14 hours ago, new to cuising said:

I was told by a well informed crew member on the 3 jan TA that the last time the turbines were run they had to be shut down through fear of them catching fire

This actually happened after a high speed run in a Force 11 storm from Quebec in an effort to reach New York on time. As Captain Oprey said "This has been a very interesting day!" Fire emergency alarm at 27.52

We did this Ephesus evening concert excursion on a Seabourn Sojourn cruise in 2013 which was included free of charge then. It was held in the street location in front of the amphitheatre and the Aegean Chamber Orchestra gave an excellent classical concert. It was a magical experience on a beautiful evening as the sun was setting..We had an early dinner on the ship and then had wine and light refreshments served at the concert.

I posted a video on Youtube of the call at Kusadasi. and the Ephesus concert begins at 8.50, as the first 8 minutes is Kusadasi and Seabourn Sojourn lunch.

** - Sorry but the link starts near the end of the tour as we return to the ship, but the concert is from 8.50 to 21.50

On 6/2/2023 at 3:33 PM, Jml1989_23 said:

What was the date of this cruise In the video? Our cruise date would have been 10/22/89 to 10/29/89 (I think!).

Don't remember the exact date but it was around the end of October and into November 1989.

As it is such a cold, dark and dismal day in the UK today I thought I would post a link to the video of my 2018 Seabourn Encore Cruise Tangier & The Strait of Gibraltar on my You tube Channel Cruise Video Memories.   

I also wondered if it's related to the Covid situation, - possibly needing isolation cabins to be kept free, or due to staff shortages and needing to limit passenger numbers. 

Thanks for these replies.

I'd like to book this cruise but will need to wait and see if it becomes available. I wondered if it was cancelled or was being chartered etc.

50 minutes ago, Ron the Rev said:

It went back to normal 6 hours later but with a price increase !!!!!!

Thanks for that.

I wondered about that, but it's been unavailable for three days now. Must be a big price increase!

I was interested in Sky Princess 19th October Roundtrip Southampton to the Canary Islands earlier this week and there was plenty of availability to book. However this now shows "Currently not available". Also shows the same "Currently not available" for November 12th Roundtrip Fort Lauderdale 7 day and 14 day sailings. 

Does anyone know why? 

2 hours ago, Solent Richard said:

Hah. Small world

Yes, it is a small world. And as Captain Oprey said  "It was a very exciting day!"

5 hours ago, Solent Richard said:

I liked your video particularly as it brought back memories of Odessa and of course the Potemkin Steps.

Glad you enjoyed the video. I read your interesting blog about Odessa as well as others.. It's amazing to see the changes from the drab Soviet times in 1990 to your visit in 2013. Also it's so sad to see what's happening there now. We think about all the places we've seen over the years in our cruising times which are now no-go areas, and we're so glad we saw them when we did.

We visited Halifax on QM2 in October 2011. It's easy to walk off the ship along the boardwalk into town. This video from my visit may help you to get the feel of the place.

We had the wonderful experience when leaving Sorrento on board Silver Spirit of the rendezvous with Silver Muse in her debut year. It was thrilling to hear the exchanges of horn salutes and cheers of passengers and crew from both ships.

22 hours ago, OzzyOzborne said:

Any advice on what to do on our own rather than use the very expensive ships tours would be appreciated…….we prefer to do our own thing and ideally walk in each town if possible.

All advice and help appreciated!

We did a Queen Victoria Baltic cruise in 2013 which included a number of your ports - Copenhagen, Helsinki, St Petersburg, Tallin Estonia. We are like you and enjoy doing our own thing in ports. The only exception was St Petersburg where it's mandatory to either have your own visa or do a ship's tour to leave the ship.

You can easily walk into Copenhagen from the ship. In Helsinki and Tallinn there was a shuttle bus to the centre and it was easy to do self tours. Also the Hop-on Hop-off bus tours were available.

I've posted a series of videos on YouTube on my channel, - Cruise Video Memories 

 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbYW-Y1IjRSD9MECilTBG5A

Here is the first one - leaving Southampton. The others should follow on -

I am viewing on an HP laptop or a Samsung Galaxy tablet and both of these devices produce the error message. 

Thank you for this response.

There is an example in this thread - post #151     IMG_0163.MOV 

Why does the following message appear when I try to view videos posted in a thread?  How can I fix it?

