Discount europe cruise

Europe river cruises

The cost of all shore excursions and sightseeing has been included in the fares of KD River Cruises of Europe's 2001 sailings -- 32 cruise itineraries with more than 330 departures -- throughout its regular cruising season, from April through October.

Sailings aboard the 100-passenger Wilhelm Tell combine the Rhine, Main, Moselle and Saar on 8-day itineraries operating in both directions between Trier, Germany's oldest city, and the Baroque town of Wtirzburg.

Excursions include wine tasting in Winningen, the center of the largest vineyards in the Moselle Valley; Siegfried's. Music Showin Rudesheim, a working display and history of mechanical musical instruments, and a visit to the Gutenberg Museum, devoted to the life and times of Johannes Gutenberg, inventor of the first machine that printed with movable type.

Fares range from $1,120 to $2,140 per person, double, the top price being for suites.

KD's flagship, Deutschland, sails between the Swiss port of Basel and Amsterdam on 4- and 5-night "Exclusiv" cruises, KD's top-quality service, with fares from $885 to $2,215. Besides city tours of Strasbourg, Cologne and Dusseldorf, the itinerary has an excursion to the university town of Heidelberg.

An 8-day Danube River cruise between Budapest and Nuremberg, on the 102-passenger Heinrich Heine, includes wine tasting in Durnstein; an organ concert in Passau, whose Cathedral of St. Stephen has the world's largest pipe organ; a tour of the old-world city of Vienna; a walk through medieval Regensburg, and a visit to the 300-year-old Weltenburg Abbey by way of the Danube Gorge.

Departing six, times between April 21 and Aug. 25, prices are $1,320 to $2,380.

KD cruises may be booked through travel agents or KD River Cruises' U.S. general sales agent, J.F.O. CruiseService, 2500 Westchester Ave., Purchase, NY 10577; phone 800/346-6525 or 914/696-3600, e-mail info@rivercruises.com or visit www.rivercruises.com.

Yangtze offerings

Value World Tours is expanding its China Yangtze program with the addition of a second ship and three new itineraries including the first-ever 7-night sailing through the Three Gorges area.

In addition to its Yangtze President ship, featuring cabins with verandahs, the company has added three new itineraries aboard the President's sister ship, the Yangtze Paradise, also featuring cabins with balconies. Although smaller and hot as opulent as the President, the Paradise features first-class all-outside-facing cabins with full, amenities, including private bathroom with shower, airconditioning, satellite television, phone and mini-bar.

The new 7-night cruise will sail round trip from Chongqing, stopping in all the most popular ports along the route including Fengdu, Wushan, Shashi, the Three Gorges Dam, Zigui, Shennong Stream and Shiboshai Stone Fortress. On-board services include all meals, all shore excursions and special highlights such as the old boatmen performance in Zigui.

Shorter 4-night sailings between Shashi and Chongqing as well as the classic 5-night sailings between Wuhan and Chongqing also are available. Cruise-only rates start at $498 per person in a twin.

The all-inclusive land-and-cruise programs range from a short 8-night! 10-day "Yangtze Sampler" featuring Beijing and a 4-night cruise aboard the Paradise starting from $1,698 including air from the U.S., to 13-, 1 5-, 18- and 20-day extensive tours featuring stops in most major cities, including, Beijing, Xi'an, Guilin, Shanghai, Suzhou and Hong Kong.

Accommodations on all land portions are in first-class hotels with two meals daily and include all sightseeing, transportation, domestic airfares and services of Value World Tours guides and cruise directors.

Scandinavia samplers

The Norwegian Coastal Voyage has reduced the prices of six air/sea programs $100 to $410. per person, double occupancy, from Aug. 16 to 31. Reductions of $385 and $410 cover large outside cabins on the six newest ships for two 15-day packages, "Discover Norway" at $3,715 and the "Grand Norway" at $3,800; the rates were previously $4,100 and $4,210, respectively. Savings of $100 to $120 apply to standard outside cabins on 11- and 12-day programs.

A senior savings of $90 to $220 per person for passengers age 67 and older is offered on all departures except from June 1 to July 15. In addition, AARP members qualify for a year-round discount of $100 per cabin on northbound and southbound air/sea packages and $15.0 on the round-trip .program. The 11-ship fleet sails daily along the 1,250-mile coast of Norway and calls at 34 ports between Bergen and Kirkenes, above the Arctic Circle.

