Radiance 9-14-07 Polar Bear Express "Special"!

Gees guys, 17 pages since Jean and I left? Well, I see she is back sooner than I.
WE had a GREAT time! Finally got to meet DG Carol and dance up a storm on the first Formal night with her in the Disco.
WE adopted Claude Christopher (who recently lost his wife) when we met him in the hallway and he was part of our gang the rest of the cruise.
Got invited to dine with the Captain....have no clue how that happened. But it was the first time for the couple we were traveling with and they were thrilled.
5 of us went into P. Vallarta to shop at the Flea Mkt. down by the river. Bob likes to haggle, so I got good deals. After we all shopped we went to a really nice restaurant which was on the 2nd floor with a balcony. We had a couple of Margaritas, then squeezed all 5 of us into a cab...what a riot...we laughed all the way to the pier!!! Cabbie probably thought we were nuts. We had 1 hour before sailing when we got to the pier, so we stopped at the local pier Cantina and had one more Margarita. Bob and Mark said the Salsa was Hot, but good ! We haven't done something like this in a long time, and it was a lot of fun.

I washed, ironed and repacked everything that I want to take with next time...Dec. 7th.
The Hotel Mgr. said the ship will be decorated....Ha! And our room will be also!!! Found the lights with batteries!

Gotta go....having lunch with Travelgoddess (Karen) and Ginny Ray....we all live pretty close...the 2 want to talk over packing for their 46 dayer....sheesh...I'd be climbing the wall on that one!

Hugs, Mar~

welcome back everyone................glad to hear from you all.................

and very Bon Voyage to Nancy and Ginny..........I know you're both headed out soon............

Having my palm trees trimmed as I type.........so guy(and his wife) stopped by to give us his card........real cheap $60 for both,so I said go ahead and do it............last guy I called a month ago was a no show............HATE that!!

wish I had palm trees to trim

cruiseforme wrote:

wish I had palm trees to trim

You will one day !

I don't know sis....not looking good in the retail world....got this in email today....


Circuit City – very recent and total number of store closes yet to be determined!

Ann Taylor- 117 stores nationwide are to be shuttered

Lane Bryant,, Fashion Bug ,and Catherine's to close 150 stores nationwide

Eddie Bauer to close stores 27 stores and more after January

Cache will close all stores

Talbots closing down all stores

J. Jill closing all stores

GAP closing 85 stores

Footlocker closing 140 stores more to close after January

Wickes Furniture closing down

Levitz closing down remaining stores

Bombay closing remaining stores

Zales closing down 82 stores and 105 after January.

Whitehall closing all stores

Piercing Pag oda closing all stores

Disney closing 98 stores and will close more after January.

Home Depot closing 15 stores

Macys to close 9 stores after January

Linens and Things closing all stores

Movie Galley Closing all stores

Pacific Sunware closing stores

Pep Boys Closing 33 stores

Sprint/ Nextel closing 133 stores

JC Penney closing a number of stores after January

Ethan Allen closing down 12 stores.

Wilson Leather closing down all stores

Sharper Image closing down all stores

K B Toys closing 356 stores

Loews to close down some stores

Dillard's to close some stores.



It's not pretty out there....and I think things are going to get worse before they get better.



j

Jul--what a scary list, it will be very interesting how things go in the next few months.

Glad to see Mar and Jill back, we were thinking maybe you stayed on for another cruise.

Still cold here. We are packed, the bags have been weighed now just waiting to leave in the am. We get to have dinner with DD and her family tonight and say our good-byes.

Will check in again before signing out

Our Circuit City, Linens and things,Mervyn's and Whitehall's have already gone out of business.

Evening all.............

Hi Mar........glad you had a great time. How is Claude doing these days? We've sailed with him and his wife several times and they were such a fun couple. Hope he is doing OK cruising solo.

Speaking of the Mariner Repo cruise............I'm looking at the brochure when the prices were first announced. A JS on the first and second segment were going for $5199pp. Now the JS for the first segment is $2499pp and the second segment is $3999pp. Pretty substantial price drop. I've heard that there are lots of people canceling. I bet some of it has to do with Brazilian Visas and for those arriving in Argentina/Chile, they will have to pay the reciprocity fee of $131.00pp. All that really adds to the total cost.

Jul, Jim got that same list..............pretty amazing what stores are closing.

With the quarterly dividend being eliminated.............I imagine it won't be long before the shareholder OBC is eliminated also. At least that will make selecting which type of OBC you want easier with a booking.

