Rxgrad98

3 hours ago, Parkland Hiker said:

We had just booked our flights 2 days before we got the cancellation notice from Celebrity!  We haven’t done anything about cancelling the flights yet.  Considering just flying to Japan anyway and doing our own land-only tour.  Cruising around Japan doesn’t appear to be a strong possibility anymore 

This is what we did in 2019.  We were originally going in the Fall to see the maples and we were going to take a cruise, but then decided that it may be our only trip to Japan and we'd prefer to see the cherry trees, so we switched to doing a self land tour.  We love cruising, but have no regrets in changing to a land tour.  The trees will be in various stages of bloom across the country and doing a self tour allowed us the flexibility to plan our own itinerary and get to some places a cruise just can't go.  Either way, I hope you get to go.  It was an amazing trip.

17 minutes ago, davekathy said:

I asked hoping someone with personal experience(s) would be able to answer the question. 

Gotcha.

23 hours ago, davekathy said:

Why can't you do self disembark anytime (3rd or 4th) after you've cleared customs?  I can see Celebrity not offering assistance with luggage if you want to get off the ship prior to the official disembarkation times on the 4th.  

That's my thought as well... why can't you?  But I was hoping for conformation of that instead of just assuming before I put the money down on flights.  

On 4/18/2023 at 1:10 PM, cruiserchuck said:

We had a cruise that ended in Stockholm and the ship arrived the day before.  Since we cleared customs the prior day, we were able to get off the ship at about 4:00 am on departure day to go to the airport to catch an early flight.  
 

The only small issue is that we were told we could call reception when we wanted to disembark, and they would send someone to help us with our suitcases.  We could not get ahold of anyone at 4:00 am, so we needed to take our suitcases off by ourselves.

Thanks cruiserchuck.  Exactly the information I was looking for.  

We are sailing on the Infinity next year and we arrive back into our disembarkation port, Piraeus, on March 3, 2024, the day before disembarkation, March 4, 2024.  I can't get a clear answer on what time we can leave the ship on March 4.  Celebrity is only offering flights that depart after 12pm which would delay us getting home until March 5.  My TA says I should be able to depart at anytime on the 4th as the ship should have already cleared customs.  I was on the phone with Celebrity yesterday for over an hour only to be given a "we can't guarantee you can get off the ship in the early morning hours" to make a 6am, 7am flight.  We would prefer to get back home on the 4th.

Has anyone had experience spending the last night of the cruise in the disembarkation port?  What time were you able to get off the ship?  Thank you in advance for any info.  Appreciate it.

14 hours ago, Kallaway said:

 

So this has beed a three day ordeal for me. To answer your question, our initial Silversea TA was great but was furloughed during the pandemic. The TA to whom our account was moved has been awful. I don't know if that's due to the remaining TAs being overwhelmed or if we just got a bad one. For this issue we've been working directly with his supervisor who has been much more responsive. They have offered things like paying airline change fees, if you can't get those waived by the airline, and/or picking up an extra night hotel in BA but their hands are tied by the senior management to do more (at least that's what we've been told).

 

Like you, we're not in any airline's hub city so prices are usually high here but I was able to get business class tickets at a great price using credit card points at the height of the pandemic. The fare difference (cash) now costs more than purchasing new tickets on a different airline. I filed a waiver request yesterday with our airline to tried to get the points refunded back but that takes a few days for review and won't hear back until tomorrow at the earliest. Our travel insurance will not cover any costs to us due to Silversea moving the embarkation city but will give us a refund if we have to cancel due to this move.

 

For us, we can't justify a 30% increase in the cost of the trip if our airline doesn't refund back the points as the airline credit which must be used by the first half of next year is useless to us. If we do get the refund back and can still find reasonable fares to BA, we plan on going even though the reasonable fares now are twice what we initially paid (but still cheaper and a better route than what Silversea can get us). Otherwise we'll cancel the cruise and use that airline credit to go somewhere else in December.

 

I know these are extraordinary times but I have been nothing but annoyed/frustrated with Silversea since our initial TA got furloughed. This will (hopefully!) be our first cruise with any cruise line and I thought I had every angle covered but they definitely caught me off guard by moving cities. And then not notifying me about it with our full payment due at the end of this month has limited the time I could spend looking for alternative flights. Having no plan whatsoever for passengers that already booked into Santiago has been the icing on the cake.

I completely understand and share your frustration.  I phoned my Silversea agent today and she acted like the change was news to her.  I was able to rebook our flights and keep Premium Economy with only a $70 fare difference per person, but we now have to drive to and fly out of Atlanta; I hate Atlanta.

