Sounds about right. I did my own simulation of the Italian Job here in Blacksburg the other day - an organization I help run organizes "engineer's week", and as one of the events we have "Penny Wars".

You bet! I haven't quite decided on the route to take yet. My current thinking is to go west from Virginia to Kansas City, then north through Wyoming into Montana, then west through Spokane into Washington State. On the way back in August I think I'll go through Montana into South Dakota then down through Minnesota and Wisconsin for a change of scenery. I'll make sure to take pictures whenever I pull over...

Speaking of pictures, I found a few that I had taken of cars at Flow MINI when I placed my order. I uploaded the pics to my personal gallery here.

Ben

Pennies, gold bars w/ women on them - they're all the same, right? :) That reminds me. I also read that the MINIs in the subway system (in Italian Job) were electric. It said that gas-powered cars were not allowed in the subway, so they had to use electric. Then I read something about them using a NASA hangar to film part of that. Cool!

For someone who hasn't decided on a route quite yet, sounds like you've done a lot of route planning. :p I think the cool thing to do on a trip like that (if you have a long time to get where you're going) would be to take a street GPS, load in the maps for the states you are going to travel through, load in some way points along the way, and then just drive whereever you want to go. If you get lost, just select a way point to get you back on track. How fun would that be? Makes me want to quit my job, grab the GPS, and take my own cross-country trip!

I was looking at the pics in your gallery. At first I thought that was my husband's EB/EB MINI there beside the red one (that one was cute), but then noticed that it had EB mirrors instead of the normal ones capped in chrome. In the background of the pic with the black one (and I agree that they should have added a few more options), there is a yellow one with a white top. Did you happen to look inside that one? It has blue interior! When I saw that car with that blue interior (someone may like it), it confirmed for me that I absolutely didn't want a yellow MINI. Then I drove to Greenville the next weekend, saw that yellow and black one, and ordered one! Go figure! I looked at that red one a lot too. It was almost like it was smiling at you when you walked by - so CUTE. They also had a red/black convertible there too. That baby was sweet! Seeing that one and then the LY/Black one, I had a hard time between those two color sets. You do realize that with that cute little red car w/ the white top that it's going to be a magnet for women? There's a Cooper like that here in town (poor little thing doesn't get driven much though) that I have to see every day when I drive home. It always makes me smile - just so cute.

ANYONE get any ship updates yet?

Oh - I saw a picture too with MINIs on a vessel. They were all parked side-by-side with plastic on parts of them. Don't remember exactly where - I think it was somewhere on the WW site. If you go to the site and navigate to the place where they have vessel pictures. I will see if I can find it again.

Debbie

That's good news...but I'm guessing it means that my MA left my Cooper at the port screaming..."Wait for me!!" and the other Coopers just waving back.

Yes, but maybe your little MINI will get loaded on another boat in the next day or two that can get here faster...and then your MINI can wave when it's passing that big boat waited down with all those extra cars! I forget the stats, but I did notice that some of the boats had quicker times than others...by a couple of days. Does that make you feel any better?

As for the Cooper vs. S, I'm not surprised - given that the movie was in production throughout 2002, the S was probably difficult to get a production allocation for. The Coopers were a lot more expendable.



At the time of filming, the MCS wasn't available in either IB or PW. That is why the CR was the only MCS. One other oddity is that the PW has a white roof, never available in production models.

Hey Deb! I am still in the dark as to where Valentine is... He left port on the 12th, so, it has now been 16 days in transit... should be getting here soon. I emailed my MA and he said IF Valentine gets to the dealership in the a.m., he could have it ready for me to drive home be the afternoon :) So, all there is to do now is wait, hope the ship comes in on time and hope the VDC doesn't have him for too long...

Hey everyone! I started reading tonight and noticed that I was about 10 pages behind - I've been gone most of the weekend, which is good because that's less time spent wondering where the boat is with my MINI. I'm following that good advice from a couple of days ago to find something else to occupy my time.

