*OFFICIAL* CC Group Cruise 02/15/2014 Cupid's IV Southern Caribbean - Carnival Breeze

[Cruisin Dave]

I've been sooooo consumed by the computer problems that I forgot to tell you about Saturday nite. Earlier in the week I had called ahead and made reservations at the Melting Pot Fondue Restaurant for 6:30. Waiting for us when we arrived was a box of custom chocolate dipped strawberries and then the hostess announced that we had arrived and had been married the longest of all the anniversary couples who had made reservations for that evening - 51 years - and the ENTIRE restaurant stood up and clapped!! The staff had evened signed a card of congratulations and THEN the manager presented us with a free bottle of cabernet.......What a shock!

 

Congrats!:)

[SweetCheeks Cruiser]

Hello all. I've read through several of your pages and am not sure since I didn't book through your official group if this is the only thread for this cruise? It's nice to see the cruise being discussed so early. Just returned from a cruise and really have the after cruise blues. Especially with all the snow and dreary weather. You sound like a fun group!:)

[allison0523]

My wife (Alisha) and I (Joe) would be interested. We have two boys who would be four and six, but Camp Carnival will help out with that :).

 

Glad to see someone else with young children. We are interested too. Mike and Allison with 5 year old Nick.

[momofzeke]

Sweetcheeks and Mike & Allison ~ welcome! welcome! Even though we have an official group, we welcome ALL cruisers even if you don't book with the group. You are welcome to post here on the thread, join in with the group for any and all activities. We don't do a lot of "official" activities, but we like to hang out together on the ship and sometimes in ports. We do have a couple of meet & greets on the ship, which you are more than welcome to attend. We are a friendly bunch and love meeting new friends! :D

 

Rick ~ how fun that you got recognized at the restaurant! I have always wanted to try a fondue restaurant. The closest one is in Portland, OR ~ a 6 hour drive. That is also a Melting Pot, and my kids have all been to it and like it a lot. Fondue makes me think of my grandparents, who are gone now, because when I was a kid we did fondue at their house all the time.

 

Dave ~ wow, that's a very tempting price on that hotel! Isn't Miami Beach actually quite a distance from the port though? The beach that is closer is South Beach, I believe. But it would still be fun to be on the beach and a bargain to boot!

 

Heidi ~ maybe your kitty really is missing her companion kitty? Seems like this meowing started when you lost your other kitty, didn't it?

 

Dave and I have been doing a little car shopping, since our Dodge Durango is 10 years old....although it still runs great and has no problems AND we have NO CAR PAYMENT!! But we would like to get a newer car. So, we saw a beautiful Mercedes SUV when we dropped a friend off in Eugene at a Duck game. And I told Dave I could see myself driving one! I was basically kidding, but he started searching online and found some used ones in our price range. Then he found out that the one we like has had some issues and since there isn't a Mercedes mechanic here, we would have to drive to Bend (2 1/2 hours) for any repairs. So he is now looking at new Durangos instead (we can get a NEW Durango for the price of a USED Mercedes).

 

But I'll be darned if our son Brian didn't go out and buy a used Mercedes Sunday, the little bastard! :D;) It is a smaller SUV than we were looking at, and it's beautiful. Looks brand new. So now I'm jealous! :p Oh well, such is life.

[HeidiHo]

Welcome SweetCheeks and Mike & Allison. Like sue already said, you are welcome to chat here and join us for any group activities. We are not doing any "official" group activities that would only be open to group members.

 

ami Beach actually quite a distance from the port though? The beach that is closer is South Beach, I believe. But it would still be fun to be on the beach and a bargain to boot!

 

Heidi ~ maybe your kitty really is missing her companion kitty? Seems like this meowing started when you lost your other kitty, didn't it?

 

Dave and I have been doing a little car shopping, since our Dodge Durango is 10 years old....although it still runs great and has no problems AND we have NO CAR PAYMENT!! But we would like to get a newer car. So, we saw a beautiful Mercedes SUV when we dropped a friend off in Eugene at a Duck game. And I told Dave I could see myself driving one! I was basically kidding, but he started searching online and found some used ones in our price range. Then he found out that the one we like has had some issues and since there isn't a Mercedes mechanic here, we would have to drive to Bend (2 1/2 hours) for any repairs. So he is now looking at new Durangos instead (we can get a NEW Durango for the price of a USED Mercedes).

