Bikelover

2 hours ago, Gourmet Gal said:

Sounds like a great day.  You can get the exact same experience with a private guide for far less money.  Most tour guides do not require payment until service is rendered as they know there’s always the possibility of the ship not making it to port.  You can get excellent recommendations from CC, Trip Advisor, etc. so you can get great guides and feel safe. 
 

FWIW, I also booked a private guide and driver for a full day in Istanbul during an SS cruise.  She was a professor at a major university there.  We went to 5 mosques, had a fabulous lunch, went to the Grand Bazaar and learned so much about the culture and politics of the country.  It was less than $400 including gratuity.

Thank you again Gourmet Gal. 

5 hours ago, Squat said:

I booked in Istanbul a Silver Shore Private Car for the whole day. Definitely the best decision! I was picked up by two guides and a driver with a black Mercedes. Told them what I wanted to see and they arranged everything. The guides were always with me and the driver was called when needed. The guides gave me so many interesting information, answered all the questions I had, showed me the best shops and brought me to a lovely restaurant for lunch. It was a fantastic, gorgeous day! Did cost a lot, but was worth every penny!

The advantages of a Silver Shore Privato Car are: 1) if the ship cannot get to the port for whatever reasons you pay nothing. 2) Quality of guide, driver and car are very high. 3) It is safe (in my case a woman traveling alone). The tour company does not want to lose SS as a customer and will therefore take very good care of you. 

Thank you, sounds like you had a wonderful expereince.

1 hour ago, Gourmet Gal said:

First of all, many waitlisted excursions will be freed up as SS adds capacity in response to demand or firms up the tour providers in each port.  So keep an eye on that.  Secondly, the SS cars are really expensive and the only advantage is SS is liable if the car doesn’t make it back to port by all-aboard time.  And lastly, you could book a back-up excursion through a private provider.  You can easily research on line, ask your TA to book for you or check the Ports of Call section here on CC by creating ansearch with a query such as “private guides in Barcelona” and if you don’t see any relevant posts then start a thread there.

 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.