Hi,

I was wondering if anybody is looking at any of the 2010 cruises? Unfortunately we can't join any of the escorted ones due to conflict with the dates. We are considering one on Mariner departing 6/28,12 days, from Istanbul(with overnight) and ending in Rome. Following is the link to the itinerary:
http://www.rssc.com/cruises/MAR100628/Itinerary.aspx

Anybody out there is interested??

Hi Maria - would love to cruise with you and Bob again, but those dates aren't the best for us. We did sign up for TUT finally. Hopefully we will work it out to sail with you again in the future.

Hope you find some fellow cruisers.

Hi Maria:

We are doing the May 20/day Navigator cruise Ft.Lauderdale to San Francisco. We've always wanted to transit the Panama Canal and we've canceled plans to do so twice. Then we are on Navigator again in November Sydney to Aukland. Fred's been to Australia on business several times but I haven't been to Australia or New Zealand. (We're also doing Rio to Ft. Lauderdale on Voyager this December. Would love to see you on one or all.

Pat

Maria, that's a nice itinerary, some repeats for us but no place I wouldn't love to return. And we've never been to Istanbul, which is of real interest, plus I would love to return to Florence. Hmmmmm ....

I am so focused on Regent right now, with our Alaska cruise coming up next week. You know how it is -- at least for me. I always want to book another cruise as soon as we return. Maybe, maybe.

Hopefully, we are doing the 7/7/10 Alaska cruise (high school graduation gift for my son, assuming he graduates), and then the 11/8 crossing Barcelona to Florida. But that's a big hopefully.

JoAnn and Pat, I wish we could do either TUT or Sydney to Auckland but the dates will not work (however, after my daughter graduates in June 2012 I shouldn't have that problem anymore!).

Priscilla, some of the ports are repeat for us too but like you we haven't been to Istanbul so that's part of the attraction. No time like the present to do that onboard booking! ;)

Diane, an Alaska cruise sounds like the perfect graduation present. A crossing is also in our plans once we are more flexible with our dates. We enjoyed tremendously our Voyager crossing in the Fall 2007.

We are already signed up for "VIKING 2010" (May 12 - June 5). Pretty similar itinerary to the one that was cancelled this year.

Would love to visit Istanbul someday though. Tunisia really looks interesting as well.

Alan and I have signed up to try out the new SilverSea ship, Spirit on a fall Atlantic crossing from Lisbon to Georgetown, Barbados. We'll be doing some type of land thing in either Spain or Portugal before the cruise.

If I had unlimited funds, I'd be going on Ngaire's Nile River cruise, the Prince Albert cruise to Arctic Circle in July, the Sydney to Auckland cruise on the Mariner plus her Easter European River Cruise in September. Alas, my travel desires are much, much larger than my travel budget.

Donna - I looked at that Lisbon cruise but with 100% ss - not a chance. If I had the money I wouldn't give any cruise line the satisfaction of paying that much over brochure price!
Right now it's down under for me - Ngaire's New Zealand and some sort of pre-cruise land trip in Australia.

Hi Maria,

Would LOVE to cruise/travel with you and Bob again. We had such a great time planning CROSS and a tremendous time touring and on the cruise with you both. So much fun!

Many repeat ports for us; although we'd love to return to Istanbul, there are destinations yet to be explored still on our wish list. Therefore, not sure we can take this cruise with you right now.

Appreciate the invite, my friend.

So far only TUT Oct. 10 on the Voyager and a Rome post cruise for 5 days. That should satisfy my wanderlust :)

Donna - LOL! I think exactly like you, my travel desires far exceed our budget.

We have already booked Navigator for the Feb 26 2010 cruise. I was soooo happy to hear that dry dock had been moved up!

Mary

We are seriously considering Oceania for 10/01/10 Barcelona to Istanbul. It also includes Israel and Egypt. Great itinerary! Their special includes gratuities. Susan from B & K can get us a PH for $12,000 14 day cruise for 2. 2010 seems so far away though. J & J

Marc and I will be on TUT but no plans other than that... IF we are still living in Europe we might be doing more driving than cruising trips... time will tell.

We're currently booked on Bangkok to Sydney 26 Oct - 16 Nov.
Greg

Thanks to all for sharing. So many great cruises out there! I look forward to the day Bob and I aren't tied to the school calendar.

Yep, we booked the Oceania cruise for 2010! Great itinerary. Sodona advised us to go to Cappadosa, Turkey and we will. Looking forward to staying in a "cave" hotel and a balloon ride over the fairy chimneys. Sounds awesome. J & J

Well, we took the plunge and are booked on Mariner, Istanbul to Rome on 6/28/10. With those two ports as bookends I'm sure it will be a great cruise!

Hope that some LCTers will eventually join us!

Maria, this sounds like a great itinerary!!

