tour won't be an option going single. I've read where you can go into town where there's a taxi line. For those of you who have been there before, do you know if they have like mini-vans that will take multiple people up and down the Rock?

For anyone else who's still researching their options for Gibraltar, I did find this informative post on Trip-Advisor that started with a DCL 2010 EBTA cruiser!

Kimberly,

last time we just found someone outside the terminal or a bit outside of it. It was a van that sat at least 6-8 people. It was about $40 euros and included the entrance into the caves. We didn't do the cable cars because a big group of DISsers had reserved it ahead of time and we didn't want to wait. I would not stress too much. Everything is rather close and if you can get a group together, you'll be fine. We basically did the same tour that DCL did bor about $20 euros less. Also, one of the persons that did the off-site tour with us was a kids club counselor. So don't worry, there'll be plenty of options.

 

[eeyorelvr10]

I want to do the 5K and not get swept.

I have a friend who will be doing the 5K in January. He found an iphone app Couch to 5K or something like that. It eases you into running. Laura (eeyorelover) is also doing the program (but not the WDW 5K) so she could tell you about it.

HI Steffy,

Yes, the app we got was called C25K. I downloaded it to my iPhone and it also works on an iTouch. I did however, find out that you can order it online also. If you haven't already looked into it - pm me if you want. I am on week 7 of 9 and may or may not finish just before I leave on the 1st. It is a good program. I hadn't run in over 27 years and swore up and down that I couldn't do it. It started me off slow (did it with a bunch of friends and we are within 1 day of each other) with the help of my friends, we are supporting each other. I started out literally not being able to run for 1 minute intervals and now I'm up to 25 minutes. Next Monday I'll be running for 28 min straight.

I invited DH to start with me on the first day, I got laughed at by him, DD and DS. Tonight at dinner, we were discussing my son and how I beat I was when DH asked me how I was doing at the running. I mentioned that I had done 25 min today and he triple looked at me. He asked me 3 times - you ran, like literally for 25 min straight? He couldn't believe me. He then said, wow - that means your in shape then? Um, round is a shape. And hopefully, I'm getting there. Need about another 1/2 mile to complete the 5K.

 

[eeyorelvr10]

Ok, today I went into Best Buy to "see" what they had. I got a $50 gift card for my birthday. I was going to buy iTunes cards with it to upload or download songs and audiobooks when I came across something that will work much better for me.

I've been downloading some maps and online tour guides for some of the places we are going too on the Med and TA. Well, I've been a bit worried because the battery doesn't seem to last as long as my old iPhone. So as I'm walking past the Apple section I come across a package by Griffin of a wall charger, car charger and a backup battery. It costs $59.99 but with my card it only cost me $15.64 to pay the difference.

The reserve battery will give you an additional 6 hr of music listening and video watching on an iPod Classic and on the iPhone #3G, it will give you an additional 1 1/2 hr of web time (if you surf a lot) and and additional 2 hrs of phone time. The reserve battery attaches to the bottom of the phone where you plug it in and the best part is that the wall charger can be used to charge both your spare battery and your iphone, ipod at the same time.

This particular package works for the following:

iPhone 3Gs - 16 & 32 GB,
iPhone 3G - 8 & 16GB
iPhone - 4, 8 and 16GB
iPod Nano (4th gen)
iPod Nano 5th Gen (video)
iPod Touch (1st gen)
iPod Touch (2nd gen)
iPod Classic

So just assuming anyone else has the same battery life problem I have, this might be something you want to look into also. I got mine at Best Buy in the Apple section and is made by Griffin. They have 2 versions of the package, one contains the 3 items I listed above namely the car charger, wall charger and a spare battery. The other version only carries the wall charger and the spare battery. But they both run $59.99. One says made for iPod Works with iPhone and the other says - Made for iPhone works with iPod. Either way, it works for both. But I needed a car charger so I got the 3 item one. This way I feel like I got more bang for my buck.

Hopes this helps others.

 

[valbob89]

WARNING THIS IS A LONG POST!!

READ ONLY IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN A ST MAARTEN TOUR

I have not been very happy with the DCL excursion in St Maarten so I have been chatting with grmmybetty (Bertty) about arranging a private tour with Bernard Tours. Most of the other people she has heard from are interested in parasailing on Orient Beach. John and I want to snorkel.

If after reading the text below and you are interested, either PM myself or Betty. If we get enough persons, we will do the tours.

Bernard Tours basic tour consists of the following stops.
1. Great Bay overlooking Phillipsburg and harbor.
2. Cayhill overlooking Simpson Bay marina.
3. Sunset Beach bar ( Maho Beach ) where you can see the planes land right over your head.
4. Marigot - open market (French Capital).
5. Hilltop at Orient Bay overlooking the beach.
6. Swim at Orient Beach for up to two hours, as time allows.
7. Return to Philipsburg.

