karadekoolaid
Legendary Member
Pompeii is unbelievable. I mean, absolutely incredibly amazing. Forget the food - go back in history.
Travel Plans For 2023
- Thread starter kaneohegirlinaz
- Start date
I'd rather experience the food, and the city and it's people. The rest of my family did the tours, I went out on my own. My dad went with me for pizza in Napoli. He and I ate pizza in a local pizzeria with the local people. that food experience made more of an impact on me than the Roman Coliseum. I wasn't looking at history, I was eating it.
I didn't even take my pro camera to Roma. I took my compact semi-pro pocket-size camera. I figured Roma had been photographed a million times already. I wasn't going to come up with a photo that hadn't been done hundreds of times.
We did have a good lunch in Roma. It was a simple, but amazingly good sandwich. Street food, basically.
CD
Not on this trip - the biggest reason I skipped it was two-fold: the majority of the time is the bus ride there and back, it’s nearly all bus ride, with very little time actually in Pompeii, and it’s the day before we leave the ship and move to our hotel, and the last thing I want to do is be gone all day and half the night, and then have to pack out for the move the next morning.
I get severe anxiety (Me? Really?
) around transfer days, meaning getting from airport to hotel, hotel to ship, ship to hotel, etc, and I always need a day beforehand to sort of collect myself for the transfer - even the walking trip through Naples was a concession on my part; I’d rather just stay on the ship, but this one is over pretty early in the day, so I’m chancing it. Besides, I’ve seen that huge museum exhibit of Pompeii artifacts, including the casts of some of the people who perished in the eruption, that tours the US every so often, and that was close enough for me.
Not on this trip - the biggest reason I skipped it was two-fold: the majority of the time is the bus ride there and back, it’s nearly all bus ride, with very little time actually in Pompeii, and it’s the day before we leave the ship and move to our hotel, and the last thing I want to do is be gone all day and half the night, and then have to pack out for the move the next morning.
I get severe anxiety (Me? Really?
Besides, I’ve seen that huge museum exhibit of Pompeii artifacts, including the casts of some of the people who perished in the eruption, that tours the US every so often, and that was close enough for me.
First, you do realize that from the ship to Roma requires a bus trip? It's not bad, but I agree that doing the bus trip to Pompeii the day before would suck. Plus, I hate bus tours with guides telling you what to see and do.
Second, Napoli (Naples) is a lovely city. My dad an I had a pleasant walk into town, found a nice local place to have a pizza Margherita and some Italian beer, and had a relaxing walk around and back to the ship. You will be happy you did it. My mom and sister did a tour bus thing. They love that stuff.
Napoli, Firenze (Florence) and Venezia (Venice) were my favorite stops in Italy.
My advice for Roma, do NOT step into a street until you watch traffic for a few minutes. Drivers there are lunatics. Think about Paris, then double it.
CD
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My mother keeps informing me less than a week now and I'll be in the air...
I might pack on Thursday night
I might pack on Thursday night
Not for us - because of my, ahem, difficulties with transfers, we book some kind of private driver for that stuff as much as possible. That way, we’re not standing there with luggage, trying to navigate a train station or taxi rank or whatever. We just look for the guy holding a sign with our name on it and get in his car (never to be seen again, one of these days, which is also one of the 19,307 things I worry about going wrong on a trip…
). MrsT is frugal to a fault, but she learned a long time ago that it’s worth the extra expense to make sure I’m not having a nervous breakdown in the middle of the train station, so whenever possible, she works out some kind of foolproof-as-possible transfer for us (which is still no guarantee, as we had a private car hired for the drive from Bayeux to Paris last year and still had significant issues getting to the train station in Paris).
The only place we couldn’t get one this time around (and yes, I’m already freaking out over it) is getting from the hotel in Barcelona to the ship - it’s a Sunday, and try as she might, she can’t find any of the usual transfer companies she works with that’ll provide that on a Sunday morning, so we’ll have to have the concierge get us a taxi.
Honestly, I’ve been having panic attacks the last few weeks over this whole thing, which is something new for me, so all of this is getting worse for me. That usually doesn’t happen until the day before we’re transferring, but the older I get, the worse it’s getting.
