rpfarris

...there is no substitute for educating oneself beforehand in order to develop an appreciation for that which you are visiting and experiencing.

Wait...what...we have to educate OURSELVES??!!ONE11 :)

No one else has answered, Jeff, and I haven't been in 518, but I was in 526 on the Shadow, a sister ship. I didn't have a door to 527, but I *did* notice that it looked like it was possible to have the partition between the verandas between 526 and 527 could be opened.

Are you sure your friend hasn't confused a possible opening veranda door, as opposed to an actual connecting cabin door? I only ask because of my own experience, and looking at the deck floor-plan it looks like the only time there is a connecting door between cabins is when one of them turns into a bedroom for a larger cabin. Not just a hotel-like connecting door between equivalent cabins.

3 cabin changes -- and I was dreading just 1. The good news is that if you are changing from one veranda to another, they will just take the drawers and swap them out. If you are changing from Veranda to Silver or vice versa, it's a bit more complicated.

I'm actually going from deck 4 to deck 6, back to 4, and then finally finishing on deck 6 again. (All the same floor-plan cabins on the Shadow; the only difference is the cabins on deck 4 don't have a veranda.)

I was sort of hoping that I could slip my butler a few bucks (one end or the other) and stay out of the whole thing... What do you think?

For some time now, whenever we are on B2B cruises, we never send out laundry on transition day and always leave the do not disturb sign out on our suite so the Butler and Cabin attendant have one less thing to do. It's our small way of showing appreciation (in addition to donating to the Crew Welfare Fund).

Damn. I've got a B-B-B-B coming up and I'll make sure to not send out laundry on the 3 transition days, but unfortunately I'm changing cabins every single time so I'll be requiring heavy support from my butler.

If I had a choice, though, I'd put out the DND sign on transition days, too.

(Gee, I'm glad I previewed this. Before the preview I wrote "I'll be sure to send out laundry;" that would have gotten me some comments. :) )

I just don't know how to go about it without posting my email for all the world to see.

It's got to be clear to you that either you are going to have to post your email, or he is going to have to post his. If the information isn't important enough for you to post *your* email info, certainly you can't expect someone else to post theirs.

So what's your point?

Any experience with the butler being able to assist with getting us at least one night at Le Champagne??

The trick there is to talk to the maitre'd the instant you get on the ship. There are only ~10 tables in Le Champagne and they only book about half of them prior to embarkation. So there will be tables available. So you can ask your butler to angle for the night you'd like, or just talk to the maitre'd.

...either way its here, and we dont leave til 9/7 voyage 3726. we loved this voyage back in 2015 and decided to take it again.:hearteyes:

I'm on 3726 and I haven't seen mine yet. But I'm on 3725, 3727 and 3728, also. But I've seen my book on my.silversea.com, so I know it's out there someplace. Maybe not printed yet.

Nice work, Wes. I'm taking notes on your travel blogging.

Love your videography, Les!

The other issue I run into is the browser version. Chrome doesn't seem to be the best browser for Silversea websites. I'm on a mac, so I use safari for Silversea (Chrome for everything else). If I was on a Win box I'd probably try Firefox.

I assumed "not" is a typo for "now" but I could be wrong. ;) I like your explanation better. Much more devious!

Yeah, but if you look down four or five threads you'll find the same thread missing the word "not".

Actually this one says that she is *not* getting phishing attacks. Maybe she is. Maybe this is the attack... It's a trick!

...we've heard that you can book other companies for excursions at far less expensive rates...

I wouldn't say "far less expensive." I live in San Diego, so I recently checked on the standard "excursions" we have here in SD - Seal Tour, Old Town Trolly Tour, etc, to see how less expensive it would be compared to what Silversea would charge for the same tour. It turns out that the Seal Tour is $42 each if you book it yourself, and $59 if you book it through a cruise line. But, if you book with the cruise line, then the amphibious vehicle will pick you up and drop you off right at the cruise ship, whereas if you booked it yourself you'd have to make your way to Seaport Village to start the tour and then to make your way back to the ship afterwords.

I also priced a few pricier helicopter and float-plane excursions in Alaska. It looks like there, you can save about $100 on a $500 excursion. But still, that doesn't seem like saving enough money to me to make up for the fact that if you book through the ship, it is very difficult to go wrong - if you come back late, the ship waits, all transfers are handled, etc.

Personally, I think external excursions are for ports that you're already familiar with. For instance, I could easily set up private excursions in San Diego.

As far as get a private car instead? I did that in Hakodate and it was great, but without question it is the far most expensive excursion you can take. Whereas your 8-hour bus-tour costs $250, the private car cost me $1,300. Even shared with another couple, that's a lot of money, so if you're looking for "far less expensive," private cars are right out.

Are dinner reservations required each night? or just if you prefer a specific time? do they really have "formal" night? I read somewhere that Mediterranean cruises didn't have those...

