OnTheJourney

Really? Considering booking a Great Lakes cruise. Curious as to why reservations?

How'd you manage with the crazy "atmospheric rivers" out there recently? Our daughter lives in Arcadia - recently moved there from Irving. They had a lovely apartment there and hated to leave it but she got a different job (was working for the University) and felt it better to move closer to Pasadena than possibly have long commute times due to traffic.

Hey JD...likewise to you! DW is improving steadily following her surgery last November. It was dicey for awhile though. She wound up in the hospital over Christmas. 12/23/23 has now become the scariest day of our married life, supplanting the Sky event of 2019. Weirdly, both are on the 23rd! We got engaged 44 years ago on this day.

This is the direction we need to move for automotive transport, if and when feasible.

Interesting. Had not heard of this before. Wonder why they felt the need for a different sized ocean ship? Looks like basically the same layout.

True enough. I must admit I've often not considered what side might be best to book, but on a Viking ship never that far a walk to get out on the deck to see the opposite shoreline.

Do it. Looks like a fantastic itinerary, and one that I've looked at many times. If you've not done any sort of Baltic cruise yet, this is a good one. We've been to about half of the ports on this, but never got to Stavanger on our Northern Lights tour 5 years ago nor have been to Poland, so I could easily see all the rest again. And, I agree with port-intensive. Ours also included several days in St. Petersburg making it even busier. I wouldn't be too concerned about which side of the ship you're on.

The real dicey part with the Acropolis when we were there last year is doing all those steps during a snow squall! It made for lovely scenery from the bus as we traveled along that morning. Luckily, we got to visit the Acropolis again during a private tour during a post-extension and had lovely weather. To add something about Pompeii, my wife was most concerned about it being difficult walking and afterwards thought that it really wasn't as bad as she expected. Uneven - as already described - although we had some rain there which obviously makes it harder. Walking along the (more even) sides rather than right in the middle of the cobblestone street areas - if I recall correctly - was easier also - more like regular sidewalk. At Mycenae, if you have a chance to walk up the hill towards the top (pretty easy walking actually for the most part), I'd recommend it. Our guide took whomever wanted to do it and we made a big loop around and back down (the hardest part coming down but still very doable). The views were incredible. I got into taking lots of pictures and so the group was pretty far ahead. I debated on continuing on to catch up or just go back down (DW elected not to go) but then was glad I went on the rest of the way. The guide pointed out some fascinating things including a quite entertaining stop at what she referred to as a "creepy back door". This old wooden door creaked on its hinges when opened. She had a great sense of humor and really helped to keep things enjoyable and interesting. Don't miss the chance to experience the Tomb of Agamemnon (was part of our Mycenae tour). This thread brings back some fantastic memories. Go see ALL of it and enjoy. Do as much as you feel you can do. Viking surely accommodates and adjusts the walks as necessary or provides easier options for those who have more difficulty doing long, harder walks. For us, likely all the places mentioned in this thread are once-in-a-lifetime and so didn't want to pass them up.

Sure, especially since Viking does cruises out of Ft. Lauderdale

Try Viking...I think you'd be well pleased. Having started with RCL and X (mostly RCL) and then did several with Viking, I'd sail with Viking probably all the time if they went out of our two local ports - Bayonne and Baltimore. There's alot about Viking that we really enjoy. Our first cruise was with Carnival - short one following a Disney vacation. We enjoyed it, but never went with them since. The no-flying convenience of RCL and X out of the two ports I mentioned resulted in us going with them. We did Holland America once - for Alaska, and then did a Tauck river cruise in Europe (LOVED it...top of the line company in my opinion.)

Compared to more expeditionary cruises, definitely.

Sorry for confusion...yes...M class. We've only ever been on the Infinity and Summit - out of Bayonne NJ. And, yeah, the doors hit each other if both are open.

We've only ever done Aqua class on the Summit - deck 9 (I think?)

So sorry to hear of your loss, but at least you have the great memories (and I'm sure many pictures!) to look back on. With some of my DW's health issues I'm not sure how much more travel is in our future either. I'm grateful for all the experiences we've had over the years. Noone can take those away from any of us.

Yeah...we've been in regular veranda cabins several times (aqua really isn't a bigger cabin - maybe by a few square feet) and having the closet and bathroom doors hit each other has gotten old. I won't do it anymore. Next time probably suite class or at least a bigger room. What category room is this? Veranda or ocean view?

