Yo Ho, Yo Ho, It's a Christmas Cruise for Me

I am definitely a restless and obsessive travel planner. I always need to be engaged with planning the next vacation. We've been stateside for just over a week and I have already put a deposit down for our next travel adventure, a seven-day Holland America Caribbean holiday cruise.

I knew before we even departed for our European trip that I wanted to do something special for Christmas. We had been considering Ireland, a return to Paris, Quebec, the West Coast, and possibly a Caribbean cruise. After our 21 hour long return day, including 2 hours stuck on the tarmac 20 yards from the gate, all I could think about was relaxation. As my wife will happily attest, I'm not usually one to go somewhere to relax when I can do that at home for cheap. When I travel, I like to get in as many sites as possible (within reason of course). However, a seven-day cruise seemed like the perfect combination of the two, relaxation and site seeing.

First, a seven-day cruise includes two at sea days, which essentially demand relax or at least go find something to do on the ship, but absolutely no site seeing (besides the water extending to the horizon). Cruise ships usually contain a spa, hot tubs, adults only pool areas, and comfortable deck lounge seating. Couple this with a balconcy stateroom and we will have all the components necessary to fulfill all our relaxation desires.

Secondly, in the cruises we looked at, two of the port days would be to cruiseline controlled resort islands. These islands offer enhanced relaxation emmenities in conjuction with some more in-depth activities/excursions like snorkeling, horseback riding, and zip lines. The remaining two ports are historically significant locations containing very interesting sites, which should satiate my desire to be a tourist and sitesee.

Thirdly, the food options are vast. One of our favorite things about traveling is trying new cuisines, foods, and regional favorite items. Typicaly cruise lines offer widespread culinary options, often including gourmet dining options for an additional fee. Couple the varied options onboard with the options available while in port and the possibilities become endless. Holland America also features culinary features/demonstrations, which will be very interesting to my wife and I.

While researching all the cruising options, we stumbled across a video for Cruise Comptete, a website that provides a framework for travel agents and agencies to bid for your business. After performing some consumer report research, I found this website was definitely reputable with many positive recommendations from fellow cruisers. One thing to be aware of though, before making any deposits or payments, ensure you have done your own consumer review search on the winning bidder. I like to use Cruise Critic, Fodors (forum and reviews), and Cruise Addicts for my research.

After reviewing five different holiday cruise options, including cruises with Carnival, Norwegian, and MSC, we eventually found Holland America. Now to be honest, I thought these guys would be way to expensive and initially they were. The first cruise I found for them started at $2400 per person for a Balcony cabin, which was much more than we wanted to spend. However, upon further review I found they had a Dec 24th sailing that was closer to $1600 per person for a balcony. This number we could live with so I started researching reviews. My findings were that Holland America, hands down rated much higher than the other options we had been looking at. While their core customer base tends to be older, they have begun to expand into our demographic (30+, secondary-educated, beer and wine crowd versus hard liquor).

Once we had all our options identified, we requested bids through Cruise Comptete. We eventually received an offer for the Holland America cruise that was for $1383 per person plus an onboard credit of $50. That was almost $500 cheaper than booking direct with the cruise line. We did opt for a guaranteed balcony as opposed to selecting a specific room because there are only four of the specific class rooms we selected onboard, and will thereby have a very good chance of getting a free upgrade. Check in later, when I will discuss researching our excursion/port activities.

After Action Review of Trip

I've now been home for almost 48 hours and my body is starting to accept that I'm no longer on European time (even though my mind wishes it was still). Yesterday I woke up at 4am, today it was 5:45.

I was really thankful that I took yesterday off from work to readjust because I was definitely feeling the effects of time dilation. For some reason I handle west to east movement much better than east to west, which is opposite of most others. That means when I get to Europe I'm usually fine, even with only an hour or two of sleep. Yet, when I come home I'm in a stupor for days.

Now that the fog has lifted I've begun to write the TripAdvisor reviews for the hotels, restaurants, and activities in each of the cities. These resources were important for my own research, so it is just as important to provide my own feedback in a timely manner. I've also begun planning my next two trips to combat post-trip depression (familiar to other obsessive trip planners out there, the only known cure is start planning another, bigger, better, more exciting trip).

The first I've started working on is a potential trip for Christmas. We are looking at returning to Europe or going to Quebec or California. The second is a Bat Mitzvah gift trip for our daughter, a year from this Thanksgiving. We are hoping to be able to take her out of school a week early and spend 14(+) days in Europe. Check back over the next couple days, I will be spell checking my trip posts, adding captions to pictures, and reordering pictures in an accurate timeframe.

