Q – I have been a Mastercard holder for the past thirteen years. I have been waiting for a return of my deposit for eleven months. My travel agent says I am too late to get a refund through the credit card company and my calls to the service desk at MC have been more…
Q – Allow an accountant to ask a quick question. We love the Oceania brand and always appreciated your advice to choose the newer, larger Riviera and Mariner when we’re sailing. We now have four sailings under our best. Just wondering how these lines are handling cash flow with ships tied up. Is there any…
Q – Really appreciate this site and your straight answers. My wife and I are excited to be taking a Seabourn cruise again in September 2021. But I’ve been following your site and it now seems that new protocols will require that guests purchase the cruise line excursions in order to be able to go…
Q – We are looking forward to sailing with Sea Dream again next summer. Your recommendation really was a home run as we would hate to anticipate being on a large ship in this environment. The 50 cabin Sea Dream 1 was as close to our “Dream” cruise as we might have imagined. I understand…
Q – I guess you could say we are a couple of “cautious Canadians”. We are looking at re-booking a Sea Dream cruise because we feel that with fewer fellow passengers than a typical riverboat in Europe, they are the most yacht-like experience available. We loved our first cruise with them out of Barbados. We…
Q – We are – I should say “were”, booked on a Viking Cruise on, what we believed to be, an excellent Scandinavian “Homelands” itinerary in July of 2022. I cancelled when I learned that Viking requires full payment right now for this cruise. I am told this is the way “our company is…
LAST UPDATED OCTOBER 25, 2020 YOUR QUESTIONS ARE LISTED FROM THE TOP DOWN IN ORDER RECEIVED Q – We are, like many of your clients I suppose, going a bit stir crazy. This is written in early June and we are anxious to get away with the family, our two teenage boys, for about a…
Q – You go all over the internet and find all kinds of advice about travel to Africa and it all sounds like so much noise. Yesterday, my therapist, yes I am being serious, told me about your site. I hope you will answer just a few questions. My wife and I are in our…
Q – We try to keep up with travel industry publications and have been surprised by the failure of Thomas Cook and the reported financial issues with Cox & Kings, which is, I believe, the oldest travel agency in existence. You keep hearing that travel agents are being put out of business by the internet….
Q – I recently returned from a trip to London where I noticed that instead of saying I was flying in economy it said I was flying in Q Class. Then I looked carefully, and my connecting ticket home had an N instead of a Q. Anyway you can explain these letters the airlines use…
Q – I have been flying for the past two decades, mostly to larger metropolitan areas. I have noticed that some pilots, particularly those with Delta, seem to make harsher landings while American pilots seem to glide in more softly. I wonder why this is and also wonder about any of the larger airports where…
Q – Our 16-year old son will be joining us on our annual summer break vacation. We’re fairly well-traveled and when we asked him where he really wanted to go, he responded that he would love to visit “somewhere that will help me see and understand the effects of climate change on the planet.” That’s…
Q – Set with a two-week tour of southern Africa that begins in Cape Town and ends in Johannesburg. This mid-August vacation includes two nights in Victoria Falls where I am reading the water has completely dried up and the Falls are no more. We are working with a local safari operator based in Johannesburg…
Q – We started out along the Seine, what’s not to like, we then brought our Bubba along on a cruise out of her native Budapest, we then took a chance and actually sailed the Irrawaddy River in Myanmar. And you know what – we loved them all. We’re in our mid-sixties, we retired smart,…
Q – We have had two excellent experiences on both a seven-night round-trip Papeete cruise on the Paul Gauguin as well as a magnificent sailing of almost two weeks that included both Fiji and the Cook Islands. We loved this type of cruising – totally laid back with no formal nights, and sand in our…
Q – What is the percentage of men wearing tuxedoes during formal nights? My husband is totally opposed to the idea of cruising on a ship that is formal but he will only at top tier resorts and hotels. A – It depends – but the answer is not many unless you are doing an…
Q – Can we get last-minute insurance when we are booked on a Caribbean cruise but notice, one week out, that a storm will come through our planned itinerary? What is the best way to select insurance and why do you always recommend Travelex? A – You might find a sleaze insurance outfit that will…
Q – We received your list of the cruise line’s planned new ship construction through 2025. The financial commitment, is just amazing, $478 Million for the Regent Splendor and twice that cost for a new Celebrity ship. We are wondering, with all this new tonnage coming along, which ship or ships have you the most…
Q – Can we drink the tap water on a luxury cruise ship? A – Never. A good rule to follow is to never drink anything from a sink tap when traveling – including drinks mixed with tap water. There are Red Star countries, such as Russia, where water quality is known to contain serious…
Q – Any big difference in the S1 or the S2 staterooms on the Crystal Ravel? Any locations in either category we should be avoiding? Thank you for the best, most helpful sites for travelers seeking straight answers minus the advertising hyperbole. A – Both stateroom categories are identical at 253 sq. ft. and King…
Q – Trying to decide between AMA and Uniworld for a “Most Fine” Rhine Cruise. They each seem excellent and win many travel awards. Any hints as to how we might consider the differences? A – It is a tough choice and you will do extremely well no matter which you choose. AMA owns their…
Q – We are enthusiastic followers of your various web sites. Traveltruth is our favorite and we love the fact that it covers anything remotely limited to travel. We love to go to exotic locales where we have a serious chance of catching something that might bring us down for a few days or longer….
Q – We’ve been following your reviews closely and you helped us plan our last two Riverboat vacations. But, as we sailed Scenic twice and loved the experiences, we couldn’t help but notice that they have come down a notch or two in the rankings. We’d love to know why as we are contemplating our…
Q – Q – We have been planning on taking our two kids, ages 13 and 14, on a two-week special Viking River Cruise on one of their new Longboats in the summer of 2022. We have all the Viking brochures and as the largest line, they seem to have some economy of scale resulting…
Q – We are extremely interested in a Duoro River Cruise. We are thinking about a Tauck unless you think there is something better. If we wait a year or two is it likely that Crystal will enter this market. They seem to be among the three top lines. My TA belongs to a larger…
Q – We are fascinated by your point about the relationship about travel articles and the fact that the vast majority of writers are describing their own “free or nearly free” trips. No wonder we can’t really depend on travel reporting any more than we can believe what is written on a number of other…
Q – Have spent portions of the last three nights reading your Q&A. Really enjoyable and love the information. Here is our brief story: I am retiring in six months and, with the death of my folks earlier this year, have come into enough money that will enable us to do some serious traveling in…
Q – We will be going on the south africa safari next year a and I would like to know the strategy for bringing drugs like Zyrtac, for allergies, into the country. I have read that they are very strict about drugs. A – South Africa, along with many other nations in Africa are extremely…
Q – We have taken your advice and are thinking about scheduling our trip to France, our first trip to Europe, next May so we can avoid the crowds. My wife has dreamed about visiting the Louvre since she was an art student at NYU. Is this a good time to go to on a…
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