Q My husband and I are going overseas for the first time this April on a tour arranged through our c

traveltruth.com is produced by Churchill and Turen Ltd. for the use of our cruise and tour clients nationwide and travelers seeking esterel travel trailer parts expert advise from our award-winning consultants and travel journalists.
We are very pleased to announce our annual Signature trip, June 12-24, 2013 from Reykjavik to Copenhagen aboard the five-star rated, all-suite, all-inclusive, Regent Seven Seas Voyager. This cruise will be personally escorted by Angela and Richard Turen. There is no better way to cool off this summer than Chilling with the Vikings as we explore ports in Iceland, Norway, ending our cruise in Denmark. Send us an e-mail and we ll be pleased to send you full details with pricing. This cruise includes free round-trip airfare from most gateways, free pre-cruise night, all gratuities, most shore excursions, wines and drinks, and on-bopard credits coupled with two-for-one plus pricing. Our traveltruth managing editor will take you Inside the Travel Industry esterel travel trailer parts for two special on board presentations.
traveltruth.com is a collaborative effort designed to offer the vacation consumer real world advice without exaggeration, deception, or sales bias. It is the ultimate insider's view of how things really work, written by an award-winning team of travel consultants and journalists. We are the owners, managers, and staff at Churchill Turen Ltd.
Q Reading esterel travel trailer parts about these cruise lines that register out of the United States and pay no taxes? Are they really non-American companies and why are we supporting them with our business. What is really going on here?
A -  If you look at the five largest cruise lines operating in the United States, you will find that they are all registered esterel travel trailer parts in foreign countries including the Bahamas, Panama, and Liberia. By foreign-flagging , cruise lines avoid paying the kinds of taxes they would pay if they were US-based corporations. esterel travel trailer parts They also do not have to observe our labor laws or even many of our domestic safety requirements.  The practice is referred to as flags of convenience.
esterel travel trailer parts The hard truth is that cruise labor is much like migrant labor unless it continues, prices for the product will soar. The Hotel and Tour industries wonder why their major competitor is allowed to skirt so many US laws in order to maintain the present esterel travel trailer parts pricing levels. James Walker, a prominent maritime attorney, writing for CNN.com, claims that cleaners aboard Royal Caribbean ships are paid as little as $156.25 a week with no prospect of tips . If the larger cruise ships were registered in the United States, employed unionized labor, and followed current US labor laws, the entire pricing model of the cruise industry would collapse and, it is likely, so would large portions of the industry.
Q Spent several hours on this site last night and had to drop you a line. Great stuff. esterel travel trailer parts Here s my specific question. I am a  consultant in the chemical industry and I fly, out of my home in Denver all over Europe. I work alone, with a part-time secretary and we do all of our own air arrangements. I have had numerous flight cancellations and delays at O Hare and I just want to try avoiding it if I can. If you were me, which airports that have non-stop flights to Europe would be best for connections? esterel travel trailer parts Wish you had more on airline strategies and less on cruise line ratings.
A Thanks for the advice. We won t take it, but thanks anyway. Your question does, we think, have a specific answer. Our air people feel that you might limit your connections to three first-choice options, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Charlotte, and Detroit. All three have enviable connection stats.
Q My husband and I are going overseas for the first time this April on a tour arranged through our church in Boise. It is a group tour and we have to get to New York on our own to get on a Delta Airlines flight. My question is how much time do you think we need between flights. Our travel agent says two hours and we found a flight that gives us  a little less, one hour and fifty minutes. esterel travel trailer parts Our agent wants to book it but we thought we should run it past you first. Any advice would be appreciated.  I just want everything to go right.
A We disagree with your agent. Do not book the flight. With the current sequestration budget cuts, TSA staff at a number of US Airports, esterel travel trailer parts but most particularly New York s JFK, O Hare, and Atlanta, will be cut by as much as 30%. We are now advising all of our clients to allow a minimum outbound international connection time in those three airports of three hours.
We want everything to go right also. While you are waiting, have a Nathan s Hot Dog in the terminal. You probably can t get one in Boise. Have a terrific trip and make sure to carry copies of the picture page of your passport esterel travel trailer parts along with a sheet that has photocopies of the front and back sides of your credit card. Be safe.
