Live from the Spirit: Aegean Overtures

[Fletcher]

10: AG NIK

Aghios Nikolaos on the NE coast of Crete became quite famous in the UK because of an early 1970s TV show called The Lotus Eaters about a couple of expats who ran a bar on the harbour.  He was played by a fine actor called Ian Hendry (who died tragically young) and she was played by Wanda Ventham, a dolly bird who mothered Benedict Cumberbatch.

 

Because of this show many people wanted to go to Crete and visit this pretty fishing village with its cute little bridge.  We went in 1976 and I remember there were fishermen down by the harbour, each one hewn from the pages of Homer,  who took their octopuses, bit through their heads, inverted them somehow and gave them a huge slap on the rocks.  I suppose if you had eight arms, a beak, three hearts and an ink sac you’d expect harsh treatment.  And then they were hung on telegraph wires before being grilled and served with piping hot, crisp chips.

 

Times change.  Despite its mountain backdrop, Ag Nik is not nearly as pretty as we remembered it back then and maybe we were just that bit more romantic and impressionable and less well-seasoned.  A lot of places are like that.  Birmingham for instance.  After devouring a couple of perfectly fried eggs we wandered around the town for a bit.  There was the usual tourist tat and a lot of cafes with their menus posted outside as long faded photos.  All human life was there, in various stages of undress, vaping and smoking away.  Eager to capture the classic view on my trusty Leica, we climbed up to the viewpoint overlooking the little lake, the bridge and the harbour.  But guess what.  In the background was this enormous block of flats which completed destroyed the view.  How could the Cretan authorities have been so insensitive?  Wait a minute!  No, that’s not a block of flats after all.  It’s a cruise ship.  Our cruise ship.  I said to my wife, “I’ll stay here, you go and get the Captain to move the ship out of my shot.”

 

I’m still waiting and I’m losing the light.  And the will to live.

 

Tomorrow you will be relieved to hear is our last port of call.  It’s called Santorini.  We are there with about 6000 other passengers from three ships, including ours.   I have read nightmare stories about this place and have little desire to verify them so our plan is to do absolutely nothing.  That always works.

 

[lincslady]

Santorini would be lovely if you were the only ship in, but I have been there with lots of others and you are right.  It is particularly the cable car that is the problem.

 

However, having lunch on deck  with a view of the island is a terrific memory I have, and to be recommended.  We were on a Seabourn ship, with the outdoor buffet restaurant at the stern of the ship.

[Stumblefoot]

Santorini, like Venice, is so romantic, especially when the cruise tourists leave in mid-afternoon.  It feels as if you have the place to yourself.

[Fletcher]

10A: ONE REASON WHY I HATE SILVERSEA

 

We got back from dinner at the Grill tonight to find our suitcases stacked on those luggage rack things in the middle of the cabin.  Still more than a whole day to go and they say WE CAN’T WAIT TO GET RID OF YOU.  What a dreadful message this sends to their passengers.  What a message of total contempt.  We have put our cases back in the closet and have thrown the racks into the corridor.  We are cancelling our next trip.  I'll still describe Santorini as best I can and also a wrap-up about this ship. 

Edited October 27, 2023 by Fletcher

[Tothesunset]

Fletcher, did you board the wrong ship back in Athens? P and O, maybe? A badly navigated Isle of Man Steam Packet? 

 

Anyone else remember when you could call SS a six star line? Without irony? 

 

Reading stories like this from someone clearly dissatisfied for good reason, and reading other less than stellar postings from many members over the past year or so, has me fearful for our Wind cruise next May. 

 

I don't recognise the Silversea we have 201 nights on before the plague hit. Sounds like SS is overreaching and underperforming. So sad. So very sad. 

[FlyerTalker]

Fletcher -- if you read this before the ship leaves Santorini, I highly recommend going ashore.  Don't fight the crowds going up the hill - try some of the little cafes at the water level.  And if you are a beer drinker, try some of the brews from Santorini Brewing.  Highly recommended by this beer drinker.

 

https://www.santorinibrewingcompany.gr/beers

 

 

[Mayflower1]

Tothesunset - I understand that Barbara Muckerman is doing a Q & A Session on The Silver Muse within the hour - Lets hope some pertinent questions are asked and answered.

