Price warranty, flooding of unsold places elsewhere and wait listed shown on Silversea.

[mancunian]

Your tour sounds fabulous.  They have extended this a lot.   I would have loved to do a fortnight.    Do not take the given hotels for 2025 too seriously.  Ours changed but it was as they say always the same grade.  The only one I recognise was the Agra one.  They were however all excellent.

 

Food - neither of us was ill.  I only remember one person on the coach beingill one day and unable to do the excursion.  Like Daveywavey we stuck to the hotels restaurants and they were good hotels.  Some of the party went out to other places including the person who was ill.  So “you pays your money and you takes your choice”.

 

We did have another problem in that I have become intolerant to turmeric and this of course means no Indian food so my choices were limited but there were choices though occasionally I resorted to pizza!  Some of the excursions had included lunches but always at very good restaurants.  Only once did I go without lunch when one place only gave an Indian option.  So stop worrying about that.

 

Another thing that happened which why not applicable to you and I tell you only because it shows what a good firm it is.   At some of the sites becauseI am disabled and use a rollator the distances were too far for me to keep up.  Peter noticed that there were men who were called pushers with wheelchairs.  He mentioned this to the manager and said he would like to hire one for me..  The manager said he would arrange one at each site but when Peter tried to pay he was told no the company would pay

 

We are really looking forward to the Italian Lakes

 

[dawntrdr]

I see that SS has started a new promotion today - two class upgrade on suites, 15% (reduced) deposit and $1000 OBC per suite.  I wonder if this is to compete with those cheaper travel agency deals.

[Techno123]

1 hour ago, Daveywavey70 said:

That looks like a fantastic itinerary, the first week is some of what Ive just done but in Reverse, Mine ended at Agra. Shimla is one I had to save for my next trip out there. If youre interested I did do a little holiday video of the trip. 

Thank you for this. I'm 30 minutes in and thinking we must be around the same age due to the excellent music choices 😜. Not too keen on the rat temple though 😱

[Techno123]

1 hour ago, mancunian said:

Your tour sounds fabulous.  They have extended this a lot.   I would have loved to do a fortnight.    Do not take the given hotels for 2025 too seriously.  Ours changed but it was as they say always the same grade.  The only one I recognise was the Agra one.  They were however all excellent.

 

We are really looking forward to the Italian Lakes

 

Thank you for all the feedback. I love Indian food but himself is not so keen 😂 it does sound a fabulous tour and I am reassured by your report that they are a good company. Not too fussed re the hotel as long as they are clean and comfortable. I am really looking forward to the trip to the Himalayas 

[Dolcevita Diva]

1 hour ago, dawntrdr said:

I see that SS has started a new promotion today - two class upgrade on suites, 15% (reduced) deposit and $1000 OBC per suite.  I wonder if this is to compete with those cheaper travel agency deals.

It seems as if they are trying several different price/promotional strategies in recent months. One thing that puzzles and concerns me, however, is the approach they've taken to offering lower single supplements.   In the past, those were fairly widely available when itineraries were first released and then also added to voyages that may not have met booking goals. 

 

Now, they seem to be limiting voyages with a low single supplement to certain regions, as well as the usual offers on repositioning voyages.   For example - between now and May 2025, a period of more than 2 years (!), there are only 5 voyages in the Mediterranean with the low single supplement offer - and only 2 of those are shorter than 26/27 days.   

 

I had assumed that with all the new passengers booking additional voyages that this was due to strong bookings - yet many of the other Med voyages have recently had these other new offers such as prepaid port-to-port or the 2 category upgrade added, which implies they are not hitting booking goals. 

 

Not sure why Silversea seems to be limiting use of the lower single supplement offer - perhaps the people in charge of their pricing/revenue strategy come from one of RCCL's other brands, where the default is 100% single supplement and using a lower single supplement as a promotional lever is not as top of mind?  

 

 

[Daveywavey70]

24 minutes ago, Techno123 said:

Thank you for this. I'm 30 minutes in and thinking we must be around the same age due to the excellent music choices 😜. Not too keen on the rat temple though 😱

haha, it wasnt a highlight but I'm glad I did it. I'm 49 and 12 quarters btw. 

[Techno123]

2 hours ago, mancunian said:

 

One question for you if I may.

what did you do with all your Silversea evening clothes whilst you were touring? I don't particularly want to hoik them round with us and wondered if we can leave stuff at the Delhi hotel.

[mancunian]

I do not think Iwould risk leaving them.   We took everything round with us.  We take two suitcases and do mixed packing carefully thought out.   We do not open one of these during the tour and  undisturbed things do not seem to crease badly.  In other words although our luggage is with us all the time we live out of one suitcase.   This works for us.

