Insight it is

We're definitely going for the Insight tour I mentioned in my last post. So, with deposits paid on all the big ticket items, it's pretty much pinned down now - except for a million little detail things of course. My holiday document is currently 55 pages long!

However, it's really starting to feel like it will happen now. Just gotta get through the next 387 days, most of which I'm starting to feel I'm going to spend at work - I haven't had a two day weekend since June, and it's not looking like it will get any better any time soon.

Still, it's really something to look forward to!

Another change of mind - there'll be more of these, I bet!

Looks like the aircraft museum in Hanover will definitely have to wait for us to return to Europe some other time. I did think about stopping off there on the way to London, but it's still all just too much travel. However, I did discover one of those fascinating reasons why people think airlines are ripping them off. I did a couple of flight comparisons with Qantas, and they offered to get us to and from Hanover (Hamburg actually) for about $2200 each. Cool, however, I don't want a return trip - and for the one way flight, the lowest they'd offer is $8026. Each. Amazing. Almost 4 times as much money to fly us half the distance.

If we manage to get together enough money for the 2015 Gallipoli cruise, we'll be finishing up in Rome, and Paul is already talking about seeing some of Europe while we're there, so that might be the way we'll go.

Cardiff though might be on the list after all. I realised today that there's an Insight Tours holiday somewhat similar to the Globus one, but including Cardiff. I had crossed this one off my list because it was over my 'top price' - not by much, but you have to set a limit somewhere and I had already upped it at least twice :-)

However, the Globus one requires us to stay in London or Copenhagen - or somewhere in between - for four days after holiday before we can join the cruise, while the Insight one has only a two day break. Once you add the extra accommodation etc onto the price (they're two of the most expensive places to stay in Europe apparently), the Insight one isn't quite so far out of range.

I'm in the middle of comparing the two in detail, but at the very least I'm going to ask the Travel Agent to check out the costs of the Insight one for us - they also have early booking discounts so it might end up in much the same price range as the Globus one anyway.

Have I bitten off more than I can chew here???

I just sat down to start looking at an idea we had to go from London to Copenhagen via Hanover. They have an aircraft museum which looks pretty cool, and with our vague thoughts of getting a train from London to Copenhagen, Hanover is actually on the way. And, in theory, I could practice using the ten words of German that have stayed in my brain since I did those beginner German language classes last year.

But, I started thinking about adding another country to the list and all of a sudden my brain said, nah, that's enough, you try to go somewhere else as well and I'm going on strike :-)

Maybe I could go back to the other new thought that came up today and see if I can add Cardiff to the list of places to go. Don't know why, but Cardiff just appeals to me.

Or maybe I'll just leave it for a few days and see if the stress levels go down :-)

2012 UK / Transatlantic / USA holiday

Well, the decisions are all made, the 2012 holiday is shaping up something like this:

23 August 2012 - fly to London

27 August to 4 September - on a coach tour - Britain Sampler with Globus. Mostly in England but also see some of Scotland and a tiny part of Wales.

Once that's over, we've got a few days free before we need to be in Copenhagen by 7 September.

Then on 8 September we leave Copenhagen on the Brilliance of the Seas for a transatlantic cruise. This one stops at a few really interesting places including an overnight stay in Reykjavik - that's one from my bucket list!

We arrive in New Jersey on 21 September and we'll stay in New York overnight. Next morning we'll probably catch an Amtrak train to Washington, and join a Cosmos tour 'Historic Trails and Blue Ridge Mountains' that starts that day. We get to see a few Civil War sites including Gettysburg which Paul has always wanted to see, and a bunch of other interesting places. And some not so thrilling - I've never really had Colonel Sander's Original KFC restaurant on my list of 'must see' places - but, just the same, if the last Cosmos tour is anything to go by, we'll also discover some gems of places!

That tour finishes back in Washington on 5 October, and we'll fly straight to Fort Lauderdale that day. Another overnight stay and then onto the wonderful Oasis of the Seas for a 7 day Eastern Caribbean cruise. I have wanted to cruise on the Oasis since I first heard of it, and it's supposedly just an astonishing experience - I really can't wait for this!

The Oasis of the Seas cruise finishes back in Fort Lauderdale, where we have another overnight stay and then one more cruise - onto the Coral Princess for a 14 day cruise to Los Angeles via the Panama Canal.

Then finally we fly home - after 67 days, two continents, 11 countries - and get back to work to pay for it all and save up for the next one!!

Actually though, the cost of this one is astoundingly small compared to our first big overseas trip in 2002. That time, the three of us went on a 7 day Alaska cruise in an inside cabin, followed by a four day trip to Fairbanks and then a few days in Los Angeles. Around 14 days away, and we paid just over $20k for that one for the main components alone - cruise / airfares / LA accommodation. This time, sure there's only two of us, but even so, it's 67 days away including three cruises - all with balcony cabins! - and it looks like it will all come out for well under $30,000. Of course, the $AU was buying 52 US cents back then; now it's buying more than a dollar - seems to make a BIG difference.

Update on our plans

Well, the 2012 holiday may just have gotten longer. Still very much as per the thoughts in the post below - UK then transatlantic cruise then USA.

But yesterday, I was bemoaning the fact that this will probably be the last time we can get to the Americas, and that it probably meant that the Panama Canal would be on my wishlist forever.

Always helpful, Paul said to me - "instead of flying home from Fort Lauderdale to Los Angeles to Sydney - why not get to Los Angeles on a cruise ship"

And as it turns out, Princess has a cruise to Los Angeles via the Panama Canal that leaves Fort Lauderdale the day after we finish on the Oasis of the Seas.

We really are seriously looking at this - once you're spending as much as we are on this holiday (eek) another cruise doesn't make it all that much worse.

I'll just have to talk to my boss first - they know I want to take a fairly long holiday next year but I don't think they were imagining 11 weeks!!!