nedleycan

Okay, that is good to know! We are "Tommy Bahama" type people, so the expedition ships sound perfect! I will check out the inclusions as you are right, it could end up very close in price.

Thanks for all the feedback, it is very helpful! Are the SilverSeas cruises still very formal? The reason we enjoy Windstar is "no jackets required". Perhaps SilverSeas has changed or perhaps it is different in the Pacific Islands?

I am sure this question has been asked a million times, but I searched and couldn't find what I was looking for. We are doing a cruise somewhere in the South Pacific for my 50th birthday and our 25th anniversary, sometime between September 2015 - May 2016. Starting to plan now. I notice there are so many different itineraries and don't know what to choose. Here is a little about us:

- early 50s (at the time), very active and fit

- SCUBA certified and would like to do 1 or maybe 2 dives

- enjoy snorkeling too

- we are not "sit on a beach for hours" kind of people

- we would like to hike if it was interesting hiking

- love good food!

- don't want to spend a fortune on excursions and don't mind "finding our own way" around

- don't want to spend a lot of time in any of the "main islands" as we love the idea of remote places

- our favorite place is Central America (Honduras, Boca Panama) because it is not touristy

- we have done 2 Windstar cruises and a few large ships... looking for small again, probably Windstar or PG

Any suggestions as to which islands we would like the best?

Thanks so much!

In Windjammer they offer fruit punch, lemonade and unsweetened iced tea.

We were on the Navigator. Check out Vintages, you will be impressed!

Can't remember exactly what Napa wines were available. As I said, we brought 4 bottles with us, so didn't really need to buy much more. We dined in Windjammer the first night (too tired to stay up for late seating) and the selection was terrible there (had a Cline red zin for approx. $30).

My husband has the following example:

Opus One was about $230

Mondavi Cab (not reserve) was $140 (he thinks)

The lower end wines began at approx. $20

We had one of the basic Cline Red Zin's in Windjammer (very limited wine list) for about $30, but can't remember which Zin it was.

There was a nice Jordan Cabernet Sauvignon for $100 but it was not in stock for our cruise. In the main dining room we also had an Errazuriz Don Maximiano Founder's Reserve for $100.

Also, Vintages wine bar offers a number of excellent wines that are not available in the restaurants (strange, huh?). So if you are willing to pay the (approx 100% markup) you can pick up a bottle there and take it the dinner with you. If price is no object, there is lots of choice on board.

One more thing. We were pleasantly surprised by the wine selection on the Navigator. As you may have guessed, we are a little bit snobby about are wine (and we will admit it! hehe). We assumed the selection would be terrible, based on the wine packages that you can buy (5 day and 7 day). But, we did not read about "Vintages" anywhere. Vintages is a wine store/bar in the Promenade. You can get a glass, bottle or even do a vertical tasting there. But, you can also buy a bottle and walk it to the restaurant (and not pay a corkage fee). The selection was very good there, and nobody should be concerned about finding good wine. If we did the cruise again, we would probably only bring 1 special bottle, and buy the rest at Vintages.

The mark-ups also were not horrible. They were the typical mark-up you would see in restaurants, nothing more.

We wish that we knew about Vintages before, so we didn't have to press our luck with bubblewrapping and double-bagging wine in our checked luggage.

We brought on board 4 bottles of very special wine, in our checked luggage (we also brought other stuff...). We brought the first bottle to Portofino on the second night. They charged us $12 corkage and did not look shocked at all. In fact, many of the wait staff came over to look at the bottle (it was very old, and has been in our cellar for a long time). The supervisor came over and apologized that the bottle was not decanted for us, and that they did not give us large wine glasses for "such a fine bottle"... and we were nervous that we would get in trouble! haha

She asked us to bring the bottle earlier next time, so that they could properly prepare it for us. We did this when we went to Chops, and then again at Portofino a few days later. We were charged $10 corkage the next two times.

We brought the final bottle to the dining room on our last night. Our waitress didn't charge us corkage and was very pleased to serve us.

So... hope this helps others!