Roll Call: Independence of the Seas Transatlantic Nov. 23, 2009

[GoodyearAZguys]

Gay couple from Arizona seeing if any anyone else has booked this cruise. We both love the transatlantic cruises and may have a few other couples and friends joining us.

Mark and Gary

[GoodyearAZguys]

Hey, just refreshing this posting to see if anyone has booked this cruise yet.

[pdxcruzer]

I'll also be on this cruise with my partner. Less than a year to go and counting!

[GoodyearAZguys]

Cool, glad we finally have some other family members on board. We live in the Phoenix, Az area and am now trying to decide on where to go pre-cruise. This will be our 2nd trans cruise and love all the sea days, what about you two?

[pdxcruzer]

This is my first transatlantic cruise. I've cruised from to Honolulu from both Vancouver and San Diego and, in both instances, loved the back-to-back sea days. On this cruise, I love that there's an opportunity to visit Paris and Mont St. Michel; I've always wanted to visit both. I've started investigating tour options.

For now though, I have to figure out the best way to fly to Heathrow from PDX and if we want to arrive a few days earlier. Lots of planning ahead! :)

[GoodyearAZguys]

Well we are planning to arrive a week prior to the cruise and found that there are better prices for flights leaving out of JFK so we are going to fly from Phoenix to NY using one of our free flights on SouthWest Air then the next day fly out of JFK to Europe. We are planning on doing about three days in London as we have not been there before. But before we arrive there we are thinking maybe Dublin, Edinburgh, or maybe Amsterdam we are not sure yet and not sure of what the weather will be like there either.

We are also wanting to get a group together and do private tours at the ports instead of the ship tours if you are interested in that let me know they are much better than the bigger tours.

Mark

[pdxcruzer]

We'll likely fly out of JFK too, or Boston. I'm hoping to use my Alaska Air miles and those are cities on the east coast that I can reach from here. It looks like Aer Lingus has some competitive prices to continue the trip to London from there. I'd also like to do a day or two in London for some sightseeing and to adjust to the time zone. I've been before but it was years and years ago.

I like your idea about doing private tours! The cruiseline tours are pretty expensive and not always worth what they charge. My partner is Brazilian so he should be able to help out with the language at Funchal. And for the remaining ports, there are so many options! It's going to be tough making a decision...

Have you been on this class of ship before? The last that I went on was the Mariner of the Seas. That ship was huge. I can't wait to see the Independence.

James

[GoodyearAZguys]

Cool, the largest ship we have been on is the voyager class so we are looking forward to this class ship. This will be our 5th cruise on Royal which is out favorite cruise line. We would like to put faces to the names, my email is mwpphx@cox.net and we will reply, I check that email more often anyways. By the way my name is Mark (33) and my partners name is Gary (36).

[pdxcruzer]

Hi Mark ...

Sorry for the delay in responding. Got busy at work! Hate it when that happens :)

 

Did you decide where else to go in addition to London before the cruise? I think we'll just be sticking to London as we both work until the Friday before. It's going to be a dash to see everything we both want to see before the departure from Southampton! Oh ... and introductions ... I'm James (43) and he's Marcio (34).

[rnmikey]

Am currently in the process of trying to talk my partner into going also. He is hesitant since all we have ever taken are all gay cruises. Althought we are not in-your-face type, he doesn't want to feel uncomfortable. I really don't think there will be any issues with the staff or passangers. I figure there may be a couple of people that it might bother, but it's their problems not ours. Actually the majority of our friends are straight couples. If I can talk him into it, since we've never taken a transatlantic, would it be better to book the flights through royal caribbean or should we do seperately? Unfortunately we've burned through most of our FF miles over the last couple of years. Thanks, Mike & Bruce

[pdxcruzer]

Hi Bruce,

I've only cruised RCI and have never felt uncomfortable. You'll have a good time. Regarding the airfare, I just booked mine through bt-store.com. The prices were far more reasonable than what I found on other travel websites, and much cheaper than RCI. Check out the thread on the roll call board for other ideas.

