UNO Pre Challenge Chat

[Nanci]

Lisa,
I love your suggestion of booking an exit row! That would so be worth the money on that long flight. I do agree that your state of mind has a lot to do with having an ok long flight. The good thing is I'll have plenty of time to read! I've got a back up charger for my iPad, so hope it makes it.

We are flying Virgin Australia from LA-Melbourne. I've heard Qantas is amazing.
Thanks for all your great ideas!

[Karen ⊰✿, Avaricious Reader]

Lisa - I preferred using Amtrak than the buses. This was when I lived in Canada (17 years ago eeek!) so things may have changed. But he trains were clean and fast and you can get up and walk around and there are food options. On the bus you are kind of stuck in one spot and I found it much more uncomfortable

[Nanci]

Well Lisa, exit rows have increased quite a bit. They're now $179AUD! I am so glad you told me to check the seat guru site though. We have the very worse seats on the plane for that LAX to Melbourne flight! We're the very last row back at the restrooms and the seats won't recline. Yikes! I'm wondering what we did wrong that our travel agent booked those seats. ;0 Hopefully she can change them. The airlines wasn't very helpful and couldn't confirm new seats. We also have awful seats on a few other long flights in country and to NZ. We've had these paid for and booked since summer. Sure hope we can get something decent at this late date.

[Nanci]

Lisa, I would recommend our train system over Greyhound too. Our college students have taken the bus a few times, but some of the people on the bus are a bit shady and sometimes the train is even cheaper and yes, faster. We just don't have great mass transit in the US. Really behind the times compared to Europe.

[Lisa - (Aussie Girl)]

That was Karen's very good suggestion about seat guru. That's a shame about those seats, a travel agent should have been able to do better for you. Maybe check back with them, and see if there is anything they can do. Anyway, once you get here I'm sure you'll have a fantastic time.

I did look at trains but there is no direct train between Montreal and Boston. We would have to go via NY state and change and it makes it quite long and we only have limited time. Thanks for the suggestions, I'll keep planning. It's half the fun of travelling.

[Karen ⊰✿, Avaricious Reader]

Nanci wrote: "Well Lisa, exit rows have increased quite a bit. They're now $179AUD! I am so glad you told me to check the seat guru site though. We have the very worse seats on the plane for that LAX to Melbourn..."

Hopefully you can those seats changed! If not, at least you know what you're in for. Or Hopefully the flight won't be full and you can get them changed at check-in

[Nanci]

Sorry about the mix up, Lisa and Karen! I’ll let you know what happens.

Lisa, we used to live in Hanover, New Hampshire and travel to Montreal often. It’s about 2 hours by car and then another 2 hours to Boston, so it would be about 4 hours total to drive. I used to take the train out of White River Junction, VT (about a 20 min drive) from Hanover down to Boston. I think that train continued on to Montreal.

[Victoria]

Lisa - (Aussie Girl) wrote: "That was Karen's very good suggestion about seat guru. That's a shame about those seats, a travel agent should have been able to do better for you. Maybe check back with them, and see if there is a..."

Have you looked into using Megabus? I’ve never taken it before, but my brother has and he’s always had good things to say about it-making it sound like a cheaper, cleaner bus system than the Greyhound.

[Daphne]

We do lots of long flights with our travel.

Here are my tips:

1. Don't feel compelled to eat the airline food. It's pretty nasty, and rather unhealthy. You can bring your own food, and at the end of the day, you will get off your flight feeling way better physically and ready to go.

2. Audiobooks are amazing for long flights. With a good eyemask, you can really fall into the world you are in within your book. Graphic audios are some of the best I've found for long flights. The sound effects and multiple voices really work well for flights.

3. Tomato juice is awesome. Your taste buds react differently at that altitude, and for whatever reason, the best thing I've ever had on a flight is iced tomato juice. It's just so refreshing. Ask for the whole can - don't just have them fill up your cup.

4. Try to get seats at the back of the plane. They fill up front to back, so if your flight isn't full - you are most likely to be able to move your seat before takeoff and after every is boarded, and you very well may end up with an extra seat or two. Heck, on our flight from Vietnam to US last year - my mom ended up with FOUR entire seats to herself, and my brother and I split 4 seats between the two of us. It was bliss. We manage to get extra seats that way about 50% of the time on long flights.

5. Consider adding a day or two layover on your long flights. Check out google flights - find a cheap 2-3 stop trip, and then decide if you'd like to explore one of those cities for a day or two, and then adjust your flights like that. You can squeeze in a whole mini vacation or two that way. It's pretty awesome. :)

[Nanci]

I just love the GR community! Not only are we all bookies, but so caring too!
Daphne, thank you so much for your awesome tips! For #1, I agree! I always travel with almonds and an apple to make sure I have decent snack food. I've been known to take my own PB&J sandwich before too. :) For #2, I don't usually have the patience for audiobooks, but I think on a long trip, that's a great idea and I hadn't thought about it. I've got my iPad chockfull of books, so I'll add a few audio books. Smart idea! #3, great minds think alike. I do the same as you...love iced tomato juice! #4. I didn't know that's how they fill up the plane. We were able to get our international awful seats (which were the very last row and non-reclining) moved up a few rows, so fingers crossed there will be a few empty seats around us. #5. We can't do that this time as our itinerary is firm and our flight from LAX to Melbourne is nonstop, but I am definitely going to do that in the future. What a great way to see extra places!
Thanks again for taking the time to respond.

