Dolcevita Diva

Look forward to hearing your thoughts on this beautiful ship! Definitely wish there had been at least 1 more sea day on my voyage a few weeks ago.

Apparently passengers on the June 3rd and June 15th voyages of the Silver Ray are in the process of being notified that there are delays in construction and those first two voyages are cancelled… If you’re booked on one of these voyages, contact your TA.

They are truly wonderful. Alas, the magic platters don't seem to work at home. Hmm, there might be a subscription service opportunity here - a bottle of Pommery and some magical truffles delivered to your home each month. Oooooh - do tell.

My favorite was the amaretti. Alas, I didn’t even sample these lovely morsels for a day or so because I was enjoying the little box of chocolates that was next to the champagne in my suite at embarkation. When I finally noticed these (the little tray was tucked on a shelf by the tv), I only took one at first, thinking that they needed to last. Oh, silly me! Turns out that the secret to the truffle fairy is to eat ALL the truffles. And every time you do, the little platter is magically refilled.

Not in the evening at the Arts Cafe. But never fear, there are delicious truffles delivered to your suite every day, on a silver (or more likely stainless) platter, as well as the occasional small box of chocolates. The truffles are amaaazing…

Our next port was beautiful Malaga (pictures above) and we were lucky enough that the itinerary called for an overnight here, with departure at 2 PM the following afternoon. I had originally booked the excursion to the Villages of Mijas but cancelled for 2 reasons. Someone else on this itinerary a few weeks ago had mentioned how crowded Mijas became due to other ships in port. The port schedule showed there would be an additional 8,000 passengers in port from other ships…In addition, the original tour description mentioned visiting a chocolate factory and having an opportunity to make custom confections. But the description of the tour on board had changed and omitted the hands-on experience, so I decided to cancel this one. My friends and I were also really interested in the excursion to visit the Picasso museum, but that had been waitlisted from the time we booked the voyage and we were notified before the cruise started that would not clear. But you can buy tickets to the museum independently for approx. 10 Euros and visit at your own pace. So we did! Right around the corner from where the shuttle buses drop you off in Malaga is one of the stops for the hop on hop off bus, which was a great way to see the city and get off at some of the key stops. The shuttle drop off point is right by the stunningly beautiful Parque de Malaga, a lovely place to just sit for a while. One of the ticket options for the HOHO bus includes a ticket to the Picasso museum if that is of interest.

Some notes about La Terrazza. I have a distinct aversion to buffets (the result of decades of business travel with the inevitable conference and hotel buffets) and avoid them whenever possible. Unless there is chocolate involved! 😁 So I seldom visit La Terrazza for breakfast or lunch on the other ships although it’s one of my favorite venues for dinner. On this ship, La Terrazza seems larger than on the other ships and the buffet area is definitely larger and is configured in more of a “horizontal” format where the different sections face the dining area and the area isn’t tucked away on the side as it is on some ships. This worked well for several reasons. The “horizontal” format allows you to go not just to the section (salad bar vs hot area vs desserts) you’re interested in, but also directly to the part of that section that interests you, rather than being stuck in line behind someone who is taking their time evaluating which precise piece of fruit they are planning to take or which pastry is the fluffiest. 😆. Another touch that was very clever is there are shelves above the buffet that hold pre-packaged salads in glass jars and pre-portioned cold cuts in bento box top containers if you want to quickly take something to go or don’t wish to prepare your own off the buffet. After lunch, they move the plants from the dining room tables and place them on these wooden shelves, which turns them into a decor element and helps the buffet lines “disappear” visually during dinner service. The handwashing station at the entrance was much nicer than this area on the Spirit last year. I can’t compare to the Moon or Dawn since I’ve not yet sailed on those ships. But the handwashing station on the Nova actually looks, dare we say “elegant” and each step of the process (water, soap and towel dispensing) was automated and hands-free. Initially, one of the maitre’ds was making sure that everyone used the station at breakfast and lunch, but later in the voyage several people ahead of me just walked right past the station and were seated without anything being said. The service in La Terrazza was truly excellent at all meal times - very swift in bringing beverages and made-to-order omelettes at breakfast and very warm, polished and personalized at dinner.

Interesting and concerning. I did not receive a letter of acknowledgment on the Nova last week, but was provided a receipt; albeit hand-written.

