kctwinmommy

So, @ajtaylor29 - curious as to what you ended up doing in Split. I'm starting to firm up some of our plans and looking for a variety of things to do. I'm noticing several private tours related to the islands and boat tours to get to them, including snorkeling. But, not sure if April weather is really snorkeling weather. Since our cruise is a longer one, we'll be seeing a lot of churches, ruins, and other major historical sites. It might be nice to mix it up a little bit.

We're scheduled to be in Marseilles that day! I'm hoping that there's something extra or some sort of special event that we might get to see. And if it changes our port, so be it. We'll have to see what happens.

@Andcur - I'll post it there as well. I think I posted it in my specific roll call, but I forget that there's one for the beginning of this journey. We're getting on at the 2nd leg in Athens. 😃

We're on a different cruise, so we have a little more time in port. But I booked a private tour with Viator. it will take us to both places! I wanted to see both places and who knows if I'll ever get back there. This is our tour... What's Included Guidance at Pompeii and Herculaneum by Archaeologist guide Pompeii and Herculaneum admission fees Transportation service by modern minivan Assistance by a professional driver

Oh well, I didn't get that from them. I have heard that others have, but I didn't get anything when I asked. As I said, I had some time, so it wasn't a big deal.

So, I had some spare time over the past few days as I've been a little under the weather. It annoyed me that looking at excursions for our upcoming cruise was a pain in the butt, because I couldn't look at all the descriptions at one time to compare. So yes, I took the time to cut/paste the descriptions of all the excursions into a word document (& saved a PDF version as well). I figured I would share it here in case it would be of interest to others. I don't think I've seen many of these done. I know one person did share a similar one, but wanted to have our own to look at. I kept the port city, the length of the excursion, the cost, and how they rate it (east, moderate, demanding). I did cut out some of the repetitive info they have on all the descriptions though. And I didn't include the times or dates as those will be different for people. I wanted to have this so my husband and I can sit down together and read them over, make notes, and decide which ones we want to do. This is for our Viking Mars cruise in April. We're doing the Mediterranean & Adriatic Sojourn cruise, but I would bet some of these excursions show up on other cruises in this area. Plus, it gives you some idea of the prices. Viking Mars excursions.pdf

Yep, our last cruise with Carnival was a 5 day one as well. It was cheap and a quick getaway with some friends right after my husband retired. We just didn't feel it was the same. But, we did also realize it was a 5 day cruise, which has a different vibe/crowd. We've done a 3 day one before, it was the same. We usually do at least 7 days. Either way, we've decided that Carnival will be on hold for awhile. Our next one is a big one for us, totally different line/experience, which is what we want. We're not big drinkers or party people, so we don't need all of that anyway. I guess the good thing is there are different lines to try and have different vacations for all sorts of people.

And to add my own story, many years ago, my husband and I went downtown Chicago to shop on the Mag Mile. He bought a hat at the Burberry store, and I picked up some cute thing at the Disney store. We had it in the plastic bags, next to the garbage can, and somehow, he scooped them up with the garbage and out they went. LOL! We searched for several days, before realizing what had happened. He also threw out our garage door opener once, when he was outside doing yard work. Our neighbor came by to let us know our door was going up and down, as the garbage truck had just dumped our cans. At least now we have the door opener with the My Q app, which we love! It also helps eases his mind related to the "Did I remember to close the garage door??!" when we're miles away.

I think we currently have about $400 worth of Pinstripes GC's because we got a bunch from various events and just haven't used them all. And my husband retired last year, same thing, we have like 3 or 4 for nice restaurants. We will get to them, eventually. I think when our son comes back home again for Christmas break, we'll use one or two.

This is something I wish I realized when we booked ours. It's our first cruise with Viking, and we're doing legs 2, 3, & 4 of the cruise. So that means there will be many of people who can book before us, we're in the DV category. And yes, I knew booking excursions were based on your stateroom categories, I get that, I just wasn't thinking about the fact that there could be people getting on at leg 1 and getting off at leg 3, and they'll be picking before us.

We took a cruise for our son's senior year spring break, he was 18, almost 19 at the time, and yep, didn't totally enjoy it. Yes, he loved our excursions and such, had fun with that. But the couple of sea days, there just wasn't much going on. There weren't a lot of others in his age range either. And like you said, not all 19-20 year olds, are always super outgoing. It's a hard age range for sure. I remember myself, being 19 and going to Hawaii with my parents. We went to visit my brother (station at Pearl Harbor) and his wife. I was feeling "too old" to hang with my parents, but I wasn't old enough to go anywhere on my own there. We joke about it now, how I basically "hated" Hawaii. LOL!

