Thursday, February 16, 2012

What did the US do to piss off India???


90 days to go until the cruise departs. BUT, I just realized, we will be leaving our house two weeks before that so we are now less than two and a half months from departure! It’s starting to feel real to me! I may have to actually start DOING things rather than just writing about doing them!

I’ve been reading Garry & Joanne’s blog and especially watching his videos to hype myself into the mood for the cruise. Yeah, I really have to hype myself to get in an excited mood for this adventure!

One of the things I had to actually get around to DOING was getting an Indian visa. So, I just spent over two hours dealing with said Indian visa. I swear they are doing their best to aggravate travelers to India so much that they will decide not to come (or is it “go”?—I’ve been reading my favorite editing blog!) to India. However, not going is not really an option as we HAVE to have an Indian visa even if we don’t get off the ship and of course we are getting off the ship. We are taking a tour (which I have organized so I hope it works out well!) with Mumbai Magic, a group that comes highly praised by previous cruisers.

Back to the visa, aside from the cost, which is about—assuming no complications—$313. There is a $63 charge for the services (mandatory) of the company (ZVS) we deal with (heaven forbid India should have to deal directly with us) plus a $79 charge for the issuing of the visa by India. There are other charges, such as the charge to have it overnighted (we could pick it up ourselves but by the time we drive to LA and back we’ve more than spent the amount of the overnight cost), and some unspecified charges if I have failed to copy everything I’m supposed to copy. All that because we will be in Mumbai for 10 hours. Let’s see, that’s $15.65/hour/person not including our tour.

Oh, well, I’ve promised myself not to get (too) exercised about things I have no control over.

The other tour I have organized is one (six people, max) out of Le Havre to the beaches of the Normandy invasion in 1944—I think it was 1944. Anyway, so far I have no takers; not surprising considering that only 5% of the passengers will be American and I’d guess that not too many Aussies have much interest in the World War II Allied beach landings.

There are about 10-12 other tours that have been organized by Cruise Critic members and Princess has just put out their list of what tours they are organizing. This will be the first time Randy and I have been on, let alone organized, a private tour. We’ve always done the ship’s tours. Stay tuned!

3 comments:

  1. pam you wont regret it LOL.... the only regret we used to have was having to do a princess tour....

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh Pam - that visa cost is amazing! You're right - someone must be annoyed! I'm about to take my application to the TA on Monday & they will courier it across. Just needed a money order for AUD$95 which also attracts an issuer fee (Australia Post) of $6.95. [Aside - no wonder email is so popular here - we have about the most expensive mail charges in the world!] But, asides aside - your arranged tour will be one of the greatest highlights of the cruise & we'll have the photos to prove it! Sorry about the lack of interest in "the beaches" - you'll see me glued to the balcony as we cruise ANZAC cove, but the European scene is a little distant to some of us. Enjoy your early start to great things with your time in Katoomba!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, Helen, we are looking forward to Mumbai, too! We'll have two vans of about 10 people each so that should be better than 20 or 22 all together. I like smaller groups! I'll let everyone know when our visas actually arrive in our hot little hands! We'll see if I did everything right. Big IF!

      Delete