cruiseej

@John117 I hope you are not referring to my post above (#7). I used a laughing-with-tears emoji to try to make clear that it was a sarcastic joke, not a serious comment. (Nor am I a SS cheerleader. 😉) If a change like this was made on a cruise I was booked on, I would be as upset with SS as I'm sure you are.

As stated above, you can order caviar any time and place: to a lounge or to your room. I don't know what sort of "update" you're seeking on alcoholic beverages. Nothing has changed in terms of what's included. Wines on the included list are, of course, ever-changing and vary from ship to ship and cruise to cruise. (Some recent reports indicate a much smaller list of included wines than in the past, but we'll need more data points to determine if this is a fleet-wide change policy change or just ongoing issues with global sourcing.)

My ongoing complaint (and comment on post-cruise comment surveys) is that Seabourn's food & drink makes no effort to reflect where in the world we are cruising. (Well, when we sailed in the Caribbean in 2021 and 2022 and they were home porting in Barbados, they did have Banks, the top local beer.) I'd love to see them react to what Silversea has done with their SALT (Sea and Land Taste) program, and have more local food and beverages.

Interesting… No one has ever reached out to us about a FCD; it's always been up to us to visit the Future Cruise Consultant onboard to make the deposit. (There's always been a sheet of paper in the suite one day promoting booking a future cruise while onboard, but no other outreach.)

And last year we were complaining that the website always lags behind actual changes and notifications. So isn't this a step forward? 🤣

@Mauzac Is he leaving in Barcelona? That's when we board.

@SLSD Perhaps I'm missing something… they explained that your recently-booked cruise, with its promotional discounts, was not combinable with the FCD discount. And they're offering to refund your FCD, or extend it for another year. So isn't this the resolution you were seeking? (Perhaps you were just closing the loop and updating this thread; if so, thanks for doing so.)

The Regent cruise is on the Explorer, one of their newest ships, so you're probably not going wrong there. Regent also includes business class air on all their bookings, where Silversea offers it as an add-on for some voyages (and it seems like they're trying not to get burned on future air prices as likely happened a lot in 2021 and 2022), so Regent's air cost may be a little lower in some markets. If price is a deciding factor, you can't go too far wrong with Regent. But I'd choose based on the differences between Regent and Silversea. Silversea has more formal dress. Regent has a larger ship. Entertainment shows are bigger/better on Regent. That said... are you sure about the $22,000 Regent price? Looking on their website, I see that cruise is fully waitlisted, and the lowest level suite is $32,400 for two people.

@mysty Hopefully, the reason for no responses is that no one who has done a world cruise regrets it! 😀

When Mr. Luxury asks, one obliges. 😀 Seabourn is an even tinier part of Carnival than Silversea is of Royal Caribbean, because Seabourn is much smaller than Silversea, and Carnival is much larger than Royal Caribbean. Seabourn has only 6 ships currently (one more expedition ship is coming next year; nothing beyond that has been announced), with a passenger capacity of 2,838. (Silversea has 10 ships with a combined capacity of 4,120.) Silversea owner Royal Caribbean Group has 54 ships among its three cruise lines (not counting its joint ventures) with 147,000 passenger capacity. Carnival Corp. consists of nine cruise lines with a whopping 92 ships: Carnival Cruise Line (23), Princess Cruises (15), AIDA Cruises (13), Costa Cruises (12), Holland America Line (11), P&O Cruises UK (7), Seabourn (6), Cunard (3) and P&O Cruises Australia (3). Passenger capacities* are: Carnival Cruise Line (93,095), Costa Cruises (52,719), Princess Cruises (46,189), AIDA Cruises (33,190), P&O Cruises UK (24,193), Holland America Line (22,696), P&O Cruises Australia (7,234), Cunard (6,868), and Seabourn (2,838). Grand total: 289,022, which is close to double the capacity of Royal Caribbean Group. Seabourn's passenger capacity as a percentage of Carnival Corp. overall: a hair under 1%! (*Note: these tallies are my own from visiting various websites. There are likely discrepancies between some websites reporting "lower berths", which is simple double occupancy, and others reporting total passenger capacity. I also didn't try to parse which ships are soon to be retired or sold what new ships are coming online when over the next two years. Whew!)

