Well, after much rending of garments and gnashing of teeth, we booked this AM :D . Gretchen, her cousin Cheryl and I will be in G777. We just did Auckland to LA and couldn't stay away. This is the same suite we had last year with our daughter in the Baltic.

I think, Cathy, Wendy and Fred are on WAVE, anyone else? We are also doing a post cruise in England. Haven't set that up yet but last time all we did was rent a car and get a copy of the RAC B&B book. Will probably be a bit more organized this time. ;) We haven't booked this close to sailing since our very first RSSC cruise. Guess I better get with HQ and see if they have Gretchen and I in the correct tier :rolleyes: .


Greg

Greg,

We've been furiously planning our excursions and pre and post time as well. That will be one terrific cruise. We're talking about private guides in a few of the ports. RSSC took down some the excursions that were posted so we're waiting to see what they will be.

Editing to add that we're doing the Cordon Bleu (well 1/2 of each couple are)program too.

Greg and Gretchen, welcome to WAVE. Glad to find another pair who are doing this cruise. There was one other person on LTC, but not sure if they are still doing it.

We were going to do a post-cruise in England too, love the B&B network, but decided to fly to Portugal instead.

I found a car rental right at Dover--can't remember off-hand which company it was, but the price wasn't bad. Any idea what part of England you will concentrate on?

P.S. I am currently signed up for the Cordon Bleu course, along with David, but I may drop out and leave the chopping and sauteing to him, while I lol in the hot tub. Not sure yet, but a vacancy could open up, if it is full!

Kathy, on CC you said you've counted 11 on this cruise so far. Who have I forgotten??

Wendy,
Gretchen and I have been to England a couple of times. In fact, both of us have worked there for short periods, but we've never been to Cornwall or Kent. SO I think that's where we'll focus this trip. Our cousin Cheryl has never been there so she's ok with that plan. I think our plan is take the transfer Ngaire found (posted elsewhere on this board) to London, spend two days there; then rent a car and spend three nights some combination of Cornwall/Kent. Really haven't decided. If anyone has suggestions I would be most grateful. Probably not doing the CB as I couldn't even talk Gretchen into it on the Auckland to LA cruise when it was taught exclusively on sea days. If we have free time, Gretchen and Cheryl will probably want to be in a dance class :rolleyes: (if there is one). We had some of the greatest dance instructors (Dieter and Ilse) on the Auckland-LA cruise. I even liked it! Right now more focused on what to do in Vigo and Malaga.
Greg

Wendy - There is a couple, David J and his partner, on our sailing. I emailed him from the CC board without any response.

So we have:
Cathy and Frank
Wendy and David
Fred and Pat
Gretchen, Greg and Cheryl
and
David and ??? from cc


Greg

Greg,

The only time I have spent in Kent was a trip to Canterbury, long ago. That's where we're spending the morning prior to our flight to Portugal.

Cornwall I remember as being great, you will love it, I think the roads have improved greatly since I was there in 1971!!

Please add to the list Bruce and Mary Ellen.

We are going in four days ahead because of Amex Rewards Travel available dates. But we will make the best of it I am sure. We are also doing a B/B and continuing on to the Baltics.

All of the ports (on WAVE) are new to us so if anyone has suggestions, please share. I have been to Granada but we drove right by Malaga on our way to Ronda, so I think I would like to walk this city, eat Tapas as we go along, find their Sherry bars and just enjoy. I love Spain, especially Andalucia.

We are looking forward to meeting you all.

Mary Ellen

Mary Ellen,

Glad you'll be joining us too! That means we have about 15 now on WAVE. How fun will that be?

We can make plans for a meet and greet day of embarkcation.

I'm just researching what to do in the various ports. A few of us are going to tour with private guides but were just now making our choices. We've not been there either. We're going in one day pre-cruise and spending 3 days in London post cruise.

Welcome, Mary Ellen. I too love Andalucia, and am torn about what to do in Malaga--my husband's not been to Granada (or Spain for that matter), so we may do a tour up there. Or, rent a little car and putter around. I never made it to Nerja or Ronda when I was there years ago.

I'm poking around researching Santander at the moment. Would love to go to the Altamira site, or some other (real) paleolithic caves (you can't actually go into the Altamira caves any more), but I am finding very little information. Everybody says Santillana del Mar is beautiful.

I also am determined to do the Santiago de Compostela day, but wonder about private guides for that too--or doing it by train--apparently there is good service from/to both Vigo and Coruna. But if nobody else wants to go, I will just take the ship's tour and be very happy.

