Come Join The Valor Voyagers 6/12/05 Western Caribbean

[Corl4]

Hi everyone!

I'm finally able to get on the computer..DS has had so much homework this week that he's been spending his nights on the computer.

Sharon - Enjoy your week off! We never have a spring break...only Friday and Monday off. But we are all looking forward to it. Everyone is stressed out getting ready for state testing and we need a break even if it is only for 4 days.

Looks like our "meet at the bar" could get pretty big...I'll just look for you Debbie with your CC lanyard! (Hopefully we'll already have met at the airport!) We plan on being on board early so that we can book the Lost Canopy tour for Belize. From what I understand, it must be booked on board so hopefully we'll be one of the first in line!

I'm planning to do some shopping this weekend...looking for anything cute for the cruise. Talk to everyone later!

Beth

[VOLEYMOM]

I have missed chatting with everyone. Just to much going on around here. All weekend spent watching waterpolo in Los Angeles and then helping my son and his fiancee look for a house. This has to be the most depressing thing in Southern California. Luckily his fiancee has a small home to sell or they would be out of luck. The average home is $500,000. with huge taxes. They would just stay in hers but it is very small and think they better buy now or will never be able to afford to upgrade. Then I had someone quit at work so now doing much more than normal. Just makes the vacation sound that much better!!!
I can't remember who else wants to sign up for the zipline in Roatan but count us in. I believe they had 2 people and needed 4 more. I am going to e-mail your person Marcy in the next few days.
I am having company for Easter so must get organized. My DD is coming home and bringing one of her roomates home. They have already had spring break so a lot of the kids don't get to come home. Went out tonight and got Easter Basket things. I told my daughter she is a little old to get a basket but of course I still do it for her.
Well hope everyone has a wonderful Easter! Take care,
Rebecca

[lhall85917]

Hi Rebecca, sounds like you will really need a vacation by June!!
I came across this thread on the Belize board - [url]http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=143547[/url] - has anyone else been following it? Its pretty interesting about someone saying they were bitten by a snake while cave tubing, but there is apparently a lot of doubt about the authenticity of the story. Definitely doesn't scare me off, but I would love to know the truth!!
Enjoy your day - I have to work this morning, then I'm off to the dr. this afternoon with DD and then on Spring Break for a week! :D

[Snowball]

Good morning everyone!!! It's Friday for me today, since I don't have work tomorrow! :D

Connie and Beth - good to hear from both of you. I was wondering where you were hiding. :p

I got some stuff in the mail yesterday that I bought on ebay for the cruise - a cute pair of capris and a matching t-shirt, and a pair of denim capris for my daughter. Still have a bit more cruise shopping left to do for her, and will have to drag my hubby out shopping one of these days too. :rolleyes:

Sharon - I don't know if I want to read a thread about someone getting bit by a snake while cave tubing. :eek: I doubt that it is true though, so I may end up reading it anyway. Curiousity killed the cat and all that.

I don't really have much planned for this weekend. Just doing some cleaning around the house and going to my in-laws for Eastern dinner. But having a 3 day weekend sure will be a nice break.

[Marcys]

Our spring break is coming to an end. It's been cold and dreary here. I think we are the only ones left in town that didn't head south!:mad: My DD got 2 pairs of capris, a skirt, and 2 pairs of funky sandals yesterday. We both looked at bathing suits but the selection was poor. Wonder if they were all picked over due to spring break.

Sharon, haven't read the snake story yet, but did read the one about the horrible return trip with Wet N Wild. Turned into a little bit of a shouting match between Marvin and another local and their posts got pulled.

Rebecca, one of the things on my to-do list is still to call Sandra at TropicalRez. That's the canopy tour we want to take, but unsure if we want Palmetto Bay with lunch and swimming afterwards. The iguana farm is nearby there, too. That's gotten a lot of positive reviews. Or, maybe a taxi over to Tabyanaafterwards.

[Marcys]

Rebecca, haven't been able to get through on the toll-free number today to TropicalRez. Keep getting cutoff before it connects!

Booked my hotel for the night before the cruise at the Holiday Inn in Miami across from Bayside Market. Not a great rate, but we're getting in to Miami at 9:30 and this hotel is familiar and we'll be close to the pier in the a.m. If we want to stretch our legs and get a quick bite before going to bed we can go across to Bayside.

What time is everyone planning on arriving? I like to get there early, even if we have to wait. We always arrive around 10:45.

[lhall85917]

We like to get there early too, definitely no later than 11:00. If we stay in Fort Lauderdale the night before (and it looks like thats how its going), we'll probably make arrangements to be picked up by 10 and got to the port at that time.
Sharon

[Snowball]

I plan on getting to the port early too. I'm going to drop the rental car off at the Miami airport by 10:00, so hopefully by using their shuttle I will be able to reach the port by 10:30-11:00.

