Cruise

by

“This suite is sweeeeet!”

My wife, Gina, and I took Holland America’s 114-day world cruise aboard the Amsterdam, Jan. 4-April 24, 2008, out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. While we booked many shore excursions with the ship, we felt their overland excursions were overpriced.

In August ’07 my husband, Robert, and I booked a 14-day South America cruise on the Norwegian Dream; we would leave Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Feb. 3, 2008. At the same time, we booked a shore excursion, “Antarctic Flightseeing,” online for $2,199 per person. We received written confirmation from Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) that same month.

In November ’07 we made our final payment on the cruise, and in December we received our itinerary and confirmation of the shore excursion.

My husband, Lynn, and I were to join my parents in Philadelphia where all four of us would continue on to England and begin our anticipated 2-week Baltic cruise aboard Celebrity Cruises’ Constellation, June 2-16, 2007. (For the cruise, two of us paid a total of $8,768, which included airfare and $518 for trip insurance.)

by Randy Keck, part 2 of 3 on Thailand

A 45-day self-guided trip to southern South America and Antarctica that my wife, Shirley, and I took Dec. 31, 2007-Feb. 14, 2008, took a great deal of planning. I’d like to share some of the valuable lessons learned from this trip.

My sister, Judy, and I agreed that July ’07 was the right time for us to tour the land of our paternal grandparents: Norway.

Experienced river cruise travelers, we took the 12-day Ukraine trip “Footsteps of the Cossacks” on the Viking Lavrinenkov with Viking River Cruises, Sept. 24-Oct. 6, 2007.

The cost was about $2,900 without airfare, and we also had several discounts given at different times. Most shore excursions were included, the exceptions being concerts, wine tasting, etc.

by Glenna Lybrand, Mount Ida, Arkansas

An Amsterdam-Budapest cruise on Viking River Cruise's (877/668-4546) Viking Pride one May evoked these observations:

The Danube, immortalized as “blue,” is actually a dirty gray color.