HappyCamper777

I don't want to be stuck with a porthole, but is there a good chance to be upgraded?

No, there is never a good chance of an upgrade on SS.

Our sailing is Aug 24-31 (Spirit). When we checked my.silversea last night under the "view now" and then "dining" icon there is now Formal under the Aug 25 date. That was recently added as we go in periodically to review.

Yes, very typical as most voyages have their first formal night on the 2nd night of the trip. Enjoy!

I have reserved a table at La Terraza on all three formal nights on Muse to Dublin. Can I wear just a sport jacket and still be served?

Absolutely! One never has to wear formal attire in La Terrazza.

Semi dining question. On Muse Deck 4 midship there is a large un-named area. What is it? Looks like restaurant seating.

Not sure which area specifically you are referring to. Is it by the launderette? If so, it's a crew area. If you're referring to the two areas by Kaiseki and La Dame, I believe it is the toilets.

Now 1000+ miles away from Ft Lauderdale and 1850 to go.

I know it shouldn't, but it still amazes me that one can literally be in the middle of nowhere and still remain digitally connected with the world. Amazing really.

Sounds like a useful page, but I get 404 error.

Considering doing Alaska 2019 and have heard there are no formal nights. As with my prior Silver Spirit Med cruise, I plan to bring a suit jacket for the not informal restaurant venues.

While there will be formal nights in Alaska, if your voyage is 7-days the formal night is always optional, whereby you can dress informally with a jacket. Details can be found at https://www.silversea.com/travel-informations/general-information.html and select "Packing Your Cruise Luggage".

...to be honest if you are foodies I would not recommend this ship.

Why? There is more choice on this ship than any other. We found the food to be excellent and were even able to make special requests.

Now after studying the cruise information on the SS web site and many reviews of the Muse on CC - I have the following questions / concerns:-

 

1. Dining in most restaurants requires advance reservations which can be difficult to obtain - which means if you don't like to plan too far in advance (say a couple of days) you may be 'stuck' with non-reservation venues.

I guess you could be stuck, but we never had a problem dining where we liked on a full voyage.

2. Two of the restaurants apply a hefty surcharge ($USD 60 pp) and require formal wear. Now Mr LL will not pack or wear formal-wear no matter what - in fact he would not even be keen to pack a sports jacket. The surcharge seems very high but not a show stopper for a couple of evenings. So again this would restrict our dining options (we are foodies and the quality and variety of food is an important consideration to us). I did read a post on this thread that implies this formal wear requirement has been relaxed.

Formal wear is only required in the noted restaurants on formal nights.

3. Many reviews of the Muse were certainly less than stellar - with complaints about dining, decor and service. I figured this may have been new ship teething issues - comments?

We were on in the fall of 2017 and loved it. So much so that we're sailing the Muse again this June and plan to book another voyage on the Muse for 2019 when on board.

 

One last comment, I do agree with hypercafe that if Mr LL is not even be keen to pack a sports jacket then the non-expedition ships of Silversea are probably not a good fit for him as he'll need a jacket on informal nights in most restaurants.

Disregard my previous message re: Daniel in your other thread.

 

Have fun with Mr. King and his Scottish humor!

...goodbye to Daniel Ilias who is leaving both the Wind and Silversea.

Daniel wasn't with Silversea very long. Is he going back to land based hotels?

Yes but I don't know how to write pronunciations

It's 3 syllables but the final syllable - an ee sound - is truncated. Maybe that's what your e with a hat on signifies?

Haha! No problem at all. Writing pronunciations is hard.

 

The "ee" sound you reference is what I meant with the horizontal line above the "e".

 

It's good to know that I'm on the same page with you!

I think it - the itinerary - is going to be hard work but worth it in the long run.

What is going to be hard?

...it's pronounced ''Toe-keye''.

And, here I have thought for years it was Tō-kī-ē whereas Tō is pronounced as you say in "Toe" like the thing on your foot.

