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Muse: YUL to FLL 2017-9-28 to 10-12


meow!
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SYNOPSIS

 

We flew to Montreal on 25 September, stayed three days at the Lowe Hotel, boarded the Muse on 28 September, disembarked on 12 October and flew straight home. We had been watching and longing for this for a long time.

 

On the whole, the construction and cabins are superb. While many ships use some granite and marble, they are used so extensively on the Muse that it is exceptional. The quality of the material used is exemplary -- plain functional (not traditional ornate) but elegant and luxurious. The details will be discussed bit by bit later in various sections.

 

While the hardware was excellent, the software, from the food to the deployment of the courteous, hard working staff, was more subjective. I asked a number of people on board, and they have differing opinion. Some people thought that the food was not as good as on Oceania (a line that was known for superlative food), while others sang praises of the Muse's food. In any case, as a new ship, the software was still being developed and modified.

 

With two weeks, we tried all restaurants and went over all public areas, took both the bridge and galley tours. We wondered why the items available and operating hours of the pool bar and pool grill were so limited. We thought the portions of food served were somewhat large, we usually asked for a half portion.

 

Most staff members of all ranks already could recognize most passengers, by looks if not by name after the two weeks. Compared to a decade ago, the service had become less formal and more (egalitarian) friendly, more reflective of modern society. Most (though not all) passengers greeted one another while passing by, the atmosphere was nice and cordial.

 

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Thanks very much Meow for sharing you initial YUL to FLL impressions, very helpful. Look forward to future posts.

We are most delighted to hear from our Colonel. We wish you all the best and look forward to reading your report on the Muse in a few months time. Thank you.

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INTRODUCTION

 

We visited Montreal more than once, the last time being in 2011, half a dozen years ago. Then with road construction everywhere down town, it was like a "war zone". Even now, road work has not been fully completed, but better than before.

 

The last time we stayed at the Sheraton, somehow it had already removed "minibars" from the rooms. So if you woke up in the middle of the night and wanted a chocolate bar or a can of diet coke, you had to get dressed, walk down the corridor (or the next floor). We decided then to look for another hotel. We found the Lowe, right next to the Ogilvie store.

 

That was a large building including the department store, together with floors of individual boutique stores under the same roof. While it could not be compared to downtown New York, it had the French Canadian flavour which made it unique and attractive. The female cat loved it, and even though we could not afford to buy much, looking was interesting and free!

 

This time, Ogilvie was closed except for a small area in the basement for "renovation". They told us that it would reopen in at least a year. Why would renovation, not rebuilding of the structure take a whole year or more? They told us that some old department store buildings were left empty for years!

 

Every time we went to Montreal, we would eat "Montreal smoke meat", a well known delicacy. This time, the taxi driver took us to "Charcreterie Hebraique Schwartz's", presumably the best smoke meat restaurant in town. We bought 2 lbs for C$40 to take with us, to eat over the next couple of days.

 

The temperature on 26th September was 27*C (81*F), but the next day, it rose to 32*C (90*F), really hot. We were waiting for sunset before we went out to eat. But then came pouring rain, so the smoke meat we bought would be our meals.

 

There were three piers in Montreal, nobody knew where the Muse would dock. The taxi driver said we would pass by the piers one by one and would not miss the Muse. It was not the first one, driving from our hotel. The second was a "tent pier", we saw the Muse. It was not that simple, the taxi had to zig zag for C$10 extra before finally getting to its entrance. Other than the boarding requirements, this "pier" had nothing at all.

 

Before leaving home, we read how Montreal spent C$75 million modernizing its pier (obviously another one, the one farther down), but then how did the Muse get shoved to the least desirable tent pier? While driving, the taxi driver told us that Montreal had sadly quite a few lean years and high unemployment. Though "French Canadian separatists" savour their pride, making a living had become more difficult. As tourists, we just listened, it is always best to let the locals solve their own local problems!

 

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Edited by meow!
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THE CABIN

 

To experience the Muse's cabin was a primary objective of our going on this voyage. We had a basic balconied cabin, and all three categories of the so called "verandah suites" were identical except for location on the ship. We measured with tape the whole cabin, both indoors and the balcony.

