terry&mike

I have used Klook several times in different countries in Asia for different types of tours, it's kind of like the Asian version of Viator but more popular in that area of the world. I can't make a comment on the Singapore Pass though, as I did not purchase that. I did a Hop On/Hop Off bus in Singapore, and a food tour, and then walked a lot.

Thank you

We did a Bordeaux river cruise with Scenic in 2021 and loved it!

In Vietnam, having local Vietnamese Dong will be very helpful. It's great for tipping, small purchases, street vendors, some taxis. And if you are on a HaLong Bay cruise, great for buying items from the boat ladies who paddle up next to the barges.

I quite like it, thank you for sharing.

I encourage you to not give up on this, and continue to try to get this in writing from Azamara. It may take a few calls to get connected to a rep who is willing to assist. I was able to get an email in regards to each of my bookings, for myself and for clients, that said this (booking number modified for privacy): We understand that onboard credit (OBC) amounts on Azamara.com are incorrect or not visible for some of your reservations. We are working on fixing this. In the meantime, please know we have the original OBC amount in our system as reflected below. 280XXXX - USD$1000

I'll try to answer that as best I can, keeping in mind that every line has its loyalists, and sometimes a person will rate one line well above another line based on that line is a better fit for their personality, and they relate more to the vibe; kind of like hotels have their guest "tribes" it's the same for cruise lines and river cruise lines. A lot of it has to do with familiarity, so the lines of CroisiEurope which is French owned and sells mostly to the European market will offer a more French and European feel, and Amadeus which is Austrian owned and sells mostly to a European market, especially Germans, will have a different feel; these lines don't market heavily in the U.S. and will have a limited number of US passengers on board.The general ambience and protocol are not geared to the US market, not bad, just different. Viking, while foreign owned, does major marketing in the US and draws the majority of its clients from there, and offers a product very geared to those clients; I would like to add that I do not consider Viking river upscale in comparison with Scenic and AMA (who I do consider upscale), but a very nice product, although Viking loyalists may revolt at this. Scenic (and their little sister Emerald) is also foreign owned, but in the past few years has made major strides in the US market and is now pulling a large portion of their clients from the US. AMA is US owned, mostly markets in the US, and mostly has US clients. Products that mostly have US clients are catering to, geared to, and courting that market with food, service, tours, style, and so on. Sometimes it's in the little things, for example, I love a dirty vodka martini, generally speaking this is an American cocktail (although it can be found all over the world). On an AMA ship I am able to order a dirty vodka martini and have one served to me without much pause, and it will likely be right. On a foreign owned and marketed ship, they may have to Google how to make it, or it could be not quite right, such as the time a bartender used olive oil instead of olive brine to add the dirty (the drink got remade, and the bartender and I became fast friends over this connection). Announcements may be in German first, and English second. I find this kind of thing fun and interesting about travel, I have clients who find this kind of thing frustrating. To answer your question, I would say that for upscale river cruise lines, I put Scenic at the top, giving them just a bit of an edge over AMA. I'd probably put Emerald next, and Uniworld (although their decor may drive you crazy). Then I'd put Viking, as they offer a stable product that many are comfortable with. Then I guess I'd put foreign lines next, as I think for some Americans the experience may feel a bit more foreign to them, and it'd probably look like Amadeus, then Croisi, then Riviera. That's just personal perspective based on my personal sailings and feedback from other travel agents and from clients over the years, many people may feel differently.

My cousin, who is also in the travel industry, sailed an Amadeus river ship last Fall; she brought along my Aunt. She enjoyed the sailing and thought the ship was very nice, and that everything onboard was quite well done. The ship was multi-lingual, and she had no problems with communication. She felt the style and service were slightly below that of most of the major river lines that market in the US (AMA, Scenic, Viking, Uniworld), but she would not hesitate to sail with them again. There were only a few passengers from the US onboard, but she did not see that as a negative herself (some may). From hearing her verbal review upon review, it sounded a lot like the CroisiEurope river cruise experience, very good, but a little different experience than Americans are used to having - in my mind, this is a plus, but I am aware that not everyone has the same perspective.

For Boat Bike Tours, all of their barge trips feature biking as part of the trip, and most have the option for regular or electric bikes. You can opt to stay onboard and just relax, but you will not have much in the way of activities, you can entertain yourself with reading, napping, watching the scenery. Some will pull over to the side and allow you to get off and take a walk for however long you wish on the tow paths, and then get back on by flagging them down (they sail at about the speed a person walks), or when waiting for a lock. I was referring to Boat Bike Tours (not all barge companies) in saying that they are more comfort level than river cruise ships of AMA, Viking, Scenic which are larger, more polished, ships with a higher level of finish outs. There are other barge companies that have very high end barges that could certainly be considered luxury, but are still small in size, having the feeling of a high end boutique hotel. Boat Bike Tours has a range of categories from their basic level up to their deluxe level, but even their deluxe level is more along the lines of a small inn in the English countryside type of thing, not polished and high end. In the past, we have traveled on their more basic options, and they are fine, but you will need to adjust your expectations as they may have bunk beds, and possibly a diesel fume smell, and thin towels, tiny spaces, casual family style meals, etc - they work fine, but more like a rustic feel. We now only travel on Premium or Deluxe level ships, which offer more creature comforts and keep my husband from getting too complain-ey. The itineraries give the approximate distances of the days' biking, and sometimes there are options of taking the shorter or longer biking route. There usually is biking for 18-32 miles per day, approximately, spread out during the day. For example, you will bike for 40 minutes through some tulip fields and end at a flower market, where you will stroll through. You will then bike for 45 minutes to a little town and have a walking tour. Then maybe a 30 minute bike to a picnic spot for lunch. Then maybe a 45 minute bike to meet the ship where it is now parked. That is an example, but different tours have different distances, and some are easy and flat, and some are hilly and difficult; when you click through to the itinerary you can see the details. We have also traveled with tripsite.com on a couple of occassions, going back some 20 years. Tripsite and Boat Bike rep several of the same barge operators, so you can find some of the same tours on them. We've also done an inn to inn bike tour with tripsite (in Wales), so they don't just rep barges. If you are not into biking, tripsite may be a better option than Boat Bike, as I believe they have some small boats and barges that offer itineraries that are not all bike-centric. Although they do still tend to be on the active side. If you are looking for luxury barges, that are more akin to a tiny floating luxury hotel experience, then yes, these tend to be quite high priced, always running over $5000 pp, but usually closer to $6500-$8000pp. bargeladycruises.com has been around for many years, as has a good reputation in the industry; I've made inquiries with them over the years, but have never actually booked with them. I've seen many of the ships they rep while on other barges and river cruise ships, and they are delightfully beautiful. Barges are a completely different animal to river cruise ships in size, activities, style, comfort, finish outs, and so on. Barges tend to be 6-32 passengers, and more like a boat that has been outfitted for guests to stay onboard; the staff is more casual, and the guy who leads the bike tour may also be cleaning the kitchen, and the person who cooks the dinner may be the person who cleans the cabin. Nightly entertainment may be board games, or story telling, or watching a movie on a shared TV in the common room. River cruise ships tend to be 75-160 passengers, and more like a hotel that has been built to float on the river. Nightly entertainment may be a piano player or local singers/dancers brought onboard, or your own TV in your cabin. I have sailed barges in The Netherlands, Belgium, and France, and thoroughly enjoyed the casual, active vibe of barge life. I have sailed river cruises in many places around the world, and have been on AMA, Scenic, Uniworld, Viking, and have enjoyed their more put together and polished offerings. Both are great, and are very different from each other.

I use boatbiketours.com for barge cruises in Europe. Have done a couple of these, they mostly are more "comfort" level than luxury level, so you cannot compare them to river cruises by companies like AMA, etc (I also enjoy luxury river cruises, but they are an entirely different product). They are also a bit more active, as you can see by the itineraries. We are actually repeating a Dutch "tulip tour" itinerary, with a group of friends, in April 2024 that we did several years ago because we enjoyed it so much.

