drron29

Next was our suite and the staff. Obviously Covid did not change the suites. We go for a superior verandah as they are higher decks than the classic verandah. they are more towards the bow but as we don't get sea sick that is not a problem. As everyone knows you have a butler and room attendant who look after several suites. We have only had 1 butler who was not up to scratch. The irony was her husband was als a butler who on the cruise after was our butler and he was one of the best. On this cruise our butler was an Indian woman. She did everything that was needed but we are fairly low maintenance so nothing too hard for her to do. Our Room attendant was from Kenya. He was brilliant. Always waited until we went out to do the room. But it was spotless. When we ran into him in the corridor he was friendly and very interesting. Found out a lot about Kenya. We had cruised with several of the staff before. One of the waiters in Atlantide had been on 5 previous cruises with us. Sure there are a lot of new staff as many after spending nearly 2 years with their families no longer want to be away so long. There are also sad stories. One of the deck crew I chatted to knew of 46 colleagues who had died of covid. I actually appreciated the new diversity in the crew. There were more from Eastern Europe,many African countries including Zimbabwe and South Africa. Some of the new recruits performed very well and may well become fantastic at their job with good prospects of promotion. Have the Silversea crew lost their lustre? Not with us anyway. Next I will look at our experience with food and wine.

Now to some more thoughts on our cruise. First of all the boarding experience as it has been mentioned several times as a real problem. We were a little hesitant as to how it would go. As it turned out no problems at all. Sure it was different to pre covid but that was inevitable. We had no problems getting our RAT test that morning at our hotel and 40 minutes after it was done we had the print outs of our negative test. No problems with our vaccination certificates as we both had had our 4th dose 19 days before boarding. A quick taxi ride to the dock. Before entering the terminal there were 3 lines which as there were only 7 passengers there at the time was fine. All your documents were checked and your luggage taken. Then into the terminal and a slightly longer line to fill out your health questionnaire, temperature taken then your health documents checked again. Next set of desks was Spanish Immigration with a perfunctory check of your passport. Then on to the Silverseas staff who once again checked your documents,kept your passport and took your picture. Rather than an extra step this was basically the same that was done pre covid just after you stepped on board. We certainly had had a couple of worse experiences pre covid. Didn't miss the glass of champagne as on boarding no queue to have photo and passport taken so straight into La Terraza for lunch and if one was really hanging out for champagne you could get one there but we preferred table wine. More of that later. And when we got to our room there was a bottle of champagne in an ice bucket with 2 champagne glasses. I can remember the times before RCCL when that would have been a bottle of Prosecco. So we were happy with our experience and I wonder if those times that boarding was a shambles whether it really was Silversea at fault or local port authorities and Immigration services. They would have had very little practice in dealing with tourists for nearly 2 years. Don't worry I have my flame proof uniform on.😉

Might even go to this one as well.

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Then the bad news our plane was going to be late. Started off at 30 minutes late but eventually nearly 2 hours. So some more plane spotting then checking out the food offerings. We were already drinking the wine! Here is the food available at the lounge. Immigration is after the lounge went a little early and of course the delay got longer when we reached the gate. A real scrum bparding But I pushed my way through as it was announced group 1 first which was business class. About 20 boarded before of of whom 1 was in J. A few of the overheads already full. So Row 2 of J. yes just the normal Y seat with the middle seat empty. And the meal. much better than expected. The crew was very good. An absolutely full flight and many were not very happy people but the crew handled them well and the J service was good. But a quite late arrival into LHR which meant straight through Immigration. but only got to our room at the Sofitel after midnight. I will come back in a little while with my thoughts. The quick summary - has Silversea lost it's lustre? Well not for us. We enjoyed this cruise as much as pre covid cruises.

We arrived at the airport just over 3 hours before advertised departure and could check in but they would only accept checked baggage 2 hours before departure. so an hour sitting in the airport. Finally through security and went to the Marco polo lounge for our BA flight. Views of Venice a bit hazy though. Good spot for watching planes. This plane arrived but unfortunately not ours.