 

The balcony, with just an inch thick partition between adjacent cabins measured 10'0" x 6'11" = 69 sq.ft. The indoors portion, at its longest (except the entrance "cut") measured 33'6" while the width was 9'7" (4" less than the balcony because of the cabin wall thickness). We had to subtract 6 sq.ft. for the "door indent" at the corridor (the corridor was wider at the cabin door). The indoor area of the cabin (we counted the balcony sliding door rail as indoor) would then be 318 sq.ft. The total area of the cabin, including the balcony, would then be 387 sq.ft., as Silversea had claimed.

 

The two reclining chairs on the balcony were comfortable enough. We had not eaten breakfast on the balcony itself. The balcony floor was solid teak, but the sliding doors could only open to a maximum width of 26", and the "centre table" was kind of small, designed for casual snacks rather than full "set up dinners". It was particularly nice to sit there and watch the ship enter and leave ports, or perhaps a memorable sunset/sunrise when the weather permitted.

 

There were two independent television sets, one in the sitting area and the other in the sleeping area, both encapsulated inside "mirrored walls". We could choose different channels for each. Both of them had "picture areas" of 34" wide, 19" tall, and 40" diagonal measurement. The TV controls provided were quite responsive, and we did not have trouble operating them.

 

As a new ship, the air conditioning worked well as expected. Unlike mass market ships which would have one outlet at the ceiling blowing down, the Muse, like all Silversea non-excursion ships had air conditioning (slit) openings on the ceiling partition between the sitting and sleeping areas, with diffused air gently blowing in both directions. These two slits were perhaps one inch times two-thirds of the width of the cabin (say 6 ft.). There was only one thermostat control in the cabin, and the choice of temperatures was irregular, at 19,0*C, 19.5*C, 20,5*C, 21.5*C, 22.0*C, 22.5*C, 23.5*C, 24.5*C and 25.0*C. Why was it at irregular intervals was not known. We kept it at 21.5*C and it was comfortable enough for the entire two weeks.

 

As previously mentioned, solid granite and marble were extensively used. In the living area, the solid granite top (for both writing diary and putting on make-up) was 107" long, 18.8" wide and 1" thick, and it was 30" tall (above the floor). It spanned the entire length of the living area. Underneath it was a frost free mini-fridge on one side (with no freezer section), and three large drawers on the opposite side, each 34" wide and 5" deep, internal measurements. Above the granite top was the aforementioned "mirror encapsulated television".

 

Also in the living area was a soft oval stool, at 17" x 23", which could be tucked underneath the granite top. There was also a long love-seat and a side semi-armchair. On each side of the long love-seat was a night table with granite top and a shelve below. Then there was an oval granite centre table, toped with a solid piece of granite, 21.8" x 38" x 1.4" thick, which was impressive. For eating "formal meals", a wooden "converter" foldable and with an underneath cut indentation to fit the granite centre table could be placed on top of the centre table. Then table cloth and lots of high grade china plates and bowls plus utensils (no solid sterling though) would be supplied.

 

The butler would carry all these from a cart outside the cabin to the dining table and serve your ordered food. This applied to all in-suite meals, breakfasts, lunches and dinners. After each meal, the wooden converter would be folded up and stored in the walk-in closet next to the tall drawered cabinet. Each butler cabin cleaner pair was responsible for one side (divided by the corridor) of one section (front, centre, aft cabins) of each passenger deck, which meant some 15 cabins. We felt sorry for them!

 

In the sleeping area, usually, two twin beds 78" long and 2x33" = 66" wide were put together, Usually each passenger was supplied with two large pillows and a decoration pillow. There was a granite topped night table on each side of the "European queen size" bed. In addition to lighting on each side of the bed, there was "goose neck" flexible spot lighting for each passenger. We thought those would be the first items to break, but they should be easily replaceable. The clearance under the bed was 12".

 

... this section is getting too long, we will continue with this section tomorrow ...

 

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Wow, and I thought I was bad enough for measuring the length of the mattress, 80" by the way.

