Cruise

My husband, William, and I were to take a 12-day Amazon River cruise aboard the Princess Regal, Jan. 16-28, 2007. The cost of our trip was $6,653 including airfare.

We flew out of San Francisco on Oct. 11, 2006, destined to board the Pacific Princess in Cape Town, South Africa, for a 29-day voyage across the Indian Ocean ending in Australia. After arriving in Frankfurt, Germany, for the last leg of our flight, with Lufthansa, the airline ramp agent denied us entry onto the plane because we each did not have one completely blank visa page in our passports.

Dear Steve, my husband and I were to sail on a 30-day South Pacific cruise with (a major ship line) on January 22nd. We arrived at the port on time and healthy.

Our family of four took a 10-day trip to Egypt, Nov. 16-27, 2006. We booked it with Prem Sharma of Somak Safaris (2700 East Imperial Highway, Ste. N, Brea, CA 92821; 714/985-3456, www.somaksafaris.com). (We had also traveled through Somak in 2004, to Tanzania.)

An impossible situation occurred in September ’06 while I was booking a February ’07 air trip. My wife, Tina, and I would fly Delta from New York to Amsterdam, then take KLM Royal Dutch Airlines to Hong Kong, take a cruise, then fly out of Bangkok to Amsterdam and back to New York.

After much difficulty, we were able to hold two business-class tickets through Delta’s SkyMile program using KLM. However, we were short 78,000 frequent-flyer miles, so we wished to transfer 78,000 Starpoints from our Starwood American Express program.

Dear Reader, in my August ’06 column I replied to Daniel Crough, who had shared a letter he wrote to Princess Cruises suggesting that they change their frequent-cruiser program to recognize not only the number of cruises a person takes but each cruise’s length as well. For example, he felt that two 14-day cruises ought to be more valuable to Princess than three 7-day cruises.

Have you “been there, done that” with big-ship cruises in the Caribbean, Alaska and the Mediterranean? Maybe it’s time to try one of the most exotic cruises on Earth, with Zegrahm Expeditions aboard the intimate Clipper Odyssey, from New Guinea to Vanuatu across the southwest Pacific Ocean.

This is the South Pacific at its finest, with gorgeous coral atolls, visits to tiny, isolated villages little changed since the time of Captain Cook, lots of World War II history, and great snorkeling, diving, natural history and bird-watching.

I feel I have to respond to two letters, one dissing an airline (Oct. ’06, pg. 31) and one a cruise line (Dec. ’06, pg. 29).

Usually, the ships that cruise in Russia are rather sparse in amenities, unless you upgrade to a suite, but our cabin aboard the M/S Tikhi Don, with Grand Circle Travel (347 Congress Ave., Boston, MA 02210; 800/959-0405, www.gct.com), had regular beds, a TV, a Western-style bath, a phone, an in-room safe, a fridge, two chairs and a table as well as closet space. We even had great reading lights above the beds, which we’ve never seen before. We chose the middle deck, where the cabins are 150 square feet and each have a picture window.

We went on a 16-day cruise-tour from Beijing to Shanghai, “China’s Cultural Delights,” with Viking River Cruises (Woodland Hills, CA; 877/668-4546, www.vikingrivercruises.com), Aug. 5-21, ’06. Airfare was included, and the price was $5,500.