KennyMandy

We are newbies to Azamara and looking to book a cruise between Gran Canaria and Cape Town (or vice versa).  This looks to be a repositioning cruise, with some interesting stops in West Africa, but also a lot of sea days.  The price at the moment seems high for such a repositioning cruise (compared to other Azamara cruises), but I guess if it's a popular cruise, then the law of supply and demand comes into play.  For us, visiting Saint Helena would be a highlight, and there are not many cruise lines going there.

Has anyone done this cruise, and if so, what feedback do you have?  

Following on from my post yesterday, whilst borders are opening up for flights, the Minister has just announced that ports remained closed for leisure purposes, i.e. cruise ships.  So, unless things change, it looks like the Cloud will not be able dock in South Africa.  

55 minutes ago, Silver Spectre said:

Barbara Muckermann has replied on the SS group on FB.  Paraphrasing, the Cruise with Confidence promotion was only intended for a short period of a couple of months or so and as it coming towards a year now, has had to evolve. She is obviously using the Diane Abbott form of counting as it’s less than 6 months since it was introduced. She doesn’t respond to the fact that RCL is still offering a similar policy with 125% FCC’s or the fact that an SS brochure fronted by her arrived this week stating the original 125%. Caveat emptor rules at SS.

We were initially "duped" by Silversea's very first Cruise with Confidence Promotion (refund for cancellations on certain cruises up to 30 days before departure) which suddenly disappeared from the website on 8th April.  We therefore waited anxiously for our cruise to be cancelled by Silversea, then had an even longer and more frustrating wait for our refund.

Surely the whole point of a Cruise with Confidence policy is exactly that - to give customers confidence that they the company's promises will be honoured.  

Silversea's moving of the goalposts is worrying, and sadly is a company I would no longer trust with my money.  "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me!".  

18 hours ago, Silver Spectre said:

On the ‘Cruise with no confidence policy’ I see the wording has now changed to ‘up to 110%’. How long now before it’s 105% or even 100% only.

I find it hard to understand why anyone would risk leaving their money with Silversea for the extra 10%.  Surely reducing the FCC further would mean more passengers requesting refunds.  

A few months ago we were briefly tempted by the 125% FCC, but then asked ourselves if we really wanted to book another cruise during these uncertain times.  The way the pandemic is developing and its impact on the cruising and travel industry convinces us we made the right decision (for us), even with a stressful wait of almost 3 months to get our money back.

I live in South Africa and can tell you that yesterday President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the opening of our borders to International travellers from 1 October. The details have still to be announced, but maybe things will become a little clearer for you in the coming weeks.

On 8/10/2020 at 10:59 PM, wren2 said:

I too am waiting for my refund requested 48 days ago. Their refund process in the U.K. is slow, too slow.

We received our refund (UK) after more than 80 days and several broken promises. We are mightily relieved that the money is back in our bank account, but never wish to go through such a stressful time again.

17 hours ago, wren2 said:

That is fantastic. I have always said in my posts that the U.S. cruisers fare better with Silversea than the U.K. ones. Will see how I get on with my last claim on June 24 but certainly my first one took 81 days.

1 hour ago, Tothesunset said:

Cancelled a cruise today through SS London office. Refund in 30-45 days they say. We shall see... 

48 days since cancellation (and counting!) for us.  Refund promised next month.

This doesn't look any different to the previous policy.

We’ve been informed this afternoon by our agent that our Silver Explorer cruise on 18 June to the Russian Far East from Otaru has been cancelled. Disappointing, but sensible and not unexpected given the current state of things.

15 hours ago, Denny01 said:

I think the main reason Silverseas and most other Cruise Lines (not Viking by the way - they cancelled a huge block early on) aren’t cancelling whole itineraries that are obviously not going to make it, is to reduce the mass refunds they have to pay out. With the incremental cancellations, the outflow is more controlled........just a guess from someone who really doesn’t have any insight beyond guessing. With cancellations, the Line has to be ready to a great number of full refunds. With us cancelling prior to that, we get a FCC. 

