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

[orlandothebeagle]

Hello everyone
I cant beleive 4 weeks today we will be boarding the Magic.
I got my cruise Docs on monday (booked through Dreams).
Also on Monday my daughter gave birth to my second grandchild, a tiny boy with lots of black hair. Who is absolutley gorgeous of course.

I am going off to stay with my daughter, for couple of weeks from tomorrow, but will have my little notebook and will try to look in when I can. Hopefully I wont miss anything.
When I get back, it will be time to start my packing and get stressed, doing everything in a last minute mad rush !!.

Have a good week everyone

4 weeks today?

Hi all,

With all the talk of excursions of late, last night I was playing around with something I started a month ago, but never got around to completing. In part I wasn't sure if everyone would want to do this, so I'd like to get feedback before I complete it.

The idea is that we could create a list of all the events (room tour, champagne girls, drink tastings, etc.) and DCL excursions, then people could enroll in the events in which they are participating, and that way we could all see what each others are doing, as well as getting head counts and such. I thought it would be nice if you are going on an excursion to know what friendly faces to look for.

Like anything else, the key is participation, if most people would not want to participate, it wouldn't be worth the effort.

The way I have the registration working is that you would login just like for updating the rollcall, but now have an option to edit events.

Once you click on the 'Event' link, you would see a list of events. The list is sorted first by events you are attending, then chronological. By clicking on a single event, you would see details below.

You would then click on the 'Edit' button, and from there can enroll in the event, as well as select the members and number of your party attending. By default these will initially appear with all stateroom members attending.

I'd like to get feedback to see if people would be interested in doing this. Right now only the sign-up part is complete, but I could have the list of events and event detail pages completed pretty quickly.

Please feel free to play around, but the data is just test data, and will be deleted if/when we set up all the events/excursions.

Glenn




*All web and database design proudly done on a PC

sounds great Glen, Im starting to panic over doing too much stuff!!

 

[orlandothebeagle]

Gizmo Sarah, I cant see any obc on my doce, where is that part

 

[Candy Apple]

We have DCL Alaska July 2011 booked. I'm having difficulty getting excited about this one. Dennis is looking forward to it though. I hope to get something booked for 2012 when that is released. Fantasy or maybe Dream depending on where they are going. We can book a dummy date if needed. I too like the longer, special itineraries.

When in July??

I haven't told them yet. I tried last week at registration but the right people were not available. I may try again tomorrow if I can leave work early. I plan on asking for independent study for the 2 weeks but letting them know that whether its granted or not, he will not be at school. 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.

Might ask about independent study. I just figured he'd have to make up the work. I'll be telling, not asking.

We feel your pain! Being a small business owner Gus doesn't have any health insurance and we still aren't married so when he had terrible tooth pain last week we had to go to Mexico for his root canal. It's about 3 hours to the border so the drive wasn't terrible but there is a travel advisory against travel to Tijuana so I was a little nervous but everything turned out fine! Not to mention, it was only $150! However, Gus has been in some pretty bad pain for the past fews days! He finally got some relief today but now have to go back Monday for the crown. Poor thing. I'm glad you guys are able to take care of it before the cruise. Btw, the only pain meds that gave Gus any relief was Norco 10-325. The Vicodin the doc gave him didn't work at all for tooth pain. He had to call him for something stronger the very next morning since he couldn't even sleep.

Hope Dennis feels better soon! Root canals are no joke!

Norco and Vicodin both have the same active ingredients--hydrocodone and acetominophen, so must have been a different strength.

I always find the giving out of the tip envelopes a hugely embarrassing thing, I really do. It kind of spoils the final night's dinner waiting all 'secretly' with the envelopes for the appropriate time.

We make the boys give out the tip envelopes. Gets them used to the custom of tipping.

Sadly the more they expand the college program the more the quality of sevice go down at WDW. I have notice a big change in the last few years.

As for cruise survey I would like one to include before the cruise. Like how they could improve their air travel desk. I am still annoyed that they make no mention to the airlines that they have guests using mobility devices.

After 1 hour and 30 minutes and that is no lie. ( Over 2 days) i got my travel organized. To me that is the disney's air travel desk responsibility. If I had a travel agent who booked my flights they would do it. Will never book air travel with disney again. Much easier to do it myself.

The fact that some have a fuel credit others do not. This is all part of the cruise experience.

Also there is no room to right much at the end of the survey. I would like the opportunity to fill out a survey on line. Westjet does this

The website is also part of the cruise experience. Which many people found frustrating while trying to book palo, excursions etc.

For me it is the lack of accessible excursions. I wrote disney about how their should be a tab for mobility challenged. Like they have a tab for mild moderate etc. Since I I spent hours looking at each place to only be disappointed.

They said they are woking on this. Well I am sorry most of the excursions are the same as they were 2 years ago. I think the real reason is if they had a tab it would have basically nothing on it. That would make disney look bad.

The tab should have info on what is accessible like some of the disers here have given for different ports.

I understand that they do not run the excursions. But if Birkner can work it out so I can go I am sure disney could have.

