Still Working on Our Travel Plans - July 2021

Hawaii Cruise

Things are looking up for our 15 day cruise to Hawaii at the end of the year. Of course, this presumes Princess Cruises restarts its California port departures to Hawaii in November and Hawaii travel remains open to mainland vaccinated visitors without testing and/or quarantine requirements after early July. This will be our first post-pandemic trip out of California. However with the threat of COVID-19 variants, I'm not sure if we're really in a "post-pandemic" time period. I guess we'll bring a supply of face masks and sanitizers just in case.  

Currently, Princess requires cruise guests be vaccinated, as well as crew members. Thus, the need for face coverings and social distancing while on-board should be limited. The risk of a COVID-19 infection while transiting the Pacific Ocean is not zero but, hopefully, should be managed to a healthful level. 

Once at the Hawaiian ports, we should be able to tour on our own and avoid being limited to ship-sponsored excursions. I'm currently working on car rental reservations, which recently has been challenging due to rental car shortages in Hawaii.

Israel - Egypt - Jordan 

This trip is still scheduled for early 2022. We won't know if this trip will go forward or be cancelled until January 2022. 

Nonetheless, we recently purchased our outbound and returning air flight tickets. Our US to Israel travel will be via a non-stop flight. Not having to transit through Heathrow or some other mid-way airport should result in less anxiety over airplane and airport changes. Unfortunately, we don't have frequent flier points for this airline and the cost of two business class tickets was rather high.

We were able to use our American frequent flier points for our return flight seats. We found a non-stop flight from Jordan to the US and then a short second domestic flight to our final destination airport in San Francisco. Once in San Francisco, we'll use a rental car to return to our residence.

We've prearranged for a private tour guide and driver in Israel. The remaining trip is organized by a major travel provider. 

Mediterranean Ports and Italy

Later in fall 2022, we're scheduled to embark on a small-ship cruise from Athens. The cruise will take us to several ports that are new to us, including several small Greek Island ports and ports in Montenegro and Croatia. This cruise will disembark guests in Rome. 

At the end of the cruise, we're renting an apartment in Florence and also in Rome to take advantage of our time in Italy. While in Rome, we're hoping to be able to visit the Mausoleum of Augustus, which reopened in April 2021. We've been to Florence previously, but were didn't have time (or advance tickets) to visit the Uffizi Galleries. A week in Florence should provide a relaxing tour of the city and the surrounding Tuscany area.

This trip was rescheduled from 2020. We might rebook a Vespa tour of Tuscany that we planned to take in 2020.

Travel Insurance

With travel uncertainties for "post-pandemic" travel, our international trips have some type of travel insurance. The Israel-Egypt-Jordan trip has "cancel for any reason" travel insurance. This type of insurance coverage is more expensive to purchase and often does not reimburse 100 percent of your travel costs. Even with a 75 percent ceiling on expense reimbursement under our "cancel for any reason" policy, we thought this insurance a prudent measure. The high cost of this trip and the strong possibility that a COVID-19 or conflict situation could interfere with this trip led us to purchase the additional coverage. 

If we're traveling to an area that temporarily experiences an active COVID-19 outbreak, travel insurance will help to cover any additional expenses related to unplanned quarantine requirements and/or medical services. The expense of hotel stays and meals over a ten-day quarantine and rescheduled air travel can quickly add up to a substantial amount.