My wife and I took an extended business trip to Cairo in October ’03. During our stay at the historic, downtown Windsor Hotel (al-Alfy Street, Cairo, Egypt — $54 for a double), which was the British Officers’ Quarters prior to the ’52 revolution, we met Samir Fayek (cell phone 011-20-12-399-5147 or e-mail samirfayek@hotmail.com).

Samir is an experienced guide who runs tours for small groups of four to six people on a half-day or full-day basis. He is extremely knowledgeable, speaks...

Thank heaven for Norwegian Cruise Line and its imitators who have initiated Freestyle Cruising (Aug. ’03, pg. 33). I enjoyed Freestyle Cruising on my 12-day cruise from Dover to St. Petersburg, June 3-15, ’03, aboard the Norwegian Dream, booked through Grand Circle Travel (800/221-2610).

Gone is the 3-times-a-day, permanently assigned seating with six to eight people, usually all strangers. A 7- to 10-day cruise had meant meeting these folks for meals 21 to 30 times, and how long does...

With reference to the growing trend of cruise lines to charge each passenger $10 per day for gratuities to shipboard staff, we booked for September ’03 an 18-day Mediterranean cruise on Cunard’s Caronia and noticed in their brochure that they would charge that much per day per passenger as a gratuity for shipboard staff.

We advised Cunard through our travel agency that we chose to tip their service personnel as we so desired and would cancel any automatic charge for gratuities charged...