Westerdam Panama Canal April 15, 2011

[cruz chic]

Glad your head is better. It is true that having slackers around makes it hard for others but it seems like this should be done on a case-by-case basis. too bad--I used to love to telecommute. I could do laundry while i worked or if repairmen came, I could wait for them and not waste a day of vacation. it was also a great excuse not to leave the house to run errands!!

 

You are getting close to your next cruise aren't you? That thought should keep you warm!!

 

ML

Yup, I leave in 8 days:D. I really need to get away from work. I'm really at a cross road right now. I just don't think the company I'm at is for me because of they way they feel they need to manage people. Who knows if any place is any better. I've got some long term incentive that should pay out quite well next year. I get the vibe that we could secretly be up for sale and that could mean all of this will vest. Makes it hard to pull the trigger.

[NoWhiners]

Yup, I leave in 8 days:D. I really need to get away from work. I'm really at a cross road right now. I just don't think the company I'm at is for me because of they way they feel they need to manage people. Who knows if any place is any better. I've got some long term incentive that should pay out quite well next year. I get the vibe that we could secretly be up for sale and that could mean all of this will vest. Makes it hard to pull the trigger.

 

Good for you--a cruise right now would be great! it is so cold here now (highly unusual for us, record-breaking lows) that the gas company is telling us not to turn up our heat or they will lose pressure and we will all be sunk:eek: Not a problem for us--our heat is set at 57F, except today, I raised it to 60!! And they cancelled school again today--so cold buses wouldn't start:eek:

 

Always hard to decide what to do in these situations. Didn't you just recently start with this company? I know how it feels to try and bide your time if you aren't happy, but with a decent incentive you may have to grit your teeth and bear it--and take more cruises!! Keep thinking happy thoughts and maybe the time will pass quickly. And drink lots of wine;):)

 

Have you noticed we are the only ones posting all of a sudden??

 

ML

[NoWhiners]

I noticed people all had different avatars, so i did some checking. I managed to (finally, after 3 tries) upload a new image for mine!!

 

I am so proud of myself for this--and just in time for the Super Bowl!!!!

 

ML

[mjtigger]

Hello to you out there. It has been awhile since I have been on this site. I am not very good on the computer so have difficulities geting through. How terrible some parts of the country have been getting so much bad weather. Guess we we live which is Moose Jaw we have been lucky. Alot of snow but not the severe storms. A little coolwhen it gets to be -40. How fast time is going before the April 15th cruise. If anyone else is going on the Panama cruise Bob & I would love to hear from you. I will give my e-mail address as I do have problems with this site. bobpatl@yahoo.ca, so please drop us a note. Until next time mjtigger:)

[cruz chic]

I noticed people all had different avatars, so i did some checking. I managed to (finally, after 3 tries) upload a new image for mine!!

 

I am so proud of myself for this--and just in time for the Super Bowl!!!!

 

ML

Wow...you're good:D. That beyond my scope of ability.

[cruz chic]

Good for you--a cruise right now would be great! it is so cold here now (highly unusual for us, record-breaking lows) that the gas company is telling us not to turn up our heat or they will lose pressure and we will all be sunk:eek: Not a problem for us--our heat is set at 57F, except today, I raised it to 60!! And they cancelled school again today--so cold buses wouldn't start:eek:

 

Always hard to decide what to do in these situations. Didn't you just recently start with this company? I know how it feels to try and bide your time if you aren't happy, but with a decent incentive you may have to grit your teeth and bear it--and take more cruises!! Keep thinking happy thoughts and maybe the time will pass quickly. And drink lots of wine;):)

 

Have you noticed we are the only ones posting all of a sudden??

 

ML

Oh I missed this post:o. I actually started a new job within the company about 3 months ago. I've been there for 4+ years....a long time in Calgary. I've worked in the Oilpatch for 30 years now. It's getting stranger and stranger everyday there. Something is up.

[rajkr74]

I noticed people all had different avatars, so i did some checking. I managed to (finally, after 3 tries) upload a new image for mine!!

