November 2006

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.

Me, me, me! Can't wait. We're on the Sydney to Auckland leg of the Grand Circle Pacific on the Mariner (KIWI)

11/15-16 Sydney
11/18 Melbourne
11/20 Hobart, Tasmania
11/24 Port Chalmers (for Dunedin) NZ
11/25 Lyttleton (for Christchurch)
11/26 Picton
11/27 Wellington
11/28 Napier
11/29 Tauranga
11/30 Auckland (and home :( )

Susan

Karen, thanks; Joe from Chicago, Kim & Alice, Ida and I are on SS "Divers Delight" 12-21 Nov; ports include:

San Juan, Puerto Rico
La Romana, Dominican Republic
Day At Sea
Ocho Rios, Jamaica
George Town, Grand Cayman;
Day At Sea
Belize City, Belize
Cozumel, Mexico
Day At Sea
Fort Lauderdale, Florida

And Kim,Alice and I are diving in every port
but Jamaica.

r/Wes

Of all things, we're cruising on NCL America in November :D

We're sailing roundtrip from Honolulu on 11/6/06.

11/6 DEPART HONOLULU, US 8:00 PM
11/7 ARRIVE-DOCK HILO, US 8:00 AM
11/7 DEPART HILO, US 6:00 PM
11/7 CRUISE 6:01 PM
11/8 ARRIVE-DOCK KAHULUI (MAUI), US 8:00 AM
11/9 DEPART KAHULUI (MAUI), US 6:00 PM
11/10 ARRIVE-ANCHOR KONA, US 7:00 AM
11/10 DEPART KONA, US 6:00 PM
11/10 CRUISE 12:00 AM
11/11 ARRIVE-DOCK NAWILIWILI (KAUAI), US 7:00 AM
11/12 DEPART NAWILIWILI (KAUAI), US 2:00 PM
11/13 ARRIVE-DOCK HONOLULU, US 7:00 AM

Masaki

Yeah!!! My turn again. :app: :app: :app: Mom, sis and I along with some of the Flavors of the Month from SSS will be on the Silver Wind. This is the official Retirement Cruise. Here are the dates.

01 Nov 2006 Arrive Lisbon (overnight)
02 Nov 2006 Lisbon, Portugal
03 Nov 2006 Oporto, Portugal
04 Nov 2006 Day At Sea
05 Nov 2006 Cadiz, Spain
06 Nov 2006 Casablanca, Morocco
07 Nov 2006 Casablanca, Morocco
08 Nov 2006 Agadir, Morocco
09 Nov 2006 Arrecife, Canary Islands, Spain
10 Nov 2006 St. Cruz de la Palma, Canary Islands, Spain
11 Nov 2006 Las Palmas, Canary Islands, Spain (overnight)
12 Nov 2006 Depart for home

Hey Beth - was the Alaska cruise just a practice cruise for the "official" one?! If so, I like your way of retiring! :banana:

Hi Sue,

Alaska was the yearly family cruise of seven. This one is a special one with mom and two daughters. Just us girls :pass: !!!

Here is the second "flavor of the month" to chime in!!!!

Silver Wind Lisbon to the Canaries. 5 Regent groupies testing the Silversea waters.

Beth and Suzanne, can't wait to hear about this one. Beth, you know how to retire in style!

Thanks, Donna, This will be the last of my cruising until the family cruise in June 07. Might as well live it up now!!!

We're doing Oceania's Nautica from Istanbul to Singapore, 24 days, beginning 11/27, with four nights precruise in Istanbul.

Masaki, I will be curious to hear about your NCL trip, that itinerary is something I have considered!

Masaki, that was the cruise I had booked for November, 2004 but it wasn't going to be finished in time. A big storm hit the shipyard where it was being built and put it a year behind. We ended up doing a land vacation instead. Can't wait to hear what you think.

