les37b

Logged in to my.silversea and surprised to see an upcoming Yokohama sailing shown. When I looked, I was inside someone else's booking. I logged out, came back in and now in another persons account. Did this several times and keeps getting different peoples details - which drilling in reveals info such as passport details - as well as all the booking, flight etc details and excursions booked. What the hell is going on?

Of course. On my sailing it was wait listed months ago and yes it may well be the case they sold off the remaining cabins on the cheap. Can’t think that’s something to be happy about and kinda validates the title of this thread. For the 27 August sailing, it’s been suggested it’s actually a full charter, which may be the case, but begs the question why it’s listed on SS. Charters are not usually shown.

Were the examples you refer wait listed on SS? These ones are which prompted this. It may just have been coincidence that my one was wait listed but flooded with a agency and the one in August, which now sounds like it is a charter, but still advertised on SS wait listed which prompted my knee jerk.

All booked and refund requested for the outbound overcharge amount. Strangely, we fly from T5 and return to T3 which is probably 2 miles extra. No excess chargeable for the return journey which is odd given the charge for T5. I'd say the distance they quote for T3 is actually spot on, so its strange they added 8Km to the journey for the outbound only. Overall an easy process and happy we are all set to go.

It sounds like one of those scam call centres found in Mumbai! There is zero chance I would book with a company that believes that practice is acceptable. My upcoming Japan Alaska cruise would have cost an absolute fortune. It’s not a luxury to get reasonable flights, it’s essential. In the meantime, I’ve heard back from Blacklane regarding the fake mileage charges and they’ve said go ahead and book and they will refund once it’s done. And it didn’t cost me anything to send them an email to sort the booking. Amazing! lol

I was going to chase the email this afternoon, but its literally just arrived. I think I mentioned my journey from Home to T5 Heathrow is 50.1 miles. The link confirms we have 52 miles complimentary. Low and behold, as per my pre voucher attempt, Blacklane claim I am 56 miles away and want to charge an additional £34.63 each way! I have already had this discussion with Blacklane and they have agreed its wrong. Clearly they haven't corrected it. The issue is that they use a generic "Heathrow" not terminals - though ironically none of the terminals are 56 miles, though I think it just reach 54 for one of them so not sure if they must take the scenic route. Its motorway for 98% of the journey so it must be a terrific view! lol Dont fancy paying £70 for a free ride! Is it usual for Blacklane to fiddle its mileages? BTW is it the airport arrival time they expect or home departure? I'm expecting it'll be departure. Withy that in mind and the 15 minute wait allowance - how does that work for the time to give coming home?

My return to home transfer is also shown with the Seattle departure date, not the arrival home date the following day. Its not a problem I was told and the voucher will simply allowed to be applied with your specific dates once you contact Blacklane.Still not got my email so will chase this morning.

You bagged yourself a bargain price! The sailing I just returned from certainly wasn’t a full charter and if this one is, it begs the question why SS are listing it at all. I know in the past, cruise blocks have been dropped and date gaps appear, but not for this time. If it is a full charter, then obviously the agent is free to do whatever they want. If it isn’t, then I certainly feel for those guests who booked direct or through a different TA and probably paid 40% more than their fellow guests. Maybe Im being a little sensitive to think that’s unfair if that’s the case and booking early to guarantee getting the best price is not all it’s cracked up to be!

Yes, fortunately the options given were direct and would have been my first choice. My next sailing though was a nightmare, with many rather dubious replies. I did eventually get a decent round the world set of flights. I don’t have the benefit of air miles. I’d be fine booking my own flights for Europe, but the dangers of cruise changes etc and inflated air costs, if my flights for the cruise in Jan 2024 were poor, I’d just cancel the cruise and look elsewhere. It’s a slippery slope and such a shame.