On our way home

This morning proved to be interesting. We awoke around 6 and were showered, packed, and ready to depart by 6:20AM. Eventually our shuttle driver showed up and we departed...to pick up two other families. The good news is our flight was the latest of the three. Our driver wasn't too helpful though. We have provided the company with all our flight information when we made the reservation, but he didn't know what terminal we needed to go to. After dropping off the second family, our driver wanted me to run into the terminal to see which terminal we needed to go to. Luckily, I had downloaded our boarding pass as a PDF on my phone. After some double checking we were able to determine that we needed to go to Terminal 1.

Upon checkin, the agent would only give us our boarding passes from CDG. We left our bags and made our way through the futuristic tubes of terminal 1 that take you to security. Our.experience with security and time for connections was not great. Mary was selected several time for patdowns and swabs, while I had my carryon inspected and had the magnetic wand used on me in Dublin. Eventually we did make it through though, even if we only had 15 minutes to spare before takeoff (that was takeoff, not boarding). We landed in Dublin with an hour and twenty minutes, but between needing boarding passes printed, clearing immigration, going through US preclearance, and finally boarding it came down to the wire for time.

Update - It is now 5:05PM and we are sitting on the tarmac in Orlando awaiting a gate. We are glad to be home, especially considering we both took tomorrow off the recover from any potential jetlag.

Vacation Day 12, Our Final Day in Paris.

I'm writing this entry sitting in an amazing little courtyard at the western end (opposite from Notre Dame) of Ile-de-Cite, or the island of the city, while we wait for our dinner reservation. This island is where it all began for Paris, so it is somewhat ironic that it is where the end of our vacation will start. This dinner marks the end of our last vacation day, we depart Paris for home tomorrow morning.

The funny thing about this trip is, that while everything up to now has been fun, today has really been the most enjoyable . Originally, we were planning on seeing the Louvre, but after the crowds of the last few days, we decided to come back another time to see it and some other sites. Today, we decided, would be more about exploring old Paris and enjoying ourselves.

We started by sleeping in until almost 10, then we packed up what we could so we wouldn't need to worry about it when we get back. By 10:30 we were out the door, stopping around the corner to buy a baguet traditional and a pain aux raison (amazing!). Eventually, we found the Seine, which we walked along from Pont d'Alma to Notre Dame. As we approached Notre Dame, we began passing the famous Bouqanistas (booksellers).

Mary bought a map of the elevation of Paris from 1860 (it is a somewhat more recent print) for herself and a small poster of Chat Noir and a french version of la Petit Prince (the little prince) for our daughter, Rose. After some further walking we reached one of my favorite neighborhoods, San Michel in the Latin Quarter.

After taking photos of the San Michel fountain, we decided to sit down for lunch. I again had Croque Madame, while Mary went with Croque Vegetarian. We decided to ask for un pitchet vin du rose, or a pitcher of rose wine instead of a whole bottle. The pitchers are usually available in 25 or 50 ml sizes. We also decided to go for dessert and coffee. I had mint chocolate chip ice creame (glace) covered in creme du menth syrup, while Mary had profiterolles (ice cream stuffed cream puffs).

After we walked over to the Ile-de-Cite, where we saw pilgrims to Notre Dame in town for the Fete du Assumption (feast of the assumption). As a side note, during the research for this trip I had read that many local businesses shut down, I can say none of the tourist based businesses do. Many small markets, boulageries, patissaries, chocolate shops, and souvenir stores remained open on or near Ile-de-Cite.

The structure of Notre Dame is quite amazing and it was very moving to hear the choral movements eminating from the cathedral during the mass. We eventually sat down in a small park behind Notre Dame and watched people feed pidgeons. This was a very relaxing non-activity, which I would recommend to any weary traveler.

After the park, we began a walk through the small island of Ile-de-St-Louis, which is where we plan to stay on a future visit. We stood in line for Berthillon glace, bought some rose sparkling wine, water, a can opener (for foie gra we bought the day before), some macaroons, and a magnet of our favorite wine (Cote du Rhone Rose). Once we finished with purchases we settled down along the shady north bank of the Seine river on Ile-de-Cite.

We had a small picnic, while watching tour boats glide by and revelers enjoying the Paris Plage across the river. Our snack was delicious, I can definitely say the Foie Gra was worth the wait and the €1.35 spent on a can opener. The rose sparkling wine was very sweet and excentuated our experience with fine dining and living in Paris perfectly.

