cruiseej

@kjbacon A suggestion for any future hosted meals you might attend: my wife and I always share different food choices when we dine out — so we like to sit next to each other at hosted tables, even though that's not their normal system. So we show up early and explain to our host or to the hostess who is seating us, that we would like to sit next to each other. (One time I switched the cards myself when none else had arrived, but I prefer to be upfront about it.) We make sure most of our conversation is with others at our table, not each other, which satisfies their goal of the mixed seating.

@highplainsdrifter Do any of the staff onboard Venture, such as the Future Cruise Consultant, have any information about the Pursuit? Seabourn dropped it from the schedule for 2023 and into 2024, from reports I've seen posted here; in fact it doesn't show up on the Seabourn booking website as one of the ships in the fleet. Yet the page about Pursuit on the Seabourn site is unchanged, still announcing her anticipated debut in early 2023 with summer Greenland and Northwest Passage cruises which we know have been re-assigned to Venture. Is this another Covid-related delay in construction of the ship? Is there some bigger delay brought on by financial issues at Carnival? Does anyone know when Pursuit is now scheduled to debut?

@pyffii We're on only for the first 10-day segment, from Barcelona to Monaco. The second 10-days segment sounds wonderful as well; I wish we could have arranged to stay on for both segments! Thanks to those who have commented on Portovenere and visiting Cinque Terre! Additional experiences/recommendations are welcome — as well as suggestions for things to see/do in any of the other other ports on this cruise: Spain: Valencia, Palma de Mallorca France: Sete, Sanary-sur-Mer, San Raphael Italy: Golfo Aranci/Costa Smeralda (Sardina), Portoferraio (Elba), Portovenere

Spa. Laundry. Premium wines.

@bobolz You can get a recovery letter from your doctor stating that you recently recovered from Covid; in most places, that obviates the need for a negative test.

We're booked on a cruise on Sojourn next May from Barcelona to Monte Carlo, and I'm seeking advice on any recommended Seabourn excursions we might want to safely book now, or recommendations to do on our own. Our port calls are: Spain: Valencia, Palma de Mallorca France: Sete, Sanary-sur-Mer, San Raphael Italy: Golfo Aranci/Costa Smeralda (Sardina), Portoferraio (Elba), Portovenere One Seabourn tour which jumped out to me is at the end in Portovenere: "Villages of Cinque Terre by chartered boat". Our part trips to Italy have never brought us to Cinque Terre, and seeing the towns from the water as well as on land sounds appealing. If you've done this excursion and liked it (or not), I'd welcome your input. If there are must-see things in any of these ports, please offer your thoughts, whether it's by Seabourn excursion, walking on our own, or hiring a guide.

I don't think this was a case of the F&B Manager overruling the Maitre d' — it was coming up with a viable solution to try to satisfy a customer. If anything, the Maitre d' could have told the party that wanted to be seated the same thing, rather than just turning them away. "Sir, that table is reserved for a party who has an 8:30 reservation. If you would like, you could check back with me shortly before 9:00 in case that party does not show up — in which case I would be glad to seat you." There could be other reasons as well, and offering an explanation should resolve the issue with all but the most difficult customer. For instance: "Sir, I am very sorry, but one of our waiters is out sick this evening, and we therefore can't fill every table being down a staff member. I'm sure you can understand that would create a poor service situation which you you wouldn't be happy with, as well as for all the other passengers dining with us this evening. Can I perhaps book a reservation for you on another evening, or would you like to come back later when some of the current diners have competed their meal?" As for the passenger who showed up improperly attired, I'm with @RetiredandTravel: I would not let it interfere with my wife and I having a wonderful evening. We'd probably raise our glasses in a mock toast to the jerk who doesn't follow the rules because he doesn't believe the rules apply to him, and then go about enjoying our dinner without giving it another thought.

"Fully vaccinated" refers to the one or two shots of the vaccine you receive. The other terminology is "up to date", which refers to having either the original vaccine or a booster within a certain number of months, as well as to what it required/allowed in your home country. So should a cruise line requires passengers to be "up to date", that will mean something different accordion to the age and country of the individual.

Lois, I'd just note that leaving your home and flying to Alaska for your land tour is not "leaving the states"! 😉

As noted above, if you like to dress up… if you want to dress up… by all means do so. You won't be alone, and you should enjoy your trip. Just understand not everyone feels the same way, and don't let it ruin your vacation or upset you to find a variety of levels of dress in the restaurants.

It is. Keep in mind it's Seabourn's first such ship — and they apparently have decided expedition cruises should still have an element of dressing up. It's different than Silversea, which does not have formal nights on their expedition ships… which some will doubtless applaud and some will decry.

Like many companies in many industries, the cruise ship terms & conditions are written by lawyers to try to protect them from as many contingencies and circumstances as possible. That doesn't preclude them from doing what their marketing says they will — but it means if they can't deliver for whatever reason, they are probably protected. For instance, it says the will "ensure you make it to the ship." That's a promise they probably do deliver on most of the time — but they really can't guarantee it in all circumstances. If you're going on a cruise in the Mediterranean and you miss your flight to the city of embarkation, they will try to get you to the next port stop the following day. If you're going on a cruise in Antarctica, and you miss your flight to the gateway city, and the only flights are the next day, and those flights are too late to get you to the ship, there may be nothing they can do to get you to the ship. And in these turbulent time for the airline industry, when there's a missed flight (whether cancelled, weather related, or whatever the reason), there may simply be no available seats to get you where you need to go within a day or two or three. We've read on this forum of people who missed flights to Alaska and they simply couldn't get there until 3 or 4 days later, which wasn't practical for a 7-day cruise. So "ensure you make it to the ship" really means "we will do our best to get you to the ship on the day of embarkation, or a later date in a different port city, if any of those options are actually doable."

