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March 2018 Caribbean Questions


napria
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Thanking you all in advance for your patience with this newbie's questions. The last thread I posted you were incredibly helpful, and I took your advice to heart and made some adjustments.

 

Here are my latest questions...

 

1. Three of the four of us are very interested in culinary endeavors/professional kitchens. Are there any on-board, behind the scenes experiences offered where we could see the kitchen?

 

2. I hope this isn't stupid, but what do men wear to and from the pool? There's been some question as to whether a tee shirt is acceptable or is a polo shirt a better choice?

 

3. When taking advantage of Silversea's air add on, do they usually fly you in on the day of embarkation?

 

Thank you again for sharing your knowledge!

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Your right, a little wield questions, but here goes:

They do offer tours of the kitchen and will give you a private tour if you pay for your cruise with a Platinum AMX card. If you want a more immerse experience, you will have sign on for 12 week employee contract.

 

Pool is OK with T shirts. Silver guests are not that stuffy.

 

Air can work the same day or the day before. if you don't mind paying for a Silversea approved hotel they will also provide transportation from hotel to ship.

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T shirts are definitely okay or we would have been thrown overboard years ago!

 

If you use SS air, you can request a deviation and pay a small charge to get the dates that you want. You will, of course, forfeit the free transfers from the airport. We have used SS to book deviations to different airports pre-cruise when we wanted to do some land-based travel prior to a cruise, and we frequently ask for flights on different airlines and pay a difference. We only use SS air when it is beneficial to do so. We have used Amex Platinum 2 for 1 as well as booking direct with airlines with whom SS doesn't have an agreement.

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OP, what dates/ship sailings are you going on in March? We are doing a consecutive cruise on the Wind March 4th and 11th. I started a roll-call but no one has joined in!

 

Hi Shots, my 60th birthday is in March and I am still deciding what to do for it.:).....I didn't plan to do a Caribbean

Cruise but I will look at the Wind;)

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How do you feel about panic attacks??

 

Flying in on embarkation day is, I feel, very risky. We have done it, but it greatly depends on how far you are traveling. Would I leave from Florida to Singapore without a hotel night, or two, before boarding? Not a chance! Even with much closer destinations, you have to consider alternative flight possibilities if something, anything, goes wrong with your booked flights. My best advice is to do whatever is necessary to make your total experience as stress free as possible.

The last time I decided to take a chance was a horrible experience. Fl to Dallas-Fort Worth to Heathrow to Nice. All okay to Heathrow, then absolute hell getting thru a second inspection, and then the train to a different terminal, and a crazy run to just get on the plane. I had allowed what my TA said was loads of time, and it should have been....But...late landing plane, big delay at check point...what i am trying to say...it's not worth the panic. Stay a night in the departure Port before boarding.

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We added the SS air and I was led to believe that we don't have a choice of when/what flights. It should be straight forward... we're going from Atlanta to San Juan in late March. I would hope SS plans to get us there with ample time for the embarkation. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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Sorry for the double post.

 

Another question popped up last night while I was talking to my sister in law. She and my husband's brother (her husband) will be on the cruise too. She was asking me if there's dancing on the cruise and if so should they take ballroom dance lessons. Evidently my brother in law dances "like Herman Munster". I told her I didn't think anyone would judge, but dance lessons can be good for the body and good for the relationship as well.

 

 

Is there dancing? I know I read something about live music.

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We almost missed our honeymoon cruise 20 years ago because of aircraft equipment issues. That was the one and only time we have flown in the day of the cruise. For US based cruises we fly in at least the day before and overseas based cruises two days before. Even for our one and only cruise out of Galveston where we drove the 260 miles we went over the day before.

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Sorry for the double post.

 

Another question popped up last night while I was talking to my sister in law. She and my husband's brother (her husband) will be on the cruise too. She was asking me if there's dancing on the cruise and if so should they take ballroom dance lessons. Evidently my brother in law dances "like Herman Munster". I told her I didn't think anyone would judge, but dance lessons can be good for the body and good for the relationship as well.

 

 

Is there dancing? I know I read something about live music.

 

There are two live music dancing venues on the ship so plenty of chances to "cut the rug". While there are sometimes some great dancers I'd say there are probably more "Herman Munsters" than trained ballroom couples. :D Like any cruise the crowd changes from cruise to cruise so we've had cruises on the Wind where the dance venues were quite lively to cruises where hardly anybody danced. I'd say on the lively cruises people were just having fun and not worried about dance form. On th quieter cruises nobody was around to care. :)

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There has been a lot of discussion in this thread about stress on passengers if one arrives on embarkation day. I strongly agree and always arrive a day or two early. But what about checked luggage? The passenger may arrive uneventfully, but the luggage was misdirected from MSP to the west rather than the east coast. If one arrives on embarkation day, one may be spending the first day(s?) of the cruise trying to track down the luggage and arrange for it to be forwarded to some remote but lovely island which is the first port of call. Meanwhile, one is wearing the track suit in which one travelled.

