difranco

There are butlers and there are butlers. They are not all equal as in any profession. The good the bad and the ugly, springs to mind. Expect the minimum and you can’t be disappointed.

It would be interesting to see how many diners on formal night in the MDR refuse to sanitise their hands at the restaurant entrance. The split between those wearing formal attire and those wearing informal/casual would make interesting reading. After all, I would hope sanitising hands would be a higher priority than tie check by the Maitre’d.

We arrive on the overnight flight and will make our way from the airport to Port Rashid late morning in expectation of boarding for lunch. In the unlikely event we have to wait to board it may as we’ll be there than the airport. Again first time on Silversea post covid but had no issue on Azamara and Regents this year so would be surprised if this is the case with Silversea. Port Rashid is a substantial cruise embarkation port.

The terminology “Jacket” will vary from country to country. Hopefully long sleeved or the tattoo brigade will turn up in short sleeved jackets and that will open up another can of worms.

There seems to be an analogy that you can’t dress up without wearing a suit and tie. Most of my designer long sleeved shirts cost more than a complete formal alternative. As long as a jacket is mandatory, the rest falls into place. At the end of the day, he who pays dictates the path forward. If the dress code didn’t evolve we would still be dressed in Shakespearean era outfits whilst complaining how the dress code was better the previous century. There’s fierce competition out there.

Will keep a look out to see if our November Silver Spirit 9 night Middle East cruise follows suit. Pardon the pun. Long way to drag a suit and tie for one night. Plenty of stylish informal jacket based options in my suitcase.Will have a couple of neck ties doubling as suitcase straps for emergencies.

Have recently returned from the Splendor on a 10 night Baltic/Scandinavian cruise sailing 30th June 2023. We missed 3 ports due high winds and swell when attempting to dock. Today, on checking my credit card a pending credit of £78.88 dated 3rd August marked "Seven Seas Splendor" has appeared. Has anyone else who was on this cruise received a similar unexpected credit ? I'm assuming this is a refund for port fees not incurred on the 3 missed ports of call. Unfortunately, there has been no correspondence from Regents regarding this small refund. There again, it's only showing pending and may vaporise in the coming days.

The Kray’s wore sharp suits and would have met the strict SS formal dress code. Times have moved on and formal needs to evolve into upmarket, stylish and on trend. With the extra capacity to fill, formal will become optional on all cruise’s, irrespective of length. After all, behaviour and manners are more important than a tie.

Tried that once before, but tripped over him in the night making for the poorly positioned WC. Ended up in the walk in wardrobe which gave me a great idea for his next billet.

I tend to travel with my butler who resides in the adjacent suite with inter-connecting door. After all, that’s what those suites are for. On embarkation I stand the SS butler down so as not to offend mine. Never had cause for complaint yet.

Hope it wasn’t our Vlad undercover in his early years !

Unless they go by the name Jeeves and have completed training at the British Butler Academy, they really are punching above their weight.

We’ve been rumbled !

Started with SS in 2005 on Silver Whisper and dined in Le Champagne. From memory it was $30 per pax for the dining menu with a choice of complementary wines or paid for wine carte. Don't remember seeing the cost of the wine pairings. Even at $30 my wife and I were the only diners. How much would that exclusivity cost today. We were out numbered by the sommelier, two waiting staff and chef.

The butler is a suite attendant wearing dickie bow and tails. They do nothing a standard room attendant and room service can’t deliver. IMHO after past SS cruise experience. .

Assume you are on the 16th November and a UK passport holder. What was the cost for Saudi Arabia ? Do you need one for Bahrain ? Last travelled by cruise ship in this area in 2019. Didn’t need a visa for Qatar or Oman. UAE was visa on arrival with no fee.

There is a certain overkill on denim. In the US, Levi 501’s are associated with the gold rush and manual labour. In Europe, it’s classed as a premium product such as Ralph Lauren. Clean new high end denim jeans complemented with Tod loafers, a premium patterned shirt and snazzy jacket can’t be that offensive. Unfortunately the denim police are letting the ladies slacks and top combination pass under the radar. The charity shop look is now common place on mot cruises. IMHO.

We use our own heavy duty plastic water bottle, however, answering the cleansing issue, when at home ours are cleaned in the dishwasher daily. On our current Splendor cruise we use any coffee station and fill 30% with hot water and shake then rinse. We run the hot water over the cap and bottle neck thread. This is clean enough. As mentioned by other posters, there is a lack of bottles being taken ashore which is quite worrying during the summer months. The smaller plastic bottles were lighter and encouraged hydration ashore. Perhaps the aluminium flasks are better for storing a crafty G&T ashore.

Thanks very much for your informative reply. Looking forward to it.

Nothing on my booking for 15th April on the Journey, VCE-VCE. Did manage to add a transfer from Venice Tronchento to Chioggia port by telephone this morning, however, after receiving updated cruise documentation by email there were a host of errors. These ranged from missing loyalty number for one passenger, OBC 50% of correct amount, check-in time missing (suits us as we’ll pitch up earlier) birthday celebration note missing, post cruise airport transfer missing to name but a few. Fortunately I already printed the old docs as wasn’t planning on adding the transfer. Doesn’t bode well for pier-side check-in and immediate onboard purchases, especially where loyalty level discount will need to be applied (drinks packages etc). Would appreciate any reports from those boarding in the next 7 days.

Thanks for the heads up, have just spoken to Vodafone and they made an error as it should have been 0844 that was out of plan. Account credited.

Be careful with the 03444 number as this can equate to 65p/min from most mobiles. I used my Vodafone mobile instead of landline last week and got collared for £12.65 for a 15 minutes call as a connection charge was added as well. The old 020 number still works.

Ideal for solo travellers if there is no single supplement. That was my point. It may make sailing with Azamara affordable for passengers who find a 50-100% premium too much to stomach.