packercruising Posted July 16, 2016 Report Share Posted July 16, 2016 My wife and I will be celebrating our 25th anniversary in June 2018. Obviously we want to do something special. We do the Caribbean every winter. Been there, done that, bought tons of t-shirts! :) We have done Australia/NZ, Baltics, Norway, Alaska, and Panama Canal. We will probably be Diamond Members by then. Here is the panic mode part; Since we haven't come up with a good cruising idea, she is looking at a land vacation tour of the Canadian Rockies. While I am sure they are quite beautiful, to me that translates into hours on a bus.Any ideas to keep me off the bus and on a cruise ship? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocLC Posted July 16, 2016 Report Share Posted July 16, 2016 Have you considered the British Isles? Royal also does a Norway and Iceland cruise which is quite fascinating. You've mentioned Norway, so there might be some repeat, but Iceland would be new. A Canada/New England cruise could fit the bill too. I don't know when Royal will be offering in 2018, but HAL always runs a ship from Montreal to Boston and Royal will probably run one from Quebec. Sailing down the Saint Lawrence river is an awesome experience and all of the ports are quite fascinating. Congratulations on 25. We hit 20 last month and are doing the Baltics next week for our anniversary. packercruising 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDemuth Posted July 16, 2016 Report Share Posted July 16, 2016 My wife and I will be celebrating our 25th anniversary in June 2018.....Any ideas to keep me off the bus and on a cruise ship? My wife and I did a Mediterranean cruise last summer. If you haven't cruise that region, there are lots of options. If you like port stops in metropolitan areas, try a 7 night Barcellona to Rome or similar route. Or embark in Venice and cruise the Eastern Mediterranean with stops in Croatia, Turkey and the Greek Isles (e.g., Santorini, Mykonos and others). Alternatively, continue farther east and head up the Bosphorus to Istanbul or even continue further to Bucharest and beyond. An added benefit of the latter cruises is that you can extend a few days after the cruise to tour Venice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
packercruising Posted July 17, 2016 Author Report Share Posted July 17, 2016 Have you considered the British Isles? Royal also does a Norway and Iceland cruise which is quite fascinating. You've mentioned Norway, so there might be some repeat, but Iceland would be new. A Canada/New England cruise could fit the bill too. I don't know when Royal will be offering in 2018, but HAL always runs a ship from Montreal to Boston and Royal will probably run one from Quebec. Sailing down the Saint Lawrence river is an awesome experience and all of the ports are quite fascinating. Congratulations on 25. We hit 20 last month and are doing the Baltics next week for our anniversary. Never thought of the British Isles. Would love to do Iceland, though. We did 11 day B2B cruises on Visions for the Norwegian Fjords and the Baltics. Have you done the Baltics yet? Truly awesome! We managed to hit St. Petersburg during a record heat wave. I didn't know RCI did East Coast/Canada but thought HAL only did it for the Fall colors. We have gorgeous Fall colors in Northern WI. Does Royal go down the St. Lawrence Seaway? That would be cool! Congrats on your 20th and have a great time? Are you scoping? My wife and I did a Mediterranean cruise last summer. If you haven't cruise that region, there are lots of options. If you like port stops in metropolitan areas, try a 7 night Barcellona to Rome or similar route. Or embark in Venice and cruise the Eastern Mediterranean with stops in Croatia, Turkey and the Greek Isles (e.g., Santorini, Mykonos and others). Alternatively, continue farther east and head up the Bosphorus to Istanbul or even continue further to Bucharest and beyond. An added benefit of the latter cruises is that you can extend a few days after the cruise to tour Venice. Thanks DD! We were supposed to do the Mediterranean last October. Then my wife had a problem with her heart rate increasing. It didn't last long and she is fine now, but we didn't want to be in a plane going overseas and have that happen. So we are trying to restrict oversees flights and that really limits choices. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocLC Posted July 17, 2016 Report Share Posted July 17, 2016 We leave for a 13 night Baltic cruise on the Serenade next week. Can't wait. We spend 2 days in Stockholm, 2 in Copenhagen, 3 in St. Petersbug, plus single days in a number of other ports. We did Canada/New England over Memorial Day, so I know HAL does the cruises beginning in May. Iceland is awesome, but it will likely be paired with Norway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
packercruising Posted July 17, 2016 Author Report Share Posted July 17, 2016 That's great! Are you doing any private tours? We used SPb Tours, but it sounds like there are other good ones out there too. We spent two days pre-cruise in Copenhagen. Unfortunately, only enough time to do the Vasa Museum in Stockholm. The only bad part was having to go through Amsterdam Airport. Security checks everywhere. Serenade is a really nice ship. Thanks for the St. Lawrence Seaway idea! We are looking at the Saguenay Fjords, but it wouldn't be RCI. DocLC 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firegal2539 Posted July 17, 2016 Report Share Posted July 17, 2016 My choices would be a Transatlantic that starts in Copenhagen, goes to the three major ports in Iceland and several other ports before ending in Boston. Next would be Galapagos, Hawaii and Canada/New England. Have done Canada cruise and loved it, 14 days of amazing ports. I have never done the Baltics but it is on my bucket list, as well as a TA going to Iceland. I am doing a cruise that is really unusual. It will start in Fort Lauderdale, spend three days in New Orleans, during Mardi Gras and then cruise the Western Caribbean. It is a once a year cruise and I am booked on the February 2018 cruise. MotleyCruiser 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocLC Posted July 17, 2016 Report Share Posted July 17, 2016 That's great! Are you doing any private tours? We used SPb Tours, but it sounds like there are other good ones out there too. We spent two days pre-cruise in Copenhagen. Unfortunately, only enough time to do the Vasa Museum in Stockholm. The only bad part was having to go through Amsterdam Airport. Security checks everywhere. Serenade is a really nice ship. Thanks for the St. Lawrence Seaway idea! We are looking at the Saguenay Fjords, but it wouldn't be RCI. We're doing a three day tour with TJ Travels in Saint Petersburg with about 65 others from the ship. We liked their itinerary slightly better. We're doing Berlin on our on using the bus transfer from Royal, a city tour in Helsinki through Royal, a Soviet nuclear missle silo in Klapeda (sp?), and a private walking tour in Riga. We're on our own in Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Estonia. Our summer trip next summer on Vision embarks/disembarks in Amsterdam, so I'm not thrilled to hear about the airport. However, we'll be arriving by train, but it sounds like flying out might be a pain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted July 17, 2016 Report Share Posted July 17, 2016 My choices would be a Transatlantic I was thinking transatlantic too packercruising and MotleyCruiser 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
packercruising Posted July 17, 2016 Author Report Share Posted July 17, 2016 My choices would be a Transatlantic that starts in Copenhagen, goes to the three major ports in Iceland and several other ports before ending in Boston. Next would be Galapagos, Hawaii and Canada/New England. Have done Canada cruise and loved it, 14 days of amazing ports. I have never done the Baltics but it is on my bucket list, as well as a TA going to Iceland. I am doing a cruise that is really unusual. It will start in Fort Lauderdale, spend three days in New Orleans, during Mardi Gras and then cruise the Western Caribbean. It is a once a year cruise and I am booked on the February 2018 cruise. Would love to do that TA one, but don't want to have to fly to Copenhagen to do it. Maybe we could connect in London rather than Amsterdam. We haven't found a decent Canada/New England one in June. Doc, Vasa Museum was worth the trip. Helsinki was one of my favorite ports! Here are some Stockholm pics, https://cruisingmemories.shutterfly.com/balticadventure/961 For Amsterdam, I think we had 45 min or 1 hr to catch our connecting flight and they had to hold the plane for us. Have all of your electronics together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
packercruising Posted July 17, 2016 Author Report Share Posted July 17, 2016 As I suspected, TAs are only at beginning and end of a season. Nothing in June. That is too bad because the cruise length is perfect. Plenty of time. Thanks for the suggestions! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocLC Posted July 17, 2016 Report Share Posted July 17, 2016 Great pics. Thanks for sharing. packercruising 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
packercruising Posted July 18, 2016 Author Report Share Posted July 18, 2016 Just trying to wet your whistle, whatever that means. :) We have pics of other ports if you want to see them. That was an awesome time and we really liked Visions DocLC 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocLC Posted July 18, 2016 Report Share Posted July 18, 2016 Just trying to wet your whistle, whatever that means. :) We have pics of other ports if you want to see them. That was an awesome time and we really liked Visions Always love to wet my whistle, which is easy to do in Green Bay with all the great breweries. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firegal2539 Posted July 18, 2016 Report Share Posted July 18, 2016 Packercruising, Do you have to go in June? You can't celebrate in a different month? TA's are really a bargain and on some you get to see so many ports. Most are in March and April or August, October and November. Cunard does TAs all year long but they are more expensive. I want to fly to a European port and come back to the USA. It seems to be a little cheaper doing it that way, plus I want to spend a day or two in the city we sail from especially if it is Copenhagen or Amsterdam. Candie packercruising 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
packercruising Posted July 18, 2016 Author Report Share Posted July 18, 2016 Always love to wet my whistle, which is easy to do in Green Bay with all the great breweries. Lots of good breweries! Here are a few pics of Estonia, https://cruisingmemories.shutterfly.com/balticadventure/355 Packercruising, Do you have to go in June? You can't celebrate in a different month? TA's are really a bargain and on some you get to see so many ports. Most are in March and April or August, October and November. Cunard does TAs all year long but they are more expensive. I want to fly to a European port and come back to the USA. It seems to be a little cheaper doing it that way, plus I want to spend a day or two in the city we sail from especially if it is Copenhagen or Amsterdam. Candie Right. This is a democracy after all. My wife and I could discuss it before we agree with what she says. :) Seriously, though, I would really like it to e during our Anniversary too. DocLC 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.