FULL DISCLOSURE, TERMS OF USE, AND PRIVACY NOTICE

It’s important that you know about my relationships with the companies I report on and fees I receive for projects, referrals and leads. I can say what I like, of course, but in the end, you’re the best judge of what’s right for you.

Cruise lines, destinations and travel agents do support River Cruise Advisor. Our model was adapted from National Public Radio, to rely on the generous support of sponsors.  So here are some questions that you may have.

Do cruise companies or destinations ever pay us to write specific articles? We wish! Cruise companies, however, do support the site with monthly sponsorship fees.

Do they ever dictate to us what to write? Never. However, cruise companies may submit article ideas that we will publish should we deem them to be editorially worthwhile for our readers.

Do they ever ask us to remove stories that they may not like from our web site? No.

Do we filter negative comments from readers? No. We do moderate comments in that we have to approve them before they are posted. This is to keep out spammers. On the contrary, we encourage opposing views or any information that will help inform others.

Also, we cruise for free. Does that bias us? Hard to say. What is certain is that we can only write authoritatively about ships that we’ve experienced. Moreover, almost all staff at all cruise web sites, including international publications, travel for free or at press rates that are a mere token. We’re also invited on press trips and inaugurals, all expenses paid. Otherwise, we couldn’t afford to cover the river cruise industry adequately. Can you trust our reporting? That’s something only you can judge.

Am I a travel agent? No. But I do make recommendations to those who ask for them, and I may receive commissions from travel agents or travel suppliers for referrals and leads.

Feel free to join the discussion by leaving comments.

Thank you for dropping by. We hope to see you here more often.

Best regards, Ralph Grizzle

Editor, River Cruise Advisor

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Terms of Use

Effective: April 25, 2017

PLEASE READ THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF USE CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THIS SITE.

1. Acknowledgement and Acceptance of Terms. Avid Travel Media Inc. (“Avid Travel Media,” “We,” or “Us”) provides the River Cruise Advisor [www.rivercruiseadvisor.com] website (the “Site”) and its Content to you “AS IS” subject to the following disclaimers, conditions, and policies (“Terms of Use”), as well as any other written agreements between you and Avid Travel Media.

BY USING THIS SITE, YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THESE TERMS OF USE. IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO BE BOUND BY THESE TERMS OF USE, PLEASE EXIT THE SITE NOW. YOUR REMEDY FOR DISSATISFACTION WITH THIS SITE, OR ANY PRODUCTS, SERVICES, CONTENT, OR OTHER INFORMATION AVAILABLE ON OR THROUGH THIS SITE, IS TO STOP USING THE SITE. YOUR AGREEMENT WITH US REGARDING COMPLIANCE WITH THESE TERMS OF USE BECOMES EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY UPON COMMENCEMENT OF YOUR USE OF THIS SITE.

Avid Travel Media reserves the right, at our discretion, to change, modify, add, or remove portions of these Terms of Use at any time, without notice to you. You acknowledge and agree that it is your responsibility to review this Site and these Terms of Use periodically for such modifications. Your continued use of this Site after such modifications constitutes your acknowledgement of the modified Terms of Use and agreement to be bound by the modified Terms of Use.

2. Description of Services. Avid Travel Media makes various services available on this Site including, but not limited to, informational content and certain other amenities (collectively, the “Services”). The content provided by Avid Travel Media is free. Fees for cruises with Avid Travel Media are set out elsewhere in this Site.

We reserve the right to either modify or discontinue the Site, including any features therein, at any time with or without notice to you. We shall not be liable to you or any third party should we exercise such right. Modifications may include, but are not limited to, changes in the pricing structure or the addition of fee-based services. The Services, and any new features that augment or enhance the then-current Services on this Site shall also be subject to the Terms of Use.

You understand and agree that temporary interruptions of the Services available through this Site may occur as normal events. You further understand and agree that we have has no control over third party networks you may access in the course of the use of this Site, and therefore, delays and disruption of other network transmissions are completely beyond our control.

