labrasett

I dont understand your problem. You cancelled and rebooked and SS charged a fee which you can recover against a new future booking. I did the same recently, cancelled my booking on a cruise "down under" in 2024 from a door to door (without air) rebooking to the same cruise and even the same cabin but on the 20% off pre payment p2p basis and saved myself some £2000. I am quite happy to relinquish £400 (£200 each) by way of admin fee which has been transferred into an FCC. I will for sure book a future cruise and am waiting for the full list of itineraries for 2025 before I do so and am comfortable knowing that I have £400 in hand towards the next reservation.

We are travelling to Quito and on to Galapagos the week after TiTi and we have planned a Macchu Picchu extension (not with SS) with a couple of additional days in Peru. I am "keeping the faith" and believing it will all happen it is still weeks away and things can change really quite quickly, hopefully in this case change for the better.

....... and there are lots of couples where curiously one gets the dreaded pox and the other doesnt and you have absolutely no idea why!!!

Look at the shiptoshore webpages to assess sizing of boots etc. You dont need "thick" socks if you get the rental boots, they are extremely well insulated and warm so just one pair of socks such as you would wear with light hiking boots will be fine. I am a really "chilly mortal" and I have never been cold on an Antarctic expedition.

I dont believe there is a laundry room on Origin, there is a laundry service via butler but no "do it yourself".

For anyone in UK ....... you should know that Tiki is currently on special offer £3 off per bottle in Waitrose!!

Well I emailed SS last weekend and said to my consultant that there was no huge urgency my trip isnt until 2024 and I am aware that the new offer will probably have caused many future cruisers to review their arrangements plus the recent unrest in Lima has probably caused some disquiet amongst those currently due to go. Sooooo I got a response from consultant yesterday morning, he explained the downsides of repricing which would necessitate a cancellation and rebooking an obviously at the lowest price no refund for subsequent cancellation but that I could go ahead if I wished and he would action any such request. I confirmed I wished to go ahead, I have already paid for a non refundable Indian Pacific Train fare and will be booking my flights in a months time (cheapest 350 days ahead) so I am confident we will definitely be travelling. The upside is a refund of circa £2,100 but with a £400 admin fee for cancellation which will convert to an FCC so is not actually lost. A real win win and very effectively and efficiently executed. I have kept my choice of cabin (rebooked) but have had to re-enter my excursion choices which was no big deal. I was planning on doing my own flights anyway because I wish to stop in Singapore on the way south to have tea at Raffles and then fly on to Perth to see the Quokkas on Rottnest Island before joining the Indian Pacific train. There seem to be several cost effective airline routings so I shall set about that at the end of January.

You wish 😂

Following your earlier posts when you were concerned about packing it seems you followed the various pieces of advice and did very well indeed with minimal stuff and you were fine. Presume you had a wonderful trip too. 😀

I have asked SS to review my 2024 trip and to reprice it to reflect the new p2p plus additional discount pricing. I have been paid up for this trip for a considerable time having failed to get to Oz/NZ now for three years due to covid then inability to dove tail a cruise with an available "great train ride" in Oz and have finally managed to book Indian Pacific from Perth to Sydney followed by Sydney to Auckland cruise only to find that SS are now offering a much lower price for the cruise. I dont want to faff with a cancellation and rebooking and have simply asked to be repriced to reflect the latest offer. I am awaiting response.

If you are moderately mobile you will absolutely fine, we have done several expedition trips to the deep south and have seen the crew help really quite immobile people get on and off the zodiacs, they are incredibly skilled at providing just the right help to ensure that most people can do most of the activities most of the time. We are in our mid 70s and on our last trip (March this year) we did decline one zodiac trip on a particularly cold and rough water afternoon but this was after an earlier trip out when we had got cold and wet and with the added rough sea we decided not to head out again but to stay in the warm for the remainder of the day. I suspect boarding and disembarking arrangements may be better on Endeavour than on Explorer and Cloud (the ships we have done expeditions on) making it even easier. Do not be put off you are both age appropriate an almost certainly ability appropriate too. Take heed of the advice to ensure you have good gear (waterproof over trousers are good) and good footwear.

Would you please keep a running commentary going as to your future travel plans so we can plot our own lives avoiding your choices!!!

Leaving passport with SS means they can get immigration processing done as soon as the ship arrives, in some places this can take place before the passengers are even out of bed. You can always fetch you passport if you think you will need it ashore or ask for a photocopy which will be willingly supplied.

