taxatty

You may also wish to consider taking the AA nonstop CLT-MAD flight, followed by what have become numerous, relatively cheap and fast trains from Madrid to Barcelona--it might work out better for you.

A belated follow-up--we just got home from Australia. We were lucky enough to see both the Horizontal Falls and Montgomery Reef during a spring tide. The "Falls" weren't high in height, either in the morning (incoming) or afternoon (outgoing) but were quite powerful. We were taken in the Zodiacs to see the effects of both tides. The SS Zodiacs weren't allowed to go through them when the tide is going in or out--only the local concessionaire's speed boats, which our Expedition Leader said that SS can't book. Sorry for the duplications below--CC isn't the easiest place to upload files. C0087.MP4 C0081.MP4 Montgomery Reef was more impressive to us--SS got us off the ship starting at 6:00 AM shortly before sunrise to catch them at the optimal "water pouring off a table" time. We also saw some large turtles there, followed by a nice surprise from the crew at the end which I won't divulge. C0087.MP4 C0087.MP4 C0087.MP4 C0085.MP4 After our Kimberley cruise, we spent disembarkation day enjoying Darwin, then took an evening flight back to our Australia starting point of Adelaide where we went on an escorted visit of several excellent McLaren Vale wineries. We finished our trip by flying to Melbourne, renting a car to spend two days sightseeing and hiking to various lighthouses and waterfalls on the spectacular Great Ocean Road, ending with four days in Melbourne--all very worthwhile. If you're flying many hours to get there, do try to explore more of that vast country than you can view in nine-hour shore excursions.

From our SS pre-cruise documents-- PRE-EMBARKATION TESTING REQUIREMENTS Guests Embarkation Testing Requirements All embarking fully vaccinated or up-to-date guests must hold proof of a valid PCR negative test result performed within 48 hours of embarkation OR a valid Antigen negative test result performed within 24 hours of embarkation. • The PCR test must be administered by a laboratory. • The Antigen test can either be performed by a third party, i.e. laboratory, pharmacy, telehealth advisor OR guests can perform a self-test at home where they must take a photograph of the negative result with a time stamp. (Note--this is what we did with a $12 test kit for two persons.) • If guests choose to have a PCR or an Antigen test by a third party, the certificate must contain the guest’s name (as shown on the cruise ticket), the date of the test, and the result. You must provide digital or printed proof upon embarkation. Unvaccinated Guest Testing Requirements Unvaccinated Guests (we only accept unvaccinated individuals from 0 to 11 years old) must present a valid Antigen or PCR negative test result performed within 24 hours of embarkation: • The PCR test must be administered by a laboratory. • The Antigen test can either be performed by a third party, i.e. laboratory, pharmacy, telehealth advisor OR guests can perform a self-test at home where they must take a photograph of the negative result with a time stamp. • If guests choose to have a PCR or an Antigen test by a third party, the certificate must contain the guest’s name (as shown on the cruise ticket), the date of the test, and the result. You must provide digital or printed proof upon embarkation. • PLEASE NOTE: All guests aged from 0 to 11 years old must complete a Covid-19 test. Silversea will NOT be providing pier-side testing for guests; as such, it is imperative that you arrive to the pier with your individual negative test result. If you arrive for embarkation without a valid negative test result, you will be denied boarding Pre-Arrival Testing Option • The Antigen test may be administered by a verified third party, either a laboratory or pharmacy OR a self-test at home, verified by a third party (telehealth provider, pharmacy or laboratory). The Certificate must contain the guest's name (as shown on the cruise ticket), as well as date of test, and result. You must provide a digital or printed proof upon embarkation. • Whilst approved self-test kits are now readily available at pharmacies and drugstore chains, Silversea is pleased to make them available for order pre-cruise. We suggest that you order them at least one full week in advance of your sailing. These tests allow you to complete your pre-cruise test at home, or in any place of your choosing, with the help of live video supervision by a Certified Testing Guide. Your results are typically ready in about 15 minutes. Please click here to order your home self-test kit. For guests participating in a Pre-cruise Land Programme, Silversea will provide necessary testing if required.

