Love2Travel

Hi Everyone... I was wondering if anyone out there has ever investigated or better yet taken a European River Cruise? We are thinking of this option for a future trip. Have looked into a few cruise lines that offer this type of cruising but was wondering if any one had a personal experiences to pass on. It looks like a great way to see the interior of Europe. The only down side for us would be the small ships with few amenities. I would miss the pool and whirlpools... a few ships offer these but not many and of course the scale would be much smaller. Thanks for any input..... Gail and Paul

Hi Mike and Margaret. Sounds like a wonderful trip. will keep my fingers crossed for you. wish I could say we would be joining you but no such luck for us. just wanted to stop by and say hi. glad to see you posting! take care and good luck... Gail and Paul

We like the space bags BUT we use them for dirty laundry, wet items and heavy jackets, if needed. i would be lost wihtout them for those purposes. We had heard so much about the 2 gallon zip lock bags that for our last trip we bought some and used them for packing. It was nice to keep things organized. You are able to expel a lot of the air. Not sure if it saved me space like the space bags. Hope this helps... Happy Packing! Gail

ok Joey and David and other crazies cruising on the summit... Bon voyage!!!!!!! Since the PC is something we are considering in the future- we will be looking forward to your reports. sounds like the weather will be good. ENJOY every minute., it passes so quickly Take care... gail ps paul and I are toasting you all with a gin and tonic right now! Cheers!

Hi... I also have not heard of excursions that taylor toward photography. BUT would love that. I'm also a "shutterbug". I am glad to hear the waterproof case for your digital worked well. I have a Canon SLR digital but also just purchased a smaller zoom digital canon. I looked at the cases and was for underwater and was thinking I would like to try it- never have been pleased w photos taken with those disposible underwater ones. Must have been scarey first time under with your camera. Yikes what do you shoot with? Happy clicking! Gail

The time is getting close for you all. How exciting. Hope you all have th opportunity to meet with one another. We were on the Med millie cruise with Joey and David. Meeting these guys and all the others from the Crazies board really enhanced our trip. great people. Wish we were cruising again soon but no plans yet- soooo.... we will live vicariously through the rest of you who are kind enough to share your experiences. Happy Holiday and may your countdown pass quickly. How exciting!!!!! Gail and Paul ps Joey and David are the nicest guys!

Hi Tonia Sounds like you are busy at work. More cash for your trip . Have not thought much about the holidays yet. I have some big B-days this weekend and then perhaps it will be time to start w the holiday thoughts. we are not doing as much this year. My mom is coming to visit for 2 weeks on dec 22nd. That way she can enjoy her great grandson's first christmas and then his 1st b-day a week and a half later. Work is busy but we are hanging in there. glad your trip planning is coming along and won't it be fun for you to have a few of your work friends join you. We are starting our planning for a Trip to Yellowstone and Grand Teton NP this coming summer. take care.... say hi to Becky from us. Gail

Hey Gail R.... glad to hear you are feeling better. you sure missed a great cruise but sounds like your alaska trip will be a ball- Alaska may be our next cruise in 2008. At least is is top on our thoughts right now. Many have said that princess is the way to do alaska. Congrats on your grandbaby! We have two... grandkids are so much fun enjoy every minute. Glad you checked in. many of us are still posting. it is like visiting with old friends.... Gail

I probably would not go alone. But when I think about it a cruise wouldn't be a bad thing to do as single. I would definitely go with a friend though. There are about 2-3 friends that like to travel and we have gone a few trips together. We have a blast. Love to travel with Paul but traveling with girlfriends is a whole different experience. And to tell you the truth it is important to foster those friendships even when you are married. My friends are important part of my life as well as my marriage. Gail

Hi Shannon.... glad to hear you did enjoy your trip. We know what you meant about wanting to stay and see more. For us, it was just an appetizer and what a great time it will be when we return for the main course :smiley: I just love the archtechture and the art. Amazing. I'm already being so nostolgic. oh well.... to next time. Gail

