11-25-06 anyone?

[cruisemutt]

Thanks Danielle...and I'm just about back up to specs as far as being sick..lets see if it holds. Seems like everytime I think I'm better, I go for a run or something and get sick the next day. Ugh....hope I'm healty for the cruise.

 

So you say you DID like Royal Car.? I think I finally talked the son of my boss into cruising. He mentioned a booking for Feb. 07 and RCCL. Hope he has a positive experience cause I feel like I helped to push him towards that kind of vacation.

 

Anyways....enjoy and talk to ya soon.

Bill

[mom x4,grandma x4]

Howdy everyone,

we just got back from spending the day at Epcot. It was 92 degrees!

Luckily it was cloudy and that helped some with the heat.

They are having their garden and flower festival which I love. Not so much for the flowers, but they have "oldie" rock n roll concerts for 7 weeks too. I go to almost all of them.

This yeat I will miss Paul Revere and the Raiders this year to do our My 4th cruise. That is the first ime in 6 years I have missed him. He is one of my favorites, I guess partly due to the fact I saw him way back 35 plus years ago when he was playing at super market openings and state fairs. so I have followed their careers since the beginnings.

well time to run, hope all of you had great weekends too.

 

Guess I gave away my age with my "oldie" concerts huhh??

mom x4,grandma x4

[Dandy8]

Hello everyone!

 

Bill, Royal Carribbean was a great experience both times we went. If the person you recommended the cruise to has kids, we went without the kids so I'm not sure of the programs for them. I will say that one of the nights at dinner on the Navigator of the Seas the children put on a pirate show and had a parade through the dining room. It was really cute and the program appeared to be well run. There was so much to do, they had great deck parties and the spa was wonderful plus plenty of night life. They will enjoy it. If they are going on the larger ships like the Navigator they do a great Mardi Gras parade one night in the Promenade where the shops are. Lots of fun! Entertainment was great too!

 

Talk to you soon!

Danielle

[cruisemutt]

Hey Danielle.... nope,they dont have kids so I'm sure they'll be fine. He finally booked for Feburary 3rd. I had to break it to him very, very gently---the bad news, that is. They sail out of miami--feb. 3!! The Superbowl is the 4th---IN MIAMI. I really hope they can find a flight and a hotel room for the night before. (alright, I'm not really a nice person at heart--I was laughing on the inside):D I'm sure he and his wife will be fine....they're pretty resourceful.

I do appreciate the input on RCCL... I'll tell him to get ready for a great trip!

Talk to ya later....

 

PS...Kathy, its going to be 28 degrees here tonight--we had sleet on my commute home. Even for northeast ohio, thats just not right! I'm really sorry but I just cant shed to many tears for your plight with the heat. Send some north, please!!!

Mutt:cool:

[mom x4,grandma x4]

Good morning Danielle, Andy, and Bill!

 

Hope you are all doing well, we are great here.

 

Danielle, on RCCL did you every do any excursions where you had a long tender in and people were sea sick? We know someone who just got back and loved the cruise, however some of their excursions were a 40 to 45 minute tender. They said everyone was given a "bag" as they boarded the boat, and the boat smelled of antiseptic which was awful!!

The bottom of the boat had no windows and they were packed in like sardines. Within 10 minutes people started throwing up and then it was a chain reaction, and everyone got ill accept for 5 or 6 people on the upper deck, and they were queasy. I guess the seas were NOT rough, but the size of tender boat they had bounced all over really bad. This happened a couple of times. It was the same coming back to the ship. The tender boat wasnt as full so they were on top deck, but it bounced really bad and people still threw up and they had to hose off the boat and clean with antiseptic before more passengers got aboard. From what they were told, this happens everytime on the longer tenders. Has this happened to you? They were on a tour of some ruins at a Mexican port.

We have tendered many times, but never ran across this situation before, of course the boats were large and only 5 to 10 minutes to shore. Not sure which ship they were on, but they left on a 7 day out of Port Canaveral. I think it was the Navigator series of ship.

