cruiseej

@pmcer Thanks for catching that. I should have realized when there wasn't the 15% cancellation penalty on the no-flights option. It also explains why the no-flights price exactly equals the with-flights price minus an air credit. Sorry that I thought it revealed something more than it does. (Wish we could edit posts!)

Paxlovid costs about $500 per person. In the US, individuals can get it for free or near free because the US government purchased and paid for 10 million courses of the drug. But Silversea would need to secure it directly, and pay for it. (I don't know if various government purchases have captured all the available Paxlovid which has been produced or if it is readily available for purchase by a company.)

No, Silversea can't buy it and have the US government cover the insurance costs. The government covers the cost for individuals, not for corporations, let alone a non-US corporation.

This should be a non-issue for everyone. They take a few seconds to fold once you see how to do it, and if you're at a hotel before going to the ship, you can always get tape or a stapler to put them on. Otherwise, just go to the port and the staff will come up with tags and affix them. they've been doing it this way for a year and a half now, so they know how to make it work. So it's not worth any worry/concern/angst about the luggage tags. 🙂 Similarly, you don't need to have a printed boarding pass. If you do, there's a good chance they won't even ask for it or want to see it; your name and passport will get you aboard in no time. And in terms of boarding time, I wouldn't say to disregard the assigned time entirely, but if your travel plans don't align with the assigned time, don't sweat it. The purpose of the assigned times is simply to not have everyone show up at the same time and have a large gathering of people in the boarding area. So if everyone disregards the times and tries to get to the ship by 1 pm, there can be a problem. But if many people try to come close to their assigned time, and a few people show up earlier than their assigned time, it doesn't create a traffic jam, and everything runs smoothly. (Depending, of course, on the local staff who do most of the work at the terminal boarding area.) For many years, we've enjoyed boarding early and having lunch onboard to start our cruise experience, but the entire luxury experience doesn't go away if you simply miss out that first lunch. And if that lunch is important to you, go ahead and show up earlier than your assigned boarding time, knowing that (a) you are likely to be processed and onboard eating your lunch in no time, but (b) there's always the possibility that they will have you wait if there's a crush of people arriving at the same time (such as if you arrive just after a bus from he airport or overnight hotel).

Seabourn has certainly sailed at 100% capacity before. While ships have generally been less full in the year and a half since cruising resumed, there have definitely been reports of ships at full capacity this year. I'm not sure what advice you are looking for? Every cruise line aims to fill its ships. If you're talking about Covid issues, I imagine they may still be holding some lower-level suites out of circulation for people who need to be isolated. But it seems most people now quarantine in their own suite, unless one person is negative and wants to be in a separate suite from their positive traveling companion. So 100% capacity -- or sold-out -- may not be the same as pre-Covid 100%.

Except that would probably take at least two years to design, engineer, and build. And they're planing to start cruising next year. It makes sense to combine 3 suites into 2 in some places. That requires some structural work, but not a huge amount. As long as they don't need to move the plumbing and ventilation stacks, moving walls and interior fittings is do-able. And it addresses the single largest complaint about the ships: suites which are much smaller than the luxury competition. So if three 200 square foot cabins become two three hundred square foot cabins, then the ships become much more competitive with SS, SB, and Regent ships. And a lower total passenger count makes the ships more appealing to many as well. As always, the devil will be in the details: are they revamping a few dozen suites, or many? I wonder how long they can wait to announce details and itineraries, and start accepting bookings, if they truly aim to be sailing within a year? It's one thing to get the ships renovated, but they'll need to fill them with thousands of passengers to avoid hemorrhaging more money.

