What Trips are you Planning ?

[Stoplight]

GEEZ !!! No posts in the "Vacation" thread, since 2017 ??? We all need to lighten up !!!

Anyway...NASA...Would love to go back to Australia again...go west, to Perth...but too many places we HAVEN'T seen yet !!! I'm pushing for Japan, Korea, and China and the Terra Cotta Soldiers, or a Russia/Scandinavia cruise...:smile: Wife afraid to get on a plane or cruise ship...won't even consider a hit-and-run to Vegas or Reno ! Dang !!! We're gonna die with too much money (if there IS such a thing...) !!!


Stoplight...

 

[nasa1974]

Nothing planned for 2021 yet. But we are looking at options and various cruises.

2020 COVID-19 kicked our vacation plans right out into left field. :angryfire:

The wife and I like to go on cruises and we had 4 planned for 2020.

Our first vacation for 2020 was planned for the end of March and into early April. It was going to be two 7 day cruises out of San Francisco. We would travel south to Ensenada, Mexico and back to San Francisco (with a few stops in between). We would stay on the same ship and then travel north to Victoria B.C., Canada and then back to San Francisco. Again with a few stops in between.
Oh! Did I mentioned that it would be on the Grand Princess. Yep the same ship that had all the COVID passengers onboard and was quarantined in San Francisco.
I won't get into what Princess promised and what we actually got because the trips got cancelled, but we did get a full refund for both cruises. More on that later.

To be continued...................

 

[PessOptimist]

We had a trip planned to Disney Land with the grand kids earlier this year but Disney decided that one for us. Probably weren’t going anyway.

We have a cruise planned for April from Boston to Bermuda and back with extended family. That is really still up in the air.

PO

 

[nasa1974]

OK.

So our third cruise was scheduled for August 1st and we were headed off to the inner passage of Alaska. Again starting in San Francisco with stops in Ketchikan, Sitka, Scenic cruising (Endicott Arm and Dawes Glacier), Victoria B.C. Canada and back to San Francisco. The scenic cruising is really neat because you sail by glaciers that come right out to the water. We were cruising with about 15 friends we have met on previous cruises and were really looking forward to the reunion. Anyway the cruise industry is getting hammered by this damn COVID and this cruise gets canceled mid April. We got our flights through Princess so the only thing I had to cancel was our hotels. We got a full refund. More on that later.

Three down and one to go. This is the family cruise. Will we get lucky or crash and burn?

To be continued.................

 

[PessOptimist]

OK.

So our third cruise was scheduled for August 1st and we were headed off to the inner passage of Alaska. Again starting in San Francisco with stops in Ketchikan, Sitka, Scenic cruising (Endicott Arm and Dawes Glacier), Victoria B.C. Canada and back to San Francisco. The scenic cruising is really neat because you sail by glaciers that come right out to the water. We were cruising with about 15 friends we have met on previous cruises and were really looking forward to the reunion. Anyway the cruise industry is getting hammered by this damn COVID and this cruise gets canceled mid April. We got our flights through Princess so the only thing I had to cancel was our hotels. We got a full refund. More on that later.

Three down and one to go. This is the family cruise. Will we get lucky or crash and burn?

To be continued.................

Sounds like you had a busy schedule Nasa. I am uncertain about travelling. Is it time to get back to sort of normal or stay at home and wait? I love the money savings.

Our April cruise is on NCL Gem. Yeah the line accused of covering up Covid-19 and the ship that has seen two deaths for respiratory and heart problems. One of them was the Doctor.:worried:

Time will tell for us and ultimately it will be up to the parents. I am hoping Grandmothers wishes don’t influence them too much.:notrust:

Best of luck with the plans.

PO

 

[nasa1974]

Sounds like you had a busy schedule Nasa. I am uncertain about travelling. Is it time to get back to sort of normal or stay at home and wait? I love the money savings.

Our April cruise is on NCL Gem. Yeah the line accused of covering up Covid-19 and the ship that has seen two deaths for respiratory and heart problems. One of them was the Doctor.:worried:

Time will tell for us and ultimately it will be up to the parents. I am hoping Grandmothers wishes don’t influence them too much.:notrust:

Best of luck with the plans.

PO

PO,

Yep, we had a busy 2020 scheduled. Now not sure what 2021 will bring. I was looking at the same cruises we were supposed to take this past March scheduled for April "21". It's on our wish list but I'm pretty sure we won't book it. One is that it is a third more then the March cruises were and second I'm not sure we will be COVID free or vaccinated yet by then. So we are looking at cruises in the Fall of 2021 and that might still be too early.
Good luck on your cruise on the Gem.

