Silversea offers a “baggage valet” service. If you are going on a 4 1/2-month cruise – which includes casual, informal and formal dress codes – chances are you will not be able to put everything you need in two airline-approved pieces of luggage. So, Silversea will come and pick up your (many) bags – which is cool. The thing is they want them 10 days before the cruise embarks.
I kind of get it- folks are traveling from all over the globe for this cruise, so Silversea needs the time to transport all of their luggage to San Francisco. Probably by the cheapest (cargo) way possible. However, I live in San Jose, only a 1-hour drive to the pier. I understand Silversea needing to standardize their international processes, and I certainly want this valet service flying back home from London. But to me it seems kind of – well, chintzy – to need to have these bags ready for FedEx so early when I live just down the street.
Altho, I will admit forcing myself to get to the details of packing helped me organize myself. Especially since my clothes dryer broke three days ago (which was fun). So, I will make do with a reduced selection of clothing for the next week and only bring a “carry on” worth of items next week with I Lyft to San Francisco.