If you read the two previous posts, you know that we are planning to go on a River Cruise in Europe and then a tour of Japan in the fall. I can officially give you a ‘two thumbs up’ signal, as everything except traveling is completed.

For the AmaWaterways River cruise on the Danube, we received confirmation for the extra days in Budapest and completed the preliminary checklist with the purchase of travel insurance to cover those extra days.

We’re using a different insurance provider this trip called Faye. They’ve received good ratings and it is very straight-forward to get a quote and purchase. Hopefully we won’t need to use their services at all, but I’ll let you know what we think of them when we return.

For those who asked why we decided on AmaWaterways instead of the other tour companies, it really came down to a gut feeling.

We checked out a few YouTube videos to get a feel for what was being offered, read a few reviews from each of the main tour companies, looked at the excursions they each offered and then considered the available dates and prices. Based on that, we thought AmaWaterways was a good fit for us. As for who we looked at, we considered Viking, AmaWaterways, Uniworld, Avalon and Tauch.

We’re looking forward to going and it won’t be too long before we leave.

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As for Japan, we booked our flights this week and that was the last of the big items to be completed. Right after clicking the purchase button, the excitement sent a chill through us.

We were able to book direct flights on Air Canada from Toronto to Tokyo and then Tokyo to Toronto. We’ll be flying to and from Haneda Airport, which is the airport closest to the city.

The tour company took care of adding additional days at the hotels for us at the beginning and end of the tour and will provide us with transport to and from the airport. That will help tremendously, as we won’t be thrust into “Go Mode” as soon as we land.

We’re watching videos to try and learn about the etiquette and foods to try, along with trying to listen to pronunciation of some key words and phrases to help us along the way. By the time we leave, I might be reading Shakespeare in Japanese or shaking with fear trying to remember ‘please’ and ‘thank you’!

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So that’s the update. We’re done with the hard stuff and waiting for the fun stuff to begin.