One of the mistakes that ocean cruisers often make when they want to try a river cruise, is thinking they can book it just two or three months in advance. We then get to deliver the rather unfortunate news that the river cruise they want is sold out and that they should have started planning their river cruise a year or more in advance.

If you’re thinking about doing a Danube cruise that includes The Passion Play at Oberammergau, then we need to be looking at TWO years in advance.

We learned this lesson the hard way this past week when we tried to book some clients onto Avalon Waterway’s Passion Play cruise, and discovered it is completely sold out for the entire 2020 season already!

Luckily, we were able to find space on Viking for them.

For those who don’t know, the Passion Play takes place just once every 10 years in the small Bavarian town of Oberammergau in Germany. The play is about the last days of Jesus Christ, and was original performed in 1634 as a vow to God for the town being spared from the Bubonic Plague.

It is still performed by the local people, and the 2010 production involved over 2000 Oberammergau residents. Unlike other plays you may have seen, this one has a 3-hour intermission between the opening and closing acts, and during that time they feed you dinner.

The river cruise packages which include tickets to this play normally involve 2 or 3 nights on shore in Munich or Oberammergau either before or after the river cruise. Most often, the ship travels between Nuremberg and Budapest.

So if this is something you’re considering, you’d be well advised to book it sooner rather than later. It’s a long wait until 2030 for the next production.

Click here to learn more about The Passion Play CruiseTour with Viking River Cruises: https://www.vikingrivercruises.com/cruise-destinations/europe/oberammergau/2020-munich-budapest/index.html

Planning a Cruise?  I’d love to help!  Click here to get in touch today.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sue Bradley

In the past, I was always the type of person who really enjoyed going on vacation, but then enjoyed coming homeeven more.

I always viewed the idea of going away for months on end to be a bit of a non-starter for me.  A week or two is one thing, but several months?  I never thought that was my thing.

A few years ago, that changed.

Circumstances beyond our control meant that we (my husband and I plus our two-year-old son) had to move out of our house, where we were firmly settled in a peaceful, almost idyllic day-to-day life.

That is, as peaceful as co-existing with a two-year old can possibly be!

After an initial panicky period where we desperately starting searching for another suitable house, we decided to instead put all our stuff in storage, and be “homeless” for a few months.

We decided to look at this unexpected (and unwelcome) turn of events in a different way, and consider it to be an opportunity instead.  We would make use of this ‘found time’ without the large monthly expense of rent or a mortgage payment to do some travelling.

At the time, we didn’t have school age kids, and were able to work remotely.  The only thing stopping us was our own fear – which was considerable, I may add.

To make a long story short, we ended up spending several months in Mexico, and what I quickly learned is that being away for months at a time is NOT anything like being on vacation.

Gone was the pressure to soak up the sun, and drink as many margaritas as possible before returning to reality a few days later!

Instead, we developed new routines, and in hindsight, it was a period of tremendous growth.  We eventually did return to “reality”, but those months away from our home and regular routine changed my outlook, and provided memories to last a lifetime.

Lately, I’ve been wondering what it would be like to be on a cruise ship for several months.

What got me started thinking about this is Viking’s newly announced “Ultimate World Cruise”.

https://www.vikingcruises.com/oceans/cruise-destinations/world-grand/2020-world-cruise/index.html

This cruise visits 6 continents, 59 countries and 113 ports, with 22 overnight calls and features a full circumnavigation of the globe.

Imagine being on board for 245 days!

Of course Viking is not the only cruise line to offer a World Cruise, but it’s the longest one I’ve ever seen.

I’d love to learn more about what it’s like to be on such a long cruise.

Have you previously taken a World Cruise (or Grand Voyage), or do you know someone who has done this? 

If so, please get in touch with me.

I’d be interested to correspond with you to learn more about your experience.

Alternately, if you’re considering a World Cruise or World Cruise Segment I would also love to hear from you to know what your major concerns are.

Click here to get in touch today.

