chemmo

Both! Honestly, you won’t regret it… Murano is a fine dining venue with some table side presentation. Ideal on a sea day when you are fresh and can enjoy a meal at a leisurely pace. It does feel special. Food wonderful! Tuscan Grill overlooks the wake of the ship. Book an early time to secure a window seat. Book it on a day you are leaving a port at 5/6pm…Be perusing the menu as the ropes come off. Be sipping your drink and enjoying your starter as the port fades into the distance. Enjoy your entree as the sun begins to set and be sipping a liqueur and enjoying dessert as day becomes night. Quite magical. The food isn’t bad either! A typical Italian selection of decent steak and pasta…

Agree, Surly one member of the customer service team should be ‘responsible’ for ‘covid care’. There should be no excuses for lack of communication or lack of service. OP, sincere best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Totally understand your stress levels, I think many of us feel more relaxed if we can do things to reduce our risks. We still wear masks in crowded venues, choose to sit away from others in bars and restaurants, still frequently gel…It surprises us when out and about that so many people act as if covid never happened and isn’t still with us. Hope you have a great first suite cruise. Being in a suite can help with social distancing. For example, Luminae does have fairly good spacing anyway but in our experience it is quieter early or late usually so if you want to avoid being too close to others that can be a simple aid. Breakfast time it is usually quiet until the last 15 minutes of service…

Sincere best wishes for a wonderful cruise! If the weather is good head for as many outside venues as possible to reduce risks… We called for a meal in a local pub/restaurant last week and were surprised how many people were not spacing themselves from others…picking a table next to others rather than one of the many others available. So much spread could be avoided if everyone just used their common sense!

Sincere best wishes for a wonderful cruise!

Sincere best wishes for a wonderful birthday and a fantastic cruise!

Sincere thanks for a wonderful extended review. A pity it is over, I have been enjoying reading your adventures with my morning coffee!

In our experience both Sushi on 5 and The Porch do not need to be booked either at lunchtime or in the evening. If you prefer to book easy to book on board. On our first cruise with a Porch restaurant (Reflection) we booked a lunch slot through the shoreside concierge and were the only guests there!

Suite privileges are for suite guests only, not for accompanying family members. If you have, perhaps one elderly relative in your group, they may waive the rules and let them board with you but not 10 cabins worth of guests. Not because they are reluctant to help but it simply would clog up the expedited experience other suite guests have paid for. Simply talk your family through the procedures for boarding. Not difficult. I suggest you arrange to all meet up at a specific point late afternoon after everyone has boarded, completed muster etc. Sail away is frequently at about 4.30pm. Perhaps, you could all meet then? Equally on board the suite perks apply to your suite only. Your extended family will not be able to join you in the suite lounge, deck or restaurant. Many family groups can find it difficult to be in different categories of room as they then have the dilemma of either using the upgraded facilities they have paid for and being away from the rest of their family for significant parts of the day or not use the Retreat facilities and be with their family. My apologies if this is not in your planning but I would like to express a further concern. I do understand that a larger suite can be a gathering point for the family for sail aways, pre dinner drinks etc. However, if your party is in excess of 20 guests (which I assume it is with 10 cabins) I think you could be overestimating the capacity of the RS on all classes of ship to act as a ‘hub’. We have hosted sail away parties in the S class RS and I would suggest 8/10 guests is cramped. We do enjoy the Retreat experience and if you haven’t experienced it yet I would recommend. However, you may get your value from it more if you were travelling on your own. If I was travelling with a large family group not in suites, I would drop back to a veranda simply because I would want to be spending all my time with them not away from them. I honestly think you could be paying for suite facilities like Luminae and the suite lounge but then not using them… OP my apologies if this post sounds negative…it isn’t intended to be, I just feel you, perhaps, have not thought certain things through. We have cruised in a suite with friends in a veranda and it did cause some issues. Sincere best wishes for a great family cruise.

Sincere best wishes for a wonderful cruise…Silhouette is our favourite S class ship, enjoy!

On a ‘normal’ cruise you can pre book a dining package and you can visit a restaurant multiple times. Holiday cruises are a rule to themselves. The speciality restaurants usually have a ‘festive menu’ for key nights and I seem to remember it is more expensive too on those evenings. Keep checking on line, I would expect dining packages to come up but be aware some key dates may not be available within a dining package. If dining packages do not come up ask on boarding at one of the restaurants and see what deals they can offer you. When last on Silhouette I seem to remember Murano and Lawn Grill were the busiest (less likely to offer discounts) but the other restaurants were offering discounts, especially if you were willing to dine early or late.

Same experience for us. No charge in The Porch but there was a charge for the prime cuts in Tuscan. Also, in our opinion, staff in the speciality restaurants prefer cash tips. As Jim said, if you do ask for a blank bill and add a tip it goes into the general pool.

We have no hassle as alcohol drinkers, we simply have a drinks package and see it as part of the holiday price! Agree…We probably don’t break even with our drinks package but it is a long time since we have tried calculating. We just enjoy getting what we want when we want it! Before drinks packages we probably drank the same on a cruise as we do now but we were far more conservative in our choices. We would stick to wines and cocktails we knew. Too risky to buy a cocktail you don’t know if you will like or not…Now I try anything, part of my holiday pleasure!

I think it is one of those things that isn’t important unless you have a bad neck or something. Very important to us as Mr. Chemmo has a feather allergy.

