Welcome Ken and Paul, to LCT.

Betty

WOW! - I am an old rock groupie....so impressed with your introduction - Joanna

Wow Ken...promise that if we ever have the opportunity you will do a rendition of In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida...you're bringing back great memories!
Glad you joined our board. You have such great, helpful information for all of us!

Ken, interested to know what your moniker "Elquailo" means?

It is a bad mix of Spanish and English to mean "The Quail" (Es la verdad que puedo hablar en Espanol, pero no hay nadie con quien puedo practicar en Minnesota y por eso me falta mucho...!que lastima!).

Sometime back in the early eighties, I woke up one morning from a dream and told Eva that in my dream I was a giant Gambles Quail. Not a basic fluffy little quail that make cute sounds, but a big, bad dude that just happened to be a six-foot-three quail. She thought it was hilarious, and started called me "El Quailo" for fun. Two years ago she got her first tattoo (I have none) - a tiny Gambles Quail on her ankle.

Now aren't you sorry that you asked? :D

Cheers,
Ken

Hi, it's been great reading about the intros. I was a bit reluctant to do one but heck, that is just ain't fair, right?!
Anyhow, my husband (as of 10Oct04) and I will be going on our very first cruise on 11Dec with RSSC on the PG for our HM. Does that make us 'the most inexperienced cruisers' here?! And thus this explains why I frequent these forums. I find it extremely useful and interesting, more than any travel books can tell me.

Unlike many of you, we are just starting out in life together (well, a bit late so we are not that young) and therefore, this is our first so-called luxury vacation. We have been to London, Paris, and of course, Sydney (where I used to live) I love to travel and can pretty much read about some place and I am almost there.

I would greatly appreciate any kind of information on the PG from dressing to excursions...

I am so glad I found this forum, a place I can escape to in between those travelling days. I especially like the picture feature, real neat!

Welcome to all of you and thanks for the introductions!!

Masaki

Mat 778,

Welcome to LCT!

While I personally, have not cruised on the PG, many others on this board have and I'm sure can and will answer all your questions.

Congratulations on your up-coming marriage and your PG cruise.

Enjoy!

Betty

Welcome aboard everyone. You will be glad you have joined LCT.
On a scale of one to ten the PG is a
twelve! :lct:

03/22/80 Commodore MS Caribe
02/15/03 Paul Gauguin
02/22/04 Norwegian Dream (ick)
11/12/04 Mariner "MINT"
02/15/05 Diamond "ADRIFT"

Welcome and thanks for posting! It's great to get to know all the folks on this very helpful board!

Wecome Mat 778! It was so nice to hear your introduction as your first post. I hope you won't be shy and will participate by giving your PG report when you return home from your honeymoon. Nothing is more helpful than first hand experience, as you have found. Almost every regular poster on this board takes from it, but they also give back. That is the spirit of the board, and I hope you will chime in regularly with your experiences after you get home, and hopefully look into another Radisson cruise!. I went on the PG a couple of years ago, and believe me, I have written about my excursions, pre-cruise etc. more times than you would know, as newcomers don't often do a search function here, they just look at the current topics. Enjoy your cruise, those of us who have done it are 99% sure you will!

Equailo, I asked my son to translate that little thing in Spanish that you said (he minored in Spanish in College and is in charge of translation with many of the (legal) Mexican employees of the family business. Here is his reply:

Sure Mom, it says...
"It is the truth that I can speak in spanish, but their is noone with whom I can practice in Minnesota and therefore, I lack a lot (of spanish?)...What a pity!"


Well, when in Minnessota....(this from one who used to work with Hubert Humphrey back in the 60's. I love the warmth of the people of that state!)

jhp, Your son's translation is accurate. :) At this point from lack of use I've forgotten more Spanish than I remember...a pity indeed.

I never had a chance to meet Hubert, but I've met his son Skip on several occasions. Skip was our former state attorney general.

