iancal

A vote for Lucca. Get there in enough time to enjoy a walk on the walls. The train station is right across for the walled city. Very convenient. Very easy to get there from Florence by train, and then on to Civ.

We have only used cruise air once for a return from Europe. We have found that we can often do as well on our own, sometimes better, by booking elsewhere. Most often with the carrier. We bought Europe air last month for a late May/June trip. The fare was at pre covid levels we have experienced in the past. I am shopping for Sept/Oct Europe trip. So far the fares appear to be very similar, certainly within 5 percent, of what we paid pre covid. I believe it depends on the route, the carrier, and the competition. Our May/June fares today are plus an minus $20. of what we paid a month ago.

We are doing premium economy to Lisbon/Madeira on TAP next month. We booked economy to Singapore three years ago. Then a month prior to blast off we upgraded to business on a Untied offer ( our very least favorite airline for SE Asia). It was less than booking business in the first instance. 17/18 hour flight with lie down seats are so much better than economy. We are getting old....70 this year. We switched to Jetstar Sydney-HML because it is a snap for us do do 10 hr. in economy or premium economy (sometimes the difference is more in the price than the seat so one needs to verify vs. assume). Two or three days in HNL then we do the last leg. We are hoping to spend the next winter in SE Asia...might be our last. It is time to book business. For us it is three flights, 24 hours going to Thailand, 19 coming home It has been getting progressively tedious for us. We prefer Korean, then Delta. The flip side is two months on uncrowded beaches in Thailand, incredibly friendly locals, and wonderful food. It has been well worth the air trip for us. I think that we after next winter we may switch to Mexico or Costa Rica for winter travel. One thing we both did after retirement was get is shape, get down to our recommended weight. I did lots of business travel. I found that travel, air in particular, was a lot easier after I dropped 40lbs and was in better physical shape.

Most of our air travel since retirement has either been to Europe, Mexico, or to S/E Asia/Australia. Little or no NA. We seldom book very far in advance. As an example we are going to Portugal in a three weeks. The one way fare going today is $20 more that what we paid a month ago. The one way fare coming home (on another airline) is $20 less than what we paid a month ago. The very best return fares we have had to SE Asia over five winters were booked 30 days or less prior to blast off. The exceptions for us are one way fares on discount airlines from Thailand or Malaysia to Australia (Scoot, Air Asia, Jetstar) and returning partially home Sydney-HNL on Jetstar (which are sometimes code shares with Qantas). Same with Australia domestic flights on Jetstar. Booking two - three months out or on notice of flash sales yields dividends on these routes/carriers.

Drink packages have never been financially attractive to us. Especially since one is TT. One thing we noticed a few years ago when we did two cruises in Australia was the huge difference between bar prices...adjusted for currency. Our first was 14 days on Princess. On board currency was AUD, which approximated CAD. The second was on RCI. The on board currency was USD. Bar drinks were about 20-30 percent more expensive on RCI before currency adjustment.. Bottom line was a 50 percent difference adjusted for currency. More for wine in the MDR. Fortunately we have status on Celebrity that was recognized on RCI so we had access to the Diamond Lounge or whatever it was called.

IF we require air we shop for cruise and air at the same time. We are not going to buy a heavily discounted cruise if there is a large air premium. When we are ready to buy we lock in the air first. Our former TA seemed to be able to hold a late booking cruise offer for a few hours until we did this. Usually it was less than one hour.

We spent several days in Nafplio while on a driving tour of the Peloponnese. Enjoyed it very much. There are a number of day trips that you can do from town. We did a day and a night in Hydra on the same trip. Parked our car on the mainland for 2 days and took a short ferry over to Hydra. These were two very different experiences. Enjoyed both.

We were scanned on the ship. Both of us. Two each. I believe that it was a one off fluke….or maybe an act of kindness! We are there for six days. Friends from Scotland just got back after six weeks. Six weeks plus one went home with a knee replacement. Had no idea Madeira was a destination of sorts for medical tourism.

After touring for ten days we kept our car in Cape Town for another four days. Used it go tour around, have a wonderful day at a beach outside town, etc. I absolutely cannot imagine needing a driver if you are going from Port Eliz. down through the Garden Route. We were traveling on a seven months post retirement trip after selling our home. South Africa and the safari were the highlights of our trip. At some point we plan to do winter snow bird trip to Africa. We were fortunate to meet up with a young German grad student in Cape Town. We invited him out when we toured around Cape Town. He was involved in some cutting edge remote health technology trials via cell phone and related the advances and the successes the trials were having at that time.

On our Celebrity TA we stopped in Madeira. Brought 4 bottles of Douro Valley wine on board. Others were doing the same. Celebrity, on that stop, did not impose any BYOB fee. Or perhaps the Celebrity monitor did not show up. We were waved aboard after the bag went through the scanner. This surprised everyone. We enjoyed our day in Madeira so much we are going back for a week next month.

You will probably need an International Drivers Lic.to rent a car. They never used to ask for it. The last few years the rental firms seem to insist on it.

Is it really such a big deal in the overall scheme of things given the cost of a vacation? There are choices. Pay the corkage. Don't bring wine on board. Select another cruise line or vacation option.

We do the same. MSC is on our list to try. We have come close a few times while in Europe but it never happened. We are definitely not married to one cruise line. We are more interested in the ship that we are in the cruise line. Some cruise lines have/had ships that we would avoid and ships that we would be happy to sail on. One reason that we do not buy cruises far in advance is because we typically do not make travel decision months and months or year in advance. Going to Portugal next month. Only decided last month. Thinking about Greece in the fall. Won't make a decision until mid July or August.

We view air and cruise fare as two different markets. Air fare may be higher than cruise fares..or less. Post retirement our trips, which may include a last minute cruise, are typically six to eight weeks. We live in western Canada. At the moment we see air to Europe much more competitive than air in NA. We are going to Portugal next month. Two one way flights. Today we could book Toronto to Lisbon return economy for $750 CAD. We are on two one ways. The base one way fare to Madeira is $445 CAD. We upgraded. Our direct base air fare on the return airline, Faro to Toronto, was $280 CAD. We upgraded.

Our intention after our pre covid Mexico snow bird trip was to fly home through FLL or MIA. Then snag a last minute cruise for 7, 10, 14 days or whatever. Nice way to end an independent land trip. We were confident that we would find something. Then covid hit, our Government was recommending that we return home by March 24 or so. The reports starting to surface about covid outbreaks on cruise shisp sealed the deal for us. So we flew home I am confident that we would have found a balcony cabin on a ship that met our requirements. This is one reason why we often go with one way air fares in order to have that flexibility.

It is not uncommon for us to order a few appetizers and salad instead the the whole meal deal. Depends on how late we ate lunch and what time we are sitting down for dinner.

In pre covid days the vast majority of our cruises were cherry picked inside the final payment window. Most of them were purchased anywhere from 45 to 3 days out. Three days out is generally when we are either at the port or close enough to get there with no issue and minimal expense. Here is the thing about buying inside the final payment window. Prices do go up, sometimes above what you would have paid IF you had booked early. Prices can fluctuate incredibly inside that window and can change it would seem within hours. We never wait for the lowest price. That is a mugs game. We gain an understanding of the prices, set a strike price, and buy immediately when our price hits. Not just price. On two Med cruises the price were similar. On cruise was a gty, the other allowed us to select our balcony in a mid group cabin class. We went with that one. I believe the secret to this is we do not care. If we cannot get a cruise we always have a plan B. There is always next year or on the back end of our land travels instead of the front end. On anther Celebrity was 30 percent lower that the next cruise line Our price hit so we hit the buy button. The very next day our TA told us that the other line had dropped their late booking fares accordingly. Our fare could have just as easily gone up had we waited a day. And it has on a few occasions ( we missed out on a great offer) so we have stopped with the business of sleeping on it. Fll/MIA pre covid was great for late bookings. If we could not snag on ethat we wanted there lots of other things to do in the state. We have even taken a low cost flight to Costa Rica and sat on the beach there for a change.

Our last two cruises on RCI were both fabulous. One was Australia, the other was a last minute Rome-BCN at the end of the season. I believe some people equate different with not as good. There are differences between cruise lines and cruise ships. Pick up on the differences between cruise lines and enjoy them. Much easier than being a grouch and comparing everything down to the color of the cabin with one's favorite cruise line.

I would say forget the BS. When the cruise line runs a 'sale' then make sure it is a sale. Not just a reprice/bundling of the same old same old. Or a fare increase for a week, followed by a wonderful sale that brings the fare back to last weeks number. We are at the point where we no longer bother opening the sale email or snail mail offers. Second wish would be to forget the bundling. Just give us the base fare, an options list, and perhaps an increasing discount for the more options we select. Smarten up with cruise line excursions. Who wants to pay good money to visit a trash and trinket store, a carpet store, a leather store masquerading as some local craft emporium? Especially when the cruise line is getting a kickback percentage on every dime the captive excursion participant happens to spend in the place. Ditto for the 'recommended store' list scam or the shore talks that are really shills for these recommended stores.

From my perspective.....it is a more desirable age than my 70.

Pre covid to FLL/MIA no issue. We have even had good cabins on an Christmastime cruise and on two March break timeframe cruises. The latter when our condo time in Daytona Beach area was up. Alaska pre covid...yes but more tricky to get a balcony. The benefit to booking late, as in a week prior to blast off, is that you can get a much better indication of what weather you will encounter. Our experience is that generally the closer you get to blast off the less choice you will have in cabin location. For us anyway since we want a balcony. Pre covid we have done at least six last minute Med/Europe cruises. Always been able to score the winning combo of a great price and the right cabin. Post covid...no idea whatsoever. We are not shopping at the moment. We would typically pre shop three ships that we like with similar itineraries. Princess, Celebrity, and HAL perhaps. Set a price, then hit the buy button when our price hits.

One each and a few times we have split a third depending on the dish and the serving.

We are off to Portugal next month. And with any luck Greek Islands in Sept/Oct. We know the requirement for Portugal next month and we know the requirements for Greece at the moment. But...we fully realize that these requirements can change on a dime. It is why we have only done refundable air and only one inexpensive firm accommodation booking for our first two days in Madeira. After all, we are only guests in these respective countries. We are hoping for the best but we are prepared to walk depending on the country entrance requirements or covid situation. I think back to 12-14 months ago when all the wags were claiming that covid was finished and everyone would be happy.

The only grace period as such that we have ever experienced (not on HAL though) is when booking inside the final payment window. Our TA at the time managed to get the cruise line to hold our booking for several hours until we confirmed our air arrangements. Once at Christmastime. Twice for Europe. This happened on several bookings but the clock was ticking. We had make good by end of business day. Gave us a chance to ensure that the air prices we were following were the air fares that we were able to obtain.

We did private tours. Four of us only. One huge benefit...the guide got us to the terrace houses before the buses arrived. We did not stop at any of the usual clip joints. Excellent tour. Turned out to be less than the cost of 4 ship tour tickets. We had a van, a driver, and a tour guide to ourselves. One in our party wanted to go to Mary's House so we went. Our impression was/is that it is nothing but a tourist trap. Not much to see or do. For us, a waste of time. Even to the person in our group that wanted to go there felt that it was more than a bit of a tourist trap. I would not take a ships tour unless you relish stopping at a carpet store or a leather shop, or a trinket and trash shop....all typically described in attractive 'local craft' words. Read between the lines! For certain we would never remain on the ship for the day.