labrasett

It didnt work quite like that for us. We were offered SS air flights from Heathrow via Madrid because British Airways werent flying on Sunday night in March of this year. We spoke to our SS rep and he suggested we might consider going the night before on BA and having an extra night in the hotel in Santiago. We did this, yes the extra night in the hotel charge was higher than if we had booked it ourselves but we did get an SS transfer from the airport and no deviation fee for the flight change.

...... and there is nothing worse than a jacket which is too tight particularly when you are wanting to be warm, you need some movement and air flow between the layers to keep you super cosy.

If you are on an expedition ship with zodiac landings in cooler climates then you would be very unwise not to have long waterproof boots, the sea in Northern Europe is very cold and you often have to get off a zodiac into water which is several inches (mid calf) deep. Water shoes would still lead to at a minimum wet ankles probably wet socks and wet trouser legs, not much fun to then hike in.

I dont think people realise this is not crazy pricing, it is comparable with other similar cruise lines. Everything is going up in the world at the moment, dont expect a miracle to occur and prices to drop if and when Covid goes away and the Russian generated hostilities cease, it would be silly to think this.

There is so much discussion on here about the "cost" of included excursions and various other gripes about p2p and d2d, loss of "benefits" etc. etc. I have just dipped into cruiselines boards on CC and see that most of them have similar gripes to those found here. I checked a similar lines terms and conditions yesterday and found them even more complicated, wordy and opaque than those of SS. So if loyalty bonuses are so important I wonder how many other walks of life people seek similar attaching benefits, does your local motor mechanic give you points for each vehicle service so you can save up for a free service in five years time? I doubt it but for some reason luxury cruise passengers seem to think they should be "rewarded" for their loyalty. If its here to be had then all well and good but if not you takes your choice and pays your money. As for price increases these were inevitable following the two years of Covid business losses, SS is not a charity, fuel costs are going through the roof, air fares are rising exponentially and will continue to do so will Russia wages its war, staffing issues remain hard to resolve and so it goes on.

"No reason not to book with someone else" I venture to suggest there is every reason and many of us who love our SS cruises know what these reasons are.

No thats not what I am saying, what I am saying is that we are free to pick and choose and tell SS what we do and dont want. You are not doing extra work for them you are getting what you want.

I find all this quite bizarre, its quite easy to navigate the differences and relevant credits for unwanted elements or indeed cost of upgrade to BC. SS trips are not for the financially faint hearted nor are they generally undertaken by the more unsophisticated members of society so what is so difficult about using a little personal creativity if SS dont entirely fill your expectations vis a vis travel to and from the ships. We are quite enured to the idea that if an outbound flight doesnt suit us then we will seek an alternative and pay a deviation fee if necessary or if an inbound flight will get us back to London too late to catch our train home to Cornwall (some 250 miles from Heathrow) then we will stay the night at the airport or possibly evening take the night sleeper train. Additional costs are minimal compared with the overall cost of the cruises, travel is an adventure and it can be enhanced with just a little thought.

Thank you Stumblefoot, people just dont push through the "barriers" which arent very hard. All people need to do is to click on inclusion elements shown on that page and the relevant credit is shown. So for example if you click on "economy class flights" it will tell you what the air credit will be if you dont want the flight inclusion and it will also offer the upgrade cost where that is available.

I am not sure I agree that D2D and P2P offerings are opaque, it is quite easy to see on the website what is offered and also to check what credit might be granted for unused parts of the offering.

Check that the Antarctic Bridge cruises are not flying in and out of Puerto Wiliams rather than Punta Arenas.