Now that the time is near for FJORDS, who is the official "reporter?" Donna, will you do one of your great blogs? Inquiring minds want to know!

Those of us on BOREDZZZ (sp?) can't wait to hear and see all!!

Kathy, I think think that is a great idea! Especially since Alan is a great photographer and they can work as a team. Who knows, perhaps Donna could "sell" another story!

Just checked the roll call and my, there are some wonderful reporters! Hoping we'll hear from all of you!

Yes, they'll be some great seamail coming from this bunch.

Kathy, I will be writing my blog but it's not as timely as seamail. My blog is quite time consuming and I'm not sure how I'm going to manage it with so much fun happening. I don't want to miss a thing.

Olivia, although I like teaming up with Alan, most of the photos on the blog are mine. I've told him to start his own blog.

And, yes, I will be writing articles about the trip. I already have one assignment and I'm working on more. Not to worry though, it's all about the scenery and excursions. LCT'ers are off-limit. I don't want to spoil our fun!

Although, I could probably gather material for a juicy novel <img border="0" alt="[naughty]" title="" src="graemlins/naughty.gif" /> .

Donna - that would be a great novel!

Only thing is, not much "juice" when you get down to the real thing for lct people! Really, just a bunch of "regular" people. More talk than anything else! But we have fun with our posts!

Webcams in Svalbard for stalking. You would think that we should be able to locate one of these for a group photo.

Olivia and Ngaire, as you have been there before, any thoughts on which camera looks most promising?

Only the harbor webcams in Longyearbyen would be possible. It is a pretty big area.

Olivia,
Yes, for exampe, I have many people using the LCT coined term, "mega pickles". Genius.

Well, the folks you left behind are waiting!!!!

I was really hoping for an "airmail", geez you would think one of them could of sent us something from the airplane!

You would think, wouldn't you??????

Reporting in from London here ...

Lots of things are different from last year. We tried a new restaurant in Soho for lunch. Arbutus is not far from the West End Theater district. Set lunch for 15.50 pounds. Thumbs up!

Our favorite pub owner in Wimbledon has bolted for greener pastures. Fortunately, the new owners seem to run a congenial pub. The fish and chips are different yet tasty. Thank heavens for that bit of luck! Business was slow, though. Buzz (the former owner) is, shall we say, larger than life.

Wimbledon is in the middle of its rebuilding on Centre Court. Evidently the building cranes were only removed a week ago Monday. There's still a lot of fit and finish work to be completed this week. This year, no roof over part of the stadium seating as in years past. A new, retractable roof will be installed for the 2008 Championships. There's room for six more rows of seats at the top of Centre Court. I'm not sure if those will be installed by Monday or not until next year. Ladies towels are hot pink and purple colour scheme this year. Better than last year, when they were hot pink and lime green. I requested the aqua and medium purple colour scheme be adopted sometime very soon. My current set are fading from lots of use, and they won't appreciate having their logo towels look less than sharp in my bathroom. New big-screen scoreboards are in place (presumably to see replays) inside the court. We managed to get Jimmy Connors' autograph for one of the UK friends. Roger Federer was practicing and greeted our group as he was leaving. Very nice guy. Justin Gimblestob, from Center Court in Chatham, NJ, was there. We visited with him briefly. Hope he has a good run in the Championships this year!

Hotel sounds like there's an old dot-matrix printer underneath the sink. It likes to go off at 6 am. Interesting "attribute". I'll speak to the front desk when we leave this morning.

Cheers, Anne

We're in Copenhagen! We arrived this morning. It was fun hooking up with Joanna & Tony in the Crown Room and then not long after that Suzie and Marilyn arrived. It was great that we were all on the same flight, all in Biz Class together. The Mondaes and us are at the Scandic Weber Hilton, Suzie and Marilyn are at the Marriott. We've already had to change rooms since we checked in. Our first room had a shower without any type of lip and the bathroom flooded with just a quick shower. They moved us into a smaller room (very tiny, very European but hey, it's free using points so no complaints and it includes breakfast) and at least the shower has a lip so no more flooding.

