Welcome to my next trip report series, covering a trip that I just wrapped up, which will include reviews of flights, hotels, and even a cruise.
Are you going to publish the report of Malaysia Airlines' A330neo business class / Hong Kong Airlines business class anytime soon? Have been looking forward to that one 🙂
@ Alvin | YTHK -- You have great memory! That's the review so far this year that has slipped through the cracks. My hope is to publish this review, and then once that's complete, publish the one you're referring to, ahead of the additional travel I have planned. That should be possible if I keep a decent pace. Thanks for the interest!
Cruise ships do not go to Turkmenistan .
Once you are done with the high end cruise lines you should explore the other end of the spectrum and fly on Allegient and take a Carnival Cruise and compare with Ryanair or Easyjet and Aida or Costa.
I once took a Carnival cruise myself and survived.
More seriously, I am not fancy enough for those type of cruises but you do you.
A Balcony on NCL is close enough and if I was feeling snooty, a Haven suite. Fancy enough, but can still go to the regular buffet and get mass quantities of American, Philippine, Chinese or Indian food if I want and not have to dress up or anything.
@ u600213 -- Hey, I've been enjoying cruises, and my plan is to eventually try a wide variety of them, so I appreciate the idea. 🙂
I’m really looking forward to the reviews of the Airelles, the Four Seasons Yacht and the hotel in Diriyah. I think Diriyah is one of the coolest and most interesting projects around at the moment. The pipeline of hotels there is breathtaking.
@ Tim600 -- It's indeed quite the project. I couldn't believe that the Marriott Luxury Collection was the first to open, and that there are literally dozens of additional hotels on the way.
insane routing- youre the GOAT for a reason.
curious how the mechanics work when your friend spent 110k LH miles for you on the return- did you pay him back in cash? was there an expectation that you'll book a different trip for him in the future? just a freebie?
I'm super curious about how people handle the topic of booking points trips for friends because there's so many different ways to handle it. Personally I've paid for some friends tickets and I purely position it as a freebie with zero expectation of payback because its too complicated trying to figure out a joint value for the points that everyone agrees upon
That map really is *insane* and Ben very much is the GOAT for his itineraries and reviews. (Matthew at LALF comes pretty close with his itineraries, too.)
@ Funkyflapjak -- Thanks, and that's a great question! 🙂 If you'd like to send me an email I'm happy to talk more about it, but I'd rather not talk too much about it publicly. I will say (truthfully) there was zero bartering, or buying of selling of miles, involved, and we completely followed the rules. But still, I'm not sure it makes sense to publicly draw attention to these things. 🙂
Could you share thoughts on Riyadh? I went there in 2019 and was utterly disappointed and underwhelmed, but at the time it was basically one big constructions site with a few malls spread around. I stayed at the Hyatt Regency.
I'd be curious to see if things are changing. It seems that KSA wants it to be a place people actually want to go.
@ Jerry -- There was definitely still a ton of construction going on, so I imagine it hasn't changed that much. To be honest, my time was fairly limited, as I spent much of the first day with a local friend, and then on the second day I enjoyed the hotel and the Diriyah area.
I will say what pleasantly surprised me the most was the people. Here in the west, we have a certain impression of what Saudi Arabians are like, and everyone was much more hospitable and open that I was expecting. I'm not here to do PR for the country, I found a warmth that shocked me, in a positive way. Maybe it's a good topic for another post...
Sad to not get a review of the United Club in Austin from your Lufty trip !
My God you must have been exhausted!
@Ben Schlappig It's interesting that as to future cruises you include Explora in addition to other luxury/ultra luxury cruise lines as it definitely doesn't fit in that category. Indeed while offering a just below luxury experience at a lower price point, Explora, particularly when at capacity, would generally be considered a step below Regent Seven Seas Cruises, Seabourn and Silversea.
That flight map looks insane!! Also, hope your FS Yacht experience was better than Ryan Walker's (I hope I didn't open a can of worms). Excited to read the reviews!
All that to-and-fro makes me anxious, and there are far too many transits at Frankfurt for my liking. Zero transfers at Frankfurt is my preference.
At least the author has a German passport and has been to FRA many times. The combination of both makes it manageable but not necessarily enjoyable. Plus there is a brand new terminal 3 to review!
@Ben, where'd you stay in Zurich (if I'm reading this right you had a night there before a leisurely early afternoon departure)?
You mentioned how much you paid for flights, but not the hotels. Why not??
Looking forward to the details in future posts. I'm fairly comfortable, but I can't justify Ritz Carlton and Four Seasons cruises.
Is Aman at sea licensed or they are operated by Aman?
Last thing any customer wants is after 2hours drive to the port just to get gaslight, kicked out of the port and called the cops on. And a week of silence afterwards.
Very excited for all of these. I didn't realize you stayed at Villa Dubrovnik as well. I know it was only one night, but excited to hear your thoughts about it. I was there just before it reopened and did a hard hat tour and it looked beautiful.
How much did you pay for the Four Seasons Yacht??
How much did you pay for the cruise and with what points?