Posted on 11/16/2004 6:17:38 AM PST by nerdgirl
Hi Nerdgirl;
Look for my Mom, she's on that cruise - Susan King is her name and she's also from CA. She and I did the spring cruise together, Wm. F. Buckley was on that one. Jay Nordlinger and Rich Lowry are also very nice.
And, I agree with you about John Hillen - he's so cute!
Great! I was astounded when a couple National Review guys asked me "what's a freeper" - still reeling a bit from it in fact :) - I'll look for your mom, glad to know she's onboard.
Would love to hear some commentary from when Jonah Goldberg speaks. :-)
St Thomas was the best. It's green mountains, great people, and a laid back attitude, all combine to make it immensely appealing. Jamaica was lacking the same cordiality, and the poverty was appalling to us not-so-rich 'Mericans...
My wife, 15 yo daughter, and I had no reason to go, but just felt like the warmth would be good. EVERYONE needs to cruise these days. It is the best way for us to vacation, and get pampered (Celebrity does that well!).
Next year, we will travel on the Galaxy from civitavecchia (rome), italy - malaga, spain - funchal (madeira), portugal - nassau, bahamas - key west, florida - galveston, texas, on a 14 day jaunt.
If anyone cares to join us, go to the Celebrity website, and look at the transatlantic bargains! From $925 pp up (for the ship only, air is extra)(for insides, but you can even get a suite with your own butler for a little over 2 grand each)... $450 each will reserve a spot, and they will allow you up until 70 days out to pay the balance... they can include air for you, as well...
Maybe we can get a FR cruise to fill the ship! It holds 2000 folk, and has great entertainment, food, and ambiance. Surely there are enough speakers to fill our heads with conservative thought, and then use the chocolate on our pillows to sweeten the dreams of a truly Free Republic!
What about it, Jim?
Ah, I envy you, nerdgirl. I'm well acquainted via e-mail (and one meeting) with Jay Nordlinger and John Derbyshire, who are very nice. If you play cribbage, take it up with Derb -- he's volunteered to take on all comers. If you're a musician or a golfer, see Jay. He's expert on both subjects.
Keep posting,I'm really enjoying reading everything you're experiencing.
Been to St. Thomas many times and just love it. Tortola is an interesting island but very different than St. Thomas.
Enjoying your reports. Thanks!
Well, you must have missed all the FReeps Ahoy cruise threads. This past may we had our third FReeper cruise, here's url of the after-cruise thread: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1144309/posts
We had a blast, and will probably start talking about what we're doing next year pretty soon.
Mykdsmom mentioned on the other thread that you're on the same cruise as the FReeps Ahoy 3 took last May on Holland America. Have you made your stop at Half Moon Cay yet? We took over the green cabana, and I wondered if the FreeRepublic bumper sticker was still there on the roofline. 8^)
Hola guys - sorry yesterday was St. Thomas - I did this Ecohike & swim near Keneel (sp?) Bay on St. John's - it was quite fun. I'm usually not all that interested in hearing about the history of every tree & nest I walk by...but the guide was entertaining and made it interesting. Better than sitting on the ship at the all day buffet :)
I have spoken several times w/ Jay N. - he has a real sincerity to him and strikes me as a very sweet sort of guy. He moderated one of the panels the other day and added yet another humurous touch to the event. One thing most of the NR guys have in common is a good sense of humor, and the ability to laugh a little at themselves as well.
I heard Dick Morris is staying on the boat - which is good news, as it makes the trip more interesting. The other guy you mentioned - Derbyshire - gave a top 10 of why Bush won, then another one about why Kerry lost - and the top of each list was "he was himself." The candidates' wives were also each on the list - presented in the typically British style, to much laughter I might add.
I'm going onshore to Tortola now but I'll see if there's anything worth writing about later - if so I'll do a new writeup & post the thread here. Haven't seen Susan King yet but will keep my eye out.
