machotspur

I can agree, based on personal experience. Showed some symptoms on disembarking Silver Moon last month. Anti-gen tested daily thereafter, confirming infection on Day 3. However my daily temperature checks, using the typical 'gun', not once showed an elevated temperature. Stacks up with the study you have shown.

Thank you for the response. Noting that Jeddah was your only stop in Saudi was it just that one day that the booze was sealed up ? That sure is a very different reason to miss a port - makes a change from the weather 😉

IIRC it was last year when Mr Silver was reporting on the cruise he was on, incorporating the Red Sea. I believe that the itinerary included two ports in Saudi Arabia, with a sea day in between. As a result Mr Silver reported that the ship was dry for at least 3 days I believe, with some quite dramatic locking up of alcohol, tipping away of open bottles etc. Mrs machotspur and I would like to go through 'Pirate Alley, the Red Sea, a stop in Saudi, and of course Suez, but are horrified by enduring 3 or more dry days (I know how bad that sounds !). An itinerary we are looking at includes just one stop in Saudi - Jeddah - so I was hoping to get away with 1 dry day. Silversea are being next to useless in answering the question so I was wondering if anybody out there has completed an itinerary with just one stop in Saudi, and if so how many 'dry days' they endured.

Hi Les - thanks so much for your kind thoughts. As I stated just now in a post I am very much with you on this. If one spends a fortune on a very significant cruise - as you did last year - then misses out on a chunk of it through no fault of your own - one is going to be pretty miffed. And yes - one can just imagine THFC having a stonking season, about to win the league, then half the team get COVID - like lasagne gate a few years back - that would be so 'spursy' !

Thank you to JP & Chris, Mr Silver, Beaujolais for your kind words. In all honesty it's been relatively low key for me - no fever/temperature, no loss of taste/smell, not much aches & pains - just a medium cough & cold, which is now coming to an end. I even carried out 3 separate lateral flow tests over a 5 day period, just to ensure that I hadn't been fooled by a false positive (all three were positive). Mrs Machotspur is a different story altogether - she's not in a great place at the moment. The no fever/temperature situation for me is of interest/concern, in that the infection wouldn't have been detected when the butlers were pointing guns at us each day ! (I'm sure those with a medical background on here may have a view on this.) I've obviously had plenty of 'isolation' time to ponder my recent situation on Silver Moon, and would offer the following comments for thought. I generally felt (relatively) comfortable in most restaurants, with the exception of La Terrazza at Breakfast & Lunch, which at times can resemble a zoo in the servery area. With the benefit of hindsight we would certainly wear a mask when out of our seats at the servery area. Arts Cafe places people very close together - we made a decision to only use it for take out at busy times. The larger bars to us were fine - the size of the furniture dictates a reasonable spacing and if we were meeting with another couple we were well spaced out. We didn't dine with others often but when we did it would be in Hot Rocks, or the outside veranda in La Terrazza. As already noted SALT Bar is a prime candidate for virus spreading - with the benefit of hindsight we regret using it. So for most of the above i'm comfortable that there is relative safety, as long as an individual takes ownership of their own protection. Where i'm not comfortable, in fact believe that Silversea is guilty of not exercising duty of care, is in the places that wearing of masks is mandatory ie theatre, tenders, tour buses. When we were on Dawn in April there was quite direct policing of this, with the tour guides ensuring that masks were on before the bus moved. On the tour buses for Moon this month there was barely any mention, despite Silversea reps being on the bus several times. The most disgusting and worrying behaviour was repeatedly witnessing unfit, out of condition people, not wearing face masks, coughing and spluttering their way up the central aisle, shooting their aerosols/droplets in all directions. Despite us wearing the N95 masks we found ourselves covering our heads with our jackets to offer further momentary protection. This surely cannot be right can it ? To close - I am certainly in the 'learning to live with COVID' camp, however what to me this doesn't mean is throwing caution to the wind and behaving as if COVID is done with. Following the experience of Mrs les37b on their cruise last year left an indelible mark in my mind. Theirs was a notable cruise. Next year we are undertaking our most notable - and expensive - cruise to Antarctica, Falklands, South Georgia. I'm pondering how I would feel if I was unable to visit, say, Shackleton's & Wild's graves, or go see the penguins, because I have contracted COVID through the negligence of Silversea, or self centred guests.

