gnome12

I can speak for only two. In Cambodia the US dollar is the de facto currency, and it is fairly widely accepted in Vietnam, although they would prefer local currency.

I have booked and printed out my ticket directly from loco2.com. It was started by some British train geeks (that's what they called themselves) and there is lots of useful information as well as the ability to book. (The man in seat 61 directed me there for Spanish train tickets. In addition, they had a sample ticket that explained what each part of the ticket meant - car number, seat number etc that was very helpful.)

Do you not have the option to get to your home airport with a connection? I realize it isn't as easy as a direct flight, but hanging around all day seems very tiring, and you wouldn't get home until very late.

Try loco2.com. There are direct trains that take 6 1/2 hours. For March 16 the trains are at 5:50, 7:50, 9:50, 11:50 and 15:50. The booking horizon is about 2 months. (Can't see March 23 yet.) Click on the train you want, then the red button with the down arrow to see the price options. (You can set prices to $USD, GBP or Euros, but I would presume that the pricing is probably in Euros, even though neither Czech Republic nor Hungary use it.)

I think that Avalon used to want all passengers to meet in one place. In the last year or so, that seems to have changed.

It was £50 (i.e. 50 British pounds).

Amadeus is a different company.

I wonder how the credit card companies feel about this; if the card is a rewards card, the refund is supposed to be made to the card to reverse the reward. Just as an aside (and I realize that you deal with credit card companies), refunds by credit card sometimes take multiple billing cycles before they are repaid, for no reason that I can discern. If they can bill you immediately they should be able to refund immediately to the credit card.

Connecting within the Schengen Zone is more difficult than your connections. You were in transit in both directions. The OP would need to go through immigration in Amsterdam, even though the luggage would be checked through. This means they would need more time than you did for the connection.

You might want to consider doing this trip before you board the ship, since you will be spending 4 nights in Paris. As noted, the trip is simpler from Paris than from Le Pecq.

The problem is the the OP isn’t starting in central Paris, which makes the trip a bit more complicated.

I'd be very careful about checking the dates of the markets along the route. The longer the cruise, the more likely that markets won't be open everywhere along the way.

I've been looking at Lebara Denmark pay-as-you-go. With their included minutes I can call home, or my sister in the US, and it includes Denmark, Norway, and the UK. I don't get international texting, but that was really if I couldn't call back to North America. (I can, of course, send an email.) The drawback is that the EU data is much more limited than data in Denmark. However, for me coming from Canada, their 200 GB plan (capped at 8 GB in the EU), which comes with 20 hours of calls and 3000 local SMS is currently about $40 Canadian, which is less than I pay for my current monthly plan (unlimited talk/text Canada/US, unlimited international texting, and 1 GB of 4G data). Even that plan is probably more than I need; although I certainly use more data when I am away than I do at home. Even so, even that plan isn't unreasonable for peace of mind. I still need to wait and watch out for the fallout from Brexit, but that is about 2 1/2 months before I leave.

I had Air Transat cancel a flight from Amsterdam on me, so it isn't unique to WestJet. In terms of lots of choice, Air Canada has 4 flights a day from London to Toronto (all from Heathrow) which will almost certainly get you home.

I will be spending 5 days in Copenhagen in July, and then cruising through the Norwegian fjords, across the North Sea to Rosyth, and then to London for 5 days. This will, of course, be post-Brexit (unless something changes). The total trip is less than a month. I would like to purchase a SIM card in Copenhagen, and hope to be able to use it right through the trip. Realizing that Norway is not in the EU, is there a SIM card that I would be able to use throughout the trip? My main interest is data, but I would like to be able to text internationally a bit, and make at least local calls (for reservations or information). Thanks in advance for your help.