read52

Hi Karen...doing that now. Taking stuff I use at home and keeping it at school for the next teacher. It won't be an office when I finish with it. It will be my art/play room...lol. Don't know if I mentioned this here..when I go back to school I won't be a teacher. I will be a PreK teacher aid. That is why I'm doing this now. Big cut in pay but it won't affect my retirement. Less stress and no paper work to bring home..works for me!!![emoji4][emoji4][emoji4]

Bring a lot of Kleenex with you to the job! LOL Little ones always have running noses. I love my grandchildren but I know I could not have a whole classroom of prek.

Hope that everyone has a safe 4th of July especially with the thunderstorms and the hurricane.

read52, I'm no medical type, but i presume its safe to say your family is predisposed to shingles?? So sorry your family is experiencing this. I turn 60 next year, and have a physical scheduled for later this year. I had chickenpox when I was a kid, so I plan to have the doctor give me the shot.

 

Hope things improve for you and your family.

My family is always getting medical things that people don't get anymore, I could write a book. The only thing that I can connect with my husband and daughter is the they both get a lot of infections both bacterial and viral. I also have two sons and I rarely get sick. My children are ages 30, 32, 35 so they all had chickenpox. My oldest son had them so bad that he missed the last 3 weeks of third grade. The only good thing that came out of my husband getting sick was that we discovered cruising and are able to go on school holidays.

I tried it but I am too young..lol! I have to be 61 and 9 months...shucks...only have a month left too wait!!

Hey, I am older than you. LOL I turned 62 in February.

Yes, if it is weird and medical it happens to us. They say you can only get shingles once but that was his third time. The bad thing is when it is on your face. I was scared to get the shot because it is a live virus but I finally got it.

My daughter got shingles about 3 months ago on her face. Naturally, she was scared and so were we. On a Friday night, she said her ear hurt (that is the ear that she had several surgeries on) so she went to a quickie clinic. The next morning she was still in pain she went to another clinic. Sunday night she was still in pain and went to the ER. When she came back (I stayed with the kids) I notice a rash on her face and I knew right away what it was ( although 3 doctors did not). I did not want to tell her that night ( it was midnight) because I knew she would not sleep. Early in the morning I texted her husband to say they should go to the family doctor. Of course I was right.

She had a line from her mouth to her ear. She had them in her mouth and ear. She was out of work for two weeks. The sad thing was that Lucas her son was 6 months old and just as she was able to go back to work he got chicken pox and had to stay home. That was at Easter when we were going on a cruise. Luckily, Fabian's mother was able to stay with the baby.

So people get your shingles shot and men get your psa test.

DH retired 10yrs ago at 56. He planned so that when he retired so would our house payment. We have United Health care supplement

you'll find the one that's best for you.

My dad did the same thing, retired at 55 and had to house paid off. My mother never worked out side of the home. In a perfect world, that would work. Nine years ago my husband got viral encephalitis from shingles (which he had for a third time but this time on his face). He became disabled because of seizures and memory problems. On year later, he got prostate cancer. I had been carrying the health insurance because it was cheaper. Good thing because the medical bills were high. The first year we paid out $6000 and the insurance paid about $100,000. The second year we paid out $6,000 and the insurance paid $40,000. We also had a drop in wages because although we got the highest amount for disability it still was a big drop. So that is why health insurance is important to us. Working for four years means 4 years of insurance that we get at a low rate. Kevin does get free hospital service because he is disabled by it does not cover meds or doctors.

Yes, you are in charge of those hump days while I'm relaxing this summer. Wait til August...I'll be back ;)...lol

Yeah, It is crazy how retirement, social security, etc works. One of my friends husband worked for the federal govt. They are in a different system than ss.

He retired 10 years ago at 55. His wife worked with me and she retired at 62 (she is 3 years older than me). But he has worked with antiques his whole life.

So he has made extra money buying and selling antiques. Also in the last 10 years both of their mothers died so they inherited some money and antiques.

Jane always says that when they need some money, they just sell some antiques. Well everyone has their ways to make money. I was hoping to get a part time job in a school when I retire but I can't work for the Archdiocese (unless I sub) and collect retirement. Right now I am making more money than I ever thought in teaching. It helps for cruising.

I will check this site more often. Maybe I can get some info like what kind of supplemental insurance people have used.

So are you officially retired???[emoji2]

Hey, I didn't know that you were on this board. Guess it would make sense since you are close to retiring.

My story is different. I just finished an online class on Flipped Teaching and a one day math class. I don't have to renew my license until 2016 but these classes were cheap(the first one was good for 3 credits and cost $20, the second one was free) and easy. I plan to teach for at least 4 years even though I could collect retirement with my school system but I am only 62 for ss. Four years is a good number many reasons. I will be in my school for 30 years, our house will be paid for in 4 years, we can cruise more, and I still love to teach. So I guess I will set my clock for 4 years.

