Kristal Blade

We were in Sirena in October for the northern cities tour. It was wonderful. The staff were great, service was excellent even if the supply of Villa Maria ran out. We didn’t want for anything! We took some wine on board with us, didn’t have time to drink it all! We enjoyed the team trivia every afternoon, made some new friends there. Food was delicious. We enjoyed the themed nights in the buffet a couple of times, staff there were wonderful, super keen to get you to try their particular speciality. We have been on 4 cruises this year, all with different lines (Cunard, HAL and Silverseas) Sirena was our favourite!

I take Kwells, you can dissolve them in your mouth and they are very fast acting. If your room is rocky in the day time make your way to the bar at the centre of the ship. On QM2 I have spent many hours in the Chart Room, nibbling dry toast.

We sail 23 October. Nothing for us yet. I rang Silversea yesterday and was told they would come from our TA so next call is to them.

I have just rung Silverseas and fully vaccinated passengers are no longer required to do a pre cruise Covid test. I had my 2nd booster today, husband last week so we are good to go! Happy holidays everyone

Well that was a bust. There was no up to date news about Covid testing, but I did find out that the residence of the Greek ambassador needs new curtains!

We are sailing on 23 October with Silverseas. Their website was updated on 10 October to say vaccinated passengers no longer needed a Covid test pre cruise, but they did not say if this applied world wide. I’m hoping Greece is included in this. Im thinking of checking out the Greek Embassy website. Will report back if I get a definitive answer!

I think there are 550 on board this current cruise. It hasn’t felt crowded at all. I have only been swimming once and I was on my own in the pool. Hot tubs are busier. Terrace cafe food has been very good at lunchtime and the German buffet dinner was fabulous. They did sushi one lunch and it was great. Some of the soup choices are a bit odd. Today it was salmon tamarind soup. I didn’t try it as I don’t like tamarind. The Caesar salad is excellent. Tossed to order and you can select what you want. I had it with no croutons and extra anchovies. Maybe that’s not what aficionados would call Caesar salad!

Definitely the wurst!

We are on board Sirena right now. We have got a 2nd Red Ginger reservation for tonight. Booked it this morning via the reservation desk on deck 5. If you are sharing a table you may be luckier with getting a 2nd booking, which is our case. I would agree about the soufflés in GDR. Delicious. We enjoyed the speciality German dinner in the buffet a couple of nights ago. It was so well done and so popular they did it again last night. They had all sorts of smoked fish, cold cuts, sausages, roast pork, red cabbage…. Yummy!

We are on this cruise too. I have to say I am enjoying the chocolate! I had a pain au chocolat yesterday and thought it was good. I’m sorry you aren’t enjoying it, Oskidunker, we all have different palates. Try the soufflé for dessert. Last night was limoncello and it was delicious. Today we did our own thing in Copenhagen, walked 6.5 miles around the city and loved it. We took an Oceania excursion in Zeebrugge, Bruges a mediaeval gem. Our guide was very good. He walked us round at a decent pace, we often had to trot to catch up as we were dawdling along enjoying the scenery. The trip included a canal cruise which was a bit dodgy because the boat “captain” forgot to tell us to duck for the low bridges, fortunately we all survived. We have a ship excursion in Oslo and another in Kristiansand. We normally do our own thing but we had 3 free each as part of our package. Service on board is fantastic, the staff are so friendly and willing to please. We have been able to book a second date at Red Ginger tonight. I think it helped that we wanted to dine with some new friends and a table for 4 works better for them. Our room stewards are lovely. They are cleaning ninjas who sneak in, tidy the room and deliver chocolates every night. We are in a outside cabin. The bed is super comfy but the bathroom is super small! For this 10 day trip it’s fine. It definitely beats being at home!

We are on Sirena right now. last night was our first night. We ate in the main dining room, found lots of good things on the menu and started a sharing table. We were quickly joined by 2 other couples and had a really good night of interesting chat. No boredom for us!