cruiseej

@les37b Thanks for clarifying; I understand your original statement better now. Have you tried inquiring with Silversea to inquire if they would allow you to bring a drone and turn it over to the ship's security staff upon boarding, to be released to you upon request when you are going ashore? If the answer is no, I wonder if the difference in rules and regulations in different countries and/or ports is why they don't want to get involved. They might decide that the effort required to have each ship's security staff up-to-date on regulations in every country, checking passengers' registrations/licenses, and making sure those flying drones know the local rules, is too much work or liability for the few passengers who would want to take a drone off-ship. Add to that local concerns about environmental issues (disturbance to wildlife disturbance to hikers/tourists, the potential for a drone to go down and be unrecoverable in sensitive areas, etc.), and tourists who are oblivious to or intentionally don't follow the rules. Unfortunately, my guess is that all it takes is one incident where a captain has to deal with unhappy local police or port authorities to drive the decision to ban passengers from having drones.

@Stumblefoot What I was saying is that I think all cruise lines now disallow drones. He indicated that not being able to fly his drone would be a reason for not sailing Silversea going forward, but I don't think any other lines allow it, either.

I'm trying to understand this comment. There is no cruise line, to the best of my knowledge, which allows passengers to fly a drone while sailing. (I think both Carnival and Royal Caribbean allow drones to be brought aboard, but they may only be flown on land.) Have you found a cruise line which permits drones to be flown?

I can't answer that question, but can add anecdotally that when we left Splendor on September 1 in Reykjavik, all four of us traveling together returned home to the US and promptly tested positive for Covid. I have no way of knowing whether we caught it on the ship or in the airport/planes on the way home. There were no special mitigation measures like @lprp has described during our cruise.

@EricTheZed Most people wouldn't want to be out in the elements for 3+ hours at a time, as you're seeking. And the expedition staff would likely be spread too thin to be juggling everyone off the ship at the same time. They're not just driving the zodiacs, but securing the beach for landings, sometimes shoveling steps off the beach, putting out flags to mark the walking trails, and helping anyone who may need help or have questions while hike ashore. Additionally, you need time to recharge. Believe me, if the first group is off the ship at 7 am and you're in the second group, you'll be happy to be able to sleep a little later and have breakfast before suiting up and heading out. After hiking ashore you may come back wet from rain or the spray on the zodiacs, or feel sweaty from your hiking if the weather is ideal; you'll appreciate having a little down time to change your clothes and reset before going out again. From everything I've read, all the expedition ships (except the really small ones) from all the cruise companies use basically the same format of two rotations in the morning and two rotations in the afternoon. You've already worked yourself into being disappointed long before you go; my advice is to relax about it, and just go with the program. Every positive comment you've read here or elsewhere is from people who have gone to Antarctica under the same system. 😀

I've seen number of people say that they use MedJet for medical evacuation and medical assistance services when traveling. It's not the regular and expensive trip cancellation or trip interruption insurance, just medical insurance for a modest annual fee. Global Rescue is another such service. I recently received a mailing from AAA offering what appears to be similar services from Emergency Assistance Plus. The AAA member price is $179 per year for family coverage. I'm wondering if anyone here has used or does use EA+ — or if you have a reason for preferring one of the other medical evacuation companies? Thanks!

Since your cruise is not an expedition cruise, I don't believe the expedition staff will be aboard for the TA. Perhaps a few of them for lectures?

