Q – My family and I have been really upset by the article we read from CNN Travel which came out quite recently. It seems to say that river cruising is, for all practical purposes, over with. This article makes us think that our planned family cruise next August along the Seine River may be…
Q – In four weeks we are supposed to be off to Budapest to begin a Danube Cruise. The little I have read about this on some of the “boards” has me really scared and my husband and I want to cancel for a refund. Some of the “boarders” seem to suggest that Uniworld will…
Q – August 9, 2923 – We are looking for some straight answers about our upcoming, and rather expensive, Viking River Rhine Cruise. I have been on one of the cruise “boards” and it is sounding as though we may be in for a partial bus tour. My wife and I have just hung up…
Q- 8.6.22 – How can Viking Cruises claim it had consistently been voted the world’s best cruise line when, based on Cruisetruth information, it clearly isn’t? A – If you read the wording on the awards they will usually read Reader’s Choice” or words to that effect. That means the readers of the various publications…
Q – We are fairly well traveled – but mostly to Europe’s “Big Five” – London – Paris – Rome – Dublin – Venice. Now, we want to cruise areas of Europe that are beautiful and a bit off the beaten track from the cities we’ve seen. Any suggestions would be appreciated. A – There…
Q – I’ll be honest – what concerns us most about possibly taking our first cruise on a line like Sea Dream or Windstar, is the possibility that we might be seated with a bunch of “Lefties” from one of the “Sanctuary Cities” etc. I just don’t want to hear “woke” mutterings for an entire…
Q – Really enjoy this ad-free site. Congratulations. I am a Minister in Michigan who is slowly retiring. I’ve long thought about how much I would enjoy performing Sunday services aboard a cruise ship in exchange for free or reduced-rate passage. The problem is that I don’t know who to contact to set up, this…
Q – Is it literally true, and legal, that if we go ahead and take a Great Lakes cruise on Viking Cruises that they will not allow our teenage kids to go with us? I am thinking this could be a great family vacation but if Viking really hates kids, I don’t want anything to…
Q – 8-2.22 – We are sailing out of Venice this summer on a Ponant Yacht cruise that visits excellent ports in Italy’s north as well as Sicily. We can’t wait – but you have raised some concerns regarding Venice Airport and lost luggage and delays. I think we can handle all of that, but…
Q – 8.3.22 -We are planning on taking our three children on a cruise to South America. We are deluxe cruisers but for this trip we will be traveling with our seven-year-old son and our nine and eighteen-year-old daughters (it’s a long story). Just how high-end do you think we can go? We’re desperately trying…
Q – 8.2.22 -We are “foodies” in the sense that all of our prior vacations in Europe have been food oriented. We love Michelin’s and we love eating a sandwich in Barcelona’s La Boqueria food market. We’ve done many trips including three or four cooking schools in France and two memorable weeks exploring Moroccan cuisine…
Q – what do you think of the idea of bringing our 18-and-a-half-year-old extraordinary daughter on a Tauck Family Bridges Tour to Italy this coming August before she is off to Boston to start college? A – Strong opinion on this one – we would not book the family on a Tauck Bridges tour…
Q – I am thinking of joining the travel industry. Are there college classes I will need to take to get certified to offer travel counseling and handle people’s vacations? A- The short answer is that the only requirement is that you must have spent an hour in an International House of Pancakes at least…
Q – 7.17.22 – We are leaving on an Avalon River Cruise on the Rhine in early September. Given what we are reading about the airline situation in Europe, we are confused about how to arrange our air. Our agent has come up with an hour connection through Toronto or an hour-and-a-half connecting time in…
Q – Just back from a stay at one of the better resorts in San Juan. As recommended, when checking out I asked that the built-in travel agent commission be taken off our bill since I had booked this personally on the phone with no travel agent involved. They refused and mumbled something about “they…
Q – Thanks so much for the best travel site we’ve ever found. The missing ads are not missed at all. My husband and I are off on a twice-delayed trip to Paris and the French Riviera. We’ve had lots of time to prepare and we’ve read everything we can about Paris, particularly the pieces…
Q – This is one of those annoying questions about cost issues. We want to plan a trip to Spain and Portugal in the next few months but we are reading that hotel rates and airfares are going up significantly compared to where they were pre-Covid. Should we cancel the trip for a year or…
Q – We are thinking of bringing our family of fourteen on a cruise or land tour. The group would have five kids between the ages of five and seventeen. We have looked at a Globus tour as well as a cruise on Royal Caribbean – both in Europe. We will travel in the summer…
Q – I am pleased to share that we have, like many of your followers, achieved critical mass for retirement. We can pretty much afford to travel anywhere and any way we choose. But our dilemma, I suppose, is that we believe top resort or top tier hotel stays provide everything we need. We will…
Q – 3.12.22 – I have to say that I was rather shocked to come across your traveltruth site and then your other consumer sites. Great job! I am a VP of Sales for a Fortune 500 firm. Over the past four years, I’ve been traveling constantly while also taking cruise vacations and two trips…
Q – We enjoy reading the Q&A on Cruisetruth and we have several questions we’d love to pose about the likely impact of the war in Ukraine, why Windstar does not appear in your ratings and the financial status of the major cruise lines. But it seems that instead of addressing my questions, your editors…
Q – We’re flying to Cabo San Lucas in October with our kids. Any recommendations on the best masks to wear on the aircraft? Kind of concerned as we are flying coach. Can my daughter get away with wearing her Taylor Swift cloth mask? A – Those washable fabric masks might not be enough by…
Q – Has Churchill & Turen planned trips to Iran or Afghanistan for clients in recent years? I would guess not but some people like to taker chances. A – We have sent several Churchill & Turen guests to Iran in recent years and the escorted tours went extremely well. The Iranians they encountered seemed…
Q – We are planning on flying into London next April. Schedule-wise it seems to boil down to either American or British Airways. The BA res. people are telling us they offer the best service to Europe because they have new seats and improved menus aboard their aircraft. We will be flying Business and paying…
Q – Does Medjet, which I know you recommend, include coverage if you test positive for Covid while traveling and need to be medically evacuated back to the States? Can you get us any idea as to what it would cost to fly home if we test positive before our return flight? A – No….
Q – We know that Churchill & Turen is different, but how do you describe the difference to potential new clients? A – The travel agency system in the United States is based on the real estate model. Every agent is a salesperson and normally there are no salaries involved. Agents get paid commission based…
Q – One of the things we’ve noticed about working with your company is that we seem to never get into price or discount discussions. We’ve been happy with everything but wonder if we’re unusual in that we never feel the need to raise the topic? A – Interesting question. The consumer is overwhelmed with…
Q – We are considering travel to Brazil and/or Peru or the safari we have always wanted to do to Kenya and Tanzania. We would be doing this next year, summer, or early fall. Based on current information, do you have a strong preference for one of these destinations? A – East Africa would be…
Q – My wife and I are fairly new to Churchill & Turen and we have been avidly reading your websites from front to back. Before discovering your services we did a fair amount of cruising and took a number of land tours with companies like Backroads and National Geographic. I read what you said…
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