WBRepo-Ship of Thieves-Remember the Magic Pt 17

[katypop]

John and Deb's dates match Ian and Sukie's except that we're doing one week of cruising and one week of WDW after. Ian and Sukie are doing both weeks at WDW...but they're the same dates.

Oct 10-16 we're doing our B2B Bahama cruises and then we'll be PLATINUM!

Oct 17-23 we're doing WDW. I believe that we wanted to all get together on the 17th to do the food and wine fest so that Marilyn could join us. But if Marilyn and John are leaving on the 18th out of Miami....we just might miss them.

I'm going to miss you then I'm cruising the 16-23!

 

[katypop]

After much recent debate, the kiddiwinks and I are DEFINITELY coming to WDW in October. BUT sadly Richard won't be joining us!

In a nutshell, he has just left the mean giant US investment bank he worked for to join a smaller, cosier and much friendlier US investment bank so is on 'garden leave' for 3 months. Which is fab BUT he won't have enough vacation days to make it to WDW and that means I won't get him to the IF&WF for yet another year!!! Given that he loves both food and wine, this seems crazy BUT September 2012 (and our 30th wedding anniversary) is calling and I WON'T be taking no for an answer on that occasion...

Kaz, sorry Richard won't get to join you in Oct, but hoping he enjoys his new job...and 3 month 'garden leave'

 

[katypop]

Kathe, hopefully you've had your lot of bad luck for the rest of the year with things breaking.

Can't believe I'm still up, it's after 12:30am. Off to bed I go! Have to be somewhat awake early so I can take Tyler to his weekly art class at 10am.

Thanks Holly I hope you are enjoying the rest of your weekend!

I feel guilty, so sorry

I'm complaining about drips when so many of you have serious health problems. I'm sorry, I do feel for you all, wish I could wave a wand and make you all feel better

 

[katypop]

Hi Michelle

 

[katypop]

Yup. I know he's not alone in this....everyone is experiencing changes at work lately. Keeping my fingers crossed that he gets changed to something that he's going to like.

I think I'm just now coming to terms with the changes at my workplace that were actually implemented in Dec 08, especially financially I would look for employment elsewhere, but I am not willing to give up my 4 weeks vacation time for one or two weeks at this stage of my life.

I may have to give up Thanksgiving at Ian's and Alaska

I haven't accepted acquiescence quite yet though. I am feeling defiant! I refused to turn the furnace on last night, though it was freezing and I have packed my lunch for work all week

 

[Tink rules]

Hi Michelle

I think I'm just now coming to terms with the changes at my workplace that were actually implemented in Dec 08, especially financially I would look for employment elsewhere, but I am not willing to give up my 4 weeks vacation time for one or two weeks at this stage of my life.

I may have to give up Thanksgiving at Ian's and Alaska

I haven't accepted acquiescence quite yet though. I am feeling defiant! I refused to turn the furnace on last night, though it was freezing and I have packed my lunch for work all week

Don't give up yet... and spring IS coming... Although at Ian's and Holly's... not yet...

 

[Tink rules]

So I go out for one night and I feel like I should go to sleep now... 8 PM!!! Am I getting old!!!

Tomorrow is the Annual "Lets Celebrate Mothers Day &&&& the QM's Bday" Dinner. Our neighbor Joyce is coming for dinner (which I am cooking) and we will have cake and such after.

The QM's bday isn't until Thursday... but it's usually around mothers day so we do it together.

Mom got some very pretty flowers from my brothers, my sister is sending cash for clothes and I'm giving her and IOU... (she does that to me all the time, then we go and pick out something she WANTS rather than what I just get her...)

 

[HollyTyler]

As long as that volcano keeps blowing ash clouds, no overseas travel is safe. It's subject to rerouting and cancellations. I feel bad for anyone doing the baltic, the med or the TA that has to fly into the affected zones. Who knows how long this could continue either. What a nightmare.

My friend Heather, her husband Tom and daughter Bethany are flying into Barcelona soon for one of those cruises. Heather's worried about their flight to Barcelona being affected.

 

[HollyTyler]

Don't give up yet... and spring IS coming... Although at Ian's and Holly's... not yet...