I got called last night for work at about 1:30AM and had to be up for a half-hour or so, which was when I responded earlier up this topic…I didn’t sleep the rest of the night, I just lay there in bed, imaging all sorts of wacky things that “could” go wrong (“What if someone puts their carryon in my designated carryon space overhead, and I try and move it, and it’s a little old lady’s bag, and she complains, and the flight attendant spits in my drink for me upsetting the little old lady, and the flight attendant unknowingly has covid and passes it on to me, and I pass it on to everyone on the cruise, and then they won’t let anyone off the ship, and we end up floating for weeks and weeks, with the toilets overflowing and the food all gone, like happened to that one ship a couple of years ago, and since I can’t get off the ship for that long, I get fired from work, and we lose the house, and now we’re homeless living on the street! Why the flippity-f*** are we going on this trip? We’re DOOMED!!!” - yeah, that scenario rolled through my head about 3AM).
I never used to be like that, but we had one really bad travel experience, getting back from Budapest to the US, in 2010, where everything that could go wrong did go wrong, and at the risk of sounding melodramatic, I think it traumatized me somewhat, and it hasn’t helped that nearly every trip since then has had at least one thing go wrong, nothing unusual in the course of traveling, but now it’s super-amplified for me, and the older I get, the more I’m inclined to think, “Do I really need to see Bucharest (or Krakow…or Copenhagen…etc)? I think I’d rather have just stayed home.”
Add to that, MrsT is going in exactly the opposite direction, frantically trying to do more, more, MORE! before she’s too old/unhealthy to travel - if I’ve got travel anxiety, she’s got FOMO anxiety just as badly.
Just send the therapy bill to my house, Doc. I’m good for it.
I absolutely empathise. I like a simple trip like driving to the Kent coast (40 mins) and staying in self catering for three or four days. Better than a hotel room as more space.Not for us - because of my, ahem, difficulties with transfers, we book some kind of private driver for that stuff as much as possible. That way, we’re not standing there with luggage, trying to navigate a train station or taxi rank or whatever. We just look for the guy holding a sign with our name on it and get in his car (never to be seen again, one of these days, which is also one of the 19,307 things I worry about going wrong on a trip…
MrsT is frugal to a fault, but she learned a long time ago that it’s worth the extra expense to make sure I’m not having a nervous breakdown in the middle of the train station, so whenever possible, she works out some kind of foolproof-as-possible transfer for us (which is still no guarantee, as we had a private car hired for the drive from Bayeux to Paris last year and still had significant issues getting to the train station in Paris).
The only place we couldn’t get one this time around (and yes, I’m already freaking out over it) is getting from the hotel in Barcelona to the ship - it’s a Sunday, and try as she might, she can’t find any of the usual transfer companies she works with that’ll provide that on a Sunday morning, so we’ll have to have the concierge get us a taxi.
Honestly, I’ve been having panic attacks the last few weeks over this whole thing, which is something new for me, so all of this is getting worse for me. That usually doesn’t happen until the day before we’re transferring, but the older I get, the worse it’s getting.
I got called last night for work at about 1:30AM and had to be up for a half-hour or so, which was when I responded earlier up this topic…I didn’t sleep the rest of the night, I just lay there in bed, imaging all sorts of wacky things that “could” go wrong (“What if someone puts their carryon in my designated carryon space overhead, and I try and move it, and it’s a little old lady’s bag, and she complains, and the flight attendant spits in my drink for me upsetting the little old lady, and the flight attendant unknowingly has covid and passes it on to me, and I pass it on to everyone on the cruise, and then they won’t let anyone off the ship, and we end up floating for weeks and weeks, with the toilets overflowing and the food all gone, like happened to that one ship a couple of years ago, and since I can’t get off the ship for that long, I get fired from work, and we lose the house, and now we’re homeless living on the street! Why the flippity-f*** are we going on this trip? We’re DOOMED!!!” - yeah, that scenario rolled through my head about 3AM).
