The 352-passenger Spirit of Adventure will celebrate the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth with cruises to Central and South America in 2009, among them the 18-night “High Andes & Galápagos Adventure,” Feb. 21-March 10, 2009.
Following Darwin’s path, passengers will sail from Valparaiso, Chile, to Peru and Ecuador before joining a 3-night cruise aboard MV Galapagos Explorer II in the Galápagos Islands. From £4,354 (near $8,693) per person.
11-day/9-night cruise of NETHERLANDS and BELGIUM. Highlights: Rembrandts in Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum/7,000,000 flowers in Keukenhof Gardens/van Gogh art in Kröller-Müller Museum, Nijmegen/in BELGIUM, Antwerp, Bruges. From $2,609 from East Coast; single supplement, from $1,899. Grand European Tours (Lake Oswego, OR; 800/552-5545, www.getours.com).
14 days/12 nights in CHINA with 4-day cruise, March 5-18, 2009.
Highlights: In Beijing, Forbidden City, Summer Palace, day tour to Great Wall and Ming Tombs/terra-cotta warriors in Xi’an/pandas at zoo in Chongqing/board a 5-star Yangtze cruiser and pass through Three Gorges/shore excursion to Wanxian or Fengdu; kindergarten visit/Three Gorges Dam site/disembark in Wuhan; visit Historical Museum and Yellow Crane Pavilion/in Shanghai, shop in Pudong Economic Zone and on Nanjing Road; visit the Bund, Yu Garden and a silk factory.
The cruise line P&O Cruises (Southampton, UK; www.pocruises.com) has changed its smoking policy to coincide with the UK law, which came into effect in July of 2007, prohibiting smoking in public places. The new policy allows smoking only on ships’ balconies, in certain areas of open decks and in a designated smoking area of one public room.
On July 22, 2009, a total eclipse of the sun will be visible on a path from west to east across central India, continuing over SE Asia, central China and the Pacific Ocean, ending in Polynesia. Viewing times will be as high as 6.39 minutes (a time length which won’t occur again until 2132).
Eclipse of the Century is offering an 8-night cruise from Keelung (Taipei), Taiwan, that will put the ship at an optimum viewing point, near Yakushima Island, Japan.
The company Military Cruise Deals (Walker, MN; 866/964-5482 or visit www.militarycruisedeals.com) offers a search engine for finding and booking cruises, guaranteeing military discounts for the cruises found on their website. The offers are good for military personnel, active, retired or honorably discharged.
If you want to book a cruise on a line that does not allow discounted fares (Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Celebrity), then Military Cruise Deals applies the discount toward your trip insurance, shore excursions or onboard credit.
For its 19-day Suez Canal transit cruises, visiting Egypt, the Sinai, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, Overseas Adventure Travel (Cambridge, MA; 800/493-6824, www.oattravel.com) has added two new ships.
Available January-April 2009, cruises on one of the three 50-passenger ships cost $5,495-$6,395 (plus tax), including airfare from New York.
The Marco Polo has been sold by Norwegian Cruise Line to Global Cruise Lines and will be operated under charter by Transocean (in UK, phone 0845 4300274, www.transoceancruises.co.uk, or see a travel agent). She will keep her name.
Based at London Tilbury, she will cruise the British Isles, North Sea, Baltic Sea and Russia and, in October ’08, across the Atlantic to the West Indies. Sample rates — £849-£2,799 (near $1,681-$5,543) per person for the 13-day Baltic-Russia and £2,299-£5,999 for the 33-day West Indies.
14-day tour includes 10-night cruise aboard the new 48-passenger RV Indochine. Discount of $500 per person for inaugural tour, Oct. 27-Nov. 9, 2008.
Highlights: In Ho Chi Minh City, VIET NAM, Cu Chi Tunnels, rickshaw to Chinese Market, Notre Dame Cathedral/ Mekong River cruise to CAMBODIA, with excursions to snake farm, bonsai seedbed, floating market, temples and a Cham community/Phnom Penh, and the “Killing Fields”/three nights’ Siem Reap to explore Angkor Wat and other Khmer sites.
The Rayavadee Resort (One Premier Corporate Park, Soi Premier, Srinakarin Road, Nongbon, Prawet, Bangkok 10250, Thailand; phone 66 2301 1850 or fax 66 2399 1060), on the coast of Thailand’s Krabi Marine National Park, offers excursions to the park’s tropical islands on the 54-foot Pla Luang, a renovated Siamese junk.
For two people, half-day excursions cost 14,000 baht (near $462) and full-day excursions, 16,000-18,000 baht ($528-594).