Dolcevita Diva

A few comments about venues and some differences from the other ships. The new location of the Arts Cafe close to the center of the ship and in the same area as Reception, Shore Concierge and Future Cruise Consultants creates a central hub. Despite the higher volume of passengers visiting the Arts Cafe, the team there, led by Tatiana, does a great job with thru-put and still provides that Silversea touch of remembering your favorites. I do miss the Arts Cafe outdoor seating, but there are plenty of other options for outdoor seating on this ship, though. There’s a wide variety of seating types in the Arts Cafe. Be forewarned; if you choose the mustard-colored armchairs, your quads better be in good shape if you ever want to get up. The most prevalent chairs are these odd-looking little round chairs that are guaranteed to improve your posture. One major change is that there is no alcohol served at the Arts Cafe and it closes down at 6 pm. I know some of you enjoyed stopping by the Arts Cafe after dinner for dessert or coffee with some Bailey’s or other liqueurs; that’s no longer an option. This also means that there is no bar on this deck(4) for passengers to stop by before or after a show in the Venetian Lounge; you’ll need to go up or down a deck. There didn't appear to be any beverage service in the Venetian Lounge on the occasions I visited, either.

Lois - You are soooo right. This “live” turned out to mean “hopefully she’s not dead.” 😂 The cruel ritual of disembarkation occurred earlier today, alas. So - let’s continue where we left off after embarkation. A quick flurry of activity after boarding (meeting my butler Olivia, safety video, muster drill) and then met up with my friends who had also booked this cruise. Quick note re: muster drill. Silversea is using the same approach (watch safety video, then proceed to muster station without your life jacket at the designated time) we’ve all seen recently with one difference. There are no life jackets in your cabins on the Silver Nova. In the event of an emergency, life jackets will be distributed at the muster stations. 🤔 As someone who has been through a true emergency aboard a cruise ship many years ago and has seen enough disaster movies to spur the imagination, this approach is rather concerning. Haven’t they seen how people attack the buffet in La Terrazza? Imagine what would happen to the staff handing out life jackets… My friends’ travel to Lisbon did not go as smoothly as mine. Heavy rain delayed their first flight by several hours and despite wind sprints through Newark airport, they and a half dozen other passengers missed the flight to Lisbon by 15 minutes. United routed them to Frankfurt for the night and then on to Lisbon the following morning; they went straight from the airport to the ship and were onboard by 1:30 or so. Cautionary tale - seems like arriving 2 days pre-cruise is the minimum now. We had missed a planned dinner at Grenache in Lisbon for the evening before embarkation, so first decamped to the terrace of the Panorama lounge terrace to raise a toast, then on to dinner at SALT Kitchen. We ended up closing the restaurant…then went up to the Dusk Bar on Deck 10 for sail away at 11 pm under a gorgeous harvest moon.

A few first impressions. As @TucsonGuy mentioned, this ship is simply gorgeous. There has been a tremendous amount of attention to detail in every area. The artwork throughout the ship is stunning: virtually everywhere you look, your gaze will rest on a painting, sculpture or unique glass art. The elevators!!!! Is it possible to fall in love with an elevator? The view of the sea from both inside and outside the elevator is mesmerizing, especially when at sea. And so quick. We’ve never needed to wait more than 1 or 2 minutes for an elevator. Outside of each elevator bank is a digital display listing the day’s activities and their location, so it’s always easy to keep track of what day it is or where you were going if life onboard is beginning to blur (something similar at home might be useful!😆) Videos of the veranda suites have been provided by others, but I wanted to note some of the additional attention to detail in the cabins. The vanity opposite the bathroom has a jewelry tray in the drawer and there is also a closable jewelry tray in the safe. Drawer dividers in the bathroom and desk drawers are a very simple but extremely useful addition for keeping your belongings organized. In the bathroom, the drawers are deep, but the custom divider “shelf” adds another level. My friends are in the midst of remodeling the bathrooms in their home and immediately sent a photo and change order to their contractor. One oddity relates to the new OTIVM toiletries. I was surprised to see the large bottle of conditioner on the bathroom counter - because the corner rack inside the shower isn’t large enough to hold shampoo, conditioner and shower gel bottles. Oops! But there’s ample room on the bench inside the shower to place the third bottle. And the shower IS quite large; plenty of room for a shower a deux…😉

Lois - the bus is outside of baggage claim for terminal 4. Since you are flying Jet Blue to JFK, your luggage will not be checked all the way through. You’ll need to claim your baggage and bring it on the bus with you to Terminal 1, then check your luggage at the Lufthansa/Swiss/Austrian checkin desk and go through security. As soon as you go through security, look to your left for the Lufthansa business class lounge. Do not follow the signs for airport lounges because the other lounges are in another area, while Lufthansa’s is right there after security.