I have been watching the reviews carefully for the NCLA Pride of Hawaii - currently it seems to be suffering the typical new-ship jitters that most new ships go through. Have to say that I'm not a big fan of the decor in the public areas. However, the timing was right and it just so happened that I have a medical conference aboard so it worked out for tax purposes. :) It'll be Marika's first cruise! And we've got this bathroom to look forward to ...



and this shower:


So I figure it can't be ALL bad ...

Masaki

Wow, that bathroom is wonderful!

Masaki, If that's what the bathroom looks like, can't wait for pictures of the suite!! ;)

What did you get, Masaki, the owner's suite?

HOLY COW!!! What a fantastic bathroom. I too am interested to see which suite that is in!

I am cruising in November!! :app:

RSSC Mariner (oops I mean Regent :rolleyes: )
Nov 1 Singapore
Nov 2 At Sea
Nov 3 At Sea
Nov 4 Bali (Padang Bai)
Nov 5 Komodo Island
Nov 6 At Sea
Nov 7 Darwin
Nov 8 At Sea
Nov 9 At Sea
Nov 10 Cooktown
Nov 11 Cairns
Nov 12 Hardy Reef
Nov 12 Hamilton Cove
Nov 13 At Sea
Nov 14 At Sea
Nov 15 Sydney

Wow Masaki! Hope Marika doesn't get lost in that huge bathroom! Looks gorgeous!

Wow that bathroom on Pride of America looks amazing! I will be interested to hear about your cruise experience Masaki. The quarters are nicer than what we had on the Pride of Aloha last year. We took that cruise with a group of other couples. We went into it knowing that the cabins and food would not be as nice as what we were used to on RSSC, but they weren't bad. What was bad was the level of service provided by the all American crew and the horrendous lines at embarkation. We still had fun with our group though and my husband was impressed with the NCL golf program. We loved our pre-cruise stay at the Kahala Mandarin!!!

Wow, Masaki! That's awesome! Am I seeing that correctly, there is an outside window in the shower? WAY cool. Just be sure to remember to shut the shade when you are in port... ;)

OH MY!!! I just visited the NCL website and I see that they have COURTYARD SUITES, complete with pool and hot tub. They call them "villas" - oh my!!!! I've never seen anything like it!

Masaki, are you in one of those?!?!

Masaki, we came close to taking this cruise over Thanksgiving. Our friends had found a deal and wanted us to go. Saner thinking prevailed and we will be making our obligatory Thanksgiving appearance in Altanta, instead. Got to see family sometime ;) . I don't think our cabin came anywhere close to the pictures you are posting. Our TA (the one we use when we can't use Ngaire) gave a big sigh of relief when we decided not to go. She did not think we would like it after Regent. But, you are sailing with a medical group, and your sweet Marika and the lovely, Amanda, and hey, it's better than sitting at home!

No, it's not the Owner's Suite. It's a Penthouse AB category - the Courtyard Suites are yet above our category (I'm trying to see if I can upgrade to the Courtyard Suite for a reasonable cost - brochure price is another $1000+ per person more for the Courtyard Suite :eek: ) Though what you may be thinking of, Kristin, are the Garden Villas which are just ridiculously luxurious for being on a cruise ship (over 5000 sq feet in size)



This is a not-to-scale floor plan of what our suite looks like. The main reason why we picked this suite is because the suite has 2 bedrooms - the master and a separate bedroom for Marika. Because she's a very light sleeper (especially when she's going to bed), we thought it would be a much easier transition for her if she had her own bedroom where we could completely shut off the lights and minimize sound.

As Donna has mentioned, this will NOT be a Regent experience. We're going in with guarded expectations regarding food and service. As long as we don't starve and they keep our cabin clean, I'll be happy (all those things about low expectations and being pleasantly surprised and all that). We're getting a chance to catch up with some friends who live on the outer islands and that's really what we're looking at the major benefit to us (oh, and the fact that we can cruise and not have to fly anywhere to do so)

Masaki

Sundial, isn't the Kahala Mandarin wonderful? It's now the Kahala, after management changes. We're a little biased since we got married there. :)

Donna, Mom and I are heading to Marietta for Thanksgiving. Maybe you, Another Kathy and I might be able to meet for lunch. Let's think about it.

