mwhm

Recently on a back to back on the Star the "lobster night" was on the next to last night of each leg of the cruise.  Makes sense.  They want you to leave the ship with a good impression of Viking, and people are to busy packing on the last night to have it then.

Just spent 27 days on the Viking Star. We had read the same post about the beds that you referred to, and like you, we were concerned.  In fact, I asked about a mattress topper almost immediately.  We are side sleepers, and I was afraid that the bed would be too hard. Our cabin steward suggested that we give it a night and see how we got along. We did. The bed was absolutely fine for us; no problem at all.  Hope your experience is similar.

Also not a fan of the hamburgers.  I'm usually not a cheese pizza person, but the all cheese pizza (forget the name of it) at Spacconapoli might be the best pizza I have ever had.

My wife and I took a set of poles for each of us, but we each ended up using only one pole.  We found that one pole was enough to help with slipping on ice and we liked having a free hand to handle cameras, gloves, etc.

My wife and I were on the Moon during the Southampton to Reykjavik segment. This was our third Silversea cruise.  Let me offer a different perspective. I saw no overly indulgent drinking or boorish behavior. In fact, my wife and I thought  that the group on our cruise was older and more sedate than those we had observed on our prior Silversea cruises. For reference, I am 70 years old. Some people did not strictly follow the dress code, but that was the  case with  the other Silversea cruises we have been on.   Most of the complaints on this blog relate to mask wearing. It is true that during the segment of the cruise we were on many people did not wear masks when not required. In my opinion, when mask wearing is not required reasonable people can reach different decisions as to whether and when to wear masks. Those insisting that it is inconsiderate to not wear masks all the time might want to search for a cruise line with more stringent Covid rules. People are paying a lot of money for this cruise, and walking around wearing a mask for two weeks might not be everyone’s idea of a vacation. Having followed this blog for years, it has been fascinating to read the the differing impressions of a cruise we were  on.  My wife attributes the tone of the posts to the fact that we were on a segment of a grand cruise. She might be right. Bottom line, please don’t get the idea that there are a lot of boorish, poorly dressed  drunks on the Moon. If you will be offended by people not wearing masks when not required, then a cruise on the Moon might not be for you.  This post might offend some,  but the people I have enjoyed reading on the Silversea blog have always struck me as being interesting and intelligent. And not thinking they are somehow better than others. 

Several weeks ago we used the Silversea transfer from the airport to the ship. A Silversea representative met us at the airport after we had retrieved our luggage and gave us luggage tags to attach to our luggage. We had the same question about luggage tags because with past Silversea cruises we had taken we had received the silver box with enclosed luggage tags prior to the cruise. Since Silversea no longer sends the silver boxes, we did not know when or how we would get luggage tags. None of the material we received provided the answer. 

They did provide tests. We were not able to use those tests because we were returning to the US the day after disembarkation and the test had to administered no more than one day before our return to the US. They did not administer early morning tests on the day of disembarkation. 

Can't say what the rules for your cruise will be, but we just completed the 12 day Silver Moon cruise from Southampton to Reykjavik and I can tell you about that cruise.  Temperatures were not checked.  Masks were required during the muster drill in the Dolce Vita lounge, in the Venetian lounge (the show lounge), on tenders, and while riding in buses during excursions.  Otherwise, masks were suggested but not required.   A fairly large majority of the people on our cruise did not wear masks when not required, although some people wore masks most of the time.

Before you relax completely, we received the same email from Barbara Muckerman.  Our cruise departs in 12 days, we have not received tags, e-tickets or anything else since receiving the Muckerman email saying those things would be sent 15 days before the cruise, and we still do not know the name of the Silversea hotel in Reykjavik where we will be staying at the end of our cruise.

Issue that remains for me is whether SS is proposing to administer PCR tests (as opposed to Antigen tests) at the port for those who have not obtained a timely PCR test.  Given the need for a lab and the time it takes to process a PCR test, I just don't see how that would be possible.

I understood that a PCR test had to be processed in a lab and that it could take a day or two to get the results.  Assuming that that is true, even if I took a PCR test the day before I flew to Europe for the cruise, I might not have the results back in time.  If I take a PCR test at the embarkation port, as it appears I will have to because of the delay in getting the test results,  how long would it take for a lab to process the results?  Does each ship or embarkation port have a lab that can quickly process a PCR test?  How long would the delay in boarding be because of the time it would take to process the PCR test given at the embarkation port?

Thanks.  Really appreciate you taking the time to pass this information along.

Thanks.

Our cruise on the Silver Moon ends in Reykjavik (Skarfabakki cruise dock away from town).  The ship is scheduled to arrive at 7 am.  A hotel for the night, transfers and a flight home the next day are included.  We are trying to decide whether it would be practical to rent a car for the day we arrive in Reykjavik.  In particular, we do not know how that could work logistically.  We could wait for Silversea to take us to the hotel, check in and then rent a car assuming there is a rental agency in or close to town, but would too much of the day have passed before we could rent the car to make that practical?   Could we forgo the Silversea transfer to the hotel and go directly to a rental car agency?  If so, where would we rent the car and how would we get there?  Would there be a problem with delayed hotel check-in?  Would dropping off the rental car later in the day and getting to the hotel be practical?

Has anyone done anything like this?  If so, we would certainly appreciate any advice you might have.

My wife and I took a set of poles for each of us, but we quickly found that one pole each was sufficient and less cumbersome.  Didn't need them all the time, but there were a few times when a pole came in handy.

I should have been clearer.  That video was made by Silversea's  videographer, who is a professional.  The video of the trip was for sale at the end of the cruise, but since has been posted to YouTube.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BccHLVUIWS8

We were on the November 22, 2018 Silver Cloud expedition to Antarctica.  Here is a YouTube link to the Silver Sea video of that trip which should give you an idea as to what to expect.  Magical.  Like being on another planet.   

A cautionary Silversea business air tale.  For an upcoming September 29 cruise that leaves from Rome, many months ago we booked business class seats through Silversea.  The My Silversea website showed that we had "confirmed" seats 8A and 8B, and I assumed that we did.  Yesterday I checked the UAL website to determine the location of the seats of travelling companions and noticed that one of our "confirmed "seats was shown as available.  I called UAL to find out what was going on.  The representative told me that not only did we not have seats 8A and 8B reserved, we didn't have any seats reserved. The representative was able to assign seats to us, but needless to say since the flight leaves in less than 6 weeks no desirable seats were left.   According to the agent, sometimes cruise lines will assume that seats were assigned as requested when in fact they weren't.  As frustrating as this is, it scares me to think what might have happened had I not checked with the airline sooner. 

This link is in the Venetian Society Sailings section of the Mysilversea website.  It shows that there are 136 upcoming Venetian Society cruises.

https://www.silversea.com/other-resources/venetian-society.html 

This thread reminds me of a Mitch Hedberg quote:

"An escalator can never break: it can only become stairs. You should never see an Escalator Temporarily Out Of Order sign, just Escalator Temporarily Stairs. Sorry for the convenience." Mitch Hedberg

My wife and I were on the recent Norwegian fjord cruise on the Eclipse. This was our first time eating in Luminae, so we can't comment on whether Luminae has evolved. But for what it's worth, we thought Luminae was wonderful. The food was excellent and the service could not have been better. Because of our Luminae experience, I don't think we would book another cruise unless we were able to eat in Luminae. We have eaten in specialty restaurants and we had onboard credit to use, but we decided to eat all of our dinners in Luminae. One night we ordered a few appetizers off of the main menu, but after that stayed with the varied and often interesting Luminae menu. I don't know whether Luminae has evolved, but if it has evolved it has evolved in a good way.