bobolz

After 2 cruises using SS air we have been very satisfied with the routing they booked for us. Like banjo said, if you know in advance of the flights you would prefer, and you live near a major hub , it helps get you the best results . 
 

good luck 

We are using toptour Portugal. I think I found them on TripAdvisor. They so far have been very responsive. Have not used them yet though. Good luck

On 3/7/2024 at 8:25 AM, Port Power said:

I have had this happen, but no flights were included.  The ship doesn’t mind if only one person goes, but there won’t be any reduction of the fare, or partial refund.  You can also bring a different person in place of one of the original passengers.  Of course you have to notify the company prior to boarding.  However, you cannot swap both guests for two different people.  One of the original booked passengers must be in the cabin.

 

They will need to claim for un-used air fares through their travel insurance, being so close to departure.  The airline would charge a cancellation fee if one flight is cancelled, so there might be a bit of a refund there.  Again, claim on travel insurance.

 

I claimed through my credit card insurance (Allianz). I never buy insurance from the cruise line.

 

Thanks port power for the response. So you are saying that the insurance company will not reimburse you for the ‘cancelled’ passenger even if it is for a covered reason, so it sounds like you are better off finding a replacement for that person. Is that because the price of the room is the same if there is 1 or 2 people (Unless there is a single supplement available on that particular cruise?) I just assumed cruise line insurance covers the cost of each person, I guess that is not the case.
 

you say airfare was not involved in your situation, meaning you didn’t get it through the cruise line, or did you just not require air for that cruise? I’m a little concerned how that will work changing the ticket by either removing the cancelled passenger off the ticket or replacing them with a new person.  
 

thanks again for your response 
 

I’m curious of anyone has ever experienced a situation where 1 of the passengers (double occupancy) on a cruise and flight ticket has to cancel due to illness or other covered reason, but the other passenger in the room/flight decides to take the trip? Has anyone purchased  air, cruise and  insurance through SS and had this situation occur?

 If so, would you be willing  to share your experience OR if there is anyone who would know what would happen in regards to reimbursement for the person who can’t travel as well as any concerns,actions  or inconvenience that the couple would experience if they wanted to make this change to their booking. The couple has already paid in full and is already less than 60 days from embarkation. 
 

thanks in advance 

We are also sailing out of Lisbon in May on the Dawn. As mentioned AA does offer PHL to LIS nonstop and so far that is the flight SS booked for us. They did charge us extra to fly out 2 days early on that flight ,however, the extra they charged was still less than what we could have booked on our own. We do not  have enough points with airlines , so we will continue to use silverair until it becomes cost prohibitive, which so far it has not. With all the uncertainty in this world, I can’t afford to lock in early with my own money by booking direct. Lois- I believe you will be able to work out a better flight with your TA or CC, we certainly did. Good luck and safe travels. 

We got our room assignment about 3 months b4 sailing on what is now a waitlisted cruise. I don’t know if that expedited the room assignment or not.  Good luck, hope you don’t have to wait too long. Enjoy your cruise! 

2 hours ago, riandei said:

Cabin assigned today.  Panorama suite.

 

 

Good to hear! . That’s nice and center of the ship I believe. Ours is more to the front , not ideal in rough waters, but just happy to have my room in advance .enjoy your voyage, I would love to hear your opinions about the room. Safe travels! 

49 minutes ago, riandei said:

I reached out today, still no assignment.  We depart next Monday.

 

cruise is waitlisted 

 

We are driving to the port.  We will have a nice surprise when we get there 

 

fingers crossed

 

 thank you

Looking forward to hearing about your nice surprise! Have a great trip! 

7 hours ago, riandei said:

We leave in a week.  No notification yet.

Riandel, did you happen to reach out to your SS agent? I had contacted him just to inquire and that is when he responded with my updated reservation w room assignment. I can’t guarantee contacting them will yield a similar response, but does not hurt to try. 

as others have stated it is a guarantee room, so you should have a room, so hopefully you will be pleasantly surprised soon. By the way is your cruise waitlisted? Are you flying (using SS air) to the departure city or is port in driving distance to your home? At this time, our cruise has no available rooms, all are waitlisted, but are offering the lower level rooms as guarantees (when they had been previously waitlisted). Hope you will share  your outcome when you return.
 

enjoy your cruise! Safe journey 

1 hour ago, almostnewtocruise said:

Yes indeed, the "tricky" part is the combination of the short tour with the transfer - and  the need for a larger vehicle.

