SeaSiq

Permission given to dock.  Healthy passengers will be bused to airport to go home.

You can see a little more about how SS is planning on handling folks who booked before this was announced at:

http://www.travelweekly.com/Cruise-Travel/Silversea-adds-free-shore-excursions-in-the-Med?ct=cruise

Note the the first sentence in the third paragraph! Sound like you get included for an upcharge. Also note that: "Fares will be increased slightly to reflect the greater value."

Wonder what "slightly" means to SS.

If you head to this site, you can see a shot on the ship of Galapagos Lobster For Lunch

http://www.pbase.com/britestar/image/156681398

You can decide if you think this looks edible.

DW has seen the pictures of the refurbished SG and still feels that the warmth of the original wood was nicer than the company wide greys and beiges that are now on SG. The removal of the large mirrors also seems to make the suites look smaller.

As far as the food, once again, it can be luck of the draw regarding the chef. DW had a really great chef on the first week's cruise and then it changed to a passable chef for the second week. Lots and lots of lobster. Lunch and dinner were pretty equal. Dinner, of course, was sit down. Dinner was late, to give everyone a chance to change after doing the afternoon excursion. The hot rock cooking worked well, but you must understand that things are informal. You should not try and compare everything to the regular SS cruise ships, or you will be disappointed. DW is VERY picky about food and had no complaints

We booked her air separately and used SS for the hotels and transfers. She did get an extra night in Quito as an SS add on. It was less costly that way than doing it herself. No trip to Machu Picchu. Transfers were handled quite well.

The DW spent two full weeks on the Silver Galapagos, before her latest refurbishment. The best point I can make is that she is ready to go back for another week next year. The food on the ship was good+, if you take into consideration the fact that there is a lot of seafood and that everything is restricted by the Ecuadorian government. First source must be Galapagos, then Ecuador, then outside sources. Many items are required to come in frozen, to reduce the chance of pests riding along. Preparation of the food by the chef was good and there is enough variety for anyone.

As far as size of the ship, she saw almost all of the other ships during her two weeks and was extremely happy that she had not booked any other. Unlike the 16 passenger boats, Silversea had some alternative shore excursions and, anyway, all shore groups are a maximum of sixteen, regardless of the ship. On her trip, she averaged about 12 people per excursion. Remember, on a small boat, if you run into a tight knit group or people you don't get along with, there is no escape to another group.

The crew moves from ship to ship at a sort of ridiculous rate, so you can't say taking a particular boat will get you the best crew. Those crew members she spoke to considered the Silver Galapagos to be the top ship in the Galapagos. Howver, they weren't happy with some of what they called, " stuck up" changes that were being pushed by management. No singing, no towel animals, more "respect", less "friendship". They felt that the passengers were enjoying these things and wanted to keep doing them. They also were not happy with the anticipated, at that time, changes that Silversea was supposed to make to the suites and overall color scheme. From warm wood paneling, a standard Silversea beige was anticipated. Haven't seen the changes yet, but wife liked the wood.

Also, take a look at cabin sizes. Silver Galapagos had fairly large suites compared to other boats in the Galapagos.

Allure was about 25 minutes late getting out of port due to the number of ships that left in a one hour period. She followed Regal Princess, Eurodam, Nieuw Amsterdam and Silhouette out.

I watched all the departures and the DW is currently enjoying the cruise.

Tomorrow.

Uh, single in an Owners Suite $2400.

Booked for the full two weeks in June! Flight from Guayaquil is after 11:30 PM. Do you know if the Oro Verde hotel just takes you to the airport a couple of hours before your flight, or is there some sort of group transfer by the Silversea ground handler, A&K?

I would love to know this too. We have a Silver Galapagos booking in June and have two nights at the JW Marriott through Silversea. No day tour for the one day in Quito was offered. They said to ask through the hotel.

Interestingly, I read a review of a Silver Galapagos trip and the reviewer said: "...we enjoyed a fantastic full day tour of Quito/Equator organised by the Silversea land agent" I wonder if this was Abercrombie & Kent or someone else. Plan to ask Silversea why Celebrity provides a day tour with their two night Quito stays, while Silversea doesn't. It seems like the five star line is doing a better job in the Galapagos than the six star line.

I have never been invited to the Captains table, but my DW traveling solo has been invited on a number of cruises. Why, I don't know. Now here is the really interesting part. In two cases, she sent her regrets that she was too busy with other commitments to dine with the Captain! On one occasion, another member of the senior staff invited her to dinner at one of the specialty restaurants as an alternative. According to her, it was a wonderful dinner with the Chief Engineer.

I should be so lucky.