The rest of Q&A

Q – Thank you for the information you give about some of the things you need to be careful about on some of these cruise ships. My 17 year-old daughter has asked me to let her go with a friend on a three-night Royal Caribbean Bahamas cruise. Her friends mother will be going, but she has three other children and is traveling with other family members, so I just don’t see how she would have time to watch out for my daughter. She really wants to go and I am leaning toward letting her. Can I assume the crew will keep an eye on any young people who seem unsupervised? No one in our family has cruised.  Please respond as soon as possible.

A – The cruise industry has not, for rather obvious reasons, been interested in discussing crime, particularly crimes of a sexual nature, that take place on the high seas. Crimes aboard cruise ships include rapes of passengers by crew members. An attorney who represents many of the victims of on-board crime, reports that there were 959 crimes at sea reported to the FBI during one 18-month period in 2011 and 2012. Specific allegations regarding NCL, Holland America, and Royal Caribbean and others can be examined on the web site www.cruiselawnews.com.

We urge you, in the strongest terms, not to allow your daughter to travel on a mass market mega-ship unless you, or a member of your immediate family you can trust, accompanies her and provides full-time supervision. Ships with thousands of guests, none of whom has to go through any background screening, serviced by a largely transient crew that is denied basic rights under US labor laws, is a recipe for disaster. The fact that these ships operate in international waters under phony out-of-country registrations of convenience, is even more cause for concern.

It is true that the vast majority of cruises are incident-free. But it is also true that the industry has done everything possible to hide the facts of on-board crime from the public. We just don’t see any travel agent or cruise sites discussing these issues in-depth. Somehow, consumers feel that “you get what you pay for” does not apply to cruise vacations. It does, particularly as concerns crew background, training, and crimes against passengers.

Q – We have always had a desire to sail the world’s largest ship for a week or so. I’ve heard Royal Caribbean and Carnival ships are huge but we literally want to sail the biggest next summer. Can you tell us which ship that would be?

A – The Royal Caribbean Allure of the Seas is, by two inches, the largest vessel currently afloat. She is 225,000 gross tons.

In a rather surprising announcement, Royal Caribbean announced that it is taking the Allure out of the Caribbean next summer and basing the ship in Europe in 2015. This is a hedge bet that they can fill the ship with a mix of guests from the US and Europe. You will be able to do a seven-night itinerary between Civitavecchia (Rome) and Barcelona.

It will be an intimate experience you will share with 5,398 fellow guests. But we suggest you do not  walk into a bar and shout “drinks for everyone.”

Q – With all the problems we’ve been reading about involving American Airline’s bankruptcy and this pending deal with US Airways, we are wondering if keeping miles in our Advantage account for a planned major Christmas trip in 2017 is a good idea?

A – The merger with US Air went through last year and American Airlines profits are soaring based on higher ticket prices and relatively low fuel costs. The new AA made profits of $436 million in the 4th quarter of 2013 compared to a loss of $42 million a year earlier. So don’t bet against American.

As to your mileage bank. We recommend storing your miles in one of the better credit card depositories, preferably one that give you a bonus when miles are cashed in. Choose a credit card that allows you to accumulate miles and then, whenever you choose, to have them applied to any major airline. In other words, you only tap into your mileage and transfer miles to the airline when you are about to purchase a mileage ticket. Never let miles languish in an airline frequent flyer account.

By the way, it is highly unlikely you will be able to purchase mileage awards on American for travel over the Christmas Holiday in 2017 or any other year.

Q – I know the airlines can notify you of an assigned gate or change, but is there any single source I can use all of the time to get information without having to trust my airline to update me?

A – There are two apps that are quite good and both have a basic version  free. Try  Iflyairportguide or gateguru. They will give you security checkpoint times as well as gate assignment at  all major domestic and hundreds of airports around the world. If you fly frequently, we would recommend the “Pro” version.

