topic Re: Travel Chat - September 2018 in Travel

Travel Chat - September 2018

World Traveler — Sat, 01 Sep 2018 13:20:31 GMT

It's another new month of talking about our travel plans, asking and answering questions, and sharing experiences.

But before I check out the new threads on this wonderful forum and read what you have to say in September, here is what I was reading about in August. Thank you for educating me on this forum!

A New Journey by @fitfuninformed

Advice Needed - River Cruise Veterans by @wonderfulworld

Announcement – This is Incredible! by @YorkieonmyPillow

Any Tips for Dealing with Jet Lag? by @wonderfulworld

Back From My European Vacation by @SANNA

Budapest and Vienna by @qvc chik

Day Trips – Chambersburg and Gettysburg, PA by @Allegheny

Elk RV in Tillamook, Oregon by @Luke & Grace

Ever Done a Test Pack for a Longer Trip? by @joannecha

Getty to Yankee Stadium from Midtown by @granddi

Going to Los Angeles by Sydsgma

If You Are Heading to Florida Near Fort Myers Area, Beware by @BalletBabe

I’m Leaving for the UK on Monday by @AJW

In Need of New Luggage by @bonnielu

Locks on Luggage by @bonnielu

Lowest Price for Plane Tickets by @Greeneyedlady21

Luggage for Plane Advice by @bonnielu

Merida, Mexico by @Travone

New England Fall Foliage Dates by @TeezNu

Suggestion for San Francisco’s Sidewalk Issues by @GingerPeach

Thinking of Going to Venice or Port Charlotte, Florida by @classic

Weekend Travel Adventure by @JudyL

What Chain Hotels Do You Prefer by @wonderfulworld

What to Wear – Bucket List Hawaii Cruise by @bonnielu

Winter Shoe Advice by @Wobin

Your Favorite Cruise Line by @Newgate

I am looking forward to reading what you all will be doing in September!

Happy Travels!

Re: Travel Chat - September 2018

Alter Ego — Sat, 01 Sep 2018 13:42:30 GMT

@World Traveler

Re: Travel Chat - September 2018

World Traveler — Sat, 01 Sep 2018 13:58:21 GMT

@Alter Ego LOL!!!!! Oh, my goodness, I am so, so excited for you! It is only 19 days....WOW! Have you started packing yet? Should not have to take much.

I love the Greek Isles, loved the whole cruise experience there (especially Santorini and Mykonos), loved the people, and loved the food.

Ooompha!

Re: Travel Chat - September 2018

6kids — Sat, 01 Sep 2018 20:49:27 GMT

I am new to this forum. Your trip sounds wonderful, Alter Ego, almost like a trip to paradise. My husband I are leaving on September 11 for a ten day trip to Iceland. If anyone has been there, I would appreciate any advice you can give on what to pack. I thought that I had everything planned out, but I am starting to second guess myself. Thank you!

Re: Travel Chat - September 2018

Alter Ego — Sat, 01 Sep 2018 21:37:08 GMT

@6kids Iceland sounds fantastic! It’s definitely somewhere I’d like to go at some point. I’m sure some of our regular readers have been, including @World Traveler who seems to have been almost everywhere.

I hope you have a fantastic time!

Re: Travel Chat - September 2018

World Traveler — Sat, 01 Sep 2018 22:57:19 GMT

@6kids Hi and welcome to our forum!

My sister and I went to Iceland and Greenland in July 2010. Both places were gorgeous. Air was clean and clear. It was nippy in the evenings, so we wore jackets. During the day the sun was always out, but it was never hot.

By the way, the sun basically didn't go down much. It never got darker than twilight. I had a hard time sleeping because the curtains in my hotel room were not heavy/thick. I should have brought an eye mask so I could sleep more.

That was one trip that I only traveled with a carry-on while my sister packed everything AND the kitchen sink! She changed outfits every day. I took two pairs of pants (jeans and a pair of slacks) and five different shirts. Had one pull-over sweater and carried my coat on the plane so I didn't have to worry about packing it. A lot of good it did me.....still had to wait for her luggage to get off the conveyor belt at the airport! LOL!

The food was wonderful in Iceland; water is clean and you can drink from the tap. Their water comes from geysers, so it is warm and in most places where we stayed, you only had a cold-water spigot. Not sure that is everywhere, but it was kind of interesting to just use the cold water spigot to regulate the temperature.

Hopefully, you are staying at least part of the time in Reykjavik, and if so be sure to go to the Blue Lagoon spa. Everywhere in Iceland they sell the spa products from the Blue Lagoon.

Greenland was very rugged in terrain, very basic in amenities. If you get a chance to go there, it is only one hour flight from Iceland. The places to go are so remote that you have to take a helicopter to get there. No roads to get to the villages; at least at that time there wasn't.

Iceland is full of green, green landscape, lots of waterfalls, lots of quaint little one-room churches out in the rural areas.

We walked a lot, so good walking shoes would be a must. I wore hiking boots because I knew we would be walking on uneven ground in many of the areas and climbing up to waterfalls.

Please enjoy your trip and be sure to report back here about your adventure, giving tips and suggestions. And, of course, share plenty of photos with us!

