cruiseej

We've been there twice in recent years. Harrison's Cave is pretty interesting; we went there one morning before going to our cruise. There are several botanical gardens in the central and northern part of the island which I remember looking into, but we never went to one. Each time we disembarked in Barbados, we took a Seabourn sightseeing trip around the island ending at the airport. They drive up the more developed west coast and point outwhere Rihanna lived and a few of the fancy hotels, but there's not much to see from a bus. There are a few nice views as you come around to the east (Atlantic) side, and a couple small places to eat/have a drink with a view. I'm sure you could book a tour, or just hire a cab, to take you around the island and give you the history and culture. Where are you staying in Barbados?

That's not been our experience; lots of people take excursions in the Caribbean. (I just didn't initially remember which excursions we've done in which port to offer you specific advice.) It also depends what sorts of activities you're looking for — zip line, off-road ATV, sightseeing, rum distillery, snorkeling, etc. It seems some variation of these activities is available on most islands! In some places, you can just walk around the port, or you can book things privately; in other places that's not as easy to do. For instance, we've been to Rodney Bay twice; one time the tenders went to the park where there's nothing to do but walk around park and climb the hill to the fort unless you were on an excursion, and the other time the tenders went to the marina for excursions, but most third-party tour companies operate out of Castries rather than this little marina. In several of the ports, you may be able to simple get a cab to a nice beach for a few hours. (It worries me a bit about making arrangements to get picked up to get back to the ship on time, which is shy we'd take a ship excursion to a beach when offered, even thought the cost is higher than doing it ourselves.) For Rodney Bay, we enjoyed the the Aerial Tram Adventure. In Curacao, I think we did the Hato Caves & Willemstad Sights — pretty low key, but we felt we got a taste of the country. In Aruba, I don't see the one we did listed, which was a scenic drive and a sail out to the Mantilla shipwreck. In Grenada, I don't remember our excursion. We haven't been to Tobago.

I'll agree with this directionally, but not as described in practice. They will not automatically convert charges you made in advance on your credit card to debits against your OBC — but they will do so if you go to Seabourn Square and request it. And don't wait until the end of the cruise; do it relatively early on. The Square staff make the request to the (unseen) night auditor. The following day or two, go back to the Square to ask for an updated account statement to verify that the change was made and matches your expectation. I've had instances where complications with canceled or partially credited excursion refunds have resulted in errors which take an additional circuit or two through the night auditor until everything is fine. I also recommend taking a paper record of what you pre-purchased, in case there are any issues between the home office file server and what gets downloaded to the ship. Yes, this is a little bit of jumping through hoops, but it's usually quite straightforward, and always gets squared away. You may find someone posting that it's no big deal and you can always spend your OBC at the boutique or on wine; my feeling is that $1,200 in OBC is not "play money"; I want it applied to my excursions purchased in advance! 😄 Fortunately, you can do it with a short visit to Seabourn Square.

@FlyerTalker I understand your points, but you took it in a different direction than what I was trying to say. Yes, less-than-full at a higher price point can generate the same or more money than a full ship at a lower price point. When I said they need to price them at a level they can fill them, I didn't mean "fill to 100% capacity", I meant "fill to make enough money to cover the debt and make a profit." Building a new luxury ship is expensive. Really expensive. And expedition ships which hold 200 passengers aren't proportionally cheaper than ships which carry 700 or more passengers — so there's built-in need to price suites on a new expedition ship higher to cover the debt load and make a profit. And there is significant competition from both established and new cruise lines seeking the same pool of customers willing to pay premium prices for new, luxury expedition ships. If a cruise line prices its new luxury expedition cruises too high, in order to meet their revenue needs, they could find themselves with ships sailing considerably less than full and not meeting meeting their revenue goals. Revenue management is a tricky balancing art, right? For instance: I've been watching Seabourn with their two new expedition ships. They have been regularly offering cruises at significant, advertised discounts. We booked our first trip on one of those ships next fall because it has an itinerary we're interested in, because we're interested in trying one of the new ships, but particularly because they were selling expedition cruises for 35% off list price. That seemed unusual to me among the luxury cruise lines. So Silversea will need to decide how strongly their client base desires expedition cruises, and whether building new expedition ships to compete in this market against the existing and future competition makes economic sense. For comparison, Regent has decided (at least for now) to bypass the smaller-ship expedition market and focus on new 750-ish luxury passenger ships. Silversea might decide in the future that with the cost of building and staffing ships, that 700+ passenger ships work better economically than 200-passenger expedition ships.

