We enjoyed the three tours we took on our recent Voyager cruise. They were just more crowded than we are accustomed to on Regent. The first tour, in Salvador, is one we couldn't have planned independently. It was a walking tour of the old town and a folk dance show. We paid a premium ($79) for it and considered it a bargain. The folk dance show was staged exclusively for us. It was an hour long with 12 male dancers, 6 female dancers, four musicians on percusion, and a fire dancer--simply sensational. I'll never forget it. Yet there were the kind of "challenges" one encounters all too often on ship's tours. As our busload of 36 offloaded in old town our guide announced "This is where we begin our two hour walking tour." There were immediate shouts of protest: "We didn't sign up for a two hour walking tour. We want to go back to the ship." Well, there were a half dozen passengers among us who had trouble boarding the bus and were clearly not up to walking two hours and should not have signed up for the tour to begin with. There followed a fifteen minute negotiation to determine what to do. Finally it was decided we would proceed SLOWLY. The protesters were forced to hobble (And I mean hobble!) along on cobbled streets in the very hot sun. They grumbled constantly. At the end of the folk show they insisted on an early return to the ship and they were accommodated gladly since the rest of us were tired of putting up with them. Back on the ship I overheard one of the protestors tell someone he had been "forced to walk five miles." Hardly. He had walked about 700 yards (about a half mile) as the tour description correctly stated. The two hour "walking tour" included 60 minutes of sitting in the tiny folk show auditorium in splendid air conditioning and twenty minutes of sitting in the pews of three different churches included in the tour. I guess my point is one can avoid this sort of situation by organizing a private tour when possible. It is just more painful to do when you have already paid for tours as part the cost of the cruise. But, Ngaire, you are quite right. There are lots of great options out there, clearly enough to suit every taste. Pat