Re: Travel Chat - September 2018

6kids — Sun, 02 Sep 2018 00:48:35 GMT

Thank you for the information and the welcome, World Traveler. We are spending two days in Reykjavik. I am hoping to pack lightly, but will most likely go beyond a carry on. I am planning on taking a warm sweater, a fleece vest, and a Northface rain jacket. Do you think that will be enough to keep me warm? I would like to leave my puffy winter coat at home. I will be happy to share my experiences, pictures, and travel tips learned with the group.

Re: Travel Chat - September 2018

DukeBlueNan — Sun, 02 Sep 2018 01:58:29 GMT

@6kids wrote:
I am new to this forum. Your trip sounds wonderful, Alter Ego, almost like a trip to paradise. My husband I are leaving on September 11 for a ten day trip to Iceland. If anyone has been there, I would appreciate any advice you can give on what to pack. I thought that I had everything planned out, but I am starting to second guess myself. Thank you!

You will love Iceland. My daughter and I went in 2016 for a week and I loved it so much I took a solo trip last year. It's such an easy country to navigate. Small, safe, everyone is so nice and everyone speaks English. We stayed in Reykjavik and took tours other places. But, I did a lot of walking in Reykjavik proper when I was by myself and just loved it.

Take a food tour! I'm all about eating!

As far as clothing, layers are your friends! My trips were in July and August.

Temps were never terribly cold, highs in 50s. (I am hot natured!) But, fleece leggings too warm for us!

Also, I slept with no problems! World traveler mentioned I was only person she'd heard of who wasn't bothered by the all night light LOL!

You'll have so much fun. Sorry for the long post! I get carried away!

Re: Travel Chat - September 2018

World Traveler — Sun, 02 Sep 2018 02:15:11 GMT

@6kids Oh, yes, that sounds like enough to keep you warm.

However, depends upon you and your metabolism. I don't get cold easily, so I get by with less clothes/layers.

Also, I was using clothes from REI, which were warm but thin, not bulky.

My sister was truly amazed at how I got by with such few things. Of course, by the end of the trip, she was tired of seeing me in only five-six outfits! LOL!!!

Re: Travel Chat - September 2018

chprsp — Sun, 02 Sep 2018 23:58:11 GMT

Enjoy! We went in February 2017 for 5 days and it was warmer there than in western PA. We went to the Blue Lagoon and took the Golden tour plus a city tour. We wore casual clothes. Our hotel was in Rekjavik and we walked around some of the town. Had dinner twice at Matwerk on the main street. The good was delicious. Our only problem when preparing to leave was printing the boarding passes at the hotel. The computer was in Icelandic!

Re: Travel Chat - September 2018

World Traveler — Thu, 06 Sep 2018 18:31:26 GMT

New Lug bag you might like when traveling:

This busy-friendly crossbody bag features sassy stud details, a removable strap, and plenty of pockets. From Lug.

Style: Pacer
Adjustable removable strap, back zip pocket, hidden side elastic pocket, front slip pocket with magnetic closure, front pocket with flap entry and magnetic closure, gunmetal hardware
Two front-wall slip pockets, front-wall zip pocket, back-wall zip pocket
Measures approximately 10-1/4"W x 7-1/2"H x 2-1/2"D with a 15-1/2 to 29-1/2" strap drop
Body/trim/lining 100% polyester
Imported

Colors: Cobalt Blue, Midnight Black, and Titanium Grey

F13349 - $49.86, 2 easy pay

Re: Travel Chat - September 2018

chprsp — Thu, 06 Sep 2018 20:03:50 GMT

My Pacer will hopefully arrive tomorrow. I ordered wine which seems to have sold out.

Re: Travel Chat - September 2018

World Traveler — Fri, 07 Sep 2018 19:01:17 GMT

@chprsp Tell us how you like it (or don't like it). I thought the wine was really pretty.

Re: Travel Chat - September 2018

chprsp — Sat, 08 Sep 2018 22:33:48 GMT

I love the wine color. I think it may work with Linea items I have in wine and port. It's a good size. I haven't actually used it yet. Probably I'll carry it Monday when we go to the VA hospital. I do wish it had some cc slots so I wouldn't need a wallet but it's not a deal breaker. The snaps for the hidden side pocket will take getting used to. It's something I was in favor of because sometimes the magnet didn't work well when folding the pocket closed. However it does take more time to snap it.closed. The studs and zippers in gunmetal dress up the bag.

Re: Travel Chat - September 2018

itsmagic — Wed, 12 Sep 2018 23:50:51 GMT

We’re flying to Rapid City, South Dakota this Sunday to begin our week long bus tour on Monday of Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone, Jackson Hole, etc. We have a connection in Chicago though that I’m really worried about! The airlines changed the time of our connecting flight and now we only have half an hour between flights. Yikes!

Re: Travel Chat - September 2018

Alter Ego — Thu, 13 Sep 2018 05:03:53 GMT

@itsmagic I’m sorry about your updated flight times - one hopes that the airlines wouldn’t do it if they couldn’t actually accomplish it (but hope is the operative word). I assume you are flying out of O’Hare as I know Southwest doesn’t fly to those locations (I’ve looked!) At least your 2nd flight should be in the same terminal; fingers crossed the gates are close by.

