Correction - The Alhambra tour is from Malaga, not Valencia.

Nini

Maria; I booked our air through Expedia and it listed on our itinerary the on time % for our Delta flight only. It has nothing listed for Air Portugal.

When I booked the trip the flight was only at 40% and now it has gone up to 70% - so I feel like 50% is about average for it! ;)

Thanks Sue! I know there are sites that track this , just don't know where.

If you have not been to the Alhambra it is worthwhile to see. We were there last year on WAVE. If you book a private tour, please ask them to get individual tickets for your group. Otherwise you cannot go in and out unless you are together. There was a great restaurant we enjoyed at the entrance called the Hotel America. You will also want to make sure your guide can take you into Granada. Our guide was not allowed to do that - it turned out that he was only a driver.

I have just read 4 turbulent pages on another Board in which dozens of VOYAGER customers complain- often bitterly, of vibration problems on that ship. Complaints appear to center on the Horizon suites, but the entire aft section is indicted, possibly worse on the port side.

If my memory serves (& at the rate aging is turning neurons to sawdust it may not), it appears that no one on the LCT Board has ever so much as mentioned such problems. Are there really 2 populations of RSSC customers, 1 overly sensitive & litigious, the other thick-skinned & in denial, each using a different Board-??

My wife & I have completed 2 VOYAGER cruises, on Deck 7 (762 & 761). In neither were we significantly troubled by vibration (placing us among the deniers?).

For the upcoming CROSS the 7th deck cabins were gone & we were compelled to pay a further premium for a Penthouse cabin (#860), with its silly fantasy of "personalized Butler service".

After being lulled by the smiling LCT messages the continuous drumbeat of sour experiences reported on the other Board raises a twinge or 2.

Can anyone comment on this? Has anyone experienced uncomfortable vibrations aboard VOYAGER? If so, is it found only in the aft-section"? If that is so. how far forward can it be felt?

AL

Kathy - We booked it through Regent and the tour is for Alhambra and Grenada - We are really looking forward to seeing them.

Nini

We were just discussing the possibility of taking out travel insurance for CROSS, as we normally have done for prior trips.

Has anyone taken out travel insurance for this cruise?

Alepe - we are right next to you in 861. A couple of years ago, we were in 862 and loved the location and since it is forward of the laundry room we really never felt much in the way of the vibration issue - which, by the way has been well documented on this board, but you would have to do a search to find those threads. As a result of our good experience we booked 861 for CROSS. I did notice though when on our previous cruise, that as I walked towards the stern to go around to the laundry room, much more vibration, and I even walked as far back as I could and there definitely is a noticable vibration. We were in the Med in cabin 862, so it will be interesting to see if there is a difference in that location on the transatlantic portion. I hope not!!! :eek: :eek:

Denise - yes, we took RSSC's insurance. With having a 95 year old father, and several young grandchildren, and not to mention that our Medicare does not cover outside of the US, I put my foot down and said we were taking it. We did this for WINE as well. Frank is a non beliver in insurance, and even though he is much much smarter than me, he doesn't know everything!! And we are at a different point in our lives than we have been on cruises several years ago.

Hi JoAnn,

You and Frank have very compelling reasons to take out insurance. Under your circumstances, we would do the very same thing. Hopefully, Frank will be right and there was no need to take it out to begin with! In this case, I think you'll agree to concede to Frank, right? ;)

My husband is also an "insurance non-believer." I did talk him into Med Jet Assist so if the unthinkable should happen, at least we will be brought back to the US by a medically-equipped plane, and, our medicare supplement does cover us for emergencies out of the country.

Nini

Denise - yessss!!!! :)

Al - As we have posted here and on CC, we were very happy with our corner aft cabin 877 on Voyager for the Norwegian fjords cruise a couple of years ago. However, it was on the starboard side and less likely to be plagued by the infamous vibration as the cabins on the port side were. Most of the discussions on this board and CC suggest that vibration problems on either side are not an issue forward of the laundrette. (Hmm, maybe those odd little washing machines somehow counter the vibrations because of their own wacky spinning motion - calling all physicists for an opinion...)

Denise - Pat & I always buy travel insurance for our cruises. Once we have plunked down all that dough for the final payment, we don't want to find ourselves penaltied (is that a word??) out of it if one of us becomes ill (or breaks an ankle on our daily 3-mile trail walk in the state park with our pooches) shortly before the trip. For our Hanseatic cruise (POP, aka PENGUINS) to Antarctica this past Jan/Feb, we bought the CSA policy because it had the highest medical evacuation coverage of anything available. When you're in Antarctica, evacuation could be very expensive (ie. 100's of 1000's of $$$).

