cruiseej

Well, that makes it more than one data point! 🙂 Is this just the steaks in Atlantide, across multiple ships and multiple different cruises?

We've done two Silversea expedition cruises to date. On our first one in Greenland about five years ago, we had to pay a fairly hefty price for the video, but after seeing it on the final night of the cruise, I decided it was worth having. On our recent Antarctica trip, we found the current style is that they provide the video for free. But the video of our trip was much worse. It was fairly short, with a number of artsy type shots, but it didn't capture our cruise nearly as well. Perhaps this varies from cruise to cruise and videographer to videographer. I don't understand why they pay to have a photographer and videographer aboard and then skimp on sharing their output with customers. (There's probably no better marketing tool than sending 200 passengers home with awesome videos every week!) So I think you can count on getting something, but I'd shoot as much as you can on your own to make sure you have the memories you'll want of your trip. 🙂

I'd basically agree, but I'd suggest two pairs of gloves. They can get wet externally, but I found just from sweating in them, I was sometimes happy to have an alternate pair of gloves for an afternoon excursions. And you definitely need waterproof pants to wear over your hiking pants! I took two pair, but could have made it with one because they're thin and dry very quickly. On some hikes, with all your layers, you may work ups sweat, so I'd suggest being able to swap out your shirt or layer under the parka in case it gets damp on your first outing of the day. I was also happy to have taken an inexpensive balaclava which could over just my neck or neck and head. The hat I had also had ear flaps which could be flipped down and stopped under my chin; if my ears don't get cold, I'm fine! That still doesn't add up to a ton of clothing. Everything else I took was for wearing around the ship during days and evenings.

The problem is that you have this one data point: one night, in one restaurant, on one ship, on one cruise. It's possible that the steak in Atlantide is consistently worse than the other venues on Silversea ships, but since all your other steaks in other venues were good, that there was an issue with the steak in Atlantide for that ship around that time. Perhaps it was a supplier issue. Perhaps an issue with the freezing or defrosting of the meat. Perhaps an issue with the butchering in the kitchen. I'm not trying to justify or excuse Silversea; you were served a bad meal. I'm just saying there's no way to make a general determination that steaks in Atlantide are to be avoided from this one visit.

Yes. (You can request it in advance, but apparently it's readily available onboard even without the special request.) We've had no problem getting distilled water for my wife's CPAP machines on recent cruises. (We recently invested in the travel CPAP which doesn't need water and is much smaller/lighter to travel with.)

I think that as long as there isn't a debt crunch, each of the major cruise lines would want to maintain a luxury brand. It gives them a place to transition existing customers as they get older, don't have young kids to travel with, and and greater wealth. Yes, but there will be Gen Xers coming along to replace the Baby Boomer generation. Why would you think that Gen Xers, who are now in their 40s and 50s, won't be just as enamored of luxury cruising in 20 years as their predecessors? Expedition cruising in luxury style has blossomed in recent years, and presents a growth opportunity for the luxury segment. But not everyone will always want expedition cruises, especially as age increases, there will always be people who will look forward to a classic luxury cruise. I don't see any reason why the market for these products will decline. The cruise lines just have to survive the financial machinations brought on by the pandemic shutdown — no simple feat, and one which is not guaranteed to succeed — so they can get back to building new ships and continuing to develop the luxury segment of the cruising market.

