Live From Silver Spirit - January 7, 2016 Sailing

Some you know that my wife, Anne Marie, and I sail Crystal Cruises fairly often.

For the past nine years, with the exception of 2009, we have sailed World Cruises this time of year on-board Crystal Serenity.

However, with three grand children, two of whom were born last November and December, we are spending more time at home this year.

As such, we decided to take the January 7, 2016 Silver Spirit Cruise sailing Fort Lauderdale, Florida round-trip.

This will be our second time on Silversea having sailed on the Shadow in 2009.

We will be doing a Blog during our cruise. The Blog will not be as elaborate as many of our recent Blogs when we sail 100+ days but nevertheless I hope that you get a feel for our cruise through this blog.

The blog can be found at: http://silverspiritcruise.blogspot.com

I will also do live updates on this thread.

An interesting anecdote about the itinerary is that when we first booked the cruise the itinerary was in reverse order and instead of Key West being our first port of call as it is now, it was our last, before disembarking in Fort Lauderdale.

We were informed a few months ago about the change and never asked why it was revised. Maybe it was just a mistake. It wouldn't have changed our plans, but it was the first time we have ever booked a cruise where the order of the entire itinerary changed. As they say, there is always a first for most everything.

For those of you who know me, either from my posts or having met us on a cruise, you’ll know that I tend to focus on the positives when we travel. We find this approach allows us to get the most out of our travel. We feel very fortunate to travel as much as we do and to mainly travel on luxury cruise lines. While from time-to-time something might not go our way, there is so much that we enjoy that we just don’t sweat the little things. Also, we know that life is short so why not try to enjoy each and every day to the fullest extent possible.

As I often say, we are fortunate that there is a lot of choice in the cruise industry and in the end the only opinion that matters is our very own.

We begin our journey on January 3 with a pre-cruise stay in Florida and I will post again once our trip begins. I will update the blog daily during our pre-cruise.

If any of you have any questions or comments please feel free to post them at anytime.

Here’s wishing each and everyone a very safe, healthy and Happy New Year.

May 2016 be the best yet.

Keith

Keith, the attitudes you and your wife take in regard to the experience of cruising and to life in general are akin to ours. Have a great time and I look forward to following along.

Hi Keith and Anne Marie, your Spirit live Blog is a very welcome addition to the Silversea Board--we look forward to reading about your voyage and y'alls Spirit impressions.

Please, during your daily two hour workouts, try not burn out the elliptical equipment while you're on board :). Alas, the Spirit has no spin bikes on board but there are two recumbent bikes you can use.

If you have time enroute to your morning workout, if you find yourself on the pool deck please say hello to Pat (he is in charge of the Pool Deck washing crew--you may

see Pat on your tender from Belize as his crew runs the Spirit tenders as well). And if Anne Marie and you have time after an evening show, please also give warm regards to the Stage Manager Edwin (he sits in the booth in the rear of the theater running the floor lights and electronics).

Fair Winds and Following Seas and also a very Happy & Healthy new year too!

mysty, thank you so much for your thoughtful comments.

Wes, thank you for not only your post but for all of the sage advice and guidance you have provided for Anne Marie and myself these past several months. It is greatly appreciated.

I promise to leave the equipment in good shape so that you and Ida can enjoy it too.

Happy New Year and may 2016 be the best yet.

Keith

Look forward to reading your blogs on this trip. Thanks, Dan, (I think it is you) for the editing.

Hi Keith,

I hope you and Anne-Marie have a wonderful cruise on the Spirit and I look forward to hearing your thoughts. I too will be back on Silversea, on the Shadow, in a couple of months. Sometimes a change is good.

Enjoy the Spirit ! A great way to start 2016!

Looking forward to your reports.

Keith, the attitudes you and your wife take in regard to the experience of cruising and to life in general are akin to ours. Have a great time and I look forward to following along.

Glad to hear . . . BOTH . . . that Keith and Anne-Marie are adjusting to those wonderful needs/interests with the grandchildren . . . AND . . . by "sharing the wealth" with Silversea. Look forward to reading Keith's observations, insights and results from his "reporting". Keith always gets good tips from the staff and fellow passengers as he travels.

While we have been to Key West/Florida, many times, we look forward to hearing what Keith says and likes most about Belize City, Santo Tomas/Guatemala, Costa Maya/Mexico and Cozumel/Mexico. We have never visited these locations.

Will be interested in the comparisons by Keith on Crystal versus Silversea for food, service, ship programs, etc.

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

From our Jan. 25-Feb. 20, 2015, Amazon River-Caribbean Silver Cloud combo sailing over 26 days that started in Barbados, here is the link below to that live/blog. Lots of great visuals from this amazing Brazil river and these various Caribbean Islands (Dutch ABC's, St. Barts, Dominica, Grenada, etc.) that we experienced. Check it out at:

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2157696

Now at 34,135 views for these postings.

 

Will be interested in the comparisons by Keith on Crystal versus Silversea for food, service, ship programs, etc.

Definitely would like your opinion on the comparison.

Have a great trip.

look forward to reading your blogs on this trip. Thanks, dan, (i think it is you) for the editing.

:) :)

Really looking forward to this one.

linclady, thank you for the good wishes and of course thanks to Host Dan for doing an early Spring Cleanup of this thread. :)

Henry, thank you so very much for the good wishes. We have seen Spirit several times over the past couple of years from afar so it will be nice to see her up close.

Terry, my focus while on board will be on our sailing. This will be our second sailing with Silversea and the first one on the Spirit. My posts will be focused on our experience both on CC and the Blog.

I learned along time ago to get the most of each day it's best to focus on the present and not to compare. :)

Happy New Year.

Keith

Have a great voyage Keith. Thanks for taking the time to keep us up to date.

Have followed many of your journeys and love your attitude.

Best wishes, Karin

Hi, Keith, and hope you and you wife have a great cruise, the track on Spirit is pretty good, as I have logged quite a few miles on it. And congratulations on the grandkids.

Karin and Rachel, thank you both for your good wishes and very kind thoughts.

Rachel, I will be sure to check out the Spriti track.

Keith

Have fun on your cruise Keith. We look forward to tagging along virtually.

My wife and I have just started researching potential Crystal itineraries to book over the next few years, and are enjoying live (and previously "live") write-ups such as yours as part of our "investigations". We particularly liked your excellent and very informative World Cruise 14-15 writeups here on the CC forums, but it seems that there was significantly more detail in the dedicated blogs, which we missed out on following at the time. Do the blogs for these trips still exist?

Nick

Nick, if you e mail me at kesworld AT aol DOT com I can send you links to those blogs.

Keith

Have a great one Keith and Anne Marie

Jeff

Keith thanks for taking us along:)

Have a wonderful Cruise!

BTW: I just saw a photo of you and your lovely wife....

You two look fantastic!:D

Happy New Year!

Reader

Keith,

BON voyage and wishing you and Anne Marie a great cruise. I'm looking forward to following your blog and your "new" experiences.

Safe travels,

Nancy

Thank you so very much Jeff and Reader.

We are at the airport now.

Happy New Year.

Keith

Thank you so very much Jeff and Reader.

 

We are at the airport now.

 

Happy New Year.

 

Keith

 

Yeah! Vacation has begun !!:D

 

Reader

Thank you so much, Nancy.

Keith

Thank you so much, Nancy.

 

Keith

You're welcome!!!

Happy New Year and safe travels.

Namcy

Have a wonderful cruise and please send me your blog as well...you have my e-mail address.

Btw, the weather here is perfect. Enjoy!

Miles & Dan