Live from the Shadow, Valpo to BA

Docked at 08:00, ship cleared and departees started leaving at 08:20. Almost all gone by 10:15. One or two late leavers stayed until lunch.

The ship is docked in the main part of the port, just a few minutes walk from a nice area......except you have to get on the shuttle and travel 1.5 miles or so around the dock to the cruise terminal, which is in a much worse part of town.

So silly.

Estimate 305 or so onboard pax, 13 in trans plus the bridge directors, Art & Joy.

Loads of different nationalities and this time the yanks outnumber the Brits.

And the most important question... Did the wine get replenished?

Have a great time!

I watched it being loaded before we left this AM!

Mr. and Mrs. Silver; Fair Winds and Following Seas for this seggie, look fwd to reading more posts and vicariously enjoying your enjoyment of the wine restocking :)

Thanks Wes. DT is correct, loads and loads of wine loaded, apparently its almost impossible to move on deck three for all the cases. However none made it to any service area yesterday, so still living on the dregs JP.

Nice dinner on the pool deck last night with Artists Amanda & Jessika, Vince Ortega who is here to de-install Choozi Productions and Hyperion Knight. But it was seriously cold due to the bitter wind.

Bumpy last night and cool (15c) outside with winds up to 40mph, still ok if you can find a place out of the wind for the sun.

Something like 26 different nationalities onboard (guests), and there were 50+ changeover for crew yesterday, including 6 who are firsttimers on SS.

Gilbert and Stephano both left and Jorge is back as Maitre'd, looking as fit and skinny as ever.

Well that's a nice Christmas Present, having "Gorgeous George " otherwise know as "Jorge" on board for the Christmas / New Year's cruise on Shadow.

There is good wine to be found in South America and I can assume the ship will be well stocked.

During the Christmas segment, do they bring on guest Entertainers? Can anyone describe New Years Eve? d

Thanks!

GET HYPERION ON YOUR TRIVIA TEAM!

He is a valuable addition - he plays trivia almost as well as he plays the piano! Plus the ladies on your team will be happy. He's a real gentleman.

You are so right, Kate! We introduced Hyperion to team trivia on Seabourn Pride's final trans-Atlantic crossing in March/April 2014; I am still amazed with his breadth of knowledge. He is such a talented pianist and just a delightful person. I am now a big fan, as if you couldn't tell!

Winnie

Arrived Puerto Monte, a little later than expected. Grey, cloudy day, current temp 13c.

Captains welcome cocktails and dinner last night. Last ever show of Fabalicious on the Shadow last night. The Artists truly rocked. Great ending with guests dancing with them on stage.

So to Trivia, we hit 39/40 yesterday, only failed to get a perfect score due to a 3 way multiple choice question.

Still waiting to see whether the in transits get to have something organised. Have a creeping suspicion that the ball has been dropped by the transfer from Stratos to Martin.

Oh, and finally got some NZ Sav Blanc last night, exactly 36 hours after it got loaded!

Have a creeping suspicion that the ball has been dropped by the transfer from Stratos to Martin.

Ball picked up, its a cocktail party with FREE cocktails.

Mr. Spectre, happy that you are getting your in-transit party! Hope it is calm. We had one on our recent Whisper Southampton to Montreal to Boston cruise. Unfortunately it was held in the Bar, late morning, on the day of the Category 2 hurricane after leaving Greenland. Not much walking or mingling. Bartender Oliver spent most of his time holding the doors to the liquor cabinets closed and collecting broken glassware. But an unforgettable experience! And they managed to make a good bloody Mary anyway!

Dieter

Mr. Spectre, happy that you are getting your in-transit party! Hope it is calm. We had one on our recent Whisper Southampton to Montreal to Boston cruise. Unfortunately it was held in the Bar, late morning, on the day of the Category 2 hurricane after leaving Greenland. Not much walking or mingling. Bartender Oliver spent most of his time holding the doors to the liquor cabinets closed and collecting broken glassware. But an unforgettable experience! And they managed to make a good bloody Mary anyway!

 

Dieter

Dieter, its at 6:30 tonight, and we sail at 6, but will be inside the fjords mostly for the next couple of days, so should be calm.

Pretty cold today, 10c, but the clouds have lifted a little and we can see snow capped mountains. Just docked at Puerto Chacabuco, which looks small and the dock is a long way from anywhere.

Yesterday evening was informal and I saw 4 dress code violations, both in the main bar and the Panorama. The MDR was enforcing jacket wearing though.