 

 

Sue - our kitty actually started making a lot of noise when Staci went back to school after winter break so we don't really know what her problem is. We hoped she'd quiet down while Staci is home from break but she isn't much quieter. Yesterday I could hear her meowing and was pretty much ignoring her since she does that all the time time but then I realized the meowing was coming from INSIDEmy kitchen cabinets. :eek: she had gone in there when I was unloading the dishwasher and I didn't see her so of course I shut her in there. She really yelled at me after I let her out. LOL.

 

Be careful buying a Mercedes. My friend and her husband each bought used Mercedes' at about the same time and didn't realize until after they bought them that they only take premium gas. She wasn't very happy. I don't know if all Mercedes' take premium but it's something to consider. When we were shopping for my new car a couple of years ago we found a new Acura that I really liked and it was right in our price range. We were waiting for the salesman to get back from a test drive with another customer when I opened the cover to the gas tank and noticed that it said on the inside, "premium gasoline only." I shut the cover and we left without even test driving the car. No way was I going to buy a car that takes premium gas when gas prices are so high.

 

Staci and I went to see "Oz, the Great and Powerful" last night. It was good. we could have seen it in IMAX 3D but Staci doesn't like 3D. she says it makes her dizzy. I think it would have been cool in 3D though.

 

Have a good night. :)

Edited March 12, 2013 by HeidiHo

[Flick]

When we moved from Hawaii (yeah I like heat!) to Chicago we had a car called a DKW which was made by Mercedes and could only be serviced by the Mercedes dealer who was waaaay on the South side of Chicago. Not only was it terribly inconvenient but the dealer charged sky-high prices "because it was a Mercedes built car". I'm talkin' $125.00 for a battery, $250.00 for a tune up and this was in the early 60s!!!

[momofzeke]

Oh, wow, I never thought of a Mercedes needing premium gas. I'll have to ask Brian about that in case he doesn't realize it. That is a valid point about the parts for a Mercedes being very expensive. There is a mechanic in Bend that used to work at a Mercedes dealership, but now works independently so he is very reasonable. That would be fine for Brian if anything goes wrong with his car. But for us, it would be very difficult to get the car to Bend to be worked on, especially if it wasn't drivable and we had to haul it up there on a trailer.

 

So, it seems that we are probably going with another Dodge Durango, which will be fine, I like our Durango a lot and the new ones have all the fancy stuff like navigation and back-up camera, etc. just like the Mercedes. Also, Dave said he just got rid of a "German headache", aka the Krone baler which is a German made baler. :p He isn't too sure about a German car!

 

We have DISH Network coming again today. The TV worked fine after the guy was here last week and put an antenna on the back of the TV that isn't working right. But the next day, it was doing the same thing as before. The remote won't work propertly. We have gotten a brand new remote, changed the batteries umpteen times, fiddled with the settings of the receiver as guided by DISH Network tech support, it still doesn't work. I think we need a new receiver, and he was going to give us one last time but then he put that antenna there and it worked, so he didn't think we needed one. We'll see what he wants to do today, but it's getting old. Now I have to hang around the house all morning again. What a pain.

 

Heidi ~ glad you finally discovered kitty was in the cabinet. I've accidentally locked my kitty inside my walk-in pantry before. He likes to follow me in there because I keep the kitty treats in there. One time we were going out of town for the weekend, and I always give him treats before we go. I didn't realize I locked him in, but luckily something made me check the pantry just before walking out the door and there he was. Boy, would we have found a mess if he'd been locked in there all weekend!!

 

Edit: I just asked Dave about the premium gas thing for Mercedes, and he said that the car Brian bought does say premium gas only (Dave was looking at it online before Brian bought it). But he also said that premium gas does get better gas mileage. For us it would be a giant pain, though, because we have regular gas in our gas tank out here at the ranch, so we wouldn't be able to gas up our car out here.

Edited March 13, 2013 by momofzeke

[De-Luxe08]

I also would like to welcome SweetCheeks and Mike & Allison. This is going to be such a fun cruise, glad you decided to join in.

 

Never thought of looking to see what kind of gas a vehicle would take and now that is a must do before we buy a vehicle. We bought a Mazda CX7 a couple years ago. The first time I went to put gas in noticed "premium gas recommended." I was not too happy about this but there was nothing we could do already had it. So since it said "recommended" I thought switching back and forth would be okay. Well, it's not. The darn engine light would come on every time regular was used. Putting premium gas in that vehicle was bad enough but on top of that it got terrible mileage. I chalk this up as to a hard lesson learned. We no longer have it and we just traded it in last October and bought another Jeep.

