Review of Silver Cloud from 1st timer on Silversea

[bobndee]

This was our first cruise with Silversea, so I’m going to write about my impressions. Some of the things we noticed as first timers have not (as far as I know) been mentioned on the forums. Our cruise was on the Silver Cloud from Athens to Barcelona.

 

Our flights were arranged by Silversea so I’ll include a few comments about them. We were booked on Lufthansa. Despite our concerns about the recent volcano activity in Iceland, we arrived in Munich right on time. The flight schedule allowed us only 45 minutes to catch our connecting flight to Athens, so we had to hustle down long concourses and through passport control and security to get to the next gate. We got there about 15 minutes before flight time only to find that the flight was delayed for mechanical problems. We took off about 75 minutes late. I can’t blame Silversea for the delays, of course, but I would have liked a little more time between arrival and departure. As it turns out, that’s just what we got. :o

 

Arrival in Athens was uneventful. We were met at the baggage claim by a porter holding a sign with our names on it. He picked up our bags and took us through customs, after which he turned us over to a Silversea representative who introduced us to our taxi driver. The taxi took us to the cruise terminal.

 

At the terminal we were again met by another Silversea representative who relieved us of our luggage and escorted us through the terminal to the shuttle bus that took us to the ship. That day there were also ships from Seven Seas and Royal Caribbean in port, so the terminal was busy. Our escort made the navigating the whole mess a breeze.

 

At the ship were given a damp towel to wipe our fevered brows, handed a glass of champagne and then checked in. Check-in was very simple and easy; much simpler than on a large ship. A passport check and a photograph was about all there was to it. It didn’t strike me until later that no one asked for a credit card. The mass cruise lines want a credit card IMMEDIATELY to set up an on-board account so they can start charging you.

 

We were then taken to our suite, a Vista class suite on deck 4. The obligatory bottle of champagne was on ice awaiting us. We were pleased at the size of the room, particularly at the amount of storage space. On previous cruises we never had enough space to put things. On the Cloud we had more space than we needed - some of it we never did use. The bed was larger than our queen size at home, so that was fine, as was the sofa in the sitting area. The TV-in-a-cabinet had been replaced by a flat screen TV on the shelf over the desk, a nice improvement from what we heard it used to be. The marble bathroom with tub was nice and roomy, but the single sink vanity did prove to be a bottleneck at times.

 

Some people have reported in the forum that the Cloud is “worn”. Well, there were some scratches in the woodwork in our cabin and the marble around the bathroom sink was slightly stained. On the other hand, the fabrics were in good, almost new, condition and everything in the suite was perfectly clean. That applies to the rest of the ship, too. Everywhere we went the ship was CLEAN. Any place that sees as many different people pass through it as a cruise ship is going to show some signs that they were there. We didn’t feel that what we saw was excessive. On the contrary, we felt that the ship was in better shape than other, newer, ships we have been on. The crew can’t always repair small damage immediately but they can and do keep everything clean and tidy. In my book that’s important. :)

 

That's enough typing for now. If people are interested, I'll add more about our experiences on the Cloud later. Oh, and I brought back copies of each day's menu. I can scan them if people want to see what was available.

 

 

Bob

[jpalbny]

Great review so far - write more. We leave for Athens tomorrow to pick up the Silver Wind for a Black Sea cruise. Can't wait!

[TLCOhio]

This was our first cruise with Silversea, so I’m going to write about my impressions. Some of the things we noticed as first timers have not (as far as I know) been mentioned on the forums. If people are interested, I'll add more about our experiences on the Cloud later. Oh, and I brought back copies of each day's menu. I can scan them if people want to see what was available. Bob

 

THANKS, Bob, for your "fresh" and good report! We will soon be first-timers on Silversea, sailing the Silver Cloud July 1-16 from Copenhagen along the Norway Coast, doing the fjords, North Cape, etc. Any and all details, tips and suggestions are of interest for us and our friends/neighbors who are traveling on this cruise, too.

 

YES, we would love it if you could scan some of the menus!!! Glad you survived Athens with their recent challenges, strikes, etc. We will also be in a Vista class suite on deck four. It is good to hear that you liked its room and comfort, plus being "clean and tidy". How did you rate the evening dinner options and quality? How did you compare and rate the main dining room versus the Italian speciality place? Good mix of wine offerings? Staff helpful and skilled? Keep it coming! Tell us more. It helps build the excitement. Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

[duct tape]

Terry... breathe!

[ging466]

Terry... breathe!

 

Ditto!

[bobndee]

OK, you asked for it - here's the next installment of my review . . .

