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Post by Oz-T on Jan 30, 2015 22:15:45 GMT
Tiffany, by all means do whatever exercise you can, but it is unlikely to materially affect your weight. The food intake is the most critical factor. Shore excursions can certainly remove you from the feast area of the ship but sooner or later you'll be back at the dining room.
We found that it could be easier by avoiding desserts, or at least sharing one. I don't crave desserts much but they were automatically part of each meal so it was too easy to consume something we wouldn't usually eat much of at home. Good luck.
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Post by tassiedevil on Jan 31, 2015 7:19:53 GMT
I endorse Oz's remarks, Purvis!
Dress is very optional on all cruises these days. I think I will give cruises a miss then! I prefer dress mandatory!
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Post by chech on Jan 31, 2015 13:57:10 GMT
I endorse Oz's remarks, Purvis!
Dress is very optional on all cruises these days. I think I will give cruises a miss then! I prefer dress mandatory! LOL. As I always say...wear what you find comfortable, not what others find comfortable...as long as you wear something.
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Post by Boop on Jan 31, 2015 18:38:42 GMT
I think I will give cruises a miss then! I prefer dress mandatory! LOL. As I always say...wear what you find comfortable, not what others find comfortable...as long as you wear something. Nudists would tend to disagree with you Chech.......
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Post by Tonnet on Jan 31, 2015 23:44:10 GMT
Love the wink, Boop!
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Post by Boop on Feb 1, 2015 18:55:13 GMT
Love the wink, Boop!
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Post by marielouise on Feb 3, 2015 5:00:45 GMT
Today we signed up for Insight's Best of Italy tour at the end of this month. We are leaving 2 days before the tour starts on Feb 25, and staying an extra day at the end. This is a winter tour and it was a Red Hot Special. I like Insight since they have more legroom. DH has not been to Italy, I have been a few times but it was nearly 50 years ago, travelling by car with my parents and once by train. I haven't been to Assisi or Pisa before. We like that it is in the cool season but hope it wont rain too much.
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Post by chech on Feb 3, 2015 13:23:21 GMT
Awesome! I've been to Italy in January and it was a comfy 16 degrees in the day time....though the locals were bundled up. At the end of Feb/March...it should be downright hot coming from Canada. LOL
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Post by Boop on Feb 3, 2015 18:35:43 GMT
ML - Assisi was the best, it's very beautiful, you will enjoy visiting!
Have a wonderful time!!
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Post by marielouise on Feb 4, 2015 2:16:22 GMT
Awesome! I've been to Italy in January and it was a comfy 16 degrees in the day time....though the locals were bundled up. At the end of Feb/March...it should be downright hot coming from Canada. LOL We had 16C for 2 days last week, it felt like summer. It is much colder now. I am mostly concerned about rain which we aren't really used to, but it should be much better than the heat in summer.
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Post by marielouise on Feb 4, 2015 2:17:25 GMT
ML - Assisi was the best, it's very beautiful, you will enjoy visiting! Have a wonderful time!! Thanks Boop, I am sure we will enjoy it.
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wen
Junior Member
Posts: 29
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Post by wen on Feb 5, 2015 7:42:51 GMT
That's so exciting Marielouise you hardly have time for a countdown! can't wait to hear all about your trip
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Post by tiffany on Feb 9, 2015 12:58:12 GMT
Hello all, I’m back from an amazing cruise of the Caribbean, and wishing I were still there, as it’s -12 Celsius in Toronto this morning! Overall we had great weather, and the food and services on board were excellent. I did get a little motion sick during our first night in open water, but after that I started taking two gravel before dinner each night, as the motion sickness tended to hit me in the evenings, and then I was fine. If I do another cruise, I’ll get the patch to put behind my ear before I go. I will write up a tour tale when I have a chance, but it may be a few weeks before I can post it. They did some work on my place while I was gone, and it’s still a disaster zone, and I’ll be busy at work trying to get caught up.
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Post by chech on Feb 9, 2015 17:17:22 GMT
Awesome! Sounds like fun. Sounds warm. LOL Two gravol before dinner would put me to sleep until dinner the next day. LOL
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Post by tiffany on Feb 10, 2015 12:38:41 GMT
Awesome! Sounds like fun. Sounds warm. LOL Two gravol before dinner would put me to sleep until dinner the next day. LOL The gravel made me drowsy at first, but after a couple of days, I was fine. I guess my body was getting used to it. It was a fun trip, and the weather was great. I’m missing the heat and the beach!
