Silver Spirit Spring Crossing April 3-April 16th (Ft. Lauderdale to Lisbon)

[RachelG]

Rocking and roiling all night. The sea motion got the best of Ida, so she and Wes had to miss our dinner in la terraza. Too bad, as we do enjoy their company so much, and the food was excellent too. Hopefully will be able to get together later.

They had changed up the menu a little from our first visit, but the delicious duck ragout pappardelle was still there. There were quite a few empty tables, probably due to the sea. Prior to today, the water had been almost totally smooth, so it is an abrupt change.

I generally don't get sea sick, but I do get just incredibly sleepy, which is what happened last night. Could not make myself stay awake for the show and slept till 8:30 this am. Too much motion for me to walk up top outside. I will have to break down and go to the gym later.

[OrpingtonT]

I have only just got around to reading this thread as we have just got back to something like normal following our TA on Regent Mariner.

 

We love the pictures and prose from you, Rachel and Wes. We loved Hamilton, too and also had some rough seas after we left.

 

I did comment on your Facebook page, Wes, that I thought I knew Ismael and it is now clear that it is the same Ismael we knew from a couple of cruises with him on Regent.

 

Thanks for the postings and the descriptions of some exquisite sounding meals. We are looking forward to more.

[WesW]

Ida is alive thankfully, tho still vigorously rocking and rolling here on the Spirit--she is now down at the pool grill having a late wellness breakfast.

 

We dearly missed breaking Italian bread with Rachel and last nite in La Terraza A special thanks to Dr. Rachel for helping Ida fight through her seasickness with some special help Thank you Rachel! My hypothesis as to why Ida got mal de mer is not only did we go from being in port more than 30 hours (standing still) to a violent washing maching motion in less than an hour, we stopped taking our daily meclizine when we arrived in Hamilton, so even tho we both took our pill at 3:30pm yesterday it was not present in our bloodstream at it's usual strength. Anyway, glad many pax & crew are feeling better today. Like Rachel, the motion kept us in bed until 8am today, am off to the gym before lunch to catch up on daily exercise routine.

 

Englishusa, bsrkent, wellseasoned, Ravenscroft, Mr. Luxury, Ansjefitness and OrpingtonT;

 

Very nice to see Englishusa take time to put his ever present wine glass down and post on our thread, along with bsrkent/Steve & Barb. Happy Birthday Barb--they are celebrating her 39th birthday in Le Champagne tonight.

 

Dieter, thanks for your Silver suite fidelity will take my camera with me during my evening workout/jog and snap a sunset pix.

 

Mr. Luxury/John your very welcome.

 

Nick & Maria, have a great 18 day cruise much better than 2 days :)

 

OrpingtonT/Tom & Barbara, very nice to see you posting her on the Silversea board, next Ida and I want to see you on board with Rachel/George and us :) Also, thank you for your kind words, our pleasure to give back to the Silversea Board here on CC...yes Ismail is a keeper. When I do these SCP/crew profiles, ck with the crew member to make sure it's ok to post their pix/write up on Facebook too. A day after we profiled Ismail, he came up to me during breakfast in La Terraza, beaming, a friend had sent him the pix I posted on Facebook. Makes it all worthwhile to help boost the morale of these outstanding/hardworking crew members that serve us--we are si very fortunate to sail on these lux ships.

 

Today is chock full of enrichment lectures (Jerry Lewis, Business of Broadway, Engilsh speaks itself here (by Ambassador Peck), we have Martini tasting at noon, line dancing in the afternoon (with this rocking/rolling can't wait to see this--take a pix of Ida). Also, we have a cruise consultant presentation late pm (already had Selvaggia get us 5% for our May 2014 voyages (we go over 100 days! yippee) We also have our frequent floater/Venetian Society party tonight and Showtime presents "HIgh C's" performed by artists of Silversea. Ida and I will go back to La Terraza for dinner.

 

Silversea Crew Profile

 

Today we introduce the Restaurant Manager, Marcelo.

 

 

 

Marcelo has been with the Silversea team for seven years and hails from Florianopolis, Brazil.

 

His primary duties include management of all restaurants on board including the officer’s and crew mess dining areas. Marcelo most enjoys earning guest satisfaction. He also likes Silversea is its consistency of product delivery, the. beautiful teamwork of the crew who behave like one large family

 

[Threechicks]

Thanks to both Wes and Rachel for the great reports. Starting to seriously think about a Silverseas cruise.

