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The CDC provided the murky language. “ Fully vaccinated “ means you got the initial vaccination doses. Testing is 48 hours prior to embarkation. “Up to Date” means you have received the number of boosters you are entitled to for your age and medical conditions. Testing is 72 hours prior to embarkation. For those of us with long transit times, take into consideration time zones. We fly on Monday and embark on Wednesday. Norway is six hours later than we are (EST). So, our window of opportunity starts at 10 am on Sunday if embarkation is at 4pm. Anyway, I doubt that they will be doing calculations at check in.

Absolutely love reading your blog, Gilly! It is part of my morning routine! jennifer

Looking forward to following along! Safe travels. My fingers are crossed that you have smooth sailing. jennifer

Booked before door to door. SS arranged flights. SS unaware for months that BA had changed the date. Sorted out now except for hotel and transfer. Now 30 days before we depart.

Been there, done that! Noticed a while back that BA had cancelled our flight and booked us on the same flight next day. We are going on two months without any confirmation as to whether SS will pick up hotel and transfers in London while we twiddle our thumbs. TA is great but SS is not putting anything in writing yet.

Goodness, this all murky. Part of the problem is the use of formal, informal, and casual. Most people interpret informal as a notch above casual. Casual being daytime touring clothes (t shirts, shorts, hiking pants), informal meaning shirt and long slacks for men, formal meaning coat and tie - and of course, slacks 😎. SS has their own definition which we will respect but the murkiness is evident in that the rules only apply to classic voyages. And, from reports, even classic voyages have random enforcement.

Seems this scenario of getting Covid two days after leaving the ship is common. Do you think it was due to the flights? Or, perhaps, letting your guard down at the end of the trip? Perhaps the airport? What is your impression of your infection point?

….and so glad you did! You had every reason to be grumpy! Reminds me of the time my husband was on a boys trip in the south of France. He and Marc don’t believe in planning. They were in a more remote region and decided to call it a night, finally found a hotel which was full up - along with every hotel within an hour of the town. The reason? The regional beauty pageant. So they slept in the tiny rental car. My husband has chronic insomnia except when the venue is uncomfortable (like an airport lounge, a plane, a train, a waiting room, etc.). He slept like a baby. Marc, not so much!

@Gilly im sorry that was your experience. We booked this cruise late, had no idea it was an AT cruise but the sign up for events was pretty straight forward. I can certainly see how it could be perceived as exclusive, as we felt very special to be included. Our documentarians focused on a range of topics…from nature to psychic busting…..it was all very interesting. I think you are correct in that these cruise, as well as all special interest cruises should be well identified.

Our cruise is in August embarking on a Wednesday. We leave home on Monday, arrive in Oslo on Tuesday, then take a SS charter flight to Tromso on Wednesday for embarkation on the ship. The flight arrives in Tromso at noonish so we have no idea when we will board. We are fully vaccinated and boosted which puts us in the 72 hour window. The problem? Timing of our test since there are limited testing appointments on Sunday and many of the last appointments are at 3:30. So, if SS is very picky and we don’t check in until 4 pm, we are outside the window. But, we do have a time difference to consider which is in our favor (six hours behind Europe). Am I obsessing too much? Do they look closely at the timing?

If you are on Facebook, join the Silversea Passengers Group. You can then message Barbara Muckerman who is one of the senior executives. We finally got some traction on our flight arrangements when I reached out. SS air is problem.

We happened to luck into an AT cruise several years ago with a panel of documentary filmmakers. It was the most interesting cruise ever. We were invited to all the events, dined with the filmmakers, and had very engaging conversations. It was one of our most memorable cruises.

We plan a few days in Reykjavik post cruise and upon departure from the cruise we have a night at the “Simply Silversea” hotel in Reykjavik. Google seem to locate this hotel so it must have another name. Can anyone help?