 

Bill,

loved your post on being obsessed!! There are some good ones on that thread!!! We are in the process of painting disney silouettes on our new pool deck too. It will be a month before we finish because we have so many other things to do too. I will post pictures once I finish them. Some would say that is obsessive, but for me it is normal!

 

Hope the 3 of you are having a good week.

 

Bill I would gladly send you some of our summer humidity and heat if I could. I love the winters here, but hate the summers. Heat is ok, but the humidity is a killer. Of course the cold like you have makes my old bones ache, so I am stuck either way. Guess I should just go on a cruise to cure it all. It is NEVER to hot or COLD on a cruise!!!

 

Kathy

[Dandy8]

Hey everyone!

 

We seem to be having the in between weather here in New York. The weekend was a wash out with heavy rains but we've been enjoying sunny & 70 degrees over the last few days but it still drops into the 40's at night.

 

Bill, yes that is poor timing for a cruise out of Miami. At least they booked far enough in advance that maybe they'll be ok. Do you stay anywhere precruise? We're planning on flying down the day before. I booked the new Residence Inn in Cocoa Beach. Do you have any recommendations on hotel?

 

Kathy, on the 2 RCCL cruises we never had an issue with tendering. When we were on the Monarch 10 years ago (that was our honeymoon, we'll be married 10 years tomorrow!), we had to tender in St. Martin. Also when we were on the Navigator we had to tender to RCCLs private island beach at Haiti (Haiti, my husband and I joke all the time that we can't believe we went to Haiti. We were there right before all of that political unrest when RCCL decided to stop going there for a while. I think they've started to go back) & Grand Cayman. Anytime we've had to tender they have been open boats with lots of windows and air circulation and there were never any problems with people getting ill. I tend to get a little queasy on smaller boats but had no problem on the tenders. Of course the seas weren't that rough either. It was always a short ride too. Thats the problem with being on the bigger ships, they can't dock in port because they are so large so you have to tender. You keep seeing all of the cruise lines trying to out do each other make bigger ships but who knows if it is worth it. I mentioned above that we had to tender to ST. Martin the last time we were there. Do we have to tender to any ports on the disney cruise?

 

Talk to you guys soon!:)

[mom x4,grandma x4]

Hi Danielle,

Congrats on the 10th anniversary!!!:D

Ours will be 33 later this year, time really flies doesnt it.

 

Glad to hear your tenders wernt too bad.

we have tendered before with no problems, so this was the first time I had heard of such a bad tendering at ports.

 

DCL rotates tendering at St. Thomas.

So we have tendered there once and once we got to dock at the pier. The tender was short, maybe 6 to 8 minutes and it was very easy to do.

The place you tender to is opposite from where the ships dock, so you have a different shopping area by the area you board at, compared to the pier. The pier has a much nicer area to shop. Buildings with air conditioning, where as the side we tendered to had a couple of buildings, some I wouldnt feel safe going down the alley to get to and then several tents set up in a parking lot, which had a lot of cheap stuff. But you had to cross a busy street with only one cross walk and one light. There were police there to help with all the confusion, but still a little scary to cross the street. I dont know if we will tender or not.

Either way it will be fun!!! I cant wait!!! We have done the Eastern twice but still I am excited to go again.

Kathy

[Dandy8]

Hi Kathy,

 

Yes time does fly! We went out for a lovely dinner yesterday (only day we could get a sitter). He is truly a gem that I will keep forever.

 

I wanted to ask you about staterooms. Our friends & us booked Category 8 oceanview staterooms on deck 7. My parents are on deck 2. I wanted to get your opinion on the best rooms to book. Although, I'm not going to change my stateroom, since you are a frequent cruiser I wanted to get your feedback and what you recommend for future reference.