Keep in mind you will be all bundled up for going ashore: base layer, mid layer, waterproof pants, boots, parka, hat, gloves, etc., plus life vest, so you may not want to be all geared up for too long before you get off the ship. Generally there's two main groupings for a landing, with three sub-groups within each main group. So it might be 7:00, 7:10 and 7:20, and then 8:30, 8:40 and 8:50. You won't feel shortchanged if you go when your group is called. also keep in mind that sometimes conditions benefit the early groups, sometimes conditions benefit the later groups, and there's just no way to know in advance. Zodiac loading generally goes pretty quickly — 2 minutes per zodiac — but wind can cause the sea surface to be choppy and slow things down a little. There are generally two "landings" per day, if the weather permits. One of those "landings" may be a zodiac cruise rather than going on land, depending on where you are and what the conditions are. But everyone gets to participate in both landings. Usually there's a morning landing, in two main groups, then everyone's back on the ship for mid-day and lunch while the ship moves to another location, and then there's an afternoon landing. But timing is always fluid, as is where you'll land, or whether you'll land or tour via zodiac, depending on weather conditions. On our trip this past winter, the expedition leader and captain swapped more than half our planned landing locations for ones they thought would be better. there's a central booking database so different ships aren't in the same spot at the same time, and things are always changing. In short, I'd say not to overthink this. 😉 Go to the evening briefing so you know what's planed, stay alert for announcements when things inevitably change, and just go where and when they tell you to go! 😀

I'm guessing it's a combination of capacity — larger hotels with availability for larger groups — and price. I hindsight, I wish we had ditched the included hotel and paid for one on our own for at least one of the two nights in Reykjavik (although it's hard to turn down something you've already paid for in the inclusive price). Thanks. Fortunately we're all pretty well over it, but it knocked us on our butts for a week (all with different symptoms!). For three years, we've successfully stayed safe from Covid, but I let my guard down and wasn't wearing a mask in the airport or plane on the way home. Or perhaps we caught it on the ship before disembarking? We'll never know. Glad you made it home free of the nastiness.

We were on this cruise as well. Sorry I was too busy traveling with my nonagenarian parents to post during the cruise. And all four of us traveling returned home and tested positive for Covid within two days, so I've been out of commission for a week. We stayed in the Hilton Nordica pre-cruise and the Fosshotel Reykjavik post-cruise, both through Regent. Neither were convenient to the main downtown area, requiring cabs for every outing. Neither hotel had air conditioning, but both offered small transom windows which could be opened — but then you got noise from the street; we were hot both nights. On a previous trip to Iceland, we stayed at the Canopy by Hilton hotel, and I would strongly recommend it over either of these two if you have a choice. For our post-cruise day, we booked a private tour with Tours by Locals to visit the south coast. We got picked up at the port, avoiding the bus transfer to a hotel we couldn't check into. It was a long day with lots of driving, but we had a great guide and it made for a worthwhile day. Thanks to @boblerm for capturing so many details of our cruise in this thread! I'm happy to answer any other questions anyone might have.

On a Seabourn cruise this spring, it was the best of both worlds. The printed Herald was back, and the app made it easy to check the schedule or upcoming bookings (excursions, dinner) at any time. Our previous Seabourn cruise had no print edition, and I agree that was not good.

We just got off a Regent cruise and I was surprised the number of times I wished there was an app (or website) where I could access the daily schedule. Passages is fine — but it's sitting in my suite. If I'm at lunch with traveling companions and we're discussing if there is tea, or trivia, or who is playing in what lounge before dinner, or what time the show is, etc., being able to check online would be helpful. Or if I'm in a lounge reading, and want to know what the upcoming lecture is. Or being able to look over the dinner menus at lunch or tea or cocktails with traveling companions to decide where to have dinner. Yes, I can take pictures of Passages and look at those images on my phone, but it would be easier to access the schedule and menus on an app or website. This doesn't need to replace anything; it would just add to places to find information. And no, it wouldn't mean everyone would be looking at their phones all the time; it would be a quick lookup reference source which wouldn't change the atmosphere onboard.

@Bearsparents I'm just following up this thread to share our experience. We're onboard the Splendor now, and will disembark in Reykjavik on Thursday; I think you're on the same cruise. The onboard Destination Services people say that we can depart the ship independently for our private tour and show up at the hotel later — but we do have to take our luggage with us. They were very clear that their ground operator in Reykjavik will not transfer luggage to the post-cruise hotel for people who are not using their transfer. (It's possible that might vary in other port cities.)

@Bearsparents I'm just following up this thread to share our experience. We're onboard the Splendor now, and will disembark in Reykjavik on Thursday; I think you're on the same cruise. The onboard Destination Services people say that we can depart the ship independently for our private tour and show up at the hotel later — but we do have to take our luggage with us. They were very clear that their ground operator in Reykjavik will not transfer luggage to the post-cruise hotel for people who are not using their transfer. (It's possible that might vary in other port cities.)

