PasadenaDave

There is a huge benefit to living close to a major international airport such as LAX, SFO, ORD, DFW, ATL, or JFK. The capacity of flights allows fewer changes, and a greater chance of a nonstop to Europe. Even places such as Denver have flights routed through other gateway cities. Daughter flew Amsterdam to Denver Tuesday but had to change in Atlanta….tight connection plus immigration caused luggage to arrive one day late….but she was home. We fly LAX to Auckland on Saturday and since May we have had five flight changes but all were about changes of aircraft type and time of departure that only varied by 5-10 minutes. Not a big deal but raised anxiety level when reading subject line of email notification.

Thanks for confirming what I thought. I also prefer giving business to local in town businesses

We are flying in Auckland on Monday and will join Viking Orion on Tuesday. There are a number of liquor stores near our hotel. We usually buy a bottle of gin and sometimes bourbon to take on board which Viking allows. My question is, how are taxes in New Zealand? Does it make sense to buy at Duty Free or is the hassle of carrying more weight from the airport not worth the savings?

Remember that is in Australia dollars converted to USD about $60 which for a world class city is in line with others

It is very rare we hear people acting or speaking with an attitude of entitlement which we uncomfortably experienced on a luxury line. Agree, but we have heard "I could never live in California, such high taxes and your governor!", but we have also heard, "When I was in California..... it must be so wonderful to live there." Entitled people are everywhere, but we actually found more entitled people on Princess with the caste system they have with that line. More often I have had conversations with very wealthy people who talk about rebuilding race cars or taking their boys backpacking when they were in Scouts. More often I find great people on Viking who could care less of your station in life.

I pondered the idea of doing some work while on a cruise, I am retired but my consulting is about 90 days of billing spread through the year. I had a zoom meeting scheduled for what would have been 9:00 pm Montenegro time. Those involved with the meeting knew that I might not make it. I did a test run and at that time two years ago the bandwidth would not support a zoom call, but it was a moot point as when the zoom was to occur (meeting in California) I was getting ready for bed and there is no way that I could have lasted until after midnight. We will be off the South Island of New Zealand on Christmas Day and we wonder if the next day which is Christmas in North America when we will be between New Zealand and Tazmania if an internet call will work....we are not counting on it so Christmas wishes to family will have to wait.

Arxcards thanks for the prompt reply

Does anyone know how this is operating? We will be visiting on Christmas Eve Day and hope to go into Christchurch. We are on Viking with capacity of 930 passengers. I can’t tell if Viking will have a shuttle into the city or if we can/should take local bus. We are the only ship in port that day

Well, we are missing a stop on Christmas at Dunedin which is likely due to the entire town and port being closed on Christmas Day. One suggestion is that you leave the ship in Tauranga and take the bus or hire a car for the 3-4 hour journey to Auckland. You also could just stay an extra day or two on your own, if Auckland is so important for you. We travel next week and will be on our own for one night in Auckland and two nights in Sydney at the end. Much cheaper to do each end on our own and both places are easy to navigate and they speak a language similar to ours.

Check to see if there is a holiday at that time which might account for the higher price. You might also want to explore using frequent flier miles. We find it challenging to book two seats where we want to fly, when we want to fly thus we use ff miles for big city hotels. Also, while hotels are expensive these days, watch to see if the price is in Australia dollars or US Dollars, the difference is significant

We will be taking a cab from Marriot to the airport in January. Would I assume that if we catch the cab at the hotel that they will more likely charge a reasonable fare? Should we ask the taxi captain at the hotel what an appropriate cost would be and confirm it with driver prior to leaving?

I did mine last week and the challenge that i found was positioning my head correctly in the frame and having the correct tilt of the phone. As soon as it turned green I accepted the photo. I will add that I removed my eye glasses in order for the app to accept the photo

We are heading out on our third Viking cruise next month. Previously Istanbul to Venice and the Nile. We find excursions to be convenient, but like pre-tours and post-tours, the more experience you have the less that you rely on the packaged product. Case in point, next month we arrive in Auckland on day early and stay two nights in Sydney at the end. We booked our own hotels and we can find our way to and from the airports in these easy to navigate english speaking places. There are two locations in which the excursions that we want to take are full, We will take the municipal bus at one location and at another we already booked our entrance ticket and will take a taxi. Both of these excursions will cost much less than what the ship charges and we will have the flexibility of being on our own time. I will note that we have plenty of time in the ports so rushing to get back to the ship prior to sailing isn't an issue. When you read blogs of experienced cruisers such as Andy, Clay and Mike and the Kolbs you will understand that with experience comes confidence and you can do an on your own excursion easily. Yes, negotiating places like Istanbul and Cairo after 14 hour flights are easier with Viking staff. But places such as Auckland, London, Paris are straightforward for anyone who has experience with big airports, actually easier than places such as Newark!