We enjoyed the Ghan trip from Adelaide to Darwin--very good food, drink, and service. Not "luxury" but quite nice. The Gold Twin room is not spacious but it does the job (no Platinum cabin ever became available to us) as the seating and beds were comfortable and having the en-suite toilet/sink/shower was convenient. Our two included excursions (Simpsons Gap and nearby hikes in Alice Springs, the gorge boat tour in Katherine) were well organized and done. Sleeping the first night was difficult as the track in that section is old, but once the train stopped in the middle of the night in Marla, sleeping got much easier. We slept great on the second night, and delivering us to our Darwin hotel by coach at the end (also included) worked well. Absurdly expensive but definitely worth doing once.

AFAIK, Silversea. Australia didn't require proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test to enter from the US.

The Mitchell Falls helicopter shore excursion was awesome. It's the only extra-cost excursion on this itinerary, and it's a hefty $750/PP, but certainly worth it to us. It's a little over two hours of amazing views with commentary, a visit to two lookout points, and a swim at the end if you want in a shallow pool at the end. The Expedition Team and the helicopter pilots did a great job explaining the history, flora and fauna of the area.

Montgomery Reef and Horizontal Falls come later in our trip--today is the add-on Mitchell Falls helicopter trip. It appears that there may have been some changes in the Expedition Team since your cruise. Marieka Egan is the expedition boss, Phoebe is her assistant, and some of the other expedition staff seem to be new. We've been satisfied with them so far. We agree with you about Igor--he's great and a real charmer.

We started our Australia trip (it's our second) in Adelaide so that we could spend some time there before our other bucket list item of this trip, taking the Ghan train from Adelaide to Darwin to get to the cruise. We highly recommend this trip pre or post cruise. We flew MIA-LAX-SYD-ADL using 90K AA points PP plus 10K each for SYD-ADL, with the first two legs in AA First, which was a far better deal than paying for Business through SS Air or otherwise. There are Qantas flights from Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane to and from Darwin.

Taking the advantage of a plus 13 hour time difference over EST, a Happy July 4th to everyone, live from the Silver Explorer on Australia's northwest coast. As highplanesdrifters recently posted an extensive review of the SS Kimberley cruise stops and the ship is going bye-bye from SS soon anyway, I won't attempt to duplicate it, but our cruise has been great so far. We left Darwin on time (getting advance negative RAT tests is still needed) and have had good excursions to the Ord River, the King George Falls and Ashmore Reef, the latter being a bird nerd's dream. Note--the Explorer's forward elevator is still broken--my guess is for its duration with SS. Unfortunately, very unusual for the season bad weather bungled our scheduled Bungle Bungles flight (2/3 of the pax onboard had signed up for it), but the Ord River Cruise was a reasonable substitute. The King George River falls were a bit more active and spectacular than usual due to the recent local rains. As before on SS, the food and service have been excellent. The ship put out special "American cuisine" for July 4th lunch today--hamburger sliders along with hot dogs and buffalo wings, even though the only US pax onboard are me, DW and a nice young lady from Boston.

We did the same--took $1500 PP air credit, used 90K PP AA miles to fly AA First to Australia for our Darwin SS Kimberley cruise.

No way of knowing without calling, but that's never worked for me for getting upgrades. You can sometimes get good AA points award redemptions when flights open, or a few days thereafter, but that isn't automatic--you must keep checking aa.com and pounce when a good deal shows up.

Call AA to find out if upgrade space is available or to get put on a waitlist.

25,000 AA miles + $350 per person, as shown on the AA "upgrade with miles" chart. A great deal for a very long flight.

