Joanna - you are so right - two groups having a wonderful time, while we just sit home enving them. Wwwwhhhhhhaaaaa! :(

Well you are in the Ike and Tina frame of mind - welcome home!!!!

Oh how I love these photos.......keep up the good work.

Another night of staying up late. Karen, you are so sweet, thank you for the support. I had a lot of fun being dour for 1 1/2 hours, but with this group it was difficult to stay in charater! JoAnn, loved your comment also. And Marcie, yes I knew the crown lit up, but I didn't have time to find out how. Oh well, thank you for letting me use it.
Tonight was Kareoke(my spelling isn't good), and we had a great time, but we seemed to be the only ones participating. Tina's mom got up and sang a beautiful rendering of "Ca sera, sera" acapella!
To my disappointment, the pool was still closed today, although it didn't seem that windy. Had the Captain's Farewell Cocktail Party for the 100 of us who will be leaving in Funchal. From our group it is only me, John and Tonya, so Ken better keep posting the continuing story of TAP. I have been so busy and so many people have taken pictures, that I haven't even had time to look at them, and I don't know how to upload them. Sorry.
Hope to post before my flight home.
Lynn

Our evening tonight was fantastic. Dinner was super. Fois gras, caviar, Chateaubriand, wonderful soups and salads, grand marnier souffle, and one anothers' company. We then went to the Voyager Lounge and the crew, led by Lynn, kareoked..Doug led the men and Tina's mom did a capella. We all danced, had a fashion show in an officer's jacket and had a grand time all around. I just don't want this cruise to end and to lose Tonya, John and Lynn. We've adopted a couple or two into our LCT crowd and have been keeping this place alive. Tomorrow is the Cordon Bleu Dinner and Graduation (yes, we all passed). Today, we made quail, sole and salmon moussaline and poached pears. The menu changes each time Cordon Bleu is conducted. Our class today was over 4 hours. Our chef, Loic Malfait, from Le Cordon Bleu, is quite calm and entertaining and we have learned a lot and had a great time. Well, we should have a great day tomorrow...skeet shooting and all...

I can't believe we've already reached our final full day at sea. Yesterday was yet another perfect day on board. It's hard to find new ways to describe how great the food has been and how much fun we've been having with everyone. It's been fun for me to wake every morning and go through my pictures to re-live the previous day (sometimes I need those pictures to remember the previous night!!) Finding 10+ pictures to post is easy; the hard part is finding 10+ pictures that are appropriate to post!!! I'm going to have to come up with a "Pay Per View" site with all the gems we've come up with!

More photos at www.worldflyer.net/tap

Hi everybody.

Wow, the days at sea really went fast, and I am not even there!

John, too funny your comment about "pay per view"! Yes, why not ?

Lynn and John, Enjoy your last day at sea and have safe travels afterewards! Thanks for the reports and pictures, we'll miss them.

More fun...more great photos!!!!

Have a safe trip home John & Tonya and Lynn. So glad your cruise was soooo much fun!

John, sign me up for the "Pay Per View"! LOL

The hats are just incredible - did you all make them onboard? Very creative!

Its hard to believe your sea days are ending - that went really fast. Looking forward to hearing about the land adventures.

Hard to believe the TA portion is coming to an end. Have a safe trip home Lynn, John and Tonya. Great pictures again John - thanks for taking the time to post those for us left at home to share. You'all have certainly had one great TAP, and have lived up to your acronym!!

What a super cruise I MISSED :banana:

You Tap'sters sure know how to PARTEE!!!!! Thanks for sharing it with us - John your pics are great.

It's funny how I have to tune in here to find out what I've been up to. I would never have believed it if I hadn't seen the photos!!!

Suzie, one must rehydrate!! (Because Tonight, we Dance!!)

What time are you due to make port tomorrow?

It will be so sad to lose people in Funchal tomorrow. Five are getting off and four are coming on. I have really enjoyed this crossing and the sea days have been full and time has flown by. The thought of having to get up tomorrow and go ashore is not appealing. More sea days please. I know we will enjoy Funchal once we get ashore, we have wanted to come to Maidera for a long time.

Today an LCT group won trivia and they also gave tokens to second place teams so we did well today. Last night at Kareoke they were giving away tokens with abandon and the LCT group being the primary singers made out well there too.
So the token count is pretty good.

Today they did a great lunch on deck with staff from each country cooking food from their region. It was a nice idea with the Indian staff in their gorgeous saris, the Italian officers cooking pasta and other nationalities with food areas as well. Huge shrimp on the Mexican buffet. It was a little windy but they slowed the ship down to make the conditions nicer.

The weather has been so good and warmer than I anticipated. Although we do lose time in this direction I like this crossing.

Later in the year there are so many nice options for cruises in September and October that are so close to the Fall Crossing. In the early part of the year the Voyager and Mariner are tied up with the World Cruise and South American cruise so for most people all that is available is the Navigator doing the Carribean. So this is a great time to start the year with a 2 for 1 crossing. May look at this again in 2009. I am certainly more inspired by Lamb now with all the sea days.