[HappyCamper777]

On 4/3/2023 at 9:54 AM, Daveywavey70 said:

I did do a little holiday video of the trip

Thanks for sharing your video.  I look forward to watching at my leisure.  I know I'll enjoy it, because you captured me with your first song pairing to the start of your trip in Dubai.

[Daveywavey70]

1 minute ago, HappyCamper777 said:

Thanks for sharing your video.  I look forward to watching at my leisure.  I know I'll enjoy it, because you captured me with your first song pairing to the start of your trip in Dubai.

Well it was for One Night Only 🙂 I  Hope its not too boring Happy, I Will edit it down further when time allows. Some of the musical pairings are a little cryptic 🙂

Edited April 6, 2023 by Daveywavey70

[Dolcevita Diva]

@les37b  Interesting...the August 27th voyage you mentioned popped up today on the website as bookable on Silversea. Both D2D and P2P pricing are available, as well as a low single supplement offer.  Only Deluxe Veranda and Vista suites show as available.   

[Presd]

Interesting!  Thank you for the heads up.   I have looked almost daily and sometimes a suite comes up making me think it’s someone cancelling. This time it’s a guarantee deluxe suite.  I’m not seeing the vista suite.  Wondering if the company that chartered is giving some suite back to SS

[Dolcevita Diva]

19 minutes ago, Presd said:

Interesting!  Thank you for the heads up.   I have looked almost daily and sometimes a suite comes up making me think it’s someone cancelling. This time it’s a guarantee deluxe suite.  I’m not seeing the vista suite.  Wondering if the company that chartered is giving some suite back to SS

You are right - when you click through to book, the Vista is not there, although it shows on the previous age.  The 150 day mark for 100% cancellation refund was last week for this voyage, so apparently there were some cancellations.  Curious what the final payment date was for the charter.

Edited April 8, 2023 by Dolcevita Diva

[Presd]

The charter still shows there are suites available but you can’t see which ones. You have to call to book 

[les37b]

2 hours ago, Dolcevita Diva said:

@les37b  Interesting...the August 27th voyage you mentioned popped up today on the website as bookable on Silversea. Both D2D and P2P pricing are available, as well as a low single supplement offer.  Only Deluxe Veranda and Vista suites show as available.   

 

Interesting.

 

You can book a Vista on Silversea for £5600 but a balcony elsewhere available to anyone for £2999.

 

 

 

 

[Presd]

I argued that point directly to SS (we booked direct) and they said they could not price match since I’m in Canada and the reduced fare I quoted was in the UK.  Lesson learned.  I will be doing more research before I book again, if I do.

[Host Jazzbeau]

2 hours ago, Presd said:

I argued that point directly to SS (we booked direct) and they said they could not price match since I’m in Canada and the reduced fare I quoted was in the UK.  Lesson learned.  I will be doing more research before I book again, if I do.

Many cruise lines have separate pricing policies and sales for different countries.  One explanation is that each country sets its own consumer protection laws, and these affect the cruise lines' cost and liability structures.  But usually it's UK customers complaining about higher pricing [because UK does have strict consumer protection laws stemming from their EU membership].  Canada and US often have the same rules, but cost adjustments for arbitrage.

[les37b]

9 hours ago, Presd said:

I argued that point directly to SS (we booked direct) and they said they could not price match since I’m in Canada and the reduced fare I quoted was in the UK.  Lesson learned.  I will be doing more research before I book again, if I do.

 

To be fair, you would need to compare for the country you reside and comparable offer for and the main reason would be for flights. That aside, exchange rates and original pricing are always different. You cant use the US site quoted in $ and use exchange rates to make a comparison. 

 

But anyone in the UK highlighting this fare, shouldn't be shown the door.

[Presd]

Completely understand comparing apples to apples and different countries have different rules. In my price comparison I actually removed the value of  my flights and priced port to port to compare to the UK price which included local flights. My price was still much higher. Won’t dwell on it anymore, but am curious if I am allowed to book a cruise through the UK agency or if you have to book only through your home country.  

[BuenaVista1]

Please could anyone precise which uk travel company gives the best SS offers?

[canderson]

17 minutes ago, BuenaVista1 said:

Please could anyone precise which uk travel company gives the best SS offers?

Unfortunately, that's a no-no here at Cruise Critic.  It does, however, prevent the forums from turning into an agency free-for-all.

[mancunian]

Actually on this cruise flights would have made a big difference.   The cruise goes from Southampton and the passengers on the charter make their own way there.  Coming back there is a flight covered in the fare but only from Copenhagen which of course is quite short.

[nooosey]

On 4/8/2023 at 7:44 PM, Dolcevita Diva said:

You are right - when you click through to book, the Vista is not there, although it shows on the previous age.  The 150 day mark for 100% cancellation refund was last week for this voyage, so apparently there were some cancellations.  Curious what the final payment date was for the charter.

Full payment due today 30th April, it's 120 days before embarkation.