lynncarol

The family of friends of ours was in a very serious car accident driving in Portugal. Our bus could not leave the port area one afternoon as the exit was blocked by a collision between a truck and a car. We were very happy our tour was on a bus, especially near the larger cities, as trucks, busses and cars squeeze past each other with inches to spare on narrow winding roads.

I forgot to add that while visiting the vineyards along the river, we were told temperatures can get up to 110 degrees in the summer. So, there is no way I would recommend this cruise in the that season..

The Duoro River in Portugal has five dams and you get to go through the locks at each one. One of the locks is 35 meters high, one of the tallest in Europe. So no worries about water levels. We were just on a cruise there this past April. As others have said, the river is very scenic and I'm not sure how well you could see it driving along the road. Yes, we missed being able to walk into the city from the ship (well except for Porto, and that involved a long walk across a big bridge) which we always enjoyed on other river cruises. My husband and I were glad we went, but for us, it was a 'one and done' experience.

Depends on what kind of walker you have. If it is one of those roller-wheeled walkers, I wouldn't try the trail as I recall it was mostly gravel. If you are active and using a regular walker, it could work

Ah...you are looking at the Vantage World Travel home page in Facebook. The one that is delivering the real truth is the Vantage Deluxe World Travel Complaints page, which is hosted by a consumer advocate and now has over 1000 members, including current Vantage employees. Latest news on that is that all employees were informed they were "laid off" as of yesterday and the Vantage phone lines are no longer manned....you just get a recording asking you to call back later. A very sad ending to what once was a great cruise line and one that now has left lots of folks out lots of dollars.

My husband and I are in our late seventies and have traveled extensively both on land and by cruises. Both of us agree that if we limit our choice to a port that we visited just on a cruise, we would pick Odessa Ukraine. In 2014 we were on a small mega-yacht through Vantage on a 17 day Black Sea cruise. One of our stops was supposed to be Yalta, but as Russia had just annexed Crimea, we ended up with 3 days in Odessa which is gorgeous! Founded by Catherine the Great, she envisioned a Paris on the Black Sea and planned a city overlooking the ocean with wide tree-lined boulevards and amazing edifices including museums, opera houses and palaces. We were allowed lots of time to wander about on our own and found the local folks to be welcoming and gracious. It breaks my heart to think of what has become of them now.

I am on Facebook and have been following the Vantage issues closely. Bottom line: Some folks have been waiting for over three years for a refund and despite Vantage's promises, none are forthcoming. At this point, although a few fortunately people have gotten refunds through their credit cards or banks, nobody else has much hope to ever recover their money. It also appears that Vantage has not been paying their employees either and are confiscating any tips not paid directly to the employee in cash. Their ships are no longer in service and nobody expects the company will emerge triumphantly and honor future cruises after this fiasco. Unfortunately, Vantage is still trying to sell cruises to unsuspecting folks, but apparently tells them that payment by credit card is not allowed.

Many years ago, my husband surprised me with a cruise from NYC to Bermuda for our twentieth anniversary (which was in June). It was my first cruise and almost my last as I was terribly seasick most of the way down. It took ten years for him to persuade me to take another cruise... anywhere. Now I love cruising although still am not the best sailor. Fortunately, today's medications make things a lot easier. Maybe talk with your doctor and get something to bring just in case.

cruisemom42 Your outlook on cruising is very similar to mine. I always check out the the itinerary first. And lots of what others think of as critical (free drinks, laundry, unlimited wifi, casinos, personal concierges etc) are not important to me. However, if I think I will never experience a particular event again, I will definitely spend the money. A 17 day- Black Sea mega-yacht cruise, balloon ride in Sedona, Alaska float plane to see the bears, a small-plane sightseeing tour over Canyonlands are among the things I have done that I know will never occur again in my life. Were they expensive at the time? Yes but my memories are priceless.

Nutsaboutgolf. I will be happy to elaborate about our disastrous experience with Celebrity Air. As mentioned, once our flight to Philly was interrupted by bad weather, Celebrity told us we were on our own to rebook. But now we had to rebook to Oslo, not England and needed another connecting flight. Celebrity told our airline we were only authorized for 2 legs, not three. Fortunately, the airline agent felt sorry for us and comped our third leg of the flight. When I phoned Celebrity with our new arrival info, I begged them to let my elderly parents, who were supposed to fly from North Carolina to Philly and onwards with us, know what happened. This was in 2007 and I had no way to contact my parents who had no cell phone nor knew how to use the internet. Turns out 2 days went by before my folks were told what happened to us and my frantic father (who was on blood thinners) while desperately looking for us in South Hampton, tripped and got badly bruised. Meanwhile, Celebrity told us their port agent in Oslo would pick us up and we would be provided free overnight accommodations in Oslo then taken to the ship the next day. None of that happened as planned. The agent was nowhere to be found but finally the information desk at the airport was able to phone his home. An hour later, we were picked up. He assured us the hotel would be free and he would pick us up and take us to the port the next day. Hah! We had to get ourselves to the port, and then once we were on the ship the agent had the nerve to come onboard where we were waiting at guest services and say we never paid for the room. At this point, I lost all control and gave the guest service folks onboard a full accounting of our shabby treatment. They promptly escorted the agent off and told us 'everything will be taken care of'. I will say that the ship's customer service manager after hearing the whole sordid tale, did give us a $500 onboard credit. Much of this we used to buy drinks for my parents, myself and my husband as we were all traumatized by this time.

