Just Back from First Sliver Sea's Cruise -- Here are My Impressions of the Moon

[scseas]

We have just returned from the Silver Moon for a 7 night  northern European voyage. I want to thank everyone in this community for all of their advice and answers to my questions. I wanted to also share my thoughts as a first time guest on Silver Sea. I am happy to answer questions as well.

 

 Embarkation: This process went extremely smoothly. We showed our Covid test which was a rapid test 72 hours before embarkation. They didn’t seem to care so much about the time as others have reported, just the day of the test. Things might be different on your ship, though. After looking at our vaccines and test, we were on the boat 15 minutes before the official boarding time. I was a little surprised there was no glass of champagne when we boarded the boat, but this might’ve been because we came on before anyone else did. Or it might be because there was a chilled bottle of champagne waiting for us in our room. The staff were clearly struggling with Covid cases and it appears some new staff were brought in that had not been fully trained. For example, we were given conflicting information about where we could eat upon boarding. However, all of the staff were super friendly and helpful, even if they didn’t always know what they were doing. It didn’t bother us at all and we were glad that we were just able to make it on the boat. 

 

Covid on board: Throughout our voyage, there were always a couple dozen of staff with Covid and I appreciated the Captain's daily updates. There were usually less than 10 guests, which is probably a reflection that the staff need to frequently test and the passengers do not. Nonetheless, I found the Covid situation to be very manageable on board. Most people were wearing masks in the Venetian Lounge (less compliance by the end of the trip).  I was a little nervous at first, but the salience of Covid disappeared pretty quickly during our voyage. At dinner, the restaurants were usually pretty empty so it was not that difficult to have a socially distanced table. The staff all regularly wore N95 masks and actually knew how to wear them properly. 

 

Butler: A number of fellow passengers on our boat cycled through a few Butler‘s because of Covid. We always had the same Butler and room steward and they were both terrific. Our butler seemed very green, but he was eager to please. We had him unpack for us and that was such a treat because we had way too much stuff (he also packed for us on the way home which was so appreciated). We also ordered a special meal one night that was served course by course in our room. The timing of the food delivery was off, and our cocktails were delivered halfway through the meal, but these are really small issues in the grand scheme of things. He was always smiling and always wanting to do better, and I have no doubt with a little more experience, he’s going to be an excellent Butler that everyone would be happy with. Our room steward was more experienced and seemed to be helping our Butler figure out how to do things. He was outstanding.

 

Food: it was absolutely delicious. The quality of the food and the service were all around terrific. Our favorite restaurant was La Terraza which we ate at twice. We also enjoyed La Dame, but on a one-week cruise I might skip it next time because there are so many outstanding “free “restaurants. I would say the only disappointing meal we had was Keseki for lunch. The food was fine, but it was really uninspiring sushi (e.g., no creative rolls or artful presentation). The restaurant was also down the person due to Covid, so service there was a little slow. We had plans to eat there for dinner, but canceled them because the ambience of the room also pales in comparison to every other venue on the boat.

 

There were a few other misses in terms of food. Arts Café is a beautiful venue, but their food offerings were lacking when compared to the rest of the ship. I also waited five minutes while the staff changed out the case instead of asking me if I wanted something while they were switching over the food.  I ordered wines by the glass at La Tarraza off the Connoisseur's List and it took 15 minutes to get the wine, which missed the food pairing it was supposed to go with (apparently, these wines are stored on the 4th floor so it took some time to get). The biggest miss, however, was the bread. Overall, we found the dinner breads to be pretty uninspiring and never warm or very tempting (this worked out well because we rarely had bread after the first night so had plenty of room for everything else). 

 

Bar: The SALT Bar is the most amazing drinking venue I’ve ever been to in my life. I say that as someone who has been to many bars in my life. The venue is small, so I understand some people will avoid it due to Covid. However, the bartender on the ship is a total genius. He also has access to spirits that you can’t even buy in most of our home countries. He will just make you something amazing, or you can pick from the journey specific menu. we were frequent visitors of the bar and it was not too crowded. One day when it was crowded, we took our drinks to go and had them with dinner. I'm not sure I can visit another bar on land because I know the drinks will come up short. Having a SALT bar will be an important consideration on any new bookings we make. 

