Hello from Volendam!

[HeatherInFlorida]

Brian, once again thank you so much for the sheer pleasure of reading your words here. With all the posts I've read of yours over the years I just never picked up on your talent. It was wonderful reading and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

Had you been in Aruba now instead of then, it might not be quite such a beautific experience. I'm afraid that island is about to be inundated with the media yet again disrupting its usual serenity.

 

Thanks again! It was really fun to cruise along with you:) .

[mamaofami]

I might have considered "flying" to Florida to join you all on my favorite ship, but never on that week. I work with kids, have 5 of my own grandsons , but thinking of cruising on vacation week gives me stomach pains and a headache too. LOL !

 

I can also envision difficulty with flying out then. Better make your reservation early. I know people who take off starting the Wednesday of the week before just to get to Florida to visit family.

[GufiFoot]

Brian, glad to see you arrived home safely (I am guessing Scott did too?) & that your family is well.

We really enjoyed meeting you in person & look forward to more of RevNeal's pictures... should be fun fun fun... :eek:

Don't feel too bad... our room steward didn't come home with us either...hence the towels on the floor and dishes in the sink... oh well.

We had a great time & miss you two :(

Kelly & Thomas

[bepsf]

You mean Feb 2009?

Good question! When they told me about the date they had chosen that was one of my questions. I would have preferred late January, myself.

 

Ya know, I never even thought of school vacation - Isn't that when we were on Noordam before?

 

I'd have no problem moving to the January 23 departure if everyone else who has booked with us is OK with moving their reservations and the price wasn't more - Either way, I have the feeling that we'd all be just fine together as we tend to make our own fun. (and trouble)

 

Heather, You know you'd be welcome to join the Good Nuts too...

;)

 

I wonder if I could pursuade Nana & Apa to join us too - That's their 44th Anniversary date...

[bepsf]

I am so glad I got to see the real live version of you singing the "other" Roly Poly. That was too hilarious. I haven't laughed that hard for a long time. :)

 

Miss Scarlet - You should introduce yourself to the group...

;)

[bepsf]

Brian, glad to see you arrived home safely (I am guessing Scott did too?) & that your family is well.

We really enjoyed meeting you in person & look forward to more of RevNeal's pictures... should be fun fun fun... :eek:

Don't feel too bad... our room steward didn't come home with us either...hence the towels on the floor and dishes in the sink... oh well.

We had a great time & miss you two :(

Kelly & Thomas

 

Kelly--

 

We loved meeting you and Thomas too!

I hope we get to see you both aboard another Dam Ship sometime soon!

:)

[bepsf]

Brian:

I arrived at Ft. Lauderdale airport almost 4-1/2 hrs prior to take off and I had no trouble get into the airport. I spent most of the time waiting for the plane having bloody mary's and watching other people get their flights.

It was a pleasure to sail with you and your friends.

Robb

 

Robb--

 

You must have had better security folks than we did over at United.

It was a joy meeting you - Hope we can meet your DW next time!

:)

[RuthC]

I'd have no problem moving to the January 23 departure if everyone else who has booked with us is OK with moving too...

I like that date a lot better. There's no way I want to cruise to the Caribbean (not my favorite place) with a whole bunch of the little darlin's. :rolleyes:

[innlady1]

I might have considered "flying" to Florida to join you all on my favorite ship, but never on that week. I work with kids, have 5 of my own grandsons , but thinking of cruising on vacation week gives me stomach pains and a headache too. LOL !

 

I can also envision difficulty with flying out then. Better make your reservation early. I know people who take off starting the Wednesday of the week before just to get to Florida to visit family.

 

I, too, would love to do a cruise with the "good nuts," but that week has me a bit apprehensive...after all we heard last year of all the kids on the Noordam for the President's Day cruise.

[RevNeal]

Ya know, I never even thought of school vacation - Isn't that when we were on Noordam before?

