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

[HeidiHo]

Good Morning!

 

I am officially on vacation. :D I have a lot to do today though. I think I am going to go buy a new suitcase today. We have some really nice luggage but it's old and quite heavy. We have some other cheap luggage that is light weight but I discovered that they are falling apart so we're throwing them away. I also want to get a mani / pedi today and run some errands and then I have to pack. We will leave the house tomorrow morning around 10:00 AM tomorrow morning, drive to my dad's in Twin lakes, WI and he will take us to the Milwaukee airport. Our flight leaves at 2:15. I haven't checked weather yet today but as of yesterday the forecast for tomorrow was 0% chance of snow.

 

I wish everyone safe travels. :D

[GoBearsGo]

Bags packed... ready to get out of this frozen tundra! We have a 6 pm flight to Miami.

 

Heidi - Are we still on for dinner tomorrow night? Who all is going?

Would you please re-post info on sail-away gathering, Meet & Greet and Cabin Crawl?

Thanks.

 

Really getting excited now!

[ktravel]

We are heading out to Atlanta now. We live in KY 6 hour drive, we go thru Chattanooga to Atlanta.

We are Hampton at Atlanta airport when we get there. I am sure we will

6 hour flight my turn into 12

6:00AM flight for Friday says on time

I am sure I am not the only one stressing today Safe travel everyone

[HeidiHo]

Bags packed... ready to get out of this frozen tundra! We have a 6 pm flight to Miami.

 

Heidi - Are we still on for dinner tomorrow night? Who all is going?

Would you please re-post info on sail-away gathering, Meet & Greet and Cabin Crawl?

Thanks.

 

Really getting excited now!

 

Yes, we are on for dinner. It will be you 2, Sue & Dave, Dave & Alise and Dave & me. Enough Dave's for you? LOL. Reservation is in my name for 8:30. Restaurant address is 4041 North West 7th St. Looking forward to meeting you. :)

 

Meet and greets are as follows:

 

Most likely we will gather in the atrium right after boarding for drinks and to see everyone arrive. Sail away (right after the safety drill) we will be at the aft pool/bar area. On the first sea day we will meet at 2:00 in the Liquid Night Club. We will have the white elephant exchange then. On the last sea day we will meet at 1:00 in the Liquid Night Club again. We will do the cabin crawl that day.

 

Can't wait! :D

[GoBearsGo]

Yes, we are on for dinner. It will be you 2, Sue & Dave, Dave & Alise and Dave & me. Enough Dave's for you? LOL. Reservation is in my name for 8:30. Restaurant address is 4041 North West 7th St. Looking forward to meeting you. :)

 

Meet and greets are as follows:

 

Most likely we will gather in the atrium right after boarding for drinks and to see everyone arrive. Sail away (right after the safety drill) we will be at the aft pool/bar area. On the first sea day we will meet at 2:00 in the Liquid Night Club. We will have the white elephant exchange then. On the last sea day we will meet at 1:00 in the Liquid Night Club again. We will do the cabin crawl that day.

 

Can't wait! :D

Thanks, Heidi. "Enough Dave's for me?"... are you kidding? We are more than happy to be a part of the Dave Sausagefest!! What is the name of the restaurant? Will the reservation be under the name "HeidiHo?" How will we know that it is you'all, & not some other Dave wannabes? You will know me, because I will be the one NOT wearing my leiderhosen...though Susie does think it's s-e-x-y. (waxing my legs for pre-cruise preparation is not my idea of a fun time - can I get a big "Amen," to that, ladies?)

 

Would someone please post the details (what time, where & who-all is attending) of the other pre-cruise dinner at Bayside? Maybe we will be able to stop by for a drink & meet everyone - no need to increase the reservation... we wouldn't stay long. Thanks.

 

Can't wait to meet everyone.

[Gojirart]

I've been having trouble getting access to the Cruise Critic boards the last couple of days. Luckily, everything seems to be working now.

 

Mani-pedi done, mail held, papers cancelled, credit cards notified, pet sitter confirmed, packing about halfway done. Full panic mode activated!

 

For the first time in many years, we decided to fly out the day of the cruise. The last couple of Februarys weren't bad and our schedule worked out better that way. We leave Milwaukee at 5:45 am to Charlotte, supposed to leave Charlotte at 9:55, arriving in Miami about noon. Well, who knew that Charlotte would be having a once in 20 year storm:eek:!!!!!

 

I checked the airline's web site - first segment, on schedule, second segment - cancelled, rescheduled to arrive in Miami at 3:09 p.m.:mad:

 

Called the airline - after about a dozen tries got through to an automated system - they say flight is as originally scheduled. Tried about twenty more times to talk to a real person to find out which version is true, no luck.

