11/5/06 Malaga to FLL

Hey gang,

I noticed that there are lots of folks heading over to Malaga for the November Southern transatlantic.

I am looking at flights. If I fly in on that Saturday my flight gets into Malaga at 11:20am. We sail at 6pm.

I am considering coming over 1 day early just in case of travel problems.

What is everyone else doing? It costs 50% more for me to come in on friday vs saturday.

DD

Having looked at all the past posts....I am going to fly in the day before and enjoy the town.

Send an email to the Parador de Gibralfaro for the 4th.

Anyone else care to join me?

I haven't booked air yet, but the plan is to go in a few days earlier in order to go to the Alhambra in Granada. We are also planning to hook up with Carol and Wally, who will be sailing as well.

Denyse

Grrrrr...

Host Dan

What's wrong Dan?? :confused:

Hi Denyse

We definitely will stay at least 2 nights in Malaga and would like to find the wonderful hotel Dan has told us about near the port - where we can see the Legend sail in. Dan - can you remind me of the name of the hotel please? We are hoping that our comeback cruiser friends will join us again this year - but so far they are holding out. The only thing better about this year's crossing is that its 5 days longer than all the others we have done :)

We must talk soon Denyse.

Carol

Carol - I hope you and your husband have a wonderful crossing like you always do. It's a shame we didn't have the opportunity to become more aquainted on the 2005 March crossing. :)

Hi Denyse

... Dan - can you remind me of the name of the hotel please? ...

I think it is the Parador de Gibralfaro

DD

Hi all November sailors,

Wish I will be with you but unfortunatly, can't be. Anyway, just a word of caution if anybody is flying Delta on a connection to Malaga. My DH, DS and I were on a Delta flight out of JFK to Barcelona and then Iberia Barcelona to Malaga. That was on 12-23 and the reverse on Jan 1. I booked the tkts in February. On Dec 3 I found out, by accident, that Iberia cancelled my reservations on 2-18 (2 days after I paid in full) because Delta did not call in ticket numbers to Iberia. Delta blames Iberia (said they did not know they had to call in tkt. numbers) and Iberia blamed Delta. Bottom line had to sweat it out for 3 days while Delta figured out what to do.

Ended up on DL from JFK to Paris and AF from Paris to Malaga. Avoid at all costs....CDG is the worst airport in Europe to connect and the JFK Paris flight for the morning Malaga connection mis connects about 50% of the time. Had to be at the airport nearly 3 hours then original flights on Jan 1. We were tired....

SO, just a word of caution, confirm and reconfirm if you are on Della. If any of you do stay early go to Mijas. We found the best restaurants and we really love it there.

Stayed at the Larios and was disappointed.

Bon voyage

I'm sure Malaga is lovely, but we fell in love with Sevilla on a recent trip, and being only 2.5 hours from Malaga, THAT is where we will be spending our pre-cruise days. Whether we can manage to stay at the Alfonso XIII remains to be seen, but even the small places in Seville are charming.

Is there a Roll Call for this sailing,as I cannot find it on the Seabourn Boards.6 of us are going from little Stratford ON.,but it is not as small as New Hamburg.

The least expensive airfare to Malaga is Jet Blue $49.00 Buffalo to JFK, then AER LINGUS to Dublin at 18:00 for $200.00 including all taxes.It arrives at 5:30 and connects to Malaga nonstop at6:50 arriving Malaga at 10:45. That fare is 118 Euros or $144.OO for a total of $393.00. We are all staying Nov.3 at the Parador Malaga Gibralfaro. They offer a senior discount of 30% so rate is Eur 107.90 per room including breakfast. The next day we drive to Granada to stay at the most famous parador in Spain, the Parador de San Francisco inside the Alhambra. That was booked Oct 27 and rooms areEur 245 with no discounts. You have to reserve on their site now for admission tickets ,Especially in you wish to tour the illuminated gardens the evening of the 4th.At that time of the year they are only open Friday and Saturday evenings.You can only purchase a maximum of 4 tickets and the are 11 Euros each, They same goes for touring the Alhambra Sunday morning before returning to malaga after lunch.

Being a newbie to this board, I did not know this thread existed! I too will be embarking on the Legend in Malaga for the 16 night crossing! Based on the previous posters, I guess I am the "recluse" so far as I am staying at the SB hotel, the Byblos Andaluz, locaed in nearby Mijas. I stayed there for 2 nights before my first SB cruise in 2002 and really liked it. A lovely property with two world-class 18 hole golf courses designed by Robert Trent Jones located on the hotel premises.

I am staying 3 nights at the Byblos this year. I noticed the SB per night single rates were about the same as the hotel's rate for a single pool/golf view room. When I called SB to ask what the room category would be assigned to me if I booked with SB, the representative was very non-committal (I was berthed in a standard room in 2002). So I had my TA book the hotel dirctly and she told me that since I was staying for 3 days, the hotel had a package that if you stayed for 3 days or more and paid an additional 1 Euro a night, spa services are gratis!

I am really looking forward to this year's "Legendary family reunion" which will be 16 versus the 11 days in prior years and that, IMHO, is better! :) :) I suspect at 16 days, there will be 4 formal nights as opposed to 3 as on the previous 11 night crossings. Oops, I digress here as the dress code and number of formal nights per cruise has been lively discussed on other threads herein. :D :D

Joining the rollcall. :)

I've booked to fly out Saturday morning and now I'm just choosing between the Larios and the AC, which was recommended to me by Daneite because it's right opposite the port, for the one night. Both have reasonable single rates.

Just to let you know that my husband and I will accompany you and the lovely crew on the Legend on this sailing!

