A Silver Shadow Over The World - December 2023 to May 2024

[mysty]

The Updates and Q and A webinar will be happening this afternoon.  Did anyone send in questions?

[Stumblefoot]

8 hours ago, mysty said:

I think now we will send 4 cases ahead (all large-sized) and we will take 2 medium-sized and one small as check in…

Atta girl!  None of this JP non-sense of traveling half-way around the world in just a carry-on. 😁

[mysty]

The webinar was quite good.  I won't say much about it because I don't want to overstep.

 

The key personnel will be:

Captain Giacomo Longo - first segments

Captain Michele Macarone Palmieri - remaining segments

David Bilsland - Culinary Trainer and Chef 

Frank Ebbens - Head Sommelier

Vicki Van Tassel - Cruise Director

Flavio Gioia - Hotel Director

Scott Douglas - Director of Entertainment

 

The webinar included Barbara Muckermann - President and CEO of Silversea, Norman Rafelson - Silversea Ambassador to the Venetian Society and Jannie Cloete - Director, Experiences & Events.

 

STARLINK is on the Shadow and performing well.

 

[wristband]

Disappointed to learn Jon Fleming will not be our enrichment lecturer.  The one name mentioned was Lawrence Blair on The Ring of Fire along with photos of...who were they?  Not identified.

 

Frankly, I thought the webinar was not informative.  This was a pep talk with staff commenting "how wonderful" and "beautiful" all would be. Would they say otherwise?  Overnights, ports & separate legs are all well known to us - why repeat the obvious for an hour?  The four questions were silly.

 

I heard and saw nothing new except Barbara M said Shadow is not sold out, they have suites to fill and will offer us OBCs for referrals that result in a sale.  Underwhelming.

[mysty]

20 minutes ago, wristband said:

Disappointed to learn Jon Fleming will not be our enrichment lecturer.  The one name mentioned was Lawrence Blair on The Ring of Fire along with photos of...who were they?  Not identified.

 

Frankly, I thought the webinar was not informative.  This was a pep talk with staff commenting "how wonderful" and "beautiful" all would be. Would they say otherwise?  Overnights, ports & separate legs are all well known to us - why repeat the obvious for an hour?  The four questions were silly.

 

I heard and saw nothing new except Barbara M said Shadow is not sold out, they have suites to fill and will offer us OBCs for referrals that result in a sale.  Underwhelming.

 

I agree @wristband !  It was disappointing.  Jon Fleming and his wife Tracy are doing shorter cruises like the Grand Voyages.  They are both excellent and they will be missed on the World Cruises.  We did get some interesting tidbits though.  Not enough to justify the rest of it though! 

[mysty]

And to be fair, this is the first time that Silversea has communicated by way of a webinar for a World Cruise.  It wasn't perfect but they did make an effort. We did get to put some faces to the names.   I think I recognized Alastair Bruce and Mark Elovitz from the 2019 line up for lecturers.  We did hear about the planned onboard local entertainment in the 17 ports where we are overnighting.  Those shows are usually amazing!  Disappointing that there weren't a lot of updates....true!  However,  there were nuggets of interest.  😁

[Daveywavey70]

17 hours ago, lincslady said:

Those are pearls with personality, Davey; totally different from the 'girls with pearls' beloved of Country Life photos years ago.  They are gorgeous, but I think you would need to be pretty tall to look good in them.

I'm 6'4" Lola so hopefully would carry them off. 🙂 

[mysty]

9 minutes ago, Daveywavey70 said:

I'm 6'4" Lola so hopefully would carry them off. 🙂 

Oh, you absolutely could DW!  With style and grace! 😁

[Daveywavey70]

11 minutes ago, mysty said:

Oh, you absolutely could DW!  With style and grace! 😁

I'm not sure many on Celebrity in January will be wearing Pearls! 

[mysty]

23 minutes ago, Daveywavey70 said:

I'm not sure many on Celebrity in January will be wearing Pearls! 

 

You need to choose your audience DW!  Not everyone qualifies as an arbiter of taste! 😅

[Stumblefoot]

8 hours ago, mysty said:

I won't say much about it because I don't want to overstep.

With all sincerity, what would you be overstepping if you said more than you did?  My ignorance is that I just don’t understand.

