Silver Spectre

Today we are at sea again and have our second and final formal night. It’s Venetian, and the scheduling appears to be driven by the fact that Barbara leaves us on the 28th. It’s certainly a bit odd to have the only 2 formals on nights 2 and 4 of a 14 day voyage.

Norman and Barbara, where we are going next and a brief Q&A

Some of the red wines

Coming into Alesund, Norway 

I have now established that the LP is just missing due to supply issues and should be back onboard on Oct 6th.

39 minutes ago, Lois R said:

Silver, if you have a chance and not sure if you are a "Salt Bar" fan or not? But should you go there, would you give the bartender, Stefan, a big hello from me please😀

Will do if he is still here

52 minutes ago, jpalbny said:

 

So you went north from Copenhagen - you must have sailed through the Øresund strait between Helsingør and Helsingborg. Were you close enough to get a good look at (or pictures of) Kronborg Slot?

 

We really wanted to go there on our last visit to Copenhagen, but our Air France flight was almost 3h late arriving so we didn't have time.

Unfortunately too dark and too asleep JP

The LP replacement

SS and sartorial elegance, not. At breakfast this morning in La Terrazza, we have geriatric baseball boy and his close neighbour, an elderly Japanese gentleman who appears to be wearing a tartan tea cosy.

@MJN1glad you enjoyed your voyage and thanks for leaving the ship in such a fabulous state.

4 hours ago, Simon-t said:

I think it varies enormously. Tipping in restaurants is common in the UK, but the only people who tip in pubs are US tourists. It’s not insulting at all, and I doubt any bar person will turn the tip down, but it can across as a bit brash.

 

It certainly isn’t common in London. A service charge is not to be confused with tipping.

I have very fond memories of the Muse, still the best Muse class ship in the fleet. Have a fabulous time.

We have just moved to a mainly westerly course and entered the Skagerrak. The wind is whistling at 30 knots outside my veranda door.

1 hour ago, Stumblefoot said:

I thought Mr. Silver liked Blue Top.  Maybe I’ve been wrong all these years.

Oh dear Stumbles, you know me not at all.

It turned out to be either a Butler failure or a complication of re-booking at 2 weeks prior to departure. I sort of favour the former as 2 of my three very simple requests were not completed prior to retiring last night.

1 hour ago, Mahogany said:

 

Sorry, I don't understand. Are you pleased or not?

I hate this stuff unless it’s adulterated with something useful like brandy

6 hours ago, Daveywavey70 said:

What about Welsh?

Ok, but how would I know if it was snarky?

Now this was a huge shock, I haven’t seen this stuff in my suite since about 2010! I just hope it’s not another cost cutting measure.

Boarding went like a breeze. We turned up just after 1pm and were onboard 10 minutes later. Apparently boarding actually commenced at midday although the documentation still states 2pm. We still had to do the health form but that was it. Checkin was done in the Venetian Lounge.

Norman is here and for the whole voyage, also met Tom Harrison again who is on for a few days. Barbara joins just before we leave this evening and Frank is going to be here for the Bergen event.

7 hours ago, Tothesunset said:

Spoilsport. 

No way, English and Irish irony allowed.

5 hours ago, Lois R said:

It has been fun following along on your trip🙂what city do you disembark from?

If he’s leaving today, then it’s Copenhagen 

On 9/20/2023 at 12:55 PM, drron29 said:

There is not and will not be a printed included wine list onboard. The included wines continually change depending on availability and where in the world the ship is. This is from 3 sommeliers I have directly asked.

On our cruise on the Moon 4 months ago it had done a Grand Voyage of South America before it's TP cruise to lisbon where we boarded. They still had a few of the South American wines from that grand voyage so I drank my way through quite a few of them.

So talk to the sommelier for your cruise.

Not true, I have a full list from our last Moon cruise last year. You just have to find the correct person. I agree it was correct only at the point of printing, but it does exist.

6 hours ago, MJN1 said:

Getting to the end of this cruise. The culinary highlight was last night's dinner at Silver Nova. Here is just the first course after a gorgeous sunset:

Silver Note perhaps?

Will be onboard tomorrow and will happily provide some insights and a commentary with one  proviso. No snarky comments.

Price gouging reigns supreme with SS. I’ve just booked a cruise that leaves fairly soon to travel with friends. They sent me their booked excursions list which were all included at no charge. When I go to book the same ones, they are predominantly charged at $139 or more, and most are full.

I can live with the fact that the cruise pricing is dynamic and generally increases with time, not always true, but most of the time.

What I don’t agree with is SS pushing it’s all inclusive nature with included excursions, but only for some. That is downright divisive.

On top of the D2D v P2P marketing mistake, Nova restaurant pricing, dumbing down the dress code and now this, it looks like someone at SS or more likely RCL is hell bent on destroying what has made it my go to cruise line for the last 20 years, and that is very sad.