First Silversea Cruise

[meow!]

You are welcome to read our report

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1317609

[Elginjock]

We are on the Spirit out of Fort Lauderdale on 30th November this will be our second cruise with Silversea and I can assure first time cruiser you will not be disappointed. We enjoyed our first cruise so much we have just booked our third next May Tokyo to Anchorage and Silverseas UK office (Sylvia) were excellent to deal with. Roll on November.

[Starshine2006]

Cannot seem to find any kind of rollcall for this one....!! Will be our first Silversea experience....looking forward.

[lilant]

Originally Posted by Roborab

Hi,

My husband and I have just booked our first
Silversea Cruise on Silver Spirit in September Any little tips/info would be welcome.

We have previously sailed on Princess x 2, QM2 x 2 and Queen Victoria x 2. Always wanted to give Silversea a try.

Thanks in advance.

Tina

...ask and you shall receive. i'm a chef and love to eat, so the first day on board i prepared, on our personalized stationary of course, a list of items i would like to have for dinner and handed it to the maitre 'd with a "small token of my appreciation" no sooner were we seated at our table he was right at my side going over the request one by one. at the end of our meal he had already spoke to the chef and "everything was set". one day at high tea we invited two ladies to dine with us, so i called the restaurant from the bar and told them there was going to be four for dinner tonight, "no problem". boy the ladies were very impressed, and most nights all eyes were on our dinner because it wasnt, "on the menu". another fond memory was a day at sea by the pool at lunch and the pool menu really wasnt doing it for me so i asked the pool manager if he would ask the chef to make croque monsieur's for our lunch. the pool manager asked what it was i said, dont worry the chef will know but he persisted so i explained. about 20 minutes later we were eating one of the best croque monsieur's i had ever tasted with fresh hot shoe string fries. i can still remember like it was yesterday. so i asked the pool manager to tell the chef thank you, and he said, "they kitchen was too busy so i made them for you"...

ENJOY!

[Emtbsam]

Originally Posted by lilant

...ask and you shall receive. i'm a chef and love to eat, so the first day on board i prepared, on our personalized stationary of course, a list of items i would like to have for dinner and handed it to the maitre 'd with a "small token of my appreciation" no sooner were we seated at our table he was right at my side going over the request one by one. at the end of our meal he had already spoke to the chef and "everything was set". one day at high tea we invited two ladies to dine with us, so i called the restaurant from the bar and told them there was going to be four for dinner tonight, "no problem". boy the ladies were very impressed, and most nights all eyes were on our dinner because it wasnt, "on the menu". another fond memory was a day at sea by the pool at lunch and the pool menu really wasnt doing it for me so i asked the pool manager if he would ask the chef to make croque monsieur's for our lunch. the pool manager asked what it was i said, dont worry the chef will know but he persisted so i explained. about 20 minutes later we were eating one of the best croque monsieur's i had ever tasted with fresh hot shoe string fries. i can still remember like it was yesterday. so i asked the pool manager to tell the chef thank you, and he said, "they kitchen was too busy so i made them for you"...

ENJOY!

IMHO, one of the nice things about Silversea is that there is no need to show a "small token of appreciation" to get something special. We prefer to show a token of appreciation to the staff via the crew fund. This money goes to the people behind the scenes who are really the ones doing the work.

[lilant]

Originally Posted by Emtbsam

IMHO, one of the nice things about Silversea is that there is no need to show a "small token of appreciation" to get something special. We prefer to show a token of appreciation to the staff via the crew fund. This money goes to the people behind the scenes who are really the ones doing the work.

so true, there was "no need", but he went out of his way for us.

[mortgagemaster]

Lilant, this is an excellent example as to why my wife and I are so loyal to Silversea. Our experiences have been that the entire staff goes out of their way to be of service and in many cases, to go above and beyond what one would normally expect. On our Cloud cruise in January, the day we boarded was also my wife's 50th Birthday. As she was being escorted to the elevators by our butler, Naru, we casually mentioned that we were celebrating her Birthday and in fact it was today. Upon return to our cabin a few hours later, she was welcomed with a wonderful chocolate dessert presentation and balloons and electric candles throughout the sitting area. Absolutely wonderful!

[Miss Jolly]

Our upcoming cruise on Silver Cloud will be our first with Silver Seas and we are looking forward to the ship and also the itinerary. I am concerned that the silver box may arrive after we have left home. What is inside please?

[Ravenscroft]

Originally Posted by Miss Jolly

Our upcoming cruise on Silver Cloud will be our first with Silver Seas and we are looking forward to the ship and also the itinerary. I am concerned that the silver box may arrive after we have left home. What is inside please?