 

Called Carnival - very sympathetic, but unless a whole boatload (pun intended) of others were also delayed, not much chance of making the sailing if flight was really changed to arrive after 3:00. Called the travel insurance people who assured me we would be covered and spelled out what to do if necessary.:( YIKES!!!!!

 

To add insult to injury, it is currently snowing like crazy! Heidi, we aren't supposed to get much accumulation in the Milwaukee area and so far, nothing for tomorrow, so hope you have no weather problems.

 

I hope that all of you have uneventful travels and that everyone's flights are on time. For those of you driving, or whatever other modes of transportation you are all using, I wish you safe travels.

 

Anyway, I hope that the flight will be okay by Saturday and that we will get to meet all of you. I'll keep trying to contact the airlines. At least we have a couple of days to work things out.

 

Boy, do I need a cruise right now!

 

BTW: The lady I spoke to at Carnival said that our ship is her favorite, our itinerary is the one she most wants to do and that she is really jealous that she can't join us:cool:

[HeidiHo]

Fritz and Susie, the name of the restaurant is La Rosa. Just look for a bunch of dorks. You'll find us. The restaurant isn't very big. We ate there a couple of years ago.

 

Gojirart, good luck with your flights. We are flying direct on Southwest and as of this morning the weather forecast for Milwaukee was 0% chance of snow tomorrow. Have you checked alternatives on flights to Milwaukee so that if you finally get through to a human you can make your won suggestions on being re routed.

 

Just got back from getting my mani/pedi. Now I need to go finish packing.

[DREAMGIRL2012]

Our flight was cancelled and no chance of getting there by plane. We decided to drive from Massachusetts in the middle of a blizzard. We are currently in CT. I hope we make it. Good luck to the rest of you.

[Ducman]

howdy all. We have arrived in Miami and are now at our hotel. We had an uneventful flight from Phoenix. Traffic in Miami sucks. Good luck to everybody getting here. See you at sail away.

[sirk25]

Well we made it to Miami. Are now at the hotel and getting settled after a long travel day. Over 4000 miles flown. Nice not to see snow and feels like summer here. Gonna do some shopping and sight seeing around Bayside area tomorrow. Can't wait til Saturday.

 

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[HeidiHo]

Our flight was cancelled and no chance of getting there by plane. We decided to drive from Massachusetts in the middle of a blizzard. We are currently in CT. I hope we make it. Good luck to the rest of you.

 

Drive safely!

[DREAMGIRL2012]

Drive safely!

 

Thank you.

[Dspcentury]

It looks like our flight is on time and it took us 45 minutes to pass security. I am glad to be leaving today because it is suppose to snow again!!

 

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[HeidiHo]

Our flight for this afternoon is already delayed by about an hour. :(

[AKB10]

We made it to Miami last night.

Chris I agree with you that the traffic here is terrible. Driving in the dark and not knowing my way around on top of the traffic and driving an unfamiliar car was stressful. But all is good and we made it safe.

Heidi - we also got an email from SW about flight delays. We went ahead and went to the airport as normal. Our plane actually showed up a few min early. We got another email about 10min before the plane got to OKC that the flight was on time. There were a lot of people scrambling to get on the plane. One lady complained she planned to eat lunch at the airport but didn't have time.

It is 52 degrees here this morning but will get to 72 today. Can't wait to meet everyone.

[Cruisin Dave]

Good morning Cupids,

Well, the day has finally come and we board in a few hours. I'm looking at the ships right now. There are six ships in port.

Dinner last night was fantastic. Ryan did a great job.

I'll try to post again later today.

[AKB10]

Sitting at the terminal waiting for boarding!!!

So excited to meet everyone!!!

[sirk25]

We are in the captains lounge, waiting to board. Super excited to see our ship and ready to go.

 

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[HeidiHo]

Hi Everybody!

 

We got home about 9:00 last night. The trip home was pretty uneventful. No delays or anything. It's pretty cold here though and it's going to get colder this week. It stinks to come back to the cold.

 

We did have one aggravating incident yesterday. We had taken a ship excursion in Miami The excursion was fine but when we took the bus to the FLL airport the driver missed the SWA terminal which is at the very beginning of terminal one. Then he stopped just before terminal 3 and made us get out and walk with all our luggage back to terminal one. We questioned him but he still insisted that we get out there. I thought maybe this was the only place buses could stop so we took our luggage and started walking but we didn't tip him. Then when we finally got back to terminal 1 there were buses letting people off there so now we knew that the driver just forgot to stop and didn't want to go around again. We were pretty pissed off. Even though I don't blame Carnival for that I will complain just so that they are aware of how we were treated. They hire these companies and need to know when their customers are mistreated. I'm not looking for compensation, I just want them to know about it.

