4th December: Mumbai to Singapore on the Dawn - CANCELLED?

[LAL Cruiser]

My partner and I, with some friends, are booked on the 4th December 2024 voyage of the Silver Dawn (18 nights Mumbai to Singapore); the trip is booked, set and locked in - not only the cruise but a week of pre-cruise travel in India, airline tickets (booked independently) and other land arrangements.

 

I check the Silversea site from time to time and play with the booking engine to check availability: when I checked yesterday, the booking engine on the Silversea site kicked me out for this cruise (Site busy - come back later) and did the same for the prior cruise.  I knew something was up.  Today, our Cruise and the prior cruise are showing as WAITLISTED (there was a lot of availability last week so this is not making sense.)  To me, it seems like our Cruise is about to be CANCELLED. (The journey after ours is still open for booking.)   We then called our travel advisor and she reached out to Silversea and got the standard non-answer: we are reviewing our itineraries and operations and will update shortly.  Our travel advisor is too smart to accept that nonsense and went further and she spoke with someone who could confirm that our cruise will be cancelled or modified.  Uuugh...

 

Note that the prior cruise of the Dawn is an Athens roundtrip in late November, there were then 11 ""unscheduled"" days, and then our cruise was to depart Mumbai on December 4.  This all is related to the situation with the Suez Canal and the tensions in the Middle East.  Curiously, the Silver Whisper has the exact same schedule yet the cruises on that ship are so far unaffected.

 

Does anyone know anything further?   When Silversea officially cancels our cruise (and from reading some posts here, who knows when that will happen?) I assume that we will be offered a refund/credit/other compensation, but our concern is our (expensive) airline tickets and India land arrangements which are not all entirely refundable.  How accommodating will Silversea be?

 

Plan B would be to take the similar cruise on the Whisper that is scheduled on the exact same dates - if that operates - and I assume Silversea will make us an offer to go on that voyage.  That said, we prefer the Dawn to the Whisper (even if she is getting a face-lift in drydock as I write this) especially for such a long voyage.

 

I accept that these are luxurious problems - but we are not happy?    I am curious as to what the experts here at Cruise Critic think!

 

[Joc123]

We should be sailing on the Moon now, Singapore - Mumbai but of course that was cancelled. SS did wait until the last minute to announce the cancellation but we all knew it was coming because it was waitlisted online.

They offered full refund or transfer to another cruise with discount and we accepted the latter.

We were able to cancel our airfares less $330AUD each and we had also paid for visas for Sri Lanka and India.

SS reimbursed us for these out of pocket expenses and within a week of submitting our claim. We were very impressed.

Although we are in Australia, we use a UK travel agent so the claim went through UK SS office - don’t know if that makes a difference or not.

[MsCrystalina]

LAL Cruiser-     All those issues- kicked out, site busy- check later, waitlisted etc occurred prior to cancellation of a Nov 2024 Suez passage (Athens to Singapore) about 6 months ago. Should be getting notice of cancellation soon and possibly entire new itinerary or refund specifics.    Actually, it was done a year prior to the planned cruise in early Nov 2023. One of the few that were not last minute!

[drron29]

Sorry for your situation. On the other hand at least SS is not waiting until the last minute.

I fully expect our May 25 cruise Singapore to Doha to be cancelled for the same reasons.

[late2cruisin]

LAL Cruiser- We are in the same situation. I had hoped that when it became clear that the Suez Canal route was not feasible, they would take the long route around Africa. Then they added that 7 day round-trip Athens cruise ending on Nov.24, which pretty much insures that they cannot get to Mumbai by Dec.4. They could still cancel that Athens cruise and ours could forward, or they could cancel ours to give them plenty of time to get to Singapore. I don't have any other related travel reservations that cannot be cancelled, but I would like to know so that I can plan another cruise for that time frame; the closer it gets, the more likely it is that cruises will sell out (and prices will go up!)

As far as the Whisper is concerned, they will have the same problem getting from Athens to Mumbai. And since it is a smaller ship, I doubt they could fit many of us Dawn cruisers on that ship (even if it isn't sold out) I too would much prefer to be on the Dawn than on the Whisper.

