It is so unusual to read this post two years after the start of the pandemic. Interesting things are happening in our world.
Now I am vaccinated and I can fly wherever I want, if only the country itself would allow 
If earlier the coronavirus stopped me, now more of it is ignorance of some cultural moments, languages, etc.
My traveling sis leaves next month got Chicago, Indianapolis and Spain& Portugal. She will be gone 3 weeks. My older sis and so will end up picking up her caregiving for mom as always. 
It’s a LONG way to Key West!
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Things like cruises, in the “before times” (heard a Jeopardy contestant use that phrase and have adopted it!) were often booked a year or more in advance. I wonder if moving forward we will see a change where people book and travel more at the last minute?
Who the heck knows what the world and its ills will look like a year from now, but we can guess more accurately a few months ahead. Those who have had to re-schedule cruises and guided tours 2 or 3 times may get tired of that.
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We have had multiple cruises canceled since Spring 2020. Some by the cruise line and some by us. The most recent was an Alaskan cruise planned for this summer. When we got to the payment due date 120 days before the cruise, we decided we weren’t comfortable putting that much money at risk. We are doing a land-based trip to Colorado instead.
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Since I haven’t heard from my parents since they were supposed to board, I assume their ship took off as scheduled. They are beginning the first of 3 long adventures this year. This one is 45 days, another 36 days and then final one 60 days. This one involves sailing to Europe, 2 more cruises, interspersed by a flight or two and somehow winding up in Iceland and then flying back to the US to a different city where they started. I suppose they rented a car. I didn’t ask. They somehow managed to schedule and keep track of everything they had to do including multiple changes and cancellations - originally they were going to the Baltic Sea at some point.
They are the ones who almost completely isolated here at home for 18 months until that sailing cruise. That got them going again. now they are packing two (or more!) years of traveling into one. They know it can be changed at any time and they are ok with that. They are in great shape to be able to do this at their age, but they are realistic in that they don’t know how much longer they could do this. My dad has already outlived all the known male relatives on his side of the family.
I really hope it all goes well for them. They got some deal to be on an exclusive deck of the ship. They can have their own butler serve them four course dinners in their fancy rooms. I was teasing them “do they know you shop at Walmart?” My mom laughed saying she didn’t think she owned anything more expensive than $50 in their suitcase. I hope they enjoy the pampering!
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Attention visitors to Venice: tourists will be charged entrance fees soon.
Attention visitors to Oahu and other Hawaiian islands: you will need to make reservations to hike up the Diamond Head and to visit several other places.
I suspect this new “visitors’ fee” trend will take off soon.
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The fee doesn’t bother me, but the reservations can be a hassle and added stress. For example, the reservations for Pearl Harbor 24 hours before go within a minute. You have to be really fast. Glad we hiked to the summit of Diamond Head last month before this change. I don’t necessarily disagree with the changes, but when I’m planning in the future I may just take the path of least resistance and avoid things that require reservations.
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It’s like the reservation system for Going to the Sun Road in Glacier. A complete hassle.
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Agree. Yes, it will be a hassle. We hiked the Diamond Head a couple of times in the past. OTOH, hiking up that narrow trail is no fun when one constantly has to stop to let the downhill traffic pass by.
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The Dole Whip at the bottom of Diamond Head is a nice reward after your hike.
I think I posted this before, but you also have to make reservations to do sunrise at Haleakala, and to get to some places on the Napali Coast in Hawaii. We were bummed when we found out about Napali (too late to get them for us).
The Haleakala sunrise has been by reservations only for quite a while, I believe. We camped in the park to be able to do this, but the sunrise that morning was a total bust. 
Camping was fine though. Some serious hikes like the Kalalau required permits (I was able to get ours 3 months prior to hiking).
We hiked the Awa’awapuhi Trail in the Waimea Canyon area of Kauai last year and it takes you down to some spectacular cliffs on the Napali coast. It was 3 miles out and back, so a 6 mile round trip. Footing can be tricky in spots. When we got to the end with the payoff view there were helicopters coming into the canyon in front of us and they looked like specks against the massive cliffs. Could also see tour boats down in the water. A challenging, but doable hike. In case you (or someone else reading this) misses out on the Haena State Park reservations, this could be a trail to try.
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We just got back from St. John (USVI) and, aside from some serious white-knuckle driving on the wrong side of the road, the trip went off without a hitch until we tried getting through customs in St. Thomas on our way home – they confiscated our pasta salad, which we had planned on eating for lunch to save a few bucks, because it had ham in it.
I thought about holding up the line for a couple minutes to explain to her that it was Oscar Meyer ham, processed and packaged in the good ol’ USA, and not some roadkill ham from the islands. But I figured, meh, not worth the angry stares. So, stubbornly, we starved until we got the Biscoff gingerbread cookies on the plane.
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You have to make reservations to go up Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park now. I can see why, but it’s a pain. The weather is so unpredictable that you risk reserving a time when everything is socked in and you have no views.
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We just did that hike in March, I believe. We did not to the very last little bit, where if you fell either way it would be a very, very long fall.
Great view at the end for sure.
Funny how that works. I once had to go through the “bad people” line when coming back to the US from the Caribbean, because I failed to eat an apple before we landed and had it in my backpack. Oops.
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I got stopped by the TSA in Honolulu once because I forgot that I had a handful of Costco grapes in my bag. The grapes came from the mainland and would have been going back there with me, but rules are rules.
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Several places in Colorado also require advanced reservations including Rocky Mountain National Park and driving up Pikes Peak.