Luxury hotelier Ritz-Carlton, under the name Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection (800/542-8680, www.ritzcarlton.com/en/yachts), will be operating three of its own custom-built yachts beginning in 2019. Each will hold up to 298 guests in 149 suites, all with private terraces. Each yacht will feature a restaurant set up by a Michelin-starred chef.
Most cruises are scheduled to last seven to 12 nights. Reservations open in May 2018.
The Greek island of Santorini now limits the number of cruise passengers allowed to land to 8,000 per day. The island averaged about 12,000 visitors per day in 2017. Authorities have also asked cruise lines to better schedule their arrivals and shorten their stopovers so that groups of visitors can be more evenly spread out over the day.
Travelers to Japan’s capital can take a 2½-hour dinner cruise of Tokyo Bay and the Sumida River aboard a yakatabune, a leisure boat with traditional tatami-mat-covered floors. English is not spoken by staff on any of the cruises, which travel round trip from Shinagawa to the Tokyo Skytree, passing under the Rainbow Bridge.
In the letter titled “Traveler’s Power Strip” (Nov. ’17, pg. 49), a subscriber recommended packing the Simran SM-60 power strip with three universal outlets and surge-overload protection.
Someone who plans on taking a cruise, however, should be aware that, while there is no problem with simple multioutlet strips or extension cords, cruise lines do not allow ones that have surge protection because of the possibility of fire.
After taking a Holland America Line cruise, my wife, Bonnie, and I toured the Baltic states in June 2017 with ElderTreks (Toronto, Canada; 800/741-7956, www.eldertreks.com).
In Latvia, our group traveled north on Route E67, along the Riga Gulf, toward Ainaži and the border with Estonia. Just before crossing the border, on June 19, our bus was pulled over at a police checkpoint and a police officer came aboard asking to see everyone’s travel documents (passports).
