ljandgb

We are looking at March 2023.  One difference I've seen between lines is which land excursions they offer, and in particular, how they experience Ha Long Bay.  AMA uses a ship to sail overnight in the bay, where as it seems the rest of the lines stay on land.  That seems a key difference in an overly touristed area like that.  That said, we have not decided which line we're going with yet.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that given the location of Russia's coast line, there are very few places suitable for cruise stops, or at least commercially viable for a cruise line. The western coast is tiny. Lots (all?) of northern coast above the arctic circle.  Most of the eastern coast borders the Bering sea, with most adjacent countries not very tourist friendly and/or small with the exception of Japan - China, North/South Korea, making neighboring country combo tours difficult.

We did a really nice food walking tour in Reykjavik.  Saw a lot of the city, ate enough really good food that we did not need dinner, and learned a bit about the daily life there.

In a non-Covid world, I think the perfect combo is a river cruise bracketed by a land portion on either end, for as long a duration as I can get off from work.  With Covid testing/vaccine requirements, that can get complicated.  If you do the land portion thru the cruise company, they can help with some of that, though the entry requirements at the beginning can be difficult to navigate.  We just did a 2 week Danube cruise with 4 days in Prague prior and 3 in Romania afterwards.  Getting TO Prague was complicated, and all on us, as we flew thru London, so had to comply with England's and Czechia's requirements.  Our TA was minimally helpful, but the folks on TripAdvisor saved the day.  

When on land trips, we like to find a cafe at night and sit and watch people, or stroll around the area.  There will be evenings on river cruises where you are sailing, and all there is to do is what is on the ship - the same lounge, the same people.  After our first river cruise, where most evenings were spent this way, I purposely chose an itinerary with more late night sail aways so we could have our evenings in town.

I hope it goes so. you can come back and tell us about it.  We are seriously looking at the same cruise, but for 2023 (less for covid than our general schedule.)

We do the same as mapsd.  It works well.  There are ATM's everywhere, so it's easy to get some cash, and then I make a point of getting coffee, a pastry, etc, with it to get some coins.  The rest of the trip I try to keep a small handful of coins in my purse.

Between this site and TripAdvisor, someone can usually tell. you where the ATM in your arriving airport is. FWIW, they are frequently called "bankomats."

And, yes, we have a small drawer of them at home too, for our next trip!

My husband loves soup.  He had one of each every night.  By the end, the waiter didn't even have to ask, and just brought out both.

It can also be dependent on exactly who is in the kitchen.  We did a 2 week Danube cruise, and the chefs switched out in Budapest.  There was a noticeable change in the quality of the food for the worse.  It wasn't awful, but it wasn't stellar anymore.  Also, many lines will highlight local cuisines, so by the end of our Rhine cruise, and the second half of the Danube, I was pretty tired of variations of meat/cabbage/dumplings.  Yes, there was always the salmon/beef/chicken options, but I"m not a big meat eater and the chef kept overcooking the salmon until it was dry.

What really annoyed me on our Danube cruise was when a dish was not as advertised.  Borscht came out as onion soup.  Caesar dressing wasn't.  Many of the fresh fruit desserts were actually all frozen berry mixes.  

It was a fabulous cruise, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat - but I don't think you can just assume food will be the same even on the same line.

I don't think there's any problem with too many tests.  It probably will be overkill.  That said, it's maddeningly frustrating that there is a make or break point  for an entire trip on the timing of a simple test that we don't have any control over.  We live in a rural area and testing options are few.  Since I work full time, taking a day off of work just to drive to the city for more options isn't a great option either.

We ended up doing 2 different sites for our last trip, a day apart.  We got both in time, but it was a nail biter.

I'm 53, have done 2 river cruises.  We have been on the younger end of the spectrum in years, but have always found a "young at heart" group to socialize with.  These can be very active trips as there is little to do on the ship, so most passengers are ready and willing to be on the go. Our last trip, we met some wonderful people that we're already hoping we'll be able to travel with again.

I prefer river cruising to ocean cruising, but absolutely keep in mind that your evening activities will be much different.  No big shows (no little shows either!), just a small lounge with a piano or guitar player.  On our last 2 week cruise, we had 2 nights where a small ensemble came on board for songs and dancing, and 2 night excursions for either a concert or dinner in a castle.