We have always been contacted when in the PH or a RS. One thing that has improved for us is the reliability of our requests getting to the ship. When the ‘suite life’ program was first introduced it was hit and miss. Sometimes we would board and none of our requests had been forwarded, sometimes just our drinks requests had been forwarded but not our dining…However, on the last 3/4 cruises not only have our requests all gone through when the shoreside concierge contacted us (not ones we had previously been in touch with) they already had some information, our usual drinks requests, for example and pillow choices…

Technically butlers do not deliver alcoholic beverages to your room no matter what suite you are in. If all suite guests (or even just upper suite guests) expected this all the time butlers would be run off their feet just delivering drinks. Personally, whilst we do use our butler to occasionally check or sort reservations for us if we want a drink not in our bar set up we will usually go and get it ourselves. However, many have reported that butlers will get beverages for them. To help your butler I would suggest the following… Obviously when choosing your bar set up spirits and sodas pick the ones you are most likely going to enjoy in your suite. Ask at the start for any lemons, limes etc you may want. It can be an idea to choose one spirit you are likely to use as a cool mixer during the day and the other being your late at night tipple. If you can predict what drinks you are likely to want and at what time of day then let the butler know in advance. For example, specific cocktails to be delivered at 5pm. If he knows in advance he can fit your requests around those of other suite guests. Be tolerant with timing, you could phone requesting drinks at a time he is serving other guests in room food service. Avoid asking for service at the time the butlers have other duties. For example, serving afternoon tea in the Retreat Lounge at 4pm. Remember your butler does have some time each day off duty. If you phone your butler at that time another butler will take the call. Sincere best wishes for a great cruise.

Following along… We are ‘grounded’ at present, should be in the PH on the Silhouette heading for the Canary Islands, please keep us entertained and let us vicariously enjoy your adventures! Sincere best wishes for a wonderful cruise!

Sincere best wishes, for a fantastic cruise and Happy Birthday!

So pleased you enjoyed your cruise…Make life continue to sparkle for you!

Whilst I have little or no sympathy for those who ‘intentionally’ book tight flights or connections the world at present is very different. Last minute changes of flights are not unusual nor are the adjustments to connection gaps. Many people book sensible flight times (example, 1pm to have a shock change to 10.30am). For many who work full time there are restraints on schedules too. Flying home the next day may not be an option. I would happily let someone in front of me in a queue anywhere with a flight to catch… Jim, after experiencing staff shortages at immigration at Fort Lauderdale where US nationals sailed through and the rest of the world waited for ever we now sit comfortably in the Retreat lounge sipping coffee until the concierge tells us the immigration line has gone…

Thanks again for starting what has been such an original thread. I think one of the reasons the ‘sparkle’ of cruising has never worn off for us is that it is never our only holiday style…We have a touring caravan and love parking it in fields with beautiful sea or mountain views…We have hired villas in the Balearic Islands, far from the holiday crowds. We have also enjoyed some fabulous AI options like the Maldives….No news, no shoes holidays have much to recommend. Much as we love cruising we also enjoy it more as just part of a bigger life adventure. It is also rare our holiday is ‘just a cruise’. Either before cruising or after we will spend time in the departure port or the cruise will be the relaxing end to maybe a driving holiday…. There is nothing wrong with enjoying aspects of a cruise that do ‘float your boat’…There are some aspects of cruising where familiarity does result in total contentment. You have found a holiday experience that fits like a very comfortable and much loved shoe! I do think you are right to look at ports new to you also. Some of our most memorable cruises were in the Far East. I also think your wife is right want to look at other options too….Time is precious, waiting until next year to try new things can end up in a continuing postponement of dreams… Once again, thanks for a great thread, I have thoroughly enjoyed following. PS. Always remember that phrase ‘Happy wife, happy life…’.

Agree…we hated the S class CS although it had seemed to offer everything we were looking for. Hated the enclosed bedroom, lounge seemed small, Jack and Jill bathroom not for us…Would totally go for your suggestions of SS or RS! Definitely a marmite suite, you love it or you hate it!

I think selfishness only comes into it if you have no real reason to disembark early. With (I assume a hire car) and flying back from Orlando to the UK I would want to be fairly promptly off the ship too although I probably would wait for the initial rush to die down. We would probably want to be early off straight after the self disembarking guests. Having done this trip many times we never really relax about that late afternoon/early evening flight until we are in the Orlando vicinity. The journey can be a piece of cake or a hard work depending on the traffic and the weather. I must confess in recent years we have seen more and more guests getting off with their luggage. One couple we chatted to said they preferred to carry off their luggage themselves rather than mess finishing off their packing the night before… Agree…We never risk difficult flights. However, in this day and age you can book a sensible flight time and then have it changed to a challenging one last minute. I do think that there could be an ‘express ticket ‘ line for guests who can prove they need to get off fast. Then let others self disembark after if they simply choose to do so.

No, you should be contacted shortly by the shoreside concierge. Usually about 2 weeks out. We usually draft an email ready listing our bar set up, pillow requirements, speciality dining requests and other miscellaneous items like a kettle and tea tray (well, we are British). Usually you get a phone call but sometimes contact can be email. If we get a phone call we talk through our requests but then offer to forward our email. The answer is always yes. In our experience an email is more likely to arrive (in full detail) with your butler than a telephone conversation. We also print out two copies of the email. One for the butler as a suite check list and we ask him to confirm our dining requests have gone through. The second copy is for us to remind us where we are wining and dining each night! Sincere best wishes for a fantastic cruise!

Just after lockdown we booked a lakeside lodge and did the ‘Herriot sights’. Fantastic break, wonderful people and stunning countryside…. For those crossing the pond and wanting a taste of real England I would recommend Yorkshire and we live in the Red Rose Region (which is obviously wonderful too). Seriously I do think one mistake people can make is to do ‘cruise, cruise, cruise’ and not add variety to their experiences… Sometimes adding variety to holiday experiences is like adding seasoning to a tasty dish!