Q – We’ve been listening to the horrific news reports about the virus that got everyone sick on the Royal Caribbean Explorer of the Seas. We have never cruised and are scheduled to take our first stab at cruising this October with two other couples from our church. As luck would have it, we’re booked on the same ship. My husband and I can’t fathom what it must be like to be sick at sea like those poor people and we are thinking about cancelling our cruise. Just how high is the risk of it happening on our cruise?  We booked directly with the cruise line and the agent handling our reservation seemed to downplay the incident. We can use a little travel truth.

A –  Well, first of all, every traveler is entitled to an honest and straightforward response as regards issues of personal safety and hygiene. When that doesn’t happen, it makes our blood boil.

The 600 or so guests and 95 crew on the Explorer of the Seas were suffering from a “Norovirus”. A norovirus can be passed through contact with a person who has it. It can be passed by drinking or eating an item that is contaminated. It is also possible to get it by just touching an area that has been tainted.

Norovirus outbreaks are common and generally unreported when they happen off cruise ships. They occur in office buildings, stadiums, concert venues, movie theaters, and shopping malls. An outbreak can be triggered by a single carrier and the disease can infect and spread rapidly. The illness usually passes in a few days but it is debilitating and serious when it occurs.

The percentage of norovirus outbreaks is significantly higher on larger cruise lines, particularly those that cater to a mid-range and budget travelers. When you are on a ship carrying several thousand guests, each of whom paid an average of $150 per day for their cruise, logic would dictate that on-board services do not rival those provided aboard ships costing three and four times that amount per day. Personally, when we travel with our families, we avoid mega-liners with thousands of guests. Of course, when we are working on a story or inspecting one of the large ships for our client reports, we try to pack a few quarts of Purell,  sani-wipes, and we wash our hands twenty times a day.

If you believe that a budget cruise line provides the same levels of cleanliness and vigorous safety inspections found on a smaller, more expensive, luxury vessel, you are being naïve. But this is an extremely complex subject because it is likely that the virus on the Explorer and most of the other viruses reported on other lines such as Carnival, Princess, and NCL. were brought onboard by guests. So, one could argue, how hard the crew works to keep the ship clean and sanitized is largely irrelevant if an infected guest is coming onboard.

We think you should cancel your cruise. We do not say this because we think you will get ill. In fact, Royal Caribbean has a fairly good record when it comes to issues of sanitation and hygiene. We think you should cancel because you are already experiencing anxiety about a vacation you should be looking forward to with great anticipation. Instead of a floating mini-city, try to find something more intimate and refined for your first cruise experience.

By the way, for the record, we’ve experienced more than 130 cruises and we have far more concerns when visiting indoor shopping malls and movie theaters.

Q – Over the past two years, you have kind of spoiled us with the candor of your responses in the Q&A section of your site. So let me pose a question that may put you on the spot. I have to fly rather frequently to Europe where my company has several factories and storage facilities. Sometimes I fly United, sometimes American, etc. I have no loyalty and earn miles with everyone. But I’m wondering which of the major US airlines now has the best overall service in Business Class across the pond? If you don’t wish to answer we’ll still follow traveltruth.

A -No worries. Delta has the best current overseas onboard service to Europe in Business Class of the three major US carriers. But we would advise that you not make too much of the service variations, instead, it would be wise to concentrate on the type of aircraft and whether or not the beds are true Lie-flats. The 777 is a far better comfort option than the 767.

Q – Interesting and honest responses to other questions lead me to ask you if you know of any services that will make my life easier as I travel the world and frequently have to call in from abroad? I would also like to video conference from time to time. As a CFO in the pharmacology field, I need to set an example in terms of frugality so Io guess I’m asking what is the best way to keep in touch on the cheap? But it has to work.

A – There are now multiple options for keeping in touch on a wide variety of platforms. But here is a quick summary you may wish to discuss with your IT people:

01 – If you spend time in a single country, a separate cell phone with a local sim card works best.

02 – If you travel all over there are services such as Telestial.com that deliver a phone package that works in more than 100 countries at substantially lower rates than you would pay with an American carrier.

03 – Don’t discount SKYPE. It keeps getting better because WIFI is available nearly everywhere and you can video conference for an amazingly low price.

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.