A cold christmas was requested.....

[cxthomps]

So .... inspired by ADLhighflyer's thread I thought I would add my own recent RTW trip photos and experiences.

14 months prior my wife asked me if we could have a cold christmas for once (over 10 years now in OZ, originally from the UK). I started planning and started booking as soon as flights became available (so just under 12 months out, airline dependent). After much change fees I ended up with the following itinerary's -

Wife / Daughter - mostly Star Alliance - 13th Dec to 16th Jan
SYD to SIN to LHR (RTW J)
LHR to CDG (Avios J)
CDG to OSL to TOS - (paid Y)
TOS to OSL (paid Y)
OSL to LHR to YYZ (RTW J)
YYZ to ORD (paid J)
ORD - HND (RTW J)
HND - SYD (RTW J)



Myself / Son - mostly One World - 16th Dec to 16th Jan
SYD to HKG to LHR (RTW J)
LHR to CDG (Avios J)
CDG to OSL to TOS - (paid Y)
TOS to OSL (paid Y)
OSL to LHR to YYZ (RTW J)
YYZ to ORD (paid J)
ORD to NRT (RTW J)
NRT to MEL to SYD (RTW J)

By now you are probably wondering why the separate itineraries, I simply did not have enough points on either alliance for 4 x RTW in J and I also wasn't sure I could even get 4 seats in J on the flights over christmas and new year anyway. This certainly made the planning that much more difficult as I tried to make sure we took off and landed as close together as possible.

The itinerary was based around the following

London (sightseeing and then family)
Paris (Eiffel Tower etc)
Tromso (Northern Lights and New Years)
Torronto (Niagra Falls etc)
Chicago (stopover due to flights really)
Tokyo (city then skiing)

More to come in later posts. BTW despite 100's of flights over the last 40 years I actually really dislike flying so this won't be much of a trip report on the flights but more on the destinations. However given the number of different airlines we flew I will try and include some commentary and opinion on the various J products.

 

[VPS]

Subscribed. With the weather forecast in Adelaide this week I think I'm planning a northern hemisphere vacation next summer

 

[cxthomps]

Country #1 - UK

I spoke to my wife after her Singapore Air flights to the UK, she was very impressed with the Singapore J hard product and service on board. My daughter loved the space but struggled with the food in J. The 2 middle seats works well once you are on the plane, but a bit of a pain stowing and unstowing when you are traveling with a 10 year old. She said that the transfer at Singapore was a real rush, the 50 minute gap between arriving and departing had reduced to 25 minutes due to a late arrival. Then they sat on the plane for a further 30 minutes before taking off late. I have included a photo of the snow in the UK they arrived to, wow.

My Cathay flight was also good, personally I found the herringbone a little narrow and unpleasant (a little claustrophobic) to lie fully flat but my son snored through most of the 2nd leg to London. Special mention for the food and service on board, absolutely fantastic. At Hong Kong we had an hour to kill so tried out The Wing near our gate, I forgot to mention that my son is ultra nervous over everything so the thought of trying a lounge further away wasn't going to happen without much more time. The Wing was nice enough, we sat up by the bar and re-fuelled.

 

[cxthomps]

Country #1 - UK (cont'd)

We landed early Sunday morning in a cold and wet London and made my way to our hotel for the next few days, The Conrad St James. Heathrow Express was easy enough to Paddington, but we really should have just jumped in a taxi at this point, rather than navigating the tube with luggage.

I booked this hotel for a number of reasons, location is excellent, but mainly because I have the Hilton Diamond free from my VA Platinum. We turned up very early at the hotel and took advantage of the executive lounge for breakfast, our rooms were available around 1pm. I had booked interconnecting rooms so no suite upgrade but the rooms were fantastic and pretty spacious for London. I forgot to take a picture of the room but the hotel images on the web were 100% accurate of what we received.

