Need help with a few questions re SS.

Can OBC be used for shore excursions?

On website,can t find price of shore excursions,just description.What do they generally run,approx.?Am I just missing it ?

Do you think formal dress codes may go to "optional"next yr.?Know this is a hot topic,but DH hates that(but WILL comply,IF FORCED).

Have any of you upgraded to business class,does it run hi er or same as on your own,same with pre cruise hotel?Also, can t find prices of hotels on web either.Hard to make choices when I seem to be missing prices.

Any detail will be helpful, love the itinerary but never been on SS before.:confused:

Can OBC be used for shore excursions?

On website,can t find price of shore excursions,just description.What do they generally run,approx.?Am I just missing it ?

Do you think formal dress codes may go to "optional"next yr.?Know this is a hot topic,but DH hates that(but WILL comply,IF FORCED).

Have any of you upgraded to business class,does it run hi er or same as on your own,same with pre cruise hotel?Also, can t find prices of hotels on web either.Hard to make choices when I seem to be missing prices.

Any detail will be helpful, love the itinerary but never been on SS before.:confused:

Yes, OBC can be used for excursions. They can be pre-booked online but not until three or four months before the cruise. The prices will show then.

I don't know about a change in dress code. I think it is highly unlikely.

We do upgrade to business class but as we are in the UK may not be the same. Silversea hotel packages are pricey but you have the reassurance that they will sort out any problems with delays to you or your luggage which may be critical if you are flying in close to sail date. We tend to book our own through our agent and have two days on the ground before boarding to cover any unexpected problems.

A good travel agent will help with all these queries.

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Pre cruise hotels are expensive. In Capetown, I was quote $250, I think, which was slightly better than I could do on my own, but then I discovered that was per person! Ended up in a lovely guest house for $150, including transfer from airport (since as soon as you don't take SS hotel, you lose the airport and port transfers.)

I've only used the airfare once, but it was more than competitive (due to the one-way nature of my cruise.) This time, again, one-way, I'm using AirNZ and they had a decent fare back to North America in Premium E instead of business.

Other times I've used airline points to position me where one-way fares are more affordable. (I only cruise from point A to point B, I don't do circular cruises because I'm working on cruising around the world.)

I was just picking my SS tours this week and my daughter was surprised at how affordable they were compared to her mass-market cruises. As well, smaller groups and they are always as top of the line as SS can manage (i.e. there were flush go-potties in the Namib Desert for our tour!)

One helicopter tour was sold out so I looked at booking my own. SS was $70 more for the two of us ($600 vs $530), but included the transfers from the ship to the helicopter. So there isn't a lot of surcharge.

I do find their around-town bus tours overpriced and take hop-on, hop-off tours on my own when they are available.

You'll note in my posts that I'm very price sensitive. Everything in my life is measured in terms of 'days on SS'. That's how I decide if something is worth it. We are looking at selling our home and renting a condo. Dh is willing to pay more than I am because that extra $500 per month translates to 6 days a year on SS! I'd rather have the time aboard!

I can't stress how great the value is on SS. And, we don't drink alcohol but it is still the best line for us!

As for dress code - I'm blessed with a husband who wears flannel shirts around the house (thankfully, we work from home because he'd hate to have to go back to dressing up to go to an office.)

But my dh also loves to play 'dress-up' when we are on the ship and the formal nights are also a highlight for us. After our first SS cruise he bought a dinner jacket to go with his tux jacket for more options on formal nights (there will be 5 on our upcoming cruise, maybe more.) Since then he had another formal jacket tailored for himself in Hong Kong, so he has 4 different options now for formal nights.

I find informal nights the biggest issue because there are so many of them (and my formal outfits pack small.) I thought they'd be as dressy as church but they turned out to be dressier and I don't have a lot of clothing in that range. So we do Hot Rocks and eat in the cabin on several informal nights in order to help stretch my wardrobe.

We have status with the airline so the extra baggage isn't a big deal. We travel for work as well, so are used to 30 days out of one suitcase (each) so we just add one more suitcase (shared) for the formal wear.

If you are used to traveling business class (as I gather from your post) you'll have the baggage allowance for the trip. Pack the fancy stuff and enjoy!

George hates dressing up, but he did wear a dark suit on formal night.

Shore excursions are I think pretty reasonably priced--not cheap--but about the same as other lines. We do use OBC to pay for these a lot of the time.

We have used a consolidator for bz cl to go down under as those seats are always taken & there is nothing to upgrade to or buy & UAL was stingy with points on NZ. Anyway the price seemed to be pretty good.

Is hot breakfast inc.in room service?know some have only continental,or just in PH cabins.on other lines.

See some ships have few bathroom with tub, do these go fast?

Can dining reservation be made online?

Is the library small,or good selection?sorry,no kindle for me.:confused:

Anyone can order regular room service breakfast--no problems.