I think for me this will be a one and done with Silversea.  Fingers crossed the actual product is much better than the land based customer service team.  I wonder though how many passengers may be in the same situation as we are and not aware of it.  I hope you're able to get everything resolved to your satisfaction.  Good luck!

On 6/15/2020 at 3:51 PM, Kallaway said:

As an FYI for those that did not get this notification from Silversea last month, as we did not, the Silver Cloud Antarctica transfer city this upcoming season has been moved from Santiago to Buenos Aires. It has also not yet been updated on the Silversea website. Luckily I was poking around the MySilversea site and noticed the change. Unfortunately we had independently purchased business class tickets to Santiago and are now working with Silversea on a solution. If you're unaware of this change and also independently booked international travel, you'll want to reach out to your TA to do the same.

Thanks for the info Kallaway.  Much like you, we never received an email detailing the change and I just happened to notice it a couple of weeks ago when I randomly logged in and looked at the booking.  The reason I logged into Cruisecritic tonight is to ask if anyone else had noticed the change.  I immediately sent an email to my travel consultant at Silversea and still have not heard back.  I have not been impressed with Silversea customer service and have debated with all that is going on and now this, canceling our booking.  Has Silversea been cooperative in your dealings with them on arriving at a solution?  We live in a smaller town and Business Class is always astronomical for us, but we were able to get a great deal on Premium Economy to Santiago.   Looking at flights today I see that fares for Economy to Buenos Aires are more than we paid for PE to Santiago.  Please keep us posted on the progress.  Guess I'll be calling Silversea tomorrow. 

All the choices are good, like choosing between chocolate, vanilla or strawberry ice cream.

Absolutely agree. All of the previous posters have offered excellent ideas. The Loire Valley is awesome. You could base yourself in Amboise or some similar small town and easily get to several of the Châteaux such as Château de Chenonceau and Château de Chambord.

The Romantic Road in Germany is another option. You could stop at the Rhine Falls on the way to Füssen, where it begins. Rothenburg ob der Tauber is a great place to spend a day or two. The road ends at Würzburg, an easy drive to Frankfurt to catch a flight to Heathrow.

Switzerland and the Italian Lakes region are other options. There's plenty around Lucerne and Interlaken to see and do without rushing yourself. Lauterbrunnen is an excellent base for the Interlaken area - absolutely beautiful.

As Papa said, they're all great choices and you can't go wrong with any of them. Good luck deciding.

Our friend has knee issues as well, and she did manage the People's Palace, but it was a lot for her. We are in Bulgaria this morning, getting ready for our tours.

 

Becki

Have a great trip!! We did this cruise at the end of March on the Viking Aegir. The two Bulgaria stops were our favorite.

Tim

I was on a Croisieurope cruise last May from Paris to Normandy. I was surprised that lunch and dinner were sit down mult-course meals without menu choices. In other words, everyone ate the same meal. One night the meal was venison. I am not a fan of venison. Lunch was a long drawn out affair just like dinner. With a sit down served lunch there was no time to go back to your cabin and relax before starting any afternoon activities.

In addition, for dinner everyone had an assigned table that did not vary so you ate with the same travel companions each night. There was no choice in the table assignments. We like to meet and talk to different people so, for us, this arrangement was boring.

So I would ask before I booked with Croisieurope about menu choices and dinner table assignments.

That doesn't sound very appealing, but I'm very excited to hear that a company will be starting Loire River cruises. It's one of my favorite regions of France.

I am surprised you had no stops on the way to cuckoos/glass demonstration? We visited a nice town on the way there with a beautiful church. The trails are worth exploring as well. But I agree the weather is a big factor.

Overall just my opinion it was one of the best tours we had during that cruise.

No stops for us. It would have been nice to stop in one of the small towns or even Freiburg, but we went straight there and back. Not sure if it was due to the rainy weather or they wanted to get the optional tours off earlier since the sun was setting at 4:30, but for us the only stop was the cuckoo place.

RXgrad98 - Did you do the optional tour to Colmar? If so, would love to hear your thoughts. This town intrigues me, but on a Sunday? Or should we just spend the afternoon in Breisach.

 

And the Black Forest tour screams tacky tourism to me. Your thoughts?

 

Also, is dinner on the boat that night or off? A little confused by the intinerary notes.

 

Thanks for your help.

Yes, we did do the optional tour to Colmar. I believe we were there on a Tuesday, so everything was open. Colmar is really nice. We didn't make it to the Petit Venice area during our tour, but that may have been our fault; we did wander away from the group and toured on our own, so we may have just missed it. Our guide was good in that he showed us the meeting time and place at the beginning and basically said be on time if you wanted to go your own way. I recommend going, even if it is a Sunday.

