sea bright

We had no issues with the thrusters on our 20 day Nova cruise.

At least in the US, Blacklane has not contacted us the day before to confirm. The ride is listed as confirmed in the app once you book it. Generally, an hour or 2 before pick up, we get a text giving us the name of the driver and his number.

We were in 8072 on the Nova - aft center suite, a Medallion. The view was great and the balcony was large -and very deep. Standing at or close to the railing you had 180 degree view, no obstructions. As the balcony was very deep, in the room your view was narrower (see below)

Since covid they are not always mailed. Tags were mailed to us for our Jan cruise on the Nova, but not for our upcoming May 1 cruise on the Muse (or any of our other post-covid cruises). We were told to get them at the pier (or the Silversea hotel if staying there). I'm not aware of any option to print them.

The Sapphire Suites are about 250 square feet smaller than the Silver Suites and are still more per person per day than a Silver Suite.

I compared a couple of 2025 itineraries on Silversea in a Silver Suite (our usual choice) to the Cystal Symphony Junior Penthouse (which seems to be comparable, although smaller). Despite thd SS price increases, the Crystal Junior Penthouse is about $500 more per person per night- if you pay in full at booking - otherwise about $700 more pp per night.

On our Nova cruise we were told by the HD that they do not stock Pellegrino, Perrier, etc. for environmental reasons. I said I thought that should be made clear, in advance, to long time cruisers who expect it. He repeated the policy. However, the next day our butler told us she had "permission" to give us Pellegrino in the room. She kept our fridge stocked for the rest of the cruise, in part by "hiding" extra bottles in our bar cabinet. When we asked for Pellegrino in the dining rooms or bars we were told the house made sparkling water was the only option. Hopefully, on our upcoming Muse cruise Pellegrino will be available.

Silversea has and uses both of our email addresses. The single email had a link that included only 2 rides total. Maybe because we live in the US? Or perhaps because our upcoming cruise leaves from Tokyo?

We are in the US and have always booked just a single vehicle, using 1 Blacklane link, to travel from our home address to the airport and a second link for the reverse trip. The pricing varied by type of vehicle and number of miles, not passenger. However, we have always received a single email (it comes to me, but not my husband).

Much speculation on the thread "Has Barbara Resigned".

I was assuming that you aren't carrying off your luggage. If you are, you could probably book something for 8 or even a little earlier.

I wouldn't book anything before 8 or 8:30. We usually do 9 or 9:30 when we make our own arrangements.

The email is usually a month ahead - we got it April 1 for our May 1 cruise. For all of our cruises my husband and I have received a total of 2 free rides - one from home to the airport and one from the airport to home. Recently others have reported receiving multiple free rides. I'm not sure if this is based on the country in which the passenger lives or whether the passengers have different addresses or a change in procedure. In our 8 or so DtD cruises, Blacklane has never been used to transport us from the airport to the ship or a Silversea hotel or from the ship to the airport/hotel. Even when our transfers were not on a bus, they were organized by Silversea's local land/tour agent, not Blacklane. That said, enough people have reported receiving multiple vouchers perhaps the procedure is changing.

Yes, unlike the other ships, on the Nova no indoor bars are open in the morning so all coffee seekers are forced to the overwhelmed Arts Cafe. The Observation was overrun by the bridge players and only sporadically replenished. The only other options were room service or outdoors- the Marquee and pool bars - and even bundled up and with the heaters they were uncomfortable for most of our time in Patagonia. The Panorama does have a large outdoor area, which looks lovely, but was generally unused on our cruise due to cold/wind at night (and being closed during the day). We will not sail the Nova again.

The bars were packed from 6:30 to 8:15 or so and then again from around 9 until the show (or in our case bed time). I think the Nova doesn't have enough indoor bar seats for its capacity when full.

The Observation Lounge hosted the daily Bridge classes in the morning so by 10 or so the self service coffee corner was completely depleted and not replenished until around 11. On the Nova the Observation Lounge has no bar. At night it is used for overflow seating for the SALT Bar. However, even that was generally full from 7 to 8:15 and that is where we waited 40 minutes for a drink several nights.