 

Sue have fun auto shopping. The Durangos are nice. My husband is partial to Dodge or Jeep since out of the last 5 vehicles we have had 4 have been either one of those.

 

After reaching 70 degs on Sun. it is now 30 with light snow. I don't mind since it is still Mar., but do we have to be teased with such very nice weather.

 

Enjoy your day all, Donna

[ooulio]

I checked at lunch today on kayak. I think that hotel for 4 stars was gone . Everything I saw was close to $300 for south beach or downtown miami. We stayed in South Beach a couple years ago. It is so expenisve there. We booked on one site. It said $99 . It was beachfront and gorgeous. I think it was Palms. I have the flier somewhere. We booked it. WEnt back an hour later. It was a mistake. It was $1099. I was a nervous wreck they would charge us at the hotel the difference They didnt know what you paid. Drinks at the bar at the pool were $16.00 each not including tax or tip. Hamurgers were almost $20.00 each. First and last time staying there. It was beautiful but too much for my budget. I am still trying for downtown miami like we stayed this past Feb. It is nice to walk to all the place, plus the people walker is right there too. I am still checking everyday.

[HeidiHo]

Good Morning!

 

Today is our 26th wedding anniversary. I have to work tonight so we are going out to dinner tomorrow night. We are going to Seasonn's 52 which is a Darden restaurant so I'll get my discount.

 

I'm taking Staci to the doctor this morning. She isn't sick, it's just a check up but she is FINALLY switching from the pediatrician to the big girl doctor. LOL. I volunteered to go with her because there are always forms to fill out with lots of questions that my kids are never sure of how to answer. I'm talking health history, etc. She won't know who in the family has had heart disease, cancer, stuff like that. I'm just going along to help her with that. I did the same for Eric when he went the first time.

 

Other than that, not much is happening around here. Have a good day. :)

[Ltvscout]

Hi Heidi,

 

Meanwhile, over on the Dream...

 

From FB:

"The Carnival Dream has a technical issue which our engineering team is currently working on. The ship is at dock in St. Maarten. At no time did the ship lose power but there were periodic interruptions to elevators and toilets for a few hours last night. However at this time all hotel systems are functioning normally and have been functional since approximately 12.30am. The ship has full power but is still at dock while personnel continue to work on the technical issue. The Carnival Dream was on a seven-day cruise and is based in Port Canaveral, Fla."

 

We have friends that are supposed to leave on the Dream this Saturday. I gave them a heads up to contact Carnival to see if their sailing will be delayed. I told them to look at this as an adventure!

[Cruisin Dave]

Hi Heidi,

 

Meanwhile, over on the Dream...

 

From FB:

"The Carnival Dream has a technical issue which our engineering team is currently working on. The ship is at dock in St. Maarten. At no time did the ship lose power but there were periodic interruptions to elevators and toilets for a few hours last night. However at this time all hotel systems are functioning normally and have been functional since approximately 12.30am. The ship has full power but is still at dock while personnel continue to work on the technical issue. The Carnival Dream was on a seven-day cruise and is based in Port Canaveral, Fla."

 

We have friends that are supposed to leave on the Dream this Saturday. I gave them a heads up to contact Carnival to see if their sailing will be delayed. I told them to look at this as an adventure!

The next sailing has been canx. All pax on the current cruise will be returned by chartered flight. They may remain on board until their flight is scheduled to leave. Glad this occurred while in port.

[Flick]

Conga Rats on your 26th.anniversary, Heidi!!! I don't remember our 26th.......but then I have an excuse...it's age appropriate.

[momofzeke]

Happy belated Anniversary, Heidi & Dave!!! Enjoy your dinner tonight.

 

Scott ~ dang, your friends' cruise has been cancelled. That really does suck.

 

I read an article from CC where a member was onboard a Royal Caribbean ship docked next to the Dream in St. Maarten. She talked to a bunch of the passengers from the Dream to get a first hand account of what was happening on the ship. Everyone she talked to said things onboard were fine, other than some hysterical passengers who were tweeting and posting on Facebook about overflowing toilets and such. They were asked not to use the public toilets for about an hour the night before, but some people went ahead and used them anyway so a few did overflow but nothing as bad as what the news media was reporting. There was no raw sewage all over the floors or anything like that. I'm really sick of the news media, they blow everything out of proportion just to sensationalize a story.

