caroak

Hi Terry,

The Kremlin website indicates all the Kremlin sites, including the Armoury, are closed on Thursdays. As for the Grand Kremlin Palace, there's limited access and not much information available. Crystal's website doesn't have any information posted yet regarding a Moscow excursion but I'm sure they'll offer one. Considering the Kremlin sites will be closed and DH doesn't have much interest, I'll probably pass. There's more than enough in SPB to keep us busy for three days.

Carole

Terry, all your valuable information and photos are much appreciated.

We're doing the Baltics on Crystal next June with two overnights in SPB so Moscow will be doable on the second day which is a Thursday. I was seriously considering the Moscow excursion but was disappointed when I discovered the Kremlin is closed on Thursdays and was surprised this was not taken into consideration when Crystal planned the itinerary. I noticed Oceania's Baltic cruises also have the second day in SPB on a Thursday. I now question whether it will be worth the effort if we cannot visit the Kremlin. Since you've taken the Moscow excursion I would appreciate your thoughts. Thanks.

Carole

Oops,:rolleyes: I just realized the OP was asking for recommendations in Prague. I recommended the Kempinski which is in Budapest.

We stayed at the Kempinski in May and highly recommend it. The location can't be beat and the staff was friendly and helpful. They have a beautiful lobby, bar and also outdoor dining area. The breakfast buffet was in two large room serving everything you could possibly imagine. We had an upgraded room which was large even by US standards.

Carole

JP, sorry for the senior moment!:confused: At this point, I'm on information overload and I'll be at it right up until the 11th hour. We've been to Rome many times, and it's our favorite city, but this is our first visit to Budapest, Vienna and Amsterdam so lots of planning for those. Since we only have two full days in Budapest we booked a private half-day tour with a van. We have four full days in Vienna so we should be able to hit the main attractions. We'll decide on the day trip to Salzburg once we arrive depending if we're up to it and also the weather. We had considered an overnight but we're doing a lot of moving around as it is so didn't want to deal with overnighting. We'll have three full days in Amsterdam. Lots to see and do there but we're leaving some time to just wander around and enjoy the charms of all those scenic canals.

Carole

JP & Chris, I'm so enjoying following along especially your Budapest posts and pics. We're leaving on Sunday for a land trip to Rome, Budapest, Vienna and Amsterdam. I believe your cruise ended in Vienna so look forward to those posts and also Salzburg since we are planning a day trip from Vienna. Thanks for taking the time to share your journey with us.:)

Carole

Thanks for all the input which was what I expected to hear but just wanted to be sure. We are not young and fit into the very upper end of the 50-70 demographics but still very active. We have no issue traveling with fellow seniors but would rather avoid the wheelchairs, scooters and walkers crowd. Who needs reminders of what might lie ahead for us especially on vacation.

Our other winter vacation option is a land trip to Hawaii which is easy when you live on the West coast. We've never had a bad Hawaiian vacation but just thought it would be fun to try something different with a Caribbean cruise but I guess we'll have to save the cruising for Europe.

Being familiar with Oceania and having sailed on the Insignia, I'm aware that Oceania attracts an older demographic but was wondering if the passengers on a Riviera Caribbean cruise would be about the same or could we expect some younger passengers. We would not be going during a school break. I recall speaking to someone who took such a cruise on the Riviera and said there were a lot of very elderly passengers, more so than on a foreign port cruise, who were not very mobile and there were crowded elevator situations and other issues.

On the Miami-Miami itinerary do a lot of passengers stay on board while docked to enjoy the pool deck? If so, is it difficult to get a lounge chair and preferable in the shade?

The in-suite breakfast was strictly a continental style breakfast. The order form placed on your door in the evening appeared to be the Cloud's standard breakfast order form and not something that was printed just for the charter cruise. It would have been nice to have some bacon and eggs or pancakes.

Carole

Almost forgot our biggest complaint -- speciality restaurant reservation screw-ups!! There were three couples in our group so I booked three nights at La Terrazza for a table of six and one night at Le Champagne on their website. When we boarded I immediately went to the MDR and spoke to Sergio who was most helpful. He had no reservations for us and booked the three dinners plus Le Champagne. With the exception of Le Champagne, all the Le Terrazza dinner times were subsequently changed from what was originally booked by Sergio. Some of our dining times revolved around the evening events the Museum had scheduled but I booked according to that schedule so the times should not have been changed. I was not aware of the time changes until I found the reservation notes outside our suite. They were all changed back to our satisfaction but for one of them I had to be quite adamant with the Le Terrazza person. One evening there was quite a riff with a guest at the Le Terrazza desk when he was refused a reservation for that evening and he was not happy and very verbal. There were plenty of empty seats but he was still refused. We were told they only serve 17 guests in an evening although it seemed to be a few more than that served.

duck tape - We would consider one of their larger ships. Which one would you suggest?

