TheKingD

You are correct that the price includes the hotels, and it includes transportation between the hotels and the train. Your luggage is transported separately to the hotels and it will be in your room when you arrive and you leave it there when you are leaving to board the train, and the train representatives hand out room keys as you leave the train. All of that worked really well. The guide we used for Arches was JG Outfitters, and they totally customized our tour, so we rode through the park in their nice Suburban and only got out for some photo-ops. They offered plenty of other options if you want to take hikes - short or long. We saw where other tour companies parked and let people out for short walks for those who wanted to walk some. Their website was spotty and the way we communicated with them was texting or phone calls most of the time. I had ordered a National Park pass in advance, and that came in handy for the tour because we were able to bypass the lines at the entrance. You only need one pass for the vehicle, and I think the tour companies' pass does not include passengers.

We did the US route on Rocky Mountaineer in late October last year. We had never been to Utah, so we started in Salt Lake City a couple of days early, and our trip included a flight-seeing trip from there to Moab. The train segments were outstanding - service, food, scenery, logistics. The hotels were fine, but definitely not top-tier. We chose the eastbound route because the train schedules were more civilized, and since DH is more of a crack-of-noon guy, we wanted to avoid any 6AM departures. We also arranged our own private excursion in Moab to Arches National Park, because the ones offered by Rocky Mountaineer were skimpy, and I think they were actually cancelled because not many people signed up. The US route has single-level trains so the meals are served at your seat rather than downstairs in a dining car. We were in the Silver-Plus, or whatever they call the upgraded experience, and I would recommend that. I'm happy to answer questions if you have anything specific in mind.

I agree with you @notamermaid. I think traveling requires a lot more patience and flexibility for possible bumps in the road than it did five years ago, and we are not as full of adventure any more. You are in a great place to enjoy everything close by, and actually we are too, because we are 2 to 3 hours from either really nice beaches or lovely mountains. We were lucky with our cancelled Danube cruise, and we were able to get full refunds for both the cruise and for the airfare on Lufthansa. We could have opted for some future cruise credits, and some of those seemed generous at the time, but we cashed out instead! If the Alaska cruise goes well, DH might be up for another cruise at some point, even though I am the one who really loves a cruise. We'll see.

I appreciate the links about the old Crystal river ships. We were on the Debussy on the Rhine, and we really enjoyed that trip and were scheduled to be on the Danube on the Ravel when everything shut down. The Mozart is supposed to be a really nice river ship too. Somehow I stumbled on @notamermaid and the really interesting posts before we were on the Rhine cruise, and here we are! I'm not sure I could get DH on another cruise in Europe, because he wants to be able to get home on land if something happens. So we are going on an Alaska cruise this summer instead of anything across an ocean. Maybe one day I'll be back to the Danube.

Thanks @BEAV! We have been having supper on the patio recently, and I have not heard a peep from any cicadas just yet, but I'm looking forward to hearing them. It means summertime is here.

Thanks, @grapau27 for the homily. The hymn in the background is one of my all-time favorites. Wishing everyone a lovely day.

In the My Bookings it says 7 nights, and in the Reservation Documents it says 8 nights. I had not noticed the 8 nights until you mentioned it. I'm glad you will be on too, and I'm looking forward to meeting you. Here's a toast to a great trip and fun, new friends!

We're boarding July 2, but we will arrive in Vancouver late on June 29, so if they will let us on a day early we're all in!

The Picasso Museum in Paris is also nice and easy to visit. Paris has some really great cemeteries too. You might be too young to feel the need to go see Jim Morrison's grave at Pere Lachaise, but other very famous people are there too. The Montparnasse Cemetery is really special too. It is very peaceful and on a nice day would be great to walk around.

A much more fun word to talk about is Dagnabit! Or Pshaw!

Thanks so much @BEAV and @TER777. I looked at their website and they are exactly the kind of florist I had in mind, and I knew you would know who to recommend. I'm going to call them in the morning and figure out if we can work something out, or if they have a connection with a similar artsy florist closer to Fremont. I was actually hoping you were a florist, but this is a close second! 🙂

This is a random request of @BEAV - totally off-topic. I think you are near San Francisco, and I am looking for a special florist in the Fremont area. We are in NC and our son is eloping next week in Santa Barbara and then they will be with his new bride's family in Fremont for Christmas. I have in mind to send a really nice flower arrangement to her family's home that would maybe have a combo Christmas/wedding motif. I know I can call my regular florist here and they will arrange for it through their network, but you rise above the crowd with your class-act, so I figured it was worth asking, just in case you have a recommendation. I'm not much of a search-online gal for something like this, and I much prefer an actual recommendation. No worries if not! Thanks, Cindy

I was in the 4th grade, and our school was trying to figure out what to do about telling us, and the mother of one of my classmates called the school and insisted on having her daughter called to the office, so that girl knew and came back to class with the news. I think they let us out of school early, and by the time I got home, my mother was distraught. She never watched TV during the day, but she had the TV on, and the draperies were closed so the picture would be clearer in the otherwise bright room. It was a very sad day.

@BEAV, you are correct. I didn't mean to attach my picture as a pdf, but here it is again - sideways - sorry! The US route is fairly new, and the trips are less expensive than the Canadian routes. We started in Salt Lake City, and they flew us in a 10-person plane to Moab so we saw a lot of the Utah landscape from that plane. We did our own excursion into Arches National Park with a hired driver, but everything else was arranged by RM. It was top-notch all the way, and I highly recommend it.

I am following @BEAV with a totally off-topic tidbit. I think you were the person who raved about a train trip between Denver and California earlier this year, and that, plus Roy's train adventures, motivated me to look into a train vacation. We just got back last week from a Red Rocks to Denver train trip that was great. We were not in a private train car like you were, but we still had a very luxurious trip with great food and libations and interesting people. I wanted to give Crystal a bit of time before I booked a cruise, so I'm considering that for next year! View from train.pdf