CallistaSkye

1 minute ago, ReneeFLL said:

I like to charge everything to get AA miles. Big and small purchases. Pay it off at the end of every month so there are no fees. We fly mostly using miles.

We do the same but I don't have miles. I should. At the nursing home we had people who payed their bill with a milage credit card because when it costs 10k a month you can really rack up the miles.

Figured out the AARP thing. I had to use chrome and delete all the cookies and make it not have any blockers at all and it worked just fine. Was able to get the GC's needed so now our cruise is paid off!

Yay!

Also found the one hotel out of the 7 that I booked that has a cruise and park option. The Zephyr. They have a week of parking included if you stay before or after your cruise. I've been booking and cancelling hotels since 3 days ago when I started realizing that parking was not included at most of them, or they were in the south 40 super far from where we wanted to be. Trying to plan a vacation and figure this stuff out when I have no brain power left at the end of the day is rough.

17 minutes ago, Hogladyrider said:

@CallistaSkye...I only have purchased discount cruise gift cards from AARP.  Originally Carnival now I purchase HAL there as well.  I have not had any problems.

 

I have read that it is important to keep a written record on the gift card #'s and PINs in case they are needed if one has to cancel or change anything.  I keep a record of mine on my spread sheet for each individual cruise.

Good luck.

I've purchased in the past w/o issues, but I've been trying for days to get it to work again. It keeps erroring out. I guess there is a known issue with the cart, and you have to message CS to get them to resolve it. There are lots of posts on the boards there about it. So hopefully they can help me! I always save the PDF of the GCs just in case!

Newegg cancelled the second order in case anyone else tries to get around it. Although if you have a spouse with a different name/card I bet you could buy them that way too.

Sorry to pop in randomly but if anyone else is having trouble buying the AARP Carnival cards at discount, NewEgg has them for 10% off today too. You can only buy 3 at a time, but I switched emails and may have gotten around it that way. Just figured I would pass it along! I've been trying for days to get the AARP one to work and it keeps erroring out and telling me to call them.

Not much going on here. Tomorrow is 3 years since my Dad died so this month has been a bit rough just processing that more.

Trying to figure out parking for our August Cruise out of SF is such a PITA. No where offers Cruise and Park packages anymore, and I don't know if the hotels will let us keep our car parked in their lot. I also almost got scammed by a fake parking website because I was exhausted and trying to figure it out, and the only reason I noticed is because it had some checkbox to authorize a $4 a month charge for streaming music lol.

I have a million pages on here to catch up on. Hope you all are doing well.

Yesterday was super busy. Hung out with my mom and her neighbors and we went to a breakfast and then dinner at her neighbors house which was nice. They cooked a full meal. corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, carrots, bread. dessert. we were stuffed.

The toddler was exhausted from her skipped nap but we made it. My husband took today and tomorrow off which was so nice because he got to take her to storytime and see everything that we always talk about. I was able to do some random cleaning that is pretty much impossible otherwise.

This is a really dumb thing to ask about but does anyone know if Carnival shows the Olympics? I really really love watching them and realized today that our cruise is booked during the last portion of it. I tried googling but everything is not really clear answers. I might have to pay for the extra internet package and be that person who is watching TV while on an Alaska cruise.

Insurance companies are awful. The company I worked for had to take one to court because they were telling us that a resident who had the mental capcity of a 2nd grader and literally no family in the area could live alone. They had come to the facility after living in a house with no heat, no electricity and barely any food and the roommate was stealing their tiny amount of disability income. They tried telling us that a person who couldn't walk or bear weight on their legs could be discharged to live at home alone even though they were like 90 years old. It was ridiculous and so sad.

Sid, I hope your dinner is going well!!

I am sooooooo far behind on everything. Like a month behind. Sorry I missed so much.

Right now trying not to breathe too loud because the toddler is reading in her room. We moved all her books into there and she has a beanbag chair to sit and read in. and a desk with coloring stuff that she likes to play at, and she's been asking to move some of her favorite toys into her room now so she can play in there. We obviously play with her if she asks, but we also try to encourage independent play so she's not one of those kids that constantly has to be entertained by people and can't play on her own. I can't believe she's already going to be 3 in June! Time flies.

I hope everyone is doing okay.

We're getting  more rain which is bananas. all the lakes and reservoirs are full. The beach is all eroded back because of the storms we have had, and the ground is still completely saturated everywhere.