The snow had completely gone and a grey and a wet day replaced it. My wife met up with us at the hotel and we headed out, as much to keep going through the tiredness but also not to miss the opportunity of a less busy London on a Sunday before christmas. We walked the 5 minutes to Westminster Abbey and around parliament square to Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. Given the weather we headed to the London eye, the picture is a view back to the Big Ben (in scaffolding) and the Houses of Parliament to the left. We visited the Queen in the afternoon and after a good pub meal at the hotel we crashed.

We spent the next 2 days exploring London, so much to see and do. I bought Oyster cards for the kids and my wife and I used our credit cards to use the tube to get around. We spent most of a day at the Natural History museum and and Science Museum, and an evening enjoying the thrills at Hyde Park Winterland. Looking back we really should have spent more time in London but it was very busy the week before christmas and we really needed to get going to see family.

 

[DC3]

A (guaranteed) White Christmas has been on my bucket list. Snow with Christmas lights, log fires, etc. The things that I don’t get at home. And far enough north (Canada, USA mountain country, Northern Europe).

I hope that your trip was all that you had hoped for.

 

[cxthomps]

Country #1 - UK (cont'd)

A few final pics from the hotel (The Barns Hotel Bedford) we stayed at over christmas whilst we visited family nearby. Lovely building, great grounds and surroundings, nice people, pretty poor rooms and terrible food. I think that sums up the UK for me. Weather didn't improve much the whole time we were there, sad that I kind of miss it.

Day after Boxing day and we head to Heathrow and off to Paris, snowed all the way to the airport.

@DC3 The trip was everything we hoped for and much more, 12 months+ in the planning

 

[ADLhighflyer]

Subscribed! Glad I could inspire you

 

[cxthomps]

Country #2 - France (Paris)

I was going to start this with a blast at British Airways for the worst J product I have ever flown on (Y seating/food with an empty middle seat), but maybe this is just how lucky we are in Australia with the J products on QF and VA. I decided on an Avios redemption really for the lounge and luggage allowance anyway.

Paris has got to be my least favorite city in the world. In my early 20's I lived there for 6 months for work and I was amazed by the architecture and the good food, whilst constantly disappointed by the attitude of the people and the feeling of being unsafe at night, even in tourist areas. My views haven't changed but at least my wife has now been to Paris and the Eiffel Tower so another ticked off the list. Check out my photo when we got totally ripped off by a restaurant bill At least it wasn't raining....

As we were only in Paris for a couple of days we took one of the open top bus tour's. This was a really great way of seeing some of Paris, although it was really cold up top.

Top tip if you go to Paris... book the Eiffel Tower in advance, we did thank god because the queues were really bad

 

[cxthomps]

Country #3 - Norway (Tromso)

An early start on an Air France Y to Oslo, a couple of hours in Oslo airport then an SAS Y to Tromso. This was a pretty painful journey as we battled with different airlines self service and bag drop systems, not so easy with full luggage close to weight limit. Collecting bags in Oslo and then checking them back in didn't help, can't remember why we didn't do SAS all the way.

Have to praise Oslo airport though, well laid out and really good food options by the gates. Boarding was a bit of a scrum but we were on our way to the top of Norway. We booked at the Clarion The Edge Hotel in a Junior Suite and connecting room for the in laws that would be joining us from the UK. The first pictures is the view from the room, pretty good. @ADLhighflyer I think your cruise ship docked pretty much outside our hotel.

The first evening we kept to the town and the search for food and warmth. Tomorrow is chasing the lights .....

 

[Deleted member]

I’m intrigued. Tell us about the restaurant bill.

Country #2 - France (Paris)

I was going to start this with a blast at British Airways for the worst J product I have ever flown on (Y seating/food with an empty middle seat), but maybe this is just how lucky we are in Australia with the J products on QF and VA. I decided on an Avios redemption really for the lounge and luggage allowance anyway.

Paris has got to be my least favorite city in the world. In my early 20's I lived there for 6 months for work and I was amazed by the architecture and the good food, whilst constantly disappointed by the attitude of the people and the feeling of being unsafe at night, even in tourist areas. My views haven't changed but at least my wife has now been to Paris and the Eiffel Tower so another ticked off the list. Check out my photo when we got totally ripped off by a restaurant bill At least it wasn't raining....

