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

[Flick]

Well I guess the Chicago gangbangers decided to sit out the Orange Bowl game. Oh well, at least NIU was in a bowl game which many "big name" schools can't claim. Also, not all is lost....my Northwestern won BIG TIME!! Since we don't do backpacks this week I have lots of catch-up work around the house waiting for me. Heidi, have a great cruise!!!!!

Edited January 2, 2013 by Flick

[HeidiHo]

Good afternoon.

 

We are finally doing Christmas tonight. Both kids are home and Eric's girlfriend is here too. She will be here till Friday so it's nice that we can finally get to know her. I am doing filet and lobster for dinner and then we'll open presents. Dave and Staci and I unwrapped most of our presents on Christmas but I held back on a few and of course Eric still has to unwrap his and I also have one for his girl friend. Dave had to go back to work today but of course he'll be home tonight.

 

Well I guess the Chicago gangbangers decided to sit out the Orange Bowl game. Oh well, at least NIU was in a bowl game which many "big name" schools can't claim.

 

At least they stayed in the game for the 1st 3 quarters. It wasn't as embarrassing as Purdue's loss.

 

I got a call today from one of the managers at the travel agency that I work at. She had Princess on the line and said that Princess was asking if we would mind changing cabins because supposedly the one I booked had a queen bed that couldn't convert to twins and they needed the queen for someone else. I thought it was weird that I had somehow missed that little detail. :confused: I wasn't home at the time though so I couldn't check the deck plans but I approved the change because they just wanted to move us to another balcony on the same deck in the same category. I figured as long as it still had cabins above and below us it would be fine. Then when I got home I checked the deck plans and saw that if it's true that the beds don't convert, then the deck plans are wrong. There should be a little white triangle symbal on it but it isn't there. Just a red dot indicating that it's a quad. Then I did a search here on CC for the new cabin and found some really bad reviews, mainly because this cabin supposedly has twins that don't convert to queens. Again, no symbol to indicate it. there should have been a black triangle. Well, that's ok with us since twins are what we want. it's also a better location, right smack dab in the middle and Staci is prone to motion sickness. The other cabin was a lot more forward. Another complaint about the new cabin though was that it has a weird layout and doesn't have as much storage space as regular balcony cabins. Supposedly there are no bedside tables and a smaller wardrobe. The reviews were really old though (2009) and the ship has been in for refurbishment since then so who knows, maybe things have changed. I really can't complain though, I got a fantastic travel agent rate on it and that makes me wonder if that's why I was called and asked to change. If I were the one at Princess making those calls I'd call the ones that paid less too. Either way, as long as we still have a balcony and we have cabins above and below us we will be fine. We'll still be on a cruise!

 

Have a good day. :)

[HeidiHo]

Today is an exciting day for Brian. He opens his State Farm Agency today! He's been working towards getting things ready for some time, but today it is officially HIS office. He took over the space of a former agent, but is moving to a new office in a couple of months...as soon as the space is ready. He has hired 3 employees. We are so proud of him!!

 

 

Congrats to Brian!

[De-Luxe08]

Sue - so happy for him. I'm partial to State Farm have had my same agent since I was 16. OMG that's almost 40 yrs.

 

Heidi - Love the dinner you've planned, but next time I would love to be invited. I will bring a dish to share. Wishing you a wonderful vacation.

 

Dave: Wishing you also a wonderful cruise.

 

The early reviews I've been reading about the Breeze haven't been so good, but they seem to be getting better. Try not to read too much into this because everyone interprets things so differently. I am anxious to see the new decor, everyone seems to agree on that though, that it is very nice.

 

My Jeep temp. today read 26 and that was before I pulled it out of the garage. I got 5 houses down the street and it dropped to 14 deg. I wish I was leaving now and not in 2 wks.

 

Good night and sweet dreams to everyone.

 

Donna

[momofzeke]

Morning!!

 

1 degree here this morning. We've been in a cold snap...it's been near zero or below every morning for several days now. It only warms up to maybe 25-30, although there hasn't been much wind and lots of sunshine so that makes it a little better.

 

Rick ~ it's a BIG deal to get to a BCS bowl game!! You are right to be proud of NIU for getting to the Orange Bowl!

