Review of Silver Moon

[Gourmet Gal]

Even premium WiFi was slowwww last month on Silver Moon.  Let’s hope the new satellite system works better.

[Silver Spectre]

1 hour ago, Gourmet Gal said:

Even premium WiFi was slowwww last month on Silver Moon.  Let’s hope the new satellite system works better.

So agree, premium is glacial.

[Catlover54]

On 10/21/2022 at 5:43 AM, Nemanoxer said:

As a first time Silversea guest, I wonder if making reservations in the included restaurants way before the cruise is really a must.

 

Having people talk about "small ships", my inner eye makes up images like I would be going on a yacht. I know Silver Moon is not really "small". However, I wonder if she will be fully packed on my 12 day trip from Rio de Janeiro to Bridgeton on 22nd February. Or are the reservations mandatory, anyway?

 

1.  SALT is included, and  requires reservations, but  only once you are on board.  I recommend checking it out early in the cruise to see if you like what they are serving, and then making reservations for more dinners if you do.

 

Same thing for Silver Note (a very popular venue and small, with a music duo, so reservations may likely be needed even if the ship is not full)

 

2.  As you are cruising solo, and like to socialize, (short of booze parties), I encourage you to let the maitre d' know early in the cruise that you are interested in joining other solos for dinner (if that is the case), so you can scope them out (or, if they are awful, avoid them going forward :)) 

 

Also keep a lookout in the daily programme for solo get-togethers, and make yourself known to the CD (again, only IF you want to socialize).

 

3.  Download kindle or ibooks in advance of the cruise (make sure they are on the device, not just available online), in case you get bored.

 

My guess is you will have a wonderful time.

Meanwhile, I will head for Hapag Lloyd for variety 🙂

Edited October 26, 2022 by Catlover54
Typo

[Gourmet Gal]

6 minutes ago, Catlover54 said:

 

1.  SALT is included, and  requires reservations, but  only once you are on board.  I recommend checking it out early in the cruise to see if you like what they are serving, and then making reservations for more dinners if you do.

 

Same thing for Silver Note (a very popular venue and small, with a music duo, so reservations may likely be needed even if the ship is not full)

 

2.  As you are cruising solo, and like to socialize, (short of booze parties), I encourage you to let the maitre d' know early in the cruise that you are interested in joining other solos for dinner (if that is the case), so you can scope them out (or, if they are awful, avoid them going forward :)) 

 

Also keep a lookout in the daily programme for solo get-togethers, and make yourself known to the CD (again, only IF you want to socialize).

 

3.  Download kindle or ibooks in advance of the cruise (make sure they are on the device, not just available online), in case you get bored.

 

My guess is you will have a wonderful time.

Meanwhile, I will head for Hapag Lloyd for variety 🙂

That’s odd. On my sailing reservations were not required for SALT.  We were able to book Silver Note, La Terrazza, La Dame, Hot Rocks and Kaiseki in advance online.  Both SALT and Atlantide did not require reservations.

[Catlover54]

24 minutes ago, Gourmet Gal said:

That’s odd. On my sailing reservations were not required for SALT.  We were able to book Silver Note, La Terrazza, La Dame, Hot Rocks and Kaiseki in advance online.  Both SALT and Atlantide did not require reservations.

 

Thank you. You were on more recently than I, so I will of course defer to you about whether SALT needs reservations (and Nemanoxer will have a list right now of what he can and cannot book in advance). 

 

 

La Dame and Kaiseki were by reservation and for a fee for dinner, but Kaiseki also did lunch without fee or reservation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[rosepark]

SALT Lab requires reservations for classes. SALT Kitchen, for dinner, does not. 
Rp

[les37b]

3 hours ago, rosepark said:

SALT Lab requires reservations for classes. SALT Kitchen, for dinner, does not. 
Rp

 

I was about to say the same and that was the case on the shared sailing with Catlover54 in January, so I suspect it was the classes that caused the confusion.

 

 

[Lois R]

Salt? Never needed a reservation and I most recently ate there back in June.

[Nemanoxer]

I will take it easy and eat where I get a free space. I guess.

 

Find it somewhat disappointing that making advance plans is necessary at all in this price class. They should be dancing to my tune, not the other way around. 