 

Since you are a frequent cruiser does Disney give you any perks? My parents are charter members of the captain's club on Celebrity. They always get upgraded to concierge class, priority boarding, dinner with the captain, special receptions and they even got a tour of the bridge last cruise they went on. :)

 

As always, thanks for all of the information.....

[mom x4,grandma x4]

Howdy,

DCL does give a few perks to return guests, but not as much as you just stated.

We have a special check in line, which moves quickly.

In our room will be a gift waiting for us. We have got really nice beach towels with both the ships on then and their names too. We use them as pool towels at home and they wear like iron, very good quality. Plus we have been given pens to wear that people cant buy in the store, it is only given as a gift, along witht he towels, so I guess that was 2 gifts. The last 2 trips we received a really nice beach bag with DCL logo on it. It is white with blue trim, same color as the towels were. I read a letter recently where DCL is going to change the gifts more often as some people, like me have 7 or 8 towels and 2 or 3 beach bags. They know their guests would like to get something different once in awhile.

Plus you will have an invitation delivered to you to attend a captains gala with drinks, hor durves( excuse spelling) and you can chat with the captain and officers and they will pose for picutres too.

I think you get priority on some reservations too, but never done that, so dont quote me on it.

 

Rooms:

I dont think there are many bad rooms on the ship, as far a sthe inside layout goes. We have had the ocean view room on deck 2 and ,loved it. Plus we have had verandah's on 6, 7, and 8. All were great. Our relatives had inside staterooms and they liked them too. I need a window at least. I wouldnt like an inside room. But they were only in their room to sleep, shower and change for dinner. that was it, so it didnt bother them and it saved some $$$.

Deck 2 has the advantage of less motion if the seas get rough, so that is nice and it is much quieter, less people roam the halls, because there are no clubs, or restaurants there. There are about 8 rooms on deck 2 that are considered noisy rooms due to the engines. Some people say it is just a low humming noise, so it was no bother at all. Others say when they dock the engine gets really loud. If you know your parents room numbers, tell me and I will check it against the list of noisy rooms or if you dont want to post the number I will look up the list and write it down and send it to you so you can check it out. This far out they could probably get it changed to a different room if they have a noisy room.Deck 2 is also so close to the places to exit the ship while in port too.

I guess some of the rooms above the clubs get some noise at night, but those are forward rooms and we always request aft rooms everytime.

We like aft rooms because they are close to all but one restaurant at dinner time. Of course the nightclubs are forward, so they are a little farther from us. We have been by the lelvators too and they were very quiet, so no worries there. The forward rooms have more movement than the aft rooms too. Let me know about the room # and I'll let you know about the noisy rooms.

Kathy

[Andy99]

We went out for a lovely dinner yesterday (only day we could get a sitter). He is truly a gem that I will keep forever.

 

....

 

 

Im glad to hear that! Since we are going on this Vacation ($$$) I am the only Gem you will be seeing this Anniversary.;)

[cruisemutt]

Hey Andy, Danielle and Kathy! Congrats on the 10th anniversary, you two! Its a small world, after all as the wife and I celebrate 10 years this September!

As for the room details, we stayed in a category 6 with a verandah the first cruise and I went that extra mile again for this one. The only difference is deck 5 instead of 6 this time. I guess the verandahs are like 6 inches shorter on deck 5 but thats no biggie. The rooms are really spacious and we loved ours. I've talked to quite a few people that had rooms in different categories and very few had any complaints. The worst I've heard was pretty much what Kathy said...the noise. You'll enjoy what you have, I'm sure.

I do have to tell you... it being your anniversary and all--- one thing I've learned with DCL. ASK!!! Ask for about anything you'd like. We had some favorite foods on board and my wife wrote and asked for the recipes. I never thought we would hear back from them. Within days, they wrote her and apologized for the delay. They had to consult the chef and have him convert the ingredients to managable, less industrial sizes!!! Thats the kind of attention we got on our first cruise, the time after that cruise and what we expect on this one. Guess thats why we love DCL. Cause they seem to love us! (ok, a lil drama queen thing going for me there but they really do care about their passengers). Anyways....