 

[Stoplight]

Interesting posts from you all ! I agree, that COVID has certainly messed us up, as well as the travel industry in general. There even seems to be issues with what other countries will even DO with the U.S. passengers ! I don't plan on going someplace and then having to spend 14 extra days there, in quarantine !!!

I was just messing around, looking at a Vegas trip, with air fares so low. Did you know Vegas has rooms for as low as $25/night ??? Granted, it's Circus Circus...but still Wife raised a good point : "Are there any shows ?" We're not big gamblers, but like the Cirque du Soleil shows, eating and drinking, and people-watching...not sure there's many of ANY of those right now ! I read somewhere Cirque had filed for bankruptcy...

We love cruises, too...been on Renaissance (long since gone...), Holland America, Royal Caribbean, and Carnival...liked Carnival least of all... Gonna be a while until we book our next cruise...BUT : destinations aside...what has been your favorite cruise line ? And also your favorite destination(s) ?

Stay safe !!!


Stoplight...

 

[nasa1974]

Our 4th cruise for the year was scheduled for November.
This was going to be a family cruise with our 2 daughter's, our son-in-laws and the 4 grandkids ages 3 to 7. The ship we were going to be on (the Caribbean Princess) has a real nice day care program for the grandkids so that the adults can do things during the day on the ship and take excursions off ship in port. There were some excursions that the 7 and 6 year old's could do with us while the two 3 year old's stay on the ship. The cruise was going to be the Western Caribbean. Leaving from Ft. Lauderdale and going to Princess Cays (a private Island), Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Cozumel then back to Ft. Lauderdale.
Well with the cruise lines shutting down operations and various port cities saying "Don't stop here" we weren't sure if we would even go. Then the middle of May our youngest daughter says surprise I'm pregnant and due mid November. Very excited for our daughters surprise announcement but that pretty much threw a hand grenade into the family cruise.
So now do we cancel right away or wait and see what the cruise line does? Well we decided to cancel the end of June instead of waiting for a couple of reasons. We got a full refund from Princess. That's the good news. The crappy news is that we haven't received our refund on our travel insurance yet.
Normally I get the travel insurance through Princess but this time I got it through the travel agency (I belong to Government Vacation Rewards. Another story). Our other 3 trips that I got the insurance through Princess have been refunded but our agent said because we canceled the travel insurance it isn't refundable. So anyway we are arguing with the insurance company to get our money back. We canceled because of COVID-19 and in August Princess suspend all cruises through December. So if we had waited our trip would have been canceled anyway. Every other industry has made exceptions for this stupid pandemic. Now we wait and see.

Now the fun part about our refunds.

To be continued......................

 

[nasa1974]

We love cruises, too...been on Renaissance (long since gone...), Holland America, Royal Caribbean, and Carnival...liked Carnival least of all... Gonna be a while until we book our next cruise...BUT : destinations aside...what has been your favorite cruise line ? And also your favorite destination(s) ?

Stay safe !!!


Stoplight...

Stoplight,

Yeah 2020 has been different.

We have spent most of our cruises on Princess (12), Holland America, HAL (2), Norwegian Cruise Lines, NCL (1) and Carnival, CCL (1).

Our very first cruise was on Princess and it was a land and cruise vacation in Alaska. That trip spoiled us and hooked us on cruising.

Our second cruise was on Norwegian and we sailed around the Hawaiian Islands on Pride of America. Great cruise, enjoyed the Islands and renewed our wedding vows on our 30th wedding anniversary. It was on the exact day and at a church called St. Raphael's which is the name of the church we go to. It was on the Island of Kaua'i. The biggest difference was that the crew was almost all American.

Our third cruise was on HAL. This was a real family cruise. My wife's sister and her family, my Mother-in-law, and our two daughters and their husbands. My youngest who was 25 at the time was asked by one of the boutique crew why she was on the cruise? I think the average age on board was early to mid 50's. Her answer was because my parents paid for it.

The wife and I didn't care much for Carnival. This was our 4th cruise. We had fun and did real well playing trivia but it just didn't feel right.

After that we did HAL one more time and all the rest have been on Princess.

We have cruised Eastern, Western and Southern Caribbean. We have done Alaska twice. Pacific Coastal starting in Seattle. Hawaii, Panama Canal, Australia and New Zealand. We have enjoyed all of our cruises, have great memories and met some really nice people. Every cruise had some really great moments but if I had to choose I would say Australia and New Zealand would be number one.