Avalon has travel guides for all their trips. Very thorough and full of useful and interesting information. I have one for Paris and one for the trip to Normandy. The +1 says he doesn't want to know any more details about the trip except that we are flying to Paris, so I will hand him the two guides on the plane. I think he will like the plan.

 

Just back from a 9 day Caribbean Cruise (Bermuda, St. Maarten, Puerto Rico and Ladabee).

Good news for me--- Cindy isn't interested in another cruise like this. Woo Hoo!!!!

This is my 2nd Caribbean cruise and I didn't like either. Too much open water, just a horizon to see, short days on land. I loved my 1 cruise to Alaska for all the opposite reasons. We went on this one with family for my nephew's graduation. I'm not really sure he wanted to do this but it was a compromise so others joining us could participate in the celebration.

While there - it was sickening to see the devastation still. St. Maarten is leveled. Almost every building that was still standing required new roofs (which btw is how they collect water!). Whole areas and neighborhoods where all that remained was the foundation/concrete pad. Major hotels just gone. There are boats still underwater - their masts sticking out of the water still, others have been pulled out and are 100% ruined. Our tour guide commented that the local insurers just declare bankruptcy instead of paying, so the people effectively get nothing for their loss.

In Puerto Rico we stayed in Old San Juan which has damage, but a much different situation than rural PR, so we didn't quite see the same level of devastation there.

 

^ I'm with you; I took one Caribbean cruise and have no desire to do another. If it wasn't for bars and dancing at night I would have jumped overboard. I felt like I was trapped on a boat where all they do is eat.

 

We just finished a cruise from Venice to Rome. It was a small ship (930 people) and sailing was at night. We had a great time and would do it again in a minute!

There is no way you would get me on one of those floating city (3000 to 6000 people) that the other lines use and I have no interest in the Caribbean. If I wanted to go to a third world country I could go the slums of Detroit or Cleveland!

 

We were at lunch with my nephew and family today and before I could say anything, he said "You are going on a river cruise, right?" Oops...so now the +1 knows that, but he said he missed the comment. He still doesn't know the itinerary or the tour plans for Paris.

 

We have nixed western MA for our anniversary. Though there was one place I wanted to go, it was too much of "been there done that" as far as that area. We have switched gears to Portsmoth, NH. Up and coming place, on the water, historic buildings, a boat ride to a nearby island, brew pubs. That's the plan for now. Will watch the weather as time gets near. I do have the option to cancel up until the day before.

Still plan on exploring the Blue Hill Peninsula area of Maine in September.

 

Now that we have returned from our fabulous river cruise in France (see my thread for pics), I'm looking at other river cruises. Found a brand new ship in the US which looks nice. Has an itinerary from New Orleans to Memphis. Not sure when we would do this. Probably not next year. Something to about...

https://www.americancruiselines.com/.../american-song

 

What do you suppose the fare is on something like that?

 

The trip I mentioned shows "From $4925". That's per person. It includes most everything on the cruise, and apparently the hotel for the night before and transport to the ship. You'd have to add airfare, of course, but that part would certainly be cheaper for us than France. Those tix were $1600 each!

 

We get catalogs in the mail all the time for cruises, including river cruises. Yes, they are quite expensive. There are some spots in Europe I'd not mind visiting, but not even going beyond the "that's a nice area" way of thinking. At times, flying to Europe is cheaper than air fare for domestic flights. All depends on where/when.

We enjoyed our little get a way to Portsmouth, NH, looking forward to ME in about a month. Still plenty of places on the east coast that we've not seen.