3. Disclaimer of Warranties.

ALL MATERIALS AND SERVICES ON THIS SITE ARE PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” BASIS WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR THE WARRANTY OF NONINFRINGEMENT. WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, WE MAKE NO WARRANTY THAT: (A) THE SERVICES AND MATERIALS WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS, (B) THE SERVICES AND MATERIALS WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE, OR ERROR-FREE, (C) THE RESULTS THAT MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE USE OF THE SERVICES OR MATERIALS WILL BE EFFECTIVE, ACCURATE OR RELIABLE, OR (D) THE QUALITY OF ANY PRODUCTS, SERVICES, OR INFORMATION PURCHASED OR OBTAINED BY YOU FROM THE SITE FROM US OR OUR AFFILIATES WILL MEET YOUR EXPECTATIONS OR BE FREE FROM MISTAKES, ERRORS OR DEFECTS.

THIS SITE COULD INCLUDE TECHNICAL OR OTHER MISTAKES, INACCURACIES OR TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS. WE MAY MAKE CHANGES TO THE MATERIALS AND SERVICES AT THIS SITE, INCLUDING THE PRICES AND DESCRIPTIONS OF ANY PRODUCTS LISTED HEREIN, AT ANY TIME WITHOUT NOTICE. THE MATERIALS OR SERVICES AT THIS SITE MAY BE OUT OF DATE, AND WE MAKE NO COMMITMENT TO UPDATE SUCH MATERIALS OR SERVICES. 

THE USE OF THE SERVICES OR THE DOWNLOADING OR OTHER ACQUISITION OF ANY MATERIALS THROUGH THIS SITE IS DONE AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION AND RISK AND WITH YOUR AGREEMENT THAT YOU WILL BE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR COMPUTER SYSTEM OR LOSS OF DATA THAT RESULTS FROM SUCH ACTIVITIES.

Through your use of the Site, you may have the opportunities to engage in commercial transactions with third party travel agents and cruise lines. You acknowledge that all transactions relating to any merchandise or services offered by any party, including, but not limited to the purchase terms, payment terms, warranties, guarantees, maintenance and delivery terms relating to such transactions, are agreed to solely between the seller or purchaser of such merchandise and services and you. WE MAKE NO WARRANTY REGARDING ANY TRANSACTIONS EXECUTED THROUGH, OR IN CONNECTION WITH THIS SITE, AND YOU UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT SUCH TRANSACTIONS ARE CONDUCTED ENTIRELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. ANY WARRANTY THAT IS PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH ANY PRODUCTS, SERVICES, MATERIALS, OR INFORMATION AVAILABLE ON OR THROUGH THIS SITE FROM A THIRD PARTY IS PROVIDED SOLELY BY SUCH THIRD PARTY, AND NOT BY US OR ANY OTHER OF OUR AFFILIATES.

If you wish to cruise with us and contact us through the Site about doing so, you will be provided with Sales Terms and Conditions prior to the final purchase of your cruise, which are incorporated by reference into these Terms of Use.

To the extent that there are links to third party websites or comments from third parties on this Site, the third parties are not connected with Avid Travel Media. Avid Travel Media does not endorse, nor are we responsible for the accuracy or reliability of, any opinion, advice, or statement made by anyone other than an authorized spokesperson of Avid Travel Media speaking in his/her official capacity.

SOME STATES OR JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN WARRANTIES, SO SOME OF THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

4. Limitation of Liability; Indemnification. Your exclusive remedy and our entire liability, if any, for any claims arising out of these Terms of Use and your use of this Site shall be limited to the amount you paid us for the Services on the Site during the three-month period before the act giving rise to the liability.

IN NO EVENT SHALL WE OR OUR AFFILIATES BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANY THIRD PARTY FOR ANY SPECIAL, PUNITIVE, INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY KIND, OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THOSE RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER OR NOT WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES, AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OF THIS SITE OR OF ANY WEB SITE REFERENCED OR LINKED TO FROM THIS SITE.

FURTHER, WE SHALL NOT BE LIABLE IN ANY WAY FOR THIRD PARTY GOODS AND SERVICES OFFERED THROUGH THIS SITE OR FOR ASSISTANCE IN CONDUCTING COMMERCIAL TRANSACTIONS THROUGH THIS SITE, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION THE PROCESSING OF ORDERS.

SOME JURISDICTIONS PROHIBIT THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

Upon a request by us, you agree to defend, indemnify, and hold us and our affiliates harmless from all liabilities, claims, and expenses, including attorney’s fees, that arise from your use or misuse of this Site. We reserve the right, at our own expense, to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter otherwise subject to indemnification by you, in which event you will cooperate with us in asserting any available defenses.