An armada of oranges at sea… sound naval to me! 🤣

And what happens if the cruise substitutes a different port than the one originally scheduled?

Another good point! A waitlist may not be unlimited in size. In some cases, an excursion operator may be able to add another bus and guide; other other cases, there may be one boat or one train, or 5 helicopters, and there would be no point in allowing half the ship to get on a waitlist when there would be no chance of clearing the waitlist. I think there's probably always a waitlist for each excursion, because some people will always change their mind or drop out, but the number of slots on the waitlist is finite and can fill up. My response above should have said that if you see a waitlist available for your preferred excursion choice, you can book another excursion and then add yourself to the waitlist for your preferred excursion; if your preferred excursion then becomes available, you'll be added to that one and removed from the second-choice one you booked.

Good point, @DaveFr. In our case, I tried booking the excursions we wanted first, and that meant waitlisting some of them. Then I booked some second-choice excursions. In one case, I think the second choice was also on waitlist. If you successfully book an excursion, it won't let you book another — including a waitlist — unless the timing allows doing both. So you do need to book the waitlisted excursion first, then book the second-choice excursion. I can see a potential problem if you booked an excursion very early, and later came back to see there was an excursion which hadn't originally been available and which is of more interest — and that newer one is waitlisted. If you cancel your originally-booked excursion in order to get on the waitlist for the newer one you prefer, and then try to re-book the original one as your backup, you might find yourself waitlisted for that as well. But at least until they update the website next year, you have to call Regent to cancel an excursion, and hopefully the representative you speak with could walk you through that scenario without ill effect.

Seabourn refunds port fees for missed ports. It's not a huge windfall, and doesn't make up for disappointment of missing a port you were highly anticipating, but it's a nice gesture to not profit from our misfortune. In fact, on our most recent Seabourn cruise, there was one port where we were switched from being docked to being anchored in the harbor and using tenders — and we got a refund for port fees since we weren't docked at the port.

You definitely can waitlist if the excursion you want shows as being full. I wanted to add one thing I don't think I saw mentioned in this thread: if your first choice excursion is full, you can waitlist it AND book your second choice excursion. It isn't either/or. If you later clear the waitlist for your first choice excursion, they will automatically shift you to that one and remove the second-choice excursion you originally booked. This is a good system; it doesn't require you to commit to a less-desirable option, or to gamble and just hope your first choice will come through. We're leaving for a cruise on Splendor next week. We booked this cruise "only" six months in advance, so people had been reserving excursions for six months before we booked. We were originally waitlisted for three excursions. Over time, we cleared all three and now have our first choices for each port. 😀

Here's the list of prohibited items on Seabourn: https://www.seabourn.com/en_US/faq/prohibited-items.html

Probably 5% of cruisers think that's true. And 95% feel times have changed, and that a man can be smartly dressed without a tie. 🤣

I think this reference simply means that they get seated and eat as soon as the restaurant opens.

A simple extension cord or strip with multiple outlets should be fine. But a strip which includes a surge protector is not.

I'd like to add a follow-up to my posts in this thread about Regent losing a booked excursion and then saying there was nothing they could do about it. I reached out to Mike Moore, after seeing his helpfulness on this forum, to explain what had happened and offer him the document showing the booking which Regent had subsequently said never existed. He responded quickly and said he'd look into it, and a short time later followed up to say we were cleared off the waitlist onto the excursion! He said they were looking into it, but gave a plausible explanation how it could have happened, and also said they would be revamping parts of their website by next year to make things easier to do and to prevent a fall-between-the-cracks error that apparently was the culprit for us. What awesome service! It's probably not Mike's job to monitor this forum or respond to direct customer service issues, but it's a credit to him and to Regent that he does. He turned a pre-cruise disappointment into all smiles. (I'm a regular on the Seabourn and Silversea forums here, and those cruise lines don't have someone monitoring the site to jump on customer problems.) We see lots of complaints on this forum, but I wanted to make sure to share a positive experience here.