Cruise

In mid-December ’03, 759 people — most from the U.S., Canada and Europe — gathered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to board a ship going 1,000 miles down the mightiest river in the world, the exotic Amazon. They looked forward to stopping en route at several Caribbean islands, including Devil’s Island.

As required, each had obtained a yellow fever inoculation and a Brazilian visa. Most had also purchased antimalaria pills. Many had done extensive research on the Amazon and its indigenous people as well as the various ports of call.

In March ’03 we took a trip to India and around Africa with Orient Lines, which arranged all flights. Our troubles began early on.

by Jay Brunhouse

It was through an ad in ITN years ago that we first found the greatest travel agent ever, Pannir Murugesu.

We enjoyed a wonderful 10-day cruise aboard the Regal Princess in May ’02, traveling round trip from Copenhagen. In addition to Denmark, we visited Sweden, Finland, Russia, Estonia, Poland and Norway. I would like to give some tips on doing the shore excursions on your own as we did.

The two major difficulties we encountered on this cruise were 1) the many different currencies that were necessary for public transportation and admissions and 2) traversing the long distances into the cities from where the ship docked.

by Carol O'Hara, Orangevale, CA

ITN brought to our attention exactly the right barge trip for us. We were to be in France in April ’03 to attend a World War I history conference, and French Country Waterways (Box 2195, Duxbury, MA 02331-9977; phone 800/222-1236 or 781/934-2454 or visit www.fcwl.com) was offering an itinerary through the Champagne region from April 20 (Easter Sunday) through the 26th.

My wife, Esta Lee, and I took a Russian river cruise between St. Petersburg and Moscow, June 4-18, ’03. We used Vantage Deluxe World Travel (90 Canal St., Boston, MA 02114; phone 888/734-0188), which had chartered the Novikov Priboy for several trips. The cost of the cruise was just over $3,000 per person, including round-trip airfare from Washington, D.C., all meals and most sightseeing.

We think Vantage did a first-rate job of organizing and overseeing the trip.

I have always felt that the cruise lines’ system of demanding tips from passengers is invidious. Why do they not pay their staff a decent wage and absorb the cost in the fares rather than expect the passengers to do this as a “kindness”?

Some tipping is totally ridiculous. On a Princess line ship, we never saw the maître d’ for two weeks until the last night, when he started to make his smiling rounds of the tables. I was never quite sure of his function. . .

Regarding tips being placed on passengers’ credit card bills on cruises, we have encountered this twice recently.