October 2005

If you are lucky enough to be cruising during the month, please list your cruise and the date and we will do our best to stalk you along your journey to get a glimpse of your ship. Please list your dates and ports.

Seven Seas Mariner Hong Kong to Singapore

10 Oct Hong Kong
11 Oct Hong Kong
13 Oct Hong Gai (Hanoi)
14 Oct Halong Bay
15 Oct Da Nang
17 Oct Saigon
18 Oct Saigon
20 Oct Bangkok
21 Oct Bangkok
23 Oct Singapore
24 Oct Singapore

Who is cruising with us??????

Marc...I certainly wish I was!

When you're in Da Nang....raise a glass for me - it's my birthday. I've visited Asia twice on my birthday - one of the few places on earth where they honor "elders"!

I hope you have a wonderful cruise. I know you've been planning for a long time.

I just found out we aren't going to Da Nang; we are going to Chan May. Given we have an all day private excursion, I wonder if its going to get screwed up. :(

Margo, this is first trip to Asia for Arlene and me. We are really looking forward to it; especially travelling with my mother and her husband (who served two tours in Vietnam).

Oct 22 Monte Carlo
Oct 23 Livorno (for Florence)
Oct 24 Civitavecchia (for Rome)
Oct 25 Sorrento
Oct 26 Naxos (for Taormina), Sicily
Oct 27 At Sea
Oct 28 Rhodes
Oct 29 Kusadasi
Oct 30 Sunday Piraeus (for Athens)

Sailing with a great, yet small, group of LCTers.

Voyager Rome to Monte Carlo :) aka 007

Oct 15 Civitavecchia (for Rome)
Oct 16 Sorrento
Oct 17 Portofino
Oct 18 Livorno (for Florence)
Oct 19 St. Tropez
Oct 20 Barcelona
Oct 21 Port Mahon, Menorca
Oct 22 Monte Carlo

WOO HOO! Trying Silversea (Silver Shadow) for the first time!!

October 10 Rome(Civitavecchia), Italy
11th Gaeta, Italy
12th At Sea
13th Ajaccio (Corsica), France
14th Livorno, Italy
15th Portofino, Italy
16th Portovenere, Italy overnighting
17th Marseille, France
18th Tarragona, Spain
19th At Sea
20th Monte Carlo, Monaco Disembark Silver Shadow

Three nights on the Cote d'Azur post cruise.

Does land count? I will be in Rome the same day as the Voyager! Anyone on the Voyager on November 5th? I leave Oct 29th so I can spend my Birthday in Rome!

I wish I still was ... :(

Masaki

I will also be on 007 Oct.15 Rome to Monte Carlo,Macy

Wow, Marc, Betty, Karen, Suzanne, Macy!!!!
What great trips you all have to look forward to!

Betty

YEAH, Mariner! Yes, by SE and I will be there.

Oct 15 Civitavecchia (for Rome)
Oct 16 Sorrento
Oct 17 Portofino
Oct 18 Livorno (for Florence)
Oct 19 St. Tropez
Oct 20 Barcelona
Oct 21 Port Mahon, Menorca
Oct 22 Monte Carlo
Oct 23 Livorno (for Florence)
Oct 24 Civitavecchia (for Rome)
Oct 25 Sorrento
Oct 26 Naxos (for Taormina), Sicily
Oct 27 At Sea
Oct 28 Rhodes
Oct 29 Kusadasi
Oct 30 Sunday Piraeus (for Athens)

Voyager B2B - 2 nights Rome pre cruise one night Athens post - Joanna

Rats! I just miss all of you.

Here's my 25th Anniversary vacation!!!

Oct. 9, 2005 - Oct. 11: Los Angeles (King Tut!)
Oct. 11-Oct. 15: Bora Bora Pearl OWB (Yeah!)
Oct. 15: Paul Gaughuin Tahiti!
Oct. 16: Raiatea
Oct. 17: Taha'a Motu Mahana (Heaven I hear!)
Oct. 18: Bora Bora
Oct. 19: Bora Bora
Oct. 20: Moorea
Oct. 21: Moorea
Oct. 22: Tahiti

Oct. 23: Back home in Long Island, New York!

Babs

Oh my! October is certainly going to be slow around here - y'all better be posting as much as you can.

We'll be in South of France Oct 22 then boarding the chartered luxury barge ( only 4 of us) with crew of 5 totally 5 stars!
Then flying to Switzerland for truffle fix.
http://www.saroche.com/

We're on land in northern Italy and southern Switzerland Oct. 29th thru Nov. 5th.
(Than on to the Voyager 11/6 from Monte Carlo.)

Michele

We're on board the Voyager Oct. 22-30 for the itinerary Betty and Joanna described above, Monte Carlo to Athens, plus three days pre-cruise in Provence. Aaahhhh, sounds like heaven! I don't know how I am going to wait these last three and a half months.

Counting down the days.. looks like alot of us will be playing in the South of France late October.

My 50th birthday and our 30th Anniversary celebration:

Oct. 4 Fly from Denver to LAX,
LAX to Papeete
One night at Tahiti Beachcomber
3 nights in OWB on Moorea
7 nights on the Paul Gauguin

Can't wait! Anyone else cruising then?

Hi Thyme Girl -

Welcome to LCT! Post an introduction in the Introductions thread. We love newcomers!

I'm a 1955 Model too. We're celebrating in Rome (Tauck Tour - Classic Italy - two weeks) leaving 10/30th. You will love the PG. We did the cruise we call PIP

ditto on the Hawaiian 5 oh..party.. although we would never ever tell anyone else would we Kathi?
And welcome birthday thyme girl.. ;)

Welcome, Thymegirl. I can't imagine a better 50th birthday or 30th anniversary celebration!