[drron29]

They will cancel the last Med cruise and the Mumbai to Singapore cruise. That will give them 35 days to get to Singapore. If the Med cruise only is cancelled They would only have 17 days to get to Mumbai by December 4th. But the Moon took 29 days to get from Athens to Mumbai earlier this year.

[late2cruisin]

1 hour ago, drron29 said:

They will cancel the last Med cruise and the Mumbai to Singapore cruise. That will give them 35 days to get to Singapore. If the Med cruise only is cancelled They would only have 17 days to get to Mumbai by December 4th. But the Moon took 29 days to get from Athens to Mumbai earlier this year.

I thought it was only about 17 days...(without passengers, of course). I may be remembering wrong. (Or they could try going through the Suez Canal like Crystal Symphony recently did!)

[drron29]

Left Athens on 16th January. The Feb 11th Mumbai cruise was put back 3 days.

[late2cruisin]

11 hours ago, drron29 said:

Left Athens on 16th January. The Feb 11th Mumbai cruise was put back 3 days.

Wow, that's discouraging! I guess our Dec.4 cruise WILL be cancelled. I just hope they make the decision soon!

[LAL Cruiser]

22 hours ago, late2cruisin said:

Wow, that's discouraging! I guess our Dec.4 cruise WILL be cancelled. I just hope they make the decision soon!

 

I had some tme on my hands and figured out what is going on...Play with the booking engine and you can confirm what I deternined....the cruises that I suggest below as canclled show odd messages on the site (Too Busy, come back, etc) when attempting to book. The Dawn voyages now show waitlist only (and the voyages per my info were not heavily booked a few days ago.)

 

DAWN - Nov 17 and Dec 4 cruises will likely be cancelled.  The DAWN will have about 36 days to make its way from Athens to Singapore, probably empty via Cape of Good Hope.  That is roughly the amount of days needed with a stop here and there to fuel and provision.  The Dawn needs to be in Singapore  for the Christmas/New Years journey and then the world Cruise out of Tokyo,

 

WHISPER - Nov 7 and Nov 17 cruises likley to be cancelled.  The WHISPER will have about 28 days to make it from Athens to Mumbai via the Cape again probably empty.  This should be enough time for Whisper to make it to Mumbai depart Mumbai per schedule.

 

It is time for SIlversea to let us know what is going on, I will call again after the weekend.

 

 

[Kauaijim]

We were on the Moon from jordon that was cancelled  in Jan that SS took their sweet time doing . We were not refunded our costs only given credit which we used for the trip next Jan on the dawn from Tokyo to Singapore. I was curious how they were going to get that ship to Asia and now i know. 

[late2cruisin]

5 hours ago, LAL Cruiser said:

 

I had some tme on my hands and figured out what is going on...Play with the booking engine and you can confirm what I deternined....the cruises that I suggest below as canclled show odd messages on the site (Too Busy, come back, etc) when attempting to book. The Dawn voyages now show waitlist only (and the voyages per my info were not heavily booked a few days ago.)

 

DAWN - Nov 17 and Dec 4 cruises will likely be cancelled.  The DAWN will have about 36 days to make its way from Athens to Singapore, probably empty via Cape of Good Hope.  That is roughly the amount of days needed with a stop here and there to fuel and provision.  The Dawn needs to be in Singapore  for the Christmas/New Years journey and then the world Cruise out of Tokyo,

 

WHISPER - Nov 7 and Nov 17 cruises likley to be cancelled.  The WHISPER will have about 28 days to make it from Athens to Mumbai via the Cape again probably empty.  This should be enough time for Whisper to make it to Mumbai depart Mumbai per schedule.

 

It is time for SIlversea to let us know what is going on, I will call again after the weekend.

 

 

Yes, I came to the same conclusion. It's interesting, though, that the Whisper is still showing up as bookable. I don't see how that ship has any better chance of making it to Mumbai by Dec.4 than the Dawn does.  If I remember correctly, final payment is coming up soon (end of June) and if they don't cancel before then, it looks like I'll have to throw good money after bad to keep from losing the deposit (we booked Port to Port)

BTW, we'll be on the Dawn in June (Norway cruise) so I will be talking to the FCC then. It should be interesting...

