Share your future travel plans

[mevelandry]

March spring break cruise to Baja on the Wonder, 10 night cruise on the Magic in Northern Europe in August (with some pre-cruise nights in Copenhagen) and our Grand Slam cruise on the Dream in November (also our first merrytime).
However, we're 'stuck' in Canada for the forseeable. The land border with the US is closed, but we can technically still fly to the US. But we have a mandatory 14 day quarantine once we return home and that is a deal breaker so I'm not feeling very confident at ALL about March and to be honest, I'm feeling only 50/50 on our Europe cruise. People in our cruise group from both the US and Canada are booking airfare already and I'm like SRSLY? ALREADY? Sigh. Will def be rebooking that one for 2022 anyway, if it doesn't happen next year ;-) Gotta keep on truckin!

The 15 minutes tests are coming... Maybe they will remove the 14 days quarantine. I have hope...

 

[DCLPrincess]

I got back from WDW a week ago and it was so great to feel normal. Of course it's Disney and it's great but just the little things like sitting by the pool, being in a hotel, eating good food, those were the things I've missed. I have a cruise booked for February on the Wonder out of New Orleans that I'm so excited for but I'm realistic that it might not happen so I've started to plan another WDW trip for that week incase I can't cruise. I'm dying to get back to cruising, this is the first year I won't cruise since I started cruising 9 years ago. But I'm getting excited for the February trip no matter where it takes me.

 

[DCLMP]

You are right - we do plan to fly in and out of Iquitos. Disney's ABD itineraries - which we sometimes try to recreate on our own - use a houseboat from that base. That's a tough one - we have three teenagers in the tow.

We too booked a European leg for next summer. It's the 14-night WBTA with Celebrity from London to NYC in the second half of August, hitting Scotland, Iceland, Greenland, etc in that northern arc. Don't know what to do with it - maybe 'lift and shift' as Celebrity calls it - with so much up in the air. We would have been on Magic's repositioning Iceland cruise this year, the cancellation of which was probably our kids' "sheesh, this virus thing is real" moment.

Will absolutely take you up on your offer. Stay in touch.

Have you done ABD before? We've only done cruises when we travel internationally. You know what they say when one door closes another ones opens. I'm really starting to look at tour groups and other ways to travel. Costa Rica is opening for tourists Nov 1 and ABD is tempting.

 

[o&smom]

Booked Halloween on the High Seas for October 1, 2021. 7 day cruise out of San Diego. Really looking forward to it.

We are joining you! We still have an April cruise booked on the Fantasy that was supposed to be our son’s pregraduation cruise. We will be transferring this in the next couple of weeks to another cruise in the future. We booked that cruise right before the WBPC, and at the airport on the way home we changed to concierge with our discount. Who knew that things would still NOT be normal over a year from then! We were supposed to surprise our kids with 5 days at DL after WBPC cruise. Since they DL closed when we were still on the ship, that did not happen. We were also supposed to have been at DL just a few weeks ago for Halloween celebrations. We cancelled that in June.

We were supposed to have spent 2 weeks in Ixtapa, Mexico in June, and had to cancel that. Rescheduled for next June, but added another week. Our cruise next April was supposed to start with time at WDW and Universal. For the longest time, it was hard to get excited about next June or next Oct. I hope things keep progressing, and that we get to go to Mexico next June, and cruise next Oct. I was sad to miss the luxury of vacation, but mostly it was missing time as a family before our son graduates next year.

Our cruise in Oct. will be our first, and probably only, time cruising concierge. We are booked in room 8534 which is a one bedroom concierge, but extra wide with a double length veranda. This is a surprise for our kids. We also just booked 7 days at WDW with an extra day to relax at our hotel, and a day at Universal during Thanksgiving week. I booked a couple of back to back Capture Your Moment sessions at MK to get some special photos with our son. So, things are looking up, and will get to enjoy some of the things that we thought were lost. Can’t wait to feel some Disney Magic!