You’ve just said you got a price guarantee refund for an un-sailed cruise so clearly the same rules do apply. But fair enough if you say you’re not bothered if you find out you could have booked for 40% less and can’t see the issue. To be fair, the cost of my just finished booking, I never once looked on other sites to check on alternative supplier pricing. I never for one moment thought when I saw it was wait listed meant it was anything other than fully sold. I’ve no idea how many suites were passed over but do think it was a fairly high percentage. It’s the 27th August sailing which I’d happily book with the third party supplier if I’d not already got too many cruises booked within the next 12 months. I’m free to do that… but those already booked either with SS or your TA are tied to the price paid. Just saying it makes the guarantee less believable and think knowing these huge discounts are available weakens the brand. It’s been suggested this is a common thing. Maybe it is, but it’s the first time I’ve seen wait listing mean it’s now been made into a part charter and given a reason to hang on. Just an opinion it’s a big mistake and more so if it’s a trend.

OK thank you. As many timeframe schedules seemed to have slipped, just seeking clarity if I'd be deemed pushy to chase on 27 days. That said, I am referring to the flight date, so if its done on sail date, then its 30, so maybe scheduled for Monday. Whilst on the Dawn I was surprised to receive my flight details for Jan 2024 asking for my approval. That's a first, normally I dont know them until I came across them in my.silversea!

I'm not privee to such information, but I do know my sailing was wait listed months ago and the sailing that I found that prompted this topic is a sailing on 27th August, so 154 days away. I'm sure you will appreciate I've posted because it doesn't seem right or fair. I don't even know what these "such a great price" fares people paid. Didn't seem relevant at the time and only after I saw this British Isles sailing that I twigged. Obviously your sailing isn't one that this dubious practice applies to as SS are still selling it, but if it had and you found out you could book it elsewhere for a huge saving, would you feel that was ok? For argument sake, its inside the penalty charge time frame, so you can't cancel and rebook without charge? You can't just cancel either because you thought the dynamic will have changed without penalty. It's not something I've noticed before. So if its common practice at Silversea to do this (despite something that was claimed in the past that they don't dump unsold suites) it feels like more erosion of what Silversea was. I guess that maybe the big difference here if its always happened, is that these cruises are now shown as wait listed. Has that always been the case (if as suggested its common practice?) Like I've maintained here, the cruise just finished was fine. The make up of passengers was definitely different for the reasons stated but wasn't a problem. If I paid more for the cruise than I could have paid and missed a potential part refund, so be it..... But it's something I'm sure is not just an eye opener for me to find out and not a bad thing to suggest to check things...... especially if your cruise has just gone wait listed.

Is the cruise still bookable with SS? I did interact with you on the topic, but didn't know it was still a future sailing. I'm sure you will agree, its a rare thing now to happen. The cruise I refer (as well as my own) was / is no longer being sold by SS - but you could / can buy it through an agent at a discounted price. As Tex1 just suggested, you wouldn't get a refund in those circumstances. Would you have been happy if your sailing was now showing on SS as wait listed, but were able to book the same cruise through an agent with a 40% plus discount and now effectively become a charter you've paid SS rates for?

Just to acknowledge your point (which I was completely unaware of), I looked at the chronicles for the first and last nights of the cruise I just got back from. Nothing on the first night, but as you said, one on the last. 13 Mar Bridgetown Embark.pdf 22 Mar St Georges.pdf

Never seen movies in the Venetian Lounge on board and yes there are a selection of movies, TV shows and a few live TV channels available in your suite. Its not a wide selection, but there are several to chose from.

So its a coincidence that a SS cruise sold to "regular" guests can no longer be bought direct, but they can buy from a third party at a massively discounted price? Do you think SS will refund the higher price paid to direct bookers?

