Fairgarth

Per person? No, no. You can find current regulated taxi fares on Antiguanice website. Better to look yourself since they might change from time to time.

Well now, if the Romans didn't have January, they couldn't have calends. Or could they? These burning, philosophical, existential questions are beyond my ken and I leave it to greater minds to elucidate.

Good question, but no. It was January. I don't know if Hogmanay has ides you should beware of, I'll have to google it.

We did enjoy HAL, it was an excellent cruise. It was over New Year's Eve - or more properly Hogmanay - so everybody got dressed up and made an occasion of it. That was a few years ago so I can't make any claim for what HAL is like post-pandemic. I notice that they still do parasailing off the beach at Puerto Vallarta but there is a dearth of first person reporting on such by your good self. I did it. Two guys, one in the speedboat and one on the beach, communicating by hand signals. After a brief briefing, I was up, way up. You are looking down on cruise ships and high rises well below you. You can look a vulture in the eye. "Yon vulture hath a lean and hungry look - such birds are dangerous". As I came down and skimmed over the treetops I was afraid my voice might go up by two octaves but I need not have worried. The guys were experts and I landed light as a feather on a sixpence. Whatever that is. I still sing baritone.

I stumbled over this thread by chance (and at my age stumbling is a not infrequent occurrence). What a pleasure to follow along a new GSJ and all the great photos! Thank you, kind Sir. We did that trip on Oosterdam some years ago so it brought back happy memories.

We have done trans-At on Seabourn, Azamara, Celebrity, Cunard and Royal Caribbean. We have done eastbound and westbound. Some years ago, Seabourn and Azamara had real deals on transatlantic but don't know if that is still true post-pandemic. FWIW our best experiences have been on smaller ships. In fact, the smaller the ship, the more we enjoyed it. You might also want to think about departure and arrival ports. Do you want to spend a few days there in advance or afterwards? Barcelona? Lisbon? Rome? Southampton? Can you fly there? Fly home?

Very interesting, thank you. It seems like the airline is much bigger and more complex than twenty years ago but management has avoided spending on IT systems to keep up. Which, of course, would boost their own bonuses along the way. Or am I being a bit too cynical? How about all their other IT systems? Are they able to support today's operation? If they can't even track their own crews, can payrolls pay them correctly, for example?

That's a very good point, thank you. I'll have to investigate. Slightly off topic but along the same lines we had a similar experience with Air Canada. We were booked in Business Class on an A320 and selected our seats at the time of booking. (We normally ride with our fellow peasants but had not travelled in three years so decided to treat ourselves.) Online checkin opens up at 24 hours prior to departure. We checked in online around 6 hours prior and our seats were gone. We had been moved forward to the bulkhead row which we didn't want but never did fight it. So how did that happen? And, yes, the flight was full in both classes.

So it's Monday morning and family members head to Winnipeg airport: Mum, Dad and four kids. At checkin, Westjet tells them they can fly to Toronto but they have been bumped off their Toronto - Orlando flight. The earliest they can be re-booked would be Friday, and that would be Winnipeg - Saskatoon - Toronto - Orlando. Mum and Dad have a week off work so that's no good. They live way outside Winnipeg and some relative gave them a ride to the airport. Now he has to turn around and head back there again to pick them up and take them home. Let's recognize that the airlines have had an absolutely awful Xmas season due to weather. However, my understanding was that when a flight was cancelled and passengers had to be re-booked, you don't bump somebody else. They have done nothing wrong and now you would have two groups of people mad at you, not just one. My take is that they got bumped for two reasons: a) it was a party of six b) they were travelling on points. If they had paid cash, Westjet would have to refund the cash and they will do anything to avoid that if they can. My sense is that since Onex took over Westjet, it just isn't the same. Here's the thing my fellow Canadians: if they had been joining a cruise and missed it, there would be no refund of the cruise fares. If anybody has a different take or can shed light on this, I would be happy to hear it and acknowledge it.

It may be duty free but it's not profit free.

