Cruise

My wife, Marilyn, and I hired Julia Ivanushkina (Tipanov str 34/3-26, St. Petersburg 195233, Russia; e-mail juliaguide@gmail.com or visit www.spbwondertour.com) to guide us on a May ’08 day tour of St. Petersburg, Russia, because we had seen her ad in ITN’s MART Classifieds.

She did an exceptional job, and her tour was by far the most fascinating and enjoyable we experienced on our 3-week cruise aboard the MS Royal Princess of Princess Cruises.

by Lew Toulmin

Having been on many ocean cruises, here are some thoughts following a cruise-tour my wife, Helen, and I took with Viking River Cruises (Woodland Hills, CA; 800/304-9616). On the “Grand European Tour,” we traveled from Amsterdam to Budapest, June 10-24, 2007.

My wife, Danielle, and I took a segment of the Seven Seas Voyager’s 2008 world cruise, sailing from Singapore to Mumbai, in March ’08. It was scheduled to stop March 22 and 23 in Colombo, Sri Lanka, but two days before our arrival the captain canceled the port, citing security concerns.

My wife and I took an almost 3-week-long tour to Egypt and Jordan with Vantage Deluxe World Travel, Jan. 20-Feb. 8, 2008, at a cost of $10,248 for two, including round-trip airfare from Washington, D.C., to Cairo.

This was advertised as a 5-star trip. It involved two cruises, one on the Nile and the other on Lake Nasser.

I’d say the Nile ship, Crown Empress, was 3-star, not 5-star. This was confirmed by walking through other ships, as they were tied up one next to another; some were obviously better.

I like to travel. As a full-time wheelchair occupant, having had a stroke 10 years ago, I want to pass along a few observations for handicapped travelers.

Together with four couples, my wife, Ana Maria, and I traveled through the rivers and channels of the Netherlands and Belgium, May 10-17, 2008, on a cruise aboard MS Heidelberg booked with Peter Deilmann Cruises, or Deilmann Cruises Europamerica (Alexandria, VA; 800/348 8287, www.deilmann-cruises.com).

We took a magnificent 14-day tour of Antarctica and the Chilean fjords with Smithsonian Journeys (Box 23182, Washington, D.C. 20077-0843; 877/338-8687, www.smithsonianjourneys.org), Jan. 9-23, 2008.

The cost for two was $19,078 including airfare from New York’s JFK to Buenos Aires and Ushuaia, Argentina. We bought trip insurance, at $1,700 for the two of us, primarily because of JFK in January and having only one chance to meet the boat in Argentina.

I took a trip with Grand Circle Travel (GCT), Oct. 6-29, 2007. Along with a “Russian Waterways” cruise-tour I booked two optional extensions: the 5-night “Baltic Capitals: Tallinn, Estonia, and Helsinki, Finland” ($645) and the 3-night “Kiev, Ukraine” ($445).

The total price — including all air transportation from and back to Denver, Colorado; all internal transportation; the main cruise-tour and several optional day tours; the pre- and post-tour extensions, and recommended tips — was $5,100.