My cruises are portions of longer trips, up to two months in duration, and because this octogenarian doesn’t want to struggle with luggage or porters, he travels light — an old nylon garment bag with big zippered pockets slung on one shoulder and a carry-on nylon shoulder bag on the other.

I never pack a suit or even a jacket and tie, let alone a tuxedo. I, therefore, appreciate Holland America Line’s (HAL’s) policy of serving in the cafeteria lobster or whatever else is served in the...

I stayed 3½ weeks in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France, in June ’10 with my children and grandchildren, ages 13 to 50, mostly visiting the smaller towns in Provence.

In advance, so that I could access cash, no matter what, I got a prepaid Cash Passport debit card in euros from Travelex Currency Services (No. Am. headquarters in New York, NY; e-mail retail.marketing@travelexamericas.com). It had a magnetic stripe only and needed a PIN. I got the card from my bank in St. Paul along with...

We read the letters about using American credit cards (not the chip-and-PIN type) in Europe (May ’10, pg. 36) and were a bit concerned about it before our trip to Germany and Switzerland in September ’10; we have a MasterCard and a Visa card.

We need not have worried. Everywhere we went, we had no problems.

We were in Munich, northern Italy, Switzerland (the Alps area), the Black Forest, Dresden, Pirna and Fürstenwalde (near Berlin). We used our cards mostly at hotels and gas...