It is travel planning time again. Because we have been home a month now I thought it was time to start planning our new escapade. It's not that we don't like it at home, it's just that we do like to travel. Last week I made reservations to travel to Michigan in a few week for my father-in-law's 101st birthday but I don't consider this an "escapade." We are thinking about a trip next summer similar to that we did this year - a transatlantic cruise followed by a European river cruise. We will probably do that in May and June and we have netted out dates and locations but no reservations.
However, what should we do in the mean time? Nancy suggested that we fly to California in December and visit the "west coast daughters" - Laura in Los Angeles and Colleen in Eureka. And I suggested that we take a Panama Canal cruise to get back home. So that's what we are doing: fly to Los Angeles using frequent flier points, fly to Eureka on Air Alaska or United, take a Holland America cruise from Los Angeles to Ft. Lauderdale via the Panama Canal.
The cruise is 14 days and starts in Los Angeles on December 23 so have to back up from there so we spend four days at each daughter's place. We will fly from Miami to Los Angeles on December 15 and we have enough frequent flier points to fly coach but not enough for Business Class. Fixed that by "sharing" 10,000 points with Nancy so we can go Business Class. (Before last month to take a one-way trip the number of frequent flier points was the same as a round trip. Now a one-way trip is half as many as for a round trip.)
We want to end up in Los Angeles so we want to go to Eureka first. So, we have round trip tickets on United from Los Angeles to Eureka where we will stay until the 19th of December when we will fly back to Los Angeles. We will stay there until the 23rd when the cruise starts.
This morning I talked to our travel agent (she didn't answer her phone yesterday as it was Yom Kippur) and we will take the ms Amstedam to Ft. Lauderdale. We have been on the Amsterdam before for our 64 day Asia/Australia/Polynesia cruise in 2007. We pick a category (outside cabin - obstructed view) and hope that we will be upgraded. We almost always do but we'll see.
Now with that out of the way, we can work on next summer cruises!
However, what should we do in the mean time? Nancy suggested that we fly to California in December and visit the "west coast daughters" - Laura in Los Angeles and Colleen in Eureka. And I suggested that we take a Panama Canal cruise to get back home. So that's what we are doing: fly to Los Angeles using frequent flier points, fly to Eureka on Air Alaska or United, take a Holland America cruise from Los Angeles to Ft. Lauderdale via the Panama Canal.
The cruise is 14 days and starts in Los Angeles on December 23 so have to back up from there so we spend four days at each daughter's place. We will fly from Miami to Los Angeles on December 15 and we have enough frequent flier points to fly coach but not enough for Business Class. Fixed that by "sharing" 10,000 points with Nancy so we can go Business Class. (Before last month to take a one-way trip the number of frequent flier points was the same as a round trip. Now a one-way trip is half as many as for a round trip.)
We want to end up in Los Angeles so we want to go to Eureka first. So, we have round trip tickets on United from Los Angeles to Eureka where we will stay until the 19th of December when we will fly back to Los Angeles. We will stay there until the 23rd when the cruise starts.
This morning I talked to our travel agent (she didn't answer her phone yesterday as it was Yom Kippur) and we will take the ms Amstedam to Ft. Lauderdale. We have been on the Amsterdam before for our 64 day Asia/Australia/Polynesia cruise in 2007. We pick a category (outside cabin - obstructed view) and hope that we will be upgraded. We almost always do but we'll see.
Now with that out of the way, we can work on next summer cruises!
