labrasett

Lois ask the ships doctor/nurse if they can supply a heel lift to put in your shoe on the side of your tear. It does make the hobbling (also known as walking) much easier. Probably could be bought in any pharmacy in almost any port city if you have someone on board who would shop for you! What a pain in the butt (leg). I have suffered this injury twie in the past whilst skiing! You have my sympathy but there are worse places to have to sit with your feet up in the warm sunshine with as much champagne as you might wish for and lots of lovely food and a butler to keep you well supplied. I may sound unsympathetic, I am not, I just envy you where you are at the moment!

You can use your own softener sheets in the dryers if you wish

I love the idea of having no hold baggage but I hate carrying much hand luggage, increasingly I am packing pretty much everything keeping only one small cabin bag for wallet, passport, kindle, tablet and tissues. Its a dilemma. I certainly dont teeter around in frocks and heels but then I dont wear frocks and heels on ships either, preferring slacks and flat pumps although I suppose I might succumb to a frock or two when I sail on a classic ship in 2024, most of my trips to date have been expeditions.

I have been fascinated by this discussion but am not involved in the world of high finance nor ever have been. When it comes to cruising I, like an earlier contributor to this thread, contribute to the view that SS passengers are by definition not paupers but by far and away the ones we have met in our 100+ days of travel they are people who are reasonably comfortably off and who cruise mostly maybe once or twice a year. Many plan their trips around itinerary and the comfort of SS on board care and luxury. Most of these people prefer to travel less but travel well. Then there are a few individuals who travel a huge amount and for lengthy periods who must clearly be much much more financially secure/wealthy than many of the rest of us and we find they carry almost always carry their wealth very graciously when on board. However it does seem to me that it is more of the latter type of passenger than the former who seem to interrogate the offerings and how they can reduce costs or manipulate the processes to limit the financial outgoings despite their obvious ability to pay for the more luxurious suites and grand voyages. Many of us plan, we save, we book, we travel, take the smooth with the occasional rough when it doesnt quite work as we might have hoped. We are the people whose overall lifestyle is most likely to be affected by the rather negative world economic forecasts, our comfortable pensions may continue to afford us all of our home needs and necessities and modest holidays but we are the people who may have to reduce our ventures into the world of luxury cruising. Hopefully for us this wont be for a couple of years as I have two trips already planned and mostly paid for but looking into the future the finances look a little more grey than hitherto.

See the added red colouration to your post, trousers being worn together with the jackets - that was a blessing!! 😄

Have just looked up the Silver Cloud trip, dont forget you are sailing in early summer for the region, it will be quite hot for the first week or so although cooling down as you head out to Falklands and South Georgia. What a wonderful itinerary that is, I really envy you it.

Our first trip in November 2011 included Antartica, Falkslands and South Georgia. As I recall it was not especially cold. There was masses of wildlife including some hatching Gentoos in Falklands and lots of brown furry king penguins. The weather was kind to us and we had good transits of the Drake Passage but that can be different at any time of year. Dont count on getting on to Elephant Island. It is very rare that anyone does so although I believe there were landings at the beginning of this year but it is a nearly once in a lifetime achievement even for expedition staff. You will however potentially have a chance to have a zodiac cruise nearby. We have been back south three times since our first trip, on each occasion to do the Cape to Cape trip in March (no Antartica but other joys such as Tristan da Cunha and its island group and of course arrival into Cape Town). The weather is very changeable in the area and in our experience minimal difference within the time frames you indicate. For the earlier dates you may not see fur seal pups as they tend to give birth later in the year but the again there may be some early ones. The large fur seals will be leaving the breeding sites but the younger ones will be arriving to start their moult. Its all swings and roundabouts and there is so much wildlife to see it is quite truly gobsmacking. Have a wonderful trip whichever one you choose.

I take the view that if I commit to something I stick to it. It would take something catastrophic to cause me to cancel a cruise (or almost any commitment) which I had booked. I would expect only to cancel should an event which would almost certainly be covered by my worldwide annual travel insurance would cover in any case such as death, serious illness etc. I think les37b you have confirmed my thoughts that it was likely (but I havent checked the ts and cs) that in the event of a change of mind the 15% might be transferred to another booking. The world of travel is changing, non refundable payments and deposits are required on air fares and many rail fares (in UK). I am not sure why cruise companies should be any different.

So if I read this correctly you chose PtoP despite the clearly written terms and conditions to book a cruise in a years time and now you have changed your mind about travelling. Are you sure you cant transfer the deposit to another cruise as an alternative to losing it. Personally I dont understand why anyone would think it is OK to book a cruise or holiday or in fact to place and order for goods or services for sometime in the future and then on a whim (or whatever) change their minds and expect there to be no penalty. In the past non refundable deposits were common in the travel industry and even today if you book certain airfares they are not refundable and in many cases not even transferable.

Its never too late to decide and just go and enjoy everything that is available. Have fun.

It didnt work quite like that for us. We were offered SS air flights from Heathrow via Madrid because British Airways werent flying on Sunday night in March of this year. We spoke to our SS rep and he suggested we might consider going the night before on BA and having an extra night in the hotel in Santiago. We did this, yes the extra night in the hotel charge was higher than if we had booked it ourselves but we did get an SS transfer from the airport and no deviation fee for the flight change.

...... and there is nothing worse than a jacket which is too tight particularly when you are wanting to be warm, you need some movement and air flow between the layers to keep you super cosy.