Beth, that would be great! Alan and I will be staying in Alpharetta. Our tentative plans are to fly in on Tuesday (probably won't arrive until early evening) and fly out on Saturday mid-morning. Hope we can squeeze something in.

Donna, I'll let you know when Mom and I get our flight plans finalized.

We will be on the same cruise as Moosa from Sydney to Aukland. Looking forward to this trip. Final payment is coming up and then it will be a 'for real trip'. Also looking forward to meeting Ngaire in person. Her kindness, knowledge, and expertise is always present. Keeping the summer clothes out for this journey.

In three weeks it is off on Seabourn's Copenhagen - Fjiords - Scotland - Ireland - London trip for 15 nights. Still trying to figure out what to pack for this one. Layers would probably be best.

Masaki, my sister just returned from Pride of Hawaii. She enjoyed it with the exception of the service (coffee delivered to the room sans coffee cups, room being made up late in the day and one day not at all etc) and the fact there was no casino! She's the casino queen (has a necklace of chips that has been collected through out the world from different casinos )and missed not having one on the ship. However she liked the ship and the ports. If she had your room, she would have been in heaven!

I've heard similar statements from many people to date - like I said, low expectations from us. :) The lack of casino thing is a Hawaii state law issue, unfortunately - out of NCLA's control. Glad that she liked the ship overall and the ports though!

Masaki

Beth, what a cruise to celebrate on. Looks like a great itinerary.

Suzanne, what is this world coming to? You on your first SS cruise and us on our first RSSC cruise the following month. Hope you guys have a blast!

Masaki, looks huge! What a great way to see the islands. Better yet. No Airfare!

Wow Susan and Sheri! Both of those itineraries look fantastic as well.

Wes, wish I was going with you. What a cruise! I am so ready to go diving again. However, I am hoping that I find somebody on our December Navigator cruise to buddy with.

Don, am sure u will hook up with someone, have a great cruise and hopes for super diving too! r/wes

Thanks Wes! Here is to calm seas and great viz for both of us!

We're on the same cruises as Sheri and Susan(Moosa)& dd--we're doing b2b Singapore to Sydney and Sydney to Auckland. This will be our first trip to any of these places so we're really looking forward to it.

Wendy and I are "girls cruising" again (sans husbands) on The Navigator November 13th......of course, we would've gone on "SAND" in December had we not already booked this one. Still, we'll have a great time. Maybe we'll hide little notes around the ship for all the LCT'ers going in December? LOL.

Can't wait. Anybody else going November 13th?

Charlene

And here's the other flavor of the month checking in, and looking forward to cruising again with Beth (and Mom and sis) and Suzanne. I hope the Silver Wind is ready for this crew.

YEAH, Crystal..... glad to see you signed in. It will be a memorable cruise. :pass: :3smile: I'm looking into volcano excursions for us!!! :cool:

November 4 on the PG Standard boring intinerary in paradise. I am so ashamed to be so weak and succumbed again to Tahitian flu.The only thing better than driving my vette.
Sunday Raiatea
Monday Motu Mahana- Taha'a
Tuesday and Wednesday Bora Bora
Thursday and Friday Moorea
Back to Papeete Friday night
48 days till we get on the plane.

We are on the Voyager's Reunion Cruise Nov 4 from Rome all the way to Ft. Lauderdale. And we move up a notch in the Seven Seas Society heirarchy on the Rome - Maderia segment, so we get to check out all the bennies on the trans-Atlantic part. Docs any day!

Got our "docs" today for our 25 day Istanbul to Singapore on Oceania's Nautica beginning the 27th.....plus our 5 day pre in Istanbul!