Deals don’t dry up under summer’s sun

Periodically, I catch up with travel industry news and let you know about things that may affect your upcoming travels. Here are a few such items.

Norwegian Cruise Lines has expanded its fleet with 12 more -- mainly new -- ships, each with balcony cabins and up to 10 restaurants (“freestyle dining whenever you like”).

Three of the ships will be sailing in Alaska throughout the summer, two ships will be sailing in the Hawaiian Islands throughout the year, and one ship is sailing year-round from New York. Like the Royal Caribbean and Carnival lines, Norwegian offers the best rates on its own website, www.ncl.com, and will not permit online agencies or cruise brokers to offer lower prices.

Most summer and early fall cruises of Europe’s Mediterranean and North seas are sold out, but if you are still interested, try Oceania Cruises, which has two small ships, the Regatta and Insignia, each limited to 684 passengers. Because Oceania is a relatively new line with a smaller sales force, some passengers may be able to take advantage of two-for-one rates and free airfare on its 10-night cruises of Europe’s most colorful areas. For more information, log on to www.oceaniacruises.com. The company recently relocated; its new address is 8300 N.W. 33rd St., Suite 308, Miami, FL 33122. The phone number is (305) 514-2300.

Extended-stay hotels, meant for stays of a week or longer (rooms usually have a dining table, desk, sink, microwave and refrigerator), are among the fastest-growing segments of the hotel industry; most cost less than $100 a night. Part of the savings is accomplished by having small public areas.

The next time you need a long stay, check out the availability of Accor Hotel’s Studio 6 chain, Marriott’s Residence Inns, U.S. Franchise System’s Hawthorne Suites or InterContinental’s Staybridge Suites.

This warning bears repeating: Despite travel industry efforts to roll back the new policy, it now appears that the State Department will succeed in requiring that Americans possess passports, as of Dec. 31, to travel to and from the Caribbean, Bermuda and Central and South America. And a year thereafter, passports will be needed to travel to and from our neighbors in Mexico and Canada. If you don’t have a passport and want to keep traveling, you should obtain one before a crush of applications creates lengthy waits. For information and forms, see www.travel.state.gov.

When people used to talk about vacationing in California wine country, they were generally referring to Sonoma and Napa counties, just north of San Francisco. Today, they often mean the wine country of Santa Barbara County. The reason: the hit movie “Sideways,” which captured America’s imagination through the sexy, picaresque adventures of Jack and Miles through the area’s wine-tasting rooms, restaurants and expansive vineyards. Proprietors of the resorts and wineries featured in “Sideways” have gone all out to remind visitors of the scandalous doings that occurred in the film. For instance, Los Olivos Cafe and Wine Merchant advertises itself as a “featured location in the award-winning movie ‘Sideways.’ ”

Every travel industry representative is proclaiming that travel by Americans will be strong this summer and fall. Though we won’t know the final figures for several more months, I can’t comprehend how historic numbers of Americans supposedly are braving the high costs of European travel and the expense of road trips through the United States. Already I’m hearing about quiet conditions at some national parks and vacancies at European hotels.