canderson

@Stumblefoot Yeah, that list is a bit dated (for those with a sweet tooth - the '05 Chateau d'Yquem listed for $200 goes for around $400 now!) but very much appreciated as a sampling of the sorts of things one might expect. Looks like we'll do fine as long as they're not having any supply chain issues this coming Fall.

I suspect it's a lot like NFL quarterbacks. All of them have been trained, but not all of them have an instinctual feel for the game. Even fewer can quickly see the whole field at once and intuitively sense where the receivers are and where they're going to be open. A good butler is intuitive in that sense, and some of them 'have it' and some of them don't. I don't think the best butlers are necessarily the best trained, but rather, those who can read their guests and anticipate those things that will improve their cruise experience. They're the ones that have provided our most memorable cruises. Again, a shout out to our best butler ever, Anu, wherever you are.

Direct report much appreciated. We have avoided such locations in the past, but wondered if there was some special mitigation employed for these otherwise desirable suites. We considered the Grands for about a millisecond but their location up front makes them far from most everything, and especially on a TA, we enjoy a large, comfortable balcony, and these are right on the bow. Guess they'd be good for fast hair drying, but... Similar concerns about the Royals. Are we missing something??? Seems a strange ship design. We're accustomed to better locations for upper suites on Celebrity. May just stick with our better located Silver Suite.

On a cruise with a lot of port stops, a but of early morning chair scraping wouldn't matter as much, but this one will be a 16 nt TA with more 'stay up sleep in' opportunities!

Unfortunately, that's a no-no here at Cruise Critic. It does, however, prevent the forums from turning into an agency free-for-all.

Thanks for another data point, @highplanesdrifters It's primarily the potential deck chair shuffling early/late that gave us pause.

These suites are definitely appealing, but their location is certainly of some concern. They're right under seating areas around the pool deck on 10 above. That kept us from booking one in the first place, and is keeping us from making a switch now. There are few posts that I can find on these cabins in general, and could find only this one related to the pool deck noise: It appears that whatever attempts to mitigate this haven't been entirely successful, but just what it's like is hard to gauge from that post. I guess the question is how load this actually tends to be. Granted, it's subjective, but can anyone tell us what it's really like in the evening or when trying to sleep in on an at-sea day?

Apparently they did offer a proper afternoon tea at one time (not to be mistaken for a high tea - an often misused expression for evening grub, not finger food, served at a counter or high table as you'd find in some bars), and it is often mentioned positively in 3rd party articles. Of course, many of these articles don't bear any date at all, so who knows how old the info is. Something akin to what you see below has appeared in a number of places I've read. Have seen it mentioned in individual cruise reviews, even on the Silver Explorer, as recently as 2019. Sorry to hear it may no longer be the case. Fills in the gap between a late breakfast and a later dinner. Silversea The best thing about teatime on this luxury line? You can order a full tea service right to your suite. Or, if you prefer a more traditional social hour, there’s a daily teatime with live piano music and the usual tiered tray of treats. The line offers 12 teas to choose from, including greens, blacks, oolongs, and whites from the Frankfurt-based tea company Ronnefeldt. The Details: The complimentary teatime takes place at 4 p.m. in Panorama Lounge on most ships.

Guess we'll be on a fish diet on a TA then, yes? 😄

In addition, I should ask if it's possible to add $ to their deal for a better routing, or in such cases, do they just drop the whole thing and credit you with the air part of the D-D package? I ask because the air part of their package, back when we booked it, was only $1,598 pp one way, and you can't touch a decent routing for less than $3,800 pp now (this for a November 23 TA).

A question. We are accustomed to being able to deal with Celebrity Air directly even when dealing with a TA for the cruise itself. How does this work with SS? If using a TA for the cruise reservation, is one allowed to deal with SS directly regarding the air portion of the trip, or must the TA deal with this?

Once when we visited with friends who operate a winery in the area, we tried walking from their place, 'over the hill' from Trarbach to Bernkastel, managed to get lost, and to quench our thirst on the downhill side, we snagged a few of his (Prum) grapes above Graach (Himmelreich). I figure we'd bought enough of his wine over the years that he wouldn't have minded. But hold the ice bucket. I want to be able to taste the grapes. 0.1ºC Auslese definitely doesn't work for us.

Yeah, that's about half what one would expect shipboard. The sister lines get ~$325 .. or did last Fall before prices went up again.

