Ekka

Well, I am doing a cruise on Silver Muse this year, from Singapore to Cairns,  and sometimes use a rollator which I intended to use on this 14-night cruise. I have previously used it on a Princess cruise with no trouble at all.

I was concerned when I read phillipahain's summmary but much happier after JSR's response.

Ms Muckermann, Silversea appears to be doing several cruises from the small city of Cairns to various places, and a couple of dozen ex Sydney to many places, in 2022, some of which stop all day inthe large city of Brisbane but you can't embark there apparently, while Silversea is basically ignoring Brisbane for the next  two  years - and even then only if the international ban on travel lifts.

I apologise for the fact that Brisbane is not so large as Sydney, but you are still banning about four million people, if they do not fly to either Cairns or Sydney. Why, especially as you either spend all day here or go past?

Best wishes.

You certainly do not need more than Silverseas provides, other than hiring waterproof leggings , the parka  is sufficiently warm and waterproof. Two pairs of  socks is ample. Having shared a pair of walking sticks with my son last year, my advice is to take a pair each, as the slipperiness increases enormously with  each person.

In fact, if you're over sixty,  and  not in the first-half-dozen invitees, don't go ashore, as you're bound to fall over. Seriously, it's far too slippery, as SS does not help. I speak from the experience of a year  ago.

I love the "NEW" parkas on SS. They are a blue down coat, under a red waterproof coat. If you order the wrong size your butler will change it no problems. It is yours to keep. We have been on several of the cold climate cruises and when we have got off we have donated the parkas to the Salvation Army/Lifeline shop in the area. As we live in the tropics we dont really need the coats, but I did keep the blue inner jacket from our last cold cruise and it will come in handy next month when we venture south to Kangaroo Island !

Well, sub-tropics perhaps, as is Brisbane, but thanks for the excellent information about the SS parka, which seems to be high-quality. It does seem that little else is needed, perhaps gloves and waterproof trousers.

In Australia we don't usually tip because everyone is paid well for what they do. Unless we want to reward exceptional service or to big-note ourselves.

In Australian-based ships we don't usually tip for the very same reasons. Unless we want to reward exceptional service or to big-note ourselves.

It is the business of absolutely no one else what we do in Australia; it is particularly not the business of Yanks or other outspoken aliens.

People in Australia get paid well, unlike in America, where I tip the poorly-paid people who abound in that miserable country because they ARE poorly-paid owing to their miserable basic wage; we know how poorly they're paid.

Pomgo, I wasn't endorsing your opinion, far from it; simply turning your "here here" into "hear hear".

This is Australia where we tip only to reward exceptional service; if you don't like it, it's a bit of a shame, but there you go.

Unless you're a big-noter of course.

Here here Elaine. I have met a person now on several cruises and it is her topic through the cruise, mostly informing newies :they really dont need to tip.: When I commented that they work hard was told it is their choice and there I beg to differ they dont have any other choice.

Hear hear.

Wow, we have done Chef's Table on RCCL two times and couldn't imagine wearing anything less than formal attire. Ours was a very high end affair. Maybe Carnival is different but I'd be embarrassed to go in jeans......

 

Indeed, even if I still owned any jeans, and I grew out of them decades ago, I'd be embarrassed even to take them to the nearest give-away shop.

 

Your event may have been very "high end", as you say (you probably meant high-end), and all were well-dressed, If I could be sure that everyone else would at the very least wear a decent long-sleeved shirt to show willing and to have shown that they were prepared to make an effort I'd. be happy to pay the premium.

By "tux" do you mean "tuxedo" which I understand is American for dinner jacket or suit, and may even include a white jacket in the US?

In Australia we're more traditional, perhaps, and a dinner jacket is still a dinner jacket, and trousers are still trousers, not "pants", which are tiny garments we use as underwear, and very useful they are too.

It depends where in Antarctica you want to go, and yes, by far the quickest way to get to some parts of the southern-most continent from the UK is by flying to South America, so do so by all means if speed is important to you and visiting the Commonwealth is less so.

If you're more interested in speed than in history, that's definitely the way to go. The scenery may be better too, if you don't mind crowds, and if that's why you're going, you'll no doubt be sated.

If you are interested in history, particularly British colonial and British Commonwealth history, and want to see a fair bit of the areas visited by early 20th century British and Australian explorers, eastern Antarctica is extremely worthwhile, but it is almost always ignored by the cruises from South America, almost all of which visit the Antarctic Peninsula only.

I personally had intended to voyage Hobart to Hobart on the Orion, but then the Australian owner of Orion Expedition Cruises sold out to Lindblad, and the rest is history. Lindblad joined up with National Geographic and you can no longer get to Antarctica from Australia on the Orion, so far as I can ascertain.

Perhaps it may be timely to remind people such as markham that Australia - inherited from Britain - is the largest claimant to Antarctic territory, and that that claim was passed on to Australia by Britain in 1933. Since that year Australia has faithfully looked after the largest portion of the continent at its own expense. markham may be interested in learning more about the history of the exploration of Antarctica.

markham's response was interesting. He or she clearly placed convenience and "what you can see" above what British and Commonwealth explorers strove - against considerable difficulties a century ago, to stamp as British and Commonwealth. One wonders if those who criticise know anything of history.

So far as Captain Cook cruises go, yes, I believe they're based in Fiji, but if you want to see where Lt. James Cook spent most of his time ashore in Australia in 1770, visit Cooktown in North Queensland.

Thank you for the reply.

I still have hopes that the Aria is better than the other; P and O, silly as they are would surely not place a minor ship in a major city - Brisbane, the city from which Ann Sherry comes.

Actually it is surprising that she runs anything from Cairns.

Interesting that anyone from the UK would even consider visiting Antarctica from southern America rather than from Australia.

Have you ever heard of Captain Cook?

Hopefully the Aria is hopefully a fraction better ship than is the Eden, which departs from Cairns.

Aria at least is based in Brisbane, which alone has no fewer than seventeen times the population of the small city of Cairns, and that that's without including the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast, Ipswich, Toowoomba and northern NSW.

So hopefully the Aria is not at all the same as the Eden.