@fudge I just looked up your April 2, 2024 voyage from the US, and it shows everything included, including air and transfers, for a D2D booking. I am just guessing that included air is for transcontinental travel, but doesn't apply within Europe. Or perhaps just not from Cyprus? ☹️ I tried to start a booking for a classic veranda suite to find the prices, and here's what it shows for D2D and P2P. A few interesting things to note: There is no included hotel pre- or post-cruise for this itinerary The difference in price from D2D to P2P is $1,800 per suite, or $900 per person. Clicking the link for Economy Class flights on the D2D reveals that the air credit for not using the included economy air is $900 per person. So, at least in this instance, D2D without air and P2P are priced identically. By gosh, that actually makes sense! (And D2D includes airport-to/from-ship transfers, which P2P does not.) The P2P says "Payment 100%* refundable until 150 days pre-cruise — exactly the same wording as the D2D. I don't know if this is a website mistake, or if it is an indication they are starting to get rid of the disliked 15% cancelation penalty for P2P cruises. The Terms and Conditions page on the website still states there is a 15% cancellation penalty for P2P, so these two places on the web site are contradictory. Not that this is anything new for SS! 😉 How do these US prices compare to what you are seeing?

Best wishes for a speedy recovery. Is your quarantine for a fixed number of days, or until you test negative? I'm curious what the current protocols are. (We'll be on the Cloud next month.) Do you have any idea how many other Covid cases (guests and/or crew) there are currently on the Cloud? In terms of vaccination protocols, my only comment is that at this stage with the COVID, boosters don't keep you appreciably safer from getting the virus, they keep you from having more severe symptoms if you get it. Earlier in the pandemic, it was essential for SS to require passengers be vaccinated in order to cruise, because it helped keep Covid off the ships. But now, I'm not sure that requiring a 4th or 5th shot does much, if anything, to keep passengers and crew safe from each other. I know many people who have gotten COVID recently who were completely up-to-date (5 shots). I think anyone who is not medically-advised to avoid booster shots should get all the protection they can, but I feel that's for protecting oneself from serious illness rather than to avoid catching it or transmitting it to others. So I'm not sure I'd fault SS for not requiring people to have more boosters. I'm a little surprised they don't have Paxlovid onboard. It's not recommended for everyone who gets Covid, only for people considered at high risk of severe illness — but considering the typical age of SS passengers, I'd think it would be a useful tool for them to have, especially on expedition ship in Antartica which can't get people to a hospital quickly if their condition gets worse. But it's expensive: above $500 per 5-day course of the drug. If you're at home in the US, it's free or nearly-free to you because the US government paid for 20 million courses of the drug — but Silversea would need to purchase it directly. (That assumes there's enough available for a company to buy it directly.) It also requires people to stop taking certain other drugs they may be taking, so it's more complex to prescribe than giving people an aspirin and sending them to their suite.

I think it's more popular because some people want a light lunch, some people don't want to change for lunch, and most people want a faster lunch. That doesn't mean it's better or even preferable, just more expedient/practical for many people on many days. You're suggesting this might be a lie, and I suppose that's possible — but I don't know why they'd lie. If the real reason was that too few people show up for lunch to devote the staff and resources to do so, why wouldn't they just say so? It certainly seems plausible that they are not yet at full staffing levels, and need to juggle their resources.

If they are indeed phasing out P2P prices, that may not be the case going forward; TA or not, your only option may be D2D price minus the credits for air and transfers if you book those on your own.

@crusinbanjo I would contact SS again and try to get them to point you to this information on their website, or request it in writing. As we know, various agents on the phone may have different information, or think they are passing on correct information, but the arbiter will be the representative controlling your embarkation. If you don't have the latest booster before cruising, and your most recent shot was more than 9 months ago, I would be concerned that your explanation — "someone at the home office told me I was okay" — might not pass muster. I would also request your doctor give you a letter stating that due to your heart condition, it is against medical advice for you to receive any additional COVID shots. That might not get you aboard, but it might help.

