Mom2008

Talked to my Dad tonight. He's seeing his doctor tomorrow so will ask about the risk of deep vein thrombosis on a long flight. He's also going to ask the Archbishop if he can now find out more about the Pope's itinerary. I tried talking about considering an alternative itinerary but he's very excited about visiting Rome, whether the Pope is there or not. He studied to be a Jesuit, so this would be a great opportunity for him. He's very well read, and culturally, this would be the trip of a lifetime for him.

And he's said he'd be happy, if he's not feeling well,to stay on the ship when it's in port, even in Eastern Europe. Oh, and he does have a lot of points, which could help pay for his flight and some hotel costs.

Remember, he's offered this to each of his six kids,everyone is choosing different destinations over the next 2-3 years. It's a way of doing something special. We grew up on the prairies with very little luxury and we know how to stretch a dollar; I'll need to do some serious number crunching if we do end up choosing eastern Europe.

Thank you to everyone who filled in about health coverage. My sister has the same coverage as I do and had her appendix out while in Mexico and had great care, didn't cost her a dime. I'll have to check about trip cancellation coverage though.

So, I'll wait to hear back from my Dad and take all your feedback under advisement. Thank you.

leave the kids and BF home and take Dad to see the Pope and a cruise around the Med.

One of the main reasons he's offering this, especially for our family, is that living halfway across the country, they don't see him very much, and this is a way to connect. So I'm re-thinking this now. Europe would be educational and amazing, but not relaxing, and I think my Dad needs relaxing. He can do a separate trip to Rome, with me, or some of his Catholic friends, to see the Pope, without everyone else in tow.

You have a wealth of travel information to work with so I will address your problem with your son missing school.

If you decide to cruise in October I am sure if you start communicating with his teachers at the begining of the school year they will ensure that he has the time missed while travelling covered with a mix of extra work pre and post trip as well as giving him some work to do while travelling. Depending on the courses he is taking the travel could be worked into some course work.

Go for Europe, do the cruise, do it in October, splurge; treat the $2500 your dad gave each of you as a base but know that you should probably put an equal amount into the pot or you are going to worry about money instead of enjoying a once in a lifetime experience.

Cheers, h.

Yes, I think it would be do-able. But just talked to my sister tonight, and I forgot, my nephew is getting married (Canadian) Thanksgiving weekend, October 11, so a trip to Europe at that time, followed by a trip to Winnipeg, would be too much.

Pope probably won't be in Rome end of June/July so...still thinking.

If Rome, the Pope, and a Med cruise is preferred, I would say Paris is too much to add to the mix. I would suggest sticking to Italy for land, especially the cost being a consideration. Putting the Pope and Rome aside, there are countless possibilities for a family cruise. But definitely, in the general scheme you propose, I say, yes, Paris is too much.

Yes, so far, Paris at least, is out of the picture for this trip. It is getting more and more shaved down. A warm place at the end of March is looking more appealing, with a separate trip to Rome for my Dad if he really wants to see the Pope, but without the kids.

A multigenerational cruise is a great idea. Just don't expect everyone to do everything and be together 24/7.

We've done two multi-generational cruises (with husband's family) that worked out well, one with four generations. Rule was that at a minimum everyone had dinner on board together every day, otherwise, smaller groups did things together during the day. Those cruises had 14 and 13 people (Alaska & Mexico 7-days on HAL). In two ports in Mexico, we hired a private taxi to drive us around, and in Cabo, we just walked around the port to a beach and went swimming.

Thinking, thinking...

Must admit I agree with this advice….Also need to think about heath and travel insurance coverage for your family in Europe or Hawaii.

We're back at square one asking some very hard questions about whether Europe is the best choice for us.

As for insurance, I'm lucky my family of five is covered 100% through my work. Not sure what coverage my Dad has, then there's the boyfriend.

I'm confused.. are all 7 Dad and your family? Sounds like a very nice gesture from Dad. Don't make it a forced march for him by adding all the extra stuff. Fly into Rome.. see the Pope and then do a cruise. adding the trains/flying paris etc will wear him out. $2500 per isn't going to cover the flight and a cruise ticket. Save Paris for another time. the Pope will more then likely be out of town in the dead of summer. if that's the case maybe consider doing an Alaska cruise. for an 80yo+ with bad knees to sit on a plane for 12/14 hours is a chore in itself. spend extra money to upgrade your airline seats.. it will be the best money you spend.

Yes, Dad, myself, my husband, our three kids, and our oldest daughter's boyfriend. I have five other siblings and he's offering the same deal to each of them. Originally he was going to plan a big cruise with everyone, but the logistics were just too big.

I am seriously looking at paring down the itinerary. Lots of soul-searching to do right now. Our original plan was to fly Monday, arrive in Rome late Monday/early Tuesday, rest, Pope Weds morning, stay in Rome Weds night, then train to Venice Thurs for a Sat evening cruise. That might be enough.