Q After watching CNN and other interviews with the poor folks getting off the Carnival Triumph , I really wonder if we ever will take that first cruise. So let s see why travel truth is still, as far as I can see, recommending cruising. Given the honesty of your answers to other questions, I wonder how you respond to your bread and butter? This is not meant in any mean-spirited way. We read the site, enjoy it, and are really curious.
A Fair enough. We don t recommend cruising we recommend the top ten-rated cruise lines. We don t recommend esterel travel trailer parts hotels , we recommend certain hotels esterel travel trailer parts that meet our stringest standards. We have never booked guests on a Carnival Cruise. The one essential rule that the consumer somehow thinks  does not apply to travel is you get what you pay for . This is a critical mistake . We don t sell Holiday Inn or Motel 6.
Q We work full time and have just nine or ten nights to spend in Italy. We love hiking, exploring, and really good food. Could the Amalfi Coast work in that time frame and how would we set it up in terms of hotels and air. We are in our fifties and we like good hotels that are romantic. Will our travel agent make dinner reservations for us and can her recommendations be trusted?
A There is a lot of question there. esterel travel trailer parts We would fly into Rome and then train down to Naples. You would be met in Naples and then brought to your hotel. Our recommendation for ten days is to stay in two hotels. You should look first at Le Siranuse in Positano and the Hotel Caruso in Ravello. esterel travel trailer parts Both are truly memorable. There is some public transportation and the hotels can arrange for a private driver when necessary. Try not to do this trip between June 15th and the 20th of September. Late May and the first week in October are great times to go.  We think there is enough of interest to fill ten days and you can hike the lesser-known villages in the crux of the hills. We have discussed these in response to a previous question. Finally, you might want to check out the travel agent s culinary creds before committing to her recommendations. There is a simple test to find out how much your travel consultant knows about food. Ask them the difference between an Osteria, a Trattoria, and a Ristoranti. Follow esterel travel trailer parts that up by asking them to name the best restaurant esterel travel trailer parts in the best hotel in Hong Kong.(Gaddi s in the Peninsula) This was once a question we would pose to those  interviewing for a position at our firm.
It is a bit much to expect your agent to have personal esterel travel trailer parts knowledge of the best new restaurants worldwide. If you work with an agency that is a member of one of the major consortiums they will have on-site offices in Italy. The On-site office will be able to handle reservations for dinner through the agent. The best agents trend to be affiliated esterel travel trailer parts with one of the following consortium groups: American Express, Ensemble, Signature, and Virtuoso.
Q - We have been following the story, now on the New York Times second and third page, of the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner. I am writing this on February 8th and I wonder what the status is. We are supposed to fly the plane in April on United. You all seem to be honest journalists so let me ask you a personal question. Would you allow your family to board this aircraft?
A Yes, if it was parked on the tarmac with the engines turned off. Here is the thing: No one, as of this date, has been able to determine the cause of the on board battery esterel travel trailer parts fire and the severe overheating issues. Progress is going extremely slowly because the battery maker, in Japan, thought to be the culprit, has come out of this with few scars.
Believe it or not, this is a major technological esterel travel trailer parts mystery. Now, it is thought esterel travel trailer parts that it may be at least a month before the cause of the problems is pinpointed and required fixes are made. It may involve complete re-engineering of portions esterel travel trailer parts of the  electrical power system.
United has announced it is cancelling esterel travel trailer parts scheduled 787 flights through most of February. We would want this aircraft to be flying worldwide for at least six months and be incident-free, before we would consider flying her. And we re among the Dreamliner s biggest fans.
A This year, we count nine lines offering ATW Cruises, six of which will literally circumnavigate the globe. Three of these lines, Holland America, Seabourn, and Silverseas, compete with identical length, 115 day, itineraries.
Crystal does its World Cruise on the 960-Guest Serenity. esterel travel trailer parts Reports from the line  are that approximately 400 of their guests have signed on for the full journey while the rest of the guests purchase one or more segments of the sailing. Although generally less profitable for cruise lines than shorter sailings that use less fuel and offer fewer days at sea, world cruises are in demand and Crystal is currently taking reservations for its 25th Anniversary sailing in 2015 that will be a 108-day circumnavigation. Bookings are, we are told, robust.
This all started in England in the 20 s. Travel Weekly reports that the Lanconia of Cunard Line went out in 1923 for 130 days with stops in 22 ports. This year, two Cunard ships and three P O liners departed Southampton for full, ATW journeys, almost all of which sail just after the Ne