Is anyone interested in a 7 day cruise? Mark lost his 6 weeks of vacation when he retired and took his new job with only 2 weeks of vacation so I am trying to find something that works for him.
I am liking the Voyager Nov. 23 2010 Western Carib Thanksgiving cruise. TUT was my first choice for Mark and I but I am not sure if that is doable because of the length.

I am also looking at ING 2010 but if I do that one as well, I will have to take my bff Julie again.

We're along the same lines as you, Karen - Greg used to have 5 weeks plus floating holidays plus personal days with Time Warner, but was reduced to 2 weeks when he took his job with Charter in Texas. So...after our 13-night Med cruise we just took, we're done for 2009. In 2010 we are going for the 5-night Navigator RT Fort Lauderdale in February 2010 just after drydock (he's also turning 40 during the cruise - good reason to book!). But that way he should be able to take one more vacation in 2010.

We would have loved to have gone on TUT, but it's just not in the cards.

Karen wish Mark could work vacation time for TUT - there would be many happy cruisers if you two would join this trip! You light up the LCT board with your cheerfulness and willing help so sure many who have never met you would LOVE to have you on any trip.

Ditto everything you said Joanna ! You too Kristin, sure wish you and Greg could pull TUT off. I really look forward to meeting you after VIKING got all screwed around.

Carla and I were talking about TuT this morning, since it falls around our anniversary and I think there are like 7 ports we have never been to....

Got some time on our hands, but would love to do this trip....

FV

TUT is the "BOMB" Jump on board!<a href="http://media.photobucket.com/image/king tut/CurbsideInsight/KingTut.gif" target="_blank"><img src="http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk110/CurbsideInsight/KingTut.gif" border="0"></a>

I ended up choosing the Voyager Nov. 23rd Thanksgiving cruise. No cooking (which isn't much fun for the two of us here is TX) and it's our anniversary!

I sure hope I am not going to be alone without any LCTers, I don't think I could handle that!

Karen, we will just be disembarking from the crossing that begins 11/8/10

Dang Diane, I will miss you by this much!

And Karen - I will be leaving for Ngaire's tour of New Zealand if you want to rethink due to the "Ellie factor!"

Oh NOOOO! Aunt Betty won't be around to watch her neice! Dang, that's a bummer, I don't think she would like anyone else to watch her!

And I want to have her here!

Wish we could be there with you Karen, we did a TG cruise several years ago and loved it, but not this year, as its our "year with the kids" so to speak, and we are doing a Princess 7 night at the end of Sept to make up for the BIG one we canceled this year ---- anyway, would love to join you. Sighhhhhh!!!!

My big deal for 2010 is getting back to Outer Banks with the kids and all the family! I hope there will be a cruise in there in addition to BK's CASTLE, but we shall see what the market brings!

Hope you get same house in OB's you had Oliva - it was incredible!!!!

Well, after debating a couple of itineraries, we just booked the first half of the Voyager Northern Trans-Atlantic, May 12-26, Ft. Lauderdale to Reykjavik. It will be an easy itinerary with several sea days and interesting Canadian ports plus sailing into and out of New York, which I hear from good authority (you, Peggy, among others) is spectacular with the Statue of Liberty. It's a 10 p.m. sailaway, so to see the night skyline should be really nice. Halifax and the Newfoundland ports have lots of appeal too. They are places we've always intended to get to for a land trip but haven't done.

Any VIKINGs want a re-do on this year's cancelled first half? Anyone else?

Cindy (lonestarlady), I see you are on for the full crossing. Look forward to meeting you!

Welcome aboard Priscilla! Looking forward to meeting you too! (Only 11 months to go!) Although we have previously cruised to several of the ports on the first half, we are looking forward to the sea days, and just relaxing on the ship if there is nothing new we want to see in a repeat port. We will need to get rested up for the second half, which looks pretty port intensive with lots of interesting excursions.
And yes - cruising in to/out of New York is awesome - this will be our third time!

Hi Priscilla,

You will enjoy the sail in and away from NYC, I'm sure! We have done it both ways and loved it.
Hope you will spend at least a day in Reykjavik so you can see the attractions there.

Cindy, you will love the ports on the second half. We have visited most of them and found them extremely interesting. The small ports really get you close to the people and history and are, in my mind, very memorable. By the way, where in Texas are you located?

Maria, thanks for the advice about Reykjavik. We do plan to spend at least an extra day there. I'll be asking for thoughts about what to do in that time frame!

Sounds as if the New York arrival and departure truly is something special!

Hi Priscilla.

We live few miles from a little town called Elgin, which is about 25 miles east of Austin.

Already looking forward to our 2010 cruise!

We leave this Thursday for our CAPTAINS and Baltic B2B - looking so forward to the cooler climate!