The shadow alaska one year later

[UKCruiseJeff]

Jeff, thanks. Will be looking at them again. Will be on the Cloud soon and need to get lots stuff (work) done while I'm on-board. The wife will also want to be on to communicate with friends and kids.

 

The only challenge I can foresee is that the first time you use it you you need to set the parameters of the ships wifi in the travel router ie it's name, your suite number and any password they set just as you would on your pc or ipad, which probably means a laptop. The next time you go it will probably find it automatically unless they rename it. Everywhere I go my travel routers find the system automatically once i've done it once. You may be able to do this with an ipad .... I just haven't tried it.

 

It should then see the router as the single wifi connected device and then everything attached to the router via wifi is blind to the SS system.

 

I use several but the Kingston Mobilite also allows you to take a nice large travel hard drive for music and films that you can stream to an ipad. As long as you set an ipad for flight mode you can still use a Mobilite to stream music on long flights. Oddly, you can use flight mode and wifi safely although you should ask.

Edited August 5, 2014 by UKCruiseJeff

[harbormaster]

I see a thread has been posted on the internet plan so perhaps comments can be directed there. Observer, I don't quite understand your comments, as I have only posted on this thread regarding the internet plans.

 

Back to our trip report. The rain dissipated as we sailed out of Skagway yesterday and the sun was bright all afternoon, turning into a lovely evening.

 

Our trivia team came in second yesterday in a well played game all around. The best part was following trivia when Don Fluke did his Don-a-rama series of "Name that tune" songs, complete with gestures. It was hilarious and he is a real energetic CD.

 

Last night was the Venetian Society party and we enjoyed the welcome by the Captain and Selvaggia with drinks and hors d'oevres. The Artists of Silversea performed an aria in costume, adding to the festivities. Interestingly on this cruise, less than 20% of the passengers are Venetian Society members and no one had quite come to 100 days, although some are close.

 

We were invited to dinner with Don Fluke and two other couples. Don is so affable and has many stories about his years in the industry. It was an enjoyable evening getting to know fellow passengers and sharing stories of past travels. My rack of lamb was perfectly medium rare and tender. John's ravioli in truffle sauce was properly cooked as well.

 

We went to the theater after dinner to watch High Cs with the Artists of Silversea. The performance was great, showcasing all the cast members and mixing opera with contemporary tunes. We returned to the room to find that our butler, Muhammed, had set up a table with two desserts for our midnight snack.

 

We slept well and awoke this morning cruising on to Ketchikan for a noon arrival. The seas have been exceptionally smooth and this morning's sunshine is welcome, especially in a city where rain is so common. As we made our way into the dock, the Grand Princess and HAL were already in port. Fish were jumping and we saw a whale off the port side before we docked. Lots of people were on their way to their excursions before all aboard at 5 pm. The warm sunny day made our outside adventures very pleasant, a great wrap up to all the sunny, scenic ports. Back onboard, we will play trivia again.

 

Dinesh and Avronne always provide the great cocktails we sip while listening to Willy play the piano and sing in the Bar. He sounds incredibly like Willy Nelson. So we are off to there before dinner.

 

We have a special dinner ordered to celebrate our 43rd wedding anniversary and have sent the Dom Perignon to Max the sommelier for us to enjoy with dinner. Tonight's show is Signed, Sealed Delivered - a Motown tribute.

 

We would be remiss in not mentioning Begonia, the Guest Relations Manager. Begonia went above and beyond to assist us with a lost item and handled the situation with speed and efficiency. She is lovely to work with and we are fortunate that she is onboard.

[Observer]

I see a thread has been posted on the internet plan so perhaps comments can be directed there. Observer, I don't quite understand your comments, as I have only posted on this thread regarding the internet plans.

 

Your puzzlement is understandable. I am a klutz and posted to the wrong thread. :) I meant to post to the new thread about internet charges.

 

BTW: I very much enjoy your posts. I will be on Shadow shortly and am reassured that the ship is worthy of the Silversea brand.

[duct tape]

Befonia is special! Hugs,

[duct tape]

...and so is her twin, Begonia!

[UKCruiseJeff]

It don't pay to get their names wrong. They get upset.

 

I'm a lonely little Begonia,

In an Onion patch,

An Onion patch,

An Onion patch,

I'm a lonely little Begonia,

In an Onion patch,

Oh, won't someone come and play with me.

 

Boo hoo, boo hoo,

The air so strong it takes my breath away.

