jollyjones

Crossings often offer a low solo supplement so there are usually many solos onboard. 
I do one or two crossings every year for that reason plus I enjoy sea days. 
 

I would have considered this crossing but have just disembarked Nova after an Australian east coast cruise which made an interesting change. 
 

After two Nova cruises, I am happy with the Nova class but still prefer the Moon or Dawn. 

Spins - Bon voyage from Sydney, Oz, where it is already Dec 4th and I am disembarking from the Nova. 
See how long it takes you to get your heads round the way the Nova class works, it took me at least a week. Everything SS is present, but not where or how you expect. 
Seeya in April. 
B xx

Yes, don’t delay, if there are any particularly popular ones they will fill up. 
 

You can always edit / delete your choices later, and you don’t pay anything (if there is a charge) until you are onboard. 

1)  Yes, on deck 10. Goes round the Marquee and through the Dusk bar. 
 

2) Sorry, no idea, never go near such a place. 

1 hour ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

We were in 7028 on Serenity in the eastern Mediterranean (Istanbul to Venice) when it was still sold as a double cabin .  No problems with the location at all.  Had thought about upgrading to the more central area, but our travel agent said 'no need' and she was right.

Each to their own and maybe you were lucky with the weather, but for me a cabin up the pointy end is an absolute deal breaker.  If I can’t cruise low and fairly midships, I won’t buy that cruise. And I don’t do OV, must be a verandah. 
 

40 minutes ago, ging466 said:

 

Yes whilst the solo prices on Crystal are good, the cabin location is not. I came very close to booking Crystal this week, loved the itinerary but the cabin was at the very front of the ship. Do not like this location at all. So whilst I loved the old Crystal, the new Crystal won't be for me.

 

Cheers

Jennifer

Entirely agree with you. Cabin location matters greatly to me, being up the pointy end is a deal breaker for me. 

And maybe I’m in a minority, but I continue to be perfectly satisfied with SS and have cruises booked through to the end of 2026. 
Perhaps other pax have different requirements, but the SS product aligns closely enough with what I want from a luxury cruise to keep me happy. 
 

Provided the ship isn't being subject to a full coastguard examination, for example if Lauderdale is the first US port after a season elsewhere, or if there is  illness aboard which can definitely slow down the disembarkation/embarkation operation, then no, 2pm isn't the time, noon is usually OK.

They say 2pm - 4pm just to cover themselves.

Of course, as I expect you know, port staff are not under the cruise line's control, but if there are delays they will usually allow you to sit and wait inside the terminal building at Everglades. Where if I remember correctly, there is free wifi and drinking water will be provided.

Just as the cheapest fare buckets on flights fill over time and fares generally go up, I am pretty sure that fares go up over time with SS cruises.

That is why I am booking my 2026 cruises now, I have had 2025 locked down for some while. There is the added consideration for me that lower solo supps may disappear as a cruise fills.

The Silver fare guarantee definitely works, I scan my future bookings from time to time and on the rare occasion a fare has gone down, I have been able to get my fare adjusted accordingly.

And if I have misjudged my future plans and need to cancel or swap cruises around, I just apply the relevant deposit to whichever of my future cruises is next up for final payment so I don't feel I am risking much by booking well in advance and taking advantage of any sales offers.

PS I never look for last minute deals, there may be some, but unfortunately for me, trying to get last minute flights from home is usually expensive and may be impossible for specific dates.

Freeport is the dry dock location.

What a load of meaningless fluff on a tiny study sample. 

If you have a stressful life, any idiot could guess that removing much of that stress would help you think about things better.

If, as I am lucky enough to have as a retired person, your life isn't very stressful, cruising may not make much difference. Or it might, in a different way.

I did a six day crossing on the QM2 in June and the weather was poor, the outside decks were closed, I felt trapped in a massive ship that was difficult to navigate around amongst crowds of people with queues everywhere which I hated, and I couldn't wait to disembark to regain my peaceful life. If I had been among the 40 in the study, I fear I might have damped down their exuberant results a bit.

And don't forget the Silver Fare Guarantee:

Silversea Fare Guarantee Programme

Silversea’s Fare Guarantee Programme provides guests with the peace of mind in knowing that when they plan ahead and book early, not only will they be able to reserve their desired suite, but they can also benefit from any future reduction for their voyage, upon request. All voyages are eligible. Requests for reimbursement received on or after the sailing date will be denied. Reimbursement provided under this guarantee will be in the form of a shipboard credit, suite upgrade, future cruise credit, fare reduction or other method. Silversea reserves the sole right to determine the method of reimbursement made to guests. Essential fares are excluded from the Silversea Fare Guarantee Programme.

The Shadow does have La Dame, that's a for fee restaurant.

I'm currently onboard and am making future bookings to gain the onboard booking discount and am finding that cruises right through to November 2026 are already quite heavily booked.

Book now if you are fussy about cabin location. If you don't care about where you are, eg the less desirable cabins very far forward or under the pool, the cruises probably won't actually sell out for ages but the Med is always popular.

The discount is applied to the quote when you are looking to buy a specific cruise. 
I’m currently booking whilst onboard to get that discount, and for a solo in a basic verandah I have been quoted a $1,500 discount for a seven nighter, and $3,000 off for longer itineraries for this sale. That’s on top of the 5% onboard discount and my Venetian discount. 
So I guess it is actually a sale. 

