Cruise

One of the sources I check when I’m researching a destination is Global Greeter Network (www.globalgreeternetwork.info). 

As a child, I had a very mild case of polio. While I never had any trouble breathing, I did have trouble walking for a few weeks, but after a week or so in the hospital and a few weeks of being carried around by my father, I regained my ability to walk and all seemed well. 

Princess Cruises’ Crown Princess was forced to dock in Los Angeles on Nov. 16 after more than 170 people on board, both crew and passengers, became infected with norovirus. On a voyage that started on Oct. 18, the ship, carrying a total of 4,169 people, was returning from a round trip to ports in Hawaii and Tahiti.

The virus, which causes fever, nausea and diarrhea, struck the same ship in April 2014, infecting 129 people. As it was in April, the Crown Princess will be subjected to rigorous sterilization before continuing on its next voyage.

My husband and I had booked a cruise on Holland America Line’s Prinsendam, which had a port call in Fowey, Cornwall, England, on July 24, 2014. We’re great fans of the PBS British comedy “Doc Martin” and wanted to see the town of Port Isaac, where it’s filmed. In February, I decided to contact Dacey’s Cornish Tours (St. Paul, MN; 651/484-4689,

daceyscornishtours.com), an advertiser in ITN, to see if they would have suggestions on how to get there.

For our third trip to Svalbard, the Arctic archipelago northwest of mainland Norway, my wife, Gwen, and I chose to travel on Quark Expeditions’ (Waterbury, VT; 888/332-0008, www.quarkexpeditions.com) all-suite, 120-passenger Sea Spirit. The ship is the old “Spirit of Oceanus” of the former line Cruise West.

Excluding airfare but counting a 5% discount for being past customers, the cost for our 10-night, 11-day cruise, June 14-24, 2013, was approximately $20,000 for the two of us. 

Crystal Cruises (Los Angeles, CA; 888/722-0021, www.crystalcruises.com) is adjusting their ships’ dinner dress code. 

Two-night, one-day cruises from Florida to the Bahamas are offered on the ex-Baltic ferry Bahamas Celebration, which holds 1,250 passengers in 502 cabins.

According to the website www.bahamascelebration.com, the ship departs every other day from Palm Beach, sailing at 6 p.m., arriving at 8 a.m. in the Bahamas “for a full day of fun activities” and then departing that same day at 6 p.m. for arrival back in Palm Beach at 7 a.m. the next day. In other words, these are cruises for night owls. 

(part 2)

A lot of you make all of your travel arrangements, yourselves, these days, using online booking engines to purchase flight tickets and reserving tours on tour companies’ websites, but we wanted to hear from any of our subscribers who prefer to let a travel agent do the work or who have had a positive experience using one recently. We asked you to include the following details.