Anxiety pre-cruise

[cocos]

Sorry, just had to write here. As the head planner of our group traveling since April 30 touring 7 Spain cities (Madrid, Toledo, Salamanca, Segovia, Cordoba, Seville and Granada) and then enjoying a 7 day cruise, I'm getting anxious about the precruise self-tour.

I have the itinerary, maps and a rental car, but each moment I think something's gonna be wrong. Do you have any last minute advice, suggestion, shouldn't miss place to go, etc.?

[nvbabe]

Sorry, just had to write here. As the head planner of our group traveling since April 30 touring 7 Spain cities (Madrid, Toledo, Salamanca, Segovia, Cordoba, Seville and Granada) and then enjoying a 7 day cruise, I'm getting anxious about the precruise self-tour.

I have the itinerary, maps and a rental car, but each moment I think something's gonna be wrong. Do you have any last minute advice, suggestion, shouldn't miss place to go, etc.?

 

I am also the planner for our group when we travel.. My advice would be to try and relax and enjoy your trip. Things probably won't go perfect, but will be wonderful anyway, just be willing to roll with the punches and not stress too much!

[WineDown17]

So glad to know I am not the only one losing sleep over this.

[debbymark]

all the fun is getting lost and then finding your way again. relax and enjoy.

[wripro]

I agree with the above posters. If you miss one thing you will see another probably just as nice. Some of the best travel experiences I've had have been due to getting lost. And remember this is supposed to be fun, not a chore. If you feel overwhelmed tell someone else in your group to handle one or two elements of the trip. Unless you're getting paid there's no reason for you to feel all the pressure.

[crewsgirl]

omg, I so agree with wripro! The fun thing is to have everybody contribute their thoughts, ideas. While I usually do the lion's share of the planning, I will be asking someone else to plan a day as well, that way they get to enjoy doing something they planned & the worry is off me for a bit! Try it, they may like it!:)

[swcruise]

I always plan all our family cruises in great detail,my family are go with the flow kind of people. When I investigate the excursions, I get them to go through the list and select their preferences and then we go with the majority. It works for us and sometimes the one that would not have been my 1st preference turns out to be a pleasant suprise..

[mountainmare]

I am also the planner. You don't say how many are in your group--or if you are traveling with family or friends.

We took the recent transatlantic on the Oosterdam ending in Rome. It was our friends' first trip to Europe--their "trip of a lifetime" . I was in charge of post-cruise planning in Rome, so I feel your anxiety. You worry about logistics--for me I worried about how they would cope with meals and the size of European hotel rooms ...I didn't worry too much about the ship part of the trip.

Things I learned:

1. Notice how involved (or interested) others are in the planning process and research. If they are not interested in reading, watching videos etc they are assuming that you will be the tour guide.

 

2. Make sure that everyone understands that you WILL get lost and WILL NOT know every detail everyday. (Like where to get bus tickets or catch a bus). That getting lost and figuring things out is part of the fun of travel.

 

3. You do not need to be joined at the hip. If there is something that have dreamed about doing or seeing--do it. Remember this is your trip too.

 

4. Examine travel styles--if some of the group are guided tour types and some are DIYrs suggest tours for those who enjoy that. This was huge for us--we read alot, are history and art buffs and do not like tours. Our friend LOVE tours, so both on the cruise and when in Rome I found tours for them, they were happy we were happy and we had lots to talk about at the end of the day.

 

5. IT IS YOUR VACATION--go have fun and make sure that even though you did the leg work you are not responsible to make sure everyone has a good time.

 

I know this sounds a bit whiney--but I sweated over every detail and was getting more and more concerned when we would meet with our friends and they seemed to have a --well you know what we're doing--attitude. After our first port I re-evaluated the situation and suggested tours for them bacause getting lost is our favorite thing to do--and they would get frustrated and not see it as a sit at a cafe opportunity. On the ship and in Rome they were happy with the tours and we were happy doing our own thing (getting lost). In the end all of us had a wonderful trip with wonderful memories. The only mistake I made was in the early planning stages not being honest enough about the fact that tours would be better for them.

By the way--we just fell in love with Spain and plan to go back for a land tour. It is truely magical and the people are great.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

I agree with wipro, and with the last poster--evaluate the style of the members of your group. If they are a happy bunch who will have a good time no matter what, then you will be fine. Some people, however, are never happy, or have specific needs and goals, so involving them in the process before hand at least absolves you of the blame. And do budget time when the group can separate.

 

There are good friends that I could name that I would *not* want to travel with, especially on land. We too love to wander and get lost, and take our time, and not everybody wants to do this. We also can eat just about anything, and will be happy experimenting with local cuisine.

 

I am the planner for my husband and I, and I always ask him to make choices in advance, and describe hotels to him, and outline plans, and he accepts them or suggests something else. This way, if a hotel turns out to be a dud, we just chalk it up to experience.

 

I can't imagine doing this for a group. How big is the group?

[cruiseluv]

Wow,

 

That's a big spread of territory you are covering. Are you doing it all by car, or are you taking the train from Madrid south to Sevilla area? If you have specific questions about Madrid or Segovia let me know as we just got back from there. The other cities I have also visited but not as recently.

[NVskier]

Don't know how you are getting around, but we drove ourselves in a rental car through Spain for nearly 4 weeks last Oct and it was great. The signage was the best I have ever seen (in a roundabout if you miss the turn you just go around again until you get it!!) and other drivers (outside of major cities) were very polite and helpful. Trucks will signal you when you are clear to pass around them. That was a huge surprise. Our Spanish is limited but we did fine except with one taxi in Madrid where he took us to the wrong place. I then drew a picture of where we wanted to go (the needle like tower/restaurant) and he turned around, turned off his meter, and took us there for no additional charge. We were amazed at how polite the Spanish drivers were. Course, we did not pick up our car until we left Barcelona and dropped it off before entering Madrid. That way we did not drive inside either city. Granada and Toledo were much easier than we expected but we did stay just outside Toledo at the very elegant Hilton built from an old cardinal's estate and walked into town. Take the little "train" in Toledo for a quick orientation tour. It is fun and you go where cars cannot. We loved Spain and the people. Did go on to Portugal for 2 weeks after and that was fantastic. Visited smaller towns we had never heard of and met really nice people, most who spoke some English. My limited Brazilian Portuguese was not any help there. Very different!

 

NVskier