We also had a wonderful time and would do it again in a heartbeat. We felt the service and staff were friendly and very helpful. I knew the cruise would be a sampling of the countires with not as much time to explore as a land base trip. we have never been to Europe before so we felt it was a good way to see where we would like to return without having to schelp luggage and move to a differednt hotel every few days. I am also sorry that Shannon's experience was not a good one. She undoubtedly put a great deal of effort and time into the planning as we all did- let alone the money. I am glad that the wait staff met her expectations. Shannon, sorry we did not get a chance to meet on this cruise. Hopefully your next adventure will be a better experience for you. Gail

Sure thing, Joey. Would love to share the pics with you. It may be a while though. :smiley: Gail

Maryann Hope you and tom had a good tahnksgiving. Doesn't seem possilbe it is holiday time. Why don't you send Jackie a Private message. I know she is still posting or reading daily. I beleive they are still using their Tampa address as a base and their daughter is forwarding the mail to them. Good to hear from you. Just started woking on my pics. It takes so much time. but it is fun to relive the trip again. Take care.... Gail

Jackie What a bummer. Glad you finally made it home and tony was ok without meds. They seem to be really cracking down on the carryon size. The woman who checked us in dublin for our last leg home gave us all kinds of grief about our rolling backpack. she made us go thru hoops to rearrange items and place them in other bags Because she said it was overweight. Finally had to take the camera bag out and carry it separately as a purse in order for her to allow us to use the backpack as a carryon. Then we simply placed it back into the backpack after we left her sight and no problems after that. Such a waste of time and effort. We had told her that we had flown Aer lingus (same carrier) the evening before from Venice to dublin and that the backpack was not a problem then- she didn't care. i think she was bored. Take care. have a safe trip to pick up the puppy. will be waiting to hear a report. :smiley: Say hi to tony for us. Gail

Hi guys. Yep, we made it home in the wee hours of the morning. 2am. We also flew through JFK where all the planes were delayed for hours. Luckily for us- all bags arrived. Just got up. time to face up to the realities of life...bills, laundry, voice mail, email etc. Our doggie, sandy, was thrilled to see us and hogged the bed all night long. We of course did not mind having her close. Loved meeting all of you. It certainly was so enjoyable to see all of the friendly crazie faces on board with us. So very glad we had the opportunity to share time with most of you at different points throughout the cruise. I will miss this roll call. But hope to see you all on thge boards from time to time. i know some have already booked their next adventures. We will need to recover from this one before we are able to take that plunge but my head is thinking about the possibilities to explore- so that alone will make me smile. Can not wait to see pictures. That will be a daunting task to organize. But it will be excitin to relive the trip again. So many wonderful memories. OK guys, again thanks..... take care. Love, gail

Hey Guys.... just could not resist sending a post from Venice! We are awaiting our water taxi to take us the airport. What a wonderful cruise. We enjoyed ourselves so very much. The ports and of course the time spent meeting new friends. It was such a pleasure. Hope not the last time. I would love to spend more adventures with the crazies. Glad Joey, Kareen and Tonia have made it home safely. Jackie left this morning. We spend the last few days trolling around Venice together. Will my legs ever be the same. :grin: Take care everyone. Rest up and start imagining or planning for wherever your next trip will take you. :wink: Gail and Paul

hey Tonia... glad you made it to the east coast. I emailed you regarding tickets for David. not sure if you have access to email. we already have our reservations for 11 or 11:15am. So we will not need the taxi guy to get them for us. look forward to all of our touring. maybe we will run into you on friday afternoon checking in to our hotel. Barcelona will bw wonderful- glad the weather looks so good. I think I will see what the weather will be like in france and italy. Gail

Can you believe it is finally travel time for everyone. Yipeeeeeee!!!!! Thanks for the weather forcast- looks great. Jackie, we will as for you on Saturday in the Hotel lounge. See you at 7pm. Again, everyone have safe travels. Can't wait to meet everyone in person. We continue to have a great visit here in Israel but am very much looking forward to the next part of our journey with all of our new friends. Take care.... :wink: :smiley: :smiley: Gail and Paul

