Hi everyone.

Travelling to PUBS. Well our first day started out fixing a computer virus on Susan’s computer that popped up on Thursday. Ken left the fire station early and arrived at the office by 5.00 am. By 8.30 am he had the problem solved. He then spent two hours on the phone with the technical difficulties related to our LCT and email host. Still having problems. I had some last minute things too. We left a little late, no surprise.

First we hit a traffic jam. Finally checked in and got to the gate. We had not eaten any breakfast but knew we were flying first class in a 777 to Chicago. Lunch was coming we were on our way. Gate showed on time departure at 1.00 pm. Then they announce the plane is delayed until 2.00 pm. We have been down this road a few times before so we immediately called American. Surprise, now delayed until 4.30 pm. This meant we would definitely miss our connection to London and the ship. So we were re-routed by phone with 30 minutes to get to another terminal and board a flight to Boston with a one-hour connection to London. Our gate still showed 2.00 pm departure. We ran through the airport, caught the train and made it just as the flight was finishing boarding. Yeah, we got on the plane. Instead of lunch and first class to Chicago we are in middle seats in the back of the plane. Of course there will be no bags for a couple of days, but now we could make the flight to London and the ship. Hmmm --- we are not moving. They announce a delay, cargo door problems. Finally we take off about 45 minutes late. I compose my letter to American, I might get some miles, get cleared for an upgrade we are waiting for at least make some lemonade out of lemons.

We arrive in Boston the Admirals club was located right at our arrival gate, we went straight there. They said “we have been waiting for you the plane is loading”. NICE thing was they upgraded us to first class. Scratch the letter, first class works for me worth the hassle. We had delightful stewardess on the plane. It makes such a difference when someone smiles! We had some of those “someone special” vouchers we gave one to her. She was very appreciative. Food was great. We ate our first meal of the day about 8.00 pm. We were both tired and hungry people. The only problem with flying from Boston the flight to London in only 6 hours long --- not enough time to eat and take a pill and sleep. I really like longer flights these days I find the shorter flights more tiring.

So now after transiting the joys of connecting in Heathrow we are in the BA lounge waiting for our flight to Copenhagen.

The good news is although the first flight to Copenhagen today was cancelled we are still scheduled for an on time departure. We will make that ship one way or another!

So we are back to borrowing a white shirt and jacket for Ken from the staff. I did put one outfit each in my carry on. With what we were wearing, that one extra outfit and the ships laundry we will make it even if it never comes to the ship. It always shows up eventually but you just never know how long it will take. I am sure no matter what we do they will send it to Copenhagen while we are sailing to England.!!


The air travelling is a pain but it is worth it all. I do think that going in a night early takes some of the stress out of the situation and we KNOW we will miss a ship one day but so far we always manage to make it one way or another. If we went one day extra each time that is a lot less time in Dallas for me at the office and Ken at the fire station.

So hopefully in a few hours we will be boarding the ship. We both always get excited when it is time to board. No matter how many times I sail I love the feeling of arriving on board and knowing you have such wonderful times ahead.

Be back again from the ship.

Air travel today is a nail biting nightmare. Wishing good luck reuniting with your luggage. You're tempting the fates :eek: Keep us informed and have a relaxing cruise.

Hope your luggage makes it Ngaire, good luck.

Look forward to your seamail from the ship.

OMG Ngaire, I was exhausted just from reading your mad dash through the airport! But it is all worth it to be able to board that cruise.

Good luck with getting your luggage.

Oh my, Ngaire, what an ordeal! Hope your luggage does catch up soon. Have a great time. SeaMail please, when you have time.

I hope you make it to the ship on time. I needed a nap after reading about your air delays and rushing around.
:)
Suzie you are so right about air travel being a nail biting ordeal nowadays! :mad:

Wow, you had quite a departure day, Ngaire!

Hope your luggage is soon reunited with you. Enjoy PUBS!

Best wishes N and K for great cruise and timely luggage arrival - traveling these days is so very stressful - BUT whatever it takes to get on those ships we'll do - Joanna

Ngaire always has such a way of making lemonade out of lemons!

Still not fun when you don't have your luggage! Especially after going through what you did to get there on time! Thanks Ngaire, for being the sport you always are! I've been on cruise with Ron and Linda with lost bags, but they got one bag, had cross packed, and I wouldn't have noticed lost clothes! But they had that "one" bag!

Yes Karen the "lemonade out of lemons" people are winners!!! Once you pass a certain age (?) your ability to do this makes life so much easier for your friends and family! (and traveling buddies) - BUT I don't want to lose my luggage :mecry: :mecry:

Ditto Joanna!!! I would be a mess without our luggage!

Well after landing in Copenhagen -- you guessed it our plane was delayed. However it was only about 40 minutes late and we made the ship in plenty of time.