[John117]

We have booked the Athens to Athens on 17th Nov on Dawn but yesterday we received an email requesting us to complete a survey about the ports on our upcoming cruise. We received a similar survey request last year for our September cruise on Nova. Shortly afterwards the itinerary changed totally except for the start and finish port of Lisbon. I guess we expect the same this time or a cancellation.

[LAL Cruiser]

4 hours ago, John117 said:

We have booked the Athens to Athens on 17th Nov on Dawn but yesterday we received an email requesting us to complete a survey about the ports on our upcoming cruise. We received a similar survey request last year for our September cruise on Nova. Shortly afterwards the itinerary changed totally except for the start and finish port of Lisbon. I guess we expect the same this time or a cancellation.

 Hi John117, Your cruise, like ours, is now showing as WAITLISTED on the Silversea website meaning both cruises are pretty much gone - the only question is when the official cancellation will be sent to us by Silversea?  The November 17 Silver Whisper Athens to Athens also will llikely cancel; when you try to book that cruise the search engine tells you to GO AWAY.  (LOL)  (See my research above.)   There is still a Silver Spirit 7 day Athens to Athens on November 16 that can be booked.  (Silver Spiit will also have issues getting from Athens to Mahe, so who knows what will happen.)  Some Silver Spirit cruises are also now NOT unbookable on the website.

 

That there were 3 ships doing 7 night Greek Isles itineraries in Mid November never made much sense.  And now,, due to the continued unsettled sitaution in the Middle East affecting Suez Canal/Red Sea transits, Silversea needs to rehthink many voyages.  I GUESS that Silversea cannot get insurance to take the ships through the Suez Canal and Red Sea even if the ships are operating without passengers - that is trigggering the new uncertainty as to which cruises will ooperate and which cruises will be scrapped.  As said, this is just a guess

 

Stay tuned - I will share what I learn about our DAWN itinerary here as what happens to us will probably impact you.  I THINK Silver Dawn shall be departing Athens on 17 November EMPTY and headed directly to Singapore for the Chistmas cruise.  We are in the same boat....pun intended.

[LAL Cruiser]

21 hours ago, late2cruisin said:

Yes, I came to the same conclusion. It's interesting, though, that the Whisper is still showing up as bookable. I don't see how that ship has any better chance of making it to Mumbai by Dec.4 than the Dawn does.  If I remember correctly, final payment is coming up soon (end of June) and if they don't cancel before then, it looks like I'll have to throw good money after bad to keep from losing the deposit (we booked Port to Port)

BTW, we'll be on the Dawn in June (Norway cruise) so I will be talking to the FCC then. It should be interesting...

 

Silver Dawn - 17 November cruise will cancel.  And, our 4 December cruise will cancel.

Silver Whisper - 7 November and 17 November cruises will cancel.  Silver Whisper will have a ten day head start out of Athens when compared to the Dawn.

 

Silver Whisper will thus have more time to get to Mumbai - 27/28 days and they will need every moment.

Silver Dawn will head directly to Singapore - they have 35/36 days and they will again need every moment.

[drron29]

6 hours ago, John117 said:

We have booked the Athens to Athens on 17th Nov on Dawn but yesterday we received an email requesting us to complete a survey about the ports on our upcoming cruise. We received a similar survey request last year for our September cruise on Nova. Shortly afterwards the itinerary changed totally except for the start and finish port of Lisbon. I guess we expect the same this time or a cancellation.

and this week I also got an email to rate the ports on our May 25 cruise Singapore to Doha. Some time after that it is meant to go through the Red Sea. I have thought that this cruise will also be cancelled.

[ScottToronto]

On 5/11/2024 at 4:19 PM, LAL Cruiser said:

 

Silver Dawn - 17 November cruise will cancel.  And, our 4 December cruise will cancel.

Silver Whisper - 7 November and 17 November cruises will cancel.  Silver Whisper will have a ten day head start out of Athens when compared to the Dawn.