@highplanesdrifters After trying to get a determination via the AA website, I called the phone number for Admiral Club and asked. The representative immediately confirmed that if you are a paid Admiral Club member, you can use the VIP Pacific Club; if you are an AA first/business class passenger, you can use Admiral Club lounges where they exist, but not partner clubs. So you're out of luck for Santiago. 😉 @lkbside Does your itinerary show the Mandarin Oriental as a one night hotel, or as a day-use hotel? Was your air booked by SS or on your own? If they think you are flying back on the next day, they put you up in the MO overnight; if you are flying back the same day, they should have you in the Hilton Garden Inn. My TA called SS and confirmed this is the way they are doing it this year. They don't want to do transfers from the airport to MO and back again on the same day because of the traffic in Santiago. I would definitely have your travel agent reach out to SS about it. I'd think they would be happy to switch you to the Hilton Garden Inn, as I'm sure it's less expensive for them than the MO!

I think this illustrates the other side of what people report when others on their cruise got a certain flight but Silver Air says it's not available. Silversea has contract which allow them a certain number of seats at a certain price point. If a plane has 16 empty business class seats, SS may be able to get two seats at its contracted rate; if the plane has 8 empty business class seats, SS may not be able to do so because the airline prices the remaining seats much higher. I agree that an online booking engine, for customers who would be happy to have that option, would be great. Seabourn also offers this, and it eliminates a lot of back and forth between customer-travel agent-cruise line. (And if half the customers choose to do it themselves, it would free their agents to have more time to work with those customers who prefer to work with a human in the air department.)

(a) We don't know why. Is is because it's new policy? Is it because they are short-staffed due to hiring problems and/or Covid or flu sidelining some staff? (b) So what's the alternative to "taking it calmly"? Rant about it more than has been done in the 10 pages of this thread? What would that accomplish?

Glad to hear a positive report. Silver Air gets bashed pretty regularly around here, and for good reasons most of the time. But that doesn't mean they create bad routings or mess up every time! Probably the majority of travelers have a great or at least okay experience with Silver Air; the ones we hear most about are the ones where they met sup and complicate people's lives immeasurably. I hope I won't jinx it by sharing that our Antartica cruise next month includes business class air booked through Silversea — and it so far appears to be working out fine. 🙂 We couldn't get our flights booked at 270 days, as they used to do; as of this spring, they were booking at 160-200 days because of the rapid changes and meltdowns in the airline industry. But I told my travel agent the flights we preferred, as well as two alternates, and she submitted them to Silver Air even though they wouldn't act on the request immediately. (It would be great news if they have moved back to 270 days now that air stable has stabilized a bit.) At about 210 days, I discovered SS had reserved our air — and it was a horrible routing. (Philadelphia to Atlanta, with an 8-hour layover in Atlanta, a switch to Delta to fly to Miami, and then a tight transfer to LATAM for the flight to Santiago. It was ridiculous, because there are nonstop flights PHL to MIA, with no long layover, no double-connection, and no tight connection.) I reached out to my travel agent, who reached out to Silver Air, and a few days later, our air was changed to the flights we had originally requested: PHL-MIA-SCL and back on American. Straight though on one airline means the domestic flights are in first class, where if we had to switch airlines we would have been in economy. I don't know if it was because we had submitted our request early and someone hadn't acted on it, or because I complained to my TA who complained to SS, but it was all taken care of quickly and to our satisfaction. We had decided to arrive an extra day early in Santiago, and when we booked that night through SS, it resulted in no deviation fee being charged for the air, making the extra hotel night a bargain. As regularly happens, American subsequently changed their schedule and aircraft, but our connections were still okay going and coming, and our booking stayed intact. SS finally ticketed us about two months before the cruise, locking in our booking. We're now 35 days from our first flight, and all is in order. Just crowing my fingers and toes for no unexpected late changes, and no bad east coast weather to throw a wrinkle into the travel plans. It is annoying that we can't talk to Silver Air, and even our travel agent can't call them and has to communicate via email. And it is annoying that they originally kicked out a ridiculous flight routing which took my breath away, before changing it to what we asked for a few days later. But the business class upgrade price was far lower than what we could have gotten on our own, and if the end result plays out as it is currently lined up, then I'll give an overall thumbs up to booking through SS in this instance.

