Live from the Amsterdam - Take Two

[FlorenceItaly]

How many more days for us Dorothy?

 

Marie

[dot73]

Hey Marie, only 11 months, 17 days, 5 hours and 30 minutes, but who's counting. Can't wait to read a preview of this dream cruise.

[JudyAL]

am off the ship and sitting in my hotel room in San Diego waiting for Super Bowl to begin. I'll be heading back to SC tomorrow morning,. Could not change flight for today because they wanted an additional $495 in airfare. I will post a few deays after I get back home because I have a lot of catch-up to do including touching base with daughter who STILL had NOT had the baby yet. I guess she decided to wait until I got home after all (first time she's listened to me in a long time!) :>)

 

Wonderful cruise, long long sea days, made many new friends, saw beauty that I didn't think existed.

 

Talk to y'all in a few.....

 

JudyAL

[dot73]

Judy, I cannot wait to hear more about this fabulous cruise. I am tentatively booked for the same itinerary in January 2007 on the Ryndam and am looking forward to hearing all about your adventures.

[FlorenceItaly]

I am happy to hear your grandbaby waited for you :). I am especially interested to hear your point of view from the solo traveler perspective. Like Dorothy, I am tentatively booked for the same itinerary next year, on the Ryndam.

 

Talk to you soon :).

 

Marie

[kryos]

The other thread must be on page 2 or 3. We've been trying to keep it on page 1 for you, but it didn't happen today. It sounds like you are having a delightful cruise, and like Dorothy, I hope to be making the same voyage this time next year(as a solo also) :). She and I will definitely be asking you lots of questions upon your return. Thanks for posting, and we hope to hear from you again very soon.

You all will LOVE sailing this voyage ... especially as a solo. Because of the length of the cruise, the cruise director's staff had special events just about every day for the singles and solos ... lunch, breakfast, pinnacle dinner, games and various other fun stuff. Just about every sea day there was at least one item on the daily program. While I didn't do all of them ... nowhere near it ... the ones I participated in were lots of fun, and they gave the singles and solos a chance to meet up with others. Because of these efforts of the cruise director's staff, everyone got well acquainted and there was always a friendly face to greet you everytime you walked into a lounge or other venue.

 

I traveled alone on this voyage, but I was never for one minute alone if I didn't want to be. That was what made it so wonderful for me.

 

I'll be honest ... I'm jealous. I only wish I could do this itinerary again next year, but sadly I'll have to sit that one out.

 

Enjoy!

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[kryos]

am off the ship and sitting in my hotel room in San Diego waiting for Super Bowl to begin. I'll be heading back to SC tomorrow morning,. Could not change flight for today because they wanted an additional $495 in airfare.

An additional $495???? What?????

 

Boy, that sucks. It only cost me $25 to change my flight to an earlier one when I returned home from my Celebrity cruise in December ... but maybe that was because the flight was the same day?

 

Sorry changing didn't work out for you. If it's any consolation, it didn't work out for me to switch to an earlier flight either. By the time I got off the ship ... guess a lot of folks were slow showing up at the front desk to square away their bills and to see the customs folks ... and got to the airport ... I only had about an hour and 15 minutes to play with anyway. Didn't make much sense even asking about an earlier flight at that point.

 

But, I put the time to good use. Bought another new book to read ... and took care of that, ahhhhhhh, Big Mac attack I got hit with on Saturday night. :) Yes, there is a Mickey Dee's at the San Diego Airport. :)

 

Hope you enjoyed the SuperBowl. The pilot on our flight from Salt Lake City to Philly was giving us regular updates as he was getting them from the ground. :) At least you got to actually see the game. :)

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[FlorenceItaly]

It's so good to hear from you. I look forward to hearing everything once you both are settled. Rita, thanks for your solo perspective. Were there alot of solos on this cruise? For some reason, that surprises me.

 

Dorothy - What is our countdown? I really need to get myself a clock :).

It really sounds like we just HAVE to take this cruise!

 

 

Marie

[dot73]

Rita, Judy - like Marie, I can't wait to hear more details about your trip.

 

Marie, it's only 11 months, 16 days, 7 hours and 54 minutes to go. Are you going to start a roll call?

[FlorenceItaly]

I have only hesitated because I am not 100% sure the cruise is a go for me, but honestly, the more I think about it, IT IS A GO. I am determined to make it work. And, I've made it pretty clear to dh that I am going, that it's not a fantasy, and it will become a reality, lol. He doesn't have a problem with it :). So, I am scrimping, scrimping, scrimping. Even though ds starts university in Sept, oh well, life is too short, ya know?

 

I so love that you are keeping track for us how many days, hours and minutes until OUR cruise :).

