Host Jazzbeau

I can certainly understand that – in general, and in your case double!

Verizon is similar. But with T-Mobile you get European coverage included. They also have discount plans for seniors (55+), and as a new customer you can trade in your old phones for huge rebates that cover all the cost of new iPhones (or almost all if you want upgraded models). We switched just before our April-May trip to Amsterdam and Paris, and T-Mobile worked great everywhere. [Just make sure you have good coverage where you live in the US, as that's where you'll be using it most of the time!]

The Cruise Critic rules about Facebook are very difficult to understand [personal observation – I have difficulty understanding them!]. The explanation I have been given is that the concern is about Facebook roll-call groups that take people away from the Cruise Critic roll-call groups. Any link, mention, or disguised attempt will be removed and may lead to a GR. Other types of Facebook pages are ok by us, as are references to them. I have spent a little time looking at Lee's page, and I seems ok to me. [Although I would prefer that all these posts were on Cruise Critic, because then I would have seen them...] But I agree with @uktog that this doesn't seem like a good way to send a message to Azamara for action. Lee's page isn't the much-prayed-for reincarnation of Bonnie's role!

Thanks @joyride For easy reference, here's a link to the review: https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=687717

Havila Kystruten Takes Legal Action to Become Owner of Havila Capella

We had the opposite situation: Scenic official documents said to meet opposite the Gare du Nord in Paris, but the driver was inside the station with our name.

Enjoy a well-earned weekend rest, @notamermaid !

That's like saying you climbed too many towers! 🤣

Ponant doesn't have its own Roll Call forum, so these roll calls go in the "All Other Ocean Cruise Lines Roll Calls" forum. Searching that forum for "Ponant" shows a couple of dozen roll calls spread over all their ships and several years. Almost none got even a single response. [The ships are small, most of the passengers are either French or booked through a group like Tauck – both factors that will keep Cruise Critic Roll Call participation down.] If you decide to start a roll call for your cruise, be sure to include all the important search terms in the title, e.g. "Ponant [ship name] [month day, year]". If you are doing a back-to-back, you should start a roll call for each leg, as some people will have booked only one. Please post a link to your roll call here, but this thread is not suitable for roll call posts [they will all get smooshed together and no one will be able to find anything!]

Ponant doesn't have its own Roll Call forum, so these roll calls go in the "All Other Ocean Cruise Lines Roll Calls" forum. Searching that forum for "Ponant" shows a couple of dozen roll calls spread over all their ships and several years. Almost none got even a single response. [The ships are small, most of the passengers are either French or booked through a group like Tauck – both factors that will keep Cruise Critic Roll Call participation down.] If you decide to start a roll call for your cruise, be sure to include all the important search terms in the title, e.g. "Ponant Le Bellot November 22, 2022". Also, you should start a roll call for each leg of the back-to-back, as some people will have booked only one.

That's what they did for my Oct. 6 2022 Journey cruise. For this cruise, they added Pula. For others, I have read that they added Opatija.

That's what I have found every time I compare SS D2D with Regent. I would prefer to arrange my own excursions, but at least the price isn't exorbitant (comparatively).

Onward has more CC suites than Quest [or any other Azamara ship], so bids are more likely to be successful there.

Thanks – switched our shore excursion to this one. I take it you didn't find it as strenuous as the description makes it sound? Also, did you have time afterward for a brief walk around Kotor old town? [Where you docked or tendered?]

Thanks!

They're still offering cruises on Silver Explorer through Nov. 2023??? https://www.silversea.com/destinations/cruises-south-pacific-islands/papeete-tahiti-to-valparaiso-e1231027023.html

If it happens, it will be the cost of travel in these times. So far we have been spared any expenses through several Covid cancellations, so we'll just suck it up...

So how are the Transfer reps getting through security? I've always had to show an airline ticket.

Rivers in Europe are getting over-crowded, but Nile cruises sell out almost immediately because of limited capacity. And the trend has been for river cruise lines to use new builds to replace older ships. But now, AMA is planning a second ship: AmaWaterways plans a second river vessel in Egypt

What are you going after seeing Newgrange? Flying home? You'll be going near the airport on the way to Newgrange, so you could store the luggage there: https://stasher.com/luggage-storage/dublin/dublin-airport

We got the box with the backpacks [too heavy to bring anyway] and other stuff [all unnecessary] after we had left. We did get the electronic documents [not necessary to have in hard copy] in time. Bottom line is that there is nothing you need, except the exact location of the ship – and since you'll be on the Scenic land portion you don't even need to know that.

Not Roman ruins on the Seine, but that sounds like Ben Baillie and he was indeed wonderful.

My question is how will they market Explorer once Endeavor is in the fleet? Any statistical comparison shows Explorer as an outlier in the Silversea fleet [and NOT in a good way...]

Frankly I scratch my head over this new pricing dichotomy. Celebrity tried something similar and quickly pulled it back [their 'cruise-only' fares now offer a choice of refundable or non-refundable deposits]. So why, with Silversea newly under the same corporate umbrella, didn't they learn from that? I think [purely my conjecture], that RCG wanted to put its stamp on Silversea and decided to copy the Regent approach. [I also think that is a huge mistake, because if I wanted to sail on Regent I would have done so...] But they didn't have the courage to 'just do it,' so they offered this other option. Along with the almost-hidden option to book D2D and eliminate the things you don't want. The bottom line is it makes booking Silversea too complicated – bad timing that they had already done it before they could read this recent article in the Wall Street Journal Why Complex Pricing Plans Backfire With Consumers [WSJ firewall, but you get the idea]

Travel agents charging fees [including cancellation fees] are automatically out of my Rolodex.