[BuenaVista1]

15 hours ago, Fletcher said:

10A: ONE REASON WHY I HATE SILVERSEA

 

We got back from dinner at the Grill tonight to find our suitcases stacked on those luggage rack things in the middle of the cabin.  Still more than a whole day to go and they say WE CAN’T WAIT TO GET RID OF YOU.  What a dreadful message this sends to their passengers.  What a message of total contempt.  We have put our cases back in the closet and have thrown the racks into the corridor.  We are cancelling our next trip.  I'll still describe Santorini as best I can and also a wrap-up about this ship. 

I really wonder why you did choose for SS anyway? Are there still some positive notes or is everything just bad???

[Tothesunset]

1 hour ago, BuenaVista1 said:

I really wonder why you did choose for SS anyway? Are there still some positive notes or is everything just bad???

Perhaps his gift of foresight had temporarily abandoned him? 

[applefan75]

20 hours ago, Fletcher said:

10A: ONE REASON WHY I HATE SILVERSEA

 

We got back from dinner at the Grill tonight to find our suitcases stacked on those luggage rack things in the middle of the cabin.  Still more than a whole day to go and they say WE CAN’T WAIT TO GET RID OF YOU.  What a dreadful message this sends to their passengers.  What a message of total contempt.  We have put our cases back in the closet and have thrown the racks into the corridor.  We are cancelling our next trip.  I'll still describe Santorini as best I can and also a wrap-up about this ship. 

Wow, talk about an overreaction.  I'm glad I don't let silly things like this ruin my vacation.

[lincslady]

I am afraid Fletcher seems to have  had one of those experiences we all get occasionally, when things of all sorts seem to conspire against you - a mixture of annoyances with fellow passengers, ship performance and so on, when one  can get to a feeling that it isn't going to get any better until you are  away from it all.

 

I may be completely misinterpreting it, but that is how it reads to me.

[daddyo]

13 minutes ago, lincslady said:

I am afraid Fletcher seems to have  had one of those experiences we all get occasionally, when things of all sorts seem to conspire against you - a mixture of annoyances with fellow passengers, ship performance and so on, when one  can get to a feeling that it isn't going to get any better until you are  away from it all.

 

I may be completely misinterpreting it, but that is how it reads to me.

The early luggage deal may have been an over zealous butler who wanted to get a head start on change over day.  I would  like to know if this happened to other passengers.

[Tothesunset]

2 hours ago, applefan75 said:

Wow, talk about an overreaction.  I'm glad I don't let silly things like this ruin my vacation.

Those silly things also included severe disappointment with the food, a vibrating ship and other factors that can be accessed by reading all of F's posts above. 

 

It's so hard, sometimes, to understand why some feel the need to challenge another's experience. Unless, of course, they shared that experience. 

[Fletcher]

11: IN THE CALDERA

About forty years ago I was given as a birthday present a massively expensive book called Odyssey.  It was published by Thames & Hudson, a  decidedly arty company, and consisted of photographs by a guy called Roloff Beny, a Canadian, unusually exotic for someone from Alberta, who took some of the most ravishingly beautiful photos I have ever seen. He didn’t seem very interested in people; he took landscapes, architecture and romantic ruins all over the world.  His photos usually had large areas of shade, always creating a sense of discovery and mystery.

 

Odyssey was his tribute to the Mediterranean and of course it had a shot of Santorini, where were today.  In fact, Beny’s shot may have sealed Santorini’s fate as the most photographed, the most iconic island vista in the wine dark sea of the Ancients.  You know, those blue domes, the white buildings clinging to the clifftop, the deeply scarred rocks.  But no swimming pools or fleets of cruise ships when Roloff was there.

 

Today Santorini is one of the world’s most over-touristed places.  Just 6000 cruise ship passengers today, though the third ship was late to the party. Tenders were late in leaving our ship because of high winds.  I did a lot of research about this place and knew I wouldn’t be leaving the ship.  I also knew I would never go there by air because the hotels on the east side of the island are mass market machines on rubbish beaches and the numerous boutique hotels on the caldera side are ludicrously over-priced and require their guests to have the agility of mountain goats.

