- Joined
- Nov 12, 2012
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I'm commencing this TR very early (a month to go) as, unusually I don't have my days mapped out to the Nth degree, and will welcome any suggestions, tips or cautions on what I'm broadly going to do. I have leaned on @OZDUCK 's TR O Tannenbaum - A tour of German Christmas Markets and @Mattg 's A tour of Germany's Christmas markets and other posts here, but any new ideas/comments welcome. Day trips, sights to see, don't do, whatever.
The genesis of this trip was my cruise to Antarctica last Christmas - I didn't miss Christmas at home, and enjoyed my first SilverSea cruise, so thought I'd repeat the dose. I've wanted to see the Caribbean , so a cruise seems a good way to go. SilverSea again came to the party with Bridgetown (Barbados) to Cartagena (Colombia) Cruise from Bridgetown to Cartagena - MO241221S08
Eight days, seven countries on the Silver Moon. ~600 pax, so about double the 270 of my Antarctica cruise on the Silver Wind, but OK.
Righto - now how to get there? Fares across the Pacific in business were still stupid, so my TA hunted around and came up with a Finnair 'RTW' fare, which came in much, much cheaper. Made the trip a much larger undertaking, but what's the problem with that?
. Gets me a stopover in Asia, onwards to HEL and then to and from anywhere in Europe back to HEL, onwards to USA, stopover and back home across the Pacific.
Adding on HBA-SYD with an Alaska Airways Award on Qantas, Miami to and from the cruise start BGI and end port CTG on American. Took the TA a bit of time and sleuthing to get the cheap fare bracket for the American flights. I wanted to book at the time the fares were released, but the best fares were delayed a bit.
So, all in business
HBA-SYD, Alaskan award on Qantas
SYD-BKK on Finnair
BKK-HEL Finnair
HEL-DUS Finnair
VIE-HEL Finnair
HEL-MIA Finnair
MIA-BGI American
CTG-MIA American
MIA-DFW American
DFW-SYD Qantas
SYD-HBA Qantas award
900SCs on QFF - not a huge earn for a RTW, but good enough for the fare paid.
The genesis of this trip was my cruise to Antarctica last Christmas - I didn't miss Christmas at home, and enjoyed my first SilverSea cruise, so thought I'd repeat the dose. I've wanted to see the Caribbean , so a cruise seems a good way to go. SilverSea again came to the party with Bridgetown (Barbados) to Cartagena (Colombia) Cruise from Bridgetown to Cartagena - MO241221S08
Eight days, seven countries on the Silver Moon. ~600 pax, so about double the 270 of my Antarctica cruise on the Silver Wind, but OK.
Righto - now how to get there? Fares across the Pacific in business were still stupid, so my TA hunted around and came up with a Finnair 'RTW' fare, which came in much, much cheaper. Made the trip a much larger undertaking, but what's the problem with that?
. Gets me a stopover in Asia, onwards to HEL and then to and from anywhere in Europe back to HEL, onwards to USA, stopover and back home across the Pacific.Adding on HBA-SYD with an Alaska Airways Award on Qantas, Miami to and from the cruise start BGI and end port CTG on American. Took the TA a bit of time and sleuthing to get the cheap fare bracket for the American flights. I wanted to book at the time the fares were released, but the best fares were delayed a bit.
So, all in business
HBA-SYD, Alaskan award on Qantas
SYD-BKK on Finnair
BKK-HEL Finnair
HEL-DUS Finnair
VIE-HEL Finnair
HEL-MIA Finnair
MIA-BGI American
CTG-MIA American
MIA-DFW American
DFW-SYD Qantas
SYD-HBA Qantas award
900SCs on QFF - not a huge earn for a RTW, but good enough for the fare paid.