Can't answer this about SALT Kitchen (the restaurant) and did not make any special requests. I did notice a slight tendency at the beginning of this voyage across various venues for the crew to encourage certain "standard" offerings. A few examples: On the first evening they were offering an Australian Chardonnay as the complimentary white and when I inquired if they had any French white burgundies, was told no (Say what??? Silversea always has at least a Macon on the comp list). This continued into the second day in other venues (they were really trying to push their planned white wine pour), but then suddenly a variety of additional white offerings were readily available. Another example - When my butler offered to bring some canapes later in the afternoon, I asked for a shrimp cocktail and she hesitated and said that she'd have to check if that was possible (? Really - I can order caviar but not shrimp cocktail?). Someone else on the voyage mentioned elsewhere that they received the same response and were told they could only order items that were on the room service menu. On the other hand, on the first evening one of my friends asked for blue-cheese stuffed olives for his martini and although they did not have any, the server said: "We will have those for you tomorrow and the rest of your cruise, Mr. ---" Not sure if any of this was related to provisioning, new SOPs or newer crew members - but when sharing these examples, it's also important to make clear that the crew throughout displayed the sincere desire to accommodate and make their guests happy - and ultimately whatever you asked for was done with a smile.

Our next port was Gibraltar. I had not signed up for any excursions and had a leisurely morning and lunch onboard. @TLCOhio - I didn’t take many menu or food photos, but here are photos of the lunch menu at The Marquee and some “food porn” for you! This is the Roast Pumpkin and Chickpea salad with some chicken added and although I normally don’t have dessert with lunch, couldn’t resist trying the Mint Chocolate Frozen Sandwich, which was delicious. After lunch, I walked into town and did some browsing/shopping on Main Street. My friends went on the Cork & Cattle excursion and really enjoyed it. They learned about cork production, harvesting, aging, exports, etc. They did say there were 40 people on their bus, though.

I mentioned earlier that there is a saxophone player onboard who plays at the Dusk Bar and the S.A.L.T. Bar. It’s hard to convey just how magical this, but most especially during sailaway. Hopefully this video clip as we departed Cádiz will give you a sense. IMG_1981.mov

Terry, so far only on the Nova and will be on the Ray as well. This is party of the overall sustainability/environmentally friendly positioning of these ships. I never flipped through all the pages of the digital Chronicles. To their credit, it's pretty easy to navigate to the key pages you want and ignore the rest.

When on vacation I really prefer to unplug to a great extent and would much rather peruse a paper copy of the chronicles while enjoying breakfast on my veranda. Hello Silversea - have you noticed that digital screens are not always readable in the sunlight outdoors...? There was an option to download, but the file was pretty big and the download on my Ipad apparently was not successful. I ended up just taking screenshots of the daily activity pages on my phone so they'd be handy without having to fiddle with connecting to the wifi, signing into mycruise.com, etc. What I did like was having a lovely photo of the port for the day, time, outdoor temperature and key agenda items on the television and also really liked the digital display by each elevator bank that listed upcoming activities, where they would be held, etc.

I loved the ship and absolutely will sail on her again! Don't want my comments to come across as negative or complaining at all - just want to point out some differences from the other ships, a few things to get used to and a few areas that hopefully will be tweaked based on guest feedback.

Not a silly question at all. Seems that since it was digital, they threw everything in there - lots of photos, tour descriptions, promotional fluff - when you really only needed the handful of activities for the day.

Nope. Standard procedure is electronic only. Someone mentioned elsewhere that they requested a paper copy and were able to get a black and white version. The Chronicles on the tablet/tv are 79-80 pages long...a lot to flip through. Your messages and the survey will also come on the tv/tablet, but invitations such as Venetian Society reception are still delivered in paper. On the positive side, the digital displays near each elevator list do list upcoming activities for the next few hours.