 

But I also knew that the views from the sea were perhaps the most spectacular of all, as long as the weather played along.  And today it did, with an unending carousel of scudding clouds, glancing sunlight and glittering water.  Staying on the ship was a good decision.  You could enjoy the island without going there.  And you could sit out on the back deck having lunch and a few glasses of wine (not Greek of course) and just gawp at it all.  It was a pleasant day and I was glad I lugged an old-school heavy camera along for the occasion, just like Roloff.

 

We took our last pre-dinner drinks outside of the Panorama Lounge.  Our usual spot on this ship.  It was a spectacular sight.  My wife downing her . . . no, that’s not I meant at all.  There was a full moon, like a light bulb, sitting on an arm of the caldera, with the rest of Santorini lit like a Christmas tree.  And there was this American guy, I’ll call him Hank, holding forth as they do, with a great statistic.  There were two ships with us today, the Celebrity Apex and Norwegian Gem. Hank said he had taken out his pocket calculator and had calculated that the Apex had 42sqm per passenger, the Gem had 44sqm per passenger and the Spirit had a whopping 102sqm per passenger.   That is what we have paid for.  I guess that says it all.  Spare awareness Hank.

 

 

Edited October 28, 2023 by Fletcher

[Azulann]

One of the most engaging trip reports here on CC. Your  descriptive writing style reminds me of Graham Greene .

I will never sail on a Silversea cruise, but will look forward to your future reports here on CC.

Thank you  

[Kentishincanada]

Thank you Fletcher.  I do so look forward to your posts.  Please don’t change any of your observations, especially in the cause of PC.   I find some of your descriptions to echo our experiences of the ports exactly but I would not have found the same eloquence.

 

Thanks again.  I am sorry your cruise has cone to an end and will be watching for your next advanture.
 

 

[spinnaker2]

While Thera has become a touristic trap of grand proportions, I too enjoy the view from the ship. The whitewashed buildings looking like some type of lattice frosting, perched atop centuries of  cake layers of history. The volcanic rock formations, some appear to be funnels rising from the sea, the different colors of the rocks are a petrologists delight. Never mind the tsunamigenic properties of Thera! 

And of course knowing that the vessel is not at anchor in the caldera, nor are any of the cruise ships, its too deep to anchor, the Captain must keep the engines running to stay in position.

Edited October 29, 2023 by spinnaker2

[Fletcher]

12: SADLY, AN UNNECESSARY CRUISE

I always say I would never chose a cruise if the ship didn’t go anywhere I wanted to go. Cruising for the sake of cruising isn’t me at all.  This cruise on the Silver Spirit was majorly effected by the war in Israel and apparently several passengers pulled out, so we have had 500 passengers on board. Apparently the next cruise will have rather less than 500 because stops in Egypt and Jordan have now been cancelled and as I write there is a sense that even the Gulf States might be victims of executive caution.   

 

We admired Silversea’s rapid response to the tragic situation and decided to stick with it.  We’ll probably look back on this as a mistake because five Greek islands in a row was a bit monotonous.  We happily missed out on two identical villages of white buildings, smokey cafes and tourist tat.  We have heard rumblings of discontent and one fellow passenger put it like this: ‘With Israel cancelled, Silversea is saving money on fuel and on cheaper excursions so we should at least get some on board credit.’   That might seem callous but it was a feeling generated by disappointment.  We only booked this cruise because it was going to Israel.

 

When the cruise itself falters, emphasis shifts to the ship itself and its drawbacks and weaknesses become accentuated.  OK, I have probably peeved about the food enough already but we never had a single properly satisfying meal and this might be enough to deter us from getting on another Silversea ship ever again.  And that includes our already booked month on the Wind.  We realise that food on ships is never more than mass catering.  What I find heartening is that it isn’t just me whingeing.  People on other ships are feeling the same.  And dishes that I have complained about on the Spirit are the same dishes on other ships.  We have all surely detected poorly sourced ingredients - cheap lamb, cheap poultry, limited fruit etc. We all know that much of the food arrives prepped and pre-cooked in bags and is merely warmed up and then served up on cold plates. Cold plates! In chilly outdoor venues yet! Things like this are schoolbook errors.  Not what you expect from a luxury line.

