Excursions on Oslo - Copenhagen on the Dawn June 2024

[gnome12]

When I first booked this cruise, the included excursions all seemed to show up with options of 10 am or 2 pm. I realize that they were place holders, but I thought that they would stay more or less like that.

 

I just checked my information on MySilversea, and I find that virtually all the excursions are at the same time, usually quite early in the morning. There was one day, in Bergen, where I chose to take an included excursion in the morning, and wanted to do a seaplane excursion in the afternoon. Now, they are both at the same time. (The flightseeing, because it is fairly short, had 2 different afternoon times if I remember correctly and I chose the later one.) My timetable shows them both, both beginning at 8 am. Does anyone have any suggestions about what might happen? I realize it is still over a year away. Will they adjust the excursion times again?

[Mayflower1]

I have found exactly the same Issue on a May Silver dawn Cruise to Norway. I booked all Afternoon Excursions for Medical reasons and now find that they have all been moved to Early Morning - also one Excursion in Oslo has been moved to Depart from Gothenburg ?????

 

The whole Excursion Page on ' My Silversea ' for this Cruise is a mess - My Agent can get no sense out of silversea London, so I intend to cancel the Cruise.

 

Unfortunately another example of Silversea's Claim of ' Seamless Luxury '

 

I hope you sort out your Issues.

[CruzinFeraBruzin]

4 hours ago, Mayflower1 said:

The whole Excursion Page on ' My Silversea ' for this Cruise is a mess

 

16 hours ago, gnome12 said:

I just checked my information on MySilversea, and I find that virtually all the excursions are at the same time, usually quite early in the morning

I booked all our excursions for our upcoming 2024 Grand Africa/Arabia last June when Silversea opened up booking excursions for everyone.  At the time, many had the generic 8:00am or 12:00pm placeholder timeframes.  Now, 4 of our booked excursions have a start time of 00:00 hours and are on the my.silversea activities calendar at 6:00am. They've been that way for a couple of months now and although the cruise is still about a year away, it doesn't give me a good feeling about the status of these excursions.  I think when they opened up excursions for booking immediately, it put their system into overload and the staff in the Shore Excursions Dept just can't handle it.  

 

 

[highplanesdrifters]

I've booked excursions for a trip in November.  I'll return monthly to see what has changed.  Things are still crazy out there. It's the new travel paradigm. 

[Stumblefoot]

9 hours ago, Mayflower1 said:

The whole Excursion Page on ' My Silversea ' for this Cruise is a mess - My Agent can get no sense out of silversea London, so I intend to cancel the Cruise.

Wow!  This statement amazes me.

 

Does anyone else remember the days of embarking and selecting your ship excursions from the comfort of your suite or while enjoying a cocktail in the lounge?  Am I the only odd ball here that enjoyed that?

 

These days it seems so many want to reserve everything they can months (or years) in advance of their cruise. I wonder if next we’ll read someone canceling a cruise because they couldn’t make a dining venue reservation request at the exact time they wanted.  
 

I’m not faulting you Mayflower1.  Maybe I’ll be the same when I retire someday as I’ll have so much more time on my hands than I do now. Who knows? But, as of today, I prefer to relax knowing that any changes can be sorted out once on board.  And, this includes dining wherever I like for the evening based on what tickles my fancy that day.

[Mayflower1]

Good Evening Stumblefoot

I am so sorry that you find my comments amazing especially as like you I have travelled with Silversea for many years and am a strong supporter of the Line.

What have I said that makes you believe I am retired and even if this may be the case how is this relevant? 

I totally share your view of the way things were years ago but I feel we must move with the times - it is Silversea that has introduced a System that shows the Excursions ( that are now costed within the Cruise Price ) at a very early stage. Guests are encouraged to Book asap and one must therefore assume that the Company Systems are robust and fit for purpose. The situation highlighted by gnome12 and myself would seem to suggest otherwise and therefore I cannot quite understand your comments. 
In my particular case I am not confident that suitable amendments can be made once on board even though I share your view that would be ideal. I would prefer to Pre Book nothing as your thoughts indicate but unfortunately this would no longer appear sensible.

 I do not wish to upset anyone but feel that you have jumped into this topic without fully understanding the Issue which I do find surprising as usually your comments are usually much appreciated.

 

 

 

[Stumblefoot]

Mayflower1,

 

Thank you for your thoughtful reply, but please don't be sorry for my own amazement.  You are entitled to your POV just like I am to mine.  Your post did not upset, just surprised, as I know your extensive experience sailing SS.  To clear up a couple of points:

 

1. I neither stated, nor tried to imply, you are retired, but rather projected how I may approach the future of sailing on SS once I am retired.
2. I didn't realize SS encourages guests to book excursions asap.  I've known we always needed to do that for mid-voyage overnight land excursions, but didn't realize the new "included" excursions required pre-booking.  Obviously, my ignorance as I haven't sailed SS since 2020.  But, our TA didn't mention the change that SS now prefers passengers to book their excursions asap when we booked a voyage for 2024 in 2021 and one in 2025 this past year.