 

I am so proud of myself for this--and just in time for the Super Bowl!!!!

 

ML

 

Cool...but NY is not playing Sunday.

I've been reading but not posting, I did not want to boast that we are having 58F+ degrees during the day and no lower than 34F at night with sunny days and no rain. Soon they will call Oregon the banana belt....

[NoWhiners]

Wow...you're good:D. That beyond my scope of ability.

 

Actually, its pretty easy. Only 2 hard parts are finding pix that is small enough to use, then uploading it. Not sure why it took 3 tries, but sometimes my computer is slow to load CC pages, so maybe that is why. Pix you upload must be 80 x 80 pixels or smaller than 20K. If you want to try it, i can post clearer instructions!! And you were the one who told me that if your right click on the number of posts, you can see who posted. This is very cool and a much better trick than the avatar;)

 

Oh I missed this post:o. I actually started a new job within the company about 3 months ago. I've been there for 4+ years....a long time in Calgary. I've worked in the Oilpatch for 30 years now. It's getting stranger and stranger everyday there. Something is up.

 

 

Oh, i misunderstood. what does the rumor mill say? Whenever stuff was up at work, we always heard at least a few rumors!! They didn't all pass rumor control, but they almost always had some nugget of truth in them.

 

 

Cool...but NY is not playing Sunday.

I've been reading but not posting, I did not want to boast that we are having 58F+ degrees during the day and no lower than 34F at night with sunny days and no rain. Soon they will call Oregon the banana belt....

 

Oh sure, rub it in! The Giants were so frustrating this year, not to mention the total embarrassment of losing to the Eagles after DeSean Jackson ran thru the entire defense in the last 8 seconds of a game we should have won. And, we could have beaten the packers to get into the playoffs, but screwed that up too. Not a good year. But last night i saw a show on NFL network that ranked David Tyree's helmet catch the greatest play in SB history and the Giants beating NE 3 years ago as 2nd best SB ever. They got the first one right, but not the 2nd. They said the SB between Cardinals-Steelers was the best ever. No way!!

 

That is nice weather--even better than ours this week. Now we have a state of emergency because we can't get enough natural gas to lots of places. They canceled school again today because of this. Yesterday school was canceled because the school buses wouldn't start (hit -7 in Albuquerque Wednesday night). The day before it was 6' of snow. What a week. I am going out for the first time since Tuesday morning today!!

 

ML

[cruz chic]

 

 

Oh, i misunderstood. what does the rumor mill say? Whenever stuff was up at work, we always heard at least a few rumors!! They didn't all pass rumor control, but they almost always had some nugget of truth in them.

 

ML

Most of us think the company is secretly up for sale. Last year they were really hot after acquiring more properties...this year...no mention of it. In the oilpatch you need to replace reserves. We don't seem to be drilling or buying.

[NoWhiners]

Hi all

 

here is my latest update of roll call members and who is signed up for what. I hope it will be readable after I post it!!

 

 

Name sail M&G lunch crawl

 

Mary Lynn/Doug Y Y Y*1

Carol /John

Cindy /Jim

Jim/ Kitty Y N

Bill/Mary

George/Rand Y* Y,1

Marlane/Allan Y Y,1

Lorene Y Y Y,1

Kathy/Bill Y Y Y* Y,1

Pat/Bob

Joyce/Rick Y Y

Joanne/Don

Holly/Michael Y

Jan/Bill Y Y Y Y

Debbie/Pat Y Y Y Y

 

The asterisks and 1's are my code for hosts of events and those who have offered their cabins for wine crawl. I left off the pre-cruise dinner since Kathy is keeping track of that (as well as sailaway and lunch)!

 

 

Let me know if i made any errors!!

ML

[NoWhiners]

AHHHHH--it didn't work:(

 

Let me change the format and try again--stand by!!