[Marcys]

It sounds like many of us will be arriving at the port at the same time!:) What do you think of the idea of wearing something identifying, such as a certain color ribbon, so we can recognize each other?? Or, do you just want to wait until we meet at the pool later on? Of course, those who have posted pictures will be easy to spot!!

I keep checking the Capers on our website. Reading about all those activities is making me really want to cruise as I look at the gray, rainy day outside!!:cool:

[Marcys]

Debbie, do the phones in the cabins take messages? One of the other ships we've been on did and it was helpful for the kids to leave us messages throughout the evening on where they were. We do have radios but they don't always work in all areas of the ship and I turn them off during shows (I don't have the vibrate feature on them).

[Snowball]

Yes, the cabin phones have voice mail. I used this feature a lot during our cruise last year to keep track of where my daughter was. We ended up not even using the walkie talkies because the voice mail system worked so well. The rule was that she had to leave me a message letting me know where she was, and if she was leaving that area she would have to call and tell me where she would be next. I am pretty comfortable with letting her hang out with her friends during the cruise (with some strict rules of course) as long as I know where she's at - and I made sure to check up on her a few times a day to make sure that she was really where she said she would be.

[Marcys]

Debbie, can you access voice mail from another phone around the ship??

[Snowball]

I don't know - I never tried to access my voicemail from another phone.

[Snowball]

Good morning everyone!! I was just thinking that exactly 11 weeks from now I will be sitting at the airport, waiting for my 9:35 flight!!! Hopefully I'll be chatting with Beth, since we are taking the same flight down. I can't wait!!! :D

[Marcys]

Boy, time sure is flying, isn't it!! Going to take my DD out again to try to get a bathing suit for her. She wants a "modest" bathing suit, 2-piece, but not a bikini, and, boy, that's hard to find and still look youthful. I guess I should be glad that she doesn't want a bikini!!

Just need to book a limo from the pier to FLL for the return trip! And, decide which canopy tour to take in Roatan and what to do in Cozumel. My son wants to do the dune buggy tour, I was thinking of one of those snuba-type tours at Chankanaab.

[VOLEYMOM]

Hi everyone, taking a break from cleaning! Marcy we have decided to just stay put after the canopy tour. The beach that they take you to sounds nice. The iguana farm doesn't take very long so you could easily do that after the canopy tour and beach! If you get in touch with them please let them know that there are the 4 of us that wants the full tour. I will try again on Monday. Hope everyone has a great Easter.
Rebecca

[sebastian01]

Rebecca, we are also going to do the beach/canapy tour. I will be trying to book it on Monday.

Marcy, which dune buggy tour is your son going to do. My husband and I are wanting to do that. I have been looking at the 5 hour trip with lunch, but it looks like the departure time is at 10am island time, and I beleive that is the time the ship docks. I am going to call them Monday to see if there is any later departure times.

We still do not have a hotel in Miami, or transportation to and from FLL. Still not sure what we are going to do. Debbie, congratulations on the weight loss. I plan on starting this week.

Still cannot believe we will be leaving in two months. But my husband did surprise me with a trip to Gatlinburg in two weeks. His work gave him two extra days off and a bonus check for some work he did for him, so he rented us a cabin in the woods with one of their romantic packages.

We had spring break last week, but the kids do not go back to school till tuesday. I'm looking forward to that.

I hope everyone has a good week and that your weather starts to improve.

[Marcys]

Hi Rebecca, Kim! We are most liekly doing the canopy tour with beach. I don't know if their guide will bring us to the iguana farm or just back to the ship afterwards. Tried to call the too-free number to ask questions but couldn't connect. I will try again. I believe Sandra said she'd give "my group" the canopy/beach/lunch rate of $85 which is now $120 on their website. So just tell her you're part of "Marcy's group" but that we're all booking separately. I have 4 people in my group.

Kim, my son is only 13, so he's not going on the dune buggy tour unless we all go!!:D I think it's the 5 hour one. I e-mailed them and told them when we arrived in port and they said they would wait if we prebooked, especially if there was a group of us. I think it was booked through cozumelhomes.com or something like that. Not quite sure yet, though, if that's what we want to do.

[lhall85917]

Hi everyone, I hope you're enjoying your weekend. My mission this weekend is trying to figure out our Cayman stop! :confused: I know we discussed a long time ago some of the stringray trips, but I don't remember who is doing what and with whom!!! We have been there before with Captain Marvin, and it was great, but if we have a group going - we might be interested if there is room. Can everyone remind me who's doing this?
After that, I guess its down to figuring out Roatan - I think we're leaning toward getting a taxi to take us to the other side to the beaches, unless it would be better to get a driver for the day.

