LAexNY

Please protect us from the norms!

You would not have been too happy with a hotel near JFK. There are no 4 or 5 star hotels, mostly Courtyard or similar. The choice is convenience near the airport or a more luxurious stay in the city.

Just to clarify - I am the friend bitob mentioned. We were on a B2B expedition cruise. On each leg (12 and 14 days) there were two informal nights where jackets were supposedly required. This was clearly not enforced as at least one guy was wearing a Hawaiian shirt. It had been my (apparently wrong) understanding that jackets were never required on expedition cruises. We have been on Silver Origin in Galapagos and jackets were never even suggested.

Wow! Some people really get worked up over the dress code. Funny, it seems to get more attention on CC than the ship, the cuisine, the service, the itineraries, the amenities, the entertainment. Those are some of the things I care about and the things that influence my choice of a cruise line.

Believe it or not, dress code is not the primary criterion upon which many choose a cruise line.

Many of us feel that an adult dining experience does not or should not require formal dress. It’s not a matter of questioning and complying. Some of you old guard formal night proponents will find that fewer and fewer cruise lines are going to require formal dress. Does it really diminish your dining experience if I am not wearing a tie to dinner?

Blacklane is not available in Portland. We receive the $50 credit which is fine because Lyft or Uber to the airport is around $30. One time when we were disembarking in Miami and flew to NY with Silversea Air, we did use Blacklane and were pleased with them.

That’s interesting because when we boarded the Wind in Helsinki last month, no testing was required. Perhaps Silversea varies the requirement depending on the country.

Were the RAT tests required by Silversea or the local government?

If you have FF miles to use, you have options. We did very well using Alaska miles. We got a short hop from Portland to SFO then business class on Singapore from SFO to Singapore (16 hour 40 minute flight!) with a 3 day stopover in SIN to visit friends and decompress then business SIN-Perth( 5 hour flight) all for 145,000 miles and $61. Another option if you have Chase points is to transfer them to Singapore Air and look for flights there. For our return home from Darwin, we bought coach tickets to SIN (4h 45m) then used Singapore miles for SIN-SEA in business (14h 45m)

Thanks for this report. Please keep it up. We are on this cruise next month on the Explorer, Perth to Darwin.

We will check all the options when it’s time. 17 months away.

We are on the Wind now and did an onboard booking to Australia and New Zealand. The future cruise rep told me that SS is able to get very attractive business fares to Europe. However, Australia is a different story. The business upgrade for us is $6998 p.p.! Also, if we do our own air and take the $2500 air credit, we lose transfers and hotel.

Tuesday evening, Isle of May Scotland. Puffins galore.

Tuesday 20 June St. Abbs, Scotland

Monday 19 June Holy Island of Lindisarne, England, near the Scottish border.

Yes, we have a day in Exmouth. no plans yet for Perth. We did spend 2 days in Perth & Fremantle a few years ago when we did a circumnavigation of Australia. we enjoyed Fremantle and the great park in Perth.

Hello, AusMum, We are doing the Kimberley on Silversea this August and will be staying in Perth 3 nights before boarding the Explorer. Looking forward to it.

Prawns.

We also did a Sanctuary Lodge tour in Botswana and Zambia. Four different lodges. Excellent.

I like mine medium well. The filet is so thick that after it cooks a while, I slice it down the middle and cook each half separately.

We had to reconstitute our trivia team after losing Jpalbny and Rachel G. We went for more international diversity this time adding a Canadian and an Aussie to us Americans. We made second place yesterday and tied for first today.

We are on the Wind now. I have had filet mignon several times in the Grill and it is excellent. Of course I cooked it myself and it was done just right.

Sunday, Newcastle England Several tours were offered: Alnwick Castle & Garden where Harry Potter and Downton Abbey were filmed, Hadrian’s Wall and Durham City & Cathederal. We chose to do Newcastle on our own. Charming city with great architecture. Oceania Marina was in port near us. About five times the size of the Wind. Food and service onboard remain excellent.

Changeover day. We are in Hamburg and all but about 35 passengers disembarked today. We are staying onboard for the next leg. JPAlbny and Rachel G are gone so our undefeated trivia team is gone as well. We will miss them and have to regroup with a new team. Although this topic title ends in Hamburg, I will post with highlights of the next leg, although not as frequently as our fearless OPs. We did a culture tour of Hamburg today. Went to the Kunsthall - art museum. Very nice with a comprehensive collection including Impressionism, cubism and art deco. Then we went to the Arts and Crafts Museum.