Designed for independent travelers, 11- to 15-day air/sea programs combine a one-way or round-trip Norwegian Coastal Voyage with transatlantic flights from Newark/New York, first-class hotels and breakfast daily in Oslo and Bergen and the scenic Bergen-Oslo train trip. Itineraries vary and may add stays in Kirkenes, Trondheim, Reykjavik, Helsinki, Finnish Lapland and flights in Scandinavia.

The 11-day "Highlights of Norway," at $2,450 to $3,480, features a 7-day northbound voyage, a night in Oslo before and after the cruise, 'a train journey from Oslo to Bergen through the heart of fjord country, one night in Bergen and a flight from Kirkenes to Oslo.

The 11-day "Norwegian Holiday," based on a 6-day southbound Voyage,' adds 'an overnight in Kirkenes to two nights in Oslo, one in Bergen and the rail trip. Price is $2,345 to $3,240.

Iceland is paired, with Norway on the "Scandinavian Sampler" at $2,485 to $3,515, a 13-day program combining a southbound Norwegian 'Coastal Voyage with Reykjavik (Iceland's capital), Oslo and the Bergen-Oslo train journey.

Shore excursions have been reduced 25% below brochure prices.

Air/sea programs can be extended with pre- and post-trip options. Fjord packages, focusing on Hardangerfjord and Sognefjord, and a Losby Manor golf package are being offered from May to September for the first time. Other choices are Silja Line Baltic Sea cruises, Spitsbergen voyages, city stopovers and extra hotel nights.

Packages that add Finland or Iceland are scheduled from April through October. The other air/sea programs operate year-round. Add-on airfares are available from many U.S. and Canadian gateways.

Contact Norwegian Coastal Voyage, Inc., 405 Park Ave., New York, NY 10022; phone 800/323-7436 or 212/319-1300 or fax 212/319-1390. For brochures, call 800/666-2374, 24 hours a day, or visit www.coastalvoyage.com.

White Sea expedition

For the fourth year, EuroCruises is making available the "White Sea Expedition Cruise," departing June 26 on the Kristina Regina to Russia's White Sea and including the Solovetski Islands, a place that was once home to the kind of gulag written about by Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

Not only will passengers be witnesses to a place of dark history, they also will be informed about it by a source who knows where the secrets are buried. Jack Matlock a former, ambassador to the Soviet Union, will be on board again giving passengers an inside story illustrated by memorable anecdotes about the way that the empire operated and how its leaders made policy.

The Solovetski Islands have a history that dates well back before the Communist era. In the 1420s, three monks founded a monastery here.

Passengers on this cruise visit the monastery as well as museums showing what life was like during the gulag period.

In addition to the Solovetski Islands, highlights of the expedition include...

* Kirkenes (Norway): A frontier town, it is east of the North Cape.

* Murmansk (Russia): This is the largest Russian seaport in the Arctic Ocean; the Arctic nature of the peninsula is unique.

* Archangel (Russia): Founded more than 400 years ago, this is a place of rich historical and cultural heritage.

* Honningsvaag (Norway): On the North Cape, this is regarded as the northernmost point of Europe.

* Tromsoe. (Norway): Linked to the mainland by a bridge 3,398 feet long, this city is home to the Northern Lights Observatory and the Tromsoe Museum with northern Lapp artifacts.

* Svolvaer (Norway): In the Lofoten islands famed for jagged peaks, powdered with perpetual snow, rising from the cobalt waters, this is a thriving fishing port and serves as the cultural center of these islands.

* Bronnoysund (Norway): This is a coastal town that has been a hub since the days of the Vikings.

Among the ship's amenities are saunas, sundecks, several bars and a mahogany-lined library. Prices start at $3,869 per person, double occupancy, including airfare from New York.

For reservations and information, contact EuroCruises, Inc., 33 Little West 12th St., Ste. 106, New York, NY 10014-1314; phone nationwide and Canada for brochures, 800/661-1119. For reservations, call 800/688-3876 or 212/691-2099 www.eurocruises.com.