difranco

Have just booked the Navigator for 7 night intensive port cruise out of Rome on 15th November 2024. Having recently sailed on the Splendour, how inferior will the Navigator be on this cruise. Had no choice due commitments, however, would welcome a constructive comparison of both ships.

Currently on the Quest for 12 nights. 1 formal night, 11 elegant casual. On formal night 85% of male guests wore jacket & tie, 5% wore a tux, 5% jacket with no tie and 5% a shirt with no jacket or tie. Overall a respectful adherence by the majority, however, no enforcement on the minority. With all due respect is it worth the effort having a formal night when mixed in with 11 wear what you like nights. Smart jeans now accepted on elegant casual nights as stated in the daily herald. The war is being won by the dress down Friday side. Personally, I wear very smart casual with jacket every evening but accept that is my choice and other passengers have their reasons to wear much more casual attire. Times are a changing. Politeness, respect and hygiene are more important IMHO.

Civitavecchia does have a port authority shuttle bus system. This operates from each ship to the port entrance holding area. Therefore you could jump on and stay on until it goes firstly to the port entrance then to your next ship. You could do a dummy run without the luggage to see if practical. Port staff on arrival will be of assistance. Although a large port there are normally 3 cruise ships on the sea facing pier and 2 on the land facing pier. We normally stay at a small hotel 100m from the port entrance and always walk to this area to pick up the shuttle to the ship. A few years ago taxis could only drop off passengers there but private transfers could go to the ship.

This evening we booked Solis for 14th April 2024 cruise on the Quest. Email conformation received.

In Atlantide, a side dish isn't a side dish. When ordered, they are prepared for the little people and placed against the main ingredient on your plate. This can be 2 steak fries, 1.5 asparagus spears, in fact, anything but a decent size side dish. There again, this method does make the measly steak or similar look enormous.

Fletcher, all is forgiven. After following your near daily posts during your cruise, we were somewhat concerned regarding the standard of cuisine on our 9 day Dubai cruise on 16th November. Well, we are back in the UK and can concur our dining experience was as you stated. We would have loved to report otherwise, however, with the exception of Atlantide for dinner, the plates presented didn’t match the description on the menu. Who wants to eat winter root vegetables with every main course. Just one example, La Terrazza dinner main, red snapper on a bed of risotto. Perfectly simple and acceptable, but then bastardised with the dreaded bland boiled winter root vegetable selection of cauliflower, carrots, broccoli and mash potato. All that was missing was roast beef and a Yorkshire pudding and your would have two dinners in one. Madness.

I quite agree, there should be no fear of the maritime e-visa as you still have the perfect safety net. If the visa fails to materialise after embarkation or before arrival in Saudi, you just remain on the ship with the majority of the non-visa passengers. It really is that simple, although Silversea are making a meal of it regarding communication of the fact. However, the Saudi authorities need to get a grip of their immigration process if they want to rival the UAE as the tourism destination of choice over the next 10 years. I don’t think any of us currently on the Silver Spirit will be claiming asylum on this visit.

Jackets are the best way to cover up the advancing tattoo brigade. Saying that, so called intelligent bright individuals have now begun to encroach beyond the neck line and cuffs. Even colourful artistic tattoo’s have been replaced with scribbling like random ink. Not a pretty look in my world.

Drink, Fe*k !

Nice to see Rab C Nesbitt alive and kicking. He was at the pool bar on our last cruise mopping up the Scotch. Later seen dining in Atlantide on formal night with Father Ted, Father Jack and Dougal. None were wearing a jacket or tie. Maître d' did try to intervene but Father Jack had a word in his ear and that was that.

I know this is a regular question, however, as we are now well past covid embarkation testing etc, what have been your experiences of arriving at the port early for lunchtime embarkation ? I know most guests in general class cabins will be given embarkation times of 1400hrs or later, but with other luxury lines allowing boarding from 1200hrs are Silversea rigid or flexible with these times. I arrive from an overnight flight at 0800hrs on embarkation day and don’t particularly want to start looking for day rooms etc. Would rather hang around the airport for breakfast and a freshen up before taking a taxi to the port for 1130hts arrival.