 

We also got some disappointing news from Staci when we got home. Nothing earth shattering but she just up and quit her job while we were away. I knew she probably wouldn't wouldn't work there more than a few more months but i wish she hadn't quit before getting another job. She used the excuse that it would be too hard to go on interviews and stuff while working. That is true, to and extent. She worked crazy hours and rarely knew her schedule more than a day or 2 in advance so scheduling interviews would have been tricky but I'm sure she could have managed somehow. She is going to talk to someone about a job tomorrow though. Her old job was in the marketing department for a large Chiropractic company. We just happen to have a personal friend who is a chiropractor and as soon as he heard that Staci quit her job he asked her to come and talk to him about working for him. She doesn't know anything more than that but will find out tomorrow.

 

I am still rocking a bit. Every now and then I feel a little dizzy and feel like the house is moving. LOL.

 

I hope everyone has made it home safely. We had a fantastic time and I miss everyone already.

[sirk25]

Well good to hear some people made it home. Our flight was delayed out of Miami destined for Toronto by 2 hours. Later found out all flights from southern Florida were delayed as well. So we missed our connection in Toronto last night and are still here in Toronto waiting for our rebooked flight tonight. So an extra day of vacation, a 24 hour layover and didn't have to go to work today. All is good. Missing the hot Caribbean sun and sea already. Can't wait for our next cruise next January. Cheers folks

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[Cruisin Dave]

Good evening Cupids,

We arrived home last night about 7:45 after stopping for a bite to eat. Could not find the Lido Deck anywhere on the way home. :D

Heidi, sorry to hear about the mess with the tour guide. Hope you got his name so that you can inform Carnival.

I also recieved my $25 check in the mail today. It will make up for some of those loses in the Casino.

Hope all are doing well.

Dave

[Gojirart]

It was great getting to meet everyone on the cruise. Thanks so much Heidi and Cruisin Dave for all of the work you did to make things happen. Our trip home was pretty uneventful. We've been spending most of the week coordinating funeral arrangements for DH Mark's brother. For those of you who hadn't heard, Mark was notified of his brother's death on the last full day of the cruise. At least we now all know that the emergency contact phone numbers that the cruise lines give out really do work.

 

We filled out our cruise survey yesterday and let Carnival know how we felt about the large groups of feral children who were running all over the ship at all hours of the night and playing slip and slide on the lido buffet tile floors! We DID have more positive comments than negative ones, though. The staff were extremely helpful and compassionate in dealing with our emergency communications home. I hope someone form the Cupids/Newpids group wins the free cruise drawing that you are entered into for filling out the survey. ;)

 

As Heidi mentioned, we in the Midwest are smack dab in the middle of another cold front with Wind Chill advisories for the next couple of days. Will it EVER end? :eek: At least we got away from the frigid temps for 8 days!

 

Again, thanks to everyone for helping to make the cruise more fun. BTW, in case you haven't checked it out, do a Google search for "Attica Hero Dog" to find some great stories about the yellow lab guide dog, and his owner Jim Hogan, who graced us with his presence at our cabin crawl (and special thanks to all of you who opened up your cruise ship "homes" for us to visit!)

 

I hope our paths may cross again, either way - I wish all of you many more happy cruises! :D

[momofzeke]

LONG day Sunday getting back to Reno, but we made it. 21 hours from waking up on the ship until we got to our hotel. Then a 4 hour drive home Monday.

 

Heidi told you about our post cruise experience with the bus driver who dropped its off at the wrong terminal and made us walk with our luggage back to terminal 1, but she forgot the part about how he held my suitcase out of the bus and broke the handle. Loser!

 

Jojirart, so sorry to hear about your brother in law. Our condolences to you and your hubby. Sorry to hear about your bad experience with kids running amuck on the ship; we never encountered that.

 

It was a great cruise, and we really had fun with our old friends and enjoyed meeting new ones! Take care, everyone!

[bwellen]

Hello everyone!

 

I am not part of your group but I was on the same cruise with you guys.

 

In looking around Cruise Critic I happened to run into the daughter of the man that was airlifted by the Coast Guard off of the ship Friday evening. She was able to provide a little detail of what happened on the ship and after leaving the ship.

 

Her Dad had a heart attach onboard and is now recovering in Florida after having bypass surgery.

 

Here is a link to the thread: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1997204

[Cruisin Dave]

Hello everyone!

 

I am not part of your group but I was on the same cruise with you guys.

 

In looking around Cruise Critic I happened to run into the daughter of the man that was airlifted by the Coast Guard off of the ship Friday evening. She was able to provide a little detail of what happened on the ship and after leaving the ship.

 

Her Dad had a heart attach onboard and is now recovering in Florida after having bypass surgery.

 

Here is a link to the thread: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1997204

Thanks for the link. Everyone was curious about the copter and crowded the upper decks. Glad to hear that her dad is better.

Dave