Other things being equal, I would always book with the airline that operates the metal. If anything goes wrong, you are their passenger and they can't pass you on to anybody else. We were in Florence and discovered by chance that Lufthansa was on strike. We were two days away from flying LH to Frankfurt then AC home. We had booked and ticketed through AC so called them and they got us on one of their flights out of Milan so we just took the train there. Now, if we had booked through Lufthansa or United, would that have got sorted out quite as easily? I'm dubious.

Bingo! Remember this day! Delighted to hear it.

When you check in at Yellowknife, just make sure your baggage tag says EWR before you let it go and it disappears down the baggage belt. I'm assuming your United flight goes into Newark. If it says LGA, then you are flying into LaGuardia and it would be JFK for JFK.

I went to see her when she visited Winnipeg in 2010. It's the end of an era. Thank you, Your Majesty, for the last 70 years of duty and dedication. God save the King!

I'm sorry for the good folks on Eclipse but they got off relatively lightly. Take pity on the poor folks left behind in Vancouver. There has been a strike at the BC Liquor distribution centres for several days so the stores are not being re-supplied. The stock of beer in my local store is getting awfully low. Methinks I'd rather be on Eclipse!

Thanks for the clarification, I should have mentioned that myself. I was responding to the OP's query if they needed to book in advance. Point taken!

Service from Bologna to Ravenna is on Regionale trains. No need to buy in advance, you can't book, just show up, buy at the machine and board. Don't forget to stamp the tickets at the yellow machine. In Italy, the fast Freccia trains operate more like an airline where you book in advance and reserve your seat but they don't do Bologna to Ravenna. Regionale is the local milk run.

We have taken lots of trains in Italy and they work well. There is frequent service along that coast line so you can just hop on and hop off the next one along. Stations are only about two minutes apart. Just watch that the train is longer than one of the stations (can't remember which one) so when it stops and you are in a dark tunnel, yup, you are there so get off. Yes, there are five of them but in one day don't overdo it. I would skip Corniglia - it's up high and not on the railway line - and Monterosso al Mare IMHO not as picturesque as the other three. So that leaves Riomaggiore, Manarolo and Vernazza. Just my opinion.

Hallelujah! The airlines should charge for carry-on and take free checked baggage. I think there is one airline - Spirit? - that does charge for carry-on. The problem as you found it is that boarding takes so long for everybody to get installed and seated. Spirit needs much quicker turnarounds. However.....if you had to go through Heathrow right now it could be a week before you see your checked baggage again so carry-on is a must. So no easy solutions, then.

Very wise advice, carry multiple cards. Some years ago I flew from the Middle East to the USA. During the station stop in Heathrow, I went ashore and made a phone call using my MasterCard. Later when I checked in at the hotel in Miami the card was declined. I could not understand that - it was fine just a few hours ago. Having previously learned the lesson to carry multiple cards, I used another card to check in then phoned MasterCard. They verified that it was me, that I still had the card with me and turned the card back on. It turns out that card thieves test the card by making a phone call to see if it is still valid. If it had been reported stolen and cancelled and they tried to use it in a store, the store would call the cops.

What nobody has pointed out is that Celebrity is very American and Cunard is very British. Well, maybe you can drop the 'very'. How about going from a Chrysler convertible to a Wolseley or Humber?

Look for the statue of Samuel Cunard. It has not been torn down or splashed with red paint, at least not yet. Stay tuned!

You got lucky! I was hoping for the Beaver with the piston engine that rattles your fillings out but I guess there were too many folks at that time so we got the turbo Otter. Also on photo 4, just to the right of sugar loaf mountain, you can see a ferry pulling into Horseshoe Bay.

I should have included some photos - not thinking. Here goes:

Yes, I have done the Harbour Air tour. Loved it. I think they offer different lengths of flight so you have a choice depending on your preferences and budget. Great views over Lion's Gate bridge, West Van, UBC, downtown etc. I have flown on so many different aircraft but never a float plane so that was a first. As we were boarding, the agent said "who wants to sit beside the pilot?" so I yelled out "ME" before anybody else could think.