[Daphne]

I'm glad I could maybe help just a tad Nanci! I don't have patience for audiobooks on normal speed either. I read way too fast. I use an audiobook player called Smart Audiobook Player that allows you adjust your speeds in 0.10% increments. My average listening speed is 150% the normal speed. Sometimes even higher for very slow speakers.

[Karen ⊰✿, Avaricious Reader]

Nanci wrote: "I just love the GR community! Not only are we all bookies, but so caring too!
Daphne, thank you so much for your awesome tips! For #1, I agree! I always travel with almonds and an apple to make su..."

exciting!
side note is that Australia has very strong quarantine rules and allow no fresh or dried food into the country (plus other things like untreated wood). You can have packaged things, but apples or almonds etc. you will need to eat or throw out before hand
It is something we joke about that most countries scan bags for drugs whereas we scan them for food... lol

[Nanci]

Daphne wrote: "I'm glad I could maybe help just a tad Nanci! I don't have patience for audiobooks on normal speed either. I read way too fast. I use an audiobook player called Smart Audiobook Player that allows y..."

The few times I have listened to a book, I am also able to increase the speed. I also listen at 1 1/2 times. I've tried 2X the speed, but that is too quick for my brain!

[Nanci]

Karen ⊰✿ wrote: "Nanci wrote: "I just love the GR community! Not only are we all bookies, but so caring too!
Daphne, thank you so much for your awesome tips! For #1, I agree! I always travel with almonds and an ap..."

We just read that the other day, but didn't know if it was true. Good to know. I'll share with hungry passengers, if I have any left. My husband usually does a pretty good job of eating his share and more!

[Lisa - (Aussie Girl)]

It's very true. My best friend works for Quarantine and there is absolutely no leeway in bringing foods, woods, seeds, etc into Australia. And that's before they even check for the illegal stuff!!

That's why I love Goodreads too. All the nice people hang out here, it's great talking to people all over the world.

[Victoria]

Nanci wrote: "Daphne wrote: "I'm glad I could maybe help just a tad Nanci! I don't have patience for audiobooks on normal speed either. I read way too fast. I use an audiobook player called Smart Audiobook Playe..."

I also really like speeding up my audio books, but ususlaly only to 1.25x or maybe 1.5 depending on the book. I think the only book I was successfully able to listen to a book at 2x the speed was Stephen Kings IT (and that still took me several months to finish it was so long!)

[Nanci]

Lisa - (Aussie Girl) wrote: "It's very true. My best friend works for Quarantine and there is absolutely no leeway in bringing foods, woods, seeds, etc into Australia. And that's before they even check for the illegal stuff!!
..."

Lol!!!

[Barbara]

I totally forgot to apply for this challenge!
Hope I'll get in ):

[☼♎ Carmen the Bootyshaker Temptress ☼♎]

Hi Mods. I am having a problem with page count for 4-Minute Fit: The Weight Loss Solution for the Time-Crunched, Deskbound, and Stressed Out Is it a problem if I use it to the challenge since it doesn't have a page count?

[Nanci]

Daphne, Karen, and Lisa,
Just wanted to pop in and say thanks again so much for your assistance with our trip. We had the most fabulous time and absolutely loved, loved, loved Australia and New Zealand! If you haven't been to Kangaroo Island and you like nature, I highly recommend it. We were within touching distance of a koala in a tree and mesmerized by him for quite a bit. Hiking the Tongariro Alpine Trail in NZ was also impressive.

Our flights were not bad at all. Now a 4 hour flight seems like a piece of cake! We did get a few flights with seats at the back and I was able to stretch out across 3 seats on a 6 hour flight...heaven!

Of course we didn't get to see everything, but that's always a good reason for a return trip someday. Meanwhile, we will treasure the memories we made and the amazing experiences and gorgeous landscapes of your countries!

[Christina]

I wonder if there's another uno this year?? I've been checking regularly the last couple of days, but no new thread yet...

[Annika]

There will be a new uno this year. We are in full swing planning it. New threads and sign-ups will be posted soo. :)

[Christina]

Awesome! Let me know if you need anything :)

[Annika]

Will do, thanks for offering.

[Nanci]

Yay!! I think UNO is my favorite challenge of all! Can't wait!

[Annika]

We are so happy you think that ;)

[Jammin Jenny]

I love the UNO challenge!

[Annika]

It seems that you are antsy to get started!

So head on over to the Pre.challenge chat of the year and talk about all things books and uno! :)

[Colleen]

I was just thinking about the Uno challenge also! My favorite - so excited!