Best Of
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
Re: Hotels other than 4 Seasons
We did this trip in 2022 and loved it. The park lodges are fine, but certainly not luxurious. For us, the location more than made up for the hotel rooms not being five star. To wake up in the morning and see views of the Grand Canyon at sunrise - within walking distance - was absolutely incredible. We had visited national parks years ago with our kids, but felt much more "part" of the parks on this trip.
cvc
Re: Two Bridges tours under our belts - compare and contrast
Great photo, bobbette. Please post a review. I would love to read about your experiences.
kfnknfzk
Re: Two Bridges tours under our belts - compare and contrast
Yes Hope, for some reason Bridges tours have the least input from returning guests. Some will.come on with a question about the number and ages of kids ahead of time. We've been seen g more in the last year or 2 so its getting better. Thanx for doing this.
For the most part your experience of the difference btwn river and land tour is the same for all tours. Both have pros and cons.
I too enjoy the planning but since we normally add time pre and post tour I do that then.
Re: Two Bridges tours under our belts - compare and contrast
Great reviews. We did the Blue Danube: Family Riverboat Adventure in 2022 and are just about to embark on the Tanzania: A Grand Family Safari!
We LOVED the river cruise for all the reason you stated! I very much look forward though to seeing Africa!
Re: Small Ship Cruising
After 30+ land tours we changed to river cruises because of my husband’s advancing age and mobility issues. We have done one (1) Ponant small ship cruise (Great Lakes) and would never do another one.
We were both very disappointed in the onboard experience and amenities. There was a very nice auditorium-type room but it was only used for an occasional briefing and was locked all other times. The bar area was one big room with virtually no ambiance. Our level did have a small and very nice area which we used for reading. There was a very small counter/bar area there but it was never operational.
The dining room looked like a cafeteria—again, no ambience in my opinion. There was a small alcove which housed the tiny buffet area with less than stellar food selections. The soups were the best offerings. Dinners were mediocre at best. I rarely eat red meat but one night I had a filet of beef and it was delicious. For the most part we stayed with soup and salad—the salad being iceberg lettuce, never mixed greens.
We never experienced the ship rocking but the tender was very uncomfortable due to the inclement weather one day. I didn’t realize how rough the lakes could become. We were hoping for a lecture on the lakes and their microclimates but that never occurred.
When comparing my small ship experience to that of Tauck’s riverboats, there is no comparison. It would be like riding a skateboard versus traveling in a luxury car.
Of course this is merely my opinion but it is one based on factual experiences.
Postscript- I agree with taking ginger; I never travel without it.
kfnknfzk
Re: Airlines
We just returned Sunday evening from the Bridges Tanzania family safari and we flew with Qatar. There were no delays thank goodness and nobody mentioned the possibility of closing the airport. Hopefully, things are resolved quickly.
. If the host wears a coat, so do I.
Re: Tanzania Visa payment and file load issue
We did not alert the fraud department and we did not get an alert from the credit card company either. We had to get nine visas for our family, one was for a British passport too. The other day, I suggested to someone to log out and then in again and that worked for them, I guess you have tried that. My husband had to do that as the website often goes down without it being obvious.
Tanzania Visas are taking up to 35 days to process at the moment. Suggest to anyone going to Tanzania to start the process earlier than 90 days as that one only kicks in once you arrive in the country and is good for a year.
British
Re: Tanzania Visa payment and file load issue
If you are paying by credit card then you probably need to alert the card fraud department that you are doing a Tanzania based transaction. These will throw warnings on the approval process and deny them as fraudulent. Similar to when they tell you to alert them when you actually travel overseas. Not sure this is your problem, but I ran into issues before I realized I needed to contact the fraud department to have them release the block. Something everyone should do prior to applying for the African visas.