I am getting so used to losing my luggage it just does not bother me the same anymore. I have enough to survive and refuse to let it ruin my trip. No one really cares what I am wearing. Besides lets face it as you who have traveled with me know, that same black basic stuff with different jackets. So you see the same jacket. No big deal. This time I packed all my paperwork in my carry on bag that was a problem last time to not have all that with me.

The ship was great and got us a jacket and white shirt for Ken. We borrowed Debbie's husband's shoes. Ken looked dashing in his borrowed clothes and brown sandals on formal night. I do not think anyone noticed his sandals.

We had a lovely dinner with Doug, Lynn and two of his friends the first night and ate with Paul and Susan (moosa) and two of my friends for many years. They all met on the Sydney to Auckland cruise last year.

Food has been great, lamb first night and lobster and beef wellington tonight. I have to be really GOOD on this trip as I gained weight in Africa and I need to get rid of that.

Tonight was Kareoke and we have a new LCT star. ASHD - boy can that girl belt out a song. A standing ovation to "I will survive". She was truly fantastic. We had a lot of fun, Ken was in rare dancing form and I danced my tootsies off. Suzanne you were missed.

So it is now 1.00 am in the morning and I am typing away with this post. Guess I had better stop and hit the sack.

Hi Ngaire,

So good to hear from you and that you boarded the ship! I admire your attitude. Keep having a great time and post whenever time permits.

Ngaire & Ken, you're off to a great start and having such a good time!! Love hearing all about it. I so agree.....nobody cares or pays attention to what you're wearing!! Keep up the fun!

Ngaire, have a fantastic time! I just returned from a land based holiday in Scotland and Ulster, which included a few of the spots you're stopping in, including Inverness and Belfast. When you're in Belfast, are you there long enough to go up the coast to Portrush/Giant's Causeway? It's so beautiful up there, if that's an excursion option (think Bushmills Distillery Tour), take it. While in Scotland I missed Skye, but everybody says it's spectacular, so enjoy! I didn't see Edinburgh on your itinerary, it was one of my favourite spots (and the Tattoo was wonderful - but then I'm biased, being a player).

I was touring with my Pipe Band, playing in various competitions (including the World Pipe & Drum Competition in Glasgow), and the airlines lost my luggage too. For 11 days. Eleven days. I didn't have my drum harness, my kilt/tunic etc, it was horrific. But regardless, I had fun, the people I was with were fantastic, and the scenery so spectacular I just made do. Hope you see your bag a lot sooner than that!!

Charlene

Thanks for the update, Ngaire! I would of loved to of heard AshD sing!!!!

You're having a fantastic time cruising with wonderful people on a great itinerary and it doesn't matter what you're wearing!

Continue to enjoy!

Thanks for keeping us all in the loop. Don't get too tired out, we intend to keep you busy dancing and having just as much fun on PANDA.

With all the hassles involved in flying (I just spent a night in OHare last week after diverting to St. Louis on my way to a meeting in Phoenix), it's either time to fly without luggage and buy everything on arrival or start leasing air time if you want to get somewhere at a certain time.

Well no luggage today. We are here overnight so there is hope for tomorrow. BA is saying that they sent it to Edinburgh airport but the airport said it has never arrived. The ship is trying to track it down. I guess some luggage arrived today for other guests. Oh well still getting free laundry.

Had a wonderful time last night and a great day today walking around edinburgh. Weather was good. Overcast to partly cloudy and a perfect temperature. Cute place. Tonight they are bringing on a local show and we are looking forward to that.

Dont worry Mitch energy is something I seldom run out of - particularly on a cruise ship. With Bert by my side I could dance all night.

John Baron was on for a couple of days and then Lindsay came on board for lunch today. They left the ship together. The baby is due in about 3 weeks. She looked great and not large enough to be delivering that soon. He said to say hi to all his friends at LCT.

By the way ASHD is also one heck of a trivia player. We did not win the first day but one of group did with 15 correct answers. WAy to go = LCT trivia team wins again.

Ngaire,

Would you find out who will be the CD on Cross while you are onboard? I hope it will be John B or Jamie and Dana. Just love to cruise with them. Jamie and Dana were on RCI when we (Frank and I)did our first Caribbean cruise together 10 years ago - and they remembered us no less on Mariner - we had so much fun with them. Cross will celebrate our 10th anniversary so having them sail with us would mean something extra for us.

Ngaire, So glad to hear you are having such a great cruise, in spite of lost luggage.

I do admire people who can lose their luggage, and not lose their COOL! :)

How wonderful you got to see Lynsay and that she is doing well.

I hope your luggage catches up with you, but you sure do make the best of it which is what we all should do vs. worrying over something we have no control. Continue to enjoy PUBS! :)

I'm with Betty and Sue: - Rolling with the punches is a gift....I am working on it!

Rolling with the puches is definitely a gift Joanna, and it wouldn't be me doing that. I would just be a mess!!