I never used to be like that, but we had one really bad travel experience, getting back from Budapest to the US, in 2010, where everything that could go wrong did go wrong, and at the risk of sounding melodramatic, I think it traumatized me somewhat, and it hasn’t helped that nearly every trip since then has had at least one thing go wrong, nothing unusual in the course of traveling, but now it’s super-amplified for me, and the older I get, the more I’m inclined to think, “Do I really need to see Bucharest (or Krakow…or Copenhagen…etc)? I think I’d rather have just stayed home.”
Add to that, MrsT is going in exactly the opposite direction, frantically trying to do more, more, MORE! before she’s too old/unhealthy to travel - if I’ve got travel anxiety, she’s got FOMO anxiety just as badly.
Just send the therapy bill to my house, Doc. I’m good for it.
The last two trips we made to the UK, it was simply flying in, getting a rental car at the airport, and driving out of London to our accommodation farther afield.
Minus the stress of picking up the car (more outlandish “What if…?” scenarios), once I got behind the wheel, most of that anxiety went away, because we weren’t depending on any planes or trains or buses to get us anywhere - just pile in the car and go.
Not for us - because of my, ahem, difficulties with transfers, we book some kind of private driver for that stuff as much as possible. That way, we’re not standing there with luggage, trying to navigate a train station or taxi rank or whatever. We just look for the guy holding a sign with our name on it and get in his car (never to be seen again, one of these days, which is also one of the 19,307 things I worry about going wrong on a trip…
MrsT is frugal to a fault, but she learned a long time ago that it’s worth the extra expense to make sure I’m not having a nervous breakdown in the middle of the train station, so whenever possible, she works out some kind of foolproof-as-possible transfer for us (which is still no guarantee, as we had a private car hired for the drive from Bayeux to Paris last year and still had significant issues getting to the train station in Paris).
The only place we couldn’t get one this time around (and yes, I’m already freaking out over it) is getting from the hotel in Barcelona to the ship - it’s a Sunday, and try as she might, she can’t find any of the usual transfer companies she works with that’ll provide that on a Sunday morning, so we’ll have to have the concierge get us a taxi.
Honestly, I’ve been having panic attacks the last few weeks over this whole thing, which is something new for me, so all of this is getting worse for me. That usually doesn’t happen until the day before we’re transferring, but the older I get, the worse it’s getting.
I got called last night for work at about 1:30AM and had to be up for a half-hour or so, which was when I responded earlier up this topic…I didn’t sleep the rest of the night, I just lay there in bed, imaging all sorts of wacky things that “could” go wrong (“What if someone puts their carryon in my designated carryon space overhead, and I try and move it, and it’s a little old lady’s bag, and she complains, and the flight attendant spits in my drink for me upsetting the little old lady, and the flight attendant unknowingly has covid and passes it on to me, and I pass it on to everyone on the cruise, and then they won’t let anyone off the ship, and we end up floating for weeks and weeks, with the toilets overflowing and the food all gone, like happened to that one ship a couple of years ago, and since I can’t get off the ship for that long, I get fired from work, and we lose the house, and now we’re homeless living on the street! Why the flippity-f*** are we going on this trip? We’re DOOMED!!!” - yeah, that scenario rolled through my head about 3AM).
I never used to be like that, but we had one really bad travel experience, getting back from Budapest to the US, in 2010, where everything that could go wrong did go wrong, and at the risk of sounding melodramatic, I think it traumatized me somewhat, and it hasn’t helped that nearly every trip since then has had at least one thing go wrong, nothing unusual in the course of traveling, but now it’s super-amplified for me, and the older I get, the more I’m inclined to think, “Do I really need to see Bucharest (or Krakow…or Copenhagen…etc)? I think I’d rather have just stayed home.”
Add to that, MrsT is going in exactly the opposite direction, frantically trying to do more, more, MORE! before she’s too old/unhealthy to travel - if I’ve got travel anxiety, she’s got FOMO anxiety just as badly.
Just send the therapy bill to my house, Doc. I’m good for it.
Where do I start???...
First, we took a taxi from the hotel to the ship in Barcelona. The hotel bellman hailed it for us. That's the best way to go, IMO. Then, everything went smoothly at the cruise port. It was rather easy. A lot of ships sail out of there.
