Silver Wind 3/12-4/9 2011

[SFL]

The "Lovely Miss Lynn" and I will have the ship ready for you. Regarding tours, we normally do the ship's tours, especially in ports in Africa, other than Capetown. We're in 715.

 

 

Hi Doug

Will not get the chance to meet you on this cruise. Had to cancel today.

Enjoy the cruise

:D

[dougburns]

Just cancelled the Las Palmas-Lisbon leg of the cruise, because my lovely bride doesn't want to be away that long. Sooo, we'll only be aboard from Cape Town-Las Palmas. Will still arrive in Cape Town 8 Mar to spend a few days with our close friends there.

[patnlcc]

Yes, we will arrive 9 March and spend a few days in Cape Town too. I emailed Colin Brown who was our excellent cruise director on the Cloud in April this year. He tells me he will be cruise director on this cruise! We are delighted. Colin is a superb concert pianist as well.

[patnlcc]

Looks like no-one else is joining us !!

[dougburns]

According to the State Dept website we'll need VISAs for Sao Tome and Cape Verde. Don't know how SS handles that. With Regent they had a service in San Francisco that processed VISAs for each particular cruise that required them. They were very good and the price was reasonable. Waiting to hear from our TA as to how SS handles it.

[dougburns]

Just got word from our TA regarding the VISA requirements. Apparently, SS gets the VISAs and has them for you when you board. The cost is added to your shipboard account.

[patnlcc]

We got a letter from Silversea via our TA this morning saying we need yellow fever vaccinations for this trip.

[dougburns]

That's true. We got ours in 2006 and the shot is good for 10 years. Niether of us had any reaction to the shot.

[dougburns]

Sorry to say that we're going to have to cancel out on the cruise. We'll try to get to Capetown on the first two legs of the Whisper cruise in 2012.

[patnlcc]

That's a shame. Hope there's no illness involved.

[Tony & Trevor]

We are doing this trip and our first time with Silverseas.

 

 

Really looking forward to it.

 

Kind regards,

 

 

Tony

[patnlcc]

Hi Tony and Trevor, we did our first ever Silversea cruise in April 2010 on the Cloud from Puerto Rico to Barcelona. Had been 3 times with Princess. Absolutely loved Silversea and can't wait to cruise with them again. Pat and Bill in Glasgow

[Tony & Trevor]

Pat & Bill,

 

 

Thank you. Looking forward to meeting you.

 

We have cruised with Seabourn for the last 4 years except last month, went with Regent-very good.

 

Kind regards

 

Tony

[Silver Spectre]

Yes, we're flying in on the Wednesday and sailing on the Saturday, so will do our best to see as much of the area as we can. Any ideas for our other ports? Sao Tome/Principe/Dakar/Cape Verde ?? Thanks

 

The kittens are coming on this cruise and have been to a couple of the ports before.

 

On a previous trip the highlight from Walvis Bay was a 4x4 adventure into the living desert, through the mountains ( and I seem to remember that they were used for some lunar training), down dry river beds and hidden oasis, and the highlight was riding up and down some seriously high dunes. And yes, for those who ask, we did see snakes.

 

Dakar itself is an absolute dump, best trips are the one to the slave pens on Goree Island or the Pink Lake at Retba. For those who took a city tour or the shuttle bus into town the highlight was getting back on the bus (or not even getting off) and coming straight back to the ship.

 

Porto Grande - its worth just having a wander around Mindelo, a number of churches, shops and a rather nice market. Pretty safe too.

 

Haven't been to Sao Tome before, but would be tempted to suggest taking ship's tours here. The general rule of thumb in western african states is if English is not their main language, do not try to go independantly.

[patnlcc]

Thanks for the advice. Yes, we were thinking that we would not go independently as we have never been to any of the W African ports before. The 'Silversea Experience' that is offered in Walvis Bay, Namibia, do we need to book for that or do they assume that everyone is going?

[Longhorn1]

Has anyone been here for lunch. Would like to visit if not too much hassle..R i c k ' s C a f é

[patnlcc]

We were in Casablanca in April this year. We had Rick's bar pointed out to us, but apparently there are several "Rick's Bars" - it depends on who your tour guide is!!

[patnlcc]

Seems like no-one else is joining us?

[patnlcc]

Only 9 weeks till we leave for Cape Town. It will be a pleasure to get away from this awful winter weather. It is snowing again!!

[patnlcc]

Bags are packed and we leave home tomorrow. Looking forward to meeting our fellow cruisers on the Wind on Sat 12th in Cape Town