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That's what I thought this coffee was when I saw the picture posted. As a dessert person, I hope I get to at least try something similar.

In terms of your Europe segments, maybe you can consider dropping at least one location as you are trying to make lots of stops in a very short amount of time? Each stop will eat up some amount of time traveling and checking in and out of hotels or other forms of accommodation. Be optimistic that you'll have additional opportunities to pick up another trip in the future. Good luck!

This would be the worst and is what I fear. People that are unable to go out on their own and expect to be together 24X7. It could be that the people we are traveling with and their expectations and for lots of together time might be too much for our style. The couple has other friends that they travel with frequently and it sounds like they are together all the time or the wives go one way and the husbands another. Most things are tolerable for a bit of time - like a week end - but would be rough over a couple of weeks. 100% - we just need to be in agreement before the cruise with the couple we are traveling with.

That is something I think we will need to do. We like to explore much more than our friends and tend to be more active. Exactly! We went on a vacation once where we sacrificed our plans somewhat to conform to others desires. Probably true as it is the closest you can come to living with another person/couple. That's something we don't want to have happen.

The AA RTW desk charged my credit card this afternoon. The final price went up by about $300 to $6400 / ticket. Regardless, I feel this is an incredible deal and will result in a great travel experience. For grins, I asked the agent doing the ticketing why such discrepancies exist between ticket prices depending on where you start. As you can imagine, I didn't really get a very understandable answer so I guess it's a simply a matter of market demand for these fares.

We are committed to go. We didn't really think about it too much before agreeing. You are correct on the need to establish "ground rules" before we go.

My wife and I have come to the conclusion that we aren't really all that good traveling with other people. It seems most times that we travel with others our schedules and interests tend to diverge if we travel with others. This includes friends that we spend time and socialize with on a regular basis at home Are we in the minority? How do you get along with others during cruises and trips? We have a cruise of 15 days coming up at the start of 2025 with another couple where are daily routine and interests are somewhat different. BTW - our rule for traveling with our kids, now all adults, is simply that everyone simply needs to show up for dinner. I may try to extend that rule to traveling with another couple on our upcoming cruise.

As an aside, I have always wanted to stay at Las Brisas Hotel - aka "the Pink Palace" - where my parents stayed in the 1960's. Sadly, I haven't made it to Acapulco yet... Thanks for the reminder

I am curious why you believe people can't have a meaningful experience in a port visit? I am 100% in agreement that one cannot truly get to know a port in a six to ten hour port visit but that to me is different than having a meaningful experience. I personally have some super fond memories from some of those short cruise stops. Were those short port visits meaningful? I think so, as these visits created memories that I have held on to for a long time.

When my kids were young at that age 7 & 9 for us, we got a single large balcony cabin. As they got older - maybe when the youngest turned 10 - we "graduated" to adjoining rooms. This was nice as we had more space and another bathroom. Our favorite situation was when we could get an adjoining cabin with one balcony and one ocean view.

My only issue with beach in front of these places is that the level of vendor activity can be quite overwhelming. I will no longer sit on the beach here and only up in the restaurant/bar spaces off the beach. With the info on your map, my preferred place for the Medano Beach is actually called "Playa El Farito." I never knew it had a distinct name.

The part of the beach nearest to the marina doesn't have any sort of trench as far as I remember. The slope of the beach is kind of steep but there aren't really any waves to deal with. Many families use this part of the beach for swimming.

I talked to my wife this morning and she did indicate the food was also pretty expensive - well over $100 for lunch. Cabo isn't necessarily a bargain these days.

My view is that ocean cruising is a very cost effective vacation experience. It also works at all levels - budget, mid-market and luxury. One is hard pressed to reproduce the all-in costs in any other way. Maybe others can comment if the same holds true on river cruises

100% in agreement. I have found the cruise air forum to be especially helpful as just about all my travel involves one or more flights.