I definitely entered Canada earlier this year on a cruise ship as a UK national and did not need an eTA.

Look at this Canadian gov site, scroll down to visa exempt (eTA eligible) section:

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/visit-canada/entry-requirements-country.html

P.S. Look for British Citizen, not UK citizen, confused me at first!

Then see;

"However, these travellers do not need an eTA if entering by land or sea – for instance driving from the U.S. or coming by bus, train, or boat, including cruise ship."

7 hours ago, spinnaker2 said:

And my sixth voice said yes, they do.

Right after my fifth voice was still moaning about dining times moving forward so my 8pm La Terrazza rez had been at 7.30pm and I had missed having enough time for my usual pre-prandial glass of champagne.

7 hours ago, Travel2Learn said:

Good idea, except I travel solo on the long trips.  Maybe I could use needing a second login as part of a sale pitch to get him to come on the cruises?  😁

I travel solo and have my two part authentications nearly all set for email because I know that my phone will be in airplane mode during my frequent cruises.

So when I am on my laptop or iPad on a site that needs two factor auth, it just comes through on the email on the device I am using at that moment.

Isn't that a solution for you?

I am currently on the Nova and it is true that there have been some recent changes in fees for wifi since my previous SS cruises in August and April and before.

It always has been and still is one log in per person. As a solo cruiser you still only get one log in.

I am not talking about posh suites here, they get all sorts of perks I know nothing about, this is just vistas and verandahs.

Previously the standard wifi was included for each log in for one device.

You could pay:

Either - a small sum (about $30 for the whole voyage) to add a second device to that log in with standard wifi.

Or - pay to upgrade to premium wifi for about $20 per day whole voyage or $30 per 24 hr slot. This gave you simultaneous use of up to 4 devices per log in.

On this voyage, the options I was offered were (I think I'm remembering correctly):

Still one device per log in with standard wifi but no option to increase the number of devices per log in.

Or upgrade to premium wifi at the same prices as before but for only one device per log in. You can purchase more devices per log in with premium wifi but each extra device costs the full fee, same as the first - eg I paid $325 for one device premium wifi for this 16 day cruise, two devices would have been $650 and so on up to the previously included four devices which would now have cost me about $1300.

(These prices are close to accurate, I can't remember them exactly)

'One device' means one device connected at a time, you can switch between devices - it is a seamless transition between devices, logging in on one automatically logs out whichever was previously logged in so apart from doing a lot of logging, only being able to connect one device at a time isn't a huge nuisance but is a definite reduction from what was previously offered. Fortunately most of my two factor authentications are via email.

I'm not sure there has been any change in bandwidth, I'm still getting nearly 10 down and 5 up as usual, and the standard wifi always was about a tenth of that. There have always been blocked sites on the standard wifi, I don't know if those have changed as I always choose to buy the premium.

I don't know (as a solo cruiser) if previously four different pax could all log in on the same account at the same time so only one needed to have bought the premium upgrade, so I don't know if it's just to make more money, or possibly an attempt to reduce the number of devices logged in simultaneously to save bandwidth, one can but guess.

I am also aft - ish on the Nova on deck 6 right now and having bought the premium Wi-Fi as I always do, I’m getting 10 down and 5 up. I can stream video without buffering and load websites with hardly any noticeable delay.

1 hour ago, ontheweb said:

Can't you say the same thing about Southampton not being London that you said about Athens and Rome?

Distance from LHR already mentioned in post #6. 

Lisbon is also very easy, safe, and efficient. I actually prefer to embark there rather than Barcelona, having done both many times. Particularly since I was pickpocketed last time I embarked in Barcelona - a problem that is absolutely rampant there. 

Southampton is definitely an easy port to negotiate, but then you are stuck with a few sea days each way across the Bay of Biscay to get to the Med and the weather there is unpredictable. 

Southampton and Copenhagen (also a great port) are best for Northern European itineraries.

While they are not absolutely 'difficult' you might prefer to avoid Athens and Rome as the actual embarkation ports (Piraeus and Civitavecchia respectively) are quite a distance from the cities, although perfectly accessible by taxi and English is very widely spoken. 

Airfares are very high, that's the way it currently seems to be. No sign of it changing any time soon.

For a cruise in February, you are already rather late to book flights, there's absolutely no guarantee you'll find any cheaper flights going forward - you might but you shouldn't hold your breath.

You need to decide if you want to go on the cruise or not - if you do, then find flights that are the least expensive, book them and don't look at flights again, you'll just distress yourself.

You might try looking at connecting rather than non-stops, but flights into FLL in February are peak cruising season, bound to be expensive.

Even though it'd take you to a day earlier to Christmas, if most of the flights available are very early, you might want to consider staying near FLL overnight after disembarkation and flying on the 22nd. No idea if that's possible for you, but might be worth looking at.

You definitely can't make such early flights straight from the ship.

Particularly at such a busy time, the airport will be crowded.

30 years is the age of Silversea.

5 hours ago, Joywrk said:

We don’t seem to have an electronic ticket. See nothing in My Silversea. Where do I find it?

Your ticket is not on my Silversea, it will come from your TA. Or as a direct email from SS I suppose if you deal directly with them. 
Usually about four weeks out.