 

 Entertainment: this is never a strong point on a boat of this size. However, the singers that they did have were talented. One was in quarantine for most of our trip but came back the last night. Overall, I found most of the performances to be entertaining, but not worth changing around how you would plan the rest of your evening. They were a few exceptions: that Ukrainian opera singer put on a very inspiring show, including a tribute to his home country. He has an unbelievable voice. Also, the final show of the voyage that was a variety show was truly outstanding.  We tended to be in town during most port days, so I can’t really comment on other activities on board with the exception of the lecturer who was a geographer. He provided some really fascinating commentary that made our visit to each port more enriching. 

 

The biggest miss for entertainment was the DJ. He was nice enough but he never seemed to have anything we (or other guests) wanted played. There was a group of us that were in the Panorama Lounge every night eager to dance but regularly disappointed by the music he had available. In an era of digital music, it was surprising how limited his playlist was. 

 

 Excursions: as pretty active people, we would’ve preferred more lively excursions. Even the ones that were rated as extreme activity were pretty tame for our tastes. With the exception of one port, the tours were interesting and the guides were great. But I’m also glad we had plenty of time to wander in most ports by ourselves because the tours moved too slowly for our tastes.

 

 Gym: I expected a pretty small gym that I would rarely visit during the trip. But I found myself in the gym every day with new equipment and lots of weight training equipment that helped me minimize the damage from all the food and drinks I consumed. It was also usually pretty empty the times we went.

 

Vibe: We met a lot of friendly people on the boat, whether at the bar, in Panorama Lounge, or on a tour. We enjoyed our conversations with a wide variety of people in terms of age and nationality. We were not looking to make lifelong friends on the boat, but we genuinely enjoyed our conversations with folks.  We also found the staff to be friendly and very motivated, despite what others have commented. The ship did feel empty, especially large venues like Dolce Vita. But in the COVID era, we saw this as a plus. 

 

Overall, this was an amazing voyage and we look forward to our next one!

[tiggertom]

I love the S.A.L.T. Bar ❤️

[Host Jazzbeau]

50 minutes ago, scseas said:

these are really small issues in the grand scheme of things

Thanks for this great attitude!  Taking things that way really helps to enjoy life.

[mcshane]

Thank you for the detailed review! We have avoided walking tours for just that reason, but I am heartened by your description of the gym. I have three questions:

 

1) What type of exercise classes were available on board?

 

2) Was the jogging track busy or easy to navigate?

 

3) Which dining venues were available for lunch after your boarded? 

 

Thanks again! 

[scseas]

3 hours ago, mcshane said:

Thank you for the detailed review! We have avoided walking tours for just that reason, but I am heartened by your description of the gym. I have three questions:

 

1) What type of exercise classes were available on board?

 

2) Was the jogging track busy or easy to navigate?

 

3) Which dining venues were available for lunch after your boarded? 

 

Thanks again! 

Yoga and Pilates. There is a nice sized studio for classes.

 

the jogging track was pretty empty every time I was there and easy to navigate.

 

Lunch was only available on the pool deck day of embarkation. We were turned away from Atlantide but people were eating there. Maybe we arrived too late, just before 2:00. 

 

 

[TheRampantSnail]

Many thanks for the review scseas. It has certainly further whetted my already whetted appetite for our Moon cruises in September and November. We shall certainly be heading for the SALT bar!

[Gourmet Gal]

Thanks for taking the time to post your impressions scseas.  I’ll be onboard in Sept and appreciate reading the details as I anticipate my cruise.

[mcshane]

20 hours ago, scseas said:

Yoga and Pilates. There is a nice sized studio for classes.

 

the jogging track was pretty empty every time I was there and easy to navigate.