What follows is purely my sharing a personal experience. I have no wish to overdramatise things and blow something up to be more that it actually is. Mrs Machotspur & I disembarked Silver Moon last Thursday. On the way home we spotted elsewhere on the internet that a guest we knew had tested positive and had been in quarantine for the final two days of the cruise. At that stage I was feeling a little ''sniffy' but my wife was perfectly fine. We reflected on where & when we had spent time with the affected guest. Much of the time was outside on tours/tenders but we realised that we were in very close proximity of the aforementioned guest in the SALT bar on several occasions. Many will know that this bar is very tight and one is incredibly close to some others at times. We often visited there after dinner - at a time when one's guard may be down. We are quite risk averse but in all honesty we may have subconsciously thrown caution to the wind on these visits - aided & abetted by the wine waiter of course ! A couple of days passed with increasing emergence of some symptoms until I eventually tested positive on Saturday morning. My wife tested positive this morning, presumably catching the virus from me. Everyone will have their own position on this - personal choice and attitude to risk - but there are two things I learn from this - 1. The enforcement of mask policies in places where it is supposedly mandatory (tour buses, tenders, the theatre) is virtually non existent. We wore the top grade protective masks in all of these locations to protect ourselves, and also others. 2. The SALT bar is a high risk environment and subsequently we would probably avoid it if the likelihood of infection remains at the level it is today. I guess It all comes down to the words of Mr Eastwood - '"do you feel lucky" A slight caveat - I do accept that my assumptions, whilst having a reasonable level of accuracy may well be incorrect. I could have caught the virus somewhere else that hasn't come into my thinking. .

Thank you for this Jazzbeau - a rule that I - and presumably some others who have recently posted - were not aware of !

Hello Mr Silver We disembarked yesterday at Southampton. Captain - Chavdar Georgiev Hotel Director - Daniele Franco Cruise Director - Raphael (surname ?) Restaurants Manager - Gilbert (don't know his surname but he's a really good guy having been with Silversea for 26 years) Executive Chef - a rather sizeable chap named Grant - excellent, sorting out my personal dietary needs with little fuss. Having become disillusioned with Silversea we had not cruised on them for 8 years. We returned this year on Dawn then this latest cruise on Moon. We love pretty much everything about these ships.

Hi mw8811 & beaujolais Good news on the pre cruise testing (I think !) I personally felt comfortable with it remaining. Good to hear that you are also joining Silver Moon at Southampton on 9th. To avoid taking this thread off topic too much i've continued on the Silversea Silver Moon Roll Call page - hope to see you there ! https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2862947-silver-moon-september-9southhampton/#comment-63477415

Thank you for this mw8811. We scrape in by a few days as our cruise departs on 9th September ! We now have two 'home test' kits that we won't be using ! Shame - you will no longer be going on an adventure to Wolverhampton I guess !

The exotic places we get to when involved in a Silversea cruise .... 🤣😉

Yes - we are indeed on Moon on 9th. I can understand your anxiety about using an internet based remote service. Even if you have to drive to Wolverhampton or wherever at least you should have peace of mind once there. We too will be using the DAM Health service if the at home test fails for whatever reason. Good luck !

We had a similar issue to you - cruising 2 weeks today. Only yesterday a Lloyds pharmacy cancelled our planned test without reason and our next nearest alternatives are very inconvenient. HOWEVER - also yesterday Silversea sent us an email outlining the pre embarkation requirements, including this as an acceptable proof of test .. A self-test at home, verified by a third party (telehealth provider, pharmacy or laboratory). The Certificate must contain the guest's name (as shown on the cruise ticket), as well as the date of test, and result. You must provide a digital or printed proof upon embarkation. Important: self-test at home kits cannot be verified by a friend or family member There are plenty of operators that are providing this service. We've ordered 3, arriving in the coming days. One we will use to do a 'dummy run' next week then carry out the real thing a couple of days before our cruise. It seems pretty straightforward - and inexpensive.

Les - the UK government recently announced that an enlarged group of people - which includes over 50's - will be offered the next booster in the Autumn - beginning next week. The vaccination will also be the recently approved Moderna 'cover all bases' vaccination. The BBC page from yesterday best explains all. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55045639

In our experience to which you refer I can assure you that during our admittedly short cruise on Deck 10 we were not aware of any noise, from anywhere ! As a result we will be in a very similarly positioned Silver Suite on Silver Moon, in two weeks time, and again on Dawn next year. As already stated our fears about being near the Observation Lounge when in a suite on Deck 11 were entirely erroneous - the lounge was very quiet. So now we would be happy with a Silver Suite on either Deck 10 or 11. As they say - you pays your money and makes your choice ! Enjoy ! PS - of course on Deck 10 you may have your own very senior housekeeping manager (with lots of stripes !) as we did 😉🤣

The booking document for my most recent booking with Silversea - June 22 - states : Silversea will cover the cost of a pre-determined distance, up to 52 miles. So - the excess you would pay would apparently be 18 miles x £3 (as per david63's insight) = £54 - each way. Interestingly I noted a further caveat on the booking document ... Silversea will not be responsible for any delays, which could cause a guest to miss their flight and/or their cruise. So one is no more protected by using Blacklane than if using a local taxi.

Oops - I forgot to mention - when entering our personal info on “My Silversea” I was asked to select a preferred embarkation time, from 14:00 onwards.

Hi CamMag You may be on the same Silver Moon cruise as us, departing Southampton on 9th September 22 ? If so the port website shows the departure as being from City Terminal 101, which is the one just before Mayflower Park (where people stand to wave at outgoing ships !) and the IOW ferry ! Regarding Blackstone. We don’t use them because the Silversea distance limit is 50 miles I think. We receive a £75 credit each way for not using this service. It may be that a cost of a local taxi from Ferndown is less than this so it may make sense for you to do the same DIY as ourselves.