If you are taking checked luggage, I would be sure to cross pack in case one goes missing. Maybe also include the contact information for the tour provider with your contact info.

On the plus side, Sunday’s weather is looking pretty great. Maybe you’ll gain some time in the air.

I hope all goes well and that you have a fantastic trip! Those are all places I want to see some day.

Re: Travel Chat - September 2018

dooBdoo — Thu, 13 Sep 2018 11:34:50 GMT

@World Traveler

Good morning, World Traveler! This isn't related to traveling, but it's something you and I discussed along time ago and I thought you might be interested in an update. This is in reference to the strange way the website treats your nickname when we try to use the "@-plus-name" method.

With most of our names we can enter a space, or a return, or other text immediately following the "@name" and the "@name" continues to be a hyperlink (meaning that we can click/tap on it and it takes us to the person's profile and also it generates an alert).

With your name, if we type anything after it, it reverts back to plain text and you won't receive a notification and if we click/tap on it nothing happens.

This morning I saw this with another poster's name -- I had time on my hands so I did some detective work and discovered it was because there are 2 spaces in the nickname between the first word and the second word. This reminded me that you and I had talked about this software bug before, so I wanted to offer this heads up in case it's helpful.

To see evidence of this one-space/two-space difference, try a search of the site user file (use search bar at top of page, change "Community" to "Users" and click/tap "GO").

If we enter "World Traveler" (one space in the middle) your nickname won't be included in the results.

If we enter "World Traveler" (two spaces in the middle), your name is the one the search will find.

I didn't know if you wanted to go into this again, but just in case you're interested... there might be an easy fix. If the system will permit you to change your nickname to the one with only one space between the two words, it still will be linked to all your posts so don't worry about that. And it won't even be something any of us can see -- but it most likely will fix this bug that makes it very hard for us to notify you with the "@" sign.

If you want to try a change, go into "My Account," look under "Personal Information" and select "My Nickname." It's possible this wacky site won't allow you to make that slight change, telling you the name is already in use (it's kind of glitchy that way), but it might be worth a try.

Give me a shout if I this was clear as mud and I need to do a better job of explaining. Sorry to barge into this lovely thread with my post! I hope everyone here has a lovely day, and for those of you who are in the path of Florence -- or who have loved ones there -- my heart goes out to you, as do my prayers.❤️

Re: Travel Chat - September 2018

World Traveler — Thu, 13 Sep 2018 14:11:41 GMT

@dooBdoo Hey, there!

The only people who seem to have a problem with bringing up my name are ones who do NOT use the drop-down in the thread that I have already responded to. Know what I mean? If they would use that, there would be no problem. And I can always tell when people use the drop-down list of names because it works every time and I get the notification.

Likewise, it doesn't work if they mention me in a thread that I haven't already posted in.

If you check the very first post on this thread, the one I did to start this thread with all the posters' names, any of those people who have a space (or two) between their name did not come up as a notification for them. I have tried to enter their name the way you mentioned, but it doesn't work for me. * So, my hope is just that they read the thread and see that I attempted to notify them.

I have also tried to go into my profile and change it and the moderators have tried to do it for me, but to no avail.

I know when it happened. It was originally okay and a long time okay bebe said she could not easily enter notifications for posters who had a space in their name and asked (or perhaps suggested) about the possibility of making it ONE word. So in order to make it easier for her, I did that. I changed it to WorldTraveler. She was able to successfully include me in the notifications from then on without any extra effort on her part.

But it wasn't long after that when I didn't care if I got notifications from her about upcoming events, prices, etc., because I was already getting that information from QVC or the presentations themselves (how much one saved by getting the special, etc.), so I asked her to remove me from her notification list and I changed it back to World Traveler. But.....that was no longer available and I had to put an extra space in to get it back as closely as possible to what I had. Evidently, once a name is used and changed to something else, you can't get it back. Or, at least back then that was true.

It's really no problem for me this way and I haven't thought about it in a long time. I prefer it as two words and not one, and I get a bit bent out of shape at myself when I think that it's my own fault for changing it in the first place. ha!

As it is now, if someone tries to notify me in a thread where I haven't already posted, the chances of me seeing it are only good if I am interested in the thread they posted my name in, and I read every single post.

Thanks for thinking of me though. I appreciate it.

Re: Travel Chat - September 2018

itsmagic — Thu, 13 Sep 2018 18:07:55 GMT

@World Traveler

I’ve learned that if a poster has one (or two) spaces in their name to return after their name and type the message on a separate line rather than using a space after their name (which takes away the notification feature).

Re: Travel Chat - September 2018

World Traveler — Thu, 13 Sep 2018 18:11:20 GMT

@itsmagic Yes, I remember that tip too. Long time ago someone (think it was @Alter Ego) mentioned that.

Speaking of @Alter Ego, her trip to Greece is coming so, so s-o-o-n! Whoop, whoop! So excited for her. Greece is a lovely place to travel to. Cruises are so much fun there. Oompha!