azevedan

there are no excuses for bed bugs. Hotels, cruise ships and the like should be doing anything preventable so this does not happen and if they do the necessary steps to prevent them, it does not happen.

I'm trying to picture what these 'necessary steps to prevent them' might be....

Mandatory spraying of passengers and luggage during boarding (oh, btw, that doesn't work unless you use the really nasty insecticides that have been banned (which is why the nasty critters are making a resurgence))?

Heating everyone and everything to 123 degrees (F) for 20 minutes (which does work, but might have certain deleterious effects)

Strip searches and luggage checks with denied boarding? (a bit time consuming)

Yeah, I guess I'm being facetious, but I'm struggling to understand how to prevent them. They're being spread by travelers....the hotels and cruise ships aren't to blame for them being there. All they can do is relentlessly check and eradicate when they find them.

I also always check when I get to a hotel (I've never found any evidence, btw), and follow the standard precautions - never put suitcase/clothes on the bed, vacuum suitcase on return, wash clothes immediately.

As a sign of how nasty this is getting - one of our local libraries :eek: was closed for bedbug treatment (the dogs came in, the infested stuff came out and went into the trailer for heating)....yep, books were a vector. Someone with an infestation reads in bed, or leaves the book around where the critters get in....book gets returned, sits on the shelf.....critters spread. Nasty, nasty stuff. (I should stress I don't know the actual vector....I'm positing one.)

Is Petra doable at all for someone with mobility concerns? Marlene

See this thread on the issue:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1591672

Bedbug bites can take up to 2 weeks to appear, though most people react by late the next morning.

I am NOT making any implication of the veracity of the initial posting.

Does GTI 'add' to your group if you have booked a tour for 8 people, and you have all spots filled? Purposely trying to keep group small on our overnight tour, but feel the group may be enlarged without our knowing. Does this happen?

Ours wasn't. We were booked as 8.

Incidentally, we had dropped to 7 a few days before, which I told the company and got an email back that that was fine. Glad I had the email on my blackberry to show the driver, because he was going to charge us for 8, anyway, until I showed him the company's ok.

We tried Azamara, and the food was disappointing.

We sailed with Azamara last May, and loved the food (and most everything else, too). I didn't mind that the tea wasn't a big deal - we didn't go, because we did too much eating anyway! :eek:

Best part were the breakfasts (eggs, bacon, fruit) on our balcony each morning via room service. And we were in the lowest-class of balcony.

I doubt anyone can afford her. We sent an email and she replied promptly, but she priced her tour out of my price range.

I didn't think the price we were quoted (for 4 people) was bad at all, and it will go down more if we get more people. As was pointed out, her replies were very prompt. She also seems to have a good sense of humor. We don't tour Cartagena until New Year's Day, so I can't tell you how it went until after then.

Also, it's pretty spartan inside - nothing like the vibrant decoration in the tombs in the Valleys of the Kings and Queens. Still, I can look at a picture of it and say, "I was inside there!" :)

Can we go inside a pyramid:confused:

Yes, you can. Tickets can be tough to come by (so I read on the other forum threads) in busy times. We were there in March, and our guide got tickets for our group of 6 into the Great Pyramid.

Inside, you will need to stoop to climb up the ramps to the main chambers. So, you will be in a confined space, stooped over, climbing. We were all reasonably fit 50-somethings, and none of us had a problem physically. One of us was pretty claustrophobic, and me somewhat, but we both did okay (though I was *very* glad it was not crowded inside).

You can stand up in the main chamber(s). It's lit inside, but I had a flashlight (just in case :eek:) for good measure.

Frank isn't the only person who is interested in the answer!:)

Yup - I'm interested, too!