Since @boccenana will board in a few days, let me first add a few more overall comments about specific facets of this ship/cruise experience before covering additional details of our ports and excursions to wrap up. None of these comments are intended as a complaint, just a few differences from other Silversea ships or oddities they may want to consider sorting out. Follow-up note re: the Cadiz excursion and sherry tasting - unless you book the first group time, eat a hearty breakfast! Our excursion left at 9:45 a.m. and it was around 1-1:30 when the tasting portion began. So we'd not had lunch before we began tasting 5 different types of sherry😄. Electronics - The Silver Nova is much more advanced on the tech front, but there are a few areas that could still stand improvement. The Chronicles, restaurant descriptions, daily menus and yourbefore we began tasting 5 personal agenda for the day are all handled electronically, either on the tablet provided in your suite, your television or your personal phone/tablet (after you download and connect to Silversea wifi and the mycruise app). As you look through daily activities in the Chronicles, you can click on activities that you'd like to add to your agenda for the day. Really liked having this information available electronically, but some aspects are a bit cumbersome, too. You can make restaurant reservations electronically, but you're not able to change the number in party or cancel a reservation through these tools (!?). In fact, cancelling restaurant reservations was rather a pain on this voyage, as you cannot call to cancel until the venue is open or someone there in mid-afternoon, when you might be out on an excursion. So you need to rely on your butler or ask the reception desk to cancel those reservations and in practice, they are so busy they sometimes forget. And as mentioned, your agenda is available on your own phone/ap, but in my experience, that was only when connected to Silversea wifi. Which means only when you're onboard the ship. Suite Numbering - The number scheme is disorienting on this ship. Although they followed the usual approach of even numbers on one side and odd numbers on the other, because there are so many different suite configurations interspersed with each other on a deck, the suite numbers on the opposite side of the hallway may be very different. For example, I had booked 6051, a deluxe midship veranda. After boarding the ship and going to deck 6, I quickly found suites 6052 and 6054. But the odd-numbered suites across the hall were numbers 6071 and 6073 and my suite was 10 doors down. The elevator banks on opposite sides of the ship add to the disorientation once you get to your home deck (or was that the champagne? 😄). So count the doors till your cabin from each bank of elevators. S.A.L.T. Lab - As others have mentioned on the Dawn and the Moon, these classes can only be booked onboard and are very popular, so they book up quickly. I inquired about the classes at reception immediately after boarding. They gave me the list (two different classes were offered that week) but told me that these needed to be booked on the television or tablet in my suite. That didn't seem to be an option on my tablet, though. Tried again at reception later that evening and they all classes were fully booked until the final day so I grabbed that spot. I did try to stand by for an earlier class and the chef that day said that there was a spot available, but then far more people than there were places poured in so I left. The lady who runs the program was ill/quarantined that week and so the overall organization needed help - the chef was great with the cooking instruction but they really needed someone else there at least at the start of each class to manage the passengers. They book reservations on the basis of two people at each cooking station, but most of the couples were taking two stations until another passenger pointed out "there are two aprons there, which means two people per station". There were also clearly more people showing up than had reserved - when my friends took their first class, there was a third person added to their station and a few others. So - a bit chaotic but loved the class itself. And the venue is gorgeous. I've only seen pictures of the S.A.L.T Lab on the Moon and the Dawn, but this space on the Nova is quite beautiful with a full wall of windows. Entertainment/Activities - Although there was only 1 sea day on this itinerary, there were more activities scheduled on port days than I ever remember seeing. From dance classes with the entertainers to table tennis competitions, golf-putting challenges, enrichment lectures every day and of course team trivia, there was a lot happening on the ship every day. There was also entertainment in each of the bar/lounge areas every evening, so you could listen to Alfredo in Dolce Vita, Chris on the saxophone at S.A.L.T. bar or Dusk Bar or Violinist Annet depending on which venue you went to at that time. And during the early evening from 6 to 8, it was a bit like "season" where I live - multiple invitations all at the same time, so you'd have to flip a coin or stop by each for a short bit. The Venetian Lounge on the Nova is two-story which gives it even more of a feel of a theatre/performing arts centre. There was a much wider variety of entertainment - from the "new" singers/dancers to a comedian, the MacDonald Brothers and acts you may know from other lines like Chris Watkins the violinist. And even (gulp) karaoke. The new primary entertainment troupe consists of 4 singers and 5 dancers, plus the Silver Nova Band. The singers are phenomenal and include the gentleman who was the original Simba in The Lion King. The dancers....hmmm. My opinion was that they're superfluous. They were energetic but didn't add anything to the show and the choreography seemed rather high school musicalish. So - a LOT more variety than the Voices of Silversea. One major drawback? The cruise director is the fabulous and talented Ms. Vicki von Tassel. But if you adore her show "Ship Happens" (who doesn't !!!!???), you will not see it onboard. Silversea has deemed it not in keeping with the approach they are seeking for entertainment on the Silver Nova. If you're sailing soon, please write in the comments that you miss that show! As for the Karaoke? Heard that it was very well attended and a lot of fun, although no major new talent was unearthed. I'm ashamed to admit that I rolled my eyes when I read that Karaoke was an option, because as I realized later - on Silversea you never know who might be a passenger onboard. And remembered that way back when I used to cruise with my parents on other lines several decades ago, my dear mother used to bring down the house belting out "The Birth of the Blues" during those passenger talent nights...because when she was in her late teens, she used to sing with one of the big bands in Miami...

