Wild Turkeys and Dancing Banana Heads Cruise 11/25/06

[TiggerKing]

Hey Steve, you DESERVE the camera as a reward for what you have to go through this weekend!

I have to tell you a story about fire ants. I did the Bicycle Ride Across Georgia in 1997. One of the people I ended up riding with was an educator from Kansas. So, two other guys and myself set out to teach him about all things Georgia. We explained to him about the gnat line. Of course, he didn't believe that until we crossed it. But, we got a kick out of the fact that when we introduced him to fire ants, this 40+ year old man sat there with a stick playing in the mound like a 4 year old! We cracked up!

Well, I am actually going to be able to leave the office early today. I have the Mustang with me, and the top is down for the drive home!

 

[Dandy8]

Dandy8 - if you have a pic pls post or send to woo - I would love Dutch to be able to see Jared before we meet either on the ship or at the Residence.

DutchsMommy, I will send to Woogal soon.....I'm still going through photos to find one of the 4 of us. It's me & the kids, Andy & the Kids, the kids by themselves......I didn't realize that we tend to neglect the family photo. Turns out we're probably going to get to the residence around 8:00pm the night before the cruise (we land in orlando at 6:30). Unfortunately I was using award tickets on southwest and they didn't give me much of a choice on flights for that day so we got stuck with a 3:30pm flight. Hopefully we can meet and say hello that evening.

What time is the best time to get to the ship the morning of the cruise?

 

[cruisemutt]

hey everyone....I just got this in...the schedule for docking at St. Thomas....apparently we'll tender in to port there. Here's the link:
http://www.vinow.com/general_usvi/cruiseship/cruise_2006/STT-Nov.php

 

[woogal]

Good afternoon Banana Heads

Ok, Ok ... I'll be the one that asks ... what the heck is a gnat line and what's the deal with playing with fire ants with a stick?

Well my sleep was interrupted last night, and I guarantee that none of you will ever have this experience! As you know, we live in Akron, Ohio. At about midnight last night, I was sound asleep, but was actually awaken by a very loud humming ... it only took me a few minutes to ID the sound without getting out of bed. The Goodyear blimp was coming back from the Browns game and it sounded like it was about 4 feet above my *&#$& house!!

Steve, you have no excuse now to not get me those photos for the list. Get to it!

Jamie, we're doing an non-Disney island tour on St. Thomas that includes shopping and beach time.

Have a good Friday night!

 

[pgfour]

For our cruise DH and I are flying down on Friday night to Orlando and staying in the Hyatt in the airport overnight. We just thought it would be easier with DS.

Lynn, we are also staying at the Hyatt Friday night. Our flight gets in mid-afternoon. Maybe we can meet up for a bit if your cute little DS is up to it after a day of travel.

Cheri

 

[pgfour]

3Turners! Our bunch keeps growing!

We've actually had decent weather the past two days . Hopefully it will carry over into the weekend.

Kathy -- loved the pictures!
Steve -- glad to hear you survived BOTH hurricanes unscathed!

Hope everyone has a great Friday night!

Cheri

 

[jd99]

Taking a child to explore new places, experience different cultures on the islands, meet people from all over the world? Miss 4 days of spelling words and math facts? Count me in as a bad parent too!

Our daughter, Meredith, turns 8 on October 29th. She'd love a friend to see in the clubs and around the ship!

Hiya. I truly was just being facetious...I know these times are not just learning experiences but such special family times too. I just get the catholic guilt going sometimes.

Elizabeth turns 8 on Sept. 24 so we will definitely look forward to having the girls meet early on. Lizzie has a knack of meeting a good friend on the last day of every vacation we take.

 

[jd99]

Lynn, we are also staying at the Hyatt Friday night. Our flight gets in mid-afternoon. Maybe we can meet up for a bit if your cute little DS is up to it after a day of travel.

Cheri

Count us in at the Hyatt as well. I think our flight gets in at 4 p.m. or so, so we'd be up for a meeting with other banana heads too.

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

Danielle,
we try to arrive at 10 when the port opens. We like to get an early boarding pass so we can get on the ship right away!!! we want every minute we paid for !!! I am a greedy person.

After you check in they do have lots of seats and small TV screens with cartoons playing for the kids to watch and the big kids like me.
There is a small obervation deck you can stand out on and look at the ship. It is a nice picture spot. there is a cut away model of the ship to view too.

many come later around noon, but we like to get on and have lunch, explore the ship some, and check out our room at 1:30, which is when they let you go to your room. We want every minute we can get on the ship.



Tiggerking,
I cant believe you found someone DUMB enough to play at a fire ant mound!!!
Did he get bit?? If he did, i bet he'll never do it again!!!


Kathy

 

[DutchsMommy]

Anybody see this yet about the Ikea catalogue?? I took a look at the pic in question and it sure looks strange!!
***Warning - this is about a part of the male genitalia so don't click if you are easily offended!!! It is not my intent to tick off my fellow cruise mates - honest!!!****

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060825.wxrikea25/BNStory/Business/home

If you Google this you can get a lot more info - check your catalogue and judge for yourself!

 

[DutchsMommy]

Sorry Jamie - I KNEW there was someone else at the Residence, just couldn't remember who!!