Marc, Kathy and I will be on the Mariner with you. In Chan May have you booked a private guide or are you on the Virtuoso tour?

Jody:

My step father served over in Da Nang area. Therefore, he arranged for a private tour through Virtuoso to go to the places he wanted to see again. We all opted out of the Virtuoso excursion.

My brother was stationed in Da Nang with the Marines during the Vietnamese war.His homemade shower was blown to bits seconds after he stepped out. I doubt he would ever wish to re-visit.

When we were in Vietnam in March (DaNang & Saigon -now renamed Ho Chi Minh City) there were many who didn't have any desire to re-visit and re-open up old scars. In DaNang we went into the countryside and visited a home and a school. This was a GREAT excursion and we could not have felt more welcome. The young children were precious and so fascinated with our digital cameras. They all wanted their pictures taken! This was one of my favorite tours.

In Saigon the feelings were different. We went to the Cu Chi Tunnels where the Viet Cong lived underground (including kitchen, meeting rooms, hospital rooms, operating rooms etc.) You really have to remind your self that this is all presented from THEIR perspective. As interesting as it was, it was disturbing and not the right excursion for everyone. I had to remind myself that our guide wasn't even born until long after the war ended. I found this excursion very interesting (though quite sad as well) but certainly understand why many would not want to reopen old memories.

Marcie, was the excursion one offered by RSSC? If so, do you remember the name or description?

Clyde and I are trying Seabourn for a 46 day cruise from Cairo to Singapore starting October 23 and ending December 8!! There are many, many sea days so we had better like the ship! Both of us like sea days, tho, so that's okay. We've been to many of the ports but not Thailand or Maldives or Seychelles so they will be new.

Marcie: When we were in Vietnam, Clyde went into the Cuchi tunnels to see what they were like and I couldn't believe he would do it! You are right that most of those guides were not born until after the V.W. but I still felt funny around them. Especially when they showed us the pits with the spears sticking up to impale our guys on if they fell in. Ugh.

I did the tunnels and had mixed feelings - I could not stop thinking about the loss of 58 thousand American lives - was really annoyed when our guide told us that "your American GI's were big fat water buffaloes and couldn't fit in our tunnels" - we were asked to be nonconfrontational and just smile - it was hard - and we were corrected when we referred to Saigon and did not call it Ho Chi Minh City - Joanna

Welcome Thyme Girl! Looks like you'll be getting off the PG on Oct. 15th as I'm getting on! I know you must be very excited as I am!

Babs

I give you a lot of credit Joanna, my dad was drafted at age 20 for the Vietnam war, I know other people who came back from that war and their lives are forever ruined. I do not think it would be possible for me to pay for an excursion, and have some FOOL! say something so stupid about our troops who many died in those tunnels, and the FOOL! probably was not even alive during that period: and then be told not to be nonconfrontational. No Thanks!
just my feelings
Frank

Joanna, your story is unbelievable. To have a tour guide say such a thing is astounding. Every war has multiple perspectives to be understood, for better or worse, but for a person to say something so unnecessarily insulting .... well, I'll stop at that.

Wow, what a great month with lots of terrific-sounding cruises! I'm so jealous. Nothing for us, but maybe we can manage Thanksgiving in New York, or something (our thanksgiving is in October.)

Aloha
Christina and I are just back from Istanbul/Athens, on a Wind Star cruise(instead of the Diamond) in time to make final payment on the Mariner-Hong Kong/Singapore trip. It looks like with Marc and Jody&Kathy( did I miss anyone ? ). Just starting to look at the shore stuff and find the info above to be of great help. Mahalo, John& Christina

Just found this site. My wife and I will be going on the Silversea Monte Carlo to Athens cruise. Itinerary follows:

October 17-20 - arrive in Monte Carlo and stay three days pre-cruise at the Hotel de Paris
October 20 - early embarkation on Silver Shadow
October 21 - Genoa, Italy
October 22 - Livorno, Italy
October 23 - at sea
October 24 - Porto Empedocle, Italy
October 25 - Valletta, Malta
October 26 - at sea
October 27 - Heraklion, Greece
October 28 - Rhodes, Greece
October 29 - Kusadasi, Turkey
October 30 - Athens, Greece
October 30 - November 1 - staying at Grande Bretagne Hotel

This is our second cruise on Silversea and our first in a Silver Suite. I would appreciate any comments on the Silver Suite experience and recommended shore excursions, particularly if you have experiences with a tour company other than those used by Silversea.

I would also appreciate any comments on pre/post cruise excursions/things to do, particularly any recommended limousine tours of the Cote d'Azur and Athens. Names of good restaurants would also be appreciated.

We'll be joining the Mariner in Singapore and cruising to Sydney. Like Thymegirl, I will also be celebrating my 50th birthday and our 30th anniversary. Looks like 1955/1975 was a great combination!

007 with Karen and the gang! Can't wait!

pterostyrax, First of all welcome to LCT! We're glad you're here!

We were recently in some of the ports you'll be in but on Radisson, not Silversea. We had an EXCELLENT guide for the day in Kusadasi that I'd highly recommend. We went to Ephesus and the House of the Virgin Mary (they're close together). There were 6 of us in an air conditioned van and the cost was only $30 per person for the day. He'll hand tailor depending upon your needs. His name is Levent and his website is: www.leventsolmaz.com and his email address is: info@leventsolmaz.com He really is great! It was soooooooo much better than the ship excursion. We did our own thing in Athens (a disappointing city IMO)

BTW, what is your real name? I will never be able to remember your screen name! Again, welcome to LCT!