JSR

Sea Day #5 Today would have been Manta had it been safe to dock there... Luckily we have nice weather and calm seas. Last nights dinner at La Tereza was good. Nick really enjoys the home made pasta. Dinner ran late so we missed the show which was fine with us. Caught the tail end of the Venetian society cocktail reception prior to dinner. The person with the most days had over 2000 or over 6 years onboard. Today we enjoyed the hokey crossing the Equator ceremony, visiting on deck with ladies we met on our Cozumel tour, lunch, and an empanada cooking class at SALT lab. The cooking class was fun and will try and do one again on the next cruise. Learned you have to be proactive and sign up on embarkation day @3 pm at the open house. We were able to get in off the waiting list as additional classes were added due this becoming a sea day instead of Manta. You can sign up for 2 classes and waitlist for as many as you would like per segment. Service continues to be outstanding. Some ship thoughts... my husband and I are not keen on the asymmetry that is popular on many new ships. While I am sure it seems clever to the designer, it can be an annoyance when you run into unexpected dead ends and have to back track. This is personal opinion. Overall I love the ship. I like the big ship feel, the countless open spaces, the automatic doors every where, public bathrooms including ADA bathrooms are abundant though sometimes not convenient to restaurants. While I use a wheelchair full time and find accessibility 100 times better than on Silver Moon, for people using canes, and walkers it is challenging as the cabins are long and not wide enough to use a walker to pass by the bed. There are also not enough safety bars in the standard cabin for many getting in and out of the shower or tub. I have heard the previous comments from many people. Questions?

It rained all day. Went to hear Gabor give the port talk for a couple ports in Peru. It was informative. Ran into friends in Arts Cafe and hung out and visited. Then went to the Grill for lunch. They said the comedian last night was very funny. Tonight we have another guest entertainer. Going to try and go but you never know with us. We seem to be embracing the manana attitude. Tonight is the Venetian Society cocktails and formal optional night. Tomorrow is yet another sea day. We do have a Bridge tour scheduled and waiting to see what the other options are for the day. @Carolfay unlike last season Peru seems to be a good bet. Be safe and stay warm! jean

Today was fun and interesting. Transited the Panama Canal. Good commentary over the loud speaker. Very pleasant outside early this morning. Now very hot. Observation Lounge had extra chairs as well as sandwiches and cookies. Mechanical Mules pulled us through. We were #10 of 24. Sorry I didn’t get great photos. I forgot my phone in the first round of watching. Went to a good lecture on the Inca civilization in anticipation of our stops in Peru. Hoping to make it to the History of Champagne lecture later today . Others have said the Retired English Judge’s lectures are interesting and fun but we haven’t made it yet. The topic is murder and trials. the GV dinner last night was good. The Seabass prepared well and the appetizers and starters were plentiful. Assigned tables and seats. Our table was hosted by Christine, the head of HR. She is from Rio and was informative and fun. She is married to Gabor, the head of shore excursions, who is also great at what he does with a wonderful sense of humor. We had a meeting with him earlier in the day. As mentioned before, Manta, is canceled. Our next port is on 1/14. Now 3 more sea days making for 6 in a row. I will try and remember this relaxed pace when we hit Carnival in Rio and are on the go non-stop. Wishing you safe travels and calm seas

Manga, Ecuador 1/12 cancelled. Not unexpected. Good call by SSea to put safety first. Passengers will disembark today in Panama City around 6pm in a technical stop (only disembarking passengers will be allowed off the ship). We will have an additional sea day in place of Manta.

Today, I’m posting from my phone so I can add some photos. @TLCOhio we went to an interesting lecture about Moche culture related to our coming visit in Peru. While not in-depth it was interesting and will return for part 2. We have also listened to a good sax player. Many offerings for music, lectures, and shows. We are just slow to avail ourselves of them. Will keep posting as we do. Thought I’d share some photos of things that have enhanced our room that we brought and also purchased in Cozumel. Since I haven’t mastered captions I will explain them here 1. heavy duty magnetic hooks. No hooks provided in the cabin. Bought on Amazon and brought with us. 2. goofy toothbrush holders that adhere to the tile. Using one for a hook for nightie too as only one hook in our bathroom also Amazon and brought with us. 3.plastic basket with holds shampoo etc as there is no where secure for these items. Bought in Cozumel from a tourist shop near the pier. 4. for some reason the ADA vanity does not have drawers so purchased baskets at office max express in Cozumel near the pier. Tonight is a GV cocktails and dinner get together. We have also received some trinkets. Luggage tags (which I believe was ship wide not just GV), GV baseball caps, collapsable Panama hats.