 

Silver Whisper will thus have more time to get to Mumbai - 27/28 days and they will need every moment.

Silver Dawn will head directly to Singapore - they have 35/36 days and they will again need every moment.

Good evening,

Any news or official updates regarding our December 4-22 Mumbai to Singapore voyage.  Hope to hear from SS soon if cancelled. 

Please let us know if you hear anything,

Thanks. 

 

[LAL Cruiser]

5 minutes ago, ScottToronto said:

Good evening,

Any news or official updates regarding our December 4-22 Mumbai to Singapore voyage.  Hope to hear from SS soon if cancelled. 

Please let us know if you hear anything,

Thanks. 

 

I am making some calls tomorrow and will update.  I agree that we need to know one way or the other at this point; both time and money are involved.  Silversea does have a lot to deal with: DAWN, WHISPER and SPIRIT all need to move from Europe (Athens) to the Indian Ocean; decisions need to be made - will all 3 of these ships travel from Athens and around Africa empty to pick up their planned schedules??  Is there any real choice?

 

Passengers who had cruises cancelled for similar reasons last year/earlier this year had all monies paid to date re the cancelled cruise refunded, pre/post arrangements booked via Silversea credited, were reimbursed for non-refundable costs (up to $500.00 p/p but rumor has it that this amount was negotiable) and received a 20% credit against any newly booked cruise - the thing is that fares have increased since we booked our 04 December DAWN cruise (we booked port to port last February and utilized the port to port prepaid promotion) so, even if this type of deal is offered to us, we will be lucky to come out even when using the 20% credit.  Yes, I am being serious.

 

It seems that the Whisper 04 Dec Mumbai to Singapore 18 day cruise will be operated as planned; I am curious to see how Silversea handles this, ie, will DAWN pax be rebooked onto the WHISPER with some minor incentive?  As stated above, we selected the DAWN because we preferred the larger/newer vessel.  (We have about 30 cruises on Silversea and been on all ships except Dawn and Endeavour.)  As we have overseas airline flights booked and paid (expensive), India domestic flights booked and paid, 8 days and 7 nights of touring/hotels in India confirmed and partially paid for, plus even arrangements in Singapore locked in and paid, all of which we booked independently, I guess we will do the WHISPER if that is what is offered to us (with some incentives.)

 

Stay tuned.

 

[ScottToronto]

15 minutes ago, LAL Cruiser said:

I am making some calls tomorrow and will update.  I agree that we need to know one way or the other at this point; both time and money are involved.  Silversea does have a lot to deal with: DAWN, WHISPER and SPIRIT all need to move from Europe (Athens) to the Indian Ocean; decisions need to be made - will all 3 of these ships travel from Athens and around Africa empty to pick up their planned schedules??  Is there any real choice?

 

Passengers who had cruises cancelled for similar reasons last year/earlier this year had all monies paid to date re the cancelled cruise refunded, pre/post arrangements booked via Silversea credited, were reimbursed for non-refundable costs (up to $500.00 p/p but rumor has it that this amount was negotiable) and received a 20% credit against any newly booked cruise - the thing is that fares have increased since we booked our 04 December DAWN cruise (we booked port to port last February and utilized the port to port prepaid promotion) so, even if this type of deal is offered to us, we will be lucky to come out even when using the 20% credit.  Yes, I am being serious.

 

It seems that the Whisper 04 Dec Mumbai to Singapore 18 day cruise will be operated as planned; I am curious to see how Silversea handles this, ie, will DAWN pax be rebooked onto the WHISPER with some minor incentive?  As stated above, we selected the DAWN because we preferred the larger/newer vessel.  (We have about 30 cruises on Silversea and been on all ships except Dawn and Endeavour.)  As we have overseas airline flights booked and paid (expensive), India domestic flights booked and paid, 8 days and 7 nights of touring/hotels in India confirmed and partially paid for, plus even arrangements in Singapore locked in and paid, all of which we booked independently, I guess we will do the WHISPER if that is what is offered to us (with some incentives.)

 

Stay tuned.

 

Thanks for your reply. We booked this voyage way back when it was Doha to Singapore.   Prices have almost doubled since we booked two years ago. We reserved the 3 night pre-cruise to the Taj Mahal,  so our business class flights are booked and paid into Delhi.

