Port Power

I concur with @drron29. I visited Kenrokuen gardens in late March and would have loved to spend many more hours there. I have also chosen that for the S/S tour in September. I’ve made a note about transport in case I have time to go back independently. In March there were two couples having their wedding photos taken. We also went to the gold leaf place. Lovely skin care products with included gold leaf flakes at very good prices. I bought plum wine there - with an attached bag of gold leaf! I think some are supposed to be included in the glass to drink. And we did eat an ice cream with a whole sheet of gold leaf across it!

Hence why most of us chose Regent, or consider other small ships such as Silversea. All inclusive, nothing more essentially that has to be booked and/or paid for.

Thanks, Mysty. Your reasons tick my boxes as well. I appreciate your thoughtful response. Now it’s just a matter of working on my budget!

Reading your posts and thinking about my 2025 world cruise has brought further questions to mind. World cruises are good in that you see many desired destinations with only one air fare. However, how do I know I will enjoy a World Cruise? I could book the 2026 World Cruise when on Silver Dawn in July. With a guaranteed refund of deposit until 359 days (or thereabouts) and the $650 admin fee transferred to a future cruise, there is no down side to booking. But… how satisfying is life on board for four or five months? Silversea has limited entertainment, as does any brand of ship with around 600-700 passengers. What do you do in the evening? There will be some repeat ports, but with a different view and itineraries. Often the Pacific Ocean countries are in the height of summer, which includes extremely high humidity. You have done a few World Cruises. What is the attraction? Why do you book again? What do you enjoy? I am really interested in your views.

I make one called an ant nest. Mix lemon juice into the cream cheese for a nice zing, then roll in black poppy seeds. Tasty! Going back over 20 years though. Make that thirty years: very 90s.

On the Dawn Norwegian cruise where I booked as a "partial charter", all passengers on our tour will just book shore excursions the same as any other passenger. The only difference is that one of our tour leaders will also go on one of the tours as well, although just as another passenger. So no different than if all passengers were from independent bookings. We all make our own dining arrangements the same as other passengers. However, La Dame has been booked one night for the lot of us, and there is a cocktail party another night. There are no separate tours booked as a group. Therefore the "partial charter" will not impact on other cruisers any more than a normally full ship would. Of course, we are all perfectly well behaved, seasoned travellers who do not drink and do not party. 🤣 Well, we are seasoned travellers. 😊

If I had a cruise booked for April next year, I would have also have booked my flights by now. Is Silversea refunding the $500-$800 airline cancellation or change fee?

I don’t know why so many of you think charters will be full of drunks and loudmouths? I’ve been on a charter, which was booked by an Australian travel group and sold to ordinary people. Other charters are for special music or film events. The passengers, if a one-company charter, might be all very well behaved people used to luxury travel. The only possible negative of being on a ship that is a partial charter (only a number of suites booked) might be less mixing with a group who already know each other. But that might not happen, and there are other passengers on board.

I agree with your comment from my recent experience on Silver Explorer, my first Silversea cruise. It was good talking to seasoned S/S pax and asking questions. For instance, about Antarctic expeditions. One newbie couple learned a lot from me. They thought I had sailed S/S a lot. I told them I knew the tricks and perks because of reading threads on Cruise Critic! 😄

Formal wear is seldom worn in home life these days: the odd charity ball or political event. Tuxes are seen more often, but ladies wear cocktail dresses rather than ball gowns or floor length dresses. I look forward to wearing cocktail dresses on cruises.

No. Not even TA’s can telephone, only email.

I already have the flight locator, also called PNR or booking reference. I received it at least two months ago. Seats may well have been allocated. However, as the tickets have not been issued, I cannot change/choose my own seats. Tickets have to be issued first.

The flights for my Vancouver/Japan door-to-door cruise on Silver Muse in September were booked by S/S at least two months ago. I received the Singapore Airlines booking reference and have been keeping an eye out to select my seats. However, the tickets have not yet been issued, and I am unable to select seats until they are. Travel agents, either private or Silversea, can hold seats for several months before payment is required. Only after payment will the flights be ticketed. (This also allows time for S/S to make any adjustments to schedules.) There is a little sign on logging into Kris Flyer stating tickets have not yet been issued. Fingers crossed it happens soon. 🤞

The plane is in a remarkable state given it has sat there for 80 years. It actually looks shinier now than in your photo. A bit too delicate to climb into now, though.

I spent ages on my phone attaching the photos, only to be told on saving that I had run out of time! I have now added them above. It might be in stages due to the time limit of editing.