Thank you Andrew. We will take a taxi. The shuttle operator will be on holiday at that time. I give him great marks on customer service with his quick response. I think the combination of taxi and admission to the Sanctuary is still cheaper for two than the ship offered bus tour which is sold out.

Andrew thanks for this informative post. We will be there December 28 from 11-6. The tour from our ship to Bonorong is sold out. I notice that the Sanctuary offers a shuttle for a fee from town to the Sanctuary and back. That appears to the better method of visiting the Sanctuary versus taking a taxi. Do you agree? I have a few concerns about taking a taxi to the Sanctuary but then not being able to find one to return to the ship.

I always enjoy either the light or dark beer offerings at lunch. I don’t always take one for the road but you can. Also you can ask for a small glass if that is all you want. Beer at lunch, included wine at dinner and Gin and Tonic in the room from a bottle purchased ashore is my spirits package. Well we buy a martini or Manhattan at the Explorers Club now and then.

I’m not certain where you live, but here in Los Angeles County there is no such thing as a “similar looking American “. Recently I flew LAX to Newark during the High Holy Days and noted that there were more visibly observant Jews at both airports as a percentage of the population than I saw in Israel during Passover. My point is that we are already a melted pot in large metropolitan cities. Diversity is good I felt safer last April in Israel, Egypt and Jordan than many days here in Pasadena. I also note that in most of the rest of the world there are consequences for bad behavior thus unlike here, people are good to “the other” and “they welcome the stranger.”

Know the health of your kidneys prior to considering Paxlovid. I have kidney disease and while it is unlikely that I will succumb to it or ever need dialysis, I for one would never take that medication, but then I avoid most painkillers to preserve my kidney health. As always, your mileage may vary

We did the Jerusalem pre excursion before the Pyramids and Pharohs cruise on the Nile. I would not want to do a day trip to Jerusalem from a cruise ship as it would be a long day. The time that we were in Jerusalem was plenty for our desires and it allowed free time. I recognize that losing two ports and parts of three days is a below expectations, but that is still a great itinerary. I recommend a combination Israel and Jordan land trip. Jordan is amazing and to me better than Israel.

Thus all of the new credit card lounges.

In April Air France at CDG premium lounge directed credit card lounge access people to another lounge telling them the Air France lounge was for Air France passengers only. We. Saw many turned away and many pleaded to get access

Thanks Doc for your always interesting insight. I went on my first cruise in 1992 and I was unimpressed with the food that so many raved about. I returned to cruising in 2016 and we seem to do one per year now with Viking. My opinion on cruise dining has never changed, food is generally acceptable but not amazing. We have and continue to have the opportunity to eat at some fabulous restaurants and find that unless the place is high end, we both can cook better meals than those served at average restaurants. My theory is that the average person on a cruise does not experience fine dining at their location of residence for whatever reason. This is what leads to the wow factor that cruisers have concerning dining on cruises. I find it interesting that the Kolb’s presently blogging from Orion in the far east typically eat at the World Cafe. Note that they being out for a long voyage likely to be efficient with time spent eating which isn’t always the case in the MDR.

If you are in downtown Long Beach I would suggest a late checkout from your hotel and have a nice walk in Shoreline Village or along Ocean Blvd. as there is some beautiful old homes and architecture. Return to the hotel, check out, cab ride, board, eat lunch all within one hour of the completion of your walk. That can be known as a perfect morning….well most mornings in Southern California are pretty perfect

Offended? Technically yes, but they do provide routing when you book your flight. I travel Southwest about six round trips annually including a few days ago Burbank to Sacramento which is a one hour flight. I always pay the $20 extra to change the flight home as my meeting often concludes early. There are four earlier return flights that fit my schedule but three go to Vegas or Phoenix first…no thanks. If the one direct nonstop is full, I sit around and read rather than fly the extra distance

Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving is traditionally one of the busiest airport days of the year...fly in Tuesday...of Monday if you can. Having said that, i flew into LAX this past Sunday at 7 pm and found traffic on the ring road fairly light. This is due to required shuttle busses to Taxi/Uber lot which reduces a lot of private vehicles. Also while I was alone so I took the FlyAway bus to Union Station, when my wife and I are together we take a taxi as opposed to Uber as the Uber lines are long and taxi line non-existent and the price differential isn't much