Silver Wind 2127 Rpt Athens to Venice (Long)

[DebbieH103]

Background and Athens Hotel Arrival

We planned our cruise well in advance and were able to take advantage of the onboard booking credit from another cruise and then Silversea promotions of $1000 onboard credit and free airfare, along with another $250 credit. We wanted a sailing in the Mediterranean as close to my 50th birthday (October 3) as possible. Silver Wind had charters the week before and after, so we settled on a voyage starting on September 24 and ending on October 1. We left on September 22 and arrived on September 23. Silversea ha d us going over to Athens on Continental. We were in economy, and my entertainment system did not work, but I had Angry Birds and other things to keep me entertained. Note that if you take Continental on a long haul to Europe and are in economy rows 1-23, you can have electricity if you have the adapter. See the website.

 

In Athens, there was no customs form to hand in, we only showed our passports. We got our own taxi to the hotel by standing in the taxi line at the airport and paid a very interesting, professional and friendly guy $45 Euros to take us to the hotel in a Mercedes. There was a strike on the subways, so it took a bit longer to get to the hotel, but it was not too long, and we enjoyed looking around and chatting about the world economy and politics (I couldn’t stop hubbie).

 

Intercontinental Athens & Self-Touring Athens

We booked this hotel through the Silversea pre-cruise program and received the one night in a deluxe room. The hotel was fine. Staff were efficient, security was good. Our room had a large screen TV and was set up for wired and wireless internet. It was something like $40 US for 24 hours, but we went ahead and did this.

 

The hotel has a shuttle that goes to the Athens city centre to Syntagma Square. From here, we walked to a number of major sites like the university, parliament, Temple of Zeus, and the Acropolis. We had a pizza in the centre, Italian style. It was something like $27 Euros for a large pizza and two waters. $$$

 

Todd took the shuttle back, but I wanted to see sunset and dark, so I took a taxi from the Acropolis back to the hotel after taking pictures there and at the plaka. Note that this ride should be $6 or $7 Euros, and if the meter is not on, ask to have it turned on and ask to be taken up to the driveway where the bellman is or they will overcharge you. Todd had a very long walk to the shuttle and barely beat me back.

 

We had visited the Silversea hospitality desk at the hotel, and the rep was very friendly and had given us maps and info about the hotel shuttle and our shuttle the next day to the ship.

 

We were to have our bags out at 10 am. That is exactly when we had them out, and we heard the bellman at 10:03! We had our room until 11, but we asked for more time with no problem and then waited in the lobby using our remaining internet time until we took the Silversea shuttle at 1 pm

 

Embarkation

We boarded the ship around 1:25 on arrival on our shuttle. We had a champagne greeting, and our hand luggage was taken up the gangway. After giving up our passports for the week and getting our photo taken, we were able to get our bags dropped at the cabin and went to a lovely lunch buffet inside La Terraza.

 

Even before lunch, we were greeted by our butler, and we asked for unpacking. She said she would come around 5 pm or something like that. She was to bring a second type of toiletries and some of the glycerin soap. I had to remind her of that in a day or two, but then she brought it right away. She did a lovely job of organizing our things, and we did not lift a finger. We love the unpacking and packing service.

We toured the ship to see what had changed since we were

on the ship in October, 2007, and we thought the public areas looked nice. I’d like to see new loungers on the pool deck similar to Spirit, but everything else was nice.

 

Cabin

Before, the TV had been in an awkward location, and the new stand and new flatscreen TV are much better. We really miss the movies on demand that Spirit has. Wind still has the old style rotating movies where you have to plan the start and stop of a show. We did not get nearly as much use out of it, but we were always enjoying what we were doing, so it wasn’t a big deal.

 

The bathrooms have changed and now have the wood/marble combo floor and bowl sink a la Spirit.

 

I had asked for specific pillows on the guest info form in advance. They weren’t there, but after a quick request from the butler, they were brought. We use a mix of the foam and soft down, and those memory foam pillows are the best I have slept on anywhere in the world. Maybe they are the same as the other SS ships, but for some reason, these seemed better and so wonderful.

 

We also took about a day or more to get our liquor request that I had put on the guest info form, but we know sometimes that is a lockdown issue. We were in midship cabin 631, and everything was fairly convenient.

We did not get fresh fruit at all, and finally, on the 5th day, I requested it. The butler brought it in 2-3 minutes and said you now must request it. I thought that was rather lame and not a place I would have liked to see cutting.

 

Also, on formal night, we did not get special chocolates, it was the same ones as the other nights.