Hey Ben - congrats on arriving to the US! Not too much longer now! I don't know where our K-Line is at the moment - we have about eight more days until its arrival in Charleston. You have to be so excited at this point though!

Hey rsinsheimer - thanks for the SF post and the earthquake pictures. I've heard others say before that the earthquakes are something that you get used to, but I don't know that I ever could. When I was in VA, we only had one blizzard, and it was only about 42" (I think that's about right) of snow. That one wasn't scary, but I imagine those in the north probably have different feelings about some they have encountered. The worst thing for us was trying to take our three dogs outside. We had to be careful not to lose the Pomeranian, and our Chow would not go unless he could see grass...not easy when there's 42" of snow to dig through! The hurricane thing, that's a different story. I've been in South Carolina for a little over six years. We've yet to have anything big hit us here, but I've been ready to pack up and leave a few times, especially this year. The good thing about them is that you get warnings, but I still don't feel safe with them. I felt much safer in VA with my mountains and snow. I'd definitely like to visit SF some time. I haven't been able to talk my husband into it, but maybe if we made it a cross-country MINI trip he might be interested! Ben's trip sounds like it's going to be a lot of fun. He will have to keep a picture diary for all of us - HINT ;)

Ryane - have you heard anything more about your ship? Are you getting close to arriving at port? It's Easter...and Valentine is almost there! :)

Oh...about my day. We had a six-hour round trip drive today. We drove from SC to NC and then back to SC this evening. We took my husband's MINI. Until today, I'd only driven it about two miles. Not the best way to get to drive, but he was pretty tired and not feeling great, so he pulled over after a while and let me drive for a couple of hours. What fun! It hit its 1200 mile mark last week, so I didn't have to worry about the limits. I didn't want to push my luck though since he was letting me drive, so I kept it near the speed limit and didn't exceed 4500 on the tach. It was a lot of fun. I was trying to imagine it as my own, but with that Electric Blue panel staring at me and his array of electronics on the dash, it was hard to imagine it as my own. Oh well, I figure it's only about three more weeks until I get to drive my MINI home. So exciting!

I hope the rest of us get ships soon. As hard as I tried not to be disappointed last week, I was pretty disappointed about missing the first boat and waiting to find out what was going on. So if anyone needs cheering up this week, I'd be happy to cheer you up! Been there, been sad, waited impatiently, finally got boat! ;)

I think I already have a book here, so I'll stop now. Hope everyone had a good weekend...and hope everyone has a great week. Ships for everyone!!!

Debbie

Pictures from the VPC/VDC (depends who's talking as to what its called):

http://www.northamericanmotoring.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21112&highlight=vpc

Here you can see pictures of a BMW on the ship and then being offloaded:

http://www.offworld.com/e46/images.html

I'm not very hopeful my MINI made the Madame Butterfly. My MA told me last week it would come on a K-line ship, so I guess she's right. I read their schedule and they have the Andes Highway leaving today the 28th, arriving Charleston 4/11. What I don't understand is that my MINI was booked on the MB and was there in time (23rd). :confused:
BTW, for what company is the Jingo Maru sailing?

Hi guys. My Mini was booked on the Madame Butterfly but WW shows it was never loaded :( It was supposed tol eave Sunday? Now I don't know where it is. I would much prefer to drive my mIni as opposed to my crappy rental. The wait is killing me :rolleyes: Any suggestions as to another ship?

BTW, for what company is the Jingo Maru sailing?

Hi Claudia.

The Jingo Maru is a Wallenius Wilhelmsen ship.