 

[smacmillan83]

Australia is not allowing permanent residents and citizens to travel overseas unless it is on compassionate grounds, essential work. The rule is in place until December at least and unsure when it will be lifted - there is talk of it being extended into 2021. Makes travel planning difficult - many of our states have closed their borders so interstate travel is not easy either. We are pretty much limited to our own state at the moment - not complaining too much - living on the east coast of Australia and going into summertime, there are worse places to be! We expect to take lots of short weekend breaks over the coming months/maybe year and see many of the places we have yet to explore. Unfortunately, cruising is not on the agenda for a while for us.

 

[Intr3pid]

Have you done ABD before? We've only done cruises when we travel internationally. You know what they say when one door closes another ones opens. I'm really starting to look at tour groups and other ways to travel. Costa Rica is opening for tourists Nov 1 and ABD is tempting.

We are a family of five, and the ABD math just doesn't seem to work. For example, their Ecuador itinerary is $10K/person, so we are spending $50K for a 10-day trip we can recreate ourselves for $15K-$20K. Or compare with our four European cruises in summer 2019 - 31 cruising days in total, including 17 on Magic - that in aggregate cost us less the this one ABD trip would.

ABD is more appealing when you have an empty nest and you have done your active travels. Or, when vacation time is at a premium. For us, its time will come, and I'm sure we'll come to love it - just not yet.

 

[Intr3pid]

We have our hotels for April in Egypt (so far Cairo and Luxor) booked. Looking to add Hurgada or Sharm. Have not booked air yet (although it's a great deal!) because I want to see how things are by the end of the year.

July in the Galapagos - air, Quito hotel, and yacht - all booked. (Re-scheduled from June 2020).

August on the Fantasy - extended family cruise booked. We plan to spend a day or two at the parks prior to the cruise. I was just looking at air and hotels and will be booking those as soon as we figure out logistics.

Will be booking India for December as soon as bookings open.

We have December 2022 plans for Africa - including a cruise from Dubai to Cape Town, followed by a safari in the Serengeti, and a Nile cruise to finish off. Only the ocean cruise is booked so far since everything else is too far out.

Which Galapagos boat have you booked? We have 3 or 4 days to spare in our South American trip for July and are looking at what ABD uses. Celebrity's Galapagos boats don't have rooms for triple-occupancy rooms (for our family of 5), and very few of them have independent booking websites.

 

[Intr3pid]

At the moment I have no plans. I cancelled our Japan trip in March. I'll either rebook that for Fall next year or rebook the Baltic cruise I cancelled this Summer. I'm also looking at a couple of adventure by Disney tours. I'm just waiting to see who is going to allow tourists before I make any decisions.

We were able to cruise in February this year and we spent 12 days in Orlando this Summer. We plan on doing something in Dec this year I'm just not sure what yet.

Japan and China combo trip is what we have been after for a while. About 3 to 4 weeks in total.

We were in HK last December at the end of Celebrity's Singapore to HK cruise - and just two weeks before all hell broke loose - so not all of China needs visiting. That said, we can pull a trip of this length off only during the kids' summer vacations - not a great time to visit either Japan or China for the heat and typhoons.

 

[Intr3pid]

Not a Disney trip but we’re visiting Sedona and the Grand Canyon for 5 nights/4 days and then flying to Yosemite for a week in June. We’re coming from South Carolina and it’s our first big trip out west. We’ve got lots of fun things booked...a pink Jeep tour to see red rocks in Sedona, a day at the Grand Canyon, kayaking the Verde river in Arizona, a star gazing tour with an astronomer in Sedona and white water rafting, fly fishing, archery, hiking and a train tour booked in Yosemite. It will be 12 nights long and we’re looking forward to it so much!!

Then we will hopefully visit Italy for my 40th birthday in summer 2022...praying things will have smoothed out by then!

Try to include visits to at least of couple of Utah's national parks in the trip. You won't be very far!

 

[Intr3pid]

Since we can't travel anywhere and I recently changed jobs, our wedding anniversary will turn into a short staycation at a luxury hotel from the Old Port of Montreal next week. A whole week-end being stuck in a suite, drinking champagne, eating charcuteries and chilling in a jacuzzi and playing boardgames in front of the fire place. Doesn't sound too bad. LOL

UPDATE: It looks like hotels have started closing their doors for the rest of the month so I'm not even sure we're going to have that after all...

I currently have 4 trips planned for 2021-2022.