Okay time to go get ready for yet another meal. Someone has to eat all this food!!!

So happy you all are having such a great time Ngaire. Like you, I LOVE SEA DAYS....You can do as much or as little as you want, on port days you feel a little guilty if you don't give it your all! We have all loved the seamail and pictures from TAP.

We were told that we will arrive around 9am but cannot dock until 10am. We will be able to disembark at 11am. this is 2 hours earlier than expected. Everything is so right about this cruise. We have tentatively booked the reverse direction for 2008 coupled with a Ft. Lauderdale to Ft. lauderdale trip...2 for 1 for both legs.

The Cordon Bleu class was sensational. Lots of fun. I highly recommend it. If some of you take it, you can bring a guest to both dinners. dinner tonight was a special menu in Signatures. We all got a tote, aprons, hat, towel, cookbooks, pictures...it was great. There were two dinners and tonight's was extra special with a lovely cocktail hour.

I am not a drinker and was not in favor of prices going up for all inclusive, but the ship is a warmer place with food and drinks flowing everywhere you go. It feels so luxurious. At lunch, they even had seared fois gras sandwiches and caviar.

It will be sad to see our friends leave us tomorrow, but we look forward to traveling with them again. I am so glad the trip isn't over yet.

Now, we won't be able to party..party..party as we will have places to go and things to see for the rest of our cruise.

You folks on CROSS will certainly have a lot to enjoy.

Hi Andi,

Great that you enjoyed your cooking classes so much.

You know we CROSSers are counting on you guys to keep good notes of the ports as our trip is pretty much the same.

Have a great day in Funchal!

Thanks Andi. Your input on Cordon Bleu has been great, and at this point I will probably stick with it. One question - did they offer Bridge lessons during the day and if so, would they have conflicted with CB classes? You can PM me later if you don't want to look that up right now.

So, you are going to do the fall in 2008? Then do a caribbean? That sounds great. Would be fun to do something like that, but right now I wouldn't leave my Dad over Thanksgiving, even when its not our turn with the kids. Maybe someday - we did a Thanksgiving cruise once with just our youngest daughter and it was really fun and we three had a great time - timing was right so to speak and it worked out well. Or are you doing the last leg of the WC?

We are really looking forward to B2B in 2008, will be very port intensive, but lots of great ports and places we have not been to yet, and a couple that we have, so it will be fun to see new places and revist old ones. My problem is that I just want to go on them all!!! :D :D

Anyway, look forward to your posts from the Med and all the advice you'all will have for us CROSSers on ports and excursions.

Keep the party going TAPers!!!

Yes on both counts...they can conflict and probably will on 2 days. Beginner bridge is at 9:15 am and intermediate bridge at 10am. two of the cooking classes will be in the am.

there are three 50% off 2008 cruises...one is Nov 23 Funchal to FL; the other is Dec 1; FL to FL and the other is a 10 day FL to FL, with very nice ports (Turks). Perhaps we can get a quorum for one of these trips?

Thanks andi - that was quick, you must have been online. Appreciate your response - now don't know what to do. Oh well have six months to figure it out.

Wish you and Doug were doing B2B with us, would love cruising with you again.

Likewise, Joanne. But we are still working stiffs...Don't have 30 days vacation. Pooh.

Our situation occured due to the fact that we were broken into three groups and they had to find times for us all. There were two morning classes and one afternoon class, I think, for each group. Perhaps, if there were a conflict, you could go to an afternoon class. I'm sure they would allow it.

Thanks for all the reports and photos; John, Tonya, Lynn - enjoy the rest of your trip! I hope Ken will continue with photos and Ngaire and others with reports - can't leave us stranded with no seamail!!

The pics and posts are Dee-vine! Keep 'em coming, please!

Our last day at sea was another sucessful one. We had our "last dance" last night with lots of hugs. It's sad to leave this amazing group. Our flight is not until late tonight, so we'll get to spend a full day in Funchal with the gang before they push off later this evening. Then it's off to the airport and on to Rome for a few days. Hopefully I'll still be able to log on in Rome and post some updates from our post TAP adventure.

Here are a few more pictures:
www.worldflyer.net/tap

John, the "hand behind the curtain" made me laugh! I don't remember ever seeing that before, is it new?

That flower arrangement made of fruit was spectacular!

John, I really enjoyed all your photos of TAP. It gave all of us at home a sneak peak of the fun you all had. Thanks for sharing. Enjoy Rome and have a safe trip home.

Thanks again John for your running commentary and wonderful pictures - just makes me all the more anxious for CROSS.

Have a great time in Rome - don't know how you wouldn't. :D

John, your pictures and reports have been great. Thanks for sharing the fun with us. Enjoy Rome! Ngaire, Ken and the rest of the group...carry on :D .

