the mice

Yes, he would be an additional driver but he isn't the greatest with directions.   Been married very long time, long enough to know what to ask him to do and not do 😉 when it comes to traveling and logistics.  He's more comfortable when we stay together.  Maybe we can just drop the bags off and return the car together - usually the luggage is taken before we go into the terminal for the check in process.  At least in all the other places we have been.

But your info is super helpful so I am sure we can come up with the plan that works best for us.  Thanks again for the info.

3 hours ago, scottca075 said:

Yes, you can do Petersen and Getty in one day, and dropping in San Pedro is fine. I'd drop off the bags and passengers at the terminal and then walk from Hertz, it is only about a 15-20 minute walk to the berth,

The 15-20 minute walk is not a problem, but it will only be my DH and me.   Car will be rented in my name since I'm the corporate retiree.  I don't fancy dropping him off and walking back by myself.  Are there taxis in the area that would do a run from Hertz to the pier?  Not sure I'd want to do my first Uber alone.  

25 minutes ago, scottca075 said:

 

Petersen Automotive Museum, Pete Petersen was a good Danish boy from Los Angeles.

 

Yes, your plan is fine. Double check the Getty site for parking. I don't recall if reservations are required to park. You park down below and ride a people mover to the museum.

 

For hotels, Marriott has the JW Marriott Le Merigot, Delfina and Courtyard. Hilton has the Hilton Santa Monica (formerly the DoubleTree) and Fairmont has the Miramar.

@scottca075  Thank you very much.   Will check on the Getty as suggested.  And I assume you mean it is feasible to see both in one day so we can relax in Santa Monica on day 2.

Is renting a car from Hertz and returning in San Pedro a good idea?  Or should we drop the car at the Long Beach airport and take Uber or a taxi?  I have never used Uber even though I set up an account years ago.  At home, no need for Uber (and we don't do takeout so don't use UberEats).  Usually we travel in Europe and walk miles and miles, and very rarely even grab a taxi.  So never really needed to use Uber.  

I am so happy that I found this thread.   We are taking a Panama Canal cruise LA-Miami on Nov. 3 and I had already figured out that Santa Monica is where we should stay so @Bruin Steve I was happy to see your advice on this. Have not booked a hotel, but hope to use some hotel points.  We will fly from NY on Oct. 31 arriving around 7:30 in LAX.  So I do have a few questions on logistics. 

We've made a few trips to California over the years, but haven't been to LA in over 30 when we spent a week in the area.  My DH, who is not the travel maven that I am, has only 1 request - to see the Peterson Collection.  I would like to see the Getty Museum.  I was thinking we would rent a car from Hertz (very good corporate retiree rates) at LAX, and I believe we could also drop the car in San Pedro (is this near the cruise terminal?) since I figure we would need our own transportation to do these things.

Is this a good idea?  Can we visit these 2 museums in the 2 days we have pre-cruise?  Both in 1 day or not? Any hotel recommendations based on having a car and where we plan to drive?  TIA.

As for Southampton, we spent a couple of days there before our Oceania British Isles cruise in June 2019.  We went to Beaulieu which was a wonderful day out.  There is a lovely historic home, gardens and an incredible automobile museum that even people who are not auto aficianados will most likely enjoy as there are wonderful cars, including the little caravan used by the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret.

Take the Hythe Ferry across Southampton Water to Hythe.  The pier in Hythe is historic and there is a little train that runs down its length.  

The Beaulieu website ( https://www.beaulieu.co.uk/  ) mentions taking a bus from Hythe.  Maybe that is new.  We took a taxi both ways. They called a taxi for us when we were ready to leave.  You get a 20% discount on admission for using public transportation for any part of your journey to get there.  

I highly recommend Beaulieu.  I don't think most visitors to Southampton know about it.

We were on Onward in October-November..  The ship was still being worked on in a few places then and we had to dodge some workers in the halls, near elevators on upper deck (don't remember exactly where). but I would hope that work has been completed by now.  

We were in a standard verandah and I was somewhat dismayed to see that the desk and mirror and cabinets were not changed out.  Our desk had a broken hinge on one door, but a call got it fixed right away.

FYI - quite by accident, last week I found this article on our cruise with lots of photos done by an online cruise magazine:  

https://www.cruiseturtle.com/cruise-ships/azamara-onwa

19 hours ago, ShelleyK said:

Sunlover12-

 

Monaco is our cruise stop - we want to go to Nice from there. Not the other way around. Some of the larger ships can't port in Monaco. We are on Sirena, one of Oceania's smaller ships. No reason was given. They also canceled an excursion we were booked on for Marseille/Provence. This is my first Oceania experience and I am losing patience. I was booked on Vista and they bounced us from that. We rebooked for this and they are cancelling excursions. You never get a second chance to make a first impression. My frustration is rapidly growing. 

I totally get your frustration but don't let it ruin your cruise.  It is a wonderful area to visit.

