The 2015 Vancouver cruise season

The Vancouver cruise season is starting early in 2015, with outstanding early-season discounts and promotions. Departing first is the Grand Princess on 22 March and 6 April 2015 on 15-day cruises to the Hawaiian Islands, starting at $1,400 and $1,600 p/p for an inside cabin, plus taxes and fees. Balconies start at about $2,000 p/p.

Other sailings is on 22 April (10 days California Coastal on the Grand Princess, starting at: Interior for $999 and balcony for $1,399); and 29 April (4 Days Alaska Sampler on the Ruby Princess, starting at: Interior $348.00, balcony $598.00).

See these and other great cruise deals and departure dates for 2015 at CruiseTimetables.com

Review: British Airways Club class between Cape Town and London

This review covers a Club class flight on British Airways between Cape Town and London on 26 August 2014. The Boeing 747-400 service offered a flat bed service on this route in Club class and while the general quality of the cabin was inferior to the same class on the Airbus 380 (photo below) between London and Johannesburg, it remains one of the better business class products in the sky.

Check in at the BA counters in Cape Town would have been a breeze, was it not for the unexpected six hour delay in the departure of the flight. The upgrade from Premium to Club class made this inconvenience almost bearable. However, be warned - Cape Town airport becomes like a ghost town when all flights but yours have departed. BA's Executive lounge in Cape Town is spacious, luxurious and serves good food (plenty of cured lox-style salmon) and Cape wines. There are free internet and computers and generally a friendly service, even at midnight.

While comfortable, BA's Club seats on the 747 can really do with an upgrade. They are still  configured in a 2-4-2 layout, with one passenger facing forward and the one adjacent facing backward, at the side row - the middle row has two forward and two backward facing. This is something I never understood - why facing backward? - it just makes no sense. The seats are separated by a hard plastic curtain/separator that moves up and down with the push of a button. Theoretically, the air hostess should walk behind the front-facing seat to serve the backward-facing passenger at the window - however, on my flight the air hostess insisted on leaning over me, pushing the button to lower the separator and serving the accross my seat - after about three times this really got annoying. The problem is that if you don't raise the separator, you and your fellow passengers stare straight at each other from a distance of less than one meter - pretty awkward, unless it happens to be Miss World sitting side by side.

Food was satisfactory, rather than outstanding. But by then I had so much Salmon lox in the lounge that everything else tasted a bit bland. The starter choices were poached Norwegian Salmon with marinated prawns or an oyster mushroom salad. Main courses included 'Ballotine' of chicken with Port, Drakensberg trout, pasta or a cold main course salad of za'atar beef medallion.

I took the chicken and it was OK, but sadly inferior to my mother's Sunday roast chicken. There was a selection of South African Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and some good reds. Breakfast was a choice of a cheese omelette, continental or a filling traditional English breakfast with bacon, sausages, mushrooms and potatoes.

Arriving in London, I took the supposedly fast track option - a big mistake. In theory this is supposed to expedite your progress through customs as a Club passenger, but in practice, it was a disaster - there were only two or three border agents present at any time and it took 45 to 60 minutes to get through the 'fast track' customs - I could see group after group of fellow BA passengers clearing the slow lane long before I took the next few steps forward.

 The BA arrivals lounge was a welcome relief from the hustle and bustle of Heathrow Terminal 5, arguably one of the more unpleasant, poorly designed and overcrowded airport terminals in world. I had a few cappuccinos, caught up on the newspapers and made use of the free internet before catching the tube into London. All in all, not a bad experience, but having flown on these seats quite a few times over the past 15 or more years, I really think it is time to either upgrade the Club cabin on the 747's or just switch to newer Boeing 777's or the Airbus 380.

Cruise Review: Coral Princess Vancouver to Los Angeles

Princess Cruiselines, Coral Princess: Vancouver to Los Angeles, 25-28 September 2013.

This was a one-way, non-stop cruise with our ultimate goal of getting to Las Vegas, but while slower than flying or driving, it certainly was more enjoyable and not much more expensive.

The Coral Princess can accommodate almost 2,000 passengers over 16 decks and 789 cabins of its 1,000 cabins have balconies. The ship has several lounges, four pools, five whirl-pool spas, several deckchair areas, a volleyball court and ‘Movies Under the Stars’.

We chose a balcony cabin and while there was not much to sea over the three day voyage, it was great to sit on the balcony having breakfast or early-evening drinks and stare at the grey Pacific – on the last day we could see the hills of Southern California, but saw little or nothing of the coastlines of Washing State and Oregon, nor of San Francisco.

Checking in was easy, with a waiting time at customs of not more than about 30 minutes and thereafter only one stop for the ‘voluntary’ and very annoying, pre-boarding photograph. The obligatory lifeguard drill was extremely poorly organised, with the recorded message and instructions being repeated four times because of some technical hitch – by the third time most passengers simply walked away.

The departure from Vancouver is always spectacular, with the city fading in the background, passing under the Lions Gate Bridge and heading past the beaches of West Vancouver before turning to the Pacific Ocean. Unfortunately, the deafening music and entertainers who were trying to create a ‘vibe’ (and sell drinks), almost managed to spoil the ambiance.

The cabin was standard, with a comfortable bed, a TV with nothing to watch, a chair and a desk and a bathroom with very small shower. Service was attentive on the first day, but gradually became more sullen as the time went on – perhaps as it was a repositioning cruise cabin crew were more interested in preparing for the next, longer voyage. Gratuities are automatically charged to your onboard accounts at  $23 to $24 per cabin per day, but this can (and should) be adjusted if the service is poor – I did not feel the need to adjust it on this trip, but if the level of service did not improve during a longer voyage, I would have been tempted. The service charge is relatively high, especially as a percentage of the price of a cheaper inside cabin.

The food was mediocre, but plentiful, room service was prompt, but the endless lining up every night to get into the two main buffet restaurants was infuriating (the Bordeaux and Provence dining rooms). After waiting for 45 minutes, we went to the upstairs restaurant only to find no queues and many empty tables, but there was no communication between the two restaurants to even out the crowds. Service in both these restaurants varied greatly, and depending which waiter you had, was either pleasant or absolutely dismal. For a supplement passengers could also eat at Italian-themed Sabatini's or the New Orleans-themed Bayou Cafe and Steakhouse. On the first day we had make-your-own pizza next to the pool, which was one of the best I ever had – unfortunately the next two days this was replaced by a pre-made and cold pizza.  We spend a lot of time at the Horizon Court with its good buffet options and its ample breakfast spread – sometimes just for a starter before enduring the line-ups for the main restaurants.

The onboard entertainment in the evenings was worthwhile watching and mostly jammed-packed, with many people standing in the back of the theatre. The casino was relatively generous and had many penny options. There were plenty of lounges, theatres and a cigar bar.

Disembarkation was busy, with passengers forced to wait in certain pre-assigned areas of the ship and not many staff members really knew what the procedures were and when groups under their direction could leave. Many passengers eventually just left the ship at their own convenience.

Princess scored a rating of 5.5 out of 10 with this cruise.

Cuban tourism boom?

This cartoon in the Globe and Mail this morning depicting the expected Tsunami of American and other tourists about to flood Cuba, reminds me of our visit to the island in 1996.

Apart from a few other Canadians, Europeans and some local cigar salesmen, the magnificent beaches at Varadero were virtually empty and untouched by large-scale commercialism and tourism. It is about to change, perhaps not for the better.

12 money-saving travel secrets

The Wall Street Journal's Marketwatch recently published 12 secrets about saving money on flights, cruises and hotels, and cited travel experts at a travel industry show hosted by the New York Times. Here are some of them and also a few which they did not mention:

1. Try calling the airline instead of booking online, as not all the best deals are offered online.

2. After searching  for a flight clear your computer’s cookies and cache, otherwise travel companies track your searches and you could end up paying more, especially if you are committed to a certain date.

