Grand Northern Europe Voyage - Lisbon to Stockholm - May 6, 2022 to June 28, 2022

[mysty]

21 minutes ago, Lois R said:

Hi Mysty, thanks for your insights. I hope you meant Christmas 2023

 

Indeed I did!  OOOPS! 😅

[CruzinFeraBruzin]

17 hours ago, mysty said:

 

I'm going to provide my impressions of the recent Grand Northern Europe Voyage on the Silver Moon.  First some caveats:

• The following comments are based on my personal experience.  There will be comparisons to my experiences sailing on Silversea pre-COVID.  These comments are not intended to smear Silversea.  They are meant to reflect differences which I think passengers (new and old faithful) might be interested in.
• My comments are not intended to start a debate!  If you disagree with my comments, that's fair.  However, you are not welcome to argue.  I will not hesitate to report your post!
• To give some background on my travels I have done 4 cruises with Silversea pre-COVID (2 World Cruises, a Transatlantic, a British Isles) and 1 cruise following COVID (the Grand Northern Europe Voyage) for a total of 367 days.
• I won’t comment on entertainment because we avoided the Venetian Lounge except for gathering for tendering.
• I won't comment on the quality of the staff and crew because on every voyage they have provided spectacular service!

 

Okay....now the meat and potatoes.......

 

Staff and Crew Shortages:

Of course it is to be expected that since COVID it has been difficult to keep the staffing levels up to what was happening pre-COVID.  When a number of crew and staff are down for the count with COVID it is reasonable to expect service delays in the various restaurants.  And there were definitely delays.  

All staff were masked.  Their smiles were in their eyes!

 

Food:

If anything has suffered with the advent of COVID it has been the food.  On pre-Covid cruises there were always hits and misses.  Not every meal was spectacular and most were delicious to my taste.  On the recent Moon experience the food had more misses than hits.  The Grill was always a hit. The Grill Chef was amazing.  La Dame was La Dame.  Enough said.  Kaiseki and Spaccanapoli were good.  We dined once at Silver Note and once at La Terrazza.  The other restaurants (Atlantide and S.A.L.T. Kitchen) were very uneven.

 

Excursions:

The quality of the excursions has changed with the advent of COVID and the introduction of "included" excursions.  The "Select" excursions we took (with the exception of one) were consistently better than the "included".  Of the many "included" excursions we took over the two month Silver Moon cruise only about 10 were good.  The rest were long bus rides with crowded buses.  The quality of the guides on the "included" excursions was hit and mostly miss.  To be fair, it may be difficult these days with the dearth of tour companies on offer.

When shore excursions came at a price before the introduction of "included" excursions they were almost always well worth the money.  If you were unsatisfied you could talk to the Shore Concierge office and voice your concerns.  When the excursion is "free" did people do that?  Not sure.

When COVID counts started to climb many excursions did not have a Silversea escort.  Once again...staff shortages.

 

Supply Issues:

Supply shortages were definitely an issue on the Moon cruise.  Not fair to compare with pre-COVID as the reasons for shortages were missing expected shipments.  They ran out of Kleenex at one point and paper napkins were stuffed in the empty Kleenex boxes.  No chips or bar snacks for a few weeks.  No maple syrup for much longer.  

 

Atmosphere:

Again not fair to compare as the current COVID conditions are making social interaction the challenge of avoiding COVID.  Meeting for drinks and dinner became a guessing game as to whether your fellow passengers were actually COVID positive once the daily temperature checks stopped and the testing for in transit guests was discontinued.  That doesn't make for a comfortable environment.  And yes, I know that I took that risk when I boarded the ship!

There was also a difference in the conviviality of the group.  I think the social isolation and the general level of fear which resulted from COVID have eroded people's social skills.  And yes, there were also this kind of passenger pre-COVID.  It just felt like there was a higher percentage on the latest cruise.

 

Do I hold Silversea responsible for these differences?  No I do not!  Will I sail with them again?  Indeed I will!  We have another World Cruise booked for 2024 and a Christmas Cruise booked for December 2013.  If the Goddess of Finance smiles we will be on those cruises.
 

Mysty, of all the ports/countries you visited on your Grand Northern Europe Voyage, which ones stand out and which ones were just ok, but maybe not ones you would visit again?

[mysty]

3 minutes ago, CruzinFeraBruzin said:

Mysty, of all the ports/countries you visited on your Grand Northern Europe Voyage, which ones stand out and which ones were just ok, but maybe not ones you would visit again?

 

Cruzin I love the question!  I need to review my blog to give you the answer.  I'll get back to you!

[mysty]

1 hour ago, CruzinFeraBruzin said:

Mysty, of all the ports/countries you visited on your Grand Northern Europe Voyage, which ones stand out and which ones were just ok, but maybe not ones you would visit again?

 

We typically took an excursion in each port so our choices of favourites are mostly based on our excursions.  First I will identify the excursions we enjoyed by country:

France:  We enjoyed all the French ports (St Jean de Luz, Bordeaux, Saint Malo, Rouen and Honfleur)

 

United Kingdom: Here are our favourites:

Fishguard for the excursion to St. David's

Liverpool where we met a friend and toured with his excellent guidance

Belfast for the excellent Black Taxi Tour (it was very insightful regarding The Troubles)

 

Iceland:  We had 3 favourites here:

Djupivogur for the Valley of the Waterfalls excursion

Heimaey, Westman Islands for the Circumnavigation of Heimaey tour.  Note that we had an excellent guide for this one.

Patreksfjordur for the Mountains and Waterfalls excursion

 

Norway: We had 2 favourites here:

Olden for the Cruising Lake Loen and Kjenndal Glacier excursion. Note that the road to the glacier was closed so that part did not happen.

Stavenger for the Cruise to Lysefjord excursion

 

Poland: Only 1 port here:

Gdansk for the Malbork Castle excursion

 

Sweden:  

Visby for the Visby on Foot excursion

 

It is very difficult to pick our most favourite.  Here are our top 4 in no particular order:

Belfast

Heimaey

Olden

Stavenger

 

Iceland was our favourite country on this itinerary.  The only port that we decided we would not want to visit again was Aalborg, Denmark.  Sorry Aalborg!