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I'd go with one of these:

Villages of Provence

Luberon Villages: Discover the Secrets of Provence

Avignon Discovery

I would NOT do the "Panoramic" tour, as this means you'll be sitting in the bus most of the time. Also, Marseille and Aix are extremely easy to see on your own via public transportation (bus/taxi), while the ones I listed above are not as easy to do on your own, and therefore the extra expenditure for the ship's tour is more easily justified.

We did this excursion a few years ago with our kids. We all thought it was grossly overpriced and really mediocre. The cart ride, itself, was just a few minutes, and we spent a lot of time waiting around doing nothing or listening to speakers who were not very engaging. My favorite part of the trip was the ride from the cruise port to the Mushing Camp, which was beautiful through the forest. It was one of the few Alaska excursions that I would not recommend.

You're welcome, & yeah, the hat, if I'm not at work, I'm probably wearing that hat. ;) best sun protection ever :)

Hi cruisekitty:

How did you find the bike riding on Waiheke Island? Our family is considering this, but I've read that the roads are narrow and have quite a bit of traffic. Did you find this to be the case?

We had a great private tour to Etna with this company:

https://www.etnasicilytouring.com/en/excursions-etna/shore-excursions-from-messina.html

We had a fabulous tour to Girona with this company:

http://www.kokopeliadventure.com/our-tours-activities/day-tours/

Juneau:

Definitely do the Mendenhall Glacier Trek:

https://beyondak.com/trips/mendenhall-glacier-trek/

We did this with teenage girls (16 and 12) who loved it!

(B) You need to ask the tour operators directly your question about timing, particularly the helicopter company. They will know whether you have time for both.

© Ketchikan: You are coming at the perfect time to take a flight to see bears at Anan Creek. However, finding 4 tickets this late could be a challenge. I suggest calling all flight vendors to see what is available. Otherwise, I recommend kayaking with Southeast Sea Kayak Co. or hiking the Ward Lake Trail, where the kids will love the rope swing.

(D) Our kids would have been bored stiff by Butchardt Gardens at those ages. With the Orca Exploration, the kids might be very disappointed in the not unlikely event that you see no whales. I really suggest you go take them to Miniature World (https://miniatureworld.com/contact/). Our kids were older, but they still loved it.

This is incredibly helpful. Would you mind sharing why you preferred Rafiance’s sister over Jewel? Thanks!

Sure, no problem. In retrospect, we've actually sailed two of the sisters, the Jewel of the Seas in the Caribbean and the Serenade of the Seas in the Mediterranean. These ships are beautiful with the expansive outdoor glass public viewing areas that are somewhat lacking on the NCL ship. This is a big advantage for Alaska. The fitness center on the NCL Jewel is waaaay to small for a ship that size. It also has very limited viewing, which makes it somewhat claustrophobic and also means that you miss out on many wonderful sights while exercising (which is not true of the RCI Radiance class ships). We really like the Centrum on the RCI ships for their activities. NCL did not have an analogous location that was the center of activity. In addition, although clearly subjective, I prefer the food on RCI over NCL.

Having said all this, I would still return to NCL any time if the itinerary and price were right.

OP: We have been to all of these ports and all of the glaciers on both the NCL and the RCI itineraries. We have also sailed the NCL Jewel in Alaska and a sister of the Radiance in the Caribbean. With that background.....

You will have a fabulous time on either ship/itinerary. They are both excellent and clearly superior to the Ovation, which has one of my least favorite itineraries.

I would weigh my priorities of ship and glacier viewing vs. port. Both end in Seward and will allow you to do the Kenai Fjords tour if you allow time after the cruise. Do you have a strong preference for multiple glacier viewing? If so, then pick the Jewel, which has Glacier Bay, Hubbard and the Kenai Fjords opportunity. Alternatively, would you rather spend more time on land in Alaska with still some glacier viewing opportunity? If so, then pick the Radiance. You are very likely to at least be able to see Hubbard (if only from afar), and, even if not, then you have another chance on the Kenai Fjords tour. For ship, we significantly preferred the Radiance's sister over the NCL Jewel.

For me, I would pick the Radiance because I like the port stops, and I'm not as overwhelmed by the glaciers.

How do you find out when/where tender tickets will be issued, in order to join the queue before starting?

My daughters are also vegetarian (not vegan). We've eaten a couple of times in Teresa Carles, which I heartily recommend. We also ate at Vegetalia in Raval (3 locations).

With a 14 year old boy, I would certainly plan to climb the dome of St. Peter's Basilica, the Tower of Pisa (pre-book tickets), the Duomo in Florence, the hill to the Conception Castle in Cartagena, and the Mediterranean Steps up the Rock of Gibraltar. If you notice a theme here, you're correct. We did all of these with our teenage daughters. I would also not miss a trip from Malaga to the Alhambra, but that's more of an adventure than these other port stops because the transportation is not nearly as simple.

