Customer Reviews

Frommer's Cruises and Ports of Call 2010 (Frommer's Complete Guides)

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The publishers of this horror called this guide Frommer's Cruises and Ports of Call. It should have borrowed the title of a now defunct travel book series--The Complete Itiots' Guide to Cruises. As a faithful user of the Frommer guides for years--Italy, England, Spain, France, etc.--I, along with my husband and children, decided to take a Caribbean cruise. Naturally, I picked up the ever faithful Frommer guide. Never again. Frommer made its reputation on reliable, solid information. Then along came a so-called writer Matt Hannafin, who weems to have trouble putting a sentence together. The book is poorly written, even laughable in spots. I could deal with that. What I couldn't deal with is the mother lode of misinformation. We counted at least three major errors per page. I was left wondering if Hannafin had ever been to the Caribbean. I suspect not. He seems to have gathered this highly perishable information mainly from the Internet and probably from brochures handed out from the various PR departments of the cruise ships themselves. Don't leave home with this book!
You'll be sorry you did. The information in the 2010 edition was completely out of date. When we made inquiries, we found that some of this information was copied word for word from the internet, and hadn't been true in three or four years. This is supposed to be a book updated annually. Hannafin did not update it. The section on ports of call is so brief that it was completely worthless. If you're going to Hawaii, Mexico, or the Caribbean, you can get far better data on the web.
If the publishers of the Complete Idiots' Guide ever want to relaunch their series, we recommend they hire Hannafin. He fits the bill perfectly.
So-called "writers" like him are destroying the once stellar reputation of the Frommer guides. In the future we'll use Fodor, not this worthless tome. Save your $25.
A dissatisfied customer.

Amazing for new cruisers- purchased as alternative/additional info source, and fabulous for it's maps, and etc.

We are very pleased with this book for our W. Carribean cruise in Jan. It has helped us to choose what to see when
the cruise ship docks and how to get taxis or sign up for shoretrips now. Thank you for fast shipping and we
will use your service again. csl

For anyone wondering what a cruise is like or what type of cruise they would like to go on, this book is really a great overview of the different choices that can be made. Before taking a cruise you can see just where they go and what they have to offer. Great reading for someone who just wants to "dream" of going someplace some day....fun reading.

Look if you're going to spend thousands on a cruise why not spend a few bucks before you book?

Have taken a few cruises and wanted to expand my knowledge of different cruise lines. This book was great to compare cruise ships and cruise lines especially since I am familiar with some of them already.