 

We did get printed menus everyday inside our Chronicles like always.

We signed up for the internet @ 1000 minutes each for a total of $500. This is a hefty fee, but we did have $1250 credit.

 

Specialty Restaurant Signup

I went the first day for restaurant signup. There was a big push to get people to go to Hot Rocks the first night. We did not go that night or any other night. I have enjoyed it each time on Spirit, but Todd did not want to do it this time, choosing just to have quiet service traditional style.

I got reservations for Le Champagne and La Terrazza, and I had mentioned my 50th birthday and the desire to change the first two courses on the menu at Le Champagne. I was told the captain would call me later that day or the next day to arrange it. That never occurred, and I did seek him out on several occasions. After a conversation with him and his unwillingness to customize with anything but the main dining room’s meal of the night (then why would we pay?), I finally canceled and did not have a birthday dinner on the ship.

 

La Terrazza

This cruise was rather port intensive, and we found ourselves often running upstairs to see Maarten and the staff for a quick breakfast. We had great food every day. I usually had grapefruit juice, a boiled egg and a plate of great fruits. The pineapple was so good and ripe. The grapefruit was good, too, and sometimes I threw on a few pecans and a little dried fruit if something suited me. When I had time, I had toast with raspberry or strawberry jam and tea. Todd ordered an omelet a couple of days from the waiter. This came out quickly. He would get fresh squeezed orange juice and bacon and melon. Service was great at breakfast.

 

We came In for lunch most days if we made it upstairs. We would have liked to see lunch run until 2:30 instead of 2. The tours often came back at 1:30 or so, and it was a rush to get up there. Daily, they would feature most of the items from the restaurant menu. We always ordered chardonnay no matter what they were pouring, and most of them knew our names and that we wanted chardonnay. Three days, we had beautiful sea scallops prepared in various ways. There was veal one day. There was always and Asian dish that might be Indian one day and Chinese another. A couple of those were good. The lasagna was nice, and Todd enjoyed the carved meats. There were lovely Italian cured meats. They had sushi or antipasti or always some sort of thing in a showcase station and always beautiful cheeses. There were fruits and pastries and cooked to order pastas. They had ice creams daily. The burgundy cherry was delicious.

 

We had dinner here the second night of the cruise. Shortly after boarding, I arranged for veal marsala with no mushrooms with the restaurant captain. When we arrived, this was not ready, and they were puzzled. However, we had both been unable to read the writing on the confirmation. We should have come at 7:45 and arrived at 7:05. No problem, they started us with the rest of the meal and then came out with my veal and Todd’s steak. The breads were great, the wine was good. Todd had a fried risotto course he enjoyed, and I had some vegetable ravioli while he had some meat ravioli. He finished with tiramisu and vanilla ice cream, and I had a fruit cup. We had high expectations of this meal and “starved out” that day to hold all the courses. The meal did not disappoint, and the service was wonderful. We really enjoyed this evening in the relaxing, quiet atmosphere.

 

The Restaurant

We dined here 6 of the 7 nights and chose to alternate nights with companions and on our own. We enjoyed both experiences, as we always do.

 

Our first night with companions, we all had a lot of courses, and we laughed so much that our faces hurt. That is a good time. This was the formal night. The other gentleman ordered the caviar and enjoyed it. I had ordered fois gras a day in advance, and they brought it out timed with the others’ courses, and it was a generous double portion. It was beautifully done and delicious. We had salads and soups. I enjoyed the lobster while the others all had steak. Todd ordered the filet that they have every day, and the other gentleman had the tenderloin of the night. Todd’s was twice the size, and the other gentleman was jealous! We had dessert and petit fours, as well.

 

On the Venetian Society night, we were invited to a hosted table with another couple. We joined the staff engineer and had a nice evening after the Venetian Society party.

 

On the third night that others joined us, it was a German couple, and we enjoyed conversation about what was happening in the world.

 

At all the dinners, we had had wonderful food. I enjoyed sea bass one night. I always ordered shellfish as at least one course. Unlike on some of the Silversea cruises we have been on lately, the petit fours always came at dessert time. The sommeliers always managed to suit everyone at our table, though the one night, they misheard the other gentleman, and he waited a few minutes for what he ordered. We always found a “standard” pour to our liking. Another wonderful dish was the osso bucco.

 

Pool Grill

We had lunch there a couple of times. I had tomato basil soup once and we shared chicken satay and shrimp cocktail. Todd had the ham and cheese Panini a couple of times and a burger once. One day, I had a shrimp cocktail delivered to one of the hot tubs. We ordered a pizza one day, and it was very good. We tried a couple of the cocktails on the menu there, and when we visited the pool bar, they always knew based on the time of day exactly what we would order and started making it before we even uttered a syllable. Nuts were available there as usual, if you requested them.

