canderson

Our limited experience says that all excursions and dining show as unavailable when postings first go up, which often occurs long before the voyage. They also tend to change a lot that far out. IIRC, none were released for booking until 120 days prior to departure date.

Hard to imagine being over on the Ventura with that pile driver right outside all of the port cabins!

Those flowers I mentioned earlier... Spent a low key day here. Tomorrow will be the silk museum and national park, two things we haven't done on previous stops at La Palma. If @Port Power doesn't post from the silk museum, I'll add a few photos.

Guess the tide came in as we reboarded the easy way on deck 3 when returning from our excursion today at 1:30.

Again, it is another case of a shoreside issue that the crew have done a great job of overcoming. Am beginning to appreciate more and more how the crew:pax ratio impacts the SS experience.

Deck 3 was slightly below the level of the pier, making deployment impossible, else yes, that would have been preferred. Found a flower shop just up to the left of the church, so I'm toting lilies back to adorn our cabin.

Both yesterday and today we've had a 37 step gangway from deck 5. Not exactly ADA approved. We've slowed things down just a bit. Those in wheelchairs are transported by two stout crew members in a 'carry chair' to meet their wheelchair again at the top or bottom. That's Mrs. canderson working her way down.

I haven't been able to discern whether it is per airline or in addition varies with your FF status within an airline, but... As noted before, push your SS agent for a record locator as soon as it is available, then start working with your airline. It may be that they'll balk until the seats are actually purchased/ticketed by SS (that's one vaiable), which could happen at any time, but seems (in my very limited experience) to occur 90-120 days out (that's the other).

Another minor exception. Wine was offered for dinner (one red, one white) in Alantide our first night. However, the 'steward' attempted to make that our first order of business before we had even opened the menus and had been able to give any thought as to what we might want to eat. We said we would wait until we had our meals sorted out. This was followed up by the 'somm' doing the same thing, and she seemed unhappy about our polite rebuff. The second night, we ate in SALT, the red/white guy didn't even pay us a visit before our 'sommelier' there appeared, and fully understood our need to choose meals first, then came back with the nicer wine list as well. I picked the Tignanello (2018). Kris was on top of things. She correctly identified it as a highly rated super Tuscan and agreed it would be a good match for our dinners. Nice surprise -- going rate aboard ship was $135, a better price than I could find it anywhere shoreside in the U.S., assuming you can even find a 2018, which is ready to drink.

Since we're on Dawn, and still moving west.... This is our first SS cruise. All, including food, has been excellent, with one exception - scheduling. It's a classic case of the shore based services vs. ship based services being out of sync. Tried to 'time' formal nights to reservations in specific venues, only to discover once aboard ship that 2 of the 3 formal nights identified in the pre-planner were in fact scheduled for different nights. Pre-planner dinner reservations confirmed at 8pm in Silver Note magically changed to 9pm. Wanted 8pm since we had an early shorex the next morning. Front desk was able to reverse this. Great service there. Several shorex confirmed had completely different times once the shorex tickets were received, and even subsequently, making it difficult to make reservations for the SALT lab, for example. Shorex desk was able to move us to a different slot for the same excursion after speaking with the operator. Great service there as well. Our butler (Anthony) is doing great. On our return from dinner, we were treated to a small (smaller than usual on ships, which was actually very much appreciated) anniversary cake and balloons last night, too. Best, we were forewarned by our butler, so we didn't have dessert in SALT and were prepared to enjoy our treat.

You will be talking to your Silversea agent for your flight requests. There is no direct communication with their flight group. Depending upon the airline, you can deal with them re upgrades as soon as you get your record locators from Silversea.

Thanks for that update! We will be with you tomorrow and signing up!

Derp... not coming back through the Azores like last year! It's been a c4azy week.

Ah, OK. I didn't realize they held these on port days. Still learning.

On a TA, I would guess there will be more classes available than on a typical voyage.

Given where we will be for the first part, lots of Portuguese food? 😄 Arroz de Pato might be fun!

@Port Power How long do the S.A.L.T. classes typically last?

Which VPN / protocol (if you know) have you been having success with aboard Nova?

Yes, understand the lab is standing. What was new is that meals were served in the lab area on Nova, and I was trying to wrap my mind around that. Really appreciate all the updates. Sounds like we may be happier in Muse class. Looking forward to our Dawn TA soon!

Ah, the memories. Probably 100 trips on the Friendry Rimousine Bus! 2-1/2 hours Narita to Ikebukuro on a Sunday night. Needed the cool to stay awake.

Irons are available in the laundromat aboard. Silver Suite and up for free laundry.

Depends upon the cruise and desirability of a given venue. This will be our 1st SS cruise, and at 119, I discovered that a lot of slots were already showing waitlist only. If you want La Dame on formal night, be online the minute the clock ticks over to 120 out, whatever time zone they're using.

Coins are so much more attractive! Here's what it looks like before they hit it with the Béarnaise sauce. 😄

By way of contrast, pics of the Dawn that we've seen seem to separate the lab from the restaurant. We noted no place to sit and eat in the circular lab area. Yes? No?

When we were backpacking Europe ala Rick Steve's, maybe, but 21 days pre-cruise + upscale cruise ... nah. Laundry/dry cleaning becomes too frequent an exercise. I guess it's easier with a synthetic fiber wardrobe.