I'm a lonely little Begonia,

In an Onion patch,

And all I do is cry all day.

[Emtbsam]

It don't pay to get their names wrong. They get upset.

 

I'm a lonely little Begonia,

In an Onion patch,

An Onion patch,

An Onion patch,

I'm a lonely little Begonia,

In an Onion patch,

Oh, won't someone come and play with me.

 

Boo hoo, boo hoo,

The air so strong it takes my breath away.

I'm a lonely little Begonia,

In an Onion patch,

And all I do is cry all day.

And I always heard it was a lonely little petunia in an onion patch.

[UKCruiseJeff]

And I always heard it was a lonely little petunia in an onion patch.

 

I don't like petunias ;)

[harbormaster]

It is a gorgeous day as we enter the Inside Passage. 70 degrees with full sun and smooth seas. We have truly been fortunate this entire trip to have such spectacular weather. We are sitting by the pool bar finishing a beautiful buffet lunch of Nasi Goreng, gorgeous rare carved beef and luscious desserts. Reading, relaxing and enjoying our last full day.

 

Last evening was just wonderful and an example of how the Shadow is back to what we remember from past cruises. We went to the Bar for drinks and to listen to Willy (who sang Willie Nelson last night). Once more Dinesh made the perfect cocktail and Avronne was his cheery helpful self brining us hors d'oevres and the drinks. He had made us an origami cruise ship which the bar staff had signed wishing us Happy Anniversary. It was a nice gesture.

 

We arrived at the main restaurant about 7:10 and Gilbert welcomed us warmly and confirmed our special order dinner. Max arrived with our bottle of Dom Perignon that our butler, Muhammed had taken up for us. I had the shrimp martini and John had the crab legs. We each had a salad and then the Dover Sole we had ordered, cooked perfectly. We discussed the champagnes aboard with Max and how the house champagne has changed over the years. We said we liked the Pommery when Silversea had it as its normal champagne poured in the bar. Maitre' D Gilbert came over to express his good wishes and we talked about how he opened the Shadow years ago, along with other ships. He is a charming man who watches every detail.

 

It must have been the night for special orders. A large table near us ordered Rijsttafel and it smelled and looked wonderful. A definite idea for our next cruise. Our special order dessert Salzburger Nockerl Souffle arrived to end our evening with a flair. We appreciate the extra efforts of the chef and staff to make the evening so special.

 

We went up to the Panorama Lounge at about 8:45pm to enjoy an after dinner drink and the quartet. I had a Roma coffee which includes Frangelico and Baileys and it went down very easily. It was another beautiful night, although the wind had picked up a bit.

 

The Motown tribute show was fun and energetic. The Artists of Silversea are great. We've been told that when their contract is up, Disney will be overseeing the entertainment acts onboard the Silversea ships.

 

When we returned to our room, we were surprised to see balloons and ribbons everywhere wishing us a happy anniversary. Thank you Muhammed! Also, sitting on the table was a champagne bucket and a bottle of vintage Pommery courtesy of Max. Their thoughtfulness to us is overwhelming.

 

We turned our clocks ahead and slept well. I went up to the Panorama Lounge and Fe was there with a friendly greeting. She made our cappuchinos and espressos and I chose our pastries to take backto the room while we showered and dressed.

 

Picking up our passports, filling out our Canadian customs forms, checking in for our flight and getting boarding passes are all finished. Now we will relax, read our books and chat with new friends until Trivia and Don-arama later this afternoon. We'll turn our point tickets in for the usual Silversea prizes after today's Grand Finale Trivia.

 

Our overall impressions is that this is a ship in good shape with a crew with a big heart. Alaska is a prime venue on which to sail the Silver Shadow. We're glad we came back to give her another try. She did not disappoint.

Edited August 6, 2014 by harbormaster
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[ssawjo]

We have been enjoying your review/blog of your cruise. I am happy to read that you both had a great time and Happy Anniversary.

 

Bill and Kathi

[jongbj]

If I had known the situation I could have brought a router but honestly that is a pain in the backside. With as many minutes as we use we find the pricing to be very reasonable, much better than the other AI lines that we sail.

 

Not wanting to promote anything, but if you have a Windows computer you can use a program called 'connectify hotspot', it's free and turns you windows laptop into an access-point that allows you to connect your other devices to. It is even possible to share wifi over wifi

 

If you have a Mac, your other i-devices can share you wifi connection through a bluetooth PAN connection.

 

So no need to bring hardware (unless you have a Mac and non-apple devices)