drron29

Maybe it is worth you contacting SS by phone or email.

I learnt a few years ago if the call centre is useless blame the company who hired them.

I had a problem with a complex award from American Airlines as Malev went into bankruptcy and all flights cancelled. On ringing I got a call centre in Manilla and a person called Candy answered my call. She was apologetic saying today was her first day on the job. It was a long call as I imparted my knowledge to her but I also learnt a few new tricks from her for example getting a KLM flight on my AA awrd.

i found out that when she was employed an AA agent schooled the new employees for 3 days. I guess SS just employed them. period.

I think the problem with the low cost tours around $100 is that they are no longer free to those on the lowest fare with excursions not included so they have to show a price. when you book an excursion and you are on port to port or door to door fares the price disappears when you book.

2 hours ago, fudge said:

The same happened to us, my neighbour asked for a recipe for chili con carne, it called for 1 garlic clove, she put the whole bulb in about 15 cloves!  We were invited for dinner, when we entered the house boy did it smell of garlic!!

I remember one of the times we went to San Francisco and had lunch at the Stinking Rose restaurant. I had the garlic bouillabaisse and Rojaan had the 40 clove chicken. We were heading east and stopped at a Factory outlet mall. Rojaan wanted to buy something at Pier 1 imports. but every time either of us opened our mouth the server took another step backwards. No idea why.

Our Kimberly cruise was on the Orion when it was Australian owned. The Explorer was a much better ship.

We also did our Antarctic cruise on the Orion. In the next cabin there was a senior Linblad Captain who in retrospect was seeing that she was a fit for their fleet. We got on famousaly. Even guested him into the Qantas lounge in Auckland.

The interesting thing about the NG Orion is that we were on the Whisper in the Baltic sea nd when we docked in Tallinn the NG Orion was on the other side of the wharf. Virtually all of her crew from our Antarctic cruise 6 years previously were still with her.

Again some of the best steaks I have had have been on our last 2 cruises on the Muse. Either in Atlantide or Hot Rocks.

Just before the first of those Muse cruise in October 2023 they had changed their provider of beef to a Texan producer. The steaks certainly were better than the cruises on the Dawn and Moon cruises before that.

5 hours ago, UKCruiseJeff said:

Salvador Dali has control of Silversea, 

Dali wasn’t mad enough to agree to control Silversea.

It is also possible the chef has changed. We were on the Muse in October last for 7 weeks and again in March for 4 weeks. There were some disappointments with food but one thing was consistent. The steaks in Atlantide were superb and cooked exactly how they were ordered.

We were on the Explorer in the Arctic and an Australian Expedition in the Antarctic. both had a "french" balcony. So no use trying to sit out on it. But opening the door allowed much better views of the wildlife etc and way better photos. We were glad we had our little balcony.

I guess the bird flu might have caused some problems the same as Antarctica. I am currently in Sapporo Japan and visited their Botanical Gardens today. They had a sign saying bird flu has been confirmed as the cause of death of many of their crows.

1 hour ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

The Beach Boys are always looking for young backup singers who can do falsetto.  When I used to sing the tenor part at church I got headaches – this would have been a (literal) Godsend.

When I was 13 in the church choir I was the only one singing the bass part so sometimes I was solo. Unfortunately that was a few years before Mr Bassman came along in 1963.

The Amazon certainly is a wonderful experience. Once again your photos were excellent. I hope your Galapagos cruise is as eventful as ours was. After it my comment to our guide who in real life was a National Park ranger was that the Galapagos was one place that even david Attenborough couldn't depict what it was like when you saw it yourself.

A  great report once again JP. You really fitted in a lot in your time in Perth. There wasn't that much more to see. Loved the pictures.

Thanks again Ryan you are bringing back so many beautiful memories from our time in the Amazon. We stayed

 at the Napo lodge which must be in the same general area.

https://napowildlifecenter.com/

Only 16 guests and they hadn’t worked out what to do with us as they had a group of 7 birders, a family group of 7and us. My wife had an injury on our Galapagos cruise so wasn’t able to go on the excursions. She spent her day in a hammock being brought regular cocktails.

 I was put with the birders. At first they really didn’t want me there but in the end they agreed that it was a real bonus having me along as I have this ability to attract birds of the feathered variety. They saw some that weren’t even on their wish list.

Once again you obviously are having a great time and I am looking forward to your continued adventures.

Looking forward to this report. Your last  was excellent.

But don't tell all on the CC Silversea board that you called the Duval-Leroy real champagne. That might start an argument.

1 hour ago, DavyWavey70 said:

The print did rub off though!

Even in Australia in the 50s houses were built with outside dunnies and cans to be picked up by the local dunny truck. 
We mainly used the Sydney Morning Herald but I hated the news print. Fortunately my dad would always buy in bulk from the market so my preferred paper was the wrapper that always came with the apples. Nice and smooth.

35 minutes ago, UKCruiseJeff said:

 

You only learn by listening to both sides of every story.  

