“THE ELEGANT ELBE” FEATURED STATIONARY BOATS

Q – Last year, I booked an “Elegant Elbe” cruise for July 2015. Two days before flying to Prague, I received an email from Viking that the river was low and that our itinerary would be altered. They reported that we would have to move from one boat to its sister ship during the cruise….

SHOULD WE BOOK HAIMARK WITH FRIENDS?

Q – We are getting a lot of pressure from our friends, Mel and Susan, to take something called a Haimark boat through Vantage Travel. Wondering if this sounds OK. Our friends are a bit more adventurous than we are. He’s an Orthopedic Surgeon who seems to want to be his own patient. He dives,…

IS RIVER CRUISING REALLY THAT GOOD?

Q – We read your site after thinking we might take a river cruise. Our conclusion is that we would want to go with one of your top recommendations. Your site gives both the up and downside in a really refreshing way that we have not seen elsewhere. But given those downsides, how is river…

SHOULD WE WAIT FOR A CRYSTAL RIVER CRUISE?

Q – We were just about to contact you folks to do our first river boat voyage. We’ve cruised the large cruise ships perhaps a dozen time, most often on Crystal, which is the creme de la creme. So we were rather shocked to read that Crystal is actually launching a new river cruise line….

TELL ME TAUCK WOULDN’T DO IT

Q – Based, in large part,on the ratings you offer here, which are incredibly helpful, we booked a Tauck River Cruise in June of next year. As I just read what you have to say about flooding and draught and all sorts of things I never want to have to worry about on a vacation,…

EVERYONE SAYS DANUBE BUT MY GERMAN FRIEND SAYS RHINE

Q – Everyone we speak to in Hartford says do the Danube the first time. It seems like it is like doing Paris on your first trip to Europe. But we had dinner last night with a neighbor who happens to have moved here from Stuttgart, and he says he prefers the Rhine. We’re so…

SHOULD WE BE WORRIED ABOUT CONDITION OF WINDSTAR’S NEWEST SHIPS?

Q – We are booked, along with my semi-annoying brother-in-law and his lovely wife, on a Windstar cruise aboard the Star Breeze. My agent says this is a former Seabourn ship and they are fixing it up. This sort of worries me. Will I be getting a nice-looking ship or should we rethink this? The…

BEST WAY TO GET FROM THE AIRPORT TO THE SHIP IN BARCELONA

Q – We will be arriving in Barcelona on the day our ship, Sea Dream 11, sails at 5:00 pm. We’re coming in from Orange County on a connection through Madrid and wondering how we should get to the ship terminal from the airport? A – Not a big whoop. You’ll be arriving at El…

WHY ARE YOU SO DISMISSIVE OF ONLINE DEALS?

Q – Interesting site with good information and one really strong prejudice. We book cruises at least twice a year and we always use the online sites. While the folks we work with are order-takers, they always seem to have better pricing than the catalogs. If its cheaper online, that is where we are going…

IS SILVERSEA OFFERING A PHONY DEAL IN ASIA

Q – Having recently retired, and being terminally bored with nothing to do but hit the little ball in the hole, I’ve had time to do internet “research” on our next cruise. I am a former CFO for a major Fortune 500, but I confess to utter confusion about what is a real deal and…

LOOKING AT PONANT IN ANTARCTICA 2017: WILL THEY BE AROUND?

Q – We’ve read a great deal about some of the programs using, I guess renting is the right term, boats from the Ponant Line. My lovely wife has agreed to join me on my dream trip to Antarctica in 2017. Is this the right line. I figure of Abercrombie & Kent and Tauck use…

FOR $25,000 CAN I STRETCH OUT IN BED?