 

ML

[hcvancouver]

Sounds like many of you have been having a lot of bad weather. We've had nothing to complain about this year, but I'm still looking forward to the tropics! April 15 can't get here soon enough. We haven't yet selected any excursions but will have to do that soon. Do any of you experienced cruisers have any recommendations? We love to snorkel so I'm thinking we may want to snorkel in Aruba. We have our own gear but will probably choose an excursion since we don't know if there is any where good to snorkel from shore. Not sure which excursion though. In Costa Rica we're thinking of the the canopy tour and aerial tram. Has anyone done that one? None of the choices in Nicaragua sound great, but it doesn't sound like there is much at that port either so I guess we'll pick one because we've never been there before. In Guatemala I can't decide if we should just do Antigua on our own or maybe the coffee plantation tour combined with Antigua or? Any recommendations? I love dreaming about what is to come:). I'll ask about other ports in a later post so this isn't too ridiculously long!:o

[ski ww]

Sounds like many of you have been having a lot of bad weather. We've had nothing to complain about this year, but I'm still looking forward to the tropics! April 15 can't get here soon enough. We haven't yet selected any excursions but will have to do that soon. Do any of you experienced cruisers have any recommendations? We love to snorkel so I'm thinking we may want to snorkel in Aruba. We have our own gear but will probably choose an excursion since we don't know if there is any where good to snorkel from shore. Not sure which excursion though. In Costa Rica we're thinking of the the canopy tour and aerial tram. Has anyone done that one? None of the choices in Nicaragua sound great, but it doesn't sound like there is much at that port either so I guess we'll pick one because we've never been there before. In Guatemala I can't decide if we should just do Antigua on our own or maybe the coffee plantation tour combined with Antigua or? Any recommendations? I love dreaming about what is to come:). I'll ask about other ports in a later post so this isn't too ridiculously long!:o

 

We are also still looking at booking excrusions. We're looking at a snorkel one for sure since we both like that. Also the canopy tour and the coffee plantation all look good. We have been going over the HAL excrusions and are still looking, trying to come up with a final list.

Allan & Marlane:D:D

[NoWhiners]

Sounds like many of you have been having a lot of bad weather. We've had nothing to complain about this year, but I'm still looking forward to the tropics! April 15 can't get here soon enough. We haven't yet selected any excursions but will have to do that soon. Do any of you experienced cruisers have any recommendations? We love to snorkel so I'm thinking we may want to snorkel in Aruba. We have our own gear but will probably choose an excursion since we don't know if there is any where good to snorkel from shore. Not sure which excursion though. In Costa Rica we're thinking of the the canopy tour and aerial tram. Has anyone done that one? None of the choices in Nicaragua sound great, but it doesn't sound like there is much at that port either so I guess we'll pick one because we've never been there before. In Guatemala I can't decide if we should just do Antigua on our own or maybe the coffee plantation tour combined with Antigua or? Any recommendations? I love dreaming about what is to come:). I'll ask about other ports in a later post so this isn't too ridiculously long!:o

 

We signed up for catamaran snorkeling in Aruba, Monteverde TrainForest in Costa Rica (8 hours:eek:), Mangrove Boat ride/bird watching in Puerto Chiapas, Five bays by cat in Huatulco, Las Caletas Hideaway in PV and America's Cup in Cabo. Agree about Nicaragua--I'd like to see some of it but nothing seems very good. maybe we will try and book something at the pier.

 

ML

[hcvancouver]

I realized about a week ago that we'll be on the Cruise for Easter. I was in Mexico on a high school trip in the 70's during holy week and it presented some travel challenges and opportunities. Of course it was pre-ATMs so we needed to be able to cash travelers checks at banks and they were closed most of the days of the week. One of the most amazing things was a processional where they reennacted the crucifixion. I was actually sick in our hotel, but my classmates all thought it was pretty cool until they realized it was real blood not some hollywood special effect! Holy week is a big deal in Latin American countries. We'll be in Costa Rica on Good Friday and from what I can tell in reading internet information Thursday and Friday are holidays and school kids have the week off. Everything is crowded, transportation is hectic, and many shops and restaurants are closed. I'm assuming that ship excursions will still be operating but I'm wondering how available impromptu activities in port will be, or how this might effect the risk of doing any independent tours. Does anyone have any insights on travel during this period or more recent / relevant experience than mine. We'll be in Nicaragua on Holy Saturday and Guatemala on Easter Sunday which could also offer some challenges.