 

The terrible painful truth is that you learn nothing from people that share the same opinions as yours, and can only learn from people that disagree with your views.  Sometimes if you are of a fortunate mindset one can even change one’s mind about things and grow from listening.

 

Jeff

Absolutely agree. Unfortunately most people only read what they believe. I read both right and left media locally plus a few international media outlets. I used to read Russia Today but now it’s outlawed here in Australia so I have substituted Al Jazzera.

If you don’t know what you’re enemy is saying then you are in trouble.

A slippery slope. Getting a bit like USA air lines a little while ago. People pushing the envelope eventually led to the inevitable backlash.

I remember waiting to enter an Admiral’s club and the fellow in front had a pig. The agent refused admission and the fellow went on a real rant that it was a service animal and he was allowed to take it on the plane. Yes sir you are allowed on the plane but this is a private club and the pig is not allowed.

1 hour ago, Port Power said:

Wednesday, 26 June, 2024.  Disembarkation.

 

I know people often ask about the procedure.  It was easy and relaxed.  Cases were put outside last night by 11:00pm.  Some people partied on in Dolce Vita, but most returned to their suites.  As the charter flight used the airport proper (not a separate private hangar), the usual liquids rules applied.

 

Suites needed to be vacated by 8:00am, so carry-ons were lining the corridor outside restaurants.  La Terrazza was very busy, but The Restaurant was nice and relaxed.  Then just wait in any of the lounges until your luggage tag was called.  My purple tag was called at 9:30am, as was stated in the letter in my suite last night.  We walked out to the bus and were driven to the airport, about 10 minutes.  On alighting there were ”guides” standing further along, but they didn’t say or do anything, not even motion to us to come closer.  This was the only let down in the whole process.  Eventually we did walk closer and then saw our luggage around the corner.  Purpled tagged luggage only, so the “guides” only unpack each colour group as appropriate.

 

We rolled our cases inside, parkas carried on worn as back packs, and joined the check in queue.  Then through security into the seating areas.  All that didn’t take very long at all.  There was a bit of last minute shopping for fluffy toys!

We saw the plane arrive about 10:40 and the new guests disembark.  We assumed they would be going on a coach tour of Svalbard before joining the ship for lunch.

 

The charter aircraft was a Boeing 737-800, with the middle seat left empty all along except for the crew members in the rear seats.  There are always crew changeovers whenever the ship starts a new cruise.  A very nice meal was served during the 2hr 50min flight.

 

After collecting luggage from the carousel on arrival and exiting the baggage area, there were a couple of agents holding Silversea signs.  So there is nothing to worry about at all.  If you are doing your own thing, signs to the train platform were clear, or taxis.

 

I am about to head to the airport for my ongoing flight, this now bring Thursday morning.  Thank you all for following along and for your “likes” and comments. I do appreciate them. 😀

Thanks for the great report and pictures. It brought back great memories of our first SS cruise on the PA 2 as it was then. A few differences as all the walrus had hauled out elsewhere but as compensation we did see 8 polar bears feeding on a whale carcass including a mother and cub. 

4 hours ago, Catlover54 said:

 

This is mostly very helpful and reassuring, as is Port Power's post #74.  However, where you say "the zodiac dropped about 2 minutes and there I was swinging in the breeze", I hope you meant that the zodiac dropped  2 *feet* or 2 *meters*  and not 2 minutes!  Two minutes  would be a long time to be swinging and have two guys holding you up by your arms ) 😳

Definitely 2 metres. I caught the fact that the phone wanted to change it to 2 minutes this time.

At Darwin airport now and noticed 2 people with a familiar sign.

Here for the next Darwin to Broome cruise beginning tomorrow. 

Sorry but in recent times the term waitlist after a cancelled cruise means wholesale changes a coming. I hope not so in this case but I wouldn't bet on it.

No problems if you don't want to use a zodiac. Best though to tell an Expedition staffer before hand as they may think they need to wait for you. They won't wait long though.

As to being fit it is not a problem if you aren't. On our cruise up the west African coast on the Explorer a wheelchair bound woman in her nineties was taken ashore in a zodiac a couple of times. The staff really went out of their way to help.

I have seen zodiacs returning to the ship in absolutely terrible conditions. Once it was I who was last to board. The weather turned quickly at Cape Dorset and I was in the last zodiac back. It was a ride of over 2 miles back to the Explorer. I was last off the boat. The 2 crew on the ship had hold of an arm each. As I stepped onto the ladder the zodiac dropped about 2 minutes and there I was swinging in the breeze. At that stage I weighed 110KG without all the cold weather gear. I didn't panic because I had seen similiar things before. Eventually the zodiac came back to me and very quickly I was onboard.

Again I was not terribly fit but went on the hikes. On a couple of occasions I couldn't keep up. A staff member would drop back and we worked out a plan. Often returning the way I came.

She was and hopefully still is a great ship. Very stable in Rough seas. We went through 3 Force 12 Atlantic gales on her and she handled them beautifully.