I think we are shipping our luggage ahead for CROSS, don't want to deal with the situation in LHR, nor do I want to believe that our luggage would actually make it. Guess that's less Casino money for me!!! But hey its a choice between Casino $$$ or clothes!!

A stressful subject JoAnn- we are due to arrive LAX 3:15 for 8 PM flight to NZ 11/29 - should be plenty of time - now I am thinking arrive at 1 PM and pay for change??? You can go daffy on this subject

Hi Ngaire,

I'm crossing my fingers so you get your luggage! Keep enjoying PUBS!

JoAnn,
I'm like you, don't do too good w/o my luggage. I changed my connecting flight to Nice so we will have longer layover ( and a better chance to have our luggage arrive with us!).

Joanna,

I think you should be OK but, what do I know???

Maria: Same as me....know zilch about flights

Joanna, you have nearly five hours at LAX--more than enough time no matter how far you have to go to change terminals. And also more than enough time for your bags to get from one flight to another--you don't want them to get moldy ;) ! Don't change your flight--more than five hours at LAX would be awful ...have you seen the Tom Hanks movie "Terminal"?
Maria, our flight time to LHR was changed so that we only had a little over an hour at Heathrow--definitely not enough time there. So we moved our flight to Nice and now we have about three and a half hours to change flights. I'm really comfortable with that.

Peggy,

That's good you did that. LHR is a zoo! Same thing happened to us. Our flight from Newark to CDG is now leaving later , giving us around 1.5 hr to change. Probably enough if everything goes as planned, but when does that happen? So we changed the flight to Nice and we now have around 4 hrs. I'm not thrilled about that, but want to give as much as time as possible for bagagge to be transferred!

Peggy you said pretty much what Tony said but his response, to changing flight to LAX to earlier one, was short "Forget about it we're not changing flights you are being ridiculous" :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Good morning everyone. Do not anticpate luggage today either. We are some distance from Edinburgh. However we are really managing just fine. Makes you wonder why we needed two full bags of clothes in the first place.

The last day in Edinburgh we did an "adventure" excursion. Taking a train to North Berwick to see two castle ruins. Half the fun of this type of day for us is figuring out the local trains and buses. It was a delightful little village, voted the best coastal town in Scotland and it won an award for the flowers. It is not something I would recommend unless you also enjoy getting out in the countryside and just exploring. The train ride was about 40 minutes each way. We had a lot of fun. The castles were pretty neat. On your first visit to Edinburgh I would stay in town there is a lot to see but we have been here before so this was fun for us. Linda and Ron came with us.

Ate in Latitudes last night. Not my cup of tea but the menu had lobster and lamb and was really quite good. Still not my first choice but that is purely do to my taste buds and enjoyment of bland food. Nearly everything had onions it is just not "my restaurant". We did however enjoy the company and had a lovely time.

We finished up in the Voyager lounge and had some great conversation. We were bad this morning and slept in while everyone went off to Loch Ness to see if they could spot the Loch Ness Monster. I have Linda and Debbie doing the excursion so they can report back to me. We will venture ashore after lunch.

The crew have been so wonderful on board. I do really enjoy this ship. Some really great people on the Voyager.We have Tobias as the Chef, Patrick as the Dining Room Manager, Laurens as F&B Manager, Phillipe as hotel director (was on the PG for a long time)and Dag as Captain. Cruise Director is Lorraine (now back full time) and a assistant cruise director called David from Austin Texas. This David will be a rising star he is very good.

Kathy there is no way to know for sure who is on the ship in the future. This is not same team I was told would be here just one week before departure. Things are constantly changing around. I have given up now, I just arrive and enjoy who is here at the time.

Thanks for posting, Ngaire! Please make sure to have a glass of scotch for me. Not having your luggage is one thing but I assume your makeup is in tow. Getting ready for dinner wopuld be much quicker for Bert without all the creams and lotions, etc. ;)

I wrote Linda since she's been gone and jokingly mentioned that she should look out for the Loch Ness monster. I never guessed that she was actually going there!

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Eugene

I once was without luggage for several days on a cruise. As Ngaire said, you get along fine and really wonder why you pack so much. Not that I've begun packing less!

So glad Ngaire made it onto the ship, that's the most important part. Love the updates :)

Ngaire--

Just to let you know the office is running like a top back home.
I decided at the last minute to do the three day Navigator cruise in December and emailed Linda, not knowing she was with you. Jennifer took over and handled everything without a hitch.

Hi Ngaire,

Thanks for the update. As usual, it looks like you are having a blast!

A Few Photos from PUBS:


Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh Gardens - The Scouts Centenial

North Berwick - we went there by train to see some castles

Dirleton Castle - front view

Dirleton Castle - back view

The Gardens at Dirleton Castle

Beautiful photo's Ken! I once broke a boot heel walking through Edinburgh Castle. More please and some LCT'ers. :app:

LOVE David - sailed with him twice on the Navigator. Did the cross with him this April on the Navigator.

Great personality and very funny and willing to do anything.

Phyllis