Hope you decide to come!

james

[rnmikey]

Thanks for info. Will let you know if we if we book.

[Trickie Dickie]

The hubby and I just booked this cruise on Saturday! Glad we will have some rainbow people to visit with! :)

[pdxcruzer]

Hi there! Welcome to the group! :)

[Trickie Dickie]

Thanks! I'm Richard and my hubby is Dan. We are from Winnipeg Canada. Hopefully we can do the Friends of Dorothy thing and have a few cocktails. :)

[pdxcruzer]

Hi Richard,

 

I'm James and my partner is Marcio, and we're both in Portland now.

 

I used to live in Winnipeg when I was younger (my dad worked for Manitoba Hydro)! I've been in the US for six years; Vancouver was my last home in Canada.

 

That would be great to have drinks with you two! Are you spending any time in London/Europe before the cruise? We're flying out on Saturday so that we can spend Sunday in London.

 

James

[Trickie Dickie]

Hi Richard,

 

I'm James and my partner is Marcio, and we're both in Portland now.

 

I used to live in Winnipeg when I was younger (my dad worked for Manitoba Hydro)! I've been in the US for six years; Vancouver was my last home in Canada.

 

That would be great to have drinks with you two! Are you spending any time in London/Europe before the cruise? We're flying out on Saturday so that we can spend Sunday in London.

 

James

 

Howdy James and Marcio!

 

We absolutely shall have drinks! I'm not sure what our flight dates and times are yet as we booked the entire travel package with RCCL and won't know until 30 days prior to the trip. I'm hoping to get at least an overnight in England. We are also going to book something to get us into Paris as I simply must go up the Eiffel tower!

 

I'll post again when I get my travel schedule from RCCL.

 

Cheers! :D

 

Richard and Daniel

[tnt10]

My partner Terry and I are on the IOS this trip also. Will be getting into London 3 days prior. We were there a couple of years a go, and didn't get to see everything.

Should be fun. We have never been on a ship this larger before, but have done several TA's.

Hope to see you all onboard.

Happy Cruising

TnT

p.s. rn mikey-did you ever work in Palm Springs-Desert Hospital?

[rnmikey]

My partner Terry and I are on the IOS this trip also. Will be getting into London 3 days prior. We were there a couple of years a go, and didn't get to see everything.

Should be fun. We have never been on a ship this larger before, but have done several TA's.

Hope to see you all onboard.

Happy Cruising

TnT

p.s. rn mikey-did you ever work in Palm Springs-Desert Hospital?

 

Well couldn't talk partner into going this year. On the plus side we're booking TA on Navigator of the seas Oct 2010. Since it leaves from Rome it was actually a pretty easy sell.

 

TnT, have nevered worked in Palm Springs Hospital.

 

Mike

[pdxcruzer]

Hi TnT,

 

It's great to see more people on this sailing. My partner and I have started planning what we're going to do in London and Paris.

 

James

[Trickie Dickie]

Only 7 months till we sail! Woo Hoo!

[artistic723]

I just got home from the April 12 - 25 transatlantic on Independence and am considering booking this trip if I can find a way to fit it in my schedule. It was an awesome experience for me. I met many FOD and and had a wonderful experience. The ship is beautiful, and 2 weeks was too short!!!

Marcelo

[pdxcruzer]

Hi Marcelo,

Great to hear that you had a wonderful time! Looking forward to hearing any reviews you have. Hope you can find the time to make the journey with us on the November cruise!

James

[dananddoug]

My husand Doug and I just booked today, we are from the Washington DC area. I will post more when I get time. we have late seating dinner and always looking to have a few drinks before dinner. We have taken like 20 cruises but this will be the first on a Freedom Class ship.

 

Dan

[Trickie Dickie]

We tried my time dining on our last cruise, Voyager in March. We loved it! We are going to try to get it on Independence as well as it opens your schedule up in the evenings to do other things besides sitting at dinner for 2 hours every night! :cool: