Port to port vs Door to door??

[RetiredandTravel]

18 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

CFAR insurance doesn't pay 100% – policies I've seen only pay 75% so you're still left with a big hole.  But you can get a good Allianz policy through the Silversea website for 10% of the fare that covers all the usual reasons you would need to cancel (just not changing your mind).

 

 

Thank you.  I did not know that.  We always buy the basic insurance (usually premium)  except once when Covid was prevalent and the hotel had a three week cancelation penalty.

 

Edited August 29, 2023 by RetiredandTravel

[AandASailAway]

19 hours ago, Daveywavey70 said:

I’ve seen several reports recently though of peoples Hotels being switched, last minute, to something of a much lower grade and way out of town. I Still prefer to make my own arrangements and know where I stand.

Yes, I have seen complaints bout the same thing. 

[Lirio]

D2D is not offered for all countries, Brazil for instances. One must choose between D2D without flights or P2P with restricted benefits. And the discount for flights in D2D without flights is very low compared to the cost of flights. This means that the difference of D2D without flights and P2P is due to the difference in the restrictions.

Usually, I have a land trip either before or after the cruise that I do on my own. Because of that I always arrange my flights. I consider that D2D is only suitable for those taking only the cruise.

 

Edited August 31, 2023 by Lirio

[tvl4life]

This information is so helpful, thank you everyone.  What are the P2P restricted benefits mentioned?  We are considering Silversea but have not sailed with them, so are trying to understand the ins and outs of D2D and P2P.  Thanks!!

 

[Host Jazzbeau]

6 hours ago, tvl4life said:

This information is so helpful, thank you everyone.  What are the P2P restricted benefits mentioned?  We are considering Silversea but have not sailed with them, so are trying to understand the ins and outs of D2D and P2P.  Thanks!!

I think from prior threads about this that the P2P restrictions may vary from cruise to cruise (and it seems from @Lirio's post above from country to country).  When you start the booking process on the Silversea website, at some point you should get a screen like this that lays them out (see below).  

 

Doing the math:  

•  D2D is $22,200 with economy air;

•  D2D w/o Air is $20,200 – so the air allowance on this trip is $1,800 (or $900 per person);

•  P2P is $16,500 – so the savings from D2D w/o Air is $3,700 which represents only two things: the transfers from home to the first airport and back at the end (worth at most $500 compared by my local limo company), and the restrictive cancellation policy (≅3,200).

Silversea Port-to-Port Cancellation Policy.pdf

 

Also note that this values the Business Class air at $3,996 + $1,800 = $5,796 or $2,898 per person – compared to the fare I found on ITA Matrix (from NYC in June 2024, this cruise is June 2025 so too early for airfare) of $3,500 per person.

 

If you plan to fly Business and want to keep control of your flights, IMO the best plan is this:

•  Book P2P at $16,500

•  Book air independently at $7,000

•  Book transfers independently (can't cost more than $1,000)

Total = $24,500 – savings compared to D2D w/Business ≧ $1,696

 

Note that this is an Expedition cruise, so the Oslo hotels and charter flight and transfers are included even for P2P.  If you fly in a day early, on Classic cruises the savings might be less.

 

 

[Dolcevita Diva]

20 hours ago, tvl4life said:

This information is so helpful, thank you everyone.  What are the P2P restricted benefits mentioned?  We are considering Silversea but have not sailed with them, so are trying to understand the ins and outs of D2D and P2P.  Thanks!!

 

For port-to-port:

Your deposit will be nonrefundable. The initial deposit is 25%, while on some Door-to-Door itineraries there is a reduced deposit of 15%. 

The refundability schedule for the remaining payment balance is different (more restrictive) than that for door-to-door. See Terms and Conditions (link below)

Fare guarantees do not apply - if the price for the cruise goes down or a new offer such as suite upgrades comes out, you will not be able to take advantage of it unless you cancel, forfeit the deposit and rebook

Venetian sailing offers and Venetian Society milestone reward savings cannot be used with port-to-port fares

 

The detailed terms and conditions spell out these differences: 

Terms and Conditions. Silversea Cruises | Silversea

[pavementends]

36 minutes ago, Dolcevita Diva said:

For port-to-port:

Your deposit will be nonrefundable. The initial deposit is 25%, while on some Door-to-Door itineraries there is a reduced deposit of 15%. 