Tom

I'm a little confused. I think i've heard on here that a lot of your MINIs were assigned ships way before they were manufactured. Mine's been finished and "released to a carrier". Why don't I have a ship yet? :(

Tom

I think i've heard on here that a lot of your MINIs were assigned ships way before they were manufactured.
Tom
I don't think that that is correct. What appears to happen is very opportunistic -- the car is completed and shipped by train to Southampton, where some (I assume) very harried folks have to figure out which VDC the vehicle is headed for, then figure out which RORO is headed that direction next, and whether there's room to book your car onto that ship. As you have probably seen, people get booked onto ships and then bumped, that probably gives the poor people who are trying to get the car to its anxious owner-to-be yet another bout of apoplexy as they have to start the process all over again.

Just to make things more complicated from our end, for the East Coast US MINI seems to favor W-W, while for the West Coast US they seem to favor NYK, but they opportunistically will vary from that "rule" as needed. The only way to know for sure you aren't on W-W is to enter your car's VIN onto the W-W website once it get to the "waiting at port" stage, and see if it recognizes you. If yes, even then you're not assured that you won't get bumped and end up on another line's ship. If you continue to be recognized on W-W then you're one of the lucky ones who can easily find out what ship their car is on, the rest of us have to get the Bill of Lading from our MA (available a few days after leaving port) and contact the shipper.

Hope that helps (a bit).

:)

-- Roger

Hi guys. My Mini was booked on the Madame Butterfly but WW shows it was never loaded :( It was supposed tol eave Sunday? Now I don't know where it is. I would much prefer to drive my mIni as opposed to my crappy rental. The wait is killing me :rolleyes: Any suggestions as to another ship?

My guess for you, Claudia, and Tom is that you will be picked up by a K-Line if you were there for the WW and missed it. The same thing happened to a couple of us a little over a week ago. The only bad thing about that (besides not being able to track it) is that unless your MA is on top of everything to keep you updated, you probably won't know about it for a couple of days. In my case, mine left Southhampton on a Monday and I didn't find out about it until Thursday morning when ASK-MINI updated...then my MA looked it up and found out how it was getting here. I don't know what the K-Line schedules are...maybe someone else here is up-to-date on that. I think there's also another WW ship leaving in a couple of days too. That's also a possibility too!

OH - thanks to the person who posted the links with the VDC pics (I forgot to look at the poster name before I clicked to reply to this message). Anyway, thanks - it was cool to see all of the pictures. All those MINIs in that one room looked so cute! But that poor little MINI that had its roof crushed - how sad to see that!

Have a good night everyone! Debbie

Hope that helps (a bit).

:)

-- Roger


It sure did. Thanks Roger. :)

My guess for you, Claudia, and Tom is that you will be picked up by a K-Line if you were there for the WW and missed it. The same thing happened to a couple of us a little over a week ago. The only bad thing about that (besides not being able to track it) is that unless your MA is on top of everything to keep you updated, you probably won't know about it for a couple of days. In my case, mine left Southhampton on a Monday and I didn't find out about it until Thursday morning when ASK-MINI updated...then my MA looked it up and found out how it was getting here. I don't know what the K-Line schedules are...maybe someone else here is up-to-date on that. I think there's also another WW ship leaving in a couple of days too. That's also a possibility too!

OH - thanks to the person who posted the links with the VDC pics (I forgot to look at the poster name before I clicked to reply to this message). Anyway, thanks - it was cool to see all of the pictures. All those MINIs in that one room looked so cute! But that poor little MINI that had its roof crushed - how sad to see that!

Have a good night everyone! Debbie


Good night & Thanks Debbie.
By the way, does anyone know if it's possible to track shipments on the other shipping lines the way we are able to on the WW website?

Tom

Good night & Thanks Debbie.
By the way, does anyone know if it's possible to track shipments on the other shipping lines the way we are able to on the WW website?

Tom
Only with the Bill of Lading (gotten from your MA) and a somewhat embarassing phone call to the shipping line:

"Excuse me, but I'm like, a total geek, and I'd like to know the name of the ship (which I'll never see) that's carrying my car (which I've never seen) from England to the US.