Don't know about rooms with tubs vs shower only. We had a tub and a seperate shower on Spirit. On Explorer, we had a shower/tub combo. We prefer shower, so I try to get a bathroom with a separate shower when possible.

Can't make dining res online. You make them after boarding. We had pretty good luck getting whatever reservation we wanted, but we eat relatively early.

Can't say about library selection as I use my ipad for books. I don't think I ever went into the library on Spirit. On Explorer, since most of the cabins are pretty small, I would go into the library to read my ipad because it was quiet.

pardon but are you same Rachael whose a Dr.?Just wondering,myDH is an orthopedic surgeon and he d love to talk Dr.stuff if we booked this cruise.

But looked at airfare and time,he said NO WAY,from Orlando it was 14,000 ea.and 36 hrs. to Sydney on Kayak.Now may book another,still exploring which one.

PS.you ll laugh but from you pic on avatar you have an identical twin named Pam living in Mich.whose an electrical engineer.Uncanny resemblance.

I find the library selection quite good but my standards may be low. I was reading "Cat Who..." books on my last cruise and ran out but the library had several others. The last time I really looked (many years ago) the non-fiction selections included many currently on the best seller list. Of course, now that so many are using e-readers, the library may be getting less attention due to less demand.

There is also a set of shelves in the Observation lounge where passengers leave their books and can take another book should they want.

pardon but are you same Rachael whose a Dr.?Just wondering,myDH is an orthopedic surgeon and he d love to talk Dr.stuff if we booked this cruise.

 

But looked at airfare and time,he said NO WAY,from Orlando it was 14,000 ea.and 36 hrs. to Sydney on Kayak.Now may book another,still exploring which one.

 

PS.you ll laugh but from you pic on avatar you have an identical twin named Pam living in Mich.whose an electrical engineer.Uncanny resemblance.

Yes, I am a doctor, originally ob/gyn, but now specialize in gyn robotic surgery. Love to talk Dr. Stuff. And I was an RN before med school. Was a burn nurse for 6 yrs. so we would have tons to talk about. And funny that I have an identical twin, but I can see me being an electrical engineer. I love chemistry and physics.

I M also an RN,but semi retired now.Worked ER,ICU but now only fill in at DH 2 offices.

This will give him an incentive to book this cruise, hes 70 and won t even retire,or close 1 office.LOVEs his work and all his friends are other dr.s,it seems.

Yes, besides being an elect.eng.,your twin was also Pres.of League of Women Voters,where I was VP.Are you also into Politics,Governement,etc.Emailed Pam and told her I found her twin,she got a kick out of it too.She also cruises ,but on non cruise ships with her DH were they do peace corps type work in 3rd world countries.

As I may have stated,the thing holding him back is the business class air price and TIME inv....he only can take off 16 days of he gets antsy.Plus,hes very SCottish and cheap,haha.:rolleyes:

Was the price you received for airfare from SS or from an airline?

I hear that several of the middle east airlines offer good deals through Dubai, so that might be another option. Or perhaps an around the world fare with Australia just one stop. Airfare does add to the cost of the cruises but in general, we've managed to keep our expenses quite low by using a number of strategies.

Another option might be to concentrate all your spending on one travel reward credit card.

Or to simply state this is worth it to you and therefore we'll cut expenses by 1K per month over the next year to pay for it.

(In our case, my dh is semi retired and basically all his net earnings go to Silversea and our retirement budget just has $10 per year in it for other travel.) BTW: travel is our biggest expense after income taxes. Of course, once we sell the house and have to pay rent (which adds up to 36 days a year on the ship!) that will change but for now our Silversea my #1 expense in Quicken!

I will probably bankrupt our frequent flyer miles accounts to get the business class, and probably will have to take some crazy creative routing. But that's ok.

And I can't take more than 16 days off work either. For one thing, I have to pay my office staff to hold down the fort even when I am not there! With a VPN though, I can do all my labs and triage calls from anywhere, so that is a big plus.

And no, I am not into politics at all, but my husband is big time!

I agree with 57 Varieties's suggestion - that a good travel agent will be invaluable in guiding you through the things you'll need to know.

If you don't have one, Silversea's website has a list of agents who do a lot of business with them and are very knowledgeable about the ships, ports, tours, airports, etc. What with email and overnight delivery, you don't even need a TA that lives nearby. You could phone a few, discuss your budget, travel history, what you're looking for, and see who really 'gets' what you're saying, who you're most comfortable with. Agents located near Silversea's larger ports may have even visited the ships for extensive tours.

Also, agents often provide their own onboard spending credits (you can ask about that, too). And if they're members of a large travel consortium, they have access to preferential hotel rates and upgrades.

Since this is your first Silversea experience, you want it to be everything you're hoping for. A TA who has a strong relationship with Silversea can really help you get there, and supply a great deal of 'added value' in the process. Best of luck!