iancal

If you are doing seven days with lots of port stops you will be tired in the evening. With a potential cruise like that I would be looking at itinerary and price. Keep in mind that prices change. Up and down. And they can change overnight. Pre covid we primarily did last minutes/late bookings. Our custom was to watch and understand pricing. Some cruise lines run artificial sales by bundling product. Don't get fooled...especially when they bundle items that you typically would not buy or not care about. Get to a point in your shopping where you can discern a good price from an average one.

Our experience over years of independent travel and cruising is that a little effort in upfront planning and research can greatly enhance your experience as well as reduce the cost of your trip. As per your example, we like San Juan but dislike St. Thomas but would would not recommend that others do nor do not visit either. Two days pre Rome is hardly enough if you want to see the city. It may take you a day simply to recover from your airline trip. Lots of airline delays at the moment. We came home for Portugal two days ago. Seven hour flight delay on our first flight, two hours on our second flight. We spoke to people who flights were cancelled and they waited a day or two days to get on the next flight.

Are you planning any pre or post travel? If so that may impact you embarkation or your disembarkation port. Airfare can vary greatly depending on what European city you select as a gateway. Lots of low cost flight options once you are in Europe. What ports we might view as less attractive than others is very subjective. You should do some research and decide which ports best meet your interests. Like others have said, we would never select the summer months..mid June to Sept. for travel to Europe. Too hot, too crowded, prices at their peak. It is either mid April to mid June for us or Sept/October. Late October can a bit tricky for Med cruises. Never quite know what the weather will be.

One of our snowbird routines is to spend five or six weeks in Thailand/Malaysia and then fly to Australia for a few weeks. Our routine for flying home from Sydney is usually the same. We buy a relatively inexpensive one way flight from Sydney to HNL on Jetstar Australia (sub of Qantas and once or twice a codeshare). In the past the ticket has been anywhere from $300AUD to $350 AUD. We spend two nights in HNL, then take a flight home to Canada.

We travel to the Med area either in the spring or the fall. Never in the summer. Too hot, too many tourists. Just returned from Portugal. Spent our last two weeks in the Algarve. Beaches were not crowded but the water was cold. Last time in Sicily we were on the beach and swimming in late October. Water was much warmer. Temps in the 26-28 range. But it is weather, it changes and it can go either way. Topless beaches...hardly a big deal. Most in the Algarve were topless. Does not mean that every female is topless...the opposite is true. Never designated as such because it is not viewed as anything out of the ordinary. Not certain why some make such a big issue out of a topless beach. Only saw one sign on a beach in Tavira pointing to a clothing optional beach, ie nudist beach. Pay particular attention to how far each port or tender is from the sites that you wish to visit. Also pay attention to time in port. Arriving at 10 and sailing at 3 is not so great if it is a port stop that interests you.

We flew TAP premium economy between Canada and Lisbon, and Lisbon and Madeira last month. Very pleased with the trans atlantic service. Certainly as good or better than other carriers we have used. We have flown them several times before with the same results. Some people have complained about their baggage handling. Cannot comment because we never check bags.

We recently spent 3 days in Alvor. We arrived by rail in Portimao and took a cab to Alvor. 5E. Not certain where the ship docks or tenders. We wanted beach time after touring smaller cities in Portugal. Alvor was good for that. We stayed in the town near the beach. It is very, very touristy. There are booths selling boat tours on the dock in Alvor. Good beach as well. We took a bus from Alvor to Lagos and stayed there for four nights. You can also go by train. Lagos has far more on offer than does Alvor or Portimao in our opinion. Cannot comment on the vineyard tours. I drank lots of red wine from different regions in Portugal. We have done other vineyard tours and find all much the same. Best prices for good Portuguese wine in our experience...in the large grocery stores such as Pingo. We flew home from Faro. Spotted one estate Douro wine that I purchased in Pingo a week prior for 5.50 euro selling for 17.50 euro at the Faro airport duty free. It may have been duty free but is was certainly not markup free.

We arranged a taxi tour on TA stop. Liked it so much we just returned from a Portugal trip that included six days in Funchal.

Bear in mind that there are a number of countries that will not admit those that have less than six months valid time left on their passports. On one or two occasions when we had 7 or 8 months left an immigration agent in a country has been kind enough to advise us that we were approaching this period. Now, we renew 9-12 months prior to our passport expire date. Pre covid, hopefully post covid, we did lots of spontaneous travel so we always ensured that our passports had at least 9 months left on the them.

Despite what many say we have found little difference in the level and the quality of service between HAL, Princess, or Celebrity. Food and entertainment are subjective, and varies widely between ships and trips on the same cruise line. If entertainment is your thing HAL may not be your best choice. We find more differences between ships in the same cruise line and between on board ship personnel than we do between cruise lines. The itinerary matters as well. Especially the time in port on some routes. Pre covid we felt that these lines were quickly on their way down to the lowest common denominator in order to keep fares competitive with each other.

You will not know the answer to that until the end of the cruise. The one attribute that both cruise lines have in common is inconsistency. Go with an open mind. No doubt you will have a good cruise.

Filled out both our ArriveCan forms a few moments ago. We had emails in both our accounts within a minute. Each email included a QR code. We set up the accounts before we left home. We filled in the flight/arrival data today. It took all of five minutes.

We flew in late May. require proof of vaccination plus either a covid 19 test three days prior or a lab antigen test no more than 24 hours prior to flight time. Our antigen test were not spot checked on arrival. Some are. Not a big deal. Antigen tests where we live are anywhere fro $15-30 USD. And we were well aware of this prior to booking so we did not get caught paying exorbitant airport testing prices. We were happy to do the antigen test. Last thing we would want is to spread the virus. It is much ado about nothing from our perspective.

DW, multiple credit and debit cards, valid passport, prescription sun glasses, iPad, and DW’s blood pressure pills. No duct tape, no over the door thingies, no Imodium, no night lights, no door or cabin decorations, no stickies or yellow underliners, no walkie talkies, no detergent and definitely no food. More often than not a few bottles of red plonk.

Hire a porter or cut back on the bags. Or….can you stash a bag a one of your hotels for future pickup. it is hard…especially if you have not travelled much in the past. We made the choice, post retirement,to each travel with a carry on roller only. One week or eight weeks. Best decision we made. It has greatly enhanced our travel enjoyment. There are trade offs of course. Ours was mandated by our respective physical ability to handle our bags independently. It started with a luggage limitation on an African safari…part of a seven month trip.

It is a snap. Check out trioadvisor, ric Steve’s forums, lonely planet blogs. Or perhaps a rome2rio.com Last time we exited the airport we saw a bus and climbed on. Took us to the main square by the railway station. Language not a problem. A little different for us because we only do carry on. Or…email your hotel and ask for help. All of info you require is a keystroke away. Google is your friend. Don’t be put off by language issues…you will not have any.

It is called profit margin. Some people want the HAL service, see value in it, and are willing to pay for it. It probably includes transfers and handholding. We are accustomed to making our own arrangements.

We typically book well inside the final payment window. On a few occasions our online TA has added us to an existing group that her firm was sending. The extra discount was never more than $100 on a 10 or 14 day cruise. I suspect because our last minute price was always attractive. On one occasion there was no additional discount other than the usual TA proved OBC’s. What we did get was a very well organized private tour with a great lunch in Barbados. We never did meet anyone else from these phantom (to us):,groups.

Lisbon was a 2.5-3 hr wait in late May to clear immigration. They have a major issue with TA flights arriving in the 10-11AM timeframe. Apparently baggage issues as well. We do carry on so cannot confirm…based on comments from fellow travellers. Our understanding is that this has not been resolved despite lots of terrible PR.

Same here. We don’t believe in rewarded poor customer service. Or in thi case incredibly poor customer service. We certainly would not have been as persistent as the OP. When we get an indication that someone does not want our business we run. For us it is a tell tale sign of how the rest will transpire.

I have no idea what will transpire. Suspect some re-orgs,perhaps some downsizing, or perhaps collapsing a few brand offerings a la GM. One thing to remember. These are not US companies. The opposite is true…they have done their best to avoid being subject to US laws and regulations. One thing fro certain. The lobby firms representing the various cruise firms and the industry will be having a great revenue year! Nor would they be considered essential industries to the overall economy.

We tend to vote with our feet and with our wallets. There is not much point in hitting your head against a brick wall. Find a travel agency or a travel agent who does not ignore you and who will treat you like a real customer instead of an inconvenience.

Cannot speak to the european one. The Australian one took us all of five minutes to fill out. We had the req’d documentation at hand. Five or ten minutes later at the most we had the electronic approval. Last time we landed at Gold Coast, Australia the agent saw our edoc. He asked us jokingly if we were smuggling in any maple syrup and then waved us through. It was that fast.

It is a sign that the financial market, the industry analysts are predicting less than stellar results over the next few quarters. It is not difficult to understand why. Questionable passenger loads, high interest payments, diluted balance sheet, high cost of air and hotels, and poor PR from early covid cruise line missteps. Not to mention and the reluctance of some previous cruisers, including us, to book a cruise this year. Not everyone sees the industry through rose coloured glasses.

Never used them. We have both been doing international carry on for 12 years. Seven days or seven weeks..makes no difference.