A custom tour can combine part of the above itinerary and include either parasailing or snorkeling.

Betty told me this morning that she received an email from Bernard early this morning. Apparently the only place they have parasailing is Orient Beach. Dawn Beach and Baie Rouge have the best snorkeling on the island. She thinks the only way we can do a custom tour and hit both spots is to have 2 vans, one for each site. Since she have only 7 interested, it would be too difficult and expensive to do even one van with the numbers she has at this point.

Here is a snippet of their email conversation and our PM conversation:

BERNARD: The hrs will be from 9 to 3.pm we can hold up to 14 people on in the van but for every one to be comfortable i rather take 12 and if you get up to 12 people then it will be $45.00/per person, we also have 25 passenger van available.

The hrs will be from 9 to 3.pm we can hold up to 14 people on in the van but for every one to be comfortable i rather take 12 and if you get up to 12 people then it will be $45.00/per person, we also have 25 passenger van available..

BETTY: What is the difference between the private tour and the $35 per person tour booked individually? Are they both in the same size van? If so, why would one tour cost $10 more than the other?

BERNARD; Our group tour you only goes as per our itinerary on the website, you cant decide how long you can stay at any location, you will be joining other people on the van/bus up to 25 people and with your private tour the van is for you and your group only you can created your own itinerary stay as long as you desire at any location we will serve you drinks through out the day..

BETTY TO NOEL: Currently we have 7 people interested including yourself. The PROS of going on a private tour would mean that we are guaranteed in a van rather than a bus. We would have a choice on where else we would like to go. We would also have drinks served throughout the tour. The CONS are a higher price. $10 more per person doesn't seem much, but the cost would be higher if we do not get a minimum of 10.


Below in red text is the information I have compiled so far about snorkeling in St. Maarten:

The island of St Martin is surrounded on all sides by beautiful and unique coral reefs, which provide exceptional possibilities for snorkeling adventures the entire family can and will enjoy. St Martin snorkelingencompasses shoreline or boat snorkeling excursions with a large variety of unique marine life to explore. The most common things you will see underwater on your St Martin snorkel experience are surgeonfish, parrotfish, and grunts. However, on the south or east side of the island, snorkeling in St Maarten will allow you to view such marine life as hawksbill, leatherback, green turtles, and more.

You can find several St Martin snorkel shops offering you not only all the equipment you need for snorkeling or St Martin diving excursions, but will also give you all the pointers as to where you will find the best marine life, the best places for beginners, and even give you an idea of where the children will also be able to snorkel

St Martin snorkeling has visibility up to 100 feet and is many cases as far as 200 feet. The coral reefs are beautiful and unique as many offer sights that only exist in the Caribbean and sea life that call the area home.

The most popular places for St Martin snorkeling are Dawn Beach, Simpson Bay, and Mullet Beach.

Dawn Beach is a great place for your St Martin snorkel adventure with the reef running along side the beach. This area is often called the best diving spot on the seaside of the reef. If you plan to snorkel here, watch for the cross current and be careful when the trade winds are strong. Dawn Beach offers white powdery sand and is located on the eastern side of the island. This spot for snorkeling in St Maarten is not really the best for small children as the water can be rough at times. However, it is an awesome beach for the kids to build sand castles.

Noel

Bob and I would be interested in a snorkel trip. val

 

[valbob89]

John and I are going to do the Skywalk Combo. I am quoting from I think mdwoodman's post.

•Cable Car ticket (options single or return and child or adult)
•Multimedia Tour (hand held guide included in adult ticket only and for use exclusively within the Cable Car Top Station)
•Apes (The apes are wild animals and roam freely throughout the Upper Rock area. However they are usually seen at both the Cable Car Top and Middle Station otherwise known as Apes Den.)
•Nature Reserve entrance ticket - Entrance to: St Michael's Cave, Great Siege Tunnels, City Under Siege Exhibition, Moorish Castle and 100 Ton Gun. (this ticket must be redeemed at the Cable Cart ticket office BEFORE entering any of the sights.) The Nature Reserve ticket must be used on the same day as the Cable Car ticket, see below.)
•FREE Gibraltar Bus Pass (adult or child one day bus pass). This must be collected from the Gibraltarinfo kiosk on the Spanish side of the Gibraltar/Spanish land frontier.

(Note that the Bus Pass isn't really worthwhile, since we won't be going to the land frontier. However, cruise ships normally provide shuttle buses or it's only £1 each for the public bus.)

John and I decided e are going to take a taxi to collect the tickets. You are welcome to take the taxi with us to the border pick up the tour tickets if you are interested. Check it out and let us know.