[Threechicks]

Rachel, I found it interesting that you mentioned being sleepy rather than seasick. When I was on an Antarctica trip one of the passengers would have to go to his cabin if we hit a storm (and we hit a lot of them) or he would fall asleep right at the dinner table. The doctor told us that it was a form of seasickness.

Thanks for all your reports. Sounds like a great trip. Elsie

[Emdee]

Hi Wes, Brskent your cruise sound great except for the rocking and rolling.

 

We havent been on SS yet but are looking at one for Christmas/New Year 2014 in the far east. Not sure at this point, though.

 

Wes, I LOVE your staff introductions they are just great. I may copy your idea and do some when I am next on my favourite ship! Its great for their families. I know that the families of some staff will look from time to time for photos on cc.

[wripro]

Thanks all for the continued updates. Hope you'll have calmer seas from now on.

[newlondon]

Wes, Sorry for the US Army, but I know you and Ida are tough and will survive:D

[newlondon]

Stumblefoot, Let me echo Wes' approval of Indian food prepared on SS. As he said make sure it has a good kick to it. We prefer beer as the accompanying libation; but the food ioo is the highlight:D

[Silver Spectre]

Ida is alive thankfully, tho still vigorously rocking and rolling here on the Spirit--she is now down at the pool grill having a late wellness breakfast.

 

We dearly missed breaking Italian bread with Rachel and last nite in La Terraza A special thanks to Dr. Rachel for helping Ida fight through her seasickness with some special help Thank you Rachel! My hypothesis as to why Ida got mal de mer is not only did we go from being in port more than 30 hours (standing still) to a violent washing maching motion in less than an hour, we stopped taking our daily meclizine when we arrived in Hamilton, so even tho we both took our pill at 3:30pm yesterday it was not present in our bloodstream at it's usual strength. Anyway, glad many pax & crew are feeling better today. Like Rachel, the motion kept us in bed until 8am today, am off to the gym before lunch to catch up on daily exercise routine.

 

Englishusa, bsrkent, wellseasoned, Ravenscroft, Mr. Luxury, Ansjefitness and OrpingtonT;

 

Very nice to see Englishusa take time to put his ever present wine glass down and post on our thread, along with bsrkent/Steve & Barb. Happy Birthday Barb--they are celebrating her 39th birthday in Le Champagne tonight.

 

Dieter, thanks for your Silver suite fidelity will take my camera with me during my evening workout/jog and snap a sunset pix.

 

Mr. Luxury/John your very welcome.

 

Nick & Maria, have a great 18 day cruise much better than 2 days :)

 

OrpingtonT/Tom & Barbara, very nice to see you posting her on the Silversea board, next Ida and I want to see you on board with Rachel/George and us :) Also, thank you for your kind words, our pleasure to give back to the Silversea Board here on CC...yes Ismail is a keeper. When I do these SCP/crew profiles, ck with the crew member to make sure it's ok to post their pix/write up on Facebook too. A day after we profiled Ismail, he came up to me during breakfast in La Terraza, beaming, a friend had sent him the pix I posted on Facebook. Makes it all worthwhile to help boost the morale of these outstanding/hardworking crew members that serve us--we are si very fortunate to sail on these lux ships.

 

Today is chock full of enrichment lectures (Jerry Lewis, Business of Broadway, Engilsh speaks itself here (by Ambassador Peck), we have Martini tasting at noon, line dancing in the afternoon (with this rocking/rolling can't wait to see this--take a pix of Ida). Also, we have a cruise consultant presentation late pm (already had Selvaggia get us 5% for our May 2014 voyages (we go over 100 days! yippee) We also have our frequent floater/Venetian Society party tonight and Showtime presents "HIgh C's" performed by artists of Silversea. Ida and I will go back to La Terraza for dinner.

 

Silversea Crew Profile

 

Today we introduce the Restaurant Manager, Marcelo.

 

 

 

Marcelo has been with the Silversea team for seven years and hails from Florianopolis, Brazil.

 

His primary duties include management of all restaurants on board including the officer’s and crew mess dining areas. Marcelo most enjoys earning guest satisfaction. He also likes Silversea is its consistency of product delivery, the. beautiful teamwork of the crew who behave like one large family

 

 

Great photo Wes and nice to see that Marcelo's beard is still going strong. I think it was new when he got on in LA at the begining of Feb.