As for the anxiety attacks, can you get your MD to prescribe a low dose of an anxiety medicine? I wake up with anxiety attacks from time to time (for no reason at all), and take 1mg of Lorazapan. It takes the edge off, but doesn't mess you up. I can drive a car just fine after taking one. You only take it when you need it, not on some schedule.
After about 15 years of traveling 150 days a year, not much bothers me anymore when I travel. Everything that could go wrong, has already gone wrong multiple times, and I got through it. On a regular basis, I'd be on my way to, or at the airport to fly home, only to get a call -- "We need you to fly to San Jose instead." Then there is the short connection in Atlanta experience. Your arriving plane is pretty much guaranteed to be late.
CD
karadekoolaid
Legendary Member
I sympathise, really, although I never really get to that stage. It's very much a lottery, even if you think you've got everything 1000% organised. We still print off our boarding passes/tickets, despite cellphone/AI technology.
Flying out to Cinci three years ago (with my son, who has cerebral palsy) at 5.30am, we finally got to the check-in at Maiquetia, Caracas airport. All the absurd documents, blah, blah, blah, and the idiot behind the counter said:
"Where's the return ticket to Caracas?"
" We're not coming back to Caracas, we're going on to London"
"Need to see the ticket, otherwise I can't board you"
Could I find the damned thing on my cellphone? No. Had to call my son in Cinci (yes, 5.30am) to send a copy. As if I looked like an illegal immigrant to the USA.
Then when we got to Atlanta for a connecting flight, it took eternity and a day to get through the bloody security business. A queue around 3 miles long, my son wears leg braces, ( so they took about an hour deciding if he should remove them, or not remove them, or whether we should strip naked, or whatever), and I could feel the boarding time creeping closer and closer and closer...
I print my boarding passes at home whenever possible. I can print them at my sister's house, too. I don't like the phone boarding passes because my phone goes into sleep mode right when I'm about to scan it, and I have to bring it back up while people wait in line behind me.
CD
Atlanta is the worst. I won’t fly through there any longer. MrsT gets furious with me sometimes, because she’ll say, “Ok, I can get us flights to London in Comfort Class, and they’re only $976 a ticket. Want to go?”
“Yeah, sure! Is it through Atlanta?”
“Yeah, that’s where it’s cheapest. Philly or NY, add another $600 a ticket.”
“Well, if I’m going, you need to add that $600, because I refuse to fly through Atlanta. You know that. Quit checking Atlanta for prices.”
“BUT IT’S $600 CHEAPER!”
“Don’t care, ain’t goin’ through Atlanta. What’s on TV?”
We have the same argument over flying Southwest Airlines. I won’t do it, I don’t care if it’s free.
Atlanta airport is actually a nice airport, it is just spread out over a few counties. You have to leave yourself plenty of time to make a connection there. Now, Miami is a terrible airport, especially to return to the US from overseas. I refuse to go though there.
My last trip to the UK was on British Airways, direct from Dallas to Heathrow, and back to Dallas. That was a breeze. I've never had issues with customs at DFW airport. Three times, all quick and easy.
At this point in my life, I only fly first or business class on long flights. My body can't handle a long flight in coach, even the "plus" versions of coach.
I don't fly Southwest even to Houston, a one hour flight. I call it the Greyhound bus of airlines.
CD
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My problem with the airport at Atlanta is the hellaciously rude and downright combative people who work there…and that’s saying something, because I’ve flown through Philly.
The last time I flew through there, coming back from the UK in 2017, the people directing travelers off the flight and into the proper immigration lanes were horrible, barking orders at people to “Move it! Move it!” - they had one aged Italian couple crying (the wife, anyway), and we ended up actually getting between them and the workers, who were yelling at them, asking if they were “stupid” because they didn’t speak English and laughing, asking “Why’d they even come here if they can’t understand anything?” - despicable behavior.
That was probably the third (and last) time we’d gone through Atlanta, and that was the worst, but the other two times weren’t much better. After that, I told MrsT, “No more Atlanta for me. I’m not getting treated like that again.”
She just looks at the money, though, and tries to find savings here and there, so she can spend it on other things. To her, the plane ride is just something to be endured.