pavementends

There are all kinds of reasons why I don't want Door to Door. 1. Port to port is cheaper (when available). 2. I like to be in control. 3. I like to get in more than a day early so I can do some more sightseeing. 4. On some cruises you really really have to be there on time. (Antarctica, for example). And a final thing- I live too far from the airport for included transfers anyway.

I regret that I did not climb the spiral staircase of the Church of Our Savior in Copenhagen. On another note, Oslo is my favorite airport.

Unless you really want to stay in Southampton...Salisbury is interesting to visit (even if you choose not to go to Stonehenge) and is about an hour away from Southampton by train.

I took this cruise last summer and had a great time. (I think there are actually two cruises with this route, I did the one on Moon). I recommend you skip the Silversea air and make reservations yourself. This makes it easier to add on some days before or after. I arrived a few days earlier to visit a couple places in England. (Be aware that hotels in London can be very high, while at LHR and many other places they are much more reasonable). I took premium economy on AA from LAX (very acceptable in terms of comfort). Business is of course nicer but the payoff is less for the shorter flights from the US east coast. I used Iceland air which is just fine although their Saga class has seats roughly equivalent to US domestic first class. Remember these flights are not all that long (< 5 hr to Boston). The boarding area in the airport however is best described as chaotic with many flights to the US leaving at just about the same time. There IS a dedicated line for business although it is very difficult to find. Baggage requirements are very specific to airlines. Some (BA probably among these) have very specific limits on size and weight that are erratically enforced.

Your sarcasm detector needs adjustment.

I suspect that many more use the "air-inclusive" than not because port-to-port is not always available. The story seems to be- and it seems to be the same on other lines- that sometimes included air works out well and sometimes it doesn't. Not working out often means inconvenient or long flights. Maybe it works best if you live near a major airport.

Don't know but if so it would be tragic.

Viking says in there promotional materials "no umbrella drinks." How is a Mai Tai not an umbrella drink?

As a final option OP could just order dinner in her* cabin, and eat dinner in a bathrobe. Definitely (1) a first world problem (2) complaint made without really understanding the options. *I guess it's her, but I do not want to exclude the possibility that he or they want to do makeup.

That's what OP said. Port to port is discounted and I'm not surprised.

I started to register for STEP once and it seemed like it asked for a great deal of info (all my hotels? all my stops??). Do I remember wrong? So I did not find it easy, and as the trip was a non-dangerous one (western Europe) I gave up.

Unlike the down-market cruise lines, the differences on Silversea are not great. You still get the butler (need him or not), you still go to the same restaurants, choose from the same excursions, have the same drinks and the same in-cabin dining, etc. The perks Stumblefoot mentions are, in my mind at least, relatively minor so the main thing you get is a bigger cabin. As a past cheapest-cabin cruiser, Silversea, despite being a "luxury" line, seems to be nearly classless.

Is the red light district to be avoided because it is dangerous, or because one might see things that would cause one to clutch one's pearls??

No nickel and dimeing means that any extra charge items are way more than a dime. I would agree that Viking has less of this than some of the mass market lines. But more than some of the all-inclusive lines- which are not really really all-inclusive. I have advice. Buy your own flights, remove one irritation and maybe save some dimes.

I do not consider the chances of needing emergency air evacuation to be large enough to warrant insurance of this sort.

I was on Shadow just after the two dislocated Alaska voyages. My trip was uneventful. I think the chances for a significant "event" are about the same as on any other ship. That is: nonzero; distinctly greater than on an airplane; and if it happens distinctly less impactful than on an airplane.

OP should carry his camera and leave the laptop at home. Problem solved. It is unfortunate that OP is getting details now. However "issues" with cruise ships and Venice have been in the air for some time so this should be no surprise. To be honest (1) a night in Venice is a better experience than a few hours of tour and (2) there are interesting things to see in Ravenna if OP's plans are flexible.

1. Everybody who pays attention knows that European business class is not the same as international business class. 2. BA has gone through phases of being good and being terrible. Right now I consider it not great. I don't like the way that they deal with seat assignment. Sometimes a "BA" flight is really a codeshare and booking the same flight with another airline is better.

No answer yet. I'm kinda curious, but not very curious as I will eat most anything. I do know people eating strict more-limited-than-just-vegan diets. For someone with food requirements that strict cruises may be inadvisable.

Right now it is in Greenland. You can follow day by day on cruisemapper(dot)com (and possibly other sites). Also shows a few of the planned future stops. (I used this site to track a ship that I was expecting to take to Antarctica. When it wasn't doing what I thought it should be doing it was a warning that there was an issue. This was early in the Covid thing).

Port-to-port makes sense if you are absolutely sure you will not cancel the cruise because you change your mind. You can protect against a cancellation you do NOT choose (for example: due to your illness, job loss, illness or death in the immediate family, other coverages noted) by buying trip insurance. Insurance against your voluntary cancellation (cancel for any reason coverage, or CFAR) is likely to be prohibitive in cost, and usually only provides partial compensation).

Post is not completely clear about whether "convention center" is in Anchorage or Seward. When we took one of these cruises, we took the (sort of scenic, a bit worn) train to Seward and stayed in Seward two nights. On the day of departure we took luggage to the port and dropped off a few hours ahead of boarding. It was a building a short walk from the actual terminal. I don't remember luggage tags but maybe they gave us a bag check??

At one of the stops in Alaska I took a tour that went a few miles into Canada. They were careful to tell us to get our passports and take them with us. This was a bus tour on a very lightly traveled road up into the mountains. No, there were no Canadian Mounties checking passports. But I was ready.

As noted, departure from Reykjavik can be a real mess. By the way, there WAS a priority line for business class. It was just hard to find it. The cruise Southampton to Iceland was lightly subscribed while Iceland to Southampton was sold out. Now I know why.

If a country requires that I carry my passport I carry my passport. After all, I have somehow managed to board the ship with my passport after having carried it to the departure port. I do use an around-the-neck pouch so that I won't lose it inadvertently or have it snatched by pickpockets after my wallet or backpack. I guess I think it will be a lot easier to explain to the US State Department that I had my passport taken (a very small chance) than to explain to an Italian* policeman that I didn't think the rules applied to me. * Arbitrary choice of country. Although I have seen some very officious and inflexible Italian officials in action.