Enjoy everyone!

 

Btw...ty for your praise Kathy about the obsession thing. Someone actually wrote ME and asked for the banana bread, bread pudding recipe--lol.:eek:

[Dandy8]

Hi Bill & Kathy,

 

Congrats Bill on your wedding anniversary coming up. These last 10 years have flown by for us. I guess time flies when you are having fun! Since you have some of the recipes, what are some dishes that we shouldn't miss at our meals? The Banana bread bread; pudding sounds yummy.

 

I checked my parent's room against the numbers of "noisy rooms" in the Passporter guide and there's wasn't included in the list. I'm glad because my mother would complain the whole trip! :)

[cruisemutt]

Hey Danielle, Andy and Kathy.... I honestly haven't heard a lot of complaints about noise and I checked out our room # (we're in 5130 btw). The review was pretty positive. Amazing what you can find out on the web. Reviews of each individual room...geez. Anyways...I'm sure it will all be cool.

As for recipes...the bread pudding was good. We found the appetizers at the served dinners to be awesome. Mixed reviews about some of the entrees but for the most part everything was grand. Butternut squash soup was really wonderful and every salad we had was fantastic. Ahhh....

you'll see soon enough!

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Bill

(Kathy....I caught some good shots of the Magic leaving port yesterday on the two palms site....I'm sure you know this but if you go to snapshots, past snapshots and hit the date, it gives you images that people have captured. Really cool. I still cant get the other site to show any images of the DCL ships though. That site is not "mutt-friendly".

Bill:D

[mom x4,grandma x4]

Hi everyone,

Bill we look at 2 palms all the time and we do check the pictures too. A true sign of addiction huh?? That web 6 cam hasnt worked right in ages it seems. i think maybe twice in 3 months it has showed the disney ship.It is usually stuck in the same spot. I think we should all E-Mail local 6 and complain, maybe they would fix it. Maybe I should start a post on the forum to do just that. If they got enough complaints, maybe they would check it out.

DH and I got all our disney stencils painted on our pool deck. They look pretty good. My DH drew them free hand on plywood last year to paint on the inside of our fence, but then we moved, so we didnt use them. I brought them with us and we decided they would look better on the pool deck instead of the fence, which we dont have here yet. I have a Mickey, Donald and Goofy. Considering neither one of us has any artistic talent they came out good. It did make it a lot cheerier out there.

Hope everyone has a great week. Keep posting everyone, i really enjoy hearing from you guys and gals.

Kathy

[cruisemutt]

Well, if you need any advice on the artistic aspects, just let me know. I have two degrees in graphic art and illustration (not that those make me an expert by any means but if I can help ya, I will). I do have a question for ya and I doubt if you'll get to this until after your trip (give donald a hug for me--mickey too if ya have the time). Do you know a little shop in Nassau that sells Sea Dog t-shirts? If you head down the road beside Senor' Frogs....there is a selling district with a lot of liqour and jewelry stores on it. Thats where it is. I've been trying to get a couple new t-shirts from there but cant get an addy for it. I can get sea dog t-shirts but I really want a couple that say Nassau, Bahamas on them. Maybe we can work something out when you go in Sept....

Anyways....have a great trip and I'll be lookin for ya on twopalms....Wave for the camera!!!

Bill:D

[Dandy8]

Hi Everyone Bill & Kathy,

 

I guess it is time to start losing weight so that I can gain it back on the ship. Can't wait to try the butternut squash soup. I was on a quest this winter to make it....we had it at a B&B up in Massachusetts in the fall. I made 3 different recipes and it just didn't come out quite the way I wanted.

 

What is this two palms site you are talking about?

 

Also, Bill do you fly in for the cruise the day before. Do you have a hotel recommendation?