Cheers,
Ken
("Ya sure, you betcha, here in Minnesooooota")

Hi, everyone!

I guess it’s way past time that I give my introduction to LCT. Hopefully I won’t go too long. I’ve never been accused of keeping my words short. But I’ll give it a try.

Tom & I have been married 32 years. We were high school sweethearts. Started dating at 17, married at 19 (babies!!!) while Tom was in the Army. He was then stationed in Germany and I joined him there for a year. During that year we took our first “road trip” together driving from Germany to Vienna, Venice and Rome. No travel agent – we just went on our own with not a lot of experience but the enthusiasm of youth. We had quite an adventure with memories for a lifetime. That started our love of traveling (just wish we had more money and time to do more of it!)

We had put off cruising because the thought of being on a "Fun" cruise ship with thousands of people did not appeal to us. So, for our trip to the Caribbean in 1987, we decided to cruise our own way – on a 37-foot sailboat that we charted from Annapolis School of Sailing. It was a “learn to sail” charter with just the two of us on the boat, along with our captain. While we were snorkeling in the beautiful warm waters around St. Croix, St. Thomas and St. John, our captain was busy making us breakfast, lunch and dinner. Tough life!! We had a wonderful time.

Then, when we decided to go to Australia and New Zealand (our lifelong dream) for our 30th anniversary, we thought a cruise would be a more convenient way to see more in a shorter time. But we would only go if we could find a smaller, less crowded ship. It’s funny how things work out. When I first started looking into the different ships it was the Radisson cruise line that was my first choice. But more money than we had intended on spending. Then I discovered the Renaissance which really seemed to fit all our requirements. As we excitedly awaited our first cruise and our dream vacation scheduled for Dec. 2001, the horrific day of 9/11 happened. While we were glued to the TV during those first days after, we saw the scroll at the bottom of the TV say that Renaissance went bankrupted and ceased all operations. Luckily we were able to get all our money back thanks to our credit card company. So we regrouped and decided on Maui that year. It was our second time there and a good trip but such a sad time for everyone.

We were not giving up on our dream trip to Australia and New Zealand, so we started the process all over again for 2002. As it turned out, we decided it would be the Radisson Navigator or nothing at all. I got my first choice after all!!!!!!!!! Of course the one HUGE drawback of that is that when you start at the top, you don’t want anything else. We have been spoiled for life. We had the MOST AMAZING trip. I will never forget it. I felt like we had two big vacations rolled into one. The wonderful sights and people of those countries was a trip within itself. But to also experience “living” on such a wonderful ship for 15 nights, being pampered all the while was also a vacation within itself.

I won’t go into a review of the Navigator at this time (although I could talk forever about our love of that ship – especially the extremely friendly and helpful crew). But I think what impressed us the most was the truly wonderful, down to earth and NICE fellow cruisers we met on the Navigator. Everyone was so friendly and eager to help us out as new cruisers. We were especially lucky enough to meet LCT’s Sheri on that cruise. So after our exceptional experience on the Navigator you might say that we are “HOOKED!!!!!” As I’ve mentioned on my previous posts, our next cruise will be the PG 5/21/05 PIP. Can’t wait!!!!!!

I do have to confess that we did go on a mass market cruise this past Sept. We decided to take the “long” way home after visiting family in Seattle. We took the Island Princess from Vancouver to Los Angeles – 3 nights with no port calls. It is a beautiful ship and I have to admit that it really didn’t seem as crowded as I expected with all those people. There were a LOT of kids, but fortunately they were all well behaved. So it was a good trip and not a bad way to spend the trip home. But I have to say that I still enjoyed so much more being on the Navigator and experiencing Radisson’s exceptional service and the truly special people who cruise this line. It’s just the best!!!

