Next year in London
Sep. 11th, 2007 03:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skyringEvery year I travel around the world at least once to attend BookCrossing conventions. It usually works out that I travel by myself, but the main reason I took this taxidriving job is so that I can afford to take Kerri with me. It’s not just that the fares are doubled, it’s also that she likes to travel in a different sort of style. More of it, for one thing.
My idea of a grand holiday is one where I squeeze as many flights as possible into the shortest time possible, occasionally leaving the airport. I’ve been to Hong Kong four times, for instance, but never left the terminal. On the other hand, Kerri’s notion of the perfect holiday is one where we go to a place, unpack and spend at least a week just doing nothing much except seeing the local sights.
So we’re compromising. Next year the big April BookCrossing convention is in London, and we’re seriously looking at a cruise to the UK, Kerri using up a chunk of Long Service Leave, and me using the generous holiday provisions of the taxidriving industry (take as much time off as you want, unpaid, and maybe you can have your job back when you finish).
Not quite a once in a lifetime trip, but certainly a notch up from our previous holidays. Kerri’s suggestion, and refined after a bit of research. Kerri’s first idea was to catch the Funchal on a repositioning cruise. Fremantle to Harwich via Egypt, 37 days. Cheap(ish) and arriving a few days before the convention.
After checking out the passenger reviews, it seems that people have had mixed experiences, with the short cruises better run than the repositioning trips. The ship is relatively small and old, and the facilities aren’t quite what they might be. Some passengers loved the ship, some had a horrible time.
All else being equal, I’d go for a small ship over a big one, but I don’t want to spend a lot of money on something that might turn out to be five weeks of misery.
I hunted around for alternatives. Some were wildly expensive, some arrived after the convention, some weren’t going via places we wanted. One that stood out was the Aurora, a P&O ship, Hong Kong to Southampton. Arriving well before the con, but I figure we can fill in the time visiting Guernsey, Paris and other forren parts. We can probably spend ten days or so exploring the UK, beginning in Scotland and winding up in London.
Just pencilling stuff in at the moment, and the reality will probably turn out to be wildly different, but it’s fun to dream.
My idea of a grand holiday is one where I squeeze as many flights as possible into the shortest time possible, occasionally leaving the airport. I’ve been to Hong Kong four times, for instance, but never left the terminal. On the other hand, Kerri’s notion of the perfect holiday is one where we go to a place, unpack and spend at least a week just doing nothing much except seeing the local sights.
So we’re compromising. Next year the big April BookCrossing convention is in London, and we’re seriously looking at a cruise to the UK, Kerri using up a chunk of Long Service Leave, and me using the generous holiday provisions of the taxidriving industry (take as much time off as you want, unpaid, and maybe you can have your job back when you finish).
Not quite a once in a lifetime trip, but certainly a notch up from our previous holidays. Kerri’s suggestion, and refined after a bit of research. Kerri’s first idea was to catch the Funchal on a repositioning cruise. Fremantle to Harwich via Egypt, 37 days. Cheap(ish) and arriving a few days before the convention.
After checking out the passenger reviews, it seems that people have had mixed experiences, with the short cruises better run than the repositioning trips. The ship is relatively small and old, and the facilities aren’t quite what they might be. Some passengers loved the ship, some had a horrible time.
All else being equal, I’d go for a small ship over a big one, but I don’t want to spend a lot of money on something that might turn out to be five weeks of misery.
I hunted around for alternatives. Some were wildly expensive, some arrived after the convention, some weren’t going via places we wanted. One that stood out was the Aurora, a P&O ship, Hong Kong to Southampton. Arriving well before the con, but I figure we can fill in the time visiting Guernsey, Paris and other forren parts. We can probably spend ten days or so exploring the UK, beginning in Scotland and winding up in London.
Just pencilling stuff in at the moment, and the reality will probably turn out to be wildly different, but it’s fun to dream.
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no subject
Date: 2007-09-10 05:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-10 05:15 pm (UTC)You could "home base" in our guest room, and there are a gazillion and one day trips around here. Plus, all of Chicago, of which you saw, um, very little. ;)
Since you are still in the dreaming stages . . .
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Date: 2007-09-10 06:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-10 09:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-11 01:58 am (UTC)Er, not that there's anything wrong with that, of course.
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Date: 2007-09-11 02:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-11 02:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-10 05:42 pm (UTC):)
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Date: 2007-09-10 06:01 pm (UTC)Pete, dedicating his life to attending them
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Date: 2007-09-10 06:59 pm (UTC)The Trolls went to the Caribbean in November '05 on the P&O ship, Arcadia. The service was excellent. We were just unlucky with the other passengers that trip; most did nothing but whinge! (But they were mostly Poms, so what would you expect?)
We economize on choice of cabin - always at the bottom of the range. There's no point in paying heaps of money for an outside and/or larger cabin. You use it only for sleeping and washing anyway. It doesn't matter if you don't have a couple of portholes, and even larger cabins aren't large. Also, paying more to be higher up on the ship means you rock and roll more in bad weather.
The Aurora itinerary looks great! At Sharm-el-Sheikh you can get an excursion to St Katharine's Monastery in the Sinai mountains. I was furious at missing out on that last year because of our stupid flight time.
Give Kerry a real treat and go for it!
:)
no subject
Date: 2007-09-11 01:52 am (UTC)I can see cruises featuring heavily in our future. It seems that people rarely go on just one - they keep on coming back. Some people, I'm told, have permanent suites and live out their retirements aboard.
no subject
Date: 2007-09-10 07:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-11 01:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-11 09:41 pm (UTC)I seriously doubt I will be making the convention, though.
*jealous*
Date: 2007-09-12 12:42 am (UTC)Re: *jealous*
Date: 2007-09-12 04:05 am (UTC)Mind you, I've got to do about a million twelve hour shifts to pay for it, but that's basically what I spend my life doing - driving a taxi so I can take a nice long holiday once a year (and a couple of pleasant interludes in New Zealand in between). Every time it seems boring or tiring or unpleasant, I think of what the objective is, and the thought of walking hand in hand along the walls of St Malo, or kissing my wife on top of the Eiffel Tower, and the passengers wonder why their cabbie is smiling to himself.