I am so excited that after 6 cruises this is my first excursions. Birkner went way beyond the call of volunteering to make sure all my questions were asked.

Disney does not really do this.

So I think the pre cruise stuff is really important because it sets the tone.

But I must say some of the suggestions I have written them have been added on the ship. So I know they do listen.

What's the college program?

Sounds like a nice long letter to DCL should be in the works for you to send after the cruise.

 

[DisneyFreakNo1]

Hi all,

With all the talk of excursions of late, last night I was playing around with something I started a month ago, but never got around to completing. In part I wasn't sure if everyone would want to do this, so I'd like to get feedback before I complete it.

The idea is that we could create a list of all the events (room tour, champagne girls, drink tastings, etc.) and DCL excursions, then people could enroll in the events in which they are participating, and that way we could all see what each others are doing, as well as getting head counts and such. I thought it would be nice if you are going on an excursion to know what friendly faces to look for.

Like anything else, the key is participation, if most people would not want to participate, it wouldn't be worth the effort.

The way I have the registration working is that you would login just like for updating the rollcall, but now have an option to edit events.

Once you click on the 'Event' link, you would see a list of events. The list is sorted first by events you are attending, then chronological. By clicking on a single event, you would see details below.

You would then click on the 'Edit' button, and from there can enroll in the event, as well as select the members and number of your party attending. By default these will initially appear with all stateroom members attending.

I'd like to get feedback to see if people would be interested in doing this. Right now only the sign-up part is complete, but I could have the list of events and event detail pages completed pretty quickly.

Please feel free to play around, but the data is just test data, and will be deleted if/when we set up all the events/excursions.

Glenn




*All web and database design proudly done on a PC

I like the idea also. (I hope it will be easier than it sounds. LOL)

Rene

 

[birkner]

We feel your pain! Being a small business owner Gus doesn't have any health insurance and we still aren't married so when he had terrible tooth pain last week we had to go to Mexico for his root canal. It's about 3 hours to the border so the drive wasn't terrible but there is a travel advisory against travel to Tijuana so I was a little nervous but everything turned out fine! Not to mention, it was only $150! However, Gus has been in some pretty bad pain for the past fews days! He finally got some relief today but now have to go back Monday for the crown. Poor thing. I'm glad you guys are able to take care of it before the cruise. Btw, the only pain meds that gave Gus any relief was Norco 10-325. The Vicodin the doc gave him didn't work at all for tooth pain. He had to call him for something stronger the very next morning since he couldn't even sleep.

Hope Dennis feels better soon! Root canals are no joke!

I would like to know about the dental clinics in Mexico. Our insurance does not cover implants which I need a few of and wonder if these clinics do a good job on implants.

 

[acourtwdw]

I hate the handing out of the tip envelopes. We try to skip it whenever we can by dining at Palo on the last night.

 

[got2travel]

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.

My only concern would be that I have already booked directly with Bernard.

If we get a group tour, I would want to snorkel. Not interested in the added expense of parasailing.

 

[birkner]

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

John and I would love to split the taxi. You need to prebuy the tickets online at the link I posted in the St Maarten post. PM me and let me know if you are doing this for sure!!

 

[Futurist]

Hi all,

With all the talk of excursions of late, last night I was playing around with something I started a month ago, but never got around to completing. In part I wasn't sure if everyone would want to do this, so I'd like to get feedback before I complete it.

...

Please feel free to play around, but the data is just test data, and will be deleted if/when we set up all the events/excursions.

Glenn


*All web and database design proudly done on a PC

It's a great idea. The only question I would raise is whether people would think this is another opportunity to sign up for things that are already closed?

Hope I'm wrong about that.

Richard

* All replies fumblingly sent from an iMac. "Hi, I'm a Mac!"

 

[Candy Apple]

I like the idea also. (I hope it will be easier than it sounds. LOL)

Rene

Ditto.

 

[got2travel]

Hi all,

With all the talk of excursions of late, last night I was playing around with something I started a month ago, but never got around to completing. In part I wasn't sure if everyone would want to do this, so I'd like to get feedback before I complete it.

The idea is that we could create a list of all the events (room tour, champagne girls, drink tastings, etc.) and DCL excursions, then people could enroll in the events in which they are participating, and that way we could all see what each others are doing, as well as getting head counts and such. I thought it would be nice if you are going on an excursion to know what friendly faces to look for.

Sounds great. On our last cruise I created such a list, but I had to do so via PMs and spreadsheets. I like your way much better.

 

[su_kraft]

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.

Sounds like what I just went through!! Hug Dennis for me - hope that he is pain free soon!!

 

[birkner]

[
It sounds like you all have some great cruise plans. We have no set future cruises picked out yet, but would love to do Alaska, and Hawaii and the PC and well pretty much anything as long as it is long.

Two other things we are hoping to do sometime are;
Driving around California -or perhaps even branching out further and doing Vegas to SanFran. We might manage this next summer.

And i would love to do the Adventures by Disney Peru - that may be the year after if i can juggle our points well.