I love my packing cubes also, and inadvertently ordered ones that have a zipper compression system to make more room in your suitcase.  I assumed all packing cubes were like that until later.  I like the compression system.  We frequently travel carry on only, but you do have to be careful with weight.  More things in a smaller area means it's easy to get heavy fast.

I'm no computer expert, but it has more to do with being hackable/able to be intercepted than anything else.  Having patients sign into your portal is more secure than having back and forth communication outside of your system.  If you've got a weakness at your point of entry, someone can get into YOUR system.

How do I know all this?  We were ransom-wared 2 years ago.  It was god-awful.  It was not via email access but I learned more than I ever wanted to know about computer security.

I'm a physician.  Getting your email HIPPA certified is a huge PITA.  It's easier, relatively, to make patients go thru a portal system.

A little more information would be helpful, but in general, anything in the 101 post code district is good as far as tourist activities go.

Not at all what you asked, but if you're going to be in Portugal, tack on several days in Madeira.  It's an easy flight from Lisbon.  I spent a week there, after a week in Caiscais,  Feb 2020 and fell in love with it.  I really enjoyed mainland Portugal, but Madeira is really special. The interior and northern parts of the island are magical.

As for the Douro, I'd love to do that, so am happy to glean information from prior posters!

I've been told to add 30% to any drive times given by Google for Iceland.  The roads are narrow, winding, and full of slow tourists and sheep.  I've not self driven, but on our tour, the drive from near Skatafell to Reykjavik was at least 5.5 hours.  Summer is usually fine for weather, but you still need to keep an eye on wind speeds which can close roads.  

I realize this is a different line, but our CD's next words after "there's only 27 of you on the cruise" was "don't expect to be upgraded."  His further explanation was that it wouldn't be fair to those that paid full price for the better rooms.

In that case, it would be harder to sneak a few upgrades under the radar.

Pre-Covid, BL had it's own transport booking as well.  You had to go thru a dummy booking on the website to look at the options, then just not hit "purchase" at the end.  It very well may still be that way, I just haven't checked in a  while. There is luggage storage at the BL as visiting to/from the airport is a popular option.

We used TJ for a private tour for our family and were also very happy with them.

I'd do a 2 day overnight tour along the south coast to Jokulsarlon.

Iceland and inexpensive should never be used in the same sentence. LOL

Yes, camping, self catering, etc, can offset the cost, but it is an island with few natural resources beyond geothermal energy.  Everything must be imported.  It is also wildly beautiful, isolated, and minimally developed or populated beyond the few "cities" which makes it a great tourist destination - which also will increase prices.

Wow, very in depth descriptions.  Thanks so much.  We just cruised with Avalon and this is a nice way to compare the two lines.

In the age of forged CDC vaccine cards, and post-vax infections, I think testing is probably still warranted.

I just read an interesting article about a study by Mayo Clinic in conjunction with Delta airlines and flights to Italy. They tracked and tested almost 10,000 passengers over a 6 month period.   Everyone had a PCR test within 72 hours of the flight, had a rapid antigen test at the airport, and another with a day of arrival.  Of those, 4 had a positive rapid test before boarding and 1 had a positive rapid test in Italy.  That's a  99.95% chance that a negative PCR test means you're not infected and can fly.

To the OP,  I think it's reasonable to postpone.  There is a lot of uncertainty, and the stress of traveling alone, with an underlying medical issue, can easily outweigh the fun of travel.

24 minutes ago, Canal archive said:

If your ever in this situation just ask your cabin steward to close the window coverings. Then your air con doesn’t have to work so hard.

This was obvious.  We'd close our drapes completely before heading out for the day.  It would still be warm enough to break a sweat just sitting in the room.  I really think part of the issue was that the AC didn't work well anywhere when we were docked.  There were a couple afternoons when the lounge and dining room were also overly warm. We really never had a problem while we were underway.

There was AC, which worked great at night (I need my room cold to sleep!), but seemed to work less well when the ship sat still, which was compounded in the daytime.  Design flaw?  Something wrong with the system?  Who knows.

I liked Prague and Budapest.  Both have their highlights.  Truly, Budapest at night is not to be missed.  It's gorgeous.  Prague is like a slightly scrappy little brother - vibrant with hidden gems, but not nearly as flashy.  If you have time in Prague, we did a beer tour with WithLocals.  Milos was our tour guide and he was fabulous.  We saw parts of Prague you wouldn't necessarily see as a tourist, had good beer, and generally enjoyed ourselves.