 

I'd have no problem moving to the January 23 departure if everyone else who has booked with us is OK with moving their reservations and the price wasn't more - Either way, I have the feeling that we'd all be just fine together as we tend to make our own fun. (and trouble)[/i]

 

I've been thinking about this, and while it is true that Feb 19th is President's day, and that IS a Holiday, I doubt it will impact us much. That's just 1 DAY of vacation, not a full week, and our cruise is a 10-day cruise, not just a week-long cruise. I don't think we'll be impacted much, if any, by kids on that cruise ... most will be in school the Thursday and Friday before, and the Tuesday - Friday after President's day. Like wise, most of us will be flying in on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday morning. The President's Day travel rush (such as it is) shouldn't really start until Friday.

 

In short, I don't think there's much to worry about.

[RevNeal]

I, too, would love to do a cruise with the "good nuts," but that week has me a bit apprehensive...after all we heard last year of all the kids on the Noordam for the President's Day cruise.

 

Don't you mean the Spring Break Week cruise? Spring break is a WEEK long event, while President's Day is a single Day. Also, that was a cruise from New York ... this will be a cruise from Ft. Lauderdale. That might -- or might not -- make a difference.

[midgecruiser]

Rev Neal,

 

At least here on the West Coast....they have turned this one day into "mid winter break" which is a week long. We have sailed on the Odam this week two years ago and there were MANY kids. Not as bad as the week before Christmas. But still.....kind of a risk. However, being a 10 or 11 day will cut the kid/teen numbers down.

 

Wendy

[RevNeal]

Rev Neal,

 

At least here on the West Coast....they have turned this one day into "mid winter break" which is a week long. We have sailed on the Odam this week two years ago and there were MANY kids. Not as bad as the week before Christmas. But still.....kind of a risk. However, being a 10 or 11 day will cut the kid/teen numbers down.

 

Wendy,

 

Wow. Well, that's a regional difference, then. Here, kids don't get more than 1 day off for President's Day, while Spring Break will run the 2nd or 3rd week of March.

[ekerr19]

We're in Colorado and we only get a day... that said, our kids "Spring Break" is always "Easter Break" - the week before Easter - we are at a private Christian school and it never changes for us...

 

We've often cruised when other schools were on "Spring" break - it's really not all that bad - especially for east coast departures. We've found the kids are usually all attending private school as well - and not really an over abundance of children.

[mamaofami]

Greg,

The east coast gets the whole week off in February for what is now called Presidents' Week. If you look back at the posts from last February on the Noordam, that was the week that was so out of hand.

[Sage]

It seems to me that some of the colleges did start some of their spring breaks in February, but it tends to change year to year, and HAL was not the ship of choice for UF. Most of our 75,000 students here tend to go to Cozumel and Cancun where the drink is flowing freely, and no one cares about age. I would be happy to go at the time the group deems best.

[mamaofami]

I'm not talking colleges, but the local school systems...elemenatry through highschool.

[innlady1]

Greg,

The east coast gets the whole week off in February for what is now called Presidents' Week. If you look back at the posts from last February on the Noordam, that was the week that was so out of hand.

 

Carol is right, the east coast schools (K - 12) always have winter vacation the week that includes President's Day

 

After reading the posts from that cruise last year, I vowed we'd never cruise during President's Week. As I recall there were over 300 (or was it 400?) kids on the Noordam.

 

That was the 11 day itinerary on the Noordam...and it didn't hold parents back from keeping their children out of school for three days at the beginning of the cruise.

[Stock Cop]

I just finished reading through this thread. Remember the song "Who let the Dogs out"? Was this thread hijacked, or What?

 

I was on this cruise too and the descriptions from Brian and Rev Neal were right on the mark. Rev Neal's pictures were great. I enjoyed them all.

 

It was a great cruise even if the weather was not perfect.

 

It was simply great meeting everyone at the CC meet & greet and around the ship.