5. Registration and Data Privacy. In order to access some of the Services on this Site, you will be required to register with Disqus or use a separate social media account. We do not receive the information that you provide to Disqus or to other social media platforms, but we do receive information that you provide to us to receive further information from us directly via electronic mail. By providing this information to us, you agree that all information is true and accurate and that you will maintain and update this information as required in order to keep it current, complete and accurate.

We do not disclose information provided directly to us to third parties (except as needed to process payment or if you direct us to do so).

The information we obtain through your use of this Site, including your Registration Data, is subject to our Privacy Policy, which is specifically incorporated by reference into these Terms of Use. Avid Travel Media reserves the right at all times to disclose any information about you and/or your participation in and use of the Services as Avid Travel Media deems necessary to satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request.

6. Payment of Fees. If you subscribe to a service on this Site that requires payment of a fee, you agree to pay all fees associated with such service in advance of receiving such service. You agree to provide us with accurate and complete billing information, including credit card information, your name, address and phone number, and to provide us with any changes in such information within 30 days of the change.

If, for any reason, your payment fails to process or is returned for lack of sufficient funds, we may, at our option, suspend or terminate the Services.

In the event legal action is necessary to collect on balances due, you agree to reimburse us for all expenses incurred to recover sums due, including attorney fees and other legal expenses.

7. No Unlawful or Prohibited Use. Your use of the Site is subject to all applicable laws and regulations and you are solely responsible for the Contents of your communications through the Site. By posting information in or otherwise using any communications service, chat room, message board, newsgroup, or other interactive service that may be available to you on or through this Site, you agree that you will not upload, share, post, or otherwise distribute or facilitate distribution of any Content — including text, communications, software, images, sounds, data, or other information — that:

1. 1. Is unlawful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, libelous, deceptive, fraudulent, invasive of another’s privacy, tortious, contains explicit or graphic descriptions or accounts of sexual acts (including but not limited to sexual language of a violent or threatening nature directed at another individual or group of individuals), or otherwise violates our rules or policies;
   2. Victimizes, harasses, degrades, or intimidates an individual or group of individuals on the basis of religion, gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, age, or disability;
   3. Infringes on any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, right of publicity, or other proprietary right of any party;
   4. Constitutes unauthorized or unsolicited advertising, junk or bulk e-mail (also known as “spamming”), chain letters, any other form of unauthorized solicitation, or any form of lottery or gambling;
   5. Contains software viruses or any other computer code, files, or programs that are designed or intended to disrupt, damage, or limit the functioning of any software, hardware, or telecommunications equipment or to damage or obtain unauthorized access to any data or other information of any third party; or
   6. Impersonates any person or entity, including any of our employees or representatives.

We neither endorse nor assume any liability for the Contents of any Material uploaded or submitted by third party users of the Site. We generally do not pre-screen, monitor, or edit the Content posted by users of communications services, chat rooms, message boards, newsgroups, software libraries, or other interactive services that may be available on or through this Site. However, we and our agents have the right at their sole discretion to remove any Content that, in our judgment, does not comply with these Terms of Use and any other rules of user conduct for our site, or is otherwise harmful, objectionable, or inaccurate. We are not responsible for any failure or delay in removing such Content. You hereby consent to such removal and waive any claim against us arising out of such removal of Content.

You may not use the Site or the Services to: download any file(s) that you know, or reasonably should know, cannot be legally reproduced, displayed, performed, and/or distributed in such manner; violate any code of conduct of other guidelines which may be applicable for any particular Service; harvest or otherwise collect information about others, including email addresses, without the authorization or consent of the disclosing party; violate any applicable laws or regulations; or create a false identity for the purpose of misleading others.

You may not use the Services in any manner that could damage, disable, overburden, or impair any server of Avid Travel Media, or the network(s) connected to any server of Avid Travel Media, or interfere with any other party’s use and enjoyment of any Services. In addition, you may not use your account to gain access to any Materials or information through any means not intentionally made available through the Services, breach security of another account, or attempt to gain unauthorized access to another network or server. Not all areas of the Site may be available to you or other authorized users of the Site. Users who violate systems or network security may incur criminal or civil liability.