In addition to the indoor Flower Dome at Gardens by the Bay in Singapore, don't miss the outdoor Singapore Botanic Gardens--maybe the nicest and most diverse gardens we have seen anywhere. If you are an orchid enthusiast, don't miss the gorgeous National Orchid Garden there. Since it can get very hot and humid in Singapore in the afternoon, a good day would be the Singapore Botanic Gardens in the morning followed by the air-conditioned National Museum of Singapore that @highplainsdrifters mentioned (excellent exhibit on the WWII Japanese occupation), or one of the several high-end shopping malls. For getting around, the subway system is extensive, perfectly clean and safe. If you want to try something delicious, less spicy than it sounds and very messy to eat, try the chili crab--yum. If you're the least bit adventurous, you should eat at a hawker center at least once. We stayed at the Conrad--very nice rooms, well located, and a very extensive buffet breakfast. It's a great place to visit, just don't chew gum there!

Ours just took two weeks from filing out the renewal application online to getting the new GE cards in the mail.

Citi was totally useless for us when Iberia refused to either refund our money or even issue a credit for a flight it cancelled during the height of COVID--we ultimately had to file a DOT complaint to get satisfaction on what should have been an easy Citi chargeback. Good luck to you.

We've personally upgraded to Business on an AA transpacific flight from relatively cheap one-way paid PE tickets (also bought with the hope of upgrading), so it's definitely possible.

https://www.aa.com/i18n/aadvantage-program/miles/redeem/award-travel/upgrade-with-miles.jsp

On our return cruise to Antarctica on the Wind next year, the lowest-level Veranda suite is $10,000 more than a Vista suite. Given the limited benefits of a balcony on those cruises (good for photography and occasional wildlife spotting, but at least for us South Floridians, it was too cold for much else) we will be in a Vista suite.

Other cruise lines do this all the time, not just Royal Caribbean affiliates. It sucks, but you can find many "I'll never sail (fill in the blank) again" threads like this on CC due to post-booking charters.

Yes, IF "C" upgrade space is available. You can call AA now and put your name on the AA upgrade waitlist if there is no current availablity. It often doesn't appear until a few days before the flight--try calling AA then. You can also check availability by setting up an Expert Flyer notification account--discussed many times in this forum. In addition, many AA upgrades also require cash in addition to miles--between North America and Europe, usually $350--still often a good deal.

Thanks for the menus, the food choices look great for such a small sfip.

There are still some deals out there if you look hard enough and are patient. Qantas released more than a few premium US flight awards a couple of months ago, and AA sometimes has reasonable F and J award tickets to and from SYD--we're going there soon in AA First for 90K PP and returning QF Business for 80K PP.

We travel on AA a great deal (MIA is a major AA hub airport) and do what we can to rack up AA miles and "Loyalty Points." There are still excellent AA award deals if you take the time (or use a service) to find them, especially on AA partner airlines. After flying to Australia and New Zealand in Economy years ago we said never again. Through cancelling/rebooking (with no penalty) when a better deal appears, we're flying to Australia for 90K miles each in AA First (which will disappear shortly from its 777s) and 80K each in Qantas Business returning, along with a minimal $ amount. Qantas flights within Australia to get us to Darwin for our SS cruise are only 10K AA miles Economy (fine for the short flights) and 20K for Business. Booking AA award flights is the only realistic way we could fly international "up front." Finally, on other international flights, we've had success upgrading to AA Business a day or two before the flight in question as upgrade space is often then released--one example being a couple of years ago getting last-minute AA upgrades to and from Santiago, Chile.

So that explains why our SS Darwin RT cruise itinerary next month was changed a couple of months ago to add a very long side trip for a two hour and fifteen minute visit to Ashmore Reef. This appears to be by far the shortest stop there of the upcoming Kimberley cruises. One of the reasons we picked our original itinerary was that it avoided a second sea day because it included only Australian coastline stops and nearby islands. Yes, as with all other cruise lines, we know SS can change ports at a whim under the universally-applied T.S. Rule. Maybe someone at SS woke up and realized our original itinerary wasn't permissible. Oh well.