[rojaan19]

11 hours ago, Daveywavey70 said:

I'm 6'4" Lola so hopefully would carry them off. 🙂 

If you are 6'4"  you can  do what ever you damn  well  like  !!  😊 🙄 🥂  🤭

 

[mysty]

5 hours ago, Stumblefoot said:

With all sincerity, what would you be overstepping if you said more than you did?  My ignorance is that I just don’t understand.

 

They talked about some of the plans they have for onboard events, onboard dining, they mentioned the "secret" location for the Shanghai event.  I'm not sure the folks following along here who did not attend the webinar want that info.  I may have overstepped with my previous post about the Shanghai event and I did not want to repeat the possible faux pas.

[mysty]

We're now working on the currency question.  How much of which currencies will we want to take with us.  I was curious as to which countries accept USD.  Here is what I found:

 

Bridgetown, Barbados - The local currency is the Bajan dollar, but US dollars bills are accepted just about everywhere in shops and restaurants. US$1 = BD$2.
            
Bequia, St Vincent and Grenadines  - The currency of St. Vincent and the Grenadines is the Eastern
Caribbean dollar. EC$2.67 to US$1. U.S. dollars are generally accepted, make sure that change is given in US$.
                
Fort-de-France, Martinique - Martinique is a dependent territory of France and uses the euro as
currency. US dollars are not accepted in shops, but many restaurants and hotels take credit cards. The best exchange rates can be had at banks or ATM's. If they will accept USD, the conversion rate will be poor.
                                    
St. Kitts (Basseterre), St Kitts and Nevis - The local currency is the Eastern Caribbean dollar; U.S. dollars are widely accepted.
            
Gustavia, St. Barthelemy, French West Indies - The local currency is the euro; U.S. dollars are widely accepted.

 

Puntarenas, Costa Rica - The local currency is Colón(es). The rate of exchange is about 575
Colones for 1 US Dollar. You can find ATMs in most places. They normally dispense US Dollars and Colones.
                
Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - The currency of Mexico is the peso (MXN). The symbol for pesos is
the same as for US dollars, which can be slightly confusing. Prices in dollars (in tourist areas) are labeled "US$" or sport an S with a double stroke. There are about 17 peso to 1US$. US dollars are widely accepted in the far north and in tourist locales
elsewhere.
            
Cabo San Lucas (Bahia California Sur), Mexico - The currency of Mexico is the peso (MXN). The symbol for pesos is the same as for US dollars, which can be slightly confusing. Prices in dollars (in tourist areas) are labeled "US$" or sport an S with a double stroke. There is about 17 peso to 1US$. As US dollars are widely accepted in Cabo San Lucas, you don't have to change your dollars into pesos. If you're using dollars alone, make sure to bring smaller denominations to pay for incidentals and taxi rides.
             
Apia, Samoa Islands - Some retailers will take US, Australian, and New Zealand dollars but you will need local currency at the markets and smaller shops including most petrol stations.
                            
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam - The national currency is the dong (d?ng, VND), U.S. dollars are widely accepted, the standard exchange rate for small quantities being 16000 dong to US$1.
                                    
Chan May (Hue/Danang), Vietnam - The national currency is the dong (d?ng, VND), U.S. dollars are widely accepted, the standard exchange rate for small quantities being 16000 dong to US$1.
 

[Mr Luxury]

14 hours ago, Daveywavey70 said:

I'm not sure many on Celebrity in January will be wearing Pearls! 

Or underwear

[lincslady]

Looking at your clothes list, Mysty, your eveningwear seems to have been getting slightly more 'casual', in more pants and (no doubt 'dressy') tops for formal and fewer dresses.  Is this your personal choice, or because you feel Silversea is getting  bit less formal nowadays?  Or maybe both.

[mysty]

The formal bits are have been reduced to some extent.  There is one pair of "Formal" pants and one long dress.  These pieces will be paired with different tops.  The rest of the pants in the Informal/Formal category are for the Informal nights.  Myster does, at most, one Formal night per segment.  There are more Informal and Casual nights so most of the wardrobe is dedicated to those.  😁

[JoGay]

1 hour ago, mysty said:

The formal bits are have been reduced to some extent.  There is one pair of "Formal" pants and one long dress.  These pieces will be paired with different tops.  The rest of the pants in the Informal/Formal category are for the Informal nights.  Myster does, at most, one Formal night per segment.  There are more Informal and Casual nights so most of the wardrobe is dedicated to those.  😁

How many formal nights do you think we will have (based on your last 2WC)?