We have traveled to this area in January 2020, and again in December 2022/January 2023. Our last trip we sailed on the Mekong with Scenic, from Siem Reap to Ho Chi Minh City. The touring days were hot and humid. We live in Florida, so they weren't miserable for us, but there were some people on board who found the higher temperatures uncomfortable. I can imagine that in July and August it could feel quite oppressive and may limit your experiences in getting out and enjoying these beautiful countries and their sites.

Also a good idea and worth considering, and may be better for those who want the room in the morning or mid-day. But for us I find that many hotels don't do Day Use bookings, and I don't need the hotel room itself until the late afternoon and evening, but need the secure place to store our bags. I've been able to find good hotels for reasonable amounts so far, and can have the room as late as I like (or even until the next day if my plans change on my flight). For BA, I'm booked at the NH Buenos Aires Florida hotel, at a total of $59.36 USD. All worth checking on.

When I have a late night flight after disembarking a cruise, I always consider 2 options, and see which will provide me with the most desired experience. The first option I consider is a combination day tour/airport transfer. Few cruise lines offer options on this for flights that depart after 3 or 4pm, so if it's an evening or night flight I have, I am looking at private options rather than group options. I usually start by going to a site that offers many tours such as Viator or Tripadvisor just to see what the options are for things to do in the port area, airport area, or within an hour or so radius; I usually also do a bit of googling on "things to do" in X. If I am able to identify something that is appealing to me, that I haven't done, etc, then I start contacting tour operators, driver/guides, etc, to see if they can arrange a pick up at cruise ship, day tour, and transfer to airport package, and get quotes. The second option I consider is booking a hotel for 1 night for the day of disembarkation, and going sightseeing on our own in the city/town, and then taking a taxi or public transport to the airport later. I don't plan on spending the night at this hotel, but it does allow me to go there when I get off the ship, drop my bags with them in the morning, go off and enjoy the place I am in, and return to check in, freshen up in our rooms, relax in peace, and then head to the aiport. For example, we are departing out of Buenos Aires on a flight that departs after midnight when we disembark a cruise in December. We have visited BA a couple of times in the past for several days, so this time we booked a hotel for 1 night. We will drop our bags with the desk clerk when we disembark, then take a hike in a nature preserve, and explore a couple of places of interest. We will then enjoy a nice late lunch at a steakhouse. We'll head to the hotel in the late afternoon, check in, shower, maybe nap, and then head to the airport around 9pm. If this was one of our first trips to BA, I would be considering a driver/guide to pick us up at the ship and give us a full day tour of the highlights of BA, that ended with a drop off at the airport, or a visit to an estancia for a day of ranch life, entertainment, food, etc., then a drop off at the airport.

I'm not worried about it enough to cancel, as it will all get sorted. Even if the system for eVisas doesn't get completed in time, I'll use mail in or present in person to an embassy/consulate, it will work out. Without the online eVisa, the system for obtaining Brazilian visas is currently running at 10 business days, so it likely will get shorter. The last official communication from the Brazilian Government was at teh beginning of June saying that they were taking bids from companies to build the eVisa online system. Another possible scenario is that the entire process will get postponed from October 1 2023 to a later date like January 1 2024, as happens often with government changes in travel protocol. Some visas are notably more difficult to obtain, frustrating, expensive (Bolivia during Covid, Vietnam multi-entry, China anytime, etc), but usually get worked out. I'm just keeping my eyes on it in the hopes that a shortcut appears, or it gets pushed back to a later date.

We have an Azamara cruise in November of this year to Brazil, and I'm monitoring this closely. Coming up on final payment soon....

Hopefully. They have been having challenges in being able to apply OBC to Shore Excursions booked before the guest is onboard since the data migration.

