After surviving over 80 hours without internet access, we are embarked on the Voyager!!!

Steak sandwich and meeting old friends was the first activity now followed by a trip to the computer room. More to follow....

Thanks for checking in, Marc.
Can't wait for the B&B SeaMail to start flowing in!!
Have lots of fun!!!!!

Hi Marc, thanks for checking in! To aid me in stalking you, can someone mention what ships are in port since I can't use the cruise calendar now?

Marc, Glad to hear your Internet withdrawls are over. Enjoy that steak sandwich and have a delightful cruise.

Glad you and Arlene arrived safely, Marc. That was a looong trip! Hope you'll send us seamail now that you're reconnected! Have a great time.

Karen, Is anyone going to be stalked at the Sorrento manhole cover this cruise?

Marc and Arlene, Have a wonderful journey...

Same to all the B2Bers...

Thanks for checking in, Marc...can't wait to hear from everyone on B2B!

Well we are onboard. Block party at 6:15, then off to the LCT cocktail party, then dinner with Marc, Arlene, Debbie, Russ, Tom and Mona. Martin put us at the Cap[ains table, and Frank was the designated Captain - much laughter and joking. Captain actually stopped by and told Frank to enjoy it while it lasted!!! After dinner everyone scattered, Frank and I hit the casion for a bit, did ok, then Voyager Lounge and finally gave it up. There is one group from Canada of about 280 people, pretty young, many of them on our deck and we enjoyed meeting them at the block party, I think they will keep the Voyager Lounge hopping this week.

Tour in Mykonos this morning. Then we plan to just wander around on our own for awhile.

Great first night on board. Wonderful weather and so much fun to see everyone again. Lots of laughter and drinks flowing. We had dinner with some new people. Sue is a lurker who has posted once under Seadreamer. WE need to get her posting more a super person. She was interested in meeting all the on line people in the flesh. Sue used to live in Joanna Mondae's home town so they had a nice talk. She is with her husband and daughter. Then another couple that also fit right into the LCT group instantly. Rod and Cynthia who I hope many more of you can meet in the future.

A large group sat outside the HOrizon Lounge on the deck with the LOVELY EMILY keeping all the libations coming as we got noiser and nosier. Good thing we had parked ourselves outside. Tony was in rare form. The sea was like glass and the temperature absolutely perfect. We finally pulled ourselves away from the tables at about 12.30 am since we had an early start in Mykonos the next morning.

We have organized an area of the Observation Lounge in the back corner to meet each night so we can wander down to dinner together without having to make so many formal arrangments. I really do like that more relaxed style of getting together.

Not as many pooch players here and very little time to play with NO sea days and ports to investigate daily. I promised Mark we would find time to play but need to get a few more people addicted to the game along the way. Maybe a game after trivia might work. Time will tell it will all work out in the end.

DINNER was fantastic last night. That great seafood appetizer with shrimp and crab, sweet potato soup, spinach mimosa salad, prime rib and of course a special order of rack of lamb followed with mixed berries and whipped cream. I felt RIGHT at home. Yes, 13 more days of this will be a just fine with me. All this came with a great shiraz. LIFE IS GOOD

Off to Myknonos. Arlene is coming with us today and Marc is off to Delos. We are going to wander, shop, take a coffee on the foreshore with the pelicans and soak up that special ambiance that is Mykonos.

Thanks Ngaire and JoAnn, for your reports! Sounds as if your cruise is off to a great start.
Keep having fun, and please keep sending all us "stuck at homers" your great SeaMail!

Ngaire and JoAnn, sounds like the cruise is off to a wonderful start. I like the idea of meeting in Observation Lounge before dinner for spontaneous arrangements. Have fun in Mykonos. Can't wait for Ken's fantastic picture show to begin.

Thanks for the reports. Sounds likea great start for the cruise!

Reserved for cruisinfanatic's photos, sorry it took so long I had technical difficulties, Ken:


Dinner in Athens


Tom & Debbie


Frank & Rod




Frank & JoAnn

Aaaahhhh life is good here on Voyager and in the Greek Islands.

First trivia win yesterday, between Marc and Frank, they know a lot of trivia. THe rest of us helped a little.

Another rousing dinner last night, we had the same 8 as night before, plus Rod and Cynthia. Then went to the jazz music for awhile, but had to sit in the far corner of the bar because we were talking too loud, then finished the evening on the back deck of Horizon - beautiful night out and lots of drinks and laughs.

Have not seen one soul this moring, but we got off at 8:15 for our tour to Ancient Corinth and Navigation of the Corinth Canal. I could have done without the ruins, but Frank loves that stuff. The Corinth Canal was really neat and fascinating.

