mklions

Hi Fletch, Great reviews as normal, l enjoy your typical British humour and your honesty when describing your experiences on the ship.Are you still on the Wind when we join the ship at Dakar? Mklions.

Me to £1000 OBC on our next cruise. I understand why the mainstream cruise lines offer OBC as a incentive where upon you have to pay for drinks and most other things, but SS is virtually ultra all inclusive and has most things covered. I would rather SS reduce the basic price of the cruise itself rather than give OBC which can be difficult to spend when you have so much of it!

I've started to read some horrendous things about Blacklane, not turning up being the most worrying. We have D2D taxi transfer booked for next Friday taking us to Heathrow, do they ring/contact you the day before to confirm the booking?

We are D2D so the taxi idea is out. Maybe buy a few bottles of high end wine to take home? Trouble is I would not appreciate the difference between a $50 bottle and a $150 bottle so absolutely wasted on me. Laundry is a good suggestion as we are in a standard deluxe veranda and do not get complimentary laundry. La Dame, tried it a few times on previous cruises and not sure if it is worth it, but if it means using up our OBC then we should probably book that as well. One question, can you book pre cruise for La Dame to use up some of the OBC or do you have to wait to book onboard to use it? Maybe if available to purchase, I should look to buy one of those nice Expedition red coats, any idea of the cost? Thanks for all the suggestions.

We have $1000 OBC to spend on our next cruise in just over a week's time sailing on Sliver Wind. We have booked all the excursions we want and are not spa/ massage people. Does the SS Wind have duty free shops on board? Any other ideas on how to spend the OBC would be most helpful.

Thank you all, That's great the ball gowns can now stay at home. Which in turn will be less weight in the cases for me to lug through airports!

I am struggling to find if there are any formal nights on our forthcoming cruise on the Wind. ( Dakar to Lisbon 14 nights) My understanding that because it is classed as a expedition cruise,( which I struggle to understand why?) there isn't any formal nights, but I just want to make sure as my DW does not want to pack evening dresses if not needed. Thank you.

What a great review Fletch, and I very much look forward to your next instalments! We also recently sailed the Amazon river on the Viking Sea ( San Juan to Manaus) and enjoyed our cruise immensely, we were extremely lucky with the weather which obviously makes a big difference. We only experienced a few hours of rainfall during our cruise sailing up the river which in a rain forest is a very rare occurrence. One of our biggest niggles however was at nighttime on the ship, as after dark all outside areas were closed off due to the influx of a multitude of flying insects. This became quite apparent why, as in the morning we watched the ships crew sweeping up hordes of insects that had arrived through the night. Some of the moths and butterflies were as big as small birds! Apparently it’s the ships lights that attract them. So eating and drinking alfresco in the evening was a no no ,and so unfortunately was sitting on the balcony, which was a shame in such pleasant outside temperatures. The stops and tours delivered by Viking were very good and highly recommended. Carry on with our skiing ( spending the kid’s inheritance) We will be joining the Silversea Wind for the Dakar to Lisbon leg of this voyage in just over two weeks time so we are really looking forward to the ships reviews and meeting up with you all. We have sailed with Silversea previously on the Spirit and the Cloud but not on the Wind, and never on an expedition cruise.( Although I question why our journey is classified as an expedition cruise?) Thanks again Fletch for your excellent blog! Mklions.

No we have no idea on where the Encore will sail instead. Perhaps others on this site may have more information?

Yesterday I received sad notice via our TA that the sailing on 21st November 2024 Dubai to Singapore has been cancelled due to ongoing issues in the Red Sea. where will the Encore now sail instead? Seaborne have offered us a 10% discount on another sailing should we wish to rebook.

Thank you for all the replies. Thankfully the good people on this forum have come back to us with the answers to our taxi transfer questions. Answers that really should have been passed onto us by Silversea, after all how were we to know that Blacklane only supplied the transfers from home to the airport, and the airport back to our home?( After all they did supply us with four transfers to book) Likewise how were we to know that the four Blacklane transfers supplied were for two people per trip and not for four separate transfers in total? More clarity is needed when Silversea send over the Blacklane transfers and I hark back to my original gripe, that if you could speak to someone rather than an unhelpful and unknowledgeable chat line person it would be far much better. Thanks again to all!