I got that list as well......................it was to warn people NOT to buy gift cards for the holidays from there..........

7.85 for RCL stock!! wow......

PH8 wrote:

I got that list as well......................it was to warn people NOT to buy gift cards for the holidays from there..........

7.85 for RCL stock!! wow......

Sooooo, what are you waiting for???????

Holy craaaaap.....7.85????...I'm going broke faster than I thought.......no wonder dh is stressed to the max and ready to just go to sleep......

Nancy and Ken....Bon Voyage and have a great trip

j

Yes, I read that you aren't supposed to buy ANY gift cards from anywhere this year. Too risky! The Linen's N Things by me is going out of biz and they won't even accept cards even though they are still open... that just stinks as far as I'm concerned.

Jean, the port area in Aruba is really quite nice. There are a few blocks of shops and a Senor Frogs (or one of those type bars). As you face inland, if you go to the right, there are a few blocks of street markets and then across the street from there is a nice shopping plaza with some upscale shops. There is a city bus that is cheap and you can ride it down to Palm Beach and even if you don't get off, you get to see some of the resort area.

Bon Voyage Nancy, Barb and Ginny!

Drink a Pina Colada for me!

cruisenfever wrote:

PH8 wrote:

I got that list as well......................it was to warn people NOT to buy gift cards for the holidays from there..........

7.85 for RCL stock!! wow......

Sooooo, what are you waiting for???????

$4 a share..

I just told a friend of mine not to buy the stock unless she thought the fundamentals looked good. But I also added that I'm so shell-shocked by this market that I would recognize a good fundamental if it bit me on the butt!

Patti, Claude is doing as well as one might expect. He was the King of the Schooner Bar, doling out wonderful advice to whatever novice cruiser was sitting next to him and of course being treated royally by the crew (as we all were). He's such a nice man. And now he's onboard on a B2B with a swingers' group.

I can't wait for some reports, LOL!

We just booked the Jewel southbound repositioning cruise from Vancouver to San Diego on March 2, 2010. It'll be chilly, but probably quite scenic, and there's an overnight stay in San Francisco, so we'll be able to go out to dinner with some friends we haven't seen in forever. We booked an OS because the prices were great ($2100pp for 9 nights). And best of all, THERE'S NO FUEL SUPPLEMENT! We did use a Next Cruise (only have one left to get rid of now) that was coded to include one, but the RCI vacation planner took it off.

Remind me who Claude is please??...I'm sure I have met him as I am remembering the name but not placing the face to it.

j

Claude is a swinger! He was always so much fun.

Hey Congratulations Jean on booking another wonderful cruise. Price is outstanding. Getting that fuel surcharge off a NC even after 11/10/08 for cruises in 2010 is a real PITA. They put it on, then take it off...............so stupid.
Kathy, if the stock goes to $4, we are all in big trouble.

Hope I'm not too late to wish BON VOYAGE to Barb and Danny and Nancy and Ken. Have a wonderful cruise.

Patti - the crummy avatar is there...are you and your drinking buddy still at it?

GrmyCRS wrote:

Hope I'm not too late to wish BON VOYAGE to Barb and Danny and Nancy and Ken. Have a wonderful cruise.

Patti - the crummy avatar is there...are you and your drinking buddy still at it?

As far as your avatar goes, I see a gray box with "It's not gossip if it's the truth" printed in it.

Must be the same as you thinking that your first post last night went poof...........when it is still there.

GrmyCRS wrote:

Jen & Jean - If you get some of that wet stuff, send some over here.

Patti - about the bubbly, you two were pretty plastered As far as drinking at work, we've decided on Petron to stash for "emergencies" and maybe a few jello shots for an afternoon "snack" when needed. Keep looking at the Grandeur would ya!!!!

Sheila - Thanks for the explanation...I had noooooooooo clue.

Barb - I'm sure you'll "pass" with flying colors...then you can breathe again.

Was a bit better today...the phones in our office and Henderson office crashed, so it was veeeeeery nice not hearing them ring for a couple of hours.

Here's the post you thought went poof!!

GrmyCRS wrote:

Guess my last post vanished...oh well.

Ginny - HAVE A GREAT TIME...sounds like a wonderful time for you and Alex.

Jen - If I had any control over those $%#$ phones, they would never ring again.

Sleep well SPB's...

Here's you second post.