Yesterday was Mykonos and it was stunning!! We had a nice tour and then had a yummy lunch along the waterfront, just sitting and people watching and enjoying the harbor.

Tonight is the BK cocktail party in Ngaire's suite, then hosted dinners with Officers. We will be with Lorraine, CD, along with a couple of other BK'ers.

Tomorrow a morning at sea before arriving in Corfu, and I have a hot stone massage booked. Can't wait.

Will try to get Ken to help me post some pictures, if we can find time in between islands,trivia, drinks, eating, talking and laughing.

More later.

Ahhh, great seamail with my morning cup of coffee. Sounds like a wonderful time. Keep the reports coming.

Sounds like another great adventure with wonderful friends, old and new. And that's what LCT is all about. Keep the Seamail coming and pictures, please!

Sounds wonderful, JoAnn - how I wish I could be there! I was, in fact, *THISCLOSE* to joining y'all on the 2nd half of B2B...last week I was invited to join my very good friend on a fam trip embarking June 2 in Venice......but just could not get the time off from work on such short notice. :mecry:

Well Ken has my camera card and hopefully he will get a chance to load up some ofthe pictures this morning.

Last night was a lot of fun, the cocktail party was wonderful, and then we had a fun table. Turns out one of the ladies, she is a BK client and I found out we went to High School together, she was a year ahead of me, but we knew a lot of the same people and were actually on Drill Team together. Amazing.

After dinner we again congregated on the back deck of Horizons lounge, thats become one of our hangouts.

At sea this morning on the way to Corfu, I'm off to my hot stone massage in a few minutes. We then plan to just do our own thing in Corfu and maybe have lunch in town, or maybe not, today is Med buffet on deck.

Sorry you couldn't make it Kristin, that would have been fun.

Arlene and I have had a wonderful time with the Aegean portion of our trip. Flights were easy (but long) and Athen's Hilton was a good hotel. Ngaire's find of Stelios the taxi driver sure has made our tour of Greece wonderful.

Saturday, we walked all around Athens seeing Syntagma Square, Temple of Zeus, Theater of Dionysus, Acropolis, Agora, Roman Forum, and the Plaka. Sunday morning we walked down to see the Ancient Olympic Stadium and then to Kolonakai to have a drink at a sidewalk cafe and read the newspaper.

Sunday afternoon, Stelios drove us to Cape Sounion to see the Temple of Poseidon; a fantastic trip. Then, a wonderful dinner with friends (both old and new) that JoAnn has already reported on.

Tuesday, I headed to Delos to see more ruins; a fascinating place to see (once). Yesterday, Stelios drove from Athens to Nafplion to take Ngaire, Ken, Arlene, and me on a wonderful journey. We saw Mycanae, Tomb of Agamemnon, Ancient Corinth, Corinth Canal, Site of Original Church of St Paul in Corinth, a 1000 year old Greek Orthodox Church, Theater of Epidauraus, and the city of Nafplion. A full and wonderful day!

We feel that we saw a great amount of the ancient Greek world in just a few days.

Ship has been wonderful. Food has been great and service excellent. Besides Louise, I had not known any of Cruise Director's or entertainment staff. It is great sailing with Captain Hannsen again. I miss the coffee bar on Mariner. We have been staying up too late drinking (or getting up too early in the morning) so are looking forward to a sea day.

Today will be the first day of pooch. In addition, we have baggo and bocce. Yesterday, I was the only LCTer at trivia so competed as a team of 1; I did terrible getting four less correct answers than the winning team. Hopefully, we will have more for trivia today.

More later....

Love reading the Sea Mail...keep it coming and most of all keep having a great time!

Hi everyone.

Sorry I have not posted much. It has been an incredibly busy cruise. There are NO sea days on this trip so it is go go go.

FOOD the all important subject.
The first night I was welcomed with a huge plate of rack of lamb, about four racks. Only four of the six at the table ate lamb but we managed to eat most of the lamb presented. It was delicious. The next night at dinner I induldged in Lobster and Beef Wellington in the delightful company of Sandra the lecturer and Olivia and Joanna.. All this washed down with a delightful shiraz of course,

MYKONOS
The first day we went to Mykonos and we have been here before so decided we wanted to rent a car and drive the island. Russell and Debbie boarded our shuttle bus just as it was about to leave so we asked them if they wanted to join us. Off we all went to rent a car, 40 euros for all day seemed okay to us and we were off!

