jpalbny

Glad you're having a nice stay at the W. And yes, that immigration form is such a pain!

It's a Northern Hemisphere trick. 😉

Turkish Air is probably cheap right now. I have seen lots of itineraries with them lately, as I look at possible flights for my upcoming cruises. It would be a long and circuitous route to Lisbon, for sure, so it would not be my preference either. But we've enjoyed their domestic planes and I'd fly them again in long-haul, if the itinerary made sense.

Glad you made it to Santiago without further delay. International travel seems to be a full-blown disaster lately. Our neighbors recently honeymooned in South Africa and had a horrible time getting back from CPT (United also). Canceled flight, no staff on the ground in CPT to help, nothing in Biz the next day. They finally found something via a different routing, but ugh. Just waiting to see if DL manages to mess up our direct itinerary to Lisbon next month.

Devil's advocate. If they were to keep the Singapore to Mumbai sailing, then try to get to the drydock on time by sailing through the Red Sea empty, would that not constitute a safety concern for the crew? It could be about safety, from that perspective. It probably *is* about getting to the drydock on time, but in a way that doesn't put the ship or her crew in jeopardy. I sympathize with your disappointment about having your cruise canceled. I've had it happen too.

I think JAR was in charge of the entertainment on our very first cruise (The Norway, January 1993), IIRC. No unlimited drinks on that cruise, so my memory may be intact.

I have it on my phone; had to listen to it yesterday after your post.

I'm holding you to that - I've done it three times so far and hopefully I'll visit again in time to do a fourth! Looking forward to following along. C2C is definitely on our agenda, once we retire and/or win the lottery.

And here I thought it was a reference to an old Don Henley song... Welcome home and glad you had a nice trip!

Can't argue with that! Some of the shows have been OK but over the years we have stopped going to most of them. Granted, we have also gravitated towards expedition cruises, but we definitely do not go on Silversea for the entertainment. Our idea of a fun cruise is great ports of call, full days ashore, nice dining, and then closing down the Panorama with drinks and dancing. We don't actively avoid the shows but then again, who has time for them with all the other stuff to do?

Lucky dog! Yes!

That looks far too healthy. Hopefully things are looking up, and the improved coffee service is a sign of better things to come!

Just submit the form online and use Canada for your country. That's what most of us did. USA has never been in that dropdown menu. It didn't matter; they approved it anyway. That is generally going to be a better deal, though of course it depends on what Ponant status you match to. But the OBC plus the discounted fare usually adds up to more than the referral bonus. You're lucky! I have found that they are very stingy about stacking promos. Our Silversea friends applied for the status match, and then booked their first Ponant cruise with our referral. Since they got the benefits of the status match, we were told that neither of us could get any additional benefit from the referral. Since the status match is pretty generous we didn't complain, but it's been my experience that they don't combine most of the bonuses. The Ponant bonus on the fares, plus one other promo, seems to be their limit, so choose wisely!

I grew up in the country, and learned to prefer hay over dirt. 😉

Good to have you back, Silver. Sorry the atmosphere is so weird. I can see how these drastic changes could put everyone in a funk - hope that improves over the voyage.

I assumed it was an issue with my phone, but now on my laptop I can't see them either. I can see the one that you just posted, though, so feel free to post more! Love Hawaii. Many nice memories from trips to those islands.

Yes, I always book our own air. That at least gives me the illusion of control, and a better chance to get what I want. For example, on our Kimberley cruise this June, Silversea was not offering any business class flights at all! So I had no choice, unless I wanted to fly in economy for my transpacific flight. But realize that the airlines almost always change the schedule between the time of booking and the time of travel. Just the way it is. Flight schedules are preliminary when put out a year in advance, and they don't get finalized until just a few months prior to travel. Flyertalker has posted about this a few times, and he gives much more detail. It's unavoidable, whether Silversea purchases your tickets, or whether you do. If Silversea is including a hotel in the cruise fare (like they do with expedition cruises), I usually take it. I will almost always book extra nights on my own because they are much cheaper, and even if I have to arrange my own transfers I can still do it for less. Pretty much every European airport we've ever flown in or out of has cheap and convenient public transport to the city and I use that frequently (since we travel light). Or I use a taxi. I can usually figure out public transport to the ship; if not we'll take a taxi. I find that the crew is always amused when the two of us show up on foot, to embark, with no coach transport in sight. The exceptions might be places where the taxis are sketchy, and/or public transport is challenging. Then I use the Silversea option or book through a reputable company.

Oh zebu! We ate that a few times on our Madagascar trip. Tolerable if you like your beef well-done. They said that you have to cook it to that temperature, in order to not consume (live) parasites. 🤢 Nice baobab! And looking forward to the rest of the journey.

Yes! If they are anything like what we saw in Finland last November (2022), I will be overjoyed. Tromsø is supposed to be very good for Aurora sightings.

We have not had much experience with consecutive sea days either. We're making this up as we go along and it will be a new type of vacation for us. I will probably do a live from report - I'll need something to occupy my time during all those sea days! So atypically, I already have the return flights booked too. Found a pretty good deal directly from AF, for 1/3 less than the best price I could find on AMEX. Tromso-Paris-JFK on Saturday; nice evening flight with a decent layover. Done. My AMEX is melting between all of those flights, and the final payment on our upcoming Kimberley cruise which just hit today, but oh well.

Thanks for the videos! That is the real Madagascar. The "RN" roads (rue nationale) are numbered highways. They were in such bad shape in many places that the top speed is 20-25 miles per hour, and it's better to drive on the unpaved shoulder than to drive on the "paved" sections. I loved our time there. And your video of downtown Majunga reminded me of most other bigger towns. So many roadside stalls. Meat baking in the sun. Flies everywhere. Yeah, you definitely don't want to order your meat rare. And bring your ciprofloxacin. If you don't mind I will attach two photos for you - one is a typical RN, and the other is an aerial view of the coast a little bit north of the town of Mahajunga. Just to give you a different perspective of where you were - you probably sailed by this river!

Terry, the highway between Delhi and Agra is (was) new and very nice, when we were there. Other "highways" are noticeably different. It's all part of the experience! It would be quite an experience driving there.

With all of those imposter Taj places, I hope you're getting to see the real one soon, in Agra! Glad you're safely in India and enjoying the scene. Seven years ago this week, we were there: Have a great cruise! Hope your ship arrives on time as scheduled.

I almost always DIY because both my name and Chris's are so easy to mess up. Luckily the correct spelling of our names is saved in my browser's auto-fill memory! I only used the "service" because the website had a glitch yesterday and I couldn't DIY. The agent figured out the glitch, which was helpful, then put the booking through, but somehow mangled it beyond belief. Now that I knew what the problem was with the website, I was able to cancel and rebook myself. Back in antediluvian times you did have to call them to take advantage of the International Airline program (cheaper fares). I have been using those fares for about 10 years. Now you can book those directly on the website - it's much easier. I was excited to find Iceland Air fares there, at a (slight) discount from the price on the Iceland Air website. I don't usually see those fares discounted much, as they are pretty cheap to begin with. And - it looks like this ocean voyage is FULLY BOOKED! I guess everyone else wants to take advantage of this cheap opportunity to experience Le Commandant Charcot. We met other friends this weekend and they were interested, so for now they are on the wait list.

Thanks for the reminder Ron! This is going to be me.