A QUESTION MANY OF YOUR READERS MUST BE CONSIDERING

Q –  We came to your site purely by accident, or shall we say luck. We were searching Bing for some information that might help us plan our first cruise and we happened to insert the word “truth” into our search, since so much of what we had been reading was marketing manure. So here…

WHAT IS A LNG SHIP AND DO I WANT TO SAIL ONE?

Q – I am a financial analyst and I just saw a column indicating that Disney Cruise Line will be adding three-new 2,500 ships tot heir fleet. This could give the company more than a million guests annually according to the report. The ships are all going to be LNG types and I am wondering…

SAILING INTO BANGKOK BUT DOCKING HOURS AWAY – SCAM?

Q – We will be departing for Asia in two weeks. We’ve just received our final documents and we spent the weekend reviewing them carefully. Everything checks out but we are really upset to see that our overnight call in Bangkok on the Regent Mariner puts us almost two hours away from the city. No…

MY WIFE IS A CLEANLINESS NUT AND WE’RE READY TO RETIRE

Q – This is only marginally a travel question. My wife is extremely concerned about the environment and the lack of cleanliness in American cities compared to what we have seen in our travels. America really is a garbage dump in a high percentage of our cities with litter and filth everywhere. We’ve about had…

BOOKED ON-BOARD AND SAVED $400 -IS THIS A GOOD STRATEGY

Q –  We have just returned from a Crystal cruise in the Caribbean. It was our first experience with Crystal and we loved the experience – feeling they offer more in the way of entertainment, food, and shore excursion options than the smaller ships they compete with. Our only other experiences have been aboard Windstar…

WE ARE TRAVELING ABROAD AND GOING TO USE OUR AMEX CARD FOR EVERYTHING?

Q –  We are kind of newbies to the idea of travel out of the country. We will be taking our first trip to Europe aboard a Celebrity cruise in July sailing the lower Med to Spain, Italy, and Greece. We couldn’t be more excited. One bit of advice we need concerns credit cards. We…

SHOULD I LET THEM KNOW THAT I POST FREQUENTLY ON TRIPADVISOR?

Q – We recently checked in to a Hilton at the airport in Rome. I was really disappointed with my room and I went to the front desk and reminded them that I had made my reservation with one of the largest online agencies and that I personally post frequently on Facebook, Instagram, and TripAdvisor…

IS THERE A LEGAL WAY TO BRING LIQUOR ON-BOARD A FLIGHT?

Q – I fear I may be ridiculed in your pages, but let me explain that there are certain liquors and tequila that I really prefer to what is offered in Business Class on the airlines I fly. The flight attendants tell me there is no way to legally bring my own liquor on the…

IS THIS THE BEST WAY TO CRUISE THIS CHRISTMAS?

Q –  We are planning early for a Christmas Cruise for about ten days. Our agent has highly recommended the Oceania Serena 10-Night Holiday cruise which includes Cuba. The ship seems smaller than what we’ve sailed, which is what we want, and the fact that we can easily drive to Miami for the round-trip sailing…

DO YOU RECOMMEND THE PAUL GAUGUIN AND WHICH ITINERARY?

Q – Having sailed once on NCL with almost five thousand new friends sporting tee-shirts and tats (and that could be for dinner), we had decided that mega-ship vacations, how great their value, are not for us. But now, we have our hearts set on the South Pacific. We are looking at your reviews of…

LOOKING AT TAUCK USING SHIP LE BOREAL. IS PONANT RECOMMENDED?

Q  – Thank you for the opportunity to ask a question involving our 40th Wedding Anniversary and, potentially, our first cruise. We have twice traveled with Tauck Tours and everything folks say about them seems to be true. But now, we are looking at several programs Tauck is doing in Europe that are using Ponant…

CONSIDERING SILVER MUSE – WILL WE GET TIRED OF “CONTINENTAL CUISINE”

Q – It has been about ten years since we’ve sailed the Cunard Line in Queen’s Grill accommodations. Now, dear friends are wondering if we might join them in Europe on the Silversea Muse. It appears to be a nice ship but we are concerned about continental cuisine overload. It seems like a lovely line…

ALL WE REALLY CARE ABOUT ARE THE QUALITY OF THE SHORE EXCURSIONS

Q – I suppose you might say we are a bit different than some  of your blog followers. We are well-educated, comfortable financially, and actually interested in learning as much as possible about the places we will be visiting (Likely a two-week European Waterways itinerary).  So we are prepared to choose a river cruise line…

SAFETY ISSUES ON EUROPE’S RIVERS: SHOULD WE BE CONCERNED?