That's why I try  it here.. These boards are very useful for finding all kinds of information.

We've already done it in other ports, but never in Lisbon.

If I won't get any further  recommendations, I'll research it  "the hard way", as suggested

 

Thanks!  

I have not used them yet, but I booked toptour.pt Portugal. I think I found them on TripAdvisor. The confirmation looked professional, so hoping all goes well.  We are traveling in May,  I can let you know after our trip. Good luck. 

We will be traveling to Porto arriving in leixos( sp) port and wanted information on what options are available at the port to arrange either private tours or transportation  to  Porto . I’m debating on whether to book a private tour in advance since the included tour my cruise line is offering is waitlisted . Is it easy to navigate on your own to get to/from/around  Porto from the por? Is there a shuttle that takes you to/from Porto? I believe it is approx 1/2 hour or less ride from the port  also which city would  you recommend touring Guimmares (sp) or Porto ? 
 

Any experience or recommendations would be welcomed. 

I’m sorry to hear about that crazy routing Spins. I agree that would be a no go. I hope you are able to have them changed.
 

We received a not so great routing on our upcoming cruise and asked if they could change the days and our SS agent  got back to us with the flights we wanted(both non stop and open jaw from PHL to/from Europe) , but with a reasonable deviation fee. Even with deviation fee,  there was no way I was getting that BC flight on my own for even close to what SS charged us.  So will wait and see if our  flights are ticketed as planned and if so, this will be the 4th time SS got us a better BC deal and non stop flights .good luck and hope all gets corrected.

Thanks to those that responded with your experience. I’m aware that there is no way to predict sea conditions, I just read that it is considered one of the roughest sea passages(like the Drake Passage) , but apparently the worst time is after August ,in the fall and winter, and  based on what I read above, gourmet Gal experienced just that in Sept while those that traveled in May did not notice anything out of the ordinary. I’ll just cross my fingers it won’t be too bad in May. Thanks again! 

Curious if anyone has recently taken this itinerary with SS or any other cruise line. I understand the Bay of Biscay can be quite rough at times, wondering if during a northerly route from Lisbon in May  rough waters were  enough to cancel ports?  Ports include Porto, La Corunna, Bilbao, Bordeaux. Thanks in advance. 

Just received our room assignment about 3 months out. Got upgraded to a  superior veranda from a vista on the Dawn, so I’m happy. 
 

I hope everyone else with gtys also gets upgraded and receives their assignments in advance. I don’t think I would have been happy waiting until we boarded, especially since looks like cruise is filling up, almost all rooms are waitlisted. 
 

good luck to all and happy sailing! 

4 hours ago, iticlaudia said:

When I go to my bookings on the Silversea website it says booked, the cabin says WL but I've noticed that it allows me to book excursions, restaurant reservations and such.  Should I go ahead and choice all that or would you think that might jinx me?

I’m curious did you book it as “waitlisted” ?  Did you only provide a deposit or did you pay in full ?
 

 My booking  in MySS account still says GTY, not waitlisted, although the bottom 3 categories  no longer show waitlisted if researching availability. , they are still offering the D2D and Discounted P2P pricing for these category rooms, but if you go thru the “booking” process you receive the msg “rooms to be assigned by SS prior to boarding” . Only categories that allow you to select rooms are the superior and deluxe  veranda and one owners suite . Very few rooms display in these categories. I’m not sure why they still offer bookings for  the lower categories that show no rooms available , maybe they set aside some rooms based on the number of GTY guests, or they have an algorithm that assumes a certain amount will cancel even though we are within the 120 day  window and full payment should have been received by all guests by now. We paid in full Last week 
 

although I could dream , assume there’s is no chance in …. That we would be lucky enough to get the owners suite as an upgrade 😝…..NOT….frankly would just be happy to get a room assignment soon..

Good luck ! 

