jbond

dubrovnik (croatia), rome, tunisia/carthage (tunis), palermo, cagliari (sardinia), palma de mallorca, barcelona, monte carlo, florence/pisa, and back to rome. Ok, I can give you some ideas about five of the ports. Florence/Pisa. The ship docks in Livorno and it is about a 45 minute drive to Pisa and anothe good 90 to Florence. I would recommend a ships tour because of the distance from the ship and the chaotic Italian traffic. If you are late getting back on a private trip, the ship will leave without you. On a ship's tour they will wait. In Pisa we saw the Field of Miracles, with the Leaning Tower and Baptistry. Really beautiful and well worth seeing. There wasn't a lot of other things around and we moved on the Florence. Don't miss the Duomo, it's awesome and Ghotti's Gates to Paradise are right next to it. It's crowded, but everywhere in Italy was crowded. We also visited Santa Croce, where Michaelangelo, Rossini and Galilleo are buried and the Palazzo Vecchio. The square in front of the Palazzo Vecchio is lined with store and bars, but there are some great fountains and works of art on display. Make sure that you visit Piazza Michealangelo. The view of the city is beautiful and you get a great view of the Ponte Vecchio and the River Arno. Florence is very compact and is easy to walk around by yourselves if you have a good map. Rome. Like Florence, you dock a long way from the city, at Civitavecchia. It's a long drive, crazy traffic and don't miss the ship. We took a guided tour. Rome is a very large well spreadout city. Don't miss the Colosseum. This place was built almost 2000 years ago, seated 55,000 people and it's staggering to imagine what it muust have been like. St Peters is another incredible place. Everywhere you look there are works of art. Even the floors are beautiful. We saw La Pieta and the beautiful altar under the massive cupola. After that we went through the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel. Italy is just one overwhelming experience after another. This year we are going to spend our day checking out the fountains, the Spanish Steps and another visit to the Colosseum. Barcelona. One of my favourite cities. Beautiful, friendly and full of fantastic places. We will be leaving from Barca and we will be doing a 3 day pre cruise stay. Walk around by youselves, get a good map and start on Las Ramblas. Don't miss the Gothic Cathedral, La Sagrada Familia Cathedral, the Casa Mila and the Paleu Guell. It's easy to walk everywhere, everything is close together. Just be aware of purse snatchers. Monte Carlo. Incredibly clean, I've never seen anywhere as clean as Monte Carlo. It's also very expensive, and I mean EXPENSIVE. We actually docked in Villefranche further down the coast. We visited Nice and a delightful medieval town called Eze. We enjoyed Nice and Eze so much that we are going back again this year. Nice has the most beautiful flower market you have ever seen in your life. It was in the Cary Grant/Grace Kelly movie "To Catch A Thief". MC has a very nice cathedral, where Grace Kelly was married and also where she is buried. Finally Palermo. We haven't been to Palermo but we have visited Sicily. It's a really beautiful island. We visited Taormina last time we were there, but we plan on doing an excursion out to see Mt Etna this time and see more of the island. Sorry this was so long, but there's a lot to see, especially if you like "old stuff" like I do.

I don't have a HAL brochure handy, so I'm not sure what ports you are visiting. We sailed the Med on RCI's Splendour of the Seas and in September we are going again on the Brilliance of the Seas. We have visited Barcelona, Monte Carlo, Marseille, Livorno(Florence), Civitavecchia(Rome), Naples, Venice and Messina. If you are viisiting any of these ports, I'd be happy to give you my input on what we did and enjoyed.

Very good. It's the Rosehall Hotel Beach at MoBay. Sorry Dennis and Lisa for misleading you, but those island beers all taste alike after three or four. :grin:

Maybe it was Red Stripe that I was drinking and not Banks.

Guess you guys need some help. I enjoyed a few Banks beers on the beach. It is really close to the home of the white witch. Great island, if Jeff was here he would immediately recognize it as the premier, laid back island in the Caribbean.

