ak1004

Thank you. We did almost 20 cruises, I don't recall this ever happened on any other line. Yes, I'm sure they will return it if we need it, I'm just curious what's the purpose and why no other line does it as far as I remember.

Our e-tickets has the following information: YOUR PRE-CRUISE INFORMATION The ship will be located at Port Rashid pier. Guests will be permitted to embark the vessel from approximately 2:00-4:00PM. Please be sure to have your cruise ticket, valid passport and any necessary visas ready upon embarkation. Immigration Officers may begin processing all guests’ passports at this time. Passports will then be collected by ship’s staff and returned to you after completion of disembarkation procedures at cruise end. Is this normal for SS? Never had our passports collected and held for the whole cruise. What if we need them on shore?

SB wants to attract Crystal cruisers, why would it bother you?

1) SB 2) We got all our deposits back, but not from Crystal. One from CC, one from CC insurance and one from TICO.

Maybe they start processing applications only 30 days before arrival, and we actually applied too early, who knows. But the biggest issue is a complete lack of communication. Website still claims 72 hours processing time, while our whole group was waiting for over 3 weeks. Hope you got your visa.

it is still a mystery to us why our applications took so long for all five couples. It is possible that we applied too early and they were processing applications for earlier arrival. It is also possible that 30 days visas get priority. They also requested that we send them the cruise booking. But it seems very inconsistent. We heard about a couple where one of them got it after 5 days and the spouse waited for 15 days. So it was very stressful for us, especially when you cannot get any answers. Glad that you got it quickly and without any issues.

Well, on their website they say "Government of India makes no provision of charging of any emergency fees or additional fees for grant of any emergency / express e-visa." Some agencies say they can expedite it, but I doubt it. I would suggest contacting your TA and/or SS and explain the situation. If you mention on your application that your cruise is on Dec.8 and you won't be allowed boarding if you don't have your visa, they might issue it faster. I know that some people got it in 4-7 days, others took almost a month. You might get lucky and get it fast, but 72 hours mentioned on their website means nothing.

Didn't you read my post???? We were able to apply for e-visa using our other passport. We applied on Oct.25 and it took 25 days to get the e-visas. It says 72 hours on their website, in reality it is usually at least 2-3 weeks. We are traveling with 4 more couples, it took all of them 20-30 days. Many US citizens report similar timeframes. Anyway, good luck. I just tried to help..

How do you know it doesn't take time? Ours took 25 days.

@Redrob123 we are on the same cruise. We are Canadians but have dual citizenship, so were able to apply for e-visa using our other passport. We applied on Oct.25 and it took 25 days to get the e-visas. It might be different for you if you mention that your flight is earlier, but hard to know. We advised SS while waiting, they said we won't be able to board without the visa, but they will provide us future cruise credit. To answer your question, we used Chrome for fill the e-visa application with no issues.

7 times in 16 months? Maybe it's easier for you just to stay on board.. 😊 Yes, every line is different.. not a big deal, just a bit surprising. I think Cunard in May was also 11am. Of course I would prefer to board SS at 2pm than Cunard at 11am, but that's a different story. 10 days till our flight to Dubai to board our first SS cruise. After waiting for the Indian e-visa for almost a month, it's really happening.

It was 11am at our last Oceania cruises in Dec.2021 and Sep.2022.

Sailing on the Spirit on Dec.8, our final documents say the same - 2-4pm. Very strange and surprising. Oceania starts boarding at 11am.

What are the lunch options on embarkation day? I found this - https://www.theluxurycruisereview.com/dining/silver-spirit-restaurants/ Is the information there correct? It says that La Terrazza closes at 2pm, is this correct? So basically no buffet option on embarkation day? The only options are The Grill that is open till 3:30, and the Spaccanapoli (pizzas)?

Thank you for your reply. We did NY-Quebec a few years ago, and yes, I'm aware that it's different, but it has a few common ports, this is why I specifically asked about Canadian ports. For example, ports like Trois-Rivieres which is in both itineraries.

@JPH814Thank you for the very helpful review! How did you find the itinerary, especially the Canadian ports? We are considering a similar cruise in 2024 (Montreal to Montreal), want to try Seabourn for the first time.

I hear those complains a lot. If this is the case, what's the reason to book SS or SB compared to Oceania? Oceania is also pretty weak in terms of enrichment or other activities and entertainment, but we found it excellent in terms of food and service.

They send exactly the same email every quarter as far as I remember, at least since our booking in January 2022. Just means fares will increase, not necessarily on all sailings.

I agree that it's not an exact science, but it still gives a pretty good idea. To us the Riviera felt a bit more specious than Regatta. The buffet area on Regatta is really small and felt a bit cramped, especially on sea days. The theater is much smaller too, and has limited visibility if you are not in the first couple rows. I think the pools are smaller as well. Of course I would take a ship like Regatta over any big ship (Celebrity, Princess etc) any day, but my preference would still be Riviera or Marina.

Yes. More space per passenger. https://www.cruisemapper.com/wiki/761-cruise-ship-passenger-capacity-ratings

We also prefer Riviera or Marina. Some people prefer smaller ships, but Riviera and Marina actually have higher passenger/space ratio, so they feel more spacious. Also more dining choices.

We prefer Marina/Riviera as well. Newer ships, bigger cabins, more dining options, higher passengers/space ratio so feels more spacious. We book standard veranda cabins on O (sometimes even OV) because 240 sqft is more than enough for us - so for us the gap between O and regent is even bigger. We will be on Silversea in December - decided to try it because we liked the itinerary and the price was unbelievable, so we will see if it's worth it compared to O.

This is really helpful, thank you! When we upgraded from Celebrity to Oceania, we felt we got a huge improvement for moderate increase in price. For example, we went from 2.5 passenger/crew ratio to 1.55. Regent is around 1.35-1.40, plus some areas are slightly better than Oceania - so the question is if we don't get only marginal improvement for a big price increase? P.S. I think you meant business class flights, not first class? At least this is what I see on the Regent Canadian website.

I checked the pricing a few times. No matter how you price it, Regent is more expensive. A typical 10 nights cruise on O to Europe is around $5k in veranda cabin while Regent is around $12-13k. No way all the extras (including business class flight) is $8k. So my question is: is Regent worth the extra money? We had 3 Oceania cruises and booked on 4 more, and would love to try Regent. But the price seems a bit high, even with everything included. Disclaimer: I'm aware that entry level cabins are typically larger on Regent so this might not be a completely fair comparison, but cabin size is not really important to us. What is are food and service (and entertainment/activities, but I understand they are similarly unremarkable on both lines). Is Regent really that much better?

Thanks for sharing! I guess this is the big difference between lines like Crystal/SS and lines like Celebrity. When Crystal goes to dry dock, they reduce the number of cabins and increase the public areas. When Celebrity goes to dry dock, they add cabins and eliminate libraries and art galleries.