We will probably stay in our appartment in Fuengirola for 1 or 2 nights before we sail. I know the Byblos Hotel in Mijas well and that's a good option. Hopefully will will be able to do this cruise. We had to cancel e few already in the past and it is still so far ahead of us. Fingers crossed!

I can't believe there will be 6 of you from Stratford, and the 2 of us from New Hamburg. This is unusual for so many people from Ontario on one Seabourn cruise. Usually there are 2 or 4 at the most - we will look forward to meeting you. This cruise has become an annual event for us - we can't imagine not crossing the ocean on the Legend in November. And now its better since they have made it 16 days instead of 11. This will be our 5th November crossing on the Legend - all with Captain Geir-Arne Thue-Nilsen - who absolutely makes this cruise! We understand the cruise is sold out with a waiting list ... its such fun! Oh, and we've already booked next year's November crossing (which we booked the first day it was available to book) :)

Carol & Wally, we are signed up for the Nov. 1, 2007 TA. Were able to get in on first day. Its a long time, we will be studing for trivia.

Lefty Bob nee Big Bob:)

I can't believe there will be 6 of you from Stratford, and the 2 of us from New Hamburg. This is unusual for so many people from Ontario on one Seabourn cruise. Usually there are 2 or 4 at the most - we will look forward to meeting you. This cruise has become an annual event for us - we can't imagine not crossing the ocean on the Legend in November. And now its better since they have made it 16 days instead of 11. This will be our 5th November crossing on the Legend - all with Captain Geir-Arne Thue-Nilsen - who absolutely makes this cruise! We understand the cruise is sold out with a waiting list ... its such fun! Oh, and we've already booked next year's November crossing (which we booked the first day it was available to book) :)

I made a bit of an error. Four of us are from Stratford and the other couple are friends from San Diego. I however made all of the arrangements. We have been on Seabourn twice FLL to Manaus in March 1998 and Seabourn Sun around the Gulf of Mexico.

How do you know who the captain will be in November?

Are you interested in getting together for cocktails sometime this summer so that you can prepare us for this party ship?

We have been at our house in Naples since Oct.27th., but will both be returning to Canada on May 1st.

BMW lover -

We'd love to get together for cocktails this summer. It will have to be after May 17th as we are leaving April 22nd to board the Legend for 21 days - FFL to Rome (2 cruises back-to-back), after which we will be home in New Hamburg. We are in the new Stonecroft development south of Hwy. 7/8. If you would like to correspond directly with us, send me a quick email at candw@sympatico.ca and I will write back with further details. We can tell you lots of wonderful things about these crossings that are so unusual compared to the other Seabourn cruises :) - and I can tell you for sure that Captain G-A will be onboard. Fortunately he does all these crossings!

CeeJay

We are the other 2 Canadians CeeJay is referring to - we are from Ontario too but even funnier we are in Naples at our place until May. We have a few of us in Naples that keep in touch during the Winter Months that do the crossing together - I guarantee you will have a GREAT time. Sad we will be missing some of our real good buddies Host Dan, Phil, Kit & Joannebut we should have fun. We are going to Malaga a week ahead and using our time share. Can't wait to meet you.;)

We will be on the Legend crossing, also. This is our first crossing on the Legend. We did a crossing on the Pride last year. We just booked two nights at the Parador Gibralfaro before the cruise. We're looking forward to it.

Hi Legendary November Crossers!

I received an email from my TA that she has received my final documents for the Legend 11/05/06 crossing from Seabourn. When I get those puppies in my hot little hand, I will then start to get excited!!! :D

Just received our tickets today and was rather surprised they were in a cheap looking bowling ball bag which contained a plastic wallet. It was certainly nothing like the elegant presentation box in which we received our Amazon cruise tickets from Seabourn and the extremely elegant leather ticket holder in use today for every trip we take. I trust that this is not a precursor of a general overall decline in the Seabourn product.

Just received our tickets today and was rather surprised they were in a cheap looking bowling ball bag which contained a plastic wallet. It was certainly nothing like the elegant presentation box in which we received our Amazon cruise tickets from Seabourn and the extremely elegant leather ticket holder in use today for every trip we take. I trust that this is not a precursor of a general overall decline in the Seabourn product.

Bmwlover, I don't think so. Even if saving a little money on the documentation holders means the champagne, caviar, wait and service staff budgets all stay the same and still providing the expected level of Seabourn pampering service, then I am ok with that.

Seabourn and Tumi parted ways earlier this year. The Tumi document holders are very nice; however I never used them as they were too bulky. This crossing, my air carrier to Malaga, Lufthansa, only allows one carryon bag from the US and it cannot weigh more than 17.6 pounds (8 kg).:( So, I am keeping track of the contents to the ounce! Hence, to meet the maximum weight requirement, I can only take the bare-bones essentials for my 17 inch laptop, iPod and digital camera, and will have to give the heave-ho to the document wallet (but not my tickets!) and my telephoto converter lens.

Back OT. I agree with you that presentation is everything in selling a product or a meal. IMHO, as long as the onboard experience continues to be as good as it has been for me, then the change in the documentation wallet, luggage tags and how they are presented does not bother me.

 

Back OT. I agree with you that presentation is everything in selling a product or a meal. IMHO, as long as the onboard experience continues to be as good as it has been for me, then the change in the documentation wallet, luggage tags and how they are presented does not bother me.

OTOH, while the Silver Box (cardboard) my docs came in for my Mar Silverseas cruise was very classy, it was all down hill from there once I hit the ship. You are so right, the onboard experience is what really counts. :)

I usually toss the pleather doc cases the various "luxury" lines send as they are bulky and generally not useful for anything. I would be satisfied with online documentation and ticketing; as a trade-off, it would be nice if Seabourn included a coupon good for Seabourn T-shirt at the onboard boutique. This would be better public relations and advertising than the ticket holders.