Just heard that the group bookings should open for booking tomorrow and I will be sending out invoices to those that waitlisted for the 2013 Med Cruise.

Not sure if they will be posted on line tomorrow but worth checking. They do have an early booking window for groups and top accounts.

Finally we will see the details.

And the schedules are ...

I got a flyer today BUT no real details tomorrow I HOPE it is all up.

I have time to do another escorted trip if there is anything that people want. I get back from a Safari at the end of July and then do not leave again until October for the Med Cruise. If there is anything of interest just let me know in August or September.

how about November or December?

Yes mid November and December are free as well. Doing a back to back med so I need time in between so MID November and December are just fine.

I can't wait to see the intineraries, Ngaire!

I wonder if anyone is up for a Caribbean FUN4?!?!

:lct:

What is the Med cruise? In Oct sounds great, and you said something about b2b? Can't wait to see the itineraries and what BK will be doing.

Me too! Ken and I really want to sail with Ngaire so we can finally meet this nice person who is so helpful to us.

We are booked on a Caribbean cruise in Jan '13 which we might change to another if something really interesting is proposed!!
Gerry

Our last sailing with Ngaire on TAP was a blast
We would love an encore trip but have a hard time aligning dates

Marc:

We have always been big fans of the lower cost Caribbean cruise, its just so relaxing and easy to get to with Flights...

Marc and Gerry and Frank, I am up for FUN4! I wonder when the Carib winter schedule is coming out?

I agree Frank - flights are painless and nice relaxing trip. We sure had wonderful time on last trip to the islands.

Probably have to wait for 2014 for a Caribbean cruise I am sure they will be there and will come out in October right around HEE HAW!!

Caribbean cruise flights are NOT painless for us since we have to fly to and from Geneva. Onthe other hand, if Ngaire is taking a Med or Baltic cruise that would be painless. Mediterranean much more so (less painfull!) than anything else as we can drive...

Ngaire, how about an Aug 21-Sep 2 Stockholm to London (Southampton) OR from there to Barcelona in Sep 13-26, both on the Voyager? Both have very nice itineraries, and relatively well-priced for northern European cruises. There is a circle British Isles cruise in between.

WE really did the London to Barcelona last year on WINES.

I have not done a Baltic for a while for the August 21 to Sep 2 itinerary. If there is interest on the part of more LCT'ers I would consider that itinerary.

Oh my, I loved the Baltics, and would love to go back some day. But not next year. I have hankered to get back to the Med when the weather is warm, and already signed up for October. But I would love to see a return of a Baltics cruise in 2014! Long time off, I know.

We have always wanted to do the Baltics, and we always love the Med itineraries. Not really sure what we will choose for 2013, as we also want to do a river boat cruise in warm weather. But.....that said, we are looking at one of the Oct Med itineraries, but if a Baltic got added we certainly would give that serious thought.

2014 is not a long time off in Ngaire world. That may be a better year but of course we also have BEARS - Silversea Arctic in August 2014.

Not sure if I should mention this now or even if I can pull this off but I am trying to add a few days to another trip (changing air again) to sail on one of the new Uniworld River Boats.

Uniworld has been getting rave reviews and have a lot of new boats. When I made my decisions on which lines to represent years back I did visit a Uniworld boat but it was older and the cabins were tiny. Those boats are now gone and a nice new fleet is the new standard.

I will not host a group without first trying the product so this all rides on if I can get this done or not. Working on it now. This is a possibility for 2013 late August/September time of year.

That would be something we would be VERY interested in. Will look forward to hearing your thoughts if you are able to do that Ngaire.

I have heard good things about Uniworld and agree, their new ships look really nice.

Do you know anything about Viking River? I've had several people go on them and love them and they are coming out with about 1/2 dozen new boats that will have cabins with verandahs, as well as cabins with both a verandah and french balcony.

I have done a river cruise with Viking. On the Danube. We had a nasty problem at the outset ( were supposedly on the wrong boat.!) which was caused by their Swiss agent. My (then )TA in Zürich sorted it and we transferred to the "right" boat. And it was a great cruise. However not as good as the Deilmann cruise we did the next year on the Elbe. Now that was a really good river cruise line!! Sadly they do not do any river cruises anymore.

