Command Holiday Party 2005

[Jaycie685]

So last night was my command's Christmas party and it went fairly well! It was held at the San Diego Convention center downtown in one of the really big rooms. This was the first year we did a one-room party versus multiple rooms like the past. It was really nicely decorated in blue and silver. Each table had 10 chairs and 3 tea candles and a lit up snowman centerpiece. Very festive. This was the first year we had a live band versus a DJ.Food was buffet-style but not too filling. They had carving stations and hor d'ourvs (spelling?). Beverages were water, tea, soda and of course beer and liquor. Some people arrived already liquored up from partying downtown. Anyways, all was going well til it came time to raffle off the prizes. There were A LOT of prizes being given away!$100 gift certificates to the mall (don't remember how many)5 $100 gift certificates to the Apple store5 PSP's5 PS2 slims5 5mp digital cameras with printers1 Xbox 3605 flat panel LCD tv's5 30 GB iPods5 60 GB iPods3 Apple iBook g4 laptops10 DVD players5 camcorders1 all-expense paid trip to Cabo San Lucas1 all-expense paid trip to Las VegasThere were more but that's all I can remember right now! Total cost of prizes came out to $35,000. Being that we're about to go on a 6-month deployment, they chose prizes that were small and portable and could be used aboard the ship with the exception of the LCD tvs and the trips.I was really hoping to win one of the Apple laptops since I am planning on buying one and I figured if I can get one free it would be even better. If not that then at least the new iPods but no, not even that. With no luck... I didn't win anything. My friend sitting next to me won one of the $100 gift certificates to the Apple store and since she's already got an iPod and a laptop I was trying to see if she would let me have her gift certificate but she said no. Made me even sadder. Sigh.... guess I'm going to have to shell out the nearly $2,000 I'm going to spend on my iBook. For those who are already Mac users, I'm converting!!! I'm still debating if I should get the laptop now before I go on deployment and get the $250 rebate on Mac Office or just wait til I get back and hope that they offer it again next year. Do you Mac users know by any chance if that offer is annual? I really need Word, Excel, and whatever else comes in that box!Well that's my rant! I'll post pics of the party when I can.

[Mavrik]

Awww where was her christmas spirit?well at least you had fun at the party right?I've never won anything at christmas parties... and I've been to a few.

[millster]

Sorry you didn't win anything. As for the iBook, $2K for an iBook!? You must be looking at a fully-loaded 14"?If I can make a recommendation, the 12" is smaller, lighter, has better battery life and the exact same screen resolution the 14" has plus it's cheaper. Just a thought that might save you some cash.Also, as for Office you might consider Open Office. It's free, very similar to Word/Excel/Powerpoint (even saves in those formats) and it's free. Did I mention it's free? If you are set on Office though, I'm not sure about the rebates. I don't believe they are annual, however.

[damronjr]

A little early, huh?!? Ours is next Fri at the Holiday Inn by the Bay. We have a bunch of prizes includes Ipod Nanos and the big one is a $1500 Visa card. I never win anything either and probably won't this time. The parties always suck so bad too. Last year we had some lousy Marine comedian and a crappy hypnotist. This year we are supposed to have a magician, so hopefully that will be better.

[Jaycie685]

Yeah it is a bit loaded isn't it? Well I am going with the 14" only because it has the DVD burner where the 12" doesn't even have that option.Here are the specs of what I am planning on getting:Memory: 512MB built-in & 512MB SO-DIMM Upgrading to 1GB DDR333 SDRAM (+$100)Hard Drive: 60GB Ultra ATA drive Upgrading to 80GB Ultra ATA drive (+$50)Optical Drive: 8x SuperDrive (DVD±RW/CD-RW)AppleCare Protection Plan for iBook - extends warranty 3 yrs (+$249)Base price w/warranty: $1548Price w/upgrades and warranty: $1698That's without tax!Then I'm also getting Microsoft Office for Windows (Regular price $499.99, $249.99 after mail in rebate) Then you have to add in the iPod ($299.99)TOTAL: $2,246.00 without taxI'm eventually going to get a mouse and a carrying case, but that might be another time.I know there's a student discount and also a military discount. If the student discount is more, I'm going to have to find my old college ID. My friend recently bought an iBook using his college ID (he had already graduated) and he got a discount and they threw in a free iPod! I need a higher paying job.

[Mase]

Jeeze! $36,000 prize budget?! The base legal office won't even let us get away with giving away $6k in prizes. Some bs about accepting gifts at a government function.My organization's party is tonight at the officer's club. I'm hoping to win the $200 open bar tab!

