Daisi

We had our Christmas parade last night in the rain, with today and tomorrow being our local village's Christmas weekend. Woke up this morning to snow on the ground, so sleigh rides through the village will be much better. It’s pretty seeing the snow on the trees, and all the decorations and lights.

I understand your feelings of possibly not being safe, however as cruises and trips are still going on in Egypt I'm not sure what you expect. Your cruise probably did go, so it would be the same for those who cancel European cruises on the *chance* of low water problems, and you would have no recourse. As mentioned by @Squawkman, this is when CFAR insurance is best. We always choose it as we have situations at home where we may have to cancel shortly before our cruises. Since the war isn't in Egypt, I'm not sure your CC will cover it. I wish you good luck.

@AtlantaCruiser72 just had confirmation from cruisers that they are still using the older sets that don't give the wifi when away from the ship, you will only hear the guide. You may be able to get away with a Bluetooth transmitter, but not sure. We only had the older style for our cruise in Sept, but since they didn't have wifi, I didn't bother trying to see if a transmitter would work.

I hope more airlines do this, Cdn trains aren't much, but the European ones that we've been on are fantastic.

Thanks Kristelle, I had to "google" the date!

If I see anything, I'll try to let you know.

They were using the whisper type on our tour in Sept. I don't know if a Bluetooth dongle would work. They had others out that it did work with Bluetooth dongles this spring, but had a problem with them, so had to go back to the older type this summer. I've seen Globus is apparently using the wifi ones now, so hopefully by next spring they will be back to them.

Totally agree. We like our fresh air, so always get the French Balcony on Avalon, but on the middle deck and towards the back. If I'm lucky enough, I book the cabin right beside the one that is the next level....same cabin, but gives us more to enjoy on an optional excursion or special treat.

My Mom always made Spritzgebäck, usually just the crescent shaped ones dipped in dark chocolate, not sure if the rum was in them, but I'll have to put in a request. 🙂 We didn't have goose on our cruise, but we did have pigs cheeks. We were gutsy, and they were quite tasty.

I hope that is available, it looks great. It's not listed on our tour, but there is a wine tasting in Bernkastle-Kues, so hopefully we can see the town and the excursion will be in the afternoon. Thanks for the info!

Thanks. I can't do anything about flights now, but we have mentioned to Avalon that we may go through them, so at least that way they provide the transport. It's just so hard having to wait....... 🙂

Thanks. No problem taking luggage on the bus? Only public transit we have taken was the tram in Amsterdam, and I sure wouldn't want to take the luggage on that...to packed with people! We've booked for 2025, eagerly watching YouTube videos of the towns on the Moselle to see what they are like. 🙂

@TikiIslandGirl, how did your trip go? Looking for transport options as well.

Neither of my Grandfathers talked about the war much, except with my husband and then it was transport & tanks (one transported tanks, the other drove them). Ironically, they actually met up in the Netherlands close to where my Father-in-Law lived, as one transported the other's tank. Guess they got together as they were both from the same area (east Ont., west Quebec). 10 years later when my parents started going out and introduced the parents to each other, they recognised each other! Would have loved to hear some of the stories they told amongst themselves, as one was a bit of a character. 🙂

Thanks @Sleep7, I really enjoyed that. Glad you had a great time. Loved the photos.

Most Canadian cities and towns have memorials for the two wars. We will be down at our ceremony on Saturday to lay a wreath for my Grandfathers, who met during the war, and then 10 yrs later reunited when my parents got together. We have found some secrets hidden in my Great-Aunt's papers that showed she worked for Sir William Stephenson. I wish we had know that when she was alive.

I like the airline apps that track your luggage for you. Our KLM one did as well, so we had fun just tracing our air tags.

Glad you got everything ok.

@JillSR - you download the AvalonGo app. It's got everything on it - maps, menus, excursions etc., so it's all handy. There was one lady on our tour that had the excursion sheets printed out, not sure if the reception did it for her or not. I just d/l everything once I was home, transferred from .pdf to .dox for easier reading, and saved it for future reference. One of the dinner menu's is wrong, we were handed paper ones when we arrived into the dining room and they had a total different menu. Everything was tasty (but I eat meat). I know some passengers were gluten free, and they worked well for them - even had croissants that one of them said tasted just as good as normal ones, and were really flaky.

@JillSR, they should be in your inbox now. Have fun. When you board the ship, they hold a meeting for those with special dietary needs. Join in on that, and they will work with you the best they can to help you have more than salads & soup.

Missed Nuremburg because of low water, but they re-arranged things great. I have your e-mail, you can erase it from the post if you wish. Will e-mail shortly.

Yes, I can email them, I have all (breakfast, light & regular lunch, and dinner). Would you like them as well? If you are on the Blue Danube Discovery cruise I can send you the dailies, however ours switched a bit because we ran into some low water levels....but they will give you an idea of what to expect. Just don't expect times to be the same. We started off with 2 days in Budapest, ended with 2 days in Prague...missed Nuremburg unfortunately.

@JillSR Sorry, tried to d/l some of our menus from our Sept Danube cruise, but it won't allow me to d/l .pdf or .dox

Dinner starts at 7:00. You can arrive later, but you will be seating at a table where others are already into their dinner. We had a couple join us, and they kind of held back our meal so they could catch up. No problem for us, we were enjoying the conversation, so time went by quickly. Tables are arranged mostly for 6, one couple will sit down, others join in. There are tables for 2 as well, but they are quite close together so you may as well be at a larger table. The larger round tables are usually taken up by larger groups travelling together, I think they hold 8-10. You can go to the Avalon site and take a virtual tour of the dining room to see how it's arranged, even tour your cabin. We haven't met any one yet who prefers to be on their own, we usually sit at an empty table and by the time meals are served, it's full. You will love touring, most we have met are very friendly and outgoing.

Ok, our first cruise with Avalon, we did our own pre & post cruise, but they still booked our tickets at no charge. We didn't get transfers, but that was no problem, as the hotel we stayed at had a free shuttle, so only had to get a short ride by taxi to the train station in Basel.