Hi Eveyone from sunny, warm Israel. Having a great time touring and visiting family. I couldn't resist checking in on my virtual family to see how the preparations are coming along. We arrived in Israel without a hitch and have had no problems while being here. It is giving us a touch of what it will be like in Europe to negotiate touring without speaking the language. :smiley: We have seen many wonderful sites and the history behind everything makes history come alive... Paula, sorry to hear about thesnow. We called home to Rochester and was glad to hear that they did not lose power or get all of the snow. Take care everyone. Enjoy the excitement of the pretrip prep. OH, our neice from Israel left today for Barcelona. I will be anxious to hear her report when she returns in a few days. Gail

Hey Welcome back Jackie!!!!!! Glad you had a good time. Now it is time to do laundry and repack those suitcases! Barcelona here we come! i got your email regarding the amalfi coast tour. thanks. Just finished packing and taking care of everyting for our trip. We have too much stuff as usual :smiley: three checked bags.. so we will have to pay for one of them. thats okay. so we are sitting here having a gin and tonic and relaxing. it was hard to bring the dog to the kennnel and the bird to our friends. we miss them already. it is amazing how attached we get to our pets. Kareen, thanks for the well wishes. Ok guys.... this is it until Barcelona. I am shutting the computers off. I'll miss everyone! I love the virtaul friends I have made over the past months. I can hardly believe we have finally gotten to cruise time. :smiley: Hugs to everyone. and as i said earlier this evening, good travels. AND may all our luggage arrive with us!! :smiley: Love you guys, Gail and Paul

Margaret hope your surgery went well and you are good as new for the trip. congratulations for life without contacts. This is my first trip to israel...paul's second. we will be staying most of the trip with paul's sister. They live outside of tel aviv. pauls' three neices are scaterred throughout and will be visiting with us also. we will be touring all over, overnights in jerusalemm and 3 nights in eliat. can't wait. Ok. Meet and greet at joey's place 7pm on the 28th, correct? look forward to meeting everyone. if there is a change, if someone could leave us a message at our hotel in barcelona we'd appreciate it. after tonight may not have much access to a computer and do not want to miss anything. thanks. everyone have a safe trip. happy packing! til barcelona... take care everyone... Gail

Diane Thanks for the email contact re the shareholders shipboard credit. I emailed them and recieved conformation today that the credit has been added to our account! Yippeee- one more thing to cross off the list. Have a great coffee meet and greet with becki tonight. i am working a half day tomorrow and then it is vacation time! Could not be more excited about that. final pack details tonight and tomorrow afternoon. Wednesday night i want to relax, drink some wine and let the enthusiam grow. We are off to the airport thursday morning at 630am for and 840am flight to NYs JFK. At 315pm we take off on our flight to Israel. OMG, the last couple of days at work have been so hard- so much to take care of before i leave but all i can think of is going. :smiley: :smiley: It is fun to see everyones excitement growing y leaps and bounds. We are worried about snow whn we are gone. - i need to contact the plow guy and sign this years contract- whoops- almost forgot that one. GAil

Feel better Jackie... glad it came at the end of your cruise and before your next. I will miss our virtual cruise :grin: it has been fun. see you in barcelona, my friend... :smiley: Yipeeeeee.... Gail

I was worried I wouldn't have the right clothes. Don't worry about how everyone is going to be dressed. Be yourself and enjoy your planning and researching. Also do not worry about not knowing anyone. I find cruisers to be extremely friendly. By the end of the cruise, you will have made a lot of friends. If you like to relax, pick a cruise with lots of sea days. They are the best. so much to see and enjoy on the ship. Gail

Good Morning Everyone! Question for anyone who knows about the shipboard credits for shareholders... I Faxed my information and all required documentation as instructed but have not heard anything. How can I find out ahead of time if the shipboard credit has been posted to our account? Would hate to get on board and find out that it is too late to have it done. thanks for any info. gail