AtlantaCruiser72

Silversea has sent out cancellation notices of all Silver Wind sailings from May 13th through through and including October 1st 2025. Silversea has stated this is "due to unforeseen logistical and operational challenges". Does anyone have any idea as to why she is actually being redeployed away from Iceland / Norway? I have not seen any other redeployments away from this region. Is this simply low sales in an oversaturated market, or is there some new regulation related to expedition cruising in Iceland/Norway they cannot comply with?

HAL has released very little beyond the end of the Alaska/Europe 2024 seasons. Beyond Westerdam’s SE Asia deployment and Oosterdam’s SouthAmerica deployment it’s mostly blank spaces past then.

No grand Africa for 2025. There will be a grand Mediterranean in October 2025 round trip from New York. May be labeled/sold as a legendary journey as it is under 50 days length. Itinerary forthcoming and will be on Volendam

When that gap in her schedule appeared I had suspected as much. If I had the available time I’d jump on either the 2024 or 2025 in a heartbeat. I'm glad to see HAL continuing to maintain their niche of a premium mainstream line with unique longer voyages on mid sized ships.

As of Wednesday World Travel Holdings issued a “stop sell” to all of their agents with no details other than it was related to “service issues”. Given the breadth of private label and consumer direct agency brands they sell under this is not an insignificant move.

I have found the website far more “squirrelly” when using chrome on my pic than safari on my iPad. So much so that I cannot successfully process payments for cart purchases on chrome, but they go through fine on safari.

Let's see: 1 Latte in the morning 1 bottle of water mid morning 1 beer/wine with lunch 1 or 2 fruity drinks by the pool 1 bottle of water by the pool 1 or 2 pre-dinner martoonis / wine 2 wines with dinner 1 post dinner martooni 1 bottle of water to go before bed -------- 11 or 12 drinks on an average cruise day There are days when I might have 2 beers with lunch an extra wine with dinner and/or an additional post dinner martooni, so could easily hit 15. On port days I might grab 2-3 bottles of water to go if it's hot. On cold weather/rainy days I might have another latte or two. I don't drink much alcohol on the regular but do drink a a lot of coffee, tea and water daily. On vacation I like to enjoy myself within my personal limits. Each of us is different and I worry about me and not what others are doing.

I am scheduled to sail on the Rotterdam departing on January 26th for 9 nights. The cruise (both 9 & 21 day options) has shown as sold out since before Thanksgiving. We are booked on a casino comp fare that did not allow cabin assignment so are on a guarantee. We do net yet have a cabin assignment. Should I be getting worried about being bumped and start working on alternate plans?

What galls me the most is that they can rob people by charging $12 for a glass of Benzinger Sauvignon Blanc. It’s $11.97 at Total Wine and honestly just a “meh” wine. That’s one heck of a mark-up!

You are using logic and reason, both of which seem to be absent in the C-Suite in Seattle and wherever they have outsourced all other departments to.

That’s the $10,000 question Mr Clark!!!! 😂

Shore services has traditionally been a separate team from main reservations. They facilitate pre-cruise purchases via telephone of excursions, specialty dining, gift amenities, beverage packages (not HIA package which is a booking item) and retreat reservations amongst other things. There was no formal announcement of outsourcing, just like there never was of reservations when they were outsourced. My last several calls to shore services have been answered by “staff” in a VERY noisy call center, with VERY heavy accents, who were obviously working from a script/knowledge base IT system. The old Seattle based staff were VERY knowledgeable and easy to work with, the new team not so much. The difference is significant. As far as I know all PCC’s are now home based contract agents and no longer are based in Seattle. They are commission based sales staff that may or may not have a depth of historical knowledge of processes/work around when/if there is an issue. Whether they are still truly CCL/HAL employees is unclear. They may now be considered independent contractors (which would avoid CCL having to provide full time benefits). Carnival corp has been outsourcing a LOT of their support functions over the last few years (post restart) and Princess and HAL have had some of the most significant changes, and not for the better.

Ever since the shore services team was outsourced late last summer there have been issues. Sorry you got whacked by the outsourcing goblins

I was in Greece in early November of 2023. We were fortunate to have clear sunny days with temps in the high 70s/low 80s with low humidity. The weather could have been cool wet and windy as it was for the cruise before ours. That said I was prepared to enjoy either way.

Cruisedeckplans dot com may be of use to find photos/videos of similar deck 4 rooms on any of the three Pinnacle siblings. I know this is a “sideways” inside room that is on the smaller end of the square footage spectrum and the foot of the bed faces the door.

PRO TIP - you don’t need to use the phrase “PRO TIP” so often. Your helpful tips will be noticed, and appreciated, regardless. Sorry about the lousy weather and medical incidents. Those can definitely put a damper on the whole experience. Glad you were able to find the positives and that the ship/crew/food seemed to exceed your expectations.

If HAL raise the drink prices so that a majority of beverage options are outside the limits of the SBP this likely will be my last cruise with them. They already have the most restrictive beverage package in the industry. Mixed with reports f significant cutbacks in the onboard product I’m starting not not look forward to sailing with them in just over a month. The continued cutbacks in the ocean cruising industry, along with increased pricing for virtually everything have led me to book my next three cruise adventures on River Cruises, which honestly I never thought would be the case.

HAL has numerous fares that require full pre-payment at time of booking. These fares cannot be modified in any way without cancellation and full penalty of the cruise fare. These fares are often sold at a significant discount as opposed to other fare types, but the lack of flexibility of any kind is a huge disadvantage. I suggest the OP review the cancellation terms as set forth on their original booking confirmation from HAL before trying to escalate the issue. Their confirmations WILL spell out when you are on instant purchase, no changes, non-refundable fare.

Thanks for the continued updates. Seems like we will be best either using their earpieces or bringing our own rather than hoping to pair with AirPods, especially as which type of device being used seems to vary by ship as well

Given that they are focusing mostly on 6-8 day itineraries from Florida or Texas there are so many places that the ships can visit. Like the rest of the industry they are focusing on weeklong itineraries as that is where the $$$$ is.

@drowelf this thread may prove useful:

Looks to me like the port side area of Tamarind is becoming Morimoto, while the remaining space will stay Tamarind. I agree that there is too much overlap for the Morimoto menu to stand out as a "special" offering that would be worth more than Tamarind, especially with it's limited choices. Here's where I think Morimoto will go (yellow highlights)

@George and Family None of the River cruise lines operating within Egypt are cancelling their cruises or altering their itineraries in any way (with the exception of pre/post Israel extensions which are being cancelled). Egypt is NOT in an active war zone and has remained out of the conflict (except for facilitating humanitarian aid). There is no increased threat to tourists in Egypt at this time. Unless you have a "cancel for any reason" insurance policy you would be out of luck with ANY cruise line in this type of situation as you are choosing to voluntarily cancel the trip. Uniworld is correct in the application of the penalty. I'm sorry you are not comfortable travelling internationally, but these are the facts.

Th current version of the Medallion app worked just fine for me on my recent Enchanted cruise. The "Journey View" daily schedule was improved, but I still prefer the at a glance the printed Patter provides (which WAS delivered to our room automatically without requesting - 2 copies even!). Hopefully the ability to see dining reservations and make/modify them is improved as the current setup is still clunky.

On Enchanted earlier this month they had the cakes hidden in the case below the counter and the display case up top with the labels sat empty for 11 days. I very nicely asked if they were included and got a very terse “NO - only from the list” from the rather rude employee working the gelato counter. As she was there every time I walked by I never asked again. Seeing as how she was ‘hiding’ the cakes I didn’t get too bothered as my guess is they were less than fresh.