Next year the Allure will be in the Mediterranean. We love the ship and we too have never been to Europe. We are celebrating our 40th this year but we booked for next June 25 out of Rome. We hope to go a few days before so that we can explore Rome before the cruise. This cruise you can get on in Rome or Barcelona. Check it out.

If a person can get on in Rome or Barcelona, how do you set up a rollcall? We are planning to get on in Rome on June 25th. How are they going to let people on and off and others still continue. Will there be two muster drills?

The surgery is a day surgery. Most people are there only a few hours after the surgery. For me the worse part was trying to get a line in me. They hit both arms on the inside of the elbow area and the tops of my hands. They finally put me out somehow and put it in in the room. I have small veins and I bruise. So I went to the funeral with black and blue marks on my arms. But the rest was easy and little pain.

We went on the Allure 3 years ago before these new machines. Where are they located?

My gallbladder did not cause a problem with a cruise but a similar situation.

I am a teacher and had planned a Monday surgery with the remaining week off. On the Saturday before the surgery, my father died. We live in Maryland and they lived in Wisconsin. My sister said the services would be Saturday and Monday of the following week (so people could fly in). So I called my doctor to see if I had surgery on Monday if I could travel on Friday. He said he would usually recommend a week before flying but I could if I felt ok. After planning for a sub for a week and the fact that I was in the ER the weekend before with problems, I took the chance and had the surgery. Everything turned out fine. I went home after a few hours. With baggy clothes, I made it through the flight and funeral. We were suppose to fly home on Tuesday but were delayed until Wednesday to fly because of Hurricane Sandy which closed all the airports on the East Coast.

I am on Oasis on June 28th. I have a chance to upgrade from an inside to a Central Park Balcony or Boardwalk Balcony. My inside is costing me 828 per person. $206 more per person for Central Park or $230 more per person for Boardwalk. I was hoping to get an Ocean Balcony at some point for $200 more, but that is not possible now. Would you upgrade now? I never stayed in a Central Park Balcony or a Boardwalk Balcony. I usually either stay in an inside or an ocean balcony. I never thought I would like Central park or Boardwalk balcony. Now I am having 2nd thoughts? What do people here Think I should do?

First time we stayed in Central park and loved it.

In two weeks, we will be in Boardway. I am sure we will love that too.

We had TSA precheck on our flights last cruise and boy did we need it. We came back from Hawaii to find that 2 days before we were to fly out LAX had a fatal shooting of a TSA person. The regular security line was crazy but we breezed thru and were in the boarding area in minutes.I asked someone why we had this as we were picked to do it from our first destination as well. They said people were randomly chosen. What a nice gift!We fly American and we can change our flight one time without penalty. What airlines are you on? I would check again ot make sure you can't change it.

How did you get the precheck pass? We flew out of San Antonio Dec. 30 on a 8:00 am flight. We were at the airport at 6:00 am. It took 30 minutes to check our bags and then 1 hour in security lines. They were loading our plane when we got to the gate. We don't want to do that again. My husband has a seizure problem and he was not good through this procedure (because we could not have water, when he is dehydrated, he has seizures). Is there any quick way for people with disabilities to go through security?

Thanks for the replies. We sailed on the Allure 3 years ago and I could not remember. We are going at Easter (April 20th ) so hopefully the construction will be done.

What is the distance and how much is a cab? Are there cabs waiting at the port to take people to the airport or do we have to call for one? Thanks!

Could someone post a picture showing the front of the machine and all the possible choices? Thanks!

Thanks for all the pictures. We took this cruise in June with our friends from high school. He was retiring from teaching. We were lucky to get a balcony because a few days before sailing RCCL upgraded us. We have pictures of the seals right below us in the Tracey Arm Fjord. It was warm to whole trip. We are from Maryland.

According to his website, he lives in San Antonio. Does he ever do land jobs? Our son lives in San Antonio and I would go to wherever he is performing. I would even wear my t-shirt.

We are doing the Kokomo song too. We only have two more places to visit Aruba and one other place. We went on the Allure two years ago and have another cruise on it in April of 2014.

Is that price round trip per person or just one way since it is a repo cruise we would only need the bus to Baltimore we would have to fly back to NJ from Orlando since the cruise ends in Port Canaveral. Does RCCL do any buses from NJ to the Baltimore Port?

We live near the Baltimore port but we want to take the Explorer out of NJ. So when we booked our cruise we asked RCCL if they still ran a bus from DC to NJ (we did that 4 years ago). They recommended the entertainment tours.

We just turned Emerald thanks for the heads up.

When we were on the Allure, we never knew when we left port because it was so smooth.

Any chance that they would put in a Target or Kohl's?

According to Radio, they have Starbucks on the Enchantment of the Seas.