les37b

Not then it didn’t. Jacket and tie or you didn’t get in. Unless you were a friend of the owner, as in this case. Given 50% were in Tuxedos and the rest in suits and with tie. If he was playing “where’s wally”, he made it rather easy.

From memory, yes there is.

It’s football not soccer. 🙂 I’ve a few of them… but won’t be wearing to dinner… even the ones with collars! By the sound of things, that big guy in the bright green Hawaiian shirt for his formal outfit back in 2016 might now be considered overdressed!

May I ask who the CD is (and if you know, who the GS manager is) Glad you're having a good time.

Yes, in our instance, our charter was scheduled for 15 May 2023 and the timetable started on the 18th. Despite pointing this out, SS insisted our transfer was by train. They even kept with that line despite issuing a ticket 2 weeks before departure which appeared to dash my hopes, but they continued with the "you are definitely on the train." They waited until after we had literally just boarded before dropping the bombshell. GS on the Muse were embarrassed at what had happened but every effort to find out what these "logistic" problems were, was similarly ignored.

Yes I do remember going to Panarama and thinking those stairs don’t appear on the moon and dawn. Probably cuts into dance floor a bit. How did you enjoy? I spotted you mention your Shinkensen ride.I intend to return in 2025 for an extended overland trip. Absolutely loved Japan and the people. So much to see, though annoyingly the JR pass has just doubled in price, which I’d intended to make good use of.

Nothing new to add but agree that the differences are insignificant. Personally prefer Muse because of Indochine - though miss the improvement made to dolce vita with the central bar. In reality the cruise chosen would be for the itinerary and would be zero influence over picking or avoiding any of these 3 ships (4 including Spirit.) I’d chose not to cruise on Nova or Ray.

At last…. A dress code bun fight! Whatever next. Whilst I always believe if codes are in place, you should abide by them or book something else. I was shown something from the site from someone complaining a guest was in La Terazza in shorts for dinner. My first thoughts were Carnival dress code has come to SS, but then it was revealed the person in question arrived without their lost luggage. I guess it’s all about context.Hardly his fault and I suspect some would have made him most uncomfortable. RCL bought a successful CL. Genuinely feels to me like they are hell bent on ruining a winning formula but the dress code is the tip of the iceberg it’s minor in the scheme of things. Outside of a bargain deal, my Dawn sailing in 2 weeks will be my last SS cruise. It says a lot that when I ask myself what I will miss the most, my answer is free laundry. That really isn’t enough to keep the loyalty. It’s been fun and thanks for all the fish.

There is clearly different marketing and inclusions going on depending from which country your booking is made. Certainly from the UK the post above is accurate in that if you have D2D you will be booked on the train. If you have booked P2P interestingly, you are still given the transfer but on the bus. We did a Seward arrival 6 months ago but we had Americans in the roll call who were D2D and had to pay extra to get on the charter. In the event, the train got cancelled and we were forced to take the coach… which while pleasant, is no match for the train route, which I agree takes a similar path, is a fair bit different and of course you miss the ability to take photos as you are seated and the results would be poor and ability to video go out the window. We also missed 3 ports on our voyage and then the train. Anyone who paid extra for the train excursion were “generously” offered a refund for the fare that was cancelled. Everyone else got zilch. Yet another reason I dislike D2D. We certainly didn’t get what we paid for. On a side note. The charter pulls in right next to the ships berth and is a simple 100 yard walk from train to ship through the security building. The train does not appear on the AR timetable and the AR scheduled journey is from Seward station, not the port which the charter uses. It’s a very nice touch and resonates with the D2D concept. i made 100% sure before our voyage that what was shown in my.silversea would happen and was on the train. I noticed the AR timetable didn’t start until 3 days after our arrival… but was reassured it’s a charter and nothing to worry about … we were definitely on the train. When out ticketing was issued 2 weeks before departure, it didn’t mention the train but said it was dealt with locally via Alaskan tours. I phoned them and they confirmed they only dealt with coaches. Armed with this, SS still insisted we were 100% on the train. On the day of boarding, an email was sent out (to TA) that the train had been cancelled due to “logistic” reasons. So after all the assurances, I suspect this train wasn’t even booked because the lines didn’t reopen for 3 days after our schedule. It was meant to be a highlight, but ended being our biggest disappointment and despite pressing, we never did get the answer to what logistical reasons actually really meant which in itself was very telling.

I would think only SS head office / GS would be able to answer this specifically. If its positive, I'd make 100% sure you get it in writing. I've had a couple of verbal assurances get kicked into touch, so insist now. Personally, I think they will tell you your change would remove the discount if it wasn't available at the time of booking. PS can I borrow your time machine! prices were so much cheaper back then! lol

No. They were in a prominent position and visible by all - including the ships cameras. Besides, this was a SS ship and only had 220 passengers on board. That said, Ive done this on an Azamara ship through the Kiel canal. Generally on any port arrival or departure that sounds interesting, I do the same. Arriving at Ho Chi Minn City and Hong Kong below. Those were actually interval shot, but these days I just capture the whole thing. And that in itself is a problem. Ive got far too many 256 / 512 and 1GB cards that I still havent gone through from years ago. I enjoy taking.... editing not so much! Ive just resubscribed to adobe cloud so will probably get cracking on them soon. My usual passion is with my drone, but RCI and SS have just banned the carrying on board of drones, so it makes things impossible. My next sailing on SS in January will be my last. Thats their loss but I will miss the free laundry each day from my sailing status.