 

Heidi ~ Dave would have been in heaven with your dinner menu, but as you know, I'm not a lobster or seafood person. Glad you had some BEEF in there, though!! :D Hope the cabin turns out to be fine, and I'm sure it will. As you said, you will be on a cruise, so what's not to love? Bet you're getting excited!

 

Donna ~ I agree, I take all reviews with a grain of salt because it seems like things that really upset some people don't bother me at all. I've learned that some of the people that write negative reviews are super picky. An old saying my hubby's grandfather used to say: "they wouldn't be happy if you hung them with a NEW rope!" Some people just have to complain about stuff, it seems. You will have to let us know what YOU think of the Breeze. I'm sure it's wonderful!

 

Our Ducks play in the Fiesta Bowl tonight. This is the first time in 4 years that we are not AT the bowl game with our Ducks!! Rose Bowl, Natty (National Title Game), Rose Bowl...we went to all of those and had so much fun. The Natty was played in the same stadium where the Fiesta Bowl will be played tonight, in Glendale (Phoenix) Arizona...sure wish we were THERE! I could take some sunshine and warm temps right about now, and love the Phoenix area. Didn't work out to go this year, but we'll be watching on TV. GO DUCKS!!!!!

 

What's ironic about this game is that the team we play, Kansas State, was scheduled to come to Autzen to play us this season. Would have been the second week in September. They cancelled and refused to come play us. Those chickens don't get to avoid us NOW! They HAVE to play us. Should be a fun game to watch. GO DUCKS!! :D

 

Brian had a good first day yesterday. Thanks for the well wishes, we are super proud of him!

[HeidiHo]

Good morning!

 

Today is packing day! :D Our flight leaves ORD at 7:10 tomorrow morning. the weather looks good for Chicago so hopefully we will leave on time. I might be able to post here during the cruise. I am supposed to have free internet and I think we can use our iPhones in San Juan and ST. Thomas since they are US Territories. I'm going to call Verizon today just to verify that. I don't want to have any surprises on my bill after we come home.

 

 

Heidi - Love the dinner you've planned, but next time I would love to be invited. I will bring a dish to share. Wishing you a wonderful vacation.

 

 

Haha! A woman at Costco said the same thing to me when she saw what I was buying. Dinner turned out great then after dinner we finally did Christmas presents.

 

Hope the cabin turns out to be fine, and I'm sure it will. As you said, you will be on a cruise, so what's not to love? Bet you're getting excited!

 

 

I'm sure it will be fine. Like I said, the complainers were people who had booked the cabin thinking the beds would convert to a queen and then found out when they got there that they couldn't. If there is less storage space, we will manage. Of course I will constantly be comparing Princess to Carnival on this cruise and even before they changed our cabin I would have bet that Carnival would win in the cabin category. I have always heard that Carnival has the largest cabins in the standard categories. Carnival would lose in the suite category though. I do think Princess ought to get their deck plans corrected though.

 

Have a good day. :)

[Flick]

Wow Sue, those Ducks were awesome last night!!! Bet I know a very happy couple in Oregon today........

Heidi, since you are going to be online during your cruise hope you and Staci are having a great time!!!

[momofzeke]

WOOHOO!!!!! What a game last night!! Fiesta Bowl Champions...Oregon Ducks! Great season for our Ducks. They played really well last night.

 

Heidi is already gone unless weather delayed her flight. 8:30 here means it's 10:30 in Chicago, so they should have left 3 hours ago. I think they sail out of Miami, so maybe they're already there by now.

 

Have a great cruise, Heidi!! Can't wait to hear what you think about Princess vs Carnival.

[momofzeke]

Just heard from Heidi! They landed safely in FLL. She had just walked past the Chili's restaurant where we and several other Cupids had lunch last year after our cruise.

[HeidiHo]

Good Evening!

 

Sue already told you we got into FLL OK. We are at the Hyatt Place Hotel in the convention center area and is very close to the Holiday Inn Express we stayed at last year. This is a very nice place. We have a nice suite. We we able to get early check in so after dropping off our bags we walked to the water taxi and took that to Ft. Lauderdale Beach where we had lunch and walked around a while. We then got back on the water taxi for more sight seeing. We saw lots of famous peoples homes and Steven Spielburgs yacht. Staci is napping now but we'll go out to dinner soon.