Thank you for sharing your experience!  I look forward to hearing from you.

Sue Bradley

I guess the internet really does change everything.

We’ve seen the effectiveness of wiki-sites like Trip Advisor and Yelp, so the actual sale of goods and services (in addition to advice, like on the sites noted above) was only a matter of time.

In the tourism and hospitality industry, there has long been websites such as VRBO (now HomeAway), and most obviously Uber for bringing buyers and sellers together.

But food?

Yep… there’s an app for that.

Originally launched as Vizeat, there is now a website to find your next meal: eatwith.com

You can use this when you’re at home, or when you travel.

The premise is very similar to ride-sharing. First you select your location. The EatWith people have a number of selected hosts. You then book your date and time, and if you want to chat with your host ahead of time, you can do so.

It’s quite possible there will be several travellers at your table, so you not only get to interface with your host, but others that have chosen the same time and place as you.

So I thought I should check this out. Many of you know our office is in Manhattan, but Bob and I don’t really get there very often. I love New York, and there is always something new to discover there. As you might expect, there are dozens of EatWith hosts there – so we’ll be making an EatWith reservation next time we’re there.

As a contrast, I thought I’d look up a place much smaller. How about La Grande, Oregon (pop. 14,000)? Yep… if find yourself driving between Boise, Idaho, and Portland, Oregon, there’s a place for you to share a meal. I’ll let you know how it goes.

In all seriousness, many times when travelling, the very thought of facing another non-descript restaurant meal was almost enough to make me cut my trip short.

Now there’s an app to deal with that.

Planning a Cruise?  I’d love to help!  Click here to get in touch today.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sue Bradley

We don’t often blog about specific cruises, unless it looks really interesting.

This one qualifies as “really interesting”.

Most people have bucket list trips in mind, and this particular cruise will enable people to knock off a number of things on their list.

It’s on the Oceania Regatta, and departs on May 1, 2019 (28 nights).

Here are the tick marks you can satisfy on your list:

• Sail on Oceania. Many of our Celebrity, Holland America, and Princess clients are wondering what else is out there, and the next step for many of those folks is to try a line like Oceania. The thing I really like about this cruise is that it is priced more like you would see on Celebrity, HAL or Princess, but you get to try something different. With 684 guests, the Regatta is an entirely different experience when you pull into port than ships with 2000 or 3000 guests.
• Havana, Cuba. There’s no denying that Cuba is now open for business. The all-inclusive beach resorts will have proportionally fewer English and Canadian accents as more Americans begin to visit, but the big changes will happen in Havana. You need to get there – soon.
• The Panama Canal. This cruise does a daylight full transit of the canal.
• Portland, Oregon. Maybe this hasn’t made your bucket list yet. Portland and the Oregon Coast are America’s best kept secret. If you’re a craft-beer person, then this is a particularly important stop.
• Alaska (4 ports). After you’ve seen the tropical rainforests in the Central America, then you should see the temperate rainforests in Alaska. The volcanoes in Alaska come complete with snow-capped peaks, too.
• Vancouver. The buzz around this city has risen since the 2010 Olympics, but on a nice day, there is probably not a prettier city in the world.

In addition to these bucket list items, this cruise also visits Costa Rica, Guatemala, three ports in Mexico, and two ports in California.

Here is the pricing breakdown:

• Inside Cabin: $6099 ($218 per day)
• Ocean View Cabin: $6499 ($232 per day)
• Balcony Cabin: $10699 ($382 per day)

These prices are per person in USD.

Unlike the mass-market cruise lines, Oceania includes a number of things that would normally be billed to your shipboard on other lines:

• Free Internet
• Your choice of:
  • All inclusive Beverage Package, or
  • 14 Shore Excursions, or
  • $1400 on-board-credit, or

With these inclusions, this cruise is better value overall than many cruises on the mass-market lines.

Plus, it’s a lot more interesting!

Planning a Cruise?  I’d love to help!  Click here to get in touch today.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sue Bradley