September 29, 2007 - Magic

[Shannon1984]

Last year my DM called from the airport in a frantic. Screaming on the phone that they were evacuated. She thought it was a bomb because they came out to check the plane in space-like suites. It turned out to be nothing just the check engine light came on. It was really funny. Although, it didn't happen to me maybe that's why it was funny. At least they made the ship, barely.

 

[ragdoll]

Last year my DM called from the airport in a frantic. Screaming on the phone that they were evacuated. It was really funny. Although, it didn't happen to me maybe that's why it was funny. At least they made the ship, barely.

My, my, my, someone sure can exaggerate! I was frantic mostly because I really thought that the plane was going to blow up before we were able to get off. Of course we were seated in almost the last row. The flight attendants were yelling to move faster! They had us back on the plane withing 20 minutes when they figured out it was a false fire alarm. We made it to the port in plenty of time. The evacuation was a scary thing to experience though.

 

[ragdoll]

Hmm, now that I'm thinking back on this, maybe Shannon isn't exaggerating. I do remember getting a few weird looks as I was screaming into the phone.

 

[MiaSRN62]

ibela says : apparently they were in the heat of passion as the guy was found naked?? They both survived but will no doubt experience very many jokes at their expense by family and friends (well deserved may I add)!

You're not kidding ! They were very lucky. Someone just happened to see them fall at 1:30 am. The ships crew acted very quickly and turned the ship around, otherwise, I doubt they would have been saved. What were the chances someone would have spotted them at 1:30 am ?
Here's the video shot by another passenger of the rescue as shown on the Today Show yesterday :
http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?g=521a2f5c-30a6-40dc-a090-051c03b79062&f=05&fg=rss

 

[ibela]

My, my, my, someone sure can exaggerate! I was frantic mostly because I really thought that the plane was going to blow up before we were able to get off. Of course we were seated in almost the last row. The flight attendants were yelling to move faster! They had us back on the plane withing 20 minutes when they figured out it was a false fire alarm. We made it to the port in plenty of time. The evacuation was a scary thing to experience though.

Holy moly that would've been scary. Good thing it was a false alarm and you didn't lose too much time.

My biggest/only horror story with making a flight/cruise was when we were going to a Med cruise and flying into Barcelona the morning of departure! The car service that we called got lost on the way to our house and after a million promises that he'd be there in a few minutes I told him to forget it b/c I was calling someone else! (Apparently, the dispatcher had told the driver to take the long way to save $ on tolls - as if the $100 they charged us 1 way wouldn't cover the $5 in tolls - and that's when the driver got lost, so I told the dispatcher that if I missed my flight I would go down to the office and show him how mad I really was all while dh was wrestling the phone away from me.) Anyway, we got to the airport a grand total of 10 minutes before the ticketing office closed so we *just* got our boarding passes in the nick of time. Then the flight was delayed (mechanical difficulties) and we RAN in the terminal b/c we had a connecting flight (don't remember where) and just made that the 2nd leg. After all that, we did make the boat (after the lifeboat drill) and had a great time.

 

[ragdoll]

Any other horror stories to share with Jajomo? At this rate she will be leaving her DH behind to fly in a week early.

 

[Gr00vyChc]

Hi Jajomo. If it were me, I would just fly in a day early with my kids and DH can fly in the next day.. and hope that he'll get on the ship with you. That is, if he REALLY cannot get off work.
We spend so much money and time planning for this trip, I just wouldn't risk it. I have read so many horror stories on these boards that I'm kinda scared myself.. and we're flying in 2 days before our cruise!


We hope to see your WHOLE family on Sept. 29 though!

 

[JDBlair]

Okay, the mother/daughter banter is hilarious!

Watched the rescue video and I sure hope my husband would jump overboard to save me if I went in But who in the heck falls overboard? What are you doing to fall in? Why don't they interview the people rescued so we can get the scoop??? I want the dirt!!

I think we all take risks with this cruise. We could get sick before the cruise, we could miss our planes, the cruise could be late coming back because of weather and we don't leave on Saturday as planned, the what if's are endless. The best we can do is be prepared for the unexpected and roll with the punches. What other choices do we have? Nothing in life is guaranteed, right???

Zane - sorry for freaking you out about the height. Have you ever seen a cruise ship up close and in person??

 

[Zane_Anthony]

Zane - sorry for freaking you out about the height. Have you ever seen a cruise ship up close and in person??

No problem! I have never seen one in person at all, but by that comment I don't know why but I have never really thought about it. All the pictures make it look like you are pretty close to the water.

 

[Octoberbride03]

JDBlair - apparently they were in the heat of passion as the guy was found naked?? They both survived but will no doubt experience very many jokes at their expense by family and friends (well deserved may I add)!

UN believable Were they on top of a railing or something? Its not like the guardrails are below your waist these days on a modern ship. I would love to see if somebody has video from the moment they dropped off the ship. No doubt this will be the highlight of the cruise for many of their fellow passengers

Excursions question: Who all is doing Sunny Liston at St. Thomas? And what time did you book for pick-up? I am highly interested in this tour and will likely be booking it shortly within the next couple of weeks or so(hopefully sooner). I am just not sure about how much time to spend shopping. Also DH and I may not do the beach part either. We're not big beach ppl.

And does anybody else have anything planned for St. Martin yet? I'm acquainting myself with the cruisecritic boards and bouncing around over there, but had my eye on possibly doing a DCL excursion this time.

