Viv0828

Our first cruise was from anchorage to Vancouver. A week before the cruise, DH, our daughter, 2 granddaughters and I flew up to anchorage, rented a car and spent a week driving around.

We then met the rest of the family: our SIL, his mom and our son for the cruise. We all had a fabulous time!

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We were at the Great Barrier Reef a number of years ago. While we were there they offered helicopter rides over the reef - for a rather large fee of course. We did one and it was amazing - highly recommend.

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Finally, lol! 15 days. I seem to remember it took about 6 weeks last time.

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We renewed our passports exactly 2 weeks ago. Nothing so far. Maybe it takes longer to get to the west coast from pa??

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I found a non surge protected one at the dollar store. Works fine.

we have spent at least a month in europe before and again after a cruise. we each take a carry on plus a backpack and do a lot of laundry - LOL!

alternatively, can you fed ex or ups a suitcase or two back to the usa? probably expensive, though.

Cruises from the USA to Europe generally go in the spring; cruises to the USA from Europe generally return in the fall.

But Cunard generally runs back and forth most of the year.

That's cute. If we want to decorate our door we buy a couple of things at the dollar store.

we use GeoBlue for our yearly medical/evacuation insurance.

a variety of credit cards come with insurance. be sure to check yours. we could have made a couple of additional claims in years past had we realized that!!

We travel a lot so we have a yearly medical/evacuation policy. Cruise problems are covered by insurance that comes with our mileage credit card.

Bring some plastic baggies and fill them up with ice from the bucket for instant ice packs if needed.

We did s week in Alaska precruise about 10 years ago. We bought a guidebook and followed a suggested one week itinerary. A guide book plus TripAdvisor should be all you really need to plan a great trip. Enjoy!

I mailed everything in today. Wonder how long it will take??

I don't look at a question on here as only help for an op though it would be polite for an op to come back with a brief "thanks for all you helpful posts".

So many other folks read these threads and come away with good info.

I have learned a lot reading a variety of posts and I enjoy some of the word games on here as well!

When we sailed with our 2, 6 and 10 year old grandkids this summer their parents brought children's Dramamine. Fortunately, they never had to use it.

I think bringing an OTC children's anti sea sick med plus the sea bands is a reasonable precaution just in case.

We never drank tap water. We even brushed our teeth with bottled water - the hotels and Nile ship gave out water for that purpose. Tourist restaurants use filtered or bottled water so you can have ice in your drink at a reputable place.

If we bought something to drink while out and about, it was in a sealed bottle or can.

Have a great trip - Egypt is fantastic.

we usually book a couple of months out. since we are flexible, we usually get pretty good prices.

i'm ancient and i only print one page which is a summary of all our reservations. everything is on my phone, dh's phone and our computer.

We also have an annual medical and evacuation policy plus our credit card covers the cost of the cruise and other similar things up to 10K.

If your cruise is cancelled, you will probably get a refund. If not, you can dispute the charge on your credit card statement.

We took the ferry to Delos and explored the ruins.

We took an inexpensive tour, left it at the cave after telling our tour guide, (it was the cheapest way up) and walked the whole rock on foot. We were tired at the end but had a blast! We also collected a bunch of geocaches!!

I enjoy playing but in the rare occasion that we win, we give away most of the useless junk that passes for prizes! We did keep a bottle of wine though.

We did a private 2 week tour of Egypt and Jordan with another couple last February with Memphis Tours. We had an armed guard plus a guide with us most of the time. As part of the tour we did a 4 day Nile cruise on the Sonesta Moon Goddess. The whole trip was fabulous.

http://www.trenitalia.com/tcom-en

This is the trenitalia website in English. We copied down all the train times that we thought we might need so we kinda knew which train to select. We bought tickets to climb the leaning tower at a time we thought would fit. You have to check all your bags (backpack, purse) before you can climb. You can only buy tickets the 20 days before your climb.

http://www.opapisa.it/en/tickets/buy/