In order to help meet the needs of people with autism and other sensory sensitivities, Carnival Cruise Line (800/764-7419, www.carnival.com) worked with the nonprofit organization KultureCity (www.kulturecity.org), which advocates for people with sensory disabilities, and became the first cruise line to be certified by the group as “sensory inclusive.”
Viking Cruises (Los Angeles, CA; 855/338-4546, www.vikingcruises.com) has changed its name to simply “Viking,” introducing the corresponding website www.viking.com. Its divisions Viking River Cruises and Viking Ocean Cruises maintain their names, and a new division has been added, Viking Expeditions, with cruises by specially designed ships to begin in 2022.
My husband and I were able to access Granada, Nicaragua, for a lovely excursion during a “Portraits of Panama” canal cruise with Oceania Cruises. On the Sirena, the cruise started in Miami and ended in Los Angeles (but did not have an actual stop in Panama), and our excursion was on Nov. 29, 2019.
A month before my 83rd birthday, I left for a 3-week solo trip in Europe. It began with a 2-week river cruise out of Budapest (Aug. 8-22, 2019) and ended with a week’s stay in Amsterdam, the terminus of the cruise.
The cruise, “Grand European Tour,” was with Viking River Cruises (Woodland Hills, CA; 855/338-4546, vikingcruises.com).
In China, an outbreak of a newly identified viral respiratory disease had infected more than 17,000 people as of press time, 361 of whom had died. The virus is a coronavirus, in the same family as the agent that causes the disease called SARS, which killed more than 700 people, mostly in China, during 2002-2003. While there is some evidence that the virus can be transmitted by people who are asymptomatic, this has not yet been confirmed. **
We have had a long-term passion for history and decided to act on it once again by booking a cruise titled “In the Wake of the Vikings,” with who else but Viking Ocean Cruises (Woodland Hills, CA; 866/984-5464, www.vikingcruises.com/oceans)! It sailed a portion of the world we had not experienced and was rich in Norse history.
8 days, 7 nights in western TURKEY, May 16-23 & Sept. 26-Oct. 3, 2020. Highlights: Board gulet at Mediterranean port of Göcek/hike Faralya to Kabak/2,500-year-old ruins of Sidyma/ancient burial grounds in Üçag˘iz/Ottoman castle at Kale/ruins at Patara/cross Babadagˆ mountain for view of Butterfly Valley/“ghost town” of Kayaköy. £2,465 ($3,224) ppdo. Single supp., £645 ($844). Peter Sommer Travels (Monmouth, Wales, UK; in US & Can., 855/443-3027, www.petersommer.com).