<Long pause while the shipping person rolls her eyes and thinks to herself "Get a life, dude!", then looks it up and reads it to you>

It's the 'Capricornus Maximus RORO-ious'? Thanks!"

;)

It's OK, I did it.

;) ;)

-- Roger

I have come to the conclusion that my mini will not come to the states till about the 12th of april depending on which carrier it is released too. This is very sad and I am just going to drown myself in school work until this date rolls around.

Pennies, gold bars w/ women on them - they're all the same, right? :) That reminds me. I also read that the MINIs in the subway system (in Italian Job) were electric. It said that gas-powered cars were not allowed in the subway, so they had to use electric. Then I read something about them using a NASA hangar to film part of that. Cool!


Yep. They rigged three MINIs with electric-only power for the drive down the stairs onto, and on the subway platform. The hangar was used to build the underground/in the tunnel set where the truck is dropped through the street.

Zip

Only with the Bill of Lading (gotten from your MA) and a somewhat embarassing phone call to the shipping line:

"Excuse me, but I'm like, a total geek, and I'd like to know the name of the ship (which I'll never see) that's carrying my car (which I've never seen) from England to the US.

<Long pause while the shipping person rolls her eyes and thinks to herself "Get a life, dude!", then looks it up and reads it to you>

It's the 'Capricornus Maximus RORO-ious'? Thanks!"

;)

It's OK, I did it.

;) ;)

-- Roger

I was laughing so hard when I read this that my husband had to pause his TIVO to read it too...then he was laughing so hard that it made me laugh even harder. The scary thing is that the only reason I haven't made this phone call is that I've sent so many e-mails to my VERY nice MA that I haven't been able to bring myself to ask him for the BofL number. Unlike the shipping lady rolling her eyes at the shipping company (that I will never meet), I have to face my MA when I go to pick up my MINI. And even though he tells me that it's nice to work with people who are so excited about their MINIs, I have no doubt that he thinks I'm insane...and that I need to get a life. My husband even e-mailed him to tell him that he hoped I wasn't annoying him as much as I was annoying him (my husband). I'm sure I will break down in a few days, and e-mail the MA to get the BofL number so that I can find out about the boat. He probably even wouldn't be amazed to learn that before I got bumped from the Takasago, I had already saved and printed pictures of it (the Takasago that is) and printed the spec sheet too. Anybody else done that...or am I just a bigger geek than the rest of you?

Debbie :p

I have come to the conclusion that my mini will not come to the states till about the 12th of april depending on which carrier it is released too. This is very sad and I am just going to drown myself in school work until this date rolls around.
School?! My God man! Have you no shame??!
Which is more important? School, and therefore your entire future or browsing online at all the neat Mini stores for Mini goodies and accessories?!! You could O.D. on how much (or how little) chrome goodies to buy...mods to think about...etc. I mean like REAL priorities like "do I buy a T-shirt AND a hat?" And you want to do school work.. :eek:

p.s. Don't tell anyone, but I wish my kids had your schoolwork ethic. I wouldn't feel near as nervous when I write checks for tuition. :D :D

I was laughing so hard when I read this that my husband had to pause his TIVO to read it too...then he was laughing so hard that it made me laugh even harder. The scary thing is that the only reason I haven't made this phone call is that I've sent so many e-mails to my VERY nice MA that I haven't been able to bring myself to ask him for the BofL number. Unlike the shipping lady rolling her eyes at the shipping company (that I will never meet), I have to face my MA when I go to pick up my MINI. And even though he tells me that it's nice to work with people who are so excited about their MINIs, I have no doubt that he thinks I'm insane...and that I need to get a life. My husband even e-mailed him to tell him that he hoped I wasn't annoying him as much as I was annoying him (my husband). I'm sure I will break down in a few days, and e-mail the MA to get the BofL number so that I can find out about the boat. He probably even wouldn't be amazed to learn that before I got bumped from the Takasago, I had already saved and printed pictures of it (the Takasago that is) and printed the spec sheet too. Anybody else done that...or am I just a bigger geek than the rest of you?

