bohaiboy

Is there a chance that Crystal is going to grow (they certainly need more ships and itineraries) but are or could be a great line and that BM i moving back under Manfredi?  Or the other ultra-luxury lines, Scenic, Ritz, and upcoming Four Seasons, really need some seasoned guidance from someone deeply embedded in the ultra-luxury trenches.

7 minutes ago, southerngoose said:

One of the fun things about traveling is learning about new places in the world.   I thought "Inaccessible Island" was a joke.   But no...it's the name of a real place out there!   I can't wait to hear what you do/see on Inaccessible Island, since very few people get to go to there.   I hadn't even heard of any of these islands until this thread.  It's interesting to read about them and imagine life living in such remote locations.

 

Some of tose islands appear to be uninhabited even.

According to someone on the Wind today, they have two excursions planned for today.  They are not scheduled to leave until today.  Cruisemapper shows them anchored in one of the fjords near Gryviken.  Windy.com shows most of the bad weather staying north of SG and max winds 38 ks.  It is moving more toward the Cloud, so maybe that's what Freddie saw.

The Wind is currently there and the Cloud just left—landings as usual.  We were there on the Wind in December.  Most of the fatalities at that time had been in the seal population, with a few dead birds but at the time it was suspected that it was avian flu, but not confirmed.  In January tissue samples were analyzed and it confirmed it was indeed bird flu.  Again it still seems to manifest itself more so in the seal population vs penguin pop.  I think the current ships there are the last to visit this season, we shall see.  The authorities in Gryviken were very thorough in examining our outerwear before we could go ashore.  The bird flu cannot be stopped, as it has migrated this far south and is usually transmitted via migrating birds, so there is no way to stop it.

On 2/18/2024 at 5:10 PM, Texas Tillie said:

Silversea merged their airline booking into Royal Caribbean. Since then they go for the cheapest possible and charge for any and all deviation including coming in earlier than day of sailing except for the very few sailings that still provide a hotel on Door to Door. All the cruise lines are looking for any place to cut costs, but Silversea seems to be out front with it.

If you book a hotel (usually very expensive) thru SS they will waive the deviation fee,

Gdansk I highly recommend going to the *** concentration camp if offered.  Be warned, it is very emotional even if not Jewish.  Gdansk is a beautiful city.  Walk around downtown if you have time.  The only town that we found the tours very boring was Klaipeda.  We booked a private tour there to an abandoned Soviet missile site, and went underground.  These missiles were targeting European capitals during the Cold War.  If interested I can put you in contact with the couple that runs the tours.  They are fantastic.  All of the other towns we visited were very nice.  I believe we just did city tours.  looking at your itin the Riga offerings are pretty week.  We just walked around.  When we did this cruise, including three days in St Petersberg on the Whisper in 2015, tours were not included free.  In Helsinki, be sure to walk to the food hall.  it is just meters from the sip if the docks are the same.  Gamla saluhallen is the name.

Is that Captain Freddie?  We have a friend on the Cloud and they are hightailing it already as per Cruisemapper..  The Wind is there also and supposedly heading to Falkands, which would be in to the storm.  I Wonder what they are doing?

I agree above, has anyone actually filed a claim with Faye?

4 hours ago, RyanJCanada said:

Thank you all for continuing to weigh in - now seriously looking at the 40 day Cape-to-Cape cruise, which would finish up in Antarctica on March 8th. So I suppose the question becomes, "How late is too late?"

 

@drron29 Appreciate your thoughts on asking for some extra OBC. Hoping we can still work a bit more of a deal. I'll let you know how it shakes out.

Ryan, can you post details about this 40 day cruise?  The 40 day cruise on the Wind is Feb 22 - April 3, it is a back-to-back cruise that does Falklands, South Georgia, then Antarctica, back to Puerto Williams on March 12, then departs from Puerto Williams doing the same itin with the Falklands and S Georgia but this time not going to Antarctica.   It departs S Georgia and heads to Cape Town and finally ends in Cape Town, South Africa on April 3, 2025.

That is the SS website and that link can be used to book if you desire.  That is the only SS cruise from Tokyo to HK.  here is another Tokyo-Singapore but it is a continuation of the T-HK cruise.

There in December (on the Wind also).  We had good weather in Falklands and S Georgia (And Antarctica).  Chicks were hatching, fur seals giving birth.  I would not want to go before December if wildlife is a goal, and as someone said there is likely to be snow and ice there as well, and I would suspect the seas are still a little more unfriendly.

We are on the Yokohama - Tokyo-Seward on April 16.  SS offered those who took SS Air a free night, presumably at the Conrad, and as quoted if you wanted to book the Conrad separately it was around $1000 per night per room.   We are now two months out and no one has been notified of the hotel.  Keep in mind that the SS hotels include airport transfers and hotel-to-ship transfers.  We are flying independently so we had to book our own hotels.  That led us to fly to Haneda vs Narita and book a brand new Hilton in Yokohama for less than $150/night.

That being said, we are using SS Air to Copenhagen in September.  And using SS Hotel.  It was around USD 500/night, but if we wanted to arrive a day early (have spent a lot of time in CPH so no need to see the city again), we would have had to pay an air deviation fee of $300, provided our own transport from AP and Hotel to ship, and would have spent another $200-300 on hotel, so sometimes iit works out better.  Good luck.

