Welcome Frank and Wendy! I love when we have new members from so far away, it's like having friends all around the world :)

When you come home from your Alaska cruise, you can tell those of us who are on the August cruise all about it!!

Thank you Karen,
We will happily report or answer any questions on the Alaska cruise. We visited the area many years ago and are looking forward to going again. The difference this time will be that we will be aboard Mariner!

Frank & Wendy,
Welcome to LCT! Glad to meet you!

Betty

Dear Frank & Wendy:

I just found your note about SPIN...we'll be cruising with you!

We've been lucky enough to visit Cairns twice and I believe there is no nicer or friendlier place on earth. We look forward to meeting you. As our cruise date gets closer, let's make plans to meet on the Navigator. I believe Marnalou and George will be cruising with us from LA to Tahiti, then they are joining the PG for another cruise.

Welcome to LCT - we're excited to chat and cruise with you!

The W.C. was our first time in Cairns and we just loved it!! You sure live in a beautiful part of the world... and such nice people! Aren't Jamie and Dana great!!

Yes, we certainly did encounter some very "angry" seas in the Bass strait!! WOW, it was quite a night!

Welcome Frank and Wendy!

Masaki

Welcome Frank and Wendy, from another Wendy (David has his own account, dmh). We are Canadian, haven't been to Australia yet, but your country is high on my list!

Welcome to Frank and Wendy. My husband is Frank and his daughter is Wendy. He's been to Cairns and loved it as well. We have a Cairn terrier, and our well traveled friends think they ccome from Cairns, but they are actually from Isle of Skye, off Scotland.

Welcome to LCT, Frank and Wendy! I hope you will post often.

Australia is very high on our wish list!

Looking forward to meeting and cruising with you both sometime soon!

Denise & Alan

Thank you all for your welcome!
We are looking forward to meeting many of you in the future.
Margo, we will see you in November! SPIN.

Welcome to LCT Frank and Wendy!

Anthony

Welcome Frank and Wendy. SPIN sounds like a great cruise. We will be in Sydney in early Feb at the end of our LA to Sydney cruise on the Voyager. Hope to return for a more in-depth visit one of these years.

Allow me to introduce myself. I've been on four cruises. We went on a Royal Caribbean Eastern Caribbean cruise from San juan about 20 years ago - a last minute suggestion from our travel agent - at a discount price. We enjoyed waking up every morning at a different island, disliked the wierd people we were seated with at the early dinners, and weren't impressed with the food. We travel a lot [I've been to 64 countries], but it has mostly been air to a big city and ground exploration from there.

Friends suggested a Renaissance cruise four years ago, from Barcelona to Dover. This was so much nicer than the RC that we changed our mind about cruising. The food was good - but not fabulous, the cabin was comfortable, the itinerary was good and the ease of travel, compared to bag shlepping, made it very nice. Three years ago we took the Yangtze cruise, before the dam was finished and the three gorges flooded - had a lot of fun. Last year we went with a group of eight to Alaska, and my reading of the guide books said Radisson had the best food. That convinced me, and the boat was about the same size as the R7.

The Mariner surpassed all of my expectations, but I knew immediately I was hooked on the 'inclusive' nature of the cruise. There were four people who knew, the minute I entered their jurisdiction, that a Diet Coke was in order. The food was as good as the $75/person NY restaurant, ocassionally better - the cold blueberry soup at lunch one day, for example. I've been trying to duplicate that since I got home. The cabin was outstanding - even on the lowest deck, and the scenery from our balcony spectacular.

Since then I've been reading the Radisson brochures religiously, and we're headed to Tahiti on August 13th on the PG. I love to travel, pride myself in saying thank you in the correct language whenever possible. That was a challenge on the Mariner, but I was up to it.

By way of introduction, I'm a 61 year old transportation planner [transit, airports, highways, etc. - I've worked in China, India, Turkey, the Philippines, Jamaica and Nigeria, as well as all over the US. My wife of 39 years is a Professor of American Studies at Ramapo College, so we live in North Jersey - 25 miles from Midtown Manhattan. We have two sons and two grandchildren, in Boulder, CO. I spent the summer between college and grad school working in London, and the travel bug bit me hard then.

Glad to join you

David

David,
Welcome to LCT. I enjoyed reading your introduction. I am sure you will enjoy this wonderful board, and I have no doubt, with your travel experience, you will be a fine addition to LCT.

Betty

Welcome to our merry throng Frank and Wendy!
And welcome David too!

Good morning all! My wife and I (mid 30s) just started cruising a couple of years ago. We have been on the Silver Wind and Silver Whisper, and are planning a June 2006 Paul Gauguin sail. We will also be on the Whisper again this November.

As you can probably tell, we like the smaller luxury ships. We really have not traveled outside of the US, Caribbean and Mexico, so we are very much looking forward to laying eyes on those gorgeous French Polynesian islands.

We are also trying to find that "just-right" itinerary in the Mediterranean...probably not until 2007.

Looking forward to learning from all of you experienced cruisers! :)

Welcome, Rooroo!!

Betty

Welcome RooRoo!
We also have thoughts about Med 2007
but are waiting to see Ngaire's plans for
New Zealand 2007

Welcome RooRoo! Hope ya post often...

