Hoyaheel

I wear a dress pretty much all the times others wear jeans and a shirt or shorts and a shirt, AND the times others might wear dresses. I don't like skirts nearly as much because I dislike waistbands 😉 As I always says, variety is the spice of life - how boring would it be if we all wore the same things??

I didn't read anything into the headline at all. I assumed it was a fluke of translation from the original German, honestly. But my job entails a LOT of english-as-a-second (or third or fourth or, well, you get the picture) language that I try really hard to avoid assumptions based on word choice. 

The fit of a specific shoe is just so unique - we all have different feet, and different styles even from a brand that "normally" work sometimes don't. Ah well. I do love my birkenstock gizehs, which is a thong style, but that's one of the few thongs I've found comfortable in a long time. And even there - if I'll be wearing the shoes longer than 4 hours, I typically choose a different style sandal. My toes have limits - my arches are happy, but....

Viking is thought of for older people because that is what their CEO has repeatedly said is their target demographic. That said, they might offer the perfect itinerary and just the right onboard ambiance and port activities for you no matter what your age (as long as you're >18 because they don't allow kids onboard), despite the CEO 😉 But there's a reason for the widely held beliefs.

Personally, I've done two avalon cruises - Germany Christmas Markets and the Mekong. I was 41 and 46. Had a blast - especially the Mekong! Both cruises had families on them - no very young children, but definitely age diversity. River cruising isn't my favorite vacation mode, but it's not because of my age.

I have a pair of rockport loafers (ish) that are falling apart and I haven't been able to find anything to replace them - makes me so sad! I'll have to check out their sandals this year (I no longer like toe thongs or toe bondage - what are those called for shoes? Toe rings? I had a pair ages ago and someone called it "toe bondage" at a party and that's how I've thought of it ever since 😉 

52 minutes ago, slidergirl said:

I do see a few Jambu offerings which could fit:  The Water Diva (the pink is really cute),  the Trapper,  the Mystic (on Zappos - if you can do a closed heel).  I would also say to look on the Teva website - they have more than just those classic heavy rubber and webbing sandals!!!   

Well, the mystic isn't a sandal, and the other two have webbing straps, which OP said was too athletic for her in an earlier post, which is why I discounted their offerings. But I'm not the one shopping and OP likes all the recs so que sera sera 😉 

This thread (and frankly, many threads here 😉 ) are full of people posting their FAVORITES with little regard to what the OPs actually ask. Sometimes it's due to general thread drift - I get it, the internet is a wild & wooly place 😉 But I do try to at least keep my first response on track!

[birks do sometimes come in narrower footbeds! And SOFT footbeds. But I love them because they're wider - I get it. I didn't wear them for many years but came back to them after my first bout of PF a few years back - they happen to work well for me.]

Variety is the spice of life!

As someone with wider feet (but not "wide" in most brands...) Seibel and Clarks tend to be too narrow for me. So, might be a great option for someone with a narrower foot!

Birkis do have some options made from EVA - I looked at them prior to our Caribbean cruise last year - but decided I wouldn't be at the beach and didn't need them 😉 I live in my gizehs (have silver and black) so was looking at a nice cobalt version in that style. Maybe another time 😉 https://www.birkenstock.com/us/women/sandals/water-friendly/

I have some chacos open-side shoes I love - but they're more an athletic shoe than a sandal. I also adore ECCO and Dansko but have never seen a beach-friendly option from those brands.

I know in my mom's case, she needed HER orthotics, not just someone else's comfortable footbed. So Vionics might not be the right answer (for me personally, only about half the vionics I try on are comfortable - those that work REALLY work - but the others just don't, so....)

If you look at specialized stores, like the Walking Company, you can sort by sandals with removable footbeds. They sell Naot among other brands. Good luck!