Since this was a charter and not a regular Silversea cruise, all of our events and excursions were organized by the WWII Museum and they were beyond our expectations and truly a once in a lifetime experience. You can read the highlights of our excursions and events posted by Emtsbaum in the Lisbon/Dover Cloud thread.

Now for the comments on the Cloud itself. This was our first cruise on Silversea and the first on such a small ship. We've sailed with Crystal, our favorite, and Oceania. The highest marks go to the staff for their service and attention to our needs. They were right up there with Crystal, even excelling in some areas especially since Crystal went all inclusive, but possibly because it's a much smaller ship and considering we had a butler, which we did not on Crystal, it was an enhanced experience.

The dining staff was most attentive and our wine glasses were never empty. Special thanks to our impeccable butler, Raiju, and our stewardess, Sharon. Both of them could not do enough for us. Also, special thanks to Christina, who I believe heads up guest relations, who made sure our move to a different suite went smoothly. We had to move after three days due to a buzzing noise in our cabin. Efforts to find the problem were not successful. Christina had offered to move us immediately but we waited in hopes it would be fixed. The suite with the buzz was 435. We were moved to 503, which was the first starboard cabin on Deck 5, and did not have a veranda but a larger window than 435. Since we were docked for five days there wasn't much of an issue with the grinding noise that's generated when the ship arrives or departs port. I would not recommend that cabin for a normal cruise schedule. When arriving it starts in the early morning and lasts for at least 45 minutes.

The food -- Best meals were in La Terrazza. We dined there three nights and I had two pasta dishes that were as good as I've had in Italy. Le Champagne was also excellent with the exception of too much salt on the very good Dover sole. The dinners in the MDR were, on the whole, very good, again, with the exception of too much salt especially in the soups. We had one lunch in the MDR which was excellent. We had breakfast either in our room or the buffet. We were disappointed that we could not have a hot/full breakfast in our suite. The breakfast buffet was adequate for that size ship. The other disappointment was no buffet option for dinner or casual patio dining if the weather permitted. The Hot Rocks concept did not appeal to us so we passed on that one. All the wines served were very good to excellent and we're wine snobs. The Italian wines in La Terrazza were the most outstanding and we felt no need to order from their reserve list.

We had another issue when DH got sick. We were in port in Caen and during the night he was sick with a cold and coughing. As a consequence, a piece of food got lodged in his throat. He visited the ship's doctor at 2 am, which was pretty much useless, and he did not improve $170 later and $22 for an oral rinse and one Valium, neither of which did a thing. Since the ship was leaving Caen the next day, we decided he should go to the emergency room at the Caen hospital in the morning. The nurse made the arrangements for our taxi transportation and did the necessary paperwork. I've had my own experience with socialized medicine in Italy and this experience in France was another eyeopener. We have the best medical care in the world and we should all hope and pray with the current changes in healthcare we do not end up being another country with socialized medicine. Fortunately, after three hours in the emergency room and no specialized in sight, he had a coughing jag and the food dislodged. I can't imagine what would have been in store of him if it didn't. The hospital visit was free but we would have gladly paid for good medical care. Also, a note on the condition of the hospital -- dirty floors, paint peeling, the doors were metal and all were chipped and the nurse looked down my husband's throat with the flashlight from an iPhone. If you wanted a drink you had to go to a vending machine. Not even water was offered.

To sum it up, we really enjoyed our experience on the Could although not sure if we would sail on such a small ship again. It's hard to judge because we were on such a specialized cruise and did not get to experience any of the ship's entertainment, excursions or enhancements programs. Also, the Cloud was a little "tired" in some of the areas.

Carole

We're back from the most wonderful cruise and, as always, Bella Italia. Since Victoria did just a great job highlighting our days, and also a much better note taker with a better memory than I have, I'll just post some comments on the our Cloud experience. It's probably best if I start a new thread for those.

Carole

Pam, thanks for the input. I'm also noise sensitive so happy to hear no issues.

We are considering booking one of these cabins on the Marina for a Baltic cruise. Are there any specific cabins in this category that would be more desirable considering the tenders below and also possible noise issues from the bars and casino on Deck 6?

His reply was very prompt and, as I recall, within a day or so.

We used Roberto in May and I highly recommend him. We did the Godfather Tour and had a fantastic day. He's one of the best driver/guides we've every had.

Frank, did you by a king or queen mattress for $2,500?

Does anyone recall the day rate?