LAFFNVEGAS

Lisa' date=' this is way too cute. Which of the sweet little girls are you?[/color']

I am the one in the front row on the far right:) What is funny I can almost tell you who everyone is in that picture. And that would have been 47 yrs ago :eek:

I think I was thinking many things but it basically came down to this:

 

1. Man, those wooden shoes hurt

2. Where is the bathroom?

3. Thanks a lot, Mum & Dad:eek:

I was thinking along the lines of number 1 ;)

OK< since we are doing "youthful" pics

 

John this is the kind o picture I would love to put in a Caption of what you were thinking

And that's what I, clearly ineloquently, meant:D [Now that we're sharing pictures in our youth!;) ]

Richard you were certainly a handsome lad :)

Of course we have to guess which one is you. I say bottom right. (viewer's right) :D

I'm with John...I'm going to guess first row, right side! Yes or no...dying to know here! I'm sure that's you, Lisa!

Hi Lovely Lady Lisa:

 

I'm also betting that you are the little sweetheart on the far right in the first row, but then again you could be the sweetheart with the heavy bangs, third from the left in the front row - no, scratch that, I will stick with my original thought.

 

Heck, you all look so darned cute, and thanks for sharing such a great photo.

 

Valerie:)

:D Yes that is me in the first row on the far right.

I am another one that uses Photobucket. It is quick and easy and I have stored lots of photos. Such as a picture of me with my 1st grade class :)

You have hit on a subject that has irked me for all the years Tom and I have been married and that is why most Health Insurance companies to not pay for or at least partially pay for HA. My best friend who is a shcoll teach now has to wear them in both ears and her teachers insurance did paya a small amount but sadly all the insruance companies we have been covered by over the years has never paid anything:(

I feel bad, I totally forgot to tell Tom about this thread. He is at work right now but will tell him tonight. Dave, he will get a kick out of your Spock comment. Yes, for years I pretty much know what he is going to say and what he is thinking. I am also very accustom to getting those looks when I always answer for him in restaurants. For the most part he does very well on his own. His hearing loss was from many years of serious ear infections as a child and in the small town he lived in they thought the best way to get rid of his infections were to keep carving away at his ear drums. There is absolutely nothing in his right ear.

Tom has never mentioned any pain from loud sounds and since he works at the airport next to the planes on the run way I guess that is not a problem but he has had problems in the past with take off and landings on planes if the cabin pressure is not good but I have to say in recent years he has not had that problem and most likely because the planes are better.

Tom I know does not like big groups of people and basically socializing. But over the years he has come a long way. Many years ago we would just keep to ourselves or maybe with another couple. Cruising has changed a lot for him, at first he did not like the idea of eating at a table with strangers. When we sit at large tables he likes for me to sit on the side of him that he does not hear out of so that he might just catch the conversation from the other person. So I am always checking with him to which side he wants me to sit. It is funny I know that this is one of the things he feared when we first started to cruise but the longer we have cruised and met so many people he now is quite comfortable and has lots of fun.

I too thank you Sundagger, this is interesting. Tom is also hearing impaired with only a 1/4 of a ear drum in his left ear and no ear drum in his right. He does wear a hearing aid and can hear most conversations and adapts quite well. Fortunately it has not changed in the 31 years we have been married but he has had numerous infections in the good ear I know that some day but hopefully not he may not have that. I have a very loud voice that tends to be of the lower range so he hears me quite well but higher tones and voices or those that mumble or do not look directly at him he does not hear or understand. People think I am a bit bossy because I tend to answer for him and even sometimes when he orders food in a loud restaurant but it is just something I do automatically. We have never reuested any ADA accomodations nor do we have anything at home except that the speakers on the phones are turned on high. He also does not use a cell phone for the reason that many he cannot hear from, not sure if it is the frequency or they are just not loud enough.

On another note...I just picked Lisa and Tom up from the Noordam and took them to SeaTac Airport after giving them a tour of my new little house...It was wonderful to share stories with them and see them off safely. Putting the Laffin back in Vegas.

 

Cheers

Nurse George

George, I just want to Thank You again for picking us up. :) That was so much fun, I loved seeing your house and your kitty, she is really sweet.

We will definitely have to get together soon.

I have to admit I took it as a compliment as well. I too think it is great that Greg has this attitude because Tom and I have the same. The art does not effect us in the least, we know it is there, we walk past it. It has always been on every cruise we have ever been on and I am sure it always will be, just a fact of cruising. Just my opinion we should all have the same great attitude:)

Thanks George:) Looking forward to seeing you on the 16th

Oh George You Look Absolutely FANTASTIC!!!!:)

I know you will wear that uniform proudly, I would have loved to see you up there on the stage. Although I have already seen you up on a HAL stage before;)

Lisa...I live by the Airport...I will give you a ride from the ship to SeaTac. email me at nursegeorge@earthlink.net and I will give you my cell phone number so we can arrange that...I would love to be your ride from the port!

George, that would be wonderful as long as it is not too much trouble for you:) I will email you.