Also, since SS hasn't paid for the air tickets yet, there may be other options — either through SS Air or on your own. Delta has a flight from Atlanta, and United has a flight from Houston. Perhaps they could put you on one of those alternate flights, or you could do so on your own and get a credit back from SS. If you could get on one of those flights, or your original flight, but in economy instead of business class, that's obviously not what you'd want — but would would you cancel your entire trip over getting bumped from business class seats one way? I'd be frustrated, and would probably plan to use my day in Santiago to sleep, but I'd still go!

Floating ice is the best! This was from a cruise in Greenland… Sorry for the digression. 😉 Back to Alaska…

I want to know how you accrue enough OBC to pay for several cases of premium wine! 😉

Well, you. could board in Vancouver, see if they have any Zevia aboard for you, and if not, send one of your party off the ship to a Target, Walmart or other nearby store to pick up a case and bring it aboard. 😉

I believe it;'s because room service is coming from a different galley, or a different line in one of the galleys.

@SengaIf you're in Seward long enough to take one of the Kenai Fjords National Park boat trips, do it on your own! My recollection is that they have a few different ones which require between 6 and 8 hours, but it's a great chance to get up close and personal with one or two glaciers from a small boat. (I'd skip the shorter 4-hour wildlife cruise, which doesn't go to the glaciers, unless that's what you're more interested in.)

No, I'd guess it's probably a dry dock. I believe every cruise ship is required to go into dry dock once every three years for inspection (and sometimes cleaning) of the hull, propellers and thrusters. So if they can take care of this requirement during the lull created by the Japan situation, then they don't need to do so again for several years. Such dry docks take only a few days, so finding a facility capable of doing it may not be impossible.

I agree! Although this thread has meandered through all the normal machinations about the SS dress code, I think there's a simple answer to the question, isn't there? I thought the original question was a good one, because it does cause some confusion. When people ask about the SS dress code, most responses here tend to point out that you have the option of dining in several venues without formal attire on designated formal nights. But the question was: following dinner, what's the dress code, if any, for going to the theater or a bar/lounge? And the answer is provided in SIlversea's buried dress code explanation on the website: "Following dinner, all guests are free to take advantage of any or all public spaces, however, jacket is required." Isn't that all there is to it? On a formal night, if you don't wear formal clothing and dine in one of the venues which allows informal or casual attire, then you are free to use the other venues on the ship as long as a man is wearing a jacket. So if you dine at The Grill, or in your suite, without a jacket, you need to add one if you want to go to a bar or the theater. If you dine at La Terrazza wearing a sport jacket, you're fine to visit any other areas of the ship after dinner. (Note that this has nothing to do with whether there is lax — or no — enforcement of the dress code, nor whether the dress code ought/ought not to be changed in the future. That said, Silversea could make this so much easier for everyone if they made the dress code more visible and made the text clearer with a few simple changes: They currently bury the dress code in the website section for "Packing your cruise luggage", which is not what people look for when searching for the dress code. They cause further confusion because the text is under "Clothing suggestions" — which does not sound like mandatory policy at all. That could be resolved if they instead created a heading like "Dress code on Silversea Ships" or "Policy for evening attire on Silversea Ships." It would be less confusing if the text made clear the attire for each of the three levels of the dress code, and how it varies by venue on the ship. They could answer a frequent question by adding subheadings to separate Classic cruises from Expedition cruises. Currently, Expedition cruise dress code is not mentioned at all. And they need to update the text about there options for informal dining on formal nights. Currently, the text says: "On formal nights, guests may dine in La Terrazza and choose to dress informal...This option also applies to Seishin and Stars on board Silver Spirit." Huh? Stars? I'm guessing that is the former name for what is now Silver Note. That text is about four years out of date. And why does it specifically single out Silver Spirit, and not any of the new ships? The text needs to be updated to reflect the 2022 (and ideally 2023) ships and dining venues. Ten minutes of editing the website could take away 98% of confusion and questions about the dress code!

Of course, they could. But they don't have agree restrictions. They could also make certain areas off limits to children after a certain hour, but they don't. So everyone is subject to luck of the draw with the specific passengers aboard. It's usually not a problem, but when it is, its a shame that the parents with children don't respect their fellow passengers enough to prevent the situations @mcshane described.

Here you go:

Unless anything has changed recently, other passengers have reported that the ships do not carry a stock of any Covid antivirals. Passengers isolate and do not receive regular daily check-ups from the ship's doctor, since probably they want to limit contact with contagious passengers. But if anyone is feeling more seriously ill, the medical staff is a quick phone call away.

Yes, that's pretty standard for them to be reserving air about 6 months in advance of a cruise. It doesn't mean the cruise is going; that's a decision which will happen later. It doesn't cost the cruise line anything to make the booking reservation with the airline; they aren't actually purchasing the seats and issuing the air tickets until 6-8 weeks before the cruise. So all you can read into the booking of your air is that as of now, they still hope these cruises in 2023 will sail. I think 100% of people on this forum would agree that such connection times are insane and unlikely to be successful. Why SS Air is booking such ridiculous connections is a question no one here can answer.

Ignore that June 30 statement; instead look at your results for July — and then pop open the bubbly! 😉