Ord River excursion. It was fabulous! Being deputised by @highplanesdrifters, I made sure to takes notes! I’ll start writing, but will have to edit to add photos from my phone. (I’ve reached capacity so cannot synchronise with the iPad.) Our group left the ship at 7:30am. 🥱 The driver of the Triple J bus was full of interesting information on the 90 minute drive to the boat, but didn’t talk the whole way. He noted that the Boab trees all around us, originally thought to have floated as trees or seed pods across the ocean from Madagascar thousands of years ago, have now been shown by DNA to be endemic to Australia. There were also Australian kapok trees with lovely yellow flowers that always face the sun. The seed pods contain kapok like material that was used to stuff mattresses back in the day. The Ord River flows the whole way, but is called Lake Kununurra in the section between the diversion dam and the big clay and rock rock dam wall. It is then called Lake Argyle as the flooded dam water. Our five hour cruise was broken with a one hour lunch stop at one of the two JJJ picnic sites. There were plenty of tables and shade sails as well as the two drop toilets. The two skippers were a well seasoned team, unloading the numerous coolers. There were cheeses and pâté with dry biscuits as well as lots of delicious fresh paw paw, and cold soft drinks. Lunch was a buffet of chicken, sliced corned beef, garden salad, pumpkins salad and rice salad, plus bread rolls. Commentary was excellent and scenery along all three sections superb. There are around 5,000 freshwater crocodiles in Lake Kununurra. We saw at least eight: a couple pretty big, some about 1.5m long, and two youngsters about one year old floating in the water pretending we couldn’t see them. The occasional salt water crocodile walks around the diversion dam into Lake Kununurra, usual a juvenile after a round in with bigger males. When they don’t find any females, some will walk back. Others are caught in one of four traps. As there is no longer a nearby crocodile farm, these guys are euthanised. There were tiny little water birds called comb crested Jacanas. The comb was red. They were walking on the lily pads of the snow drop lily. Tiny flowers that come out daily. There were a few Whistling Kites flying about, and one large White Bellied Sea Eagle in a tree. Easy to see by eye, but not in a photo. We also saw a sea eagle’s nest in a tree later on. There was a group of trees housing sleeping Black Headed Flying Foxes. Their lookouts set up an alarm as our boat stopped, causing some rustling, but they settled down. Lucas told us that the reason bats hand upside down is so they can spread their wings on letting go to catch the up draft and start flying. This is when crocs can grab them for dinner. Bats cannot fly from the ground or from standing. We ended up at the dam wall and disembarked to board another JJJ bus. It stopped stop the dam wall for a look, before heading past the resort/caravan park/camping ground to the rebuilt Durack homestead. An abandoned Bower Bird bower surrounded by assorted white items was still there. After wandering through the house we continued onwards, driving through Kununurra and past the airport on our way back to the ship. We were all very happy with our choice of day out, but next time I’m up that way, I will take the helicopter flight from Lake Argyle Resort to view the extent of the vast area of water.

The big ship moored at Ashmore Reef is Border Force. They are there watching out for illegal fishing and illegal immigration. In the past there were many instances of “boat people” crashing into the reef. The low flying plane was also Border Force. They usually fly along the coast daily. The “Popeye” boats (love that name!) are confiscated Indonesian fishing boats. Whether they might be used by Border Force pretending to be fishermen, or eventually for target practice, was suggested by one Expedition team member.

Fortunately the time spent travelling to Ashmore Reef was absolutely worth it! @highplanesdrifters will, I am sure, delight us with her description and observations. My zodiac members saw a spinner dolphin and three green turtles, one of which was very big), and thousands of birds. It was wonderful! I agree that someone at head office has been asleep at the wheel. My son did point out the entry in today’s Chronicle: “our cabotage stop in accordance with Australian Maritime requirements for international vessels.”

We found out from both the Bridge tour and the Expedition team that visiting Ashmore Reef is an international ship’s necessary “international” stop. Although Ashmore Reef is on the Australian continental shelf, it somehow still ticks the box. The double back route is likely due to when S/S could book so many aeroplanes for the Bungle Bungle flights. As it is high season in the east Kimberley, the flight- seeing companies would be heavily booked. It all made sense when the logistics of booking land tours and liaising with other expedition ships around must-see sights was taken into account. I vote for wall mounted toiletries, too.

I was one of them, and my transfer across would not have been a pretty sight! At least I didn’t land flat on my back in the the second zodiac! There were many hands to help. Especially with seeing those four spotted eagle rays, it was still a very good morning out.

I didn’t snorkel out to the edge of the reef, unfortunately. There was something painful in my, so I had to return. My son was out for ages and also saw the giant clams. He was impressed, and really enjoyed an e tended period out. So disappointed we are not able to snorkel again, but safety first. I am still hoping we can snorkel around Ashmore Reef, although one expedition team member said they were only planning viewing birds and sea creatures from zodiacs. Fingers crossed there is a change of plan. 🤿 We are looking forward to the walk to the tip of the Gulf of Carpentaria this afternoon. Red group. High, please give me a call on 325 so we can meet up. Today I am wearing shorts and a royal blue with orange flowers blouse. I have caught up with Kathy, and Bob and Janice. Carol

My cruise boards mid December and finishes on January 5th. I’ve booked an around-the-world fare, which was easier and cheaper than a return trip. Go figure?

It is very easy to get to the Antarctica ship. Fly Perth-Sydney, Sydney-Santiago. Silversea takes you from there.

I’m boarding Silver Explorer tomorrow for a Kimberley expedition cruise. I’m going on a S/S Antarctica cruise at the end of the year and Arctic cruise next October. No formal nights expected. I’ll post my observations here after each cruise to confirm. I am taking a couple of dresses, but the sort I would wear when out and about during the day or out to lunch. Carol