We received a letter today, April 15, from the American Canadian Caribbean Line (461 Water St., Warren, RI 02885; phone 800/556-7450). Inside we found a voucher along with a visa refund slip for a cruise we had planned to take from Belize City. This cruise, on their ship Grande Mariner, was to begin on March 25, ’04.

That day, 48 passengers were looking forward to 12 days in the sun, snorkeling and relaxing on a small ship. We had just come back from a company-planned pre-cruise trip...

When we were in Paris for a week in early April ’04, we wanted to tour the D-Day battlefields in one day. We were staying at the Marriott on the Champs-Élysées, and tours from the hotel would be expensive, so I went online before we left and found Battlebus Tours under a “D-Day” search.

Battlebus Tours conducts longer tours for people staying in Normandy, but they do have a “Paris-Link Tour” that is designed to meet scheduled trains out of Paris. Their tours normally run May through...

Near the end of a July-August ’03 England trip, we drove to Bletchley Park, which was home to the famous code breakers of the Second World War as well as the birthplace of modern computing and communications. As our excellent guide told us, you need three separate visits here to really do it justice. We saw only a part of what was on offer.

On weekends, the privately owned exhibits are on display and there are often special events. We went on a Wednesday, and on weekdays you have to...