jotum

Just a hint on insurance. For years I have gotten annual insurance from Allianze. I find the annual is often just as cheap as what the cruise lines offer for one trip and this covers multiple trips including ones domestically when more than 100 miles from home.

I love the Silversea cruises...however their air department is the worst I have ever encountered. I have been to about 100 countries using various cruise lines (including Silversea) and travel groups. For an upcoming cruise I decided to use their door to door air plan. I got the air itinerary months in advance. It showed flying from my local airport to the destination. However when I looked at the airline site I could not find that flight. Turns out they had booked from an airport miles away and misprinted that it was from here. My travel agent contacted them and they corrected their mistake after a few calls. At that time there were lots of seats available. However the seats they assigned us to were often the next to last seats in the plane which was not desirable for comfort or especially with trying to get off quickly because they booked very short connection times. I checked with the airlines to change the seats, but could not do it because the tickets had not been paid for yet. My cruise fare including air has now been paid in full for about two months, but they are still sitting on the money and have not paid for the tickets so I could change seats. My TA called and complained and they moved the seats up about 5 rows as seats are now getting scarce and in one case we are sitting in different rows on opposite sides of the plane. I still have to wait for them to pay for the tickets so I can change seats with the airline. I do not plan to ever use their air again. I have booked another cruise for 2023. Looking at similar cruises for this year and next, the door to door for that cruise is about $3000 more than port to port. They are not offering an official port to port for the one in 2023 but will give a discount of about 1000 for the air and 100 for the concierge transfers. Hence they get to keep the extra 2000 that they charge extra - door to door is a rip-off and the air service is terrible. I can book flights myself for just under 900 and uber to and from the airport is about 50 total for the two of us instead of the 100pp they are giving credit for. Silversea needs to correct their air department and set reasonable prices if they want to have any customers left.