If they see those ships reaching their end of life in the 2030-2032 time frame, it's logical to assume they will have new expedition ship(s) to replace them. A lot of other cruise lines have been building small expedition ships; it's just a question of having the capital to build them and to price the cruises at a level they can fill them. It's probably a set of decisions that are still a few years off. That assumes the Arctic, Greenland and Antarctica haven't melted by 2030! 🤣

Probably because most women generally look good in jeans because they get ones which fit. Men, on the other hand… 🤣 Take it one step further: have one Not-Formal night on each cruise, where elegant jeans are the required dress in the Restaurant. 🤣

And for those cruising on a ship while TK Grill still exists, I just discovered that reservations are now available again; they hadn't been available in the weeks leading up to and immediately after the Solis announcement.

If there is any concern about the card having been compromised, they absolutely will change the card number. If you lie and tell them you have the card in your possession, but it doesn't work or is cracked, they will likely keep the number the same and change the security code. So this falls in a gray area. Do you 100% trust (a) that no-one on the ship would use the card, and (b) that they would reliably destroy the card? If yes, you could tell the credit card company you have the card but need it replaced. But if any fraudulent charges later appear, you might be on the hook without the normal credit card company coverage of the charges. It might be better to just tell the trash that the card was left behind, and let them issue a new number. It's a pain to update all the vendors/providers you have set up for automatic payment, but it's probably worth it for a quick resolution and peace of mind. My 2¢…

Glad you made it, and that the transfer was smooth. Sorry about the weather; I hope it clears fairly quickly. Out of curiosity, you were supposed to have a Seabourn transfer from the Londra to the cruise terminal? did you purchase air and hotel via Seabourn? Was the Seabourn transfer supposed to be a private boat? In most cities, it would be a bus or a van, depending on the number of people, so I'm curious what they offer in Venice.

To be clear, @SLSD, I wasn't recommending telling the credit card company the card was damaged. I was just adding information about why trying to pull that off might not be as helpful as it might appear.

As I said, I'm not sure about that. If you booked your cruise expecting an upgrade offer, that was the real disservice by your TA. Upgrades are offered, but they're not plentiful and pretty random. If you really want a higher category, it's best to book it; the odds of getting an upgrade offer on any particular sailing are pretty low.

Just be aware that the new card will have a new CVV code (and possibly a new expiration date), so if you have automated payments connected to this card, you may have to update your information for some payments which require the CVV code.

Typically, those types of upgrade offers come much closer to the date of sailing. (I may be wrong, but I think they generally go to people with booked suites rather than those with OB bookings.)

Julie, since they have no plans in the short- or medium term for any new ships, I'm sure they will periodically be refreshing each of the 6 remaining ships in the fleet. Dry dock refreshes are normal for any cruise ship; whether they're doing any more extensive changes is another matter.

Assuming we're on serious ground here for a second, two responses… (1) Yes, your jeans will be fine for daywear on an Antarctic expedition cruise. (2) As someone who lives in jeans most days, I don't know if I wore a pair of jeans during our Antarctica cruise last year! They're fine for time on the ship, but most days, you'll be dressing for going ashore or on zodiac rides, and jeans aren't optimal to wear for those activities. You'll need waterproof pants over whatever pants you're wearing, and hiking pants (lighter fabrics, more stretch, more breathable, faster drying) might be a better choice. I wore my Eddie Bauer First Ascent Guide Pro pants pretty much every day — going ashore, and to breakfast and lunch. And they're easier to tuck into the boots you'll be wearing (with the waterproof pants outside the boots).

Thanks, everyone for your feedback and suggestions. We're going to meet with our friends tomorrow to figure out how much time we can spend in St. John's!