 

We liked our cabin and were grateful for the upgrade from the GTY Vista.  However, Deck 8 amidships cabins do suffer a little from noise from the pool deck above and on one night they had a band and dancing up there which kept us from sleeping.  The weakness of the accommodations are the bathrooms which are looking a bit tired these days, especially the enormous basin and very fiddly tap thing.  For us, tubs are a waste of space.

 

The ship itself seemed well designed and I always like a ship with a front-facing outer deck: the Spirit has two - Deck 11 and the open Deck 12.   There was constant on-going maintenance with much painting of those gleaming white rails and cleaning of windows.  This is a very smart-looking vessel.  The pool area, when busy, was awful but the open back decks were airy and impressively spacious.  We thought the design of the Arts Cafe a bit twee and rather small as well - the servers up here were stars.  Never went to Silver Note, never went to Seishin, never went to the spa, or the casino, or the show lounge.  La Dame?  Of course not.  We had a look and thought it was an oppressively dark little space.  Atlantide was also a bit heavy on the decor but perfectly OK.  Indochine  and La Terrazza were lovely rooms to eat badly in. I thought the menu in Indochine was lifted from a 1960s chop suey house in Eastbourne.

 

I have a few pet petty annoyances - the totally irritating, stupid Bulgari bottles in the bathrooms which always fall over.   They need to be broad-based, like so many of the passengers. The stainless steel milk jugs are nasty and so is the cutlery right across the ship.  They feel rock bottom cheap.  The mugs for English Breakfast Tea, like the Bulgari toiletries, seemed designed to topple over.

 

We find the dress code laughable but easy to ignore.  It’s obviously doomed.    We dislike the whole butler thing and only met ours once.  We had little or no interaction with senior staff.  Whereas the Captain and Cruise Directors are pretty ubiquitous on Seabourn ships, we never laid eyes on them on the Spirit.  All I knew of the Cruise Director were her daily announcements, so relentlessly upbeat and pre-scripted that I began to think she might not be a real person at all but an AI.  Obviously the regular cabin , bar and restaurant staff remain unfailingly friendly and eager to please.

 

To conclude, I think Silversea is perhaps struggling to maintain or justify  its reputation as a true luxury line.  I get the impression they are throwing everything they’ve got at the new ships and letting the old ones carry on the best they can.  Old ones like the Wind and the Amazon and way beyond next April.  See you on board.  Probably.

 

Thanks for some nice comments, by the way.  Graham Greene would be flattered.    

 

Edited October 29, 2023 by Fletcher

[silkismom]

Be very thankful that you got the upgrade the deck 6 Vista suites were a real pain, had to go up a deck to the other end of the ship to go down to get off at ports, reverse coming back on. It was faster to go back to our cabin to use the loo when up in the library, than to go down several decks and try to find one there. oh well, one & done for that ship.

[Host Jazzbeau]

Is Spirit an odd man out in the Silversea fleet?  Comparing her specs and deck plans to the Muse – did they make a lot of mistakes on Spirit that were corrected in the future designs in that series?  Muse has a higher tonnage but fewer cabins.  Don't know if any of that affected your cruise, as the complaints seem to be about soft items (food quality and service issues) rather than the basic design.

 

I would have been very upset about the itinerary changes (even understanding the reasons), and expected that Silversea would have gone all-out to deliver excellence in every other area to make up for it.  Combining the poor new itinerary with so many deficiencies was adding insult to injury...

[FlyerTalker]

2 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Is Spirit an odd man out in the Silversea fleet?  Comparing her specs and deck plans to the Muse – did they make a lot of mistakes on Spirit that were corrected in the future designs in that series?

 

There were eight years between Spirit and Muse.  Lots of time for revisions and refinements to happen, rather than just "mistakes".  I view it more as learning curve, with the jump from Shadow/Whisper to Spirit being a big change in operational strategy.

 

 

[drron29]

Though BM acknowledges that they did make mistakes with the Muse such as the TVs and restaurant layout.

