River Cruising Water Cooler

[notamermaid]

1 hour ago, gnome12 said:

I’d prefer to do that from a Gold Leaf dome car than from a bus. 

Dome car - that reminds me. We have an old fast train that is now a museum train but runs trips organized by a company. It is the Rheingold. It has a dome car. If one happens to be around when the day trips run... But you can also book holidays: https://www.ake-eisenbahntouristik.de/ake-rheingold/

You take the train to lovely places in Germany or neighbouring countries and then stay in a hotel.

 

Still have not found time to do one of those trips.

 

notamermaid

 

[Daisi]

38 minutes ago, notamermaid said:

Dome car - that reminds me. We have an old fast train that is now a museum train but runs trips organized by a company. It is the Rheingold. It has a dome car. If one happens to be around when the day trips run... But you can also book holidays: https://www.ake-eisenbahntouristik.de/ake-rheingold/

You take the train to lovely places in Germany or neighbouring countries and then stay in a hotel.

 

Still have not found time to do one of those trips.

 

notamermaid

 

Those look really interesting.  I've bookmarked it under our bucket list.  Now to get my German up to scratch. 🙂

 

[Coral]

4 hours ago, dogs4fun said:

This is what interests me - like the 6 night itinerary starting in Vegas and ending in Denver.

That would require me to actually go to Vegas to start. Probably not going to happen for me.

[dogs4fun]

23 minutes ago, Coral said:That would require me to actually go to Vegas to start. Probably not going to happen for me.

Not partial to Vegas or something else?

Last trip to Vegas was a January visit about five years ago - it was a very short, inexpensive flight. Was a nice escape from the frigid temperatures in Denver & we enjoyed shows featuring Celine Dion & The Beatles Cirque du Soleil. Also enjoyed a winter visit to the Grand Canyon.

[Coral]

25 minutes ago, dogs4fun said:

Not partial to Vegas or something else?

Last trip to Vegas was a January visit about five years ago - it was a very short, inexpensive flight. Was a nice escape from the frigid temperatures in Denver & we enjoyed shows featuring Celine Dion & The Beatles Cirque du Soleil. Also enjoyed a winter visit to the Grand Canyon.

I am not big into casinos or the smoky atmosphere. I do have to say the shows I have seen there have been excellent (I haven't seen The Beatles but that would be good to see). I think I saw Cirque du Soleil's "O" and a few others.

 

The last time I was there - I just got a bad vibe with all the people handing out cards for "adult entertainment". 

Edited June 17, 2021 by Coral

[Canal archive]

Oh love Vegas first went there almost 40 years ago (ouch) last time with my husband on a business trip doubt that I will go again but such an interesting people watching place. CA

[dogs4fun]

7 hours ago, Canal archive said:

Oh love Vegas first went there almost 40 years ago

Vegas has drastically changed over the years - especially since 1989 (mega resorts along what is now the Vegas Strip). If you have the opportunity to visit again, I believe you will be surprised.

[capriccio]

I've never been to Las Vegas (DH has) and the casinos don't really interest me but I would really like to see the Hoover Dam although I get vertigo just thinking about.  My BIL is an engineer and that has been one of his favorite visits anywhere in the world.

[CPT Trips]

Las Vegas can be a great starting point for a road trip to one or more national parks. Just stay a night or two at the beginning and/or end of the trip. See the strip and take in a show or two.

[dogs4fun]

11 hours ago, CPT Trips said:

Las Vegas can be a great starting point for a road trip to one or more national parks. Just stay a night or two at the beginning and/or end of the trip. See the strip and take in a show or two.

Precisely my sentiments. I'm not into gambling but do enjoy the shows and the accessibility to some pretty awesome sights.

Edited June 18, 2021 by dogs4fun

[jpalbny]

12 hours ago, CPT Trips said:

Las Vegas can be a great starting point for a road trip to one or more national parks. Just stay a night or two at the beginning and/or end of the trip. See the strip and take in a show or two.

 

39 minutes ago, dogs4fun said:

Precisely my sentiments. I'm not into gambling but do enjoy the shows and the accessibility to some pretty awesome sights.

 

Agree with both of you. We like to fly in and have a nice day or two there, with some nice dinners and perhaps a show. Haven't even used a slot machine since our first visit back in the 90s.

 

Problem is, it used to be super cheap there but not any more. They are wise to my tactics...

 

The restaurant offerings on the strip are pretty amazing. We really like Julian Serrano in the Aria - nice tapas offerings. And not horribly expensive. Daniel Boulud used to have a place in LV too but alas, no more. 

 

Las Vegas can be cheesy for sure but we like to look at all the fake representations of places we've visited and reminisce. So instead of thinking that Paris Las Vegas is fake, we enjoy it for a few minutes because it makes us think of the real thing.

 

But hey, it's not for everyone. 