Debbie :p
Actually, I went ahead and apologized in advance to our MA as we knew we were going to bombard her with inane questions about the Mini. She too has said she likes to work with people who are excited about their car but I interpret that to mean "sheesh, I didn't think I was going to have to babysit a couple of 50 yr olds! Cripes!"
In all fairness she has been a peach about it though. :D
Also, from what I was able to gather, the K-Line vessel that I think our car is on, is called the Frisia. (times were about right for it's voyage and arrival times too)
Randy

Actually, I went ahead and apologized in advance to our MA as we knew we were going to bombard her with inane questions about the Mini. She too has said she likes to work with people who are excited about their car but I interpret that to mean "sheesh, I didn't think I was going to have to babysit a couple of 50 yr olds! Cripes!"
In all fairness she has been a peach about it though. :D
Also, from what I was able to gather, the K-Line vessel that I think our car is on, is called the Frisia. (times were about right for it's voyage and arrival times too)
Randy

Hey Randy! Thanks for that info. My MA will be so surprised when I don't have to call for the number. Poor guy though - he's probably already lost the bet as to when I would call. :p

My husband is conviced that I'm obsessed. He says I'm spending way too much time reading and posting on the fourm. :rolleyes: Just can't have any fun.

Thanks again for the info. I will have to look up the boat and print pictures tomorrow! Don't tell my husband though - he'll call me a geek again! :p

Actually, I went ahead and apologized in advance to our MA as we knew we were going to bombard her with inane questions about the Mini. She too has said she likes to work with people who are excited about their car but I interpret that to mean "sheesh, I didn't think I was going to have to babysit a couple of 50 yr olds! Cripes!"
In all fairness she has been a peach about it though. :D
Also, from what I was able to gather, the K-Line vessel that I think our car is on, is called the Frisia. (times were about right for it's voyage and arrival times too)
Randy


Tazminia-
Do you have a link how you found the name of the boat? I did not see the Frisia listed for the vessels going from Europe to U.S. Then again it is a shotty website....Or maybe it is the cause of user error on my part :)

I feel lucky enough to be getting a cooper s while I am still in college... And being that I will be parking my mini on campus, I am not sure how much attention I want to attract from all the lovely drunk kids walking home from the bars. But yes I got the Youification book from Rachel at Bill Jakobs and I have looked at that thing quite a few times. I wish I could justify spending the money on those things but mini charges just so damn much...
You should just write the checks to the professors, you will be sure to get good results :D


School?! My God man! Have you no shame??!
Which is more important? School, and therefore your entire future or browsing online at all the neat Mini stores for Mini goodies and accessories?!! You could O.D. on how much (or how little) chrome goodies to buy...mods to think about...etc. I mean like REAL priorities like "do I buy a T-shirt AND a hat?" And you want to do school work.. :eek:

p.s. Don't tell anyone, but I wish my kids had your schoolwork ethic. I wouldn't feel near as nervous when I write checks for tuition. :D :D

Tazminia-
Do you have a link how you found the name of the boat? I did not see the Frisia listed for the vessels going from Europe to U.S. Then again it is a shotty website....Or maybe it is the cause of user error on my part :)
Here is where I found the ship name by ports of origin/destination.
http://www.kline.com/PCC-RoRo/scheduleatlanticshuttle.asp
Hope this helps :D
Randy

I feel lucky enough to be getting a cooper s while I am still in college... And being that I will be parking my mini on campus, I am not sure how much attention I want to attract from all the lovely drunk kids walking home from the bars. But yes I got the Youification book from Rachel at Bill Jakobs and I have looked at that thing quite a few times. I wish I could justify spending the money on those things but mini charges just so damn much...
You should just write the checks to the professors, you will be sure to get good results :D

Man, I'm in the same boat as far as being a- thankful for getting a cooper s while I'm still in colelge and b- afraid of parking it anywhere near the reaches of the unwashed masses on campus. My solution may be to park the car at my parents' house nearby and continue to drive my van as my daily commuting car, grabbing the MINI for dates, road trips and miscellaneous motoring fun. Tech lets us list two cars on our parking passes, so I'll leave both attached and play it by ear...