Dinner reservations are never required in The Restaurant. Have you discovered my.silverseas.com yet?

Yes, there are formal nights. Here are the times when formal nights are optional: SEVEN NIGHT CRUISES IN THE MED, ALASKA AND THE BALTIC. Does your cruise meet these criteria?

Formal night is never required in The Grill and La Terraza, so if you cannot dress up, get yourself to my.silversea.com and make reservations in The Grill or LT on the formal nights. Oh, you can also have dinner served in your suite on formal nights. You can do that in your pajamas, if you wish.

Anyone else having this problem?

Would you actually recognize a phishing attack, or is that just a buzz word? I get a couple hundred emails a day, and I haven't seen an actual phishing attack in a couple of years. Not that they don't exist just that I hang out here and if one was generated because of action here, I think I'd probably get hit. I'm an IT manager and I watch for those things.

Junk email or spam is another issue, but it is not phishing.

Did you enjoy this crossing? I usually do the Fall one on the Wind. I have been considering the TA next April instead. I'd love to know your thoughts

I'm interested, too. I did the Transpacific West->East in May and I have to say that several days in a row losing either one hour, or two hours a night was pretty rugged. I'm pretty sure that there's a good reason that all the World cruises go East->West. It's got to be a lot more comfortable gaining hours at night instead of losing hours.

Although Kirk Detweiler, Cruise Director on Silver Shadow told me that even going E->W screws up the passengers body clocks. He also told me that he doesn't re-use team trivia questions. So I'm going to test him on both topics.

This September I'm doing the Transpacific E->W on the Shadow, the same ship I did W->E in May. I'm going to find out whether Kirk re-uses trivia questions, and I will also find out if Transpacific crossings are as miserable E->W as it is W->E.

Eric Ball

The ex-football player for the Bengals? Interesting insights, I'll bet.

When I was on the Shadow in May on the Transpacific Crossing, the air temperature was 1C, the water temperature was 1C and no one wanted to use the pool. The two whirlpool bathes were definitely heated and constantly in use. Even during a hail storm!

Who is your science enrichment speaker?

Les, I just spent 30 minutes trying to find a way to direct-message you, only to find out that CruiseCritic prefers that we tell *everyone* what we have to say.

All I wanted to say, really, was that I just wanted to get your link another link in the great web. Peace, brotherl

-- Rick

http://shipsinbergen.blogspot.no/2017/06/silver-wind.html

 

Awesome Les, a drone?

Does this mean that, at breakfast, an individual cafetière of strong coffee is out of the question? :-(

No cafetieres, my friend, at least not if a cafeteire is what we call a french press in the US. If you want strong coffee order espresso, double espresso, macchiato, americano, etc.

They can bring a pitcher of coffee that comes out of the big urn, which is of consistent, but not STRONG, coffee. Anything stronger -> espresso.

> does someone at least help you to get in and out of there?

Yes, they will help. It was just a little embarrassing for me. Worth the small embarrassment, though.

I did a $500 helicopter tour on SS in Homer, Alaska and found it money well spent. It involved a 15 minute helicopter ride to a glacier, half an hour on the glacier and then a 15 minute helicopter ride back to the heliport. The 15 minute ride (twice) was actually a 'guided tour', where the pilot flew us around the area, looking for wildlife and pointing out other viewpoints. 30 minutes (15 minutes each way) doesn't sound like a lot, but it was really fun. Riding in the helicopter was a lot like playing a video game such as WoW, flying around the world, especially on the way back when I got to sit up front.

So, anyway, I haven't done the Mallorca helicopter ride, but I can tell you that I was quite pleased with the money I spent on the helicopter tour in Homer. One thing I might mention is that after spending the last 4 decades sitting in front of a computer screen I am portly and I had some difficulty getting in and out of the bird. Those things are tight and require some flexibility to get in and out, at least on a Hughes 404.

Silversea have bought the package company wide and as such set the bandwidth per ship but they also vary depending on the time of day.

Wait a minute here, Les. This "package" we're talking about; are we talking about satellite time? Are you saying that all the SS ships are sharing the same satellite time package? That actually makes a lot of sense.

I don't think they've implemented the idea all that well, but the idea is reasonable.

-- Rick

Yeah, the coffee on the ship is excellent if you order an espresso-based drink. Those Illy pod-machines turn out excellent espresso. But the stuff they bring around in a pitcher while you're dining is no better than diner coffee. But they are *always* happy to bring you a latte or a cappuccino.

The train is run by Alaska Railroads (the state government). My trip was Seward to Anchorage, and started at 8am. There was beer, wine, cocktails, sandwiches, and I think they could have rounded up an omelette.

They have menus with different cruise-line's names on them. They accidentally gave my railroad car the "Princess" cruise line menus and had to pick them up and pass out the Silversea menus. They both had the same food selections.