[hcvancouver]

We signed up for catamaran snorkeling in Aruba, Monteverde TrainForest in Costa Rica (8 hours:eek:), Mangrove Boat ride/bird watching in Puerto Chiapas, Five bays by cat in Huatulco, Las Caletas Hideaway in PV and America's Cup in Cabo. Agree about Nicaragua--I'd like to see some of it but nothing seems very good. maybe we will try and book something at the pier.

 

ML

 

Are these through HAL or independent? I don't recall seeing the Monteverde TrainForest one but the others sound familiar but I haven't focused too much on the Mexico ports yet.

[cruz chic]

We signed up for catamaran snorkeling in Aruba, Monteverde TrainForest in Costa Rica (8 hours:eek:), Mangrove Boat ride/bird watching in Puerto Chiapas, Five bays by cat in Huatulco, Las Caletas Hideaway in PV and America's Cup in Cabo. Agree about Nicaragua--I'd like to see some of it but nothing seems very good. maybe we will try and book something at the pier.

 

ML

OMG....I LOVE Las Caletas! I might do that one again. I hope they'll have enough booze now that I know you're going:D;).

[cruz chic]

Sounds like many of you have been having a lot of bad weather. We've had nothing to complain about this year, but I'm still looking forward to the tropics! April 15 can't get here soon enough. We haven't yet selected any excursions but will have to do that soon. Do any of you experienced cruisers have any recommendations? We love to snorkel so I'm thinking we may want to snorkel in Aruba. We have our own gear but will probably choose an excursion since we don't know if there is any where good to snorkel from shore. Not sure which excursion though. In Costa Rica we're thinking of the the canopy tour and aerial tram. Has anyone done that one? None of the choices in Nicaragua sound great, but it doesn't sound like there is much at that port either so I guess we'll pick one because we've never been there before. In Guatemala I can't decide if we should just do Antigua on our own or maybe the coffee plantation tour combined with Antigua or? Any recommendations? I love dreaming about what is to come:). I'll ask about other ports in a later post so this isn't too ridiculously long!:o

I really loved the Canopy Aerial tram that I did in Costa Rica. It was so beautiful. Mine was sitting in a "basket". The one you are doing sounds like a zip line. There isn't enough money to make me do that one. I'm afraid of heights:eek:.

[cruz chic]

I find HAL doesn't do a lot of tours I'd be interested in. Makes it difficult to find something to book.

[The Cruise Duo]

Gidday!

 

My name is Storm'n Norman and I am one part of "The Cruise Duo"! My girlfriend Ann (the other half of "The Cruise Duo") and I have just booked this cruise!

 

I am an Aussie (born and bred in Melbourne, Australia) and Ann is from Florida! We currently reside in Destin, FL.

 

To date we are also cruising this year on the Carnival Glory to the Eastern Caribbean on the 27 Feb for 7 nights, with you all on the Westerdam through the Panama Canal in April for 22 nights to Seattle, followed by the Carnival Spirit to Alaska in May for 7 nights. Then we have booked the Carnival Magic Transatlantic in October 2011 for 16 nights from Barcelona to Galveston, TX! As you can see, we are avid cruisers who over 2009/10 have spent almost 160 days @ sea!

 

We are both keen photographers and love to meet fellow cruisers from ALL over the world!

 

Combined we will have cruised on 90 plus cruises! We are fun experienced cruisers in the prime of our lives (mid 50's) who met on a ship in November 2008 and enjoy cruising to the hilt!!

 

We look forward to meeting you all on board! Please add our names to the M & G! I will now read the previous replies!

 

Finally, we arrange independent tours in each of the ports of call......So if anyone else is interested in touring with The Cruise Duo, then e-mail us below and I'll post details once I know more!