[WesW]

Threechicks/Elsie, Emdee/Miriam, Wripro/Henry, Newlondon/Bill, all; thanks for your continued kind words and your very welcome.

 

Elsie pls do consider a SS cruise—you will love the service, crew, cuisine.

 

Emdee, your welcome and do please showcase crewmembers good not only for shipboard morale but family morale as well. Today, Stephan the F&B mgr told me he heard from his shoreside boss that he is doing good on this cruise—we just love this positive feedback for the crew. Speaking of the Spirit earning another 100% on their USPH semi-annual inspection. Today's SS blog provides more details:

 

http://blog.silversea.com/

 

Wripro..we also hope for continued smooth seas..the Captain said we went through Force Six wind/seas (25-30mph breezes up to 13 feet waves. Now passing through force five, hopefully soon force four wind/seas.

 

Newlondon, good pairing suggestion in fact Cashipman/Muse cruiser, Joni and Mary are having a special Thai meal tonight and are paring this with Beer.

 

Silver, will let Marcelo know you mentioned him and noted is beard status.

 

Pls Enjoy some pix of Ida and Raching taking the line dance class this pm below:

 

Tonight we dine in La Terraza and look forward to the Spirits outstanding Italian cuisine again.

 

 

[Stumblefoot]

Stumblefoot, Let me echo Wes' approval of Indian food prepared on SS. As he said make sure it has a good kick to it. We prefer beer as the accompanying libation; but the food ioo is the highlight:D

Thanks for the support newlondon! We're definitely going to have to try it on the Cloud in June.

 

Glad to hear that it pairs nicely with beer. Would you recommend a Pilsner like Pilsner Urquell, a Lager like Peroni, or a Porter or Stout style beer? Of course, I like them all.

[RachelG]

The seas moderated enough that I was able to do 30 min walk up top, but it was very difficult and not that fun given the wind and motion of the ship. I finally gave up as I just was not able to move as quickly as I like. So retired to the lounge for bouillon instead.

Lunch in seishin. They only have sushi at lunch, no soup, no salad. So if you like sushi, it is great as the sushi is made as you order and way better than that at la terraza. Otherwise, go elsewhere. For me, it was something to do once and was good, but I would not do more than once per cruise.

Afternoon of goofing off. I did 45 min in the gym on the elliptical then line dancing classes, which are hilarious with the motion of the ship. Ida is well recovered from her mal de mar and was dancin up a storm.

We actually tied for first in trivia today.

Tonight was the venician society reception which we did not attend as I thought everyone on the ship would be there. Instead we had dinner in the main dining room. Very nice sea bass. I ordered steamed spinach on the side and received a copious portion.

Yes, Elsie, the excessive sleepiness is definitely a form of seasickness. I do the same thing on curvy roads in a car. Much better than the alternative.

Thanks Wes for the pics. I am laughing!

[WesW]

Another wonderful Silver Spirit crossing nite on board.

 

We began with pre dinner drinks in the Panorama lounge--was looking for the nice sunset pix that Wellseasoned asked for and was hopeful until the clouds intruded.

 

We then headed for La Terraza, pix speak 1000 words:

 

Our special wine for tonight a 2004 Banfi Excelsus--delish Cabernet

 

 

The always outstanding Duck Ragout:

 

 

Chicken stuffed with fontina cheese:

 

 

Desert "stuffed cannelloni"

 

 

Followed by two shots of dark choc grappa:

 

 

Our fav waiter Marcello:

 

[WesW]

WE then headed to the Show lounge for an outstanding performance, "High C's" by the in residence SS artists. A few pix:

 

 

AT the conclusion of the show, the artists finished singing their last number engaging the audience in the isle:

 

 

Last pix is with Jennifer (Soprano) on the left of Ida (middle) and Zoran on the right--they are all now dancing the nite away in the Panorama lounge

 

 

btw, we are taking Myra to dinner Wednesday nite in the Main dining room, while Englishusa/David, bsrkent/Barb & steve are joining us tomorrow nite for our special Indian dinner. Barb showed me the wow (sensual) pix of her in her birthday bubble bath drawn with rose petals by their butler. SS is knocking this crossing out of the park!

[WesW]

Another wonderful seaday here on board the Silversea Spirit.