We will look at CSA and the other offerings in addition to RSSC's offering. Ngaire has a very good analysis of insurance somewhere on LCT, although I can't find it at the moment. CSA seems to be a good choice if there are not any pre-existing conditions, such as my tendency to prattle on and on (fortunately, that is just a social condition, rather than a medical one...).

After reading about the medical evacuation on FJORDS, we have also decided to subscribe to MedJetAssist. It is not expensive and would allow us to be sent back to a hospital close to home, rather than one in some distant place. After all, no matter how modern and excellent a hospital might be in Dubai, Oslo, or Paris, we'd want to be back in a hospital in Seattle, closer to home.

JoAnn - Like you, we just booked the South Lanzarote tour. We think it will be great fun to ride the camels for 45 minutes or so. Other than that, we haven't decided what to do. We may take the Flamenco tour in Barcelona, but will likely just book the flamenco club on our own (both of the main flamenco clubs in the city can be booked on-line) and skip the bus trip. The biggest ??? is Valencia, as we are there such a short time. Despite our generally avid aversion for bus tours, we may take one there because there are not good alternatives considering the short time in port.

As Kathy noted, in Casablanca and Agadir, we have engaged a private guide (the same one that Andi used on TAP). I'll be happy to post the contact info for his agency if anyone wants to use his agency's services. Andi's little group of six or eight managed their own schedule on the trip from Adadir to Taroudant, while the Regent bus tour didn't get to stop and photograph the famous tree-climbing goats. We intend to do the same thing and will include a long Moroccan lunch at one of the excellent restaurants in Taroudant. (Yikes, I'm getting hungry just thinking about that lovely food - b'stilla, lamb tagine, fricassee of camel hump - okay, I made up that last one...)

Cheers, Fred

"fricassee of camel hump" !!! You've done it again!; literally LOL here, something sorely needed!!

Fred,

LOL!!!! After that "visual" of the fricasse, I might have to reconsider my menu choices in Morocco (or will this delicacy be served in Lanzarote???)

Denise,

We usually don't take insurance but this time we might. I think we want it to cover pre-existing conditions ( due to my dad).The only one I know that does that and you can take out at time of final payment is HTH (I'm pretty sure that's the one).

We are huge believers in Travel Insurance and have always taken it out even though we have not had a claim. We were always fearful that something would happen since we were the caretakers for Frank's mother who was in her 90's (and passed away last year).

We use TravelEx and MedjetAssist now. It does not cover Pre-existing conditions unless it is booked within 20 days (or so - check with Ngaire) of your booking - not your final payment. That was an issue for us becaue the Oceania Cruise we won was booked months before we won and the contract was changed into our name. Frank is also on Medicare and not all policies work well for all under each circumstance. We always used Regent's Berkley Care when Frank's mother was alive but have switched to TravelEx since there are some coverages for us that are better.

We booked our tours last night. Gaudi's Barcelona, Splendors of Valencia Panoramic, Mijas Village in Malaga, South Lanzarote Island.

From Kusadasi....

Hee hee! Kathy, I think I recognize that camel....

[img]http://www.kodakgallery.com/PhotoVi...&albumsperpage=&navfolderid=2007[/img]

edited to say...oh darn, I keep getting that RED X when I try to insert an image!

Anyway, it was the same one we saw after exiting Ephesus, I'm sure.

Cute Kathy - we signed up for this too - I hope I haven't lost my mind!!! Riding a Camel - OMG, I think I signed up for this after too many glasses of wine at the Beach one night.

Well we just added the "Valencia Panoramic tour" also, deciding that with only four hours in Valencia, that would maximize our sightseeing there.

Kristen,

Yes, that is the Camel at Ephesus fresh from my travels!
Kodak Gallery won't allow you to link to another web site so if you try to link you get an X. I use Photobucket, Pbase and Smugmug to host my photography collections.

Joann,

Funny but have you noticed that on all the cruises we've taken together, we've pretty much picked many of the same tours. - Yippee!

It may be a rough ride, but I'd love to ride on a camel! I can't wait to hear about your experience JoAnn and Kathy! :)

Yeah it will be interesting alright!! I just hope I don't end up regreting this choice. :eek: :eek: <img border="0" alt="[bang]" title="" src="graemlins/banghead.gif" />

Well I finally purchased our air for the flight back home from CROSS. Our flight departs FLL at 1:50 p.m., so we should have plenty of time to spare at the airport to go to the Crown Room. :)

To JoAnn and Fred, my thanks for your replies to my questions about vibrations aboard VOYAGER. Actually, I received a 3rd as well, privately. All say pretty much the same, providing a measure of relief.