There is a surprising amount of traffic now in Mykonos and the streets are very narrow so be warned if you decide to do this. Once outside of town there was not much traffic but still narrow and windy roads. We drove all over the island, visited the key site of the Monastery and could not believe that when we came back for lunch on the ship we could drive right up the ship and park the car! In the afternoon we decided to visit the scene of much of the wild night life in Mykonos, Super Paradise Beach. This took a good thirty minutes on extremely windy narrow roads and I kept thinking about driving this at night let alone driving it after drinking!! The beach is quite charming with a ton of covered beach chairs and a large bar with a swimming pool. It was quiet during the day but I think all the action takes place at night.

NAVPHLION
Navphlion is a port I had never visited before. Now this is a WINNER. The town itself is charming and looks like an Italian village to me. Venetian styled homes and neo-classical mansions line the narrow flower filled streets. The cute shops and cafes in the seaside setting with a great fort in the harbor and a fort on the hill above the town create perfect picture opportunities. Unfortunately we had little time left to enjoy this wonderful town but we are coming back next year on sea to sea so I can do more investigation at that time. There is also a lot to do here.

Marc, Arlene, Ken and I hired the Athens taxi driver Stelios to drive us for the day. He came down from Athens about 2 ½ hour drive. He was waiting on the dock with his big smile when we debarked the tender. We had an action packed day, visiting three archeological sites, Mycenae, Ancient Corinth and the Epidaurus Theatre. We also visited the Corinth Canal, and a wonderful Greek Orthodox church with totally painted walls and ceilings. It reminded me of some of the churches I have seen in Russia.
The gem of the day was a 1000 year old tiny church. It is not visited often and the nuns come in each day to tend to the flowering gardens and the church. It was truly beautiful and hard to believe how old it really was. Stelios told us that this is somewhere he
always visits and everyone loves it. The topography changed during the day from vineyards to mountains. The day provided us with some wonderful views and stunning countryside, it was so diverse.

At one point we stopped so Stelios could buy wine from a street side vendor. He bought us both a bottle and also two bottles for his wife. It came straight from the barrel, is 100% wine grapes and was presented in plastic water bottles. 2008 vintage and it had been fermented for four months. So we have two large water bottles of this brew so plenty for everyone to share!

PRELIMINARY CRUISE WINNERS.
Back to the ship and then we had the Brown and Keene cocktail party. It was a noisy affair and the Captain drew the names for the four preliminary winners. Amazingly of the four names drawn three of them were the friends of Joanna and Tony. No LCT people were drawn but there is always next week! After the party we had a nice diner with Tom, Mona, Arlene and Marc. A delightful beef filet with hollandaise.

POOCH
Been too busy but four of us played this morning and we plan a game for this afternoon after trivia. I have ordered shrimp and chocolate covered strawberries and we also share our local “quality” wine with everyone at POOCH this afternoon

Today is Tom’s birthday so we look forward to Signature’s tonight with Tom, Mona, JoAnn and Frank.

That gets you up to date. Be back later.

Photos of Mykonos, Greece:

Those pictures brought back wonderful memories of our last trip to the Greek Isles. Thanks, Ngaire and Ken, for keeping us in the loop! And happy birthday, Tom! I am sure you will have a great celebration in typical LCT style.

Love reading all about your trip! Brings back memories of last year in the fall when we met many of you for the first time. Keep having such a great time!

JoAnn...hope the Venice book helped plan your days! Venice is still one of my favorite cities.

Thanks so much for checking in, everyone!!! I cannot wait to see Mykonos (especially after seeing your pictures, Ken!) and it sounds like we are in for a REAL treat when we visit Navphlion. Ngaire, your descriptions are so excellent I can already picture it.

Sounds like you are all having a fantastic time - keep it up! And keep the seamail coming as well!

Thanks for the reports and photos. What a great time!

Dena

Fabulous pictures! Fabulous people!

Happy Birthday Tom....what a great way to celebrate.

The pictures are wonderful, thanks for posting Ken. And, Ngaire, are you sure you're not a travel writer? Wonderful post!

Happy Birthday, Tom. What a way to celebrate.

Wonderful Pictures and keep the great post coming.

Happy Birthday Tom!

Nancy

Hi Everyone

This trip has just been fantastic so far. Such a terrific group of people.

Susie... many of us are regreting the day you introduced me to Clear Chocolate Martinis :nw: . A lot of us had WAY too many of them on the first night :eek: . (OK... and the nights since :D )

Jan - I have the Venice book with me, and yes its been very helpful.

After Mykonos and Navplion, Corfu was quite different, Frank and I kept saying it was more like Mexico. We walked around a bit, and I bought a couple of samll items, but then came back to the ship. We won at Trivia again, but with only three teams playing. Then off to Ken and Ngaire's suite for pooch. Very nice dinner in Signatures for Tom's birthday. Ngaire has the most wonderful stories. After dinner Liar's club and then everyone pretty mucy went to bed, in spite of gaining an extra hour. We had one more drink with Tom and Mona, and Marc and Arlene and then we all retired too.