You acknowledge that we will cooperate fully with investigations of violations of systems or network security at other sites, including cooperating with law enforcement authorities in investigating suspected criminal violations. You agree to reasonably cooperate with Avid Travel Media and law enforcement authorities in investigating suspected violations.

8. Third Party Sites and Information. This Site may link you to other sites on the Internet or otherwise include references to information, documents, software, Materials and/or services provided by other parties. These sites may contain information or Material that some people may find inappropriate or offensive. These other sites and parties are not under our control, and you acknowledge that we are not responsible for the accuracy, copyright compliance, legality, decency, or any other aspect of the Content of such sites, nor are we responsible for errors or omissions in any references to other parties or their products and services. The inclusion of such a link or reference is provided merely as a convenience and does not imply endorsement of, or association with, the Site or party by us, or any warranty of any kind, either express or implied.

9. Intellectual Property Information.

Copyright © 2017 Avid Travel Media Inc. All Rights Reserved.

For purposes of these Terms of Use, “Content” is defined as any information, communications, software, photos, video, graphics, music, sounds, and other Material and services that can be viewed by users on our Site. This includes, but is in no way limited to, message boards, chat, and other original Content

By accepting these Terms of Use, you acknowledge and agree that all Content presented to you on this Site is protected by copyrights, trademarks, service marks, patents or other proprietary rights and laws, and is the sole property of Avid Travel Media. You are only permitted to use the Content as expressly authorized by us. You may not copy, reproduce, modify, republish, upload, post, transmit, or distribute any documents or information from this Site in any form or by any means without prior written permission from us, and you are solely responsible for obtaining permission before reusing any copyrighted Material that is available on this Site. Any unauthorized use of the Materials appearing on this Site may violate copyright, trademark and other applicable laws and could result in criminal or civil penalties.

We do not warrant or represent that your use of Materials displayed on, or obtained through, this Site will not infringe the rights of third parties. Further, nothing in these Terms of Use grants you any right to use any trademark, service mark, logo, and/or the name of Avid Travel Media or River Cruise Advisor.

10. Use of Materials. Subject to our Privacy Policy, any communication or Material that you transmit to this Site or to us, whether by electronic mail or other means, for any reason, will be treated as nonconfidential and nonproprietary. While you retain all rights in such communications or Material, you grant us and our designated licensees a nonexclusive, paid-up, perpetual, and worldwide right to copy, distribute, display, perform, publish, translate, adapt, modify, and otherwise use such Material for any purpose regardless of the form or medium (now known or not currently known) in which it is used.

Please do not submit confidential or proprietary information to us unless we have mutually agreed in writing otherwise. We are also unable to accept your unsolicited ideas or proposals, so please do not submit them to us in any circumstance.

We respect the intellectual property of others, and we ask you to do the same. If you or any user of this Site believes its copyright, trademark or other property rights have been infringed by a posting on this Site, you or the user should send notification to our Designated Agent (as identified below) immediately. To be effective, the notification must include:

1. 1. A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed;
   2. Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed;
   3. Information reasonably sufficient to permit us to contact the complaining party, such as address, telephone number and, if available, an electronic mail address at which the complaining party may be contacted;
   4. Identification of the Material that is claimed to be infringing or to be subject to infringing activity and that is to be removed and information reasonably sufficient to permit us to locate the Materials;
   5. A statement that the complaining party has a good faith belief that use of the Material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, agent, or the law; and
   6. A statement that the information in the notification is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringing.

Pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C.A. Sec. 512(c), our Designated Agent for Notice of claims of copyright infringement can be reached as indicated below. Service of repeat infringers of copyright or of users about whom repeat claims of copyright infringement are received will be terminated.

Designated Agent for Claimed Infringement:

RALPH GRIZZLE

P.O. Box 2807, Asheville, NC 28802

PHONE: (828) 582-8354

EMAIL: [email protected]

You acknowledge and agree that upon receipt of a notice of a claim of copyright infringement, we may immediately remove the identified Materials from our site without liability to you or any other party and that the claims of the complaining party and the party that originally posted the Materials will be referred to the United States Copyright Office for adjudication as provided in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

11. Use of Site and Storage of Material. You acknowledge that we may establish general practices and limits concerning use of the Services available on our site, including without limitation the maximum number of days that uploaded Content will be retained on the Site, the maximum disk space that will be allotted or our servers on your behalf, and the maximum number of times (and the maximum duration for which) you may access the Services in a given period of time. You agree that we have no responsibility or liability for the deletion or failure to store any Content maintained or transmitted on or through this Site. You further acknowledge that we reserve the right to change these general practices and limits at any time, in our sole discretion, with or without notice.