@Mocamps As Americans who had a distant memory of the war, we found it interesting to learn more about the history of the Falklands conflict. One of the expedition staff did a lecture on the history of the Falklands which was outstanding; it seemed like a semester of college history in the geopolitics of South America crammed into 50 minutes! The battlefields tour we did in Port Stanley was mildly interesting, but the onboard lecture provided a deeper understanding of the history leading up to the war. (Obviously, the lecturer onboard and the tour guide on your specific bus will vary, so you may have a different experience.) In terms of the bus tour, it basically showed us the topography of the British assault to capture Stanley, but not a lot more. The bus tour guide was a Falklands native who lived through the war there, so it was very interesting getting his perspective about how the locals felt, how they dealt with the Argentinians, and their expectations of the British. There is one place where they stop that you can see some scattered remains of a destroyed helicopter, and another that's a monument to the fallen, but that's about it. (I understand this may be more meaningful to someone who knew participants in the war.) And yes, South Georgia will be the highlight of your cruise! 😀

I find we don't, in fact, chat with everyone, so when we had a SS FB gathering on our recent Cloud cruise, it was nice to meet about a dozen passengers we might not have otherwise chatted with. 🙂 @Mocamps In terms of the Falklands, does your cruise have more than the day in Port Stanley? We had two days in the Falklands on our recent cruise, and the day other than Port Stanley was the real eye-opener to me: two landings on New Island and West Point Island which were outstanding. Port Stanley was okay, for the war history, but the two landings on the outer islands were the highlight of our visit here. (I understand that someone who was invested in the war might find the history more compelling than we did.)

Exactly, Terry. Norwegian Cruise Lines has a capacity of 54,404 on its 18 ships; the upscale Oceania and luxury Regent bands have capacities of 5,092 and 4,140 respectively, each with 6 ships. So for the overall company, Oceania and Regent comprise less than 15% of their overall capacity. Of course, those of us frequenting this board are interested in Silversea, and it's a much smaller part of the overall Royal Caribbean Group. I was curious about how small Silversea is compared to its corporate siblings, so I did a quick tally. The 28 RC ships have a passenger capacity of 106,914 as the end of this year; Celebrity has 16 ships which have a capacity of 35,806. Silversea's 10 ships (counting Nova, removing Explorer) will have a combined capacity of just 4,120, or just 2.8% of the combined total. (I'm not counting here the joint venture of TUI Cruises — which includes TUI and Hapag-Lloyd— which I believe is 50% owned by Royal Caribbean.) Or look at another mind-boggling stat: the newest Royal Caribbean ship debuting at the end of this year, the Icon of the Seas, will have close to double the capacity of all Silversea ships combined! A sister ship is under construction, and a third sibling is planned for a year later. Just those three ships alone will have a capacity of 22,800 passengers, nearly 5 times the entire Silversea fleet capacity, even after Ray joins the fleet next year. So while there may be plenty of demand and money for luxury cruising, as del Rio says, that offers no real indication of how well the Big 3 cruise companies will perform in the months and years ahead.

We're in the US, but I don't think the rules would be different in the UK… We faced this issue for our Antarctica cruise three months ago. The Backlane booking form allowed us to choose either option, so I selected the larger SUV to make sure our luggage wouldn't be a problem. Friends who we traveled with did the same. We both had flawless service, in both directions. So yes, if you have the option to book the larger vehicle, just do it! 🙂

I'd just note that the answer to this question varies considerably from one port to another, and sometimes from one day to another. Part of the check-in process depends on local representatives, and they can be slow, delayed, or stretched between multiple ships in port on the same day. So whatever experiences fellow travelers may share here, I'd issue the maxim used in the financial world: "Past performance may not be indicative of future results."

Thanks for all the useful tips @mysty! Many of us probably do or know to do some of them, but there's always something new to learn from another experienced traveler! So… I know some people swear by these, but we've never used them. Our issue in packing for trips is always the weight limit, not capacity. Perhaps if you're traveling with less-than-full-size luggage, vacuum bags would help fit more into limited space, but we can always get our stuff to fit; we run out of wight before space! (Perhaps that's because we don't always travel in business class and have a higher weight limit.) But even if you use the vacuum bags to get to your destination, what do you do to pack to get home? Do you carry a hand pump in your luggage? Borrow a suite attendant's vacuum cleaner?