[Jaycie685]

I had fun! Howie and I even danced for the first time! (after being together for over two years!) Yeah... long story. I even ended up with two of the snowman centerpieces instead of the 1 per table. People were going around to different tables and snatching them up so I did the same thing! I just thought that if I won the laptop or even the iPod, it would save me some money.

[jwalcik]

Quote, originally posted by Jaycie685 »Then I'm also getting Microsoft Office for Windows (Regular price $499.99, $249.99 after mail in rebate) do you not want office for the mac instead? it is a separate product. office for windows won't run on a mac without virtual pc (which is actually included with office for the mac).you can check the prices with discounts through apple's online store. near the top on the right there's a "More Stores" menu section for the various discount areas. the discounts you see there *should* be the same as the discounts you'd see an an apple retail store.

[Sputnik]

Our client/employee cocktail party was last night. Had a nice ice sculpture of our company logo, several carving stations, loads of appetizers, and desserts galore! Oh and the best part... open bar all night. Woo baby. I had 6 glasses of wine and a rum and coke. Next Saturday is the company Christmas dinner/party.

[Jaycie685]

Yeah we did ours a bit early this year due to us being out from Dec 6th-16th, then the second leave period is from the 18th-30th then we're underway for the deployment the first week of Jan. Hectic I tell you!Wow at least you guys have entertainment at your parties! All we had was the band and some slideshow of a recap of 2005.

[Jaycie685]

If you think $36,000 is a lot for prizes you should have seen last year's party! The total amount in giveaways was almost $100,000.00! It will never again be repeated.We had a truck (Chevy Avalanche) and a Harley Davidson motorcycle in the drawings! Along with the usual flat screen LCD tvs, dvd players, game consoles, digital cameras, gift certificates, trips, etc. The reason we were able to afford all that was our old MWR (Morale, Welfare and Recreation) rep ripped us off! For those who don't know what an MWR rep is, it's a civilian who is attached to the ship and pretty much takes care of recreation type stuff. In-port he/she is in charge of recreation for people who live on the ship by providing video game consoles and dvd players for rent and arranging free or low-cost trips to various local places. To help raise money and bring down costs for tours, fundraisers are often held. Out at sea they also do the dvd/video game rental, karaoke, bingo, video game tournaments, various activities to keep us entertained. When we know what port we are hitting next, that person flies out ahead of time to scope out the area then comes back and coordinates what available tours and sights we can see. Now our rep was cool until we found out what she did. While we were deployed for our two month trip around South America, she went out checked out the local areas for possible tours/trips. To sum it up, she was overcharging us on the cost of the tours/trips. Where some of the tours were free, she would charge us. Of course never been in that area before, we didn't know they were free. There was one exclusive trip to Macchu Picchu where it was a two night/three day stay including airfare and she charged $800 when it actually only costs $300! Now I didn't go on that trip because I thought it was outrageously expensive, but a number of people went not knowing they were getting ripped off! Being on an aircraft carrier really helps since there are about 5,000 people onboard and if everyone donates a little bit, it adds up and that's a lot of money!

[Jaycie685]

Yes the Microsoft Office I am planning to get is made for Macs. Here is a little blurb from apple.com about the software.Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac comes in three editions — Standard, Professional and Student & Teacher — all of which include full versions of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Entourage. The Professional Edition also comes with Virtual PC for Mac Version 7, the application that makes it possible for you to access PC-only software, files, networks and devices from your Mac.I am planning on getting the Professional Edition.

[Mavrik]

Most of the christmas work parties I ever went to sucked. I stayed for the food and then left lol.

[BOZACK]

Sounds like you had a good time. Those parties can be fun if the food and music are good. By the way, can I have one of the snowmen? My girl friend collects snowmem.

[Jaycie685]

We didn't have an open bar. Sodas were $2.50 and it wasn't even a whole can! I don't know how much beer and alcohol cost since I didn't buy any. I had to come in to work at 4:45am this morning so I wasn't able to drink.

[Jaycie685]

Awww I wish I knew your gf liked snowmen. I ended up giving the other one to my roommates and it is now sitting on the kitchen counter along with various other Christmas decorations.

[mcgusto82]

my old command ALWAYS had the X-mas party at the O club. since we were a small comand (250 people tops). last year i think they spent about 10k$. they had a tree with the prizes hanging off the tree. the drawing was for the names. once you got called up, you went to the tree and pick a prize. open the card and voila'.last year my name was called out, but i didn't show up. my wife couldn't find something nice to wear. we got into this big fight and we didn't go.

[tnpartsguy]

Check out Ebay! I've seen it on there a few times. I too am a line-straddler, I have 4 or 5 Win PC's and my beloved MiniMac. So far I'm using Open Office, but I'm not real thrilled with it, and it doesn't work as well as Office 2003, which I have on my PC's.