I feel like I
need a little preface to our European vacation before delving into a lengthy
travel log. I’ve always had three
specific vacations I dreamed of taking my family on.
1. European Vacation – specifically a Mediterranean cruise
2. RV Trip – Banff and Glacier National Park rank high on
my list
3. Houseboat – growing up in Utah, Lake Powell was a
popular vacation spot and I’ve yet to experience it
When we went on
our Disney cruise in November 2016 they offered cruisers a promo that if you
put down a deposit on a future cruise (must be taken within two years) that you
get 10% off said cruise, reduced deposit requirements, and additional onboard
credits. We put down the deposit,
it was 100% refundable so there was zero risk involved and would give us the
option to cruise on Disney again if we wanted to. The cruises available at that time were too expensive so we
decided we’d wait until the itineraries for 2018 were released and see if we
could find something tempting and reasonably priced. We were in Mexico (Feb 2017) when the 2018 itineraries were
released and when we looked at the European cruises we found we were much more
interested in cruising northern Europe than the Mediterranean as I had imagined. Justin and I have been to many of the
ports in the Mediterranean and were excited about seeing some new
countries. We were also considering
a Southern Caribbean cruise, but to our surprise Europe was cheaper and much
more unique. So we booked our
family on a Northern Europe cruise – again, the deposit was fully refundable up
until 120 days before departure so we had plenty of time to see if we could
make this trip work. Our goal was
to get all of our airfare covered with points. By October we’d accumulated enough Delta points to cover our
flights TO Europe and enough credit card points to cover our flights HOME from
Europe. $78.20 TOTAL to fly our
family of SEVEN to AND from Europe!
Once those flights were booked with nonrefundable points we were finally
set for an amazing vacation. We
only had to wait NINE more months!
Never have we ever planned a trip this far in advance. If you recall we didn’t tell the kids
about it until Easter.
Planning this
vacation was a bit overwhelming.
We couldn’t get all of us over there and not see as much as we could
see. When in Europe you are so
close to so many amazing places that deciding where else we would travel was a
bit tricky. It was tough to accept
that we wouldn’t be able to see it all and that realistically we would only be
able to tack on a few additional countries to our trip. Abigail had mentioned several times
that she really wanted to visit Paris someday so that was at the top of our
list. London also seemed a must do
and Justin and I had only had one day in London when we traveled to Europe before having
kids. Justin felt limited with how
much time he could take off and I didn’t really see Paris as something the
younger kids would find super fascinating (Justin and I had already been to
Paris) so we decided that Abigail, Carly and I would travel to Paris a few days
early and then meet Justin and the three youngest in London.
We would be
visiting eight different countries.
Finding places to stay that accommodate a family of seven is a
challenge, as is arranging getting a family of seven around. Then there is SO much to see and
do. We researched each of the
cities we’d be visiting and had a general idea of what we would do, but going
into the trip I wasn’t nearly as prepared and organized as I typically would
like to be. As unsettling as that
was for I couldn’t allow myself to stress about the details too much. It was too overwhelming to think
about. Not sure if that makes any
sense.
Abigail and Carly
were at girls’ camp the week before we left. They got home on Saturday
afternoon (July 28) and we left for Paris the very next day.
When we got to the
airport we checked in at the self-help kiosks and were asked if we would be
interested in being bumped to a different flight in exchange for a gift card. I
selected yes cause I figured it wouldn't hurt to see if we could make a little
money in exchange for a few hours. When asked, I put a high compensation amount
of $500 cause it would have to be a sweet deal for us to sacrifice time in
Paris. When we went up to that Delta desk to drop off our bags the guy asked us
if we wanted to switch to a direct flight instead. We were originally booked
with a short layover in Amsterdam. The direct flight would leave Seattle at the
same time, but get us to Paris three hours earlier. Yes, please! On top of that
he also upgraded us to comfort+ class. Sweet deal, especially considering we
hadn’t paid for the flights in the first place.
I have free
airport lounge access through one of my credit cards and had yet to use
it. When I saw there was a lounge
right across from our departure gate I decided to check it out. It was STOCKED with grab-n-go chips,
drinks, cookies, granola bars, etc… too bad my backpack was already pretty
full. I enjoyed a little snack of
fresh foods and gathered a few goodies for us to enjoy on the plane.
sitting in style
while the girls waited below at the gate
Anyhow, now on a
comfy direct flight we settled in for our long flight.
The girls watched
several movies and slept a bit here and there. I only watched Notting Hill and
then tried unsuccessfully to get some sleep. Our flight left Seattle at 1:30pm
so I wasn't feeling tired enough to sleep. We arrived in Paris around 7:30am (10:30pm in Seattle).