Thank you all for your encouragement...I shall try and answer questions and continue to post. Here are a few tidbits from the rest of our lazy day at sea. A little background, I am traveling with my husband, we are both 65. We are on our first long cruise, the previous longest was 21 days on two ships with 2 days in between. Nick cruised on the SS United States as a child, and I have taken a few cruises with lady friends without him, making our number of cruises somewhere around the low 30s. We tend to gravitate to RCI products as they have a can-do attitude towards wheelchair users. (I am a paraplegic). We like different ships for different purposes. As I mentioned we are in the itinerary driven phase, so Silversea suits us. (Though I admit I am anxious to try the Icon of the Seas – with our daughter and finance for a ship as the destination cruise). I did a comparison of 4 different ships we were on in one year. I you are interested I think you can search posts by JSR. Today we tried La Terazza buffet for lunch. It has a lot of variety, and all seemed very clean and fresh. I had sushi roll, some sashimi, cucumber salad and then I discovered crab legs which had clearly been frozen but were still quite tasty. Nick enjoyed the crab legs, some noodle dish, roasted veggies, and a very small chicken sandwich. Passing by that Arts Café we noticed it offers sandwiches and wraps around lunchtime. I also discovered that Arts Café has water infused with cucumber, ginger and lemon, and another one I do not remember. I requested our butler put a few in our frig. I enjoyed the ginger one this morning while awaiting our coffee and the cucumber one this afternoon. I shall ask him to put several cucumber waters as I suspect I could drink several in the afternoon heat. They are a find. We have premium WiFi included with the Grand Voyage (GV) as well as laundry and wet cleaning. The Wifi works well except I could not stream the Ram vs 49ers game yesterday which was a bit disappointing. Hopeful that they will show the playoffs around the ship next weekend. Gave our laundry and wet cleaning to our butler the Saturday night (could have waited until Sunday morning), it was back to the cabin Sunday before dinner. OMG what I am going to do when we get home and I have to do chores again? This is the life!!! I will take some photos of the SALT menu and describe what we ate tomorrow. We are doing room service tonight as neither one of us wants to get out of our day clothes. Feeling overwhelmingly fortunate and blessed. Jean

We have only eaten there once so far and we are barely in our voyage, and our first port was in Florida. They did have some Mexico inspired dishes. I will report back after we are in South Ameica

No worries, I am sure we will not starve... and by day 69, a little less food maybe a welcome should we want to wear our clothes.

@seaver I will check for you. Please remember formal night option is the formal dress code on the Nova. We saw everything from Tuxes to sport coats and everything in between. Same for the ladies gowns to biz casual

We embarked on our 71 day South America Grand Voyage 5 days ago. We have moved in and feel like we have been here for much longer in a good way. Our butler, Manishe, is wonderful, he has learned we are easy going, speak up politely if we need something. We have learned that he is very willing and helpful, and we have all relaxed into a comfortable relationship. Our cabin steward is excellent, helpful, and always has a smile. All the staff goes out of there way to introduce themselves and provide wonderful service. This is our 31 cruise and gets the prize so far for the best service. Our cabin, 9041, is a premium Wheelchair accessible (ADA), veranda cabin. ADA cabins only come in two options, Premium Veranda and Silver Suite. We find the cabin spacious, light, with an extra-large balcony. The only glitch is the designer neglected to allow room for a wheelchair on the side of the bed, luckily, we were aware of this prior to embarkation and were able to work with the ship through SSea special services to find a solution. Our bed now runs parallel to the headboard, facing the ocean with one side open to the room. There is no walk-in closet but the L shaped closet works, oddly there are no drawers in the vanity so I purchased some plastic baskets in Cozumel for my makeup etc., there is also no shelf in the shower so I acquired a basket like one would use in a college dorm for soap, shampoo, etc. We did bring metal hooks for backpacks, hats, etc which we are glad we did. We also brought some plastic toothbrush holders that adhere to the bathroom wall and also a few extra which we use for bathroom hooks. The ship itself has a large ship feel with lots of open space. Arts Café can get very busy around tea time and there are fast moving lines to check in for dinner right after events like Captain’s cocktail hour. The need for restaurant reservations is very annoying and makes it difficult to spontaneously join people for dinner who have reservations other than at Alantitude and SALT. So far we have eaten at SALT, the Grill and La Terazza. We are more focused on eating ashore then on the ship. We had an outstanding brunch at Moon Dogs in Key West. The ship food is good to very good for ship food. We have little expectation that a ship tasked with feeding 700 people without daily access to local markets and delivery will be able to provide food quality of a land-based operation. My fav dish so far on the ship is the poached egg over spinach and quinoa at the Marquis. My husband really enjoyed the lamb chops at La Terazza. The fellow guests we have met have been interesting and fun to visit with. Diverse in their travels, most are retired and enjoying travel. We have only been to two ports so far, both of which we have been to numerous times. In Key West we did our own walking tour which started with Moon Dogs, followed by visiting the exterior of Hemmingway House to see the cats, and on to the Butterfly and nature conservatory. As mentioned previously, Moon Dog was outstanding, we had the special blackened fresh yellow tail eggs benedict with Key lime hollandaise sauce, excellent and subtle in preparation. The cats were charming, we did not bother with going to Hemmingway’s House as it was overrun with tourist like us. The Butterfly Conservatory was well worth the walk/roll, colorful, beautiful, interesting and serine. Key West of course has a great vibe and people watching. Cozumel, we took a ship tour which included the Mayan Experience, a tequila tasting, a brief stop at a Myan ruin. All I will say is if you have an opportunity to take this tour DON’T. Well, I think it might be time to consider glancing at the Chronicle to see if there is anything other than living the balcony life that we want to do today. May your travels be many and seas calm…