Thanks! Sounds like it won't be a problem. I'd rather do that than bring the pads she mentioned. And Color Street are nail polish strips that you apply. They come in all sorts of fun colors and styles, so way more than just regular polish. When I don't use them, I just do my own nails in general. But the Color Street strips last longer and have way more cool colors. 😃

I did see that, and figured that might be what they end up charging me. I'd be fine with that. I just figured I'd ask in case someone had actually had them remove polish. Thanks!

I have, but I just didn't want to have to bring those. It would take quite a few to remove the polish. When I remove it myself, it takes some time. I'd end up bringing 10-15 pads just to make sure. But thank you!

I've tried searching, but didn't find anything. I typically wear Color Street nail polish because they last quite awhile. I can usually get almost 3 weeks with a good set. Our cruise is longer than that, so I wanted to change it out halfway through. I just didn't want to bring nail polish remover because it does take some work to get these sets off my nails. I was wondering if the would do a polish removal at the salon? I'd rather not pay for a full manicure, but I know I'd have to pay for the removal, which is fine. Has anyone done this? Had them just remove polish you were wearing? TIA!

I will say, we found the estimated median age on our European cruise on Royal Caribbean to be skewed towards the upper range as well. I think it was the itinerary that was doing it. Our son is one of those "old soul" kids, so even at 14, he really liked it. Yes, there were still teens for him to hang out with when we were onboard, but he loves history too, so he liked all the ports and excursions we did. He's bummed to not be going on this one, and he's 20 now. But I reminded him, he's getting a private college education paid for by us, so it's really a better deal than the cruise. He did agree. LOL!

Thanks for pointing out my typo. He's 10 years OLDER than me. We're all good with Viking's demographic. 😉

I guess we'll see on our cruise next year. We're doing a longer one for our first one, but my husband is retired and I don't work full-time. I'll be turning 50 in a few months, so I'm sure I'll be on the lower end of it. My husband is almost 10 years old, so closer the median. LOL! But after several years of another line, I know I'm not their demographic really.

Thanks! I think we'll give them a call next week and talk to them personally to get it done right. And $400 isn't a lot honestly. Thanks again for getting back to me on this. 😃

Wow! Thank you so much!!! This is very helpful for some of our cruise (we start in Athens). And like @PaulS said, any way to tell us which was the included excursion. I know these things are always subject to change, but thank you!

OK, so I didn't realize I posted this in the insurance sub-forum, that was my mistake. And I can't delete or change my own post, so I'm just putting a new one here. I'm looking for those who have had actual experience with USAA insurance. Yes, I did search around and read a few posts regarding it. I've seen some mixed reviews as well, so just trying to get a better grasp of what we need. I did the online stuff and it came back with an annual policy for the two of us for like $230. That includes adding on the optional additions that we wanted (trip cancellation/interruption and medical evac.) for our big cruise next year. But I'm also not sure if that will cover that entire trip. It was asking for the location of our trip, so I put the first stop in it. I know some sites say put the country you'll spend the most time in, which I didn't think of until after. I can't find any way to put in additional locations or that it's a cruise. It just asked for the dates and location, not the cost of that actual trip. We don't have any pre-existing conditions, we're both in generally good health, so none of those worries. We don't plan on doing any crazy excursions that would pose a definite risk. I guess I'm just wondering what I might be missing with the annual policy (adding on options for our big trip), over paying much more for a single time policy. I'm including photos of the single time policy and then the annual one. We've never purchased it before, so I'm just looking for some insight. Thanks! This is what is says for the Annual policy These are the 2 main options for a single time trip (the right column was just a medical add-on).

@amyj23 - did you ever end up with a good USAA policy? I'm considering them for a major Viking cruise next year, and looking at their annual policy with the optional additions. We were going to add on the Trip Interruption/Cancellation, as well as the additional medical evacuation. It comes out to like $230 for the 2 of us with that! Which seems really low. So I know I need to read through their information more to make sure of what it does and doesn't cover. We're both in good health, no pre-existing things to worry about either.

Just curious as to why you wouldn't want to have your DSLR anyway? I mean, I realize many are using cell phones, and I know the iPhone does a great job. But just didn't understand why you would pack it in your luggage for that last day out anyway. Either way, sounds like you made a decision.

Exactly! We'll head into Venice if we can, unless something drastic changes with our port. A couple on the other social media site, had a great write up of their entire cruise, similar to ours, and they actually got a hotel room for the 1 night. Had a great time. We're not doing that, but it was a good idea.

Yeah, we have Venice as a stop on ours, but it's in the middle of it. And we have like 2.5 days there, so at least we won't have to worry too much. But it may become a problem for those getting on or off at that stop (it's the end of one of the legs of our trip). I do like knowing this info though, so if things do change for our time there. I'm keeping my expectations very low for this city. LOL! I've actually been there before as well.