unfathomable

The Oyster card is definitely the way to get around town

You do need one for each person, and you need to touch in when entering and leaving the Tube, even if there is no ticket gate at the exit, to avoid paying the maximum fare to the end of the line. (You only touch once with buses, when boarding.)

Saves you being left with unspent Oyster credit at the end of the trip, and it's one less thing to worry about on arrival at Heathrow. Possible catch: overseas transaction fees, though usually these only apply once a day.

Tfl has full details.

Thanks, Bob++ (actually, that video is how I knew it was a floating pier!).

Unless the cruise lines or the Port Authority have an arrangement with the Naval College for pickups, perhaps transfers will be a chaotic scrum?

Are you getting the car from an established London company? If so, they'll probably have a better idea of what works in practice.

We will be disembarking at the "floating cruise terminal" on the Thames at Greenwich. As far as I can tell by looking at website such as the Port of London Authority, we step onto a floating platform and then take a short tender ride to Greenwich Pier on the south bank of the Thames, next to the Cutty Sark.

It's at this point that I have been unable to find further information. Greenwich Pier is in a pedestrianised area, and we need to tell a driver where to collect us.

Has anybody done this? Thanks.

If I have understood correctly, at launch, Muse did not offer course-by-course dining from the Restaurant menu, only the regular room service menu, unlike other ships.

Does anyone know whether this has been rectified?

You definitely don't need a tux. If you wear a tux on a formal night, great, and if you choose to wear a suit you will not feel out of place. One suit will be plenty for formal nights and you don't even need that in some venues.

Upgrades are very rare on SS. The only case I have experienced was when the ship was completely full except for a Royal Suite. An upgrade enabled SS to sell a vacated Veranda Suite to somebody on the waitlist.

There is a retractable clothes line.

In general, only on nights when there is no live entertainment, i.e. it's a bit of an entertainment cop-out. Typically 9.45pm-10.00pm. But they do supply popcorn.

Any flight can be cancelled or delayed, of course. But if you take a first flight of the day (for that aircraft), from a main hub airport for that airline, you are maximising your chances of success. For example, if "your" aircraft has a technical problem, the airline has many other aircraft physically present that they could use as a substitute. There's a good chance that most of the airline's aircraft have arrived home, even if they were delayed the day before. Overnight checks will have been done. The same is not true at some random location in another country, or late in the day. August is a very busy time at Gatwick, but actually most London airports are very busy most of the time. Good luck!

Assuming you have bought SS flights or a standalone SS transfer, the local agents will be waiting. If you are taking an international flight, usually they are just after customs, but in some locations they will be in the baggage claim area. They will have SS signs, sometimes personalised, and they will have a list of names. We have experienced everything from a private limo to a large bus.

Now the negative - we debated taking our binoculars, but left them home as the website said Muse had binoculars in the suites. Apparently this was discontinued sometime in 2017. So, my husband, is kicking himself, saying he should have packed the binoculars.

Unless there has been significant change on Wind in the last few months, Le Champagne/La Dame does have more-formal service and (even) richer food than the MDR, and the atmosphere can be quite hushed if it's not full.

La Terrazza in the evenings is (if anything) more bustling than the MDR and the food is different from the MDR: I would say it's a matter of taste whether it's "better". Service is in general at least as good as the MDR.

The (on-deck) Grill is a sorta-kinda simple steakhouse, so plainer food. When we were last there, service was a bit patchier than other venues. BTW you don't have to cook your own food; they will happily do it for you if you've got over the novelty of the hot rocks.

And finally, room service for dinner is worth a try. Most of the butlers genuinely enjoy doing the course-by-course thing (with some butlers, service is more formal than in the MDR), the food is the same as the MDR (or you have the long list of room service options) and the only downside (for a Brit) is that inevitably it's usually not boiling hot.

HTH.

It's a shame that bands on Wind are now usually a trio, piano, bass and percussion: the sax/clarinet player made a proper quartet. I think I can convince myself that Whisper used to have a quintet, or am I imagining that?

The Hilton Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort is slightly further away, but rather better (IMO) than the Hilton Marina.

"Shipboard attire is always casual. Casual wear is appropriate for daytime aboard ship or ashore, and consists of standard sports outfits as worn at five-star resorts. Shoes should be non-skid, flat or low heeled for deck activities. Evening attire is also casual open-neck shirts, trousers and sports outfits are appropriate. In the evening, jeans and shorts are notpermitted in The Restaurant." https://www.silversea.com/content/dam/silversea-com/editorial/other-resources/travel-requirements/DO16079-Setting-SailGuide-SilverGalapagos.pdf

I’m fairly sure pre dry dock, you had 2 choices. One on the outside (and I’m surprised if they haven’t covered over the gap like they did on the Wind), plus the other from below. My recollection maybe wrong but I’m fairly certain you could. It would be most off to block it off.

Yep. Right here. :cool:

Your tux sounds great. On a formal night, you should be fine with anything approximating to jacket and tie.

Yes, the policy changed about a year ago.

I had the same experience as Observer. Hard work, but worth it.

The dates online for formal nights are a good guide, but not set in stone. Sometimes the days change and occasionally the number of formal nights is reduced once you are on board.

I've been looking at this too. I wonder whether (on Cloud) they will use the tenders when they can, where a quay is available, and only use the zodiacs when they have to, i.e. for beach landings?

We're looking forward to meeting you at the Meet & Mingle! (Enjoy the Waldorf -- one of our favourites too.)

Yes, everybody gets one hour per day of 'slow' internet. If there are two of you, that is one hour each.

I used it for email, including some megabyte-size attachments, and regular web browsing. It was fine for that. I didn't try, but I don't think it would be fast enough for (e.g.) video streaming or Skype. I would definitely give the included service a go before buying 'faster' access, but part of my reason for being on a ship is to have some time away from a screen so that is just my $0.10-worth.

Yes, unused time does not carry over to the next day. I use an offline email client, so I connect, download my new messages, disconnect, then read my messages, draft replies and reconnect to send them. That process seems to use 2-4 minutes of connection time in total, leaving plenty (for my needs) for anything else I want to do that day. I can't remember the charges for extra time or 'faster' service, but they were enough for me to avoid them! One CC post quotes $39 per day or $437 for a 17 day voyage for premium and $25 per day or $300 for 17 days for unlimited standard.

I didn't attempt a speed test, but I doubt that true high speed internet is available, even with the premium version. It's a satellite service and I suspect it will be well under 10 megabits/sec. (Another post says 600Kbps for standard and 2Mbps for premium.) I don't think location will make any difference, unless you go into the Arctic/Antarctic or the weather is very rough, when reaching the satellites at all can be a stretch.

HTH and enjoy your cruise!