Balian65

Today the concert event in Ephesus was cancelled due to three days of national mourning celebrations because of the situation in Gaza. Sorry no reports about that event on this cruise.

That is definitely fake news. We are docked at Kusadasi

Silversea cruise, but this time it is different, Hasd a great evening in Silver Note and Panorama Lounge and looking forward to the rest of the cruise.

I suppose there was always a Plan B to substitute the israelian ports. Not for the reasons we have encountered now but for the general risk. Recognized the blue anoraks as well but at least some of the party do speak English as good as we do. There is also a big group from the Philippines. I was surprised at the demographics of the passengers. Usually we (end fifties) are amongst the youngest on. silver

Greetings from a similar hotel in Piraeus. Did a similar trip yesterday and I can assure you the taxi was only 66 Euros and took about 45 Minutes. Found a nice taverna in a side street for dinner and paid less than for the beer and wine in the hotel bar. Hope we will have the right spirit to board in a few hours. The weather perspective looks great for the next days.

This will be an owl watching excursion. We did it around 11 p.m.

Nice to see the island we were five days ago. Your weather conditions are much more comfortable. We had no sun , heavy winds and 8 degrees Celsius. The long ride back on the Zodiac was horrible. But the salmon soup was extremely delicious and even way better than the one on Ulko. Enjoy the cruise, we love to see the pictures of the places we have already seen. And believe me the best is yet to come..

Just to give you some impressions from the running cruise from Hamburg to Helsinki. Weather has been mostly nice all of the wind, although it could have been a little former and less windy the last days. The ship and the hotel crew are performing quite well. No big issues with food or service. Most of the places we visited so far were interesting natural hotspots although there are only quite a few wow experiences . The expedition team is experienced and knows how to run operations. As this is Silversea‘s first attempt on a Scandinavian expedition cruise there a quite a few lessons to learn. Whilst experienced the expedition crew has a lack of experience in the Baltic region, the Scandinavian culture and the local climate. They do have local guides in many harbors but these have often a small to none existing experience in dealing with the audience of a international cruise ship and the problem is not the language. So excursions were a mixture between hits and misses. Sometimes the groups were much too big sometimes they was nobody taking the lead. And sometimes the title of the excursion was completely inadequate. Hopefully many of the lessons are learnt for the next cruise and your experience will be even better. If you have any questions concerning special items and excursions feel free to ask.

We have been on both ships in 2022. Both cannot deny their age but they still work pretty well. We did not notice any rattles and vibrates on Voyager and the food was completely ok. Silver Spirit had some issues in Seishin and La Dame which were technical matters. Nevertheless we would sail on both ships again.

It is a little bit disappointing that every discussion about comparing Silversea to other lines tends to be reduced on the dress code. My personal male experience is despite different rules there is no real big difference in dressing up between Regent and Silversea except for the tie on formal nights. At least my packing list is about the same for both lines. Apart from the lelak’s list I would say the most obvious difference is that Regent tends to be more traditional American style whereas Silversea has a more international approach. Dining venues, wines and spirits, entertainment and decors are much more European style on Silversea. And there is usually a higher percentage of European guests from different countries. On Regent we were often one of the very few couples not being native English speakers. Nevertheless we love both products and will probably keep on sailing both lines depending on itenary and price.

We have done nearly the same cruise last summer on the Moon and two other in the Baltics before. Expect to see three modern capitals (Stockholm, Helsinki, Copenhagen) with almost the highest living standard worldwide. They all have different but very relaxed flair. The most fun thing is to have an overnight stay in July during the white nights with summer temperatures. Riga, Tallinn, Klaipeda and Gdańsk are all Eastern Europe towns that have developed a lot in the recent years and they all have a medieval history which you can see and feel and which ware heavily influenced by German culture of that time. If this is interesting fo you each city is worth a visit. Ronne and Mariehamn are old towns based on strategic important islands in the Baltic Sea. Not that interesting as the bigger towns mentioned before but they do have a certain flair. Same applies to Karlskrona which the exception that it is based on the mainland. The least interesting stops in my eyes will be Fredericia and Warnemünde. No really interesting historical sites and the towns do not offer a special feeling. Berlin is a long way and not worth to do it in one day and there are no other real interesting things nearby. But maybe this judgement is influenced by the fact that we are living in Northern Germany and know the region too well. Although this cruise offers a.lot of interesting places to see for Americans it has one major disadvantage. It takes place in September when the summer days are over there. And believe me it really does make a difference up there.

Your observations are completely right. Pricing in different markets can vary quite a bit. On one hand there are reasons for that like different costs for included air. It makes a difference if you have an intercontinental flight or just a short trip within Europe. On the other hand I realized Silverseas keeps the price level in its core markets US, UK and Australia high whereas special offers are often marketed in other places. We come from Germany and so far we did six European cruises with Silverseas. We often find offers that are port to port on a 500 € price level per day for veranda. There are other door to door offers for a similar itenary with a price tag of 800 - 900 € per day. What I have learnt: you won‘t find these special offers while staying in the UK. And if you google these offers in Poland they are even less expensive.

Done it several times and it is the easiest and most comfortable way to get to the city. You will find a lot of signs in the airport to Arlanda Express. There are ticket machines in the terminal as well as on the platforms that will work with your credit card. once you arrived at T-Centralen (main station of Stockholm) you took a taxi to the Hilton which will be a 7-10 minutes ride.

We were definitely on the same cruise and although I can confirm each and every of you observations is true we had a total different feeling about the atmosphere on this cruise. Being Europeans in our fifties we found it very comfortable not to be the youngest and not being a small minority. I am with you if you say this was not the typical Silverseas audience and a lot of the typical events like trivia or the evenings in the Panorama lounge had a very special atmosphere. But all in all the younger crowd behaved pretty well - only very different from what you would expect from typical Silverseas cruise. Nevertheless we enjoyed that cruise a 100%.

Mask requirements will end in Greece June 1st and in Italy probably June 15th.