If you can deal with the touchscreen keyboard, go with the Storm. (It's not so bad - I can type reasonably well, but your opinion will depend on your experience and how much message sending you will do, as opposed to just reading. I wouldn't say the device is a stinker, just too many people with absurd expectations.)

If you want a physical keyboard, go with the HTC Touch Pro, running WinMo 6.1. You could probably get the Touch Pro immediately. Delivery date for the Storm if purchased today would be 15th of December.

There is no Blackberry Bold available on VZW at this point.

You don't mention if you need global roaming. If you do, Verizon does do CDMA roaming on the short list of countries with CDMA networks. For GSM roaming, the Storm will do so, but the Touch Pro will not. Instead you can go with the Samsung Saga which is WinMo 6.1, has WiFi, but is blue, big and bulky in comparison to most other smartphones.