cruiseej

I would say that if you plan to travel to Antarctica and want to see the wildlife up close, you should consider doing the trip on a smaller expedition ship which will get you on land as much as possible. This isn't Regent's forte, of course, but there are multiple luxury cruise lines which can give you to combination of expedition cruising and cursing luxury. Seabourn has two new expedition ships; Silversea has one new and two older ships; and at varying lesser luxury levels, lines like Viking, Lindblad/National Geographic, Ponant, Quark, Hurtigruten, Hapag-Lloyd, and Scenic (and probably a few others) all have modern ships carrying only about 200 people so that everyone can get to land twice a day (weather permitting). We just came back from an Antarctica cruise (Silversea), and I can't imagine doing this trip being anywhere near as mind-blowing without getting out on the water in zodiacs and getting ashore to get up close with the penguins and seals. (We carried our binoculars but never ended up using them; you'll see why in a second... 😉 ) Of course, the scenery in Antarctica is breathtaking, and you can absolutely enjoy it cruising by from the comfort of the ship... And you may see some penguins in the distance on land, or floating by on an iceberg... But... you won't get the feeling of seeing the animals up close unless you're on an expedition cruise which gets you to land as often as possible... And... if you can possibly swing the added time and expense to do a cruise which visits the Falklands (beyond Port Stanley) and South Georgia Island, you'll have an even more unbelievable experience... We will be forever grateful to the passengers we met on prior cruises elsewhere in the world who convinced us that if we were going to voyage to Antarctica, we ought to go on a smaller ship — and insisted that we should visit South Georgia Island!

We just booked a cruise on the Splendor two weeks ago. The two-suite upgrade was as simple as you'd hope it would be: book the suite you want to be in, and you get charged the price for a suite two levels less. So you can book a Concierge E and pay for a Superior F2; book a Superior F2 and pay for a Deluxe Veranda G2. The biggest "bargain" is paying for Concierge E and booking a Penthouse C, because the jump from Concierge to Penthouse is much more than Verandah to Deluxe Veranda, Deluxe Verandah to Superior, or Superior to Concierge.

Really? I've never heard of an onboard booking discount that large. Now, Seabourn currently has a promotion for 15% off some cruises, so if you've selected one of those, I'm wondering if you got the traditional 5% discount for booking onboard, added to the 15% promotion which anyone can get?

I'm sure there are a lot of folks on this forum who would agree with you. But here's why I think it's unlikely: 1) They added included tours in the arms war of luxury cruise lines aiming to outdo each other for the most ultra luxury offerings. Regent has offered included excursions for several years, so Silversea basically matched them, then raise the ante by including the home/airport Blacklane car service. (I believe Regent offer that, but only to their passengers in their very top-tier suites.) If they added this to better compete against Regent, why would they now remove it? 2) If they offered a no-excursions discount, probably a lot of people would take the discount so they could pay for only the excursions they really want, presumably for less money, and/or book private tours. What's the point of saying you're all-inclusive if most people then ask for discounts to undo the inclusions. Air? You can remove it. Pre-cruise hotel? You can remove it. Transfers to/from the pier & hotel? You can remove it. If you throw in the ability to remove included excursions, then you're basically back to having an a la carte offering, except you start with the high all inclusive price and then select all the things you want to drop. It would just be simpler to offer a cruise-only price and then offer various optional add-ons. 3) If they allowed people to get money back from not doing the included excursions, they've have fewer people going on excursions, and therefore would likely offer fewer excursions. 4) If they offer an opt-out for those who don't want excursions, inevitably people ask about adding an option to get a discount for those who don't drink alcoholic beverages. Why have t have the cost of drinks & wine bundled in your cruise far if you don't drink the stuff? But then they'd have to swipe your card or otherwise check everyone for every drink, and you're back to being like a mass-market cruise line. 5) Could there be a discount for those who are vegetarian and don't consume any steak? Those who don't eat lobster or caviar? Okay, I'm mostly being facetious here, but undoubtedly the question would arise if there were a menu of included features you could opt out of for a monetary savings. So it's just a slippery slope to start offering carve-outs for things people don't want/don't use.

