Gourmet Gal

Received a Crystal flyer offering free laundry if one had 30 days or more on another line. Not exactly a status match but a nice perk. Not enough to make me want to book right now. I book a cruise when an itinerary piques my interest and when the cruise line’s comfort/service/food measure up.

There are about 8 posts directly related to the OP’s post. In post #3 I was only pointing out a similar pricing structure at another cruise line which happens to be FS. Is it a trend in the luxury category or not? BTW, there are plenty of cruise line evangelists and critics on CC. That’s how members learn the good, the bad and the ugly.

400 pax is still very small and will probably have more dining options, more excursion options, more entertainment, etc… I am familiar with Emerald River and they aren’t considered to be in the luxury category so not sure if that holds true with their yachts. The Emerald itinerary does look more interesting, though.

I am interested in more info about Quark as well. I’ve just booked a South America trip that includes a buyout for 4 nights on Quark Ocean Explorer for a group of 48. We’ll be flying to King George Island from Punta Arenas. The rest of the trip is very high end luxury and I’m wondering how much of a step-down this cruise portion will be service, accommodation and food wise.

Whoops, correction: the flight from Punta Arenas is to King George Island. South Georgia is not on the itinerary.

Thinking about booking this as it hits some great South America destinations and avoids Drake Passage. Has anyone been on this jet journey? It’s my understanding they use a charter flight from Punta Arenas to South Georgia Island then commence a 4 night cruise on a Quark expedition ship (total buyout for the group of 48). Do you know if they actually make it to the continent or just cruising the Shetland Islands? How is Quark in terms of comfort, food and quality of expedition staff. Did the Four Seasons jet chef take over the food service?

No response yet. Considering this trip in 2027.

Kids are learning bridge in after-school programs…my local clubs seem very busy so at the very least it’s not dying out. It’s a brilliant game.

Second the RC or FS. Nothing special about Union Square anymore. Just mall stores and the risk of being robbed. I live near SF and don’t go there.

Yum. Belgian chocolate is the best!

So what happened?

Silversea, Tauck and Uniworld have accommodated my early arrivals.

Wow. Regardless if these are the Seabourn procedures they don’t measure up to other lines in the same category. I’ve arrived up to a week before departure with other lines and the included transfer was honored.

Do you mean TCS? TCS charters the jet and runs their own tours along with the FS tours. Their new jet is an Airbus and even nicer than the former Boeing 757 - very comfortable and roomy. Service and food outstanding and it was a nice sanctuary between destinations. I’ve booked or done all the FS itineraries that I have interest in and am now looking at some nice TCS itineraries. The more of these trips I do the less appealing cruising has become but I’m not surprised the FS cruises are selling out. They have a built-in customer base between their hotels, residences and jet and have created a very comfortable bubble of luxury.

Re YF - we were advised that aged over 60 the risk of serious side-effects to the vaccine outweighs the benefit so we were given a waver. On your African cruise are you visiting more than 10 countries? Is a Visa required for each? Otherwise I wouldn’t worry too much about it if one has a few less pages.

Just wondering, what time of year was this?

It will be interesting to see how they do. Fans of Four Seasons residences and jet trips are excited about this as many of them have never been on a cruise ship and gravitate towards more exclusive travel experiences. This is as per a discussion I had with a group of FS execs last year.

$4700 PP for 2 days. If you plan early enough you can book better apts. or venues for just race day probably for less. If I had it to do over I would book independently and early enough to get a package with pit row access.

As I said, more like a hotel pricing structure.

I know for a fact from my experience that the most desirable upcharged excursions do sellout quickly on SS.

Yeah, the entry level cabins are really tiny - made me wonder if it is a misprint.

FS will include only breakfast with everything else á la carte so the pricing structure is more like a hotel. Suite rates are for the max. occupancy. Perhaps a new trend in the ultra lux category?

Having sailed both Tauck and Uniworld and until I took my final 2 disastrous cruises with Tauck I would have recommended them but now I would say it’s a good decision for the OP to go with Uniworld. Service and food are better and I would strongly recommend booking the largest suite possible because even the largest river suites are smaller than a typical ocean cabin. As for wines, the nice aspect of both lines is they serve very local wines. Excursions tend to be smaller groups on Tauck but on my final two cruises with them the quality of the guides had declined and they tended to be chaotic.

I’ve taken 3 Tauck river cruises each one worse than the previous. Now granted the first one was pre-Covid but the service, food and quality of the cruise directors were all much diminished after Covid. Our first wonderful Tauck cruise was Budapest to Amsterdam including the Danube, Main Canal and Rhine. The second was Paris to Lyon on the Rhône and Saône and the last and final cruise was the Douro Porto RT. Transfers were always great but hotels on two Tauck cruises were really sub-par and not luxury at all. We booked our own in Budapest but Tauck still provided the transfers. We have Uniworld to compare to and I would recommend them wholeheartedly.

Ulyssia is a creation of the team that developed The World. The owners update and maintain their units on The World beautifully because they have the means to do so but I don’t know the details of the wind down towards year 50 or how that affects resale. Obviously it’s not an investment but something fun to do with one’s money.