Fletcher

For me, Regent, Seabourn and Silversea offer a similar experience in their regular cruises. Service levels are pretty much identical though I can do without the butlers on Silversea. Regent is the more casual, Silversea slightly dressier than Seabourn, though that is changing. Seabourn has the least interesting food options, to my taste anyway, and I do think Seabourn's ships are beginning to look a little staid compared to the latest offerings from Regent and Silversea. However, both Regent and Silversea have largely abandoned forward-facing observation decks which is a big no-no for me. I like to see where I am going without hanging off the side rail. As far as expedition cruises are concerned, which I prefer, Regent is a non-starter and Seabourn (so far) much less interesting than Silversea which has a fabulous programme spread across four ships. I'm on Silver Cloud for my next trip and then I'm going AWOL with back-to-back cruises on Aranui5. It's the itinerary, stoopid.

All my photos of this Sojourn trip are now up on Flickr - https://www.flickr.com/photos/up70mm/albums/72177720302843050

Les - We were on Seabourn Quest to Antarctica and South Georgia. The 'memento movie' was given to us on a USB stick, ran about 10 minutes, nice quality imagery, professionally cut together, they preserved passengers' privacy by not having any close-ups etc. Nice to have and I think they can be found on YouTube. I also think Silversea used to charge for them. Maybe I'm wrong there.

On our ship passengers were banned from using drones but the expedition team had them aloft all the time when the weather was OK.

Yes, totally agree. Heard yesterday the tours were up on the site - booked AlUla for 3-4 May and Medinah for 5th. They have retrieved the situation brilliantly. Let's hope it all works out on the ground when we all get there.

Have you been able to book the revised excursion to Al Ula? It appears on the regular Silversea website for the cruise but not when I log into MySilversea. They are obviously working hard to recover the situation.

I guess that's a Ponant ship . . . ? A few others do this route and some make landings on Henderson and Ducie and also go on to the Juan Fernandez group. I did this some years back and it remains the best cruise I have ever done, including Antarctica. And that despite the roughest seas ever between Pitcairn and Easter Island!

Back-to-Back cruises on Aranui 5 to the Marquesas and the Australs. March 2024, if we survive. Next cruise, though, is to Oman, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia and Egypt on the Silver Cloud.

The short answer is neither. Both ships you are considering carry c2000pax and that is way too big for these islands. Look for a ship with less than 500pax and that way you will have a far more enjoyable and immersive experience. I've made three trips around PNG, Solomons, Vanuatu etc and always on small ships with about 100pax and equipped for zodiac landings. (btw, hardly anyone on this Forum knows about Melanesia. Tahiti is the main topic here.)

Venture is currently closing in on the Falklands.

Port Stanley can be iffy for bigger ships which would include Quest but possibly not Venture. Also, Venture is scheduled to visit several outer islands which should be perfectly OK and are much more interesting than Stanley.

Well, all change on this trip. Just had an email advising that Saudi has vetoed several intended landings so the Cloud will now spend five days in Jeddah and not go to all the interesting ports north. Count me out.

Is there a technical problem with the Venture? Citing broken stablisers, people on Facebook report the ship has turned back to Ushuaia and won't be going to South Georgia for the Holiday voyage. The ship appears to be at anchor in the bay at Ushuaia.

She replied to me personally on Facebook a few weeks ago which I thought was impressive.

India has now dropped its policy towards UK citizens who may now apply for the e-visa. Canadians remain unchanged.

The Falklands often get visited by very large cruise ships which anchor in the outer bay and send tenders ashore, weather permitting. So it's well worth checking Cruise Timetables to see if you will be alone or not. On our ship, Island Sky, we went alongside and just walked off the ship. Not sure, but the Cloud might be too big to do that.

My Falklands photos are here -wish I could get back there one day. https://www.flickr.com/photos/up70mm/albums/72157629953566910

You're obviously on one of SS's expedition ships. That will take you to outer islands in the Falklands - New Island and Saunders, for instance, where the penguin colonies are spectacular. They have rockhoppers there which are rare on South Georgia. If you sit down albatrosses literally walk over you. And from the clifftops you can see the penguins do amazing dives and landings. It's different from South Georgia but just as spectacular. If you go to these islands there is no need in my view to stray beyond Port Stanley which provides an extremely pleasant wander around. British people often like to tour the battle sites like Bluff Cove.

We too you. We have just noted that we get on board in Muscat on the penultimate day of Ramadan and that our first week in Oman will be during the Festival of Eid. Hope this might be interesting rather than inconvenient. I'm relieved we won't be in Saudi at that time.

I read your post on Facebook and noted you are in Bali. My wife suggests - as a last resort - you contact the Australian consulate in Bali and hope they may help, if only to offer you access to a computer. You may not be able to board the ship in Dubai without an Indian visa but it's theoretically possible for you to apply for the visa using the computers on board the ship. At least Australians qualify for the eVisa. Britons and Canadians do not and that makes it even more complicated. Personally I refuse to have anything to do with India right now

Hello Clarky. I used the link provided by Wes above and got this reply - "My sincere apologies for the delay in getting our shore excursion programs online for this incredible voyage. Rest assured we are working diligently with our operators to get tours online as quickly as possible. The visit to Lac Assal and Al Ula will be available to book as soon as we have the final details from our operator. Again, my apologies for this delay we anticipate having online in the next few weeks and will communicate respectively." I took this to mean that everyone is waitlisted for now and in a few weeks the bookings will be confirmed once they have sorted out the land arrangements. This really is new territory for cruises. I think also they wanted to know the likely numbers of sacrificial lambs. Al Ula has quite large hotel capacity and this will be in low season (ie, hot). I'll be tackling them over visas sometime early next year.

All sorted, mainly thanks to @WesW for the link. Situation clarified instantly and we are aboard for the Saudi expedition. I think this is a one-off itinerary and we are very excited about it.

This is one reason I tend to go with Seabourn's flight programme on this sort of cruise. To somewhere easy like the Med I probably wouldn't but the uncertainty of this cruise makes going with Seabourn air a no-brainer.

I called Seabourn the other day. They said Barbados-Manaus will (currently) be the Pursuit's inaugural voyage which is interesting considering cruise lines usually choose less challenging itineraries to begin with. However, I really fancy this cruise as it visits the three Guianas. Or does it? If you look on the website the map shows all those ports of calls but the printed itinerary doesn't. Guyana and Surinam are missing. Seabourn says this is because those two countries currently have a ban in force on cruise ships. I seem to remember some months back I got a lavish brochure for the Pursuit and Venture which listed all sorts of mouth-watering trips across Micronesia and Polynesia but these appear now to have been dropped. I think this is a fluid situation.

Our neighbour's dog is called Fudge.