Yes, it was below freezing overnight last night and only got up to the 40s today. Will be in the 30s overnight tonight, but up to 50 tomorrow.

 

[HollyTyler]

My head has been pounding all day today. First time in a while, so I'm not complaining much, but was dozing on and off most of the day, didn't get dressed until 3pm. Tyler was such a good sport though, and found lots to do. He cleaned a little colored, played Webkinz online, did a whole workbook of writing practice that I got him for Christmas, and watched a couple DVDs.

We went out for groceries and then out for pizza for supper, then some more shopping because we forgot stuff the first time. We cleaned the inside of our car really well, then Tyler read 133 pages of a "Dick and Jane" book. Only 10 more pages to go, but he just decided he'd had enough. He did a GREAT job too! So then he had me Google "Dick and Jane" to see what other books he can get like the one he has.

I'm going to go watch "Survivor" from this past Thursday and head to bed, hoping to get rid of my headache by tomorrow.

 

[LuvBaloo]

Happy Saturday!

It was a nice day up here. Sunny! Getting up and going to the girls soccer games is so much better when its sunny and not freezing/raining. Both girls are enjoying their first season of outdoor soccer, and Kaleigh is enjoying having her daddy coach. Luckily 4 of the 5 kids are fairly good at listening, so Ken isn't going batty dealing with them all.

Time to share some pictures again.
Here's the girls last week showing off their art:

And here's a shot of Shaelyn when she was starting to get the hang of riding her bike without me hanging on:

Tomorrow my plans for Mothers Day are to have breakfast in bed. Shaelyn has already told me I have to stay in bed so they can do it. She gave me the choice of toast or cereal Hopefully it will be sunny, as I want to take the girls out with their bikes and let Shaelyn get some confidence, as she is so close to mastering her bike.

Michelle - glad you enjoyed Danny Quinn. Happy early Birthday to the QM!

Deb - is Kris ever a yo-yo for things looking up and then falling apart. Hopefully this time it all goes well

Kathe - 4weeks vacation is hard to walk away from! Hope you are able to make it all work and still get your Thanksgiving trip

Holly - hope your headache goes away fast. You sure have been getting less of them compared to a year ago Its awesome that Tyler's enjoying reading now!

Marilyn - when is UK mother's day? I remember it isn't the same as US/Canada but can't recall when.


Happy Mother's Day to everyone, whether you're celebrating or not!

 

[granmaz]

Happy Saturday!

It was a nice day up here. Sunny! Getting up and going to the girls soccer games is so much better when its sunny and not freezing/raining. Both girls are enjoying their first season of outdoor soccer, and Kaleigh is enjoying having her daddy coach. Luckily 4 of the 5 kids are fairly good at listening, so Ken isn't going batty dealing with them all.

Time to share some pictures again.
Here's the girls last week showing off their art:

And here's a shot of Shaelyn when she was starting to get the hang of riding her bike without me hanging on:

Tomorrow my plans for Mothers Day are to have breakfast in bed. Shaelyn has already told me I have to stay in bed so they can do it. She gave me the choice of toast or cereal Hopefully it will be sunny, as I want to take the girls out with their bikes and let Shaelyn get some confidence, as she is so close to mastering her bike.


Marilyn - when is UK mother's day? I remember it isn't the same as US/Canada but can't recall when.


Happy Mother's Day to everyone, whether you're celebrating or not!

Thanks Shannon. You do have 2 gorgeous girls there.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

Our Mother's Day is usually sometime in March. I believe it it the mid weekend between beginning of Lent and Easter, so it moves. Bit, I have been pleased to have 2 Mother's Day's since coming on this thread!!!!! the last 2 years we have been in the US(well 2 years ago at Castaway Cay, so officially the Bahamas) so that was nice!! Last year I received a couple of flowers on the way out of Epcot!!


Holly, hope you wake up headache free. Well done to Tyler. There will be no stopping him now!!!

 

[granmaz]

This day 2 years ago I did lot of laundry. We dropped one car off at one hotel close to DTD, walked all the way up to the other end of the road in that hot hot heat to pick up another car, and went to the meet at DTD!!! Oh, and packed again!