Breisach has a nice church that sets up on a hill on the river. We walked up to it, but didn't have much time to check everything out. The Black Forest tour, well, I wouldn't say it's a tacky tourist trap or anything, but it is basically a 90 minute bus ride each way to a shopping spot. The cuckoos are a nice quality and there's a pottery/glass shop there as well, as well as some trails that you can walk along; it was raining and 42 degrees when we were there, so didn't check out the trails. But, knowing what I know now, I wouldn't do it again. The scenery is nice, but it's basically a shopping excursion. If I were to do this cruise again, I'd spend the morning in Breisach, then go to Colmar, or check into transportation to Colmar and spend the day there. Just my opinion, but I enjoyed touring the old town of Breisach and Colmar more than the bus ride and cuckoo experience.

Tim

Looks like you got it. Like FotoPeg, we found the guides and all to be accommodating if you wanted to go off on your own. We also did it in Heidelberg after the castle tour. Our guide there was a little long winded and we wanted to see some of the churches and hit the Christmas markets, so when she finally stopped to take a breath, we informed her we were wandering off on our own, gave her a tip, and took off. Hopefully going in August you'll have much better weather than we did. Have a great trip!!

Tim

I'm so glad you kept those Viking dailies! Do they happen to say the specific times for the Marksburg Castle tour and, therefore, what time you arrive in Koblenz? Does the Kinderdijk tour last the entire time you're there (2pm-5:30pm) or is there free time in Kinderdijk?

The Marksburg tour was 10:30am to 1pm. You leave Rudesheim and immediately begin the stretch of castles that ends at Marksburg. You get into Koblenz at 1pm, which is the time that lunch is served. We docked in front of the William I monument in Koblenz, which made it very convenient to walk into town.

There's a little free time in Kinderdijk. We actually didn't follow the program. When you dock, someone comes onboard and gives a lecture about the windmills and dikes, then you go on a guided tour. However, you can get off and explore on your own, which is what we did. You can go into one of the windmills, just tell them you're with Viking if you don't go with the group and they will let you in without paying, or they did us. I'm glad we did it own or own; the windmill you can go into is a little tight so I can't imagine how the groups managed to squeeze in. There is a little town there with a cafe and souvenir shop, but other than that, not much there.

If you want, I can email you copies of the Viking Daily for each day.

Sorry, one more question. At about what time does the optional tour to Colmar depart, and how long does it last? I assume it leaves from the boat after lunch? Does it allow for any free time in Colmar?

No worries, glad to help. I found my Viking Daily and it says the tour is 2:15-6pm. I know we had time to eat lunch, then we went up to the church in Breisach for a few minutes before we left for the tour to Colmar. There was free time in Colmar, but not exactly sure how much because we actually left before the end of the tour when we spotted a patisserie that sold macarons. The guide showed everyone where and when to meet in case anyone wanted to go off on their own. Neat little town.

So maybe in Strasbourg, in order to maximize your time there, it would make sense to eat lunch in town. Then you don't have waste time taking the bus back to the boat to eat and then taking the bus back into town; only to have to take the bus back to the boat again before departure.

Absolutely. That was our original plan, but the day we were there it was only about 40 degrees and raining. We decided we needed a break from the weather and decided to go back to the boat and warm up before heading back out. Have you booked or just researching?

One other question. When you're in Breisach, Strasbourg and Cologne (places where the boat is docked from morning until evening) do most people go back to the boat for lunch, after the morning tours? Do the tour buses take you back to the boat, or do you have to get back on your own? And what if you want to go back into town after lunch on the boat? Again, do the tour buses take you back into town or do you have to make your own way? Thanks.

The tour buses always brought us back to the boat after the tour. Most people ate lunch and dinner on the boat. When the boat is docked in port, you can come and go as you please. You just turn your room key in at the front desk so they know that you're off the boat. Everyone must be back onboard 30 minutes prior to sailing. In Strasbourg, Viking runs a shuttle service into the town center. Everywhere else, you could just walk into town. We're the type that tries to maximize our port time; there's so many things on our bucket list who knows if we'll ever make it back, so we usually only came back to the boat to eat, drop off anything we may have bought, then right back into town. We went into Rudesheim and Cologne after eating dinner, mainly to see the Christmas markets lit up at night and check out a beer house or two. Just be back on board before the boat sails! :D

Yes, that's very helpful. Thanks. So you're pretty much in Koblenz overnight then?

Yes, overnight in Koblenz. I think we arrived into Koblenz early afternoon after the Marksburg Castle excursion. The ship drops you off at Marksburg and goes on to Koblenz. You then take a bus on to Koblenz. You do have the option to stay on the ship if the castle doesn't interest you.