Hi Wendy,

The other caves with prehistoric art in the area that I'm familiar with are the caves of Tito Bustillo. Here you visit the real caves, not a reproduction. They are open Wed- Sunday and the first visit is at 10:25, last visit at 4:15PM. Tickets are timed and each group can stay for 60 mins. The only issue is that they are outside the coastal town of Ribadesella( beautiful beach town by the way) and that's approx. an hour and a half from Santander. I don't know if you have enough time to do it, even if you get a private guide to drive you there.

With respect to Santiago, in addition to train service there is frequent bus service between Vigo/Santiago, Santiago/ Coruña. If you want I could try to find the schedules for you. The bus system in Spain is excellent. I haven't done the Vigo/ Santiago trip but I have done the Santiago/ Coruña and back. You just have to make sure that you get in the express bus ( not the one that makes several stops or doesn't go through the toll highway)!

Editing to add: Santillana is indeed worthwhile to visit.

Thanks Maria, is Santillana cab-able from Santander? Any idea how to find a private driver/guide??

I'm waiting to see who else wants to go to Santiago. If there are 4 or so, then I would really prefer to find a private guide, although doing the train trip would be fun, I'm sure. I am a little nervous about missing the boat, so to speak. (Of course, this can happen with a private guide as well!)

I hope you enjoy your upcoming cruise, wish I was going somewhere warm!

Wendy,

I went by bus to Santillana but I wouldn't recommend it in your case because there weren't too many buses a day. I imagine since it is pretty close( a little over half hour) that you could go by cab . If you do I would make the driver wait in Santillana as I don't know how easy it would be to find a cab there to bring you back.

I'm sorry I don't have any names of a private driver / guide that I can recommend from personal experience as I traveled by bus/ plane( I'm too chicken to rent a car and drive there!). I did find in the internet these 2 companies that provide car and driver service in the Santander area: HERE and HERE

Thanks Maria, Fred is gathering info about private tours in Santander, meanwhile, I will wait and see if anybody else in this little group has any interest in Santiago. So far no one has, so I may just take the ship's tour by myself (assuming my husband will be on the ship, cooking!)

Dear friends on WAVE

I picked up two books yesterday at the the bookstore. A mini London guide (Frommers) and the other is the DK Guide "Cruise Guide to Europe and the Med" Tells you all the major sites to see in all the ports. It will also be good for the Grand Crossing next year too. I will bring it for those of us who want to wander.

Great Kathy, thanks, that will be helpful. I will also be bringing along my Lonely Planet guide to Portugal, as well as a somewhat dated Michelin Green Guide to same. So anybody planning to wander in Lisbon can read up.

It's David J and Pierce from CC

(ChatKat, Don't recall receiving your e mail.)

Pierce and I have been responding for several months on the CC board as we booked in October. We are also interested in Santiago but were thinking of taking the ships tour. Also, very curious about Santillana del Mar (at least one of us is). I was thinking of renting a car if not taking the ships arranged excursion (which I prefer not to do because it sounds like it includes a bus tour of Santander).
Have left things open up to this point as I am waiting to see what Regent will actually offer. The description of Spotlight Food & Wine suggests special excursions related to the theme will be offered. Has any one done this Spotlight thing before? Is this just wishful thinking?

David

I did the Spotlight in 2003 on a Panama Canal Cruise. They did not have any excursion on it because the food quality was not up to RSSC Standards. What I understood is that they take you to a market to show you how to select food that you will prepare.

We prepared a Vegetables in a butter/sugar sauce.
We prepared an Asparagus/crab Appetizer that was amazing
We prepared Filet in a cabernet reduction
We prepared Fruit Crepes in a sabayon

There were two dinners and a cocktail party plus the 4 classes. We had a really great time. I called the it "Cooking with Butter and Wine and Cooking with MORE Butter" It was all about the presentation and social interaction.

Kathy's talking about the cordon bleu cooking class, of course. I too have been wondering about the Spotlight element. We did a spotlight on classical music in 2004, and there were onboard performances, special lectures, and excursions that were focussed on music. So it will be interesting.

BTW, I did find that Europcar would rent us a car in Santander (but we declined, we're doing a private tour.) The problem with the rentals agencies is that you would have to get the car back during siesta, when most businesses are closed. A compact car was going to be about 90 euros, for 5 hours.

Oh - yes, Wendy, thanks for the reminder that the lectures and presentations between classes were all cooking demonstration and wine tastings and never conflicted with the Cordon Bleu class. Usually the CB things were during sea time. When we cooked the Filets, it was just before dinner. We had a dinner at Signatures of all the food we prepared in the class. We also got a cookbook, apron and hat.