Ah, this could be the reason I've been sick the past few days! I thought it was due to all of the people coughing and sneezing during my travels back. Either that...or I'm allergic to being home? In withdrawal from copious quantities of champagne?

Alright, I'm back. The Reentry to Reality phase post-cruise really reinforces the need for Silversea to adopt my recommendation from several years ago for a post-cruise butler service option. 😉 Hear me out - you arrive home in your Blackstone vehicle. The lights are on and a Silversea butler is standing outside your front door with a Welcome Home sign. Inside, candles are aglow, there is a chilled bottle of Pommery and some canapes at the ready and a therapist is on hand to work out the travel knots while your butler unpacks for you. He/she has ordered dinner for you from your favorite local restaurant and serves it plated on your china, while music from your favorite artists aboard the ship plays in the background. After enjoying the delicious chocolates left at your bedside, you nod off to sleep that evening to the white noise sound of ocean waves. The following morning, you awaken to wonder if that was all just a dream - until you go to the kitchen and find freshly brewed coffee or tea in a thermos, with an array of pastries and other breakfast goodies on the counter, including the necessary fixings for a bloody mary or a mimosa. Your laundry has been taken care of, your shoes are polished and there's a note letting you know that necessary perishable and pantry items have been ordered and will be delivered that morning - and that your luggage has been cleaned with an ecologically friendly cleaner. And of course, tucked under that note is a Silversea brochure for you to peruse and plan your next voyage...

Definitely a younger skew, but did not see kids, teens or passengers in their 20s. A better way for me to frame that would have been that at least 30% of the passengers appeared to be between 30 and mid-40s and there was a healthy percentage in the mid-40s to mid-50s as well. It was also noticeable that many of the more physically demanding excursions seemed to fill up quickly. If you plan to dine early, you should have an easier time getting into most venues. But if there is a particular restaurant that you would be disappointed not to get into, definitely reserve that ahead of time. Someone else who was on the same voyage has said that she could not get into many of the restaurants without a reservation (partially because some passengers booked ahead and did not cancel). That was not my experience - but I wasn't trying to get into La Dame or Silver Note. We were able to dine at La Terraza on two different evenings when we did not have a reservation. The Marquee was a challenge if not reserved ahead of time and others were definitely turned awaya; I saw a long queue form shortly after 8 pm. Go to the S.A.L.T Bar! The wonderful bartenders there are lonely on this ship.

Interestingly enough, the demographics on this voyage definitely had a younger skew. I'd hazard a guess that at least 30% of the passengers were under 40.

There was a glass bottle of still water and one of sparkling water in the refrigerator. The main change is there are no plastic bottles handed out when you leave the ship or arrive back from an excursion. As @Stumblefoot mentioned, you don't have to reserve any restaurants. That said, the one you definitely should reserve is it is of interest, is Silver Note. It's a very small venue and was fully booked all week. Atlantide and S.A.L.T. Kitchen do not take bookings; all of the other restaurants do. So if you have your heart set on a particular restaurant, go ahead and make a reservation. The Marquee (which combines Hot Rocks and Spaccanapoli) was very popular on this voyage, so would recommend pre-reserving this as well. In addition, the S.A.L.T. Chef's Table tasting dinner held in the S.A.L.T. Lab only takes bookings on board. On my voyage last week, bookings for that experience were very light. My friends booked it on the same evening that I had reserved Silver Note; otherwise I would have gone too. As it turns out, my friends ended up having a very special personalized experience - because they were the only people who had booked the tasting dinner that night.

Another difference of the Silver Nova (and presumably the Ray) is there are no plastic bottles. All passengers will receive a stainless water bottle to take with you on your shore excursions and use aboard the ship. Your butler will keep it filled in the cabin, there is a filling station near the gangway and servers aboard the ship were proactive offering to refill your bottle. All the bottles are alike, however, which could easily result in mixups, especially since some people leave theirs on the excursion bus. Some passengers wrote their initials on the bottom. I happened to have a shoulder strap that came with my iPhone case with me and immensely enjoyed being told by other passengers how brilliant that was. 😎 So if you wish to be known for your brilliance onboard, bring a strap or a carabiner clip to attach the handle to a tote bag, belt loop, etc. Those wine charms that are used at some parties would be useful too…(anyone with mfg. contacts, let me know…I have some ideas about those💡)

Photos of arrival in Cadiz and of Bodegas Osborne