 

Did you miss the fact that there were no shelves?

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Thank you kindly for your reply. Unlike the Spirit, there are no shelves on the wall !

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This is a great report and I'm looking forward to the next installment. Can you talk about power outlets?

 

THANK you for taking your time to do this amazing synopsis..

We will continue with the "Cabin" later today.

 

The North American electrical outlets were badly placed with no perimeter space between two adjacent square sockets. That made plugging in two normal plugs side by side impossible. This was an obvious design flaw. We will discuss this later.

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... the Cabin section continued from above ...

 

Unlike the living and sleeping areas, the washroom was full of marble instead of granite. The floor of the bathroom was teak bordered with marble. The walls were lined with "square foot marble tiles". The "bench" was a single piece of marble 60" long with an oval sink 21" long x 13" wide. The 60" long bench was 17" wide at the two ends and 22" wide at the centre, where the oval sink was situated. This sink was mounted flush with the bench, North American style, and not some European "fountain basin" design as in the Spirit. We found that more practical.

 

Over this bench counter, flanked at the two ends were racks each with three shelves backed with mirrors 43" high x 16.3" wide. A full width (spanning the bench counter) and height (from the bench to the ceiling) 60" x 42.5" mirror gave clear looks of oneself with good lighting. There was a curved towel holder attached to the front of the bench. Below sink-counter was a marble "base" 4" high from the floor with a waste bucket at the centre.

 

The bath tub was full length with irregular width, at 16" deep, with matt, slip resistant bottom. It was equipped with hand held shower head and the usual controls. The shower stall was 6'6" high, irregular in shape, but very practical with both overhead "rainforest" and hand held shower heads. The adjustable water strength and temperature was quite steady despite mild ship movement at sea. The shower door had reasonably good seal and water generally did not leak outside when the door was closed. On the wall of both the bath tub and the shower were mounted vertical hand rails, to prevent falling especially when the ship was moving.

 

As on the Spirit, the toilet was by "JETS" with a seat hole of 11"x14" and good suction, usually flushing the toilet bowl clean (you can flush it again and again, or flush it continuously for a minute). The toilet paper supplied was less than ideal, with some rolls or portions of rolls not properly "indented" and often did not break cleanly at the prescribed cut. This can be easily solved by choosing another brand. By the way, the bathroom door was 22" wide.

 

The walk-in closet door was 20" wide, slightly narrower than the bathroom. It had a tall cabinet with 6 drawers each 21" wide x 15" deep x 5" high, all internal dimensions. At the top was an electronic safe which could contain a 12"x14"x5" box, so it could hold a small laptop computer, an i-pad/i-phone, your passports and jewellery.

 

Next to this tall cabinet was the clothes rack 6' long, There were more than a score of high quality, wooden clothes hangers (more than other cruise lines). On top were the two bright orange life vests, and below was another rack for shoes and small pieces of luggage. Hidden in-between the clothes and the tall cabinet was the foldable centre-table wooden converter previously mentioned. The whole arrangement was practical and elegant.

 

There were three telephones, one in the bathroom, one on the night table in the sleeping area, and one on the long bench in the living area. On the ceiling were multiple smoke detectors and sprinklers, and different types of lighting. Both the ceiling and the floor edges of the living area, sleeping area and cabin entrance were bordered with straight "carpentered" light coloured wood, no curves or sculpturing. The theme was modern. There was an in-cabin loudspeaker on the ceiling, loudly broadcasting whatever messages they wanted passengers to listen.

 

There were numerous electrical outlets. The North American type in the living and sleeping areas were in pairs and square shaped, mounted horizontally side-by-side, with no "margin" between them (unlike the vertical pairs with small spaces in-between the two as in North American homes). So if you plugged in a jack that had any "border" at all (as for most appliances), only one jack could be plugged in at a time. This was an obvious permanent design flaw which could not be corrected. It must be noted by the owners, to ensure that if the Moon would be built later, this mistake must not be repeated. This was the sole serious black mark of an otherwise superlative cabin.