We're slowly booking stuff for our two cruises! I booked the Dr Suess breakfast on the first one last year, and good thing because it's already sold out! and they added some other Thing 1 and Thing 2 birthday breakfast. I suspect our kind of cruising is drastically different than most of you alls, but that's alright lol.

4 hours ago, deedle910 said:

So I’m turning 60 this year. I have a carnival cruise booked in november out of mobile if anyone is interested. Im also looking at booking another this year, does not have to be carnival. So if you want me to crash your vacation, give me some options! 

Aughhhh that would be so tempting if we did not have our two booked already. Our friends live in Mobile, and another friend from here moved to Florida, so it would be so neat to do a cruise out of there since we could go visit friends first and then go.

Yay @Greenpea2 for your new car! Congratulations!

I'm still trying to catch up on these reviews. and then I found out there is a 3rd Live to read? I'm only on pg 50 something on Sids. Seriously how do people keep up with these?

It looks like so much fun and it's cool to see everyone hanging out. I hope everyone is having a good time.

On 1/16/2024 at 2:29 PM, monykalyn said:

Thanks for the live review again!! 

We did ropes on Panorama last year and the skyride. Think I would love the roller coaster!!

UGH-downside to following along on these live reviews is fighting the urge to book a cruise ASAP. We might get above freezing tomorrow for a couple hours. Now how to break it to hubs that we do have a cruise next January that I booked 2 years ago...

Merry Christmas!! Here's a cruise for next month!! lol. I would be pretty stoked with that honestly.

Well we are still listening to Christmas Music in January. The toddler asked me to play Christmas Music on the google home lol. She also does not like the "Toddler" Christmas songs. She wants the regular ones.

We got one of those digital photo frames and she loves looking at it and seeing all the things she has done. My husband had the great idea of putting it up so my Mom could see it and get excited about it because we secretly got her one as her birthday present.

I'm sorry about everyones water heater issues! My friend just had that happen too. They kept finding water in the kitchen by the stove. Put down towels... but it never dried. Called someone out and their water heater had been leaking for months and it had gone under their entire floor in the whole house. So they had the same thing, drywall ripped out to halfway up the walls, floors all redone. It just now is getting finished.

Ours went out last year but thankfully they put ours in our garage and it's up on a platform. It had been leaking but our garage is cement floored, and we have everything in plastic bins. So nothing got damaged and it was obvious where the water had gotten to.

Hopefully that's your appliance replacement karma for the next few years!! I swear it always comes in waves.

The music box thing made me laugh. I have one of those Hummel ones that my Dad got me for my first birthday.

I'm like 100 pgs behind on all the reviews. At this point your cruise will probably be over by the time I catch up lol.

OMG I am so behind. 76 pgs for Sids review? 67 for Megans? I'm going to have so much reading to do and it's probably going to be up to like 100 pgs each by the time I can look at it after the toddler goes to bed lol.

Storms are rolling in here. We had to stay home because the Gymnastics place is a germ haven and we are visiting my Aunt who is immuno compromised this weekend so I don't really want to accidentally pass along some crazy cold to them. Of course it's supposed to be pouring rain when we are set to drive over there.

My moms birthday is Monday so we're taking her out to dinner on Saturday.

Thankfully we are all recovered from that awful respiratory thing we had. I still have a slight lingering cough, but I can breathe out of my nose again and the cough only really hits at night. My husband never got it really, and our toddler is totally fine now too.

Aww I love In N Out. But I like my burgers with just meat cheese and bread. You can use the "secret menu" to customize their food and I think that makes it better if you are used to more stuff on them. I also like getting a Neopolotan Shake and you can get the fries well done if you want crispier ones.

The Five Guys here has the same food for like 3x the price and they just put season salt on the fries, so that's the one I don't really get the hype about. It was good, but just so expensive.

Most of our fast food places here are pretty meh though to be honest. They're the same chains, but the food is just not great, so In N Out is one I can go to because I know it's going to actually be fresh. I think that if you have really great fast food places that are actually on top of things, I can see how it would be lackluster in comparison since the menu is limited. But I prefer smaller limited menus to the "Jack of all Trades Master of None" ones like some places have.