Boy what a hot day!

 

[ibouncetoo]

This day 2 years ago I did lot of laundry. We dropped one car off at one hotel close to DTD, walked all the way up to the other end of the road in that hot hot heat to pick up another car, and went to the meet at DTD!!! Oh, and packed again!

Boy what a hot day!

And for me it was fly into MCO and drop luggage in our room at the Hyatt.(Monica hadn't arrived yet, as she did the DTD meet first), then head to the lobby for our meet. Carol & Doug were the first DISers I met there! Dinner was in the airport at Macaroni Grill (I think) with Nan and her clan. It was a late night as Monica and I waited for Ian & Sukie to arrive (around 11PM).

.

 

[granmaz]

And for me it was fly into MCO and drop luggage in our room at the Hyatt.(Monica hadn't arrived yet, as she did the DTD meet first), then head to the lobby for our meet. Carol & Doug were the first DISers I met there! Dinner was in the airport at Macaroni Grill (I think) with Nan and her clan. It was a late night as Monica and I waited for Ian & Sukie to arrive (around 11PM).

.

I still find it hard to believe it is all over, though it isn't as bad now. It was really the best holiday ever.

 

[iankh]

I see you've all been a tad busy while I was gone.

Not sure how many of you know, but we were in WDW for a week.

We stayed in a DVC studio in the Animal Kingdom Lodge Villas. We were in the original building, now called Jambo House. It was great to be able to see animals from our balcony, but we had a rather long walk to our room. I could not believe the length of the hallway.

We liked the Animal Kingdom Lodge, and would stay there again, but there was something about it that made it feel just too removed. The Wilderness Lodge too has a remove feeling but that's due to theming and not geography. At the Wilderness Lodge you take a short boat ride and you're in the Magic Kingdom. This resort felt geographically remote, and it was quite a drive to get anywhere.

Because of all the travelling I've been doing lately, I was really not emotionally prepared for this vacation. I essentially went from being away from home for work to suddenly being at Disney World.

The weather was also much hotter than we prefer, more like July or August weather than May weather. There's a reason we don't go to WDW in the summer and stick to either early spring, or late October or December we find it just too hot. This was like being there during the summer. We found it too hot to keep any sort of energy level up.

Consequently, we did spend a lot of time taking naps in our room.

We also didn't have many dining reservations. We ate at Boma which was again wonderful, and we also had breakfast there. We also did a walk-in for lunch at Tusker House in the Animal Kingdom. It was a wonderful African/Indian inspired buffet and was a remarkable meal for a theme park.

Also remarkable about this trip was that there was zero food drama. Disney has gotten much better about special dietary needs, especially vegetarian. The chefs at Tusker House and Boma came out to talk to us and give us a tour of the food, and were detailed enough to point out a rice dish made with Chicken stock. When we ate breakfast at Boma, the chef made Sukie a separate omelet and potatoes to avoid cross contamination. There were eggs and potatoes on the buffet line, but we could see guests dropping bacon in the eggs and using utensils they had used for sausages to take potatoes.

Even the counter service restaurant at AKL, Mara, accommodated Sukie by making separate eggs and potatoes.

The biggest surprise was Pecos Bill's in the MK. They have about 3 non-meat selections on the menu, and all three are prepared in a special cooking area on the other side of the restaurant, near the condiments station so as to avoid cross contamination.

It seems like Disney is taking these needs very seriously now, or perhaps enough guests have been complaining like we've been to make a change.

As you know, we met up with Monica for dinner at Kona Cafe, which was wonderful. I had tuna steak with wasabi Hollandaise. My food was incredible. Sukie and Monica each had the Pan Asia noodles which they liked.

We had only one bad food experience which was at Mexico in Epcot. I have never thought that it was the best Mexican food around but it was always at least good. The San Angel Inn has always held a special sentimental place for us, since it was where Sukie and I had dinner on our very first trip to WDW together, 22 years ago.

