The rest of Q&A

Q – We worked with an agent who was in the Virtuoso Consortium for many years. We now have a new agent who is in something called Signature. Meanwhile, our best friends use someone connected to Vacations.com who just got them a wonderful upgrade at the Hyatt in New York.  Each of these groups seems to get their members hotel upgrades and cruise deals etc. What are the real, if any, differences? It is all pretty confusing and I understand it has something to do with commissions.

A – Each of these organizations is respected and each strives to design amenities for its guests. Signature and Virtuoso tend to do more high-end business than Vacation.com, which is the largest agent consortium. Signature is owned by its agent members, Virtuoso is a privately held for-profit corporation. Generally speaking, we would say stay with your Signature agent if you are happy. Working with a top-flight professional is likely to be a more significant choice than which consortium they personally support. Every one of the more than a dozen major consortium groups tries to secure the best commissions for their members.

There is one caveat. If you do high-end, private touring, and you rely on working with the very best overseas office contacts through your agent, Virtuoso and Signature are the better choices.

Q – We are mid-town Manhattan Foodies, quite used to choosing from America’s best restaurants, many with world-famous chefs. We are considering our first experience at sea and friends tell us they’ve read that Oceania has the best food.  We shop at Zabar’s and we dine at Le Bernadin at least once a month, if that tells you anything. Will we be disappointed if we choose to sail on the Marina?

A – Well, since you’re from New York City, we are going to assume you may be disappointed in everything. But putting that cultural characteristic aside, we think you might be able to squeeze out a fine experience aboard the Marina. Jacques Pepin is the line’s supervising chef. His namesake restaurant features Coquilles St. Jacques and a delicate Dover Sole. La Reserve serves small group chef’s choice dinners with course-by-course wine pairings. And Red Ginger does relatively authentic Pan-Asian with an emphasis on Malaysian cuisine such as Penang Beef Curry. So yes, you can dine quite well on an Oceania ship.

Do they have the best food at sea? On any given night the answer can be yes but we would rate Crystal higher. But the Marina or the Riviera are the proper choice for foodies, partially because the ship features a dedicated Culinary Center with 24 work stations, countertop grills, and gas burners. Guests can take featured culinary shore excursions, purchase goods ashore, and come back to cook them onboard.

But you may find that getting in to one of Manhattan’s top restaurants is a tad easier than assuring yourself dining reservations at the Marina’s smallish specialty restaurants. Make certain you are able to deal with this frustration before you sign up, along with some other lifestyle sacrifices you will need to make when you cruise. Is it all worth it? Just remember that 94.6% of first-time cruisers repeat the experience within 24 months.

Q – Having just received my retirement “papers”, my wife and I are off to see the world for the next twenty years. That is of fate, my knee joints, and arthritis, all permit it. The few trips that we’ve done abroad were a mixed bag, and we found that so much is determined by the quality of the guide. Love this site and but we’ve never heard you address this issue. Do you get better guides on escorted tours or when you pay for more deluxe private arrangements.

A – Excellent question. Generally speaking, you will get the very best guides on a higher-end escorted group tour. Here’s why: Almost all guides are contracted. If they can secure work with a well-known tour operator who is going to be doing multiple departures of the same tour, they can depend on a full season of work. Most of the better guides prefer looking after groups because the tips they receive from a happy bus load of guests can be many times greater than the tips they would receive from just one couple.

There is, of course, another view. Some of the better tour guides think it is below them to escort groups of folks and to play to an “audience”. It is sort of like bragging to your friends that you just had a great dinner at Applebee’s. Guides love to brag to other guides that they just showed Justin Timberlake around the Medina. They prefer customizing their commentary and really getting to know one or two couples at a time. The best guides can receive both salary and tips and the very best book up months in advance and can get you around crowds and bureaucracy.

If you would like the best possible, genial overview, we think one of the guides associated with one of the Top Ten rated escorted tour firms will best meet your needs. If you detest crowds and have a particular sightseeing agenda, private guides can absolutely make a trip exceed your expectations. o note that every escorted tour member evaluates their guide in writing. The bad ones are quickly weeded out, a comforting thought given your investment. Have a wonderful retirement.

Q – Now that the Iranians have promised not to build nukes and the Syrians are dismantling their nerve gas depots, it is time for a family cruise to Israel we’ve been putting off for close to 20 years. We’re not worried, if you’re not worried, about taking our teens, 15 and 17, to Israel on a cruise this summer. Before we start our search, please tell us what we should be looking for in terms of ports in Israel. It appears there are several places a ship can stop and we want to see as much as possible.

So first, would you bring your children to Israel right now and what port is the best for a family that wants the best bang for the buck?

A –  Actually, you might want to consider taking your kids to Israel and leaving them there for a few years. They will find an absolutely lovely country carved out of the desert, with history, great schools, a serious culinary environment, and a people dedicated to squeezing every moment out of each sun-drenched day. Of course you should go – you should not have waited this long. Travel in Israel is far safer than in many areas of the US and the Israelis are better drivers. As driving accidents are the most serious danger in virtually any country you visit, the statistics on Israel are quite good. By the way, Tel Aviv, is a hip, beautiful city, with an incredible night life that attracts travelers from all over the world.

There really are two major ports in Israel. Ashdod is on the West Coast, in the middle of the country within driving distance of Jerusalem and the Dead Sea on the eastern border. Tel Aviv is north of the port, along the coast.

The second port in Israel is Haifa which is in the northern portion of the west coast. The Golan Heights are due east on the other coast. Haifa is an easy ride to Nazareth.

The bottom line is that Ashdod is the preferred port.

