Emdee

We are long range travel planners. Currently booked until 2025 December….Crystal. More likely SSea is not for me. Though I do have an Endeavour cruise booked for 2025 using the Door to Door.

Travel insurance for any reason doesn’t provide a return of 100%. Besides, I believe our choices for travel insurance in Canada are some what limited.

Port to port is a non option if you need to cancel. It is ok if it is a last minute booking. My DD got zero single supplement on the Endeavour in August but ours was a last minute booking to coincide with our return on Crystal.

The regular Umi Uma chef has gone to open Symphony. There is a new chef brought from Nobu in South Africa. Will need to try Osteria to see how we like it looking forward to trying it in a few days. While Prego was much loved the food was very much American Italian.

The new shops have Vintage Hermes scarves and pre owned Birkens.

Between knee surgeries and other bookings I found it hard to find anything suitable until a window of opportunity opened which is why I am on the Reykjavík to Quebec City itinerary right now. Now hoping to find something for 2025 when the new itineraries come out.

This is Emdee in person! Now at the Borg hotel and counting the hours until we board. The Hotel Director on the Endeavour was ex Crystal Esprit and wished me goodbye. I said I was excited to be going home to Crystal. Cannot wait. Hope to have another shot at seeing the lights it was amazing to see them dancing.

This is Emdee’s DD and she will be joining you on the upcoming crystal cruise and hoping to see them again. We just came off the old crystal endeavor(now silversea) and saw them September 3rd on the way to iceland. The time we saw them best was around 10:30-11:30pm and lucky it was not cloudy. i have attached two of our pics from my iphone.

This is Emdee’s DD who just finished the silversea endeavour with her. It was the best of our three silversea trips(all taken post covid) and bc of the design there were familiar crystal touches like the under-light. Emdee will be going on crystal serenity in a couple of days so may provide a recent comparison. If the Silversea endeavour had different itineraries than polar and few British isle cruises we would be tempted to book it right away due to the amazing ship design and amazing hotel staff. The service was as good as our best cruises in all lines and the hotel staff were so cheerful. I personally am not a fan of the food on silversea compared to crystal though their pastas are really good and the veal was amazing this trip. Also, I found that Silversea and the other luxury lines below have more premium liquor choices compared to crystal ie Patron tequila is included. The suites are larger on three of the lines though found bc of the amount of activities on crystal is doesn’t bother us. Note post covid we have travelled on Seabourn and our previous favourite line Regent.

But taking the EI discount for amounts already made whole by credit card companies is definitely double dipping. We were fortunate to have received all our monies back because they were refunded by AMEX. We therefore didn’t apply to EI for a discount and didn’t put through our Moecker claim. The Moecker was close in timing but then AMEX approved our refunds in the nick of time so we didn’t put it through.

The jeep was but the plane and helicopter were not. I actually think we paid for 1 jeep tour ( in the desert near Petra) but the other was included. Most of these were pre Covid. Was only on one Regent post Covid. A number of the paid tours were covered by OBC.

I must have done at least 100 or more tours on Regent over the years…..maybe closer to 200. We have had full buses and half empty buses. We have had jeep tours, small plane tours and helicopter tours. Yes, some tours are sub par but others were excellent. Although the buses were full in Israel the tours were excellent. Elsewhere not so good. All the small plane and helicopter tours were excellent. Had similar experiences with Crystal though I have taken less bus tours on Crystal and did a mix and match of private tours, ship’s tours and ship’s private tours.

Any news of the new itinerary? I understand that the ship would likely find it difficult to reach the northern ports from Iqaluit. Are you returning via Pond Inlet or Iqaluit?

We are similar to Keith. Do a mix and match of tours depending on the timings, places and what we have already done in the past. In Africa we did our safaris separately and again did a couple before our Crystal cruise. We tend to mix and match our travel doing pre cruise and post cruise sightseeing recognizing that one cannot do everything from a cruise ship. In Tahiti we have always done private tours except for an occasional ship’s tour to use OBC.

Thanks for your response. I am flying Porter. But should we have a problem we will drive to Montreal! Lots of storms and some tornado type activity that messes up the flights. Sorry to hear about the fog. Hope it clears up for you. Your second photograph is amazing. Love it.

We never had that experience on SS. We were on the Moon and the buses were at least 40 to 45 people. Even on the cloud they sometimes gathered several zodiacs together before starting the tour. These were not the Cloud hiking tours. I think this is one of these cases where the correct answer is ….it depends. the only solution is to book private excursions of your own or with the ship. On Crystal when the private excursion did not do what it stated it would ( the tour guide decided to rewrite the tour ) Crystal refunded half our money.

I think Regent definitely has smaller sizes and for a little extra payment you can have a group of 16 and under. So if money is not a factor Regent should be your choice. Or you can go on a private excursion …your own or Crystal‘s. We have done both.

I have been on Crystal tours where the buses were half full and others where they were full. Same with Regent. It is a crap shoot. If I want the tour then I will pay the price. Sometimes it comes down to whether I really want to see something or not. I didn’t book the L’Anse aux Meadows tour as I felt it was pricey. How much do I want to see the remains of the former viking settlement…..I don’t know. I may relent on board.

We are on the Reykjavik to Quebec City cruise and barring one that I thought was pricey the others were in line with my expectations. As Keith said we are paying a lot more for hotels and food both at home and internationally. Why would tours or ship’s excursions be any different? Added to inflation the travel industry took a hit from the pandemic and that has repercussions.

Apparently it will be a zodiac transfer in Iqaluit according to a current sailor.

I think Regent has the curtain between the bed and sitting area too. I distinctly remember DH working through the night on one Regent trip. SS has very good itineraries. We are Volvo drivers and have driven them for over 35 years. So therein hangs a tale.

The one thing I liked on the SS Moon was hand washing stations….very high tech.

I did take a look at Silver Nova pics and videos. I felt Celebrity vibes. Nothing against Celebrity but I prefer old world charm to glitz. That being said I enjoy Regent in spite of the costly glitz but it is the warmth of the staff that I love. Ultimately we all have our favourite buttons. If SS could only remember that I am allergic to down and like Evian I would give them another chance…maybe.

I don’t recall our room being very small. The only thing I don’t like at Fairmont hotels are the mattresses. I remember the bar manager giving us a free tasting of various Quebec liquors after we had a chat with him.

Daughter is a Solo too! She will be hiking. We are knee replacement candidates so will enjoy more gentle pursuits. Lol.