Bon Voyage Silver Moon!!!

[jollyjones]

 

Another snippet whilst idling away a sea day:

 

I thought I recognised the name Zanello for our Captain but at his reception the other night I didn't recognise his face so I must be wrong, I think I can't have sailed with him before.

Perhaps just as well, he doesn't look old enough to be in charge of a bicycle without training wheels, never mind a ship. But his bio is impressive (see below),  he comes across as a very confident and fluent public speaker, and so far the ship is going at the right speed in the right direction ...

 

 

Officers Bios - Moon 2023.pdf

[Silver Spectre]

We first met Captain Zanello on the Muse 6 years ago and have sailed with him more than once since COVID. He is the most personable of the new generation of SS captains.

[zqtchas]

We have sailed with him also.

Concur with Mr Silver.

Have pix to prove.

Edited March 19, 2023 by zqtchas

[Roland4]

17 hours ago, TER777 said:

Raphael is there for the special project. 

We talked with him about it on our just completed cruise. It involves replacing, as much as possible, the "canned" soundtrack to the shows with actual live music. On the last segment of our cruise there were live pre-dinner performances, either in Dolce Vita or the Venetian, almost every night. Been twelve years since we were last on SS, so I have no idea if this normal or a new addition.

 

 

[Stumblefoot]

9 hours ago, Silver Spectre said:

We first met Captain Zanello on the Muse 6 years ago.

Trying to remember, wasn’t he the first captain of the Spirit when she originally launched?

9 hours ago, zqtchas said:

We have sailed with him also.

We also sailed with him on the Muse in 2017.

[CruisinPashmina]

My last two Cruises were captained by Capt Zanello. He’s a very calm, pleasant man who I liked very much. I quickly decided that SS is very lucky to have him in command. 

[Fortunate2]

Lovely fellow.  We had the pleasure of his company one lunch on the Silver Muse.   Glad to hear he's on the Silver Moon, we'll see him next month.

 

[jollyjones]

Another little snippet to while away a sea day.

 

The door hanger 'still relaxing/please service suite' may be on the way out. I'm not totally surprised, they always were a bit dodgy - I knew how to snick them down into the join between the door handle and the surrounding hardware so they were fixed in place, but I used to see many dangling loosely or falling off.

At embarkation, I saw some cabins with the old hangers - these were apparently the in transit pax - but the rest of us had pieces of white card, slightly larger than 4ins by 5ins, double sided, bearing the same messages.

I wondered if they were temporary, they were getting a bit grubby, but last night I found a brand new laminated version in my cabin, much better.

They go in the perspex mail slot outside the door, much more secure.

 

We are still holding on to the skirt of a high pressure dome as we cross the pond, the slow moving front to the north of us is staying, for now, to the north of us, so we continue with bright sunny skies, smooth seas, and much warmer temperatures than expected.

Nothing 'interesting' (in the proverbial sense) is occurring, it's just a delightful crossing with all the 'uninteresting' things happening as they should. At sea, uninteresting is good.

 

BTW did anyone notice this article from CC:

https://www.cruisecritic.com/news/7315/

 

O. M. G.

 

 

 

[spinnaker2]

JJ;

What, no dirty socks hanging off chairs??

Apparently that is the new way to reserve a chair in the panorama. Socks instead of books. 

 

[Tothesunset]

4 minutes ago, spinnaker2 said:

JJ;

What, no dirty socks hanging off chairs??

Apparently that is the new way to reserve a chair in the panorama. Socks instead of books. 

 

It's not just the new way - it's the sole way. 

 

(C'mon - that's got to be worth a groan at least.)

[spinnaker2]

4 minutes ago, Tothesunset said:

It's not just the new way - it's the sole way. 

 

(C'mon - that's got to be worth a groan at least.)

Creative, very creative. On another network a picture was posted of the offending pair. One on the back of each chair. 

A kerfuffle ensued. 

Who owned the socks?

Should the crew be informed?

Were they crew socks?

Edited March 21, 2023 by spinnaker2

[Tothesunset]

1 minute ago, spinnaker2 said:

Creative, very creative. On another network a picture was posted of the offending pair. One on the back of each chair. 

A kerfuffle ensued. 

Who owned the socks?

Should the crew be informed?

Were they the crew socks?

Maybe it was a crew member who wanted to sit there. But he got cold feet? 

[spinnaker2]

DARN.

[Dolcevita Diva]

34 minutes ago, spinnaker2 said:

DARN.

You win with that one. 😄 

But on the other site, some people were taking a holier-than-thou approach to the discussion. 😉

Edited March 21, 2023 by Dolcevita Diva

[spinnaker2]

Toe che

[jollyjones]

3 hours ago, spinnaker2 said:

JJ;

What, no dirty socks hanging off chairs??

Apparently that is the new way to reserve a chair in the panorama. Socks instead of books. 