The Dusk bar was useless for most of the cruise as it was too cold/windy. The Panorama (and all of the other indoor bars) didn't open until late afternoon so they could not help with the horde of coffee seekers in the Arts Cafe. In the evening the SALT Bar and Dolce Vita were so crowded it was difficult to find a seat or get a drink in less than 30-40 minutes. The Panorama was generally the least crowded bar (except the Shelter, which was barely used as it was limited to champagne). However, the Panorama was frequently taken over by groups so it wasn't a reliable option.

We had a great cruise on the Dawn last fall and thought the food and service were generally good and in line with what we've come to expect from Silversea over the years. However, our January/February cruise on the Nova felt like we were on a different cruise line. Serious understaffing, poor food (both ingredient quality and preparation/service), crowds and very long waits at the Arts Cafe and all indoor bars and huge tour/excursion groups felt like we were on NCL, not Silversea. We very much hoped the issues were limited to the Nova, but this thread and others on CC make me think they may not be and have me re-considering the cruises we have booked for 2024 and early 2025. We are boarding the Muse on May 1 and will use the experience on that cruise to decide whether to cancel the other cruises. Hopefully, the Nova was an outlier, but either way I'll post a bit about our experience and am happy to answer questions.

Silversea provided a dayroom for an Asian cruise about 2 years ago when our flight home was around midnight. Since then they have not, even when we had similarly late flights. Our last SS post cruise tour (about a year and a half ago) dumped us at the airport more than 6 hours before the flight. Since then, I have either paid for my own transfer/tour or booked my own dayroom - so much for our "Door to Door" fare (the only option for a Silver Suite). The new wider availability of Port to Port fares is a step in the right direction. I just hope the onboard experience improves over our Nova trip!

Reception told me they couldn't print my document, but could forward the email with it attached.

On our Jan/Feb Nova cruise we couldn't complete the survey on our mobile devices (had had the same problem on some prior Moon and Dawn cruises). Reception could not fix the problem and told me to use the TV. I explained that I wanted to make additional comments. They told me to type something up and email it to them and they would forward to the Hotel Director. I have no idea if he saw it.

We are on a DtD on the Muse departing Tokyo on May 1 and had booked the Silversea hotel for 3 nights pre-cruise on the understanding it was the Conrad in Tokyo. After the deadline to cancel the hotel without penalty (about a month ago) we found out Silversea was using the Westin Yokohama, despite the fact that our cruise leaves from Tokyo, not Yokohama! Rooms at the Westin were going for less than $250 when booked directly and Silversea was charging us more than four times that rate. Our travel agent spoke to Silversea and we were allowed to cancel without penalty. We booked a Mount Fujii view room at the Mandarin Oriental Tokyo for less than Silversea was charging for the Yokohama Westin. We have had many problems with Silversea hotels since the re-start of cruising, but really didn't have another option as DtD was the only option for a Silver Suite, which we prefer. Hopefully, with the new pricing structure we won't have to use a Silversea hotel again.

Our transfers allow a choice between a large SUV or a sedan. Essentially, if you have more than 2 bags you need to opt for the SUV even if there are only 2 passengers. They say the SUV seats 5 and takes 5 bags, but it would be very crowded with 5 people. We generally travel with 3 or occasionally 4 bags and they usually need to put the back row of seats at least partially down. Both the sedan and the SUV are paid for by Silversea up to the allowed mileage. The overage charge is a little higher for the SUV than the sedan.

My husband and I have done multiple DtDs, including back to back cruises, and I've never gotten more than 2 one way transfers. There must be different rules in the US.

The inluded Blacklane rides must be address specific. When my husband and I book a DtD cruise, we get links for only two one way rides on Blacklane, presumably because we have the same address. However, when we have opted out of Blacklane we did get a credit for each person.