Randyk47

I too would be interested to see how somebody can actually determine the passenger load. I understand getting kind of a rough idea by the number of cabins shown but as pointed out Silversea doesn’t show every open cabin in a category. I think based on my previous experience that even my TA, who books a lot of Silverssea cruises, has to call to see if specific cabins are available. I have never gotten the feeling she can see 100% of the inventory.

That’s a hard decision for sure. Easy for me to sit here after being able to previously take this itinerary. I was so focused on being able to fulfill a lifelong dream the other ports were just “stops” and not of any particular interest. Have to say the full transit of the Suez Canal was interesting and a highlight. We’ll be adding a full transit of the Panama Canal to our bucket list check off this coming April on the Nova.

I guess I can understand people bailing if that’s what has happened. We luckily took the same itinerary a few years ago during a relative period of peace and quiet in the area. Visiting Egypt was a life long dream of mine as Egyptology was my post graduate minor and a lifetime interest. Our cruise was a great one and the dream visit and cruise of a lifetime. Today I would probably cancelled too because the whole reason for that cruise was Egypt and Jordan as a second reason. I would have been heartsick but the investment in money and time for a cruise/trip that didn’t stop in Egypt would not be worth it.

Maybe that’s the norm but we’ve started and ended cruises in San Juan four times and this was our first Pan American terminal experience. As I said what was a port day for us and 50 +/- other passengers at the end of the first 7-day was end of cruise for 500 passengers. The difference I noticed this time was the Dawn was the only cruise ship in port at either location. Looking around when we disembarked certainly the Pan American facility is nicer but it is also somewhat isolated. Once you’re there to embark there would not be much else to do.

Thank you. Mrs K made it back from Poland late last night. 24 hour trip on three planes so she’s pretty tired. Mentioned you cancelling your trip this morning and she agreed that probably is wise.

Really hard to say this far out. The Caribbean cruise season is just really starting up and San Juan will get pretty busy. This is further complicated by San Juan having two distinct cruise terminal areas. The one we’ve used the most on Silversea is right below what I call main or old San Juan area. The other is kind of across the port next to a small executive airport. It’s close as the crow flies but not walking distance as you have to get around a fairly major part of the port. As I said we’ve usually docked in the older main town area but on the Dawn earlier this year we were on 14-day cruise that was actually two 7-day back to back cruises. The changeover over port was main town terminal but the end of the next 7-day was the other terminal area by the executive airport.

I suspect Silversea is scrambling to line up excursions for the replacement ports. They may not know what will be available until the day of the sailing. They can’t post what they don’t know or have firm commitments.

I asked a couple of years ago and was told they couldn’t keep complete sets so they basically gave up. Even some chess sets have pieces missing. Lovely behavior.

I hope and pray for some speedy and reasonable solution but if it explodes and other states in the area get involved then I would expect changes will be made.

We did the Rome (Civitaveccha) to Dubai itinerary on the Spirit a few years ago. Even back then it was an off and on situation for my wife who is a senior manager in the US Department of Defense. Her travel, even personal travel, has to be approved for certain parts of the world including Israel, most of North African, and the Persian Gulf states. Right now she is in Poland on official travel and told me this morning she’d received a long cautionary message to be careful and that specifically cancelled all official and personal travel to Israel, North Africa, and the Persian Gulf states pending further review. Stuff happens.

We’ve used Silversea transfers from time to time and have never been offered a free post cruise tour and a couple of times we’ve gotten to the airport hours before our flight. Don’t see this as a cut in service.

Silversea came through an rebooked our return flights on American Airlines. Not our preferred or favorite airline but the flight doesn’t leave Vancouver until 1:45 PM so manageable. Another downside is we don’t arrive in San Antonio until 10:30 PM but with door-to-door it will be nice to have the limo service home. All in all after booking us on I think mistakenly 7 AM flights initially they came through quickly with a new set of flights. Have to give them a plus for handling the situation. 🙂👍

Got the Delta Airlines record locator for our flights home from Vancouver, BC and it’s a real shame we can’t make those flights. Silversea came up with great flights and super seats. If possible we’d actually get back home at a reasonable mid-afternoon time. I can’t imagine why Silversea would ever book a 7 AM flight anywhere. Yes, the airport in Vancouver is only 8 or so miles from the cruise terminal so that’s not far but with the ship docking between 5 and 6 AM a 7 AM flight isn’t happening. Seems to me this should be an automatic red flag. Short of an overnight at the disembarkation port there should be some kind of standing rule not to book flights within 3 to 4 hours minimally at any port and maybe more at ports where the airport is distant. Not ever port is a Ft Lauderdale or Vancouver.

Turns out after I posted our TA sent me an email with our flights. She noticed the issue with the return flight out of Vancouver, BC being too close to Nova’s arrival. This morning we emailed back and forth and she had already sent Silversea an email alerting them to the issue. Said she got an answer almost immediately that they were working on it and would get back with new flights. Still 223 days before the cruise so plenty of time to solve the problem. Of course this far out I’d expect there will be more adjustments and changes before we actually fly. Interesting our friends and cruise partners also booked the cruise as a door-to-door and their flight to Florida goes to Miami instead of Ft Lauderdale. We both figure Silversea will provide them some kind of limo service to Ft Lauderdale as we are both using a Silversea arranged hotel pre-cruise. She brought it up with our shared TA so we’ll see. Bottom line right now is neither of us have total confidence in Silversea flight arrangements right now but plenty of time to resolve.

Well obviously, passenger locator number or whatever it is called, is not an immediate issue, Silversea in their wisdom has my flight scheduled at exactly the same time we dock in Vancouver. Obviously that isn’t happening. Will deal through my TA with Silversea for a more doable flight schedule.

We do have our flights in MySilversea but no passenger number/confirmation code. Guess I’ll text out TA.

As posted I need the confirmation number….,that’s what Delta asks for.

Yup. Know that but how or when do we get that from Silversea?

Pardon my question but I did a search and read through this thread and can’t find what is the process for selecting seats on Silversea arranged flights? I can now see our flights fir our upcoming cruise but no seats are shown and no passenger number assigned so I can look at the airline’s record. First time we’ve ever used cruise line arranged flights. And, by the way, they have us leaving Vancouver, BC at 7 AM. If that holds true I guess we’ll have to up and off the ship by about 5 AM. 😱

I’m confused about the port-to-port days not counting toward benefits. Some postings state that while others say they do count. Both sides say they have asked Silversea/their TA so which is it? 🤔

Is that a change in policy or just this cruise? In the past, before the door-to-door or port-to-port options, we always booked our own flights but occasionally have used Silversea hotels without an issue. Our next cruise we went full door-to-door for the first because the quote we got for the air portion was very close to what we could book ourselves and it just seemed simpler and cleaner to let Silversea handle all the arrangements. The future cruise consultant sold us on the full package. Again, this will be our first cruise using that option and we didn’t research all the ins and outs while on the Dawn.

For sure the wi-fi has improved over the years. Now with Starlink I am expecting even better connection. That said it’s not for streaming or video-conferences.

We have had to surrender our passports when we were in the Med. More recently in the Caribbean we didn’t have to surrender our passports. Not sure if that means only in certain locations and not in others or if Silversea has changed its procedures.

And starched. 🙄😱

Funny thing is we rarely gain weight on a cruise. We typically book port intensive itineraries so not only are we off the ship and not “forced” to eat three meals a day plus snacks but more active than when at home. 😀👍