I've seen loyal cruisers of Silvers, Seabourn, and Regent say the same things. Also, "aside from the food or ship or entertainment, it's the crew that makes [insert cruise line] so special." Nothing wrong with that, either; it means there are people who are happy with their cruise choice, and that's what we'd hope to hear from most people, right? (I only find it over the top when someone says "the crew/ship/dining is what makes [insert cruise line] the best!", and then elsewhere they say they have only cruised with, or only cruised in the past 10/15/20+ years, with [aforementioned cruise line]. 😉 )

I doesn't have anything to do with what Silversea prefers; it's only about passengers not wanting to miss out on excursions they consider important. For example: we just booked a Regent cruise in August, and excursions have been available since last August. We hurried to select excursions as soon as we booked the cruise, but our top choice excursions in two ports are waitlisted. We might clear waitlists, but in ports in small towns with limited buses or boats, there's a good chance they can't add capacity. If you go to parts of the world where there are key things to see, and you find you can't get to see them, you might re-consider if you want to remain on that cruise.

So these folks (Manfredi, the former Silversea execs he's hired, and the A&K management team) are pretty smart. They know better than any of us here what the limitations are of their two old ships. So how do you think they plan to turn this into a success?

Even if you don't see the email, you can go to the website (https://silversea.blacklane.com), create and account if you don't have one (using the same email you use with Silversea), and start entering a reservation. If Silversea has sent Blacklane your cruise info, the booking will be free; if it shows there would be a charge, then you'll need to contact Silversea.

Chioggia... Trieste.... Ravenna... all can be nice to visit, and all have been used in the past year by cruise lines who couldn't secure berths near Venice. But many passengers are sailing to or from Venice because they want to see... Venice! In last year's scramble for berths, many ships docked in Marghera. It's only a 20-minute bus ride across the causeway from the Venice Marittima cruise terminal, and makes it easy for people who are spending time in Venice, or headed to/from the Venice airport. This year, some additional ships will be accommodated due to the addition of two docks at Fusina. Some of the giant ships will continue to use other cities, as there is still not enough capacity for all the ships which used to sail to/from Venice. As for being "captive" in the industrial port, I'd note that the majority of cruises which come to Venice use the city as an embarkation/disembarkation point. For those which are just stopping in Venice for a day, it's true that you can't just walk from your ship to into Venice, but a bus (or water tax, or ferry) onto Venice doesn't materially change the experience. The Marittima cruise terminal isn't in the center of Venice, either, so if you were a day visitor on a cruise there, you still needed transportation to get into the heart of Venice.

The Quest May cruises to/from Venice are listed in the post schedule for the Venice Marghera port, which is the industrial port on the mainland across the causeway from Venice. This is where most cruise ships have been docking since Venice banned cruise ships from the Giudecca Canal two years ago. There are no passenger facilities at the industrial port, so last year all cruise passengers still checked in and dropped luggage at the old Marittima cruise terminal in Venice, and were then bussed over to their ship. This year, some ships will also berth at Fusina, which is on the mainland adjoining the Marghera docks. I believe they are building a passenger terminal there, but I'd expect check-ins to still be at the Marittima terminal. (I'd try to confirm this with Seabourn about a month before your cruise.)

@hoya68 If your focus is on the Quest ship experience and/or the other South America parts of the itinerary, no problem; you'll love it! If your focus is on Antarctica, South Georgia and the Falklands, you will certainly get to see them on this cruise, but you'll get to see a lot more on a smaller expedition ship where you will get twice as many landings, zodiac cruises, and opportunities to kayak. Of course, the scenery is spectacular on any ship, but the stars of this area are the wildlife you get to see up-close when you go ashore or cruise just feet from their seaside habitats. We first talked about going to Antarctica about five years ago, and it would have been on the Quest. But after talking to a lot of people (including those who had done a Quest Antarctica trip), we decided we'd rather go on a smaller ship in order to get off twice as often. (We just came back from an Antarctica/South Georgia/Falklands cruise. We ended up booking on Silversea because the Seabourn Venture was delayed, and much more expensive, at the time we were booking back three years ago pre-Covid.) We love Seabourn, and love the Quest, but I'm glad we chose to go on a ship half the size in order to do twice the number of landings.