We provide storage space and access for Material through our site. For purposes of these Terms of Use, “Material” refers to all forms of communication that we may allow, including narrative descriptions, graphics (including photographs, illustrations, images, drawings, logos), executable programs, video recordings, and audio recordings.

You should not rely on the Site as your only storage facility. You should preserve backup copies of any digital data, information or other Materials that you have uploaded. You agree not to hold us for any damage to, any deletion of or any failure to store your files, data or Registration Data.

13. Non-Disparagement. You shall, during and after the participation in and use of the Services, refrain from making any statements or comments of a defamatory or disparaging nature to any third party regarding Avid Travel Media, or any of Avid Travel Media’s officers, directors, employees, personnel, agents, policies, services or products, other than to comply with law.
14. Termination. You agree that we may, in our sole discretion, terminate or suspend your access to all or part of the Site with or without notice and for any reason, including, without limitation, breach of these Terms of Use. Any suspected fraudulent, abusive or illegal activity may be grounds for terminating your relationship and may be referred to appropriate law enforcement authorities.

Upon termination or suspension, regardless of the reasons therefore, your right to use the Services available on this Site immediately ceases, and you acknowledge and agree that we may immediately deactivate or delete your account and all related information and files in your account and/or bar any further access to such files or this Site. We shall not be liable to you or any third party for any claims or damages arising out of any termination or suspension or any other actions taken by us in connection therewith. Sections 1, 3-5, 7, 9, 10-18, and 20 of these Terms of Use, as well as your liability for any unpaid fees, shall survive any termination.

14. Governing Law. This Site (excluding any linked sites) is controlled by us from our offices within the State of North Carolina, United States of America. It can be accessed from all 50 states, as well as from other countries around the world. As each of these places has laws that may differ from those of North Carolina, by accessing this Site both of us agree that the statutes and laws of the State of North Carolina, without regard to the conflicts of laws principles thereof and the United Nations Convention on the International Sales of Goods, will apply to all matters relating to the use of this Site and the purchase of products and Services available through this Site. Each of us agrees and hereby submits to the exclusive personal jurisdiction and venue of the Superior Court of Buncombe County and the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina with respect to such matters.

15. Severability. In the event that any provision or portion of this Terms of Use is determined to be invalid, illegal or unenforceable for any reason, in whole or in part, the remaining provisions of this Terms of Use shall be unaffected thereby and shall remain in full force and effect to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law.

16. Notices. All notices to a party shall be in writing and shall be made either via e-mail or conventional mail. Notices to us must be sent to the attention of Ralph Grizzle at [[email protected]], if by e-mail, or P.O. Box 2807, Asheville, NC 28802, if by conventional mail. Notices to you may be sent either to the e-mail address supplied by you to access certain Services. In addition, we may broadcast notices or messages through the Site to inform you of changes to the Site or other matters of importance, and such broadcasts shall constitute notice to you.

Any notices or communication under these Terms of Use will be deemed delivered to the party receiving such communication (1) on the delivery date if delivered personally to the party; (2) two business days after deposit with a commercial overnight carrier, with written verification of receipt; (3) five business days after the mailing date, if sent by US mail, return receipt requested; (4) on the delivery date if transmitted by confirmed facsimile; or (5) on the delivery date if transmitted by confirmed e-mail.

17. Entire Agreement. These terms and conditions constitute the entire agreement and understanding between us concerning the subject matter hereof and supersedes all prior agreements and understandings of the parties with respect thereto. These Terms of Use may NOT be altered, supplemented, or amended by the use of any other document(s). Any attempt to alter, supplement or amend this document or to enter an order for products or Services which are subject to additional or altered terms and conditions shall be null and void, unless otherwise agreed to in a written agreement signed by you and us. To the extent that anything in or associated with this Site is in conflict or inconsistent with these Terms of Use, these Terms of Use shall take precedence.

