WOO HOO! Finally - free internet again. We are cooling our heels at the Sydney airport, waiting for the Melbourne flight. thanks for the score update - I'll enjoy a moment's glee in the Vikings victory. Joanne-very glad to hear McCoy's injury is responding to treatment and he should be 100%.
Well .. we were dutifully called to disembark at 8 am, pursuant to the brown luggage tag. The only problem was, we were enjoying a last Eggs Benedict and, for Gary, smoked salmon, before we left. We got around to leaving at 9 am. Disembarkation was flawless on silversea's part - I, however, could not remember where I put my australian immigration entry card for a few minutes. I blamed it on the hollandaise sauce high.
We were seeking a taxi, when who should we spy but Roger Condron (sp ?) !! For those of you who remember, he was the Australian tour desk manager on many of our Regent cruises. He's happy, doing well (running the ground services contractor for many of the cruise lines in Sydney) and sends all his best. That was a most pleasant surprise.
We inadvertently took a break from cruising since mid-2007. Since then, we've done the Black Sea on the Navigator on this NZ-Australian itinerary on Silversea. I offer a few of my impressions based on that limited experience. Most of them confirm what I've read from others on our board who sail on both lines - shut your eyes and you can't tell any significant difference between the two lines. On balance, the cruising experience is as good if not better than ever.
1. The biggest difference I found is the passenger nationality mix, resulting in a slightly different passenger services/programming mix than Regent.
One direct implication is the staff is, relatively speaking, works one on one with the passengers more than on Regent, so there's somewhat less mixing amongst the guests themselves.
On this sailing, it was about even for US, British and Australian passengers. We must have made up about 90% of the passenger count. That means a more global focus for Trivia questions, and lots of interesting viewpoints to share amongst fellow guests. It's neither better nor worse than Regent; simply a different experience. We had a blow out dance party last night with about 40 of our fellow passengers down in The Bar on 5. It was fantastic.
2. All other things equal, I'd choose Regent over Silversea, if for no other reason than the mix of amenities for Seven Seas Society folks at the gold/platinum/titanium levels offer more value to us than the Venetian society amenities. One six minute phone call set me back $85.
3. All other things don't seem to be equal right now. I grabbed an onboard booking for 2011 on Silversea. I tried to compare the net pricing to Regent. One difference is Silversea still offers a greater selection of 7-10 cruises around the world whilst Regents seem to focus on the Mediterranean in the summer, the Carribean in the fall, Alaska and the Baltics in the summer. The fare difference as flagged in the Silversea section of this board (60% on published 2011 fares) is meaningful. I can make a number of $85 phone calls on Silversea and come out ahead given the limited research I did on board.
4. This itinerary is wonderful, so long as one must be prepared for changeable weather and the possibility of heavy seas - no different from the southern part of the South American cruises.
5. Our crew seemed genuinely happy and working well together. My thanks to the senior management team. The butler service is still evolving, and on balance was an improvement over asking one's suite attendant to handle some issues. Our suite creaked like crazy when we boarded; the butler had the engineers in with the shims within an hour. Our suite attendant paid close attention, and heard the creaks start up again. He went ahead and got the engineers in to make further repairs. I was really impressed with the proactive response.
Any questions or things I've forgetten? Fire away.
It will be great to seen June & Brian again this evening in Melbourne. It's time to watch tennis!
Cheers, Anne