We have booked a short MSC cruise in April 2021 in order to experience MSC and visit Ocean Cay (being able to eat Key Lime Pie in Key West should be nice too). Not sure that one is going to happen but would feel really grateful. The simple idea of gazing at the ocean for the first time after 18 months makes me emotional. If we get lucky we may even go for a dolphin watch in Key West.

We have booked a Carnival Bermuda cruise departing from NYC in September 2021. We wanna show my in-laws where my husband proposed... On top of discovering Bermuda.

My girls trip we were supposed to do in December 2020 (Mariner OTS to Bahamas with a short Disney stay) was changed to a Royal Caribbean cruise to Labadee departing from Miami on Oasis of the Seas. I'm very excited to try a different kind of ships and discover Labadee. It looks breathtaking.

For October 2022, I booked a Carnival cruise going to Aruba, Curaçao, La Romana and Amber Cove... On Carnival Horizon. I would love to see the Flamingo Beach in Aruba and swim with sea turtles.

Not going to lie, in times of COVID, this feel like it's going to happen 20 years from now... I miss my pre-COVID life. :/

We are in the Northeast and are fretting the thoughts of having to staycay in the winter. A week in Cancun in December will restore the balance in this universe and hopefully also help me get off my Vitamin D supplements!

 

[AquaDame]

I've been dying to go to Peru and the Galapagos, and was trying to convince some family and friends to maybe go in together to book up rooms on the same Galapagos cruise in late 2021, but it feels too uncertain to put money down on anything else right now. But a 3 week South American/cruise itinerary sounds amazing!

We do have a large deposit on a family safari in Tanzania and Kenya for Summer 2022. I'm looking forward to long drives in the Savannah, the wonder on my kids' faces when they see animals out in the wild, nights under a canopy of stars, and a few weeks away from checking social media incessantly. If our currently rebooked cruise for October 2021 on the Magic is safe to go, I'm looking forward to sailing down the Hudson past the Statue of Liberty, a romantic dinner with my DH in Palo, seeing the Crystal Caverns in Bermuda, and taking my kids for a nighttime kayak in the bioluminescent bay in Puerto Rico.

We just did a safari in Kenya and Tanzania in 2019 (and a few other countries) - hands down my favorite vacation of all time (so far). I'm doubtful it can be topped but I still have a long life in front of me, so I will try! It was to be a one and done, but we both know we'll be back.

That African safari is in our 2022 plans as well! We are usually able to take extra time off in December and tally it to up to four weeks if we can. When NCL released a very doable Dubai-to-Cape-Town itinerary for that December, it set in motion our travel planning for Africa. Here is the itinerary for that cruise:

From Cape Town, you fly into central Africa and do Victoria Falls, Serengeti NP, Mt Kilimanjaro, other neighboring parks, and your safari, and finish it off with a Nile cruise in Egypt.

That is a ton of ground to cover..! Do you know which other surrounding parks out of curiosity..? We also went to Ngorongoro Crater and that was my husbands favorite of the parks we visited (10 different ones in Kenya, Tanzania and Botswana). It was definitely in my top three too (imo you can't beat the Maasai Mara/Serengeti during river crossing and Samburu had so many unique animals). Yeah, I'm cheating depending on how you see it and putting Maasai Mara and Serengeti together. Animals don't care about human borders after all...

We actually just returned today from our first Covid trip. We haven't been anywhere overnight since January - our city went into lockdown March 12th. We cancelled our annual trip to WDW which we were going to follow up with a week in New Orleans and tried to come up with something else... we were going to visit Yosemite instead and hit up the Redwoods too on the way back, but the continuing wildfires killed that idea. We slowly retracted north, trying every other park in northern California but air quality was getting worse by the day. Eventually we even scrapped Crater Lake even two days before we left home and ended up spending a few nights to hike around Smith Rock followed by two nights in Leavenworth WA and a couple nights at the beach.

It was nice to get away but was also more frustrating in ways compared to staying home. I wrote a novel about it at first before realizing I'd waste everyone's time... suffice to say we had all the normal vacation stress PLUS the extra stress about cleanliness and having to take food back to the car to eat or back to the room/house. Even six nights was a bit much.. and I definitely think we would have done better to not bop around so much. We wanted more time in Leavenworth so we booked a few more nights there for January over my birthday to enjoy the snow (we hope!).