 

Activities and Entertainment

The activities were led by cruise director Allan King. He has previously worked on Celebrity and as a stand up comedian, so he likes to mix corny humor into just about everything he does. He uses it in all of his introductions, trivia, and his solo acts.

 

This cruise had a couple of guest lecturers that talked about the ports and the history of the region. They were both knowledgeable and pleasant.

 

On the sea day, Allan hosted a pub lunch in The Bar where they had fish n chips, beef curry and rice and shepherd’s pie, along with salads and desserts. They had full bar service and British beer (cold). This was right after an extra trivia, and we joined a number of our trivia friends for this and stayed for Allan’s routine.

 

Another night late in The Bar, Allan did some comedy and song that I attended, and he also did a routine in the show lounge one night. There was no guest comedian or cabaret act, so Allan filled this role himself.

The onboard production dance and song team included two men and four women. This included the championship ballroom dance couple Olga and Sergey. We attended all of their productions. One was a jazz show in the Panarama Lounge. Another was Studio 54 held after the on deck BBQ. There was also the Dance on the Waves show and The Lands, a new production show. The other dance party was the disco party after the BBQ. This was very well attended.

 

In general, there were more people staying up till the wee hours either at The Bar or the casino than I have ever seen. This was people of all ages, though I would say may guests were 40 to 65 with a few younger than that by quite a bit that were traveling with others in their family. Most were well heeled. We’ve seen quite a few of them before.

 

Todd participated in a blackjack tournament, and it was well attended and rather animated. There were 14 participants, and after it was all over, Todd placed 4th. Positions 1-3 paid out. Entry was $50. We also donated another $170 or so to the casino.

 

On the sea day, I bought Todd a nice shirt during the sale, though this item was not on sale. They had quite a few jewelry and clothing items, along with bags and such on discount, and if you are inclined to save onboard credit for this, they happily let you use it. We already had spent more than our $1250.

 

Ports

On this itinerary, we did a number of organized tours. Silversea’s shore concierge staff on this ship/sailing were top notch. They were well –organized and courteous, and all excursions were escorted by a Silversea representative and led by local, experienced guides. All of these ports can easily and safely be done on one’s own. Even though we canceled our tour on that day for a self-given sea day, I recommend doing an organized tour to see Olympia. We had so many walking tours that we just did not want to do that tour. While there is a cancellation policy, Silversea will try to sell your tickets if you don’t want to go, and this becomes sort of an exchange where someone may get to go that would have found the tour sold out. Regardless, if you have tickets, know there is some chance you will be stuck if the mood doesn’t suit and also know you could help someone if you try to do something about it.

 

Athens

I’ve covered this elsewhere in the review, but note that if you are sailing from Piraeus that you should arrive at least a day early and plan your own tour if you want to see something. The ship did not sail until 10 p.m., and we could have hired a driver to take us out to dinner and to see the Acropolis in the dark without the extra time. However, in a place with a lot of strikes and an uncertain economy, I certainly would not do this port (or anywhere in Europe) as a last minute arrival. You can get off the ship and walk around or shuttle or taxi down there, but we love the ship, and that night, it was our destination.

 

Mykonos

Here, we took the Silversea Panorama tour. This gave us an excellent opportunity for photos, as we truly had some great views. A lot of this tour was done in a Mercedes motor coach. The guide talked the entire time and gave some interesting info. We did stop at a local church overlooking a beautiful little beach, we saw the windmills and Little Venice and we stopped for ouzo and some Greek snacks at a local establishment (included in the tour price). We sat at a table with some nice people and enjoyed sampling everything.

 

The drawbacks on this tour were that the guide took us on an extensive walking tour in the far back winding cobblestone areas, but at no time did she allow even a few moments for shopping. Most people went back to the ship. I worked my way back there to find a bracelet I had seen. I got a lot of compliments on it when I wore it, but it was very difficult to find my way there, and I had about given up. I bought a couple of Greek cookbooks along the way. They were available in Greek and English. I bought the English ones. The other thing was that the Silversea rep did not wear a nametag and did not identify himself.

 

I spend about 90 minutes walking around here on my own. One of the restaurants has a HUGE pelican there that made for some great photo opportunities. Next time, I would rent a car here and take to the road with a map.

 

There was also a tour to Delos and a cruise and swim tour offered.

