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Observer

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  1. Interesting. Thank you. I have a question: if I received this message today and had the relevant canceled booking, could I apply the 10% saving to a 2025 cruise I had already booked? Or is this only for new bookings? If the latter, it seems to discriminate against people who are loyal to Silversea and book in advance.
  2. I have been gobsmacked by the price increases on Silversea. I have cruises booked well into the future. I have compared the list price of my cruises (before various discounts) and the prices currently being asked. To say that the differences are substantial would be an understatement. I have been sailing on Silversea so long that I have two rid myself of my benchmark highest price of $500 per night solo occupancy. (Big Macs have also gone up in price.) I share the dismay of many regarding this development. I understand that it will bring Silversea out of reach of many people, quite possibly including me. But I wonder if there might be good news here. Some of this is doubtless a revenue grab by RCL. But it may be that Silversea will be able to up its game significantly. Crew will be paid better and there will be less turnover. Provisioning of food and spirits will be enhanced. Higher quality lecturers will be engaged. Etc. Is this all implausible?
  3. Is it possible that they plan a dry dock during that period when cruises are waitlisted? Perhaps they do not yet have a firm date for the dry dock. Or perhaps period for waitlisted cruises is so long because they are going to stretch the ship again 🙂
  4. Those people may believe that a $20 tip for a bartender who has looked after one well is a concrete way of expressing appreciation. As I have mentioned previously, I would welcome a situation in which crew were well compensated and there was a well-publicized rule that any crewmember accepting a tip would not have a contract renewed. Other cruise lines offer better packages (including reasonable expectations of tips.) Two crewmembers I know have moved from Silversea to Cunard. I have kept in touch with them and both report that they are doing much better financially on Cunard performing the same job they were doing on Silversea. Another moved to Crystal, again for financial reasons.
  5. I believe that this is an unfortunate statement. I have come to know the number of crew during my hundreds of days on Silversea. Most of them come from the global south. Many of them are supporting (often extended) families back home on their earnings. They deserve our empathy.
  6. How long was she in place? Rotations are common, but I believe that HDs typically serve for at least a few months.
  7. I am gobsmacked by this. Was this approved by corporate? How will the sharing take place? On my next cruise will I receive a letter pointing out that fuel prices have risen during the voyage and that I can go to Reception to contribute to the bunkering fund?
  8. This has been disappointing. Clearly, she is not a behind the scenes CEO who is shy in front of a camera. I can withhold my admiration for a CEO who directs (or was party to the direction of) the captain to sign the announcement letter on a matter for which he was presumably in no way responsible.
  9. Is anything like a rebellion afoot on board? Group meetings with the guest relations manager? Request for a video conference with the CEO, who seems generally willing to stand before a camera? Just out of curiosity: how many people did the entire Grand Voyage? I understand, of course, that this affects all disembarking passengers.
  10. It is really difficult to wrap one's head around this remarkable announcement. Silversea of course has many guests from Europe and this change may have little impact on them. Most (but hardly all) Europe-bound flights depart the US after 5 PM. But this is likely to have very unfortunate consequences for passengers flying domestically. Many guests (like me) book flights long in advance to get nonstop service or, at worst, one connection, aisle seats, etc. Try getting that on relatively short notice in the midst of the spring vacation travel. It is difficult to imagine that this crazy decision will stand.
  11. This makes sense. I am aware that there are some (fairly rare?) refundable OBCs. However, in my hundreds of days of cruising with Silversea I have never enjoyed the refundable kind. Nonetheless, I have never had a problem exhausting my nonrefundable OBCs. :)-
  12. I am fairly certain that this is not possible. Contributions to the crew welfare fund are put on a different invoice from the invoice on which most expenditures (which can be paid with OBCs) are placed. Contributing to the crew welfare fund, which I do on every cruise, is treated like getting a cash advance.
  13. I wonder if this might be related to the current promotion providing a reduction of $2000 per guest. This promotion ends in a couple of days. Depending upon what replaces it, attractive solo fares may return.
  14. I certainly have not found this to be the case for solo travelers.
  15. A further advantage is that one can use onboard credits to pay for the car and driver.
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