Eventually, we decided we would need to get up and move around to burn off some of these calories before our evening meal. We wandered through a small garden market, looking at plants and other items of horticultural interest. On the other side of the market was Notre Dame, so we decided to sit and soak up some music. After some further wandering, sitting, and milling about we found ourself here in this courtyard, which is where I began the post.

Tomorrow our vacation ends, but the planning of our next European adventure begins. So prost, sante, or cheers, whichever you prefer. Raise up a glass and toast with us to enjoying what the world has to offer.

Vacation Day 11, Another Bike Tour Another Blister

Woke up this morning to throbbing feet, I've developed a deep blister down to dark red layer (not pink, not red, think maroon) and I've almost run out of blister protection. I've now resorted to using mole skin, which just slides off.

First thing this morning Mary and I walked, well I hobbled, to the La Motte Picquet-Grenelle Sunday Market. It wasn't as impressive this time because they were just starting to set up, but we did find warm pain au chocolate and almond pastry.

When we finished with the market we made our way to the Fat Tire Bike Tour office. We strolled in at 8:46 for our 9AM tour and were subsequently assigned to the late group, which was a very accurate description of our tourmates.

The tour started out with a short ride to the Javel metro station, where we had an issue with locating a station attendant to open a gate for us to walk our bikes through. In the end we resorted to lifting them all over the gates. Eventually we boarded a train bound for Versailles.

Once we arrived in Versailles we proceeded to a Sunday Market, where we were set us free to procure items for a picnic lunch. We had a little trouble purchasing items, I tried paying to early, and we ordered too much from produce vendors (.5 kilo of amazing marinated green olives and some tasteless apricots). We thankfully were able to purchase our bread (bagette traditional and frommage loaf) and wine (Rose) without issue.

Once everyone had their items we set off for the palace grounds, which were immense. A various points our guide would stop and provide history about the Chataue. Eventually, we stopped at the corner of the Grand Canal for our lunch.

After lunch, we picked up the pace, which consisted of climbing several large grades (tiring for everyone). After about 20 minutes of upward riding, we reached the front entrance. We waited in line for about 35 minutes, finally walking into the main courtyard. The opulance is very apparent from the start and builds even more as you make your way to the area dedicated to the rule of Louis the XIV. The experience crescendos into the Hall of Mirrors, which was used as a throne room. On a negative note, this place is definitely subject to crowds, especially pre-arranged tour groups. Plan accordingly, the crowds are evidently less in the spring and fall.

Before setting out to explore the Palace, our guide instructed us all to reassemble at the bikes by 5:15. Of course, one person went missing. The wife in an Australian couple came shambling back to the group around 5:35. According to her husband, she does this all the time and they do not carry cell phones. If it happens all the time, wouldn't that mean maybe you should stay together for the sake of the other 17 people on the tour? Oh well, we missed our train and ended up waiting an additional 20 minutes. We did not get back to the FTBT office until 6:45. Ce la vie, it's Europe, this is about enjoyment and culture, not about schedules. Well we are off for dinner.

Evening update - As part of our hotel reservation if I mentioned Rick Steves' Paris book, we would get free tickets for a Seine River cruise. After a long day Mary and I wanted to keep it simple for dinner and go somewhere close to the boat tour. We settled on a small super touristy location between Musee du Branly and the Eiffel tower. While our waiter was very busy and did not feel inclined to humor my bad french (he dealt with us in English the whole time), the food was good and we did not want for anything.

We decided to start with some appetizers (entree or starters in French). Mary had onion soup, while I elected for escargot, which was delicious. For our main plates, I went with a Croque Madame (ham, cheese, toasted with baked cheese and a fried egg on top), while Mary had a hamburger (chopped steak top with a fried egg).

After dinner we walked down to Pont d'Alma for our boat tour with Bauteux Mouches. While the concept is good, the actual excecution left much to be desired. The sites were excellent, but the only option to buy drinks was on the shore before we left. If they would have had a bar or if we had known we could bring wine, the experience may have been better. Secondly, a new trend is mass fast paced Chinese tourism in Europe. We went on a 10PM tour, where the boat was almost filled to capacity (1000 people max) with Chinese tourists. Halfway through the tour, many were falling asleep in their seats. Now I have no problem with a crowded tour, but I do have a problem with flash photography right in my face, crowding, and shoving/pushing to exit the boat.

Between our experience with the same behavior in the halls of Versailles and this boat tour, we are thinking of changing our tour strategy in the future to avoid a repeat of this bad experience. I have to wonder though, in the past is this how people viewed newly traveling Americans? We have definitely been described as loud, obnoxious, crass, and rude, it seems like now the torch has been passed to the new guys.