You can always tell which group of passengers are boarding Silversea because Silversea passengers tend to have the classiest color-coordinated luggage at the cruise terminal. I arrived at 2 pm to a somewhat congested scene, as 5 bus loads of passengers from the hotel had been dropped off over the previous hour. The queue for check-in was the longest I’ve experienced for Silversea (then again, a few years ago there was only 1 person in line ahead of me to board the Whisper…). Probably about 80-100 people or so, but made far less comfortable by people unnecessarily crowding together in line. The woman behind me kept bumping me with her handbag as we slowly moved forward in the queue. Next time I think I’ll just start playing Sting’s Don’t Stand So Close to Me. 😂 And now we (finally!) get to the good part. By 3 pm I was aboard this absolutely gorgeous new ship. Cheers! 🥂

We landed in Lisbon on time and checked bags arrived quickly. Just a short taxi ride to the Tivoli Avenida Liberdade which is Silversea’s Grand hotel option. I had booked this hotel because my friends were staying there, but I booked independently through American Express Platinum, which includes early check-in/late checkout, a room upgrade, breakfast and a $100 property credit. My room was ready when I arrived at 3:00 pm and they informed me that my Deluxe River View room had been given a double upgrade to a family suite. The hotel location is excellent, on a beautiful avenue with leafy trees shading the sidewalk and an array of upscale shops within walking distance. The hotel has a lovely lobby bar and a trendy rooftop bar offering a fantastic view of the city. The moon shone over Lisbon and a quick search revealed that it would be a full moon for our sail away on the 29th. Since this is Silversea’s Grand hotel, here are a few additional details. The room was spacious and well appointed with very comfortable beds. Service was excellent throughout the hotel, the breakfast buffet offered many options (including cooked-to-order omelettes) and the lobby bar had pleasant entertainment and a nice menu of light bites. The hotel also sent up a small bottle of port and a plate of Portuguese pastries. Huge plus - the spa is fabulous. My back and many other parts were a mess after travel so I called down for an appointment. Although the masseuse was a bit lectury/negative (I know I’m a mess and you can’t fix it all 😂) - she did. Using a combination of Thai and Swedish massage; she worked absolute miracles - and the price was only half of the price for a massage on Silversea. Quibbles: That “ double upgrade”? Well, the room was large but had no view; the windows looked into an interior courtyard. Pretty sure I would have preferred the river view room was booked. This next one is hilarious. The hair dryer wasn’t getting enough power to work properly in the bathroom, so I tried it with other outlets in the room. It would not work with any of them. I asked the housekeeper for a new hairdryer. As it turns out, these are new hairdryers for the hotel and the current in the bathroom is not strong enough to power this. So you must plug the hair dryer into an outlet near the floor by your room door and lean over to dry your hair - with no mirrors. I guarantee that no female was involved in these decisions!😂😂😂 PS - And alas, as you can see, the carpet really was quite dirty. Surprising for a hotel at this price point.

It was fantastic, Lois. Where are you changing planes? Weather and travel issues continued in New York during the week before my flight and I was 99% convinced that the flight from Miami made more sense. But there’s an app called FlightStats that show delays by airport, route and airline. This app revealed that even on the days that a massive percentage of flights in and out of JFK were delayed, the Swiss flight departed on time. And Air Europa had cancelled its flight and experienced lengthy delays on 2 other days in the past week. So Swiss won the coin toss. I must lead a charmed life because the journey was flawless (except for the transfer via bus from Terminal 4 to Terminal 1 and then the hellscape security line at JFK). Flight from PBI left on time and arrived early, was able to cajole the receptionists at the Lufthansa lounge into access to the Senator Lounge showers - and then wonderful service aboard the Swiss flight to Geneva and then on to Lisbon. Geneva was a wonderful option for making a connection, as it’s a smaller airport and very easy to navigate. Not to mention the delicious Gruner Veltliner they were pouring…or the chocolates they ply you with at every turn. Even the meal on the shorter flight from GVA-LIS was delicious. IMG_1759.heic And yes, @lincslady, when you’ve not touched a dram in quite some time, then they start pouring champagne and wine on your flight…it certainly helped with sleep on the overnight flight!

I now have even more admiration to those who post Live threads - so much to do and so little time! A bit of a prelude. Just a few months ago, this voyage was not on my radar at all. The original itinerary was a 17 day Lisbon to Lisbon voyage that included a generous allotment of sea days and various ports off Western Africa. I seem to recall that @Silverspectre had booked that voyage. Much to the chagrin of the original passengers, earlier this year Silversea sent out its usual cheery message which has been known to be a harbinger of bad news to let those passengers know that “some adjustments” had been made to the itinerary. “Some”? Hmm, that’s rather like when a server on Silversea offers you “some” champagne and then continues to keep topping off your glass…Be very suspicious whenever Silversea uses the word “some”, as in Silverspeak that clearly means “a lot.” The new itinerary had absolutely nothing in common with the original except the city of embarkation and debarkation. @silverspectre and apparently a number of others cancelled - sad for them, but lucky for me! Because suddenly in May, 8 day and 9 day versions of this voyage appeared on the website. I quickly nabbed a deluxe veranda guarantee and emailed friends to see if anyone might want to come along. Now, before we get to the observation and details about the new Silver Nova, we first need to get to the ship, n’est ce pas? Silversea only offered this voyage as door-to-door without air. So it was time to fire up the search engines to attempt to find anything resembling reasonable business class air on an open jaw itinerary without much lead time. Business class airfare was running 6-7k per person at that point. Fortunately I have scads of airline miles, but apparently the entire universe went to Europe this summer, so availability was scarce. Luckily, I was able to snag a business class ticket on Swiss from JFK to Lisbon and bought a separate ticket on Delta to JFK. Given all the weather issues and travel woes this summer plus the fact that as a Floridian I had booked a trip to Europe during peak hurricane season (!), I began to second-guess the wisdom of this plan and later booked a separate flight from Miami to Lisbon via Madrid on Air Europa. And did not finalize the decision on which airline/itinerary until a few days before departure. Poor Blacklane kept sending me reminders to book my transfers… Yes, this absolutely was equivalent of being a “pool chair hog” with those airline seats.

