Cruise

by Lew Toulmin

by Judith Anshin, Contributing Editor

My wife and I and four of our friends booked a cruise on the eight-person barge Horizon II of French Country Waterways (Duxbury, MA; 800/222-1236).

I enjoyed Lew Toulmin’s October 2010 “The Cruising World” column, reviewing various cruise lines, but since he has not sailed with Holland America Line (HAL) and I have done at least five of their cruises (from 1997 to 2009, Alaska twice; Australia to New Zealand; the Baltics, and the Mediterranean), I want to share some of my observations.

by Bill Altaffer, San Diego, CA

I normally do not purchase travel insurance, choosing instead to self-insure. However, in April 2010, when I booked and paid for the two trips my wife and I planned to take in 2011 with Cruise West aboard the Spirit of Oceanus (Muscat, Oman, to Alexandria, Egypt, April 4-11, and Reykjavik, Iceland, to Halifax, Canada, Sept. 1-11), something (a little birdie?) kept telling me, ‘Buy travel insurance.’

My husband, Tom, and I flew to Amsterdam on our way to board a ship on Aug. 2, 2010, out of Rotterdam. I had purchased our air tickets through our travel agent the previous February. In her office, we had talked about buying them through the cruise company or independently. Because the flight booked through the cruise line might not be direct, we decided to go directly from Seattle to Amsterdam with Delta.

Dear Globetrotter:

Welcome to the 419th issue of your monthly overseas travel magazine, the original travelers’ forum.

by Julie Skurdenis