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On Board The Silver Muse, Rome To Venice


jtm1
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Embarked this afternoon to this very new and striking ship. While the reaction one has to decor is subjective I must say I find the ship calming and quite lovely--at least as a first impression.

 

As for the My Silversea dining reservation system, it worked perfectly. This is the second cruise where I have been handed my confirmed dinner reservation list at check in. Both times the list was 100% accurate. For those who describe the system as a request not a reservation system, I believe they are mistaken

 

The dress code for this voyage is the one that will be ending in mid-October. But for our cruise the dress code is by dining venue, which we expected and are prepared for.

 

Wi-fi packages depend on your suite level. Silver Suites and above receive unlimited premium wi-fi that one device per passenger can connect to at one time. In other words I can have one device connected and my wife another one. Seems adequate to me.

 

Off to muster drill.

 

Jim

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Thanks for the report. Please keep us posted. Meanwhile, enjoy your cruise!

 

Times TWO!! Yes, second these wishes for a great cruise and appreciate these postings. Keep up the great sharing. Nice to hear such details from a set of "fresh eyes"!!

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

From our Jan. 25-Feb. 20, 2015, Amazon River-Caribbean adventure that started in Barbados, here is the link for that live/blog. Many visuals from this amazing river and Caribbean Islands (Dutch ABC's, St. Barts, Dominica, Grenada, etc.):

www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2157696

Now at 52,101 views for these postings.

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For those who describe the system as a request not a reservation system, I believe they are mistaken.
Jim,

 

I believe your comment is directed at me.

 

I am not mistaken with what I experienced. The most recent experience was Jan. of this year.

 

While your dinner times were honored exactly as you requested them, ours were not. We had to change venue dates/times once we received our reservations onboard. No big deal, but a hassle nonetheless.

 

Enjoy your voyage.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Embarked this afternoon to this very new and striking ship. While the reaction one has to decor is subjective I must say I find the ship calming and quite lovely--at least as a first impression.

 

As for the My Silversea dining reservation system, it worked perfectly. This is the second cruise where I have been handed my confirmed dinner reservation list at check in. Both times the list was 100% accurate. For those who describe the system as a request not a reservation system, I believe they are mistaken

 

The dress code for this voyage is the one that will be ending in mid-October. But for our cruise the dress code is by dining venue, which we expected and are prepared for.

 

Wi-fi packages depend on your suite level. Silver Suites and above receive unlimited premium wi-fi that one device per passenger can connect to at one time. In other words I can have one device connected and my wife another one. Seems adequate to me.

 

Off to muster drill.

 

Jim

 

Nice to hear reasonably balanced feedback. Based on some of the recent comments I was concerned it would be more luxurious going to Panera where they always have open seating. :D

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Jim,

 

I believe your comment is directed at me.

 

I am not mistaken with what I experienced. The most recent experience was Jan. of this year.

 

While your dinner times were honored exactly as you requested them, ours were not. We had to change venue dates/times once we received our reservations onboard. No big deal, but a hassle nonetheless.

 

Enjoy your voyage.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

 

That is weird. No way to explain how or why you would have a different experience. No offense meant.

 

Jim

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We received a call today from our SS rep. He said that our cruise (which is in September) will have the 'new' (OLD[emoji16]) dress code -- ship wide, not by venue but the 'open dining' in Atlantide and Indochine will not begin until mid-October. Whatever it is, we will be fine and are looking forward to our cruise on the Muse. We will report back in October.

 

 

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We received a call today from our SS rep. He said that our cruise (which is in September) will have the 'new' (OLD[emoji16]) dress code -- ship wide, not by venue but the 'open dining' in Atlantide and Indochine will not begin until mid-October. Whatever it is, we will be fine and are looking forward to our cruise on the Muse. We will report back in October.

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Great news! Though the dining system will not change until the day after our Montreal to FLL cruise, the restoration of sanity to the dress code in September is very welcome!

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We are now on the fourth day of our twelve day cruise so I thought I would give a brief update.

First, the condition of this brand new ship is, as would be expected, excellent. There are a few true improvements over other Silversea ships I have been on: the thermostats are normal digital types. Much easier to use and understand than the colder/warmer type. And more consistent in controlling the temperature. The walk in showers are larger. The TV's are brand new hd type. Picture is pretty darn good; although the wi-fi related TV content is slow and sometimes erratic. I do not particularly care to watch TV on a cruise so this no issue for me.

 

The ship is full: 587 passengers and 407 crew, so nearly 1000 on board and yet is does not seem crowded--except perhaps around the pool on these hot days in the Mediterranean. There are several large family groups and quite a number of children. But the size of the ship and the variety of outdoor and indoor spaces seem to minimize any disruption this might otherwise cause.

 

I know there is much concern about the dining and dress code issues--both of which will be resolved in the coming months. But, on this cruise everyone is behaving: dressed appropriately for where they want to eat. And it is my understanding that none of the dining venues, except La Dame and Hot Rocks, has been completely full. A few folks who did not use MySilevrsea have been disappointed in not being able to get a reservation at La Dame. Perhaps they will still have a chance.

