Thread: Wow, I have a Celebrity Vacation Planner? =P

Money? Who cares about money?
Pete is right about Uniworld. Each ship has a very unique decor. Some I like, some are a lot too foo foo for me.

Ete considering the price of hotels in some of the cities you cruise through, wouldn't that partially offet the price of these riverboat cruises?

It's a little more of a problem for myself Neil. Having lived in Europe for over three years (and I consider it a blessing!), it's hard for me personally to think of the river cruise even though I do have a great desire to do it! The reason it's going to be a problem for me because I know it's not like island hopping in the Carribean. I'm not an art museum person, but after my first trip to the Louvre, I could have been there for a week. Spent 4 or 5 hours at the Eiffel Tower and so on. I did a lot of research on our trip back before going and managed to find a train fare for my friends and I due to the fact they had a kid....the great thing was they could used the pass for a year with the SCNF! I found great hotels for us that were truly reasonable and went along with my romanticized view of France! I'm really good with planning, I love off the beaten path and am truly happy going to a patisserie for my breakfast/lunch and spending a few Euro's rather than getting all touristy and making a well known restaurant a must. Some of the best meals I've ever eaten have been way off the beaten path.
BFF, myself, along with the hubby's want to go after Thanksgiving/before Christmas so that we can go to the Christkindl Markt, so this might help a lot. I know what Germany feels like in the winter and it's a little more raw there....I won't be as apt to want to run the strauße!

Sharon, I know exactly where you are coming from. We went to London for four days - I could have spent a month there without batting an eye. I did the planning all on my own and it was an adventure.

Rick Steaves put down three hours for the British museum. We spent six hours there, barely made it through Egypt, Assyria, and part of Greece before our brains went into overload. That is barely 10% of the one wing!

We also spent three hours in the British Library which most of the travel books say you can do in an hour. And the only reason we left was to head over to the theater.

We took the tube everywhere and had a blast doing so. And we got lost. But even that was worth a story because the nice British gentleman we asked for directions noticed Deb's accent and invited us over to meet his friends who were also from America. To be more precise, they lived about two miles from our house here in Texas.

A river cruise is if I want to relax and get an initial flavor (then I would persuade Deb to go back)

Just have to figure out how to get a job contract in England!

Originally Posted by nealberk

Sharon, I know exactly where you are coming from. We went to London for four days - I could have spent a month there without batting an eye. I did the planning all on my own and it was an adventure.

Rick Steaves put down three hours for the British museum. We spent six hours there, barely made it through Egypt, Assyria, and part of Greece before our brains went into overload. That is barely 10% of the one wing!

We also spent three hours in the British Library which most of the travel books say you can do in an hour. And the only reason we left was to head over to the theater.

We took the tube everywhere and had a blast doing so. And we got lost. But even that was worth a story because the nice British gentleman we asked for directions noticed Deb's accent and invited us over to meet his friends who were also from America. To be more precise, they lived about two miles from our house here in Texas.

A river cruise is if I want to relax and get an initial flavor (then I would persuade Deb to go back)

Originally Posted by nealberk

Just have to figure out how to get a job contract in England!

Loved tramping around Europe! Even though we lived there over three years, at that time we lacked money to do a lot of the things we wanted to do and we were busy living our day to day life, much like if we would have been here in Maryland. My hubby was working there....I was a homemaker and mother as we had two of our kids there, so travel was just around Germany and Austria.

If Mike were offered another position, I often think would we even consider it? We now have our first grandchild and it would be much harder to leave here. I keep thinking how wonderful it would have been to have the internet back when we lived there. We were fortunate and really didn't have the homesickness thing going on. but a lot of my friends at the time did. I viewed it much as I do travel....an adventure! I feel totally blessed I was able to experience another culture, make friends and visit towns where my family lived.

When we went back 20 years later (our friends actually moved to the same area!) nothing much had changed. A few traffic circles had been put in place and that was about the extent of it. I think that is one of the things I really like about Europe....buildings aren't so apt to be ripped down because someone wants something bigger and better.....oh, and cleanliness....why in the world can't ppl throw their trash in a waste can? Haven't figured that whole thing out yet!


LOL, speaking of touring places while on vacay.....we loved Notre Dome so much that we went there twice. What a trip! Sunday Mass is incredible! I still get goosebumps thinking about hearing the organ play!

We aren't at the rivercruise quite yet, but we are thinking long term that we want to do it. The Christkindl Markt is my motivation....it will be too cool more than likely for me to be running all over!

I loved the intimacy of the small chapel at the tower of London. It just had the peaceful tranquil feeling and to walk past where all the greats were buried right in the chapel floor. Wow. The Beefeater who was escorting our group noticed how much we appreciated it and asked us if we would like to come back for the church service on Sunday. If we only could have. We had to meet the rest of the crowd for the trip from London to Dover to catch our ship.

To so many people, places like that are interesting but to me they hold a special reverence. Actually, I got that same feeling when we toured the Alamo a few years back. Some places just do that.