Thanks for the update.
;o)
Hola freepers - here's my writeup from yesterday, which I didn't get a chance to post:
Spent the day in Tortola, touring the island w/ a guide for a few hours. Lovely water, beaches & distinctly Caribbean architecture, but after you've seen 1/2 the island, you've pretty much seen all you need to. No reason to delay heading back to the ship. It's amazing to be freeping while on a boat looking out at Tortola & Peter Island with yachts right & left! So tomorrow the panels will be starting up again - there's one on terrorism in the morning. Jonah B. should be here, and I'll find out what happened w/ the Dick Morris thing. The only gossip I have on that is from some people I met the other night who said that Dick in his wife are friendly & personable. Maybe one of these nights I'll be able to give you my own opinion!
Today is the first day I actually FEEL like I'm on vacation - the time difference has been killing me (staying up till like 5am, then having to get up 3 hours later
) so last night I crashed at 9pm, so today I finally feel normal. For any of you W. Coasters who end up taking cruises from FL - I'd recommend making yourself get up at least an hour or 2 earlier each day for a week or so before the cruise - that way it won't be such a hard adjustment. Ah and if anybody tells you that in such a big boat you "hardly notice you're at sea" - they must have been cruising on a placid lake! Sure, when you're in port or in calm waters, there's not much movement. But when you get into moderate seas - the boat does indeed sway quite a bit. I've found that during the land excursions yesterday & today I could still feel the motion of the boat - making me pretty wobbly!
So back to the NR element
it's fun that most people wear their nametags around the ship, even when not attending NR events (tonight there is a party at 6 or so). To recap writers & speakers I've actually met so far: Ed Gillespie, Pat Toomey, Jay Nordlinger, Stephen Moore, John Hillen, & just a brief handshake w/ Rich Lowry. Toomey was not particularly personable, nor did I find his presentation at the panel all that great. There's another "notable" guy who was on our ecohike tour - some Victor something Hansen? A professor from CA who recently moved to the Stanford think tank (shows how much attention I paid to the bios they gave us in our packet). Several fellow cruisers have gone on and on about how brilliant this guy is - some kind of academic sage or something. To be honest he seemed as unfriendly as they come - reminded me why I never got a Phd.
We all went swimming at a nearby beach after the hike, and despite the grand time everyone was having in the water, this Hansen guy did not crack a smile once. The good news is that in that regard he doesn't fit into the NR mold at all - most of the guys seem quite jovial. Could be a warm guy once you get to know him though, who knows. He'll be on the panel tomorrow and perhaps my view of him will change.
Alright I'm writing mostly about nothing here, so why don't I come back when I actually have something of substance to write about!
later footnote - I finally met another freeper! (3 hurrays). Freeper Aritai is here on the cruise - great to have another nerd on board!
other late footnote: Dick Morris left the boat yesterday, and believe it or not we were slated to dine w/ him! Oh well, we had John Hillen & his wife again, which I enjoyed a lot as they are cool folks & I'm beginning to really appreciate getting to know a few people really well rather than meeting a ton of people for just a few minutes.
Appreciate your reporting, nerdgirl. Has Michelle recovered from her seasickness? Haven't seen you mention her today.
Yes Michelle appears to be quite bubbly now - although I didn't make it to the panel yesterday morning on terrorism where she was a speaker. I can only say that she's quite pretty in person and has adorable kids as well.
I did have the pleasure of hearing Hansen speak yesterday and he is indeed fantastic - he's extremely academic and tends to stuff a lot of complex vocabulary and historical references into each sentence...but after listening to him speak I definitely want to read some of his articles.
Thanks for your interesting reports. FR has its own wire service now!!
Your reports were thoroughly enjoyable, both the political and travel components! We're jealous! Thx.
We did get to eat with Dick Morris and his wife the last night he was there. I enjoyed the evening and found both to be interesting and friendly. His wife is quite accomplished and intelligent, too.
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