According to Norman, the head sommelier, 17 guests invited, 10 accepted and the other 8 not only didn't turn up, but didn't even bother to cancel. Seriously bad form.

Bad form indeed!

 

My guesses, left to right:

1. Red Meritage
   
2. White Burgundy
   
3. Chardonnay
   
4. Sauvigon Blanc
   
5. Sangiovese
   

Charter for Muse:

The Muse is chartered for two weeks from Wednesday when we must all disembark in San Juan.

That is one heck of a charter, which means the Muse will come off the charter and head to Dublin.

Ann Marie rejoined the ship in Barbados, always good to see her again.

Absolutely thrilled to read this. Hope that she had a fantastic break after the Grand Tour of South America last fall. I hope she will still be leading the Muse culinary team during our June voyage.

I am very VERY surprised at the number of children on board. There are a couple of teenagers, three or four youngsters and three ‘babes in arms’.

Great to hear that your voyage is off to a nice start, albeit a couple of hiccups here or there.

 

As surprised as you are about the number of children on board, be glad you are sailing now, because you would be absolutely astonished how many kids will be on board the next 3-weeks which represents the height of spring break revelry for the U.S.

We are now really excited to experience the "new Spirit" in December and see if my optimism us justified.

Look forward to reading your thoughts during/after your December voyage. From comments here it looks like I'm in the minority, but I'm super excited about the Musifying of the Spirit. I've been lucky to sail on Silversea's smallest (Cloud) and largest (Muse) non-expedition ships, as well as those in between (Shadow/Whisper), and must say I thoroughly enjoyed all of the incredible variety provided by the Muse.

Is it possible to do this at Atlantide and Indochine?

You bet it is and one of the things I enjoyed during our voyage on the Muse. In Atlantide we were with a group of 8 and in Indochine it was a group of 6. Both nights were very enjoyable.

For the Spirit Autumn crossing we already have 14, and Spins & DH haven't even signed up yet - extraordinary! That's a lotta seasoned SS cruisers inspecting the Spirit stretch ...

No doubt! Nice to see.

Nice to see you on the seas again. Enjoy your cruise!

Nice to hear about the AA flagship lounge at LAX. Look forward to seeing it on a future visit. Have a great voyage!

I'd like to see the Cape to Cape go first to Antarctica, then to South Georgia (missing the Falklands) and on to Tristan etc.

Totally agree.

Hope the answers to your questions below are helpful.

My 1st question is this; have there been significant changes in the reservation system?

Yes! Indochine and Atlantide are both now open seating.

And Is there now a true MDR, and can a passenger really just show up and be seated...with friends or alone?

Yes, passengers can just show up. It worked great on my November voyage when the ship was at full capacity. I dined at a wide variety of times in both Atlantide and Indochine a never had trouble getting a table whether for a couple, a party of 4, or even a party of 8 one evening. It worked absolutely perfect!

 

Have they been able to blend the Atlantide with Indochine? Are the menus compatible and possibly interchangeable?

No. They are completely different menus and dining experiences. Personally, I hope they don't blend anything as that would defeat the purpose of the two separate spaces and dining experiences.

 

Has the decor been “warmed” up with color?

I don't know what it was like when you were on board, but the decor is fantastically modern and warm in my opinion.

 

Has the Main Bar been made to feel less cavernous.

They must have done something to it since your voyage, because while the main bar is large, it wasn't big enough to hold all of the passengers who wished to play trivia. On my voyage a couple of teams had to sit in the reception area that is opposite of the bar on a few occasions. It wasn't a big deal though.

 

Finally, have there been positive changes in La Terrasse? It was terrific at lunch, but very cold feeling in the evenings.

My two dinners were excellent in La Terrazza. I really, really, like that small room at the front of the restaurant.

The standard bath amenities are BVLGARI®. They have switched the other choice from Ferragamo to a all natural Italian brand that I had never heard of before. I tried the Italian brand, but switched back to BVLGARI after 2-days as I didn't care for it.