[Snowball]

Good morning and Happy Easter everyone! :D

Sharon - I am booked for the stingray excursion through Soto's, and I think Kathy and Michelle are booked through them too. We all have the 1pm excursion booked, but I am going to read reviews after the daylight savings time switch to see whether the morning or afternoon excursion will work best for us. Here is a link to Soto's website: [url="http://sotoscruises.com/index.shtml"]http://sotoscruises.com/index.shtml[/url] I hope you decide to join us!!! :)

Kim - that was so sweet of your hubby to plan a weekend getaway for both of you! Good luck with starting your diet!

Marcy - what island is the dune buggy tour on? Cozumel? How much does it cost? I'm spending the day at Paradise Beach there, but I was just thinking that maybe my SIL and her friends might be interested in something like that. I'll have to mention it to them.

Has anyone heard from Kathy lately? I haven't even seen her online. I hope everything is ok with her. If I don't hear from her within the next week or so I'll send her an e-mail. So Kathy - if you see this message please post something and let us know you're still around.

[Marcys]

Debbie, here's the link for the dune buggy tour in Cozumel. Even though the tour leaves at 11, they said they would accomodate us. The reviews for this tour have been positive. [url="http://cozumelhomes.com/tours/tour1.htm"]http://cozumelhomes.com/tours/tour1.htm[/url]

How many people finally ended up booking with the group cruise and how many other people have joined our Roll Call? Just trying to figure out how large our group is.

[Corl4]

Good morning everyone and Happy Easter!

Thought I'd "hop" on the boards while waiting for DS to get ready for church..he's worse than a girl when getting ready to go anywhere!

Marcy and Kim: We did the jeep tour last summer in Cozumel and it wasn't what we had expected. I know that the dune buggies go to the same place because we passed them in the "jungle". It started out being lots of fun but then jeeps started breaking down and the mosquitos came out. BY the time the guides came around with the bug spray, it was too late...DD had at least 25 welts all over her. Needless to say, we were all pretty miserable. Then when we got to the lunch/beach stop, the water was too rough and we were not allowed to go in. SInce we were all sweaty and bitten up, getting in the water was just what we wanted to do so we made the best of it wading at the edge. It was fun, but the ride through the jungle was too long...if you go, make sure you have plenty of bug spray already applied!

Debbie - We are planning to spend time at Paradise Beach also, although DD wants to get to C&C while it's still hopping! I also have to get to Los Cinco Soles to buy my yearly supply of vanilla!

We did Captain Marvin's a few years ago and it was the highlight of the trip. This year on GC, the kids want to find a beach and do some jet skiing so I guess that's a plan!

Sharon - In Roatan, we hired a driver for the day and paid him $100. He took us everywhere we wanted to go and was a wealth of information. I'm sure you could get a taxi but we liked having a driver "at our disposal" for the entire day.

11 weeks from now, lots of us will be arriving at the port! Can't wait!

Beth

[Marcys]

Beth, that's our plan for GC, too. The kids want to go parasailing and on a waverunner. So we'll probably go to 7 Mile Beach to Seagrape which has both. I would have loved to swim with the stingrays again, but family nixed that one!

Maybe we'll rethink the dune buggies!!:eek:

[sebastian01]

Beth, thanks for the info in the dune buggy trips. We may rethink it also, but the description does sound fun. Since Marcy mentioned snuba trips, I looked it up to see what it was. It also sounds interesting. Has anyone done the snuba before. My husband and I used to scuba dive (10years ago - pre kids) and I was wondering how they compared.

Marcy, I would be interested in seeing if we could get the guide to stop at the iguana farm on the return trip. We could leave the beach a little early if needed.


Tours we are doing:
Cayman - 1pm soto stingray
Roatan - canapy/beach tour
Belize - cave tubing
Cozumel - dune buggy ? snuba?

Happy Easter everyone!

[lhall85917]

It is sooooo helpful to hear what everyone else is doing. We are looking into Captain Bryan's for Cayman right now because it is a catamaran and the kids would like to do that and still go out to the stingray city - but no decisions yet! In Coz we are going to rent a car and head to the other side of the island, Belize - cave tubing and Roatan - taxi or driver and head over to the side with beaches. Do you know if there are some public beaches over there if we just head over that way without plans?
I added temperatures of each of our ports to our excursion page. I'm not sure that its a good thing - they are all in the 80's and we have 48 right now! :eek:
Thanks everyone for sharing - can't wait to meet you all! :D