Q – We are really excited to be going on one of the first scheduled tours to Cuba. We just signed up but we had two immediate questions. Will our iPhone work in Cuba and what do we do with our Passport? Will we be carrying it with us?

A – You will be able to use your iPhone and you will not need a converter. Service people in the hotel or even in restaurants will be able to charge the hone for you, if necessary, Carry at least one full copy of the picture pages of your passport with you, including photos copies stored on your phone. You will leave your passport in the hotel safe. All Cuba “People to People” Tour Operators provide full documentation as your departure approaches. No worries. Just expect a more-or-less regimented tour experience led by a “true believer.” One important cultural note: Duck Dynasty is now quite popular in Cuba, and if you get cable in your hotel, highly likely, you will be able to watch Uncle Si dubbed in Spanish.

Q –  We are going to be attending a conference  in London next  month and we’re trying to figure out whether we should be booking our air on American or United out of Chicago. The seating in Business Class is really important to us and we are wondering which of these has beds that will allow us to stretch out? It looks like we will be flying a 777 on United or a 767 on American.  Are the beds all the same?

A – We were in a great mood here until you asked about airline seating. It is a rather upsetting topic because they are definitely not the same. There are no industry rules or even “norms”.  Airlines buy a “shell aircraft” and then customize it with seating that meets their needs. Financial needs almost always come ahead of aesthetic needs. When flying, you can analyze exactly what your seating options are going to be. We keep a book on our desks that we constantly update with seating stats on every aircraft operated by every one of the world’s important airlines. It is currently 47 pages.

The American 767-300 offers a seat width of only 18.5 inches. We would expect that in coach – not Business Class. The aircraft does not have lie flat beds. American has equipped this aircraft with Angle Lie Flat beds. That is a big difference. On any flight over five hours, we think you should look for true, 360 degree horizontal, lie-flat seats. Frequent travelers report that angled beds that do not allow them to lie flat, as you would at home, are far less desirable than true “Lie flats”. Airline marketing lingo tries to confuse the consumer as each seat has “Lie Flat” in its nomenclature. The question you need to ask is “true lie flat or angled lie flat seat?”

The United 777 200 Series will give you true Lie-flat beds plus 20 inches of seat width. But beware, one version of the United 777, the V3 model, has Recliner Seats in Business and doesn’t even have beds. On your routing, however, you will have better seating on United in Business Class.

One caveat. If you are flying American overseas on a 777-300 ER Series aircraft, you will have true Lie-flat seats as well as 26 inches of seat width, clearly preferable to United’s configuration. So it all boils down to the exact type of aircraft you are flying.

One more – final caveat. Our experience tells us that airline reservation agents are not always a good source of accurate information about seating details. Do not try to get comparative seating statistics directly from the airlines.

Q – Our family of five is booked on a Crystal Cruise to New England and Canada in top suites in Mid-October. We booked this cruise largely based on the traveltruth ratings, the most honest we’ve found. But given our substantial investment for two doubles and a single all upper decks, I am concerned about my lack of ability to cancel close in should a hurricane be forecast. Two questions – how likely is this possibility during mid-October and how do I best protect my investment?

A – Long-term weather prognostication is a dying art. There are just too many exceptions to the old weather rules since we’ve started to see the effects of major weather pattern changes (our conspiracy  nutjob readers hate it when we say “global warming”) Theoretically you should be safe cruising the coast of the Atlantic in Mid-October. But storms are possible. You can protect your investment by taking out one of the “cancel for any reason” riders offered through your consultant from Travelex or TravelGuard, two of the better travel insurers.

Q – My boyfriend and I are professionals in the fashion industry in New York and we are in dire need of a Caribbean getaway sometime in December, perhaps over the Holidays. We like hip resorts with progressive food and rooms with modern design touches. We also have rather high expectations about service, a rare commodity, from what we understand, on the islands. I’m a Vegan, if that makes any difference. We’d be bringing along some work, but mostly, this is a vacation for soaking up the sun and relaxing with a little Buddha music in the background. Any suggestions?

A – First, do this so you are home by the 18th of December. You will save a great deal of money, more than enough to pay for a second vacation, and you may actually be able to get some seats on an aircraft. The resorts we are recommending are either sold out or close to it for the Holiday period.

We think you should concentrate your search on Parrot Cay or Gransevoort in the Turks & Caicos. Check out Jade Mountain or Ladera on St. Lucia. Finally, you might love the vibe at the Eden Rock on St. Barts. Have your consultant get you the actual hotel inspection reports of each of these properties so you can make an educated decision. And please, be back by the 18th. The “amateurs” start arriving on the islands that afternoon.

They have vegetables in the Caribbean. In fact, Bob Marley used to smoke them. No worries.

Q – My husband and I have just returned from a week in Paris. We were rather amazed at the number of homeless people on the streets. We had been there in 1994 and it was nothing like this. The smell of urine is everywhere and people are just setting up cots on the sidewalks all over the city.  You should tell your readers about this as it really impacted our memories of Paris on this trip. You go to Paris for the perfume – not this! Any idea why this is happening?

A – It is a problem, but we still rank Paris as one of the planet’s most beautiful cities. The fact is that homelessness in France has doubled in the past decade, the result of a shrinking economy and an influx of poor immigrants who can’t find work. Our experience is that most of the homeless are in the main tourist areas looking for handouts. Part of the explanation as to why this is more of a problem in Paris than it is, say, in London has to do with cultural attitudes toward begging and homelessness. Under London law, you cannot stay in one place in the street all day and sleep there in a tent etc. It is against the law. There is no criminalization of homelessness in Paris. In fact, studies in Europe have shown that the French are the most tolerant of the down and out because they have this deep-seated feeling that it could, one day, happen to them.