clarky

I just received an email from him.  So he must still be with SS.

Fletcher, I can report that there were 8 people in our group for snorkeling 🤿.  There was no beach resort and the snorkeling was one of the best we have done and we have snorkelled all over the world.  Not a buttock fish to been seen.  

Glad we missed this Fletcher.  I thought Salalah was boring when we visited many years ago but this may take the cake.  We board in Jeddah and are on until Dublin so hopefully we will meet you onboard.

We will be doing this cruise May 2nd this year.  This if the first leg of the cruise which will end in Dublin.  I will be posting on SS facebook page and I will try and post here as well.  So please look for my posts which will give you some information about Jeddah and Saudi Arabia.

Fletcher, I have just been informed by Silversea that the new excursions are available to book.  I have made our bookings.  We will do the overnight to Al Ula on the 5th - 6th May.  I also booked the excursion to Medina via fast train for the 4th May.  Not disappointed with the tours at all.  The communication with Silversea has been excellent and I beleive they have done an excellent job of arranging some great tours.

Fletcher, like you I'm disappointed with the port cancellations but I have just received an e-mail from Walter at Silversea and he and his team are working on some exciting excursions from Jeddah, including an overnight to Al Ula.  The overnight in Al Ula is one of the main reasons for booking this cruise so whilst I'm still disappointed with the canceled ports we are going ahead with this cruise.  I think a lot of the smaller ports are getting nervous about accepting cruise ships because of Covid and the many reports in the press about cruise ships with covid on board. It makes no sense to me as the general population have way more cases per capita than a cruise ship (in Australia at least).

Fletcher,

Thank you for the quick reply.  This makes me feel so much better.  We lived in the Middle East and have been fasinated with the culture and history of the region and  this is one of the tours that we have wanted to do.  One of the main reasons I booked this cruise was to do this tour.  In fact I booked this  cruise in July 2021 and was baffled that this tour was waitlisted.  We are cruising Jeddah to Dublin and I look forward to meeting you.

Hi Fletcher,   We are also on this cruise and are wait listed on this tour.  Can you share the information you received please as I really don't want to miss this tour.

I'm not sure what you are referring to with articulated truck but a lot has changed in this suite.  First you have and expedition closet in the entrance, second the living and dinning are now one open space and third the furniture in the living area has changed.  The bedroom and bathroom remain the same thank goodness.  This suite is the second largest in size on the ship.  It does not have a balcony but if you are in the artic or Antarctica then realistically how often are you going to be using your balcony?  If you really want to look for wildlife you need to be out on the decks.

I'm happy to help as I have appreciated all the advice I have been given by other posters.  I can not emphasize enough how much better this medallion suite is compared to the silver suite.  The silver suite does not have an expedition wardrobe like this suite.  It has a much smaller living dinning area and the bathroom as you know from previous posts is a shocking design.    This suite also has a powder room which the SS suite does not. I would book this suite in a heartbeat.  In fact we have booked it for our Antarctica cruise in January 2024.

We have over 250 days with Seaborn and will never cruise with them again after the way they treated us and other guests during our COVID cruise.  They don't deserve our loyalty.  We do like Regent but find SS offer more adventurous itineraries.

We have loved this cruise.  The excursions that have been offered have been diverse in both activity levels and duration.  All excursions except one have included lunch or a snack and the buses when used have been at least half empty.  So distance between guests has been front of mind.

At the end of the cruise I will post some photos to give you an idea of what we saw.  I will say so far we have seen Dolphins, whales, seals, several species of birds including puffins.  Fingers crossed for a polar bear.

hglsland, here are some photos for you.  Also our friends in 801 said they had a walk in bath.  I feel conflicted posting these photos.  We love this suite so much and with the great refurbishment of this suite and the photos I fear it will be booked when we want it.  We love the French balcony as it is too cold to be out on your balcony in the artic but we can open and close the window and get some fresh air and take photos.

I spoke with our friends in 801 and they said there was no noise in their suite however they did find that there was significant movement during rough seas.

We will be moving to 741 on the next leg so will let you know.

Our friends are in 801 right now so I will get feed back for you.  

As this is another sea day I thought I would post some thoughts on the silver suite.  We are in 723 and I will post some photos of the suite.

I'm not loving this suite as much as I do the medallion  suite 741.  Firstly the bathroom is tiny and badly designed. You can not turn on the shower before you get in the bathtub shower.  My husband has posted on this topic so I won't go into details of the bathroom here.  The walk in robe is also terribly designed.  you can not hang a dress. The hanger is not high enough to hang pants or dresses without them being scrunched up.