If I am not mistaken...you will be in Seattle on the 16th of Sept. Me too! Let's go to get a bite or at least a hug at the port...let me know!!!

George, Tom and I would love to meet with you but I am afraid we would not have enough time.:( We have a 12:15 flight out of SeaTac the morning we disembark (16th). But we would love for you and Bill to join us on the Yum Yum Man Cruise, or better yet you should see if you could get assigned to the Oosterdam for a couple week during the first part of February;)

George, I am loving your review it is great. Hey remember I have a little video of you performing in the Super Stars on the Zaandam and singing New York New York:D I might have to upload into YouTube and post here;)

George, the Yum Yum Man is the guy who rings the chimes before dinner and give out the mints when you leave the dining room. We named this cruise The Yum Yum Man Worshippers Cruise. We have an unbelievable crazy group of CCer's going over 30 so far. We are planning Slipper Parties with Jim and Ruth, A Huge Banner Wave in San Diego, a Pajama Party one night. Then we plan to eat and drink our way down the Mexican Riviera:D You and Bill would have a great time with us.:)

George, I am really enjoying this, you will have to get pictures of you in a uniform and post.:)

George, I am so glad you have arrived on board:) I could just see you greeting everyone:D Have lots of fun which I know you will. You may find you may want to do this a lot more often.

Lisa -

Bill and I would be honored to take another cruise with the 2nd God Mother to the O-Dam. Book Two of Nurse George at Sea will be the Dec. 12th cruise on the Noordam out of NYC to the Carribe. Could be fun!!! George

George, that is great. You are going to love the Noordam and the Zuirderdam We loved the Noordam so much we had to return to her before she went back to the East Coast.

Why don't you and Bill think about joining us on the Feb 9th Yum Yum Man Cruise. You two would fit in so well with this fun loving crazy bunch of cruisers.

Good Luck on your next two weeks, you would do fantastic:)

Geroge, I am so excited for you:) I cannot wait to hear your reports. You will do absolutely wonderful. Tom and I still want you and Bill to join us on one of our cruises. But I know you have been busy with school. When you do graduate you must celebrate by joining us:D

Good Luck and Bon Voyage:)

Remember when the automatic tipping was introduced? If you read this board, you would thought it was going to be the end of Western civilization as we know it. :D I'm not thrilled about AYW dining, but we'll get thru it.

 

In fact, I may even try it. Who knows, I may even like it.

 

Roz

Roz, this is so very true, when I first joined this board was when the new Vista Class was introduced and the Zuiderdam had just come out. You would have thoguht then that HAL had no idea what they were doing and that the whole concept of making the ships a bit larger was going to ruin them. Beings at the time we were new to cruising and was preparing for our first HAL cruise we could not understand it at all but when we went on the Zuiderdam we loved it and loved HAL. We have since been on the R Class and S Class but in all honesty prefer the Vista Class and probably because that is what we were intoduced to when we first cruised HAL. The same goes for AYW, those new people starting to cruise and those new to HAL being intoduced to AYW will not know the difference and most likely find that they really like it and will not understand the fuss over those that do not want it. I can agree that for a single cruiser HAL will have to always keep traditional and I am sure they will. I am sure in another year or two we will be discussing something else that will have us all typing like crazy:D

LuckiestLady,

Why is it that some HAL reps will tell you where you are on the waitlist while others will not? I am booked with a TA and have not heard back from her regarding this. I am very curious about where we are so this is frustrating. I am not asking for any changes, just to know where I am.

Thanks,

Laura

Just yesterday I spoke with my TA, she claims it is just like Princess and that she can log into the booking number and it tells you where you are on the waitlist. As of yesterday I was 180 for Early Upper Traditional. Your TA should only have to log into the HAL site with your number and it will tell her, maybe you need to advise your TA of that.

The point of As You Wish Dining is that you can choose the schedule for your meals as you go along, rather than be locked into one fixed dining time.

And HAL hopes it works out that way but..... what if everyone wants to dine at 7:00 and you get to the dining room at 7:15. They hand you a beeper and the next thing you know is your waiting for 30 minutes to sit down for dinner so it no longer is Dine As You Wish, because you wanted to dine at 7:15 not close to 8 PM Now it is my understanding that the earlier you want to dine the less problems but..... I also prefer to have the same Dining Room Stewards and same table location and actually the same tablemates. So if I cannot have thos it will not be Dine As I Wish. I think in theory this is good and there are many folks that will love this because they do not care about where they sit or who the stewards are but I on the other hand usually request a particular table number and location and we enjoy getting to meet up with out table mates thru the week. In all honesty if I was brand new to cruising and had never experienced traditional I would not know any different and the AYW Dining would probably be just fine. So as years pass and the new cruisers become frequent cruisers I am sure there will start to be far more that want it for now I hope HAL knows how to adjust this so they can accomidate as many of their pax as possible.

I don't interpret "waitlisted" to mean "closed".

 

Karin

Karin, I think you may be on to something here. That is very possible. They guarantee a very small number and then tweek it for each sailing depending supply and demand.