Excellent, Texas Don!

Hi JoAnn,

Crushed you haven't caught up with the TUSH antics. :(

"TUSH - The Great American Novel" is ready for publication and the authors will have numerous book signings at Barnes and Noble very soon!

D-Niece, axyoualee, I thin dat da book signin' is fixin toobee et Barns-n-no-Bells ownlee cuz Shoestore-N-Sighman is a pushin my cuzin, Jeff Wolfexemplaries nu book, Ya Mite Bea Rednek Iffin' Yur Ideya of Fast Food Izza Hittin' a Possum at 65 MPH! :D

Weye Texus Don, Ah herdly no whut ta sa!

R u n'Diana gunna ryt this here scrpt n ths dang tawk?? Inf sew, itz gunna be a LONG 8 daz! Wee here TUSHees hav a reel apresheashun fer this here speekin! Xawstin az it may be!

Proceeds from all sales of TUSH: The Great American Novel will be used to fund additional cruises for the TUSHees! The next non-cruise needs to do an more in-depth tour of the RedNeck Riviera

Cheers, BP

Don, the mystery at sea sounds like great fun. Let's do it!!!! Here's a good character: Olive (pronounced Ah live) T. B. Cruzin, or just Olive (pronounced Al love) Cruzin for short.

Anne, yuz got a rite good head aridin those purty shulders of yurs! Shoothowdy, we evn has r own Rednck Riviera just north a here that we share with our cuzins in Okie land, calt Lake Texhoma. My uncle Jeter got a rite nice houseboat out there that we can go a cruzin on! It's got everythin'. Got port to starbird avecado grene shag carpet, harvest gold aplyences n da gally, outdoor bbq and porta potty combo, built in fish bait tanks, a grate big johnson on the aft, and a hole slu of dem deck chairs ups on da veeranda, tho yu mite bea wantin' to get up xtra erly to beet dem chairhogs a bringin last nites towl art, iffin ya no wat I meen. ;)

Peggy, that is a good suggestion. Olive Cruzin, I like it.

Denise, we probably will go just a little more high-brow with the murder mystery though, so problee won't be havin dat kinda funny tawkin. Somehow, I just can't see Jeeves being a butler for Bubba! LOL I am thinking something more along the lines of the sophisticated English vernacular!

We were thinking that the story would take place on a POSH ocean liner during the 1930's as it steamed its way across the pond to the states. Onboard would literally be the who's who of American and European High Society. It will be a crossing filled with romance, intrique, espionage, and dare I say, MURDER! :eek:

Hey Texas Don! That thar murder mystery thang sounds like so much fun. Sure wish I wuz on board with y'all. (P.S. As a child living in Dallas, I used to go to summer camp at Lake Texhoma! That was many moons ago, that's fer sure! Probably hasn't changed a bit since then. :eek: Redneck Riviera - perfect for TUSH2!)

- Chit(lin)

Moon (PITM) Pie an Alfalfa Alan is goin' highbrow! YEE-HOWDY!!! Shure hope Perfesser Heiny Henry Higgins is a sailn' wit uz!

Me n ma feller ain't ne'r been ta RedNeck Riviera! GOLLY! We be needn a pisspurt?

Gonna miss ya, Chit(lin) an Grits!

Chit(lin) wez gonna miss youin Grits as well! You shore have sum rite nice cruzin goin on next year! Me an my lil' Princess is a mite jealous! LOL Our little CROSSin cruise would sure round things of nicely, don't ya think?

Oh Denise....pisspurt? An original TUSH mind is a terrible thing :app: <img border="0" alt="[beer]" title="" src="graemlins/beer.gif" />

Tom and I are looking at sailing on CROSS (the full b2b) as we had to cancel Fjords (not the right timing with Toms job). We LOVE your idea Don of the murder mystery!!!

Sue, we hope you guys join us. It is going to be a lot of fun.

Diana and I were thinking that we would do the murder mystery on one of the two formal nights, when everybody is in their best duds. That way we can just get by without costumes, and just bring some small props to round out the time period. We have plenty of props that we can figure out how to get to the ship.

Ok, we are booked in cabin 773 (there are not a lot of cabins left on the second leg as we wanted 715, but it was not available). :)

Add us to your master list Chat Kat!

That puts 24 on the roll call now.

Well gosh darn!!! Don't check the boards for a few hours and look what happens!! Great Tom and Sue, it will be fun to have you along.

If you want to do the cooking class, have Ngaire sign you up now. (See my post under your other thread Cooking class).

Don - that sounds like a great idea, about the formal night Mystery Dinner - although, how will we work the tables, sounds like we might need more than one table. OK, I'll let you worry that.

Haven't checked with our friends yet, but will email them and see if they are interested. I know Carol's birthday is Nov 12, which will be one of the formal nights and they may want to do Signature's instead for her birthday.

Thanks for adding us on the roll call list Chat Kat. This will work much better for Tom's schedule as he, too, is an accountant! :banana:

It will be so nice to meet so many LCT'ers! :app:

Welcome aboard CROSS, Sue - No Shop Talk allowed - we're on vacation!!!! No one will be interested in Offers in Compromise, Partially Taxable Exchanges or LLC's vs C and S Corps. unless we're compromising on what wines to drink or which venue with which to dine

Gotcha! ;)

Tom isn't one anyways to talk "shop" while on vacation unless it is as you say...has to do with a drink or where to eat!

You guys are too funny!!!

Don - had an email from my friend Carol this morning, she and Neil would be very interested in the Mystery Dinner.

JoAnn that is great...the more folks we have to look at all day to wonder "are you the one who did it!".

JoAnn, that is great news! The more the merrier.

