taxatty

Excellent point that many long-time cruisers seem to forget.

https://silversea.shiptoshoretraveler.com/Rental-Deposit-Arctic-Boots for boots. It's actually cheaper to buy boots than to rent them if you've got the luggage space, and you'll then get to keep them for future use. We made space by using 30" REI rolling duffels and stuffing the boots with socks and underwear. The parkas are free, and if the one you order doesn't fit, the ship should have plenty of extras. Many persons on this board don't want to be bothered with schlepping boots back and forth and are willing to pay the exorbitant rental charge, but what the heck, the cruise is already absurdly expensive, so they'll tell you why not just rent. To each their own... If you have an evening flight the next day out of Santiago, there is no need to spend an extra day there.

No more "free" excursions on non-expedition cruises, initially with an OBC offer which will eventually disappear. Room service will acquire a small charge, which will increase over time. Envelopes will be left in each stateroom for "additional voluntary gratuities."

Wow, maybe instead of hiding alcohol in "rum runners" or other surreptitious containers like the old days, we'll need to start sneaking on water.

They certainly have, which is why they booked us a few years ago on the post-cruise late night AA flight out of SCL, and we got the same flight for ourselves when we go back to Antarctica next year.

Thanks for the background story--very interesting. As a bottom-line, Teppanyaki done right can be delicious, quality food--that's all I really care about, authenticity notwithstanding.

Darn, my secret is out!

FYI--we've done 14 Princess cruises and only 2 on Silversea, and we continue to sail on both lines. Both "cuisines" obviously suit us fine. Most importantly, as others here have stated and we agree, the article confirms that some of the best food on Princess can be found at the buffet, and that the specialty resturants don't always have higher quality food than the "free" venues. The best food I've ever had on Princess was the freshly-steamed lobster claws at the buffet one evening on the inaugural Regal Princess cruise (which I've never seen again on Princess, but then, Micky Arison was one of the guests.)

Other clothing items we brought to Antarctica that we liked--provided lots of warmth and relatively inexpensive--the 32 Degrees base layers and thermal undergarments sold by Costco.

We had no problems packing Muck/Bogs boots for our Antarctica Cloud trip. We both have 30" REI rolling duffels (which we love) and they fit fine, especially when stuffed with socks, underwear, etc. When buying them is cheaper than renting, and to be absolutely certain that we had boots that fit, buying them seemed to make more sense to us, especially since we'll be using them again next year on a SSea cruise that this time will include Falklands/South Georgia.

https://www.fodors.com/news/cruises/im-a-food-writer-can-i-find-anything-good-to-eat-on-a-mega-cruise The author's review matches many of my impressions of Princess' food over the year on several different ships, and provides some insight regarding what to look for and find the best food.

I bet on this luxury brand, unless Dollar Tree becomes the new supplier.

PASMO PASSPORT is no longer available as of 6/25/2024.

That is a HUGE upgrade on the ports--removes the ones found on countless cruises and replaces them with much more upscale ones.

Terry--you follow and report on the stock markets as well as anyone I've seen. You know that logic too often has nothing to do with stock prices! 🙂

No, but it's certainly possible, especially if it's the last available cabin in that category.

As Globaliser suggested, if you can handle the extra 2 hours of driving past Asheville to Charlotte (maybe spend the night in Charlotte to make it easier), it could be best to go CLT-LHR-ATH or CLT-MAD-ATH and have one fewer connection. I have flown between CLT and AVL (and the much nicer and more efficient GSP another hour down the road) many times. Those flights are fairly often delayed and sometimes cancelled, and you wouldn't want a messed-up AVL-CLT 40 minute flight connection to put your transatlantic trip in jeopardy. AVL is also now undergoing major construction that currently makes it a pain to use.

Wow. The Kimberley is certainly a strange (and expensive) "veg on the ship" cruise itinerary, given especially that there is relatively little to see from the ship itself (unlike, for example, Alaska), and very few on-ship activities during the day.

For transatlantics to and from Spain using AA points/miles, IB is generally your best bet for finding reasonable (example, 57.5K one-way) business awards. Some may require a domestic or LHR connection. I've booked various AA partner (IB, BA, QF, JL and CX) business awards immediately upon AA's award release "opening bell" precisely at 1:00 EST, others may show up later with no set pattern--as was stated, you have to be vigilant. IB charges higher fees than AA, but much lower than BA. IB is a decent airline for flying, but in my experience, it has the worst customer service of any airline I've flown. It took me almost 2 years, many calls and emails, and finally filing a US DOT complaint to get my money for a flight IB cancelled when the COVID pandemic began.

If you're a reasonable driving distance from ATL, it could be best to do so and fly nonstop from there. If you're not, consider leaving at least 2 hours between your domestic and international flights (especially if you have or can get airport lounge access), or possibly stay overnight in ATL or JFK and then fly to London the next day. As for LHR v. LGW, LHR generally has more flights to and from the US and is closer to London, but both work. The main downsides of LHR are that it's enormous, often massively busy and can be somewhat confusing to figure out (watch some YouTube videos in advance for help). As for prices, try Google Flights or Kayak and set them to inform you when prices change, although as Globaliser and FlyerTalker mentioned, there's no perfect system on when the cheapest flights will appear. For my most recent trips, some international flights turned out to have the lowest price seven months in advance--others, two weeks. Finally--don't fly in the same day as the cruise to hopefully make sure you don't miss the boat.

We flew RT to NZ in AA economy a few years ago--not pleasant experiences. For us, if a flight is 8 hours or less, and isn't overnight or otherwise requiring a need to sleep, PE is fine, although we've flown business when good deals exist. AA and BA each have decent PE seats and service. On longer flights, we go business (almost always on points/miles).

They may also be informed that those expenses are meant to be covered by travel insurance, which Silversea repeatedly urges acquiring.

For the sake of comparison, here is a current review of a Seabourn Pursuit Kimberley cruise, including a photo showing snorkeling off a Zodiac at Ashmore Reef. Truly, Silversea "just didn't want to bother." https://thepointsguy.com/guide/kimberley-australia-cruise-seabourn/

When we went to Ashmore Reef on the Silver Explorer last July, despite several passenger requests to the expedition staff, no snorkeling was allowed--just a zodiac tour--very disappointing. Subsequent 2023 Silver Explorer trip reports mentioned snorkeling there had been permitted, so something changed. I wrote to Silversea asking about this, but not surprisingly, I never got a response.

The Darwin airport was busy then because it has red-eyes going out at that time. Sorry to hear about the issues with the start of your cruise--hopefully things will improve. Some good news--the Darwin Hilton did in fact give us our points for staying there pre-cruise, including the extra day we booked separately as the hotel had my member number.