Thanks Lisa, Whittier looks a little more picturesque than Seward and sailing through the Prince William Sound should be pretty impressive. Do they have a train connection or just a coach?

What ports are you visiting? Whittier is a new cruise port, at least to me. What cruise line are you sailing?

I just e-mailed you one, but it's a Corel bitmap and I don't know if you can use that format. I tried to make it a jpeg, but it kept bombing me out.

Strangely enough, I'm the one that buys 99% of all the perfume in our house. Not for me, for my wife. :grin: We have never been impressed by the prices in the Caribbean, or on the ships. Duty Free has never impressed me as a reason to buy. Some small savings, maybe, but not enough to cause a major purchase. We have bought perfume in St Thomas, St Maarten, Barbados, Martinique and Nassau. We tended to buy brands that are not readily available/unavailable in California, but have found in recent years that was no longer a reason.

Key West San Juan many times St Thomas many times St Johns St Croix Jamaica many times Ocho Rios, Montego Bay, Port Antonio Haiti many times Cap Haitien, Port au Prince, Labadee Puerta Plata Santo Domingo Antigua many times St Maarten many times Barbados many times Grenada Cozumel many times Martinique Guadaloupe Domenica Nassau Playa del Carmen St Lucia Cartagena La Guira Puntarenas Acapulco many times Zihautanejo many times Puerta Vallarta many times Mazatlan many times Cabo San Lucas many times Vancover Seward Juneau Sitka Skagway Ketchikan Sydney Auckland Bay of Islands Tauranga Suva Fiji Apia Western Samoa Pago Pago American Samoa Bora Bora many times Moorea many times Tahiti many times Huahine Raiatea Rarotonga Harwich Oslo Stockholm Copenhagen Helsinki St Petersberg Tallin Barcelona Villefranche Livorno Marseille Civitavecchia Naples Venice Messina I think that's about it, but will have three new ones to add next month. Many times means anything from 2x up.

We did Alaska on Legend of the Seas. We chose that cruise because it was one way, Seward to Vancouver, and gave us a better view of Alaska than the round trip out of Vancouver. We also chose the southbound trip because of the timing for Misty Fjords and the Hubbard Glacier. We felt that it would be advantageous to see them later in the day. You can see our cruise album atLegend of the Seas

So what do you mix with Old Spice that makes a decent tasting drink? Have a great cruise.

I picked up the mail today and the docs for our April 24 Serenade cruise had arrived. It sure makes it seem really close. Four weeks today we'll be on board.

Four weeks today, Serenade of the Seas.

Haven't sailed with Crystal, but we did a Baltic cruise with RCI a couple of years ago. They charged $65 pp for the transfers. We stayed a few days in London prior to the cruise and the transfer included picking us up at the airport and going to the hotel, then a transfer from the hotel to the port, in our case Harwich. I lived in England for over thirty years and unless I was renting a car at the airport, I wouldn't consider struggling with the luggage on the public transportation. Which airport are you flying into, LHR, Gatwick or Stanstead? There will be ample taxis at the Dover station. Even with the high cost for gas and high prices for cars, I found taxis to be quite inexpensive. The weather will be typically English, raining, just finished raining and rain in the forecast. Temperatures should be around 65 F. Of course you could be lucky and get a dry spell, but I'd plan on it being damp. Don't forget your brolly. Also, please remember that England is not a part of Europe. If God had intended it to be, He would not have made it an island. :grin:

We are naturalized citizens, so we have always used passports. They are a breeze, just the one form of ID, and acceptable everywhere. We just renewed ours, $55 for 10 years.

During the day, the local brand of beer and in the evening, what else, see below in my signature. On our Hawaii cruise Moneypenny tried a few Mai Tais. She thought that the best one was at the Hula Grill at Whalers Village in Lahaina. Of couse sitting in the sand on the beach, looking across at Lanaii, eating those banana baked baby back ribs helped a lot.

