This was originally posted by vbenedict0208 on the community forum.

Karen,
Use the traveladvisor site that Suzanne posted above to help your search in hotel rooms. She recommended it to me a few weeks ago and it is wonderful. This is the site that we are primarily using to decide where to stay.

This was originally posted by vbenedict0208 on the community forum.

Karen,
I've done extensive research and the best flights/best prices I found were with AA. Roundtrip is $1320 each including all taxes. (Be careful, sites like expedia don't always show the complete price. They may tell you that the flight will only cost $795 each roundtrip but they aren't including all of the hidden fees and taxes that go along!) The flight to get there will "only" be a little over 18 hours with stops in Dallas, Chicago and Brussels. The layovers a very short, only about 1 to 1 1/2 hours each. The way back is another story. Previous cruisers have said to make sure that you book your return flight after NOON if you are leaving the same day you depart the boat. This is due to the time it takes to process everyone out. The only flight from Venice leaves at 11:25am. With checking in, security, etc. at the airport we would never make it so we will be staying the night in Venice and leaving the following morning. (Another night in Europe, I'm just broken hearted!) The flight back home will be 32 hours because of an overnight delay in Dallas. A pain in the butt, yes, but it took $900.00 off of each ticket doing it that way. Even spending $150.00 on a hotel for a night, we still come out ahead. Something you need to keep in mind is the more stops/changing planes you are willing to do, the cheaper your tickets will be. On the way back we have FOUR stops but, again, the aggravation is worth it to save $1800.00 total. It all depends on how you prefer to travel and how much money you want to spend. Olivia usually arranges for a 5% discount through AA (the above total does NOT reflect this discount) but they haven't posted the discount code as of yet. As for lodging, I have gotten some very good leads from others on this site. We still have not made a decision but we have narrowed it down. Be careful when you are looking for rooms overseas. As Evergreen posted above, not all rooms have A/C and the ones that do sometimes charge a fee for the usage. Also think about things such as blow dryers, alarm clocks, etc. Most of the hotels that I have researched in Venice have them but be sure that the one you pick does or you will need to bring an adapter for any appliances that require an outlet as European outlets are different.

This is also an anniversary gift to ourselves. It will be five years for us Feb, 2007 and it gets better and better with each passing year. How about you and Marcie?

This was originally posted by stephensmom on the community forum.

Lisagabba - We went to Paris in June and stayed in a smallish hotel near the Arc de Triomphe. The people there were very nice and it was close to restaurants/pubs and just a few blocks from the Champs Elysees. It is:
Best Western Elysees Paris
1, Rue Brey, Paris,
Phone: 33-1-53-81-82-90
You can find info at the Best Western website: www.bestwestern.com

I use the website www.traveladvisor.com to check out hotels both in Europe and the US and have had very good luck with it.

Suzanne

This was originally posted by tnt moms on the community forum.

Vanessa,
What flight info have you and Jen gathered? Sounds like you are at the same deliberation point we are regarding accomodations. Any suggestions? We're rookies at international travel, so any tips are appreciated. Thanks, Karen

This was originally posted by tnt moms on the community forum.

LISA GABBA, what a wonderful extended vacation you and Angela have planned. Marcie and I are shopping for flights and have decided to make pre-cruise arraangements on our own for two days and wait for the Olivia post-cruise opportunities before we decide on accomodations, but will book a flight back to the States on the 11th or 12th of June. We just received the e-mail about the chefs who will join us on the cruise and managed to surf from a review posted there from a similar cruise in 2005 to the comments message board from just previous to that departure. There were a couple of hotel recommendations there, I think from Stephensmom, who was very helpful to us in an earlier post. Anyone have any hotel or pensione suggestions for either Venice or Florence?
Great to hear from other early bird excitees about this venture. This is an anniversary gift to ourselves and will be a vacation of a lifetime for us. We look so forward to meeting you all. Arrividerci,
Karen

This was originally posted by evergreen on the community forum.

LISAGABBA:

Here's the actual hotel site:
http://www.angleterre-paris-hotel.com/English/Frameset.html


Julie

This was originally posted by evergreen on the community forum.

LISAGABBA: Here's a hotel where we stayed in Paris once. It's a typical old, small, Parisian hotel. I notice it's been renovated so I hope it hasn't lost it's charm. The price is pretty good.
When we stayed there, there was no air.(They might have added it with the reno's now).It was about 110 degrees for the week we were in Paris!!!! We used to fill the bath with water &, throughout the night, we would get up & lay in it to get wet. Then go back to bed cooled enough to go to sleep!!!!!!

Great location just off the Champs Elysees & within easy distance of lots of points of interest.

http://www.parishotels.com/Hotel_d_Angleterre_Champs-Elysees_star_en.html

This was originally posted by LISAGABBA on the community forum.

Hi all,

Thanks for your responses. It great to hear we are not alone in our excitement.

Angela and I are a step closer to knowing what we want to do, although much of trip will be flexible.

We are looking at travelling through Greece (to visit angelas relatives) for 1-1 1/2 wks. Then the Ferry to bottom of Italy. Up through Rome, Florence, Pisa (around 3 days) then to my parents’ village, which is half hour from Venice (for 1 week).

Then the Cruise of a lifetime.

Then up to Paris (3 days). Then London to visit Friends (1 week).

As for booking accommodation, we were going to play it by ear, but the Olivia Cruise extenders in Venice sound like a great way to get the party started early.


If anyone has booked or stayed somewhere nice in Paris, I would be very interested in some feedback or advice.

This was originally posted by vbenedict0208 on the community forum.

I'm glad you posted this thread. This is our first cruise (My partner's name is Jen) and to say that we are excited is an understatement! When we booked the trip, we felt like two four year olds on Christmas morning. We plan to fly into Venice three days in advance to beat the jet lag (Jen has flown many times, this will be my FIRST flight and 22 hours long!) and to see the sites of Venice before we get on the big boat. I posted another thread on this forum to ask for advice on hotels and places to eat and was given excellent links to follow. Have any of you booked your hotel for the pre-stay already? Others that have done this cruise before say that Olivia usually does a three day pre-trip extension but they don't post the info until closer to the cruise dates. We're still on the fence about whether we want to wait for Olivia's plans or just go ahead and plan our own. As for other travel, Jen and I have decided to make seeing all of overseas a priority during our lifetime. My mother always wanted to see Europe but never made it a priority. She is now too ill to go and regrets it greatly. I don't want to make the same mistake. The trip we take after Greece will probably be without Olivia because we want to stay a week in England and a week in France and Olivia hasn't offered that as of yet. I'm looking forward to hearing of everyone else's plans for this cruise so please share with us!

This was originally posted by tnt moms on the community forum.

Hi, my partner, (Marcie) and I (Karen) are also already booked for the Greek Cruise and are enjoying planning flights and additional nights. We've cruised before out of our "backyard" ports here in Florida, but never with Olivia. We are really looking forward to it.
We want to add at least one night pre-cruise to beat the jet lag and a couple of nights post cruise for more of Venice. How about you?

This was originally posted by LISAGABBA on the community forum.

My partner and I have already booked. I sure there are others out there that have already booked too. Would love to hear your expectations and any additional European travelling you may be planning.

We are two Cruise Virgins from Australia and have no idea what to expect.

Can't wait!