The plan is for everybody to dine together that evening in character. Probably eight to a table. After dinner, we will then retire to some secluded spot onboard the ship, where we will then act out our little Whodunnit!

So who exactly was the murderer or murderess? Was it Rocky Feller, the American tycoon? Or perhaps it was the distinguished Senator from California, Mr. Phillip Buster that did the job? How about the Senators travelling companion, his voluptuous secretary, Miss Dolly Partner? Could someone so sweet, be capable of such a crime? Then just maybe, it was the tobacco importer from Britain, Sir Winston Marlboro of Kent that snuffed them out? There will be plenty of twists and turns, but one thing is for sure, it will be a fun evening figuring out exactly who did the dastardly deed and why!

YAY, Sue and Tom!! Looking forward to sailing with you fellow TUSHees on CROSS!

How fun your CROSS cruise will be....maybe it was Mrs. Peacock in the Conservatory? We had some evening poker games on SA trip in the card room, right across from Signatures and had the room to ourselves.

Marcie, sure wish you were going with us. BTW, does the Voyager have a Conservatory? I also think it was done with the candlestick. LOL

Excellent suggestion on the card room. That may be a very good venue for the murder mystery.

Don, the card room is okay if we are not having a dinner. I think that we can arrange for the back side of La Verandah. We'll have an in with the Food and Beverage Manager since we're in the Cordon Bleu program, so I doubt that we'd have a problem.

What you you think about doing it as a lunch?

Lunch would be a very good option, Kathy. Something to consider, Don.

I haven't checked in on this thread for ages, so this is a catch-up post .... Great idea, Don! Count John and me in for the mystery game, whenever and wherever. Sue and Tom, welcome! We're going to have a great group for CROSS. I'm ready to go NOW! To wait more than a year seems impossible.

Priscilla, we have you down. It is going to be great fun.

Kathy and Denise, doing lunch may be a good option. We were thinking that doing it on one of the formal nights would lend itself more to the romance and intrigue, since everybody would already be dressed in their best duds, but probably would be too difficult to pull off considering all the other evening festivities.

Don,

At lunch time, there is generally no on board activity from 12 - 2 either, so we would not have any overlapping activity.

The only thing that could impact it might be a Cordon Bleu class - which could be at 1:00 - depnding on how many Cordon Bleu groups there are and hopefully, we're all in one group together.

For anybody that has done the TA cruise before. I have a few questions.

Where is a good place to stay in Funchal?
Will it be warm enough to enjoy the pool during the crossing?
What kind of activities do they have during the day?
Also, what are the evening activities?
What kind of entertainment do they have?
Has anybody ever shipped luggage to the ship in Funchal?

You know there is only 393 days left before we board in Funchal and only 385 days for those boarding in Monte Carlo!

Don,

1. Are you going to use RSSC Air? Can't comment on anything Funchal.
2. I would be afraid to ship luggage to Funchal - It's not like shipping to a more well known locale like Ft. Lauderdale!. Luggage can go astray with you being right above it in the passenger compartment!
3. Most of the RSSC days have a basic structure; You will see how it is on SAND. Lectures/events start at 9 or 10 AM and there is something to do every 1/2 hour to 45 minutes. 12-2 is usually lunch and of course eating is a main event! 2:00 on is constant something to do with tea and trivia at 4 and 4:30 and Bingo at 4:45. Then cocktail hour is 6-6:30 and then on to dinner. There are occasional schedule changes if there is a port to interfere!
3. Marc wrote a good review of his crossing on Voyager about two years ago.
4. Entertainment: There is usually music and dancing BEFORE dinner and there are usually two choices; A Combo/Duo and also just a pianist; After dinner there is lounge entertainment in the lounges too. Sometimes the Voyager 5; Kareoke is popular but not everynight and it depends on who is on board. I think for 2007 we will find it somewhat different because of All Inclusive. It's been quiet in some venues, I believe because of the lack of open bar. Post dinner there is a show at 9:45 either a production show, comic, singer or similar.

Reid's Palace Hotel is suppose to be the best place to stay in Funchal. Haven't been there but many on the crossing I did, ate lunch there & said it was magnificent. Those that actually don't the crossing part were also staying there. This was 5 years ago.

Don; look on Trip Advisor...it seems The Cliff Bay gets high ratings from travelers.

As far as what to do during the day on the crossing I am going to take a nap each day, so I can be up at night partying!!!! I will be tired from the daily ports of call on the first segment of CROSS and then plan to sleep in a bit each morning and nap in the afternoon (when I am not in cooking school) so at night I am ready to have fun!

In Alaska we were tired every night due to the walking and all the fresh air that we were real party-poopers!

Yes, Sue - Naptime is a definite.

The Good part is we will have 25 hours a day!

Thanks Kathy, Betty, and Sue. However, I never take naps. I am going to go back and see if I can find Marc's review as well.

Sounds like a lot of options during the day as well as at night. I do my best napping as well in the afternoon, especially when reading a book!

Don, last Nov., I was on the grand crossing. The "crossing portion" was verry warm on the high seas. (Funchal was beautiful & cool.) The "experienced" Crossers wore their swimsuits, shorts, etc., on the crossing portion, & enjoyed lounging by the pool in the WARM, bright sunshine while the rest of us had on our cashmere sweaters. :rolleyes: I was miserable. (I will never go without shorts & swimsuit...anywhere!) The captain takes the warm WARM southern route. Go prepared & soak up the sunshine on the high seas.

Thanks for the great advice, Michele.

Don, I don't nap either. I'm sure there's lots to do to occupy the time, including just relaxing by the pool, taking in the fresh air.

If you find Marc's review, could you kindly post the link? Thanks!

Love a nap by the pool!

Alan will be napping by the pool!