We got back a couple of days ago from what was a mostly enjoyable Silver Dawn Caribbean cruise 2 days ago, which passed thankfully without incident, unlike the last! I did post while on board making an usual reference to the fact for the first time ever, UK guests outnumbered US guests by about 3 to 1. I've never seen this outside of Europe or Asia and certainly the Caribbean has always been heavily weighted towards the US. No problem with that - just my observations of how I've seen it. Anyway, one thing that was certainly noticeable was that there was a huge number of guests with bookings from 2 large UK companies. Almost part charter territory. Again, it didn't effect things for us personally, but we did think at the time, the make up of the guests was a little different to the usual. Again - no big deal and not making judgments. I did however note from a few of the guests who were first timers, (one group was of 14 guests!) that they mentioned they had got a great deal for their cruise. Good for them I say. But............. I did notice months ago that our cruise had been waitlisted and many of these guests said they had made their bookings in the past few weeks. Which made me think that Silversea are selling this cruise off cheap and en masse rather than reduce the price online and bypass the price warranty. For the first time since I've sailed with SS, I didn't bother to take advantage of the extra 5% off by booking on board. The early booking bonus already gone and knowing offers are abound below the radar, made that decision easy. Since getting home, I've looked at the pricing on our next sailing on SS which is Jan 2024. It seems this agent who specialise in bulk deals, have my sailing and advertising at the same price as SS who haven't waitlisted it yet. (ie book from either at the same price.) However, I did find a Silver Dawn sailing on 27th August (British Isles) for 12 nights going for £2999 for a balcony suite. On the Silversea website, this cruise is waitlisted. I dont know what the D2D price was - but I think its a safe bet that the price was higher than that considerably. I suspect there wont be a "price warranty" claim that can be requested. Is this just an underhand way for Silversea to advertise a price warranty they wont honour? I've certainly been fortunate in the past to take advantage in the past and the forum is full of examples with subtle changes are made to make that warranty worthless. Not sure if anyone has manage to secure anything for a un-sailed date? My sailing was flooded with discounted fares on my waitlisted cruise and the same clearly applies to the Silver Dawn sailing mentioned above in August. Very underhanded practice if this is the shape of things to come. I've deliberately not posted the name of the company as it may contravene CC agency rules, but it is a well known UK company that sell mass market, so I imagine it shouldn't be too hard to find. I've certainly seen comments in the past for complaints about "charter / semi charter" cruises. To be clear, there wasn't anything in this that made a difference to our enjoyment - just something that needs a close watch. A waitlisted cruise may not be what we are led to believe!

Ok, further update if I may please? When I originally enquired with SS, I was told I would get the voucher email 30 days before departure. It is now 28 days before we go and still not heard anything. Is this normal? Is it an automatic process or am I meant to chase them?

Great news…. Just hope ours a few days before yours remains as train transfer! enjoy your cruise

if you run a speed test, it will tell you if it’s Starlink or something else. I’ve actually found the most difficult site to connect to is Cruise critic, which often freezes and unable to log in.

Did anyone see?

At least the worst is over now. Funnily I’d expected boarding in Barbados to be painful, but once it got started it was relatively quick, with the delays all down to needing to be bussed to a check in area then again to the ship. Think they started at 1pm and we were on by 1.50pm i did arrive independently rather then be bussed in, which may of helped. I’ve certainly not heard any complaints about boarding. My last departure on the moon back in Jan 2022 in Fort Lauderdale was painfully slow and took over 2 hours. Have a good one.

Biography of Silver Dawn Officers.pdf We didn’t make a fuss or complain regarding yesterdays food. In the restaurant they repeatedly apologised and requested we returned again which we said we would and not to worry. Yesterday we got a card requesting to meet the food and beverages manager and head chef, which we did. Seemed a bit over the top, but they were both apologetic and admitted there had been lots of problems of this nature yesterday and thanked me for the feedback. The triv team I joined when I said I had a meeting in a couple of minutes, commented they’d heard of several people complaining about cold food in SALT and Atlantide, which confirms what the SS staff told us. it was refreshing to be fair that they did accept there was a problem and that it would be addressed. Certainly the formal night meal in Atlantide was excellent…. Hot… and steak cooked as requested.

I would propose a cross ship Triv completion via Zoom conference, then realise how preposterous that would be! lol We never received any docs apart from what was in my.silversea (ie the GIF, Covid docs we provided and flight details which were all there 2 months ago. Our SS consultant assured us they don’t issue anything anymore and we certainly didn’t receive anything. I wasn’t bothered for this one but it’s certainly needed for Japan in a months time as we know we need a negative test to board and that still hasn’t officially been told to us. We are also intending to ignore transfers and make our our via (via bullet train in the morning), so we need a few snippets off info like location of boarding. Happy sailing.

I always thought the same. My Dawn sailing is on the third evening, which happens to be tonight. It was informal night last night. I saw a guest refused entry to SALT for no jacket.