 

After those two weeks, we felt sorry having to leave. Every corner of this cabin was fondly remembered. Anyway, we were already luckier than most, to have this experience at all.

 

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The very narrow spacing of the two 110v power outlets is common to pretty much all cruise ships so I have made myself a couple of adapters. I take an ordinary domestic extension cord (the sort with three sockets on the end), cut the plug end off leaving a short amount of wire (I have one 6 inches and one 9 inches), and put a new plug on the bare end - non-polarized is more useful. This gives me two outlets with room to plug anything in, and if I need three, I simply plug one extension into the other. These extensions are much smaller and lighter than a power strip, plus I only need low current for charging laptop, phone and suchlike, and they tuck easily into a small space in the suitcase.

 

I travel with at least one everywhere I go and find them invaluable whenever I'm unable to plug something like the bulky end of the laptop charger directly into the power outlet, or I only have one adapter for power outlets in other countries.

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Pith helmet on! :)

 

JJ, this is not a sensible thing to do or to suggest to others. Polarity is there for a good reason and it is extremely unwise to cut off and replace polarised plugs with unpolarised ones. Most of the time you will possibly be safe. However, using a home wired ie non-soldered non-double insulated plug will provide relatively unprotected non-polarised leads. This used to feed something like a travel iron for example is potentially lethal.

 

This explains the hazard you are creating.

 

 

QUESTION: Can I file down the wide tip on a polarized plug without bad effects?

ANSWER: No! Inserting a polarized plug the wrong way around, which becomes physically possible when you file down the wide prong, could create a shock hazard by making the appliance cabinet live even when the switch is turned off. The slots in a polarized receptacle are different sizes to prevent this very thing. The wide slot is connected to the neutral wire and the narrow one to the hot wire. The polarized plug ensures that the inlet side of the appliance switch is connected to the hot lead. This keeps components beyond the switch inside the appliance from being electrically hot when the switch is turned off.

If you have nonpolarized outlets and need to plug in a polarized appliance such as a TV set, don't ever file down the wide plug prong. Instead, you should replace the receptacle with a polarized outlet and make sure it has been wired correctly with the neutral wire going to the terminal for the wide prong and the black hot lead going to the one for the narrow prong.

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Oh for heaven's sake!

 

I do know how to wire a plug properly.

 

I said I use it for low current application.

 

I always unplug and put away appliances when not in use.

 

OK, other people who might find this tip as useful as I do, listen to teacher and use a polarized plug.

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Meow....so enjoying your in depth posts...thank you.

 

Jolly...you're bang out of order and I'd be worried if l was on board...may l respectfully ask if you are a qualified electrician....

 

My sincere apologies to Meow for taking this thread off topic on this issue but it's very important to be aware that one cannot fiddle about with a potential fire hazard....and having experienced such at sea l know.

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Apologies to JJ if my post upset you so greatly and to Meow .... I really was simply alarmed at what was being suggested in case anyone else did the same thing and used it. My note was I felt courteous and not rude in any way, and there really is no need for the rudeness. With respect JJ, no sensible person would cut off and replace a polarised plug with a non-polarised self-wired plug - for whatever reason - just in case at least at some point in the future another person used it and hurt or killed themselves. It isn't anything about listening to teacher it is simple common sense.

 

Plugging items in to an unpolarised circuit produces a 50/50 chance of any item connected being live all the wrong way around the circuit. In other words instead of for example on a travel iron the item being off up to the on/off switch, and then dead if switched off, the power is potentially live through the appliance to the wrong side of the on/off switch. The draw of the item is immaterial as - for example - a PC with a power adapter has the voltage high to the adapter. The other justification is the claim that no other item is ever plugged into these piggy-backed leads - and one believes that or not - but the issue is it can be used and that is why it should NEVER be done.

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THE FOOD

 

Other than room service, the majority of passengers ate their breakfasts and lunches at La Terrazza. At this restaurant, breakfasts were from 7 am to 10 am, while lunches were from noon to 2 pm. We wondered why unlike Oceania, the two meals could not follow each other seamlessly. It would be more convenient for passengers that way.

