My wife and I took Oceania Cruise Lines’ 16-day “Rio de Janeiro to Manaus” trip, Feb. 14-March 1, ’05. We boarded the Insignia in Rio and sailed up the coast of Brazil, with a stop at Vitória, then a day at sea, then stops at Salvador and Recife, then four days at sea (two of them continuing up the coast and the other two on the Amazon). We then made calls at Santarem and Parintins, with another day on the Amazon before reaching Manaus.

On the positive side, we had a most pleasant...

At midnight on New Year’s Eve, the orchestra was playing “Auld Lang Syne” as we sailed the South Atlantic on our way to the White Continent aboard M.V. Discovery.

Antarctica is truly magnificent, with mountains, sea, snow, icebergs, glaciers and ice packs but not a bit of green. It is a land of breathtaking beauty, where we experienced unexpected howling winds, snowstorms, sea lanes blocked by ice, and dazzling sunlit panoramas. The only settlements are small, isolated scientific...

My wife, Shirley, and I would like to report a happy experience with the insurance company Trip Mate (Kansas City, MO; 800/888-7292 or www.tripmate.com).

For a tour of the Dalmatian coast, we took out an independent policy with Trip Mate after reviewing several companies on the Internet. Following a trip to China in July-August, Shirley developed a severe pain in the hip due to pressure on a nerve in the spine. Attempts to relieve the pain were not successful, so approximately a month...