 

We go to Bend today to see the kiddos. We haven't seen them since Christmas, so Mallory will be much more preggers looking than she was! I can't wait to feel the baby kick. Greg's birthday was last week and Mal's was a couple weeks ago, so we will have birthday dinners to celebrate. We also get to see Brian's new office.

[HeidiHo]

Good morning. :)

 

Thanks for all the anniversary wishes. Dave surprised me with flowers yesterday. We don't usually do anything for each other. we just go out to dinner.

 

Sue - have fun with the kids.

 

Scott - too bad about your friends cruise being cancelled. Guess I'd rather have it cancelled though than take a chance that the ship might go out before being properly repaired and then having problems in the middle of the ocean like the Triumph.

 

There might be a really good deal coming up soon on the Dream if they get it back to Florida and ready for sailing a few days before the the next scheduled sailing. For instance, if it's fixed and ready to go on a Tuesday but the next scheduled sailing is on a Saturday, they might offer very cheap rates to get people on for a 4 day sailing. That is why I wish I lived near the ports.

 

Have a great day. :D

Edited March 15, 2013 by HeidiHo

[HeidiHo]

Good Morning!

 

We had a nice anniversary dinner at Seasons 52 last night. We got 2 free glasses of champagne. Staci was with us but she didn't get any champagne but we also had a bottle of wine that of course she could drink.

 

We discovered via Facebook last night that Eric is in Florida. :confused: He never even told us he was going. We saw some Facebook posts that seemed to indicate he was headed there so I sent him a text and asked if that's where he was and sure enough, he was. He said it was a last minute trip and he forgot to tell us. :mad: His girlfriend is still in college and it's her spring break so they went down to Panama city Beach, I think. I don't care that he went but I wish he would tell us these things. Once when he was studying in Argentina he disappeared for 3 days. Up to that point we had been in constant touch on Facebook. Then Dave's father died on a Thursday and I needed to tell Eric but he was suddenly not on Facebook at all and calls to his cell phone wouldn't go through. I figured he was just traveling for the weekend so I didn't panic but I DID worry. We didn't get a hold of him until that Sunday when he got back to Buenos Aires. He had been in Uruguay and his phone ran out of minutes and since be bought the phone in Argentina he couldn't buy more in Uruguay. I told him after that to just shoot me a message if he was going to be away. At least this time he's in the states and I can always reach him by cell phone so it's not that big of a deal that he didn't tell me he was going away.

 

Staci is away for the weekend now too. She only went into Chicago though for the St. Patricks Day parade. She and her friends went down last night though to avoid today's traffic. They are staying with another friend who lives down there and they will stay the night tonight too since they will probably be drinking most of the day today. :rolleyes: At least they are smart enough not to drive home tonight.

 

My dad is coming over this afternoon. He want's to go to Cabela's which is near us. he needs something for his fishing boat. He'll stay for dinner tonight then.

 

I hope everyone has a great weekend. :)

[Cruisin Dave]

Howdy Cupids,

 

Hope everyone is wearing a little green today.

 

Mowed the yard yesterday. Wore shorts and a t-shirt. It was in the 80s. Installed a trickle-charger on Bettie's Prius. Tired of having to jump it when she doesn't drive it for several days.

 

I heard from Char yesterday. They are doing well and planning on a family cruise next year.

 

I'm looking at a possible cruise end of 2014 or first part of 2015. I plan to retire around then and want to celebrate on a cruise.

 

Later,

Dave

[Flick]

Dave:

The FIRST time I retired I was on a cruise ship off the coast of Denmark just returning from the Fjords of Norway. I don't remember the second time and the way I'm going now, I have no idea when I will retire the third time!!!

[momofzeke]

We had a great weekend with the kids. I got to feel the baby kick several times! That was pretty amazing. We did some car shopping and are finding out that the Dodge Durango that we planned to buy has very hard, uncomfortable seats. :( Our Durango is a 2002 and we love it. But Dodge has gone to firm, hard seats in all their vehicles now. Greg's Jeep has hard seats but we thought it was just the Jeep line of Dodge vehicles. Not true. We test drove 3 different models of Durango and they were all uncomfortable. My tailbone was actually hurting after being in the car for 5 minutes. No way am I going to buy a car with seats that uncomfortable! Dave has been a Mopar (Dodge) man all his life. Our personal vehicles have always been Dodge brand. But it may be time for a change. Brian's Mercedes has super comfy seats. We have kind of put that back on the table, and Dave is also looking at some Cadillac SUV's. If I have to use Premium gas I guess that's better than having a sore tailbone every time I drive my car! Dave thinks Plus would work fine and the Mercedes salesman said it would be fine, although who knows if he really knows what he's talking about or just trying to make a sale. :rolleyes:

 

Heidi ~ glad you had a nice anniversary dinner! Glad you found Eric before you even realized he was gone! :p

 

Dave ~ a cruise sounds like a great way to celebrate retirement!