Welcome RooRoo! Thanks for posting the intro!

Masaki

Thanks for the warm welcome! I would love to post VERY often, about all the NUMEROUS cruises I have on the docket...if only that were true!

Till then, we live with one or two per year! :)

And...we are also interested in an Australia/New Zealand cruise if we can ever swing it. I would imagine you'd have to take a month off to really make the full round...

RooRoo, you will love your PG cruise, it is such a lovely part of the world! Thanks for the introduction and welcome :)

Welcome to all our newbies!

Hi everyone,
Guess this is a good time to introduce myself!
My husband and I are looking forward to our PG cruise on Oct. 8 with a pre-cruise stay in Moorea.
We will be celebrating my 50th birthday (great to be miles and miles from home :) and our 30th wedding anniversary. I have been anticipating this trip for a long time, reading many travel forums and books. But the anticipation is half the fun. We have cruised before on Holland America twice and once on NCL. Think I'm ready for the luxury of this cruise.
We have 2 kids. Our son, a recent Arizona State graduate, is 23 and lives in Scottsdale where he works for a small PR firm. Our daughter is 18, just graduated from high school and is headed for Univ. of Texas this fall. My husband is an ENT doctor and I own a small restaurant. Needless to say, we will need and enjoy a relaxing vacation!
We also have a Westie puppy named Daisy. She's looking forward to "filling" the empty nest.
We do love to travel and have been fortunate to see much of Europe when my husband was stationed in Frankfurt, Germany in the eighties.
Looking forward to "talking" to all of you.
Lynne

Welcome Lynne! What a wonderful anniversary gift, I can't imagine it getting any better than French Polynesia!

A warm welcome to you, Lynne! Looking forward to hearing from you often on LCT!

You've got a great trip planned!

Welcome to LCT, Lynne. What a great birthday/anniversary present. Have fun!

RooRoo, thanks for your introduction, too. Glad you've joined us.

Welcome Lynne to LCT!

Masaki

Hello, I just joined this chat today. My wife and I are traveling soon on the Radisson Seven Seas to the Baltic. Does anyone have any experiences or tips they can offer,

Best Regards,

JCM7

Welcome JCM7 to LCT! I haven't done the Baltics cruise yet but there are many on this board who have. Hopefully they'll be by soon to help you with their experiences.

This is a link to the BRAVO cruise that's coming up in August which has some LCT members going. You may be able to get some ideas from there as well!

Masaki

well, I'm franco; and I am so very glad to have found all of you; I was using another forum and it seems to have disappeared off the boards; my husband and I love to snorkel and we have been all over, but not french polynesia, so here we go, next june; also, we usually do land, but have been on a few 4 night cruises;
we have chosen the 10 night tuatmotu cruise on the paul gauguin radisson and my main concern is that I get seasick very easily, but plan on staying on meds. I just hope they work on that crossing back and forth to the tuatmotus; we are also planning a pre-cruise to moorea--haven't figured it all yet, nor the air;
we are parents of 4, grandparents of 2, and about 5 years away from retirement; I can't say enough for how the other forum helped me figure out french polynesia and I am, again, so grateful to have found this one-
talk to you soon-

Franco,
Can't help much with FP or the Paul Gauguin, as we have not done that. I can tell you, I'm sure you will love a Radisson cruise. Welcome to LCT.

Betty

franco, welcome..the sailing in/around FP on the PG is not long and fairly smooth...no more than eight hours (usually at night) between islands (bora bora, moorea, raitea) recommend bonine (you can get at your local CVS/Eckard) have fun..r/wes

Thanks, Colonel and Betty-
maybe the sail to the tuatmotus is longer, though--not sure; but on one of the last pg reviews, someone did indeed get deasick on that evening; I am hoping that it's because they weren't expecting it and didn't take any meds;we'll see. at any rate, I am looking forward to it--
thanks again-
franco

Franco, I am new to this board, too...and I think we also might be on the same cruise as you - 10 nights beginning June 21 on the PG. I know it's a lonnnnnng time away, but maybe we can keep in touch through posting here, and meet onboard!

Welcome franco!

Masaki

Welcome to all of our newbies. You'll just have to pretend that we've just offered all of you a drink or just made a fresh pot of coffee or asked you if you cared to join us for Mexican Lasagne for dinner tonight and just jump right on in to the conversation.

RooRoo and Franco, I encourage you to e-mail each other and you will have already formed a friendship by the time you get onboard. Crystal and I did that last year before we sailed to Bermuda and had a great time.

Trish

thanks for all of the welcomes, and Roo, yes, we are on the June 21, 2006, pg; yes, it is a looong way off, and I don't want to wish a year away, but we have it to look forward to;
we are used to traveling 2 or 3 or 4 times per year; but, because of a recent job change, we will have gone 1 1/2 years without a trip--(short Vegas getaway over Memorial Day helped a little)
since I am a French teacher, this trip to French Polynesia has been very interesting to plan; I had lots to learn; and after months of research, the PG seemed the way to go-
talk to you soon-

Franco, you are so right about having the cruise to look forward to. And the way time flies, it will be here before we know it! :)