jpalbny

Two expedition cruises booked - Bali to Singapore in March, with Ponant. Stops in Borneo (orangutans) and Komodo. We were supposed to do a similar itinerary in November 2020, so we will be excited to have a second chance at it. Then Helsinki to Hamburg in June on Silver Wind. No other large cities besides the embarkation and disembarkation ports. Small islands in the Gulf of Bothnia, and some small towns off the beaten path. Will be interesting to see Finland in the summer, as we were just there last month for the Aurora! That sounds great! Have looked at that itinerary many times. We were in Milan last June and it was a very fun trip. Enjoy!

Definitely. I have it. LMK if you need a copy!

1. You will go through passport control in AMS upon arrival. Have been through Schipol twice recently. Once 15 minutes. Other time, no line at all. 2. Both Hungary and Czhechia are in the Schengen zone. No passport control required. Not when you disembark, nor when you leave for Prague. 3. On the way home, you only go through passport control once, and that's at the airport where you board the flight which takes you out of the Schengen zone. For example, if you're flying direct from Prague to the US, you'll go through passport control in Prague. If you have a connection in Paris, you'll not go through passport control until you change planes in CDG.

You are correct. They did charge back when we first started doing expeditions (2009), but they stopped charging by 2017, I think.

Where is @les37b when you need him? Must have been great to be there. And such beautiful weather! Thanks for the picture.

If you're used to DIY, then yes you can almost certainly do more, and pay less. We've visited Prague on our own, not from a river cruise. Pretty easy to do, and the public transport was easy to use to get around. Have fun!

Christmas traveling is the best! We just got back from London on Monday night. Glad that you had a nice trip, and a smooth return. Looking forward to hearing more.

"Voldemort" refers to something that can't be mentioned by name. Yes, we got said book yesterday.

We got home a little before 11:00 last night, and now I'm having an espresso while getting ready for work. Definitely worth the trip. The Virgin Upper Class Wing and the Clubhouse were as good as we had remembered. Unfortunately the flight wasn't so great, largely because their catering seemed to be a shambles. Their food choices were a bit weird to begin with, and they didn't even have the only non-vegetarian main course offering available to serve. Luckily we were still stuffed from Christmas dinner the day before. I assume that the catering must have been affected by the labor stoppages? Oh well; the flight was on time despite some vicious headwinds so I can't complain. So many people who were flying this weekend had (and still have) it much worse. Will try to post some pix from day #2 soon.

Merry Christmas! Waiting for the post where you finally make it to the disco. 😉

Christmas Eve Day Part 2. After a shower and fresh clothes we went out for the next round. We had tickets to the Mithraeum at 3:45. It was about a half hour walk from the hotel, so we decided to leave at 3:00 and make it a leisurely stroll past some familiar sights. The Temple Bar Memorial. And blue skies. The Mithraeum was nicely done. We had looked for it on earlier visits to London but finally figured out where it was this time. Now we took the Tube back home. Dinner was at Sushisamba in Covent Garden, less than 5 minutes from the Nomad. Always a nice meal here. We've been to their Las Vegas and New York locations too. Plantain chips, yellowtail taquitos, and tuna belly rolls. Pork belly anticuchos. Shrimp tempura. Less breading and more flavor than the version served at home. A cool dessert called Zen Garden. Lemon curd with crumbs on top. The flat "stones" were chocolate with a sugary shell. The larger round ones were chocolate truffles. We were going to wander some more after dinner but I'm embarrassed to say that we finally ran out of energy after all of that activity on just a few hours of sleep. So we went back to the hotel and went to bed before 9:00. The hotel had gifted us a half bottle of Perrier-Jouët Champagne but we'll have to save it for Christmas Day.

Christmas Eve Day in London. We landed a little past 7AM and hit the Virgin arrivals lounge for some strong coffee and a light breakfast. The kind waiter insisted that we have a glass of champagne. Or three... Found the Piccadilly line and rode to Covent Garden. A few minutes to the hotel where we dropped off our bags and headed out to explore! Nice building across from our hotel. And the Christmas tree in Covent Garden. Across the Waterloo bridge. To the Southbank Markets. Festive decorations. And blue skies! We strolled to Westminster. And stopped for the classic shot. From here we meandered to Trafalgar Square for the Christmas tree there. Back through the markets at Leicester Square and then returned to Covent Garden. Even the pup was dressed for the season. We took the tube to Hyde Park for the Winter Wonderland. And stopped in the Bavarian Village for a snack. Back to Covent Garden for our hotel. Saw a friend on the way. Our room was ready so time for a shower and a little rest before dinner.

Happy Christmas from London! Out wandering and enjoying the sights. HMS Belfast looks lonely without Cloud or Wind tied up alongside.

Thank you for the warm welcome! After a very pleasant stop in the arrivals lounge in T3, we are on the tube to our hotel. It was much easier to use the older Piccadilly line because we're staying in Covent Garden. So we will have to wait until another time to see the new Elizabeth line.

Made it to Boston with time to spare, and took off after a small delay waiting for planes to land in front of us. In the air now with an on-time ETA. See you on the other side of the pond!

That's why they make reading glasses... Only way I can help Chris do the Sunday NYT puzzle.

Thanks! We had some very pretty snow between about 3 and 5 PM. Huge soft flakes falling slowly. Commute home was not so bad. It seems to have stopped for now as the temperature is holding steady around freezing, and it's supposed to change over to rain as the temp rises overnight. We shall see! Yes, sounds like ample opportunity for unexpected delays at any point. We will go carry-on since it's such a short trip so no waiting for checked bags. We have alternative plans for transport once we arrive, if we can ever get through immigration... That may be the unavoidable sticking point. We don't plan on using public transport much, if at all, once we are in the city.

You're making me hungry!

London weather looks nicer than what's predicted for home. T-30 hours and counting!

There is a link to my trip report (review) in my signature. It's the one from September 2021. It's a thread on the forums, not a formal review. The other review by Mauibabes is also a thread on these forums but it's on page 2.

We walked that foot tunnel to the Isle of Dogs once!

Nothing specific that I remember but the menus that I posted in my review would have included the wines offered every day. NB: the Great Lakes cruise sounds very different from the usual Ponant experience. I think you should look for the thread started by mauibabes (now on page 2 of this forum) about their trip from Toronto to Chicago.

I think it's been 15 years since we visited FP, on the Tahitian Princess. Thanks for the memories! PG looks very different from that ship.

Stay safe, @CruisinPashmina. Looking forward to hearing that you are on board and that all is well.

That is a smart idea! There is a family story from the 1950s about my Grandfather. I don't know if it's true and I don't think anyone alive now can verify it, but it was told repeatedly when I was a kid. The family had moved to Virginia. My Grandfather's brothers were in the homebuilding business, so they had built the home that they were living in. Time to put up the Christmas tree. It kept falling over, so the story goes. So my Grandfather got annoyed, went to the basement, and drove a huge nail up through the floor, put the tree stump on it and nailed the tree to the floor. "That bleeping thing isn't falling over now" or something like that... I am sure that additional bleeped-out words were said by the homebuilding brothers, when my Grandfather and family moved a few years later, and they had to sell a home with "gently used" floors.