The refundability schedule for the remaining payment balance is different (more restrictive) than that for door-to-door. See Terms and Conditions (link below)

Fare guarantees do not apply - if the price for the cruise goes down or a new offer such as suite upgrades comes out, you will not be able to take advantage of it unless you cancel, forfeit the deposit and rebook

Venetian sailing offers and Venetian Society milestone reward savings cannot be used with port-to-port fares

 

The detailed terms and conditions spell out these differences: 

Terms and Conditions. Silversea Cruises | Silversea

 

Port-to-port makes sense if you are absolutely sure you will not cancel the cruise because you change your mind.

 

You can protect against a cancellation you do NOT choose (for example: due to your illness, job loss, illness or death in the immediate family, other coverages noted) by buying trip insurance.

 

Insurance against your voluntary cancellation (cancel for any reason coverage, or CFAR) is likely to be prohibitive in cost, and usually only provides partial compensation).

 

[Host Jazzbeau]

One other feature of P2P is the option to prepay for a 10% discount [the Silversea website says 'up to 20%' but I have seen 10% on both my bookings].  Since there is a 15% cancellation penalty from the getgo that ramps up to a 100% penalty at 60 days out, my approach is to prepay and use the 10% discount to pay for the travel insurance [which under Silversea's Allianz Expedition Plan is exactly 10% for very good coverage]

 

[edited to correct date of 100% penalty]

[Lirio]

3 hours ago, Dolcevita Diva said:

For port-to-port:

Your deposit will be nonrefundable. The initial deposit is 25%, while on some Door-to-Door itineraries there is a reduced deposit of 15%. 

The refundability schedule for the remaining payment balance is different (more restrictive) than that for door-to-door. See Terms and Conditions (link below)

Fare guarantees do not apply - if the price for the cruise goes down or a new offer such as suite upgrades comes out, you will not be able to take advantage of it unless you cancel, forfeit the deposit and rebook

Venetian sailing offers and Venetian Society milestone reward savings cannot be used with port-to-port fares

 

The detailed terms and conditions spell out these differences: 

Terms and Conditions. Silversea Cruises | Silversea

Considering all this we are looking for other options to cruise.

[tvl4life]

Thank you everyone!  This is very helpful and will give us food for thought.  

[mitz18]

On 8/28/2023 at 1:23 PM, Luv2Cruise1016 said:

  Silver Dawn spectacular, food amazing, SALT bar our evening hangout.  Weather perfect for 10 of the 12 days and even the other 2 were just a bit misty.  Life is good, glad to be home.

Yep got to admit the Dawn is our new favorite.  Sitting outside at La Terrazza on a beautiful day is hard to beat.  We did the SALT cooking class and had a ball....worth it, but take a glass of wine.

[jollyjones]

8 hours ago, mitz18 said:

  We did the SALT cooking class and had a ball....worth it, but take a glass of wine.

 

Definitely don't take your brain.

I just did one on the Moon and it was insultingly simplistic - for anyone with even a smattering of cooking skills it certainly won't teach you anything.

And it was disturbingly lacking in basic kitchen hygiene.

 

[mitz18]

9 hours ago, jollyjones said:

 

Definitely don't take your brain.

I just did one on the Moon and it was insultingly simplistic - for anyone with even a smattering of cooking skills it certainly won't teach you anything.

And it was disturbingly lacking in basic kitchen hygiene.

 

Sorry you didn't enjoy it.  I viewed it more as an "experience" than a "lesson" and found it to be fun.

[A Tucson Guy]

18 hours ago, mitz18 said:

Yep got to admit the Dawn is our new favorite.  Sitting outside at La Terrazza on a beautiful day is hard to beat.  We did the SALT cooking class and had a ball....worth it, but take a glass of wine.

Just wait until you go on the Nova or Ray as we felt the same way until sailing on the Nova.