 

Marie

[dot73]

I've started obsessing about this cruise so I have a feeling that it's also a go for me unless something unforeseen happens in my family. I keep checking Air Canada for flights but they still don't have flights that far ahead posted. I'm hoping that I will have enough points on my credit card to be able to stay in a real nice hotel in San Diego for a couple of days before the cruise. I love the city. I have a feeling that once we hear from from Rita and Judy, we will be even more anxious.

[kakalina]

Hey everybody.. We arrived at home last night. Judy, Rita, glad to see that you made it home alright. Rita... We found the Micky Dee's within 15 minutes of getting on the freeway! It was gooood! What a fantastic trip, huh? I still can't get over seeing the whales breaching outside of Maui and the dolphins escorting us into every port in French Polynesia. Out of all our cruises this was by far the best itinarary. Do you agree or disagree? We think the snorkling was better even than Bonaire. Swimming with the rays and the sharks was pretty amazing too. And the water off the motu in Moorea where we had the picnic and the snorkling....WOW! I want to go baaack!!!! Hope to hear from you all soon. Judy, what's happening on the baby front?

 

Trisha

[dot73]

Trisha, when you are settled in back home, I would love to pick your brains about this cruise. I'm going in Jan. 2007 to celebrate my 50th birthday. I am especially interested in hearing about the excursions.

Dorothy

[kakalina]

Dorothy, there were some great excursions. Are you interested in Hawaii too or just French Polynesia? Between all of us we must have gone on most of them. The Motu Picnic and Ray Feeding in Moorea was the best of many good excursions. Don't miss it! Several of us went on it and felt it was terriffic. Also the Lagoonarium in Bora-Bora is a must see. We swam with Lemon and Black tipped reef sharks and huge sting rays. It was fantastic!! In Raitea we did the Fa'aroa River tour and it was great also. Will be happy to answer in more detail later but I have this vast pile of laundry....Where is my cabin steward with the bag for the laundry to clean????:confused: :(

[dot73]

I think you just mentioned all the excursions I would love to do. I'm looking forward to reading your review. Take care.

[kryos]

Rita, thanks for your solo perspective. Were there alot of solos on this cruise? For some reason, that surprises me.

Tons of them. I think I heard someone say that there were about 100 singles and solos on this sailing. I don't know if that's true ... but I do know that there were enough of us that they had special activities geared to the singles and solos just about every day.

 

A large number of singles and solos wouldn't surprise me in the least. The longer cruises is where you would have them. Where you don't see many is on the shorter cruises ... and that's why I don't care for them. Those short cruises are usually mostly families and couples ... everyone in their own groups with very little chance for a single to form any friendships with others.

 

I look forward to taking more longer cruises in the coming years ... though I doubt I'll be able to do another quite this long for quite a while. I seem to enjoy the "ambience" of the longer cruises better. I'm sure you'll love this South Pacific itinerary.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[FlorenceItaly]

Hi gals! It sounds like a fabulous trip. I can't wait. That is very encouraging about the other solos, but of course, I understand each sailing is unique. Trisha, are you and Virgial going to join us in 2007???? I wonder if Judy has a grandbaby yet? Dorothy, see you on the roll call. It will be fun to celebrate your birthday on our dream cruise. I will celebrate my 24th wedding anniversary while on the cruise, but the plan is for dh to meet the ship in San Diego upon my return, and we'll spend a few days in San Diego.

 

Marie

[dot73]

Hi Marie, My birthday isn't until June 2007, but since it's a big one and a highly-anticipated one, I plan to celebrate it the entire year. My motto is "every birthday above ground is a great birthday".

[FlorenceItaly]

we can think of on this cruise, lol. Just being on that glorious cruise is enough reason to celebrate. I think it's great you are giving this gift to yourself :).

 

Marie

[kakalina]

Doubtful that we will join you. There are so many places we haven't seen yet! We are planning to do the '07 round trip out of Boston to Amsterdam, Europe, Ireland, etc. It looks to be a great itinarary and we haven't been there before. You all are going to just love your cruise. What beautiful places you are going to see, I miss them already and wish we were back!

 

Trisha

[FlorenceItaly]

Your 2007 cruise sounds fabulous.

 

Dorothy and I have started a roll call and we welcome y'all to stop by anytime within the next year and give us(and others, hopefully) some words of wisdom regarding the trip.

 

And, about laundry. Did you pack for one week, two weeks, then do laundry? Did you do take advantage of the bag specials or unlimited laundry deal...just curious. Thanks.

 

Marie

[JudyAL]

No Grandbaby yet. Actually due end of Feb., but dd had problems with premature labor. I guess the problems went away because nothing yet. Will keep you posted. Will also report more on cruise in a few days after I have caught up with laundry, bill paying, etc. etc.