 

We met our butler shortly after arriving at our suite. She was from the Philippines and was very pleasant. (In fact, most of the crew we met were from the Philippines.) She gave us our choice of toiletries to use – we stayed with the standard-issue Bulgarie. Our bags didn’t take long to arrive, either, so we were able to unpack before the lifeboat drill. The walk-in closet had more hanging space than we needed, so everything was spaced out nicely. We really liked the robes Silversea provided in the suite.

 

A note on butler service. Our butler was very nice and always helped out with whatever we asked for. But I don’t see where the butler provided much service beyond what a regular cabin steward would give. Maybe we didn’t just ask for much. The only real request we made was for her to make reservations for us at La Terrazza for a certain night. Somewhere along the line (I don’t know where) things got mixed up. When we showed up on the night we thought we had reserved there was no reservation for us. But we were seated anyway, so no harm done. Several days later we got a note from the maitre’d reminding us of that we had reservations for La Terrazza that evening. So dates were scrambled by someone. It wasn’t important enough to make an issue of.

 

Our first full day aboard was a day at sea. We took it easy and explored the ship. We toured the navigation bridge, attended a cooking demonstration given by the executive chef, attended a martini tasting and introduced ourselves to the most important people on the ship – the bartenders.

 

This was our only day at sea but there was no galley lunch. I learned about the galley lunch on this forum and was looking forward to it. We did get a tour of the galley conducted by the executive chef several days later. That made up somewhat for not having a galley lunch.

 

While in the bar, we met the “Destination Consultant”. Corey explained that his job was to give lectures about upcoming ports, discussing the history, culture, people and geography of the area and to provide information about what to see and do there. It was NOT to sell excursions. Corey authored some books that came to Silversea’s attention so they asked him and his wife to come aboard for these lectures. (Nice work if you can get it.) We joined Corey and his wife for dinner that evening. One nice touch was that each of Corey’s talks was run repeatedly on the ship’s TV the following day so you could see it even if you were unable to attend in person.

 

While at dinner the Cloud sailed through the Straits of Messina. The timing was awkward as I would have liked to have been on deck at the time. But it was dark, too, so I didn’t really miss much.

 

Seas were somewhat choppy during our first night and the following morning with 6 to 8 foot swells, so a number of passengers were under the weather and stayed in their suites. The ship definitely moved with the seas; walking was tricky at times. Fortunately we were not affected and the seas calmed in the afternoon. Everything was calm for the rest of the cruise.

 

A few nice touches we noted on our first day:

· In the Bar prior to dinner waiters continually circulated with trays of canapés, offering them to all guests. The choices changed daily and were always tempting. I wish I could remember all of the choices, but caviar on toast, bacon-wrapped mussels, clams with salsa, Thai chicken legs and shrimp stick in my mind. These same canapés were served at the Captain’s welcoming and departing receptions.

· There were no paper towels or hot air hand dryers in the public restrooms. Instead there were small cloth hand towels that were used once then placed in a wet towel bin.

· Drinks were served with a folded cloth napkin as a coaster, no paper napkins that would disintegrate when they got wet.

· A tray of chips and warm nuts was always served as soon as you sat down at any bar.

· When the Bar was closed there was always a selection of canned sodas and water with ice and glasses left out on the bar for guests to help themselves.

[torst]

As a soon to be first time silversea cruisier I am most grateful for these great reports

[TLCOhio]

THANKS, Bob, for lots of added details and specifics! It really helps us getting a better picture and preview for our July 1-16 Silver Cloud cruise. Keep it coming! As a newcomer to Silversea, it is very interesting and of great benefit.

 

To re-assure duct tape and ging466, I am breathing and relaxing very, very well. Not at all worried or panic-stricken. Since this is only our third cruise (after Seabourn and Crystal), I like to be a little more prepared by advanced research. That is just my kind of "thing"! It makes my travels more fun, interesting and enjoyable . . . for me. If I had done as many cruises as some others, I would not think as much about some of these "details". Different strokes for different people!!! As an example, I learned yesterday that on our 15-night cruise, we will have four formal evenings. I neither love, nor hate formal nights. It's not my highest priority or interest, but it's OK. Knowing there are four of these nights, the top priorities would be the Captain's Welcoming Dinner and the Farewell Dinner. We might do two of the four nights as formal and for the other two, focus on La Terrazza where the dress code is nice, but not as fancy. Or, we'll adjust as it works out during the cruise. Packing for this long of a trip and with the airline baggage rules, however, are a little challenging. We need to plan and think ahead accordingly. And our wives worry about these things and we don't have an unlimited budget to just ship it "ALL" ahead and back.

