We're Ready!!

And, our car is on it's way!!

We're watching it... looks like it is currently stopped at Burger King... perhaps for a late lunch or a cup of Joe!!

We'll be off before 4pm!!! WHEEEE!!

rf

About 16 hours 'til D-parture!!

YEAH!!!  Today, Friday (10/9/15), it was yesterday when I started this!, is the day we fly to Barcelona, actually, the day we begin the trip to Barcelona!

Just checked in for our flights and we were able to move up a couple of rows.  With his long legs, Tom likes to have bulkhead seats. DONE!!!

We have 1 D & 1 G which on this weird configuration are next to each other!  We love it because we each have an aisle seat, thus easy access to the "porcelain"/stainless steel facilities!

Our ride will pick us up at 4pm.  We'll have lots of time at the airport so, if there are any hangups we can take care of them.

Our first flight is scheduled to depart Tampa at 8:25pm and arrive in Zurich 9 hours, 25 minutes later at 11:50am Zurich time.  We'll spend 5 and 1/2 hours in Zurich then at 5:20pm, we'll be on our way to Barcelona!  When tonight we got the boarding passes, we learned that boarding time is 19:35 (7:35pm to us Yanks!)!!

We'll arrive in Barcelona around 7:10pm on Saturday, probably be at hotel by 8pm, Barcelona time, 2pm our time but after some 23 hours from home to hotel, we'll be ready to CRASH!!  Into nap mode I mean!!  We're hoping for no other "crashes"!!!

The hotel is the same one we stayed at in early 2014!  Hotel Rey Juan Carlos...


This is where we plan to have breakfast on Sunday morning!!

SOOO excited!!  From the song "It Might As Well Be Spring" comes the line "I'm as giddy as a baby in a swing"... that's me!!

Maybe more tomorrow!  Who knows!
rf

Less Than 1 Week Away Now!

Color me as giddy as a 3-year-old at Christmas!!

At this time of day as I post this, we are scheduled to be settled in our seats and gaining altitude out of Tampa, or perhaps at cruising altitude, on our Edelweiss flight to Zurich!  From there we'll connect on to Barcelona!

The last time we shipped our bags, they spent the weekend hoopin’ it up in Hawaii, this time those partying little trollops are spending the weekend in Paris!!  Just hope they don’t catch some STD while they’re there!!  Sometimes, I think they have more of an adventure than we do!

After tonight, we'll have totally emptied the freezer, well, except for cookies and ice, and closing the kitchen! We’ll be eating out or getting take-out until we leave!

Our "front" fridge has a frozen jug of water and a box of ice cubes, otherwise it's pretty bare as well!

Full blog site is: http://barcelonatocapetown.blogspot.com/
It has itinerary, et al.
rf

Bags On Their Way to Barcelona!

Today was the day bags were scheduled to be picked up!  We had arranged for a time slot between 10am and noon.  The courier service arrived shortly after 10am!  He presented us with a signed receipt for our 4 bags, 2 large suitcases and 2 duffel bags.

The "young" man was in uniform, very pleasant and very efficient.  We were quite pleased with Luggage Free's service when we used it in 2013.  And, they're off on the right foot again!

We had the bags waiting in the garage.  The courier quickly moved them into his truck. I'd forgotten to pick up the camera on my way out so had to run back.  By the time I was outside again, he'd started closing up.  You can see one of the duffel bags sitting on top.

And then they were off!  Yes, it was a rainy day but the rain did stop long enough for the bags to get moved from the garage to the truck!

Around 11am, we received an email from Luggage Free advising that the courier had delivered the bags!!!  YEAH!!!

So, as of now, except for our drag-a-longs, our bags have deserted us!  We look forward to meeting up with them again on the ship in Barcelona when we settle in to our cabin, our home for the following 70 nights!

rf

Down to Three Weeks!

Ohhhh so close now!!  At this point, it's hard to believe it was 18 months ago we booked this trip!  It seemed soooo far away then!

We started the official packing process today!  Two duffel bags are packed and Tom has his big suitcase almost packed!  I have stuff laid out and will probably pack it up tomorrow.  Bags will be picked up in 11 days, 10 days before departure.

We always keep a countdown calendar and, today, the regular lists got moved down and the calendar got moved to the fridge (every home's bulletin board!).  The calendar has meals outlined so as to get all the frozen food out of the freezers and finish off any kind of food that might spoil.  We have a wonderful window-mate who will watch the house for us, just in case!  After all, we will still be in hurricane season!

Three weeks from now, as I post this, we are scheduled to be a little over an hour into our flight to Zurich, then on/back to Barcelona!
rf

Another Countdown Day!!

Today marks 4 weeks until departure!  YEAH!!!

We'll head to the airport around 4pm and spend a couple of hours there getting checked in, getting from "land side" to "air side" and waiting for our Edelweiss plane.  4pm weekdays is the middle of Tampa rush hour!  And, this will be a Friday afternoon so who knows what kind of traffic we will run into!!

The milestone event earlier this week was getting suitcases down from the attic!  Tom pulled the stairs down, braved the heat, put on a construction helmet and headed on up the stairs (the ceiling of the attic looks like an upside down nail bed!)

At the time of this picture, the luggage was still sitting in the garage recovering from the high (115-120º F) heat in the attic.  The next day, they graduated to cooler heat in the guest room.  We have begun laying out "take with" items, however, haven't started loading the bags.

The two large bags along with a couple of duffel bags will be shipped to Barcelona, the smaller ones will be dragged along with us.  The ones being shipped will leave about 10 days before we do.

Today brought another, not so surprising, event.  We were originally scheduled to stop in Mytilini on the Greek island of Lesbos.  However, after the number of fleeing Syrian immigrants arriving there, Regent has chosen to take us to another Greek port. We will dock in Kavala on mainland Greece.