@scott45 A large part of the difficulty you're having is due to the airlines more than Silverseas Air department. We went on a SS cruise from Iceland 5 years ago, and the air options were much better. Air Canada through Toronto was in a 787 with lie-flat seats; United had planes with lie-flat seats from both Chicago and Newark. I'm not sure why United dropped Newark a few months ago, and Delta dropped their flights from Minneapolis/St. Paul and the remaining flights are on smaller planes without lie-flat business sections, except the one Delta flight from JFK. There's nothing SS can do about the absence of inventory for flights with lie flat seats to Iceland! Assuming you don't want to fly LAX to Europe, and then backtrack to Iceland, I think there may be only the single Delta flight via JFK with lie flat seats from North America. Our upcoming cruise on Regent includes business class to Iceland. But we faced the same problem: Regent Air came up with Jet Blue (no busing class) from Philadelphia to Boston, connecting to Icelandair (business class, such as it is) to Iceland. I thought we'd take the air credit and book air on our own, but that's when I discovered there are almost no flights with lie-flat seats. Flying from Philadelphia, Delta only offers us routing to Detroit (!) or Atlanta (!!) to JFK to Iceland. Nope! Anything else we could have booked on our own was ridiculously expensive, so we stuck with Icelandair from Boston. (@JSR I will be sure to avoid the fish on our flight! 😉 Since it's only a 5 hour flight, departing late at night, we won't eat, and it's no longer than a cross-country flight in similar first-class-style seats.) @scott45 I know it's not much consolation, but even had you been aware of the air situation much farther in advance, I don't think there would have been better options for you. American, Southwest, Jet Blue, and Alaska don't fly to Iceland. Delta flies only from JFK. Air Canada flies from Toronto (no lie-flat seats). United is flying only from Chicago (no lie-flat seats). (Even flights from United hubs like Denver, Houston, and Newark go through Chicago). Actually, had you booked months ago, you might have booked on a United flight through Newark which they then dropped, leaving you re-routed through Chicago with the non lie-flat seats. I know you feel Silversea short-changed you, but there weren't many different options. You could see if they could switch you to fly from LAX to BOS and then on the shorter Icelandair flight from BOS. But even that has a limitation. The only US airline that Icelandair participates with for luggage check-through is Jet Blue. Icelandair does offer LAX-BOS on JetBlue and BOS-KEF on Icelandair — but I don't know if you'd be any happier in Jet Blue's seats than on Icelandair's. Would it work better for you to break the flying up over two days? (That is, fly LAX to BOS, stay overnight in a hotel in Boston, and then fly on to Iceland the next day, on a daytime flight which doesn't involve sleeping on the plane.)

@scott45 Icelandair does have business class. What it doesn't have are lie-flat seats. But Icelandair has "first class"-style seats (e.g. 2-across, significant recline, advanced video entertainment) elevated food and drink, premium lounge access, etc. I understand you want lie-flat seats and therefore aren't happy with Icelandair, but you are receiving business class seats as promised. We're doing a cruise from Iceland in August on Regent, which includes business class flights in its fares, and I went through the same investigation of flights to/from Iceland. Unfortunately, from the US there just aren't a lot of flights with lie flat seats. And Icelandair prices are lower than the limited number of business class. Just do an Expedia search for business class flights from LAX to KEF. You can fly cross-country in business class and then on Icelandair to Iceland; you can fly a variety of airlines in business class to Europe and then back to Iceland; or you can fly one of the US airlines, some with lie flat seats and some with non lief-flat (first class class-style) seats. American has nothing. United via Chicago has lie-flat seats LAX-ORD but first class seats ORD-KEF. Air Canada via Toronto doesn't have lie-flat seats to Iceland. Delta LAX-JFK-KEF is the only option I found with lie-flat seats on both flights. I understand you feel you're not getting what you bargained for, but I'm not sure what you'd expect Silversea to do to get you lie flat seats when the airlines just aren't flying planes with lie flat seats to Iceland this summer. If there are seats available on the Delta flights via JFK on the dates you need, as others have noted, you could take the Silversea air credit and purchase your own air. But you'll spend a lot more — probably more than the cost of your cruise! — because there's such limited availability. (The Delta flights I checked from LAX to KEF returning from London ran close to $11,000 per person for business class.) From your description, perhaps that is worth it to you. If not, I'm not sure you can blame Silversea for the lack of lie-flat seats to Iceland; it's the destination and the airlines that have dictated this, not Silversea cheating you.

@mscdivina2016 Silversea expedition ships do not have casinos. This ship was built by Crystal before its bankruptcy. Silversea took over the ship last fall, and the casino was not used; in the renovation, it will be eliminated.

No, Icelandair still flies from Boston. We're doing it in August. United also flies to Iceland from Chicago, on 757s with Polaris lie-flat seats.

Well, the proof will be in the pudding. And the chicken. And the steak. 🤣

And addressing my own puzzlement at this two days ago… today Silversea sent an email and updated the website with the new deck plans and information about the new Master (2) and Signature (4) suites on Deck 8 in the space formerly used for the helicopter hanger. (The revised deck plan also shows the 4 new Classic Veranda suites on Deck 5, where the Medical Center currently exists; the Medical Center is moving to Deck 4, where the Casino was formerly.) So, as promised, a total of 10 new suites, with the passenger capacity increased from 200 to 220. The new suites are listed as available beginning on the July 17 cruise, so it will apparently take quite some time after the dry dock to finish the fit-out of these suites. (Or, cynical view: SS executives will sail in them for a few cruises before being sold to passengers!) Editing to add: I just looked at the prices for the new Master suites: nearly four times the cost of a Classic Veranda, and about 50% more than the Signature suites. Wow! Kudos to all who can afford these beautiful suites! I see they're already waitlisted for many cruises over the next year, even though they were just officially announced today. 😉

