Alaska Nova questions

[Lookingtocruise42]

Hi! This is our first time booking Silversea and I had a few questions for y’all fine folks:

 

- When I go to book excursions on my Juneau day, everything starts at exactly the same time, despite the day being 12:30 long. I noticed some items, such as the helicopters are listed multiple times, with a suffix of A,B,C etc on them. Are those supposed to have various start times and it’s just not in the system right?

if not, what is the expectation for the rest of the day after a three hour activity that starts at the beginning? That leaves us 3/4 of the time left…

- Same question at Skagway (10 hr day)

- How paranoid do I need to be about booking food at 120 days? I know with Disney they book up instantly, so they do that with Silversea also? Does anyone get advanced reservation ability beyond the 120 days?

- Same question for so treatments. How are the quality of Silversea spa treatments?

- any excursions that are must do or just not do? 

- What are the butlers on board useful for? Everyone seems to view butlers differently and on various resorts (Aman, Four seasons, Rosewood, etc) their responsibilities differ as well

[Lookingtocruise42]

One more question actually: my husband and I are in our late 30s, will we feel out of place on this trip? I know the clientele on Silversea (and all luxury lines) skew towards older, but not sure by how much.

we tend to like good food, relaxing, interesting shows/trivia/etc. we are not really partiers or club goers, we prefer more quiet.

[A Tucson Guy]

2 hours ago, Lookingtocruise42 said:

One more question actually: my husband and I are in our late 30s, will we feel out of place on this trip? I know the clientele on Silversea (and all luxury lines) skew towards older, but not sure by how much.

we tend to like good food, relaxing, interesting shows/trivia/etc. we are not really partiers or club goers, we prefer more quiet.

You will be just fine!!

[cruiseej]

On those long days, you may want to look at booking a private excursion in the afternoon if Silversea doesn't offer something you want to do. All the cruise ships visit the same ports and use the same tour operators, so you can often add missing pieces yourself. For instance, if you do a SS excursion in the morning, you may be able to book a helicopter trip on your own for the afternoon.

[Whinenowine]

On 6/24/2023 at 5:42 PM, Lookingtocruise42 said:

One more question actually: my husband and I are in our late 30s, will we feel out of place on this trip? I know the clientele on Silversea (and all luxury lines) skew towards older, but not sure by how much.

we tend to like good food, relaxing, interesting shows/trivia/etc. we are not really partiers or club goers, we prefer more quiet.

My wife and I were the same age on our first SS cruise; 15-20yrs younger than the average age on that Med cruise.  But we've always been lounge vs club people (even way back then), and we had a blast mingling freely with everyone on board. And that was on one of the smaller ships....Nova will have a much larger universe of people for you to meet.

 

One thing about the glacier excursions...be prepared.for bad weather to impact things. Last year we were supposed to do the flight to the glacier and then dog mushing, but bad weather further up the glacier where the dogs were caused that tour to the cancelled.  We found this out while checking in for the excursion, and had to scramble to book the 'regular' flight to the glacier.  Still an awesome experience, but just rolling with it makes it easier to swallow. 

[Lookingtocruise42]

Just now, Whinenowine said:

My wife and I were the same age on our first SS cruise; 15-20yrs younger than the average age on that Med cruise.  But we've always been lounge vs club people (even way back then), and we had a blast mingling freely with everyone on board. And that was on one of the smaller ships....Nova will have a much larger universe of people for you to meet.

 

One thing about the glacier excursions...be prepared.for bad weather to impact things. Last year we were supposed to do the flight to the glacier and then dog mushing, but bad weather further up the glacier where the dogs were caused that tour to the cancelled.  We found this out while checking in for the excursion, and had to scramble to book the 'regular' flight to the glacier.  Still an awesome experience, but just rolling with it makes it easier to swallow. 

Thanks that is good to know. We are really looking forward to the Dog Sledding, so hope it doesn't get cancelled, but its not like we can control nature.

 

36 minutes ago, cruiseej said:

On those long days, you may want to look at booking a private excursion in the afternoon if Silversea doesn't offer something you want to do. All the cruise ships visit the same ports and use the same tour operators, so you can often add missing pieces yourself. For instance, if you do a SS excursion in the morning, you may be able to book a helicopter trip on your own for the afternoon.

Yea, that is what I have started to do. I figured out who their plane tour operator is by justing looking up the tail number in the photo, and that operator has many more times. I'm just wondering if something is b0rked with the website, or they usually only offer one time for absolutely everything. The site seems setup to offer multiple options

[gcornell]

One of the things we enjoyed on our Alaska cruise is spending time strolling around town after or before the excursions. Fills up the entire day. 

[Texas Tillie]

You are aware that on the included excursions, it's just one per day included. If you did an included one in the afternoon, you would be charged.

[Lookingtocruise42]

10 minutes ago, Texas Tillie said:

You are aware that on the included excursions, it's just one per day included. If you did an included one in the afternoon, you would be charged.

Yes, but there are none in the afternoon anyway. All activities on those days start in the morning at around the same time. (We are mainly doing paid extra ones as well)

[Robroy]

My wife and I are looking at a May Seward to Vancouver trip on the Nova on the "door to door" plan. I assume they include a night in Anchorage but not sure if the transfer to Seward is by bus or the train. I had read earlier on this board that at one point Silversea booked an entire car on the train and luggage was transferred by truck. Is this the case now?

Thanks in advance!

 

Cheers,

Rob

[Kalscruise]

16 hours ago, Robroy said:

My wife and I are looking at a May Seward to Vancouver trip on the Nova on the "door to door" plan. I assume they include a night in Anchorage but not sure if the transfer to Seward is by bus or the train. I had read earlier on this board that at one point Silversea booked an entire car on the train and luggage was transferred by truck. Is this the case now?

Thanks in advance!

 

Cheers,

Rob

Yes hotel.. Capt. Cook and yes train for d2d.. we are booked for 2024 and that is what is on itinerary

[Robroy]

Thanks Kal! That's what we had hoped. Time to book!

 

Cheers,

Rob

[Whinenowine]

On 7/4/2023 at 3:28 PM, Kalscruise said:

Yes hotel.. Capt. Cook and yes train for d2d.. we are booked for 2024 and that is what is on itinerary

The restaurant at the top of the Cook is the Crow's Nest and when the weather is clear has stunning views and good food.  Just a thought.