Gourmet Gal

Re YF - we were advised that aged over 60 the risk of serious side-effects to the vaccine outweighs the benefit so we were given a waver. On your African cruise are you visiting more than 10 countries? Is a Visa required for each? Otherwise I wouldn’t worry too much about it if one has a few less pages.

Just wondering, what time of year was this?

It will be interesting to see how they do. Fans of Four Seasons residences and jet trips are excited about this as many of them have never been on a cruise ship and gravitate towards more exclusive travel experiences. This is as per a discussion I had with a group of FS execs last year.

$4700 PP for 2 days. If you plan early enough you can book better apts. or venues for just race day probably for less. If I had it to do over I would book independently and early enough to get a package with pit row access.

As I said, more like a hotel pricing structure.

I know for a fact from my experience that the most desirable upcharged excursions do sellout quickly on SS.

Yeah, the entry level cabins are really tiny - made me wonder if it is a misprint.

FS will include only breakfast with everything else á la carte so the pricing structure is more like a hotel. Suite rates are for the max. occupancy. Perhaps a new trend in the ultra lux category?

Having sailed both Tauck and Uniworld and until I took my final 2 disastrous cruises with Tauck I would have recommended them but now I would say it’s a good decision for the OP to go with Uniworld. Service and food are better and I would strongly recommend booking the largest suite possible because even the largest river suites are smaller than a typical ocean cabin. As for wines, the nice aspect of both lines is they serve very local wines. Excursions tend to be smaller groups on Tauck but on my final two cruises with them the quality of the guides had declined and they tended to be chaotic.

I’ve taken 3 Tauck river cruises each one worse than the previous. Now granted the first one was pre-Covid but the service, food and quality of the cruise directors were all much diminished after Covid. Our first wonderful Tauck cruise was Budapest to Amsterdam including the Danube, Main Canal and Rhine. The second was Paris to Lyon on the Rhône and Saône and the last and final cruise was the Douro Porto RT. Transfers were always great but hotels on two Tauck cruises were really sub-par and not luxury at all. We booked our own in Budapest but Tauck still provided the transfers. We have Uniworld to compare to and I would recommend them wholeheartedly.

Ulyssia is a creation of the team that developed The World. The owners update and maintain their units on The World beautifully because they have the means to do so but I don’t know the details of the wind down towards year 50 or how that affects resale. Obviously it’s not an investment but something fun to do with one’s money.

Adoctor, thanks for the review of the ship but could you comment on the itinerary and ports beyond the crowds? Itinerary is my first consideration and I’ve been interested in this region. Were there any notable excursions?

I don’t recall the year The World was built. I cruised aboard a few times shortly after so early 2000’s. I recall the lifespan was projected to be 50 years. That seems long but I don’t really know if it is. I don’t know what happens then, a big write-off I guess. Be prepared for well over 6 figures annually for normal maintenance, fuel, staff, etc. plus a minimum for food. You’ll be required to have a permanent residence ashore as well - possible as an owner IIRC. I was lucky to find some great itineraries to sail but otherwise there are a lot of sea days. Most owners skip those and fly to meet the ship for fairly short stays more like a second home.

Residensea and Residences at Sea are not affiliated. The World was developed by Residensea.

The only way I know of is through an Exclusive Resorts membership. They have 4 apartments.

Isn’t tipping included for all complimentary services and food/bev?

For the price of a high-end cruise you can easily book a private land tour with a company like Kensington. We did that on my first trip to Japan and it was fantastic. You can have them suggest an itinerary or you can create your own going to the cities and small towns you may be interested in. The transportation is by car or train and you are fully escorted to your train car and if there is a train change someone meets you at that station and escorts you to the next train, waits while you board and will stand there waving until the train leaves. Kensington will arrange for you to ship your luggage ahead to each hotel so no schlepping. You can choose how much guided touring to have in each stop and also choose what you want to see. Kensington will book any hotel you want as well as restaurant reservations. We stayed at the Peninsula in Tokyo, Four Seasons in Kyoto as well as beautiful ryokans in more remote towns. It’s truly the best way to see Japan.

Surprised they weren’t just emailed as does SS. Fancy packaging and mailings are perceived as wasteful these days and hopefully you’ll enjoy some luxury in the form of outstanding service, food and beverages. Let us know your impressions on this journey.

It’s Silversea. What kind of shows do you like? If you’ve sailed all the Caribbean did you have a favorite region or island and do you prefer sailing from a US port, roundtrip or no preference? That could help narrow down your search preferences as you research the cruise lines. All of the lines you mention meet your requirements of size, pools and entertainment. I would definitely try a line other than SS since you already know what they offer unless it’s useful for you to continue to accrue sail days for Venetian benefits.

Usually means itinerary changes coming but this is very late for that. Perhaps impending war fears and route deviations.

I think you’re asking if it’s now sold out? Could be a charter or an impending itinerary change or cancellation. How long ago were many suites available?

Has anyone booked? I am very tempted but I notice the business model is more of a floating hotel. Contrary to what most people consider a luxury cruise the FS model is not very inclusive at all. The “room rate” is based on double occupancy or in the larger suites the max occupancy - so pricing is not per person. Only breakfast is included and everything else - food, beverages, excursions, transfers are priced a la carte. Suites look beautiful and spacious but so far the itineraries aren’t too inspiring. The few cruises I do are enjoyable because I don’t have to deal with checking a long bill at the end and I really like the all-inclusiveness. Does anyone know if there are other cruise lines with this model? I have a feeling that FS is looking to attract the FS and luxury hotel customer, not necessarily a traditional cruise customer.

Just wondering why anyone would need to “keep” unused, extra hangers? Also can’t quite understand lugging home a bottle of cheap champagne? Is it more of a souvenir?

I love aft-facing as well. The views are awesome but be sure to check how close the deck is to an outdoor dining or smoking venue. I was on a Princess cruise years ago and our beautiful huge aft-suite was right above a putrid smelling garbage bay. We couldn’t even use our huge balcony.

Cruise lines should take note of how sensitive pax can be when it comes to champagne. On another forum there’s a discussion about a pax seeking arbitration over a bottle of champagne.