During my process of researching for our cruise, beginning the end of 2000, I discovered the Cruise Critic Radisson board and found the most delightful, helpful people there. Of course, I was just a “lurker” (or “learner” as Ngaire told me recently). Then, when we decided to set up our next dream vacation – the PG in French Polynesia, I gave Ngaire a call based on all the great endorsements given by many, many, many people on the CC board. (By the way, the endorsements are 100% accurate – she is wonderful!!). Ngaire told me about LCT and I was hooked immediately. It was so much fun to see many of the same posters that I learned so much from over on CC. So, with her encouragement, I decided to come out of the “lurker closet” and get to know all of you. I’m SOOOOO glad I did. You are a wonderful group of people. So kind, friendly and helpful. I want to thank all of you personally for all the help and insight I got from you during my planning of my Aust/NZ trip and now the PG. Kudos to you all!!!!!!!!!!!

O.K., O.K., I know I’ve run on and on. So I’ll just wrap this up by adding that Tom works as a commercial construction inspector, I work for a CPA firm as an assistant/office manager. We don’t have any children. Our cats have always been our kids. We had two cats, but in June lost our sweet, beloved cat, Bernie. He was very special to us as we got him from the Humane Society, very sick and injured. But we nursed him back to enjoy more of his 9 lives. We had him for 8 wonderful years, but age just got the better of him. Luckily we still have our other cat, Wolf who adopted us a couple of years ago when, starving, he showed up in our backyard. We were raised and went to high school together in So. Calif. (La Mirada), lived in Germany as I mentioned before, lived in beautiful but COLD Colorado Springs for 9 years and have now lived since 1988 in San Diego, a beautiful city with great weather (usually). We keep thinking about where we eventually may retire, but it’s going to be hard to beat San Diego. We’ll listen any suggestions you may have.

I think that more than covers it. Sorry for being so long winded. Thanks again to all of you for making LCT such a fun and helpful place to escape to. It’s like traveling all the time!!

Cyndi

cyndi, wonderful introduction and enjoyed your Navigator stories too...thanx for taking the time. r/wes

Cyndi, What a wonderful intro!! I love hearing how you married your high school sweetheart!! Thanks for sharing...

I wish EVERONE would take a few minutes to do their into. It just makes it all the more "warm and fuzzy" here at LCT!

r/wes, Thank you for the kind words. Will Dec 4 be your first time on Navigator? You'll love it.

Marcie, I guess we're one of the success stories. I see people getting married now at 19 and think they are soooo young. (Of course we were mature :D :D :D )

Cyndi

Cyndi, yep & first cruise too..then like you we go to Tahiti on the PG for back to back in March..starting our retired life of travel..then
it April we go with fellow LCTr's to Africa on ROAR..r/wes

r/wes - Wow! You are going out of the working world and into retired life in style!!!! What an exciting time for you - first cruise with 2 more to follow ASAP. Boy do I envy you. I'll be so anxious to hear all about each trip when you return. You'll be on PG before me, so I'd love to get your feedback when the time comes.

Cyndi

Cyndi,

I enjoyed reading your intro. It's nice to meet you via LCT.
San Diego is a beautiful place to live.

Betty

Great introduction Cyndi - I, too, wish more people would use this thread - Joanna

Cyndi, great introduction! I hope you will make it onboard the Mariner to meet some fellow lct'ers and help us launch MINT, even if you will not be with us!

Cyndi...there is always PARTY (not named yet) Dec 27, 2005

I had the honor of driving HHH around Phoenix in 1972 (when I was 19) and on the same trip, a group of 10 of us YD's were invited to a private meeting with him. Also heard him speak at a YD national convention in 1971. Don't care what jokes they used to make about his speeches, the man could raise the roof!

Cyndi, thanks for the introduction. I enjoyed reading about your life. Glad you came out of "lurkerdom"! One of these days, Alan and I plan a trip to Australia. Be ready to give advice. :)

welcome Cyndi and thanks for that great introduction! :)

Masaki

Welcome to all of you and a special thanx to Lee Anne for bringing this "intro" page back to life.
It is so much fun to know a bit about everyone.
What an interesting group we have here! I also hope to one day get to hear Ken's rendition of
In a gadda da vida ..
Talk about a blast from the past..
I remember when we saw the Butterfly play live.. ofcourse I was alot younger then..
:app: :app:

Claudia, The guys from Iron Butterfly were a lot younger then too. ;) Lee Dorman told me that he can't go through metal detectors when flying now due to his internal gear to keep his heart on track...but he can still rock!

