torst Posted September 14, 2018 #1 Share Posted September 14, 2018 A wonderful two weeks from Tower Bridge to Stockholm. Our fifth Silversea Cruise, first on the Wind. Crew were fabulous, food best we have encountered on a ship. MAIN DINING ROOM PARTICULARLY GOOD. Bar staff is fabulous, friendly and anxious to serve. Our butler Diepke was always anxious to help. A negative for us was the early morning sailout from Tower Bridge. This was a non event, yes it was 5am but it warranted champagne, coffee and maybe a poolside breakfast. Nothing was available until 7:30. I was told the timing was not convenient for the crew who work long hours. Not a luxury response. Greatly enjoyed the ports, did not do any ship tours. Highly recommend Dancing Bear Tours in SPB, reasonable and wonderful to deal with. The ship is somewhat tired and our sixth floor hallway somewhat smelly, but... nothing is perfect and i would gladly return tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLSD Posted September 14, 2018 #2 Share Posted September 14, 2018 I see no reason why this review would be rejected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stumblefoot Posted September 14, 2018 #3 Share Posted September 14, 2018 A negative for us was the early morning sailout from Tower Bridge. This was a non event, yes it was 5am but it warranted champagne, coffee and maybe a poolside breakfast. Nothing was available until 7:30. I was told the timing was not convenient for the crew who work long hours. Not a luxury response. Glad you had a good voyage! Also, agree with the non-luxury response. I don't know about conducting a full poolside breakfast, but certainly having some pastries, muffins, etc. available would have been a nice touch along with the champagne, juice, and coffee. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carefreecruise Posted September 14, 2018 #4 Share Posted September 14, 2018 A wonderful two weeks from Tower Bridge to Stockholm. A negative for us was the early morning sailout from Tower Bridge. This was a non event, yes it was 5am but it warranted champagne, coffee and maybe a poolside breakfast. Nothing was available until 7:30. I was told the timing was not convenient for the crew who work long hours. Not a luxury response. . Have done the Sail away and also sail in. One one in the middle of the night. Silversea has very little control when it passes under the bridge. Traffic control runs it and Silversea must follow their timing also complying with river tides and ship traffic flow. So be happy at least it was not 2 AM sail away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hypercafe Posted September 14, 2018 #5 Share Posted September 14, 2018 Glad you had a great trip. For future info you may order off of the room servicer menu anytime, anyplace, at least on the Muse. Great for a early pool side breakfast! Sent from my moto e5 cruise using Forums mobile app Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Keith1010 Posted September 15, 2018 #6 Share Posted September 15, 2018 I am glad to hear that you enjoyed the cruise, including your butler. We have sailed the Tower Bridge but on another luxury line (Seabourn). No special items were provided. We have also sailed out of and arrived to very special ports on many luxury lines at an hour such as 5:00 AM. No special items were provided. I have found that for those who want to wake up at that hour they mainly are doing so to take in the views which can be special at that hour. Please remember that the crew does work very long hours. There is a limit to the total number of hours they can work and even getting crew members up at that hour is not realistic. Please also keep in mind to have food and drink out at that hour the items would have to be set up and prepared much earlier than 5:00 AM. Again, very glad that you enjoyed the cruise. Keith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rosepark Posted September 15, 2018 #7 Share Posted September 15, 2018 River traffic is rare at that time of the morning and you are passing through residential areas. I wonder if there is a noise curfew in the morning as I know sailings arriving and departing later in the day have drinks on deck and Rule Britannia playing through the loud speakers. Rp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Keith1010 Posted September 15, 2018 #8 Share Posted September 15, 2018 River traffic is rare at that time of the morning and you are passing through residential areas. I wonder if there is a noise curfew in the morning as I know sailings arriving and departing later in the day have drinks on deck and Rule Britannia playing through the loud speakers.Rp My guess is not noise issue. I think the answer is that it was 5:00 AM. If it was 5:00 PM that would be another story. I really can't think of any case where at that hour in the morning there is going to be a big event. Keith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLSD Posted September 15, 2018 #9 Share Posted September 15, 2018 And another thought--most people would not be up and out on the deck at 5am for any reason--even for a great sail away. More likely they would be in their suites watching from their own veranda in a bath robe. That would be me anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Silver Spectre Posted September 15, 2018 #10 Share Posted September 15, 2018 We sailed out under Tower Bridge at 3:30am last year and stayed up until 6. The only staff we expected to see were the Captain and the others on the bridge. The other point to remember is that the day before the sail out was a turnaround day, always very busy for the crew. Even at 5am we would expect most of the crew to be in their well deserved land of nod. Sent from my iPad using Forums Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UKCruiseJeff Posted September 15, 2018 #11 Share Posted September 15, 2018 I must admit that I had misunderstood and thought that there was reduced F&B staff on duty through the night for the 24 hour menu, and a single person wandering around asking if anyone would like a champers and a sausage roll doesn’t seem an insurmountable challenge to me. A few canapés can easily be pre-prepared. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Host Dan Posted September 15, 2018 #12 Share Posted September 15, 2018 Rejected? Huh?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
les37b Posted September 15, 2018 #13 Share Posted September 15, 2018 River traffic is rare at that time of the morning and you are passing through residential areas. I wonder if there is a noise curfew in the morning as I know sailings arriving and departing later in the day have drinks on deck and Rule Britannia playing through the loud speakers. Rp Lots of sailings don’t play RB - including my Cloud departure at 7pm. Think that’s all down to the CD, though I probably would agree playing it loudly at 5.30am would be inappropriate. The Thames has one of the highest river tidal ranges in the world. On top of not scraping the bottom of the river, it also needs to get under Tower Bridge. The windows of opportunity to get underway from the pool of London for the Wind will be governed by these important factors. Indeed on a sailing last year (July if I remember) The Wind was due to depart at 7pm. I wanted to observe from Dartford 2 hours away. (Wes was onboard).... it didn’t depart on time because of ship problems. They eventually fixed the problems 2 hours later, but didn’t sail because they’d missed the tide. The knock on effect, they even missed the first port as they were 12 hours behind schedule. (If Wes is around he can confirm the logistics of this.) SS can’t do anything about the tides, but I know there have been some very late time changes so an arrival or departure is now in an ungodly hour instead of in-front of waving hands on the bridge as the drawbridge is raised. It’s certainly a high point to get to do this and bookings I’m sure are made that might not have been if the eventual times were published on booking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beaujolais Posted September 15, 2018 #14 Share Posted September 15, 2018 les37b Where have you been? Good to see you are back posting Most people will be happy to see you are back !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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