We also have an ABD River Cruise booked for late May that I am not counting on happening... the new ship is delayed (seeing the shipyard is a large part of our desire to go) and borders are still closed for who knows how long. If not for our nonrefundable deposit I think we would have cancelled it. We also have a Merrytime cruise booked for late next year that I am feeling more confident about... I'm hoping to be able to do WDW in tandem with that since we have the tickets from this year we ultimately couldn't use. We had other trips that were originally on the docket for 2021 and even 2022, but honestly I'm just letting this thing play out because that is so far in the future given how time has felt.

 

[Intr3pid]

We just did a safari in Kenya and Tanzania in 2019 (and a few other countries) - hands down my favorite vacation of all time (so far). I'm doubtful it can be topped but I still have a long life in front of me, so I will try! It was to be a one and done, but we both know we'll be back.



That is a ton of ground to cover..! Do you know which other surrounding parks out of curiosity..? We also went to Ngorongoro Crater and that was my husbands favorite of the parks we visited (10 different ones in Kenya, Tanzania and Botswana). It was definitely in my top three too (imo you can't beat the Maasai Mara/Serengeti during river crossing and Samburu had so many unique animals). Yeah, I'm cheating depending on how you see it and putting Maasai Mara and Serengeti together. Animals don't care about human borders after all...

We actually just returned today from our first Covid trip. We haven't been anywhere overnight since January - our city went into lockdown March 12th. We cancelled our annual trip to WDW which we were going to follow up with a week in New Orleans and tried to come up with something else... we were going to visit Yosemite instead and hit up the Redwoods too on the way back, but the continuing wildfires killed that idea. We slowly retracted north, trying every other park in northern California but air quality was getting worse by the day. Eventually we even scrapped Crater Lake even two days before we left home and ended up spending a few nights to hike around Smith Rock followed by two nights in Leavenworth WA and a couple nights at the beach.

It was nice to get away but was also more frustrating in ways compared to staying home. I wrote a novel about it at first before realizing I'd waste everyone's time... suffice to say we had all the normal vacation stress PLUS the extra stress about cleanliness and having to take food back to the car to eat or back to the room/house. Even six nights was a bit much.. and I definitely think we would have done better to not bop around so much. We wanted more time in Leavenworth so we booked a few more nights there for January over my birthday to enjoy the snow (we hope!).

We also have an ABD River Cruise booked for late May that I am not counting on happening... the new ship is delayed (seeing the shipyard is a large part of our desire to go) and borders are still closed for who knows how long. If not for our nonrefundable deposit I think we would have cancelled it. We also have a Merrytime cruise booked for late next year that I am feeling more confident about... I'm hoping to be able to do WDW in tandem with that since we have the tickets from this year we ultimately couldn't use. We had other trips that were originally on the docket for 2021 and even 2022, but honestly I'm just letting this thing play out because that is so far in the future given how time has felt.

View attachment 531316

In Rwanda, there is a gorilla trek in the Volcanoes and Bwindi National Parks. The permits aren't exactly cheap, but Rwanda is easier to do it from. Amboseli and Queen Elizabeth parks are also good options for a safari, but obviously nothing beats the migrations you will see in the Serengeti and Massai Mara.

Which lodge or operator did you use for your safari?

Bummer to hear about the travel challenge amidst the fires - I imagine it has upended a lot of folks with its intensity this year.

 

[DCLMP]

We are a family of five, and the ABD math just doesn't seem to work. For example, their Ecuador itinerary is $10K/person, so we are spending $50K for a 10-day trip we can recreate ourselves for $15K-$20K. Or compare with our four European cruises in summer 2019 - 31 cruising days in total, including 17 on Magic - that in aggregate cost us less the this one ABD trip would.

ABD is more appealing when you have an empty nest and you have done your active travels. Or, when vacation time is at a premium. For us, its time will come, and I'm sure we'll come to love it - just not yet.