We are also loyal Silversea guests with over 250 days to date.  Hope to have news soon.  Would be nice to make your acquaintance.  

Enjoy your evening, 

S. 

[LAL Cruiser]

1 minute ago, ScottToronto said:

Thanks for your reply. We booked this voyage way back when it was Doha to Singapore.   Prices have almost doubled since we booked two years ago. We reserved the 3 night pre-cruise to the Taj Mahal,  so our business class flights are booked and paid into Delhi.

We are also loyal Silversea guests with over 250 days to date.  Hope to have news soon.  Would be nice to make your acquaintance.  

Enjoy your evening, 

S. 

Scott, I would like to send you a private email......what is your address??

[ScottToronto]

Hello,

I'm not too familiar with posting on Cruise Critic and therefore not comfortable sending my personal email address for everyone to see.  At the same time, I'd love to communicate with you personally. 

[late2cruisin]

LAL Cruiser- I'm wondering the same thing. If they manage to get the Whisper to Mumbai, how many more passengers from the Dawn could it accommodate? It's a smaller ship and is probably fairly full as it is. We too preferred the Dawn as it's newer and has more restaurant choices. On the other hand, I really like the itinerary and, at the price we booked it, we couldn't find anything comparable to replace it (even with 20% off) I just hope they don't keep up dangling too long...

[LAL Cruiser]

1 minute ago, late2cruisin said:

LAL Cruiser- I'm wondering the same thing. If they manage to get the Whisper to Mumbai, how many more passengers from the Dawn could it accommodate? It's a smaller ship and is probably fairly full as it is. We too preferred the Dawn as it's newer and has more restaurant choices. On the other hand, I really like the itinerary and, at the price we booked it, we couldn't find anything comparable to replace it (even with 20% off) I just hope they don't keep up dangling too long...

 

Hi again, Late,

 

They will get the Whisper to Mumbai in time - it works.  It is tight and they will have to push the ship at 17/18 knots and keep provisioning and fuel stops between Athens and Mumbai to a minimum, but Whisper can make it to Mumbai in 27 day time frame for a 04 Dec on schedule departure.

 

As of this moment, the Whisper does not seem very full with Suites available in all different categories on all different decks; the Dawn did not seem heavily booked either when it went to the dreaded Waitlist status.  Aside from all of the other issues being discussed, the weeks leading up to Christmas are usually not very high demand periods so there could be flexibility; remember, both Whisper and Dawn concluded on 22 December which is very very close to Christmas.  My GUESS (only a guess), is that with effort, most Dawn passengers that want to stay with the itinerary can be accommodated on Whisper, we shall see what Silversea can do and what compensation is offered (they will offer something)....BUT I HOPE THEY DO IT SOON!!

 

I was telling Scott in the Roll Call thread that I discussed this situation with our friends that are travelling with us (we are 3 couples in total) - none of them had any problem with going on the Whisper instead of the Dawn (all have many cruises on Silversea); this is what they said and it is funny: who cares about SALT and we can eat sushi at the Buffet at Lunch....lets just go!  My partner and I are the difficult ones who are bitching and moaning over the change of vessel.   We do not want to miss out on this trip - both the pre-cruise India adventure and a terrific 18 day itinerary.   The good news is that Whisper just completed a dry dock and hopefully she is freshened up and in top shape.

 

I look forward to meeting all of you on whatever ship we end up on!!!

[late2cruisin]

LAL Cruiser-

There's a post of Facebook today from someone on the Whisper, showing the new Arts Cafe that was added. It doesn't look like much else has changed. So, still no Asian restaurant (I'm OK with that), still no SALT kitchen and bar (not so OK with that) and no Silver Note (not happy with that). We'll see if your predictions are right...I'd consider moving to Whisper for the right incentive. Keep us posted if you get any new info.

[LAL Cruiser]

Monday Update from Europe - no update but I was promised further information tomorrow.  It was confirmed that this is all about the Suez Canal/Red Sea transit, insurance and risk - but we already figured that out.