 

Finding flights from Europe and back has proven to be a mess. Wish I was smaller or wealthier so that I could either cramp myself into Economy and have that issue solved by Silversea or just book Business / First no matter what. Guess I was a bit too fast hitting that "Book this voyage" button... 

[Nemanoxer]

I will have to cancel my reservation because of insane flight prices. Flying into RIO and out of BGI would have cost me almost the same price as the cruise itself. Totally nuts even regarding the time we live in.

 

I´m really sad I will not get to know this amazing ship. At some point, I was not sure if Sliversea is not too nosy for someone who tends to find Celebrity formal nights a bit stuffy. Also read a lot of mediocre food reviews compared to same level competitors. And was not sure about who would be my follow guests as discussions about the dress code in every second or third Internet posting left a strange impression about what kind of people are on the ship after all.

 

But I had decided to try it for the sake of my special offer and my "I wanna do that one time in my life" attitude. So sad.

 

For all those who can go - I am really jealous and hope you are all having great vacations and fantastic memories. May Aquaman be with you 😉

[Gourmet Gal]

As I recall your nightly rate on the cruise was only $330 per night. Yes, flights are expensive now but with that nightly rate it isn’t hard to exceed that with air fare.  Not sure how many nights you had planned but sorry to hear it isn’t working out for you.  It would have been easy otherwise to justify the possible negatives for such a great cruise price.  I think the dress code issue gets overblown, and there is always good food to be found somewhere on the ship.  Service is usually excellent and the ship is beautiful.

[Nemanoxer]

23 minutes ago, Gourmet Gal said:

As I recall your nightly rate on the cruise was only $330 per night. Yes, flights are expensive now but with that nightly rate it isn’t hard to exceed that with air fare.  Not sure how many nights you had planned but sorry to hear it isn’t working out for you.  It would have been easy otherwise to justify the possible negatives for such a great cruise price.  I think the dress code issue gets overblown, and there is always good food to be found somewhere on the ship.  Service is usually excellent and the ship is beautiful.

 

You are right, the cruise price was phenomenal given one of the best suites on the ship for about 3960 $ for 12 days on a perfect itinerary.

 

I just skipped noticing that I would be in Rio for Carnival which makes my hotel about 1000 $ more expensive than it would be two weeks later. And I knew flight prices are up, just did not expect them where they are. 

 

Sometimes we just lose the game.

[Lois R]

Sorry things did not work out for you but if I may say something about your comment :

 

"about what kind of people are on the ship after all"......there are many folks who are kind, courteous,  friendly and enjoy meeting folks from around the world.

We enjoying visiting other countries and love cruising. 

 

Message boards are a very small % of folks who sail.

[saminina]

So you took about a $1600 hit by cancelling.   Not bad, all things considered.   There are better travel agents than the one giving you advice.

 

Edit to add.....If you found flights that totaled about same as cruise fare, that would have increased your per diem to about $670.   By SS standards for single occupancy, a true bargain.   

 

 

Edited November 18, 2022 by saminina

[Catlover54]

6 hours ago, Nemanoxer said:

 

You are right, the cruise price was phenomenal given one of the best suites on the ship for about 3960 $ for 12 days on a perfect itinerary.

 

I just skipped noticing that I would be in Rio for Carnival which makes my hotel about 1000 $ more expensive than it would be two weeks later. And I knew flight prices are up, just did not expect them where they are. 

 

Sometimes we just lose the game.

 

It is not uncommon for cruise prices to run a bit low in less desirable areas, and unfortunately one of the things that makes an area less desirable is having to pay a lot of money to get there and/or having to pay a lot for pre and post cruise hotels.

 

I will add that the headache of getting somewhere remote, especially these days, where a cruise starts,  is also a disincentive to some.

 

Maybe you can catch a SS ship in Europe this summer (i.e., a shorter trip from Germany , so for a short flight  perhaps you could stuff yourself into coach -- I envy Europeans who can easily access so many places to cruise). But   then likely the prices will be more than $330 a night.

 

Inflation sucks.

[Silver Spectre]

8 hours ago, Catlover54 said:

 

Inflation sucks.

Too right it does, the discredited UK measure that really reflects things for the OAP’s just hit 14.2% here.