A Silver Shadow Over The World - December 2023 to May 2024

[Stumblefoot]

19 hours ago, drron29 said:

We are doing quite well.

I’m surprised you haven’t been to Uruguay.

[mysty]

Oops!

Edited January 22, 2023 by mysty

[mysty]

One of the perks for this cruise for some passengers on for the full ride is a Visa Package.  This is available for USA, Canada, UK, Germany, Australia only. For US citizens you can visit..

http://www.traveldocs.com/silversea

 

For other passengers who want to know which visas are required.....

"Guests can email silversea@traveldocs.com and indicate their nationality, voyage number and booking number to verify visa requirements."

 

I sent an email to Travel Docs to get an preliminary idea as to which visas individuals will need to apply for on this cruise.  It's early days, of course, and we all have learned that things can change and most probably will.

 

Being Canadian the Visa Package is available for us.  Currently we would need  ETAs for both Australia and New Zealand which must be done via our respective mobile device apps downloadable from the Apple or Google app stores on our phones.

 

Visas for Vietnam will be handled en route by the ship as a matter of routine.

 

We may need visas for China depending on our shore excursion plans there but we should receive more information about that from Silversea as we get closer to sailing.

 

I will verify the visa requirements for us as we get closer to the sail date.

[Port Power]

11 hours ago, mysty said:

One of the perks for this cruise for some passengers on for the full ride is a Visa Package.  This is available for USA, Canada, UK, Germany, Australia only. For US citizens you can visit..

http://www.traveldocs.com/silversea

 

For other passengers who want to know which visas are required.....

"Guests can email silversea@traveldocs.com and indicate their nationality, voyage number and booking number to verify visa requirements."

 

I sent an email to Travel Docs to get an preliminary idea as to which visas individuals will need to apply for on this cruise.  It's early days, of course, and we all have learned that things can change and most probably will.

 

Being Canadian the Visa Package is available for us.  Currently we would need  ETAs for both Australia and New Zealand which must be done via our respective mobile device apps downloadable from the Apple or Google app stores on our phones.

 

Visas for Vietnam will be handled en route by the ship as a matter of routine.

 

We may need visas for China depending on our shore excursion plans there but we should receive more information about that from Silversea as we get closer to sailing.

 

I will verify the visa requirements for us as we get closer to the sail date.

Electronic visas for Australia and New Zealand can easily be done on line.  They cost very little.  But if S/S include them without fee, for for it.

[mysty]

15 minutes ago, Port Power said:

Electronic visas for Australia and New Zealand can easily be done on line.  They cost very little.  But if S/S include them without fee, for for it.

 

According to the information I received we are to apply ourselves.   We had to apply for the ETA for Australia and for Sri Lanka ourselves on our last big adventure.   Definitely not a problem!

[mysty]

As most folks already know, Silversea has a dress code for evenings.

 

From the Silversea website....

Clothing Suggestions – Shipboard Attire

Shipboard attire ranges from casual to formal. Casual wear is appropriate for daytime aboard ship or ashore and consists of standard sports outfits as worn at five-star resorts. Shoes should be flat or low heeled for deck activities. Evening attire falls into three categories: casual, informal and formal. On casual evenings, pants, blouses, skirts and casual dresses for ladies; open-neck shirts and slacks for gentlemen are appropriate. On informal evenings, ladies usually wear dresses or pantsuits; gentlemen wear jackets (tie optional). Appropriate formal evening wear for ladies is an evening gown or cocktail dress; gentlemen wear tuxedos, dinner jackets or dark suits. Tie is required.

 

On formal nights, guests may dine in La Terrazza and choose to dress informal; dresses or pantsuits for ladies, jackets for gentlemen (tie optional). This option also applies to Seishin on board Silver Spirit, Kaiseki on board Muse, Moon and Dawn. Dining at The Grill and Spaccanapoli is optional casual all nights. Following dinner, all guests are free to take advantage of any or all public spaces, however, jacket is required. Sailings of 9 days or less typically feature 1 formal night, while longer voyages usually have 2-3 formal nights. Details will be provided in your final cruise documents, but the chart below provides a basic guideline to assist in packing the proper attire.