 

By the way, the 125% FCC is something to seriously consider if you are a regular SS cruiser. Yup, SS could go bankrupt and you’d lose it so it has to be funds you could lose.....but I’m losing one heck of a lot more in the Market!!

 

Den

I agree 100% that the reason Silversea is not cancelling more itineraries is to hold onto our money for as long as possible - I would like to remain loyal (having recently discovered Silversea and enjoyed two fantastic expeditions) but also want to be treated fairly.  Any hope that cruising will get back to normal in a couple of months is, I believe, false.  

A specific example.  Our next cruise is to the Russian Far East in June.  One practical problem (aside from all the COVID travel restrictions) is that passengers need to obtain a Russian visa and send this to Silversea 45 days before departure, by 4 May.  How can we do this when countries are in lock-down (mine now until 17 April) and Russia has issued a temporary ban on foreign visitors until 1 May?  

6 hours ago, tgh said:

SS now advise that the admin fee only cancellation has been extended to embarkation - 30 days

So we will sit and wait for a bit, the Explorer has to go somewhere…..

Sorry, I didn't read this before I commented on your earlier post.  I am very interested to hear about this change in cancellation policy.  How did you hear about it as I can't see anything about it on their website?

10 hours ago, tgh said:

We have just cancelled Explorer Kobe to Otaru.

Japan is fudging the figures to try to keep the Olympics.

Too  much risk , maybe next year ( if we are still around… )

I guess you had to pay a penalty as it's less than 120 days until departure.  (We're due to sail on the next departure, Otaru to Otaru.)

We are booked on the Silver Explorer Russia Far East, Otaru to Otaru departing 18 June.  Unfortunately our 120 full cancellation deadline has now passed and we currently have flights booked via Hong Kong which as things stand, we would need to change to be allowed to board.  We asked Silversea about this and their response was:

So, I think we're facing a few months of uncertainty, and of course, at some point soon will need to apply for our Russian visa.  We're reluctant to change our flights yet as things will certainly change between now and June.  

Looking forward to reading your posts.  We join in Kangerlussuaq on 26th so we’re now really excited.  Sorry that the weather was so disappointing around Iceland and we, too, wish you better luck for this cruise.

Does anyone have their charter flight information for this cruise yet?  As it’s now less than 80 days until departure, I would hope that Silversea would let people know, especially those making their own flight and hotel arrangements.

On 3/7/2019 at 10:32 PM, carefreecruise said:

Getting ready to pull out. We are hopping the weather stays good. The first Drake passage was a little rough but settled down on our way back to Ushuaia yesterday. Reports are it to be calm tonight and no broken dishes on our way to the Falklands. 

Stunning photo - when was this taken?

Apologies if this question has been answered before, but I have a quick question about the fares shown on Silversea’s website.

There are currently a lot of different promotions depending on the destination ( eg $1,500 off selected Alaska voyages, $3,000 Arctic, etc) for bookings until 31 March, plus up to $500 Bonus Day savings for bookings until 28 February, plus of course the 10% early booking discount for full payment.

I can see that website quotes the price after the 10% early booking discount, but what about any of these other promotions?  Do the fares on the website reflect all the current promotions and are therefore the lowest price?

We haven't received ours yet.  Do we ask our travel agent to contact Silversea, or is this something we can do ourselves?

We are booked on Voyage 1907 from Ushuaia to Cape Town in February 2019.  This is our first cruise with Silversea so would welcome advice about disembarkation, ie how long it takes.    We asked Silversea and received the following reply: "The Silver Cloud will arrive to Cape Town at 08.30 am on 27^th March, guests will spend one night onboard and disembark on 28^th March, after breakfast. The latest disembarkation time is 10 am.".  

As our cruise is fast approaching (😀) we'd like to book onward flights from Cape Town Airport, so we'd welcome feedback from Silversea cruisers (especially anyone who has disembarked at Cape Town) on what to expect.  We were thinking of booking a flight (domestic to Johannesburg) at 1225.  Does this sound realistic?