Pre-cruise and post-cruise

[mahasamatman]

We're looking at taking our first SIlversea cruise in 2023, and I had a few questions about pre-cruise and post-cruise. For the included flights, how much choice do you have over the schedule and carrier? And how do the included transfers work if you have a hotel stay before or after the cruise? WIll SIlversea supply the transfers regardless of the hotel choice, or do you need to stay in one of their preferred hotels? The cruise we're looking at is Southampton to Reyjkavik, and we'll probably want to spend a couple of days in the London area and up to a week in Iceland.

 

These questions assume the choices are within reason, like not using a hotel 100 miles away or taking an unreasonably expensive flight.

[Gourmet Gal]

There are several threads on this topic .  But I’ll chime in…Regarding air, it pays to do a little research and request preferred airlines and routing before SS comes back to you with their offering.  If you deviate outside of their usual carriers and routing you’ll have to pay a deviation fee. It is still usually a better deal than booking on your own, especially when flying biz.  For example, for my Southampton to Lisbon cruise I will be arriving 5 days early in London and stopping over in Paris for several weeks after my cruise.  I don’t have a quote yet but expect it will be a few hundred $$ more.

 

As for hotels, you need to stay in their hotel for an inflated rate to utilize the transfer.  For London to Southampton there are some very reasonable car services.

[Lois R]

Good morning,  in order to use the SS transfers you will need to stay at one of the SS hotels.

 

As for flights, I can tell you from experience, you can have a say in which flights you take. I always take the Business Class Upgrade on overseas flights and recently booked a cruise that sails out of Lisbon in April 2022.

They gave me a flight that had a short layover in Paris (too short) and it made me quite uneasy. I called my SS rep and we found another flight with much better times.....she contacted the air dept and they changed my flight.🙂 So, yes, you can have a say in flights.

[Lonedaddy]

On the air we a looking at a cruise out of Athens.  We have a retirement home in Belize and so we can fly out of pretty much any gateway.  Delta has a nonstop to Athens out of Atlanta  and American out of Philly.   Do the put you on a nonstop if available.    I prefer not to fly through LHR as that is always a mess.  We planned to do a stop over in Italy on the way as I still have some hotel credits there (covid cancellations)  Will they accommodate that?

[cruiseej]

@mahasamatman Reykjavic is a compact city, so taking a cab from the port to your hotel of choice should be quite easy, fast and inexpensive. 

 

@Lonedaddy You can definitely do your research for your best flight options, and give them to your travel agent or SS representative to request them from the SS air department. If it's an airline they have a contract with, and they aren't over their allocated number of seats (per flight? day? month?), and it isn't significantly more expensive than some other flight combination, they will often give you your preferred flight. So it definitely pays to ask. Once you involve other factors, such as stopping somewhere else, they would likely charge you a deviation fee -- but it's still worth proposing the flights you want and seeing what cost they come up with. When you get the air department price quote, if you can buy it yourself for significantly less, then you can opt to do so. 

[MBP&O2/O]

The last couple of times we flew I told SS exactly which flights we wanted. All were given. We were using the KLM/AF codeshare which is on their lists.

Because we were going out early and arranging our own hotels and transfers, they never charged us for the ‘deviation’.

 

[SSCAF001]

Hello I am starting thinking of what I should put into my luggage and was wondering whether SS provides  masks on a daily basis or if I should take my own supply? Thanks.

[Lois R]

36 minutes ago, SSCAF001 said:

Hello I am starting thinking of what I should put into my luggage and was wondering whether SS provides  masks on a daily basis or if I should take my own supply? Thanks.

Good morning, yes, they do provide masks but I bring my own too. I have a black one with a bit of bling on it for evenings🙂......it goes with every outfit🙂

 

[SSCAF001]

3 hours ago, Lois R said:

Good morning, yes, they do provide masks but I bring my own too. I have a black one with a bit of bling on it for evenings🙂......it goes with every outfit🙂

 

Thank you very much for your answer. 

[azjoy]

On 11/8/2021 at 7:55 AM, cruiseej said:

@mahasamatman Reykjavic is a compact city, so taking a cab from the port to your hotel of choice should be quite easy, fast and inexpensive. 

 

You're correct about the city but the international airport, KEF or Keflavik, is quite a ways from the city.  As I recall, It's about an hour drive from the city.  Reykjavik City airport is for domestic flights.

 

Unfortunately, a taxi or private transfer in Iceland is not what I consider inexpensive.  In July, they were running about $150 to $160, one-way.  A previous trip we used the shuttle bus but we had to transfer from the large bus to a smaller one and then stop at several hotels.  I think it doubled the transfer time.  

