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Thank you again Gourmet Gal.

Thank you, sounds like you had a wonderful expereince.

Thank you, very helpful ideas.

We are booked on an October 2025 cruise from Lisbon to Barcelona. Some of the excursions we wanted to book are waitlisted. We are thinking of selecting the Silver Shore Private Car to visit the waitlisted destinations, but before we do, we would like to know if can we design our own itinerary, or do we have to accept the itinerary "suggested" on the Silver Sea excursion page? One of the waitlisted trips (from Cadiz to Seville) we wanted to sign up for is almost 2 hours by car from the port. I don't know if we can ask the driver to take us to our destination and back, or whether they are told to keep to a more local (i.e. Cadiz) itinerary. Does anyone have any insight into this issue? Thanks.

Thank you for the wonderful commentary of your voyage. Did you mean November 26, rather than September 26? In any event, I do hope your ship will be able to travel up the Amazon, I would love to see your photos and observations of the Amazon. Great job!

The water level of the Amazon River has been the subject of discussion on the December 12, 2023 Regent Mariner roll call. As noted in that discussion, the Seabourn Pursuit did make it up the Amazon to Manaus last week. However, the Pursuit is a smaller ship than the Mariner, and so it may be better able to navigate shallower water. Passengers getting on and off the Pursuit in Manaus had to be tendered back and forth, because the water level prevented the ship from docking, as it normally would. The good news is that some cruise ships are able to still navigate the Amazon, and the rainy season should start in December. We remain optimistic... Here is the link to the December 12th Mariner roll call:

In reviewing the updated Silversea health protocol (link below), which come into effect on September 5th, I noticed that in some Caribbean destinations, independently-arranged shore excursions are not permitted: see "Exploration ashore" in the following link: https://www.silversea.com/lp-silversea-hrts-consumer.html?cid_email=em_USA_EM2208295046_OTHER_AGN_DEM_LINK&utm_campaign=USA_EM2208295046&utm_source=USA&utm_medium=Email&cid=112760&mid=283859656 Perhaps this is not news to some cruisers, but it was to me, leading me to cancel some excursions (dives) that I arranged myself (i.e. not a Silversea-arranged activity) on the Bridgetown to Lima cruise, scheduled to begin December 5th.