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Post by tiffany on Feb 10, 2015 12:43:01 GMT
So I finally heard from my friend, and she won’t be able to travel with me this fall, as she didn’t get the position she was hoping for at work That means I’ll be going to Greece on my own this fall, and we are going to try and go to Eastern Europe in the fall of 2016. I decided to book the 4 day cruise option, as I’ve already been to Istanbul, and I’m saving $666.00 Cdn by booking the 4 day cruise. Doing so will allow me to fly into Athens a day early. The countdown is now on, and I only have 7 months to go!
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Post by chech on Feb 10, 2015 17:23:17 GMT
Cool. So that's the Best of Greece with the four day cruise? Speaking of heat...I'm down to 6 weeks to the Yucatan. And watching the temps there go up...and up...and ugh!
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Post by tiffany on Feb 10, 2015 18:32:10 GMT
Cool. So that's the Best of Greece with the four day cruise? Speaking of heat...I'm down to 6 weeks to the Yucatan. And watching the temps there go up...and up...and ugh! Yes, that’s the tour. I just came from talking to my travel agent, and because the tour starts on the Sunday, I was hoping to fly in to Athens the Saturday afternoon, but she said there are no afternoon flights to Athens. We are now looking at flying to London on the Friday evening, spending the night there, and flying to Athens from there the Saturday evening. That would at least give me a few hours in London on the Saturday afternoon, and still give me the Sunday and Monday afternoon in Athens before the tour starts. It will all depend on costs of course. It will be hot in the Yucatan in March/April, but hopefully it will be bearable. I don’t know what I like least, extreme heat/humidity or extreme cold/snow!
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Post by chech on Feb 10, 2015 21:01:29 GMT
That sounds a bit weird. Most flights to Europe are overnight so you'd leave Friday and get to a hub in Europe early on Saturday and connect to Athens. I went through Zurich - AC to Zurich and Swiss to Athens. Got me in early in the afternoon. Just checked and that schedule is still there. You can also fly through Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Munich, Geneva and more...all with connecting flights on Swiss, Lufthansa etc to Athens that afternoon. Just looking at the dates for BOG + 4 day cruise...it has the departures every Sunday by the looks of it, it doesn't start touring until Tuesday - so one would officially leave Canada on Sunday, fly overnight and arrive Athens on Monday and tour starts Tuesday. If you want the pre-day, wouldn't you want to arrive Athens on Sunday, not Saturday? If you arrive Saturday, you'd have to pay for two pre-nights at the hotel...the Saturday night and the Sunday night (when you're "officially" on the plane flying over). Make sense? (Assuming the Sunday is the Day 1 'depart Canada') lol
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Post by tiffany on Feb 10, 2015 22:06:48 GMT
That sounds a bit weird. Most flights to Europe are overnight so you'd leave Friday and get to a hub in Europe early on Saturday and connect to Athens. I went through Zurich - AC to Zurich and Swiss to Athens. Got me in early in the afternoon. Just checked and that schedule is still there. You can also fly through Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Munich, Geneva and more...all with connecting flights on Swiss, Lufthansa etc to Athens that afternoon. Just looking at the dates for BOG + 4 day cruise...it has the departures every Sunday by the looks of it, it doesn't start touring until Tuesday - so one would officially leave Canada on Sunday, fly overnight and arrive Athens on Monday and tour starts Tuesday. If you want the pre-day, wouldn't you want to arrive Athens on Sunday, not Saturday? If you arrive Saturday, you'd have to pay for two pre-nights at the hotel...the Saturday night and the Sunday night (when you're "officially" on the plane flying over). Make sense? (Assuming the Sunday is the Day 1 'depart Canada') lol My travel agent spoke to her Trafalgar rep, and the tour group meets in the lobby of the hotel late afternoon on the Monday (day one is the Sunday, which is the overnight flight). My original plan was to fly to Athens the Saturday afternoon, arriving the Saturday evening, and then spending Saturday and Sunday night in Athens. This would give me Sunday afternoon/evening and most of Monday to see the sights on my own. My travel agent advised that there are no day flights to Athens though, so I’d have to fly there Saturday evening, arrive Sunday morning, and then have Sunday afternoon and Monday afternoon to see the sights. As there are no direct flights to Athens on Saturdays right now, she mentioned stopping in London, and I mentioned that I might prefer to have some time in London. She told me I could get a late flight to London after work on the Friday, which would get me in London Saturday morning, and give me the afternoon to see some of London before flying to Athens from London on Saturday evening. This would still give me an extra day and a half on my own in Athens. The more I think about it though, I may spend the Friday and Saturday night in London, and travel to Athens on the Sunday. I think I’d rather have the extra time in London than Athens. On a positive note, I have another friend interested in coming on this tour with me. She’s always wanted to go to Greece, and is going to see if her husband would be okay with taking care of their daughter on his own for two weeks. He’s taken care of her on his own for a week before, while she travelled to Florida, so he may be okay with taking care of her on his own for two weeks. We shall see!