@ysolde and @dcsam thank you both for your input and information. We are considering all cruise lines. Nice to hear Viking is also an option. We are itinerary driven these days as we are in explore mode and up for trying new places. We are currently on Silver Nova for 71 days. The ship itself is super accessible with automatic doors everywhere, accessible public restrooms are abundant, service exceptional, even a decent number of wheelchair accessible included tours. The only glitch was the interior designer did not allow adequate space for a wheelchair to get on the side of the bed, so the bed is rotated parallel to the headboard, the bonus the bed now faces out to the ocean and the downside is the bed side lamp can not be controlled from the bed and I have to get in the bed using my weak side. Maybe my weak side will get stronger. Lol

We boarded on January 4 so have only been onboard 2 days. The service is impeccable. The asymmetrical design takes a bit of getting used though we have experienced this type of design on other ships. It gives the ship a big ship feel because it is long though not very wide. The service is exceptional, things are done when asked and followed up on. Seas are calm and meeting lots of lovely people. 69 more days ahead.

@ysoldethank you for the information. Was the cabin and the ship accessible? What stood out in terms of accessibility both positive and negative? we are currently on Silver Nova, Silversea’s newest ship. Lots of pros and some cons in terms of accessibility. They do move heaven and earth to correct any cons they can.

@bitobthank you. I think I read the thread then but didn’t remember it was the Moon so I couldn’t find it. Thanks for the search option.

Thanks for the information.

@RichT1 which vpn did you use? I have Nord

We leave January 2 for our GV on the Nova and I have a few last minute questions: - If you use a VPN, which one worked well on the Nova? - Did anyone have a massage therapist at the spa onboard that you would recommend and if so what is the person’s name (we like deep tissue)? - is there a trainer onboard currently? How are the workout classes? thanks for the help!

Bon Voyage! thank you for all your help and amazing posts. Have a safe, calm, and adventurous trip!

Is the form available online or does one need to contact SSea?

When we were on the Moon there was table tennis, and the occasional putting competition inside. There may have been more but that is all I remember.

We are on Nova. Not sure what the setup on Shadow is like, on the Nova that would not have worked. Moon was excellent setup so I hope the Shadow is more like the Moon. @ricktalcott I did request photos and measurements from the ship which did lead to solving the issue - not ideally but functionally. You may want to consider getting the information and measurements ahead of time.

@mysty thanks. At least we know ahead of time thanks to another poster on CC. Would have been walk into the situation with no knowledge or plan.

Thank you!!! We have already had a major glitch. Working with SSea to find a hack. Wheelchair accessible cabin has a major design flaw- only allowed 15 inches of access for to the bed. Kinda a glitchy but they have rotated the bed so it is parallel to the headboard and I shall learn to sleep on my husband’s side of the bed. A few more glitches to the new layout to fix but that is a major one. I was shocked to be honest with you since our HA cabin on the moon had an excellent design. I think someone convinced SSea they could squeeze a wheelchair accessible cabin in the same amount of space as a standard cabin. We won’t let it deter us from having fun but it is a bit appalling especially for what we paid for the cruise and a brand new ship. Oh well.