 

We done lots of land tours all over Europe, totaling twenty different countries visited, plus all over the USA, doing Cuba, South America, etc. We know it all works out and we will have a great time. As Greg noted on another post, this type of research helps to "manage expectations" and be properly prepared. We will be relaxed and enjoy this trip even more as we have a good idea for how things will flow and be better able to make decisions as various choices/options come up.

 

Appreciate the good work. Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

[bobndee]

Everyone wants to know about food on cruises:

 

Something I forgot to mention in my first installment: my wife has a food allergy. We mentioned that on our pre-cruise data sheet. Upon arrival at our suite on embarkation day we found a note from Sergio, the maitre’d, asking us to meet him in the dining room at 6:30 PM to go over my wife’s needs. We explained my wife’s needs and Sergio told us how he would make sure that the wait staff knew which dishes contained the trigger ingredient so they could advise us. In many cases my wife could ask to have the dish prepared without the trigger ingredient and the kitchen was happy to accommodate her.

 

We ate dinner in The Restaurant all but two nights of our cruise. Each time we opted to join other passengers at a table for four or more. The food was uniformly excellent except for one night at La Terrazza (more on that later). The Restaurant opened each night at 7:30. Dinner typically took us two hours or more, what with all of the courses and conversation with our fellow passengers. Service was rarely slow, rather it was well-paced to allow enjoyment of each course while the next was prepared. On our last night aboard the main courses were slow to arrive. Before anyone at the table could comment our waiter was already apologizing for the delay and was trying to speed up the kitchen.

 

Usually we were satisfied with the recommended wines each evening. One night I didn’t care for the standard pour. After talking with the sommelier and explaining my tastes he came up with an alternate suggestion that was much more to my liking. No fuss, simply handled gracefully. And I wasn’t made to feel as if I were asking for anything out of the ordinary.

 

One night dinner was served as a buffet on the pool deck. They referred to it as a “barbeque”. The choices were many, varied and excellent, although my wife’s second helping of lamb was too rare for her. We were glad that there were only 250 guests aboard as the lines for the buffet were slow at times.

 

At the barbeque we sat at a table hosted by the ship’s hotel director. He told us that we were experiencing one of the benefits of small ship cruising that evening. The captain had agreed to delay departure that evening for a couple of hours in order to complete the barbeque dinner while in port. That way no one would be affected if the seas were to pick up again (which they didn’t).

 

One side effect of sitting with the hotel director – service was exceedingly prompt and attentive. In at least one instance, too prompt. My wife left the table for a minute and her unfinished plate was removed. She was most upset because she had a beautiful piece of lamb (her favorite meat) on her plate. Since she had warned me to keep an eye on her plate while she was gone, I was in the doghouse for the rest of the evening. My only excuse was that I was distracted the passenger on my other side when the waiter swooped in and took her plate.

 

We ate at La Terrazza once. My wife was quite happy with her meal. For my main course I had a breaded veal dish served on arugula. That’s all it was - breaded fried veal on arugula. It was very dry and in desperate need of a sauce. Perhaps I misunderstood the description in the menu and expected something more than I got. That was the only clinker in a week of otherwise excellent meals.

 

Most days we ate lunch at The Terrace or the Pool Grill. Both offered standard cruise fare, although the Pool Grill offers a bitter chocolate mousse that we both loved. One day we had lunch in The Restaurant. Lunch there was would classify as a full dinner on a regular cruise ship, being a multi-course affair. That day the carving trolley served roast goose. We both had it and it was lovely.

 

Breakfast was the only time we used room service. It came in handy for those days when we had an early departure time for a tour. The food was on time and arrived hot – an important consideration when eating eggs. My wife’s fried eggs could have served as a textbook example of how to prepare an egg sunny-side up. We also appreciated the elegant table setting of table cloth, silverware, bread plates, etc. It was a far cry from the typical “Here’s your tray, put it outside your door when you’re done.” style of room service.

[TLCOhio]

THANKS again, Bob, for more helpful info and great background! Keep it coming. I like lots of sauce (and extra sauce), so your La Terrazza example is helpful to know about what and how to certain dishes. Your approach and interests in dining seems fairly close to ours. It sounds like you had great service and attention to detail.

 

For duct tape, just to make him feel better, I had a complete medical physical two weeks ago. Blood pressure at 110/60, breathing and doing well. Will try to keep it that way and not eat too much on the cruise. Quality on food and drink, not quantity. Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

[wripro]

bobndee,

 

Sounds like you had Veal Milanese for your main dish at La Terrazza. This is a breaded veal chop and is often served on a bed of arugula without any sauce. It's the Italian version of wiener schnitzel. A spray of fresh lemon helps a lot.

