Tom Stieghorst
Tourists these days have to be opportunistic - and cruise tourists are no exception to that rule.
I thought of that after learning, sadly, that more cruise lines have pulled out of Turkey this year. They're forgoing not only Istanbul, where there have been attacks, but Kusadasi, where there have not.
I've been fortunate enough to visit both, the latter with my family. My younger daughter, 16 at the time, was amazed to find herself in Turkey, with its mosques and ancient Roman ruins (not to mention some fairly exotic shopping).
I would have been poorer for not having been there. And now, while Turkey remains open for tourism, it is not likely a cruise ship will take you there. Who knows when conditions will be ripe for port calls again.
Other areas of the world have also had geopolitical problems. Black Sea cruising took a hit when Russia started its encroachments in Ukraine, and Tunisia was off limits for a while after a terrorist attack killed cruise passengers there two years ago.
But it works the other way too. In May, if everything pans out, I'll be going on a cruise ship from Miami to Havana. I've lived in Miami for three decades and it is only now that I am able to make that simple 90-mile trip.
Last year, as Fathom made the first Miami-Havana voyage since the early 1960s, I detected a real sense of excitement and urgency to go to Cuba. See it before it looks like everywhere else was the mantra.
Now in talking to travel agents and people who have been to the island, I sense a little complacency already setting in. I've heard it said that the beaches aren't the best in the Caribbean. The food could be better.
There's an assumption that now that the travel opening to Cuba is a little less tenuous, it will always be there.
It well may be. But with the unpredictable Donald Trump in the White House for the next four years, Raul Castro still in command in Cuba, and who knows what kind of government in store after Castro, I wouldn't count on it.
For opportunistic cruisers, the place to go in 2017 is Cuba. And hopefully in 2018 we can go back to Turkey again.