Ken got a couple of ;my pictures from Athens up, they are further back.

Today is Dubrovnik and we are just going to walk around and walk on the wall. The view off the ship is beautiful this morning.

Tonight is dinner in CR with Marc, Arlene, Tom, Mona, Russ, Debbie and Rod and Cynthia - I think this is Rod and Cynthia's anniversery - so looking forward to that.

Had a great dinner in Signatures. Probably one of the best we have ever had. The lobster and lamb – outstanding.. Ken said the filet was one of the best he ever remembers eating. We normally find Signatures too rich and only go once but we think we may go again before we get off. The company was wonderful too, and Tom started off the birthday celebration with a very nice champagne for the table. Of course the very attractive waiter with a delightful Scottish accent certainly made things even more enjoyable. Celebrating birthdays is a lot of fun.

Then we went to Liars Club. We got all the definitions correct up to the last word. One I knew immediately because it is a New Zealand bird. The last word we felt we knew who it was but since this was the only person on the panel who had not yet told the truth we thought that was too obvious. Of course it ended up being that player so we lost! Oh well can’t win everything.

At least thanks to having Frank and Marc on our team we are winning trivia everyday and they are very hard questions.

We played POOCH last night and tried the “quality” wine. I did not know anything could taste that bad. I poured the wine in the glasses down the sink and could still smell it hours later even after running water for some time. Not a good vintage!!!

The weather has been perfect and today is no exception. There was brilliant sunshine in Dubrovnik when we pulled in this morning. Ken and I went ashore and wandered around. In fact it made me think of one of our trips where we sat in one of the small cafes in Dubrovnik with Suzanne, Olivia, and John and Kimmi and drank wine in the afternoon. A great memory! I left Ken walking the wall and took the lazy route and came back to the ship.

Tonight it is an anniversary celebration for Rod and Cynthia (who we must get posting on LCT – super nice couple) and I think there are 15 at the table including Ken and I so we look forward to this celebration also.

Tomorrow we go to Koper, Slovenia and this is a new port for us so I am very much looking forward to seeing this port of call.

Hopefully Ken can post pictures of Navphlion today He has been having a lot of trouble getting the pictures up but he will try again this afternoon

Hi from Tom. Sorry I haven't had a chance to post. We're having much too much fun on here.

I've learned one word of Greek so far, Mykonos. It means island of jewelry shops.

The ship is great and the food is better than I remember. But the best part is the people. I had a wonderful birthday dinner in Signatures last night. Actually, it turned out to be a birthday celebration for two but the other birthday girl is a bit shy.

The new all inclusive drinks policy is really making a difference. But I can't say anymore because of that silly rule about what happens on the ship stays on the ship.

Let's just say no one has yet had an early night.

All the best. Tom.

Photos From Navphlion, Greece:


The Fort of Bourdzi.




Lions Gate at Mycenae


Buying fresh wine before its time.


Ancient Corinth


St. Paul's Greek Orthodox Church in Corinth.


The Corinth Canal, the Voyager would not fit, but the Song of Flower had a meter to spare on each side.


Arlene, Stellios (Our Taxi Driver), and Ngaire in the Courtyard of the Thousand Year Old Church.

The Brown & Keene Cocktail Party, May 28,2008.


Mark, Arlene, and Lyn Madsen (Regent Cruise Consultant)


Sandra, Buzz, and Janice.


Captain Knut drawing the winning names.


Tom, Ngaire, Ken, Joann, Frank, and Mona at Signature's on Tom's Birthday.


The other table came over for congratulations


Tom & Mona.

Glad to hear everybody enjoyed Napflion. It was one of our favourite spots in 2004--we spent 4 nights there, and drove around seeing sites. Loved seeing the pictures to remind me of that trip, hope to get back some day.

How nice to see Captain Knut again!! Ken's pictures continue to amaze me, always a delight to view!! It's time to go see if we can stalk you in Koper!

We have been home such a short time and after these posts and pictures, I am yearning to be there with you. But, I'm afraid, I would be a quarter of a century too late! Alas, I did not have the funds to do this back when I really could see it all!

Ardis

Sorry I have not posted but port intensive trips leave little time for emailing - however, this has been a great trip. All the LCTer's are wonderful and so much fun to meet new people and reconnect with others - as Arlene mentioned some were introduced to Chocolate martinis (not me fortunately) so many laughs had by all but slow movers in the morning - we enjoyed the birthday evening in Sigs for Tom and shy girl - PV group sang to shy girl and Tom - more laughs - food, service, people etc all wonderful - whoops we are leaving port and time for my nap - wish you all were here -