[bobndee]

Where were you when I was in La Terrazza?!?!?!?

[TLCOhio]

Sounds like you had Veal Milanese for your main dish at La Terrazza. This is a breaded veal chop and is often served on a bed of arugula without any sauce. It's the Italian version of wiener schnitzel. A spray of fresh lemon helps a lot.

 

This is a great example for the value of doing a little "thinking ahead" and such planning. I like veal, but will avoid the Milanese version. Helpful.

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

[Paulchili]

bobndee,

 

Sounds like you had Veal Milanese for your main dish at La Terrazza. This is a breaded veal chop and is often served on a bed of arugula without any sauce. It's the Italian version of wiener schnitzel. A spray of fresh lemon helps a lot.

 

Agreed,

anythng "breaded" would be ruined (in my book) by any sauce (like a Wiener Schnitzel), although some people do prefer it with a sauce (?Hunter Schnitzel?). To me it kills the crispness of the breading :)

[chicagogal]

I like to be a little more prepared by advanced research. As an example, I learned yesterday that on our 15-night cruise, we will have four formal evenings. I neither love, nor hate formal nights. It's not my highest priority or interest, but it's OK. Packing for this long of a trip and with the airline baggage rules, however, are a little challenging. We need to plan and think ahead accordingly.

 

No stress required here either, Terry. I always take one large and one small bag. You can always do laundry (or send it out). In some ways 15 days is easier than 7. There is no expectation that you would only wear everything once, like there might be on a shorter cruise. You have your shirts laundered and take a tux and/or a dark suit and a sport coat or two. Your wife wears nice black pants several times with different tops. Jersey dresses that are so popular now and other knits work well because they don't wrinkle and are very light weight. Have her resist the tempation to take 6 (or more) pairs of shoes. You really don't them all.

[endosunshine]

Based on his posts, I get the impression that Terry is a wise man, altho perhaps a slightly hyperactive one. I think he is far too wise to try to get between his wife and her shoes.:p

[Emtbsam]

I always bring too much and vow never to do it again. Keep in mind, the cost of bringing an extra suitcase is not that much given the overall cost of the trip.

 

Pack what you want, and enjoy!!!

[patnlcc]

Hi Terry. We were on the Cloud 14th to 29th April San Juan, Puerto Rico to Barcelona. 15 nights and we had three formal evenings, not four. We were Silversea first-timers too. LOVED every second. Can't wait to cruise with Silversea again

[wripro]

Bobndee,

 

Believe me, if it had been up to me I would have been at the next table.

[chicagogal]

Based on his posts, I get the impression that Terry is a wise man, altho perhaps a slightly hyperactive one. I think he is far too wise to try to get between his wife and her shoes.:p

 

You notice I didn't say how many pairs of shoes I take - only that you don't NEED 6 or more ... :)

[duct tape]

It depends...

[TLCOhio]

No stress required here either, Terry. I always take one large and one small bag. You can always do laundry (or send it out). In some ways 15 days is easier than 7. There is no expectation that you would only wear everything once, like there might be on a shorter cruise. You have your shirts laundered and take a tux and/or a dark suit and a sport coat or two. Your wife wears nice black pants several times with different tops. Jersey dresses that are so popular now and other knits work well because they don't wrinkle and are very light weight. Have her resist the tempation to take 6 (or more) pairs of shoes. You really don't them all.

 

Based on his posts, I get the impression that Terry is a wise man, altho perhaps a slightly hyperactive one. I think he is far too wise to try to get between his wife and her shoes.

 

THANKS for the wise advice from Chicagogal! Telling a woman what shoes to pack and/or not take can be "Mission Impossible" for a husband. I won't go there!!! I also get grief with the comment during the middle of the trip: "Why did you let me pack too much that I don't need?" I'm sure we'll have a wonderful experience like noted by patnlcc. Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

[ging466]

I usually do 3 pairs of shoes but in October, I'm travelling for 6 weeks:D

 

I have no idea how I'm going to pack everything into 1 suitcase for this trip. :confused:

 

Cheers

Jennifer

[endosunshine]

I have no idea how I'm going to pack everything into 1 suitcase for this trip. :confused:

 

BREAK FREE!!! Take TWO suitcases this time!:eek:

[Emtbsam]

BREAK FREE!!! Take TWO suitcases this time!:eek:

Jennifer - I totally agree. Take an extra bag! You won't regret it. We usually take four bags (2 each), and I split clothing as evenly as possibly among the bags just in case one goes missing on the flight. We'll help you tote bags in Lisbon if need be!

Cheers!