Grand Northern Europe Voyage - Lisbon to Stockholm - May 6, 2022 to June 28, 2022

[mysty]

In about 50ish days (if the gods and goddesses smile kindly) Myster and I will sail out of Lisbon on the Silver-y Moon on May 6, 2022 and be dropped off in Stockholm on June 28, 2022.  As most members are aware the Roll Call for Silversea cruises is like a barren wasteland.  Very few people actually use it.  This is not a Roll Call!  This is an invitation for folks on any or all of the segments on this voyage to chime in.  Questions, comments, asides are welcome.  When the cruise actually begins I'm hoping this can be a group blog for all who want to share their experiences on this journey.  We did this for the World Cruise 2019 with wonderful participation.

 

Looking forward to hearing from you!

[jasminefranklin]

We’re onboard Lisbon to Southampton.

[mysty]

12 minutes ago, jasminefranklin said:

We’re onboard Lisbon to Southampton.

Thanks for chiming in!  Looking forward to meeting you! 😁

[RELS]

We're on two segments -- Reykjavik to Reykjavik and Reykjavik to Copenhagen. So looking forward to this cruise!

[mysty]

22 minutes ago, RELS said:

We're on two segments -- Reykjavik to Reykjavik and Reykjavik to Copenhagen. So looking forward to this cruise!

 

Wonderful!  Thanks for your response!  Looking forward to meeting you.  😁

[lincslady]

mysty - you lucky people!!   I am not jealous - much.  I hope when the time comes you will have a bit of spare time to post about the experiences, though if it were me I would probably begrudge every minute not spent enjoying myself.  In which case, a resume one you get home would suffice.

 

Lola

 

 

[mysty]

1 hour ago, lincslady said:

mysty - you lucky people!!   I am not jealous - much.  I hope when the time comes you will have a bit of spare time to post about the experiences, though if it were me I would probably begrudge every minute not spent enjoying myself.  In which case, a resume one you get home would suffice.

 

Lola

 

 

 

Lola,  I will make every effort to post bibs and bobs from this adventure.  😁  I'm hoping that others on this journey (or parts of it) will feel inspired to post their own snaps and thoughts here as well.  It's been a long time coming and I'm finally actually getting excited about it!  Sail on Macduff!

[mysty]

This does not appear to be a very populous group at this point.   We're nearing sail away for the Lisbon to Southampton portion.   I hope excitement is building for this as well as for the next segments on this adventure.  🥰 

[rojaan19]

Are you packed and ready mysty ??   We are sailing on the Dawn in August and I have already started by throwing some clothes on the spare bed !! 😄

[turtlemichael]

33 minutes ago, rojaan19 said:

Are you packed and ready mysty ??   We are sailing on the Dawn in August and I have already started by throwing some clothes on the spare bed !! 😄

Last week I bought new shoes for a December cruise lol

 

Edited April 11, 2022 by turtlemichael

[Host Jazzbeau]

35 minutes ago, rojaan19 said:

Are you packed and ready mysty ??   We are sailing on the Dawn in August and I have already started by throwing some clothes on the spare bed !! 😄

My DW starts packing well before a trip.  She puts clothes on the spare bed, then puts them back in the drawers or closet, then keeps rethinking.  Me, the night before the trip I go through my closet and the chest of drawers and put everything into my suitcase.  One and done!

[RELS]

3 hours ago, mysty said:

This does not appear to be a very populous group at this point.   We're nearing sail away for the Lisbon to Southampton portion.   I hope excitement is building for this as well as for the next segments on this adventure.  🥰 

 

We're joining in Reykjavik at the end of May. The flights are booked, and I'm waiting for our hotel info.  Fifty days out, so I hope we get the info soon.

 

I sent a bunch of questions to Guestrelations@silversea.com earlier in the week, but haven't heard anything back yet. Any recommendations for who to contact with all my questions would be much appreciated (If I don't hear soon I will kick it to my TA, but she thought maybe I'd get clearer answers if I asked myself.)

[mysty]

9 hours ago, rojaan19 said:

Are you packed and ready mysty ??   We are sailing on the Dawn in August and I have already started by throwing some clothes on the spare bed !! 😄

 

If I had a spare bed I would do that too!  😁  Haven't started packing yet.  We were supposed to get ship ahead luggage as part of the Grand Voyage booking.  However, Silversea has paused it because FedEx cannot guarantee delivery dates due to the priority shipping to Ukraine.  We're being asked to take all our luggage with us on the flights.  A shipboard credit will be added to compensate.  Not sure how we will handle 4 pieces of checked luggage and carry-ons.  Packing for 2 months with temperatures varying from 20s C to single digit Cs is complicating things a tad.