I will now give a brief recap of our last day from arriving in Venice until our flight to London. We do our own air travel and transfers. just to give an idea of how things are different now we flew to London on BA. We booked 11 months out and the only flight with 2 business class flights was the 8pm flight. It is exactly the same for our BA flight from Rome to london in May 23 after our next SS cruise. Must be all those SS pax getting business class upgrades through the Silver Air program.😁 So we arrived in Venice. Unfortunately larger ships are no longer allowed into Venice and at 600 person capacity ours is a large ship. However the authorities outdid themselves providing us with the best car,truck and bus park views in Italy. Magnificent. unfortunately our flight to LHR wasn't until after 2000. SS did offer a late arrival at the airport with a prosecco tasting and lunch but advertised at $US 250 each. So we got a private transfer to the Courtyard by Marriott for E50 and a room there for E100. Able to have a little snooze,a small lunch and a shower before we went to the airport. The room And lunch. just shared a mushroom pizza.

Our final dinner. Rojaan had the tuna tartare and a veal chop. I had the mushroom soup and the fillet steak again. We both had the dessert special.

The last pictures are of the Ukrainian Opera singer. He got a big hand. The best thing about the farewell is that you get to say thanks to representatives of all the crew Some that you basically don't see.

The tour had run over time so we were hungry and went straight to Kaiseki. I hadn't posted the lunch time menu so here is is. And my first plate. The ship was now underway to Venice. That night it was the Captain's Farewell party. the voices of Silversea put on a short show with favorites from musical productions.

The last of the Palace. We now left the palace and walked back to the bus.

A more lively but commercial area of the Palace. But a few renovations going on.

A couple of things outside the gate. We were going to have a woman sing some Croatian folk songs outside the northern gate. so I wandered off and took some more photos. I don't think I would class this as Croatian street food. Got back to the group and no singer. suggested we might move along. guide put it to a vote and all voted to get going as we already were well over time.

We are now headed towards the northern gate.

And even an Escape room. Our guide talking to a few of our group. An oasis in the middle of history.

And what was said to be an original part of the palace with good acoustics. So let's make some money out of it. And now through a section that has been turned into apartments.

A guided walk around the palace. And complete with the Roman soldiers. Narrow laneways.

First a model of the Palace when it was completed. There have been lots of changes with the Palace basically having been subdivided over the years. Many apartments with a lot able to be rented. Frankly I wouldn't want to stay here. The entrance is via the basement. Which is basically a bazaar. Showing it's age and you can recognise the Roman brickwork. You emerge from the darkness to a great sight.

Past some Roman ruins. And an ancient fort on the top of a mountain. And a Roman aqueduct. Before arriving back in Split. To visit the Diocletian palace. Built by Emperor Diocletian when he retired as Emperor. He was born here.

There were also seedlings and flowers for sale. And a building across the bridge from the old town. Back on the bus and I was on the right side for the airport. So a post about plane. First before reaching the airport and then a plane preparing for take off. Then I lost it. The plane that is. I was lost long ago. Now some general views from the bus.

It was Sunday and people were going into the church. being cheeky I went in, sat in the back pew, took my photo and walked out. When my travel computer died some of my photos especially of Trogir weren't able to be recovered but you probably have seen enough old buildings anyway. We had free time and i went and walked around the Sunday markets. Lots of good stuff.

Then the old town. Then the view back from the gate. We arrived at the square as usual dominated by a church.

Past heavy industry. We have arrived at Trogir. The old town is on an island but the bus has to park on the other side of the channel. The view to the mainland.

Sunday and we have arrived in Split.The last port before disembarkation. On the bus and off to an old town- Trogir. Quite a few examples of old Soviet era buildings. I enjoyed the views of the mountain range.

Now to dinner. The entrees. I then had the lobster bisque. And for mains Rojaan had the lobster salad and I the veal chop. For desserts I had the special and Rojaan the Eton mess.