October 2008

My husband, Steve, and I have had very good luck with hiring our own private guides when disembarking from a cruise ship, rather than paying the exorbitant prices for the line’s shore excursions.

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.

The Medina of Fez, Morocco, is reputedly the oldest and largest vehicle-free contiguous area in the world. It was built in the 11th century and is ensconced by 17 kilometers of walls.

Here are a few follow-ups to the collection of letters in the July ’08 issue, pages 44-49.

My wife, son and I rode the Glacier Express (www.glacierexpress.ch) from Zermatt to St. Moritz, Switzerland, on June 2, 2008, and we were planning on renting a car in St. Moritz to drive to Bolzano and Lago Maggiore in Italy.

Our AAA travel agent advised us that the train would not arrive in St. Moritz until 5 p.m. and that the Hertz rental agency, located about five miles from the train station, closed at 5:30. I decided that it would be close, but, since Swiss trains are “never late,” we could make it.

I want to relate an incident that occurred on Aug. 4, 2008, at the Charles de Gaulle Airport in France.

Nine months out, on Dec. 6, 2006, my wife and I called US Airways directly and purchased three tickets for a Sept. 8, 2007, flight from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Philadelphia and on to Venice, Italy, with return from Rome on Sept. 24. For the three of us we paid $5,521 for full-fare economy-class tickets, then upgraded to business class using frequent-flyer points.

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.

My wife, Dorothy, and I were trying to decide which tour company to take for a tour of the Chilean fjords and Patagonia.