Sukie's food, the one vegetarian selection they have (they used to have about 3 or 4 choices) was passable. My entrée, chicken in mole was downright terrible. It was an over microwaved, dried out, chewy and stringy chicken breast with some mole sauce thrown over it. The dish was completely different than it used to be, and I know, since I have had it there many times.

I was really disappointed and felt ripped off. I know that the prices are going to be high, I'm prepared for that, but at least I've always felt we had good dining experiences. I have never seen a dish so ill-prepared before in my life. It was terrible even for cheap cafeteria food.

So we decided to bid a fond adiós to the San Angel Inn and will not be eating there again.

I think I've really come to like having a vacation that was not booked up with dining plans. I like our ability to be spontaneous and not necessarily be locked down to being places at specific times. I think the number of dining reservations we had worked out just fine for us.

We also visited the Earl of Sandwich a few times on this trip. Very happy to have simple and quick meal.

On Friday night we met up with Monica, Vicki and Greg for a very pleasant evening at DTD Disney. We had eaten earlier at the Earl of Sandwich and so kept them company for dinner and ice cream.

We got home yesterday morning and had a very early flight out of Orland. We left at 8:20 am, and so were up at 4:00 am. That sort of took it out of us and we were zombies for most of yesterday.

This evening I am flying back to NY for another 4 days of work. I'm not sure what my travel schedule is going to be like. I would at least like to have sometime here at home. But, I think from here on, I am going to be in NYC for about 2 weeks out of every month.

Not it comes time for us to plan our big family trip to WDW in October. We arrive on October 9th and leave on October 23rd. We're going be there for a fortnight. We'll be staying at Old Key West in a 2-bedroom lock-off. We're at that resort for a couple of reasons: 1) It was the lowest points for a fortnight; 2) the units are much larger than any of the other DVC resorts.

Hopefully the project I'm on will settle down to the point that I can plan this vacation.

 

[granmaz]

Hi Ian and welcome back.

Glad you enjoyed your trip despite your negatives. I guess at least you rested more because of the heat, and that would be a good thing within your busy life right now.

John always says he wouldn't be too interested at staying at AKL or Villas for the reason of being so far from anywhere. We do like to visit however for a nice Boma breakfast occasionally.

We don't book many dining reservations either, but more because we eat offsite more, which I do know you don't wish to do. We also really find it difficult to eat all the food they force on us on the dining plan! I do believe that desserts are off the dining plan next year and I prefer desserts to starters. However, if we ever got a good deal with the dining plan then I would be happy to book up a whole load of restaurants ahead of time.

I'm so pleased that Sukie's vegetarian diet is easier to enjoy in WDW now. I think Disney really are getting to grips with dietary needs, even better than lots of other places. I know when we met Kaylee back in February that she was impressed with the Gluten Free options. My no alcohol was dealt with very well too, and that wouldn't be a common one at all.

Hope we get to meet up in October.

 

[granmaz]

Anyone finding the Disboards beginning to slow down again sometimes? Can be very annoying!!!

 

[iankh]

Hi Ian and welcome back.

Glad you enjoyed your trip despite your negatives. I guess at least you rested more because of the heat, and that would be a good thing within your busy life right now.

John always says he wouldn't be too interested at staying at AKL or Villas for the reason of being so far from anywhere. We do like to visit however for a nice Boma breakfast occasionally.

We don't book many dining reservations either, but more because we eat offsite more, which I do know you don't wish to do. We also really find it difficult to eat all the food they force on us on the dining plan! I do believe that desserts are off the dining plan next year and I prefer desserts to starters. However, if we ever got a good deal with the dining plan then I would be happy to book up a whole load of restaurants ahead of time.

I'm so pleased that Sukie's vegetarian diet is easier to enjoy in WDW now. I think Disney really are getting to grips with dietary needs, even better than lots of other places. I know when we met Kaylee back in February that she was impressed with the Gluten Free options. My no alcohol was dealt with very well too, and that wouldn't be a common one at all.

Hope we get to meet up in October.

Marilyn,

The Fairy Garden wasn't quite the same without you and John.

 

[granmaz]

Marilyn,

The Fairy Garden wasn't quite the same without you and John.

We also thought there was something or someone missing!!!