Cruise

(Second of two parts)

On a round-trip cruise off of Baja out of Los Cabos, Mexico, Jan.10-17, 2015, my wife and I sailed with Un-Cruise Adventures (Seattle, WA; 888/862-8881, www.un-cruise.com). 

Their ships are small, with 22 to 82 guests. We sailed on the Safari Endeavour, which is one of the larger ships, but we had only about 40 passengers, 50% of capacity. 

All of their cruises are one week long, Saturday to Saturday — perfect for little getaway vacations, especially if you live in the Western US. 

A local newspaper mentioned a cruise ship that travels between Montego Bay, Jamaica, and Cuba, making five landings in Cuba.

I went on the website, www.yourcubacruise.com, in April and booked a cruise with ease through Cuba Cruise (phone the Toronto, Ontario, office at 855/364-4999), selecting one of the few balcony suites for CAD1,414 per person, double occupancy, which worked out to $2,318 for both my wife and me. Shore excursions and booze are not included, but onboard meals and services are. Air miles covered our airfare to Jamaica.

Cruises to Havana, Cuba, from Miami with Carnival Cruise Lines (800/ 764-7419, www.carnival.com) were approved by the US Department of the Treasury on July 7. The 7-night biweekly sailings will begin in May 2016, and itineraries will meet US regulations for People-to-People travel, which do not allow for free time on the island. Cruise fares were starting at $2,990 per person, double, plus.

Relaxed cancellation policies

Reacting to the current uncertain travel conditions, airlines and tour companies have adopted (probably temporarily) flexible terms and conditions that will allow travelers to cancel or reschedule trips easily and with little or no penalty.

In what may well be a travel industry first, Uniworld, to encourage the travel-shy, is offering free travel insurance on most of their 60 European river cruises in April and May of this year.

With Uniworld’s “Worry-free Travel Protection Gold Plan,” guests can cancel for any reason up until the day of departure. Cancellation coverage guarantees a refund of 100% of the cruise cost in cash and travel certificates.

Graham Collins of Vancouver, B.C., Canada, found out the hard way that the fine print in his Trip Mate travel insurance policy did not cover an unexpected change in his freighter’s itinerary.

Early in 2001 he boarded a freighter for a round-trip Vancouver/Chile/Vancouver itinerary. When booking with TravLtips, he was encouraged to purchase a travel insurance package for US$340.

Editor’s note: Continuing to up­date his information on travel medi­cal insurance (see May ’95, pg. 46), Wayne offers the following.

This article is meant to help you choose a travel-insurance policy that has a lenient “pre­existing” medical condition clause. There are major dif­ferences among the available policies.

Amid a rash of tour-company failures, including a few large operators within the last few years, the traveling public came to the scary realization that there was an underappreciated hazard connected with buying a tour package.

The full amount paid for a tour might completely disap­pear before the tour ever be­gan, or travelers might end up being stranded halfway through a tour without even transportation home.

When the rug is pulled out

These travel nightmares did in­deed descend upon a large number of