 

To mahasamatman, whatever you decide, enjoy yourself.  Iceland is a great country.  

[cruiseej]

3 hours ago, azjoy said:

You're correct about the city but the international airport, KEF or Keflavik, is quite a ways from the city.  As I recall, It's about an hour drive from the city.

 

Yes, but I didn't think that was the issue here. @mahasamatman said "The cruise we're looking at is Southampton to Reyjkavik, and we'll probably want to spend a couple of days in the London area and up to a week in Iceland" -- so the issue was the initial transfer from the ship to a hotel in Iceland. I was noting that from the port SS uses to any hotel in Reykjavik is a short and inexpensive taxi ride. 

 

Getting from Reykjavik to the airport in Keflavik is indeed about a 45-50 minute drive.  Private transfers are in the $150-$160 price range as you indicated. But there is also the FlyBus and other bus transfer services with modern coaches for $25-$35 per person. However, if they are spending a week in Iceland, they might also be renting a car, so returning the car at the airport removes the transfer cost entirely. The car return at their airport is very easy.

[les37b]

I'd be suggesting renting a car would be a must if staying for a week. Iceland is a very unique country and worth exploring. Obviously subject to time of year and places you want to visit (ie unmade roads, icy conditions and 4x4 needed.) My last visit was in April 2012 - when we drove to say thankyou to the volcano that got us a free week stay in Singapore 2 years previous.

 

Lots to see and do, but is expensive - or can be! We rented an apartment, made a hot breakfast in the morning, took a pack lunch out for the day, then basic hot meal back in the apartment in the evening. Look for the pink piggy for the supermarket! Eating and drinking in bars and restaurants is expensive. On arrival at Keflavik, we used the duty free shop for booze.... and then never drank any of it! lol Obviously won't be an option for your cruise, but nothing to stop you bringing something on the ship in Southampton.

 

I've also got a Summer 2023 Iceland cruise booked and intend to stay extra time, so will definitely do as suggested above. 

Edited November 16, 2021 by les37b

[jpalbny]

IME, renting a car is the way to go here. Like everything else in Iceland, it's expensive, but it's the best way to see as much of Iceland as possible.

 

One hint - if you rent from Hertz, and you're arriving by cruise ship, you can arrange the pick up at the Reykjavik domestic airport and return the car to Keflavik for your international flight home. Hertz will come to the pier and pick you up to take you to your car, if you ask them in advance. We've done that twice and it ends up not costing any additional fee for the pick up. You do need to tell them which pier you're arriving at, though. Once I had to call them because they came to the wrong pier.

[cruiseej]

Another vote for renting a car. We did this for three days prior to a Reykjavik to Greenland cruise three years ago. I did the reverse of @jpalbny: I rented from Hertz at Keflavic and returned to Hertz near the small downtown airport. Hertz had a van drive me back to our hotel downtown at no charge. (I had planned on walking back if the van wasn't available, as it is only about 1.5 miles from the Hertz location to our hotel near the waterfront, but they were happy to drive me, and I was happy to save the time so we could head to the ship!)

 

Three days wasn't enough time to circumnavigate the island, but we did get to explore a lot of the western side of the island. Day 1: we landed around 6 am, rented a car, drove to Reykjavik and had "breakfast" at a great bakery, then left the city and did the Golden Circle, passed back through Reykjavik a did a pretty drive up to a lovely, small hotel in Husafell so we could do the Into The Glacier tour the next morning. (I highly recommend it, even though it's pricey.) (That was a long day!) Day 2: we did the Into the Glacier tour in the morning, then drove up to Hellnar on the Snæfellsnes peninsula for the night. Day 3: we did a short exploration of Snæfellsjokull National park, on to the iconic Kirkjufell mountain, and then back to Reykjavik for the night. In the morning, we walked around Reykjavik before I returned the car to Hertz and we took a very short taxi from our hotel to board the Silver Cloud at the downtown port. (If we didn't have lots of luggage, it was close enough that we could have walked.) All in all, it was about 350 miles, and we got only about a sixth of the way around the island, but we felt we packed a lot in with our available time. I look forward to going back some day and taking a week to circle the island. 

 

At the conclusion of our cruise in Greenland, we had a return flight to Iceland which arrived too late to fly home that day, so I rented a car again for one day in order to drive into Reykjavik for the night. We had the morning free to visit some places in Reykjavik which we missed on our first pass through the city, and then we drove back to Keflavic and returned the car in order to fly home.