I'm enjoying the extra space but I would not book the silver suite over the medallion  suit 741 even though 741 has no balcony, during refurbishment they added a window that can open.

Our friends who were in 702 a royal suite had the ceiling collapse last night and were moved to the owners suite,
 

There have been several problems that have come to light with this cruise after the refurbishment.

I agree with Kathy.  You really don't notice the zodiacs.  Today is another sea day and we are sailing through the straights of Gibraltar.  The expedition team are busy on deck giving commentary.

All is well in the wind world.  Seville tomorrow.  We love Seville so looking forward to this port.

As we have a sea day I thought I would post some more observations about our cruise.

Excursions have been wonderful.  We have been on two 8 hour tours which included lunch and they have been outstanding.  We have also cruised on Regent which includes excursions and the choice and quality of the SS tours are equal or better than Regent.  I believe the SS tours are superior than Regent is that the couches have fewer guests.  My only complaint was on our tour yesterday which was a four hour tour.  Apparently many guests decided that they just couldn't take another day of long touring.  I understand that the tours have been long and the temperature high but the tour conditions say at least 48 hours notice of a tour change is required.  Our 4 hour tour yesterday had 42 people and the coach had zero spare seats. The air con on the coach could not keep up with the heat outside and the number of people on the coach.  The excursions team managed to acquire another guide so we had three groups which was fine but the small Cafe we stopped at for coffee and pastries became overcrowded with our extra guests.  I know all the staff are very. keen to keep guests happy but it was a terribly overcrowded coach which was very uncomfortable. The excursion leader mentioned that due to the short notice of guests changes she did not have enough time to order another coach.

The service on board has been fantastic and we are enjoying the food.  Ged the onboard pianist is doing a wonderful job of trivia and put on a wonderful Elton John show last night in the theatre.

I will certainly post photos of the silver suite and the medallion suite.  Any other questions I'm happy to answer.

Just a quick update on our cruise so far.  As mentioned previously this cruise is very friendly both the guests and staff and we are having a wonderful time.  We have been told that there are 170 passengers on board.  We do not have a full compliment of waiters but as the ship is not full we have not noticed any deficiency in service.  As mentioned the ship is looking very smart however we have discovered a problem.  It was mentioned to me that water was flowing from the ceiling on level 7 and we could see doors opened and big fans in the hallway of some suites.  Yesterday while nearly all guest were on tours to Delphi we stayed on board having been to this port before.  We decided to use the Jacuzzi and swim. On entering the jacuzzi we noticed some brown substance on the seat and on closer inspection found it to be rust.  The jets could not be turned on or were not working.  We moved to the other jacuzzi and while this jacuzzi was warmer it also had the rust problem.  Not only did it have the rust but the drain in the centre was now connected to the inlet of the pump and  was sucking very hard.  My husband put his foot on this, not intentionally and it was very painful to pull it away.  I think we found the reason for the water leaking on deck 7.   

I wrote the above yesterday.  Today is a sea day so I have more time to Put down my thoughts and observations.

We have had one formal night which was unexpected on an expedition cruise.  Luckily I overpacked and had acceptable attire. The expedition team are ironing out some kinks in there procedures.  We are now not receiving announcements in our room in the early hours of the morning.  Announcements are in public areas only.  When the first excursions were taking place it was not made clear that you needed to attend the evening briefing to sign up for a time slot for excursions. They have now amended this and you can just show up and be placed in a group as long as it is within the time period of your excursion.

We will be moving to a silver suite for the next leg of the cruise and a medallion suite for the third leg so I will post photos of those suites.

Last night at Hot Rocks we wanted to order a revenue wine and asked for a wine list.  They didn't. have one.  The Sommelier Goran appeared and apologised that most of the revenue wines had not been loaded but he had some bottles available and we were happy with the wine we bought.  He is hoping the wines load in Lisbon.

We are currently on our way to Tunisia.  The weather gods have been kind to us so far so hopefully the fine weather will continue.