 

So far we have eaten at Hot Rocks, La Terrazza, and Indochine for dinner and The Grill, Spaccanapoli and La Terrazza for lunch. Hot Rocks and it's daytime incarnation, The Grill, are like these venues on the other ships, except the menus have been expanded. This is also true for dinner in La Terrazza where, thankfully, the Duck Ragout Pappardelle remains a constant on the menu.

 

More later, for now I give two thumbs up to Silver Muse.

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Thanks jtm 1

 

As mentioned previously, we will board in Venice as you disembark, so I really appreciate the information you provide.

 

I think I have read that the Fox News Channel is available on other ships. Is that also true for the Muse?

 

I am a firm believer that dining should be a pleasant rather than painful experience. Did the menu in Indochine include selections that are spiced milder than the exceptionally hot items I have read about?:mad:

 

Thanks for your postings(y)

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Yes, Fox News is one of the channels. Also available are BBC News, CNBC, ESPN, MSNBC, Sky News and Sky Sports.

 

We had no trouble with the food in Indochine being too spicy. The waitress pointed out the hotter dishes (only a couple) and guided us well towards those we would enjoy. We will be going there one more time, so we did enjoy it enough to go back.

 

jim

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Hi Jim,

Now that you've had a few days onboard, I'm wondering if you've experienced a couple of the negative things we did.

Both cabin mirrors are not what one would expect since they are dark. It makes the room appear dark and made it difficult for my wife to apply her make-up at night.

The other issue was our inability to spend any time at all in the Arts Cafe. It's a beautiful setting, but the smoke from the Cigar Lounge next door was overwhelming. Locating these 2 venues side-by-side was a very poor choice.

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Haven't notice the mirror problem. We have only gone to Arts Cafe for a light lunch one afternoon. At that time there was no cigar smoke from next door. I do imagine it could be an issue in the evening when the smokers congregate. There are very few spots on board for folks to smoke so the smoking spot must get very busy at times.

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I have not seen any computer stations or printers. And I have explored enough to say that there are none. That is something that is quite different from other Silversea ships I have sailed on.

The free wi-fi is spotty. You get disconnected rather often and have to sign back in. The speed is pretty slow, but adequate for email and that sort of thing. I tried streaming some music but that was a frustrating failure.

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I have not seen any computer stations or printers. And I have explored enough to say that there are none. That is something that is quite different from other Silversea ships I have sailed on.

 

The free wi-fi is spotty. You get disconnected rather often and have to sign back in. The speed is pretty slow, but adequate for email and that sort of thing. I tried streaming some music but that was a frustrating failure.

 

 

 

Thanks for the reply, and sorry to hear that there are no computer stations or printers. This is an issue we have raised with the SS head of IT and directly with Mark Conroy, looks like to no avail.

 

 

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Agree with jtm1 and would generally give the Muse two thumbs up. There are a few niggles however. The number of children does affect the ambiance. It only takes four or five of them to make the wonderfully large pool seem like day camp during certain hours of the day. Spaccanapoli , the pizza venue, is a godsend for the parents. Can a Chicken Nugget Nook be far behind?

 

Dining outdoors at La Terrazza is lovely. Indoors however, the ambiance remains the same as it does at breakfast and lunch. It's a cafeteria that aspires to be a fine dining establishment. The food at Atlantide, Indochine and Hot Rocks has been consistently good. The selections for breakfast and lunch at La Terrazza are the best we've ever had. Special mention goes to the talented young singers known as the Artists of Silversea. This might be the most talented group we’ve had in many years. The staff has been outstanding and once they remedy the solo traveler experience, go to open seating in the two main restaurants and adjust the currently ridiculous dress code I would gladly sail this beautiful ship again.

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My mistake, there is a computer for guest use just outside reception on deck five and you can print from there as well.

 

 

 

Jim

 

 

 

Thanks for correcting, appreciate that. That's good news.

 

Asked the London SS office today and they did not know this, just shows how up to date they are!

 

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My wife and I were on the Spirit during July 17-26, Venice to Rome (I will be posting my random thoughts on this trip on Saturday hopefully). We were anchored in Taormina along with the Muse and the guests on each ship were allowed to visit the other. We spent about 1.5 hours on the Muse (without a guide) visiting most of the public areas and had a late lunch at the pool grill.

 

I think the Muse is a beautiful ship and think the coming changes will make it even better. It felt bigger (a plus in my opinion) and roomier without being too big. The pool deck felt much bigger. The pool grill menu was great. The gym is greatly improved and has bottled water. I love the color scheme.

 

Two negatives in my opinion are: (1) although La Terrazza is bigger and brighter, the outdoor dining area is smaller and the tables seemed really crammed together and (2) although the gym is bigger, it does not have the outdoor workout area that the Spirit has.

 

I think it was really cool they allowed guests to visit the other ship.

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