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pavementends

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Everything posted by pavementends

  1. OP should carry his camera and leave the laptop at home. Problem solved. It is unfortunate that OP is getting details now. However "issues" with cruise ships and Venice have been in the air for some time so this should be no surprise. To be honest (1) a night in Venice is a better experience than a few hours of tour and (2) there are interesting things to see in Ravenna if OP's plans are flexible.
  2. 1. Everybody who pays attention knows that European business class is not the same as international business class. 2. BA has gone through phases of being good and being terrible. Right now I consider it not great. I don't like the way that they deal with seat assignment. Sometimes a "BA" flight is really a codeshare and booking the same flight with another airline is better.
  3. No answer yet. I'm kinda curious, but not very curious as I will eat most anything. I do know people eating strict more-limited-than-just-vegan diets. For someone with food requirements that strict cruises may be inadvisable.
  4. Right now it is in Greenland. You can follow day by day on cruisemapper(dot)com (and possibly other sites). Also shows a few of the planned future stops. (I used this site to track a ship that I was expecting to take to Antarctica. When it wasn't doing what I thought it should be doing it was a warning that there was an issue. This was early in the Covid thing).
  5. Port-to-port makes sense if you are absolutely sure you will not cancel the cruise because you change your mind. You can protect against a cancellation you do NOT choose (for example: due to your illness, job loss, illness or death in the immediate family, other coverages noted) by buying trip insurance. Insurance against your voluntary cancellation (cancel for any reason coverage, or CFAR) is likely to be prohibitive in cost, and usually only provides partial compensation).
  6. Post is not completely clear about whether "convention center" is in Anchorage or Seward. When we took one of these cruises, we took the (sort of scenic, a bit worn) train to Seward and stayed in Seward two nights. On the day of departure we took luggage to the port and dropped off a few hours ahead of boarding. It was a building a short walk from the actual terminal. I don't remember luggage tags but maybe they gave us a bag check??
  7. At one of the stops in Alaska I took a tour that went a few miles into Canada. They were careful to tell us to get our passports and take them with us. This was a bus tour on a very lightly traveled road up into the mountains. No, there were no Canadian Mounties checking passports. But I was ready.
  8. As noted, departure from Reykjavik can be a real mess. By the way, there WAS a priority line for business class. It was just hard to find it. The cruise Southampton to Iceland was lightly subscribed while Iceland to Southampton was sold out. Now I know why.
  9. If a country requires that I carry my passport I carry my passport. After all, I have somehow managed to board the ship with my passport after having carried it to the departure port. I do use an around-the-neck pouch so that I won't lose it inadvertently or have it snatched by pickpockets after my wallet or backpack. I guess I think it will be a lot easier to explain to the US State Department that I had my passport taken (a very small chance) than to explain to an Italian* policeman that I didn't think the rules applied to me. * Arbitrary choice of country. Although I have seen some very officious and inflexible Italian officials in action.
  10. Sounds like they want to put you on a redeye. Don't know about you but that would persuade me to make my own reservations.
  11. I have used this airline for several flights within Argentina. Before my recent trip I had to cancel some flights due to COVID. At the time I had enormous difficulty contacting them from the US either by email or phone or webpage. Based on my experience I would expect difficulty with making any changes to electronically purchased tickets. They seem to operate codeshare with Delta from the US. Maybe that will help with the communication issues.
  12. In my experience collecting passports is very typical. In principle all passengers can be cleared in advance of debarking at the final port. This does not always work however (Iceland, stand up). There seems to be a certain randomness about this. On a recent trip (UK to Iceland) there was no need for passports at any intermediate port. At some ports the cruise card seemed to substitute for a passport. At one small stop in Iceland, there was no check at all leaving or reboarding the ship (except for Silversea's check that I was a passenger). And at the cruise end in Reykjavik, there was a massive cluster** when the Icelandic reps seemed to be slow-walking the checking and stamping of every single passenger's passport.
  13. So you are saying that an email to a Silversea address somehow got intercepted??
  14. Since wifi is via satellite it may depend. However when I was on Moon UK to Iceland the free wifi was just fine for keeping up with the news, general web browsing, and email. My personal feeling is that if you need faster wifi for streaming and zoom meetings you are not taking advantage of your vacation.
  15. If P-P is offered it is usually a fair bit cheaper than D-D without air. My impression is that P-P is offered on itineraries that are not in high demand. P-P has less liberal cancellation policies.
  16. When I embarked at Southampton I got there early (noon). Was planning on getting a very leisurely lunch at a nearby hotel. I walked up to the port entrance and discovered they were already boarding. Had lunch on board instead.
  17. Well you have it ready in case you need to get buried in it. Unless you were already planning to use your Grateful Dead t shirt.
  18. Yes, spelling and proofreading has been much degraded these days. And let's not even get into punctuation, specifically the apostrophe, especially so close to International Apostrophe Day. Another amusing one: a different cruise line offered an excursion to a Scotch distillery that was preceded by a bus ride through the Irish countryside.
  19. On the other hand there are volcanos in Iceland but not in Svalbard. OP should do both. And if possible get north of Svalbard.
  20. For us La Dame is not to our taste and one experience at Kaiseki on one ship was disappointing. So not having these included is not a problem. We were very happy with all the other restaurant options and the other things that were included. Those considering Silversea should read what is included, review comments found here and elsewhere, and make the choice.
  21. On another itinerary- I paid for Air Plus and asked about a stopover on the return. They wanted to charge additional for the deviation. I canceled Viking air- got a full refund- and booked myself for about 1K less per person. This of course depends on the particular itinerary.
  22. Yeah that's me, I decided that modest adjustments (take a jacket which I would anyway, buy some inexpensive black slacks, and take a tie) would prevent me from being an unreasonable outlier. (In terms of why I liked Silversea: (1) all-inclusive (2) not too may people (3) luxury-ish experience and (4) ports.) Some of the comments read like: there are some who are really looking for a place that they can strut their tuxedos and feel that this is normal.
  23. It is quite unusual for the entire trip to Antarctica to be cancelled but it has happened. I remember the recent case of the Seaborne Venture which had a stabilizer failure. Trips can also be cut short because of injuries, severe sickness, etc. Apart from these (relatively rare) events weather mostly limits the number of landings or results in a route change. I am sure the podcaster case had to do with a flight; these are more often canceled and are a less certain way to get to Antarctica. And yes, there are a fair number of different operators to Antarctica but they all have to operate in the same environment with the same risks of weather, equipment failure, and accidents. The number of "luxury" expedition ships has increased recently. A web search will reveal some companies that represent multiple smaller operators and if OP wants to explore alternatives this is one way to do it.
  24. Wind is probably more of an issue than temperature. You will want waterproof clothing including pants (ski pants probably fine). Warm underwear pants will help as will a hat. Remember you will be sitting on a wet zodiac and maybe get some salt spray besides. You are unlikely to have problems with camera operation. You are looking at the guaranteed specification not the temperature where the camera actually stops working. The camera is unlikely to cool down to ambient anyway. Take extra batteries, especially if you camera is a mirrorless.
  25. I seem to get a Viking brochure every week. OP can have some of mine. (Too bad it's not that simple.) I'm sure if OP makes contact with Viking he will get the brochures he wants, but I rather suspect he will regret it after a while.


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