Check the Itinerary page Leg 2 for location of Mytilini and Leg 3 for location of Kavala.

Regent wisely does not take us any where there might be danger or unrest.  Friends often ask "Aren't you afraid of traveling in that part of the world?"  My response is always "No.  Regent stays alert to all world and weather events and doesn't take us places where we might be in any danger!"

That's all for today!
rf

Cruise Documents Arrived!!!

 WHEE!!!  Today our cruise documents arrived.  A couple of days ago, our Cruise Consultant advised they were in her office and were being sent out that day!  We'd received notice from UPS Choice that they would be in today!  SOOO excited!

We heard the doorbell ring and I guessed it would be UPS.  By the time I got to the door, the speedy driver/delivery person was gone but this package was lying there saying "Pick me up! Get me inside to where it is cool!"





The driver must have updated his system on his way back to the truck!  By the time I got back to my computer, we'd received a message from UPS!

Of course, the next thing was to open the package and as expected, all the documents were there!!

Again enclosed in an iPad case... still no iPad itself!!

Checked to make sure everything was there and that details matched the notes we'd kept along the way!  Another job well done by Regent Seven Seas Cruises and, most importantly, our Cruise and Vacation Consultant at TCAVA!


The countdown continues:




We've started the packing by just laying things out and we've started emptying the freezers.  And we are eating out more, thus practicing for letting someone else do the cooking and washing the dishes!!

rf

Down to 6 Weeks...

... but who's counting??  We've been counting since we booked the trip on March 18, 2014.  That was 18 months and 3 weeks before departure! But who's counting???

Everything is done, I think!  Our passports came back with the India Visas, we've supplied all the additional info that Regent needed and requested for the other visas.

Next major item on the checklist is to get the bags down from the attic and start packing to have the luggage ready for pickup on September 29!!

Passports On Their Way Home!

GOOD NEWS!!  Just received a note from UPS.  Our passports, with the India visas, are on their way home and will be delivered before 10:30am tomorrow!!

That was SUPER quick!  The applications left here on 8/5, arrived NYC on 8/7, CIBT started process on 8/10.  Here it is 7 business days later and, they're on their way home from Atlanta!!

One less item on our to do, my "fret", list!!  Regent has, or will have, all the other visas we will need before we arrive in other ports where they are needed!

Only Two More Months to go!!

Countdown per Excel

Ever since we booked this trip on March 18, 2014, about 18 months ago, we've been counting down the time!  It appears that we have covered all the details that we can up to this point.

Next item up will be making our specialty dining reservations for the Dubai to Cape Town portion of the trip!

Message from UPS... right on time!

In the prior post, I mentioned the India Visa applications were on their way to Visa Central in New York.  Well, about 9:30am on Friday, we received e-mail notice they had been delivered!  YEAH!  Gotta love UPS!!

We're looking to get our passports with the India visas inside sometime between 8/21 and 8/28!

rf

The Last Pre-Trip Detail!???

Passports off for India Visas!

Hopefully, getting our Visas for India will be the last detail!  But, of course with some of the areas we'll be traveling through, we may get some last minute notices of changes and have to rethink that statement!

We get our Visas indirectly from Regent.  Most they take care of (included in the fare) and some, albeit included, we do the paperwork.  India is the only one on this trip.  Today, we sent all the necessary documents to Visa Central which Regent has paid to do all the details!  YEAH!  We don't deal directly with the embassies or consulates!  And, most importantly, Visa Central will let us know if we missed anything in the application before it goes to the Consulate!

After having gone through this process for China & Brazil, I was surprised how complicated the India visa acquisition is!!  Or, maybe, I forgot!!

Visa Central has been superb!!  I had some questions that I couldn't find answers to and called the number in the Application package.  The young lady I spoke with was extremely kind, answered all my questions and went, in my opinion, above and beyond her call of duty.  If we needed visas for any other trip that didn't include the service, we would use them!

Having sent all the paperwork via UPS today, it should be back by August 21st, 28th at the latest!  Plenty of time before we leave home on October 9th!

WHEEE!  Only 9 weeks from tomorrow!!

And Now it is 5 Months & 1 Week...

...until we head out on our next adventure!
   WHEEE!
When we booked it, it was 1 year, 6 months and 3 weeks to wait so now, we're REALLY getting close!

Last week, we made our final payment and thus, the trip is now TOTALLY paid for (airfare, hotel the night before boarding, shore excursions, gratuities, all beverages, yes, including alcoholic ones!)  Gotta love cruising on Regent Seven Seas.  Basically, the only thing we need our room cards for is getting into our rooms!

We can now focus on learning more about places we'll visit, what the weather may be like, etc., etc.

Six More Long Months to go!!

Six months from today, at about 8:30pm, we will be soaring our way to Zurich then on to Barcelona!

"Fat" Passports!

YEAH!  Our passports are "home"!!

Ones on the left are our previous passports, ones on the right are our newly "fattened ones!!  We had the option of standard edition (24 pages) or special request edition (48 pages).  Being as the cost is the same, we chose 48!  That way we'll for sure have plenty of pages for future trips without having to pay another $82 plus postage to get them there!

Next up on our checklist is to book our shore excursions for the last (fourth leg) of our journey, Dubai to Cape Town.  We've worked on them over this weekend and are ready to book them on Thursday!
R

One More Checklist Item!!

One of the items on our countdown checklist list will soon be complete!  We need 27 blank passport pages for our trip coming up in October.  We each had 4 or 5... soooo, we had to get more pages.

On February 27th, we filled out the forms, wrote the $82(each) checks and sent our passports to the US Department of State.   The website advised it would be 6-8 weeks of processing time.  

Today, 2 1/2 weeks later, we received notice that they are on their way "home"!  YEAH!!!