Q – A friend, who happens to be joining us on a river cruise  next July, has sent us an article that raises questions about the safety aboard river boats in Europe. I’ve called the line and they assure me that they have all sorts of security measures in place and that they are always…

LOOKING AT MEKONG RIVER CRUISE ON VIKING RIVER: WILL IT BE ENJOYABLE?

Q –  We are wondering if you might help us decide if we wish to go ahead with a seven-night cruise on the Viking Mekong in early June. We are thinking that this will remove all of the water issues we’ve been reading about in Europe and there could be a lot of culture and…

CAN YOU GET US IN TO KELLER’S?

Q –  We are, I would say, professional foodies who read restaurant reviews from all over the world in bed each evening. We’ve been to just about half of the Michelin multi-starred restaurants in the United States and we are “Top Chef” addicts. So, imagine our delight to find that Thomas Keller is now affiliated…

CAN YOU CHOOSE THE KIND OF BATHROOM YOU WANT ON A GOOD CRUISE SHIP?

Q – We are starting our search for a long-delayed cruise in the area of the Adriatic. I have some concerns about choosing a stateroom with a bathtub. I really dislike the entire concept of showering, sticking my hair under the nozzle just doesn’t suit me. Will I be able to request or even confirm…

LAST-MINUTE CABIN SPECIALS: WHERE SHOULD WE GO?

Q – Like everyone else, I love the better things in life but I also like to feel that I am getting the best  deal. Yesterday, I called Silversea and they said that they had 14 cabins still available ion the three categories we would want with a veranda. But we did not commit because…

PLANNING ON SAILING NEW RITZ CARLTON LINE

Q –   The news that Ritz Carlton is launching a lux cruise line is leading us toward the conclusion that we will wait a year or two to take our first cruise. The preliminary information has been helpful bur we are concerned about the A-La-Carte restaurant on-board, the likely venue where we would dine most…

HOW HEALTHY IS THE CRUISE INDUSTRY GOING FORWARD?

Q – I greatly appreciate the tone of this site but my question is a bit more broad-based than many you deal with. I am involved in the investment market in England and was wondering how your team might respond to an inquiry regarding the growth potential of the cruise market (worldwide). Will new ships…

WHY ISN’T AMA TOP-RATED? SHOULD WE BE CONCERNED?

Q – We have two sets of friends who have returned from an AMA cruise in Europe and both couples said we should not go with anyone else. But we notice they do not score at the top of your ratings. Anything you know that our friends didn’t know?  We think your web site offers…

VIKING VERSUS UNIWORLD IN TERMS OF CREW/GUESTS

Q – I am very interested in taking a cruise along the Rhone next summer. I am looking carefully at Viking River and Uniworld, both of whom I hear are very good. Viking is, I realize, a lines that includes less but the ships are lovely. I am wondering about how many passengers they carry…

WINE AND YOGA BUT NOT NECESSARILY AT THE SAME TIME

Q –  While we keep hearing that riverboats are designed for a “mature” traveler, we are a bit more active than most and we would never want to begin a day without working out or, better still, having yoga classes to attend. We would want to do that before galloping around these European towns on…

WHICH RIVERS HAVE THE HIGHEST LIKELIHOOD OF FLOODING OR LOW LEVEL ISSUES?

Q – Our family of six has been interested in the concept of a river cruise for more than two years. We felt we were getting nothing but highly exaggerated sales pitches until we found this site. Now, we’re not sure if we wish to proceed as the water level unpredictability issue really stymies us. It…

IS IT REALLY DANGEROUS TO DRINK COFFEE OR TEA ON A FLIGHT?

Q – I have been reading this material religiously but I keep coming back to one piece of advice you gave some time ago. Wondering if you are still suggesting that it is really dangerous to drink coffee aboard an aircraft. If there was an issue – it would seem like the airlines would have…