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Post by chech on Feb 10, 2015 23:08:05 GMT
Ahhh...okay...so you're talking a direct flight from Toronto to Athens. If that's on AC, you probably wouldn't want to do it anyway - it's via Rouge and that would be a long flight to be squat on Rouge. I just noticed that according to your itinerary, you also get almost a full day in Athens at the end of the tour. The ship docks well before dawn...you're off the boat after breakfast and you're back at the hotel by about 10am. Both hotels listed are either very close to Plaka or offer a shuttle. (They've changed that last day set up....it used to be that people would depart the day the boat docks but they must have had problems with transfers. On our tour, a lot of people had flights booked too early and it was a mad scramble. I remember the Athens rep looked like she was going grey just from sorting out the airport vs hotel group...LOL). So you get that time in Athens plus any extra time you factor in at the beginning. I also don't recommend the Sounion optional on that first afternoon as it's a long drive for a single ruin and there's far more impressive ruins in Delphi and Athens. (The meal wasn't offered and most of our tour didn't do it). So, yeah....if you do the London stopover, arrive in Athens late Saturday, you would get a lot of time to see Athens....that Sunday and Monday...Tuesday afternoon if you skip Sounion and then the last day. If the cost of the extra night (Saturday) in Athens is no good...you could easily shift your plans one day forward....leave Saturday and just connect directly to Athens from any city in Europe on Sunday morning and be in Athens by mid-day Sunday. That would still give you lots of time to see Athens. (The nice part is that all the good stuff is located so close to the city centre/Plaka area that it's easy to walk to a lot of it. The subway was easy to use too. The ticket girl told us everything we needed to know). Hopefully, your friend's hubby comes through. And it's a great price. It's quite a bit cheaper than when I went. Great time to go for both of you.
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Post by tiffany on Feb 11, 2015 12:54:37 GMT
It is a good price this year, and I did get my 5% return customer discount on the land portion of the tour.
The more I think about it, I’m leaning towards spending two nights in London on the way to Athens. I think I’d rather spend the extra time there, as I didn’t see everything I wanted to see the last time I was there.
Let’s hope my friend’s husband gets onboard!
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Post by marielouise on Feb 11, 2015 18:33:42 GMT
We picked up our documents for the Best of Italy yesterday, everything seems in order, one hotel was changed in Assisi. I hope the water will recede in Venice by the time we are there. We fly to Frankfurt, then Rome in 2 weeks.
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Post by Tulips on Feb 13, 2015 3:23:44 GMT
I have a few trips coming up:
Florida : February 2015 - 9 days to go Iceland: May 2015 Galapagos Islands October 2015
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Post by Tulips on Feb 13, 2015 3:24:27 GMT
Tiffany,
Hope things get sorted for you soon.
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Post by tiffany on Feb 13, 2015 12:34:06 GMT
Thanks Tulips. My travel agent sent me a breakdown of all of the prices last night, so I’m going to email them to my friend this morning, and see what she decides. Hopefully she’ll be able to come with me.
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Post by tiffany on Feb 13, 2015 12:35:03 GMT
I have a few trips coming up: Florida : February 2015 - 9 days to go Iceland: May 2015 Galapagos Islands October 2015 Both Iceland and the Galapagos Islands are on my list of places to go. I can't wait to hear about your trips when you get back!
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Post by marielouise on Feb 15, 2015 15:37:49 GMT
I have a few trips coming up: Florida : February 2015 - 9 days to go Iceland: May 2015 Galapagos Islands October 2015 Tulips you have quite a few trips planned. I hope you don't have to fly to Toronto for your trip to Iceland. Enjoy Florida after all the snow you have been getting.
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Post by Tulips on Feb 15, 2015 16:14:13 GMT
Marielouise,
Icelandair flys direct to Iceland from Halifax, so no Toronto for me. Really cuts down on the travel time.
Right now we are getting freezing rain on top of the snow we had last night. Should be fun trying to get all the ice off my car. It's quite thick.
I can't wait to go to Florida. It hasn't been all that warm there this weekend, but at least they aren't getting nor'easters.
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Post by tiffany on Feb 15, 2015 17:51:25 GMT
Have fun in Florida Tulips and enjoy the warmer Temps. It was -40 with wind in Toronto this morning, and my power was out from 4:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m., so it's cold! I wish I were back on my cruise!
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