The ship took pity on the cobblers and moved them inside on deck 8 just by the stairs.

Had a surprisingly good IT Cocktail party yesterday, 16 staff + the Captain for 7 guests, the other 6 gave it a miss.

They made some really nice beef tartare, not up to the maestro Gilbert's standard, but still pretty good.

Really like the new Cruise Consultant, Reba, friendly, charming, efficient and full of surprises. She is a great addition to the staff.

We left the channels and sailed back in the Ocean for 12 hours and are now entering the gulf for the first of the canal transits.

Super, great show by Jessika last night, the artists are rocking on their final curtain call!!

Hey you CC'ers on-board, I need some support. Please post!

Thanks Mr. Silver for the meet & greet feedback. Our last four meet & mingles were well attended (CCrs and SS staff). Now, if only I could get CC to load the 2015 sailings.

I am with you, Wes. Can't even sign up for January!

I am with you, Wes. Can't even sign up for January!

Me too, can you give them another prod please Wes.

Wet, wet, wet and rather windy in the channels this morning. Virgin party last night with 180 guests. Small Venetian do this evening.

duct tape & Mr. Silver pls see below:

Sent to: Laura (Community Mgr) community@cruisecritic.com, and Jenn

at Help@cruisecritic.com

Hi Laura, Jenn,

Any progress on getting your team to load the Silversea 2015 sailing dates loaded for the Silver Cloud, Silver Explorer, Silver Galapagos,Silver Shadow, Silver Spirit, Silver Whisper, Silver Wind.

It is been almost a month since we asked for assistance to get these 2015 sailing dates loaded.

There are now dozens and dozens of Silversea cruise critics waiting to sign up for their 2015 Silversea meet & mingle. As of this moment, they cannot sign up.

Please help, thanks in advance.

Wes

If y'all want to double tap and also send an email to Laura and Jenn asking for them to help get the 2015 sailings loaded--may help. Have sent half a dozen emails since Oct 28, can't understand why CC is taking so long to load the 2015 itineraries. I even CC'd

Frank Sansone on the email I sent to them earlier this week.

Thanks Wes, I would have thought that the email should work, and since they monitor the threads, maybe it will stir them into life. I hope.

Yesterday was wild, it rained, the wind howled, averaging 50+mph and gusting up to 75mph. Eventually, and thankfully with no loss of anything over-board other than a hat, the ship requested guests to stay inside. They also finally got around to tying all the chairs down, saw small chairs thrown right across the back of the Panorama and the one rather brave guest who was out walking realised the danger of being hit by one and stopped.

Major dress code infraction in the MDR last night. It was formal and one guy refused to wear either a tie or jacket. Unfortunately he was one in a party of 12 Poles, Jorge was beside himself as he would have had to refuse to serve any of them, so he acquiesced.

Today we arrived in Punta Arenas to some sun and some clear skies. Temp of about 7c, feeling like 1 or 2 with a very strong wind.

Snowing here!!!

Snowing here!!!

Raining here again!

Beagle channel coming up. Still winning Trivia. Hyperion gets off tomorrow and straight onto the Zaandam (what an awful change of demographic, and yes I am a snob). His second show was allowed to run for over an hour last night and I believe no one left.

Poles misbehaving again this morning.

After checking carefully with Sommelier, and after a major infusion of wine, we still have no Pouilly Fume, French Sav Blanc or Dashwood. And we only have 1/2 bottle of Pisco Sour left. There is also no Riesling and no more of the good Pinot Grigio.

Amazing early dinner Opera show orchestrated by Duke last night. Ably backed up by JRex, Deidrick and the superbly talented Miss Jessika Brust, who performed a stunning Queen of the Night from the Magic Flute. Hyperion joined in and the entire show went down a storm with the guests. Kudos to all!!!!!

Oh my god, do Silversea have any idea what they are losing?

Arrived in Ushuaia this morning to snow capped peaks and sunshine. Cool with a wind chill factor makes it feel not that much above zero C.

Highlight of the morning was the full crew drill on the dock with the exploding life raft demonstration. Except the first one failed to open, again and again. The crew on the ship opposite were laughing, ours were jeering (ironically). Eventually they got the second demo model to work.

Unfortunately the crew were standing in the shade and looked cold and miserable at being out there for an extra 15 minutes. The Captain did not look amused.

Demographic a bit down today as the Poles and Bolivians have all left.