For $15K Id expect to be taking part in the race! lol I can remember being there in 2016 a good month before the race and the grandstands were already up. Must cause chaos for the residents for 2 months!

haha . I was going to answer that but guessed the position of the video would give the game away. Was on Silver Dawn. Front was simply attached to the railing at front and rear on deck 10/11 and deck 10 on the starboard side. I use an articulating arm to attach and get the angle I want. Got mine from aliexpress or ebay I think for about $8 each, but they are on sale on Amazon for much more. This is on the UK site. PS - hope you have better luck than we did. My wife tested positive for covid 36 hours after the transit and spent the next 10 days in the "red zone" isolation with no contact with anyone and real secured area where you had to wear a hazmat anywhere nearby! She had to leave in a hazmat and get changed in a "lesser" quarantine zone before being allowed back in circulation.

My canon gear was in the front reception room near the door in a rucksack. I had a tracker in the rucksack - but the just took the camera and 2 lenses. Fingers crossed for your trip!

That was my take on it as well and was a cause for concern when I booked my LHR transfers for flights to Tokyo. I do always aim to arrive at least 3 hours prior to flight, so there is a small amount of leeway. It was especially heightened when those idiots were blocking motorways. I expect lots of people missed holidays because of these people.

That's the L series lens I had and took everywhere with me, along with my Canon 6D and 24 to 105mm L series lens ...... Until some ****** stole it from my house about 3 months ago by someone I must have let in. Gutted! Decided not to replace, but have treated myself to an Insta360 X3. OP, when I did the voyage last year, I used 3 DJI action cams to film in 4K the entire 10 hour transit captured on 3 1gb memory cards and with power bank attached to each to keep the batteries working. Worth considering. Below are them converted to timelapse. I did capture the entire transit at 30FPS - just in case there was something of note so it wasn't missed. I should have spent more time in post production with them.

Good for him. He and Vicki are definitely our 2 favourite CD on any ship we've sailed.

Shame. I think the same happened with Kirk didn't it? Anyone know if he is still in the industry on called it a day?

They fell foul of the Schengen terminal in the airport. All "International" flights - ie that are foreign flights outside of the EU, go from Terminal D (I think that's the correct one from memory.) And yes, there is a queue to get through immigration at that point. I think it took us about 30 mins. Security to that point was a breeze. But once through into that terminal, you can walk freely and your gate is easily found once announced. This isn't that obvious and no one told us - I just worked it out looking at the flight board to see the pattern and then asked someone. We flew 3 months ago - out with BA back with Icelandair - economy both ways - on flights booked by Viking. Thought the Icelandair was better than BA - but to be fair, that's not meant as high praise! It was fine though. If the next expected "new volcano" erupts and is a "safe" one like the last 3 new ones in the last 3 years, then I could be making another visit as long as planes can land. Its getting a bit closer to Keflavik now - and Blue Lagoon and the nearby power station are currently closed I believe. I did have a visit last time on the day of embarkation, but the eruption stopped 2 days before (it had been erupting for 6 weeks) - so I missed out!

I didn’t notice any undue noise from our Muse voyage a few months ago, but maybe we had considerate neighbours or that final glass of wine before bedtime was a great sedative eliminating this problem! 🤪

Port Power, I certainly share your views on the fish markets. We had 2 tours featuring them. One thing of note apart from the eye watering prices - the smell - or moreover the lack of it. Without opening your eyes, you wouldn’t have known you were in a fish market! Quite incredible. One annoying thing from our voyage. The one thing I was looking forward to, was Japanese beer, which I was assured would be plentiful. Asahi is the only beer I’ve bought back home for a number of years, so was significant. When we boarded in Osaka, it was available in all bars. By the time we reached Tokyo 2 days later there was none left apart from in Kaiseki. Ordinarily, I’d just take that on the chin, but considering where we were and the news they’d ran out and not getting any more, despite being in Japan was a huge let down. Did you notice if Sapporo or Asahi was being served?

What hotel locations would you recommend or to avoid in Bangkok? My last visit was in 1985 so a little out of touch! lol No sky train or MTS back then. We have a cruise booked in March 2024 from Bali to Bangkok. Had intended on 3 nights pre cruise in Bali, but turns out on our chosen arrival date, Bali is closed for their “day of silence”. So now arriving with just one night and having 4 nights in Bangkok at the end.

Correction…. Osaka to Seward! Cruise critic broke down after posting so unable to edit it time.

Your photos bring back some great memories of our Seward to Osaka voyage on the Muse in April / May. Sounds like you did the same tours we did. Did you get a great send off in Miyako? Felt very humble. We didn’t get a death by chocolate though. We thoroughly enjoyed Japan and intend to go back for a land tour. On the down side, we hated the huge number of sea days once we left Japan. Rough weather meant we missed the 2 Alaskan stops and the time changes each night were horrible. Rained constantly too so no deck days. It was far too cold anyway. We also missed what would have been our highlight - the railroad journey from Anchorage.

Whilst its true to say, transfers to the airport which included a tour, was chargeable. However, when on a late flight (after 18.00), Silversea are meant (expected?) to provide a day room. Only on our Barbados cruise last January, that wasn't provided and a tour was provided that included lunch with no charge. That said, we had originally been allocated a simple bus ride tour and told "that was the only option".... But while at GS I learned of this one and got a place on it. There were about 4 variations so unclear why Id been told its that or straight to the airport at 8 I don't think anyone would be impressed being dumped at the airport at 9 am for a 7pm flight (which was then delayed by 3 hours to boot!)