The term "flash" is used to designate the type of sale, it is a "flash sale", rather than a long thought out marketing push it is a more spur of the moment sales push to generate bookings. I have tried to attach the most recent Flash Sale details to this post, and the $750 OBC is good for Shore Excursions, as mentioned in the details. You may need to try again with Azamara and get a different rep, or wait until the clients board to book excursions, but the OBC looks like can be applied to excursions. Flash750.pdf

An update - some of you will remember that I have been working to correct errors in both personal and client bookings. Some of the errors had been corrected, and then new errors appeared, and I was becoming quite frustrated. As of now, it appears that the errors have been corrected, and the bookings are in an acceptable state. I use this phrasing, as the bookings are not perfect, but they won't impact the trip. For those who like details, I'll post the issues at the bottom of this post, but they are negligible. As for loyalty points and status that are incorrect, Azamara is now saying that will be corrected by the first week in July, rather than their previously mentioned end of June date. For those preparing to set sail, you will do best to bring along with you printed copies of your OBC amount for your booking, proof of any Shore Excursions you booked in advance and the cost of those excursions at time of your booking them, and anything showing your points/status. This will help speed things along at Guest Services once you have boarded, if there are any errors. In regards to the small errors I have remaining, in addition to loyalty/points errors, there are only two. One is on a client booking, where when looking at the booking on the TA portal, under Add Ons, I no longer see their Insurance they purchased showing (it was showing in this area until about a week ago), but if I select View/Print Guest or Agent Invoice the insurance is listed on the document with the correct pricing, so it is attached to the booking. The second is on a personal booking, where I was given a gift of Chocolate Strawberries & Champagne before the data migration, it fell off during the migration, then re-appeared on the booking but with a charge to me of $190. I made a request for the $190 error charge to be corrected to 0, which resulted in the entire gift being removed; I'm going to leave this one alone, as the booking is back to Paid in Full, and I don't want to risk something else going astray on the booking, and I don't really need the strawberries and champagne.

When are you traveling?

I agree with Wacktle, as both a traveler and as an agent, I like to have the basics in mind to help determine if I'm going to pull the trigger on a booking. Wanting to know the approximate cost of something, and the general availability of something, before having a discussion with a professional is very common.

That’s not new, when we visited Egypt in 2018 we also had police escorts on some of our tours. We did an early morning tour to Abu Simbel in a large convoy of tour vehicles, and when the guide told the police escorts we were Americans in this van, they moved our van to the front on the convoy and put a heavily armed police officer in the van with us for the ride. When we asked the guide about it later, he explained that Egypt relies on tourism dollars heavily, and they cannot risk an incident involving an American, and the bad press that would come with it. We felt safe the entire time we were there, and were well escorted and taken good care of. Matter of fact, many times we were expedited to front of lines by guides and guards when we arrived at airports, sites, etc. We would hear a quick conversation in Egyptian being spoken and only understand one word, ‘American’, and the seas would part.

Yes, that is a correct understanding. You can buy the package before you board with a credit card, and then use the Shore Excursion OBC to purchase excursions before you board. Or, you can wait until you board and use your promo/gifted OBC to buy the package, and then use your Shore Excursion OBC to purchase excursions at that time. I am aware that some guests book shore excursions in advance and pay for them on a credit card. Once they board and buy the package they then cancel those shore excursions and immediately rebook them with their OBC. There are pitfalls in that the price may increase and you’ll pay the new price on your new bookings, or there could be a waitlist that fills your cancelled spot immediately. And with the accounting confusion since the data migration, you could cause yourself a big headache with Azamara.

We have booked in at the NH Buenos Aires Florida hotel. It is close to the port, well rated, and not expensive. We have stayed in NH properties on other trips and find them to be good properties with good value.

You can use OBC to purchase the package, but you have to wait until you are onboard to do this. If you want to purchase it in advance, you’ll need to use your credit card. In the Indulgence package you will receive $700 OBC towards Shore Excursions, $250 OBC towards Spa, Ultimate beverage package for 2, Wi-Fi package for 2, Chefs Dinner or 3 Specialty dinners for 2, 5 bags laundry. I purchased this for an upcoming 22 night cruise as it represents great value. I bought it in advance on my cc so that I could book my Shore Excursions in advance. We already had $300 OBC from the booking promo, so with the additional $700 from the Indulgence package, we had $1000 to spend on Shore Excursions. We booked ours just before the data migration. Generally, we would not do much in excursions from the ship, preferring to DIY or book independent tours, but as we were going to buy the Ultimate drink package anyway, it was a no brainer on a 22 day cruise.

Agree