Q Don t know if you folks are allowed to do this but I would love your opinion on a 33-Day Voyage on

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Q Read about your site in one of the travel magazines and would like to know a bit about the Free Business Airfare Offer they have at Regent Cruises. We are looking at a cruise hawaii tour packages in South America on the Seven Seas Mariner next December 8th that starts in Rio  de Janeiro hawaii tour packages and ends in Buenos Aires. We ll be booking the Free Air deal but we really want to get into Business Class. If I pick the right agent is there a chance of an upgrade? Can you tell us how to make sure we get the best seats and the best flights out of  Oklahoma City?  Wer re thinking of booking category F. o you recommend that category and are there any cabins to avoid
A -  Regent s Free Air Offer is an effective marketing ploy but we are unaware of any cruise line that has ever really given consumers Free Airfare. What the ads do not explain is that you can get a much better price by booking on a cruise-only basis.
Regent s Air Department is one of the few that receives hawaii tour packages an A rating. They will work with your consultant to get you the best possible schedule using their contracted carriers. The Business Class upgrade on your sailing is $2598 per person. But that is not the real price since you are adding that add-on to the Free Air price which is higher than the cruise only price.
When your consultant does the math, you will see that the real cost of your business air is approaching $4,000 per person. You may want to do your own air. Remember that you will need to wait until January 8th of 2013 to make any reservations. Do be aware that cruise lines are not really quoting an airfare. They are, instead, quoting an air package that includes transfers and baggage handling as well as some rather pricey taxes.
Here is our advice, hawaii tour packages given that this is a South America sailing beginning in Rio. We do think you should book at least one-night in Rio prior to the ship s departure. You may want to consider flying Business class to Rio but doing coach on the return since that will involve flying in daylight. Have your consultant do the $150 per person air deviation fee to enable you to get prompt confirmation eleven months prior to sailing and seat assignments.
traveltruth.com hawaii tour packages is a collaborative effort designed to offer the vacation consumer real world advice without exaggeration, deception, or sales bias. It is the ultimate insider's view of how things really work, written by an award-winning team of travel consultants and journalists. We are the owners, managers, and staff at Churchill Turen Ltd.
A Yes, we saw it. It struck us as a combo platter of light investigative reporting that really didn t take on the corporate entities that are selling our kids on corn syrup, salt, and chemically modified foods. But anything on this subject is helpful so we won t be too critical.
The commentary on fish reflected some information we reported here several years ago. One expert hawaii tour packages said that virtually no one who orders Red Snapper in a restaurant is eating hawaii tour packages Red Snapper. Those who order white tuna on a sushi menu should know there is no such fish. They are really being served Escobar, a fish that causes diarrhea.
The reporting on airline food contamination was interesting because it showed that the problem is not ion the galley but in the food catering kitchens hawaii tour packages that serve the airlines. It was nice to know that First Class and Business Class passengers are just as likely to get Salmonella poisoning as coach passengers, a bit of democracy at 30,000 feet.
Some of the blue light/bacteria smear reporting was interesting. 20-20 claims that the single most likely source of contamination in the average restaurant, the place to pick up e-coli and his cousins, is your seat. They recommend that diners get up and wash their hands after they are seated. But, then again, aren t you returning to the same seat. It turns out that restaurant seats, in all price ranges, are rarely disinfected.
A Well it s a bit of a marketing ploy but you can actually see wildlife like the elusive narwhals and search for polar bears in their native habitat. The Arctic is big and beautiful and one of the experiences hawaii tour packages you will never forget is hot air ballooning over a massive iceberg, The company that we like for this sort of soft adventure is Arctic Kingdom. hawaii tour packages Try to plan your trip eleven months prior to your favorite departure date as the air needs to be planned surgically.
Q The family, six of us, are headed for two nights on Santorini as part of a Greek islands itinerary planned with Isram Travel in New York. Is there a particular restaurant on Santorini that you think we should go out of our way to try? Will the cruise ship hordes ruin our time on the island?
A We re getting excellent reports from the Nichteri Restaurant in Kamari. Make sure your driver waits and offer to buy him dinner. The vast majority of cruise guests will be gone before sunset. That is rather interesting since one of the primary  reasons to go to Santorini, and particularly the village of Oia, is to watch the sunset.