[zqtchas]

8 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Is Spirit an odd man out in the Silversea fleet?  Comparing her specs and deck plans to the Muse – did they make a lot of mistakes on Spirit that were corrected in the future designs in that series?  Muse has a higher tonnage but fewer cabins.  Don't know if any of that affected your cruise, as the complaints seem to be about soft items (food quality and service issues) rather than the basic design.

 

I would have been very upset about the itinerary changes (even understanding the reasons), and expected that Silversea would have gone all-out to deliver excellence in every other area to make up for it.  Combining the poor new itinerary with so many deficiencies was adding insult to injury...

Spirit is our least favorite ship.

[highplanesdrifters]

Fletcher,  thanks for the entertaining report.  We are currently on Seabourn Encore with a similar itinerary.   Same dismal report on staff and food. 

[CruiserPK]

I was on the same cruise and it was our first post Covid.  For reference, my husband and I have sailed  ~12 times on Regent and ~ 5 times on SS prior to this one, We stopped cruising on Regent after they were purchased when we saw too many disappointments ting changes.  Post Covid, this was our first cruise and and sadly it was not what we anticipated.

 

Obviously like many others on this itinerary, we chose this cruise for the ports in Israel.  When it was cancelled, we were sorely disappointed but left home with a good attitude for a fun cruise with new ports. Upon embarkation, we were not greeted with bubbly drinks as in the past, but instead told to immediately to go to the pool deck for lunch. We certainly did not feel the same warm welcome as in past voyages. 

 

When we gained access to our cabin, everything was in good order and we settled in to unpack.  At 45 minutes prior to the excursion desk opening, I went down to the reception area and saw that one couple was already going through the iPad at the excursion desk.  I got in line behind them and by the time 3:30 came, at least 30 people were in line behind me. Many waited in excess of 2 hours to be helped,  It was a nightmare and not a luxury experience. Most of all it was surprising that the excursions desk was so ill prepared for the onslaught of guests who needed to book excursions.  The communication from SS prior to the cruise said we could book excursions for the new ports once on the ship.  However, if you logged in to MySilversea a couple days ahead of the cruise, the new ports displayed excursions that could be booked online. This horrible communication lead to many waiting many hours to be helped.   

 

The service in many of the restaurants was spotty and the outdoor dining at La Terrazza for breakfast was pretty awful.  We made mid cruise comments to this affect (we could wait as long as 10 minutes to be greeted and several days my tea arrived long after I had ordered it). One day it came as we were leaving the restaurant so it was never touched. Breakfast was the only meal that was consistent in terms of food.  Overall, the quality of the food was definitely inferior to prior cruises on SS: filets were lower quality beef, lobster already discussed, but tiny, most meats my husband order such as veal and lamp chops were tough.  Also, the waiters had trouble using the iPads and many nights I got things on my dinner plate in Atlantide that I had specifically said I did not want.  La Terrazza, which we enjoyed on prior trips for many evening meals was a one and done.  The one bright spot was Seishin which we enjoyed 3 times thanks to massive shipboard credit and help from Laura the MD. Our last morning was the icing on the cake though.  We went to breakfast on the deck at La Terrazzo and our waiter (who we think may have just boarded the ship) took our egg order.  My husband got his two fried eggs about 15 minutes later while I waited for my omelet.  I mentioned this to another waiter about 10 minutes later.Fairly quickly I was brought an omelet that was not mine. At this point, I took my plate up to the head of the outdoor area and told her I did not get the proper omelet.  She proceeded to take it and then 5 minutes later (rush order) I received my eggs and another plate of fried eggs came for my husband. You can't make this stuff up!  Since we were supposed to vacate our cabin and it was now after 8am, I ate my eggs as quickly as possible and we vacated the restaurant.  

 

There were some bright spots on the cruise included the Arts Cafe that we enjoyed each evening after dinner for drinks and truffles ( those did not disappoint) and our weather was superb.  With a Caribbean cruise booked and paid for in February on the Dawn, we will take it for what it is and hopefully have a better experience.  However, we have cancelled a 19 day cruise next summer on the Dawn from Copenhagen because we are not confident that SS is on the right track.  Many of our friends at home love Seabourn and we are looking at their itineraries now.  Sorry this is long winded but I appreciate reviews and hopefully this will provide feedback for others.