@asnaleah Thanks for noting that difference. With the free two-category upgrade promotion, we ended up just booking a Penthouse suite, but only paying for a Concierge suite — and with the additional 20% discount promotion, plus the SSS discount, we're paying less than the lowest verandah suite price. We've never booked a Penthouse suite before, but this promotion seemed too good to pass up! (Yes, we could have saved money with all the same promotions and a lower-level suite, but we saved so much more money this way! 🤣 Seriously, the free 2-category upgrade from a Superior to Concierge saves $700 per person, while a 2-category upgrade from Concierge to Penthouse saves $2,700 per person.) Now, we're struggling with piecing together flights to and from Iceland. I didn't realize it would be so difficult 7 months out. There are a lot fewer flights than our previous trip to Iceland 5 years ago, and those from the US east coast are mostly in planes which do not have business class cabins. We're going to see what Regent Air can come up with; it they can find something I'm not seeing, we'll stay with the included Regent Air, otherwise we might take the air credit ($2,650 per person) and book our own air and transfers; there's no sense spending that much on air through Regent unless they can get us business class and a decent routing. And we're scrambling to read all the shore excursion descriptions, since we're already late for booking those; I'm concerned that many of the excursions may be fully booked.

It's worth noting that they intentionally hold back some significant percentage (maybe about 40%?) of the tables at the Thomas Keller restaurant from advance bookings, so they will have inventory available when people board and want to make reservations. If you decide that going to Thomas Keller is what you really want on your birthday, I suggest that immediately after boarding — before you eat lunch, before you check out your suite or explore the ship — you go to one of the restaurants and ask the maitre d' to see if they can get you in that night. If you can't get a reservation when you board, the other thing you can do is stop by the Thomas Keller restaurant just before their opening time on the 2nd, and ask if they have any cancellations or openings. Lots of people change their minds, meet other people, etc., and plans to change, so there are sometimes openings on the day of. (This often works better for later times than early times, but it cannot hurt to check if you really desire to dine there on a specific day.) Just to add to this idea, you can ask them for an entire meal, or just a special dish. Escargots for appetizer? Lobster for dinner? Chocolate soufflé's for dessert? Ask, and they will usually be able to accommodate you. You do this by speaking with the maitre d' at least one day, but preferably a few days, in advance.

You'll get an email from Silversea with the subject line "It's time to book your airport transfers with Blacklane" 30 days before your cruise. It gives you instructions on the website to visit (https://silversea.blacklane.com) and how to create an account on the Blacklane site. There's no voucher or special personalized link; when you log into Blacklane with the same email address you use with Silversea, it will lead you through creating your bookings (home to airport and airport to home are two separate bookings), and Blacklane's site will show your cost of zero.

They're calling it the "Kelce Bowl", for the Eagles' Jason and his younger brother, the Chiefs' Travis. Not only are they the first brothers to play against each other in a Super Bowl, but both are starters and likely future Hall of Fame inductees. I saw an interview with the parents yesterday; Mom will wear a sewn together jersey which is half Eagles/half Chiefs, while dad will wear a University of Cincinnati jersey (where both brothers played) with one's number on the front and the other's on the back. Expect the TV cameras to show Mom & Dad in the stands at least a few dozen times!

And how can you tell who is not earning SSS nights on a cruise?? 😉

That's how they justify their multi-million dollar salaries! 😉

@hoya68Interesting that we were on the Cloud a month later than you and found the expedition staff to be outstanding. I know we had a different expedition leader, but I don't think too many of the others changed between your cruise and ours. Maybe they got the hang of it with an extra month. 😉 The one thing to note about going on the Quest is that you'll get half as many landings. We love Seabourn and the Quest, but I would choose a smaller ship for Antarctica just so you can get off the ship a lot more. If you trust Seabourn more, they'll have both their new expedition ships in operation next year, so maybe consider the Venture or Pursuit. (I know... it's a lot more expensive.)