[gnome12]

My one "trip" to Las Vegas had me on the ground for less than 10 minutes. I had been at a conference in Cedar Rapids, but my flight to Chicago was cancelled due to weather and I needed to get home. So somehow I got routed from Cedar Rapids to Denver to Las Vegas to Toronto. Then, the flight to Denver was delayed, and I worried about missing my connection, but was assured that it would be fine. I ended up landing in Las Vegas, running from one gate to the next where they were holding the plane for me, they closed the door behind me and we departed. From the time the wheels touched down to wheels up was less than 10 minutes.

 

I've never had a desire to go back, but some of what people say is making me think a bit about it.

[jpalbny]

@gnome12, that reminds me of our first visit to Salt Lake City. 

 

One February long ago, Chris and I had conferences in Hawaii. It was to be our second visit to the big island and we were super excited. 

 

Mistake one. Taking United in February. Albany- Chicago-Kona. Mistake two. Not realizing it was Presidents Week. Mistake three. We never used to cross pack.

 

So. Boarded in Albany. Taxied. Problems, back to gate, deplaned, waited 2 hours. Back on, took off...now weather delays at O'Hare. Landed in Detroit. Waited an hour or two on the ground, couldn't deplane. Took off again finally, and landed in Chicago 8 hours late.

 

Missed the connection obviously. No room to easily rebook as it's an insanely popular time for Hawaii. They rebooked us on DL. Chicago-Salt Lake that night. SLC-Kona the next morning. But they wouldn't give us our checked luggage. 

 

So Chris was wearing a cute little sundress and sandals. Perfect for Salt Lake in the winter. And the heat was pretty inadequate in our hotel. Poor girl was freezing all night.

 

Made it to Kona a day late. No luggage. Her bag appeared a few hours later. Mine took another day or two. 

 

Many lessons earned from that trip. But we've gone back to Salt Lake since, and enjoyed it.

 

***

 

Another running between gates story.

 

Flying back from San Diego in December 2010, through MSP. Had a 90 minute layover. Our takeoff was delayed over an hour due to fog. So there went that cushion.

 

On the way I used the in-flight Wi-Fi to check our connection and saw that they'd already booked us on tomorrow morning's flight to Albany. But we landed about 10 minutes before our original flight was set to depart. 

 

We ran for it. Of course it was in a different terminal. As we exited the train we heard the gate agents paging us overhead. We sprinted to the gate as they were preparing to close the door and just made it.

 

Good news #1. We got upgraded to first. Many people had missed the connection. 

 

Good news #2. That was the night of a massive blizzard in Minneapolis. It was so bad that the roof of the Metrodome collapsed. All flights were canceled for a day or two. We would have been stuck there for quite a while... The next morning, my FlyDelta app helpfully informed me that our morning flight was canceled. Good thing we were already home!

 

Still can't believe our luck with that one.

[capriccio]

Similar United to Hawaii story:

 

On our first trip (to the Big Island) on May 10th our 8 am flight to Denver was delayed so long leaving Dulles due to thunderstorms (which rarely happen in May much less in the morning) that cleared the tarmac and we knew we wouldn't make our connection.  Approaching Denver the flight attendant announced that there was 6 inches of snow on the ground and 'some' of the outbound flights had been delayed and gave the gate numbers wishing everyone good luck.  We were at the next gate!  And we were in first class so we got off first, ran down the jetway, came out the door and there was no plane at the next gate. 

 

Just then we heard our name being paged to immediately report to a gate that seemed more than half the concourse away.  Thankfully we were much younger then and ran down the concourse feeling like OJ Simpson in those old Hertz commercials.  Huffing and puffing we reached the gate followed by another couple who had been on our flight.  The doors to the jetway and the plane closed behind us as soon as we passed them.  We got lots of dirty looks from passengers (who probably thought we were just lounging around not paying attention) but the flight made up the lost time and our luggage arrived in the middle of the night and was waiting by our door when we got up.

[CPT Trips]

Salt Lake City is also a good gateway for a road trip to scenic places like Jackson, Grant Teton, and Yellowstone. And, a Snake River “cruise.”

[sharkster77]

The slot machines in the Vegas airport men's rooms were a definite turn-off.  Ewww, I hope hands were washed before gambling!!!!!!

 

This was 35+ years ago.  I hope things have changed.

Edited June 18, 2021 by sharkster77

[gnome12]

Just an addendum to my story; because it was only a short conference I had only carry-on, so no worries about missing luggage. Unfortunately, there is no such thing as cross packing for one; if my suitcase doesn’t make it, I’m missing everything but what’s in my carryon. 

[CPT Trips]

Has anyone else had the opportunity to ride a courtesy cart  between terminals at LHR. I don’t recall exactly which terminals, definitely 5 and then one of 2,3, or 4, not that that effects the tale.

Our itinerary was PHL - BCN - LYS. No typos in the airport codes, so there is a big hint that something major went down. Sitting in PHL, we watched the sky get more and more threatening, the the trip started with a bang, of thunder as we walked down the jetway, and torrential rain started. That caused a lengthy delay, but once we took off I checked my watch and thought we had a chance to get to BCN and make our connection.