It would be just me and one teen. My oldest starts college classes next year and my dh wouldn't want to go. I still think it's overpriced and I could do it a lot cheaper on my own. There are certain places like Egypt, Vietnam and China where I would feel much more comfortable in a group. At the moment I'm not ready to commit to anything.

 

[DCLMP]

Panama, Ecuador, and Columbia are opening to Americans.

 

[AquaDame]

In Rwanda, there is a gorilla trek in the Volcanoes and Bwindi National Parks. The permits aren't exactly cheap, but Rwanda is easier to do it from. Amboseli and Queen Elizabeth parks are also good options for a safari, but obviously nothing beats the migrations you will see in the Serengeti and Massai Mara.

Which lodge or operator did you use for your safari?

Bummer to hear about the travel challenge amidst the fires - I imagine it has upended a lot of folks with its intensity this year.

We ran into a few groups who had done gorilla treks - most did Uganda instead of Rwanda as it is much cheaper, maybe half as much. I enjoyed Amboseli as well, and recommended it to friends when they asked specifically about elephants and giraffes. It was a very easy park to drive around and I think were we to go back we'd do it on our own (now that we've been once we'd probably be OK keeping it more simple - this one definitely earned the moniker safari).

Since this was our first trip we booked it all through https://www.go2africa.com/. We chose not to go with one lodge package/group. It was more expensive this way, we but greatly preferred our own driver in a 4x4 versus shared vehicles and getting to hand pick each lodge was nice too. The couple times we had to use shared vehicles at private conservancies was a different experience as you need to decide as a group what to focus on. We skipped a sundowner once as they really wanted to try to find a young elephant when we'd already seen dozens at that point elsewhere (they were really nice and on their honeymoon, so we didn't really mind all that much).

Our lodges were:
Kipalo Hills - Tsavo
Satao Elerai Camp - Amboseli
Fairmont Kenya Safari Club - Ol Pejeta
Larsen's Camp - Samburu
Ol Seki Hemmingways Mara Camp - Maasai Mara (this was our favorite)
Ubuntu Migration Camp - Serengeti
Kitela Lodge - Ngorongoro Crater
Kichuugu Camp - Tarangire (least favorite)
Victoria Falls Hotel - Victoria Falls/Chobe
Victoria & Alfred Hotel - Cape Town

When we got home I checked rates online versus what we paid and the operator added a pretty nominal fee for all the work she did. We had a couple of instances where I was very grateful to not be in charge... at one airstrip our plane did not show up for 45 minutes. Had we been alone on the field in the sun we would have probably started to panic, but our driver always waited with us until the plane came and if it hadn't shown up, our TA would have figured out what to do. Our first hotel had also accidentally booked us for September and not August so that was another call to the TA - for them, not us - and they worked it out amongst themselves while we finished our welcome drink. I was glad to not be arguing with them at midnight!

 

[KashasMom]

We have December 2022 plans for Africa - including a cruise from Dubai to Cape Town, followed by a safari in the Serengeti, and a Nile cruise to finish off. Only the ocean cruise is booked so far since everything else is too far out.

Which Galapagos boat have you booked? We have 3 or 4 days to spare in our South American trip for July and are looking at what ABD uses. Celebrity's Galapagos boats don't have rooms for triple-occupancy rooms (for our family of 5), and very few of them have independent booking websites.

We did an amazing safari in Tanzania. I think it was my favorite vacation ever! We're booked with Ecoventura Letty. It's a 20 passenger yacht. We really wanted something private with no issues about the number of people landing at one time and also to have access to places bigger ships can't go. We are 3 in one cabin.

 

[Intr3pid]

We ran into a few groups who had done gorilla treks - most did Uganda instead of Rwanda as it is much cheaper, maybe half as much. I enjoyed Amboseli as well, and recommended it to friends when they asked specifically about elephants and giraffes. It was a very easy park to drive around and I think were we to go back we'd do it on our own (now that we've been once we'd probably be OK keeping it more simple - this one definitely earned the moniker safari).

Since this was our first trip we booked it all through https://www.go2africa.com/. We chose not to go with one lodge package/group. It was more expensive this way, we but greatly preferred our own driver in a 4x4 versus shared vehicles and getting to hand pick each lodge was nice too. The couple times we had to use shared vehicles at private conservancies was a different experience as you need to decide as a group what to focus on. We skipped a sundowner once as they really wanted to try to find a young elephant when we'd already seen dozens at that point elsewhere (they were really nice and on their honeymoon, so we didn't really mind all that much).