Turn on the one with sound only, turn it up LOUD, and watch the one with picture and no sound. Problem solved. 🤣

Third reason: the Christmas cruise is full of revenue passengers, and they didn't want to give up suites for free to the film crew on that one! 😉

One thing to clarify is when your flights are booked versus ticketed. A booking is just a reservation, and can be canceled; once the cruise line pays the airline to issue tickets, then it's not refundable. I think SS typically tickets flights about 60 days out, but there may be instances, especially with deviations, where ticketing can occur earlier.

We just did the Falklands/South Georgia/Antartica trip a few weeks ago. The Falklands and South Georgia were quite different than Antartica, and we're extremely happy we waited an extra year (last year's similar trip was canceled) and paid the extra money for this longer cruise. The pictures Wes posted above and I'm including below from South Georgia give you a sense of it, but pictures can never fully capture the experience of standing on the Sailsbury Plain with tens of thousands of penguins. (And don't get me started on how cute the fur seal babies are!) You'll see many penguins, and breathtaking scenery, in Antarctica, but it's not the same as what you'll see in South Georgia. After first becoming interested in doing a trip to Antarctica, after talking to some fellow passengers on a cruise about 5 years ago, we found that every person we subsequently talked to told us "you MUST do South Georgia Island." Well, we're now members of the cult: you must do South Georgia if you possibly can. As for the Falkland Islands, that seemed to be something of a "throw in" that I really wasn't as passionate about before we went — but I was very pleasantly surprised. I could have skipped the stop in Port Stanley, the only town you'll visit on this cruise (unless you're really interested in the history of the war there). But our other our landings in the Falklands, at New Island and West Point Island, were excellent... We were fortunate not to have had too rough weather going to or from South Georgia, and then from Antarctica back up across the Drake, but I think I would have endured one day feeling bad in return for the great things we got to experience in the Falklands and South Georgia Island. If you can, do it! 🙂

They would not be smart business people if they weren't concerned. There's not an infinite market for the type of cruises served up by Silversea, Seabourn, Regent and Crystal — and the prices they charge. When Crystal re-launches, they'll be aiming to attract nearly 2,000 people per week to their ships, and some of those 2,000 could otherwise be cruising on Silversea. Add to that that the new Crystal owner is the former longtime CEO of Silversea and son of its founder, so he's a knowledgeable and likely formidable competitor in the luxury cruise space. None of this says that the new Crystal, with their old ships, will derail Silversea — but you better believe SS executives are keeping a close eye on how things go with Crystal's reincarnation.

Yes, it's possible. Driving to Long Island is always a crap shoot with traffic. (My wife is originally from Long Island, so we know the route well.) Is it really worth us driving an extra two hours and parking at JFK versus going out of PHL, ostensibly just to get a flight with a lay-flat business class seat for a flight that's under 6 hours? Maybe; will think about it this weekend. I might prefer flying a little backwards to Chicago, Detroit or Minneapolis if that's the goal. 😉 I'm not so much surprised that the schedule changed, but that they deleted EWR to Iceland for the summer season just this week, after having sold a lot of seats, leading into what is expected to be a busy summer. We spent a few days in Iceland prior to an Iceland-to-Greenland cruise 5 years ago. And we did a Norway coast cruise prior to that. So this trip would cover more of Iceland than we've seen previously. We were looking for a cruise that my 90-something parents could manage without too many challenges, and this relatively short cruise with shorter flights seemed to fit the bill while covering territory we haven't listed before (other than Reykjavik). And with Regent's current promotions of a 2-class upgrade + 20% discount + Seven Seas Society discount, we can get Penthouse suites for less than the regular price of the lowest-level Verandah suites.

Ah, don't know how I turned LHR into LIH. (I'm going to blame auto-correct.) And yes, we're big fans of Kauai. But it is just a bit out of the way to fly from Philadelphia to Kauai enroute to Iceland! 🤣