 

[cxthomps]

I’m intrigued. Tell us about the restaurant bill.

Overall the bill came in about 40% higher than the prices listed in the menu. When I queried I managed to work out - additional charge due to the time of day (busy setting time !), additional charge due to a holiday period, mandatory service charge, additional charge because one of my children did not order enough to meet a minimum charge per person. All of which was apparently listed on the French version of the menu but not on the English version. Oh and they tried to not give me my change when I paid in cash, turning away and trying to ignore me until I raised my voice enough.
Personally I was prepared to go full out and argue but my wife has suffered this before (her words) and requested (in her own way) that I suck this one up.

 

[cxthomps]

Country #3 - Norway (Tromso) cont'd

The next day we were met by our private guide from Greenlander at around 5:30pm to 'chase the lights'. I had booked it a few months earlier after reviewing the various tour companies, knowing I did not want to end up in a bus for a few hours. The trip was fantastic, from the knowledgeable guide to hurtling on icy roads into the darkness to god knows where. After a couple of false starts we arrived in an area where the cloud cover broke and got lucky. We were back just after midnight, feeling very privileged and after speaking to many people who did not get to see it that evening, very lucky.

In hindsight I probably shouldn't have only planned for the 1 night to chase the lights, but fortunately it worked out.

 

[Deleted member]

Overall the bill came in about 40% higher than the prices listed in the menu. When I queried I managed to work out - additional charge due to the time of day (busy setting time !), additional charge due to a holiday period, mandatory service charge, additional charge because one of my children did not order enough to meet a minimum charge per person. All of which was apparently listed on the French version of the menu but not on the English version. Oh and they tried to not give me my change when I paid in cash, turning away and trying to ignore me until I raised my voice enough.
Personally I was prepared to go full out and argue but my wife has suffered this before (her words) and requested (in her own way) that I suck this one up.

Good to know. I may need to learn French before I next visit Paris.

 

[ADLhighflyer]

Wow! Truly awesome pictures of the lights!

 

[LadyC]

Those Northern Lights photos are great!

 

[cxthomps]

We were at that spot watching the lights dance for nearly 40 minutes. Between us we took over 200 photos with about 40 that good. Our guide was really surprised as we had a 90% moon but the clouds worked in our favor to hide the moon in one direction and open up in the other.

Edit: I really like this one, it came towards the end of the night, sort of looks like the bat signal going out to me.

 

[tgh]

Awesome stuff.. more more….

 

[cxthomps]

A few more Northern Lights before we move on ...

 

[cxthomps]

Country #4 - Canada (Toronto)

After a short SAS flight to Oslo, a night at the hotel and another poor BA J flight to London we checked in for Toronto. My wife/Daughter definitely had the better of the flights, travelling on an Air Canada 787-9. My son and I were on a BA 777 which was 2-4-2 in J. Now I seem to remember flying in this configuration with BA some 14 years ago, quite frankly it was poor then. At the start of the flight the attendant clicked open my screen to watch the safety announcement, unfortunately she lost her footing and had to grab the screen from falling onto me. My son's side wall bowed outwards by a clear 2 inches as the plastic nearly gave way, it would have been funny if it wasn't bad. To be fair though the food was okay and the attendants provided a very good service, for me it was just the hard product.

Sorry BA but worst J class in Club Europe and worst J class product in Club World.

Arriving in Toronto it was -10 C and cloudy. I had booked an Airbnb apartment near the baseball stadium so it was a nice change to have a couple of bedrooms, a kitchen and the chance to get some washing done for clean clothes As an added bonus we were not far from Fat cough Burrito Company, Eat Big or Go Home.

Niagra Falls tomorrow ...

 

[amaroo]

Cracking photos. We had the best time in Tromsø - I think it's the best location to see the lights. Having also seen them in Canada.