 

Monemvasia

Here, they had two times for the castle tour. Those like me that booked online were “rewarded” with the earlier time. I’d have rather gone 30 minutes later with the other group.

 

On this tour, we met at a central location and took a short bus ride to the medieval village on “the little rock”. There are quaint shops and tavernas up there. There is a shuttle over there where you can go for free by showing your SS boarding card, or it is $1 Euro each way if you do not have one.

 

We went into the church and heard a great deal of Byzantine history and a lot about the Greek Orthodox religion. We had various photo stops. The guide and a few people walked up to the fort. I did not, but I chose to walk all the way back to the tender. There was a long wait here because the water had such large swells that they did not want to take us for some time, and the captain turned the ship to make it more comfortable for passengers. For those that did not want to go to the castle, there were some shops and other things around. Things start late here, so I would not be in too big of a hurry to do anything if you are going out on your own. This is the case around Greece since they know tourists stay out late and sleep in.

 

Katakolon

This is the port for those wanting to see the birthplace of the Olympics. There was a beach break tour, but you could walk right off the ship with a towel, water and suntan lotion and sit right along that crescent beach if you don’t mind the dark sand (Silversea went to a nicer beach). A number of people from MSC and Costa did just that. Since we canceled the tours, I just went around to various shops there and strolled the beach in the beautiful weather. Todd got off the ship briefly, and then I joined him for a great lunch and some great time on the pool deck. If we repeated this itinerary, this is likely the only place I would do an organized tour.

Corfu

 

We went on the Taste of Corfu tour.

On this tour, we went quite a distance on a motor coach, so we saw one fantastic view after the other. We went to a monastery. The tour info said that women must wear a skirt and have shoulders covered and that men could not wear shorts. However, the dress code was not enforced. There were two SS groups on this tour, and at the monastery, there were also two Princess groups, so everything was timed.

 

We visited a small olive museum where they showed how olives were pressed in olden days. Then we went to a tavern where we were treated to a local folklore show, and some of us participated in the dancing. Opa! That was fun, and we also sampled ouzo again and then they brought out a lot of pastries, local cheeses and cured meats and lots of red and white wine (our table had 4 bottles for 8 people). They also had fresh bread. It was relaxing to sit here and chat with the other SS guests. Upon strolling back to our coach (a distance, like everywhere since streets are so narrow), we leisurely looked at some of the charming architecture around us. Even Todd who is not a big tour fan enjoyed this tour. Were we to go here again, I’d do the jeep safari or rent a car.

 

Venice

In Venice, the ship overnighted, and it would have easily been possible to do two tours. During the day, I strolled for miles all around. In the evening, Todd and I went on the gondola ride for 4. We were placed with two single girls. Silversea certainly made it as easy as possible. We were shuttled to the cruise terminal and then took a water taxi over to the gondola station. Next, we were organized into either two or four people, depending on what was booked. Each gondola was given a bottle of prosecco. We all enjoyed the ride up and around various canals and enjoyed the serenades around us. You do get a bit of a smell around you from the water. The tour got us back around 8:30, and we had a lovely dinner in the main dining room with another couple and then headed to the show.

 

Debarkation and Trip Home

We asked our butler to pack for us. She told us the time she would be available, and we met her there and had a brief discussion about what we wanted done. We left everything we wanted for the night and next morning together and explained all of that to her. This worked out great, as we left for dinner and came back with our bags ready to go. All we had to do was put on our luggage tags and go enjoy our last night on a very pleasant cruise without spending any time at all on this task.

We had brown tags for 9:30 a.m. We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast after vacating our cabin and then arrived at the gangway at 9:30. There were a few couples waiting, as they had sent a full shuttle and were waiting for it to return for us.

 

We were very glad to be on the Silversea transfers that were included in our pre-night hotel package. Our guide organized the baggage porterage and took each guest to their airline through the ENORMOUS mass of lines and complete chaos that matches every nightmare you may have heard about this airport. We had guests from 3 different airlines.

 

Silversea had put us in premier voyager class on our two Air France flights, so she was able to weave us through the chaos over to that line. Even that line was not short, but it moved quickly.

 

We had a cold but full meal on the flight to Paris. This was cold veal, cheese, salad and fruit, along with wine and other beverages. This flight had ice. On the long haul, we had several beverage services, a hot meal and then later a cold meal. My entertainment system only worked the first 4 hours, but I did see two movies.

