Florida Jim

Text of report on Australia opening: "Australia is sticking to plans to start re-opening to the rest of the world only from the middle of next year, officials said on Sunday, resisting mounting pressure to end the closure of international borders."  from US News May 16, 2021

We are booked on Viking Orion, Feb. 7, 2022 Austrailia to New Zeland.

 

FlightFrom reports that the North American Sydney gateways are Vancouver, San Francisco, Los Angeles Dallas, and Houston and the Auckland gateways are Vancouver, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston.

If you enter a gateway and destination it will let you know who servers that route and when for each week that schedules are available, usually about 9 months.

In the past I have gone to Hipmunk, now defunk, so try screening flight as far out as you can using ITA Matrix.  You can enter a multi-city route using the cruise's embark/disembark airports.

 

I recently discovered FlightsFrom.  I was looking to break Atlanta to Sydney and Auckland to Atlanta into two legs, with stop-over in Honolulu and needed to find who served the Honolulu/Sydney/Auckland leg.

FlightsFrom shows who flys the route (non-stop) and what days they fly, they break it down into detailed weekly schedules.

Their report attached, randomly Week 12, Mar 22 - 28.

Hopefully others will find this a useful resource.
 

LeRenardrouge,

Thanks, sound great.  We should have much more daylight in August, along with heat.

gretschwhtfalcon,

Haven't done an Ocean Cruise before, but based on my research for our August 2019 Med Cruise, 
DV stateroom amenities include:

• 11:00 AM embarkation
• 2:00 PM stateroom access
• 24-hour room service

So you should be able to use room service if nothing else is available.  I have seen somewhere that room service is complimentry, but haven't been able to verify it.  

Maybe someone who has sailed with Viking before can confirm complementary room service.

Homosassa,

From previous CC post I believe this is the Villa Veronica link, let me know if it looks like what you found.

Please take the time to do a review after your stay, I look forward to reading it.

Have you determined the winery?

I had forgotten about the narrow steep stairs in the older buildings, Carol has a bad back so we may want to consider Villa Veronica.  We managed steep winding stairs on our train tour of Scotland, but that was three years ago.  I will be sure to ask about ground floor rooms.  

LFS517, look forward to your review.  You should have milder weather.   

Thanks, I will be sure and  have villa phone number programmed, just in case.

For Viking you need to know that they do not dock in Paris but at LePecq. The new Uniworld ship at 125m and the 110m ships dock in Paris. The coordinates on google maps are for Quai de Grenelles 48.852177, 2.284673 and for LePecq 48.896906, 2.107309 (roughly, not sure where the harbour for the cruise ships is).

 

By the way, on street view at Quai de Grenelles there is the Viking Neptune. Sadly, she does not sail the Seine anymore.

 

 

Edit: found the site in LePecq: 48.895517, 2.107091 there is a Viking ship docked there as it is a more recent streetview shot, a little further on the Viking ship vanishes (really odd but probably means there is a gap in the street view timing right there). My goodness doesn't the area look, err, "functional"!

 

notamermaid

notamermaid & others taking Paris - Normandy on Viking.

Here is link to Google Map with Viking Docks, based on vessel tracking, and other points of interest. Zoom and Pan for details.

Hope this helps.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=173rTmth7rsSg0SUP1dZIlgQ7Zdw&usp=sharing

How bizarre, seems like they were hunting for something.

I wish one of the major news organizations would purchase the data from MarineTraffic and plot it up with local time stamps.

I attempted to read the time stamp from the video, and came up with this:

https://wordpress25013.wordpress.com/2017/06/18/rank-speculation-on-uss-fitzgerald-acx-crystal

YouTube of MarineTraffic.com track playback is at:

A better track at:

On March 2nd, 2017 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) called for, by a resolution, the European Commission (EC) to impose visa requirements on US citizens visiting Europe. The resolution “urges” the EC to “adopt” the necessary legal measures “within two months” (June 22nd EC meeting). If applied, it would temporarily impose visa requirements on US travelers until full visa reciprocity is achieved.

More information

https://konna2017.wordpress.com/2017/03/06/will-we-need-a-french-visa

After the Canal House museum, we headed back to the hotel because the reception person - I hate that I have forgotten her name (they remembered ours!) - had said that the room would be ready around 11:00am.

We did Amsterdam to Basel in 2016, I have really enjoyed reliving our trip as I read your account.

We are doing Viking Air this year, Business Class, Atlanta to Paris. We are traveling a day early to have a jet lag day. Be aware that you loose your Viking Transfer if you don't fly Viking's schedule. Our intent had been to get an airport hotel and crash. Then meet the Viking Transfer the next day. Viking doesn't allow that, we have to arrange our own transfer. So we have book a downtown hotel, will Uber to hotel. Do some sightseeing the next morning, then Uber to ship. We will have Viking Transfer on the return.

We have alway splurge and booked Veranda Suite. I get up early, go get coffee and pastry and come back to room and read, transfer photos, write notes, without disturbing Carol who sleeps in to the last minute. It works well for us.

Might try posting on "Discussion" page on VRC's FB page:

https://www.facebook.com/VikingRiverCruises/app/202980683107053/

Aug 27 2017 Paris to Heart of Normandy Longship Rolf

Just got back from June 9th Amsterdam to Basel trip. Cut short at Speyer, by high water.

Day by day details and pics are at

http://vikingvidar20160609.blogspot.com/

Thanks for posting river status, Notamermaid. Doing Amsterdam to Basel (Viking Vidar) in 4 days, I really appreciate the updates.

My personal recommendation if you get down to Jazzbeau's area is Lulu's in Gulf Shore, the Smoked Shrimp Dip is to die for. http://www.lulubuffett.com/gulf-shores/menus.php

Take a look at RAVPower Filehub, a $40.00 solution, if you have access to an IOS or Android device.

http://www.ravpower.com/ravpower-rp-wd01-filehub-3000mah-power-bank.html

Can I transfer files from a SD card to a USB memory stick/hard drive with this device, while having no computer in between?

A: You use either the browser interface or the RAV Filehub app for IOS or Android and it allows you to copy from sd card to your usb flashdrive or hard drive (or visa versa). The copy happens directly in the device without going through your computer and it appears to be much faster than copying up to your computer.

- See more at: http://www.ravpower.com/ravpower-rp-wd01-filehub-3000mah-power-bank.html#sthash.YEMCvmu8.dpuf