 

Please note: On 7 day sailings in the Baltic, Mediterranean and Alaska, formal night is always optional; guests may choose to dress informal, a jacket is required for gentlemen.

 

The distribution of the three categories of evening wear by the number of cruise days....

 

 

I do not intend to argue the merits of the dress code or whether or not it is "policed".  Please don't start a discussion of that on this thread.  I'm not asking for any opinions.  The reason I posted it is due to a very interesting article I just read.  The article speaks to the disappearance of elegance.  It was thought-provoking.  Those interested can find the article with this link....

 https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/raging-grace/201901/what-does-the-demise-elegance-say-about-us

 

 

[mysty]

For the longer cruises that we take I keep a blog.  Once the upcoming cruises go live I will provide the link to the blog for those that are interested.  Once the adventure is finished I answer a few questions in the blog.

 

For our 2019 world cruise here are a couple of the questions and the answers.

 

"What was the biggest surprise?"

From Myster's perspective:  I'm not sure if was a "surprise" as much as it was a shock.  Readers may recall that as we sailed to the scheduled port of Sao Tome we were required to divert to assist in a ferry accident between Sao Tome and Principe on April 25.

https://www.bairdmaritime.com/work-boat-world/passenger-vessel-world/5298-seven-dead-10-missing-after-ferry-sinks-in-sao-tome-and-principe

The Silver Whisper sailed a grid pattern after we reached the accident site to search for survivors and/or victims.  A number of passengers who were doctors and nurses volunteered to help if they were needed.  It was a very somber sail.

 

My perspective:  On this cruise approximately 220 passengers out of a potential total of 388 were doing the full world cruise.  As the sailing progressed it began to feel like a family.  Familiar faces that we greeted with a "Good Morning", "How Are you Doing?", "Enjoy the Excursion".  For the folks who got on later in the cruise to do segments this "family" atmosphere felt a little exclusive.  We had dinner a few times with people who got on in Singapore or Cape Town.  Their comments were that the World Cruisers were "cliquish".  That was a bit of an eye opener.  To be fair, there is a definite difference between the social interaction on a World Cruise and what is the norm on a regular Silversea cruise.

 

"What were the scariest moments?"

 

There were no scary moments during this cruise.  However, there were events along our travel route which made us stop and consider how very lucky we were.

 

On March 25 we attended a Silversea event at the Kingsbury Hotel in Colombo, Sri Lanka.  It was a wonderful evening.  About one month later, on April 27, the Kingsbury Hotel was bombed.

 

On April 11 we were in Maputo, Mozambique.  About one week later, on April 20 and then again on April 25, Mozambique was hit by two fierce cyclones...Cyclone Idai on April 20 and Cyclone Kenneth on April 25.

 

On April 13 we were in Durban, South Africa.  On April 18 Durban was hit with intense flooding caused by torrential rain.

 

On April 25 we were making our way to Sao Tome.  As posted earlier, we were intercepted with instructions to head to a ferry accident site near Principe.

 

Obviously we were not in danger at the times we visited these places.  However, these events did give us pause.  I think most of us don't consider on a daily basis how very fragile our lives actually are.  Just something to think about!
 

 

[fdnycruiser]

My wife and I have done segments of the WC, twice on the Silversea Whisper.. First time in 2013 from Capetown to Fort Lauderdale, and in 2015 from Sydney to Singapore. We never found the world cruisers to be cliquish, and made many friends. Had a great time, and doing some segments on the Dawn in 2025. Also did a segment on Crystal from Tokyo to San Francisco. We actually ran into a Silversea world cruiser on that trip. Segments are a great way to do an itinerary that’s not usually available.

