WOOOWEEE!!! Mom and I had lunch with our TA yesterday and have docs in hand for our July 5th Alaskan cruise. Not long now.

:banana: :banana:

Congratulations know you are excited - and, of course, the mushers will be so looking forward to your review. :ch: :ch: :ch: :ch: Joanna

WooooHoooo!!!!!!!!!Beth!!!!!!

Congrats Beth!!!!!

Nancy

Woo hoo Beth!!

Congrats, Beth. Doc dancing is THE BEST!!! Have a fantastic time on your Alaska cruise!

:banana: :banana: :banana:
Dancing with you, Beth! :)

Thanks, y'all. I'll be sure to take good notes, Joanna, for all you MUSHers.

Karen, love that disco ball.

Awesome news Beth! Congrats on the docs! DANCE!!!

Excellent! Anticipation is almost as good as the cruise! Enjoy!

Happy dancing and happy cruising!
Love, Elena
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Congrats Beth!! Looking forward to your review and seamail!! :D

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Masaki

Enjoy your doc dance, Beth and have a terrific cruise.
:banana: :banana: :banana:

I would suggest you just keep :ch: :ch: :ch: all the way to the ship!!

Congratulations!! Have a great cruise - will look forward to your report.

JoAnn, I retire 5 days before this cruise. I will be dancing on and off the ship. Can't wait!!!

What a way to go into retirement, Beth! Enjoy! - :) Michele

Oh, Beth, I remember you have been looking forward to this day for a long time, back from cc days! What a celebration! Hope you and your mom have a GREAT cruise to mark a milestone! Let us hear from you, as you know a lot of lct people are on Alaska during the summer!

Beth,

Retirement and an Alaska cruise! How GREAT!!!! Congratulations on reaching "the worker's finish line!"

Thanks, y'all. With my thirty-one years with the state, it feels like a long time coming. Boy, have I seen the many changes in education.

Now the Alaska cruise in the summer family cruise with the seven of us. The "Official Retirement Cruise" is in November on the Silver Wind (Lisbon to Las Palmas) with mom, sis, Suzanne and Crystal. That will be the blow out!!! :pass: :pass:

You got that right!!! :3smile:

Take notes on Alaska excursions. I know you're a repeater, but I'm a newbie to that part of the world.

Will do, Suzanne, Even though mom and I are repeaters, the other 5 are Alaska newbies. We are only taking the White Pass Railroad excursion in Skagway and our Virtuoso excurison in Juneau. I'll get crib notes. My nieces are taking some fun excursions. I'll get them to post their views from the eyes of the 20-somethings....

Dancing with you Beth. hope that you have the same great weather that we had 6-7 thru 6-14. I am still trying to get time to post review, but slow going with getting caught up with everything. If I can answer any questions, let me know though. :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana:
Sandra

Thanks, Sandra. I am hoping for good weather, too, but you know Ketchikan... the rain capital of the USA. Did you all have problems with mosquitos? I bought some Off towelettes just in case. It is tough to come off that cruise depression, go back to work and think about writing a review.

HOw wonderful for you Beth!!

Beth
We took the Guided Wilderness Fish/Dining in ketchikan. Weather beautiful and sunny (Although I forgot to put on sunscreen so had red face and peeling nose for rest of cruise. Our Guide explained that Mosquitos don't like salt water so perfect. In Juneau, we did the Taku Floatplane/Lodge, Now that was a different story,Beautiful weather,Huge amount of mosquitos!
(they even supplied portable zappers as well as spray.) Walks were cut short as not enjoyable being swarmed by them. Nicer to sit up by Lodge and zap them while sitting in porch swing.
Sandra

Hi Sandra, So glad you had good weather on your cruise. Thanks for the news about the "state bird" as they call mosquitos in Alaska. I won't forget the sunscreen too.

Welcome back, Sandra! Hope your cruise was all you hoped for and more! Alaska is awesome!

Beth, I know you are a repeater, are you having same Virtuoso excursion in Juneau as last time? Ours was a whale watching thing followed by a salmon bake at a big cabin on a little island. The family loved it!

Olivia, We didn't have a Virtuoso excursion on our first cruise in 92 that I can remember. Not sure why because we had an escort. Maybe we were such novices at the time we weren't aware of it. The excursion you describe does sound like ours this cruise. We are looking forward to it. Most of the Virtuoso excursions we had have been first rate. We have only had one experience with an "extrememly mature" tour guide we weren't fond of. The rest have been top notch.

Beth, when I was using a Virtuoso agent (who was REALLY a good TA) the only escort they had on board on a cruise that I didn't really "gel" with was on an 11 day cruise in Europe similar to WAVE, it went from Nice to Dover (VJ7 in BK speak). At our evening "event", I forget where, maybe Lisbon, hosting a RSSC cruise, he was telling people at the cocktail party that Silversea was really the "only" luxury experience! Hit me the wrong way, as I had previously sailed SS and found it exactly the same (with some misgivings about the Shadow) as RSSC! Don't know why I'm telling all this. Our Alaska host must have been fine, remember the excursion as being great. We DID have wonderful weather. It was a strange day, our "meal" was at about 4:30 or so, and we were back on the ship at about dinner time. Time to eat again!

Hi Olivia,

How tacky of the escort to be such a snob!

I was thinking that we would go on our Juneau Virtuoso excursion around 1:30 or 2:00 and get back to the ship around 5:30-6:00. When you don't even get to Juneau until 1:00, what else can they do? It does seem like an odd time for a meal, but we'll be ok. Thanks for the info.

My nieces are really looking forward to whale watching. We saw very little wildlife in '92, so maybe this year we'll have more luck.

Beth- We were on the Crystal Harmony two summers ago in late July/early August. The weather was insane... some days in bikini's some days in ski clothes. The thing I wore the most was my polar fleece sweatsuit... my best advice... pack everything!
Ashley

Thanks Ashley, The tip is certainly welcomed. Though there won't be a bikini in my suitcase, I am throwing in a few pair of shorts and may be a bathing suit :eek: of some sort.