18. Miscellaneous. In any action to enforce these Terms of Use, the prevailing party will be entitled to costs and attorneys’ fees. Any cause of action brought by you against us or our affiliates must be instituted with one year after the cause of action arises or be deemed forever waived and barred. You may not assign your rights and obligations under these Terms of Use to any third party, and any purported attempt to do so shall be null and void. We may free assign our rights and obligations under these Terms of Use. You agree not to sell, resell, reproduce, duplicate, copy or use for any commercial purposes any portion of this Site, or use of or access to this Site. In addition to any excuse provided by applicable law, we shall be excused from liability for non-delivery or delay in delivery of products and Services available through our site arising from any event beyond our reasonable control, whether or not foreseeable by either party, including but not limited to, labor disturbance, war, fire, accident, adverse weather, inability to secure transportation, governmental act or regulation, and other causes or events beyond our reasonable control, whether or not similar to those which are enumerated above. Any failure by us to enforce or exercise any provision of these Terms of Use or related rights shall not constitute a waiver of that right or provision.

19. International Use. Although this Site may be accessible worldwide, we make no representation that Materials on this Site are appropriate or available for use in locations outside the United States, and accessing them from territories where their Contents are illegal is prohibited. Those who choose to access this Site from other locations do so on their own initiative and are responsible for compliance with local laws. Any offer for any product, service, and/or information made in connection with this Site is void where prohibited.

20. Confidentiality.

1. 1. You acknowledge and agree that during your participation in and use of the Services you may be exposed to Confidential Information. “Confidential Information” shall mean all information, in whole or in part, that is disclosed by Avid Travel Media or any participant or user of the Services or any employee, affiliate, or agent thereof that is nonpublic, confidential, or proprietary in nature. Confidential Information also includes, without limitation, information about business, sales, operations, knowhow, trade secrets, technology, products, employees, customers, marketing plans, financial information, services, business affairs, any knowledge gained through examination or observation of or access to the facilities, computer systems and/or books and records of Avid Travel Media, any analyses, compilations, studies or other documents prepared by Avid Travel Media or otherwise derived in any manner from the Confidential Information and any information that you are obligated to keep confidential or know or has reason to know should be treated as confidential. Confidential information does not include information already in the public domain, anything voluntarily disclosed by the disclosing party, anything independently developed by you or information disclosed in compliance with a lawfully issued process compelling disclosure.
   2. Your participation in and/or use of the Services obligates you to: (i) Maintain all Confidential Information in strict confidence; (ii) not to disclose Confidential Information to any third parties; (iii) not to use the Confidential Information in any way directly or indirectly detrimental to Avid Travel Media or any participant or user of the Services.
   3. All Confidential Information remains the sole and exclusive property of Avid Travel Media or the respective disclosing party. You acknowledge and agree that nothing in this Terms of Use or your participation or use of the Services will be construed as granting any rights to you, by license or otherwise, in or to any Confidential Information or any patent, copyright or other intellectual property or proprietary rights of Avid Travel Media or any participant or user of the Services. Avid Travel Media acknowledges that it is subject to the same restrictions and obligations contained in this section entitled “Confidentiality” with regard to Confidential Information belonging to you.

21. Participation In or Use of Services. You acknowledge that you are participating in or using the Services at your own free will and decision. You acknowledge that Avid Travel Media does not have any liability with respect to your access, participation in, use of the Services, or any loss of information resulting from such participation or use. Further, you hereby represent and warrant that you have all requisite legal power and authority to enter into and abide by the terms and conditions of this Terms of Use and no further authorization or approval is necessary. You further represent and warrant that your participation or use of the Services will not conflict with or result in any breach of any license, contract, agreement or other instrument or obligation to which you are a party.

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Privacy Policy

Effective May 25, 2018 Updated for the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Who we are

River Cruise Advisor is owned by Avid Travel Media Inc., incorporated in North Carolina, USA.

Your privacy on the Internet is of importance to Avid Travel Media Inc.’s (“Avid Travel Media,” “We,” or “Us”). This Privacy Policy describes Avid Travel Media’s policy concerning the gathering and sharing of visitors’ information through Avid Travel Media’s website, which uses the domain name rivercruiseadvisor.com (hereinafter “Site”). By visiting Avid Travel Media’s Site, you are accepting the practices described in this policy.

How To Contact Us

We can be reached via this contact form on the River Cruise Advisor website.

Address:

PO Box 2807
Asheville, North Carolina 28802 USA

River Cruise Advisor’s website address is: https://www.rivercruiseadvisor.com.

