spryder

Nothing crazy, they just delivered the absolute bare minimum experience in an extremely disorganized and inefficient manner. Felt like it was thrown together with all of five minute’s planning. We dropped out after 45 minutes.

On Dawn right now - excursion sizes have generally been just as big as with Oceania and Viking, ie more often than not a full bus. Even the ones we paid extra for. Overall this trip we’ve had fewer hits than misses with excursions. Including one that might rank as the worst we’ve ever been on. YMMV.

Any insights on the best individual dishes you’ve sampled so far on board? Would be much appreciated - cheers!

Hmm, we were told we'd just pick up our luggage tags at the dock during check-in. (Which is an odd thing we've never had to do with any other cruise line.)

Oh, very disappointing to hear! Kaiseki's menu looked interesting.

Perfect, thank you so much!

Jollyjones - I'd love to see a pic of the current Norway-themed SALT menu if you're able to grab one! Cheers, and enjoy your cruise!

Soon-to-be first-time Silversea cruiser, booked on a 14 day all-Norway cruise later this year. I see many glowing reviews of S.A.L.T. kitchen, which says it provides "destination themed meals" wherever the ship ends up being on any particular day. I'm just wondering - on a 14 day cruise that starts and ends in Norway, and never goes anywhere but Norway (south to north and back again)... does S.A.L.T. Kitchen really just do 14 straight meals of Norwegian cuisine? Or do they have a special policy for cruises like this which spend such a long time in just a single country, to change things up a little?

Are there any known noise or other nuisance issues we should know about when picking a room/floor on Silversea Dawn? Besides obviously not being under the pool, or under/over a restaurant/club. Are there any verandas that have obstructed views or is going in for a "Guaranteed Veranda" relatively safe if we don't care about what end/side of the ship we're on. Thank you!

We crossed the Drake in January. Going down, perfectly fine. Coming back was ROUGH. Like, the weather map between Antarctica and Ushuaia was basically just completely dark purple - as bad as it gets. Plates fell off tables in restaurants, saw a couple of older passengers fall down, at times you felt like you were walking at a 30 degree angle just moving around the ship. That said - I am prone to extreme seasickness, and depsite all the bucking, I made it through without any nausea at all - thanks to Meclizine. No pill keeps seasickness at bay for me anywhere near as good as Meclizine. It's a must have for me on every cruise. So if that's your worry re: Drake, consider just stocking up on some Meclizine. It's super cheap and available on Amazon.

Chile still officially requires proof of C19 vax though no one actually checked anything from us.

