This has been a difficult trip to plan. There were so many requirements--between filling out paperwork, required vaccinations, applying for visas, etc. it's been a bit of a nightmare--with so many of us. I cannot tell you how much sleep Butch has lost over all of it. And because he was doing that worrying, I didn't!
One of those issues was when we found out that Mindy and Justin would not be able to go with us after all. Mindy's doctor would not allow her to take the required Yellow Fever vaccine. Soooo, after a few tears and sleepless nights, we "pivoted" (you know the 2020 Covid buzzword). Instead, we sent Mindy and Justin to France on the "Seine River Cruise" that we did last summer. We warned them in advance that they would be the youngest--by far--on the cruise.
They left on Sunday for Paris. We got a call at 1 a.m. Monday morning--our time--with Mindy acting quite frazzled. They could not find the person who was to meet them at the airport and take them to the boat. I tried to get her to calm down. Worse case they would have to get a taxi and get dropped off at the boat. As we were talking, they saw "the guy." Whew!
I had no trouble getting back to sleep, but Butch was up the rest of the night.
On Monday afternoon, I got this text from Mindy:
"We are officially the most popular people on board. We all had to introduce ourselves (I of course made some kind of joke), and the old folks are literally tracking us down to hang out with us. Ted and Anita (80 and 70, respectively) literally got up from the table they were sitting at for dinner to come sit with us. Sparky and Penni (celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary) asked us if we wanted to hang out in Paris since they’re staying at the Pullman too. Sally (unspecified age) came up to tell us about her husbands rheumatoid arthritis, and everyone already knows us by name and has Nicknames for us. I could actually get used to this level of attention! I don’t know why you guys have been holding out on Gate 1 trips for this long! 😆" Sent from my iPhone
I guess that "all's well that ends well" applies here. At least I hope so.
Butch and I both agreed that had we known about all the requirements, paperwork and hoops we've had to jump through, we probably wouldn't have tried to do this trip--at least not with so many people. We started with 10 with 7 actually making the trip. All I've got to say is, I sure hope it lives up to the hype!
More to come...
I'm so pleased you were able to find a fun alternative for Mindy to do after the disappointment of not being able to join you on your trip.
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