Oh No! @Greenpea2 I'm so sorry to hear about your crash. That's so scary. It sounds ridiculous but Tetris helps with PTSD. They have soldiers play it to help them, so you could always give that a try. I'm glad you guys are okay. You're not a bummer! I'm just glad you have here to post about it and get some support from. ❤️

Also it's not at all silly about your car. I had to sell my Geo Metro that I had for 20 years because the electrical started failing and it was old and it's just not a good car for a toddler to ride in. But I cried when they loaded it onto the Carvana truck. It was my car that my parents gave me when I was in college, and it was the only car I ever owned until recently. If I could have fixed it up I would have tried to still keep it. It's hard to find good cars, and after you drive one for so long, it almost feels like an extension of yourself. I hope you both are doing okay today.

4 hours ago, TxTeach79 said:

Aww, thanks y’all!!! Yeah, I was just resting my tail off today - spent about 80% of it horizontal when I wasn’t ordering soft food via Uber Eats. 
 

Huge stroke of luck tomorrow - the counselors are using my classes to go over next year’s schedules with the kids, so I should have a really really easy day minus duty, a meeting, advisory, and duty again (knock on wood). Then, three days of very little!

Glad you are doing better!! Hoping you get a nice chill day and a good weekend!

This cold is terrible but I seem to be on the upward slope. No more wheezing when I breathe, it stopped yesterday and today it's been gone too. I had a few cough attacks, but not as bad as it was. Last night I slept okay.

Today I took our toddler to open play gymnastics and apparently everyone has been super sick for the past 3 months. I took a break from going there because every time we do, we get something. Well it seems to have been a good call because at least we got this after the holidays. My friends were sick since October with CVid, the flu, and then this respiratory thing. I felt so bad. and everyone has this cough. One of my friends doctors told her that the cough can last for like 4 months after you get better. So hopefully none of us get stuck with that!

17 minutes ago, MEUB1112 said:

Went ahead and decided to burn a vacation day tomorrow and get ready to fly to NOLA for the Glory on Sunday.  

 

that's a good call!

I forgot about the Hot Toddies. My family does that but w/o the whiskey. [my Dad was a Friend of Bill] Basically we just use hot water or chamomile tea, lemon juice, some good local honey and sometimes some cut up ginger root. I also need to get some ginger roots to juice for ginger shots. The ginger juice shots feel like they burn out the sickness especially if it's sinus or throat related. Which may be placebo but that's fine with me.

Thank you everyone. I knew it would be soon, sadly he had the same health issues my Dad did and he looked similar in the latest photo, so my Mom and I had a feeling that he unfortunately probably wouldn't make it to the end of this year. We just didn't expect it to be quite this soon. They say it comes in threes, and it's been My Dad, My Grandma and now my Grandpa.

The cough is brutal! I've been taking Deslym at night, but still have woken myself up coughing. Hopefully I don't have bronchitis, but I haven't gone to the doctors yet. I probably should if it doesn't go away in the next couple of days just to be safe.

I'm excited for everyones Tribe Cruise! I hope you all have a fun time. I followed the live review and look forward to reading it too.

I'm already trying to figure out 2026 cruises even though it seems ridiculous. But it would be nice to do a Disney one with our toddler. At that point she will be 5 and I think that's a good age for that. She can still do the kids stuff and is old enough to remember things.

Still fighting this awful cold.

I thought I was getting better but the cough won't go away and I keep getting a runny nose. The cough is so bad that I've coughed so hard I threw up 3 days in a row. Fun times.

Today I feel like it's actually going away, but the cough is so annoying. I also finally remembered to use my Neti pot to flush out my sinuses, so hopefully that helps too.

Our toddler still has a slight cough but she's doing fine, and has been doing better for about a week now. So that's good.

my husband can WFH so no one at his work gets it from us. and we had our toddlers dentist appointment today and we masked so we don't give other people this because it freaking sucks.

In not so great news, my mom called me on Saturday and my Grandpa passed away that morning. They called the ambulance but he died when they were loading him in. He had a DNR and my Aunt was there so she could tell them not to try to bring him back. I had thankfully just talked to him on Christmas and he sounded the best he had in years, and we had a great conversation and our toddler got to say Merry Christmas, Hi, and I love you to him, so I'm forever grateful for that too.

