turtlemichael

I consider myself quite adventurous but my word for the day is "pass"!

Looks stunning. xx

On some occasions the cruise ships are on the same pier as the Hilton and you can almost see the brand of underwear of the passengers.

There has been no public announcement to date of what the problem is or that we even have a problem. Yesterday there were over 30 passengers quarantined, apparently for 24 hours. But most have largely, or partly, recovered after 24 hours. I'm not too unhappy about the lack of an announcement as everyone is aware of the precautions to take eg all food in La Terrazza served by crew, handwashing before entering etc. Silversea appears to have had a plan and have quickly implemented it. I'll leave it there and let mysty get back to her great thread.

Norovirus has well and truly been mentioned amongst the passengers. And you are right - MDs are everywhere lol. I'll report any further info if Mysty doesn't mind, though it's off topic?

The need for such a list of items has come home to us on the present World Cruise. Fortunately, I'm married to a doctor and we travel with enough pills and potions to open a pharmacy. As of today, many guests are down with a tummy bug that, for us, has resulted in an "explosive" situation. La Terrazza breakfast and lunch, is no longer self serve. Some are attributing it to a world cruise event in Zanzibar 3 days ago. But who knows? Sadly, we and many others have missed today's excursions in Nosy Be, Madagascar, and similar is likely to happen tomorrow.

You'll see more of Australia than most Australians! Interesting about Brisbane. We are through there on February 16 on Whisper and are still listed as Mooloolaba. You may be one of the first Silversea customers. Maybe it is not so busy on your day?

Mind boggling!

I’d think it a good idea to make sure your bank knows exactly what you are doing.

Two days ago, in the middle of the Indian Ocean, I got an unexpected phone call from my bank. After all the security checks I was satisfied that I was actually speaking to my bank. 15 minutes before I had made a banking transaction online. Starlink was operating at the time. The bank informed me that there was possibly suspicious activity on my account and asked if I had just accessed my account from Nigeria? As a precaution they had blocked access to my account. The most likely explanation was that Starlink was using a server in Lagos at the time. The bank had picked this up and had taken precautions. The block was lifted straight away and I'm not concerned at what my bank did. But it seems that this might be an issue with Starlink. I am a long way from being computer literate but I thought I'd pass on the story to others who could find similar issues. There is another guest I know of on this world cruise also having issues with their bank after doing some online transactions. If anyone thinks I have misunderstood or got the wrong and of the stick, please let me know.

No probs M.of course xxx But let's hope the captain has a better map 😁 lol

The person who drew that map needs to buy a new compass! In particular, Akaroa and Napier have moved a fair way. Maybe there was another earthquake? That said, there are some wonderful NZ ports included which you'll love.

Treat the information as you wish to but word on the street, not from any official source, is that there will be two levels of access, as there are now. Standard, up to 2 Mbps, and included in fares, and premium, up to 10 Mbps and yours for the current price of USD29 per day. On Shadow we are consistently achieving 10 mbps when the thing is operating and, nothing higher. The WC includes premium internet.

I'm much less organised than you! Don't know lol

On a very quick review, I think 2023 has about 10 early afternoon second day departures. Grrrrr!

Hi Mysty. On a related point - how many of your 2024 overnighters depart around 1.00pm on the second day? There seem to be many on the 2023 WC though I haven't added them up. On an otherwise great WC I am finding that a bit annoying as it tends to write off the second day for doing anything useful. My brain may be failing but I don't have the same recollection of 2019. Comments?

Premium (or rather, what Silversea calls premium) - allows me to do the things I want to do. Emails and websites, videos. Others I know are using zoom etc satisfactorily. Compared with a week ago it's chalk and cheese.

Shadow's Starlink is working satisfactorily at about 3 mbps.

Yesterday, in the first day of StarLink operation on Shadow, we achieved speeds of 2.5mbps. Thats a long way from brilliant but is more than 10 times the speed we regularly achieved pre-StarLink. Most things, including watching a video, could be done. Today, the speed has dropped back to 1.1kbps. Not much use for most things. I guess everyone is ringing home! I'll see how it goes later today.

I'd expect there will be no issue. We spent two nights at a hotel in Hong Kong then a further night at a hotel in Bangkok, both in the last week taking a break from the ship during the world cruise. We were amongst quite a few. We had to sign a waiver that we'd be responsible if we missed the ship. We also had to sign out our passports.

No announcement yet but it appears Starlink is operating on Shadow this morning. Top notch internet! It may be being tested of course. Watch this space.

To my mind it is not just StarLink. I recall a meeting in an overflowing Panorama Lounge on Whisper during the 2019 World Cruise promising improvement. As well, compensation was provided to world cruisers. On Shadow now it is worse than it was four years ago on Whisper. It is worse than any other cruise line I've been on. Cut the gushing apologies and the breast beating and just get on with it.

I'm on board (currently in a Saigon cafe with excellent internet) and I haven't seen a letter saying it would happen after Hong Kong. I saw one apologising profusely saying they were doing all they could to remedy it. Nevertheless, I agree with the substance of your post. It is a disgrace and I feel misled. I don't have to do much online but I live in fear that I will miss an important deadline because of the appalling internet. It is worse than it was in 2019 and indeed worse than any ship I have been on in the last two decades. The troops are getting ready to mutiny!

Not my experience on many Silversea cruises, including those with excursions included.

On our current cruise, Silver Shadow World Cruise, we tend to have steaks in the Grill and other things elsewhere. I have to say that the filet mignon is consistently amongst the best I have had anywhere.