Sorry!

This was a Silver Dawn sailing on June 27th 2022 Barcelona to Barcelona, flying from UK. 

I think if you look at any voyage on the first page under ALL-INCLUSIVE FARES it shows Door to Door and Port to Port fares. You can click on each element of the Door to Door fare underneath that heading and it shows what I displayed earlier. This is on the UK website, not sure if the US website is the same.

Thanks for this reply. I had previously missed this post.

Current ship tracking shows Queen Victoria in the Bay of Biscay with a speed of 15.7 knots heading for Bridgetown, Barbados with an arrival date of 25th November 2021. She is not scheduled to return to service until 22nd April 2022 on a 5 night cruise from Southampton to Amsterdam. 

Any ideas what may be happening?

We've sailed twice on Seabourn Encore and previously on Seabourn Sojourn. We enjoyed both, but prefer Sojourn. We felt that the Retreat was a waste of deck space, despite trying it twice. Thomas Keller is a beautiful restaurant, much larger than on Sojourn. But we would gladly sail on any Seabourn ship.

I have a series of Seabourn videos of Encore and Sojourn on my YouTube Channel, Cruise Video Memories  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbYW-Y1IjRSD9MECilTBG5A This may help you to make your decision.

Some time ago I started a comparison thread for Silver Spirit and Seabourn Encore. Maybe this will be helpful. You can read my thoughts along with those of other posters.

https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/2774767-silver-spirit-or-seabourn-encore/?tab=comments#comment-60889738

I also have several series of videos of Silver Spirit, Silver Muse, Seabourn Sojourn and Seabourn Encore on my YouTube Channel, Cruise Video Memories -

 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbYW-Y1IjRSD9MECilTBG5A

These may help you further in your comparisons.

We prefer Silversea cruises but would be happy to sail on either cruise line again.

On 8/18/2021 at 8:54 PM, cruiseej said:

i was advised yesterday that the ship will be berthed at Fusina ferry and cruise terminal.  This is closer to Marco Polo airport than the usual berths at either San Basilio or Marittima.

It's not clear yet if Silversea will provide transfers to the ship for all passengers from wherever check-in is provided, e.g  San Basilio or Venice Marittima. 

If they don't, some alternatives are shown below:- 

Fusina Terminal for water taxis and water buses is in a different location to Fusina Ferry Terminal where the ship would be berthed. Fusina Terminal is 2.7km (1.5 miles) away in an industrial area.

There is a number 16 bus which takes you from the terminal to a car park where people park their cars and catch the waterbus to Venice. Then it would be 1.6km (almost 1 mile) walk to Fusina Ferry Terminal on a road without any footpath. You would need a taxi booked for this area as it's just a dead end for people to travel to Venice by water bus.

Venice to Fusina by road (taxi) is 11.6 miles and takes around 20 minutes according to the travel website rome2rio and costs around £40/$55 to £50/$69.

https://www.rome2rio.com/map/Fusina-Italy/Venice#r/Taxi/s/0

From Venice to Fusina Terminal via ACTV water bus takes 25 minutes and costs £7/$10. The distance is 3.7 miles.

In a water taxi it's 7.5 miles from Venice to Marco Polo airport and costs around 130euos/$153/£111.

I can't see any online cost for a water taxi to Fusina Terminal, but the water taxi probably wouldn't have a return customer like they usually have at the airport. So although it's half the distance, you might have to pay the return journey cost. This is just my speculation. But even after that you'd still need transport to the Ferry Terminal.

Getting to Fusina Ferry Terminal from Marco Polo airport should be relatively easy, but if you're staying in a hotel in Venice I think it would be best for a water taxi to San Basilo terminal or Piazzale Roma and then get a taxi or book a car transfer to the Ferry Terminal as there would be many people wanting this service.

To help understand this further the image below could clarify things:-

3 minutes ago, mchell810 said:

I really enjoy your videos

Thanks for these kind words. I'm pleased and amazed to hear that others enjoy my videos.

I started the channel as a personal project to keep my memories alive until we can cruise again, - hopefully next year.

I felt that this was the best way to share them so that people can choose to watch them directly from the channel instead of viewing individual videos from this forum.  

2 minutes ago, brimary said:

Looks like only The Cloud and Wind will be allowed in to Venice

Yes but as you say, it's doubtful that they'll ever need to sail into or out of Venice again.