Thanks much regarding discussing Princess! We do like expedition cruising, but we’ve also been on traditional cruises. We did 4 with Celebrity and still have status with them, but I’ve heard that they’ve gone off in recent years. Silversea’s traditional cruise boats are nice–I really like the Silver Moon–but I’m not sure I’m interested in their trad itineraries for the prices they’re charging. With Silversea, we’re paying more for access to unique places rather than oh, looky, we have our own private butler for our suite, and we get Elemis beauty products in the spa. My husband is very much a small boat person, which is why he prefers Silversea. I’m not a fan. There’s not much to see and do on small boats, and they also tend to bounce around a lot when the weather gets rough. I also like to have multiple dining options when I’m aboard versus “are we going to the main dining room again or hit the Grill again?”. I’ve considered booking on one of the mega-ships like Icon of the Seas just to see what it’s like, but none of their itineraries interest me, and they’re all very short. The one thing I really like about Silversea, which was different from our experience on Celebrity, is that we didn’t have to worry about whether this or that alcohol was included in our package, or how much excursion X was going to cost, as it was all included up front in the price we paid for the cruise. We’ve heard that Silversea is going for the typical multi-tier pricing package in future, and that dismays us.

Well, that’s a very good doctor you’ve got there. Shame it’s just a recommendation and not a prescription.

Azamara: we know a few people who cruise on them a fair bit. We still look at that whole getting value for money thing since a lottery win still eludes us, so we just can’t seem to justify Azamara’s pricing for ourselves, but they’re supposed to be very good indeed. Caribbean is still on our list of places to cruise, just like a lot of the world.

That’s a surprise about the Silversea ship and the air conditioning. I suppose mechanical issues can strike anywhere at any time, but I’d expect for the supposed level of service you’re paying for that would be something checked and fixable quickly. India, unsurprisingly, also on the list for us, but I think we’d cope far less well in high heat and humidity than you so your review isn’t inspiring confidence in us taking a chance on it in the near future. Still, I’m sure it’ll all get cooler in that part of the world in the near future when all those initiatives and promises to stop climate change kick in, eh? Eh? Oh.

Princess, we like a lot, but they may be a bit too conventional for your more expedition tastes. But you never know until you try and they’re decent value. They do some things well, although they’re moving more towards a something-for-everyone line rather than the relaxation and destinations specialists they used to be so they’re becoming less distinguishable from their rivals. But we still like them. At the moment. If you do want to know anything about them then just shoot me a message.

Going through customs in India: NOT fine. Not fine at all. Even though we were first making landfall in the Lakshadweep islands, we had to sail further east to Cochin to “check in” to India, then sail back west to the Islands, then sail back east to Cochin for our excursion. Our final stop was in the Andaman/Nicobar islands, where we had to check out of India. I think we all spent more time standing in line at customs at the port than we did on our tour. Customs in Sri Lanka and Indonesia were a breeze by comparison. Our poor excursion leader and the ship’s financial person were run off their asses trying to navigate Indian immigration paperwork.

My husband and I had been considering an Indian land trip, as we wanted to see some tigers and all the cultural spots, but I’m not sure now. I can’t see trying to navigate that bureaucracy by ourselves. And it was SO. FUCKING. HOT. We may try a cruise on Princess in the future. I’ve been reading the reviews on your blog, and the ships seem pretty decent.