Yikes, only four red wine on the included list?! That seems like a significant change from our past experiences on Seabourn. (There were 8 reds on the list I have from a cruise last year, and 13 on a cruise just before the Covid shutdown.)

Silversea has a website you can access once onboard. Seabourn has an app, with some ups and downs; they also have the daily schedule and port info posted in Seabourn Square (reception area on steroids 😉 ). If one's going to have a phone or digit device with them, then I'd think an easy-to-access app or website would be better than having to get a printed copy to take a digital picture of.

@labrasett I'd just note that there's a difference between an organized multi-day land excursion offered by the cruise line and an individual customer going ashore for a few days and rejoining the cruise in a different port. Both the cruise lines and the local authorities may or may not have rules about doing so.

Just this small sample of passengers shows some would prefer to keep getting paper copies and some would prefer not to. I don't know why Silversea (or any cruise line) wouldn't make this a customer preference. They can satisfy every customer who wants paper, and still save money not printing as many copies. (Unless the long-term goal is to eliminate a back-office staff position for the crew member who designs, edits and prints Chronicles and other printed materials.)

It's not a premise; it sounded like the airline tickets had already been purchased. That at least seems likely, with the cruise only 3 months away. I'd guess they booked it because it was the only non-stop to Florida from Dublin; we don't know if they didn't grasp the geography of Florida, or just assumed it would be easy to travel from point to point. But since the original poster has not returned to answer questions or offer more information, we're probably wasting time speculating and tweaking suggestions.

I think you answered your own question with that statement. I think almost everyone who has done the Quest in Antarctica feels they had an excellent experience. But you do get more of the experience if you go on a smaller expedition ship. It's purely a matter of numbers: the expedition ships with around 200 passengers can get you off the ship twice a day for landings and/or zodiac cruises, where on the Quest with double the number of passengers, you'll generally get off once a day. You see the same exceptional scenery along the Antarctic peninsula from the ship on a smaller or larger ship, and some people find doing one landing a day is enough for them. And you do get the luxury benefits of a larger ship (more restaurants, more/bigger entertainment staff). But if you want to get "the full Antarctic experience," in my opinion being able to go ashore more often is what delivers the maximum experience. Just before Covid, we had wanted to book the new Venture to go to Antarctica, but it was delayed, and we ended up booking a similar trip on Silversea. (Older ship, but saved about $20,000 versus the Venture!) If you have the time, and the $$$, you cannot beat taking an extended trip which visits the Falklands and South Georgia Island. When we first became interested in going to Antarctica, it was through fellow passengers on a few Seabourn cruises, and they all said the same thing: "you go to South Georgia!" So now that I've been there, I'm paying it forward, and telling anyone weighing their options that if you can possibly do it, you must go to South Georgia! 😉 And our first day in the Falklands was a huge and pleasant surprise. the trio of theFalklands, South Georgia, and Antarctica is spectacular, and we're extremely happy we chose that itinerary, and although we love the Quest, that we went on a smaller ship. P.S. I thought I was the number one Eagles fan!

@shark b8 We'll be boarding Sojourn in late May in Barcelona (with a group of 5 other couples, several new to Seabourn) — which I think is the first cruise after the end of your world cruise. (Didn't realize that when we got our group to book this cruise.) I'm a little concerned that a the crew 'A' team from the world cruise will all head home in Barcelona when your cruise ends, and we'll have the 'B' team with a lot of new/inexperienced staff. Hopefully it won't be too much of a step down. Whenever you have a chance, could you find out who will be cruise director starting on the May 27 cruise, and if a lot of senior staff (e.g Hotel Director, F&B manager, head chef) will all be changing on that cruise? Thanks.

But none of those people are responsible for where most luggage goes astray when it does. You can't tip the baggage handlers on the tarmac or in the sorting facility in the bowels of the airport. Nor the automated sorting scanners, computers and conveyor belts which can route your luggage halfway around the world, or to arrivals rather than to your connecting flight. 😉

That's odd; I have always received an acknowledgement from Seabourn when they applied our credit. Yes, taking a copy of your statement is a good back-up plan, but the ship's staff can't add that credit; they can only send it to central HQ for such a credit, I believe.