Dawn - La Dame and Silver Note

[Observer]

14 hours ago, Dolcevita Diva said:

 I have also noticed that some people are booking LaDame every night in advance because SIlversea had not yet listed which night(s) would be formal nights for their voyage in advance. 

this may be a selfish approach, but it does not seem entirely unreasonable.

 

I do not understand why Silversea cannot designate formal evenings far, far earlier than they do now. This is not rocket science.  Most of the variables are knowable.  BTW:  it is not only La Dame that people want to frequent on formal nights. Many people also like to dine in La Terrazza then.   Of course, there are others who eschew formal nights. They want to make reservations for the grill on such nights.  Why can’t Silversea guess its shore side act together and post these formal nights at the same time as restaurant reservations are available.

[Dolcevita Diva]

57 minutes ago, Observer said:

this may be a selfish approach, but it does not seem entirely unreasonable.

 

I do not understand why Silversea cannot designate formal evenings far, far earlier than they do now. This is not rocket science.  Most of the variables are knowable.   Why can’t Silversea guess its shore side act together and post these formal nights at the same time as restaurant reservations are available.

Agree 1000%.  This should be manageable by SIlversea and would certainly reduce some of the excess booking/no shows.   

[A Tucson Guy]

14 hours ago, Wombat706 said:

We will be on our first SS cruise in Nov 2023 (on the Muse, Singapore to Cairns) but we are usually early diners (actually, probably very early diners). What are the restaurant opening hours? I've tried searching but not finding anything - I realise they may vary depending on 'at sea' vs 'in port' but I'm just after some general guidance. Also, does Silver Note have a variety of vegetarian choices (as I have seen on the sample menu for Atlantide)?

Another question - can you request a table location in Silver Note? 

All restaurants are 7PM except for Silver Note which has an 8PM starting time. I hope this helps.

[jssabs]

Thank you everyone for your posts which give me a better idea of the different restaurants and choices.  One other question, where are the breakfast and lunch buffets held on the Dawn?

[Randyk47]

33 minutes ago, jssabs said:

Thank you everyone for your posts which give me a better idea of the different restaurants and choices.  One other question, where are the breakfast and lunch buffets held on the Dawn?

The only breakfast and lunch buffets are in La Terrazza. 

[jssabs]

41 minutes ago, Randyk47 said:

The only breakfast and lunch buffets are in La Terrazza. 

Thank you.  That's what I suspected, glad to have it confirmed.

[Stumblefoot]

6 hours ago, Observer said:

Why can’t Silversea guess its shore side act together and post these formal nights at the same time as restaurant reservations are available.

Probably because it’s not a shore side decision, but rather a ship decision.  And, since nearly all Hotel Directors and Cruise Directors are not full time employees, but rather contracted employees, those decisions tend not to be made until closer to the actual sail date.  This is why night #2 is not always a formal night, even though the majority of time it is.

 

I’m not saying the process at present is right, but merely the way that it is.

[Observer]

16 minutes ago, Stumblefoot said:

Probably because it’s not a shore side decision, but rather a ship decision.  And, since nearly all Hotel Directors and Cruise Directors are not full time employees, but rather contracted employees, those decisions tend not to be made until closer to the actual sail date.  This is why night #2 is not always a formal night, even though the majority of time it is.

 

I’m not saying the process at present is right, but merely the way that it is.

 

Could you kindly explain why this needs to be a ship decision and cannot be made shoreside?  
 

The itineraries are prescribed shoreside. The excursions are prescribed shoreside . Arrival and departure times in ports are determined shoreside.  The entertainers are contracted shoreside independent of input from the HD or CD. Obviously, all of these decisions, many announced long in advance, are subject to amendment.  I assume that much about the menus is determined long in advance so that provisioning can be arranged. 

 

I would be grateful to be enlightened as to why decisions regarding the dress code need to be made at the last minute and on the ship by the CD and HD. 

[les37b]

9 minutes ago, Stumblefoot said:

Probably because it’s not a shore side decision, but rather a ship decision.  And, since nearly all Hotel Directors and Cruise Directors are not full time employees, but rather contracted employees, those decisions tend not to be made until closer to the actual sail date.  This is why night #2 is not always a formal night, even though the majority of time it is.

 

I’m not saying the process at present is right, but merely the way that it is.