 

Have a good night. :)

[AKB10]

Heidi, I hope you and Staci have a blast. Wishing we had a cruise this winter. :D

[De-Luxe08]

Sue -- glad your Ducks won. Not sure how you feel about the Ducks possibly loosing their coach but for sure Oregon's loss will be Cleveland's gain. My husband's Brown's flag has been off the flag pole more than it has been up. He's wanted them to can Shurmer all season.

 

Heidi -- if you are seeing this have a great time. The picture you posted on FB makes me want to leave now for FL. That picture reminds of the view from a little dive on the beach called the Elbow Room, not even sure if it is still there.

 

My daughter, son-in-law and his family are big ND fans. They go to at least 2 home games a season since his uncle can get alumni tickets for them. They are obsessed, they named their dog Gipper - He even has an ND sweater.

 

Well it's a cold one here tonight - single digits. Off to bed, have a busy day tomorrow taking down all my Christmas decorations. 2 trees and everything else, will probably take me most of the day. It was worth it, but I'm so tired of seeing it. Definitely time to put everything away. Once everything is away, the rooms look so empty. Like something is missing, sure takes getting used to.

 

Night all, Donna

[Flick]

Our Christmas decorations will come down on Monday also...we still have a dinner party tomorrow night with friends from up North. I can't believe it....our January calendar is completely filled up already.

[momofzeke]

Donna ~ to be honest, as much as I love and appreciate Chip Kelly for what he's done for the Ducks, I almost hope he does make the jump to the NFL, because for the last couple of years we have been going through this, where the media reports that he is "definitely going to the NFL". Last year, it was Tampa Bay that he was supposedly "definitely" going to. I know reports are that he is close to a deal with the Browns, but he has interviews today with the Bills and the Eagles and maybe one other team. If he does go, I wish him the best. Our O coordinator, Mark Helfrich, will be promoted to head coach and we will go on and the Ducks won't miss a beat, so I'm not one of those fans who are in panic mode over the thought of losing Chip. He's a great coach, and whatever he decides to do, I wish him all the best.

 

Rick ~ goodness, my Christmas tree came down the day after Christmas! As soon as the kids were out the door, that sucker came down. And I have a fake tree, so could leave it up as long as I want, but once Christmas is over, I just am ready for it all to be gone and back to normal.

 

A LITTLE warmer here today....up to 15 degrees right now (9 am) instead of 10 or below. At least we don't have wind, which is unusual for us. If it was this cold and also windy, it would be very miserable.

[HeidiHo]

Hello from the Grand Princess. The ship is nice but to be honest I'm not all that impressed. Our cabin is definitely smaller than Carnival balconies. Bathroom is much smaller too. I miss the high atrium. The grand has one but I think it's only 3 decks high. Otherwise I don't see a whole lot of difference except that we have 't seen a photographer yet (a good thing) and there are no drink servers walking around pushing a drink of the day type of thing. The pools look real nice and the main show room doesn't have annoying pillars to block some people's vision

 

Donna- the Elbow Room is still there. We walked by it. I noticed it because there is a bar in Chicago by the same name.

 

I have 150 minutes of free Internet so I'll be back. Since we are still I. Port I am just using my phone for now.

Edited January 5, 2013 by HeidiHo

[Cruisin Dave]

Heidi, have a great trip. Hope you are too busy to post.

Dave

[ed_k_tx]

Heidi,

Have a great cruise. Dale and I jealously watched you sail away on the webcam.

Seven weeks 'till our turn.

 

Dave,

Looks like we'll be sailing around the Gulf/Caribbean the same time.

Hope we don't run into each other. A collision at sea can ruin your whole day.

[Nazarushka]

Hi everyone!

 

We're doing good, though its been awfully chilly for Phoenix, only getting up into the 60's each day! :confused:

 

And while I'm sitting here complaining about being chilly at 60 degrees, I'm also planning excursions for our cruise to Alaska! Sheesh. But, like I told Chris, that's what long underwear is for! :D

 

I know many of you have done Alaskan cruises, we're cruising on the Miracle on 4/29, an 8 day cruise starting in Vancouver with stops in Juneau, Ketchikan and Skagway. Does anyone have suggestions for things to do at any of the places? Or a hotel idea for Vancouver? Any recommendations are much appreciated.

 

We had fun on the Splendor, ended up in Puerto Vallarta for 2 days, with 1 day in Cabo, due to propulsion problems. They had to be able to dock it to fix it, so they switched our days. We didn't care, bought lots of tequila on the factory tour and went on a boat ride in Cabo, and just were generally lazy for the week.