Q – I want to sail in an Explorer Suite on one of the Viking River Long Boats. Their size appeals to me. At a cost of $25,000 for a one week cruise, I would expect to have a full King size King bed. Just want to make certain that is what I will get…

LOOKING FOR THE BEST RIVER BOAT EXPERIENCE IN THE MEKONG DELTA

Q – I am extremely excited about taking my husband to Vietnam on an interior river boat cruise. My travel agent says that there are several boats that are now doing this but I would know who really has the best program and which ship I should be looking at. We are just starting to…

I KNOW WHAT I WANT BUT I DON’T KNOW HOW TO BOOK IT

Q – We would like to book a Rhine River cruise for late September/early October 2016 and are trying to decide between AMA Waterways and Tauck Rivercruise. Do you have a suggestion for how we go about deciding which is the best option for us? A – That is really an insightful question given that…

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BRITAIN HAS A CONTINGENCY PLAN FOR EMERGENCY EVACUATION OF TOURISTS FROM GREECE

Here is what tourists planning future travel to Greece need to know as Greece enters a pivotal week in its testy relationship with the Eurozone:1. Greece’s most immediate – as in first thing Monday morning – source of danger is its banking system. To compensate for accelerated deposit flight, the European Central Bank injected additional…

IS THERE ONE CERTIFIED BEST SHIP AT SEA?

Q – Congratulations on your site. It is extremely helpful but we’d like to reiterate a question I am sure you will be getting from many other confused cruisers. Is there one line or ship that is generally thought to be the best in the world? A – We’ve tried to make that perfectly clear…

CAN WE USE CRUISE CREDITS TO REDUCE THE PRICE OF OUR CRUISE?

Q – We will need to make a payment to Celebrity Cruises for our final payment for a two-week cruise to the Mediterranean. We booked it directly with Celebrity and there seems to be some confusion about the credits we were given when we booked with their agent, Joseph. I think we should be allowed…

HOW MANY COOTIES ARE LIVING ON MY BUSINESS CLASS BLANKET?

Q – Realize yours is not an airline site but I always wonder about the cleanliness of the blankets I find all wrapped up, nice and tidy, on my seat when I am flying Business Class internationally. I’d love to know how often those blankets are actually  cleaned?  I start itching just thinking about it….

DO I NEED A VISA FOR TRAVEL TO ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA?

Q – We have a rather unusual situation. We are traveling with friends on a Baltic cruise this July that includes three full days in St. Petersburg. My mother is quite ill and there is the remote possibility that I could be called during the cruise with the need to fly out of Russia in a…

WHERE CAN WE FIND THE CHEAPEST TRAVEL INSURANCE?

Q – We will be leaving in three months for a two-week cruise to Greece and Turkey with Sea Dream 1. Picking the cruise was easy, the ship only has 50 cabins and 100 people. But choosing insurance is tougher. How do we find the best deals on travel insurance? A – We’re not going…

ANY PLACE WORTH SEEING NEAR BUT OUTSIDE VENICE?

Q – In late September we’ve booked a great itinerary on the Seabourn Spirit round-trip out of Venice for ten days. The cruise will visit ports in Greece and Croatia that we really want to see but it overnights at the end in Venice. The problem is we’ve been there twice before, once with a…

BEST CRUISE WITH KIDS NEXT SUMMER

Q – I am a pediatrician here in Dallas and an avid reader of this space. Next summer (2016) Patti and I want to take our three children on a real quality cruise up to Alaska that might have children’s programs. I would love to know the best line to do this with and how…

GETTING BLANK STARES ABOUT A CRUISE THAT INCLUDES WEST AFRICA

Q – I thought I would see if luxurycruiseratingscom is going to give us the same blank stare we get when we ask a travel agent about cruising West Africa. I mean, Africa is a fairly large continent and, near as I can tell, it has both an East and a West Coast. We would…

IS NORWEGIAN RIGHT FOR MY FAMILY AND WHY DON’T YOU RATE THEM

Q – I think it is fair to say that you have no bigger fans of this site but, sadly, we find little help from you in planning our upcoming cruise with our 8 and 11 year-old boys. I know, for example, that Norwegian Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean are supposed to have the best…

WHAT MAKES DISNEY S0 SPECIAL FOR YOUNG KIDS AND FAMILIES?

Q – Forgive me, but I just don’t get it. My wife wants to bring the grandkids, ages 8-16 on a seven-night Disney cruise. I’ve heard they do some special things but have no sense of the experience. Wouldn’t the family have just as good a time on an adult line like Princess that also…

SAILING NOT CRUISING ANTARCTICA WOULD BE COOL

Q – We were directed to your site by another site. Looking for a ship or a company that supposedly will take you to Antarctica on an actual sailing boat. We can’t seem to find any information on this program and wondering if you could point us in the right direction. My wife and I are…