 

With that said, I think we both know SS's IT systems have never been a strength of the company, especially relative to the marketing gobbledygook SS would have one to believe.  Heck, one still cannot make an actual confirmed dining venue reservation yet, just merely requests.  So, to assume the SS excursion system is robust and fit for the purpose seems to bely the knowledge experienced SS passengers have acquired over the years.  Not saying it is right, but rather just what is known to be true about SS.  But, that is just my POV and it certainly sounds like one of naiveté.

 

In closing, I guess my feelings of surprise got the best of me since I've always been able to easily adjust dining requests once on board and I just assumed the same would apply for excursions, thereby negating any need to cancel a voyage solely due to an excursion time change that based on past experience may be nothing more than an error.

[mchell810]

11 hours ago, CruzinFeraBruzin said:

 

I booked all our excursions for our upcoming 2024 Grand Africa/Arabia last June when Silversea opened up booking excursions for everyone.  At the time, many had the generic 8:00am or 12:00pm placeholder timeframes.  Now, 4 of our booked excursions have a start time of 00:00 hours and are on the my.silversea activities calendar at 6:00am. They've been that way for a couple of months now and although the cruise is still about a year away, it doesn't give me a good feeling about the status of these excursions.  I think when they opened up excursions for booking immediately, it put their system into overload and the staff in the Shore Excursions Dept just can't handle it. 

 

 

I have had the exact same situation -- on a Nov 2023 cruise.  The tours for several days are all listed as 00:00 start times; I mentioned the problem to my SS rep about 2 weeks ago so I hope someone in excursions dept is working on a fix.

 

Edited February 3, 2023 by mchell810

[cruiseej]

5 hours ago, Stumblefoot said:

our TA didn't mention the change that SS now prefers passengers to book their excursions asap

 

I doesn't have anything to do with what Silversea prefers; it's only about passengers not wanting to miss out on excursions they consider important. 

 

For example: we just booked a Regent cruise in August, and excursions have been available since last August. We hurried to select excursions as soon as we booked the cruise, but our top choice excursions in two ports are waitlisted. We might clear waitlists, but in ports in small towns with limited buses or boats, there's a good chance they can't add capacity.

 

If you go to parts of the world where there are key things to see, and you find you can't get to see them, you might re-consider if you want to remain on that cruise.

[Port Power]

6 hours ago, mchell810 said:

 

I have had the exact same situation -- on a Nov 2023 cruise.  The tours for several days are all listed as 00:00 start times; I mentioned the problem to my SS rep about 2 weeks ago so I hope someone in excursions dept is working on a fix.

 

I have spent the morning going over the shore excursions on my November 2023 Silver Dawn cruise.  Yes, I had already booked them not long after I booked the cruise, but that was for my interest rather than necessity.  Today I wanted to print the list "just in case".  I noticed one excursion is listed to depart at 6:00am.  Now, I know that is wrong because the ship probably won't even be docked.  However, I am not going to get in a dither about it or contact my TA.  It is obviously an error.  I can wait to find out the correct time once on the ship.  Other excursions that I have as confirmed our now waitlisted to future passengers.

 

Another excursion was waitlisted from the start.  S/S has now included the explanation that tickets for the site are not available until a month or two before the date.  Many would think the Alhambra is a must see and I hope I am high on the waitlist, but if I miss out, I'll have a sleep-in or choose another excursion.

[Mayflower1]

Thank yopu for your further Post Stumblefoot. I accept that I am naive to hope that Silversea and their IT department have improved !!!.

I hope that we both will continue to enjoy Silversea for many Years and agree that some areas of ' The Experience ' will fruistrate us from time to time.

I look forward to reading your Thoughts on many Topics in the future - its always good to hear from Guests who have experienced The :Line over many Years.

[CruzinFeraBruzin]

Another negative about now being able to book excursions immediately for cruises that are months or years down the road is that Silversea will most surely cancel one or more before sailing due to "operational reasons".  This has happened to us 3 times in the last couple of weeks with our upcoming cruises.  In all cases, they were full day excursions that were the highlight of the cruise, leaving us to limited choices of city tour excursions or those requiring a high level of fitness such as hiking up a mountain or fat tire trail biking etc. 

 

We are looking into possibly booking our own tour with a local tour operator to replace one of those that was cancelled.  The problem with doing this is if we are unable to dock, we are out the money, since most tours require you pay in advance with no refunds.  