[Tudorcruisers]

I enjoy the S.A.L.T.  cooking experience.  I personally felt the kitchen on Silver nova is now too big which made it difficult for Chef Erin to check what everyone was doing so I preferred it on the smaller ships though still had fun.   

[irvington]

Port to Port would always be better for me (easy access to airport, I like to be in charge of my own hotel and air) but I take it that it isn't always available.

[kirtihk]

On 9/7/2023 at 7:35 PM, Host Jazzbeau said:

I think from prior threads about this that the P2P restrictions may vary from cruise to cruise (and it seems from @Lirio's post above from country to country).  When you start the booking process on the Silversea website, at some point you should get a screen like this that lays them out (see below).  

 

Doing the math:  

•  D2D is $22,200 with economy air;

•  D2D w/o Air is $20,200 – so the air allowance on this trip is $1,800 (or $900 per person);

•  P2P is $16,500 – so the savings from D2D w/o Air is $3,700 which represents only two things: the transfers from home to the first airport and back at the end (worth at most $500 compared by my local limo company), and the restrictive cancellation policy (≅3,200).

Silversea Port-to-Port Cancellation Policy.pdf 186.14 kB · 4 downloads

 

Also note that this values the Business Class air at $3,996 + $1,800 = $5,796 or $2,898 per person – compared to the fare I found on ITA Matrix (from NYC in June 2024, this cruise is June 2025 so too early for airfare) of $3,500 per person.

 

If you plan to fly Business and want to keep control of your flights, IMO the best plan is this:

•  Book P2P at $16,500

•  Book air independently at $7,000

•  Book transfers independently (can't cost more than $1,000)

Total = $24,500 – savings compared to D2D w/Business ≧ $1,696

 

Note that this is an Expedition cruise, so the Oslo hotels and charter flight and transfers are included even for P2P.  If you fly in a day early, on Classic cruises the savings might be less.

 

 

It appears that the hotel without air is only included for cruise with also included charter flights (besides international flights from and back to home destination) like in your screenshots.  Otherwise, the pre- and post- "Hotel" items are not even displayed at all - see below:

 

[DCPIV]

On 9/9/2023 at 10:48 AM, Tudorcruisers said:

I enjoy the S.A.L.T.  cooking experience.  I personally felt the kitchen on Silver nova is now too big which made it difficult for Chef Erin to check what everyone was doing so I preferred it on the smaller ships though still had fun.   

 

 

I completely agree.  We enjoyed it very much on Nova.  My wife went four times, and I joined her for three of those.  Chef Erin was a great host and had very interesting menus.  I actually did learn a few things, and we cook a lot.

 

You are absolutely correct, though, that it's impossible for Erin to keep track of everyone with a full class.  It turns into a bit of chaos with many folks missing instructions, making mistakes, and then causing further problems by asking over and over what she said (leading them or someone else to miss the next thing), and that just snowballs.  It still was mighty fun, and everyone seemed to enjoy it regardless, but it could get pretty crazy in there!

 

It helps that the only cost is about an hour of one's time.

[Gourmet Gal]

On 8/28/2023 at 4:55 PM, Daveywavey70 said:

I’ve seen several reports recently though of peoples Hotels being switched, last minute, to something of a much lower grade and way out of town. I Still prefer to make my own arrangements and know where I stand.

This just happened on the May Spirit F1 cruise.  I’m hoping I can unwind the hotel and transfers at least on the backend.  It was sneaky how they did it.  Once I made final payment yesterday a different Barcelona hotel popped up on the documents .  Last week there was no listing for a Barcelona Hotel and before that a perfectly acceptable hotel was listed.  The new one is unacceptable and a much lower caliber property.

