dougburns

Docs arrived on time today. Nice package. Time to start party planning. Will wait until the end of Oct, or until I'm sure our cruise officers are aboard- Captain, HD and F&B Manager before setting up the M&M, etc. Will probably have 3 cocktail parties in our suite during the cruise; the M&M out of Cartagena, one out of Funchal and one out of San Juan. Get your fancy duds ready everyone.

Just for info in case anyone else has guests coming aboard during the cruise, our TA said SS will review the requests 45 days prior to sailing. So, we should hear when we get back from CA on 2 Oct.

For all on the Transatlantic Silver Wind 15 Nov-2 Dec, Docs are in! Ours are arriving from our TA tomorrow via UPS. Time to get ready to party!

Please join our Meet and Mingle group for the Barcelona-FLL leg. You can go to the roll call thread to join. So far we have 12 folks from CC. We'll have the M&M in our suite(701) the evening out of Cartagena at 1800. We have done many Transatlantic cruises on SS and Regent. The main things we like about the sea days is that the social environment gets moving, the food prep is better, because the full crew is aboard all day and the service is better for the same reason. We have cruised several times aboard the Spirit, but this will be our first aboard the Wind. Our good friends who will be aboard, the Weiners, have cruised the Cloud and enjoyed it very much. They have cruised the Spirit several times as well. We will have a great captain in Marco Sangiacomo and I'm sure you'll find plenty of activity to keep you busy during the sea days.

Our experience on the Spirit has been that you can always get into any of the specialty venues after the first day or two as long as you are flexible on time. Many folks rush to make reservations as soon as they board, but we never did that and never had a problem.

Thanks, Candy! Look forward to seeing you on the Wind in Nov. Best to you and Larry.

Marcie; We have used the cruise line air in the past with both Regent and Silversea going both ways and have always been satisfied. It's not necessarily the cheapest way to go, but it's always been reliable with no worries. However, we always pay the extra $100 to get the airline and routing that we want; ie, no JFK, no Chicago and no United Airlines. As you know, we have usually used B&K and they have always been able to get what we wanted. If you and Tom still use them I would ask them.

Don't necessarily depend on the SS website to determine the pax load by looking at waitlist or sold out categories. When looking to book the Wind TA we wanted a Grand 1 bedroom and the website said it was waitlisted. Our TA checked and both Grand 1 bdr were available while the website still said waitlisted.

Dancing on the Spirit is just OK, but it's there. Depending on the cruise- generally cruises that have a lot of sea days- they will have dance instructors on board, who give 1 hour dance classes in the afternoon. Not as good as those on Regent with similar itineraries. On the Spirit they have a one man band( mainly piano and singing ) and sometimes a female singer in the Bar and in the Panorama Lounge before dinner and then again after dinner until 2300. At 2300 they start disco in the Pamorama Lounge. You can request the music you want them to play, except during disco( you can ask then, but you may not get what you want, depending on how crowded it is ). Miss Lynn and I usually like a good mix of ballroom type dancing and we've generally been satisfied. The Bar dance floor is a bit small for my taste, but there usually aren't that many dancers. The floor in the Panorama Lounge is much better and it's usually not that crowded, except on some nights during disco when they let the animals out; then it's crazy. I wish they still had the 4 piece groups on Silversea like they used to have, but it is what it is. Overall, I think you'll have plenty of satisfying dancing on the Spirit. We usually dance before and after dinner in the Panorama Lounge. Go for it!

Getting to know the ship's officers is part of the cruise experience IMHO. That goes for getting to know as many of our fellow pax as well. We always host at least 1 party in our suite per cruise and invite all of the ship's officers. Usually have @ 50 total there and we find that it's a good ice breaker for the social environment during the cruise. Never have had a bad experience dining with the ship's officers and fellow pax. You'd be surprised how much fun you can have if you socialize and mingle. But I guess that's just my Navy background coming out.

Thanks for the info on the yard period and the work to be done while there. Hope there are no delays to complicate our 15 Nov cruise. Really nice that we'll have Captain Marco as our captain, since we've cruised with him before.

crusinpashmina, can you ask Capt Arma when the Wind is going into the Fall drydock and when she's coming out. My understanding is that she'll be out of service from 10/10-11/8. We're on for the Transatlantic from Barcelona-FLL. Thanks

Looking at Mike Lukins video tour of the Wind there won't be any wild dancing such as we had on the Spirit. I doubt that the dance floor in the Panorama Lounge or the one in the Bar will handle more than two couples at a time. Guess it'll be solo performance time pretty much, but it'll be fun!

Fantastic! Miss Lynn and Ida will be delighted, as will I and Wes.

Having only cruise the Spirit and the Shadow, I would like to know if the Wind Panorama Lounge has a dance floor? I can see one in the Bar from the pics, but not in the Panorama Lounge.

I'll still take Raffles, but it's been some time since we've been there. We had the Ava Gardner suite when we were there and it was great. Food and service in the old fashioned way! Can't remember the name of it, but there's a great restaurant at the top of the hotel just across the street from raffles. Great view of the city and very good food; mostly Asian.

They do have metal detectors active at the gangway when you board, but there is no problem bringing booze bought ashore on board. Just use good judgement with what you bring with you; no weapons, etc. Have a great cruise.

Iguazu Falls is a not to be missed experience, but don't try to do it in 1 day. Take the overnight and stay at the Sheraton, which is right at the entrance to the park. Not a great hotel, but it's definitely convenient.

Wes and Ida; Bon voyage! Hope you have a great trip. Will look forward to following along with you.

Dieter, Debbie, Bob, Victoria and David, hope you have a great cruise. Wes and Ida will be joining you shortly. I surely do miss the Silver Spirit and cruising in general, but can't talk the lovely Miss Lynn into any more cruises; just doing land stuff now. Again, have a great cruise with fair winds and following seas.

We travel BA regularly between Phoenix and London. Normally, you can't seat select until check-in unless you buy an upgraded seat. Don't know how SS works it with them, but that's the norm. Have never had a bad flight with BA.

Don't know what you're complaining about. The change was beyond SS control. Have been to Subic Bay/Alongapo many times during my Navy career and it's not that long a trip to Manila if you had really wanted to go there.

A lot depends on where the ship is coming in from. Customs and immigration at FLL can vary quite a bit. We've generally been able to board @ noon, but had a couple of times when they were late getting pax off and we weren't able to board until @ 1330-1400.

Sorry, but I disagree with almost all of these butler comments. On our numerous SS cruises we've never had a less than stellar butler. They were always there when wanted and never when not wanted. Always very unobtrusive. We've had numerous parties in our suites over the years and the butlers were a godsend. I think a lot of you folks just don't know how to use a butler. Our first butler on the Silver Spirit maiden crossing was a college graduate; had several years experience as a butler at the Burg in Dubai and was definitely not just a glorified steward, for example.

Don't know what all the fuss is about. The maiden voyage(s) are always full of problems; ie sea trials. I remember clearly all of the initial problems the Spirit had. We didn't get aboard until Lisbon for the maiden Transatlantic and the ship had been in the Med for a while by then. The Chief Engineer was up to his rear end in alligators all the way to Ft. Lauderdale. Give it a chance to settle down; I'm sure it will be a great ship when all is said and done.