I see many cruises are sailing teh Douro, but they have almost no time (relatively speaking) on the river and too much time in Porto and Lisbon, where we have spent many days, so those stops are useless to us.  Are there any that do one-way trips up the river ending in Madrid (and yes I know we would have to go by bus to Madrid from the final river point).  We are looking for more the higher-end, luxury cruises.  Thanks in advance all.

We booked the brand new Yokohama Hilton (opened in Dec 2023) for less than $200/night.  Cruise is April.

I'll bet Rover will have an official pee and pooper scooper following him around everywhere.

On most SS cruises we have been on (over 100 days), there is generally a tour offered day of disembarkation if flights are after 4 PM.  The ones we have done all got to the airport around 2 PM.  So count on at least 8-10 hrs still in the airport.  For the ones where we were not using SS Air, we had to pay a fee, for air-inclusive it was included.

On 1/9/2024 at 9:22 PM, drron29 said:

I prefer wildlife to cities so we did a Svalbard cruise on the Explorer in 2010. It was so good that since then we have only booked one non Silversea cruise.

The most memorable part for me was sitting in a zodiac when it was snowing whilst watching 8 Polar Bears feasting on a Fin whale carcass. It included a mother with her cub.

 

So when we did an Inside Passage cruise we did so in an 8 passenger boat. Once again some magic moments such as a humpback whale surfacing beside our kayak whilst we were watching a bear on the shore.

 

So if those things don’t interest you then a big ship in Alaska would be best for you.

Did you use Dennis out of Petersburg?  We have used him twice and he has 8 PAX

So SS T&C only guarantee biz class upgrades on International flights.  Canada and Mexico/Central America are not considered international for flights even on domestic bok it yourself airlines.  However, I have neve not received first class on our domestic routes.  We are flying San Antonio to Atlanta to Santiago Chile on Monday and our SAT-ATL ticket is first class as well as the return.

Being in Hotlanta if you book yourself, I would assume a flight to a city Iceland air serves.  The IA Saga Class is very similar to domestic US First class,  No liflat seats, but the food was good.  My wife is 5'2" tall and was comfortable, I am 6'6" and was not.  I would recommend catching the IA flight out of Boston as that is the shortest duration, around 5 hours.  I think IA codeshares with JetBlue but no one else, so your ticket to an IA gateway will be an independent ticket, meaning you will have to claim your luggage and recheck it on IA.  We had to do that San Antonio to Den on United, reclaim luggage and waited 4-5 hours on that particular flight to recheck.  Was a pain.  But IA is a decent airline with exception of non lie flat seats.  And they were half The cost of United, Delta and American.  PS  We absolutely loved Iceland.  10 day SS cruise and 10 more days on land.  A fab country.

SSea has changed from the Mandarin Oriental to the W Santiago.  First 2023/24 Antarctica season cruises have started on the Endeavour, Wind, and Cloud or will soon.  Over on another SS group, reports back from the W Hotel in Santiago have been dismal, so just a heads up.  Here are a few quotes:  
"

We ar on the Wind from 01 Dec but plan on spending 3 days pre and 1 day post cruise in Santiago.  We are looking for recommended wine tours and a trip in to the Andes.  For the wine tours, looking for more boutique wineries.  Fire away with recommendations.

On 10/6/2023 at 2:25 AM, Port Power said:

I read that passengers would be emailed in due course to order their parkas.  Is that still true?  I’m still about 10 weeks out.

Port, we were notified weeks ago about ordering parkas etc.  Actually middle of August.     https://silversea.shiptoshoretraveler.com/faq

My CC will cover $10k per person up to a total of $20k for a single trip (once within 12 months)  Is it acceptable to take out the rest from an insurance provider to cover the rest?  Our total cost including air is $32,000, so was think if taking out remaining $12,000 with an independent company.  

On 4/13/2023 at 9:41 AM, Port Power said:

I just received my Blacklane code to book home to airport transfers and return.  Problem is that Silversea has given Blacklane the boarding and disembarkation dates rather than the flight dates.  Pre and post cruise hotels are included in the expedition package.  So I cannot book the transfers online and of course there is no telephone or email contact!  I have decided it is not my problem and emailed my TA to fix.  At least there are four weeks for it to be sorted.

Blacklane should allow  you a range of dates to book surrounding your cruise dates.  Read your email and BL website more carefully. You can select different dates, not etched in stone.  If we have an early morning flight, we just have BS pick us up the day before and we stay at a hotel near airport.  Never an issue.

We are using SS Air in two weeks.  Their toptal BC cost was arouin $2800 USD/  Cheapesst I could get was around $4500 for non refundable.  Our routing is San Antonio-Ohare_-Municjh- Athens.  Around 19 hrs total.  Best times I could get on my own were around 16 hrs.  Return flt is Rome-Dalla-San Antonio.  15 hrs total trip time.  We shall see how it goes.

I have discovered that if you book a pre or post night hotel theu seem more willing to work with you.  We are flying to Santiago for an Antarctica cruise and staying two nights pre cruise and one night post.  I sent my independent TA three preferred itineraries and they booked Delta San Antonio-Atlanta-Santiago and return with no issue.