Is Port-to-Port Going Away?

[jimdee3636]

We're about to cancel a 2023 Cloud sailing, which we booked as a Door-to-Door. We'll get most of our deposit back, minus a $250 pp "administrative fee," but that can be used as a future cruise credit. I've been looking at 2024 sailings---mostly non-expedition ones---and the vast majority of them (nearly all of them, in fact) show only Door-to-Door prices. I initially liked the D2D concept, but I've become disillusioned with the frequent horror stories on this board of terrible Silversea flight routes, poor pre- and post-cruise hotels, chaotic transfers, etc. Is Port-to-Port going away? Will Silversea negotiate Port-to-Port prices on an individual basis? I'd rather do everything other than the cruise itself on my own, but SS seems to be discouraging that.

[Silver Spectre]

I hope so.

[drron29]

You certainly can get SS air,pre and post hotels and transfers removed from the door to door prices which brings the price down to close to the Port to Port price. You pay more for the ability to get a refund if cancelled.

SS though is not the only line to do this. A person I know was going to book a Celebrity cruise and rang the Celebrity office in Australia. Was offered 2 prices. One refundable which was a lot dearer than the non refundable price.

[cruiseej]

3 hours ago, drron29 said:

You certainly can get SS air,pre and post hotels and transfers removed from the door to door prices which brings the price down to close to the Port to Port price.

 

In most cases that I've priced, and others here have reported on, D2D minus air and transfer credits prices out considerably higher than P2P. 

[Accessor]

6 hours ago, cruiseej said:

 

In most cases that I've priced, and others here have reported on, D2D minus air and transfer credits prices out considerably higher than P2P. 

 

This is 100% correct. The P2P is far less after credit;  usually thousands do the math! Wait till your lovely D2D assigned flights gets you into arriving international airport at 6pm for a 7pm ship departure. What a nightmare dealing with SS air (which you can't call humans, and must email). I would never book D2D again...unless SS gave the pax CONTROL over our flight choices!

 

[milepig]

My TA recently got an unpublished P2P price and it seemed to put it spot on for what it should have, give or take a few bucks.

[les37b]

2 hours ago, Accessor said:

 

This is 100% correct. The P2P is far less after credit;  usually thousands do the math! Wait till your lovely D2D assigned flights gets you into arriving international airport at 6pm for a 7pm ship departure. What a nightmare dealing with SS air (which you can't call humans, and must email). I would never book D2D again...unless SS gave the pax CONTROL over our flight choices!

 

 

I did think I'd finally settled with the return from Anchorage after some crazy options and ongoing emails to TA and SS. The flight has a 6 hour stopover in Seattle. I requested a latter departure from Alaska or earlier from Seattle. I was told it couldn't be done. In the roll call chat, the flight situation has been widely discussed. Strangely someone has just been given an earlier departure from Seattle at no extra cost which they said wasn't possible.

 

This is not luxury 6* service.... its 2* its laziness and gives the impression its either incompetence,, lies or just can't be bothered.

 

It just appears to be one thing after another.

[ak1004]

Here is one example:

 

 

The air credit is $1,150 which is consistent with economy flight prices from Toronto to Athens. So they basically ask around $2,500 for the privilege to have a refundable deposit (which is refundable on most other lines anyway, maybe with a small admin fee). Plus you pay a deviation fee if you want to arrive early.

[Accessor]

I won't cruise again on SS unless it's P2P fare only.

[commodoredave]

31 minutes ago, Accessor said:

I won't cruise again on SS unless it's P2P fare only.

I'm with you! There are other luxury line options out there who want our business and will respect our preferences for P2P fares.

[Randyk47]

We would be very much against port-to-port going away as an option.  

[carefreecruise]

i was told by two onboard cruise consultants that PTP was an experiment to try to entice non Silversea customers to try their line. It failed because it was mostly confusing Silversea regulars. So its been canceled and phased out as booked PTP voyages sail. All new advertises will be DTD only.  

[Host Jazzbeau]

27 minutes ago, carefreecruise said:

i was told by two onboard cruise consultants that PTP was an experiment to try to entice non Silversea customers to try their line. It failed because it was mostly confusing Silversea regulars. So its been canceled and phased out as booked PTP voyages sail. All new advertises will be DTD only.  

This was my guess from the beginning.  Silversea is going to the Regent-type all-inclusive model.

[Stumblefoot]

23 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Silversea is going to the Regent-type all-inclusive model.

Dumb, dumb, dumb.

[Tothesunset]

Bye bye, Silversea. We had some good times but are growing apart. Maybe it's time we each went our own way. 

[A Tucson Guy]

We are on the Dawn on 11-21-22 and the SS website shows the entire cruise is wait-listed- full ship. I don't think SS is going to worry about a few people "jumping ship" to another line.

[ak1004]

What's the alternative? Regent has the same all inclusive model. SB is not cheaper for cruise only - in fact, when you add the cost of excursions and flights, it can become even more expensive.

[A Tucson Guy]

18 minutes ago, ak1004 said:

What's the alternative? Regent has the same all inclusive model. SB is not cheaper for cruise only - in fact, when you add the cost of excursions and flights, it can become even more expensive.

For us, another problem with SB is pricing out Bus Air fares. If the cruise is more than 330 days out, you will not know what the cost of Bus Air is. We are booked out to 2024 with SS.