I can certainly relate to the above! Will take to heart the advice on the cozying up to the somm early in the cruise. Having no basis for comparison to SS, I can say that I'd not trust most wine stewards and about half of the sommeliers aboard other ships to understand your simple sentence above, though I'd throw an "and" into it. When I see them coming at me with a bottle of Auslese and an ice bucket, I know we're in trouble! I note with some interest that you said "...the included wine of the evening...". Do I understand correctly from this that they have pairings in mind for various entrees beforehand that these will be the default choices? We may need to utilize the 'public' list a bit for certain wines. It's hard to ask for a fruit forward pinot while at the same time trying to avoid being served KJ Cherry Tart when what you really had in mind is closer to Goldeneye.

Would be interested to see a 'representative' Connoisseur and complimentary list if anyone has them to display here. I'm a little weirded out by the regular list being 'great secret'. I'd understand that lists may not always be current based upon supply (honestly, that's the kind of situation why ships have onboard laser printers), but from what you say, it sounds as though there isn't one to be had at all? How on earth do people manage that? Give the steward a rough idea and just run with whatever they think matches the request? Just how good ARE the wine stewards aboard SS? Am I understanding you correctly? One thing I have noticed that was surprising ... and the form is not easy to find on the website ... was one of the deals on wine as a bon voyage gift. They're selling the Tignanello Antinori (no vintage mentioned) for $140 as a gift, and that's even little better than retail at home. Scored a bottle of that on a recent Celebrity cruise for a similar price.

They would quite likely have no one available specifically to process individual declarations, as they do during final disembarkation, which is an entirely different procedure.

If I understand your question correctly, you wish to depart the cruise a day early at the docks in NYC? Would likely require special dispensation since Customs would not be expecting to deal with anyone a day early.

Ugh. One thing I can't abide is a dessert wine that I would call nothing more than 'grape syrup'. Few vintners are capable, primarily due to climate/location, not lack of talent, of producing a dessert wine with the requisite acidity to back up the sugar. In most locales, while the sugar of the grapes is going up, the acidity is going down, and winds up grape syrup even with additional Sauvignon Blanc that might rectify it. Think of it in these terms: sweet and sour sauce for Chinese with very little sour. The Bernard Reglat Cousteau is unfortunately in that category for me. Just not enough g/l of the puckery stuff. There's a reason it's only $20 US a bottle, though for those that are OK with this, it's a great price. Which --- as a new Silversea customer, brings me to something I've been wondering about since we made our reservation... What kind of wine list can we expect aboard Silversea? I've poked around, but have not seen anything recent posted in the way of a pdf or photo of a list. And, apropos of the thread topic, are wines available universally across the various venues like La Dame? Or are they offered differently in different restaurants/bars, etc? I guess what I'm asking is what they offer, and whether there is a 'universal' wine list or a lot of different ones.

Almost, but not quite that much, but ... It's for the equivalent of a Royal Suite on an Celebrity M or S class (a Silver Suite) on Dawn, includes pick up and drop off at home, all airport/pier transfers, international business class air, hotel, excursions, etc. No idea where we'll ever spend all of the OBC, frankly.

This will be our first after a very long string of X cruises.

At which time, we booked our next cruise with SS, hoping that in some part, it hearkens back to the smaller X ships and service. Guess we'll see.

Two days. Geez. Not even a jacket yesterday, then bundled up in a winter coat with snow here today. It's been a weird Spring here.

Absolutely true. Vermouth is a fortified wine, and like any of these, has a limited shelf life once opened. It can hold up for a couple of months in the fridge, but on a shelf ... many makers draw the line at 3 weeks.

Thanks for that. Will send them a couple of preferred bottles and they can pick from those if possible. Surprised that none of the bars carries a higher end Irish. We're accustomed to having a bar aboard (e.g., 'World Class Bar' on Celebrity) that usually includes brands/ages a step or so above the normal stuff. Was lucky there back on a November WB TA where you never know what they'll have left for the crossing. Apart from things that might not be readily available once at sea, is there any reason to contact them in advance about anything else, or are those things handled once aboard?

OK - we have the "when", now about the "how"? Does Silversea contact guests prior to the cruise, or is there somewhere we should send such a request? As noted, we would receive either (or both) an email / phone call from the Celebrity shoreside concierge ahead of the cruise asking about our preferences for a number of different things, including booze/wine setups in our suite.