Yes to all of the above! 😂

Thank you for leaving some champagne!

I’m aboard the Nova, will meet with a Future Cruise Consultant and ask. Was planning to ask this based on your previous post.

My first attempt at a Live - and I’m already late on sharing, well, anything about this journey. But since I’ve so thoroughly enjoyed the Live narratives from other CC denizens - and am on this fabulous new ship that you are all curious about - here goes. It’s taken a few days to pull out the IPad because alas, I did not properly prepare (er, train) to be onboard Silversea again. You see, my friends, around 6 weeks ago one of those pesky summer colds/flu took over and since an evening glass of wine does not pair well with cold medicine and soup - I stopped drinking. Egads. And after 2 weeks of surviving on tea and soup, I noticed that my clothes were looser, which if you’re female and planning to pack evening clothes, seems on the surface like excellent preparation for a cruise! So I continued to abstain from alcohol until departure. What was I thinking??? God help me.

@Lirio - Wonderful pictures - it looks like you are having a grand time in New Orleans! Several of the comments about jazz musicians, Pat O’Brien’s, et al, spurred some memories I think the Coolers may appreciate. Jazz - Sadly, one of my favorite jazz musicians who was a close friend of our CEO and became a personal friend as well passed away a few years ago. Ronnie Kole was a jazz pianist who has played for several U.S. presidents and for Pope John Paul II. https://www.nola.com/news/ronnie-kole-renowned-new-orleans-pianist-who-performed-for-6-presidents-and-a-pope-dead/article_3f343e6c-e939-11ea-b9d0-ebb26cad83af.html What the Coolers will appreciate is that Ronnie was also a wine connoisseur and collector who became close friends with several of the chateau owners in France and typically was invited to visit each year. We had been brainstorming with him on potential projects (cable tv series, etc,) to share his passion for wine with a broader audience. During one of his stays during harvest time, Ronnie arranged for the piano to be moved to the vineyard where he played for the workers during harvest. This became the catalyst for creation of a number of compositions inspired by the various wines/chateaux and two CDs titled Music of the Vines. So you can now listen to jazz compositions inspired by the wine while sipping on a glass of Chateau Margaux, Chateau Lynch-Bages, etc.

I lived in New Orleans for a few years several decades ago. Although that was quite a while ago, here are some classic sights/activities if you have time: @jpalbny is absolutely correct about soaking up the atmosphere in the French Quarter. Stop into Preservation Hall to listen to some jazz You've shown us photos of several cathedrals in Brazil - consider visiting St. Louis Cathedral on Jackson Square (and Cafe du Monde, which JP recommended, is right nearby) Take a streetcar down St. Charles Avenue If you have time, there are excellent walking tours of the Garden District. While you're there, wander down Magazine Street to peruse the antique shops The weekend Jazz brunch at Commander's Palace is fantastic (oops, too late for that) Take a cemetery tour The National WWII Museum and the New Orleans Jazz Museum Have fun! It's definitely an interesting city...

This is not the hotel that Silversea uses, but if your ship will berth at the Manhattan Cruise Terminal (near the Intrepid), the Kimpton Ink48 is a very nice property right there at the pier.

Mine too. 🥂

So sorry that you're missing Portland and Newport, Spins! What are the odds that a tropical storm would be impacting you so far north? Watching this very closely - not only for Spins, but because I'm scheduled to fly through NY on Tuesday to Lisbon...

At least one RCL executive seems to be feeling confident. Their EVP and Chief People Officer just purchased a $9 million home from a former member of the Miami Heat: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/real-estate-news/article279554189.html

Todays the day…time for a dance break!

I distinctly remember one business trip I was on in the U.S. The woman in the row behind me kept checking on the man seated next to me, so I offered to switch seats. It turned out that they were business colleagues in town for a meeting when he became ill and required an emergency appendectomy the previous day. He had checked out against medical advice to get home rather than stay in a hospital away from home and have his wife fly to meet him due to issues finding caretakers for their kids, etc. He was clearly in pain and not doing well on this commercial flight 🫤 Really highlighted the benefit of Medjet and similar services even for "everyday" types of trips.

I'd been looking at that itinerary also. Have you sailed with Windstar before?

Agreed, this would be fantastic and hope that cruise consultant was not mistaken. Be sure to confirm this with your own cruise consultant or TA.