AusMum

it's so you don't steal their sheets lol

I think it depends on where you come from too. If you fly from Australia to Europe (around 20 hours) then you want to see/do as much as possible because it's such a long way to go, and you can 'relax' at home.

I didn't compare UK with US travel agents, but compared US with Australian. Much to the surprise of a couple of US travel agents, they couldn't actually better the price quoted by the Australian TA (which was the same as SS direct). It may well have been the itinerary we were booking.

Ohhh I have done a similar itinerary, but with Celebrity. We did Barcelona to Venice, with stops in Monaco, Nice, Sicily, Rome, Corfu, Croatia and a few other places. My fave port was Sicily, out of your ports (which I didn't expect). Our port in Croatia was Zadar where we did the Krka waterfalls. In Sicily we got to go to Taormina.

I don't want to incriminate myself lol

is today a sea day?

I guess it depends on the destination? where are you going, and what tours did you have in mind?

On a 16 night cruise, will they stop my husband from snoring?

I looked at your itinerary and think ours might be quite different, but (as you've indicated) they can change the itinerary at any time to suit the conditions, He really just needs to be responsible and eat a good breakfast. Ps: enjoyed the video you linked us too about the do's and don't in the Arctic

That's good to hear - our cruise is September 2024, so hopefully even better weather?

I've been reading The Dark Iceland Series by Ragnar Jonasson. He's not quite the Michael Robotham of Iceland, but he's not bad. We also watched Trapped and Entrapped, and another series called Black Sands. My hubby had a question for you regarding going on shore in Greenland, with their quarantine regulations (was really interesting when you mentioned velcro carrying potential threats, and amazed us that Australia hasn't adopted this practice with our pretty tight regulations) - are you able to take any food off the vessel? he is a diabetic and usually carries something in case his sugars go too low. Did you purchase food/lunch in any of the towns?

Can’t wait to catch up on this blog - we are doing Iceland and Greenland in September 2024 on Endeavour, so it was good if you to take this cruise to give us a preview lol

I’ve been getting into Icelandic crime fiction to prepare me for my Iceland/Greenland adventures lol

the ruins look very very cool

You are going to have to get some more of these crustaceans so we can get a better look 😉

I hope you get to see the whale sharks in Exmouth! we were there in July, a few years ago, and got to see Orcas - sadly, they were hunting baby humpbacks, but were pretty amazing to see. Perth's population has doubled in the past few years - it's crazy! Ahh, that would have been Kings Park.

Tiger prawns are really common in Asian and Australian waters, but they have a prominent red tiger stripe to them, and a different head. https://www.sydneyfishmarket.com.au/Home/Seafood/Species-Information/List/tiger-prawn

they don't look like tiger prawns or king prawns (like we get down here)

Ohhh that's awesome! it will be pretty cold in Perth, but should be lovely when you get to the Kimberley (it's amazing how many climates we have in one state). What do you have planned for Perth? does the ship stop in Exmouth on the way?

They look a little bit like scampi? I'm keen to eat them, not matter which crustacean they are 🙂

Thank you! we have a caravan here in Australia, and anywhere is a long drive from where we are. We are off to a place called Exmouth next month (famous for whale sharks). It's a 13 hour drive (without a caravan), we will only have covered half our state, and there will be miles and miles of nothing. Sorry your husband got Covid whilst you were away. I caught it (for the first time) about 3 weeks ago. I've just gotten over feeling like I'm constantly drowning, so it would be scary to go through it in a foreign country!

is that a lobster on the left hand side?

Isn't that part of why we travel though? to experience different food. I don't expect to find vegemite on any cruise we go on. When we go to the US, we struggle with a lot of the food, because it's sooo different to Australia. Much of the food is too sweet for our palate (especially the bread), the chicken is a weird colour (being corn fed), the ham and bacon is just too different to what we are used to, and the eggs just 'look wrong'. BUT, you try new things and accept you're not at home. I'm super fussy, so always lose weight when we travel (we self cater when we can). I'm pretty excited about there being lobster available, as I could live off that, and who can stuff up lobster? 🙂 I guess Silversea still has a relationship with some Italian suppliers, and it's more economical to source some foods from the closest countries to the ports they get supplies from. I do agree with you about Italian beef - compared to US and Australian beef it seems to be a bit insipid. We almost accidentally purchased horse from a butcher in Venice because "at least it had some colour". We have previously traveled on P&O Australia, Carnival, RCCL and Celebrity. This will be our first Silversea cruise. We picked our cruise for the itinerary (Iceland and Greenland), but I am also looking forward to the 'Italian influence' that I hope still exists, despite RCCL now taking ownership.

It was something like 17C in Perth (Western Australia) and most people looked like they were on a ski holiday lol The media is reporting on how we are all "freezing". It is Winter 🙂 https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/weather/wa-weather-state-shivers-through-start-of-week-with-temperatures-plunging-in-the-wheatbelt-c-11021006

I think these junkets are designed by teacher/for teachers. My son's school (in Perth Western Australia) offered a surf trip to The Maldives, science and music trips to NYC and Florida, and trips to Turkey for ANZAC Day. Some of the schools do regular trips to Indonesia, but it's considered to be 'just down the road' for us. We have traveled a lot with our son. We took him to Alaska when he was 4, and he was one of three children on that particular cruise. He got an award at school for doing a presentation, in front of the entire school, on 'glacier calving in Alaska', and now (at 25) is working his way to a career in renewable energy. Your kids will gain so much from any travel you do with them! I'm curious about what camera you are using? In the past I have dragged a Canon SLR (and lenses) across the globe, but it does become a pain. I'm thinking about investing in something smaller for when we do Greenland and Iceland. Thanks so much for your informative updates!