"Fully vaccinated" means the initial vaccine regimen. Generally that's two shots, but for some vaccines (like J&J and perhaps others in different countries), it's one shot. "Up to date" means whatever boosters you are eligible to have received in your home country. So for us in the US, for adults, that means receiving the updated bivalent booster which became available in September — unless you had received a previous booster in the past two months, or had Covid in the past 3 months. Canada's vaccine recommendations may be slightly different. In all cases, shots must be received two or more weeks before the cruise.

@lkbside We're on the Dec 17 cruise with you, and just today, a post-cruise hotel popped up on My Silversea. (Yes, I've been obsessively checking it daily!) The good news is there's a post-cruise hotel day room; the sad news is that it's the Hilton Garden Inn near the airport, not the Mandarin Oriental. Our flight is a minute before midnight, so we're happy they won't just dump us at the airport for 10-11 hours. We're flying American, so we don't have access to one of the airport lounges, even with business class tickets. I wish they were sending us back to the Mandarin Oriental, but it's not worth the cost for us to book the hotel and transfers on our own, so we'll hang out at the Hilton Garden Inn.

I don't know anything more than what it says, but that seems pretty straightforward to me. Yes, I would think if any country on your itinerary requires "up to date" boosters (typically defined as initial vaccination or booster within the past 9 months, but you should check for the countries you will visit), and you don't have such a shot, then you could be denied boarding for not being in compliance. What part of that seems unclear or ambiguous to you?

In most cases that I've priced, and others here have reported on, D2D minus air and transfer credits prices out considerably higher than P2P.

Or… you could get a libation of your choice from a friendly bartender, take a peek over the railing to cheer the plungers, and return, dry and warm, to the comfort of your suite or lounge. 😉

@safarigal Yes, thanks for sharing that information! I don't know why SS waits until the last minute to communicate with passengers. Assuming our charter flights are the same as yours, at the end of the cruise we'll arrive back in Santiago between noon and 1 pm, and our flight home isn't until 11:59 pm. Clearly, that calls for a hotel day room somewhere — but we have to wait and wait for SS to tell us if they're providing one and where.

@safarigal Yes, thank you; that's very helpful. Do you remember how far before your cruise this information appeared in your MySilversea? We're still waiting for this info for our cruise so we can make plans if appropriate. Also: on your day of embarkation, do you have the flight info? I'm curious how early they get us to the airport to fly us down to Puerto Williams. If they have flights departing Puerto Williams between 8 and 9 am, does that mean they fly the planes down there empty to pick up passengers? I would have thought they'd fly down from Santiago with the next cruise passengers, and then fly back with those who just disembarked. But the early morning flight from Puerto Williams doesn't seem to allow for that, unless the flight from Santiago is at 4 am!

Sorry, but when there's something you personally enjoy, you can't be the arbiter of whether it's bothersome to others! Some people may have actual breathing problems (such as asthma) with smoke, some may be concerned about the potential of issues from second-hand smoke, some may have survived lung cancer, some may have quit smoking but need to stay away from the smell in order to avoid feeling a strong urge to smoke, and some just can't stand the smell. You, while enjoying your cigar, can't tell all those people they're wrong and should just live with it. People pay a lot of money for a luxury cruise. If someone is smoking a cigar whose smell you find disagreeable, in an area of the ship designated as non-smoking, and therefore forces you to have to completely avoid that area of the ship, I think it's understandable to be bothered. And to have ship's management ignore someone who is breaking their established rules, even in the face of multiple complaints, because that person is wealthy/powerful/connected is equally offensive.

@SLSD I don't think that post was directed at you, but at a number of the comments made in this thread. I didn't go back to document them all, but here are several…

I won't hold it against you; I just want to know why you're slumming it here on Silversea when you could be sailing on a mega yacht, where there should be no questions about cruising in true luxury! 😉