Cool, more food! Kathy, our goose is cooked (so to speak.) :eek:

Our recent Auckland to LA was a "Spotlight on the Movies." Originally, it was advertised as a focus on New Zealand movies (Whale Rider and such). As executed it we had two special lecturers/guest speakers who were in "the movie business." As I recall one was a producer and one wrote screen plays. There were about 5 or 6 times they gave special presentations (called Real to Reel...catchy play on words, huh?) on particular aspects of movie making. I only saw one (too much bridge playing and dance lessons) and it was pretty good (I thought). But I enjoyed the presentations by Jean Michel Cousteau, Paul Williams, Geography Professor from University of Oregon and the retired US Ambassador to Iraq (can't remember their names) better. Remember we had 9 sea days though. So the Spotlight element was (like the CB classes) focused on Sea Days. I hope our spotlight includes some interesting excursions/presentations ashore.
Greg

Wendy,

It gives new meaning to a "see food diet". Time for the treadmill NOW because my clothes won't fit post cruise otherwise.

Yes Kathy, know what you mean. My elliptical is sitting in the study right now, my "exercise room" is getting a new ceiling. Hopefully when I get back from grocery shopping this morning, I will go and do my pilates, at least. My waistline seems to expand daily. But that's a different thread!

Well, we usually celebrate getting our documents(those ought to arrive in about 6 weeks!)here. How come we don't celebrate getting that final invoice that means we're really going and we can start shopping and gathering?

:lct: Here's to looking forward to my next American Express Bill!

Yes, a dubious celebration, but it's always a relief to see the payment go through. A milestone of sort. I even got my tax refund yesterday, so I can now use it to pay for (most of) the cruise!! I filed Sunday before last, and the cheque was in the mail on Thursday! :pass:

Alcohol selection--David got a picnic martini set last summer--he wants to bring the cocktail shaker with us so that we can make cosmos or martinis.

Will we be able to get cranberry juice and limes?? I guess we will have to bring the cointreau, since I no doubt will want gin for the other bottle. Which means we may have to bring vermouth too (unless we want our martinis extra dry!) Decisions, decisions. Maybe I can wait and buy the extra booze in the Frankfurt duty free, so I don't have to carry it across the ocean.

Wendy,
My daughter and I had cosmos in our room one night on our March 13th Mariner cruise. Room service brought the limes and cranberry juice....plus a few snacks (shrimp cocktail and nuts!)

Cheers, Pam

Wendy -

They make small sized cardboard box cranberry juice. One box makes 8 cosmos. I have a flask that I bring Cointreau in. Limes seem to usually be the problem. I've had a hard time getting them on some itineraries. But I learned a new martini called the South Beach that you make with Cranberry and Orange Juice. No lime needed.

1/2 oz Cranberry Juice
1/2 oz OJ
1 oz Cointreau
1 1/2 Oz Grey Goose L'orange (regular will do)
splash of grenadine
Shake with ice and garnish with Marchino Cherry and Slice of Orange.

Editing to add that we can have Martini Night in our room. Oh and they've given me Cranapple once time and it was not so good. I will bring some Cranberry. And Frank wonders why my carry on luggage is so heavy.

Well Kathy, if you come to our room for a cosmo, you'll have to settle for Absolut ;) -- I want that gin too, for a G&T! Will try your recipe, thanks.

Maybe we can divvy-up. One of us brings the cointreau, one the cranberry juice, one the vermouth, etc.??

Oh, another lime replacement, of course, is Rose's lime cordial, it makes a pretty decent cosmo. I have a huge bottle. I could find a smaller container to bring...?

Speaking of which, do you bother asking for your booze in advance? We usually just wait and tell the steward what we want.

Okay - we'll plan closer in as to who brings what. I have filled out my request early on but found sometimes I have to ask or exchange.

I am so ready for this cruise! Started the clothes part already too.

I've just started thinking about clothing. Mostly it's done, but I need some walking shoes, and a new pair of sandals, and some pants, and some new tops, and, and....oh, and I need to buy David some new shirts.

Bought two new skirts - gypsy style, one reversable and some tops to match good for work too, except that the chair rolls over them and the hems get torn. :(

Kathy, now you've tweeked my curiousity...what's a gypsy skirt? Photo needed!!

Yes, I agree, we need to see this skirt!!

BTW, I may also need to buy a new handbag. Something about going on a trip--the purse has to be perfect.

Similar to this...Mine is all pinks/corals/reds/bone

Very cute Kathy! I didn't know what they were called!

Kathy,
Just noticed on the "What if Delta Strikes" thread Colonel Wes started that you're flying LAX to NCE "a day early." We're on DL 0101 (LAX-ATL) and DL 0142 (ATL-NCE) departing LAX 1115 on the 7th and arriving NCE 1130 on the 8th. Is that the one you're on??
Greg

Yes, we're on those flights together!
It's getting closer!!!