 

(I just joined dis boards so I'll be on there too)

[Dandy8]

Hi Danielle.... I know what you mean about losing weight before the cruise. Its a ritual thing with me at this point--the jogs get longer...a few more sit-ups and alike....lol. I need all the help I can get!

 

I'll dig up that soup recipe for ya and post it here....I had pretty good results with it.

 

As for the flight and stuff, we're staying with my in-laws (they live in Florida so they'll grab us at the airport and we'll spend Friday with them).

They'll then take us to the terminal and pick us up when (I can hardly say it) the cruise is over.

 

As for the dis board....really nice folks...you'll like them a lot. There's a thread about obsessions that you need to see. I have my lil pirate on there for display---you'll see lol. The other thread is obvious enough...just do a search for 11-25-06.

 

Anyways....time for me to go get supper on....its not gonna cook itself...hehe.

Talk to ya soon

Bill

 

You are one step ahead of me....at least you exercise! My exercise is running after the kids. I would love to see the soup recipe too. Your lucky that you have a place to stay when you go down to FL. I'll be checking out the two palms site to see if I can catch a glimpse of the ship. Thanks!

[Andy99]

Thats it Im starting my diet Monday!

[mom x4,grandma x4]

Dieting, exercise, food for loosing weight???

 

AAHHHH!!!!!

 

Those words DO NOT belong with vacation and crusing!

Shame on you guys!! Ha! Ha!

 

Out of 11 cruises I have NOT gained a pound yet!!

You will be so active that you'll work off every ounce you take in!!

 

mom x4,grandma x4

Kathy

[mom x4,grandma x4]

Happy mothers day !!!

Kathy

[Andy99]

Happy Mothers Day!

 

I hope you have a great day today.

[Andy99]

 

Out of 11 cruises I have NOT gained a pound yet!!

You will be so active that you'll work off every ounce you take in!!

 

mom x4,grandma x4

Kathy

 

Im not worried about what im going to gain on the cruise its what I have gained since my last cruise im trying to get rid of!

[mom x4,grandma x4]

Andy,

sorry I cant help you with that! I have struggled most of my life with a weight problem , so I know how hard it is to loose weight.

If it wern't for having cancer I would still have the problem, but now I have to fight to maintain my weight! Who would of believed it, me trying to gain weight?? It's a crazy world, that's for sure.

I will blow lots of pixie dust your way, maybe that will help!!

 

Hope your DW breakfast came out good. Years ago my kids use to so that for me too, it is so special. Luckily for me my DH distracted the kids a couple of times so I could hide some of the food, such as coffee, that was made with hot tap water and about 1/2 cup coffee grounds( not instant) stirred in, of course they did add sugar too!!!

 

Enjoy the rest of your weekend,

kathy

[cruisemutt]

Don't worry, Andy....you'll get there, just like I will. I'm gearing up for my "6 months of hell". I think we're about 8 days away from that landmark. I lost a ton of weight over the last two years but I still have a long way to go but I've found that strength and a few secrets along the way. Anyways....dont get discouraged.

Enjoy the week!

Bill

 

Hey Kathy....it was really strange for me...I had cancer in 97. I put most of my weight on during and after the radiation treatments. Hope your situation is good and stable...its such a scary thing.

 

Talk to ya soon....

Bill

[mom x4,grandma x4]

Good morning Bill,

I deposited the check today, Thanks.

I feel pretty good now. I had cancer in 87. I went throught the radiation treatments too. But I lost weight, over 100 pounds in 6 weeks. Guess I had the LOW`CAL radiation and you had the High Carb one! Ha! Ha!

Glad you're a survivor too!! I have alot of life long side effects which I have learned to live with, but no more cancer so far!! YIPPEE!!

 

I am getting ready for kid and grandkids to come and visit late this summer. They live 3500 miles away so we dont get to see them often. We have taken them on cruises before and had a blast. This year they will have to settle for WDW, Sea World and Universal Studios. That should keep them busy while they are here.

have a great week everyone,

Kathy