@shark b8 Why mess with the amateur stuff? I just did a quick search to see if the Seppeltsfield Tawny is available anywhere in the US, and came across this listing for a bottle of the 1899 edition: Sure, it's nearly double the cost of the one you tasted, but how many wines have you tasted dating back to the 19th century! 🤣 If that's out of your price range, then I found their 10-year Para Tawny for a more modest $40 at a few US wine shops. 😉

The former CFO's LinkedIn page still shows him working as CFO at Holland America, so I wonder if this change was news to him as well! I also note that the Seabourn website still lists Josh Leibowitz as president, more than two weeks after he was replaced. Silent protest by the back-office team at Seabourn? Incompetent marketing staff? The web marketing team was also laid off? 🤣 In other Leibowitz news, the "new opportunities" he was stated to be departing for appears to be… author! He has a book coming out in May: "Parenting MBA: A Degree in Parenting That Won't Cost You $200,000". It's billed as an easy-to-read book of parenting advice from the Harvard Business School graduate and former McKinsey & Co managing partner. Hopefully he'll next turn to writing episodes for "Below Deck".

As you say, no one will know for sure until that time, but… This appears to be a relatively "minor" dry dock, and I wouldn't think that they would cancel sailings if the work isn't complete. After all, they are gutting three specific areas of the ship in order to create more revenue-generating suites, so cancelling entire cruises would cost them more revenue than the added suites will generate over many months. As long as they can complete the major structural work — the ship obviously has to be watertight — the interior fit-out work can continue after the dry dock. And that appears to actually be their plan. Since they haven't yet sold the new suites, no one would be displaced as that work continues. Cancelling a cruise or two would cause major disruptions not just to passengers, but to the supplies pre-positioned at the first port, and the travel schedules of the crew coming back onboard. Could things go wrong? Of course! If the steel and windows and other structural raw materials aren't ready and waiting at the shipyard, that would be a problem. If the shipyard workers go on strike, that would be a problem. But if they foresee such issues which would cause cancellation of multiple cruises, they could also decide to skip the dry dock and continue sailing with the ship as it is now. But since the ship is steaming north at full speed after completing the last Antarctica cruise, it seems like things are still on track. I would think the first cruise after the dry dock might be at some risk, if they start the work, fall behind, and have no choice but to keep the ship in dry dock to get her back to being sea-worthy. The first cruise from the UK is 13 days, which if cancelled would extend the time for the dry dock by roughly 50%. But I think that's unlikely. And your cruise isn't until June 4, the third scheduled sailing; I just don't see that being at much risk. You'll know for sure that your cruise is safe when tracking shows the ship has departed Genoa by about April 30. 🙂

Considering the cruise in question is in the British Isles, penguins would be really interesting! 😉

Endeavour has apparently completed its quick turnover in Puerto Williams this morning and departed; it's now heading for Montevideo, where I'd guess more crew will disembark and provisions will be offloaded prior to the long trans-Atlantic voyage to Italy. I don't think most of the upcoming changes will even be evident or meaningful to most passengers. The helicopter bay being converted to suites will only be seen by those who book those suites. The relocation of the medical center to the now-unused casino space won't affect people, nor will the additional crew cabins built in part of the former casino space. Similarly, the new suites created on Deck 5 where the medical center is now will only be seen by people who book those suites. So for most passengers, these changes will be invisible. The fix to the door latch and light sensor will probably have a bigger impact for everyone else! There might be some other small Silversea-ification (de-Crystalization?) tweaks around the ship, but it doesn't sound like there will be extensive changes. It's interesting to me that Silversea hasn't posted revised deck plans, and therefore presumably isn't yet selling the new suites on Deck 5 or Deck 8, for voyages this summer and beyond. And the SS website still lists passenger capacity as 200. From what I've read, I don't believe they will be removing the landing pad at the back of Deck 8 — it's just the helicopter bay (hanger) and helicopter lounge that's being renovated into 6 new suites. Barbara Muckermann told Travel Weekly last fall that "Silversea hasn't ruled out employing helicopters in other parts of the world [than Antarctica], using local tour operators that would land and take off their own helicopters on the ship."