 

Lunch was only available on the pool deck day of embarkation. We were turned away from Atlantide but people were eating there. Maybe we arrived too late, just before 2:00. 

 

 

Great to know - thank you! 

[Daveywavey70]

What a wonderful and balanced review.  We too found the Panorama DJ lacking on our last Muse Cruise (Alaska June 19) and he seemed to get quite annoyed by anybody that had any requests or didn’t want to not be in their bed by 11. Things do seem to be looking up though.

[jpalbny]

36 minutes ago, Daveywavey70 said:

We too found the Panorama DJ lacking on our last Muse Cruise (Alaska June 19) and he seemed to get quite annoyed by anybody that had any requests or didn’t want to not be in their bed by 11. Things do seem to be looking up though.

 

It may be cruise-specific. We were up far too late in Panorama, for too many nights on our Spirit cruise last November. We had a decent crowd there most of the time, and João kept the music playing long after we should have dragged ourselves off to bed. It made for some late mornings.

Edited July 6, 2022 by jpalbny

[Daveywavey70]

13 minutes ago, jpalbny said:

 

It may be cruise-specific. We were up far too late in Panorama, for too many nights on our Spirit cruise last November. We had a decent crowd there most of the time, and João kept the music playing long after we dragged ourselves off to bed. It made for some late mornings.

Being an Alaska cruise it was a younger and more adventurous crowd than you’d find bobbing around the med JP. There where nightly 20+ rabble rousers that were a great crowd but the DJ just cba and exited at the first sh*t tune he threw on that nobody danced to Despite 20+people waiting for a boogie. I’m usually the first and the last on the dance floor but not that week! I still have fond memories of seeing an approaching Athens at 6am whilst still on the dance floor with my new friends from the Alabama Christian Institute and the Universite de Sevilla.

[Catlover54]

Were pax still required to mask when using the gym, or was it optional?

 

Same question for the Venetian Lounge, and for excursions (inside, and outside?)

[prudence passenger]

thanks so much for the review.  We are going on our first Silversea cruise, on the Moon, for the holidays, Lima to Ft Lauderdale.  As the Silversea rep said, we are considered Crystal orphans, lol.  Really looking forward to getting back to cruising, as we have not traveled on a cruise since summer 2019.   Thanks for the heads up on the tours, I think we may need to arrange on our own then, so will not be boring and slow. Excited to finally be back on a cruise line, and really looking forward to Silversea.

 

 

[scseas]

1 hour ago, Catlover54 said:

Were pax still required to mask when using the gym, or was it optional?

 

Same question for the Venetian Lounge, and for excursions (inside, and outside?)

Masks not required in the gym. Gym was mostly empty so it was not an issue for me.

 

Masks required for Venetian Lounge. There is a big sign requesting them and staff pass them out. By the end of voyage, compliance dropped quite a bit. 

 

Masks required on tour buses. Compliance was pretty good.

[Rrehfe4969@aol.com]

We were on the moon in late May for a cruise from London to Iceland and I Agree salt bar is amazing and the bartender who was new to the moon was fantastic.  My wife had to have the gin moon drink just to see him make it every night and she met everyone that came in most nights Food was okay not great but venues were fine. I do agree that wines took awhile to get to the table but waited. Waitstaff was overwhelmed at times but sommelier was fantastic in la tarraza restaurant as he decanted my bottles every night with the most amazing decanter I have ever seen. Did not care for the vibe or food in the main dining room and kept to salt kitchen and la tarraza and your review was spot on with coffee bar, as a total WASTE OF A GREAT VENUE IN MY opinion. Staff did not know how to do anything and had never heard of biscotti. All in all a good cruise but will have to say my wife and I got Covid the last few days of cruise. Staff was great and quarantined us on a lower deck with numerous others in same situation but once off ship transferred us to hotel for 5 nights in Reykjavik at their expense with $200 a day food allowance and flew us home first class and once home send us a fcc that was very fair. Silverseas gets a lot of credit in my opinion for their treatment of us during Covid. No fever, no symptoms and boosted but still caught it. My wife thinks we got it in Liverpool at the Beatles museum which was quite crowded as was all of Liverpool. 
Richard rehfeldt 

[ronrick1943]

Nice review, thanks for taking the time………….Looking forward to are cruise coming up soon.

