Arthur's Blog: Pauline and I will be Discussing Several Controversial Issues on this Sunday's Travel Show

At the start of this Sunday's Travel Show, Pauline and I have planned to take up several brand-new travel issues that have recently come to the fore.
We'll start by discussing the obvious intention of the cruiselines to keep adding extra fees and charges to the basic price for a cruise. Not only do you now spend extra for enjoying both hard and soft drinks on a cruise, and for gratuities at the end of the cruise, shore excursions, special dining rooms, special spa treatments, and the like, but Carnival Cruises is now offering an extra-special and optional package of cruise amenities costing $49 per person. That expenditure on your part will enable you to embark on the ship (on departure day) several hours earlier than usual, to use several amenities hours earlier than is usually the case on departure day, to enjoy priority in choosing your table assignment in the general dining room of the ship, to disembark earlier on days when the ship is in port, and so on. Are we returning to the time when shipboard passengers were carefully herded into special groups (first class passengers and steerage passengers) based on their willingness to spend money?
We'll next discuss the recent decision by two major airlines to prohibit the seating of male adults next to minors on board their planes. Recently, a wholly respectable male passenger was asked to give up his seat to a woman in order that he not be seated next to a 12-year-old. He has bitterly complained over the discrimination to which he was subjected, based on the airlines' fears that pedophiles and other improper types may be seated next to children. It's a difficult question, and one to which we'll devote a short amount of attention, including (maybe) our own views.
And finally, we'll be discussing the factor of age as it bears on travel decisions. What sort of travel programs and travel facilities are best to be booked by young people aged 18 to 35. Which are best for young couples? For families? Which travel programs and travel facilities will be most enjoyed by people of mature and older age? Do most mature people want to go on trips with their peers, or do they enjoy the presence in travel of younger people?
We'll be taking your phone calls at 800/544-7070 between 12-2pm ET on the WOR Radio Network on these and any other subjects or issues in travel, and we hope to hear from you. (There are lively discussions between ourselves and our listeners on every program.) You can hear the show live by tuning in around six minutes past the hour (the news starts each hour) on www.wor710.com. If you miss the live broadcast, you can always catch it later in the week (and for a couple of months to come) on the podcast of each show carried on wor710.com. Go to that website, and then scroll down all the way to the bottom to a complete list of all shows on the network, and simply click on "The Travel Show."