[mysty]

8 hours ago, turtlemichael said:

Last week I bought new shoes for a December cruise lol

 

 

Good Job M!  This time stay out of the muck!  😅

[mysty]

8 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

My DW starts packing well before a trip.  She puts clothes on the spare bed, then puts them back in the drawers or closet, then keeps rethinking.  Me, the night before the trip I go through my closet and the chest of drawers and put everything into my suitcase.  One and done!

 

Myster is not a packing kind of guy.  Left to his own devices there would be a suitcase filled with odds and sods tossed in randomly and hopelessly wrinkled.  I pack for the two of us and distribute our clothes between the luggage pieces so that if a bag is lost each person has attire in the other bags.

[mysty]

8 hours ago, RELS said:

 

We're joining in Reykjavik at the end of May. The flights are booked, and I'm waiting for our hotel info.  Fifty days out, so I hope we get the info soon.

 

I sent a bunch of questions to Guestrelations@silversea.com earlier in the week, but haven't heard anything back yet. Any recommendations for who to contact with all my questions would be much appreciated (If I don't hear soon I will kick it to my TA, but she thought maybe I'd get clearer answers if I asked myself.)

 

We always have much better luck having our awesome TA handle the questions with Silversea.  Silversea may not yet have determined the hotel.  We arrive in Lisbon on May 5 and our hotel is yet to be determined.

[lincslady]

Sorry you are going to have to schlep all that luggage yourselves, mysty.  I learned my lesson years ago about packing, when one bag was lost en route, and DH had a tuxedo jacket but no trousers, and I had a sparkly top but only a denim skirt!  We were forgiven for the first formal, and the case  came down to Seward from Anchorage a couple of days later.  It had been to Accra, instead of Anchorage.

 

Lola

[mysty]

34 minutes ago, lincslady said:

Sorry you are going to have to schlep all that luggage yourselves, mysty.  I learned my lesson years ago about packing, when one bag was lost en route, and DH had a tuxedo jacket but no trousers, and I had a sparkly top but only a denim skirt!  We were forgiven for the first formal, and the case  came down to Seward from Anchorage a couple of days later.  It had been to Accra, instead of Anchorage.

 

Lola

 

Quite a detour for that piece of luggage Lola!  It's kind of a miracle that it found its way to you!  😁

[lincslady]

There is a slight story here - sitting next to us on the plane was a West African woman.  My DH said to the KLM rep. in Anchorage - I think  she was from Ghana, maybe she was going to ACC (Accra) not ANC.  He was right!  KLM were great (this is a long time ago), and said buy what you need - the only store there was J.C.Penneys.  I needed underwear, and being moderately large, bought a pack of large.  They were at least 3 sizes too big, as you may imagine - a US large!  I got a black jersey skirt, again smallest  in size 14,  and managed to wrap that around as well, with a belt.  I guess Alaskan women in those days were on the big side.  We dined out on that story for a while, on the ship.

 

Lola

[turtlemichael]

2 hours ago, mysty said:

 

Good Job M!  This time stay out of the muck!  😅

You have a long memory! Those shoes are still going strong (emphasis on the word strong! lol)

[mysty]

12 minutes ago, turtlemichael said:

You have a long memory! Those shoes are still going strong (emphasis on the word strong! lol)

 

Some things are indelibly etched in my memory M!  Unfortunately the things I should remember are like disappearing ink! 😅

[RELS]

4 hours ago, mysty said:

We arrive in Lisbon on May 5 and our hotel is yet to be determined.

 

Yikes! We have people waiting to hear from us about the hotel in Reykjavik -- a friend, and a tour that picks us up there. I will warn them that the info is not coming at the 60 days ahead we were first told.

 

4 hours ago, mysty said:

We always have much better luck having our awesome TA handle the questions with Silversea

 

I will ask her today to start asking them. Thanks for the tip!

[mysty]

We have challenges going forward with this cruise.   To enter Portugal we need either a negative PCR test taken no more than 72 hours prior to departure or a negative Rapid Antigen test taken no more than 24 hours prior.  We fly out May 4th.  To embark the ship in Lisbon on May 6th we need a negative Rapid Antigen test taken no more than 24 hours prior to embarkation.   At this point Silversea will do pier side testing until April 30th.  We may be running around Lisbon trying to find a testing side.   Nail-biting has begun!

[RELS]

13 minutes ago, mysty said:

We may be running around Lisbon trying to find a testing side.

 

Have you looked into proctored antigen tests administered via the internet? eMed.com is the company I know that administers them, but I believe there are others. I do know they are acceptable to (re)enter the US. The eMed website says they partner with Royal Caribbean, so I would hope Silversea is included.

 

If Silversea accept these tests, this might be the way to go. (And if you find out that Silversea does accept them, please let us know).

[mysty]

Thank you!  The issue is access to Zoom.   Being relative Luddites this is a non-starter.  Our travel agent is going to contact the pre-cruise hotel (once we know which one it is) and ask about locations nearby for testing.   Hopefully this will all work out! All digits crossed! 😁