Khareef

Thanks, that's what I was looking for! Very much appreciated!

Thanks! No we are thinking Xmas time.

Just one question: I always like to book a suite with the bed facing the direction of motion, I don't like when I have sleep the opposite way (same in a train :-)). Do you recall on Emerald what suite have the bed facing the bow (odd or even)?

spain. Premium Economy or Business is a must 🙂 Money well spent for long flights.

Don't tell me about the flights...I am looking at a cruise in Polynesia before the Mekong but the idea of spending so many hours on a place makes me wanna reconsider it 🙂

Thanks for the precious feedback. My partner had come to a very similar conclusion, and after doing our due diligence we believe Emerald looks like the most appropriate choice for our lifestyle and taste!!

Thank you all for all the infos and help. I am still thinking about it. From Europe it is really a never ending flight to get to GUAM and unfortunately no insurance would cover Papua New Guinea in my home country as well. Uhm I'll giver it a few more days for a final decision. Seabourn pre cruise support is useless for us Europeans. Their European office never gets back to me in less than a month 🙂 Not sure what's wrong with this company but for an ultra-luxury company some of their services can be really abysmal. Silversea is way better in that. Another funny thing: when I try to book from my European IP most pacific cruises in spring/summer are not available for on line booking and their webpage tells me I need to call their call center. When I use a VPN from the US everything works fine and I can book on line (But in dollars so I would get charge a foreing currency fee using my American Express :-) Weird stuff.

You mean before the ships set sails or during the sailing?

I don't recall exactly but the kinda you find in any supermarket. So bring your own if you are very particular about it.

I might book that cruise myself, I was first looking at the Papeete-Sydney but 7 sea days on a 17 days journey seems just too long and boring. The Papua New Guinea itinerary seems way better as there is a port pretty much every day.

Thanks for the infos! I was looking at this https://www.aquaexpeditions.com/mekong-river-cruise/ and since they offer kayaks and bikes I was wondering whether it is a common thing on the Mekong. Not a cruise breaker for me, I was just curious. Did you take one of those longer itineraries with some land tour in Cambodia as well? Is it worth? P.S. I have done a lot of biking on the Rhine and Danube when I was younger...:-) I actually lived by the Danube in both Budapest and Bratislava. Good old days.

What kind of excursions did you take? Any Bike or Kayak offered? I like some engaging things, just waking usually does not do it for me. Thanks in advanced for the reply.

I mean you have a bar on the Square (DECK6) where you can get tea/coffe and mini sandwiches and cookies and ice cream every day until 5pm or 6pm (I forgot the exact time) so you can always have your afternoon tea and snacks even on excursions days if you wish so. So you are well covered on that any day.

I don't think you will ever get close to any dangerous zone, most likely small ports and a few very safe excursions. I wouldn't worry about that.

https://www.aquaexpeditions.com/cruise-ship/aqua-mekong/?tm=tt&ap=gads&aaid=ada4uU3rSsBDA&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiAnrOtBhDIARIsAFsSe52I93AoGNbmGiHPRqZh2kp5si1xEv0a512OG7TMC_SZ7EHOthwJfv0aAjGaEALw_wcB I meant Aqua Expeditions, not sure anyone has sailed with them here? Thanks for the feedback about Ama.

I am trying to figure out what’s the best cruise for the Mekong ( good ship, good food, good excursions). For some reasons the aqua ship seems very appealing to me, any thoughts on that? Nov-Jan time is the best time right?

Usual Seabourn embarrassing "no reply for weeks" policy I see. Not sure how they can be that bad and get away with it

To be quite honest, the Venture entry and exit wasn't exactly a piece of cake. They have a fairly weird system where the zodiac zones are located on both sides of the ship and they do not put any mobile stair to make it smoother. You basically step from the ship into the zodiac so if the sea is rough you gotta wait for the proper timing. On the bright side I don't think there is a lot of pressure on the shoulders when you grab the arms of the crew helping you in and out.. What I would not recommend is the optional kayak activity, there you need quite a bit of shoulder strength to get back on the zodiac from the kayak. Seabourn could definitely improve this system though.

It seems that many of Pursuit South Pacific cruises in 2024 are somehow blocked, you get to number of passengers and then you cannot select any suite. I tried 10 of them in 3 different browsers and nope, no luck with any of them. Not sure it is a glitch or they are blocked intentionally. Maybe they are all sold out?

I am trying to book a cruise but the website won't load suite choices...I tried different itinerary and different browsers but no luck....Anyone else having troubles booking today? And one more things: I don't see any "Sail of the Year" discounts either, did they change the system and add the discount directly into the fare without mentioning the discount?

They are way too expensive to be worn in such modest venues like the restaurants on Seabourn I mostly wear them on fancy occasions in Paris or Milan 🙂

True I forgot about that

I was just kidding of course 🙂

Actually it was the one and only place where you could get decent espressos and cappuccinos. The ones served for breakfast were really terrible...So I would get coffee first on the square and then breakfast on the Colonnade 🙂 But I guess it depends on who is the barista. Each journey to its own barista

I am surprised that a person of fine taste like you buys commercial Jeans made by modern industrial machineries with mediocre cotton and poor indico (o no real indico at all). I import mine from the big5 in Japan....yes expensive but well worth it 🙂