Cant make out from thread where the Dreams Hotel is, there is reference to the MO but also the Dreams. So the hotel staff didnt speak perfect English (or much at all). You are half way down the South American continent where they speak Spanish, while education and lifestyle have improved greatly in Chile in the last half century it is still a fairly poor country. There are few places in the world where the waiting staff speak perfect or even very much English. It is all part of travel. Getting from the airport to the hotels in Santiago is quite easy even independently. A taxi is not that expensive and if people dont have a cruise company transfer it is not rocket science to google ahead of time and find a company which can arrange a private cab or even email the hotel ahead of time and ask them for a recommendation. Wishing you a wonderful trip.

Yes of course, just dress tidily.

And you can carry some slip ons in your carry on bag and change once on the flight and put the big boots into the hatrack!

I am so with you Desperate to Sail. We are doing our own flights travelling down to S. America in March because we are staying on and doing a post cruise trip booked through another company but we have asked SS to book our hotel an extra night ahead of our cruise and we have asked them to arrange our transers, this is not the cheapest way to organise these parts of our trip but it takes the headache out of doing it ourselves! We also decline the chauffeur car to departure because we love our train journey to the airport it is part of our holiday, when we get in the taxi at our home to take us to the station our trip truly begins. We all have choices as to what we pay for and what we accept as included in our trips and I dont understand the moaners.

I have a medical issue which dictates I should not get cold. Sooo I have no intention of missing out and have bought myself a full length wetsuit and intend to get a thermal rash vest and shorts to wear underneath plus a hood, gloves and boots. If you feel the cold then prepare ahead and get some extra "stuff".

SherylC - for ladies it is really quite easy to "dress" for evenings on expeditions, just take several lovely scarves and possibly pashminas and some pearls or necklaces. I was complimented on my different look on many nights but it was all smoke and mirrors with the use of accessories which took up little space but changed the "look". We have been on lots of expeditions down south and believe me you really dont need lots of layers just a small number of the right ones. Have wonderful trip and dont angst about the weight of the bags, if you can get past the initial airline check in without penalty you will be fine.

There is always going to be some differential based on where you live. In the past we hesitated paying for an expensive ski holiday priced in Canadian Dollars until our return from a long weekend. During the weekend the exchange rate changed some 10% so by having delayed we saved a very significant sum. With the US dollar being where it is against the UK pound at the moment a straight conversion on a price quoted in US$ would cost UK people much much more than it was would have a month or so ago! Life is tough on so many fronts at the moment but somehow the knowledge of having some booked (and paid for) future cruises brings some comfort during these uncertain times.

Simple solution if you dont want to wear the boots during flights but you dont want to pack them is to put a pair of lightweight pumps into your hand baggage and change once you have boarded, you can then put the boots into the hatrack. Come on folks this is not a huge issue. 50lbs is plenty of weight for main bag for an expedition and 17 lbs plus purse of rucksack provides lots of extra space for camera equipment etc. Remember you really dont need lots of "heavy weight" clothes for antarctica, a couple of sets of thermals plus a mid layer are the only extras you need. Waterproof pantss are lightweight and take up no space and the parkas are amazing. If you pack lots of clothes you will take most of them home unworn.

Nothing to do directly with SS but an acquaintance with whom I was talking today is travelling from UK to Australia in November and her flights have been changed three times so far, in each instance by the airline. She has had itineraries with one and two stop overs, one with 1.5 hours stopover en route then changed to 30 hours and the latest proposal has her with two stops with a small number of hours at each airport but travelling a day later than originally planned. She says she would start again with a different set of criteria but she is now caught by the fact that since she booked the airfares have increased dramatically so they are keeping the faith with the original airline and will suck up the current and any future cchanges. This is just an example of the current air travel chaos which so many people are experiencing.

You dont need lots of "heavy clothing" for Antartica, dont overpack. The parkas are extremely cosy and require only a couple of thermal layers underneath. Dont overpack, its not necessary.

Come on folks, for goodness sake, Ss expedition cruises are not inexpensive so you can certainly afford to rent boots if you dont want to take your own. Personally I would much rather have new boots than boots (rentals are all new) that have been worn by numerous other people no matter how much the cruise line may try to disinfect them between rentals. I would never decide "not to go on any wet landings" the whole joy of being on an expedition is going ashore whereever and whenever you can and the more remote places (the best) will almost certainly require boots. Dont miss out.

So maybe life is not fair, some you win some you lose. You will be getting more than you paid for. Sometimes people get an upgrade on ships and airlines but that doesnt mean that everyone else should get a refund.