Tuesday, January 29, 2019: Plans Updated

Yesterday, Maxine started work to permit Sarah to join me on the transatlantic cruise. It was a lot of work and I am very grateful for all of her efforts.

Sarah will fly from IAD to BGI (one stop in YYZ) on April 16, arriving at the same time as my arrival from STL. We will take a cab to the Hilton Barbados Resort. I have canceled my original hotel booking and rebooked for the two of us. Seabourn will pick us up the morning of May 17 and take us to the ship.

We have not settled on any shore excursions yet, but I have booked the "Taste of Lisbon" four hour tour of Lisbon the morning of our arrival on May 3. Stephen T flies into Lisbon at 10:30 am that same morning. After the tour, we will meet him at our hotel. Sarah will stay the one night with us and then fly home the morning of May 4. Her flight leaves LIS at 10:25 am. It arrives in EWR at 1:25 pm and departs for IAD at 3:00 pm, arriving at 4:28 pm. That allows only 95 minutes in EWR to get through Immigration and Customs...not much! When Stephen and I flew through EWR on the way home from Iceland, we had longer than that and barely made the connection, and we both had Global Entry. I have encouraged Sarah to get Global Entry.

Except for the flight segments between IAD and YYZ and between EWR and IAD, Sarah will fly either Business or First Class. We booked through Seabourn. Yesterday, when Maxine first talked to Seabourn, she was quoted a airfare of over $3,600. I found this shocking since my airfare was only $1,750. I expressed this dismay to Maxine. Today, she dealt with a different person at Seabourn and they quoted a price of "only" $2,450. An improvement but still a bit high. This was before we decided to have Sarah fly home on May 4 instead of May 3. Once we made that change, the final cost for Sarah's flights was $2,123. The cost of adding Sarah to the cruise was $387 because I was paying essentially twice the normal per person cost because I was traveling alone.

The only remaining arrangement that Maxine is working on is the Lisbon hotel. She has sent an email to the hotel informing them that Sarah will be joining Stephen and I for one night and seeking whether we could get either a larger room to accommodate three or a second room for Sarah.

Update:

Maxine heard back from the Lisbon hotel. They did not have anything to offer other than a separate room for Sarah. We have booked that for her.