[mysty]

@JoGay  I can't really base it on our last 2 WC's.  I did not keep track.  This is what is currently the Silversea count by number of cruise days (subject to change perhaps like the current Nova dress code):

 

 

Using that for the cruises we are doing by number of cruise days I get this:

 

 

Ignore the Bridgetown to Fort Lauderdale and the Fort Lauderdale to San Francisco.  Those relate to our Holiday Season Cruise.

 

Of course, this is all conjecture.  If it helps a bit, great!

[mysty]

@lincslady , here are the "formal" pants with one top option.  Note that these are in fact pants although they are designed to look like a skirt.  The sleeves of the top are open from the shoulder to about the elbow and then closed from the elbow to the wrist.

 

[lincslady]

Tres chic, though not what I expected!.  My easy formal wear is black velvet pants, either a fancy top or a simple black one with a longish jacket or 'coat' over, or colourful kimono.  One favorite is a silky jacket officially a coverup for a swimsuit, in vivid colour and pattern, and bit Gucci style, which has always gone down well.  Even better, £4 from a charity shop!  Though originally fairly pricey, almost couture.  I guess you need a bit of chutzpah to dress like that, which you certainly have, Mysty.  I just live in hope that the crowd don't think 'who is the funny old girl in the odd outfit'.   Enough female rubbish for now, apologies.

 

Lola

[mysty]

59 minutes ago, lincslady said:

Tres chic, though not what I expected!.  My easy formal wear is black velvet pants, either a fancy top or a simple black one with a longish jacket or 'coat' over, or colourful kimono.  One favorite is a silky jacket officially a coverup for a swimsuit, in vivid colour and pattern, and bit Gucci style, which has always gone down well.  Even better, £4 from a charity shop!  Though originally fairly pricey, almost couture.  I guess you need a bit of chutzpah to dress like that, which you certainly have, Mysty.  I just live in hope that the crowd don't think 'who is the funny old girl in the odd outfit'.   Enough female rubbish for now, apologies.

 

Lola

 

I doubt very much that anyone would think "who is the funny old girl in the odd outfit" about you Lola!  And I very much enjoy what you call "female rubbish"!  Don't apologize! 😁

[wristband]

Hey Mysty, here's something that was not addressed.  3+ months out but still there are a number of ports without a single excursion available for us to book. 

 

Why is that and when can we expect those port excursions to be posted?

 

Who are our enrichment lecturers - except Lawrence Blair - and why the (pardon the pun) myst-ery? 

Putting aside that Dashing Dancing Fool Ramon, of course!

[mysty]

39 minutes ago, wristband said:

Hey Mysty, here's something that was not addressed.  3+ months out but still there are a number of ports without a single excursion available for us to book. 

 

Why is that and when can we expect those port excursions to be posted?

 

Who are our enrichment lecturers - except Lawrence Blair - and why the (pardon the pun) myst-ery? 

Putting aside that Dashing Dancing Fool Ramon, of course!

 

I agree @wristband .  On previous World Cruises we could not book excursions until 120 days prior to sailing.  We got to book earlier on this one.  Some ports have changed from the original itinerary and excursions for some of the new ports are not complete.  And some ports like Apia have no excursions available to book.  Christmas Island will not have any excursions to book.  It's a wander-on-your-own port.  I don't know what the hold up is.

 

On the 2019 cruise, the only "lecturers" we knew about prior to the cruise were the Tale Tellers (the authors, photographers).  The other lecturers were only announced in the Chronicles before their actual lectures.  It seems this is the approach being taken for this cruise.

 

We may yet hear more.  The email from Silversea on July 11, 2023 said "In the upcoming weeks, the Silversea team will keep you updated with a series of communications to help you prepare for this once-in-a-lifetime sailing around the World. We will remain at your disposal to answer any questions you may have."

Edited September 6, 2023 by mysty

[JoGay]

4 hours ago, mysty said:

@JoGay  I can't really base it on our last 2 WC's.  I did not keep track.  This is what is currently the Silversea count by number of cruise days (subject to change perhaps like the current Nova dress code):

 

 

Using that for the cruises we are doing by number of cruise days I get this:

 

 

Ignore the Bridgetown to Fort Lauderdale and the Fort Lauderdale to San Francisco.  Those relate to our Holiday Season Cruise.

 

Of course, this is all conjecture.  If it helps a bit, great!

Thanks, that really helps.