Hi John,

Your reports and pix are so great. I'm sure you and Tonya will be missed by your fellow TAPers, but Rome beckons!

Have a beautiful time in the Eternal City!

On day 8 you have a picture of Gloria!!
She was our most wonderful cocktail server on the PG in 02/2003

John, thanks for the great reporting and pictures! Wishing you and Tonya a safe trip home. When's your next cruise?

Cheers, Anne

Gloria has been the best. She will get a special place in my Opinion survey form at the end. And there are others who have remembered some from other cruises. In my case - Alberto in the dining room. This always makes it me feel like a special guest on board.

We are at the airport (gotta love the free wifi!). We had a great day in Madeira. Olivia, Suzanne, Tonya and I tried out some 15 y.o. Blandy's Madeira. After that we hired a taxi to drive us around for about 3 hours. I'll have to post some pictures when I get more time. The flowers and scenery were spectacular.
We got back to the ship around 4:15. We saw the Captain Knutt and he said we could stay on board until 6:30p if we'd like. We had to catch a flight, but we were able to stay until almost 5:30 in the Voyager Lounge saying goodbye (or better: See you later!)

This was such a great cruise. Who needs ports when you have such great friends like we've left behind on the Voyager.

Good luck with the photos, Ken. I want to see time stamps for proof that you guys are still living it up after midnight in the Voyager Lounge!!

I'm sure we'll have fun in Rome, but we will miss you guys as you sail on to Barcelona.

Tonight... we Sleep!! but you must.. DANCE! ole'

:bv:

John & Tonya from the Funchal Airport.

Have loved all your posts and pictures. Know you'll all continue to have wonderful times...Rome, Barcelona...it's just gonna keep getting better!!

Seared foie gras sandwiches...be still my heart <img border="0" alt="[vhappy]" title="" src="graemlins/icon_vhappy.gif" />

Bye John and Tonya and Lynn. We miss you already. Doug, Ngaire, Ken and I took the funicular to the town of Monte. Not too much to see, but the toboggan ride down was a hoot. You have wicker sleighs on wooden skiis and two guys ride the back and control the sled from crashing into things.

Then, we negotiated with a great taxi driver for a tour of the island and went to all of these beautiful lookout points, went to a fishing village, went to the expensive and glamorous Reid's Hotel, and to a winery where we only had 5 and 10 yo Madeira wine to taste.

The weather was glorious ... in the 70's and the sky was so blue. It is a beautiful island very reminiscent of the Almalfi coast. We had a driver who was adorable but spoke a little English and we spoke a little Spanish and somehow communicated during the day.

The ship provides a shuttle to the town and you can walk to the funicular and make it on your own to the Botanical Garden or toboggan. Those who went to the Garden said it was gorgeous, but requires a lot of walking. (I think there was a combo ticket with the botanical garden for $22 Euros) but I don't remember the round trip or one way fares. When I speak to Doug, I'll ask him and post. I really recommend the toboggan. However, you need a taxi when you get to the bottom to take you back to town as it is about 5 km.

This is a port which can be done on your own with either a taxi to see the island or you can just walk around the town or do the funicular and botanical garden on your own.

What is a shame is there are terrible forest fires due to drought on the island and a lot of this very verdant isle is being seriously damaged. The island is volcanic and very mountainous, with many terraced plots on all of the hillsides. It is immaculate and the people are friendly and warm. I enjoyed noticing the straw hats men wear being left outside the bars along with ladies' purses. They are left on the window ledges among the rod iron decorative bars over the windows.

We left about 11 and returned about 4, so this was a full day and could have been longer. But, we hadn't eaten and were starved and a bit tired. We had a block party on our hall,which was loads of fun. We couldn't get over the folks all around us who we had never seen and we had never left the ship!! New folks joined us today and we enjoyed a lovely day and evening before packing it in by midnight.

We arrive in Lanzarote tomorrow about 1 ish and will take our Regent tour at 1:30. Good night to all!

Andi - No dancing tonight????? Oh Oh bet this is the start of a new cruise - lots of ports, lots of touring, not so much dancing, and partying! More sleep needed.

Well do your best guys, we are all waiting with bated (sp?) breath to continue TAP.

Funchal sounds wonderful, can't wait to be there. Thanks for the tour info.

Yes, the Toboggan ride sounds really fun and hte hats on the windows sound like a great photo opportunity...can't wait!

I will miss John's reports...Andi, thanks for your really great info. More, I mean mas! Yo Quiero mucho MAS...

Funchal sounds like a lovely island. I feel a little less sad that I'll need to leave Voyager and stay there overnight before starting our trek back home.

Andi,
Did you tell the taxi driver where to take you or did he suggest where to go?

The toboggan sounds like a lot of fun but since my neck and back are my weak areas, I don't think I'll want to risk it.

Thanks for the report! More tomorrow, please!!