There are 1800+ cheese varieties worldwide, but the usual mass produced suspects are always wheeled out. Doesn’t help when served by polite and friendly serving staff who are oblivious to this fact and the expectations of their customers. Staff wise this was a similar model rolled out by British Airways over past two decades. The polished well paid cabin crew in First Class were slowly diluted by polite bubbly youngsters. On one flight in first I was asked what I would like to drink after take off before the wine list had been presented. I asked what wines were onboard, to which they replied, “red and white”, then followed up by “I don’t know if they’re any good, I only drink vodka”. After requesting the wine list and choosing by preferred wine, I was poured a glass to within 1mm (3/64th inch) of the rim. Surprised I wasn’t offered a straw.

The problem with casual is the interpretation. There is smart casual and gardening clothes casual. At the end of the day the restaurant is a sanctuary and should be respected as such. Other lines might be chasing the cash and allowing any form of clothing in their restaurants. Put on your casual clothes and a trusted old jacket and job done.

I was trying to forget those. They take up too much space on the plate depriving customers of cheese. Bath Oliver’s for me.

Yes, it’s cheese biscuits in the UK not crackers. The only crackers I know are Christmas crackers or when you go crackers. Either way Ritz are totally unacceptable in any dining venue.

The cheese biscuit selection has been appalling since we first sailed on Silversea back in 2005. Over the past two decades we have moved onto artisanal biscuits infused with a multitude of ingredients which are found in most top end restaurants and widely available in your local deli. Therefore, why are we served Ritz snacks and cream crackers usually found in the budget aisle of Poundland. Countless feedback forms have been completed with recommendations on where and how to procure such fine partners for their cheese boards, alas to no avail. In conclusion, they either have no taste or most likely, they do it on purpose. It’s harder to fail than it is to succeed. The only positive is the nostalgia it brings when we reminisce how we felt as children on Christmas Day with those biscuits. That was back in 1969 !

Let us end this topic now and forever, it has run its course. Just get onboard and enjoy yourselves. Anyone who posts after this reply will be forced to dine with the Captain every night of their forthcoming cruise in formal attire.

Clean laundered clothing is of primary importance verses formal attire permeating the odour of moth balls. Keep the jacket and lose the tie. Shorts have no place on the ship after 1800hrs, even at the grill and pizza joint. Definitely no shorts in your stateroom, full commando is the order of the day.

If formal and informal nights are an issue just identify yourself as female for those and male for casual nights. Then you can wear trousers (pants) and a short sleeved top. Problem solved and oh so modern. No Maitre’d would dare get embroiled in the trans landscape.

Mine and my wife’s were also found lurking in the junk box. Is that an omen ?

Fair point, however, if we never discuss topic’s through fear that those in other parts of the world are worse off than ourselves or would willingly swap their problems for ours, we would never move forward. Perhaps only those who will be cruising in the area shortly should comment on my post !

As pointed out tonight by a fellow cruiser, Doha overnight has been changed to a delayed departure from Dubai by 30hrs, followed by a day at sea. At this rate we’ll be moored in Dubai for the full 9 days. This shows on “My Silversea” but not on Silversea sales page for this cruise. However, this cruise was sold out a few weeks ago and is now available in most cabin categories. IMHO I can’t see any cruise ships trying to get around “The Strait of Hormuz” into the Persian Gulf between Oman and Iran in the near future. The risk factor from Iran is cranking up as the USS Roosevelt is now sailing at full speed from the Atlantic to the Iranian coast line as we type.

This is just the start of multiple itinerary changes to any cruise ship in this region. Watch this space.

Thanks for the heads up. That was formal night in Doha.

With the Spirit heading for the Persian Gulf on Sunday, the last thing on passengers minds is SS dress code. I’m joining in Dubai on 16th November assuming it reaches that area. If it does, considering I will be one of the few not cancelling, I will not be expecting to be chastised for not wearing a tie on formal night in Qatar. Especially if I’m wearing a abaya with kaffiyeh.