I think you will enjoy SS, I know we have. I don’t know what line you are coming from but we have sailed both Viking and Oceania and believe SS is comparable , but a step above in regards to service and food  (Viking) as well as more inclusive than both other lines. although I was satisfied with all 3 lines and would not hesitate to sail with them again. 
 

here are my responses to your questions (Note: I have been on 4 SS ships, 2 of the older ones whisper and Shadow b4 the refurbishment and on Muse and Dawn one of the newer Muse class ships, I prefer the Muse class ships for the size, restaurant offerings , and staterooms. )

1) SS is definitely more formal than Oceania and Viking . Men wear jackets except on casual nights  or at the Grill or Spaccanopoli (sp? Pizza place on newer ships) , 1 -2 formal nights in main restaurants (as stated above you can avoid that by dining in aforementioned restaurants and La Terrazza the Italian restaurant) and there is no buffet at dinner. That’s the only thing I don’t like about SS, since sometimes after a long day of touring I just want something quick, casual and low key. 
 

2) so far I have been very satisfied with the included excursions, they are much better than Viking included excursions which are simply bus rides around the city. So more substantive and at least 4 hour trips. They can include entry fees and tours of museums and various historical sites. I think they had a good selection on the tours we took. 
 

3) I think this was covered well by others

4) I think the food was very good. Sometimes it came out Luke warm , but if a problem, you can always ask them to warm it up

5) tipping is included 

Thanks everyone for your responses. So far.our gty experience has yielded us an upgrade as well, which is what we are hoping for with this next cruise, but when checking what  veranda rooms they still had open, the number was dwindling down so was curious  about others experiences. 
 

thanks again! 
 

Thanks Nav . I thought as much , I see some of the room categories  are now waitlisted , including the category  we booked. So if people booked a waitlisted room, I assume they pay per the std deadline and get there money back if they are unable to find a room for them? 
 

We have done only 2 gtys before, but that was right after Covid so these ships were not full, so very low risk and high reward. 
 

cross fingers get a halfway decent location.

 Thanks again for your response 

I currently have a gty vista reservation for which I am making a final payment in less than 2 weeks. I know that some have posted that it can take almost to the day of boarding to be assigned a room. I have, however,  never read anyone say that there was no room available. I know airlines overbook, was wondering if anyone has ever experienced that with SS ? I only ask since only once did I have a situation where the cruise line sent passengers very generous refund or change offers to free up space on an apparently overbooked cruise.  
 

i just want to feel confident that I will get a room. Thanks in advance for any comments. 

I think a lot depends on your home airport. If it’s a major hub, that offers  nonstops to your major destination airport ,  there is a better chance of a good outcome. So far we have been very satisfied with the flights SS has booked for us. We have successfully completed one return journey which included nonstops to/from PhL to LHR. There are 3 nonstops a day and the carriers are American and BA. SS has contracts with both airlines, but as others may have mentioned , there may be  limited seats at a certain price point on select flights.

However, next year SS had reserved an outbound flight that was undesirable, I requested a different day and nonstop to LIS. They got it for me, but I paid a deviation fee that still kept the price way  below the market price I would have paid on my own. I have yet to take that flight, so anything could change, since only 1 nonstop a day, but if all goes as planned,  I will once again be very satisfied w SS air. 

The other advantage of having SS book the air for you is you do not have to pay for that flight until your final payment is due . So you protect yourself from locking in that payment early with no refund , except for a future credit, since most people purchase more affordable non refundable seats. 
 

I would see what they offer, research your options, submit a request for an alternative flight if what they offer is not desirable , and decide accordingly. 
 

good luck 

Thanks everyone and for those (Globaliser ) that corrected my error on the correct acronym, ie PNR . This was the first time I believe we ever received 2 especially on the same airline and always thought it was more expensive doing 2 one way flights vs multi-city or round trip, except if maybe using points. I guess in this case it was not. 
 

thanks again!

Thanks Flyer. I figured you would be an expert on this subject. My BIL had mentioned he found it cheaper to do one ways vs round trip or multi-city, I just never found that to be the case when pricing  overseas flights. Maybe it is better with domestic one ways and maybe he uses points as well. 
 

thanks again! 

3 minutes ago, drron29 said:

Nothing at all. I buy all our air fares myself and due to the nature of our travel they are virtually all booked as one way fares and I can have several PNRs for our trips. Never a problem. Occasionally a country will require proof of leaving so a copy of all flights on your phone is simple though we always have a printed copy as backup.

Thanks so much dr Ron. 

We just received our flight reservations. Our cruise agent booked 2 one way on same airline, so received 2 separate PRN# vs 1 (which we normally get for open jaw)  . We are traveling outbound US to Lisbon returning from London to US . Anything we should be aware of when time to travel since our outbound flight Will not have a return flight reflected on that ticket. 
 

thanks in advance