Thanks, Joanna! We feel the same way! :lct:

Kathy & Al:

Holy Tutsville, neighbor, welcome aboard! As soon as I read this message to Penny she let out with a war hoop in welcome to you and said it was indeed time for Lee & Michael to jump on board.

Cheers! Ray & Penny

That was cute, Ray! Thanks!

I just discovered something interesting while looking at TUT excursions at the Regent website. There is a link to have the excursions emailed to you. I decided to click on it and see how it worked, thinking it might be more convenient having an email than revisiting the RSSC website again and again. The email with a 44-page attachment showed up shortly. In many cases it shows times of the excursions, which could help in planning. Also, it shows "executive edition" plan-your-own private car/van/minibus options with hours, prices and maximum number of people per vehicle.

I just wanted to pass this along since there is a little additional information shown when you get the email version.

Does anyone know the exact day that booking will open for TUT excusions? Should be any day.

Thanks Priscilla for pointing out this excursion email feature. I got a 7 pp pdf attachement for our Nov TA.

The date 180 days out for your 3 Oct cruise is
6 April...here is a website to book mark for your future use:

http://www.timeanddate.com/date/dateadd.html

Thanks for pointing that out, Priscilla - I had been copying and pasting the excursions I was interested in to a word file to review later. So much easier to get the email version!

This sounds really neat Priscilla, and we were just going over some of the excursions last week. Didn't realize they open tomorrow. Will have to download that email and get more details so we can firm up the one's we want.
Thanks.

I did not see the link. Can you provide some help on where the link is or how to bring it up.

Ralph - I forwarded a copy to you.

For those who have stayed at Grand Bretagne in Athens, approximately how long will it take to get from the hotel to the ship on Sunday, Oct. 3rd ?

Marcie, we went from the GB to the port on a Friday, and I think it took less than 20 minutes.

Thanks Andrea!!

Excursion booking is up this morning.

Thanks, Leslie

We booked all our tours but had two hangups:

1 - Wanted to take two tours - a.m. / p.m. in Rhodes but would not let us book MYK - 001 Mhykonos & Monastery but did let us book MYK - 002...Island of Delos.

2 - Also, dearly wanted VCE - 005, Historic Venice & Gondola Ride, for $59 but would not let us book it. We then took VCE-007 Secret Corner of Venice & Grand Canal.

As info.

Cheers! Ray & Penny

I checked earlier and nothing was up, will go back and check again.

Ray - I think the booking site mentioned you need at least an hour between the end of one excursion and beginning of another so that may be why you couldn't book it. Delos is easy to do on your own from an excursion boat in town.

got them. Got all the ones we wanted too.

Ray, you may have to click update twice for the paid excursions. I just tried to book it and didn't have any problems.

Got ours also.

We're all booked with no problems. We wait until we get on the ship to book paid excursions so we can use shipboard credit and we've never had a problem getting them.

We're all booked but all of ours were Freebies.

We're booked too except for a couple of things we haven't figured out yet. Peggy, we did have a couple of paid excursions, and I went ahead and booked them because we really wanted them and they were limited as to group size. Hmmmmm .... I like your approach!

A belated thanks, Wes, for the heads-up that booking opened today!

we are booking tonight - so I thought - Tony has been in St Augustine with biz guys wink wink - that's ok I'll book ones I like as he's waiting for Dancing with the Stars? unless he has that mixed up too!!! :lct: :p :p

well, we have booked! We also booked two that wei wish paid, as we were afraid they might be gone. We have literally looked at this today for the first time. Poor Ngaire and the pathetic emails i have to send her! i wish this was next month! Thanks all for the heads up.....

we are using Regent air. David is devastated, but neither of us were here to do the heavy lifting on this, so we just used their air. We are considering paying the 100pp to get in one day earlier. the early Athens departure makes it a bit tight.

Cindy??? Can we send T and D on their own excursion(s)_ - 11 hrs sunrise to sundown suits Tony ....I'll meet you at pool bar :hug: :hug: :hug: :D :D

CINDY!!!!!

This trip just gets better and better!!

If you come in early Cindy, let me know if you are interested in the group dinner on Saturday night and/or the group transfer on Sunday to the ship.

Cindy, maybe it will be a forced overnight (Regent pays hotel) ? I know if we fly from the West Coast to FLL it is a forced overnight since there's no way with the time difference to get us in the same day before the ship sails.

Booking the excursions really makes this cruise seem real now! Your mention of the early Athens departure, Cindy, reminds me that I don't think I had written that we are coming in late Friday night (only way using AA miles). Since we didn't have Starwood or other points to help at the Grand Bretagne, we decided to book at the Electra Palace just a few blocks away. It comes highly recommended and looks lovely, and Susan and Russ are there also. So, just FYI for anyone else coming in early, there is a small contingent of LCTers at that hotel also.

Well, i spent 30 minutes on the phone with AA. Not surprsingly, there is nothing available for bus air even for the 200k miles it would cost. The really nice gal did tell me to keep trying! You know priscilla, I may try Friday night! Thanks for the suggestion! Like I said, earlier with the earlier departure, coming in on Sunday seems like alot to count on, plus that gives us zero time in Athens.

Joanne Thanks! I sure will! Yes, Joanna, David booked all our stuff (nearly $500 of PAID ones, as he was afraid to wait that the wine tour in Santorrini might be sold out!) He has us on atleast 2 11 hour ish days....... Gee I hope at the last minute I don't feel under the weather. He and T can share a seat on the "coach". I love excursions, but also love that boat!

Andrea, it will be so great to see you again!!

Cindy, we originally had planned to come in on Sunday, but when Regent moved the departure from 11 p.m. to 7 p.m., plus moving the second day port to a different country so even a back-up plan was complicated, we decided we'd better not chance it. I understand your concern!

We booked three tours with surchages, the Cooking class in Santorini, The Ephasus with an expert and Pafos & Kourion in Limassol - same thinking didn't want them to be sold out. Didn't book anything for Mykonos, as we were just there, so will just go and have lunch along the waterfront and people watch. Also for Crete, didn't know what we wanted to do, so thought we'd wait and see what others have signed up for.

JoAnn, John and I will be doing the cooking class in Santorini too! Won't we have fun???? And John will be doing Ephesus with an Expert with you.

In Crete John is doing the Palace of Knossos. Besides Egypt and Israel, Crete is the other big reason he wanted to take this cruise. I would enjoy seeing the palace site, but since I'm a little slower and he is so interested, I decided he needs to do it without me holding him back. (He doesn't agree, but guess who makes the reservations?)

Oh fun Priscilla. Love the cooking tour and yes we will have a great time together. In Crete, the Palace of Knossos was what we were thinking so I will tell Frank. And the Ephesus tour with the expert is something we saw on the travel channel about cruises they loved and the first one was Regent and the main reason they loved it was the tour with the expert. :app:

We are also doing the Ephesus tour with the expert! Also the food and wine trails of Santorini. I would love the cooking one as well, but can't get David interested in that. What a time we will have!

We took the morning tour for Ephesus - did you?

From what I understood the cooking class is less of a participation and more of a demonstration of how to make various Greek specialties, the chef does most of the cooking, then we get to eat his creations and wine is included.

Hi JoAnn,
No, we are on the 12:15, if memory serves the morning tour was sold out already......if it opens up we will probably switch. The cooking demonstration sounds wonderful.....

JoAnn, John is on the morning Ephesus tour.

The cooking demonstration DOES sound wonderful!