3. Search for your flight or hotel without frequent flier or loyalty membership numbers.  I have not tried this myself, but sometimes it might be cheaper, perhaps because of the 'captive audience' syndrome.

4. Exploit the cruise industry’s current spate of bad publicity and over-capacity and make use of subsequent low fares while it last.

5. Call the hotel directly for its best room rate rather than booking online or using its 800 number.

6.  To get the biggest online choices use Venere or Booking.com rather than Hotels.com. Personally I always start the search with Expedia, as a base, and then compare it with one of two other online sites, as well as the hotel or airline's own website.

7. Go where the local currency has weakened against your home currency, e.g. Argentina, Australia, Canada, Japan and Turkey. To Marketwatch's list you can add Russia, South Africa and Brazil, all who suffered a currency decline against the US$ of between 20% and 50%, and in fact, all of the Eurozone, which dropped by 15% over the past year.

Other useful money-saving ideas are the following:

>  Travel low season - hotels in Europe can cost 30-50% less after mid-September to December and in April-May and flights are always cheaper. All-inclusive deals to the Caribbean islands such as Dominican Republic and Cuba sell for much less than $1,000 starting April.

> Ask for better rates in person.  I have stayed in many hotels in Germany (Wurzburg, Nurnberg etc - smaller towns and cities are easier) where I made no booking  - I simply walked straight to the reception and politely asked for a better rate than which they offered at first - it worked every time (except if there was a convention or another big event on).  Also be prepared to walk out and try the same tactic at the hotel next door.

> Be clever when using your frequent flyer miles. British Airways for example asks 9,000 miles for a return flight from London to Berlin or Nice. A much shorter flight (in mileage terms) to Brussels or Amsterdam requires the same number of miles  -  then the Eurostar or a ferry might be better value. Also a flight to Pisa or Barcelona requires 15,000 miles - it might be cheaper to use 9,000 miles to get to Nice and then take a train to Pisa or Barcelona.

> Renting a car in Europe  offers outstanding value, especially of you are two or more people. A one-week rental in Italy, France or Germany can go for a low as $200 for a compact or even a mid-size car, depending on the season. This makes a lot of sense compared to train travel and flying, especially if your premium credit card will cover the insurance.

> Use credit cards that offer you travel points rather than credit cards that offer you miles and tie you down to a specific airline or loyalty program such as Aeroplan -linked cards in Canada, South African Airways Voyager' or BA and Cathay Pacific-linked cards. The former can be used at any time for the full flight cost, you can fly any route and there are no black-out dates.

Valentine’s Day getaways

Bloomberg Business came up with these 12 rather random Valentine’s Day getaways - "The key here is not to over think it. Stick to the tried-and-true destinations for the best chance of success", according to Bloomberg.  Most of these would not be my personal choice, but others warrant some investigation. Here are the 12 choice destinations:

PHILADELPHIA, with a major landmark a statue called Love and cobblestone streets and historic landmarks. beaches, tripical climate and much more. AUSTIN: Sixth Street’s live music. TULUM with its pristine white sands and warm gulf breezes, boutique hotels and top-notch restaurants. SAVANNAH's history and a "quintessentially Southern square".
MIAMI: 

THE BAHAMAS with turquoise waters, beaches and choice of 700 islands. CANOE BAY (WIS),  with lakeside resorts, pristine cabins, massage tables and horse-drawn carriages. SAN JUAN: "hammocks strung between coconut palms". BIG SUR on the Pacific Coast Highway with sheer, rugged cliffs, Monterey, redwood forrests.  PARK CITY, a luxury hotspot in the Wasatch mountains and an expanding network of high-speed lifts and soft powder snow. PALM SPRINGS, "an easy escape for poolside cocktail sipping and sunglass-shaded intrigue". VAIL: Colorado’s famous slopes and a seemingly limitless array of hearthside bars". Read the whole article at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2015-02-02/twelve-easy-valentine-s-escapes