With many folks receiving the COVID vaccine, thoughts turn to travel once again. Small day trips, longer weekend trips, a road trip perhaps and yes, even airline travel to attend a rescheduled high school reunion in the fall. What about cruise travel you ask? Well, that’s on a prolonged hold for us as this time. We are currently in the process of changing our canceled cruise from 2020 to 2023. I need time for the world to settle down and to feel safe traveling abroad once again.

We have been successful rebooking another itinerary for our next cruise – in April 2023. The plan is to visit Holland and Belgium with Viking River Cruises. With our credits from past canceled itineraries, we only need to pay for the air. The down side is that Viking wants final payment 16 months in advance! I just can’t abide by that. They have had our money for almost 3 years already, from canceled cruises and incentive vouchers, yet, they are asking for more money. In the past, based on the number of cruises we have taken with Viking, we have always had a 6-month prior to cruise payment window. We have asked our travel agent to ask Viking to rethink this date and are awaiting a reply.

I belong to an online Facebook group of Viking travelers. These travelers are 100% Viking-can-do-no-wrong people. If anyone says something that they feel is a negative against Viking, watch out! Even though this group is supposedly the ‘friendliest’ Viking group, there are some that don’t quite embody the sentiment. Still, there is much information shared and some very friendly, kind folks who post on a regular basis. This is the page where I ‘stole’ the alphabet photo idea. Currently, we are doing a #photo ‘game’. It’s always fun to think about our pictures and how they might fit the weekly # request.

My first Viking river cruise was Tulips and Windmills back when Viking was just getting started. We went towards the end of the tulip season so even though there was lots of color and tulips, it was past peak season. I’ve always wanted to go back. This new trip for 2023 will add yet another country to our list of countries visited – Belgium. I’m excited for Karen to see the Keukenhof Gardens and Kinderdik windmills. I’m sure there will be tons of pictures from that trip!

It’s always good to have something positive to look forward to. And while 2023 is a ways off, we are excited!