 

The breakfast and lunch buffet were of good quality, with unlimited fresh smoke salmon, all kind of fruits and pastry, and a chef standing in front with skillets to cook stuff to order. The choices were good and varied. There were many waiters and waitresses to help pick up your choice and carry your tray, By the way, breakfasts and lunches served in other restaurants were similar to what one could select at La Terrazza.

 

Usually, there were three to four maitre'd s around, including a tall middle aged gentleman, very friendly and experienced, having worked with different cruise lines before, another one or two gentlemen, plus a young oriental lady. They all worked at other restaurants in the evenings for dinner. After the initial several days of the voyage, another group of helpers (in blue uniform) was introduced, so there were many staff members in the dining room.

 

After 2 pm, La Terrazza was closed. People who wanted a snack would be sent to the Panorama lounge a deck up. This was only for snacks, not for full meals. Or, you would be sent to the pool bar or pool grill on deck 10, in the open, facing the swimming pool. They only served pizza (several types), or drinks. They did not even have grilled fish, hot dogs or hamburgers, or ice cream for that matter. That was worse than the Shadow a decade ago, or any of the Oceania ships.

 

In the evenings, this location in the open (though covered) next the pool became Hot Rocks, where they served food cooked on pre-heated pieces of rocks. You could choose meat (beef, pork, lamb) or seafood (fish, prawns and scallops), and usually, an attendant would help you cook. Some attendants had not been sufficiently trained, the female cat's salmon was turned over and over again too soon, breaking it up into shreds. We ate at this venue twice.

 

We ate at La Dame once, paying 2 x $60 upcharge. The quality was good but the portions were rather large. We did not know that and ordered too much. Not wishing to waste food, we ate too much! We ate at Kaiseki also once, again paying 2 x $60 upcharge. We sat at a small table and could still watch the chef cooked while his assistant kept "churning" the fried rice for perhaps half an hour. The quality was also good. Dinner times were divided into early (starting at 7 pm), mid (starting at 8 pm) and late (starting at 9 pm). It would usually take an hour and a half to eat, so there was overlap of early/mid/late guests, but somehow, things ran smoothly and nobody had to wait too long.

 

We ate two evenings at La Terrazza, it was good Italian food, similar to the yesteryears on the Spirit. We were happy with it. We ate one dinner at Atlantide, the food was good enough, and two dinners at Indochine. This last restaurant was always available, even without reservations. The food was actually as good as Atlantide. There was word that the two adjacent restaurants would be recombined down the road.

 

We deliberately tried "course by course room service dinner" once. It was actually all served by our butler. She worked in the mornings and in the evenings, with hours off in the afternoon and no overnight duty. We did not know and did not find out who would be delivering room service in the middle of the night (it was supposed to be 24 hours room service). Also, as one butler was responsible for some 15 cabins, if several cabins elected "course by course dinners", the burden would be overwhelming.

 

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Edited by meow!
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THE FOOD

 

After 2 pm, La Terrazza was closed. People who wanted a snack would be sent to the Panorama lounge a deck up. This was only for snacks, not for full meals. Or, you would be sent to the pool bar or pool grill on deck 10, in the open, facing the swimming pool. They only served pizza (several types), or drinks. They did not even have grilled fish, hot dogs or hamburgers, or ice cream for that matter. That was worse than the Shadow a decade ago, or any of the Oceania ships.

 

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Thank you very much for this very detailed report on Muse. It is especially helpful for those of us considering a voyage on this ship.

I was alarmed by the paragraph quoted above and by the thought that the traditional pool grill is no longer and only pizza is on offer.

Could it be that you are conflating Spaccanapoli (pizza only from lunchtime on) on Deck 11 with the Pool Grill on Deck 10? I understand that the Pool Grill has to close sometime in the afternoon to prepare for its new incarnation as The Grill (aka Hot Rocks), but surely -- I hope -- one can get burgers, hot dogs, etc., on Deck 10 during the early afternoon (2:30? 3?).

I am fond of a hot dog and soda around 3 pm (instead of afternoon tea!) and would be very disappointed to learn that such was not available on Muse.

Thanks again for your reports.

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