Normal Website Usage

The information gathered during general browsing of our Site is used to analyze trends and usage of the Site and to improve the usefulness of the Site. It is not connected with any personal information.

In general, you can browse Avid Travel Media Inc.’s (“Avid Travel Media,” “We,” or “Us”) website, River Cruise Advisor [www.rivercruiseadvisor.com], website (the “Site”), without telling us who you are or revealing any personal information about yourself. The only information we gather during general browsing is via Google Analytics and would include information like your IP (Internet Protocol) address, domain name, browser type, operating system, and information such as the web site that referred you to us, the files you downloaded, the pages you visit, and the dates/times of those visits.

Correspondence

Avid Travel Media may retain correspondence and the information contained therein (e.g. name, mailing address, phone number) and use such information to respond to your inquiry and/or provide you with our newsletter. Your name, e-mail address, and postal address information is never sold, given, or otherwise shared or disclosed to third parties unless you expressly authorize us to do so (e.g. if you requested a travel agent recommendation and expressly authorized us to pass your information onto the agent, we would send the information to the agent).

If you do not wish to receive notifications or correspondence from Avid Travel Media, you may unsubscribe from our newsletter using information provided in the newsletter itself.

If you directly correspond with Avid Travel Media but wish to terminate your communication with us, please advise Avid Travel Media of this fact in direct response to the e-mail correspondence.

If you correspond directly with Avid Travel Media to make a purchase, you will be asked to submit payment card information to a third-party payment processor, Quickbooks or Gumroad. As a result, Avid Travel Media does not store credit card details or sensitive financial information. Instead, all such information is provided directly to Quickbooks or Gumroad, and use of personal and sensitive financial information that you provide to Quickbooks is governed by Quickbooks’ Terms of Service (https://quickbooks.intuit.com/global/terms-of-service/) and Privacy Policy (https://security.intuit.com/index.php/privacy) and by Gumroad’s Terms of Service (https://gumroad.com/terms) and Privacy Policy (https://gumroad.com/privacy). Avid Travel Media does not own or operate Quickbooks or Gumroadand does not have control over its policies.

If you correspond with Avid Travel Media via e-mail, the postal service, or other form of communication, you may reveal personal information about yourself to Avid Travel Media (e.g. name, e-mail, and postal address information).

If you correspond directly with Avid Travel Media to make a purchase, you will be asked to submit payment card information to a third-party payment processor, Quickbooks or Gumroad.

Consent to Collect

We collect data from users that have subscribed to our newsletter, left comments or filled out forms. We ask for consent during the process with a checkbox. A link to this page is provided during the process. The legal basis for us to collect the data is to be able to provide you with a service.

What personal data we collect and why we collect it

Comments

When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.

An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

The comment section of the Site provides a forum for users to comment on content provided through the Site and to discuss what they are seeking or value in a cruise. To participate, you are asked to provide information through third party sites (e.g. Disqus, Facebook, Google Plus, or Instagram). The information that you share with these third-party sites is not shared with Avid Travel Media. However, information that you post on Avid Travel Media’s comments page will be available to Avid Travel Media and to other users. As such, you should take care in what you share in the comments section.

Avid Travel Media does not have access to the information that you submit to Disqus or another third-party social media platform, and use of personal information provided to these platforms is governed by their terms of use/ service and privacy policies.

Avid Travel Media does, however, have access to comments that you post on our Site and that information will be published on the Site (subject to our Terms of Use).

You may delete comments posted on the Site or ask us to delete comments at any time pursuant to the terms of Disqus or another third-party social media platform.

Forms

When visitors fill out forms on the site we collect the data shown in the form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.

Cookies

If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.

If you have an account and you log in to this site, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.

When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.

If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.

Other cookies in use on Avid Travel Media’s website are for Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. (“Google”). Google Analytics uses cookies to help the website analyze how users use the site. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google.

Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the Site, compiling reports on website activity for website operators, and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage. Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google’s behalf. Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser. By using this website, you consent to the processing of data about you by Google in the manner and for the purposes set out above.

Embedded content from other websites

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracing your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

How long we retain your data

If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

What rights you have over your data

Providing personal information on the Site is optional. If you choose not to provide personal information, you can still browse and use Avid Travel Media’s Site, but you will not be able to correspond with Avid Travel Media or access other features of the Site that require personal information to be provided.

