SilverSea Excursions

[PaulaJK]

After a long absence, we are joining Silver Spirit in Feb/ Mar for travel between 

Capetown and Dubai. We have visited many of these countries previously and

of fond memory, are many of the excursions we experienced, The other line

offered excursions which often included tour of local sites followed by an

afternoon at a fabulous beach,a ferry to a deserted island, a rainforest w

picnic, a party at an upscale hotel w catering, beach and live music. We

are very disappointed w SS offering which mostly feature viewing  sites

during a 4 hr bus trip. Has anyone utilized pvt guides in Madagascar,

Mahe, Bahrain,and Muscat?

 

other comments on things to enjoy on SS very appreciated.

[Gourmet Gal]

Can’t comment except to say you may want to check out the Ports of Call section here on CC.

 

And just wondering, were the previous excursions you mentioned included excursions?  

[WesW]

Hi Paula; first Happy New Year!

 

We visited both Madagascar and Mahe this past April on the Silver Cloud Expedition ship. We thoroughly enjoyed our included excursions in Madagascar (via Zodiac visited the fishing village of Belo sur Mer and seeing Lemurs--docile and the guides place them for willing guests on their heads), and we visited Praslin and La Digue (we had a small bus ride to Anzo Lasio Beach--yes one of the most beautiful beaches we have been too and swam in) in the Seychelles.  

 

Paula; we loved expedition cruising in this area so much, this March we are returning on the Cloud from Walvis Bay Namibia visiting ports on West and East coast of South Africa, continuing to Madagascar, Mozambique, Tanzania, Aldabra (Giant Tortoises) on to Mahe, then Male for another 32 days (including the Kimberley Region of West Australia) to Darwin.

 

As you know, we too enjoyed many classic voyages on the other line you mentioned, but for that past five years we have only done Expedition voyages (Artic, Antarctica, South Georgia, Africa) on Silversea since excursions are included and often some excursions are only accessible by Zodiac.

 

Hope you enjoy the Silver Spirit, we have friends now on board the Cape town to Cape town r/t.

 

 

Edited December 31, 2023 by WesW

[PaulaJK]

Hi Wes, Great to hear from you.

First, best wishes for 2024.
Your expedition travel of this area is enviable.Clearly you greatly enjoyed it.

And your March plans sound exciting and a little exotic. . Not certain that we

are zodiac material at this point! …and while I have many photos of that rock,

we didn’t try to influence it.

I do hope to pull out some enjoyable port visits but the other line really

nailed a lot of them. I would like to repeat some of them.

Are your friends enjoying SSpirit? In one of the ironies of life, it seems that 

as soon as you book a trip ,negative views crop up.

 

[Gourmet Gal]

Would be helpful to know what other line you are comparing SS with.

[Texas Tillie]

1 hour ago, Gourmet Gal said:

Would be helpful to know what other line you are comparing SS with.

 

Check where the OP posts. I see Regent and Crystal.

[Gourmet Gal]

45 minutes ago, Texas Tillie said:

 

Check where the OP posts. I see Regent and Crystal.

Yes, I guess my question still stands, is the OP comparing paid excursions on Crystal with included excursions on SS? Or apples to apples, included excursions on Regent to excluded excursions on SS.

[MrsWaldo]

Paula,

 

I’m on the Mahe to Dubai leg and there were initially some interesting excursions offered, but they were cancelled early in the piece. I’m wondering if SS has changed the port agent, or more correctly RCCL did. 
 

I’m also wondering if the more interesting excursions have been reserved for Grand Voyage cruisers…..

[PaulaJK]

I look at both included and priced excursions, both on SS and other lines. The excursions I

was remembering were..as far as I can recall… a mix. Interesting comment Mrs Waldo. As

we booked late, we probably missed the earlier offers..hopefully you ‘wonderings’ don’t

apply. That would be maddening! I find the current offerings rather dull…and it’s not as

easy part of the world to arrange independently. Dies anyone know whether SS regularly offers shuttles in each port? Paula

 

 

[WesW]

HI Paula: yes, for Classic cruises, Silversea does offer complimentary shuttles in almost every port.

 

Here is what my friends posted two hours ago as a brief summary of his Silver Spirt Holiday Capetown r/t :

 

We have been on Spirit since December 28 Cape Town rt. As of now, the ship and crew are the same high quality as when we were on it for 33 days in March-April. Service in restaurants is good, food is fine but some adjustments in recipes in Indochine and Atlantide, butler and suite attendant are perfection, the ship is perfectly maintained. The busy Atlantide NYE dinner went perfectly, everybody was served quickly. The crew was working very hard with many hours spent to decorate, serve, clean up and remove beautiful decorations. There are none of the issues some posted weeks ago. We ignore complainers. Someone ranted about the 1-1.5 hours to get off the ship in Walvis Bay, but it was due to immigration and not ssea. It beat the 3 hours in Chennai, India and St Petersburg. No complaints!!

 

 

 

 

[PaulaJK]

Wes, Thank you for sharing your friend’s post…it is very relieving. P

[CruzinFeraBruzin]

17 hours ago, MrsWaldo said:

I’m also wondering if the more interesting excursions have been reserved for Grand Voyage cruisers…..

We were initially booked on the 2024 Grand Africa/Arabia, then cancelled when the Grand Indian Ocean voyage came out aboard the Cloud.  We then scaled back to 30 days and will now sail with Wes for 30 days Port Elizabeth-Mahe and are waitlisted for several excursions which we hope will come available once onboard. Regarding the availability of excursions on the Spirit, while we were booked for the Grand Voyage, we experienced a few cancellations of very interesting excursions as far back as March 2023.  Most were on the Mahe-Dubai segment, and were given the generic "due to operational reasons" excuse for the cancellations.  One included excursion, a dinner experience in Dubai, was cancelled and then subsequently added again as a selected excursion.  We were not given special treatment for being Grand Voyage guests and were expected to pay for the selected excursion if we wished to sign up for it again.  On our previous Grand Voyage in 2022, all the excursions we attended were a mix of 1 or 2 segment guests with full Grand Voyage guests.  There were a handful of special events exclusive to Grand Voyage guests but they were not considered excursions.

  

[PaulaJK]

No Bruzin here but thanks for your post. I think that it is too late to anticipate added

excursions, included or not…disappointing…makes me wonder why we are even

stopping at the port. 

[MrsWaldo]

1 hour ago, PaulaJK said:

No Bruzin here but thanks for your post. I think that it is too late to anticipate added

excursions, included or not…disappointing…makes me wonder why we are even

stopping at the port. 

For me one of the attractions was never having been in that part of the world. I’m doing it as a taster so not too stressed that the tours are generic 

 

I’ve booked a mix of selected and included. I’m often happy just to do the included shuttle into town or the walk when you dock nearby. 
 

I booked in late 2020 at a bargain basement price due to a gazillion offers thinking it would never happen so in all regards it’s a winner. If I booked several months ago it would be 2x the price I paid.  

[PaulaJK]

I have just revisited mysilversea ( super program!) and worked the select and included excursions into a better package..still pining for some of those old, well remembered

tours that were so much more interesting than city orientations.We also enjoy a shuttle into town which adds a different persoective.. 

 

Does anyone have suggestions for Tolagnaro, Madagascar?

 

Since we are sailing to some Gulf states, I am listening to the news and wondering if our

itinerary will stay intact,