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There has been a lot of discussion in this thread about stress on passengers if one arrives on embarkation day. I strongly agree and always arrive a day or two early. But what about checked luggage? The passenger may arrive uneventfully, but the luggage was misdirected from MSP to the west rather than the east coast. If one arrives on embarkation day, one may be spending the first day(s?) of the cruise trying to track down the luggage and arrange for it to be forwarded to some remote but lovely island which is the first port of call. Meanwhile, one is wearing the track suit in which one travelled.

 

Oh my gosh this takes me back to my one and only cruise experience 31 years ago! We were on a two week cruise/land vacation for our honeymoon, traveling from New York to Hawaii. We were spending the first few days on Kauai, then a few days on Oahu before embarking for a week long cruise around the islands. We were exhausted from the excitement of the wedding, as well as flying for the longest day of my life. We landed in Oahu, and made the transfer to Kauai. Unfortunately our luggage stayed in Honolulu. It took a good 24 hours to get our checked bags to us.

 

From that experience I learned to pack all my necessities (toothbrush, toothpaste, undies, etc.) in my carry on bag, and fly dressed comfortably, but not sloppily. Flying into warmer climates I usually wear a pair of black raw silk gaucho pants (they look like a mid-length skirt when I'm standing) and a sleeveless silk blouse with a flower pattern.

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I have been on several cruises with passengers whose luggage didn't make it - no fun for them! Especially on a TA.

 

I always fly in ahead of time - living on a small island adds to flight anxieties - and the further the journey to embarkation, the further ahead I arrive. Plus, I always carry a small but versatile selection of clothes and essentials in my cabin baggage, just in case ...

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What are my options since we paid the $199/person for SS to fly us in? I don't even know when we'll know what our flights are.

 

Also, we're booked in a Deck 4 Vista Suite. I read a couple of reviews that mentioned early morning sounds from the crew and cleaning stuff outside the door to their cabin. We're just across from the stairs, if I'm reading my map right. Does anyone think we'll have problems with early morning noise?

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Also, we're booked in a Deck 4 Vista Suite. I read a couple of reviews that mentioned early morning sounds from the crew and cleaning stuff outside the door to their cabin. We're just across from the stairs, if I'm reading my map right. Does anyone think we'll have problems with early morning noise?

 

We're far from the most experienced Silversea cruisers here but with some 70 or so mornings on the Wind and Spirit I can't remember early morning sounds bothering us. We live in a single family home with just the two of us and our cats. Not a lot of noise in our house unless we make it and I think that would make us more sensitive to external noises. I'm not saying that the ship is as quiet as our house, it is a ship which is basically a machine with rooms. Add a couple to few hundred passengers and crew and we accept a certain level of noise above being home.

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For what it's worth ..... we are flying on a Thursday for a Sunday embarkation.

We are going from a UK regional to San Juan, via London Heathrow and Miami ... and doing it in a day. First flight is 0730 and we arrive SJU at 0100 ... i.e. 0500 body clock time. A long day but it gets it over and done with.

I would have thought the main potential glitch would be Miami Airport, either weather and/or customs and immigration delays. If it is a flight delay then there are plenty of flights the next day.

We have allowed ourselves 3.5hrs at London (T5 to T3 transfer) and a similar amount at Miami.

If it runs smoothly then Friday to recover, Saturday to relax, and Sunday is the big day.

 

We did consider a Friday flight but our TA bagged a bargain on the flights, and peace of mind has n input as well!

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There has been a lot of discussion in this thread about stress on passengers if one arrives on embarkation day. I strongly agree and always arrive a day or two early. But what about checked luggage? The passenger may arrive uneventfully, but the luggage was misdirected from MSP to the west rather than the east coast. If one arrives on embarkation day, one may be spending the first day(s?) of the cruise trying to track down the luggage and arrange for it to be forwarded to some remote but lovely island which is the first port of call. Meanwhile, one is wearing the track suit in which one travelled.

 

We use Luggage Forward, but there are other luggage shipping companies too that will take care of that problem for you. They pick it up at our home and we meet it at our suite on the ship. One less thing to have to think about.

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