We just got home from a two-week trip with stays in Lisbon, Paris and Nice. Despite all the reports of problems with delays and lost luggage, we got lucky with hardly any trouble in those areas. I wanted to say thanks to everyone who posted their tips. They were immensely helpful including:
Using Google Fi for phone service. I had a spare phone (Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra) and signed up before we left. Google Fi worked flawlessly in Portugal and France, even some fairly rural areas. It was very helpful to just turn on the phone and have service within minutes. One less thing to worry about! We used the Fi phone as the number for all our bookings, just in case. It was also very convenient to use the hotspot service which performed much better than the hotel wifi in most cases. We were able to use Uber and Google Translate in both countries easily.
Getting laundry packets and dry bags. In a pinch, we did some laundry in the hotel room. We got lucky with a couple rooms that had balconies to hang the clothes. We were able to stay out late at the beaches in Nice and washed our bathing suits without having to find a laundromat.
This might be helpful for other people, but I didn't realize that wifi calling on our Android phones gives you a way to call/text with as if we had never left the States. By connecting to the Google Fi phone's hotspot, we could call and text to friends and family back home with our "regular" phones. This was an unexpected but nice surprise. It doesn't appear to be a feature on all Samsung phones (my S22 Ultra and my wife's S20 FE phone have it but our daughter's Galaxy A52s didn't) so that might be something to check for when making your next phone purchase.
The only issue I ran into was the power adapter, which worked fine for phone chargers and my laptop, didn't like my Wahl hair trimmer. Even adjusting the trimmer power screw, it sounded like a buzzsaw. I shave my head every few days. I told my wife I'd visit a barber if she found my appearance intolerable but she was fine with the shaggier look. I ended up getting a Wahl cordless/rechargeable clipper once we got home.
We're already planning our trip to the UK next year. Thank you!