HOW OFTEN DO THESE THINGS GET WASHED?

Q – The other day I was about to board a flight to Los Angeles with my husband and he commented on how new it looked. It was not, however, a new plane. It just looked like it had been washed. The paint was gleaming. I am wondering how often the outside of these planes…

WHERE IS THE BEST PLACE TO SIT TO AVOID GERMS ON AN AIRPLANE?

Q –  There seems to be a lot of nonsense written about the best places to sit on an aircraft. Some say it is safer in the rear of the aircraft, some say the exit row, some say an aisle up front. I really don’t care about safety or an accident in the air. No…

IS THIS TRUE – OR RIVER MYTH?

Q – A friend, who seems to be knowledgeable about all things travel-related, told us that the river boat lines, all of them but Viking River, do not hire their own crew because they don;t even own the boats. The boats are rented and the crew comes with the boat. Could this possibly be true….

ARE U RECOMMENDING U AND CAN WE EVEN GO AT OUR AGE?

Q –  This is actually fun to read  – so thank you for that. But can’t you post a few times a day? That would be much better. We are considering our first family cruise of any kind. I am a busy accountant and my husband is a wine importer. We have three children, all…

IS IT POSSIBLE TO SAIL ROUND-TRIP FROM AMSTERDAM?

Q – We absolutely love Amsterdam and would like to spend a few days there both before and after a river cruise. That would mean, I suppose, that we would be traveling along the Moselle River, which one hears very little about. Our relatives come from Dusseldorf and we would love to return there as…

VIKING VERSUS UNIWORLD; JUST HOW DIFFERENT ARE THEIR PRICES?

Q –   There is lots to absorb here and we’re reading everything you’ve provided for us twice over. But we’re doing it in the context of not wanting to have to re-mortgage just to see if we really like river cruising enough to repeat the experience. Based on the information you’ve provided, it seems that…

SEEKING A BIT OF CANDOR ABOUT SEA DREAM

Q – We love the San Juan round-trip itinerary announced by Sea Dream for next year. It also seems like a fantastic price given that the line is so highly-rated. We are concerned about, what others have described” as a “tired look” to the ships in terms of bedding and carpeting. We are in our…

IS MY BROTHER-IN-LAW ON TO SOMETHING? IT WOULD BE THE FIRST TIME

Q – My brother-in-law books his cruises online with Expedia and feels he gets a pretty good deal. Of course he felt that way when he paid about $2,000 over blue book for the Corvette he bought last year. I’ve got an agent in Dearborn (Michigan) I’ve been booking with for the past sixteen years….

IS THERE A ‘BEST TIME’ TO CRUISE ALASKA?

Q – We are fairly new to cruising and just came upon your site. Wondering if there is a best time to do an Alaska cruise in terms of weather, sightseeing, and calm waters?  A – Alaska is an extremely profitable destination compared to other parts of the world where ships can be based. For…

WHY DON’T WE SEE ANYTHING ABOUT NCL’S RECENT PR DISASTER ON THIS SITE

Q – We are extremely fond of this site, or at least we were, until we discovered that you are ignoring one of the biggest news stories of the year, the disaster of a cruise on the Norwegian Line that saw a two-week cruise ruined by on-going construction. It seems that you only cover the…

IS COLOMBIA A DESTINATON WE SHOULD CONSIDER AT THIS TIME?

Q —  We are in our early and mid-seventies, in great health, and we love adventure. We don’t mind camping out to see great sites but we do have some qualms about safety as we consider a trip to Colombia, every time we decide to camp over there we find ourselves in the need to…

WHAT SHOULD A TRAVEL AGENT CHARGE FOR A HOTEL RESERVATION?

Vacations are supposed to be a wonderful yet relaxing experience to unwind and chill out. A great hotel management company like Prospera Hospitality is, in big part, responsible of such an amazing experience. However, any vacations wouldn’t be complete without experiencing a stay in the right hotel for your needs. That’s when a travel agent…

HOW DO I KEEP TRACK OF MY MILES WITH SEVERAL AIRLINES?

Q – This airline business is uniquely frustrating and I am wondering if they make it intentionally tough to cash in miles? I currently have miles and elite status with American, Alaska, and United Airlines. I get e-mails and notifications but it is all very confusing and I tend t just give up and pay…

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…