If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

• You can request a copy of your data which we will provide within 30 days;
• You can request your data to be anonymized which we will do within 30 days;
• While we will do everything we can to keep our service secure, in the event of a data breach or misuse, we will inform our users of what happened and what we have done to put it right within 30 days.

Services and Third Parties Where We Store Data

Avid Travel Media Inc. relies on third party services to maintain its own services. Avid Travel Media Inc. never shares or resell any of its data.

• Amazon S3 (encrypted backups);
• Sendgrid (email distribution)
• Gumroad (ebook sales)
• Sparkpost (email distribution)
• Quickbooks
• Google Analytics
• Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.

How we protect your data

With the exception of user comments (which are controlled and posted by you), Avid Travel Media does not sell or share any personally identifiable information volunteered on the Site to any third party without prior consent.

Any information provided to Avid Travel Media by users of the Site is held with the utmost care and security, and will not be used in ways other than as set forth in this privacy policy, or in any site-specific policies, or in ways to which you have explicitly consented. Avid Travel Media employs a range of techniques and security measures to protect the information maintained on our system from loss, misuse, unauthorized access or disclosure, alteration, or destruction.

However, Avid Travel Media assumes no responsibility for the security of information.

As set forth previously, Avid Travel Media’s Site contains link to sites external to the rivercruiseadvisor.com domain. Avid Travel Media is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such sites.

Children Under 13

The Site is not directed to children under 13 years of age, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If we become aware that a child under 13 has provided us with personal information, Avid Travel Media will delete such information from our files.

Age of Consent

Moreover, by using this site, you represent that you are at least 18 years of age, or that you are at least 18 years of age and have given us your consent to allow any of your minor dependents to use this Site. If you are under the age of 18, do not use this Site without parental consent.

Changes to This Privacy Notice

Avid Travel Media reserves the right to modify this Privacy Notice at any time, so please review it frequently. Changes and clarifications will take effect immediately upon their posting on this Site. If we make material changes to this Notice, we will notify you on this Site that it has been updated, so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we use and/or disclose it.

If Avid Travel Media is acquired or merged with another company, your information may be transferred to the new owners so that they may continue to sell products to you.

Subject to Terms of Use

This Privacy Notice is subject to the terms set forth in the Avid Travel Media’s Terms of Use, including without limitation all provisions regarding warranty, disclaimers, limits of liability, and dispute resolution mechanisms, such as the jurisdiction and form selection provisions.

Disputes

The Site is administered by Avid Travel Media from its offices in North Carolina. These Terms will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of North Carolina, without giving effect to any principles of conflicts of laws. Any matter and/or dispute relating in any way to your visit to or interaction with the Site or with this Privacy Notice, including compliance with these Terms, shall be filed in the state courts of Buncombe County, North Carolina or in the Western District of North Carolina. You consent to exclusive personal jurisdiction and venue in such courts and waive any objection based on inconvenient forum.

International Users

By using Avid Travel Media’s Site, you agree and acknowledge that the Site is hosted in the United States. If you are attempting to access the website from a physical location within the European Union, Asia, or any other region with laws or regulations governing personal data collection, use, and disclosure that differ from United States laws, please be advised that through your continued use of the Site, which is governed by U.S. law, the Privacy Notice, and the Terms of Use, you are transferring your Personal Information to the United States and you consent to (i) such transfer, (ii) the application of the laws of the United States and/or the State of North Carolina with respect to any dispute arising from or related to the Privacy Policy and/or your use of the website, other than such rules, regulations, case law, and/or international treaties that would result in the application of the laws of a jurisdiction other than the United States or the State of North Carolina, and (iii) the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of the State of North Carolina and courts sitting in North Carolina. Any claim or dispute between you and us that arises in whole or in part from your use of the Site or in connection with the Privacy Policy shall be decided exclusively by a court of competent jurisdiction located in Buncombe County North Carolina, U.S.A. Each party hereby agrees that such court shall have in personam jurisdiction and venue with respect to such party, and each party hereby submits to the in personam jurisdiction and venue of such courts and waives any objection based on inconvenient forum.

Questions and Contact Information

If you would like to access, correct, amend, or delete any personal information that we have about you; register a complaint; or simply want more information, please contact us at [email protected] or by mail at P.O. Box 2807, Asheville, NC 28802.