 

No such luck. The storm was moving directly along our flight path and the pilot had to deviate around it and take a substantially longer route. As the flight crew was preparing for landing, we were informed that we would not make our connection and an AA rep would meet us at the end of the jetway with our new boarding passes. There we discovered two other couples were on our same boat, so we weren’t alone.

 

The new flights involved a very long layover in BCN, and a tight connection in LHR for the connection to LYS. Arriving at LHR, we realized that the connection might not be doable using the inter terminal shuttle but saw a courtesy cart right by the gate. We managed to convince the driver that he had to take us to the other terminal. Then we realized that it was a six seat cart, two in a row, three rows and one of those six had to be the driver. The back row was rear facing, so three piled on there and their carryons went on the laps of the other three.

 

Off we went through the terminal to the elevator(?). Down for quite a long time, off the elevator and through windowless dimly lit corridors the we later realized went under the taxiways. Up another elevator and through the terminal to our gate. Active boarding was almost complete and we were the last to board. Had we relied on the normal inter terminal transport and walking through the terminals, we probably would have overnighted in London.

 

Our luggage met us in LYS! Ironically, all three couples purposely booked the original routing in order to avoid a transfer in LHR.

 

[jpalbny]

Good one!

 

I would have flown direct PHL-CDG and taken a train to Lyon. Probably would have been faster.

[CPT Trips]

Faster than 24 hours? You think? 😉 Or do you mean the original routing?

🤦🏻‍♂️Never even thought about that.
Don’t know if there was a nonstop to CDG available then. It’s an on again off again route. And we got a good deal on the cruise, which started in Macon, with air included and transfers included. Transfers came in very handy as we arrived at oh dark thirty and had a driver with a mini bus waiting there for us,

Edited June 19, 2021 by CPT Trips

[Canal archive]

Right pin your ears back, on route to join my DH who was in New Orleans at a photographic conference come exhibition. LHR To said city had to transfer en route (not good as I hadn’t thought of how far to get to my New Orleans plane so elegant shoes, large blister). Also never arrive in New Orleans during, wait for it Mardi Gras. My cab driver was a star he got me as close to my hotel as possible, you’ve guessed not that close at all. Whatever anyone says the NO police are wonderful, me plus full sized case (I was in the USA for two weeks) was passed from one of NOs finest to the next all along  part of the route to I think Canal street cross that to my hotel. My DH was a bit concerned that during our stay so many of them recognised me. Loved the city would go again if possible. CA

Edited June 19, 2021 by Canal archive

[gnome12]

Speaking of when NOT to arrive somewhere, arriving in Amsterdam on Queen's Day (now King's Day). I was smart enough to have booked a hotel right at Central Station, so I had an easy walk through the station and right to my hotel. Some other passengers had to depart the evening before to get a taxi to their hotels. Trying to move through the centre of town was very difficult, as there were so many people around.

[Daisi]

2 hours ago, gnome12 said:

Speaking of when NOT to arrive somewhere, arriving in Amsterdam on Queen's Day (now King's Day). I was smart enough to have booked a hotel right at Central Station, so I had an easy walk through the station and right to my hotel. Some other passengers had to depart the evening before to get a taxi to their hotels. Trying to move through the centre of town was very difficult, as there were so many people around.

 

We flew into Amsterdam on Kings Day.  Our hotel had a shuttle at the airport, so dropped our bags off, and took a tram into the city.  It was kinda nice, as we were wandering around at about 8:30, and there were few people there.  By the time we had a late lunch, did a bit more wandering, and figured we would go back to the hotel, it was very crowded.  Fortunately, we managed to get a tram no problem as we were heading out not in, but so glad we were there and able to enjoy our walk while it wasn't busy.

[gnome12]

1 minute ago, Daisi said:

 

We flew into Amsterdam on Kings Day.  Our hotel had a shuttle at the airport, so dropped our bags off, and took a tram into the city.  It was kinda nice, as we were wandering around at about 8:30, and there were few people there.  By the time we had a late lunch, did a bit more wandering, and figured we would go back to the hotel, it was very crowded.  Fortunately, we managed to get a tram no problem as we were heading out not in, but so glad we were there and able to enjoy our walk while it wasn't busy.

This worked for you because you were not staying in the centre of the city. If you had been, the shuttle could not have taken you to your hotel (or maybe it could because of the early hour; I don't remember what time they closed the roads) and you might have had to walk from a more distant spot.

[Daisi]

53 minutes ago, gnome12 said:

This worked for you because you were not staying in the centre of the city. If you had been, the shuttle could not have taken you to your hotel (or maybe it could because of the early hour; I don't remember what time they closed the roads) and you might have had to walk from a more distant spot.

 

We left Amsterdam Centraal around 2:30, and all roads were still open, so maybe they only close for evenings?  I know most of the stores outside the tourist district were closed, but in the tourist area, we had no trouble finding places to look into.