Travelers' Intercom

Jean Saulsbury of Mariposa, California, requested advice from anyone who ever had to abandon ship — what to grab, how to be ready, what transpired (March ’08, pg. 95). Here are three responses.

When fire threatens the ship

I was on the Vistafjord (Cunard Line) when she had a fire in the middle of the night on April 6, 1997. I have to say that the crew were fantastic and did a great job.

We were woken by the loudspeaker system about 2 a.m. The ship had sailed from Ft....

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On a May cruise in Europe aboard Viking River Cruises’ (877/668-4546) Viking Pride, the most exciting time of day or night was when the ship passed under a low bridge. Because the bridges were built centuries before river cruises were imagined, they are far too low for the low-to-the-water cruise ships to safely pass under without some preparation.

As we approached a low bridge, the sundeck was cleared and the reclining chairs flattened on the deck. In addition, the captain’s bridge,...

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Here is the first batch of readers’ Q Ratings of international airports — plus, as you’ll see, a few revisions in the instructions which will make the tallies more useful. The goal is to generate an idea of the comparative wait times at airports.

To recap, with Q Ratings a perfect score is zero, meaning there were no lines to wait in. The next time you pass through an international airport (even one in the U.S.), for each queue/line you have to stand in — for check-in, tax payments,...

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After traveling around the world with occasional long airport stopovers, I have come to learn some of the secrets of making the most of the “dead” time.

I found that when I make a visit to a nearby area, I feel much more relaxed and ready to continue the next leg of the trip. Available options include 1) taking one of the tours offered directly from the airport, 2) finding transportation into the city and taking a tour from there or 3) winging it on your own.

If time is a...

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Zermatt’s beauty and remoteness had entranced me on a visit 25 years earlier, which I made without my wife, JoAnn, so I was anxious to share with her a delightful travel experience on our trip March 9-20, 2007.

Because Zermatt permits no cars or trucks, we parked in a large garage at the train station in Täsch (CHF26, near $25, for two nights) and took the 10-minute train ride into town (CHF31 round trip).

On arrival, I knew right away that Zermat was as beautiful and quaint as...

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Before our trip to West Africa, we read with interest Jim Sill’s 2-part feature on that region, even taking a copy of it with us on the trip. What a different experience we had. (In portions of Jim’s 2-part account, Dec. ’07, pg. 46 & Jan. ’08, p. 58, he describes being hounded by two hustlers in Mali and mentions “being unable to connect on a personal level with any of the locals.” — Editor)

Our 36-day private tour of seven countries (Mali, Benin, Togo, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire,...

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My wife and I took our fifth trip to Bali, Indonesia, in October ’07, again guided by Gede (e-mail balihaiguide@hotmail.com or visit www.balihaiguide.com). It is impossible to recommend him highly enough.

On-time and intelligent, Gede knows what we want to see and do almost before we do, and he will go the extra mile. We find him to be happy, with a great sense of humor.

On this trip we paid him $30-$50 per day, depending on the distance traveled (we toured from four to eight...

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As a recent widow, I want to encourage others in my situation to not give up traveling now that your spouse is gone. Changes can be made.

I spent 10 days in London showing my 21-year-old granddaughter the sights of that great city, Jan. 18-28, 2008. It was a good time to do sightseeing, as most of the must-see attractions were inside and the crowds were waiting for better weather. We had some rainy days but not enough to dampen our enthusiasm.

The Houses of Parliament were so...

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