Check the Ports forums here on CruiseCritic.  You should find lots of good information and recommendations there.  We did these ports on an Azamara cruise Oct.-Nov.  I found out at that time that some of the tour companies had staffing issues coming out of the pandemic.  Hopefully that is improving now.

Check Viator as well - for a lot of tours they have a buy now/pay later (2 days prior to tour) option.

It helps if you have a group to arrange a private tour.  Is there a roll call for your cruise?

I can recommend tour companies - Bonjour Provence, Tour Designer in Provence (Catherine D'Antuono), Sylvie Di Cristo.   But none will come cheap if you are just 2 people (I know because my husband and I did book that way). 

Wishing you a wonderful time!

We were just in both Monaco and Nice in November.  Transportation is controlled in Monaco so a taxi to Nice will be very expensive.  We took bus both ways but if I had to do it over I would take the train to Nice and the bus back.  On bus from Nice sit on right side for wonderful views. 

We were in Southampton prior to our Oceania cruise a few years ago.  We took the little ferry across and then got a taxi to (and from) Beaulieu.  Lovely estate with historic home and beautiful gardens.  And a fabulous car collection, wide ranging variety including the little play caravan of the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret.  Nice cafe, too. 

We did a cruise on Onward the end of October last year and the port was listed only as Nice, not Nice (Villefranche) so we did dock in Nice at the Quai du Commerce.   However, on the web I see Onward listed for both the port of Nice and for Villefranche.   I know this doesn't help you.

We were on a B2B with an overnight and turnaround in Barcelona.   We spent the first day going to Girona so we missed the B2B meeting late that afternoon, but we just had our new cards issued, I think at Guest Relations, and got off on our own the following morning (turnaround day).    

Maybe this will help:

https://www.barcelonaairport.net/facilities/vip-lounges.shtml

4 hours ago, Mackdogmolly said:

We were planning to drive down to Boston on Saturday for the first of our flights to Rio (Logan to JFK to Rio) but expecting a big snowstorm to hit northern Vermont Friday night through Saturday (of course)!

So, change of plans! Driving down tomorrow and will stay with one of the daughter's and hope they just get rain! Lots of intense packing today!!

EDITED:: OOPS - having a "brain bomb" moment.   You are driving to Boston, not JFK.  (deleted info on NY weather forecast)

You have a good plan -   Relax and enjoy your trip!

We were on Azamara in November, disembarking in Monaco and we wanted a transfer to a hotel in Nice, not to the airport.  So a standard ship's transfer wouldn't work for us.

We had lots of OBC.  It was suggested to me on these boards that once onboard we inquire with the concierge to arrange a private transfer.  We did and were able to use our OBC.   So you can probably arrange for a private transfer if you wish and use OBC to cover it.

However, we found for our transfer the price was high.   Now transportation is controlled in Monaco, so the prices there are very high.   When the concierge asked about the size of the vehicle we would need, we let him know that we had only 3 small cases (carry on size) and a standard car would do.   Some members here on CC indicated price might be around $140-150 or so.   The concierge quoted me $210 and asked if he should book it.  Since we had a huge amount of OBC that we were hard pressed to use up, we booked it.   Upon disembarkation we found we were in a van that seated 6 or 8 people.    This may or may not be relevant to a transfer from Civitavecchia to Fiumicino but I wanted to share our experience.  

50 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

I work for a company that is headquartered in Japan.  I am also shopping for air to Singapore and from Hong Kong for our December cruise.  I can tell you that Business Class (J) fares  across the Pacific are ridiculously high in this post-COVID era.  

We will need flights next February to Bangkok and return from Seoul to the NYC area.   Prices and miles required for business class flights are crazy now due to airlines switching to dynamic pricing for awards, and demand being very high post-COVID.

As an example. I had booked business class award flights in 2021 for a cruise that was COVID-canceled: NY to Singapore (1 stop on Cathay Pacific for 70K each) and home from Tokyo (nonstop on Japan Airlines for 60K each)  so total of 260K for the 2 of us.  Taxes/fess were low, too.   Fabulous deal.  And the award flights were easy to book on my own, too.  

Now we are flying to Amsterdam in June and for business class one way we are using about 2x the miles as compared to pre-COVID or even in fall 2022.  It is 270K miles for 2 on this 8 hour flight. Cash price on United is over $5k for the 2 tickets and Delta, KLM even higher.  Yes, it is crazy.  I keep monitoring prices, awards, etc. and they are just increasing.  And availability is much harder to find now.

I will definitely explore all options for a positioning flight - we flew a cheap economy flight to Vancouver to get business class awards for our Australia cruise in 2018.  So thanks @klfrodo for that reminder.

We were on a B2B in the Med in the fall. The 1st leg was a unique itinerary, Islands of the Western Med.  We had some OBC so booked a couple of ship's tours.  They were good. We did a few other private tours, booked for just the two of us (traveling for a month post relaxation of COVID rules/masking so staying healthy was a top priority) and they were also OK (although we did not care for our guide for Girona - very knowledgeable but not tuned in to when we had information overload) . This roll call was a bit active and there were some posts for private tours but I don't know if they got the numbers to run. 