We arrived in Athens after a very long journey from Australia.  we were met on arrival by the SS rep and taken to our hotel.  The Grande Bretagne was a beautiful hotel and we enjoyed our stay.  The evening of our arrival 11 guests who would be sailing to tromso were taken to a restaurant with amazing views of the acropolis. It was a lovely evening making new friends enjoying food  and wine.   A SS rep was available to answer any questions we had and explain the next days procedure for boarding.  Our suitcases were to be outside the room by 11:00 a.m. and we were given a number and a time of pick up. We were in group 2 pick up at 2:15.  This was managed so efficiently and after the 20 minute bus ride to the port it took 20 minutes to board the ship, about 15 minutes was taken up with a RAT test.  It was all managed with efficiency and it felt like in no time we were on the Wind.  We were greeted enthusiastically by the crew and informed we could go staight to our room.

I'm not typing from my normal computer so please forgive any typos as I'm trying to give as much information as possible in the time I have.  I will also attempt to post some photos.

The Wind is looking amazing.  She looks so fresh.  New carpets on the stairs.   unfortunately the navy carpet and the lack of lighting on the stairs means you really need to pay attention when using them.  I love the remodelled bathroom.  No bath tub but a lovlarge shwer with a bench seat overhead shower and a wall shower head.  lovely new large towels.

Most of the staff we have spoken with have all worked for SS before.  We had drinks with Captain Mino Pontillo last night and he told us the Wind has anew engine.  I can attest to it being very quiet

We had our first shore excursion this morning.  Monemvsia walking tour of the old town.  We had a great guide and wonderful  weather .  The town was full of history and we had the option of staying in town to walk around or go straight to the shuttle bus or walk back to the tender. We opted to walk back to the tender as we needed to walk of the calories we consumed last night at hot Rocks.  

Also there are new bath products Ortigia. Hopefully  I get better at adding photos.  If anyone has any questions please let me know.

$600.00 per person is a steep charge, especialyl when you think that if you purchased a cruise tour it would be at the most $250.00 each ( and that is being generous).  Maybe when you get on board and start talking to other guests they may also want to do the Alhambra and you can get the tour desk to arrange a group tour.  Normally you could start a thread on this and guests would reply but it looks like people are not posting or joining roll calls as much as pre-covid.

You guys received notification of the port change way before we did in Australia.  We have visited the Alhambra and it is amazing.  Dissapointed for those who have not visited this part of Spain that it is not an included excursion but it is worth the effort to book a private tour if you don't intend to visit this port again.  I'm still in the middle of packing as I need to pack both summer clothes (it is going to be 31c in Athens when we arrive) and clothes for the Artic.  Also knowing the United Kingdom rain jackets and layers as we will be visiting Northern Scotland and it always rains there!

We will be on the cruise on the 28th of May and I'm happy to hear that they will be ready for all the guests.  I still can't believe we will actually be taking a cruise after so long.  We are on for 45 days and I will be posting here on this board about our experience.  We have sailed the Wind a couple of times so it will be interesting to see all the new improvements.

cancun01, not a Debbie Downer.  I had not thought about the saftey concerns of SS.  I will have my travel agent ask about the kettle in the room.  My kettle is so small that I could easily pack it up every morning and have my tea hot.  Room service tea is never very good.  The hot water in the thermos is never very hot.  I really enjoy the tea they deliver at dinner in a teapot so perhaps is worse comes to worse I will ask room service to deliver me a tea pot full of hot water and add my own tea bags.

When we sailed the Wind on our last cruise and our friends asked for a kettle so they could make their own tea in the morning and it was not problem.  I have bought a travel kettle that calapses and is easy to pack and has international voltage.  I have given it a try and it works beautifully so I will be taking that.  I don't drink coffee so this is something that is important to me.  I purchased the kettle from Amazon and it takes up very little space in my suitecase.

We have never in the past used the SS air option.  However during the uncertain times of COVID we opted to use their air option.  I'm glad we did.  We were booked on the Grand Voyage from Singapore - Trosmso.  The first segment of the cruise was cancelled.  Singapore to Cochin, then a couple of days later the second segement Cochin to Athens was cancelled.  It saved us the hassled of contacting airlines (which during this time would have meant long wait to speak with a human) to change our flight and perhaps having to pay change fees.  We have bookings with SS up to January 2024 and have opted to use SS air for all those cruises.  Perhaps after January when flying is back to somewhat normal I will again opt to book my own air which I prefer to do.

When looking at the D2D compared to P2P on some cruises it just makes more financial sense to book your own air but on some cruises, for us flying out of Perth after the air credit I could not find an air at the price I paid SS.  Particularly to Antartica not so much to Europe of the Med.  I think doing a comparison of SS v your own arrangements and making a decision that works for you is the way to go.