Cruise

On its 12-day round-trip cruises from Bergen to Kirkenes, Norway, from October through March, Hurtigruten (888/387-2566, www.hurtigruten.com) guarantees that if the northern lights are not seen during the cruise, each passenger will qualify for a free 6- or 7-day cruise.

Two well-known cruise ships will be leaving their fleets in 2019.

• Built in 1988 and holding 835 passengers, Holland America Line's Prinsendam will join the fleet of German cruise company Phoenix Reisen in July 2019.

• Built in 1995 and holding 1,822 passengers, P&O Cruises' Oriana will exit in August 2019 (future plans not announced by press time).

Travel guide publisher Lonely Planet (www.lonelyplanet.com) released, in May, its first-ever guidebooks about cruise ports. Titles available at press time were "Cruise Ports Caribbean" as well as "Scandinavia & Northern Europe" and "Alaska." Each contains information on sights in and around the port cities, advice on booking excursions and cultural information.

The guides cost $19.99 each and can be purchased at bookstores or at shop.lonelyplanet.com/pages/guide-books.

Our first stop during a May 2018 cruise around the British Isles was St. Peter Port on Guernsey. Online, we had booked a tour there with Tour Guernsey (Barnabe Ltd., Market St., St. Peter Port, Guernsey, England, GY1 1HB, U.K.; phone +44 778 1423 616, www.tourguernsey.com), whom we recommend enthusiastically.

While on a 14-day Panama Canal voyage aboard Holland America Line’s Oosterdam, Oct. 21-Nov. 4, 2017, my husband, Richard, and I participated in an onshore excursion in Colombia titled “Cartagena by Land & Sea.”

We learned about the 4-hour excursion in an email sent to us by Holland America about six weeks before the cruise. We booked the excursion on the ship for $89.95 per person.

My husband, George, and I took Value World Tours’ Holland and Belgium “Tulip Cruise,” April 21-28, 2017, on the river ship Bellejour.

One thing I thought travelers should know — the weather was quite cool and windy in both Holland and Belgium (as low as 9°C up to a high of 15°C [48°F-59°F]), and our cabin, number 122, had little heat. Cold air came from the vents.

We were finally able to obtain some extra blankets, but, even with that, we had some sleepless nights freezing.

If you enjoy travel to pristine wilderness areas and observing wildlife up close, an expedition trip to the Arctic or Antarctic should be on your travel list.

When my wife, Betty, and I traveled to Antarctica in 2015, our trip didn’t include a visit to the Falklands (Islas Malvinas) or South Georgia. After travel discussions with others, we realized that we had missed out on exceptional bird, sea mammal and landscape viewing opportunities.

As we had enjoyed our two previous polar experiences, our next decision was whether to consider another, more inclusive Antarctica trip or focus only on an expedition visit to the Falklands and South Georgia.

Many polar expeditions spend only two to three days each in the Falklands and South Georgia, either on the way to or returning from Antarctica. Uncooperative weather and sea conditions can easily reduce the number of off-ship excursions when you have only a few days to visit each area. We decided that if we really wanted to increase our chances for as many viewing opportunities as possible, we needed to maximize the number ofdays in each destination.

With this in mind, we found that Poseidon Expeditions (Providence, RI; 347/801-2610, www.poseidon expeditions.com) offered the itinerary that matched our interests and price range ($25,000 for two, excludingflights).

In November 2017, we embarked on a 13-day expedition that started in Puerto Madryn, Argentina, and ended in Ushuaia. The expedition schedule included 2½ days in the Falkland Islands and 5½ days in South Georgia.

Tourism to the Caribbean in the fall of 2017 took a big hit following the significant damage done by hurricanes Irma and Maria. Cruise ships responded to the situation there by canceling or modifying their itineraries, and passenger bookings dropped.

By early November, the prospect of empty cabins precipitated some great last-minute bargains for frugal travelers like me.

As the southern islands in the Caribbean chain had escaped most of the hurricanes’ impact, a 7-day cruise on the Celebrity Summit (beginning Jan. 6, 2018) to Barbados, Antigua, St. Kitts, Saint Lucia and St. Thomas sounded like a perfect fit for my husband, Lynn, and me. With Celebrity’s sale price, we secured a window-view cabin for a total of $1,160 for the two of us, including taxes and port charges. Except for St. Thomas, all of these were islands we had never seen.