Seattle Nesties
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Re: non clicky PIP poll: if you could go on vacay today...
I want to go to Antarctica more than any other place.
Fiji
#1-BFP 08-22-09 ~ M/C 08-31-09 at 5 weeks 6 days
#2-BFP 08-6-11 ~ Due 04/18 ~ born via c-section April 22, 2012
My Blog
I need to go here. Now.
New Orleans
Photo courtesy of jennygg.com
My never updated Planning/Married Bio: http://mgoss228.weebly.com/
Seattle Knotties: Please page me if you send me a PM!
atlantis resort bahamas (This was my Valentines day gift but I want to go now!)
My dream vaca is to go an an African Safari!
TTA buddies with EmiBird! Congrats to my former TTA buddies sammichele, pistolpackinmomma, and iloveblueberries!
Ha! We are so similar - I'm into going January 2013 - you and H want to come along?
Friends of ours just got back and I was showing pictures to DH, and he was like, 'Okay, you're right, that looks incredible.'
Have you booked The Atlantis yet? If not, we should chat via PM - I went two years ago with DH. If I'm being completely honest, I wouldn't recommend it (and neither would most of the girls on the travel board who have been). If you have booked it, I can give you some advice on things to do / see there...
I thought they only did trips during the summer because the ice is too thick. Are you flying in?
I get really, really seasick and I have a slightly irrational fear of ships (I flipped out on the Victoria Clipper once), so I need to get that figured out before I can go. Or I need to find a way to fly there. H won't go with me until I get my fear of ships under control.
I would totally go without him though.
BTW, don't go to Madeira when you're in Portugal. It was nice, but nothing amazing. Lisbon was much better. Although the food in Madeira was better, but still not worth the flight out there.
Yeah we already booked we're just going to stay there a few days and then at the wyndham nassau for a week. I have heard a lot of bad things about Atlantis, basically that it is really overpriced, but it is mine and DH's childhood dream! I would love any advice on what to see. What didn't you like about it?
TTA buddies with EmiBird! Congrats to my former TTA buddies sammichele, pistolpackinmomma, and iloveblueberries!
One of those getawayfromtheworld resorts in Arizona or California.
This one is Miraval resort near Tucson:
1st year anniversary in Victoria with a killer whale topiary!
pssst. january is southern hemisphere summer. but i don't know much about antarctica--is it different?
♥ bfp1 06/14/2011 ♥ edd 02/22/2012 ♥
♥ baby jennlin born on 02/15/2012 ♥
who says you can only wear your wedding dress once?
honeymoon bio ♥ married bio ♥ planning bio
jumped ship to the new and improved nest. back to TB for baby boards.
french polynesia...
or back to cabo
where I'm going in April:
Japan! (Osaka, Kobe, and Kyoto)
Melbourne, Australia
http://place2visit.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/australia-bondi-beach.jpg
Haha, I keep forgetting that. Duh.
Slovenia or
Amanpulo, Philippines.
Ha! Someone's been on Pinterest (or else you just so happened to select the same Slovenia photo that's making the rounds there)...
We're looking at a cruise - I don't think they fly in to Antarctica but the cruise ships are supposed to be *really* well built and able to handle the ice down there. They run four a year - two in December and two in January since (as jennlin pointed out) it's the prime summer time down there.
As for ships - can you handle WS Ferries? If not, I'd suggest just riding those back and forth because they're a decent size to start with, and then remember that cruise ships are really big (the one that we're looking at is 500 feet long, which is actually pretty small for cruise ships). I think they're relatively safe - unless your captain decides to go off course to salute a buddy, obviously. I'd just try doing some shorter trips and then work up from there, and then also try lots and lots of drugs for the seasickness. In high school we took a girlfriend on a cruise with us who was *so* prone to seasickness and she wore those bracelet things and did awesome. This was a girl who would literally get nauseous just standing on a dock, so it can be done (if you ever want me to find out what she used, I'd be happy to ask her)!