[murphywolfe]

So the folks in the Arts Cafe have "never heard of biscotti".  I've been amazed at how hard it is to find those little gems on cruise ships.  Not available on Regent, Crystal and now Silversea.  Viking Ocean does have a sealed decorative crock of biscotti as "décor"  but not to eat.  

 

Is it something about the sea air or just the time it takes to bake them twice? 

[beaujolais]

1 hour ago, murphywolfe said:

So the folks in the Arts Cafe have "never heard of biscotti".  I've been amazed at how hard it is to find those little gems on cruise ships.  Not available on Regent, Crystal and now Silversea.  Viking Ocean does have a sealed decorative crock of biscotti as "décor"  but not to eat.  

 

Is it something about the sea air or just the time it takes to bake them twice? 

 

I have had biscotti or almond biscuits after every meal that I have had in La Terraza on all of the SS ships that I have sailed on, never a problem, if they were not brought automatically they were asked for

Have also had them on Regent in their Italian Restaurant

[Rrehfe4969@aol.com]

Funny you should mention some of the restaurants having biscotti as I do not believe venues share as my to go drink at 5 was Bombay sapphire and tonic but two of the bars and one restaurant said they ran out and had to substitute however all other venues served Bombay sapphire and said they had plenty

what is up with that. I asked everyday for one to my wife’s amazement at both bars but to no avail for 10 days until we got Covid. One of the quirks with silverseas but had fun ordering everyday hoping they had borrowed a bottle. Even the coffee shop had it. 
Richard

[Stefan_Cruise]

On 7/4/2022 at 7:47 PM, scseas said:

 

We have just returned from the Silver Moon for a 7 night  northern European voyage. I want to thank everyone in this community for all of their advice and answers to my questions. I wanted to also share my thoughts as a first time guest on Silver Sea. I am happy to answer questions as well.

 

 Embarkation: This process went extremely smoothly. We showed our Covid test which was a rapid test 72 hours before embarkation. They didn’t seem to care so much about the time as others have reported, just the day of the test. Things might be different on your ship, though. After looking at our vaccines and test, we were on the boat 15 minutes before the official boarding time. I was a little surprised there was no glass of champagne when we boarded the boat, but this might’ve been because we came on before anyone else did. Or it might be because there was a chilled bottle of champagne waiting for us in our room. The staff were clearly struggling with Covid cases and it appears some new staff were brought in that had not been fully trained. For example, we were given conflicting information about where we could eat upon boarding. However, all of the staff were super friendly and helpful, even if they didn’t always know what they were doing. It didn’t bother us at all and we were glad that we were just able to make it on the boat. 

 

Covid on board: Throughout our voyage, there were always a couple dozen of staff with Covid and I appreciated the Captain's daily updates. There were usually less than 10 guests, which is probably a reflection that the staff need to frequently test and the passengers do not. Nonetheless, I found the Covid situation to be very manageable on board. Most people were wearing masks in the Venetian Lounge (less compliance by the end of the trip).  I was a little nervous at first, but the salience of Covid disappeared pretty quickly during our voyage. At dinner, the restaurants were usually pretty empty so it was not that difficult to have a socially distanced table. The staff all regularly wore N95 masks and actually knew how to wear them properly. 

 

Butler: A number of fellow passengers on our boat cycled through a few Butler‘s because of Covid. We always had the same Butler and room steward and they were both terrific. Our butler seemed very green, but he was eager to please. We had him unpack for us and that was such a treat because we had way too much stuff (he also packed for us on the way home which was so appreciated). We also ordered a special meal one night that was served course by course in our room. The timing of the food delivery was off, and our cocktails were delivered halfway through the meal, but these are really small issues in the grand scheme of things. He was always smiling and always wanting to do better, and I have no doubt with a little more experience, he’s going to be an excellent Butler that everyone would be happy with. Our room steward was more experienced and seemed to be helping our Butler figure out how to do things. He was outstanding.

