A snowstorm is coming

I'm not sure what it is, but it seems like every time Mike and I take a cruise, we've gotten out of town right before a major snowstorm.    2009 we drive to the airport in a snowstorm and after de-icing the plane we take off leaving the rest of the family to fend off the blizzard.  2010 we sail out of New York and come home to 20 inches of snow.  Now, for 2011, our track record remains intact:  a 14 incher is heading our way and should start to rear its ugly head about 5 hours after we land in sunny Florida.  

I finished all of my packing over the weekend and this time I actually remembered to pack the cruise documents and put the cruise luggage tags on the suitcases so I'm already way ahead of the game.  I just heard the sound of wheels rolling across the kitchen floor so I am assuming that Mike has finished his packing as well.  As always, I put all of his outfits together and packed for him earlier, but I know he always likes to throw some last minute stuff into his bag.

It's so weird; I keep having this thought in the back of my head that I'm going to arrive at the port tomorrow and they're going to say to me that my cabin has been changed.  It's probably just a lingering thought from having had the chance at a Penthouse Suite but it would be wild if it happens.  At this point, I'd just be happy moving to a different deck - 8 through 10 - that features a launderette.  I just know I'm going to have to do some ironing and as far as doing laundry, well that just goes without saying.

Found out tonight that our sailaway is going to be broadcast live in HDTV on  CLICK HERE TO SEE ME WAVING LIKE A LUNATIC and it's supposed to be a 6pm sailaway but when I checked the Port Log it shows the Mariner departing at 5pm so who knows?  But the wonderful gentleman (Lou) manning the cameras said he would catch it live and also capture some still shots so whatever time we sail I'm sure he'll be recording it for posterity.


Okay, so if I get to bed (sleep!) right now I can get 5 hours of shut eye and then the bags under my eyes will be slightly less noticeable than if I were to stay up all night.  What are the chances??

Less Than Two Weeks Away

Sitting here I just realized that we are leaving in LESS THAN 2 weeks, and since things didn't seem to work out with the diet anyway I decided to just grab a couple of Oreos and bring you all up to speed.

I started pulling out some of my summer clothes to pick some outfits and get them ready for packing.  Of course all my skorts and shorts are wrinkled because they've been folded up sitting on wire shelves in the closet since September.  Logically, I decide to throw them in the dryer with a damp bath towel to "steam" the wrinkles out.  Mike asks why I bother, his "solution" is to just wear wrinkled clothes and if anyone doesn't like it well that is just their problem.  I try to explain that, NO it is MY problem because people will think that his wife is too damned lazy to iron his clothes.  Which of course isn't true; the truth is his wife is too damned lazy to throw them back in the dryer!  Anyway so that leads to a discussion of just what exactly he wants to pack because he refuses to pack any long sleeved button-down shirts but all of his short sleeve button-downs are either batik (oh, I LOVE my monkey shirt, he says.  I don't bother telling him that those are LIZARDS not Monkeys!) or retro vintage style bowling shirts.  Neither of which really go with the dress slacks I have selected for him.  Unless he suddenly morphs into Cosmo Kramer which might not have been a bad thing during Kramer's halcyon days of Seinfeld but not such a good thing now post the stand-up rant...

Crap, I've eaten like 5 Oreos already

Finally I just agreed to let him wear what he wants even if that includes a pull-over windbreaker if it's chilly in the dining room and he only has short sleeved shirts, and he agrees not to throw me overboard once we're out at sea.

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The upsell fairy came to visit and it was soooooooo painful to have to tell my TA to turn down the offer.  It was a really good offer, too, but we just couldn't justify the extra expense for features that we don't even have any need of. (i.e. butler service).  But I appreciate my agent getting right on this and attempting to hook me up!  I'm sure I've said this before, but I'll say it again, if you are looking for a good luxury travel agent  (and looking for a good price as well), I highly recommend Joe and JP from CHIC LUXURY CRUISES click here!  Seriously I wonder if we'll be chilling out in our cabin or on our balcony and look at each other and say, "we shoulda....."

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Speaking of my TA, he finally got confirmation from Kristin at Regent that my group meeting space had been arranged.  Not at Horizon Lounge (which I had requested specifically for its outdoor seating area) but they have given me Observation Lounge for the date and time I wanted.  Further investigation, however, leads me to be happy about the change of venue because the Observation Lounge bar generally opens at 11am which is one of the earliest to open!  So we can get this party started right away :-)     Another interesting side note about this whole meet & greet affair is that I did finally get a response from someone in corporate addressing my dissatisfaction with the lack of ....hmmm, I can't think of the word..... shown by Regent compared to other cruise lines.  I also expressed my surprise at the Regent staff acting as if they had never heard of Cruise Critic when at least three of the mucky-mucks at Regent do in fact post on CC (Frank Del Rio, Mark Conroy, Tim Rubacky)

So, I did finally get a response and I'm pasting it here without the to/from info:

Neither Regent nor Oceania do the CC parties as we limit these types of functions strictly to those group functions arranged through our agent partners.

One of the most valuable resources we give our agent partners is the ability to host cocktail parties or private functions for their clients and to do so for CC, or any other internet forum, would dilute that substantially.

The beauty of the Oceania and Regent vessels is that they are human sized and thus, guests find each other quiet easily, unlike say on the 3000 passenger Celebrity ships.  

I certainly hope you understand. 

Well, sorry, I don't understand and I think that is the lamest excuse/rationale I could ever envision.  But I got my way so it's all good!!

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10 Oreos down.... time to stop writing before I can't zip the wrinkled shorts!