Great ideas! Thanks everyone.

I agree with Texed about getting a group together, but if you cannot get a group together, then go with this shuttle, which will be more efficient and cost less than Celebrity:

https://www.romashuttle.com/

This is the second reference to the business class broker for tickets. I have flown a lot but always booked myself and know nothing about this. Due to a medical condition economy seats are no longer a possibility. Can you elaborate on how to find a broker? Is the same as a consolidator? Can I book in Canadian $? Any info appreciated.

You need to be very, very, VERY cautious about considering this. Many of the brokers are using bought or (worse) stolen frequent miles, both of which are illegal and may result in you not flying if the airline finds out about it. This has been discussed many times on the flyertalk website.

We are booked on a cruise a many months in advance and are not certain that the cruise dates will work out for us. However, we are committed to taking a land trip if the cruise does not work.

Right now there are good prices (better than direct from airline) for flights on the FlightsbyCelebrity website. If we purchase the nonrefundable airfare and cancel the cruise, can we still use the flights for the land tour?

Having taken our teenagers 3 times to Alaska, I suggest you consider splitting up at some of the ports to allow your teens to do something active away from the seniors. Our teens loved kayaking in Ketchikan and the guided Mendenhall Glacier Trek in Juneau.

I suggest taking the train to Madrid for a few days and touring that city, especially if you have any interest in art and architecture.

We also enjoyed visiting Girona for a day, as well as Montserrat.

With respect to your question about the hotel, are you considering apartments? Another option is to stay in one of the Spanish paradors, although there are none that I am aware of that are located in Barcelona.

Have you considered driving?

Thank you for your input. We're staying in Queenstown!

We will have 6 days (including embarkation day) in NZ before embarking on cruise from Auckland, and we are planning to fly to Queenstown. Cruise has a port stop in Akaroa. We are 2 adults and 2 twentysomethings who enjoy hiking, biking, walking, kayaking, and outdoor activity.

Do you think it's worth the trip to Christchurch (and then flight from Christchurch to Auckland one day before embarkation) in this short amount of time? We would not rent a car, but rather would take a one day bus tour via Mt. Cook:

https://www.awesomenz.com/choose-your-awesome-destination/mt-cook/mt-cook-aoraki-queenstown-christchurch/

Alternatively, we could just stay in Queenstown and then fly to Auckland from there.

Before you get totally locked in to this, it is worth calculating whether this is actually a good use of miles. I'm not sure how the cash element is charged on these tickets, but if you are paying a large cash element on top of the miles used then it can make it a very poor use of miles. This can be very pronounced when redeeming for economy tickets on certain airlines.

Thank you for the caveat. Cash payment is $92.01 per ticket plus 40K miles for SYD to BWI. Interestingly, I have on hold economy tickets from BWI to CHC in which cash payment is $27.80 per ticket plus 40K miles. Although I don't doubt that business/first tickets would be more cost-effective, I am still satisfied with the use of the miles in economy, particularly since business/first tickets are not available (nor are likely to become available per Gardyloo).

I just hit the jackpot! I got 4 (yes four!) MileSaaver award tickets from SYD to BWI via DFW on 12/25. Coach, but who's complaining?

Thank you all for your wise advice. I'll go with the paid tickets then.

We would like to cruise Celebrity Solstice from Auckland to Sydney (Dec 10-23), but the airfare costs more than the cruise (!), and yes, my tongue is firmly planted in my cheek. I know, I know... we should book a suite so that the cruise costs more than the airfare. Barring that, we ask you to come up with some creative ways to get from the Washington area there and back.

(1) We have a supply of Aadvantage miles that we could use for MileSaaver awards (2) to get to AKL around 1 Dec, but we cannot find any MileSaaver awards for the return from SYD from 23 to 31 Dec. Yes; I understand that this is the holiday period, so that we are unlikely to find any of these for SYD to mainland USA. Are there any creative routes that might be more likely to have MileSaaver award availability?

(2) We priced a one way flight from SYD to WAS on the Air2Sea, but (gee whiz) the flight costs more than the cruise (tongue once again planted in cheek).

(3) Flights are now on sale from Chicago (multicity) for less than $1100 (still more than the cruise...), but this seems like a very good price, as flights from WAS are around $1700. Would you take the chance of buying the flights from Chicago and adding on a separate ticket for round trip WAS to CHI? We're not so concerned about the time of travel, just the risk of separate flights. How long a time interval would you think is reasonable between arriving on the WAS to CHI flight and then departing on the following flight to AKL?

If you have any other creative solutions, please feel free to provide them. Our budget for flights would be a maximum of $1400.

Thank you for considering.