 

Rick ~ maybe the third time's the charm for retirement to stick with you!

 

I can't believe that I totally forgot about St. Paddy's Day when I was packing clothes for Bend, so I didn't have any green to wear yesterday!! And I'm half Irish! :eek:

[HeidiHo]

Good Morning1

 

Winter just will not let go here. It was snowing when I got up this morning. The weather isn't really BAD, I'm just really ready for winter to be over. I know Spring will get here eventually. It always does.

 

Staci left to go back to school last night. We will see her in less than a week though. We are going down there on Saturday for the charity dance competition her sorority is in. We'll stay at her apartment on Saturday night and hopefully go to Champaign to see Eric on Sunday. He is supposed to be leaving Florida on Saturday. Even if he has to work on Sunday we'll still go see him but we'll just go to the restauant where he works and have dinner and see him while he works. I have a bunch of Girl Scout cookies that I want to give him.

 

Have a good day. :)

[Flick]

I'm having too much fun to seriously think about "retiring". That said, you're never too old for naptime also known as Senior Happy Hour!

I sure feel sorry for Carnival. The Legend limped into Tampa, loaded new passengers and slowly sailed away. The local media decided it had nothing to do with posted speed limits in the channel and everything to do with Carnival not caring whether or not the ship was functioning correctly. My guess is it is going to take a very drastic measure such as a fleet-wide shut down for inspection and maintenance to reassure the media and future passengers. Expensive? Prohibitive, but what else can they do? And of course they take every opportunity to show the Costa ship laying on its side just to "remind" folks that this is a BIG, BAD Corporation!

Edited March 18, 2013 by Flick

[joymaker]

Hi Heidi John and Janet from Raleigh NC. We were with you on on the last CUPIDS cruise. Sure hope we can join you on the Breeze. We booked on the Splendor on our last cruise for the Breeze for 2014. Hi Cruising Dave. Does anyone know if Rich from Hawaii is booked this cruise. I am kind of a lurker so I dont post plus I cant type. I do read most of the posts. It will be fun to see you guys again.

[HeidiHo]

Good Morning!

 

It is so cold and windy here today. I am so tired of winter.

 

Hi Heidi John and Janet from Raleigh NC. We were with you on on the last CUPIDS cruise. Sure hope we can join you on the Breeze. We booked on the Splendor on our last cruise for the Breeze for 2014. Hi Cruising Dave. Does anyone know if Rich from Hawaii is booked this cruise. I am kind of a lurker so I dont post plus I cant type. I do read most of the posts. It will be fun to see you guys again.

 

Hi John and Janet. I hope you can join us too. I don't know if Rich and sue will be joining us but they usually don't book with the group and usually book kind of last minute. We got together with them a few months ago since they live close to us.

 

Busy day planned for today so I gotta go. Have a good day. :)

[momofzeke]

Hi John & Janet!! Sure hope you book this cruise! As Heidi said, Rich & Sue are last minute bookers. I sure hope they join us, because they are lots of fun.

 

Colder here today, and we are maybe supposed to get some rain, which would be good for us. If it's going to be cold, I would at least like some moisture out of it!

 

The well drillers are supposed to be back today too. What a slow process!! They have been waiting for more pipe to arrive. I'm ready to get this show on the road and figure out if we have water or not!

 

Today is National Ag Day! Our ranch has been in Dave's family for 103 years, since 1910, when his grandfather J. B. Elder bought the place. Some of the original buildings are still standing, like the barn and the original house which is now used for storage.

[Cruisin Dave]

Good morning Cupids,

Hi John and Janet, you will be welcome into the fold again. I think all the rooms in for the group are now gone but there isn't any specific activities. Just our own M&M and such. We haven't mheard for Rich and Sue but hope this book.

Sue, National Ag Day. I know a few Aggies will be celebrating. Is your bunk house part of the original buildings. You have mentioned that it is probably haunted. You should enter it in one of those shows on TV.

Hope everyone has a great day.

Dave