Our cruise is Dakar to Lisbon. ( silver wind) Included with our Door to Door package is all transfers. We have six transfers in all, 1,Home to Heathrow Airport 2, Dakar Airport to pre cruise Hotel. 3. Pre Cruise Hotel to Port 4 (Post cruise),Port to Lisbon hotel. 5. Lisbon hotel to Lisbon airport. 6. Heathrow to Home. We had four transfers allocated through the Blacklane website.( as previously mentioned Blacklane do not service Senegal, Dakar). So I can only assume the transfers in Dakar will be provided by another Silversea transfer company? I just wish Silversea would make it clear to us rather than finding information out as we go along and having to make our own assumptions.

I just hope they turn up because I cannot find any direct phoneline to chase them up if they don't. All this online "chat" customer service is just away of saving money. Why can't we just go back to picking up the phone dial a number and speak to a person!

I spent a whole of last Saturday morning sorting out my issues with Blacklane. I live 47.9 miles away from Heathrow airport. When I booked the transfers with Blacklane using their website link (sent over via Silversea ) they registered my milage as 61 miles and provided me with an additional cost of £33 each way ( £66 for the home and return journey). The problem with Blacklane in the UK is you cannot talk to anyone direct by telephone, you have to use their online chat service. I decided to use this chat service and got into a semi heated discussion with this very arrogant and unhelpful person. Apparently their computer calculations on the milage is all that matters and if it doesn't pick up a shorter route so be it. In the end I took a google screen shot of the route I always take and attached it to our conversation, too prove the distance. The person went away and apparently (after I threatened to contact Silversea customer services) spoke to her manager and it was agreed to waiver the additional charges. I still had to pay for the excess milage to proceed with the booking, but have been told these costs will be refunded. I still await the refund. IMO, Silversea should arrange the transfers on our behalf and not expect the customer to do so. i To add insult to injury, I could not book the additional taxi transfers when we arrive on our cruise in Dakar next month as Blacklane do not service Senegal. So I will need to get back in touch with Silversea to find out these transfer arrangements . Door to door NO MORE!!!

Ah optics, is that a single sir or a double?

Then why do some cruise line that we brits go on add gratuities to our final statement at the end of the cruise, such as Cunard for example?

We were on Virgin Voyages last summer and although we throughly enjoyed our cruise, I felt that their target age group were in the 30-40 ages. It wasn't a problem for us and we had a great time but it was more of a party atmosphere and may not be what a usual Viking cruise passenger would expect.

When booking in the UK gratuities are included in the price, why is it different for US guests?

Hi all, We have a one day post cruise stay in Manaus and are looking for a small group boat tour to go to the meeting of the rivers and see the pink dolphins. Can anybody kindly recommend a tour? Thanks. Mklions

Thank you.

Hi can someone please confirm that on the included wine at lunch and dinner is there a rose wine option or is it just Red and White. Thanks.

Thanks for most of the replies, we are sailing on the Viking Sea ( San Juan - Manaus) in three week time. Booked a PH suite so it comes with included alcohol which I believe is replenished daily. I only drink beer and wine at meals and my wife wine at dinner and a G&T one or two max a evening. So I guess a drinks package is not really worth it. Not bothered either way if they decide to charge me for a beer or not at the bars during lunch and dinner times, but I just inquisitive to know if during the lunch and dinner dinning hours the ships bars charge for a beer even if you are not dinning.

Connect the dots? what a stupid answer! Thankfully others have answered the question for me in a civil manner.

I am aware that during lunch and dinner beer and wine are included in the cost of the holiday. My question is do you need to be at a restaurant to obtain these drinks or are they available at any bar during the opening hours of lunch and dinner? I sometimes like a beer at lunchtime but don’t necessarily want to eat food. Thanks. Mklions.

Thank you all, finally managed it after many attempts. I had to crop the photos time and time again until it was eventually accepted. What a nightmare! Mklions