Cruises Critiqued

We visited Tahiti years ago and always wanted to go back. When Princess Cruises announced their 2005 cruises to Tahiti, we booked a 14-day trip. It included pre- and post-cruise overnights at a hotel in Los Angeles. The price was $1,495, excluding airfare. Tips ran about $100.

On Jan. 11, we flew from Philadelphia to Los Angeles on U.S. Airways (using our frequent-flyer miles) and spent the night at a Comfort Inn. After a great buffet breakfast at the inn, we flew Air Tahiti Nui to Papeete, Tahiti ($900 round trip). The flight was smooth and we arrived at 11 p.m.

We went...

My wife, Carol, and I booked a 54-night cruise on Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines’ Black Watch, leaving Jan. 5, 2005, from Southampton, England, and arriving Feb. 28 in Sydney, Australia.

We booked this cruise because of the ports of call: Málaga, Spain; Malta; Alexandria, Cairo and Port Said, Egypt; the Suez Canal and Sharm el Sheik, Egypt; Salalah, Oman; Mumbai and Cochin, India; Phuket, Thailand; George Town, Malaysia; Singapore; Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; Brunei; Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, and Cairns, Hardy Reef, Brisbane and Sydney, Australia. There were 2-day stays for Cairo, Mumbai,...

My husband, Ken, and I visited Russia for the first time, Aug. 19-Sept. 3, ’05, taking the river cruise between St. Petersburg and Moscow. After doing much research on the Internet and reading appreciatively the readers’ comments in the March, April and June ’04 issues of ITN, we chose to go with Peter the Great Cruises (2610 East 16th St., Brooklyn, NY 11235; phone 800/828-7970).

We came back full of enthusiasm and praise for that company. I liked the idea that they offered more days in their package than the other companies did for an equivalent price. When I phoned directly to...