Our lodges were:
Kipalo Hills - Tsavo
Satao Elerai Camp - Amboseli
Fairmont Kenya Safari Club - Ol Pejeta
Larsen's Camp - Samburu
Ol Seki Hemmingways Mara Camp - Maasai Mara (this was our favorite)
Ubuntu Migration Camp - Serengeti
Kitela Lodge - Ngorongoro Crater
Kichuugu Camp - Tarangire (least favorite)
Victoria Falls Hotel - Victoria Falls/Chobe
Victoria & Alfred Hotel - Cape Town

When we got home I checked rates online versus what we paid and the operator added a pretty nominal fee for all the work she did. We had a couple of instances where I was very grateful to not be in charge... at one airstrip our plane did not show up for 45 minutes. Had we been alone on the field in the sun we would have probably started to panic, but our driver always waited with us until the plane came and if it hadn't shown up, our TA would have figured out what to do. Our first hotel had also accidentally booked us for September and not August so that was another call to the TA - for them, not us - and they worked it out amongst themselves while we finished our welcome drink. I was glad to not be arguing with them at midnight!

Very handy information - esp. the lodge names - so I can start getting in touch with them.

We don't mind working with an agent, but a lot of them - looking at you, ABD - will multiply the headline number by 5 for our family of five. The math breaks down at that point. Plus, I know our kids will campaign for creature comforts, the absence of which has sometimes led to disappointment. Some agents do - some don't - give you much choice over where you get to stay.

Yes, Uganda should be a cheaper permit, but you do need to spend a day or more in each direction to get to the gorillas. It's an 11-hour drive one way. Rwanda, on the other hand, is a bit of South Africa in central Africa - better infrastructure, more expensive. You can get to the trek within 3 hours of exiting the airport, which will save you at least an overnight stay in each direction. That said, for many who don't pick a date soon enough, the choice will be made simply by way of the availability of permits on that date.

 

[Frozen2014]

We have a few cruises booked. Next one is March, but our final payment is mid Dec and if things are still the same (which tbh not expecting any big miracle), then we will most likely cancel it before final payment. We already have FCCs and won't be able to use them. Plus, I do worry the cost of a flight to Orlando if things do start up.

Next cruise is August. Hoping that one we can do with protocols and even better, a vaccine. But we also have the Canadian border to deal with (i.e. open with no 14 day quarantine) and need to renew our son's passport by then, which isn't looking promising (DH won't do mail in of his birth certificate). In terms of flight, we can drive if needed (cruise is out of NJ so it's closer than Orlando, but still a long drive)

After that we have Dec cruise booked....and then March 2022.

We lost our WDW trip this past summer so do want to re-book that too at some point. My DS is 15 now so our time is running out. :-(

 

[mevelandry]

We have a few cruises booked. Next one is March, but our final payment is mid Dec and if things are still the same (which tbh not expecting any big miracle), then we will most likely cancel it before final payment. We already have FCCs and won't be able to use them. Plus, I do worry the cost of a flight to Orlando if things do start up.

Next cruise is August. Hoping that one we can do with protocols and even better, a vaccine. But we also have the Canadian border to deal with (i.e. open with no 14 day quarantine) and need to renew our son's passport by then, which isn't looking promising (DH won't do mail in of his birth certificate). In terms of flight, we can drive if needed (cruise is out of NJ so it's closer than Orlando, but still a long drive)

After that we have Dec cruise booked....and then March 2022.

We lost our WDW trip this past summer so do want to re-book that too at some point. My DS is 15 now so our time is running out. :-(

We should know this week if the border between Canada and USA will reopen next week or if it’s going to be closed for another month.

I would bet a 20$ on it being closed until the end of November.

 

[Frozen2014]

We should know this week if the border between Canada and USA will reopen next week or if it’s going to be closed for another month.

I would bet a 20$ on it being closed until the end of November.

Thanks. Will look for the update. But I Agree...have a feeling it will be closed for awhile.