Family Update 7/28/07
July 28, 2007
Sorry for the dearth of posts lately, I seem to have picked up a nasty cold while in Anaheim for the Showstopper National Dance Competition. Actually, the whole family got minor colds except for me who got the doozy. We are talking serious chest and head congestion with a running nose and wicked cough. Yesterday, the right ear blocked up.
Now, I don’t get sick very often. In fact, it’s been almost 15 years since I have missed a day at work from sickness. The ear blocking is a good thing as it usually means the cold is on the way out for me. I do feel better than the last few days of last week, but I need to stop coughing at night so as to get some sleep – maybe tonight.
A Happy Birthday to my sister Kelly who turned 42 yesterday! I believe she is out and about in Michigan researching locals for our next family reunion up there next Summer. We are rooting for her to find some good places to enjoy each others company.
My computer also took a nose dive last week. After booting into Windows, it would just simply hang. About 1 time out of ten, it would come up with some errors but I could do most things. Finally on Friday, it just refused to come up. I got lucky this time as a repair attempt with my Windows installation CD was able to fix the problem. Still, I hate having to mess with it.
Suzanne finally finished with the our recent Alaska Cruise images. I have uploaded them here at Mr Papa’s World but we still need to add the titles and description of the images. That should be forthcoming in the next day or two. I will post when they are completely ready, but feel free to check them out in the gallery now if you desire.
Well, around the time of the Showstopper National Dance Competition, I finally pulled the trigger and bought new equipment for my theater room. We got a new HDTV, a Blu-Ray Hi Def DVD player, a new A/V Receiver and a DirecTV HD DVR. I will do a post in the next few days on the equipment specifics and why I upgraded. We had someone come over today and look at our old HDTV, so hopefully we will get that sold soon to offset some of the cost.
Just a couple more weeks of Summer for the kids before they head off back to school. I think the official date is Aug 13th. Seems a bit odd to already picking up school supplies for them, but with the traveling we did this Summer, it just flew by. Sean moves into Middle School so he is excited. They just got their standard test scores back from last year and continue to excel. Overall, they were both in the 90th percentile in Arizona. Sean topped out at 99 percentile in Math and Savannah at 95 in Reading.
I received another whole bunch of genealogy updates from John Butler on Suzanne’s side of the family. He has provided a lot of good info on some of her family members. I continue to be negligent in my genealogy research. I have a bunch of data to input, I just need to find the time. Maybe with all of our family vacations out of the way (unfortunately), I can get to them here in the next few weeks.
We watched our first Blu-Ray movie tonight on the new system. It was Fly Boys and looked absolutely stunning. The story and the movie were good too. Definitely worth a watch.
Okay, off to cook dinner…
Alaskan Cruise – Roundup
June 25, 2007
If you have been reading Mr Papa’s World the last week or so, then you have read my daily blog our my family reunion cruise to Alaska on board the Celebrity Mercury. Today, I thought I would just provide some wrap-up comments about the cruise.
Alaska
This was our second cruise to Alaska. The last one was 14 years ago on board the Holland America Rotterdam (the second one). Both cruises were absolutely wonderful. Alaska is indeed an very nice place to cruise and I would heartily recommend it to anyone.
That said, there was still a night and day difference between this cruise and the one 14 years ago. On the Rotterdam, I believe we were always the only ship in port on that Alaska cruise. One could easily roam the streets of the ports we visited with seeing a ton of people or feeling congested. That cruise was clearly before Alaska became the cruise destination it now is.
When you cruise Alaska today, be prepared for a mass of people. There was always at least 3 additional ships in port where ever we visited. If you are expecting to get of the ship and see quaint little Alaska towns, forget it. The areas near the docks are now cruise ship tourist areas. The shopping areas will feel like the mall on Christmas Eve.
If you want to avoid the touristy areas and experience Alaska, you will have to take some excursions. Some are pricey, but you will find them worth it. It will also get you away from the docks and experiencing Alaska. I recommend you seriously consider taking some excursions, but leave a bit of time for wandering through town.