 

Christmas and New Year's were fine, Chris ended up going to Detroit to check on his Mom, and other than his brother being a jerk as usual, he had a good week. I spent a couple of days at my parent's new place here in Phoenix and my sister and her hubby came down for a week. So we spent Christmas apart for the first time in 6 years, but were both with family, so it was fine. He was back home for New Year's, so we went out to Melting Pot for dinner and then were sound asleep by 10pm. :o

 

Happy New Year!

[momofzeke]

Well, heck. When I took my walk this morning, about 2 hours ago...it was foggy. Not super cold, and very, very quiet from the fog, which was nice. But now the sun has come out and it is gorgeous! I should have waited a bit, I guess.

 

Michelle ~ nice that you & Chris got to see family for Christmas and then be together for New Year's!

 

Heidi ~ can't wait to hear more! I'm interested to find out what you think about the food and the entertainment compared to Carnival. What is your first port, and when? JEALOUS!!!!!

 

Donna ~ it appears that Chip Kelly is either going to the Eagles, or returning to the Ducks. ESPN is reporting that he will not be joining the Browns and they have moved on in their search for a coach. Now, having said that....anything can still happen. I've learned that just because the media reports something, it isn't necessarily true. :rolleyes: My son was a sports reporter for a Eugene TV station for 3 years, but got tired of the b.s. of that industry, so he got out of it 2 years ago. In their haste to be the first to report a story, they often report rumors as if they were facts. Drives me crazy. Anyway, whatever Chip decides to do, I wish him the best.

[HeidiHo]

Hey Everybody,

 

We are having a great cruise so far. Today is a sea day. Everything is good although we haven't seen any entertainment yet. Compared to Carnival I would say so far that they are equal. No better, no worse. That's why I can't really understand so many people dis Carnival. There a very few differences I have noticed so far except for the fact that I always seem to be lost. LOL. It's just that I am so familiar with the Carnival ships that I just can't seem to find my way around the Grand.

 

I get 150 free internt minutes so I'll be back but I don't want to use them up too fast.

 

Bye for now.

[Cruisin Dave]

Heidi,

Have a great cruise. Dale and I jealously watched you sail away on the webcam.

Seven weeks 'till our turn.

 

Dave,

Looks like we'll be sailing around the Gulf/Caribbean the same time.

Hope we don't run into each other. A collision at sea can ruin your whole day.

 

Ed, doesn't look like we will be in the same ports at the same time. Too bad.

 

Dave

[Flick]

Heidi, you should have good weather the rest of your cruise. We are supposed to have a liter sprinkle this am and then sunny the rest of the week with temps in the 80s.

Hope to get the Christmas decorations down today. I just realized I went the entire holiday season without typing XMAS instead of Christmas. (Good for me!)

[momofzeke]

Well, despite the media frenzy of reports that Oregon coach Chip Kelly was leaving to go to the NFL, it has been confirmed that he is staying at Oregon. Now, mind you, the reports that he was leaving were coming from reporters at ESPN or other distant places, NOT from the local Eugene media who might actually know something. I'm glad he has made a decision & I'm not at all surprised he decided to stay.

 

Finally a little warmer here....30 degrees this morning instead of 0 to 10 like it has been. We have hardly gotten to 30 degrees all day for a couple of weeks!

[ooulio]

I saw your posts for next Feb on the Breeze. We are doing it in Feb but a different itinerary. We are thinking of doing it next year with this group. I am waiting til I come back to make sure I love the ship. I know I love. We did the Magic last Feb and loved it. My husband and I go together and my brother and his wife said if we love it, they will come again with us. Just wondering what are they giving for the group? We did a group cruise a few years ago on Dream. The group was great. They had given us credit, bar for an hour, a party and a few lil other things. I use Erin for my cruises anyway. She is great. She booked the cruise we are doing next month. She gets right back to you. Not like someone else never did. You will love Erin. I know the group we did before was fun. HOw is this group? Esther

[HeidiHo]

We are in Puerto Rico. Just finished kayaking at Bio Bay. It was very cool. I'm typing this on my phone and it's hard because I'm on a bus and it's bumpy. Everything is still going great tho tomorrow is horseback riding in St. Maarten.