I'm the only one not napping right now so after Tom and the Mondaes get up we'll walk around. The location of this hotel is great! No rain but it is overcast. Hopefully the next 2 days will remain dry. Looking forward to seeing all the other FJORDers soon, Marc and Arlene arrive tonight. Others will be arriving tomorrow.

Thanks for checking in with us home-bodies as we are all getting a little lonely and BORED! ;)

Oh, Yipee - the fun has begun!

Anne - wishing I was in Wimbledon - Marcie - Copenhagen sounds good too - anywhere but HOT, DRY, sunny Florida.

Please keep writing - it's my morning treat!

Thanks for the pre-mail, Marcie & Anne! Keep having fun, and please keep reporting it!!!!

It is 4:30 in CPH and we had uneventful flight out of Jax to Atlanta - hooked UP WITH CPH GROUP in the Delta Lounge for couple of hrs and arrived on time WITH bags 9 AM - I JUST KNOW THIS WILL BE A FUN CRUISE based on our time in the lounge.....Tony and I EACH HAVE ONE BAG his weighed in at 67 I WAS 59 - tough as bags are so heavy - hotel fine room size of postage stamp but comfy bed we took power naps - just went to nearby supermarket to replace some things we left at home GRRRRR - overcast day but nice for walking - IS IT COCKTAIL TIME????????

We are as far as Amsterdam. This airport has the craziest design; after getting lost for close to an hour, we are finally in the KLM lounge. We arrive in Copenhagen at 8pm; hopefully our bags are on the same flight as we have not seem them since Tokyo.

Marcie and Joanna, if you around this evening, we hope to be checking in by 9pm.

Marcie,

You should have posted the room number you had before you changed, so Marc and I wouldn't be next in line for it!!! :D :D :D

Just heading to the airport......Yep Arlene, I see myself in that shower with no lip on it right now......Would it be odd at check in to say "I would like to request a shower with a lip?" See you soon...

room 112 is a big no

I was feeling very sorry for myself today. I hoped to attend Ladies' Day at Royal Ascot but simply didn't get my act together. Good thing .. I could not have crawled out of bed ontime this morning. The weather gods dumped major rain on the track and spectators. I'd be feeling even more sorry for myself if my dress was soaking wet and my shoes/fascinator ruined. No such problem. Instead, we enjoyed a visit with long-time friends and found a new pub we like for lunch. Tonight it's our favorite splurge restaurant with more friends. Tomorrow's the trip to Copenhagen with (hopefully) our luggage intact.

Another Kathy - you can never put too many Zs in BOARDSZZZZ

Glad you and yours all arived in Copenhagen last night, Marcie, Joanna and Suzie!

Tonite is dinner at our favorite splurge restaurant. Tomorrow is Copenhagen in the afternoon.

Margo - here you go! Scenes from Gary's fantasy day at Wimbledon:

Ashok: Umpire extraordinare!



Ball boys and girls' uniform check



Clock tower's last year at the Championships:



Gary's fantasy opponent, Roger Federer (should be #1 seed for the Wimbledon tournament):



Gary's fantasy: You're road kill, Roger!



Gary's ACTUAL opponent getting last minute advice:



Here's the winner!



The ONLY time we'll be in the Royal Box - while it's under refurbishment




Cheers, Anne

Great photos, Anne! Thanks for posting them.
You and Gary look as if you belong in the Royal Box!!

Oh Anne,

I LOVED this....lucky you two. We will miss Wimbledon this year due to FJORDS! I can safely say I am happy with our choice. Look forward to meeting you and Gary and talking tennis.

Cheers, Pam

PS I was also supposed to go to Royal Ascot today, but my friends and I did not get our act together in time. I am glad because it would have been such a rush since our flight tomorrow is 6:00am!

Thanks for all the seamail - glad to hear everyone is arriving safely and the fun has begun!

Pam - whew! We both lucked out. I saved a few of the pictures from the Guardian's website. Some of those scenes are wonderful!

