Host Jazzbeau

No, your comparison to Hurtigruten is probably about right. As to the Northern Lights, our friend recently did such a cruise on Fred Olsen and reported great success with the lights being out. And her pictures are lovely. But she did confirm that her eyes were unable to see any of the colors, the display looked like a milky film to the eye [apparently the cones, which see color, don't work in low light – so you only see with the rods, in shades of gray]. But she still had a great time.

You may have trouble hearing each other at a table that large.

This Surfing Olympics subthread started with speculation in post #17, and no one has provided any substantiation that Windstar is doing this. It may be true, but please keep in mind that so far it is not known to be true.

I was going to ignore it totally, but then this idea for lunch came up:

I don't know of a single line (except Crystal) that doesn't have major dissatisfaction among its hitherto fan base. Most cruise lines kept fares low for many years, because of the financial crisis and then Covid. Now they face such massive debt loads that they have to switch from long-term market-share thinking to short-term 'every cruise covers its cost' thinking – and that means major price hikes along with cost cuts. I don't know where it's going to stabilize.

Several earlier posts have mentioned itineraries. We book for itinerary first, food second, and the ship third. We are preparing for our first Windstar cruise in January, because they had a Southern Caribbean itinerary that really appealed (Windward Islands & Spanish New World, 14 nts from Barbados to Panama City). Our Viking Ocean cruise was also because they had a really attractive itinerary (British Isles Explorer from Bergen to Greenwich). We loved the Viking cruise [esp. the ship and the food], but not the included excursions [ended up not taking any – that really affected the value proposition] and haven't been enticed by any of their other itineraries. We will be on Star Pride, one of the old Seabourn 'sisters' now stretched from 212 to 312 passengers; the ship experience will not be as good as Viking [French balcony], but all reports say the food should be equal or better; my curated combination of ship excursions and private excursions looks far better than what Viking offered [and the combined cost still makes a good value]. So I agree that you're comparing apples to oranges. But it's a very good apple, and a very good orange.

Unlike Woody Allen, I'm not rich enough to attract even regular virgins at my age...

I understand your question, and no offense taken. I have followed Silversea for many years and read so many reviews extolling its virtues as a true luxury cruise line. My only previous experience with a true luxury cruise line was one cruise on (old) Crystal, which was mind-blowing in some ways (the food), but less so in others (the dining room service – this was in the brief period when Crystal finally got up to 100% occupancy, so the passenger/crew ratio was not as favorable as when they were sailing half full...). Anyway, those great Silversea reviews led me to rebook our twice-cancelled Ponant New Zealand cruise on Silver Whisper Jan. 29-Feb. 14, 2024. I knew the ship was old, and that was no problem [we like the design of older ships, and accept/respect the patina]. I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of Silversea's included shore excursions [but later reports say Silversea is cutting back on this]. But I was very disappointed in the food – nothing was inedible but nothing was very flavorful or memorable, much less delightful [certainly not above the level on Azamara (if even that good) and well below Crystal, which occasionally reached 'orgasmic'] That cruise was not so bad that I reconsidered our next two SS bookings: Endeavour to Svalbard in 2025 and Ray rt Ft Lauderdale in 2026. But the reports on Cruise Critic in the short time since seem to be getting worse and worse.

Nothing a little buttering up couldn't fix...

This would seem to work for rivers like the Rhine that empty into another river. Wouldn't it be hard to measure e.g. the Mississippi or the Amazon upstream from the mouth, because the growing delta keeps extending the 'mouth.' [I think of Ephesus and Ostia Antica.]

I don't know whether this came up in your research for this cruise, but Hurtigruten has a Northern Lights Promise on their cruises: https://www.hurtigruten.com/en-us/offers/northern-lights-promise

At my age it's getting less and less likely that I will HAVE older neighbors... 😀

When you post a link to this "Gentleman's Portion" blog, it comes across as you are citing a third party for verification of your already-posted opinions. You saying it twice doesn't make it any more credible, but the apparent attempt to clothe it in more credibility than your own opinion actually destroys your credibility. [This is my personal opinion, neither official nor humble...]

Just a friendly reminder that Cruise Critic rules prohibit naming (or hinting at) travel agents and agencies.

Well, the Med it is. But you have to speak Spanish: Alma Cruceros to Operate Ocean Victory in Med in 2025

That's why God gave us Lobster Newburg and Lobster Rolls! We spend two weeks in Maine very summer and eat lobster every day – and never crack a claw.

The traditional advice is to consider Prague the gateway for Passau, often with a stop at Český Krumlov on the way. So this cruise works equally well in either direction if you can spend a few days at each end!

They claim to have the best food at sea, and in my experience the claim is true. But of course in this post-Covid economic climate, nobody's reviews from last year are still reliable now... BTW, that's the hardest ship name to spell correctly. It's Sirena. [I always want to say Serena...]

We did a 'circumnavigation' of Iceland on Ponant in August 2019. Not hurricane season, but a Nor'easter settled right over Iceland with its counterclockwise winds ringing the island. We had sailed smoothly from Reykjavik north and all the way across the top of Iceland when our Captain called everyone in to the theater and showed us windy.com's wind map – and explained that we could make it to Seydisfjördur and into its fjord, but if we turned right on exiting we would face the brunt of the storm going south and also heading back west. He said "the ship can handle it, but I don't think you want to." Also the headwinds would slow progress so we would have to miss our next stop, Heimaey, in any case (especially with the narrow and treacherous entrance to its harbor). So we all agreed with his decision to turn back after Seydisfjördur and head straight for Reykjavik. My point is that no matter what time of year, circumnavigations of Iceland are risky. Ponant no longer schedules this itinerary – they do Heimaey from Reykjavik and then head north and east as far as Grimsey and Akureyri before returning to Reykjavik, missing Seydisfjördur (no big loss) and Jökulsárlón (which they never did). I'm OCD enough to want to do a 'complete circle,' but I have to admit that Ponant's new itinerary is much more likely to be delivered as advertised. As to timing: August was already too late for puffins on Grimsey Island. So maybe July would be ideal.

We are going on our first Windstar cruise in January 2025, and are really looking forward to the food. We recently completed our first Silversea cruise, and were very disappointed in the food – as @AmateurGO said about Seabourn, it wasn't really bad but it wasn't flavorful or memorable. We have been very happy with the food on Oceania (latest 2022), Scenic river (latest 2023), and Azamara (latest 2024) – those are our standards for cruise ship food. I hope and expect that Windstar will equal or exceed them [and of course I will report back]

There is a thread about this:

I can verify this. We went to Keukenhof twice in 2022, about a week apart. We saw different tulips blooming in the same beds on the second visit. [I did this at home, planting Iris on the surface of my tulip beds. The tulips come up early, then after they're finished we have the iris display. Of course that makes it impossible to replant more tulips as they die off. But I believe that Keukenhof completely replants all their beds every year.

I remembered this discussion, so I looked at my wine bottle at dinner tonight. A California (Lodi) Zinfandel with 15.1% abv. That is staggering! [the wine, not me... 😉] But it was very well balanced – at a high level across abv, tannin and fruit. Very nice.

I forget which website I saw this on yesterday [OK – old age jokes may be inserted here, and are deserved!] but I definitely saw clear wording that reserved the right to reprice/cancel bookings based on erroneous pricing.

2001?