[Daveywavey70]

38 minutes ago, CruzinFeraBruzin said:

Another negative about now being able to book excursions immediately for cruises that are months or years down the road is that Silversea will most surely cancel one or more before sailing due to "operational reasons".  This has happened to us 3 times in the last couple of weeks with our upcoming cruises.  In all cases, they were full day excursions that were the highlight of the cruise, leaving us to limited choices of city tour excursions or those requiring a high level of fitness such as hiking up a mountain or fat tire trail biking etc. 

 

We are looking into possibly booking our own tour with a local tour operator to replace one of those that was cancelled.  The problem with doing this is if we are unable to dock, we are out the money, since most tours require you pay in advance with no refunds.  

Some of the Tour searching websites do offer protection against failing to dock. I Do prefer tracking down the actual local company myself and booking direct therefore keeping the cash local but but usually only if it's a fairly low risk port. Many of the tour companies in ports that rely heavily on cruise ships are wise to that and offer similar guarantees. The chunk that would have gone into the cruise line coffers usually makes for a very welcome tip.

[crusinbanjo]

18 hours ago, Stumblefoot said:

Wow!  This statement amazes me.

 

Does anyone else remember the days of embarking and selecting your ship excursions from the comfort of your suite or while enjoying a cocktail in the lounge?  Am I the only odd ball here that enjoyed that?

 

These days it seems so many want to reserve everything they can months (or years) in advance of their cruise. I wonder if next we’ll read someone canceling a cruise because they couldn’t make a dining venue reservation request at the exact time they wanted.  
 

I’m not faulting you Mayflower1.  Maybe I’ll be the same when I retire someday as I’ll have so much more time on my hands than I do now. Who knows? But, as of today, I prefer to relax knowing that any changes can be sorted out once on board.  And, this includes dining wherever I like for the evening based on what tickles my fancy that day.

I’m with you Stumblefoot.  I do remember doing things that way and just enjoying the experience.  Unfortunately, now if you don’t book in advance, there is a good chance you could be shut out!  So I understand the frustration.

[mchell810]

9 hours ago, Port Power said:

I have spent the morning going over the shore excursions on my November 2023 Silver Dawn cruise.  Yes, I had already booked them not long after I booked the cruise, but that was for my interest rather than necessity.  Today I wanted to print the list "just in case".  I noticed one excursion is listed to depart at 6:00am.  Now, I know that is wrong because the ship probably won't even be docked.  However, I am not going to get in a dither about it or contact my TA.  It is obviously an error.  I can wait to find out the correct time once on the ship.  Other excursions that I have as confirmed our now waitlisted to future passengers.

 

Another excursion was waitlisted from the start.  S/S has now included the explanation that tickets for the site are not available until a month or two before the date.  Many would think the Alhambra is a must see and I hope I am high on the waitlist, but if I miss out, I'll have a sleep-in or choose another excursion.

 

I agree about the tour time irregularities: I am sure they will get fixed as we get closer to sail date.

 

As for the Alhambra: I booked with a private tour company Spain Day Tours.  They get excellent reviews, are quick to respond to inquiries, and the trip was wonderful.  It was definitely the highlight of my cruise.  Ofc if you've been there before you may not feel the need to book separately.  In any case, I hope it works out well for you.

[dawntrdr]

On 2/2/2023 at 8:55 AM, CruzinFeraBruzin said:

Now, 4 of our booked excursions have a start time of 00:00 hours and are on the my.silversea activities calendar at 6:00am.

Same thing with our upcoming May cruise on the Wind - all excursions have suddenly been pushed forward to 6:00 am or the same minute as docking, whichever is earlier.  On my last cruise, I received an email about a week before sailing listing all my reserved activities, dining, spa, etc., and showing the updated times.  I also re-checked the times against the excursion tickets in the room when I get there - sometimes there is even another change.  I get it, things can change - you just have to look out for yourself and be flexible.  

[gnome12]

21 minutes ago, dawntrdr said:

Same thing with our upcoming May cruise on the Wind - all excursions have suddenly been pushed forward to 6:00 am or the same minute as docking, whichever is earlier.  On my last cruise, I received an email about a week before sailing listing all my reserved activities, dining, spa, etc., and showing the updated times.  I also re-checked the times against the excursion tickets in the room when I get there - sometimes there is even another change.  I get it, things can change - you just have to look out for yourself and be flexible.  

My issue is really only the one day that I have chosen 2 excursions, which are now showing at the same time. (However, they haven't made me cancel one, so hopefully the times will work out later and I will be able to do both excursions.)

[Dolcevita Diva]

On 2/2/2023 at 1:49 PM, Stumblefoot said:

 

Does anyone else remember the days of embarking and selecting your ship excursions from the comfort of your suite or while enjoying a cocktail in the lounge?  Am I the only odd ball here that enjoyed that?

 And, this includes dining wherever I like for the evening based on what tickles my fancy that day.

 

I'm with you on this Stumblefoot. One of the friends with whom I often travel (including on Silversea) said many years ago - "I'm on vacation and do not want to have to be locked into a daily agenda in advance."