Randyk47

Our last cruise was on the Dawn shortly after she came into service. They were still trying to round out the crew and were actually short 20+ folks in the wait and service departments. We saw quite a few instances where more experienced crew had a “shadow” new crew with them and actually overheard one say “this is how we do this” to their partner. From what I have heard and read most cruise lines are still working to attract new staff and crew post-Covid. New builds only add to the demand.

Wish we were on this cruise, would mean a whole different world and set of circumstances than what has transpired. We were booked on the Nova along with our best friends and cruise partners. Had to cancel, actually move to a cruise next year, as both of the other couple required surgery so the thought was to kick the can down the road and cruise when they had recovered. Unfortunately, as it turns out, the husband suddenly and unexpectedly passed after four weeks after his surgery most probably from a blood clot. His widow still wants to take the upcoming cruise but we’ll discuss that more when she spends some time with us here in a few weeks.

Sometimes but not always.

I doubt Silversea would sell their passenger information to basically a competing company. I suspect the information was “mined” from a different source like a TA. Of course the pervious owner may have made off with a list of passengers though I would have thought that would not be looked at kindly.

Great! I think they brought the Medallion level suites back in the Nova class….in fact a couple of Medallion levels. For us the our opinion of Nova class ships is on hold. We were booked on the Nova for this coming April but work and a couple of major/significant surgeries have caused us to move to the Moon next year.

Anybody know what VIP status costs a TA? Several people here have mentioned getting it but I can’t find any mention of it on the Silversea site. I assume that a TA can “bestow” for a price.

I thought it was Medallion and above. Did they drop the Medallion suites out? We cruised a couple of times in the Medallions on the Wind and got “free” laundry and that was before we got our hundred days status.

I think once in our one and only Silver suite have we gotten any kind of extra swag. Certainly nothing in a Medallion or below.

Only here. Nothing I’ve read, experienced, or seen in 12 years of only Silversea cruises have we experienced anything but “VIP” treatment.

So as I understand the “VIP status” thing is this is an arrangement between the cruise line and the TA where the TA pays for a client to be given “VIP status”. Truth is in the Silversea realm this is nothing but a form of OBC.

I haven’t been on the Nova so can’t directly say what is specifically in those areas but typically they are service, storage, or crew quarters. We have had such spaces on other Silversea ships and quite frankly prefer being next to one rather than an occupied passenger cabin. No loud conversations, no banging of doors, no noisy television or music, etc. The crew and staff are typically extremely quiet in those areas and it has never been a problem or issue.

I have never seen a video poker machine on any Silversea ship. Granted the casino is subcontracted so things can change. Silversea casinos are very small and pretty basic.

Something like 10 +/- years ago there was quite a stink when what had been a well thought of and trusted Internet based cruise centered travel agency literally folded overnight defrauding hundreds of clients. As I remember the agency got bought out after years of great service and the new owners came up with the idea they could float deposits and final payments to support their personal lifestyle. Rather than just pass the deposits/payments for processing to the cruise lines they would wash the funds through their own accounts. Worked for a while but finally caught up with them and they owed more to the cruise lines and clients than they could garner from new deposits and payments. I know most of the clients never got any money back and while the cruise lines sympathetic they couldn’t and didn’t honor the bookings. I don’t remember the name of the agency and as I recall the previous owner tried to resurrect the agency but I don’t know if he successes or not. The whole mess impacted the whole travel agency business and the few agencies that honestly handled the deposits and payments changed to passing the credit card information to the cruise lines and let them process the funds.

Ugh. I won’t do business with a TA who banks my deposit or final payment before sending it on to the cruise line. Luckily I’m in the US and don’t have to deal with sometimes strange and different rules or practices.

No

I think they removed that option awhile back. We now just tell our butler what we’d like when we board. It usually is done by that evening.

Really not sure what you are referring to. There is another blog on a site we’re shouldn’t mention but it seems to be alive.

Good point about availability. While there are literally thousands of Starlink satellites up and operational coverage is better in some parts of the world than others. It literally changes almost weekly as Starlink regularly launches dozens of satellites at a time. I have heard but don’t know for sure that coverage over the Atlantic has improved substantially from just a few months ago.

Starlink is fully implemented across the whole Silversea fleet.

I think that is fine. You will fill out a disembarkation questionnaire and your departure from the ship will be adjusted accordingly. It’s not like thousands are getting off.

I too would be interested to see how somebody can actually determine the passenger load. I understand getting kind of a rough idea by the number of cabins shown but as pointed out Silversea doesn’t show every open cabin in a category. I think based on my previous experience that even my TA, who books a lot of Silverssea cruises, has to call to see if specific cabins are available. I have never gotten the feeling she can see 100% of the inventory.

That’s a hard decision for sure. Easy for me to sit here after being able to previously take this itinerary. I was so focused on being able to fulfill a lifelong dream the other ports were just “stops” and not of any particular interest. Have to say the full transit of the Suez Canal was interesting and a highlight. We’ll be adding a full transit of the Panama Canal to our bucket list check off this coming April on the Nova.

I guess I can understand people bailing if that’s what has happened. We luckily took the same itinerary a few years ago during a relative period of peace and quiet in the area. Visiting Egypt was a life long dream of mine as Egyptology was my post graduate minor and a lifetime interest. Our cruise was a great one and the dream visit and cruise of a lifetime. Today I would probably cancelled too because the whole reason for that cruise was Egypt and Jordan as a second reason. I would have been heartsick but the investment in money and time for a cruise/trip that didn’t stop in Egypt would not be worth it.

Maybe that’s the norm but we’ve started and ended cruises in San Juan four times and this was our first Pan American terminal experience. As I said what was a port day for us and 50 +/- other passengers at the end of the first 7-day was end of cruise for 500 passengers. The difference I noticed this time was the Dawn was the only cruise ship in port at either location. Looking around when we disembarked certainly the Pan American facility is nicer but it is also somewhat isolated. Once you’re there to embark there would not be much else to do.

Thank you. Mrs K made it back from Poland late last night. 24 hour trip on three planes so she’s pretty tired. Mentioned you cancelling your trip this morning and she agreed that probably is wise.