chachabell

I voted for the Med/Greek Isles, because this is a trip on my "list" of places to go. And, the Fall is a good time to go. If I do the Caribbean, it is usually in Jan or Feb when it is cold on the East Coast.

Will do. And, hi to Tony. I may be quiet but I know what's going on! Most of my posting relates to cruising/ports.

Hi Diane... How so?... In the landscape. Lanzarote is very arrid with very little rain, so there is very little vegetation. Some areas look like the moon. Tennerife varies by elevation. Lush areas low and near the coast, volcanic at higher elevations. LaPalma very lush.

The TA was smooth. Only 1 day with a few white caps. Also, 1 day in the 50s -- the rest of the time was sunny and mid-60s to low 70s. Canaries were very interesting with each island being different.

2007 took us to the Galapagos, Norway Fjords and Iceland, and a TA with stops in Morocco and Canary Islands. We definitely cruise for destinations! Hi to Paul.

The second one is the itinerary that I've been looking at. The cruise director on our most recent cruise (TA on the Century) said this is his favorite itinerary.

Yes, we are lurking. We could be interested depending on the timing and destination. Would love to do a r/t out of Rome that includes Istanbul. One day in Rome was not enough during our Med cruise and we need to go back. Diane

Joey -- Glad to hear your observations. Guess we are just spoiled. Started with Celebrity and hesitate to try anyone else because we are so happy with them. Diane

Diane So good to hear from you -- Bob and I are really looking forward to this cruise and as you see Suanne and Harvey will be traveling with us as well as a few other couples. If you would I would definitely appreciate seeing your itinerary in St. Petersburg. We have contacted Red October but they said that it wass really to early to book - but we will continue to communicate with them. It appears that we will have a group of 10 - 12. Somewhere on our cruise itinerary I read that we do cruise thru one fjord. Your cruise sounds wonderful - something for us to consider another time. Please send our regards to Lou. Have a wonderful cruise and let us know all about it on your return. I missed that Suanne and Harvey are going with you -- but, of course, I'm not surprised. You will love the Baltics. Most ports are very easy to do on your own. We did -- just do your homework so you know what you want to do while in port. I have your email so will send you the St. Pete's stuff that way. It is a Word document. Just remember these were 2005 prices. My sister and her husband joined us so we had a van with guide, driver and 4 of us.

Hi Kareen and Gail -- I just came upon this thread. Lou and I did this cruise in Aug 05. Our itinerary was a little different -- r/t out of Dover. Our common ports are: Stockholm, Sweden, Helsinki, Finland, St. Petersburg, Russia, Tallinn, Estonia, Copenhagen, Denmark, and Oslo, Norway. We used Red October in St. Petersburg. I'd be happy to send you the itinerary for our 2-day St. P visit. They will customize it to suit your interests. And, answer questions you may have. No fjords coming into Oslo. They are on the western coast. We leave on July 4 for a 12-day Norway/Arctic Circle/North Cape cruise on the Century out of Amsterdam. Will see the fjords on this one. Spending a few days in Amsterdam and Iceland pre and post cruise. Hope you are well -- Hi to Bob and Paul. Diane

Not currently an active poster (just a lurker) but will help fill in some gaps. We've been to Norway, Finland, Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina, Chile, Urguay, Ecuador, and St. Lucia

NCL has the monopoly on the Hawaii itinerary. Special legislation was passed. I think the ships are required to be registered in the US All other lines must stop in a foreign port (most do the Fanning Islands). It is sad to say but I think part of the problems are because they are required to have a US staff and must abide by US labor laws. NCL is constantly training new staff because US help can't (or won't) work as hard as foreign workers.

Gail -- This was our first trip to Hawaii. We spent 1 week on Kauai at a timeshare then picked up the Pride of Aloha in Honolulu to see the rest of the islands. Some advantages of the cruise were being able to see the Napli Coast from the sea and the lava flow on the Big Island flowing into the ocean at night. While cruising was a great way to get from island to island, that being said, we hated the "cruise" part. Customer service was nonexistant, Freestyle dining was horrible with long waits and food wasn't anything special either. Lots of bottlenecks in the buffet area. We will never do that itinerary again.

Hi Everyone -- We, too, would love to go to the Canary Islands. But we are already overbooked for 2007. On our Med Cruise, the other two couples at our table (one from Long Island and the other from England) had been to several of the Canary Islands on land tours. They just raved about them. Diane

That's very interesting. Love Simon! But thought he was going to the Mercury as Hotel Director. Maybe that isn't until the Mercury starts the Australia/New Zealand itinerary.

I hate the air flight home. Seems like recently it takes us FOREVER to get back home. That said, most of our disembarkation ports have been outside the US. So in that since we are lucky to be able to see the world!

We just returned from San Juan. The fare from the Pan American pier to the airport was $20 with 2 pieces of luggage.

Hope everyone has a wonderful cruise. Joey, I'm interested in your thoughts of the various ports as we are doing the PC in April 08. Leave tomorrow for the S.Caribbean on the Galaxy. Diane

We did a two day tour through Red October in 9/05. We provided them with our passport numbers and they did the rest. There were four of us traveling together and we had a Russian driver and guide. We got a much better tour than through Celebrity and saw so much. This is the way to go.

Lou and I got home safely very late last night. Connecting through JFK is challenging at best. Due to storms throughout the east coast, many flights were either delayed or cancelled -- Ours was 2 hrs late leaving and one of our bags didn't make our flight. Glad that was on the way home and not the reverse. We ditto all the comments on our amazing cruise experience and all of the nice people that we met and shared our vacation experiences . Thanks for the memories! Diane

For those of you still checking in, we arrived in Barcelona safely. Met Jerry and Betty at the hotel. Also, it was obvious that there were many cruisers on our flight from JFK. The Hotel Continental Palacete is lovely and we were able to get into our room a half an hour after we arrived at 9:30 am.

OK! Shutting down the computer and we're out of here. See everyone in Barcelona.

We do tent camping twice a year -- and only locally because it involves Lou's family -sister, nieces and grandnieces and nephews.

Lou and I do not RV!