This is great information about the start of the day. What about the end of the day? The boat leaves Basel at 7pm and you're in Rudesheim overnight, correct? What about Breisach, Strasbourg, Koblenz, Cologne and Kinderdijk? When do you leave those ports? Thanks.

Hi Tim,

You are correct regarding Basel and Rudesheim. Breisach was a 10:30pm departure, Strasbourg was 6:30pm, left Mannheim at 1pm after the Heidelberg excursion and arrived in Rudesheim at 6:15pm for an overnight stay, left Koblenz at 4am, Cologne at 11pm, and left Kinderdijk at 5:30pm. It was a fairly port intensive cruise. Rudesheim was completely shut down, only a few restaurants open, but we did arrive the day before the Christmas market opened, so probably would have been a completely different experience the next day or had we visited in summer. Hope that helps.

Tim

We're leaving on the August 9th cruise from St. Petersburg to Moscow on the River Victoria. Who'd have thought twenty years ago that we'd be taking a vacation in Russia?

 

Obviously, we're going to need rubles when we get there. Does anyone know if there's an ATM near the boat dock in St. Petersburg?

There was a souvenir/snack shop where the Victoria docked. I honestly don't remember if there was an ATM there or not. If you decide to skip the ATMs at the airport, I'm sure you won't have any problem finding one in St. Petersburg. One of the guides should be able to direct you to one. Have a safe and wonderful trip!!!

Tim

We were on Danube cruise last year & noticed that tips had to be paid in cash by others. (Australians have to pay their tips with their packages so ours had been pre-paid (I guess it's because we are not really used to tipping like Americans so they may expect nothing from us unless we pre-pay!!.)

We fly to Zurich first & catch up with friends there, then Israel for 10 nights & our daughter who has been living in Ethiopia comes there to stay with us for a week (close to home for her now), then we fly to Moscow for the cruise.

We are away just over 4 weeks & leave tomorrow morning. We do tend to stay away for a while as it takes 24h to get to Europe so not the sort of thing you would do for a 7-9 day trip.

That sounds like a fantastic trip!! Hope to visit Israel one day. Have a great time!!!

Tim

Hi Yvonne,

I remember getting hot at night when the boat was parked in Moscow and St. Petersburg. I began to wonder if they were cutting the air off overnight while the boat was docked. I didn't notice it while we were cruising between the two cities. I thought it was me at first because I started having sinus issues in Moscow and ran a fever off and on for a couple of days, but I spoke to other passengers and they said they had noticed the same thing. Maybe Fran will respond if she experienced anything similar on her sailing. Just a little over two weeks to go for you!! Are you going anywhere else in Europe? Most Australians and New Zealanders we've met on holiday are usually gone for about 6 weeks. I'd LOVE to have that long of a vacation!! :)

Tim

Tim -

 

That actually sounds really good.... Do you think you would travel the same direction - or opt to travel the opposite way?

 

Fran

Hi Fran,

I think I would opt for the opposite direction, St. Petersburg to Moscow, if we do the river cruise again. My only rationale is that we might see something along the river that we didn't see on the Moscow to St. Petersburg direction. I know there is a fortress just out of St. Petersburg that we didn't see since we were sailing at night; I can't remember the name of it. It makes me wonder if you saw things that we didn't and vice versa.

Sassycassie, that sounds similar to the temperature range that we experienced in May, but it did get into the 80's a couple of days in Moscow. I actually got a fairly good sunburn during those two days - never thought about taking sunscreen to Russia!! We really lucked out with the weather - it only rained twice our entire trip, both at night, and drizzled a little the morning that we visited Mandrogi. Have you checked in the roll call section for the "Russia cruises - all lines" started by franski? She started both the 2012 and 2013 threads and both contain a wealth of knowledge. Quite a few people went on Uniworld in 2012 and posted.

Tim

Leaving on Sept 13 for the River Victoria -- Tim, I keep re-reading your review and am getting more and more excited about the trip. Got my visa the other day -- another item off the list! This is my second trip with Uniworld -- the first was in 2008 on the Danube. It was an incredible trip so I'm really looking forward to this one. Never thought I would be going to Russia!!!

Hi sassycassie,

Hopefully the two months will go by fast!! Isn't it neat seeing your name written in Russian? I'd be interested to hear what the weather is like for your trip and if the leaves have started to turn. My parents are wanting to go to Russia now, so it looks like we may be doing a repeat of our river cruise in the future. I remember thinking as we were sailing that it would probably be nice to do the cruise when the leaves were turning. Please post when you return. Hope you have a safe and wonderful trip!!!

Tim

Yif,

Have a great time!!! I hope you have Lena as your cruise director. She was fantastic. Please post on your return and let us all know how it went.

Tim