Venice:
Or Naples:
Or pretty much anywhere in Italy where I can have wine, bread, pasta, pizza, espresso, gelatto and look at a beautiful country.
1. Super rip-off - rooms were terrible, they were not cleaned well, our "view" room was a view over their garbage collection place, etc. On the second day there I came back to our hotel room to find small shards of broken glass all over our bathroom floor (you know, the *one* area of the hotel where you might actually walk around barefoot). I threw a fit with the management and we actually got upgraded to a really nice suite, but the suite was only nice when being evaluated on what we paid for our standard room; if you were paying suite-room pricing, you'd be underwhelmed.
2. Most of the property near the fish/sea area stinks like an aquarium. Made me want to vom.
3. Food is not very good and is *very* over-priced. For example, we went to Mesa Grill one night and it was almost $200 for the two of us with 2 entrees, 1 appetizer, 2 margaritas, and dessert. If you look at the prices from the Atlantis and from the exact same menu in Las Vegas (where food is already sort of expensive), you'll see there's almost a 50% uptick to eat there as opposed to at the Mesa Grill in Vegas - you're just captive so they blatantly rip you off.
4. There are kids everywhere - if you're taking your kids then it's great; if you're going as a couple, it's actually quite difficult to relax as they're screaming, running, splashing, and generally being kids all around you (can't fault them for that, either, but it's just not relaxing).
5. They let cruise ship passengers come in and tour the facilities during the days in port for $$$, and then your already crowded hotel is even more crowded with a bunch of looky-loos wandering around.
6. You're kind of stuck there unless you want to shell out about $20 each way to take a cab into Nassau (which isn't particularly safe). So be prepared to shell out $$$ for everything - your drink, you didn't return your towel on time, sorry did you want a locker because you don't want your crap to be stolen by the pool, etc.
Just in general, if you're going to shell out $400-$500 a night for a standard room, you're looking at pricing comparable to most Four Seasons city hotels, and you're getting service comparable to an airport Hilton. Hopefully you'll have a different experience than DH and I did, but we really didn't like it and would never return.
As for things to do in the Bahamas - we did the dolphin encounter (expensive, but fun); we went snorkeling (you should do that off-site - the water is gorgeous, the fish are great, and it's nice to get away from the Atlantis), and we had a really nice dinner in downtown Nassau - Caffe Matisse. By the time we paid for the cab into / back from Nassau it was about the same price as eating at the Atlantis, but the food quality / ambiance made it a *much* better value.
Are you going before June? If not, you want to buy travel insurance to cover your trip in case of hurricanes, since the end of May is usually hurricane season. Also, you should buy travel insurance anyway (if you haven't yet) just because it's always a good idea to get that when traveling internationally. Make sure you get one that covers medivac in case of emergency.
Technically, you can fly in, but you have to work down there or have connections to someone who works down there. The flights are really, really limited, but there's an air strip. I looked into seeing if I could buy a ticket, but you have to be somebody or know somebody to get on those flights. Boo.
I'd love to go to Antarctica too. I've got a friend that spent 4 summers there working and loved. The flights are contracted Navy flights, so he said its difficult to do. He looked into having his fiance come down and was told unless she had a job on the ice, they wouldn't let her.
Thanks for the info at least we will be prepared and not get our hopes up! I will definately save that restaurant name for when we staying in Nassau.We're actually not going until Sept. which I hear is a lot less crowded but I hear sometimes they close the pools by where we are staying. I hope it isn't too bad for us. We're really excited because we're kids at heart, not so much looking for the relaxation or luxury but the sea life and waterslides lol. At least we will have a week at the Wyndham which I hear is awesome so even if Atlantis sucks, the vacation shouldn't be all bad!
TTA buddies with EmiBird! Congrats to my former TTA buddies sammichele, pistolpackinmomma, and iloveblueberries!