 

Seas have calmed some, still moderate rocking and rolling tho acceptable and expected on a crossing.

 

Today’s sea day highlights include enrichment lectures (e.g., by TV Comedy expert Lowell Fox, Bob Hope: beyond Golf, Girls, and GI’s; Broadway Producer Steven Rivellino presents Berlin Cabaret (1920’s through 1940’s; World Affairs expert, Ambassador Peck presents, “What Ambassadors do—and why they should be professionals.” CC writers will go for a repeat win today in Team Trivia this afternoon. Tonight Englishusa/David, bsrkent/Steve and Barb are joining Ida and I for a special Indian dinner in the Main Dining room. Entertainment by Showtime Silversea will feature Gabriel St. Paul with Music from the Movies.

Silversea Crew Profile (SCP)

 

Meet one of the outstanding La Terraza servers, Boyke.

 

 

Boyke hails from Bali, Indonesia, he has been with Silversea over four years . What he likes most about working with Silversea, is Boyke gets to travel everywhere, he also enjoys learning about different wines from the different guests on board. Boyke also enjoys the generous SS benefits he earns, including SS providing his air travel to and from Bali to catch the ship he is working on. Boyke is married and has two daughters and one son.

 

Thanks Boyke for your impeccable, intuitive service delivered with an abundance of courtesy, your engaging/warm personality, and a beaming smile.

[nancygp]

Wes,

 

Thanks for another great installment!!

 

Please say hello to Steven Rivellino, he's terrific and a dear friend.

 

Nancy

[Emdee]

Thanks Wes for the updates and pics. Really does make me want to book that SS cruise now!

 

On the matter of indian food and beer. I think the lighter beers are better and for the ladies you cannot beat a glass of shandy (beer and seven up or ginger ale) for a long cool drink. Alternatively a glass of lassi, mango lassi or chaas ( a spicy salted lassi with ginger, greenchillies and chaat masalla) can be refreshing as well especially if the food is pungent.

[Mr Luxury]

Wes,keep it coming.

 

Just a point about Indian food as we are experts in the UK due to a restaurant on every corner in every town.

I would not pair the Dom Perignon with Indian food as it will be over powered.

Beer (Lager) is the thing that is mostly drunk with this spicy cuisine.

You will also get away with a robust red with the meal.

Save the Dom for something a little lighter. (Lobster,Dover Sole)

[newlondon]

Stumblefoot, As you can see others agree beer is the libation of choice. Personally I prefer the Pilsner; others, DW included, prefer the lighter lager.

Wes, I agree with Mr Luxury; you are wasting your mony with champagne and an Indian meal.

[newlondon]

Wes, Great, great pics of Ida line dancing! Where, however are the boots?

"These Boots are Made for Walking" see Nancy Sinatra!

Best, Bill

[Wellseasoned]

Wes, now I'm really jealous! You say that you are having dinner with Myra in the MDR tomorrow. We had the same thing arranged on our recent Silver cruise. At the last minute she had to cancel because she was forced to stay on duty. Oh, well, we'll drink a toast to you all tomorrow evening:(

 

Dieter

[Mr Luxury]

Stumblefoot, As you can see others agree beer is the libation of choice. Personally I prefer the Pilsner; others, DW included, prefer the lighter lager.

Wes, I agree with Mr Luxury; you are wasting your mony with champagne and an Indian meal.

 

 

http://www.kingfisherbeerusa.com

 

http://www.cobrabeer.com

 

I drink both with an Indian meal but for me Cobra is the king.

[Stumblefoot]

Stumblefoot, As you can see others agree beer is the libation of choice. Personally I prefer the Pilsner; others, DW included, prefer the lighter lager.

http://www.kingfisherbeerusa.com

http://www.cobrabeer.com

I drink both with an Indian meal but for me Cobra is the king.

Thanks newlondon and Mr Luxury for the beer pairing recommendations. This is the path we'll choose.

 

Today at lunch I was filling my wife and daughter in on this Indian meal experiment we're going to try and they were both genuinely excited to learn that SS would do something like that "off-menu" for us. I then looked at our Bernese Mountain Dog and saw him drool. He has no clue he's not invited.

[Mr Luxury]

Indian food is very popular with Seabourn guests.

I order a curry lunch sometimes and there is usually an indian themed dinner in the colonnade on the larger ships.

If anyone is coming to London I have some wonderful restaurant recommendations.