Hopefully not in 11 months, as it would be mighty cold cruising the British and Scottish Isles next February... and Endeavour will still be in Antarctica! 🤣

@number one eagles fan The primary changes to Endeavour will be turning the helicopter bay into 6 suites; moving the medical center to the current casino space, and adding several crew cabins in that space; and turning the current medical center space into guest suites. And after sailing the ship in Antarctica for the pas few months, there's likely a long list of small tweaks and fixes, like the door latches and light sensor mentioned above. Endeavour has just completed the last cruise of the Antartica season, having docked today in Puerto Williams. Her next cruise is May 7, from the UK. So she will be sailing quickly north and east to a dry dock facility in Europe prior to the late-spring/summer cruises. I at first thought they might go to the shipyard where the Endeavour was built, but that shipyard in Germany went bankrupt as part of the whole Crystal/Genting Hong Kong collapse! Instead, she's headed for a shipyard in Genoa, Italy for the structural work. Figure on about 17-19 days to travel to Genoa, and that would leave just under 4 weeks available for the dry dock before she needs to load provisions and full crew for the 5-6 day sail to the UK for the summer season starting with the May 7 cruise. Work on the interior fit-out will apparently continue during the re-positioning to Portsmouth as well as during the first few cruises in May.

@ronrick1943 Sorry, you're looking for a serious answer here. I think the simple answer is that they will have your category or higher, or they wouldn't have sold you a guarantee booking. (If bookings had already equaled available cabins at your level or higher, you would have been offered to be waitlisted for the cruise.)

@SLSD Well, kudos to them for (a) realizing they had made the error, (b) reaching out to you about it, and (c) offering you a resolution which was what you had been promised and wanted. (Well actually better than what you would have had, since you will now have four years instead of one to use the FCD*.) For all the complaints we see on this board about problems with "the home office" — including your original problem with the FCD — it's nice to see when they get things right! (*Just check it once it's issued to confirm that it has a four year expiration as you expect, or if they made it expire in one year.)

@SLSD I'd say you're right for a few people, but wrong for the majority. 🙂 We don't typically buy/eat caviar while at home, so we do enjoy indulging when on a Seabourn cruise. More than once, less than every day. We also drink champagne onboard more often than we do at home — but we drink more of everything onboard than we do at home! It's never about trying to "get our money's worth"; it's about the enjoyment of cruising, which includes drinking and dining in a vastly different way than we do at home. We're doing a Regent cruise this summer (based on itinerary and revisiting a line we haven't sailed on in nearly a decade) and I know there will be a few times where I will miss ordering the included caviar on Seabourn (and Silversea); we'll survive! 😉

The best solution for nightlights on a cruise, as I learned on this site years ago, is to take one or two battery-powered tea light candles: For a roughly $10 investment on Amazon, you'll have enough for the next 10 years, with some to give to friends or fellow passengers you meet who are cursing the darkness! 🙂

We're not real jazz fans; sorry @SLSD! But we enjoy the trio (most incarnations we have seen) and the band with a singer (most incarnations we have seen). I'd be fine with fewer of the canned and old production shows, and allowing the current singers to do more of their own shows — the music they love and want to perform. And then I'd supplement that with short-term "residencies" for singer-songwriters who have not yet made it into the big time. This would allow a variety of genres, from folk to rock to country to Americana to pop to, yes, jazz! I'd be okay with getting rid of the dancers (even though they're quite talented) in order to have fresh music by musicians without increasing the head count or cost. Send Belinda King (or a replacement) to a city like Nashville, throw out a net, and reel in dozens of talented singer songwriters who may not be looking for a career on a cruise ship but would be happy to do a 6-8-10 week residency. This would go against corporate homogeneity, because there would be different experiences on different cruises — but I'd argue that we already have that with guest performers (singers, violinists, comics, magicians), so why not double down on variety? They could perform mostly solo, but with a pianist or guitarist from the band, or the full band, once a week. Without an increase in costs. For whatever Broadway-style shows that remain, cap them with a one year shelf life and then put them out to pasture. That might mean fewer sets and costumes to keep costs neutral, but I don't think anyone would miss the singers doing 6 costume changes in 45 minutes. 😉 And with fewer such performances per week, a repertoire of 6-8 productions could assure that even passengers aboard for 4, 5, 6 weeks wouldn't have the same shows on repeat, and that passengers on their first cruise in two years won't find the same shows they saw on their last cruise. And most importantly, don't replace any of the live musicians with a DJ!

Just to clarify: are they saying you will be transferred to Anchorage (bus or train), but not from the city to the airport? I thought every cruise ending in Seward included that. Or are they saying you will be dumped off the ship in Seward and on your own to get to Anchorage and then to the airport?