 

Food: it was absolutely delicious. The quality of the food and the service were all around terrific. Our favorite restaurant was La Terraza which we ate at twice. We also enjoyed La Dame, but on a one-week cruise I might skip it next time because there are so many outstanding “free “restaurants. I would say the only disappointing meal we had was Keseki for lunch. The food was fine, but it was really uninspiring sushi (e.g., no creative rolls or artful presentation). The restaurant was also down the person due to Covid, so service there was a little slow. We had plans to eat there for dinner, but canceled them because the ambience of the room also pales in comparison to every other venue on the boat.

 

There were a few other misses in terms of food. Arts Café is a beautiful venue, but their food offerings were lacking when compared to the rest of the ship. I also waited five minutes while the staff changed out the case instead of asking me if I wanted something while they were switching over the food.  I ordered wines by the glass at La Tarraza off the Connoisseur's List and it took 15 minutes to get the wine, which missed the food pairing it was supposed to go with (apparently, these wines are stored on the 4th floor so it took some time to get). The biggest miss, however, was the bread. Overall, we found the dinner breads to be pretty uninspiring and never warm or very tempting (this worked out well because we rarely had bread after the first night so had plenty of room for everything else). 

 

Bar: The SALT Bar is the most amazing drinking venue I’ve ever been to in my life. I say that as someone who has been to many bars in my life. The venue is small, so I understand some people will avoid it due to Covid. However, the bartender on the ship is a total genius. He also has access to spirits that you can’t even buy in most of our home countries. He will just make you something amazing, or you can pick from the journey specific menu. we were frequent visitors of the bar and it was not too crowded. One day when it was crowded, we took our drinks to go and had them with dinner. I'm not sure I can visit another bar on land because I know the drinks will come up short. Having a SALT bar will be an important consideration on any new bookings we make. 

 

 Entertainment: this is never a strong point on a boat of this size. However, the singers that they did have were talented. One was in quarantine for most of our trip but came back the last night. Overall, I found most of the performances to be entertaining, but not worth changing around how you would plan the rest of your evening. They were a few exceptions: that Ukrainian opera singer put on a very inspiring show, including a tribute to his home country. He has an unbelievable voice. Also, the final show of the voyage that was a variety show was truly outstanding.  We tended to be in town during most port days, so I can’t really comment on other activities on board with the exception of the lecturer who was a geographer. He provided some really fascinating commentary that made our visit to each port more enriching. 

 

The biggest miss for entertainment was the DJ. He was nice enough but he never seemed to have anything we (or other guests) wanted played. There was a group of us that were in the Panorama Lounge every night eager to dance but regularly disappointed by the music he had available. In an era of digital music, it was surprising how limited his playlist was. 

 

 Excursions: as pretty active people, we would’ve preferred more lively excursions. Even the ones that were rated as extreme activity were pretty tame for our tastes. With the exception of one port, the tours were interesting and the guides were great. But I’m also glad we had plenty of time to wander in most ports by ourselves because the tours moved too slowly for our tastes.

 

 Gym: I expected a pretty small gym that I would rarely visit during the trip. But I found myself in the gym every day with new equipment and lots of weight training equipment that helped me minimize the damage from all the food and drinks I consumed. It was also usually pretty empty the times we went.

 

Vibe: We met a lot of friendly people on the boat, whether at the bar, in Panorama Lounge, or on a tour. We enjoyed our conversations with a wide variety of people in terms of age and nationality. We were not looking to make lifelong friends on the boat, but we genuinely enjoyed our conversations with folks.  We also found the staff to be friendly and very motivated, despite what others have commented. The ship did feel empty, especially large venues like Dolce Vita. But in the COVID era, we saw this as a plus. 

 

Overall, this was an amazing voyage and we look forward to our next one!

We are on that cruise in August 2022 - we booked very late aß there was a super special offer in Europe.