We weren't sure what to expect with Oceania before booking our first cruise with them, since there are a fair amount of complaints 'round these parts that "they aren't what they used to be", etc. etc. So now that we're back from our first cruise (South America/Antarctica on Oceania Marina) we figured we'd share some of our experiences and provide some info we wish we'd had back when we were in the decision-making process. Who we are: couple in their 40s, we've cruised 6-7 times now, mostly Celebrity, once with Princess and once with Viking Ocean. Never had a bad cruise but would say our absolute favorite up to 2022 was with Viking Star (Panama Canal). Food/itinerary are generally our top concerns when picking a cruise - on-board entertainment we very rarely take part in, though I do enjoy an occasional port-related lecture. With that in mind, Oceania's "Best Food at Sea" claim definitely caught our interest and we decided to give them a go in 2023. The ship: We were on Oceania Marina for 20 days, Buenos Aires to Santiago with 3 days in Antarctica. Previous to departure we'd read quite a few complaints about Marina being a bit "dated" and dinged up. While there were definitely some dings in the room (cabinets dinged, closet sliding door was janky, few broken tiles in the bathroom) just about all public spaces in the ship looked immaculate to us. If there was one problem in the public areas I guess I'd say some of the dinner ware (plates, silverware, etc.) felt scuffed up and ready for replacement, but it really wasn't all that bad. As a whole we'd say the ship was in pretty great shape. The room: We had a B1 Veranda on the 8th floor. Good-sized room, bathroom had a separate large bath/shower AND a small stand-up separate shower. I've heard the bathtubs are going to be largely torn out during the next refurbishment - all I can say is that would be a real shame for us, as we used the tub almost daily. Taking a nice hot bath in the middle of the day - especially in Antarctica! - was a real treat for us and a first on any cruise ship we've been on. Staff/service: Exceptional. Room was cleaned according to our schedule, almost never had to wait very long for drinks/refills, there always seemed to be plenty of staff on-hand just about everywhere. No complaints. Food: Did it live up to the "Best Food at Sea" claim? We'd say YES, absolutely. Apart from one failure in the MDR (Maine lobster somehow came out mealy and completely inedible, guessing overcooked) we have nothing but praise for just about every dining location. I'm never a big fan of buffets but the Terrace Cafe was consistently excellent - especially anything from the carving station. MDR was solid every time except that once. Specialty dining was superb. We didn't try the Polo Grill, but thoroughly enjoyed Toscano, Red Ginger (twice), and Jacques. Best meal we'd say was Red Ginger (miso glazed sea bass + duck and watermelon salad), but all 3 were excellent and we would have gone more often EXCEPT it was exceptionally difficult to ever get a 2-person table reservation at any specialty restaurant. Every time except once we had to sit in on a table for 6, which isn't the end of the world, but it did frequently mean that we were stuck there for a solid THREE HOURS to finish our meal. And we're just not those people - 90 minutes, no problem, but 3+ hours (once at Red Ginger our 6:30pm dinner didn't finish until 10:15pm) is just way too long for our tastes. It also means that they won't start taking your order until all six people are seated, and once that took almost a half hour because one couple lost track of time. This might not be a deal breaker for most people - but it was for us. Food nitpicks: One thing we never seemed to properly enjoy, no matter the venue, was a regular, good old steak. We had some excellent beef dishes but steaks always seemed to be pretty mediocre cuts, lots of connective tissue, VERY chewy and often cooked well beyond the medium rare we'd requested. Entrana and hanger steak were excellent though, as were all other meats we tried. I'd also add that the "smoothie station" by Waves was kind of a let-down, as their "smoothies" were really more just like fruit juice and crushed ice. Humphrey Slocombe ice cream was also much talked about ahead of time but we tried them all and only the "Regatta Royale" was a real hit with us - most of the other ones were either just OK or pretty disappointing. Lots of unusual ingredients which didn't really add much to the experience (corn flakes, toast, corn, sesame seeds, etc.). Croissants were out of this world. PERFECTLY prepared and baked, just like Paris. I had one every single morning for breakfast and was never disappointed. Coffee in restaurants/buffet was decent, coffee at Barista's was excellent (and never too long of a wait). Organization/Communication: This is one area where Oceania falls short. Lots of miscommunication or vague communication when it came to port docking details - times, locations, what you would and wouldn't need to bring with you in terms of documentation. It left a lot of people confused and we'd frequently see people running back to their rooms at the last minute because they didn't bring a 2nd ID or copies of their CDC vaccination cards, etc. on an excursion. Excursion organization was also a bit of a mess compared to previous cruises we'd been on - lots of (seemingly) unnecessary waiting/queueing in cramped/overpacked spaces, with poor communication about what to expect once we'd gotten off the ship. Disembarkation was also a bit of a wreck and was quite delayed - by the time we were 45 minutes past our disembarkation time we asked the announcer why our color hadn't yet been called and he flat out told us just to go ahead and disembark because "the color system doesn't really matter anyway". Ugh. (For what it's worth, embarkation was an absolute breeze and was very well organized. Though we were more or less first in line and things may have gone downhill after us.) Entertainment: Again, not something we tend to participate in, but the lead lecturer was superb. I made sure to see all his presentations. There were 3 others in the Antarctica team, 2 were pretty solid, one I felt just kind of phoned in his talks (one was literally just him reading what felt to be a list taken straight from Wikipedia about what groups of animals are called... felt very low effort and the sort of thing a substitute teacher might use to entertain a class of fifth graders.) We didn't attend any of the stage shows - none of their descriptions really piqued our interest, and it was basically impossible to have a specialty restaurant dinner AND see a show on the same night just because the dinners tended to run so long, even if you got the earliest 6:30pm seating. Ship comfort: An important category for this cruise since it crossed the infamous Drake Passage twice, and during heavy storms on the way back. The ship definitely rocked and rolled but it handled the DP great in my opinion. I tend to get motion sickness pretty badly but wasn't sick/uncomfortable once (Meclizine was a big help). We did see a few people fall down during the worst of the passage, and during two meals plates/food/silverware were flying off some tables, but on the whole I felt like the ship handled extremely rough sea conditions very, very well. That said, the experience up at the restaurants on 12 or Barista's on 14 was pretty dicey during the worst of the crossing. Fellow passengers: Average ages I'd say were 65-70. Felt like the mix was somewhere around 60% American, 20% European, 20% Asian. Nice people overall. If there was a single "theme" to the people we'd met and talked to it was the fact that the vast, VAST majority of them were lifelong Oceania cruisers. It seemed that almost everyone had taken at least 5-10 previous Oceania cruises and many people we'd met said they'd never cruise with anyone else. Overall impression: We really liked Oceania. The food was every bit as good - indeed even better - than we'd been lead to expect before we booked. Definitely room for improvement on the communication/organization end of things, but overall we were very impressed and would definitely consider them again in the future.

I would assume the majority of Alaksa/Arctic sailors would want a veranda - despite the cold, it's often the best seat in the house for all the amazing scenery/wildlife you'll be passing by! Just dress warm and pack a blanket, and you're never more than 3 steps away from your stateroom if you need to warm up for a bit. Either way, good luck!

Any more info on the "running aground" incident? We're about to hop on board Marina.

Books: - Rounding the Horn by Dallas Murphy (likely the most relevant one for a cruiser) - Antarctica: An Intimate Portrait of the World's Most Mysterious Continent by Gabrielle Walker - The Crystal Desert by Davis G. Campbell - Terra Incognita by Sarah Wheeler - In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin - The Birthday Boys by Beryl Bainbridge (historical fiction) - The Gods of Tango by Carolina de Robertis (historical fiction set in Buenos Aires) Films/Documentaries: - The Falkland War (excellent Youtube series by Imperial War Museums, British-biased of course but with several fair-minded insights into the Argentinian POV)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLR7-hJZEBc&list=PLolzHiCNNbO-GV5ktRsUqnqhXM0e07YBh - Encounters at the End of the World by Werner Herzog - Patagonia, with Pedro Pascal (2022)