zebra

Great to see you posting again TC - if there's anything we can help with...just ask!!

Welcome Jr. we've really enjoyed have Sr as an active member and hope we can get to know you as well.

OMG....how absurd.

Paula Eze is great - St Paul de Vence is just that much more stunning and has better shopping, but you'll totally love Eze too.

Candy and Jim wishing you smooth seas, have a great cruise!

kewel........good website!!!

Andrew....dancing with you - this is when the excitement hots up!!!!

Paula - would love for the upgrade fairy to visit you!!!!! You guys know from previous posts of mine how in love I am with St. Paul de Vence - I discovered this little tidbit from the dark side and wanted to share it with those who didn't read it. After Monace and Monte Carlo, we headed for St. Paul de Vence which was one of my favorite places of the entire cruise! We had lunch there at a cafe' overlooking the countryside. It was gorgeous! We ate crepe's, salad, and had a local white wine to drink. Frederic walked us through the village, acting as a "guide", then let us have time to roam around by ourselves. The shopping in St. Paul is amazing...there were less "touristy" gift shops and we enjoyed browsing the local art galleries, etc. Have your guide take you to the shop called "Les Trois Etoiles de Saint-Paul". It sells fruit cremes, olive oils that are infused with things like truffles, almonds, hazelnut, etc, and infused vinegars. The shop sells the oils and liqueurs from huge barrels or in pre-packaged bottles. You can sample all of the items before you buy them...even the liqueurs. We bought a pear creme, wild strawberry creme, truffle oil and hazelnut oil...and I wish we'd bought more!!!

Welcome straller - great to have you onboard!!!

Welcome WJ228 - great to have you onbaord - please post often.

Diane welcome back. We haven't been to the Baltics (have been to Holland & Germany). What we found with the Med was the topography - the land is extremely steep everywhere (except Florence & Rome) so most of your walking involves so much climbing as well, just want fellow crazies to be aware so they can get their fitness level up before hand :grin: :grin: Don't forget we come from flat Florida and are totally unused to shopping and exploring in hilly conditions. :grin:

Shannon, we've stayed at Le Meridien....very nice 4-5 star on Las Ramblas, great position. This time we felt we didn't want to spend that much money again so we've booked Hotel Continental Palacete - we're just going to be there for one night, (bummer.... this is DH's favorite destination), hear it's a good 3 star. I think the most important thing is location - everything happens around Las Ramblas - awesome location!

For those of you who haven't done Barcelona before - you have to make sure that you have La Familia Segrada and Parc Guell on your itineraries. It's not necessary to buy tickets to go inside La Familia Segrada - they are still contracuting it and it's pretty cavernous, but the outside is architecture like you have NEVER seen before, it's unbelievable, take plenty of pictures each side of the cathedral is build in a different style.

Paula, I think we will possibly also do Burano after we've got ourselves situated at the hotel on disembarkation day. We'll probably take the water bus over - it's the cheapest isn't it?

Woohoo - received our docs today for the Sun Princess cruise from Seattle through the Panama Canal to Fort Lauderdale. 17 days of bliss starting on September 24th!!!!!

Gail, we are thinking of going to Burano - heard it's a super island, less commercialized than Murano, we have enough Venetian glass anyhow. I think we will be Museumed out by the time we get to Venice.

Too funny - yes and hope like h*** that you get a nice, helpful person!

We always ask these questions at the pursers desk onboard - with each individual cruise the captain knows his exact schedule. One time also on Princess in Alaska we asked the pursers desk if they would wake us during the night if the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) appeared.... they did at 3:06am. It was wonderful and freezing out on deck!!

Aft cabin.....perfect!!!!! We were going from San Fransico to Ft Lauderdale. Just make sure you ask onboard what time they expect to go under the bridge. Don't ask the landlubbers they're clueless.

Sneaking in here again. Just wanted to mention something. When we travelled to the Panama Canal we were on a Princess ship which had one deck as a wraparound. Even though we had our own balcony someone else had given us this tip. On the early morning of the transit throught he canal try and find out onboard when time you'll be going under the Bridge of the America's. We went under just after sunrise. Tony and I went to the back of the ship (best) where you can see the entire bridge and watch as you sail under it.....we also found a staff member who took a photo of us with the bridge in the background. Awesome!!!

Joey that's a very good idea. Seriously, nobody (other than those who have cruised the Med) realizes how ultra exhausting it is....especially if you're not 20 something :wink: We are pretty active and found ourselves walking miles over uneven ground (cobblestones etc) and millions of steps. Santorini is one of those destinations that one can do some serious walking and climbing, another is Dubrovnik. This cruise is going to we way more layed back for us as well - just pace ourselves and get as much rest as we can. Even just the length of the excursions can be pretty exhausting, physically and mentally (taking in so much information) - most other cruises one does approx. 4 hour excusrions and then a little down time at the beach or casually shopping - NOT this cruise....it's go, go, go for about 8 hours a day. just to give you an idea - we only saw 2 shows at night on the entire cruise. We heard from others that the theater was about 30% full, except of course on sea days!! Don't push yourselves - just take it easy and enjoy.

Welcome queenk2 to the friendliest cruise board on the Net!!!!!!

Wow Shannon, wish I had heard of this sooner.

Welcome cruiser29, great to have you onboard!

Welcome LastTender - great to have you onboard!