Naw, I'd rather play some of my own material...

To everyone - Sorry I've been slow in thanking all of you for the special welcomes!!!!!! You guys are GREAT :) :) :) :) :)

Olivia - I'm still hoping that I'll get to meet all of you on the Mariner. This would be a great opportunity to meet so many of you at one time!! Doesn't look good, tho. Wish me luck.

Joanna - yes, "PARTY" could be another chance to meet many of you. I'll keep it in mind.

Donna - I love to talk about Australia and New Zealand. Any questions you have, just ask!! Hope you can get there soon.

Happy travels to you all.

Cyndi

Greetings! My hubby and I are both in our late 40's and have been married 28 years with two children who are grown and live in our city, but not at home.

Hubby is an accountant for a major insuarnce company (if there was a graemlin of a duck I would insert it here and you'd know where he works) ;) and I sell travel to the Caribbean (no I am not looking for prospective customers, I am here to learn about a cruise for the two of us as I don't sell cruises).

I've been on two cruises and hubby one; both were on Carnival. :rolleyes:

We were looking to cruise on the Paul Gauguin for our 30th anniversary in 2006, but after reading the ship will no longer be in FP after 12/2005 we have decided to celebrate hubby's 50th bday and cruise in May or August of 2005.

Hope to meet someone who will be cruising at the same time we are - once we decide on our travel dates! :cool:

Sue & Tom,

Welcome to LCT. I know you will enjoy this board, and you will learn about cruising.

Betty

Sue & Tom,

Welcome aboard..great choice in the PG..am
going next March..from Atlanta..r/wes

Hi Cyndi:
I lived in Colorado Springs from 1972 to 1986.
I ran the K-G Men's Store at the Citadel
Come on Colo Spgs isn't cold. Yea they have a couple of days, but where I am now is cold!!
Welcome aboard LCT.

Welcome Sue & Tom!!

Masaki

Hello everyone! I was referred to this site by my good friend and TA, Sue (SueandTomInGeorgia) - :cool: thank you, Sue!

My husband & I are in our mid-30s, have been married for 14 years, and have no children except for four small dogs which sometimes can be a handful. ;) We have been frequenting all-inclusive resorts for the past 13 years or so, but recently discovered Silversea and think it's a dream come true! We have been on only one cruise, a 6-night Caribbean itinerary on the Silver Wind, this past April. We absolutely LOVED it and are booked on the Whisper this December.

Just wanted to say "hi", and I look forward to learning lots from you luxury cruise veterans! :lct:

Hi Kristin,

Welcome to LCT.

Betty

Thanks for the welcome everyone and welcome Kristin & Greg! Nice to have you on board - we can be newbies together! <img border="0" alt="[beer]" title="" src="graemlins/beer.gif" />

Welcome all! It is great having new people join LCT and sharing ideas and sometimes some strange off topics - but always fun!! Joanna

Welcome Kristin & Greg, Sue and Tom! One of you mentioned Silversea, it is a wonderful line, but I have only cruised once on the Shadow. I was hard put to see the difference between that ship and the 3 newer RSSC ships. More pricey than RSSC without a really good promotion, but totally all inclusive, I would like to cruise the line again given the right itinerary and price. We hope you will join in, even on some of the strange off topics that Joanna mentioned. Off topic, you never know what you are going to learn. Advice about computers, digital cameras, luggage, TV's, weather, it just never stops as a very active part of this board! The only thing we don't discuss is politics in an adversarial way. But I did first hear about jibjab.com right here!

A BIG WELCOME TO ALL WHO HAVE JUST JOINED US!!!