Having (some of you) done so well on 'vibration', let me offer another question for you to solve:

Can anyone propose some function (both legal & moral) for that butler? The proffered list of duties strikes me as farcical. I had avoided them in previous voyages but this time there was no escape.

Al

Al - I think its best not to stress over it. The Butler will help your room stewardess, be responsible for replenishing your refrigerator requests, fruit basket, you appetizers, polish shoes, things like that. They will not be intrusive, and in fact we have not booked the PH for the Butler, but have always enjoyed them. They will bring you room service orders and they will let you know what their duties are and how they can help make your cruise more enjoyable. If you have a party in your room, they will take care of that, after consulting with you. One night, my husband put on his black pants only to discover our dog hair all over them, we call our Butler and he was there in minutes with a lint brush and got all the stuff off the pants - things like that.

Truly - don't worry it, just wait until you meet him and go from there. Thats my two cents and advice, and I'm stickin' with it. :D :D

By the way, I said we were next to you, but actually we are not, we are on the other side, 860 is next to 862, which we were in on our 2005 cruise.

I have a packing question. Both of our previous cruises have been in the Caribbean where, for shore excursions, I wore shorts or capris. When we are in Barcelona, etc., and, I hope, the weather will be cooler, what are other people (of the female variety) bringing to wear? I am thinking warm ups or decent jeans and warmer tops?
I would appreciate any wuggestions.

Thanks, Nini

Nini - probably jeans, maybe capris, or I have a couple of skirts made from a lightweight sweat material and I will definitely be bringing those. I hope its warm enough for sandals! Warm ups sound like a good idea too. Will probably bring clothes similar to what I did in Alaska last year on MUSH in Sept. There have been posts from previous TA cruisers that on a couple of days it was even warm enough for shorts during the crossing.

Thanks for the responses pertaining to travel insurance. Time to visit Insure My Trip once again and make a decision. Fred, we've taken out CSA in the past, and may well choose CSA for CROSS.

Nini, I'll be taking jeans and some nice T-shirts, which are a must for me on any trip. I'll also take along capris and maybe a pair of shorts. I always plan on layering regardless of season. A zippered, hooded sweatshirt always comes in handy. For evening, a lot of mixing with black slacks and black skirt, dressy tops and sparkly jewelry to dress it up further.

With 8 sea days, it gives me plenty of time to visit the laundry room. Therefore, I am going to try to pack much lighter this time around.

Denise - I'm jealous - we can't pack very light because we have a lot of travelling before we even embark. For evening, I agree with you - lots of black separates with some glitter to dress it up. I've been more concerned about excursions in Spain, etc., but I guess that layering is the answer.

JoAnn - I'm hoping it'll be warm enough for comfortable sandals - I'm muchhappier in then than sneakers.

Nini

Hi Nini, I'm equally jealous, because you'll be travelling a lot!

It's all about comfort during touring for me - Jeans, T-shirts and a good pair of walking shoes!

Hi ollie,

Lucky you doing all that traveling. But it does create packing challenges!

I like this website to check the weather history in the cities I am planning to visit:
www.weatheronline.co.uk

For example, it says that for Barcelona, November 2006 temps were a high of 72-60 and the lows fluctuated between 45-60.

Maria that is a good weather site!

I just looked up Funchal for last November and it looks like we can expect nice temps in the lower 70's! ;)

Being a weather nut, I subscribe to Weather Underground which has a neat past weather feature. For example, scroll down on this page and you can see the actual day by day weather for Funchal.

Funchal weather history

Karen; Tom thinks Weather Underground is the best weather site. I have the Weather Channel on in my office most of the time - I guess I am not the only weather junkie! ;)

Funchal sounds great. Too bad we also chose to do Paris a few days pre-cruise. The average temp last year was 41F last year during that time period. Got down into the 30's at night and a little above 40 during the day! Hopefully it will be more like its normal average of low 50's with days at least in the mid 50's.

Sue, we will see you in Funchal four months from today and see all you FULL CROSSr's four months from tomorrow!!!

Yahoo, Don, I completely forgot what the date was today. Only 4 more months - I can't wait!!!! <img border="0" alt="[bounce]" title="" src="graemlins/ubbbounce2.gif" />

Us too! :pass:
Whoohooo!

Count us in, as well!

I went over to a store called Cost Plus and purchased some bottles of Sangria, imported from Spain. We're gearing up for the real deal! :woh: