Daisi

@notamermaid, they are calling for between 25-35 cm starting Thursday night and ending Saturday. I am happy, love the snow ( as long as I don't have to shovel it 🙂). Now come New Years, I'll be happy for it to go away, but somehow that never seems to happen. Enjoy the snow, throw a snowball, build a snowman and have fun.

I just went into the Canadian Scenic site, only "warning" I got on the bottom of the page is that they use cookies. Maybe if you just want to view cruises, you can try Scenic dot ca? Our prices will be in Cdn $$, so not the same, but at least you can view what's up.

Well, looks like a white Christmas for us, our 3cm turned into 11! Managed to get a couple of shots out before all the animals got going and made to many tracks. The two little red squirrels were very happy we shoveled the balcony off before feeding them! 🙂

Yeah, we used to say we were going "south" for holidays, and head down your way - Burlington & Niagara Falls. 🙂 I hear there is rain coming your way, but for us, looks like temps mostly below 0, and just snow until Christmas. Crossing fingers! Hopefully it will be 1/2 way nice some night to take a tour to go view the lights now we have snow.

We're getting our first bit today as well...expecting about 3cm. Hopefully it sticks around, just doesn't feel like Christmas without snow.

Working fine on the Canadian site...maybe clearing your cache might work?

Glad to hear she is on the mend, I know what it's like having a bad cough with damaged ribs. I badly bruised mine once then ended up with pneumonia. It wasn't fun at all. Hope she gets better soon.

Thanks for an excellent write up. River boating is one thing we would like to add to our bucket list after friends of mine purchased a narrow boat & we have been living through their adventures. I hope Krisie is OK, and the pain passed quickly.

Actually, the Boer war was the first war Canada sent troops directly overseas to fight. Although we still fought under the British Ensign as British troops, 7000 Cdns. went over.

Here is a link where you can do a virtual tour of the ship, showing the exercise room. https://www.avalonwaterways.ca/river-cruise-ships/avalon-saigon/ Unfortunately, the Mekong cruises aren't as common as the European ones, so I'm not sure if you will get answers here. Perhaps open a new topic titles "Avalon Mekong", you may find someone who can help with the Wifi and excursions. You can do a search in this forum for "Mekong", but it will show all lines. Good luck, and if you go, please come back and do a review, as I'm sure others are looking for answers as well.

I've always found it nice that when mentioning the various nations affected by war at my parents ceremony, they include Germany. Their loss was to many as much as ours, they were still sons, brothers, fathers and loved ones. Because there is are a couple of bases where a lot of US troops come up for specialised training, the ceremony opens with both the US and Cdn anthem, and it has to be explained every couple of years that the visitors are honoured with their anthem first. I will have to say, it felt odd singing "God save the King" at the end.....first time for many of us.

If you scroll to the bottom of the link attached, you can see the hotels listed for Prague. If you click on the other 2 cities, you will see the ones for there as well. https://www.avalonwaterways.com/river-cruise/go-tell-the-bees-the-danube-from-germany-to-the-black-sea-with-diana-gabaldon-plus-2-nights-in-prague-and-2-nights-in-transylvania/WDOE-T1/?season=2024 We love Avalon, they aren't as "fussy" as other lines, but you still get great food, excellent tours and treated great. Loved them so much, we were planning our next cruise on the flight home. I don't quite understand your comment about cabins, the closer you are to the stern, and the lower you are, the less the cost.

The Romantic Rhine has a couple of extensions with overnights to Lucerne.

Good to know @jpalbny. I usually upload everything to Google Photos, then edit the sideways ones there. Then I save them to a file & post from there. Mind you, when we are travelling, I use a camera, and 2 phones, so multi-formats.

Glad to hear you are back sailing...we have to wait until Sept. Flipped for you:

When we did that route with Avalon, any time they told us we were on an "overnight" extension, they gave us the time they were leaving port. Cologne was 11:00 or something like that, and I think Rudesheim was 2:00. If you think you will be later, make sure that they aren't doing a midnight sail, and if not, let them know an approximate time you will be back. I don't think Avalon had a "curfew", but it's curtesy to let them know if you are going to be really late. I do believe the main desk was "manned" 24 hrs., so there would be someone to let you back in.

Can't speak for AMA, but if they have bikes on board they will usually let you take them off for tours....at least Avalon does. Most cycling "tours" are limited to #'s signed up at least a day ahead, in order that they can make sure they have enough bikes available. These are usually brought in from a rental company, not the ones they store onboard. For those tours, since you are out biking in a group, you may have to stick with the tour.

@jpalbnythere are probably many names for it, as notamermaid says. We had german on the weekend as well, threw an Octoberfest dinner for my Dad who turned 90.

That must depend on the cruise line you booked with. We booked our flight with Avalon after booking our cruise. We were able to select dates (we had a pre & post cruise, but they didn't provide transports because of this), air line, chosen airports, and, once the tickets were booked, we were able to go in and with a small fee that the *airline* charged, able to select our seats. Our insurance which was purchased at the time through Avalon as they had the best "deal" covered not only our cruise, but the 4 extra days we did on our own.

Firstly, congrats on planning a cruise, that's 1/2 the fun. If you haven't done so already, I suggest reading the "stickies" on the main page, there is lots of valuable information in them. Also, I would suggest finding a TA who is knowledgeable about river cruising, and sitting down to discuss what you expect and they will help you sort out what line suits both you and your budget. Unfortunately, the bad news is that July is a bad season for water levels, not every year, but chances are greater during the summer months. As long as you are prepared to do ship swaps or some bussing, you can still have a great time. I think the only rivers that don't have much problems with water levels are the ones in France, or the Belgium/Netherland cruises. As for balconies (french or regular), they are nice to have, but since most of the time when you have something to see, you will want to be on the top deck or in the public areas, not necessary. I prefer the balcony just so we can have fresh air in our cabin, but that's me. A lot of times, when you are in port, you can and most likely will be either docked up against the port wall, or another ship, so no view there. Don't forget that the ships are all the same width due to the size restraints of locks, so the regular balconies are actually deducted off of the square footage of the room, while the french ones are just the wall of the cabin as glass that opens. I know Avalon will be having a free happy hour in 2023 for those after cruise drinks, however you will have to pay for one after dinner. They also have active cruises where you can bike, kayak or hike included in the excursions, depending on the river you choose. Everyone will have their favourite cruise line, so be prepared to have a lot of comments on what is best. Do your research, and have fun.

Thanks Coral. It is a beautiful old hotel, we were there for a wedding reception once and it was beautiful.

I know what Snert is... but then, my DH is dutch! Mind you, I'm more used to the French Canadian version. 🙂 Sounds as if you are really having a great time.

@notamermaid, I hope you get your screen sorted soon, and things improve in your neighbourhood. Things seem to be coming in 3 for you, not nice. @Canal archiveyes, although we haven't been to England yet, we know those locks from friends of mine who have a boat on the Kennet & Avon canal. This is a picture I found online of the ones up in Ottawa, not as many, or as high. They are the only ones we haven't been to yet....

Lol... we've been to Dows, and when I was a kid, I skated the whole thing, but we've never made it to the final flight. You'll have to come up in the spring sometime, they have masses of tulips planted all along Dows & further down thanks to the Netherlands.

The Rideau has kept the original openings as far as I know, some of the stones have been replaced that form the locks, and obviously the doors. They are all built to original standards. In the winter, the city of Ottawa (which has about 8km of the canal running through it) floods and clears the ice for a skating rink. The longest flight is also in Ottawa, it joins the Rideau to the Ottawa river. Jones Falls (the one we go to most), which is the picture of the 2 locks with a flag actually consists of 4 flights that rise almost 18 metres, and the Narrows lock is about the smallest increase of just over 1 metre. We love to grab a lunch and take a day to watch the boats go through, either on the Rideau, or the Seaway where the ocean ships pass. Thanks. We are very lucky to live in this area, and we love the changing seasons.