Noel

If you want to split the taxi let us know as this looks like something we were planning to do. I want to see the monkeys and Bob wants to go through the caves. Val

 

[gpb_1]

You so totally rock! Thanks so much!

No problem. We got concierge to get them for us on the first day. I then took pics of each one and put them onto the iPad so we could plan our eating (which is our fav hobby lol) well in advance.

Concierge guests used to get them in a bound folder in the room by default, but apparently this isn't the case anymore, but Roderigo was great and got them all for us anyway.

 

[LittleDisneyLovers]

YEAH!! We are here - do you think this will be the last before the cruise?

Nup, not at the rate we are going!

Having a hard time with dd just now ........send some sunshine our way please.....

Hello all....well after a couple of tough days....well weeks actually....I am happy to report my DD is feeling better....know how I know....she is getting fiesty and argumentative.....she had another cath scan today and we do not have the results yet....but she now wants to eat and they are allowing her soft pureed food.....sounds wonderful....but she is making positive strides and I thank all for the pixie dust and prayers.....my wife and I were starting to talk about maybe having to cancel the cruise the other day.....but tonight we had a nice talk about 4 weeks from tomorrow we will be flying out....and we already have put a backup plan in place....my MIL lives in Georgia and in an emergency would fly in to stay with DD.....again....THANKS!
Tom & Marilou

Sounds like she's making some positive progress, Good to hear!

Update on Dennis' dental situation....needs 3 crowns replaced and a root canal on one of them. So root canal tomorrow, temp crown on that one on Sept 2 after his cataract surgery on Aug 30. We did not have a dentist here in town and I gotta say we LOVE this guy. He is working thru his lunch tomorrow to do the root canal because he wants to get the pain gone before we travel. AND, he is going to show Dennis one of his guitars when we go in tomorrow. Oh, and does not demand the massive amount of money up front. Which is a really good thing because we have an amazing vacation coming up and will need a couple of months to pay for the dental expenses.

Wow, Dennis is going to feel like a new man by the time he cruises! Sending pixie dust that everything goes well.

 

[granmaz]

We are also hoping to do the Panama canal cruise in January. My leave is now confirmed. Now I just have to crunch the numbers to see if we can afford this.


This is a very difficult topic. I manage people in a customer service role and therefore appreciate the value of honest feedback. I also understand that this is left to customers to provide feedback with no prompting then for the most part the feedback that you get is negative. As a rule, people who have received excellent service don't take the time to write in, but people who have received sub-standard service or perceive that they have received such, will. So if it left completely to the customer, you are never going to get accurate feedback.

Personally, I don't mind filling in a survey at the end of the cruise. This is really straightforward and does not take long to do. What I do however mind a great deal is the begging for excellent ratings. We had this on the first three cruises. The first two cruises, our servers were excellent and one the third, the server and the head server were absolutely wonderful, but the assistant server was useless. However much we got the talk about providing only excellent ratings, I provided accurate feedback.

On our most recent cruise, a new question had turned up on the survey asking us if we were pressured into giving only excellent ratings. Happily, this time round I could honestly say "no". Nobody mentioned the survey beyond asking if we could please fill it out. Nobody tried to influence us this time round regarding the ratings. Our serving team was fantastic and they had deserved their excellent rating.

Corinna

I hope you can crunch your numbers positively for the PC cruise. then we can all go over to the thread and liven it up. It is nothing at all like this one!!

As far as feedback goes on the cruise I don't mind filling in the form either, but it is a long form, and it is always so frantic right at the end of the cruise. I hate the 'speech', and always think that means the servers are a little insecure in their performance, so should up it anyway. I would hate to ruin a server's job by mentioning something too bad. We had friends on one cruise who had the most fantastic server in every way, and others on previous cruises felt the same about him, but they found out later that he had been fired after that cruise because he had upset one old lady. It seems they aren't given too many chances.

I always mention CM's who have given good service as it is important to them.

Awesome! I have a feeling we'll see pink, silver, and maybe even white Ears! My Minnie Ears are on a headband, not a cap, so mine will be "different", too.

I'm looking forward to seeing all the gear. We weren't brought up on Mickey Mouse club over here, so it doesn't hold that appeal, but it doesn't mean I won't enjoy seeing you all.

NO NO NO NO! If you do your checkin online and print them out and bring them to the port to sign, you shouldn't even have any in your book. But you must not have done it online yet. There's still time........

The contract and signature form, plus some others are in the cruise documents. Great if you forget to print your online form out.