On 1/2/2024 at 7:53 PM, Happy0810 said:

So glad things are going well for you.  That DNA situation is...well, who knows. 😉 I know your true dad is the one who raised you.  The uncertainty of knowing the truth could be a double-edged sword.  You could have wonderful half siblings/aunts/uncles for you and your daughter.  Or that side of the potential family could be full of drama and just cause stress in your life.  I'm sure your heart will let you know if you need to bring it up to your mom.  Whatever you choose, good luck with it all.

Thank you! The people who messaged me are nice. 2 cousins were not surprised at all about me being a potential surprise kid.  I feel bad because a 3rd that messaged me is desperate for any family info because she was an unknown child of her Bio Dads, and it sounded like she didn't have the same kind of family experience I did. It's pretty weird because it's like we are the two sides of the coin. I think the thing is, I already have half siblings, aunts, uncles etc for me and my daughter that are wonderful people. So I'm not really looking to fill in some family void, which probably makes a big difference in how I view it all. I imagine if I had not been raised with a good father or family or whatever that I probably would be more interested in reaching out. The reason I turned off the DNA portion for now is because the guy is still married to the same lady he's been married to since the 70s, and they had 3 kids together. So I feel like that could be potentially devastating to his wife, and I just don't really feel like dealing with that right now. Also my moms family is super mixed with people married numerous times so technically most of my aunts and uncles are "half", and I had a step grandma and a step grandpa but I just call them Grandma and Grandpa. So like.. I'm already used to people not being "blood" relatives but also being who I consider full family. Which probably also helps. Part of me feels bad for being so ambivalent about it all.

10 minutes ago, Cruisercl said:

0MG, why do people deny they are sick especially when they are a petrie dish of germs and really sick!

So sorry about your little one.

Hope everyone gets well soon. 😊

The most annoying part of it is that they cancelled Christmas Dinner because my husband sister and BIL got C Vid and couldn't travel. So like, you would THINK they would be a little more conscientious about that? Ugh.

Apparently I've been ordering wrong at WhatABurger. My family always takes me there when we visit them and I didn't know you could get Texas Toast instead of a bun! What have I been doing? Also half that stuff was not shown to me. Now at least I am prepared for when we go back!!

We have some respiratory thing. Pretty sure we got it at my in laws. They did not tell us that my husbands grandma was coughing everywhere, so we went on the Weds after Christmas. Turns out she was coughing tons, so bad she could hardly eat her dinner. They kept insisting she wasn't sick because she didn't have a fever. and then telling her that they had cough syrup. If you're not sick you don't need to take cough syrup. Sure enough 5 days later our toddler has a croup sounding cough and a runny nose. We haven't been anywhere else in the timeframe that she would have picked up a cold like that. Thankfully we have everything from last time she was sick, so it's okay. and at least it's AFTER the holidays. But we had to re-schedule her dentist appointment that we made almost a year ago because of this. Thankfully the dentists office was super nice because we gave them 48 hrs notice, so someone else can hopefully use the time slot. I can tell I'm also fighting it off.

I feel bad for my in laws because GMIL Is not doing well. She has full blown dementia, is seeing people in her room, and they are taking care of her at home. and it's obviously really rough. It's taking a toll on the health of both of them too.

On 12/31/2023 at 10:59 AM, Stallion said:

New Years Eve also known as Amateur's Nite

My Dad used to say that too! Thank for you for reminding me.

@odie1024I'm so so sorry for your loss. I don't know if it helps, but sound is the sense that goes last, so she totally knew you were there.

1 hour ago, Happy0810 said:

@CallistaSkye - Just checking in since I haven't seen you post in a while.  Hopefully life is just busy with the holidays and 2024 is starting off nicely for you and your family.

Hi! That is so sweet! Yes just been busy with holidays. It's been good so far.

The whole DNA test ancestry thing got even more ridiculous. I am pretty sure I figured out the bio Dad, and if it is him, he was married when he was with my Mom. I de-activated the DNA portion for now. I've literally had 4 cousins from that family message me. One is trying to get everyone to take DNA tests. Basically this family is rife with secret children so it's not a surprise to anyone on that side if that's what happened. But I just don't really feel like dealing with it for now, I am pretty certain I figured out the whole story and timeline, and I might bring it up to my mom when we are alone. But it's such a can of worms.

I need to catch up on here, I am super behind. I also don't even know what cruise reviews are going right now.

We have two cruises planned for THIS year now which is bananas.

Hope you are doing well and everyone on here too!