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!

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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!
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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!!!

Things We've Learned

This is the first cruise we've booked "back-to-back" legs/segments.  We'd taken a 66-day trip in 2013 from Auckland to Beijing which was 4 "back-to-back"s however, that one was packaged by Regent
as a "Grand Voyage".  Being a "Grand Voyage" we could book all the shore excursions at the same time and all the dining reservations at the same time.

This trip, being as we booked it independently of a "Grand Voyage", we've had to book the shore excursions separately for each segment, up to 240 days, (number of days depends on cabin selection) before each segment begins.  Likewise dining reservations, 90 days before each segment begins. Yes, we could book them once onboard, however, we would stand the chance of not getting the ones we prefer!

Making Progress!!

From our 2012 Baltic cruise.

From our 2013 cruise with favorite
driver William (Bill) Kelly!

Being as yesterday we had booked our flights home from Cape Town, today, we booked transportation via Super Shuttle's ExecuCar Service to and from the Tampa airport.

Thanks to our community's facilities management company's efforts,
we get a $10 discount in each direction!  We've considered Super Shuttle however, it is worth it to us to not have to make stops along the way!  

Yes, we always dress somewhat nicely, "Sunday dress like" when are flying!

We had selected our shore excursions for the Venice to Istanbul leg a few days ago.  Today we reviewed them and booked them!  AND, most importantly, we received confirmations on all the ones we wanted... Happiness!!!

Today, we found the excursions list for the Istanbul to Dubai leg to be now available to review.  Task over the next few days will be making our selections!  Then on March 5th, we can book them!!

This will likely be the last post until March 5th, but, who knows when the whimsy may strike!

More Bookings Done!!

Today we were able to book our flights back from Cape Town!  Fortunately, our fantastic Travel/Cruise consultant (Betty - of The Travel & Cruise Authority) had it on her calendar.  It took a bunch of maneuvering!  Regent confirmed Business Class from Johannesburg to Washington Dulles, however, couldn't confirm business from Cape Town to Johannesburg or from Dulles to Tampa.

After a few phone calls, yes, phone calls, we were able to ask Regent to just book Johannesburg to Dulles and, we booked our own Business class from Cape Town to Johannesburg and First Class from Dulles to Tampa... all with United points and $40.40!  Such a deal!

Fortunately, we'll only have carry-on bags!  Heavy bags will head directly home from Cape Town at the end of the cruise.  We'll go for our safari and head home 3-4 days later.

Tomorrow, we can, and will, book our shore excursions from Venice to Istanbul!

Where we are now...

... at home!! <GRIN>

And, the planning continues:

• In November, we booked a night at the Marriott at Tampa Airport because the best flights would leave early in the day.
• In January, we booked our outbound fights and will not need to stay at the airport!  We have Edelweiss flight from here to Zurich and then another on to Barcelona!  YEAH!!  No connections in Atlanta, Newark, JFK, Dulles or Chicago!!
• Also, in January, we booked a post cruise safari.  It's included in the cruise fare so couldn't turn it down!  Yes, we could have gotten a credit for not taking it, however, it would have been about 10-15% of the cost would we have had to pay for it separately!  (More on the safari another time.)
• In February, we booked our luggage service.  We had used Luggage Free on our 66-day cruise in 2013 so chose to use them again!  Rest assured it is NOT "free", darn... it just means we travel free of luggage!  We like having our bags there when we arrive in our cabin and having them back home shortly after we return home!  No customs and immigration checks, they do it for you!  Yes we will carry our "drag-alongs"!
• We have booked our shore excursions for the 1st leg.  Fortunately, all the ones we chose are from the "included" list!
• Come Wednesday, 2/25, we can book our return flights from Cape Town and book the shore excursions for the 2nd leg.

Whew!  Caught up with happenings to date!

Catching Up

Back home from our Rio -> Barcelona trip, we contacted our fabulous travel consultant Betty Handel at The Cruise & Vacation Authority to find out about insurance.  We had to book the insurance within 30 days of booking the cruise in order to have pre-existing conditions covered.  And, it is NEVER clear what is included in "pre-existing conditions" so we needed to do that!

Fortunately, we only had to pay insurance on the amount of the deposit!  As we get older, the cost of insurance increases exponentially!

In the Beginning

On board the Regent Mariner from Rio de Janeiro to Barcelona in March 2014, we started looking at a cruise for Tom's birthday in 2015.  On March 11, 2014, we asked the onboard cruise consultant, Brian O'Brien (how much more Irish can a name get?!) for a quote.  Because it was a combination of cruises, it took him a couple of days.

A week later on March 18th, we booked Tom's Birthday Cruise!  And, of course, that meant making a deposit toward the final payment!  While the total cost would be the same, because we were booking on board, the deposit was only half as much as it would have been had we waited until we were back home!