I thought about suggesting Jambu but didn't see any on their site at this moment that would work for OP's requirements. I have a pair of wedge sandals that are so comfortable. Except I can't move in them. I fall off when I try to walk. Have owned 2 years because they're cute and I *want* to be able to wear them. But alas, I think this is the year they go to the thrift store.....[I've known I have problems with all heels - including wedges that others can handle easily - but I thought these would be different because they were so comfy when I tried them on. Boo hiss]

OK, are you ACTUALLY going to a beach on this trip?? Do you plan to do lots of walking on the beach or in the water? If not, honestly, I'd bring sandals that meet your other needs and just go barefoot if you go to the beach. I hate wearing shoes on sand, anyway, but I also hate sand in general, so maybe that's just me 😉 I agree with others it will be difficult to find sandals to wear with dresses AND be good in water/on the beach if you don't want something that is "sporty" looking at a minimum.... 

You can't sort or analyze tables or lists in Word. By "analyze", I often use excel to count the number of times a certain word is used in a column (like countries or cities) so I know the number of records in the spreadsheet assigned to different categories. I change the sort options all the time. Can do that with two clicks in excel, not at all in Word.

I have spreadsheets for travel planning. For packing, I use Word and PowerPoint. It's helpful for me to put together my mix and match separates into different outfits by day (I keep photo files - easy when I do much of my shopping online - but it's still easy to find or even take photos of other items) 

That said, I have been known to use Excel for non-numerical purposes. It's still good for sorting and analyzing even without numerical calculations.

1 hour ago, newcruiser1956 said:

Cambodia School Tour - Mekong River

 

Can anyone give us an idea of how many kids,  how much stuff should we bring??

We didn't bring anything - just gave cash through the cruise director who collected from anyone willing. One family brought a bag of stuff - pencils, paper, magnets  or something similar. Honestly - money is most useful AND easiest because you don't have to add weight in your bags. Most NGOs prefer money - they can get more, and what they need. 

I've seen lots online shopping in the US- Uniqlo, JCrew, Nordstrom, even Chicos 😉  (most are "midi" length - but that length varies SO much - knee for some people, tea length or ballerina for other designers. Ah well)

1 hour ago, dogs4fun said:

Yes - all small villages and ours was a lovely cruise.

Husband and I agree that our Mekong trip on Avalon last summer was the best trip we've taken together so far!

And don't forget to keep a couple 50c and 1E coins on you for bathroom trips 😉

The Mekong also fits, since you didn't specify where you'd like to cruise. Every stop in between HCMC and Phnom Penh was a very small village.

On 2/19/2020 at 10:31 AM, WisRiver said:

As you go through the locks, 

Also, locks can be noisy, since this post was about smells and noise. You're often sailing at night so if you're not a heavy sleeper, maybe bring earplugs or a white noise machine/app.....

I don't remember any small children or teens on our AK cruise (Sept 2018). We're 45 & 50 and found quite a few people onboard in our age range - it was a very active cruise (we saw lots of people quite older than us getting onto kayaks 😉 ) It was a VERY enjoyable trip for us. The Ventures team was so amazing!

Oh, we have terms of endearment for each other. But they are for each other - not how we refer to each other on the internet 😉

1 hour ago, CPT Trips said:

Hoyaheel, FYI or fwiw.

In the past I posted links relevant to non cruise questions with no blowback. Key thing to avoid are competing travel agency sites and sites with “inappropriate” content. Unless pickle ball is something other than I think it is, the latter should be no problem. 🙄

 

 

It was TA sites with chartered trips, nothing inappropriate 😉 Just against the rules here. Sorry, I thought I was clear but nope, I was not....

We did a cruise on Avalon, NUE-BSL, so, main/danube canal, Main, a little of the Rhine - for the Christmas markets. Definitely got some good German feeling on that trip (Christmas was my priority, Germany was my husband's priority, so that was our compromise) There are so many good options out there!

(my in-laws were on that cruise with us  in 2014 - it was their first Avalon cruise after 4 or 5 Uniworld cruises. They loved Uniworld, but they thoroughly enjoyed Avalon as well)

PS I don't think the terms of CC allow me to post some of the other links I found - but there are group pickleball vacations, and it looks like last year there was (at least) one chartered river cruise just for pickleballers. Since we can't post travel agency links, I won't. But they're out there. Trips for everyone and every hobby!!!