Theresa

I wanted to mention one thing DH and I did in Dubrovnik that was spectacular- don't know if it would fit with the cruise line's port schedule or not. When I was printing out or confirmation for Zagreb-Dubrovnik on Croatia Air, I saw a banner ad for a kayak tour around the Dubrovnik city walls. DH, bless him, was up for it even with his creaky back. At the time he needed a strong person on either side to raise/lower him in and out of the kayak but he sat up front and I did most of the paddling. (The stronger paddler should be in the back.)

 

It was one of the best things we ever did in one of the best cities we ever visited. It sounds like you have enough strong people in your group that Dad can enjoy the scenery and take pictures. (I kept an inexpensive, compact camera in a watertight plastic sandwich container lashed to the side of the kayak and took it out to take pictures.)

That sounds wonderful. We LOVE kayaking and canoeing. We live near False Creek in Vancouver where we've rented kayaks to tour the ocean. It's a great way to see a city. (Maybe I should write a review about things to do in Vancouver for cruisers who visit the city on their way to/from Alaska.)

Theresa

This is great advice --- there is no way you should even think about arriving in Rome on a Wednesday morning and getting the tickets for the audience that

morning. If the tickets need to be picked up on Tuesday, you might even have difficulty getting them with a Tuesday morning arrival.

 

If the Papal audience is key, you should build the rest around that -- and think carefully about the effort levels demanded of you father in all contemplated activities. Better to have a simpler, but successful, trip than a forced march which could leave everyone exhausted and frustrated.

You are very right. I had offered Rome and the papal audience as a treat for my Dad, as he's a Knight of Columbus and has been a fervent supporter of the Pope since I was a child. He studied for the priesthood, but that didn't work out.

For Rome, we'd arrive at least Monday or Tuesday so we could be relaxed. My Dad's already talked to the Archbishop, who can get us tickets ahead of time. My fear is that the Pope won't be there in the summer. We're still researching that.

Strangely, we can't find the original cruise we were looking at any more on NCL, but there is another one that starts in Venice and ends in Rome that would work, but then we'd have to stick around until Weds.

Lots of logistics to figure out. I hear what everyone is saying about trying to take in too much. My plans sound good on paper, but in reality we could all end up exhausted and beyond grumpy with each other.

Biggest decision right now is time of year, as two weeks off during during the Fall during my son's final year of high school could be a challenge.

Of course, everyone says they'd be just as happy going somewhere warm like Hawaii or the Carribean, which would be a bit of a letdown for me (I'd have to find some other way of getting the family to Europe), but much easier to plan and oh so much more relaxing. Someplace warm for two weeks in March would go down well, the winter rain in Vancouver can be relentless, and my Dad would love a break from the cold Winnipeg winter.

Lots of talking to do with my Dad now. Thank you everyone.

Theresa

DH and I have given up on Coach transatlantics. It just takes him too long to recover afterwards. We fly transatlantics a whole heck of a lot less now. Does anyone in the family have enough FF miles to get Dad up front? It makes a huge difference and it would be a great "thank you" for him. Even if you need to pool miles, most airlines will let you transfer miles to others' accounts- for a fee, of course, but cheaper than buying a Business Class seat.

Good suggestion. I'll look into that. He does have a lot of Air Miles, but we'd want to all get on the same flight. He's flying to Vancouver from Winnipeg so we can all fly together.

Thank you all again for such wonderful feedback.

Looking at average temperatures, I think March might be too cold. May might be hard as my son needs to study (he's in grade 11 and final marks are used for university admission), but September or October might work better.

Checked out air bnb dot com and very few apartments near the centre of Paris for a good price in July/August, but end of September there was a great apartment in the Bastille for $132 per night for 7 people (plus $64 fee). Rome and Venice look good too.

I think it would work better to fly to Paris and do that part at the beginning so the cruise, which is more relaxing, can be at the end.

Seat 61 dot com is great. I've checked it out before but will do a bit more detailed research to crunch the numbers. I LOVE the idea of train travel, as it allows us to see the scenery between points, but I can see that for my Dad, it might be too tiring. I'll have to think about that. Maybe flying between points would be best. Or maybe I could fly with my Dad and the rest of the family could take the train. I'll have to look at air travel within Europe; my Dad can walk, and is getting better all the time, his second knee surgery had a slow recovery. The transport wheelchair is just to get him through some long or tiring stretches.

Is there a definitive website that lists all cruises, I'm a bit overwhelmed trying to figure out how to compare them, which ones give discounts to third and fourth travellers. We love HAL, but are open to other options, and their Eastern European cruises are longer than NCL's 7-day one which stops in all the ports we'd like to see.