 

More later....:)

[NoWhiners]

Are these through HAL or independent? I don't recall seeing the Monteverde TrainForest one but the others sound familiar but I haven't focused too much on the Mexico ports yet.

 

Hi hc

 

All the ones I listed are thru HAL. The train forest might be sold out. Our theory is that as excursions sell out, they aren't listed anymore on the "book excursions" site. I could be wrong--this is just our speculation. We decided not to go to far into mexico--have done it before and would rather spend time on beaches/water!!

 

Interesting post about Easter in Latin America--I knew it was going to be Easter but never thought it would be a problem for excursions.

 

ML

[NoWhiners]

OMG....I LOVE Las Caletas! I might do that one again. I hope they'll have enough booze now that I know you're going:D;).

 

I am starting to think you will be our new BFF after this cruise:);). definitely book it--we can hang out and solve the world's problems. I am happy to hear it is a fun one--we went back and forth on this and finally decided to try it. now we have 2 races--panama buns and Las Caletas:D!!

 

ML

[NoWhiners]

I really loved the Canopy Aerial tram that I did in Costa Rica. It was so beautiful. Mine was sitting in a "basket". The one you are doing sounds like a zip line. There isn't enough money to make me do that one. I'm afraid of heights:eek:.

 

Me too (there's the BFF thing again!) but i did it Alaska last time and it wasn't too bad. Not sure i would do it again, and i actually didn't want to do any this time, but it was fun in a very scary way. it helps that you are always hooked up to something but it was very high up in Alaska. I thought I might not be able to press on, but fear of embarrassment overrode my fear of heights:o

 

ML

[NoWhiners]

Gidday!

 

My name is Storm'n Norman and I am one part of "The Cruise Duo"! My girlfriend Ann (the other half of "The Cruise Duo") and I have just booked this cruise!

 

I am an Aussie (born and bred in Melbourne, Australia) and Ann is from Florida! We currently reside in Destin, FL.

 

To date we are also cruising this year on the Carnival Glory to the Eastern Caribbean on the 27 Feb for 7 nights, with you all on the Westerdam through the Panama Canal in April for 22 nights to Seattle, followed by the Carnival Spirit to Alaska in May for 7 nights. Then we have booked the Carnival Magic Transatlantic in October 2011 for 16 nights from Barcelona to Galveston, TX! As you can see, we are avid cruisers who over 2009/10 have spent almost 160 days @ sea!

 

We are both keen photographers and love to meet fellow cruisers from ALL over the world!

 

Combined we will have cruised on 90 plus cruises! We are fun experienced cruisers in the prime of our lives (mid 50's) who met on a ship in November 2008 and enjoy cruising to the hilt!!

 

We look forward to meeting you all on board! Please add our names to the M & G! I will now read the previous replies!

 

Finally, we arrange independent tours in each of the ports of call......So if anyone else is interested in touring with The Cruise Duo, then e-mail us below and I'll post details once I know more!

 

More later....:)

 

Hi Norman (and Ann)

 

Welcome to the roll call and what I am sure will be the best canal crossing ever!! I will put you down for the M&G. We also have a pre-cruise dinner, an informal sailaway party, a lunch in the MDR and wine crawl scheduled. Details are a few pages back, or you can email me at:

 

halcruisepc(at)gmail(dot)com

 

Please send last names, cabin number if known and what you want to participate in!

 

Also, we would be interested in anything you might organize in Nicaragua.

 

Thanks

ML

[cruz chic]

I am starting to think you will be our new BFF after this cruise:);). definitely book it--we can hang out and solve the world's problems. I am happy to hear it is a fun one--we went back and forth on this and finally decided to try it. now we have 2 races--panama buns and Las Caletas:D!!

 

ML

Alright, you talked me into it. I just booked it. I really don't like having to pay for stuff ahead of time. Princess just puts it on your onboard account and I like that better. This excursion was also cheaper through Princess. The food is really nice on Las Calletas. They make it sound like you only get one drink. We gave the guy $5 each and we had as many drinks as we wanted. That said I don't usually drink during the day although I drink a ton of water. The BFF comment is too funny.