[mysty]

7 minutes ago, fdnycruiser said:

My wife and I have done segments of the WC, twice on the Silversea Whisper.. First time in 2013 from Capetown to Fort Lauderdale, and in 2015 from Sydney to Singapore. We never found the world cruisers to be cliquish, and made many friends. Had a great time, and doing some segments on the Dawn in 2025. Also did a segment on Crystal from Tokyo to San Francisco. We actually ran into a Silversea world cruiser on that trip. Segments are a great way to do an itinerary that’s not usually available.

 

Thank you fdnycruiser!  I'm sure that folks will appreciate your input!  It's not always easy to evaluate the situation when you're one of the full ride folks.  It was definitely interesting for us to hear from some of those who were not on for the full ride.  One couple had done a segment of the world cruise which was at the very beginning (before the "shirts" and "skins"  would be easy to identify) and another midway through the world cruise we were on.  They expressed surprise about their reception on the cruise we were on because that had not been their experience on the other one.  We had many dinners with them and thoroughly enjoyed their company.

[mysty]

@fdnycruiser I remember your posts from years ago.  One in particular was about the captain on your cruise changing formal night to something else because he was concerned about women wearing heels and trying to make their way around the ship.  I always enjoyed your posts!

[mysty]

In the before times World Cruisers got a lovely package from Silver about 24 days before departure.  

 

For the 2016 cruise we received this......

 

For the 2019 we received this.....

 

 

My contact currently on the 2023 World Cruise has reported that this bundles of joy were not received prior to the cruise.

 

I am hoping they re-introduce this idea.  It was great fun to receive.

[fdnycruiser]

Mysty, you’ve got a good memory, because I’d forgotten about that. Thank you for the compliment too.  I should’ve mentioned that I was a late night patron at “The Bar” being entertained by Oliver. After the show Fernando would come in with the performers, and sometimes Oliver would sing. I only wished I could’ve been on for the whole cruise. What fun getting to know everyone on the ship. I still remember all of the magnets on the stateroom doors. Great fun ! 

[mysty]

40 minutes ago, fdnycruiser said:

Mysty, you’ve got a good memory, because I’d forgotten about that. Thank you for the compliment too.  I should’ve mentioned that I was a late night patron at “The Bar” being entertained by Oliver. After the show Fernando would come in with the performers, and sometimes Oliver would sing. I only wished I could’ve been on for the whole cruise. What fun getting to know everyone on the ship. I still remember all of the magnets on the stateroom doors. Great fun ! 

 

Oliver was and continues to be a star behind the bar!  On the 2016 cruise he decided that I had had enough of the the Silver Spirit cocktails that I really enjoyed and he made it his mission to introduce me to his special concoctions!  It was an amazing experience!  And his voice was like a whisper from heaven!  Thanks for that memory!

[rojaan19]

Mysty  if I  make a world cruise I hope you are on it  !!  Ron is building me up to  all  those nights,  so  fingers crossed will  will  do it together one time  !   🛳️🥂🙃💗

[mysty]

30 minutes ago, rojaan19 said:

Mysty  if I  make a world cruise I hope you are on it  !!  Ron is building me up to  all  those nights,  so  fingers crossed will  will  do it together one time  !   🛳️🥂🙃💗

 

That would be a real joy @rojaan19!  Let's see if the universe conspires to put us together on the same ship at the same time!  Might be fireworks!  😁

[mysty]

This post will probably be of no interest to many.  Especially not the gentlemen readers.  However, I found an interesting solution to the travelling with jewelry issue.  I don't bring any of my "good" jewelry with me when I travel (not that I have much of that 😁).  I do bring many different costume jewelry necklaces and bracelets.  I have struggled with an efficient way to package them for travel and then store them on the ship.  They do not need to be in the safe.

 

This is what I have come up with.....

 

 

 

A hanger gets inserted at the top and it can then be easily accessed in the closet.  There are Velcro tabs on one side to hang necklaces and clear pockets on the reverse side for earrings and bracelets.  If I do the arrangement strategically I think I will be able to fold it for transport. 