I am having as much fun planning as I would travelling (well, almost ;). First step will be to decide on a cruise, book it and then go from there, but patience and full details help me make an informed decision. I know you get deeper discounts if you book closer to the date, but then it might be harder to plan around it. Still lots of research...

Theresa

Make sure the Pope is not away for his summer holidays!

I'm trying to figure that out, it might be too soon to know, haven't figured out where to find his 2014 itinerary, but I see he didn't have any audiences last year in July or August...We could instead visit the museums and libraries in Vatican City.

Thank you everyone for the great feedback.

I guess the conflict with the before/after part of any cruise we pick is the desire to have my Dad see the Pope (Weds for an audience or Sunday for mass), and my and my husband's desire to have the kids see Paris. We figure if we're going to pay for a flight to Europe, we'd like to take in as much as possible, not sure if/when we'd ever be able to afford it again.

It's still early days for choosing a cruise, so I don't know how it works with third/fourth person free with NCL vs HAL. We've cruised with HAL twice before, so don't know if that would get us much of a discount. We don't mind cruising inside berths this time, though we'd probably get my Dad an ocean view or balcony room. We'd get three rooms for the seven of us (Dad and my 17 yo son together; me, husband and 12 yo daughter; 19 yo daughter and her 26 year old boyfriend...they live in Calgary).

Re time of year, I guess we could look at Spring Break, which for my son is March 17 to 28 2014, which gives us less time to plan, not sure what the weather is like there at that time, but it might be less crowded.

Living in Vancouver, a big tourist town, I do see that there are a lot of free and fun events in the summer (peak season) that someone would miss if they were here off-season. Though if they're here for only a day, there's plenty for them to see without the free events, so I'm not sure what we'd miss if we went off-season.

Re cost before/after the cruise, we'd definitely be looking at renting an apartment and cooking our own foods with local, slow food and eating out maybe once or twice.

Re airfare, we'd like to say fly into Rome and fly back from Paris, or vice versa, and I've seen prices ranging from $1,000 to $1,200.

For my Dad, I'd have to check with my brother and sister in Winnipeg to see how his walking is going, but like I said, I'd like to take along a transport wheelchair for parts with long walks or lineups or when he's just plain tired, I think he'd be able to get around without the walker, and for curbs and short steps, he could get out of the wheelchair and back on the other side. Not sure how the trains would work though. We could also rent a van or a couple of cars.

Thanks again.

Theresa

Hi everyone:

My Dad has offered to take our family (7 people including him) on a cruise of our choice, as long as we can fit it within a budget of about $2,500 per person for the whole trip. I've never been able to take my family to Europe, so thought this would be a good opportunity to do this. We live in Vancouver, BC.

My Mom's ancestors come from Croatia, so we thought Eastern Mediterranean would be great. Mom passed away two years ago, so this will keep her memory alive.

Dad had his second knee replacement earlier this year, and he still walks with a walker. He likes cruising because of its all-inclusive nature.

He's Catholic and a big fan of the Pope, so we thought it would be great to fly to Rome early enough to take in the Wednesday morning audience with the Pope. He's already talked to the Archbishop about getting tickets :) We'll stay in Rome Weds night, then take the train to Venice Thursday, stay in Venice until the ship sails on Saturday afternoon.

We are thinking of taking a Norwegian Cruise Lines 7-day cruise as they seem the most affordable and have the best itinerary.

For anything over the allotted cost, we would want to pitch in $$, to make our vacation memorable.

Here's the question part. We were thinking that, after the ship returns on Saturday morning, we would take a train to Paris and spend a few more days there and fly home from Paris. We are speak French, my Dad's ancestors are from Brittany, and my husband and I have always wanted to take the kids (ages 11, 16 and 19) to France one day (we visited there before we were married). Should we perhaps reverse the itinerary? Fly to Paris, train to Venice, then to Rome?

Are we biting off more than we can chew? An Eastern Med cruise is very port-intensive and there isn't very much down time. Dad has already said though that he'll see how he feels each day, and if he's not up to it, he'll stay on the ship while we visit a city. He'd say yes to everything, he's very eager, but he might not know how tiring it could be.

We'd probably bring along a transport wheelchair to help him get around, as too much walking could be very tiring for him.

His idea of the cruise is to spend time with the family (we live in Vancouver, he lives in Winnipeg and I haven't seen him since my Mom's funeral two years ago), he doesn't mind where we go, but just wants to be together.

We've cruised twice before with my husband's family, but his Dad paid for everything and I didn't have to plan anything. We went to Alaska and Mexico, each with three ports on a seven-day cruise, so lots of down time, so this sounds like it could be very tiring.

Any and all advice is welcome. Oh, and we'd be sailing July/August as my son is in high school and we don't want him to miss any school.

Thanks. Theresa