[commodoredave]

1 hour ago, A Tucson Guy said:

We are on the Dawn on 11-21-22 and the SS website shows the entire cruise is wait-listed- full ship. I don't think SS is going to worry about a few people "jumping ship" to another line.

But they have several new ships coming online that will need more passengers. And it’s usually cheaper to keep existing customers than attract new ones. 

[Observer]

2 hours ago, Tothesunset said:

Bye bye, Silversea. We had some good times but are growing apart. Maybe it's time we each went our own way. 

 

I will not say adieu quite yet. But I am certainly saying au revoir and not booking new cruises.  

 

I have hundreds of nights and Silversea and have been a loyal supporter. I am grateful for the RCL purchase; I do not think that Silversea could have survived without their support.  

 

But there has been a cascade of marketing decisions that make me feel that the cruise line is appealing to new, relatively inexperienced travelers.  The inclusion of excursions without any opt out provision has raised fares and lowered value.  Many of us enjoy the cruise experience and have visited given ports several/many times in the past. We do not need tours. Nor do we need to have our flights or transportation to the airport arranged. We have managed to find our own way to the airport for many years.  And those of us who have been loyalists and have booked directly with Silversea, receiving shipboard credits from our cruise consultants, are now told to pound sand or go to travel agents who will provide such perks.  

 

Friends who used to book directly with Silversea called a Virtuoso travel agent to book a 2024 cruise.  The agent persuaded my friends to take a different cruise line with a very similar itinerary around the same dates.  The brilliant Silversea marketing folk were instrumental in losing a Silver Suite booking for a few weeks.   

[Tothesunset]

We are actually doing an exped on the Wind in 2024.  After some time apart and trying different partners maybe we'll get back together again. Unless, of course, this silly D2D at the expense of P2P persists. 

 

Some differences are irreconcilable. All relationships are give and take but with D2D the 'take' outweighs the 'give' . 

Edited November 8, 2022 by Tothesunset

[Stumblefoot]

2 hours ago, Observer said:

Friends who used to book directly with Silversea called a Virtuoso travel agent to book a 2024 cruise.  The agent persuaded my friends to take a different cruise line with a very similar itinerary around the same dates.  The brilliant Silversea marketing folk were instrumental in losing a Silver Suite booking for a few weeks.   

You make a very good point and one that fella like A Tucson Guy may have not thought of.  For every Silver Suite booking lost, it takes roughly 3 Verandas or 4 Vista suite sales to recapture the lost revenue.  So, while volume can be up (i.e., # of suites booked, total passengers, or sailing capacity), dollars can be down because of product mix. 
 

4 hours ago, A Tucson Guy said:

I don't think SS is going to worry about a few people "jumping ship" to another line.

 

Edited November 8, 2022 by Stumblefoot

[Tex1]

And for solo cruisers, the supplement is also applied to the full cost.  Making D2D even more expensive.

[Observer]

52 minutes ago, Stumblefoot said:

You make a very good point and one that fella like A Tucson Guy may have not thought of.  For every Silver Suite booking lost, it takes roughly 3 Verandas or 4 Vista suite sales to recapture the lost revenue.  So, while volume can be up (i.e., # of suites booked, total passengers, or sailing capacity), dollars can be down because of product mix. 
 

 

 

Thanks.  I think the issue with my friends has further implications.  IME, the Silver Suites sell well, and suites are often the first to be waitlisted.  I doubt this suite will sail empty.

 

But my friends automatically called their SS cruise consultant and did not think of looking beyond SS.  They were also accustomed to nice shipboard credits that they used for fine wines, single malts, La Dame, and spa services.  Their SS cruise consultant now refuses to offer any such benefits (supposedly saying there is no need since some [but not all!] excursions are included).  

 

So they explored the internet, asked friends, and turned to a travel agent who initially offered the same base fare as SS plus some handsome perks worth lots of money.   But the TA also directed them to an attractive possibility on another luxury line.  And these longtime SS travelers booked another cruise line.

 

SS may have lost not only the sale of a Silver Suite on the initial sailing but also guests who have been directed to the world beyond SS and who may see that another cruise line should be on their holiday radar.  They would never have had this experience if they were not enticed by SS marketing to use a TA (instead of a SS consultant) to get some perks.  After all: a suite sold by a TA is no different from a suite sold by a SS consultant.

 

Is this the law of unintended consequences at work?  🙂

 

[SWFLAOK]

6 hours ago, commodoredave said:

But they have several new ships coming online that will need more passengers. And it’s usually cheaper to keep existing customers than attract new ones. 

We only cruised on Silversea once before. We enjoyed it, but only booked it because we could easily get to the starting and ending point in Barbados with a roundtrip on Jetblue from Florida where we could drive to the airport and use Jetblue points to fly. We enjoyed our Silver Suite, but hadn't booked again since there we no other "local" cruises we were interested in.

While we're not a new customer, we have always preferred to cruise on Regent, and the reason is the included airfare, pre boarding hotel, and often a free or post 3 night land extension. We've cruised on Regent 6 times so far, and have 2 more cruises booked. One is with a credit taken since we don't need airfare. The credit given was insignificant, and less than we expected. But the business class flights on our previous cruises have been the reason we've kept cruising to destinations that are intercontinental.

Because Silversea offered door to door, and we had enjoyed our 1 previous cruise, we booked the 2025 World Cruise on Silver Dawn. If D2D had not been offered by Silversea, we would have done a World Cruise or 2 Grand Voyages with Regent instead.