Karennella

We have just booked a Pullmantur cruise for next October that stops in Egypt, then the next two days in Ashdod. If the Israeli officials meet with each individual passenger the day we arrive, how long should we allow for this process when making private arrangements for shore excursions?

We two nights in Egypt followed by a night in Ashdod and one in Haifa, in September. The Israeli officials were very efficient and numerous. The passports were precollected and we were given a time early in the morning to go and get them from the officials. We had a private tour booked and we were able to leave the ship at the time we were scheduled to.

We have travelled for thirty-five years together, mostly doing things on our own. Driven around Europe and the US, a lot of Asia (we are Aussies)

However I now have an injured knee and when we tried to travel our usual way two years ago, parts of the trip were a nightmare. New York, London and Paris all have underground train systems without decent escalators, taxis can be very hard to find or in the case of Italy, simply refuse to take you shorter distances.

I see that I will have to increasingly use planned tours. I can certainly walk, but too much becomes painful and being in pain is very tiring. Tours save time and I have found that good guides very much enhance the travel experience.

For example we did do a tour in Turkey for practical reasons. It was very interesting having as our guide a man who was a Turkish atheist and certainly gave us a different slant on that wonderful country than we would have had.

Another time we found a tour excellent was when we travelled with out 15 and 17 year old daughters in Europe on a highlights coach tour. There were no arguments when the guide told us to be ready at 6.30 am, or led us to our pre-booked dinner destination.

Venice was the worst airport that we have returned from, There is no where to sit, we all ended up sat on our suitcases. You cannot go airside until after check in and that is only 2 hours before your flight. As others have posted, nothing will be open, so get ready for a long boring wait.

Worst airport in the world I've ever experienced although Mexico City was a close second.

Remember that not only people from the US and other English speaking countries cruise on Carnival Corporation cruises and a higher proportion of some other nationalities are smokers. Obviously Carnival make a commercial decision about their ships and we make a personal decision about our smoking exposure.

I have never smoked a cigarette in my whole life yet smoking actually does not bother me. But we have chosen HA over a European line for our next cruise as our friends with whom we are travelling have health issues with smoking.