On the 2nd leg (French Intensive), this was a slow selling cruise until close in. AZ offered $1000 OBC in one offer.   We had lots more than that so we booked some pricey ship's tours.  One was cancelled due to lack of interest (very disappointing since this was a highlight for us) and what we ended up with was an OK excursion but not of great interest to us.  Too late to have arranged anything else in that small port.  And we had our final port changed due to high seas so got refund of that ship tour.   Overall, the ship tours offered on this leg were not that good. 

There were 106 posts on this roll call. No one planned any private excursions looking for sharing.  Only taxi shares to airport.  This itinerary covers a lot of popular ports so many may have already visited them so that could have contributed to the lack of interest. 

You're welcome.   Glad you are reconsidering your day of travel.   The 24th is the latest day of travel.   Even so, hope you have insurance for travel delay/cancellation in case anything goes sideways.

Good luck finding a flight that "fits."  Google Flights should help you find some options.   And use that "minimum connection time" search to understand the details.

Enjoy your cruise!

On 2/4/2023 at 1:04 PM, uktog said:

We are over in Lanzarote, usually should be around 24c - absolutely freak weather today - we had rain and thunder at lunch time the village beside us had a tornado and on the slopes of the volcano the camels were "doused" with a heavy fall of hail.  There are videos on face book but cant post them here

OMG!!  Sorry to hear that.   We loved Lanzarote and had a fantastic day there back in late Nov. 2018.  

Hope you managed to have an OK day.    Stay safe!

The biggest concern is that you are leaving Toronto in February.  If you have a weather delay, you could be toast.

Obviously a longer layover is always better.  Schipol (Amsterdam) has had their share of problems in the past year, but I have no idea how they are managing now.  

For any  airport, you can Google "minimum connection time at xxx" to see the advice.  

Arriving the day of a cruise overseas is always a big risk.   How will you get to your next port of call if you miss the ship?  Answering that may help you decide.

Also, use Google flights to see more options.  Suggest you use the 24th as your departure date for safety's sake. The price of one night's hotel will be worth it for more peace of mind.  I see a flight on Tap that looks very reasonable. 

Sorry, but a1:05 layover in Heathrow is a terrible idea as is arriving the day of your cruise.  Missing that connection means missing the ship. Your outbound flight could be delayed on departure, etc.  

It sounds like you have just now looked for flights so have limited options.  Is there any other airport that you can use for your departure?  Or look for other routes ? 

Chase can tell your husband exactly when he actually "earned" the sign up bonus and when he would be eligible again.   It might not be when you think it is.  Case in point: I received a sign up bonus for another Chase card in mid-May and 2 years later was trying to get in under an elevated sign up bonus offer for that card which was expiring May 31.  I had already canceled my card a few weeks earlier and called Chase about eligibility.  (Sorry, I cannot remember if I applied and got a message saying I was not eligible for the sign up bonus).  Chase told me their date of record was in early June, weeks later than the date I received the sign up bonus miles.  They wouldn't budge, even though my statements showed when the bonus miles posted.   So I ended up not applying for the card again. 

5 hours ago, nordski said:

We have snow in the forecast again for tomorrow so things are looking up.

Nordski and Betsey,  thank you.

Many moons ago (1984), DH and I went X-C skiing in Stowe, staying in a lovely guest house B&B.   We skiied at Trapp one day.  Wonderful memories.  It was a great week, but sadly my X-C skis are old (like me) and waxless with old bindings and worn boots, and I am very out of practice so fall over on slopes now, which is not good with osteo of hip.  Hence, the decision to switch to snowshoes.    
Unfortunately, can't do a winter getaway now, so just hoping we get some snow locally.   We have some great places to X-C and snowshoe if we get the snow.  

Enjoy your snow!  

On 1/26/2023 at 8:21 AM, nordski said:

Let it be noted that on Jan 25th, the “Phony Winter” aka “The Silence of the Snow Blowers” of 2022/2023 finally came to an end in this area.

 

No longer staring at brochures of cruises in the Caribbean nor thinking enviously of conditions in Vermont.

 

Unbelievably late.

May I have some, please?   Got snowshoes from Santa but he forgot to bring the snow along with them.....

Flew this in November 2019 pre-pandemic so not sure what the difference might be now.  Our route was Auckland to Houston.  The seat did not have much privacy and was not a state of the art biz seat but was comfortable enough for us (we are not large people). Service was topnotch.  We slept well and AFAIR food was very good.  I fondly remember pancakes for breakfast 😁. 

For what it is worth, we had award tickets using UA miles with original routing of AKL-SYD (overnight layover) - SFO-EWR.  About 2-3 weeks prior to our departure (so about 7-8 weeks prior to this flight), Air New Zealand released award seats that I grabbed just before every miles and points blog lit up with this info.   I only found these seats by monitoring award seats for the month before our departure.  Air New Zealand is known for being stingy with biz awards.  In general award seats to Australia and New Zealand are tough to find so I consider ourselves very lucky to have gotten them.