We were regular Silversea cruisers until 2014 at which time the decline in the quality of the product (in our personal opinion) caused us to move our business to competitors. We were on the maiden voyage of Silver Dawn in April of this year and quite frankly were blown away by how much the product had improved since our experiences of 8 years previous. Despite it being an inaugural cruise - with understandable teething issues - we really loved the whole experience. As a result we are on Silver Moon next month with other cruises beyond. In our opinion the Silversea product has improved immeasurably since the RCCL takeover. In the past few years we have experience of Regent and Seabourn and believe that the experience on the new generation of Silversea ship is currently the best available.

Having reviewed the recently released 2024/25 itineraries we have began to plot our cruises of interest for late 2023 onwards. There is one particular near identical cruise that is available either on 8th March 2024 and 10th January 2025 ... 11 Days Bridgetown - Bridgetown on Silver Dawn/Moon. Reviewing the UK (per person) pricing between 2024 & 2025 has come us a major shock !! ....... I'm wondering if anyone else in the UK has noted such a dramatic price increase on other cruises/itineraries ? And is this just a UK issue as a result of the value of the £££ etc, or have our fellow Silversea cruisers in other countries such as US/Australia noted similar price hikes ? If this is an indicator of prices to come then I need to buy a tent for future travel needs 😉

Thank you so much for the responses to my original post - very useful indeed and reassuring that the transactions should not detract from the convenience of holding a Prestige Select+ package. May I slip in a supplementary question please. The 'menu' for the package lists a range of included cocktails. Both my preferred pre dinner cocktail (in a warm climate) - Mojito - and post dinner - Sidecar - are nowhere to be seen. The alcoholic ingredients for both of these cocktails are on the 'included' list. Is it permissible to request these cocktails - within the Prestige package - assuming of course the bar person has the skills/recipe ? Thank you again.

A long shot here, but i'm hoping someone will know. Oceania have confirmed that they do offer a shuttle bus when in Dubai as a port of call however they are unable to absolutely confirm where the shuttle will drop off at. We are cruising there in December 2022. I have found limited comment online that the shuttle usually goes to/from the Dubai Mall. Does anyone have any experience of this, and can confirm or otherwise that Dubai Mall was/was not the destination for the shuttle they took ? Thank you so much !

We are shortly to be cruising with Oceania – our first for many years – having sailed extensively with the likes of Silversea, Seabourn etc. We do of course need to learn how things work onboard an Oceania ship. One notable issue is the drinks packages. I have of course read many of the 100’s of posts on this very subject – which has been useful thank you – but there is one aspect I haven’t been able to find . How does the transaction take place when ordering drinks in bars & restaurants, when one has signed up for the Prestige Select+ package ? In particular how does it work when having a meal. Does one have to order and transact every time one wishes for a wine top up ? Or does the server 'register' that you have a package at the time of the first drink and thereafter pours wine without further interaction ? And are the transactions through the guest holding a card that is swiped/touched in by the server/bar ? And is it paper less ? I know this may come across as a bit of minutae but a key reason for us choosing the package is for convenience, so this whole transaction thing is quite important for us. My thanks in advance for anyone who can put me straight on this !

Brilliant sfvoyage - you've got it in one !! - thank you so much. I've clicked the filter to show 'Unavailable' and up pop the two itineraries I have mentioned. As you quite rightly suggest it does beggar the question why my TA and the UK Seabourn office was unable to address the query as quickly as you did - 😀 👍 For us this is a good itinerary and one of the very few that begins right up at Iquitos. In recent times I've seen very few large(ish) cruise operators that cruise beyond Manaus. (Hapag Lloyd springs to mind as one we have considered in the past).

Apologies for a somewhat obscure post that someone maybe - just maybe - be able & willing to give some insight into. Mrs Machotspur and I are booked on Venture in April 23 for a significant cruise along the Amazon from Iquitos, Peru, downstream to the Atlantic and beyond - see the map below. As many will know most mainstream cruise lines usually only cruise as far as Manaus, hence this itinerary - on a new ship - was of great appeal to us. HOWEVER - when - by chance - I was looking on the Seabourn site last week I noticed that the 'upstream' segment of our cruise - Iquitos to Manaus - had been removed. In addition the prior cruise from Rio that gets the ship up to Iquitos to commence our cruise, had also been removed. My TA has been trying - without success - to find out what is going on. The Seabourn UK office advise that they can't get any sense from the US 'mission control'. So - if anyone is booked on this cruise and knows more about the withdrawal of the key segment i'd be really interested to hear. Or if this scenario is a frequent situation what are the conclusions I should draw from this. At this time i'm assuming that the upstream section between Iquitos & Manaus is likely to be pulled but that is of course pure conjecture. Thanks very much, in anticipation of any insight that is forthcoming 😀