Cruise tickets, little silver journal, tags with your suite number on and your 'pleather' Silversea luggage tags.
It would be a pity to miss the box, some of us have a 'Silver Box Ritual' that we perform on receipt...mine includes dancing around the house joyfully while shrieking 'it's arrived'
I've heard lately that some pax have been invited to print off their own docs instead.
I'd suggest you have your TA talk to Silversea to let them know what date you are leaving on your travels, if you haven't already. I seem to recall that being one of the questions on the Guest Information form.

[Randyk47]

You'll get your Silversea document holder, contract, pre-printed luggage tags, two smaller regular luggage tags, a general cruise information pamphlet, and a couple of other small inserts about the Silversea charity and onboard savings program.

[Ravenscroft]

Originally Posted by Randyk47

You'll get your Silversea document holder, contract, pre-printed luggage tags, two smaller regular luggage tags, a general cruise information pamphlet, and a couple of other small inserts about the Silversea charity and onboard savings program.

See, just looking at that pic brings on palpitations!

[Randyk47]

It was pretty nice to get the silver box. Our previous cruise line....we're now Silversea converts....went away from mailed documents many years ago. I'll have to admit we did kind of get used to the e-documents, for us it was easy as we're probably advanced computer users as they're very much a part of our professional and personal lives. On the other hand there was always something just a little special about having the FedEx/UPS/USPS person delivering our next set of documents as it made the cruise seem just that much closer and real. Our Wind cruise silver box came almost eight weeks before the cruise so we were very pleased and even a bit surprised.

[Mattsmum]

Roborad - we too have done QM2 and QV and don't have a bad word to say about them. Last December we did our first Silversea trip on Spirit out of Fort Lauderdale. We spent a lot of the time comparing Cunard and Silversea; both are amazing by way of food, surroundings, suites, staff, etc. Both equally stunning but completely different.

With Silversea the ship is so intimate and friendly. You recognise staff and fellow passengers more readily. We really liked the fact that if we wanted a drink we didn't have to worry about signing bills all of the time. Sitting in a comfy chair on the rear deck with a glass of champagne, watching the world float by, is wonderful.

Not being dancers ourselves it didn't really bother us, but, if you do enjoy the ballroom on Cunard, you may miss that on Silversea.

We loved Silversea so much that we have just booked 2 B2B from Fort Lauderdale January 2013. (We are taking a Seabourn trip in October this year too which we anticipate being on a par with Silversea - anyone who's done both welcome to advise us on that).

Hope you have a lovely trip.

This cruising bug is soooo contagious!!

[Roborab]

Thanks Mattsmum.

I'm sure we will have a great time. Not too worried about the ballroom dancing as my husband has 2 left feet! But you are right when it comes to signing for everything, also I found the wine service really slow on Cunard, we had started eating our main meal before it arrived most nights.

I have the cruising bug bigtime.

[TLCOhio]

Originally Posted by Miss Jolly

Our upcoming cruise on Silver Cloud will be our first with Silver Seas and we are looking forward to the ship and also the itinerary. I am concerned that the silver box may arrive after we have left home. What is inside please?

Enjoy your first cruise with Silversea and on "our" Silver Cloud. Have done much in the UK, Scotland, but not yet to Iceland. We loved our Silver Cloud experience in July 2010 along the Norway Coast as detailed below. Several on our sailing had had very nice experiences in Iceland. We had great food, staff, fun, etc., on this ship. Below are three of my visuals for favorite places we loved on this charming ship. Many more about the Silver Cloud on my full live/blog. Warning! It might make you want to travel along that scenic Norway Coast, etc.

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

For details and visuals, etc., from our July 1-16, 2010, Norway Coast/Fjords/Arctic Circle cruise experience from Copenhagen on the Silver Cloud, check out this posting. This posting is now at 70,487 views.
http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/s....php?t=1227923


Outside of the Silver Cloud’s Panorama Lounge is this wonderful, sheltered outdoor area with nicely-traditional deck chairs. You might needed blankets in going to Iceland as we did, but it worked well in great comfort for being so far above the Arctic Circle. Some are napping, some enjoying a book and one gentleman has his Kindle electronic reader. Very tech savvy!:




There was live music by this quartet for the enjoyment of guests experiencing our International noon buffet.:




Here is just one sampling of the three different tables with various dessert treats. This one picture is worth about one thousand fork-fulls. We have been told these delights are all low-cal, right?: