Okiguy

Royal Carribean has the same benefits for its lines.

HAL does have some single cabins on their ships. We enjoy Princess and have cruised on HAL and Celebrity. You should look at Transatlantic cruises which are done when children are still in school so they have more adults on board and are in the 16-17 day range. We have not cruised HAL for several years, but we felt that we would never be old enough to cruise HAL! More walkers and electric carts thanany other cruise line we've seen. Inquire with other cruise lines about single cabins.

Thanks for your great review. We are planning a trip on Royal or Regal soon. As for the "mobility issues", you have to go to YouTube and watch George Carlin's piece on "Euphemisms"...hilarious.

The Caribe deck on Ruby, Emerald and Crown have covered balconies, both the Balcony and Mini-Suite cabins. We always try to get on Caribe deck when it is available.

For your next trip to Barcelona, put the El Poble Espanyol on your list. In the village is the Tablao de Carmen Flamenco show. Tapas and the show or dinner and the show. Very worthwhile. We did it tonight, really great.

Loved the Target list of misdemeanors!! My DW retired two years before I did and had all that time to arrange my life after I retired, so I can appreciate the boredom of shopping. Thanks to the internet we now have point-click-buy as an alternative!

We just got International minutes on our Magic Jack ($10 for 43 minutes). Very easy to set up. We talked to our daughter who is in London with a very clean signal using the mike and speaker in the netbook. No phone needed! Yeah, it works!!

Guest room is loaded with stuff to pack, we'll need a container for all this!

I looked at the "event" for the cruise on Facebook and did not see the stuff that so upset George. George, please stay on the CC board, you've contributed lots of good info and good humor. Your humor has been particluarly great since it comes from a different perspective than some of us here! We don't get a lot of British humor in the states.

Looking forward to meeting you on board.

Since some of our folks have begun to travel to Europe, I finished up the spreadsheet and sent it out to the distribution list.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the research that made the spreadsheet possible.

Looking forward to meeting all of you on the ship.

From now on, if you switch cabins, husbands or wives...you are on your own!!

Joy (JoKet) has volunteered to create a ship phone directory for the LOSTies. I've attached a copy of the spreadsheet containing names and cabin numbers. Please check your cabin number and send any corrections to me Okiguync at yahoo dot com Thanks to Joy for the effort.

LOST Cabins.pdf

Paul, the boa looks great, you will just blend in with the rest of the crowd!!

Joyce, good luck with the surgery, we're all pulling for a quick recovery.

Quiet day here at the beach, warm and humid with patches of rain. Writing a presentation on digital ham radio modes for a club meeting tonight.

Paul, loved the boa! I guess you are going to be our flasher on the cruise. OK, off to the NC for me...

Just updated the spreadsheet and we have 501 folks between the two boards!

Marilyn, thanks for your Friday humour. Having worked for folks from England and Germany most of my life, I've seen all sorts of spellings!

Great video, George. I was about to ask if topless would apply to waitresses (lady waiters?) also.

Ok, I'm off to the NC...

Enjoyed the video, Peter. They definitely seem to be having a great time!

George, so sorry to hear about the loss of your friend. Your jokes were great, could not stop laughing!

With all this talk about bicycles, you remind me of our bike tour supporting MS here in NC. I usually provide communications from a rest stop along the route. The last two years I've been the Net Control for the ham radio group. It is a 150 mile ride done over two days in North and South Carolina in late September. We generally have 1500 to 2000 cyclists involved. The ham radio operators refer to it as "miles and mile of spandex"! Some of the riders want to do a "Century ride", so they do 100 miles on the first day of the two day event.

Jonathan Kane is great. Elton John has always been one of my favorites. Now we really have something to look forward to!

Glad to hear that all our guys in England are home and safe in all the mess. Really a shame that all this is going on. It is not good for the upcoming Olympics for sure.

As for a NC on the ship, I'm sure one of the bars will suffice!

You might enjoy this story. On a Princess cruise a few years ago, a fairly large group of gay guys (about 30 or 40 as I remember) were also on the cruise. We woud see them travelling together around the ship during the cruise. It looked like they may have all travelled together before. My wife and I went up to the top lounge one night where they had a dance floor. The group was also there, dancing and having a good time. Another straight couple maybe in their late 60s came in and sat down at a nearby table. The wife decided she wanted to dance and they went to the dance floor. In just a few minutes they were back at their table and we could hear the woman say "There aren't any women on the dance floor!". My wife and I just about died laughing..

On a fall cruise this year, we have enough gays in the group that they have started their own roll call and welcomed the straight folks to join their roll call. It has been great seeing their perspective on life and both boards are now very busy with cruise discussions with no signs of any discrimination.

During our Transatlantic cruise on the Emerald Princess, we were coming back onto the ship (I think it was in Lisbon). Before security, there was a huge sign listing all the stuff you were not permitted to bring onto the ship.

Number One on the list was Amateur Radio Equipment!

I've not brought ham equipment on cruises, but I never saw this prohibition in any other place, and have not dug through the passsenger contract to see if it is in there in fine print.

Bill, W4WNT

Donna and I were on the Celebrity Infinity in Dec. 2006 from Valparaiso to Buenos Aires. I've posted more information on that cruise in the Celebrity Infinity Nov. 29, 2007 roll call.

If you are going to the Falklands, the ship anchors between East and West Falkland Islands and tenders to Port Stanley. In bad weather, that stop can get cancelled. I would recommend reserving an "extra" penguin excursion in case one gets cancelled. The ship will credit your onboard account. We did Volunteer Point in the Falklands and Magdalena Island out of Punta Arenas. Magdalena Island is a bus trip from the port to the ferry. We left the busses at the ferry terminal. The ferry has an enclosed seating area.

Good luck on your cruise, I'm sure you will enjoy the trip. I guarantee you will see lots of penguins!!

Bill and Donna (Okiguy and kylea_s):)