 

No socks, but this is the corridor leading into Panorama. 
Takes the game to a whole new level. 

[spinnaker2]

Wow do you get extra points if you hit the ball via the giant orchid urns?

 

[jollyjones]

Maybe not, but I bet you lose points if the ball bounces all the way down the stairs. This being deck nine …

 

 

[Stumblefoot]

12 hours ago, jollyjones said:

O. M. G.

O.M.G. is right!

[Randyk47]

On 3/16/2023 at 3:23 PM, Lois R said:

Sorry the boarding process is so bad☹️. I sailed out of Ft. Lauderdale on The Dawn in January and it was smooth and easy......got to the port about 1:00 and I was on board by 1:30---1:45. I wonder what happened for this cruise and why there are issues😮

We had the same experience as Lois in Port Everglades boarding the Dawn getting on the ship as Lois was getting off..  We got there a little early because of an opportunity to catch a limo that had dropped disembarking Dawn passengers at our hotel.  Anyhow, we arrived around noon and really didn’t have an issue turning in our luggage and finding a place to hang out outside the terminal.  We were at Terminal 19 rather than the bigger Celebrity terminal we’d used on Silversea back in 2020 but it was fine.  Periodically one of the RCL shoreside staff would come by and give us an update on when they would start the boarding process.  They actually started the check-in process around 1 PM and we were on board by 1:15 PM.  This was our first cruise post-pandemic and I expected more of a potential hassle but it was quick and efficient.   

[jollyjones]

Today's thoughts from afloat.

 

It seems that all Covid restrictions are going. No masks required anywhere on the ship (ashore would only be if local regs required them). Cabins available at embarkation as they no longer close decks and fumigate. No more exile from cabin on in-transit days (this yet to be confirmed to me).

There is still an isolation zone but only four cabins now, not six. There's 601 and 602, then a set of glass doors, then 603 and 604 then a set of glass doors and that's it. No sign of current occupation.

Crew still need to wear a mask for first five days after joining the ship, and then have a negative test before going mask free.

 

As I suspected, our delayed embarkation was because of the extended US coastguard inspection which happens when the ship makes her first US port after an lengthy voyage elsewhere - Moon has been round South America and across the Caribbean since her last US port.

(She may have been into St Thomas but that doesn't really count as far as the USCG inspection applies)

After all pax had disembarked in Lauderdale and the ship was zeroed, nothing and no-one was allowed on or off during the inspection which took some hours. We sailed promptly at 7pm that day and apparently there is a whole list of things that didn't get loaded in Lauderdale!

Food and drink mostly made it - the only thing not available that I have noticed so far is arugula for the Prosciutto e Rucola pizza at Spaccanapoli. Plenty of wine of all sorts. Starvation is not imminent.

Orchids weren't so lucky - I don't have one in my cabin, apparently mine died somewhere around South America and, for now, there isn't one to replace it.

Oh the hardship!😁

 

[Randyk47]

22 minutes ago, jollyjones said:

Today's thoughts from afloat.

 

It seems that all Covid restrictions are going. No masks required anywhere on the ship (ashore would only be if local regs required them). Cabins available at embarkation as they no longer close decks and fumigate. No more exile from cabin on in-transit days (this yet to be confirmed to me).

There is still an isolation zone but only four cabins now, not six. There's 601 and 602, then a set of glass doors, then 603 and 604 then a set of glass doors and that's it. No sign of current occupation.

Crew still need to wear a mask for first five days after joining the ship, and then have a negative test before going mask free.

 

Exactly the same experience on the Dawn in January.  After three or four contradicting announcements concerning our stop in San Juan, PR which was actually the start of our second leg of two back-to-back 7-day cruises we were finally told we’d have to disembark and present our passports to US Immigration and Customs.  About 30-45 minutes off the ship and we were allowed back on.  We were not required to vacate our suites and I don’t know if they deep cleaned the cabins of departing passengers.  There was a card in the little holder outside our cabin that said “InTransit Passengers”.  

[jollyjones]

 

A footnote - we have the cabinet but not the cobbler. I had a good look around and can report that he is not lashed to the deck somewhere. 
Maybe there is diminished enthusiasm for paying a fortune for a couple of scraps of leather. 
 

Edited March 25, 2023 by jollyjones

[rojaan19]

8 minutes ago, jollyjones said:

 

A footnote - we have the cabinet but not the cobbler. I had a good look around and can report that he is not lashed to the deck somewhere. 
Maybe there is diminished enthusiasm for paying a fortune for a couple of scraps of leather. 
 

I bet he gets on in Lisbon, making those sandals all around the med !! 👡👡🙄🙄👡👡

[CruzinFeraBruzin]

2 hours ago, jollyjones said:

A footnote - we have the cabinet but not the cobbler.

I saw a post on Voldemort that he's currently on the Dawn 'til June.  Looking forward to seeing what he can make for my wide duck feet when I board on 24 April.