 

I am lookung forward to sailing with you all again---if we can make it a GEEK-LESS cruise.

 

Greg, did you get a pix of Richard Dreyfuss roaming the halls on Deck Two in his bathrobe? That would have been the post. LOL.

 

Rich :cool: :cool:

[crystal808]

I am lookung forward to sailing with you all again---if we can make it a GEEK-LESS cruise.

 

Hi Rich:

 

Sorry you thought the Geek group was a problem; I didn't get the impression anyone thought that they were intrusive, but then...what do I know?(!) Guess I won't be able to join that cruise! :eek: ;)

 

Happy T'giving to all....:)

 

Paul

[Stock Cop]

No Paul, the Geeks did not pose any particular problem to me.

 

My last two cruises have been with large groups aboard and I was just implying that I would hope my next one is without a large group aboard.

 

Personally, outside of yourself, I did not interact with any of the other Geek cruisers. Are they not a friendly group? I thought the Shakespear group would have been more open but the couple I met at lunch one afternoon were "not having a good day"

 

Hope to sail with you again Paul. It was really great to finally meet you.

 

Rich :cool: :cool:

!

[crystal808]

Personally, outside of yourself, I did not interact with any of the other Geek cruisers. Are they not a friendly group? I thought the Shakespear group would have been more open but the couple I met at lunch one afternoon were "not having a good day"

 

To be honest, the only couple I met from the Shakespeare group was at our meet and greet, and they left after about a half-hour to join their group next door in the Crow's Nest. They seemed very nice, but I didn't run across them after that. I didn't have any other "run-ins" with others from the Shakespeare group.... From what my TA told me, they were a bit more "demanding" than he had anticipated! :eek: :)

 

The Mac folks were, I'm guessing, about half-and-half, new cruisers and veteran cruisers. The "vets" were out and about, and all seemed to have a good time (some more than others!). It was quite a diverse group (as most groups are!) :) with some more "social" than others....;)

 

Hope to sail with you again Paul. It was really great to finally meet you.

 

It was nice to meet you as well, Rich, and I enjoyed visiting and getting to know you! It'd be a pleasure to see you again on-board a Dam ship, or any other!

 

Paul :)

[RevNeal]

I was on this cruise too and the descriptions from Brian and Rev Neal were right on the mark. Rev Neal's pictures were great. I enjoyed them all.

 

Thank you so much, Rich. I appreciate it! I'll have my full photo galleries finished soon. I'm nearly done processing the photos. Perhaps I'll finish tonight? :D

 

Greg, did you get a pix of Richard Dreyfuss roaming the halls on Deck Two in his bathrobe? That would have been the post. LOL.

 

No no ... though, I did have a chance to say "hello" to him. Christopher said one evening at dinner that he was tempted to say to Dreyfuss that the last thing he had seen him in was an episode of Betwitched ... implying he hadn't seen him in anything since! Thankfully, I don't think they crossed paths. :D

[NextOne]

Revneal, Brian and everyone else - I wanted to thank you for your wonderful posts during the cruise. We're sailing on the Volendam on 12/3 and this gave us a great idea of what to expect. One question, if I may? What night was the Captain's dinner? From the sounds of it, that might be the perfect night to schedule our dinner at Portofino's. Yes?

Thanks for the help, the wonderful stories, and the post-cruise blues. Isn't it nice to have more to look forward to?

[NextOne]

Revneal, Brian and everyone else - I wanted to thank you for your wonderful posts during the cruise. We're sailing on the Volendam on 12/3 and this gave us a great idea of what to expect. One question, if I may? What night was the Captain's dinner? From the sounds of it, that might be the perfect night to schedule our dinner at Portofino's. Yes?

Thanks for the help, the wonderful stories, and the post-cruise blues. Isn't it nice to have more to look forward to?

Ack - I've been on too many ships! I meant the Pinnacle!! Sorry for the brain freeze!:eek: