John and Diane are at it Again!

[doubleduty]

Have really enjoyed your posts and will miss them. Glad it was a great cruise for you both.

[ellbelle]

I also enjoyed your daily posts, I subscribed to the thread so I would get an email and then I could read it while I was "working"!

 

I remember way back when you said you grew up in Redwood City, did you also go to high school there? My husband is also from RWC (lived on the "avenues"), he went to Menlo Atherton (grad. 1965) and his older sister graduated from Sequoia. Still have family there, traffic is bad but still a pretty town!

[Johnny B]

I did grow up in Redwood City - actually in the county, with Redwood City 1-1/2 blocks one way, Atherton 1-1/2 blocks the other way and Woodside 6 blocks behind us. Our mailing address was RC, though. It was a great place to grow up, but we've lived in San Luis Obispo since 1967, so the traffic is a little scary when I'm up there.

 

I had my freshman year at Sequoia High School, but then they build Woodside HS, so that's where I did the next 3 years. My brother went to MA, graduating in 1959, so you can see we never really knew where we lived. Actually, after my brother passed away last year, I sold the house we grew up in and discovered that RC is now considered Silicon Valley. Strange.

 

Regarding the flying fish, we spent the day in Barbados at The Boatyard, and John opted for a flying fish sandwich. I told him he should be ashamed of himself, after waiting for them and watching them for the entire cruise, but he was punished by not liking them on a sandwich. He said that the only thing that saved them was that they were in deep fried batter, but that would save shoe leather. Hope you're not too disappointed!

 

All of you are wonderful to post comments and have been very generous with them. Happy Trails and see you in January.

[harrodsfan]

Many many thanks for all you interesting posts. I now have Victoria falls on my bucket list!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[Flyingfish]

Noooooooooooooooooo, say it isn't so.

[Johnny B]

Sorry, Flying Fish--I (John) don't know what came over me. I guess I'll be placed in an Inside Cabin next year so I can't watch those lovely flying fish. I promise never to do it again!

[Mickb]

Thank you so much for your entertaining and insightful reports.

Although many have said this - you really did make us feel that we were on the cruise with you!

It's a real labour of love to write in this detail and we, your many readers, really do appreciate it.

Enjoy your summer!

[Flyingfish]

Thanks John.

[trikeman]

Thank you so much for all of the reports and pictures. Some day we hope to join you on one of the WC's and see some of these places our self. Thank you again for helping us get thru the winter.

[Johnny B]

After getting our luggage, unpacking and putting everything away, we realized we didn't have our external hard drive. We checked all the inside and outside pockets of every suitcase and still couldn't find it. Since we're Facebook friends with Gene Young, the cruise director, John "messaged" him and told him our problem, after which Gene said he would check on it. John also mentioned it on our regular Facebook page, after which our friend Jeff (the amazing photog) said he's also check with connections onboard.

 

Jeff later got back to us and said that Crystal Mensink, the Customer Relations Director (talk about a hard, thankless job) had no luck finding it. Later, we had another message from Gene saying that it had been found - under our mattress. We have NO idea how it got there, as that was nowhere near where we kept it on the desk, but a couple of former students had interesting comments linking "hard drive" and "bed." Anyway, Gene just double checked our address and said it would go in the mail ASAP.

 

What a great group on the Amsterdam. We are so happy to be part of "the family."

[localady]

So glad to hear that they were able to retrieve the hard drive. :) I assume you had numerous pictures of your travels on it and I can only imagine that having it located and returned is truly priceless!!

[madera1]

What good service. Thanks again for all your posts and welcome back to CA.

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

That was great that they found it ....

[Johnny B]

It was a pleasant surprise to receive our hard drive in the mail today. Apparently it was sent from Ft. Lauderdale to Seattle and then to us. We want to thank Gene Young and Crystal Hensink for their efforts and whoever found it between our mattress and our box spring - it's still a mystery how it got there! Things like this remind us of why we sail on HAL and love the staff which takes such good care of us.

[gigianne]

A happy ending for sure! Great service from Gene and Crystal.

[RuthC]

I'm so glad this thread floated back to the top today! I lost track of it when I left for my own cruise, and never had the opportunity to catch up with the goings on. Today I did, and enjoyed reading every one of the (several) pages I missed. Just delightful.

Thank you for taking us along for the ride. I love the things you do, both in port and on the ship. I feel like I am really having a good time when I go with you.

I'll look forward to the reports from the partial cruise next year.

[iuki]

It was a pleasant surprise to receive our hard drive in the mail today. Apparently it was sent from Ft. Lauderdale to Seattle and then to us. We want to thank Gene Young and Crystal Hensink for their efforts and whoever found it between our mattress and our box spring - it's still a mystery how it got there! Things like this remind us of why we sail on HAL and love the staff which takes such good care of us.

 

Please forgive me for being skeptical, however, I can't help but wonder if one of the staff had found it and intended to keep it. But when that person found out that there was an intent search for it, the person put it under the mattress and "found"it. The hard drive doesn't have legs and decided to hide under the mattress.

 

Giving a staff member the benefit of doubt, it could have been on the bed and somehow got pushed against the wall or headboard and slipped under, like the remote getting lost in the sofa.

 

Anyway, happy you got it back.