Are there any cruise ships visiting Kusadasi/Ephesus this summer? We were scheduled to visit thhere on our Brilliance cruise and RCI has cancelled Kusadasi and replaced it with Taormina, Sicily. I really wanted to go to Ephesus, but apparently RCI considers it too big a risk. After the bombing in Madrid, I'm holding my breath on Barcelona. I REALLY want to go to Barca, I can almost taste the paella.

We have sailed princess several times, but not Golden. We have however been to all the islands that you are visiting. Barbados is a great island, really beautiful and very friendly people. It has two very differnt coast lines, the Caribbean and the Atlantic. The beach at Sam Lords Castle on the Atlantic side is very beautiful, but rough water. We enjoy the Jolly Roger tour and also Harrisons Caves. For the Caves you can get a taxi at the dock and roll it all in with a tour of the island. The down town is also very interesting, with excellent shopping for china and porcelains. Antigua has awesome beaches, over 300 to choose from. We have also done the Jolly Roger in Antigua. I'm not too impressed by the shopping. Last time there we got a taxi and just told him to take us to a great beach, and he did. St Lucia. It has been a few years since we have been in St Lucia. The last time we were there, we got a taxi and did a round the island tour. Very interesting, but I wouldn't do it again. The roads are almost non existent once outside Castries. We saw the sulphur baths at the volcano and Marigot Bay, and lots of impressive jungle, but those mud roads scared the daylights out of me. In St Maarten the last couple of times, we went to Pinel Island. The snorkeling is fairly good and the beach magnificent. The snack shack on the beach makes an awesome hamburger and the Banks beer is ice cold. Shopping is excellent, great selection and good prices. St Thomas has so much to offer. Great beaches, beautiful views, great shopping and a trip across to St Johns for even more beautiful beaches. The Southern Caribbean is a great itinerary.

It's on two ships for two weeks to evaluate the effect. The ships are Navigator and Mariner. Only Voyager class ships have Johnny Rockets restaurants. The Solarium Cafe on all RCI ships will still be serving hamburgers, fries and hot dogs. RCI is doing it because of the crowds that jam the restaurant continuously. If you are a past RCI cruiser you will receive a coupon to get a "free" meal.

Where in the DR are you visiting? We've visited Puerta Plata and Santo Domingo. Puerta Plata has beautiful beaches, but not a lot of anything else. Santo Domingo on the other hand is a fantastic city. It has the oldest cathedral in the New World, Santa Maria La Menor, and has an incredible silver altar. It also houses the "bones" of the great Discoverer, Christopher Columbus. There are two other places that make that claim. You can also visit the house of Diego Colon(Columbus). He used it as his residence when he was Governor of the New World. It is in outstanding condition. Take an organized tour and have someone explain all the history of this wonderful city.

We did the Baltic in 2002 and visited Oslo, Norway. Not the fjords, but still very beautiful. We were there in early August and the weather was beautiful, warm and sunny. Would not hesitate to do it again.

A lot of airlines use a 44" total measurement, that's length + height + width. They also have a 20 lb weight restriction, so you should be OK. If you know the airline, you can usually check on their website. We flew Virgin Atlantic one time, and they had a 6 kilo, about 13 lbs, weight restriction on their carry on, and they enforced it.

It varies by airline and you won't know what airline you are using until you get your tickets. Generally, flying domestic, you are allowed two pieces of checked luggage per person. Each piece should weigh 50 lbs or less and have a max total measurement (length + height + width) of 72 inches. For carry on you are allowed one piece of luggage, max weight 20 lbs, total size 44 ins. In addition you are allowed an additional carryon such as a camera bag, ladies handbag, portable computer, brief case etc. As I said it varies by airline, some allow up to 70lbs for checked luggage. I don't know where you are sailing from, but our next cruise is from San Juan and we are flying United, and they consider San Juan to be an international flight. So we get international allowances which are a little better than domestic.

If RCI is offering the Tulum trip on your cruise, I would recommend that. It's fairly expensive, but very well done and well organized. I think that they have dropped the drink cards. On our last couple of cruises on RCI, last year, I don't think that they were available. Love the Splendour, sailed her twice.