Safe travels, everyone.

Cheers, Anne

We're at OHare for our long layover - hoping we see our bags again! Mileage alert - for anyone flying through ORD if you show your Citibank Aadvantage card at a coffee stand near the entrance to the Admirals Club you get credited 500 AA miles. They are probably doing this in Dallas too.

Great hearing from you all!

Keep the seamails coming, please!

Great pix, Anne!

Hello from Lufthansa First Class lounge in LAX waiting for our 4 pm flight. We were supposed to go to Business Lounge but since that means taking a shuttle with Kathryn in a wheelchair, they waived us right on to FC lounge.

Our flights from Tucson and Phoenix yesterday were hot and hotter. Both Canadian Regional jets were hot and stuffy and sitting on the runway in 106 degree Phoenix wasn't pleasant.

Our bags weigh 49lbs and 48lbs. We couldn't use the business allowance since we had the flight from Tucson to Orange County on our own arrangements.

Our luggage arrived wet. Started investigating at Kathryn's house and one bag was really soaked and clothes were wet even though I always cover the clothes in a plastic bag. Can't figure out what happened but it must have been condensation from those hard-working ac units on the plane. Oh well, if the bags don't arrive in Copenhagen, I'll be pining for those damp, wrinkly, smelly duds!

Anne, love the Wimbledon photos.

More later.

An early wakeup in Copenhagen as it is now almost 2pm Tokyo time. Everyone else is still asleep.

It was great spending time with Marcie, Joanna, Tom, and Tony last night. All bags arrived and we made great time to the hotel as our taxi driver thought that we were auditioning him for a chance to join a Formula One team.

Looking forward to more Fjorders arriving today and the Voyager sailing in this evening. We will be going to the port to greet the Voyager this evening as my mother and her husband are on board and we are going to go to Tivoli together for dinner.

It's Friday morning and Copenhagen has rain. We were going to take the train to Malmo Sweden today, but maybe a day at the museum will be better if the rain continues. We're looking forward to meeting the LCTers tomorrow after lifejacket drill. Is the Voyager Lounge still the location?
Jim

We arrived in Amsterdam on schedule....now waiting in the business lounge for our onward flight to Copenhagen. As usual in AMS there was luggage on the side of the bus path to the terminal building. The luggage crew drives like maniacs and we always see bags strewn about, only 2 today! :eek: We have high hopes that our 4 bags arrived with no problems!

See you FJORDers in Copenhagen.
Cheers, Pam

Since a princess must have her luggage, I rebooked myself on Icelandair to CPH, and am now currently sitting in the Saga lounge in REK (way too early to try and spell correctly) awaiting my departure flight, which is delayed already about 50 minutes. No worries - I´m sure I´ll get there eventually. Looking forward to seeing everyone!!

We're now in the BA Gate 1 Lounge sipping espresso waiting for our Copenhagen gate to be listed - no time for the Moulton Brown spa lounge this time...

I'm here too! Room not ready, drizzling outside, Marcie and Joanna must be out, and I want a nap! Thankfully, all luggage got here with me. I ran into Frankie the guitarist at the airport in Philadelphia. He was just back from Stockholm, I think, and reports to the Mariner July 4, so will not be with us, nor will Kenny Smiles. He also said Jamie was coming on for this cruise since there are so many WC people aboard.

Glad to hear that our FJORDSers are arriving in Copenhagen safely. I feel the excitement beginning to mount! :)

Sounds like everyone is so far lucking out with the luggage.

Sad to think that we had originally booked the Dover - Copenhagen portion of this trip and were going to meet up with everyone tonight - switched instead to CROSS. :( But now we have CROSSS to look forward to. :D

According to CruiseCal, the Voyager is due into Copenhagen at 6pm, how exciting that your cruise is about to start!

Hopefully we get pictures soon, I can't wait to see all those smiling faces!

Great that the FJORDers are checking in with us.

Sorry about your luggage mishaps, Donna.

Ah, the anticipation of embarkation! Enjoy!