Departing from Stanley, Hong Kong, 30-minute sailings in a 28-meter junk around Victoria Harbour are run by Aqua Luna (Pier 1, near the Cultural Center, & Pier 9, Central Ferry Terminal; phone +852 2116 8821).
Afternoon sailings (HKD150, near $19) Tues. & Fri. at 1:30 & 2:30 p.m. Evening sailings (HKD190) daily every hour from 5:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., with “Symphony of Lights” harbor show sailing (HKD240) at 7:30.
The AMET Majesty, the first cruise ship registered in India and flying the Indian flag, took her maiden voyage in June 2011 from Chennai, India. The 35-year-old ship was previously owned by Star Cruises and has been refurbished.
Carrying up to 1,000 passengers, AMET Majesty currently runs weekend and overnight cruises from Chennai, five-day cruises between Chennai, India, and Trincomalee, Sri Lanka, and a 10-day Chennai/Port Blair/Phuket/Chennai cruise.
In a surprise purchase, Windstar Cruises has been acquired for $39 million by the financially sound Anschutz Corporation from its former owners, Ambassadors International, which filed bankruptcy in April 2010. TAC Cruises, LLC, a unit of Anschutz Corp., will continue to operate all scheduled cruises for the three Windstar sailing yachts: Wind Star, Wind Spirit and Wind Surf.
I read with interest the subscriber’s article “Cruising Ukraine’s Dnieper River” (May ’11, pg. 48), regarding her experience with Viking River Cruises. My now-deceased wife, Lois, and I cruised the Dnieper in May ’09 aboard Unique World Cruises’ M/V Dnieper Star.
by Judith Anshin, Contributing Editor
I have been to the Caribbean only once. It wasn’t a destination I usually thought of when planning a short trip, but that has changed now.
I read with interest the subscriber’s letter “Assigned Cabin Too Small” (March ’11, pg. 26), about his experience with Hurtigruten (Sunrise, FL; 866/552-0371). We took the line’s 14-day trip along Norway’s coast (Bergen-Kirkenes-Bergen) Aug. 15-26, 2009, also aboard the Richard With, and I must disagree with one of his observations. He said that “time is available for walking in each port.” That did not correspond with our experience.
On Oct. 18, 2010, four of us left the US for an 11-day Mediterranean cruise on the Costa Cruises liner Costa Mediterranea, sailing from Savona/Genoa, Italy, to Rome and on to ports in Egypt, Cyprus, Greece and Turkey before returning to Savona on Oct. 31. My longtime girlfriend and I had a suite for $8,400.
At the beginning of the cruise, the butler who was assigned to our suite was supposed to help us get our luggage unpacked. He wasn’t there.
A travel companion and I took the 11-night cruise “Eastern Mediterranean & Alexandria, Egypt” aboard Costa Cruises’ Costa Deliziosa, Nov. 11-21, 2010. Excluding airfare, and with an “obstructed” ocean-view cabin, we each paid $1,300.
We enjoyed the ports of call we visited and the time to relax, but we were very disappointed with Costa. We’d had a great experience with them on the Costa Concordia in the western Mediterranean in 2006, however it was quite different this time.
by Joyce Bruck, Ocean Ridge, FL
For some time I had been looking for an interesting trip up the west coast of Africa. I finally found one, offered by Silversea Cruises, and, to my excitement, it offered free air travel and a deep discount.
by Lew Toulmin