Update on Dennis' dental situation....needs 3 crowns replaced and a root canal on one of them. So root canal tomorrow, temp crown on that one on Sept 2 after his cataract surgery on Aug 30. We did not have a dentist here in town and I gotta say we LOVE this guy. He is working thru his lunch tomorrow to do the root canal because he wants to get the pain gone before we travel. AND, he is going to show Dennis one of his guitars when we go in tomorrow. Oh, and does not demand the massive amount of money up front. Which is a really good thing because we have an amazing vacation coming up and will need a couple of months to pay for the dental expenses.

Aaargh, hope it all goes ok. He is very last minute with everything isn't he?

 

[CustardTart]

Having a hard time with dd just now ........send some sunshine our way please.....



Roll on the cruise!

Sorry I missed this, Mandy... Hope Becky's OK...

Hello all....well after a couple of tough days....well weeks actually....I am happy to report my DD is feeling better....know how I know....she is getting fiesty and argumentative.....she had another cath scan today and we do not have the results yet....but she now wants to eat and they are allowing her soft pureed food.....sounds wonderful....but she is making positive strides and I thank all for the pixie dust and prayers.....my wife and I were starting to talk about maybe having to cancel the cruise the other day.....but tonight we had a nice talk about 4 weeks from tomorrow we will be flying out....and we already have put a backup plan in place....my MIL lives in Georgia and in an emergency would fly in to stay with DD.....again....THANKS!
Tom & Marilou

That's great - "feisty and argumentative" sound very encouraging!!!

Update on Dennis' dental situation....needs 3 crowns replaced and a root canal on one of them. So root canal tomorrow, temp crown on that one on Sept 2 after his cataract surgery on Aug 30. We did not have a dentist here in town and I gotta say we LOVE this guy. He is working thru his lunch tomorrow to do the root canal because he wants to get the pain gone before we travel. AND, he is going to show Dennis one of his guitars when we go in tomorrow. Oh, and does not demand the massive amount of money up front. Which is a really good thing because we have an amazing vacation coming up and will need a couple of months to pay for the dental expenses.

Oh my!!!! Poor Dennis... Hope it all goes smoothly for him - root canals can be tricky...

 

[granmaz]

I obviously missed a couple of posts in my skimming this morning. It was getting close to 9.05am over here when the dis goes down and i wanted to get posted! So, sorry.

Mandy, I'm sorry Becky is still causing some distress for you. I hope you can help at the moment. Will she be any better when some of her friends get back for Uni?

Tom and Marilou, so pleased your daughter is getting better, and glad you are able to still be on the cruise.

 

[granmaz]

Karen. I'm sure today will be the day and you will soon be here doing this

 

[CustardTart]

Karen. I'm sure today will be the day and you will soon be here doing this

Hope so, Marilyn. BUT I'm determined to be philosophical today - they'll get here when they get here...

 

[CustardTart]

As far as feedback goes on the cruise I don't mind filling in the form either, but it is a long form, and it is always so frantic right at the end of the cruise. I hate the 'speech', and always think that means the servers are a little insecure in their performance, so should up it anyway. I would hate to ruin a server's job by mentioning something too bad. We had friends on one cruise who had the most fantastic server in every way, and others on previous cruises felt the same about him, but they found out later that he had been fired after that cruise because he had upset one old lady. It seems they aren't given too many chances.

I always mention CM's who have given good service as it is important to them...

I remember reading that!!!

The feedback form is something we've taken quite seriously in the past and have been more than happy to fill in - wish we'd had them for our builders. Anyway, I only remember receiving 'the speech' once from the servers themselves and that was back in May 2008. On that trip I'd been a little underwhelmed and was in no mood to be trifled with so they got short shrift. I think the Head Server (John from Scotland?) gave it in August 2008 but he did in such a way that it wasn't annoying or obsequious at all. I really thought he and his team were excellent - I don't think he's on the Magic anymore... We always make a point of identifying CMs that have gone above and beyond - which is quite tough for me as I'm hopeless with names... Seriously, I keep a note of those who have made a difference so they're not forgotten...

 

[MagicMe]

Hello all....well after a couple of tough days....well weeks actually....I am happy to report my DD is feeling better....know how I know....she is getting fiesty and argumentative.....she had another cath scan today and we do not have the results yet....but she now wants to eat and they are allowing her soft pureed food.....sounds wonderful....but she is making positive strides and I thank all for the pixie dust and prayers.....my wife and I were starting to talk about maybe having to cancel the cruise the other day.....but tonight we had a nice talk about 4 weeks from tomorrow we will be flying out....and we already have put a backup plan in place....my MIL lives in Georgia and in an emergency would fly in to stay with DD.....again....THANKS!
Tom & Marilou

Certainly sounds like she's on the upswing! Hope everything continues to improve and you can take her home soon!!!