 

[Octoberbride03]

Congrats on being decisive about how you want to spend your day. I wish I could make some sort of decision....
I keep hearing good things about the Sunny Liston tour. But we're the opposite and very big beach/snorkel people. I'm still torn with the excursions I listed back on page 32. I'm guessing noone has heard anything about any of the ones I listed because I got no replies either "yay" or "nay". I keep reading the trip reports threads trying to find some info. SL tour is a great price....gives you a real nice overview of St Thomas too. I'm torn with wanting to visit St John and Trunk Bay though......

Being 1st time cruisers I really can't say anything about the tours you listed on pg.32. I'd suggest that you give more weight to the reviews from Passporter than from Birnbaum's. Birnbaum only asks guest from the specific cruise they took about the excursion(if they didn't go themsleves) while Passporter has message boards and links to surveys for all the DCL excursions. I've compared both excursion chapters in the books and how good each one is really varies. So that's how I'm picking my choices.

Anyhow, we're like Zane. This is our first trip to the carribean and while so many excursions sound like a great time our first priority is to really see what we can of the islands. And next time we'll do something exciting like the 12 meter regatta. The goal for this vacation is BLISSFUL RELAXATION. Or as clost to that as possible

 

[MiaSRN62]

Octoberbride03 says :I've compared both excursion chapters in the books and how good each one is really varies. So that's how I'm picking my choices.

Thanks....I have been doing that and do notice a discrepancy between the two. I'll have to check out the message boards on Passporter too.

Octoberbride03 says : while so many excursions sound like a great time our first priority is to really see what we can of the islands.

We do as well. Many of the excursions are only 3-4 hours so there's plenty of time to still explore. We feel, from our personal experience, that alot of the excursions really allow you to see and experience things you couldn't do on your own just walking around the towns.
I do wish we weren't leaving St Thomas/St John so early though....anyone else ? I realize we need that time to get to CC......but it just seems so early........

 

[Zane_Anthony]

UN believable Were they on top of a railing or something? Its not like the guardrails are below your waist these days on a modern ship. I would love to see if somebody has video from the moment they dropped off the ship. No doubt this will be the highlight of the cruise for many of their fellow passengers

Excursions question: Who all is doing Sunny Liston at St. Thomas? And what time did you book for pick-up? I am highly interested in this tour and will likely be booking it shortly within the next couple of weeks or so(hopefully sooner). I am just not sure about how much time to spend shopping. Also DH and I may not do the beach part either. We're not big beach ppl.

And does anybody else have anything planned for St. Martin yet? I'm acquainting myself with the cruisecritic boards and bouncing around over there, but had my eye on possibly doing a DCL excursion this time.

Hello,

I have booked the Sunny Liston tour for the three of us. Not sure if anyone else has booked or not. It was really easy to book and I booked through the website and I got an email response right away. You do not pay anything when you book. I picked the 10:00 pick-up time for two hours of shopping. I didn't want my son to get too bored shopping. For St. Martin I have booked a private tour with Beau Robinson of No Rush Tours. He has been extremely pleasant to work with and he comes highly reccommended on cruise critic. I like that it's private and we can plan to do exactly what we want to do. Hope this helps, if you have any other questions let me know.

Tonya

 

[Gr00vyChc]

Hi Zane. We're thinking of booking the Sunny Liston tours as well. There was one post on the "Post your DCL Pictures" thread taken while they were on the sunny liston tours and it was beautiful. I guess they take you up on the mountain and you can see the beach, the ship etc. But I also like how it will stop by the beach so that we can have beach time and shopping time (a must for me)

Is parasailing still available at CC? Anyone else doing this? I think my DH is planning to.

6 more months!!!!! uuuuuuuuuuggggghhhh it's soooo far away still!

 

[Gr00vyChc]

Anyone else trying to lose weight before our cruise? I know.. i should be out there running instead of being on the dis boards

 

[SueRS]

Anyone else trying to lose weight before our cruise? I know.. i should be out there running instead of being on the dis boards

I am trying to lose. Partially for the trip and partially because I just need to do it. I still have problems having time to work out but we will see.

 

[Zane_Anthony]

Anyone else trying to lose weight before our cruise? I know.. i should be out there running instead of being on the dis boards

i need to be but i am just not motivated at all i thought the cruise would do it but so far it hasn't helped

 

[Gr00vyChc]

Has anyone planned a meet & greet yet? aaaahhh, it's probably too early. Who else is on deck 6?

Sorry.. I'm just tooooo excited!

Gr00vyChc

 

[Zane_Anthony]

Hello

DIS Meet #1...Saturday 3:00 Promenade Lounge

DIS Meet #2...Monday 11:30 for Lunch (if anyone wants to do a different time then post it and we will go with the majority) since I have never cruised before I am not sure of the options..I think there is a buffet or a place with a regular menu..is this correct? If so which one does everyone prefer?

Thanks
Tonya

Here is what was discussed so far. We are on deck 7 close to the secret veranda.

 

[MiaSRN62]

Hi GrOOvyChc.....
I'm pretty sure my husband wants to do the parasailing on CC as well. He wanted to do it in '02, but it was too windy....in '04, we just never got around to it, so I'm thinking this cruise for sure.

I am planning on trying to lose some weight. Now that warmer weather is here it's so much easier. I hate walking/running in the cold/winter.
I'm not on deck 6.....but waiting for any meet updates. We're on deck 2 in a cat 9 (stateroom 2026 if anyone wants to stop by )
I'm going to try and not miss having a verandah this cruise. We had one in 2002...then in 2004 we had 2 connecting SPH rooms.
We're really excited for this cruise as well !