Planning: Always double check

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Once I got over the shock of my wife offering to let me go to Egypt with Rick, the hard part began. I had to set up everything. Travel plans, flights, tour group, insurance and worst of all SHOTS. Lots of them, but I digress.
First things first are to choose a reliable and first class tour operator. I chose TRAFALGAR. My family and I have been on 4 or more Trafalgar tours and they were all perfect. We toured Italy, Spain and Portugal with Trafalgar and they are truly first class, but do not charge as much as many of the other operators.
I got online, chose the tour: Wonders of Ancient Egypt and made the call.
I spoke with an agent named Dave and he helped me through every step of the booking. He searched for every discount possible, including telling me that if I was a COSTCO member I could save an additional 20%. I thought that was thoughtful and a great savings so for $25 I joined Costco and saved $300 each on the cost of the tour.
We added the airfare on Egyptian Air (what else would I fly to Egypt) and $3100 later (each that is) we were booked and ready and it was only November! I gave him my credit card and three easy payments later we were all set.
Rick and I decided to fly into Cairo a day early so we could have some time on our own to explore the Bazaar (shopping), food, cafes (aka HOOKA bars) and see what the locals do for fun.
I booked our Hotel on Orbits, another good deal. It turns out that we have a hotel room overlooking the great pyramids and it is the SAME hotel from which the tour begins so we do not even have to change rooms to meet the tour. Fabulous, or so I thought!
Remember the helpful agent Dave? Well turns out he may not have been too helpful after all.
You see I booked everything with Dave, Tour airfare and insurance coverage. I gave him my credit card, which he promptly and correctly charged me for the airfare. The tour was to be charge in three easy payments.
Well in March I noticed that I was 6 weeks from the tour date and have never seen any paperwork or charges for the tour.
You see good old helpful Dave FORGOT TO BOOK THE TOUR. So here I am with two round trip tickets to Cairo and NO TOUR.
I called Trafalgar and confirmed my nightmare. Dave was not available but I spoke with the comely (I hope) Linda who assured me that she would do the best she could but, today is the last day to book this tour for that departure date and the tour is likely full!
Well, Linda was diligent and she opened the tour to Rick and me and fortunately after much time on the phone and an immediate full charging to my credit card to make sure we were fully booked, we were confirmed. The lesson here is FOLLOW UP to make sure the tour is booked and you get the paperwork 6 weeks in advance.
Well another trauma averted, we are booked and ready to go. Well almost. Immunization, the dreaded shots were yet to come!

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