This happened to us a number of years ago when because of weather we missed our flight from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia and thus our flight on to South Hampton England. Because we had booked air through Celebrity, I naively thought they would take care of us. Hah! Celebrity told us they were not responsible for weather delays and therefore it was up to us to get the airline to reschedule our flights. Consequently we didn't catch up to the ship until Oslo where Celebrity then tried to deny us boarding because we didn't have a ship card. A big mess. Fortunately there were now eight folks trying to board in Oslo and after creating quite a fuss, someone from the ship came over to the gate to admit us.

The Facebook page that our Host refers to about Vantage's bad behavior now has over 700 members. So many reports of cancellations that the moderator has now created a separate file within the discussion group as this Facebook site is becoming overwhelmed with these sad, and often heartbreaking, stories.

Thanks for your feedback. As you mentioned, there was a guard outside the castle itself where the timed admission ticket holders lined up and he was stopping all others from further advancement, so it is lucky that somehow you managed to bypass that issue. Our admission tickets included the park and the palace. I don't understand why you were charged for the shuttle. However, we walked up ourselves and then took the shuttle down for free, so maybe the charge is only for those going up.

Been to St Kitts several times and always utilized the services at christopherom95. Leo's grandmother was a herbalist and he showed us lots of native flora and fauna still in use by the locals today for various medical reasons. He also took us to the Black Rocks area, a walk in the jungle, the fortress, the sugar mill ruins and other attractions, none of which involved sitting on a beach.

Five of us went with Bernard's tours in March of 2022. We were able to completely customize our tour as we had all been there before and each person wanted to see something different this time. 1. Orient beach to see the planes roll in 2. a small pond where tons of iguanas lived in surrounding trees 3. (my wish list) a deserted beach where I recalled years ago a man giving me a sea urchin to hold 4. Star wars museum in town 5. a part of the island where locals lived totally off the beaten track. We had a blast and it wasn't that expensive at all.

oh yes...as to your other questions: No the castle is not visible from the town. Also, If you don't have admission tickets, there is no way you can see it from the road outside the complex either. This was a royal palace and they valued their privacy apparently.

Just at Sintra last month. The big issue is you must make reservations online in advance for entrance to the complex. Fortunately, we had done so as the line to purchase tickets onsite stretched out almost half a block long and didn't seem to be moving much. Once inside, there is a shuttle available to take you up to the castle. No charge, but first come/first served. At the castle itself, you encounter another line to use your timed admission tickets. Those were pretty long too as they seem to try hard to limit the number of folks inside at any one time. There is a cafe/cafeteria onsite but we had packed a picnic lunch so not sure how expensive those meals were.

Only used Viator once and was very unhappy. We had signed up for a walking tour in Ravenna. Two days before the tour, I was informed by the vendor that it would only be in Italian. Not speaking that language I asked to cancel as we were well under the 24 hour deadline to cancel. The merchant charged me anyway, and Viator backed him up. When I disputed the charge to my credit card company, Viator replied with a bunch of total falsehoods saying I had been offered another tour but never showed up. Ergo, the charge went through.

Both Spain and Portugal required vaccinations or negative tests when we originally booked. Apparently that has now been lifted. 9teetosea...Your comments about alcohol warding off germs brought back a fond memory. Years ago my husband and I were independently touring Albania for a week with a guide. He had introduced us to Albania's favorite alcoholic drink, some sort of home-made version with quite a kick. When I developed a chest cold, he told me that his concoction would also work wonders for my cold if I rubbed it on my chest every night. Actually, it did help, maybe because after drinking it, I no longer cared if I had cold symptoms.

First of all, I never said we wouldn't be traveling anymore. Last September, before this latest river cruise, where I caught Covid, my husband and I spent 3 weeks on our own traveling in Europe and came home feeling fine. So I have every intention of continuing this method of traveling, just not by cruising. Also, vaccine requirements were in place during our ocean cruise in late March of 2022 and were required by the countries we were visiting during our recent the river cruise in Europe. As others have written, somehow they have managed to never get sick but we know folks our age who have,,,with serious consequences. And finally, we are both over 75, so yes, I think our concerns are justified.

Just a heads up. In the last year my husband and I have been on two cruises: an ocean one and a river one and in each case, as masking was optional, we didn't. Both times on the last day on the cruise we got a sore throat and returning home, tested positive for Covid. (Fortunately a mild case). We are fully vaccinated and boosted and all passengers were supposed to have been also. I have reluctantly concluded that at least in the near future...no more cruises for us.

I too am surprised the tour won't meet you at the ship. We have done plenty of private tours while cruising and they always include a port pick-up.

I can only speak to tendering with Holland America as we have a friend whose wife is in a traditional wheel chair. They just learned their ship is tendering in Juneau and as she will not be allowed on the tender, she can't leave the ship at that port

Doing it on your own is much cheaper however and you can chose how long you want to spend at each attraction. For example, we absolutely loved the forest and fauna that surround Pena Castle and spent a lot of time exploring that area which I am sure is not a highlight of a regular tour.

My husband I did a day trip on our own to Sintra while in Lisbon. Famous for Pena Palace as well as other important sites. Easy to get there, just leave from Lisbon's Rossio train station which has a direct line to Sintra. Bus station is just around the corner from where you get off at Sintra and you can purchase shuttle service (bus 434) to access the sites. Just be sure to purchase admission tickets in advance.