Q Don t know if you folks are allowed to do this but I would love your opinion on a 33-Day Voyage on the Oceania Marina in April of 2014 from Tahiti to New York via Easter island, Peru, Ecuador, the Panama Canal, some of the Caribbean and even a day in Charleston hawaii tour packages before heading to New York. We re in our early seventies and have just started traveling seriously. I m not a jogger hawaii tour packages but we get around OK. We ve done two previous cruises on Holland America. And what cabin should we get?
A Look up and down this page. No Ads. We can do and say anything here, so no worries. We absolutely love this itinerary. You ll see the best of Polynesia, Machu Picchu, Easter island, the Pitcairn islands, and that s not even half the itinerary. We say do it and try to get a Penthouse level cabin for that number of days. You will hit a bit of rough water and the Marina, one of our favorite ships, is a bit top-heavy. One third of your cruise will be spent at sea so you don t want a ship any smaller than the Mariner. Port or Starboard is irrelevant, choose your cabin based on the best available mid-ship location on deck 10. This is one of the very best laid out itineraries we ve ever seen and it is a steal based on current discounts. May we congratulate you on your good eye ?
Q My husband and I were planning our first cruise on a Danube River Boat Cruise. We ve read so many wonderful things about these cruises on this site and others. We didn t use a travel agent and tried booking the cruise ourselves with Tauck, Viking River, and Grand Circle. I am rather shocked to say that we were turned down by each line because my husband uses a scooter to get around in port. He has enough mobility to do some limited walking around the ship but I don t see why they would not agree to help one of their own guests on or off the boat so he could use his scooter. Any light you can shed on this will be appreciated. I really got the impression they don t want our business.
A Well they don t. The average scooter that you are referring to weighs between 130-140 pounds. Crew cannot be held responsible to lift that much equipment, at some personal risk, on and off the boat in every port. River boats have extremely limited hawaii tour packages storage space. There is just not enough room in the average cabin to keep a piece of equipment that size. If you could make do with a collapsible wheelchair, each of the lines you mention hawaii tour packages would be happy to assist you.
We think you ought to be dealing with a travel hawaii tour packages professional who specializes in dealing with clients with disabilities. hawaii tour packages This is an important and specialized area of travel and it requires specific training and experience. Try Flying Wheels hawaii tour packages Travel in Minnesota.
Q We ve just returned from a cruise on the Oasis of the Seas and some friends we had dinner with told us that they had gotten friendly with their cabin attendant who told them that crew is paid next to nothing and really hawaii tour packages survives on tips. In this day and age and with minimum wage laws, I wonder if this could be true? Do you have any information on this?
A -  Workers aboard cruise ships are not protected by US laws as they are classified as foreign hawaii tour packages workers aboard ships that are not registered in the United States. They lack the same Minimum Wage, Health Care, and Working Conditions rights that you and I enjoy as citizens. By every measure they are exploited labor. Janitorial and cleaning staff average about $500 per month. A waiter can make $1,000 per month. They usually work seven days a week. They sleep below decks in bunk bed accommodations but the major cruis elines are good advertisers so we see little int he way of investigative reporting on this issue.
On the other side of the Atlantic, London s Channel 4 sent a reporter undercover to work for five weeks aboard the Celebrity Eclipse. Celebrity, it should be noted, is the most upscale of the mass market lines and the Eclipse is a new generation ship, so conditions are marginally better than what crew might face on less upscale competitors.
The on-air expose reported hawaii tour packages that the lowest paid on board workers were receiving about $600 per month or about $2.00 per hour with no gratuities. Most crew members were working seven days a week for six or eight months. Workers are often forced, it was reported, to pay expensive fees to the recruitment agencies in their home country that allowed them to obtain their job.
Over five weeks, he earned $375 an hour and he was expected to work sixteen hours each day. This was less than the recruitment agency he used had promised. A story in the Daily Telegraph pointed out that he was charges $700 by the recruitment agency to buy his uniform, get a visa, and take out compulsory medical coverage. He started his work heavily in debt.
The documentary report pointed out, in some detail, exactly why cruise ships