Out of curiosity, have you ever experienced night 2 not being formal night? I could understand that scenario happening when the 2nd night is an overnight port which could mean a lesser turn out. (Which we had in Monaco one time and didn’t change the date.) I just have never seen that being the case and I thought it coincided with the Captains welcome audience. Be odd to be welcomed much later and why I suspect night 2 is a given. Not been told that, just makes sense.

 

Like you’d said, the role of choosing the date is in the hands of the HD according to an answer I was given when I asked my current consultant. It’s certainly a new concept, or simply done differently as this lack of detail was never a problem before.

 

Because of the reasons given, they are doing a bad job in this respect and for once, shoreside would be preferable. I don’t get why such a decision is proving to be so difficult given that potentially it’ll cause upset and easily avoided. 

 

 

[Observer]

8 minutes ago, les37b said:

Out of curiosity, have you ever experienced night 2 not being formal night? I could understand that scenario happening when the 2nd night is an overnight port which could mean a lesser turn out. (Which we had in Monaco one time and didn’t change the date.) I just have never seen that being the case and I thought it coincided with the Captains welcome audience. Be odd to be welcomed much later and why I suspect night 2 is a given. Not been told that, just makes sense.

 

 

 

I have seen the second night be informal or casual in cases where there was a late departure from port, say 10 or 11 PM.   These were not overnights.  The captains welcome reception was on night three. This was not a huge deprivation on a 12 or 14 night cruise. But the fact that the departures would be late was known for many, many months – as long in advance as it is necessary to print catalogs.

[les37b]

3 minutes ago, Observer said:

 

I have seen the second night be informal or casual in cases where there was a late departure from port, say 10 or 11 PM.   These were not overnights.  The captains welcome reception was on night three. This was not a huge deprivation on a 12 or 14 night cruise. But the fact that the departures would be late was known for many, many months – as long in advance as it is necessary to print catalogs.

As intimated, that scenario would make sense for the reasons stated even though it didn’t happen for us in Monaco. Knowing in advance was the key and whatever the days are I’d fine.

 

Ironically on that night we wanted to book La Dame in advance (or Champagne more correctly), but unable to because it was reserved by the owner, bringing aboard Prince Albert and numerous racing drivers. Obviously we didn’t know why at the time, but awfully surreal returning from a drink at the Casino to the ship and find the red carpet rolled out and senior staff  on the deck welcoming us onboard. It was certainly one of my first “wow” factors sailing with Silversea.

[Stumblefoot]

37 minutes ago, Observer said:

Could you kindly explain why this needs to be a ship decision and cannot be made shoreside?

No, I cannot.

 

38 minutes ago, Observer said:

I would be grateful to be enlightened as to why decisions regarding the dress code need to be made at the last minute and on the ship by the CD and HD. 

It seems many people here and over on Voldemort have had great success contacting the Chief Commercial Officer about trivial items.  So, maybe you could do the same and report back here?

[Stumblefoot]

42 minutes ago, les37b said:

Out of curiosity, have you ever experienced night 2 not being formal night?

Yes.  On about a quarter to one-third of our voyages, I’d say.  I can remember one being an overnight.  Another was a very late departure. Two due to weather and one due to a disputed fuel bill of all things.

[Tex1]

8 hours ago, Stumblefoot said:

 

It seems many people here and over on Voldemort have had great success contacting the Chief Commercial Officer about trivial items.  So, maybe you could do the same and report back here?

Shocked how many contact the now former Chief Commercial Officer over little stuff!  FYI, She is now CEO, and still she her name being referenced,

[Stumblefoot]

33 minutes ago, Tex1 said:

Shocked how many contact the now former Chief Commercial Officer over little stuff!

Same here.

 

35 minutes ago, Tex1 said:

FYI, She is now CEO… 

And, thanks for the correction.  Duly noted!

[les37b]

3 hours ago, Tex1 said:

Shocked how many contact the now former Chief Commercial Officer over little stuff!  FYI, She is now CEO, and still she her name being referenced,

I have no idea what people do on the other site that no one can mention and I’ve only seen one reference on here recently from a member saying they’d contacted her over his flights that weren’t being handled properly and she got resolved. Not sure if that would be considered trivial, but obviously it wasn’t for the person concerned.

 

Whilst I’d have no intention to contact her with feedback on what I’d consider an unnecessary angst that could and should be avoided, I do wonder if the net result that guests missed the formal night gathering in the MDR or Atlantide or miss the restaurant they had booked and unable to replace would be considered trivial. Things like this are important to many. 

