Daisi

My sister is still moaning over the loss of her blackberry.

I just upgraded in December from my old 6 (passed on to my DH) to a 15. All of our family (except 2) are on iPhones, so it makes messaging so much easier when you are on pay-as-you-go with no texting. We tried an android (Samsung) tablet when we first started (only had old phones with no "smart" features) and although it was a brand new tablet, I got 2 upgrades and that was it. That's why we switched to Apple, at least we were pretty much guaranteed 5 years. With all the stuff you do on a phone these days, having the security (and I also have a separate virus protection with VPN) is very important to me. @Canal archive, if my 86 yr old Mother can learn to use an iPhone, I'm sure you can learn any new phone.

@Kristelle, I agree with you. As long as the tops on women aren't overly revealing so that my DH drops his jaw into the soup, or the men are dressed in a clean top (not a tank top), I don't care what they wear. I would rather have someone who can carry on a decent conversation than someone who is worried about how they are dressed. I tend to look people in the eyes anyway when talking to them, so don't really notice how they are dressed.

We register for the included tours with Avalon through the MyAvalon site, but can still change at last minute - handy when you are debating between a more gentle or hiking excursion and the weather isn't the best. 🙂 I tend to stick to croissants, cheese, sliced meat and fruit for breakfast, but I will occasionally switch over to the "hot" side and slip a bit of bacon. This is my ideal breakfast, and why we prefer to sail in the spring, so when we come home, we can get the fresh fruit to enjoy.

Ok, we've never sailed with Viking, but my S & BiL do. Interesting about the tickets, Avalon has little "baskets' out with tags, you get to choose which tour you wish to go on so can select the ones with fewer guests or change from one tour to a different one if you wish. I don't think we've ever had announcements on any our our cruises. I think I'd try the back bacon, probably more like our "peal meal" bacon which those south of us call Canadian Bacon!

I meant no more buffet lunch. Sit down as in "menu" only. Sorry, must be localised saying. 🙂

We lucked out with that, while wandering around Amsterdam on the day we landed for our first cruise, we saw a group of guys carrying a sofa down the street...followed them to watch them drag it up to the window by the hoist. They asked if we wished to help, but we told them it looked like they had it sorted, but thanks for the experience. 🙂 Does Viking only have the sit down meals now at lunch?

I even drink my espressos black. My after dinner drink is a double espresso when cruising.

Have to say, we weren't to impressed with the big buildup of the coffee, I also drink my coffee black (well, occasionally with the shot of Irish Whiskey). I don't mind a bit of cream on top occasionally, usually i tend to eat it off before getting to the good stuff. Maybe because I didn't find it much different than the fancy alcoholic coffees we usually go for when we want a desert in a restaurant. All that hype for nothing different really.

I'm another one who will usually pack a pair of jeans if we are travelling when it will be cooler. I find them warm enough (and wear them in -40 temps without long johns) and appreciate that they don't wrinkle or crease. Guess it just depends on how you live, and what you are comfortable with.

Sorry, but we (my husband and myself) can read the app no problem on our phones. We liked having them to check easily.

I hope you are feeling better soon, sorry that you had to start your trip this way. Hopefully you will have a great day at Keukenhof.

As stated above, the included tours are usually great. You get the basic local history, and with Avalon, most guides are local, so can often fill you in with some tidbits you would never find in a guide. You usually have a good hour or more after to wander around on your own, so you get the best of both worlds. A great example of the extra you get from a guide - on our excursion to Colmar, after the "tour" our guide asked if anyone wanted to have an extra tour of the Isenheim Altarpiece. We had just seen a show on it so of course we jumped on it. I think about 3 other couples joined in. Our guide gave a great explanation of all the aspects of the Altarpiece, and was very informative. On the other hand, when we were going to the Black Forest Outdoor Museum (it wasn't a day long tour as it is now, only 1/2 day) we got caught in one of the little villages and stuck in a traffic jam, making us late getting there. The guide let us know we would only have 1 1/2 hr to see it in order to get back to the ship in time. We have done several of these museums, so didn't need the "history" of how everyone lived back then, so skipped the tour and did our own wandering around and were fine. The ones who stayed with the guide ended up with limited time to tour around the buildings after her explanation and all the other questions that guests were asking.

Gotta love Canadian weather! Woke up Friday morning with 20cm of heavy wet snow on the ground. Had to drive up into the city today, 18C, and everyone is out wearing shorts, and the convertibles are all out with the tops down. I hate to say it because we thought so last weekend, but just maybe, spring has arrived!

We can do the gates with our passports. I think part of our problem was we were flying around hurricanes, and there were a number of flights that were delayed. We were worried we wouldn't even be able to get out. I do have to admit, Amsterdam is great for trying to ensure everyone connects for their flights, as they were calling people out of the lineup and putting them through the e-gates, which they did for us returning back after sitting for an hour on the tarmac in Prague.

One set of flights I am looking at for next year have Air Canada returning from Amsterdam. I have avoided travelling with them, but unfortunately, unless we wish to go Amsterdam-Zurich-Montreal, we are stuck with them. We usually fly KLM, but wanted to avoid Amsterdam this year after the fun we had last year with a slightly delayed delayed flight as it took us over an hour to get through Passport Control and then major run to get to our connecting flight in time. I am looking at Swiss Air for next year, hope they are OK. Glad to hear you made it through quickly.

Avalon docks in Remich, so your excursion to Luxemburg is from there. I believe we will be going to Trier from there as well. I notice that they have changed the tour for this year to dock in Grevenmacher, it used to be Remich. Maybe ours will change as well for 2025.

You could fly into Prague, spend a couple of days there, then get transport to Passau (about 1 1/2 - 2 hrs I think, and as Jaz says, Cesky Krumlov is well worth a visit), or fly into Budapest for a couple of days. Another consideration of flying out of Passau is the Nuremberg airport.

I guess you'll be going on another cruise then so you get to see them. 🙂

@1of4 we got up this morning figuring we lucked out....just a dusting after a very windy night. About 7:00 it started snowing, now we almost have as much as you. Start dreaming of warmer weather, should be along soon.

@gnome12, yes, we have been known for quickly draining our bottles before hitting security. What surprised me, they didn't take them out of the pockets in our knapsack, so didn't know if there was liquid in them or not. I wouldn't take the risk, but either we look really trustworthy, or I hit the right border officer on the right day (they even pulled us out and put us through the fast nexus line).

Yeah, in fact last year going through, we left the two (empty) bottles in our pockets in the knapsack and they didn't even question them. I guess as long as they aren't full, we could have gotten away with it.

Interesting... I guess that the only Eurostar transfers they are offering now for that area are from Amsterdam. I hadn't realised that when they started offering the no-fly cruises that it was only for certain cruises. https://www.avalonwaterways.co.uk/no-fly-cruises/ I know when we were taking the train in Basel back to Amsterdam, they arranged for a taxi to pick us up at the ship. I'm sure they would do the same for you.

@gnome12, I looked at those, but we wanted something we could set down and pass easily back and forth between us. The ones like that, you can't put down on a bench or something to use your hands for other things.

There are stainless steel bottles at the reception desk if you wish, not the easiest to drink out of, but they work, and no charge. Just didn't bother bringing them home. We tend to refill our plastic bottles that we pick up either on the plane, or bring with us to fill after security. We had purchased collapsing bottles, but they are even more awkward and heavier than the stainless ones.