 

We had yet a third flight out of Atlanta on Delta, and we did customs here (as well as Paris). When we gave our bags to the recheck rep, I only saw him scan two of the three bags, and then we hurried off since our gate was three terminals away. Although all of our bags were marked “priority”, one of them was not there when we arrived in Houston. We spent an hour in line to report it, and by then, they already knew that the bag never left Atlanta. They gave us a guarantee that we would have the bag between 9 a.m. and noon, but we received it at almost 7:30. We were just grateful to get it.

 

Comments

We really enjoyed this cruise. We had a great balance in discovering new places and enjoying the fabulous things the ship had to offer. The trip was 9 days for us with 7 on the ship. This has become not really enough since we’ve done some 9 to 11 night cruises, but we were glad to be home just due to the long haul in getting back.

 

A few things bothered me with small cutbacks. In general, everything is still there, but some things you have to ask for that just shouldn’t be whether it saves money or not. If they want to save money by not replacing fruit every day, they should put it there the first day and then tell people it is replenished on request. Nobody wants to bother with that the first day when you are running around getting your dinner reservations (since Silversea still does not have online reservations). It is small things like this and no special formal night turndown chocolates that people do remember. Of course new people might not know the difference, but any sailing we go on is 40 to 50 percent returning guests. Even the needlepoint at tea is gone, and that was a nice little perk before.

I found the main dining room and La Terrazza to be delightful, and neither had a bit of problem in customizing dinner courses given a day’s notice. This is something Silversea guests have always expected. However, I found it very off-putting that the Le Champagne captain was quite arrogant and inflexible, even with 3 days’ notice. I would guess on a weekly basis that there are people that do not want raw red meat or snails. If I wanted the regular menu for two of four courses, why would I pay?? I did note this on the comment card, and I hope this would be an isolated incident. I understand the kitchen size, but the room was not very full that night, and with 3 days notice, some sort of “wow” factor could have made all the difference.

 

In general, Silversea staff continue to feel empowered to assist guests with whatever they need, whether it is by calling something, delivering a service or in directing them somewhere. I think they have a great team on Wind.

 

We liked the production staff, especially the ballroom dancers. We enjoyed doing some of the organized activities with them. I wish we’d have had a food demo and wine tasting on this cruise. We have not ever been on an SS cruise that did not have one or both. I look forward to it a lot. We liked that Allan and the team used all of the lounges and “mixed it up” a bit.

I have to believe there was nobody that did as many organized activities as we did, yet we still managed to get only one nice prize (a luggage scale). In the past, we have at least both been able to get something, but they had the points organized as if it was a two week cruise, not a 7 night one.

 

We did feel the difference in going down in size from Spirit to Wind a lot more than when we moved between Wind and Whisper/Shadow or Whisper/Shadow up to Spirit. We missed the nicer pool lounges and nicer balcony furniture and the bigger bathroom and two TVs with the on demand movie system. We’d still sail on any Silversea ship with the right itinerary.

 

There was one formal night, four casual and two informal nights, and we enjoyed that mix.

 

Overall, we found the same luxury experience we are used to on Silversea and will surely sail again soon. My blog with many photos, a number of the lunch and dinner menus, and activity sheets are located at http://www.luxurycruiseandland.com

[Goldens4]

Thanks for the review. Enjoyed it very much.

[WesW]

Thanks Debbie and Todd for an outstanding review.

[WinWin]

Excellent review - thank you! I do follow your posts - thanks for being so informative!

[CanadianKate]

Great review that answered a lot of my questions.

 

Our last SS was on the Spirit and our next is on the Wind. Shadow is our favourite and I'm nervous about being on the smaller ship, especially on a sea-day intensive 28 day cruise. Knowing the level of the upgrades (there will be a Hot Rocks and the new TVs but not video on demand) is really useful to me.

 

Thanks for all the details.

[duct tape]

Another good one, Debbie! Thanx.

[DebbieH103]

Thanks, everyone for the nice comments. Even after several rereads, there are a few typos. The most glaring one is in the statement about staff feeling empowered where I mentioned calling something rather than calling someone. I hope you all got the drift there.

 

CanadianKate, the TVs are a little high up, but in the old days, they were too low. In addition to the rotating movies, they still have the DVD checkout system where you pick one up in the library and take it to the front desk.

 

Wind now has an observation lounge. If you are into the gym, it is small but less public than the Spirit setup. The steam room was not working, which was a disappointment, but I did not go back to see if it was fixed.

 

The buffets are still nice with a lot of selection, but you won't see quite as much choice as Spirit since there are less people.

 

Duct tape and some of the others can speak more to how the ship feels on a long haul. We felt the ship less than Spirit or Whisper or Shadow but we assume we were mostly in calm waters.