Good news all around

Everything is looking peachy.

I called the agriturismo and got enough info conveyed to let them know there was probably e-mail in their spam inbox from me. They got a look at it and the end result is I have my hotel pre-cruise all set up at this wonderful looking spa hotel.

http://www.valledelmarta.it/Sezione.aspx?Lng=2&ID=30

For tours I'm in pretty good shape also.

Athens: Ancient Corinth and Canal Cruise ship tour
Rhodes: On my own
Ephesus: Private tour of Ephesus including famous Terrace Houses
Haifa: Jerusalem private tour
Ashdod: Dead sea private tour
Alexandria: Alexandria ship tour
Alexandria: Cairo ship tour
Naples: Still working on private tour, will default to ship tour of Naples Archeological Museum if I need to.
Rome: End of cruise, beginning of second cruise
Marseille: St Remy de Provence and Les Baux de Provence private tour
And that is as far as I've gotten.

But the good news is that the flights are all booked. I had to take Business class on the Washington to Rome flight but am waitlisted for First. Since there are zero seats showing sold in First I'm pretty hopeful. The day I checked before booking the cruise First was available and then mysteriously disappeared,

I also applied for and got $450 on board credit as part of the RCL shareholder program. If you sail on any of the CLL or RCL lines it makes sense to own 100 shares of stock as you get generous on-board credit each time you sail.

I booked this cruise through Costco travel. This is my first time booking through them. They gave a very generous $600 on board credit. The down side is if you call back you get a different section of the call center where they say, you got such a great deal we can't provide any after sale support.

Ordered custom cruise t-shirt and backed out of Israel tour

Today was one step forward and two steps backward. I decided to back out of the private Israel tour in favor of another agenda that does Jerusalem on the first day and the Dead Sea on the second day. Now all I have to do is find someone to share the private tour costs.

Ran into a snag with the place in Italy where I want to stay pre cruise. I had not heard back to the e-mails I sent at the beginning of the week and then mid-week so I decided to invest $10 in yahoo calling and called Italy. Their English wasn't good enough to make the reservation so they asked me to e-mail the request which I did again for the 3rd time. I also told them I had e-mailed before and asked them to check their spam folder. So not sure if they will see this latest e-mail. Otherwise I will have to find someone who speaks Italian to help me make the reservation.

The step forward was I ordered a cruise t-shirt.
http://www.cafepress.com/EqOdyssey

These were put together by someone on our roll call. I think someone designed the logo also. What a neat idea!

Average high/low temps

City	Ave. Max	Ave. Min
Rome	71	56
Civitavecchia	67	54
Athens	72	60
Rhodes	75	65
Kusadasi	73	53
Haifa	80	70
Ashdod	77	60
Jerusalem	74	58
Alexandria	81	66
Cairo	85	65
Naples	62	47
Rome	63	48
Marseille	59	45
Barcelona	63	48
Palma de Mallorca
Cartagena	67	51
Lanzarote	75	63
Tenerife	75	63
Fort Lauderdale	81	68

Excellent progress on tour planning

Today I booked private tours in Turkey and Israel. These were two of the highlight countries of the cruise for me so I was very pleased to find individuals who had room on their private tour.

In Athens I want to get out of the city. Luckily there is a ship's tour to Ancient Corinth. I think it would be difficult to find a group to do a private tour so will likely do the ship's tour unless I stumble across a private tour.

Ancient Empires booked

I slept on it and decided to book the obstructed balcony for the Ancient Empires cruise also.

The Itinerary

ITINERARY

DAY	DATE		PORT	ARRIVE	DEPART
Fri	Oct	23	Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy		6:00pm
Sat	Oct	24	At Sea
Sun	Oct	25	Athens (Piraeus), Greece	10:00am	7:00pm
Mon	Oct	26	Rhodes, Greece	10:00am	6:00pm
Tue	Oct	27	Ephesus / Kusadasi, Turkey	7:00am	7:00pm
Wed	Oct	28	At Sea
Thu	Oct	29	Nazareth / Galilee (Haifa), Israel	7:00am	10:00pm
Fri	Oct	30	Jerusalem / Tel Aviv (Ashdod), Israel	7:00am	7:00pm
Sat	Oct	31	Cairo / Giza (Alexandria), Egypt	10:00am
Sun	Nov	1	Cairo / Giza (Alexandria), Egypt		10:00pm
Mon	Nov	2	At Sea
Tue	Nov	3	At Sea
Wed	Nov	4	Naples / Capri (Sorrento), Italy	6:30am	6:30pm
Thu	Nov	5	Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy	4:00am	6:00pm
Fri	Nov	6	Marseille, France	11:00am	8:00pm
Sat	Nov	7	Barcelona, Spain	8:00am	6:00pm
Sun	Nov	8	Palma de Mallorca, Spain	7:00am	2:00pm
Mon	Nov	9	Cartagena, Spain	7:00am	6:00pm
Tue	Nov	10	At Sea
Wed	Nov	11	Lanzarote, Canary Islands	Noon	8:00pm
Thu	Nov	12	Tenerife, Canary Islands	7:00am	5:00pm
Fri	Nov	13	At Sea
Sat	Nov	14	At Sea
Sun	Nov	15	At Sea
Mon	Nov	16	At Sea
Tue	Nov	17	At Sea
Wed	Nov	18	At Sea
Thu	Nov	19	Fort Lauderdale, FL	7:00am

Booked Celebrity Equinox Transatlantic

Today I booked the 14 day Celebrity Equinox Transatlantic from Rome to Fort Lauderdale. It is a new ship, just launched about a month ago. I booked an obstructed balcony so I may be looking out at a ship's tender.

I'm also planning to book the Ancient Empires cruise just before the transatlantic but I can't decide whether to book the guaranteed inside and save $1000 or book another obstructed balcony.

I must confess that if I didn't have a return flight booked to Rome with frequent flier miles I wouldn't be cruising so soon after the world cruise. But it is a first class ticket, and I'd hate to have it go to waste, so I perused the transatlantics and picked the Celebrity Equinox based on it being a new ship, the ports being generally new for me on the Mediterranean and the transatlantic.

Another factor was that it is relatively early for a transatlantic so the weather will be better. I'm hoping to book a few days at an Agriturismo in Italy prior to the cruise to spend time overcoming jet lag in the Italian countryside. I have sent off a rate inquiry and hope to hear back soon on availability. Here is a link to the hotel. I have been there before as part of a day trip when I was in Italy on the world cruise. The people were very nice and the facilities fantastic.
http://www.valledelmarta.it/Sezione.aspx?Lng=2&ID=30