Since people can't agree on what a fair resolution would be, there is unfortunately zero chance of a quick resolution.

@Sir PMP No, I don't think anyone would consider the jeans in this picture to be elegant. They might be expensive, or a fancy designer, or trendy, or "in" — but those labels are not the same as elegant. And I do believe most reasonable people (excluding those who find all jeans abominable in all forms and at all times) can make a reasonable interpretation of what jeans would pass for "elegant" on an upscale cruise. New, dark-color, well-fitting Wrangler jeans extolled in the Esquire article would pass muster; jeans which have been used in the garden or farm would not. Nor would jeans which cost ten times as much but are distressed and torn because it's currently in vogue in some areas would not. (Of course, there will always be the small minority who don't care about rules and will do whatever they want because the rules don't apply to them. 🤣) I understand your point, but I think the answer is simply to stop reading the threads that don't interest (or annoy) you. You don't need to have further discussions about clothing, or even read them; just keep scrolling on by. 😄

Unless developments in that area turn worse, and make it plainly obvious that they will skip Israel (and possibly adjoining countries) throughout 2024, you may not get the answers you're looking for by December 5. So much can change in a few months. If peace breaks out and it is considered safe to seal to the area, customers will be unhappy if the cruise line reroutes all their cruises 100+ days in advance. You may want to explore with your travel agent what options you have to roll your deposit to a different cruise if you don't want to be disappointed with an itinerary change announced early next year.

I think that's the perfect attitude and approach! But when you read these forums —the Silversea forum is far worse on this topic — some people get very fired up about what other people wear. And what the cruise lines do or don't require. And how the cruise lines do or don't enforce their rules.

If a PhD can't figure out how to navigate Seabourn's website, that should be a wakeup call to someone in management! 🤣 I find the website funky and inconsistently down, but I can get it to work most of the time. And what I can't find on the website, my travel agent can get answers to.

I doubt anyone, here or at the cruise line, has any answers about itineraries for six months from now. The current situation is just too fluid.

You're in St. John's currently? Thanks for the weather report! I would have thought the leaves would have turned color and dropped by now, as colors have turned and we're dropping leaves 1,000 miles south of Newfoundland. This is the exact week we'll be there in 2024.

@SLSD Well, just to properly frame the issue, jeans — of any fit, color or type — are and have always been acceptable for daytime touring and excursions. That could include baggy jeans (ugh!), acid-washed jeans, etc. The only issue which has been discussed and debated is whether they can/should be worn in the evening, and if so, what defines jeans which qualify as "elegant". The Esquire article you cited focuses on the opposite of baggy jeans for men: jeans which make the, um, posterior look good. (Both the slim-cut Patagonia ones you make Mr. SLSD purchase and the Wrangler ones described in the article seem to meet that criterion.) Whether that alone is sufficient to meet the "elegant" standard is open to interpretation. And then there's the separate but equal question of what makes women's jeans "elegant". 🤣 And here's something interesting: I just went to check the Seabourn website to make sure I used the correct terminology when mentioning the dress code. The Frequently Asked Questions section has two identical listings for the dress code, and both appear to have the language from the old dress code: "Jeans are welcome in all dining venues during the day, but not appropriate in The Restaurant after 6pm." Which directly contradicts the revised dress code they announced at the end of 2022, in which they said "Elegant jeans are now welcome in all dining venues." With all the website issues Seabourn has, perhaps I shouldn't be surprised that 9 months after revising the dress code, they still haven't updated their website! 🤣 P.S. Thanks for starting this tread; it feels like we've gone many weeks without a dress code discussion. 🤣 (Emojis above denote that all is said in good fun.)

For anyone who has been on a cruise which stopped in St. John's Newfoundland in Canada, or especially if you've embarked or disembarked there, I'm looking for recommendations about whether it's worth it for us to schedule additional time there when our cruise disembarks there in late September 2024. What did you see or do, and would you recommend adding a day or two there? The easiest thing would be to disembark and fly directly home, but since this is somewhere we're not likely to travel through very often, I don't want to cut it short if we should make the effort to spend some time here. Thanks!