Saturday, August 3, 2019: Getting there

I will return from the WWI tour on October 14, 2019. My vague plan was to drive down to Houston prior to the beginning of the South American cruise and spend Thanksgiving with daughter and family. This week I decided to expand that road trip to include swinging by Fort Collins to visit mom and Phoenix to visit mom-in-law. I've got plenty of time.

Going out to Fort Collins will be the same as always. I will leave StL on the 18th, drop by Morrill, KS to offer my love and respects to Terri and stay the night in Kearney, NE. I will arrive in Ft. Collins on the 19th around noon and spend the afternoon with mom. I have found that a few hours with her are about right. I will spend the night with D&D before leaving the morning of the 20th.

Google maps suggested three route options. All are about the same duration. Normally, I have gone down through Albuquerque. This time I think I will go the northerly route (weather permitting) as it goes through the Eisenhower Tunnel, Vail and passes near Monument Valley. We have always thought about visiting Monument Valley, but never have. We have read that there really isn't much to do there.

So, I have booked a room at The View hotel in Monument Valley for the nights of November 20 and 21. The drive from Fort Collins to Monument Valley will be nine hours in duration leaving a five hour drive to Phoenix.

The Monument Valley park is not a U.S. National Park, but a Navajo Nation Tribal Park located on the Navajo Indian Reservation (www.navajonationparks.org). The View Hotel (https://monumentvalleyview.com/) is the only hotel located inside the Tribal Park and is located adjacent to the Park Visitors Center. There is a fee of $20 per vehicle up to 4 people to enter the Tribal Park. As a Tribal Park, US National Park Golden Eagle passes do not apply.

I have booked a 2 Queen Beds With Premium StarView room. There were not many left available even though it is three months out.

According to their website:

"The guestrooms on the top floor of the The View Hotel have been designated StarView Rooms. All StarView Rooms are on the third floor and provide fabulous views of the Mittens as well as the best stargazing imaginable." The "Mittens" are the iconic buttes for which the valley is known.

So, I will arrive the evening of the 20th and stay the entire day of the 21st, departing for Phoenix the morning of the 22nd. I should arrive in Phoenix around noon. I have booked a La Quinta near where Mary lives. I will spend the remainder of the day visiting with her. I will leave the morning of the 23rd. I have booked another La Quinta in Fort Stockton, TX...about half way to Houston. I should arrive in Houston on the 24th.

Overall, it will be a 3,000 mile road trip stretched over seven days.

Thursday, March 21, 2019: Air Flights

Wow, what an intense few days.

A couple of days ago, I mentioned to Maxine that we needed to start looking into air flights for the South American cruise. The cruise included a discounted Economy air with Stephen T and I flying out of IAH and Stephen H and Sarah flying out of IAD. Since it was going to be a 10+ hour flight, I told Maxine I wanted to fly Business Class both directions. She contacted Viking and they told her that they could upgrade us to Business Class for a new cost of $4,700 each compared to the $1,195 for economy. I told Maxine I would check with Chase Travel to see if we could do any better. I found the costs to be about the same, so I told Maxine to go ahead and use Viking since it would include transfers.

Maxine called back to say that in the 30 minutes between the initial Viking quote and her return call, the price had gone up $2,000 each. She told them to forget it. Thus started a saga of options and frustrations. Bottom line, we ended back with Viking, everyone traveling Business Class from IAH to EZE (Buenos Aires) and Economy Plus from SCL (Santiago) to IAH. The cost is $2,992.50 each. I will fly Stephen and Sarah from IAD to HOU.

For the flight from IAH to EZE, we will be on a Boeing 777 flight #819, seats 3A, 3B, 4A, 4B.

On the return trip, we on a Boeing 767-300, tentatively in seats 30K, 30L, 31K, 31L.

Update: I learned that, when selecting Economy, there is NO Economy Plus option through Viking. You can only select Economy. Then you can decide to go onto the airline web site and upgrade to Economy Plus. To do this, Viking first has to write the tickets which they normally would not do until 60 days or so before the trip begins. For our trip, this would be around the first of October. Not wanting to chance the possibility of not having a good seat selection, I went ahead and asked Maxine to have Viking write the tickets. They did and I immediately went on the United site and upgraded to Economy Plus @ $162/seat. Our seats are now 18A/18B/19A/19B. These are on the port side and should avoid the morning sun. The flight leaves Santiago at 11:20pm on December 21 and arrives in Houston at 6:00 am on December 22. I will need to wait until June or July before I can book flights between Washington and Houston for Stephen and Sarah.

Sunday, November 4, 2018: Plans

I booked this cruise in late February, 2018. I first booked it for just myself, but then Stephen and Sarah said they were very interested in joining me. This is a perfect time of year for them to be away from the farm. Also joining us is son-in-law Stephen.

We will be on the Viking Jupiter ship. It is a very new ship, to be completed in 2018/2019.

Completed Date : 1/1/2018
Capacity : 930 guests
Crew: 465
Gross Tonnage : 48000
Length : 754 feet
Beam : 94.5 feet
Number of Passenger Decks : 10
Number of Outside Rooms : 465
Number of Restaurants : 7
Number of Pools : 2
Number of Elevators : 4
Voltage : 110/220

We have two adjoining cabins on Deck 4, astern. Cabin 4121 is an Explorer Suite (ES2) which is 757 sq ft (including veranda). The adjoining cabin, 4123, is a Deluxe Veranda (DV1) and is 270 sq ft (including veranda). So we will have one half of the width of the ship for ourselves.

The cruise is 18 days in length, starting in Buenos Aires, Argentina and ending in Santiago, Chile. Embarkation is on December 4 and disembarkation on December 21. I predict we will arrive a day or two before the embarkation and do Buenos Aires. We might stay an extra night in Santiago, but I'm sure everyone will be wanting to get home for Christmas.