Dandy8 - don't worry about a group shot - check out my family shot - it's actually 2 pics - we are the same way about family shots LOL!

 

[Dixielady908]

Good Friday evening everyone and Happy 3 day weekend

I am sooo happy today is Friday. This was a very long week. Anyway, I am going to be making a batch of potato salad for tomorrow. After that I am going to stay up late....ok guys late for me is like 11-11:30. I know it's tough getting old. Then Sleep in tomorrow .

Now here is the exciting part. Tomorrow I am going to do some house cleaning before I go to my sisters.

You guys have a good evening and lets keep the chatting going. We have a goal of at least 3,000 posts.

Later
Denise

 

[dkmjgal]

Hey everyone-

Thanks for the feedback on snorkeling. DH thinks that the stuff provided for the trip will be fine but I'm a little leary . I'm going to see if I can pick up some mouthpieces and at least bring those...the rest of the stuff I think I can manage.

Going to spend some time with the family now. See you tomorrow!

Kelly

 

[DutchsMommy]

So, do any of our fellow cruisers own DVC? We (OK, me ) are looking into it and would love some first hand info. I've been patrolling the DVC boards but it is kinda confusing. I feel like I felt when I was planning our first WDW trip! LOL. Anyway, we are just in the dreaming stages right now but.....maybe there is hope.

 

[cruisemutt]

G'mornin everyone... wow, what a cold, dank, rainy day it is here in Ohio... (wow, I should write travel brochures for Akron!). It seems as if summer has just abandoned us completely

. TODAY would be the perfect day to head for Port Canaveral--I wonder if I can move the date up just a lil? Anyways....
after blowing all that sunshine up everyones skirts... Have a great Labor Day weekend! We have a birthday party sunday and that about it. Maybe if the weather co-operates, we'll go to the air show Monday. We had a preview of that with the Goodyear blimp fly-over the other night waking Woo up from a dead sleep.
heres my bananas for the fund...

enjoy...

 

[TIGGER41681]

Count us in at the Hyatt as well. I think our flight gets in at 4 p.m. or so, so we'd be up for a meeting with other banana heads too.

Hey Everyone ,
Wow I had alot of reading to catch up on !! Well today feels like a nice fall day despite the rain !! It is not as bad a they predicted. Must of the heavy downpours were last night. Wow that is great that you guys are staying at the Hyatt. You are getting in about 4 too. Our flight is at 2pm from Newark NJ. We have to meet up !! I look forward to it !!! Well today we are going food shopping and run errands . Tomorrow we are off to my mom's for a BBQ if the weather holds out !! Have a great long weekend and safe one !!

 

[Dixielady908]

Morning fellow cruisers:

Well it is a beautiful sunny day here in the Chicagoland area.....although today is supposed to be the best day out of the weekend, so I better take advantage of it today.

Question on passports. Our local post office is holding a passport fair. I know I have read where it is taking 3-5 months to get passports back. However, for an extra fee of 60.00 they will expedite them. My question, do they take and send the original birth certificate along or do you keep the birth certificate? I don't want to give it up then have nothing when we cruise. We are in the "thinking" stages of this. I tend to lean toward, we dont need it now, so wait until we get back then go and apply.

Well have a great day everyone, I have to get some work done now.

Later
Denise

 

[cruisemutt]

Hey Denise....I'm not sure if my experience was typical or not. I got my passport in April of this year and they told me they needed my actual birth certificate. As far as the timeframe, I opted out of the extra expediacy charge... my passport came in a little over 3 weeks... I was amazed that they did it so quickly. The only thing I did to make the ordeal go a little quicker was getting my photos before hand at Wal-greens. That speeded things along and it was cheaper than having the gov't folks do it. I do know that the requests for passports have gone up significantly since it will be manditory to have them to travel in the near future so maybe you'd want to consider trying to speed up the process. I guess that would be your call. Hope I helped ya out.
Bill

 

[dkmjgal]

Good Morning from soggy/wet and windy New Jersey Ernesto is packing a ton of rain and wind and we are in the midst of it right now. DD and I are supposed to be heading out to an all day outdoor Christian youth event right now - NOT! I'm hoping the weather improves as the day goes on but right now it's not looking promising. I'm trying to look at the positive side and I'm thinking we can get a ton of stuff done around the house today (now I just have to convince DH of that )

How's everyone else doing?

Dutchsmommy - we are DVC members at the Beach Club Resort and also at Saratoga Springs and we love it. We've only been members since 2003 - with our first stay using our DVC in 2004. We like the flexibility of the points system - for instance..we stayed for 8 days at the Beach Club back in May/June and we are going to use a night before and after the cruise at Saratoga Springs in Nov.
If you have any specific questions feel free to PM me and I will be happy to share whatever info I can. Not that I'm biased or anything, but I would recommend it!

Kelly

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

Denise,
They will take your B. certificate to send in.
i just read last week that it normally takes 30 days, however with the deadline`approaching it has been as long as 3 months to get your passport.
i dont know how much the extra speed way will help???
we are going to get ours after the cruise. We dont want to take any chances of something going wrong at the last minute.

lots of beautiful sunshine here today, high around 90.

enjoy you weekend everyone,

kathy