While I'm excited I'll have the car all summer long, I'm soooo nervous about taking it into downtown Seattle. I'll be living on the eastside which seems pretty suburban and pleasant, but baseball games in Pioneer Square will be a bit of a nail biter. That might be a job for some other intern's lame rental Malibu :D

Ben

Edit: I was going to fix my misspelling of Colelge, but I guess it's funnier to leave it the way it is :)

Don't know how old these are, but they give you a sense of how big the Bujin really is. The white water in the foreground of the first image is from the Bujin spinning up its props to exit the Gatun Locks.

I'm guessing that the image I've labeled as #2 is actually the first in the series, with #2 having been taken before the lock has been filled to raise the water in the lock to the level of Lake Gatun.

I don't think that that is correct. What appears to happen is very opportunistic -- the car is completed and shipped by train to Southampton, where some (I assume) very harried folks have to figure out which VDC the vehicle is headed for, then figure out which RORO is headed that direction next, and whether there's room to book your car onto that ship. As you have probably seen, people get booked onto ships and then bumped, that probably gives the poor people who are trying to get the car to its anxious owner-to-be yet another bout of apoplexy as they have to start the process all over again.

Just to make things more complicated from our end, for the East Coast US MINI seems to favor W-W, while for the West Coast US they seem to favor NYK, but they opportunistically will vary from that "rule" as needed. The only way to know for sure you aren't on W-W is to enter your car's VIN onto the W-W website once it get to the "waiting at port" stage, and see if it recognizes you. If yes, even then you're not assured that you won't get bumped and end up on another line's ship. If you continue to be recognized on W-W then you're one of the lucky ones who can easily find out what ship their car is on, the rest of us have to get the Bill of Lading from our MA (available a few days after leaving port) and contact the shipper.

Hope that helps (a bit).

:)

-- Roger

That does help. ASK MINI still says that I'm "awaiting transport" seems unlikely that it's not at the port alreaday since it's been done since the 24th. I'm guessing that it's not on a WW ship at all.

Fingers crossed...

Well I've been updated on the WW site. Now I show I booked on the Resolve - along with some 367 others. That's the good news - the bad news is I still have an asterisk by my VIN - what the heck does that mean - I'm waitlisted again!

Why can't I just get confirmed - are they waitlisting me in hopes that another car won't show up? Maybe they will get up late that morning and not make it through security so they'll miss the boat?

I would really be bummed to have to wait again for the next boat.

Well I've been updated on the WW site. Now I show I booked on the Resolve - along with some 367 others. That's the good news - the bad news is I still have an asterisk by my VIN - what the heck does that mean - I'm waitlisted again!

Why can't I just get confirmed - are they waitlisting me in hopes that another car won't show up? Maybe they will get up late that morning and not make it through security so they'll miss the boat?

I would really be bummed to have to wait again for the next boat.

I think you were wait-listed from the MB, and are almost guaranteed a ride on the Resolve. :) Let's hope so anyway.

Well I've been updated on the WW site. Now I show I booked on the Resolve - along with some 367 others. That's the good news - the bad news is I still have an asterisk by my VIN - what the heck does that mean - I'm waitlisted again!

Why can't I just get confirmed - are they waitlisting me in hopes that another car won't show up? Maybe they will get up late that morning and not make it through security so they'll miss the boat?

I would really be bummed to have to wait again for the next boat.
When was your car completed?

Mine was completed last Thursday - March 24 and arrived at the port on March 25.