[CruiserPK]

After taking an October cruise on the Spirit using D2D without air, I would never use the D2D again.  ( We did book our own biz class flights at a much reduced rate to what SS were offering as biz class upgrade.) After doing the math, we would have been better off taking the P2P instead.  And we were lucky and were not changed from our original hotel (Grande Bretagne in Athens).   Our transfer from Athens airport to the hotel did not show us on the correct flight on their manifest and we were in trouble / chastised by transfer people who greeted the flight.  They said we should have arrived hours earlier on a United flight (we were never traveling on United, it was always American.) Our travel agent was appalled at the mistake.  Ultimately, we took a taxi to the hotel and after at least 3 visits to the hotel director on the ship, we got a resolution (this was not her fault, the front office does not give them any discretion with incidental expenses) We were reimbursed the $40 spent on the taxi on the next to last day of the voyage.  It was a waste of our time and clearly not a luxurious experience. IMHO, the D2D is a great money maker for the head office and not very beneficial to the passengers.  Not to mention if you choose P2P, you are essentially punished financially for not using their services by having your deposit not completely refundable. While on the ship, we cancelled a long SS cruise in August because we experienced many lapses in quality, availability of food and drink options and overall stress of the staff, many terribly inexperienced.  We used to love Silversea, but we found a totally different product.  We will go on our last one (unless it is stellar) next month (it was already prepaid prior to the October voyage) I'm sad, but things change and customer service has taken a back seat to the bean counters.  Just my two cents

[Dolcevita Diva]

Stay tuned.

A post today on another site indicated that changes to the fare structures will be rolled out next week.   On the surface, what was mentioned made it sounds like Silversea has listened to the confusion and dissatisfaction with the current port-to-port product and P2P will now exclude airfare, ground transport and hotels but otherwise will be the same as Door-to-Door.   

 

There was also mention of a new fare category called Essential that will be for last-minute bookings and will have 100% cancellation penalty - and excursions will not be included for that category.  Honestly, a last-minute booking has always fallen into the 100% penalty phase, so it sounds like they may be just formalizing that as a category to fill up bookings shortly before sail date. But if the note about excursions being excluded is correct, it will be interesting to see if those fares are correspondingly lower.  

 

Looking forward to finding out the details next week!

Edited March 16 by Dolcevita Diva

[Gourmet Gal]

41 minutes ago, Dolcevita Diva said:

Stay tuned.

A post today on another site indicated that changes to the fare structures will be rolled out next week.   On the surface, what was mentioned made it sounds like Silversea has listened to the confusion and dissatisfaction with the current port-to-port product and P2P will now exclude airfare, ground transport and hotels but otherwise will be the same as Door-to-Door.   

 

There was also mention of a new fare category called Essential that will be for last-minute bookings and will have 100% cancellation penalty - and excursions will not be included for that category.  Honestly, a last-minute booking has always fallen into the 100% penalty phase, so it sounds like they may be just formalizing that as a category to fill up bookings shortly before sail date. But if the note about excursions being excluded is correct, it will be interesting to see if those fares are correspondingly lower.  

 

Looking forward to finding out the details next week!

Doesn’t P2P already exclude air, transport and hotel?  And what does otherwise be the same mean? The price is the same?  Or just the cancellation terms?

[gnome12]

I think that last minute bookings might as well have excursions excluded, because my cruise is still 3 months away and many of the ports have no included excursions available. (And I have to assume that the cost would be lower, otherwise why a new fare category.)

[Dolcevita Diva]

31 minutes ago, Gourmet Gal said:

Doesn’t P2P already exclude air, transport and hotel?  And what does otherwise be the same mean? The price is the same?  Or just the cancellation terms?

I imagine we will find that out next week when details emerge from official channels...

 

My understanding is that the deposit percentage, cancellation terms and benefits (I believe the Venetian milestone addtl. % off bookings only applies to D2D) will now be the same. 

Edited March 16 by Dolcevita Diva

[RetiredandTravel]

2 hours ago, Gourmet Gal said:

Doesn’t P2P already exclude air, transport and hotel?  And what does otherwise be the same mean? The price is the same?  Or just the cancellation terms?

 

Yes P2P exludes air, tranfers & hotels.  P2P varies in how much cheaper it is vs D2D.  So far we have gone with D2D with the credits at a marginal increase over P2P, we make our own flights, transfers & hotels.  P2P has a much harsher cancellation policy, 15% immediately and more (attached).

 

https://www.silversea.com/terms-and-conditions.html