 

Again, I wouldn’t make a noise to anyone shoreside if that happened to me personally, but there is no doubt this is something that could and should be avoided. I genuinely cannot fathom why what in the scheme of things should be easy has just been pushed to one side and ignored. 
 

Someone isn’t doing their job (unless it’s deliberate) so maybe it’s something she isn’t aware of that she could resolve? It’s certainly something I will ask when I board in 3 weeks if it is as suggested the HD job to put a date to this each cruise and highlight why (unless there is good reason) it should be put back shoreside so it can be done and notified to future guests in good time and explain why.

 

 

[les37b]

Well I'm pleased to say the chase up done by another guest has now paid dividends and the details now posted in the Roll Call and also visible on my.silversea.

 

 

It would appear that for the first time, we also won't have the first formal on night 2. We depart Castries at 18.00 so doesnt fit the criteria Stumbles mentioned (which made complete sense). Anyway, great that they have given the details.

 

The not so good part is we had Silver Note booked on night 3 and now with a fully booked ship, we will be unable to replace on another night. Hence why I was suggesting this info needs to be out there at the same times restaurant bookings can be made.

 

The 2nd one on the Sunday 19th is fine as we can easy rebook La Terrazza.

 

For those on the cruise after (I think Doug was and a few others Ive seen mention it in the barbados hotel thread, the 4 nights for the B2B are:

 

Wed 15.3.23

Sun 19.3.23

Fri 24.3.23

Wed 29.3.23

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ronrick1943]

On 2/13/2023 at 12:49 PM, Randyk47 said:

They supposedly do that for tours but not sure they do it for the fee restaurants.   If they do then there were some large bills that went out.  For instance, our La Dame reservations was for 8 PM on a formal night.  One table, actually several tables, had been shoved together for a party of 10.  We had a very nice leisurely dinner that lasted until nearly 9:30 PM and nobody had showed up for the large table.  Unless they arrived very late I suspect they were no-shows as witnessed by the maitre d’s frustration about being fully booked but with only half the tables occupied.  Make for a nice quiet dinner for us with great attentive service.   

Wishing they didn’t do large tables in La Dame, they become pretty loud.  Should be a quiet place to enjoy—not a loud pub type restaurant.

[Stumblefoot]

7 hours ago, ronrick1943 said:

Wishing they didn’t do large tables in La Dame, they become pretty loud.

Define large. I don’t ever remember seeing more than six to a table at a time.  But, I haven’t been on the Moon or Dawn either.

[Randyk47]

9 hours ago, Stumblefoot said:

Define large. I don’t ever remember seeing more than six to a table at a time.  But, I haven’t been on the Moon or Dawn either.

I was thinking the same thing.  Four of us sat against the back wall in a table that could hold six.  I think, at least on the Dawn, it is the largest table in their standard setup.  They may be able to move a few tables around to accommodate a larger party but haven’t seen that.

[lincslady]

Don't forget, six who have had a few drinks can be pretty noisy.

 

Lola

[Tothesunset]

2 hours ago, lincslady said:

Don't forget, six who have had a few drinks can be pretty noisy.

 

Lola

Give my OH a few drinks and she'll take on all-comers. 

[CruzinFeraBruzin]

We dined in La Dame twice last year during our Athens-Lisbon cruise on the Moon.  The first time was fantastic.  The restaurant was not crowded and the waitstaff were falling over themselves to make sure we were well taken care of.  The second time was the complete opposite.  Although the restaurant was once again not crowded, there was only about half the waitstaff present and they were focusing on a table of 6.  We had to get their attention a few times to fill our wine glass and when they did fill it, it was a far cry from full.  Three swallows and it was empty again.  There were a few other misses with the service so my DH finally got up and went over to the Maître d' to have a word with him.  After that, the waitstaff was more attentive, but when we left, we both agreed we got better service at The Grille.  We've got La Dame booked for one night out of the 37 days we will be on the Dawn this spring so we'll see how it goes. 

 

Regarding formal nights, there are two formal nights for each leg we will be on.  The first formal night of each leg is on the third night, with two out of the three remaining nights being on a sea day.  

[Randyk47]

5 hours ago, lincslady said:

Don't forget, six who have had a few drinks can be pretty noisy.

 

Lola

For that matter a table of two who have had a few drinks can get pretty noisy.   😬

[QueSeraSera]

4 hours ago, CruzinFeraBruzin said:

We had to get their attention a few times to fill our wine glass and when they did fill it, it was a far cry from full.

This should at least be a misdemeanor. Thought we might try La Dame on our cruise this July, but I just lost interest.