Best Of
Re: Small Ship Cruising
Sealord - I look forward to your critique and especially your thoughts on the overall onboard experience…..Ponant versus Windstar/Surf versus Tauck’s riverboats. Sorry, I know I’m asking a lot but I value your opinion regarding comparing/contrasting the different amenities and common spaces. Thanks in advance.
P.S. - I use river cruising as my benchmark.
kfnknfzk
Re: Small Ship Cruising
Not going to pursue an argument just an opinion. The rooms on the Wind Star are not large but bigger than many standard cruise ship rooms. The Star ships at Windstar are all suites. The Wind Surf has suites and the ship is three times the size of Wind Star. Windstar has gotten numerous awards for their food and in my opinion far better than Ponant from which I just returned. We have eighteen Windstar cruises on all of their ships and two more scheduled. We have five Ponant cruises.
Sealord
Re: Kenya protests and 16 deaths and worldwide tension with Middle East question:
Pegacav We are on the July 16th tour as well. I have been on several journeys with Tauck; they will not risk anyone's safety. And we are also flying through Doha we get in the a.m. of the 15th - look forward to meeting you and to a great trip!!!!
Re: Kenya protests and 16 deaths and worldwide tension with Middle East question:
The safari part of Kenya is out in the bush, you won’t be seeing anybody apart from the workers at the camps.
British
Re: Kenya protests and 16 deaths and worldwide tension with Middle East question:
We leave on July 7 for the Tauck Gorilla Safari, which starts in Tanzania on July 9. We get to Kenya on July 14, and spend 5 days there. I sure hope things have settled down in Kenya by that time. I just got over my worries that our flight on Qatar Airways, which goes through Doha, might be affected by the turmoil in Iran. Looks like flights through Doha are back to normal for the time being.
jonmacks
Re: Kenya protests and 16 deaths and worldwide tension with Middle East question:
Pegacav: Go and enjoy yourselves. Life is too short. You will have a wonderful and spectacular time.
Re: Kenya protests and 16 deaths and worldwide tension with Middle East question:
First of all. Your trip is more than two weeks away. You are only in Nairobi for the last day where most of the action will be and the Tauck people will have any changes or cautions under control.
One advantage that we found when there was an Ebola outbreak on the other side of the continental a few years ago, people started cancelling because they did not realize the outbreak was thousands of miles away. and we had a nice small group.
British
Re: Kenya protests and 16 deaths and worldwide tension with Middle East question:
We just returned from our second safari last Sunday. We were in Tanzania on the Bridges Family Safari. We didn't have any issues anywhere and the people there couldn't have been nicer. We have been on 12 Tauck trips and we feel very comfortable with Tauck and how they take care of their guests. They always keep us informed and never put us at risk. We flew Qatar airlines and we had no delays or cancellations. I hope this helps put your mind somewhat at ease.
Re: Crown Jewel -Switzerland tour
Taxare- the chocolate at Jungfraujoch is some of the best we've had. You can buy it on the mountain, but the shops were very crowded (groups of teens). There is a shop in Interlaken a few blocks down from the hotel that has all the official merchandise. Laderach is a big brand in Switzerland, but we have numerous branches in the NY area so it didn't make sense to bring it home. Same with Lindt. Although we did just buy some Dubai chocolate at Lindt when we were in Paris- it's all the rage here and made great gifts!
We went in June and it was warmer than expected. Packed too many sweaters and not enough T shirts.
SGF
Re: Small Ship Cruising
I am on my fifth small ship cruise right now.
There are really no better cabins to be in as far as motion sickness is concerned.
We are on the Norwegian Fiords cruise. I have never had motion sickness, but two nights ago, the sea was very rough and I felt extremely sick all night and had to have breakfast in bed, the sea calmed and I was fine.
We had a rough night on our Iceland cruise, we were in bed and our bodies kept leaving the mattress and falling back on the bed again one night.
We have taken the Great Lakes cruise, the Arabia cruise which is no more…that would have been perfect for you
Finally, we took the Panama Canal cruise, it’s really interesting and I also think that would be a good one for you.
Your main danger is enjoying all that fabulous onboard food and not being able to fit into your clothing when you get home,
I’ve only taken one Tauck River cruise. I do think the Ponant ship experience is extra extra special.
British