[lincslady]

Mysty - I see you are a fan of pendant necklaces;  me too.  

 

What an excellent idea for storage for a long trip.

 

Lola

[mysty]

 

7 minutes ago, lincslady said:

Mysty - I see you are a fan of pendant necklaces;  me too.  

 

What an excellent idea for storage for a long trip.

 

Lola

 

 I was very excited to find this option.  In theory it should be quite the thing!  We'll see if the theory holds!  😁

[dawntrdr]

Marine biologist and science educator Michael DiSpezio, the lecturer on the Dawn last week (and currently) told us that he is booked to lecture on the 2024 World Cruise. He has extensive broadcast experience and illustrated his lectures with his own video and slide productions.

[mysty]

8 minutes ago, dawntrdr said:

Marine biologist and science educator Michael DiSpezio, the lecturer on the Dawn last week (and currently) told us that he is booked to lecture on the 2024 World Cruise. He has extensive broadcast experience and illustrated his lectures with his own video and slide productions.

 

Thank you dawntrdr!  Definitely something to look forward to!  And thank you for taking the time to let us know!

[dawntrdr]

My pleasure.  I believe he said he was also booked for the 2025 WC.  He was very entertaining and informative.

[mysty]

Another question I answer after the cruise is over relates to our favourite place and/or excursions.

 

For the 2016 Myster and I had somewhat different lists:

Me:

1. Bhutan - mid-voyage overland 
2. Penang
3. Hong Kong
4. Mekong Delta tour - Ho Chi Minh City
5. Venice - walking tour

Myster:

1. Bhutan - climb to Tiger's Nest
2. Hong Kong
3. Dubai - Dinner in the Desert 
4. Agra - Taj Mahal (World Cruise Event)
5. Jerusalem

 

For the 2019 we had one list:

1. Japan - overland from Osaka to Nara to Kyoto and bullet train to Tokyo (World Cruise Event)
2. Sevilla - Flamenco Dinner and Show
3. Ho Chi Minh City - Saigon Food Experience
4. Cape Town
5. Namibia
6. Taiwan

 

I'm looking forward to creating a new favourites list for 2024

[mchell810]

Looking at your list I am very jealous.  I have made it to some of the places on your list but the world is big and wonderful.  If all goes well, I will be at the Taj in March before joining an SS cruise which will let me visit the Pyramids.  It's unlikely I will ever get to to do a World Cruise, but I am trying to visit as many places as I can.  In the meantime I live vicariously through you (and others who share their journeys). Thanks for sharing 😀

[mysty]

15 minutes ago, mchell810 said:

Looking at your list I am very jealous.  I have made it to some of the places on your list but the world is big and wonderful.  If all goes well, I will be at the Taj in March before joining an SS cruise which will let me visit the Pyramids.  It's unlikely I will ever get to to do a World Cruise, but I am trying to visit as many places as I can.  In the meantime I live vicariously through you (and others who share their journeys). Thanks for sharing 😀

 

I have to say, mchell, that we have been very lucky bunnies!  We're not rolling in dough!  We took a mortgage out on our paid-for home and used that for the 2016.  Then we re-financed and used that for the 2019.  We sold our home and discharged the mortgage managing to keep at least some of the purchase price.  We're living in an apartment now and it was the best decision for us.  We're still working on the payment due in July for these cruises.  We love to travel and we decided to make that our priority.  Myster drives a 2007 Saturn Ion.  😅  It's all about choices!

 

As you said, the world is big and wonderful.  So many amazing places to visit!  I hope you enjoy the Taj and have fun making future choices!

[mchell810]

I agree everything is a choice; I too have downsized to give myself more choices.  The biggest hurdle was accepting that I will mostly be traveling alone; now that I have I am planning longer trips.  Right now I can only do about 30 days at a time (I have 2 of those this year 💃).  Someday maybe I will get to do longer stretches away.