Be sure to watch for animal life. The highlight animals we saw were Orca whales, Humpback whales, Bald Eagles and a black bear.
Family Reunion
Having a family reunion on a cruise turned out to be a great way to do one. I only wish that more of my family could have cruised with us. The cruise worked out much better than I could have envisioned. Everyone tended to do their own thing when they needed/wanted to. We ate dinner together most nights and spent some time together on excursions and during the sailing. No one felt obligated to spend time with each other because it was a family reunion. We had great times together and relished the time together. To my knowledge, no one got sick of each other and everyone genuinely had a great time. I hope to arrange more family reunion cruises in the future.
Celebrity Cruises
We tend to favor Celebrity Cruises when we select a cruise. We have found Celebrity to be absolutely wonderful and love the experience they give you on a cruise. This cruise was no different. The crew on board the ship could not have been nicer or more friendly or helpful. The food served in the dining room was absolutely delicious. We rarely eat in the buffet area, finding the dining cuisine to be a highlight of the cruise. We ran into countless numbers of other cruisers that unequivocally stated that the Celebrity food was the best in the industry. Everyone of them had cruised other lines.
There were a few hiccups on this cruise, such as the tendering process in Ketchikan, but none were remotely large enough to have caused us any distress on the cruise. Every time we asked for something on the cruise, the crew jumped to satisfy us. I cannot recommend Celebrity Cruises enough. If you haven’t sailed them before, give em a shot.
The New Celebrity Mercury
We have always found the Mercury to be one of our favorite ships. We tend to avoid the really big ships, liking the coziness of the somewhat smaller ships. We have had several great cruise on the Mercury and were looking forward to her again.
In a rather unique situation, we were booked on this cruise in the exact same cabin as the cruise to Mexico we took on the Mercury last November. On that cruise the cabin was Family Ocean View stateroom on the back of the ship. We had a couple of large picture windows that looked out over the back of the ship. There was a public are between the windows and the railing of the ship. We really enjoyed this room as it is larger than most non-suite staterooms.
In April, Mercury went into dry dock for some refurbishment. Among the changes was the conversion of our stateroom from an ocean view to a balcony – the actual class now called Sunset Veranda. The changes to the room are amazing. The length of the cabin, already large, was expanded by almost two feet as the window and wall on the backend were removed. The public area was converted into a 10′ x 10′ balcony right to the railing on the back of the ship. The class name Sunset Veranda was very appropriate on this cruise as we had many wonderful sunsets off the back of the ship.
As luck would have it, since we had already booked the cabin, there was no additional cost for us in the new cabin. To book the Sunset Veranda rooms now will cost more money as the class is now priced right below the suites, which quite frankly is where it belongs. They are fabulous cabins. Also, on the November cruise, the kids decided to leave themselves a note and taped it to the bottom of one of the drawers in the room. To our surprise, but to the glee of the kids, the note was still there when we boarded Mercury for Alaska.
Another major change to Mercury during the dry dock was the shopping galleries. They were pretty simple and plain before, but have gotten a major overhaul during the dry dock. The quality of the items in the shops was also improved. Now, we don’t spend much time in the shops, but they were jam packed whenever they were open. I still get amazed at how the crowds swarm the shops when there is something going on in jewelry.
Most of the public areas on the ship were also given an facelift. There wasn’t any major construction that I could tell, but carpeting, drapes, upholstery and fabrics were replaced.
In short, Mercury looked absolutely wonderful and gave us a great cruise. We look forward to sailing her again in the future.
Now it’s time to start planning our next cruise. Currently, we don’t have one booked, but are currently centering in a Panama Canal cruise on Celebrity that sails from San Diego and ends up in Fort Lauderdale. This cruise would be Thanksgiving 2008. The problem is that’s almost 18 months away and we may decide to do something sooner.
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