This thread has really got me going here. Couldn't resist sharing a few pics from my '17 trip. We were on the ship during the super bowl (another amazing Tom Brady comeback in the second half - largest in super bowl history actually, with Patriots overcoming a 28-3 deficit). The ship put out quite a bit of food and a cake. Had we known all that there would be to eat, we would have eaten less at dinner. Showed the game in the theatre and had (team) colored balloons on both sides of the stage. It was so much fun and the most unique super bowl ever. Would have enjoyed seeing the Falcons win though. 😉 Cruise director promised we'd dance in Antarctica...sure enough! a few penguin pics At the one Estancia, I got talking to a young family member about this horn. He said his grandfather died on the Titanic and somehow the family wound up with this horn. Authentic, not a reproduction. I personally remain a tad skeptical but interesting for sure. How would they have gotten it - surely doesn't look like rescued from a dive expedition. It worked, too. The other thing that intrigued me (actually drove me crazy for awhile) is that the moon phases appeared to be reversed, which makes sense being in the southern hemisphere. It's not a change in phase, of course, but rather a difference in the orientation of the moon with respect to your horizon.

Great option. Not sure I could talk DW into that extensive (or long) a trip anymore. Going that far, should at least do 3-4 weeks. Thanks for the idea though!

Curious as to whether one of the Estancia tours was an option? We didn't do any private tours with maybe the exception of Bluff Cove in Port Stanley - but I think that was a ship excursion also. Like I mentioned, a long-time dream trip to go down there, for me anyway. My wife wouldn't have said the same before we booked it and wasn't totally sold on it, but I sweetened the pot by telling her we'd do an extra few days before and arrange a private (through Viator I believe) Pope Frances tour. We're both Catholic so that really meant alot to us. Another dream trip has always been Australia / NZ, but realistically starting to think it'll never happen. Probably waited too long. DW is not big on real long flights, but for Antarctica we did business class with Argentine airlines. Price was reasonable and it made the 10-11 hours quite enjoyable. Left out of JFK.

Yep...we were told that had we been there the day before, we wouldn't have been there. It was sweatshirt only weather - wonderful for enjoying the scenery and taking many pics of penguins.

Actually I believe they were guanaco. We saw them also down there. Camelid closely related to llama. Oops! I didn't read far enough. Someone beat me to it earlier! Enjoyed your pics. It took me back to 2017 when we did this same trip on the Infinity. I'm sure zodiac landings are fantastic and real purists are not hesitant to say that you really haven't been to Antarctica if you never set foot on it, but we were fine with the "drive-by", especially having never been to South America. Fantastic trip all around, AND you had the same weather we did crossing the Drake the way it seems - had the 'lake" both ways. One of our favorite excursions was on Montevideo where we visited Estancia La Rabida and experienced a Patagonian traditional "asada" barbecue lunch which was amazing. When they put the meat on the grill down there, they don't mess around! Had a hay ride to the farm and then there were lots of different hands on activities. There was another barbecue lunch at Madryn - Estancia San Lorenzo, and yet a 3rd one (we didn't go hungry) at Estancia La Mimosa in Buenos Aires. There they also did gaucho horse races (pretty cool - a traditional game where they try to spear a ring suspended from a pole). Recoleta Cemetery was really interesting also. Again, thanks SO much for taking the time to do this and post all your great pictures. I look back on the trip quite fondly and am so glad we did it. I've wanted to go down there for literally decades but always shied away from it due to the Drake reputation for notorious seas. Once the Celebrity itinerary came long (actually booked it while on another X cruise), we figured it's now or probably never!

I get it. I believe it's just that I hate to see other teams not get their chance for the big games. We have a local high school basketball team that's generally always county champs cause their school is so much bigger than anyone else in the county. Strong basketball tradition as well. NFL - I got really tired of Tom Brady, and now are equally tired of Mahomes. I usually pull for the underdogs. This is probably why "Rocky" became such a successful movie.

Not sure I want to watch it. I was really hoping for Ravens vs Lions. So tired of KC at this point (I hate any sort of sports dynasties) and now even less since they always show Swift cheering whenever Kelce catches a pass. Don't care for her either. Go niners!!!

What exactly is that? I vaguely recall it but it's been a long time....🤔

Fantastic! Happy for all of you. Both of those are amazing ports. Loved the scenery up there.