happy cruzer

Time, Finances, and Resources Time - we have two weeks (one of us is still employed with limited vacation time) to spend on the Europe sections. Either Aug 24 to Sep 8 or the start Aug 31. Note the Aug 24 to Aug 27 part is on our nickel to get to Oslo. Finances - still employed. Fairly low priority to save bucks. The great ideas of using cheaper econ flights will matter in 2 years. HA! Resources - We are slowing down. Like to spend 4 to 6 hours touring then a nice meal. A few days can be longer. So maybe we change the order of our itinarary? Right now we plan to have two day in Oslo, two day in Prague, train to Vienna, 2 days in Vienna, train to Budapest, 2 days in Budapest, fly to Madrid, two days in Madrid. Ideas to improve?

Check out the Cruise Air board. There is some interesting discussions over there. You might want to look at a Round The World ticket. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/77-cruise-air/ And do look at the Celebrity pricing as well. We have found good international rates. But remember that Celebrity will be in the loop if there are changes or refunds after ticketing. That was an issue for us. We booked the air about 1 year out, then when we flew there was an delay that caused a downgrade in the ticket and a refund. The airline refunded the payer of the ticket i.e. Celebrity. It look month to get Celebrity to issue us the refund. Still would use them for significant savings.

OK, I will call AA this coming week. But before maybe I can have a bit more knowledge? How do you get seat assignment in business class (how to easily check seat configuration)? Here is the RTW Segments of note: osl prg 27/aug/2024 BA763/BA860 BUD MAD 05/sept/2024 ID32914 MAD DFW 08/sept/2024 IB6149 (AA only shows econ) three US trips dfw tyo 22/feb/2025 JL 11 TYO SIN 26/feb/205 JL35 HKF OSL 16/Mar/2025 AY100/AY911 Any ideas of options? Thanks.

You may want to look again at Gardyloo's advice. At first the RTW or Circle tickets look complicated, put a little work and practice yielded great options. I spent a few hours seeing how the RTW ticket works and now I am a believer!

So glad to see your post! We are getting ready to book a ticket as well. We have one segment showing in the ONEworld tool for 21 Feb 2025 DFW to TYO which we want a time later than 6pm departure but the tool only shows early in the day departures. Otherwise we could purchase in the one world tool. Any ideas on which is better? Call AA's desk or book in oneworld tool? Thanks.

We are Back! We loved Sky Reef. The taxi fee was posted and was $16 one way. Easy! They did try to get us to get the package rate, just said we wanted a short quiet stay and kept walking. They need tried to get us to buy anything after that. Great! Good chairs. Great view and snorkling from the stairs on the beach! Our new favorite. Thanks for the information from everyone!

The FAQ just says bottle. Does that mean plastic bottles are OK? Thanks.

Thanks for coming back to report. Being one of the nasty people who suggested that insurance could help you out, would like to know how you were satisfied. Did you get an actual refund, more over offer or future credit?? Hope you have many future adventures and continue with your early adopter ways. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for the report. We are pretty weak swimmers. Is it possible to stand every once in awhile or is it all coral on the bottom? Did it get crowded? Thanks!

Hope someone can share what they have done in the past or what they think is a good plan. Looking at booking a Oneworld RTW ticket. It will start and end in Oslo. We will pay seperately for transport to and from the US (may self insure this part). So one trip from the US will be in the summer for about 3 weeks in Europe, there will be two US trips in summer, then next spring a trip of about 1 month that will include a two week cruise. Pretty sure that we want to use GeoBlue annual policy for medical part. Any ideas for travel insurance. Typically we are fine with our Credit Cards coverage, not perfect but good enough. What I don't understand is how to cover the RTW ticket, it is a one time charge but there could be travel delays on multipule segments of the ticket. Is there a way to cover these delays? Also the cruise will be paid by a credit card that may not be the one used to buy the RTW ticket. Does that normally cause an issue if somehow the flight delay causes the cruise to be missed? Any experience or ideas? Thank you.

Helpful information. OP's scenario is that the first cruise was cancelled. At that point, if they had the platinum policy with CFAR, they could have cancelled the entire trip. Probably losing prepaid items in their Madrid trip (might those have been covered by the credit card that they paid with?). They also had the option of flying on their ticket (either the first one or the second more expensive one) and doing a land trip at their expense as you noted. If they had flown out on a ticket purchased by Princess then the platinum policy would cover trip interruption costs when a cruise is cancelled?? Those costs would have to be filed for and approved which can take months. I agree Princess will probably never make them whole on the business class airfare or prepaid items in their Madrid trip. I might would try for the move over offer or OBC but getting a cash refund is very rare. Thanks for sharing your view on the insurance. I have an upcoming expensive trip that I trying to determine how to insure (no policy covers everything 🙂 )

Just read the Dec 2022 review of Chankanaab park. We were there about 25 years ago. So newer info is needed. HA! We want to go back in a month. Only two of us. Probably do a taxi. The park. Need two shaded chairs. Will have our own snorkel gear to snorkel from beach. No food or drinks needed. Restroom and shower to get sand off feet. So the questions are - do we need to make any reservations? Approximate costs? Does it ever get so crowded that chairs are hard to come by, if so is there a plan B once you get there? Are the taxis easy to do coming and going. All advice appreciated. Thanks.

Please report how it goes with the corkage fee. Since the wines by the glass are ordinary we usually carry on wine. If they do not charge a corkage fee when you have a package that is a pretty good value.

Good question. We typically do the free upgrade to Princess platinum. Hopefully op has that policy. it is tricky in that sometimes they want you to travel at a certain time and cruisers decide to do a different option. And it only covers things booked through Princess. Credit cards often have some travel insurance.

Just WOW! Thank you for the responses. I've read them many times and each time see a new item of interest. In the past we have always done a credit card for the cash back feature. And been an AAdvantage member (but no status at this time) because of business funded travel out of DFW. So at this time we are most comfortable with AA but starting to explore the options using their partners. The two Citi cards that I mentioned in the original post are offering 70000 mile bonus at this time as well as extra miles for AA purchases. That is why they moved to the top of my list. And I believe that as long as you have the card the miles do not expire and if the card is cancelled the miles do not expire for two years. The drawback for cards that get miles for us has always been the getting to the award levels, limits on award ticket availability, and mile expiration dates. Did the Barclay's AA card for one year to get the AA miles then cancelled it one year ago. Looking at the terms for the Citi cards that does not seem to be a problem. Just trying to make a good plan and avoiding a big mistake. Again thanks for all the very useful advice.