If you ever get out to San Francisco, let us all know so we can arrange a mini meet for all the DIS San Francisco Bay residents!

 

[MrsMork]

When in July??

20th I think. See, I'm not even excited enough to memorize the date. Now ask when we go on TA and I will give you blow by blow of the trip details!! Yes, our friends are sick of hearing about it!

 

[MrsMork]

Sounds like what I just went through!! Hug Dennis for me - hope that he is pain free soon!!

Will do, Sue. Thanks

 

[birkner]

Noel,

You only have to go to the border to pick up the bus pass if you want to use it (the taxi to get there will be more than the bus pass is worth, so I'm going to skip it). Here's the info I got back when I ordered my tickets on line:

"2 SkyWalk Combo Adult Single @ £17.50

Total: £36.00


** Please Note **
Your ticket can be used from the day after purchase and is valid for 6 months.
You need to bring ID with you when collecting your ticket. ID is also required for use of the Multimedia Tour.
On rare occassions, during bad weather, the cable car closes. Should this happen you can obtain a refund from the cable car base station."

So, you can just print out the e-mail that they send you and take that to the cable car to collect your tour ticket.

How do you get to the cable car from the ship? How much will it cost? Shall we all follow you guys?

I could make a Disney sign for you like for the Madeira tour that says "Follow Michael to St. Michaels...

Sorry I am so bad but couldn't resist. Mea Culpa

However, it was a serious question about how do we get to the cable car and how much will it cost.

 

[birkner]

A small thing overall and slightly off topic...

My DD Lilian lost her first tooth today. She is very excited.
My baby is growing up.

How sweet

I remember the excitement of my children putting a baby tooth into a tooth fairy bag!! They could hardly sleep for wanting to wake up next morning to find a "surprise" from the tooth fairy!!

 

[birkner]

I was talking to my hubby (glenn) about the survey's and he said why do they not have resort guests fill out surveys? The cruise staff works 4 times as hard. He said he would take all the different nationalities on the cruise over the USA staff.

Sadly the more they expand the college program the more the quality of sevice go down at WDW. I have notice a big change in the last few years.

As for cruise survey I would like one to include before the cruise. Like how they could improve their air travel desk. I am still annoyed that they make no mention to the airlines that they have guests using mobility devices.

After 1 hour and 30 minutes and that is no lie. ( Over 2 days) i got my travel organized. To me that is the disney's air travel desk responsibility. If I had a travel agent who booked my flights they would do it. Will never book air travel with disney again. Much easier to do it myself.

The fact that some have a fuel credit others do not. This is all part of the cruise experience.

Also there is no room to right much at the end of the survey. I would like the opportunity to fill out a survey on line. Westjet does this

The website is also part of the cruise experience. Which many people found frustrating while trying to book palo, excursions etc.

For me it is the lack of accessible excursions. I wrote disney about how their should be a tab for mobility challenged. Like they have a tab for mild moderate etc. Since I I spent hours looking at each place to only be disappointed.

They said they are woking on this. Well I am sorry most of the excursions are the same as they were 2 years ago. I think the real reason is if they had a tab it would have basically nothing on it. That would make disney look bad.

The tab should have info on what is accessible like some of the disers here have given for different ports.

I understand that they do not run the excursions. But if Birkner can work it out so I can go I am sure disney could have.

I am so excited that after 6 cruises this is my first excursions. Birkner went way beyond the call of volunteering to make sure all my questions were asked.

Disney does not really do this.

So I think the pre cruise stuff is really important because it sets the tone.

But I must say some of the suggestions I have written them have been added on the ship. So I know they do listen.

What a very nice thing to say about the tour I planned in Madeira. I am very flattered!!

 

[birkner]

Hi all,

With all the talk of excursions of late, last night I was playing around with something I started a month ago, but never got around to completing. In part I wasn't sure if everyone would want to do this, so I'd like to get feedback before I complete it.

The idea is that we could create a list of all the events (room tour, champagne girls, drink tastings, etc.) and DCL excursions, then people could enroll in the events in which they are participating, and that way we could all see what each others are doing, as well as getting head counts and such. I thought it would be nice if you are going on an excursion to know what friendly faces to look for.

Like anything else, the key is participation, if most people would not want to participate, it wouldn't be worth the effort.

The way I have the registration working is that you would login just like for updating the rollcall, but now have an option to edit events.

This way kewl!! I love, love it!! As soon as I can make some time, I will put all our activities, shore excursions etc in the database!!

 

[birkner]

Hello everyone
I cant beleive 4 weeks today we will be boarding the Magic.
I got my cruise Docs on monday (booked through Dreams).
Also on Monday my daughter gave birth to my second grandchild, a tiny boy with lots of black hair. Who is absolutley gorgeous of course.

I am going off to stay with my daughter, for couple of weeks from tomorrow, but will have my little notebook and will try to look in when I can. Hopefully I wont miss anything.
When I get back, it will be time to start my packing and get stressed, doing everything in a last minute mad rush !!.

Have a good week everyone

Congratulations on your new grandson!! Have a wonderful visit with your DD and her new baby!!