I would be interested in Uniworld... IF Ngaire recommends it. And we can most likely take the train to the boat and back...

I have nothing but praise for Uniworld
Ash

We would totally be in for a Uniworld river cruise. We missed the one you guys did a couple of years ago. John & I were actually looking at the 2013 Classic Xmas Market-Frankfurt/Nuremberg itinerary.

Well I am going to try Uniworld out for two days on the River Beatrice and see the newest Uniworld ship Marie Antoinette and also see the new AMACELLO design with larger cabins. Plus a couple of other boats.

Crazy schedule --- trains, planes and automobiles Never done long train rides in Europe before we will log almost 20 hours over three days during this trip on trains so this will be an adventure.

Of course this late I am flying coach on the international air portion.

Ken and I will be pretty tired when we get back from this one. If only they had internet on the trains - not checked that out yet.

5/9/2012 DFW to Madrid
5/10/2012 Madrid to BCN
5/10/2012 Board Riveria

5/15/2012 Debark Venice - Taxi to airport
5/15/2012 Fly Venice - Dusseldorf - Munich
5/15/2012 Train Munich Airport - Munich OST
5/15/2012 Train Munich OST - Munich HBF
5/15/2012 Train Munich HBF to Linz HBF
5/15/2012 Taxi to River Beatrice
5/15/2012 Embark River Beatrice

5/17/2012 Debark River Beatrice
5/17/2012 Taxi to Train Station
5/17/2012 Train from Vienna to Passau
5/17/2012 Taxi from Passau to Vilsholfen
5/17/2012 Site inspect two ships
5/17/2012 Inspect and dinner on AMACERTO
5/17/2012 Train from Vilshofen to Passau
5/17/2012 Overnight in Passau

5/18/2012 Taxi to Passau Train Station
5/18/2012 Train to Frankfurt
5/18/2012 Train to Frankfurt to Koblenz
5/18/2012 Taxi to Marie Antionette
5/18/2012 Taxi to Train Station
5/18/2012 Train Kolbenz to Frankfurt Airport
5/18/2012 Overnight in Frankfurt Airport

5/19/2012 Flight from Frankfurt to LHR
5/19/2012 Flight from LHR to DFW

You are making me tired, ngaire, and I am usually the one who is up for everything.

Ngaire, I'm with Rachel, just reading your schedule exhausts me. :)
We will be anxiously waiting for your reports however. This is very interesting to us!

Most of the inter city trains in Europe have internet. It's usually free in 1st class.

Cant wait to hear your impressions of Riviera, Ngaire. We are booked Lisbon to Rome in Sept on her.
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Helen

Loved uniworld in china mostly our guide john looking forward to Bears!

Great news JIm - we booked a first class pass for Austria and Germany. To have internet will be DANDY - I guess we will be taking two computers after all.

Are we talking 2013 or 14 for river cruise?

Steve and I would absolutely be interested in a river cruise in either 2013 or 14!! We've talked about it for quite awhile.
Ngaire! That trip you're taking next month is quite busy to say the least!!! Have fun!
Kathy

Bet she'd have big group I know the PVB bunch interested in river cruise - hope 2013 .. 14 sooooooooo far off :mecry: :mecry: :mecry:

I have some time in August and September 2013 but it may be pushed to 2014. This is the prime season for the river cruises it can be hot in August though so that is a consideration. When we went last time and it was good weather and not really hot. Cannot remember the exact date now but it was late August or early September in 2010.

whatever will await your report - as much as we were freezing in Dec HOT can be as bad :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

I assume Ngaire is talking about CASTLE from Prague to Budapest. It was after Labor Day in early September. (On ship 9/10-9/16) As I recall, people said that year was unusually cool for that part of Europe. We did have good weather with only a little rain during the cruise. At the end, we had a lot of rain in Budapest, where we spent several days post-cruise.

-----------------

Eugene

I'm still trying to figure out where this cruise in 2013 or 2014 starts and stops ? We may be interested too.

We're interested too as long as it's in warm weather -- haven't been on a river cruise for a while. When we were in Southern Europe last year in Aug/Sept, the weather was perfect.

I prefer September because the weather is still nice but most of the tourists are gone.