Live From Nova South America Grand Voyage

[JSR]

Sea Day #5 Today would have been Manta had it been safe to dock there... Luckily we have nice weather and calm seas. 

 

Last nights dinner at La Tereza was good. Nick really enjoys the home made pasta. Dinner ran late so we missed the show which was fine with us. Caught the tail end of the Venetian society cocktail reception prior to dinner. The person with the most days had over 2000 or over 6 years onboard. 

 

Today we enjoyed the hokey crossing the Equator ceremony, visiting on deck with ladies we met on our Cozumel tour, lunch, and an empanada cooking class at SALT lab. The cooking class was fun and will try and do one again on the next cruise. Learned you have to be proactive and sign up on embarkation day @3 pm at the open house. We were able to get in off the waiting list as additional classes were added due this becoming a sea day instead of Manta. You can sign up for 2 classes and waitlist for as many as you would like per segment. 

 

Service continues to be outstanding. 

 

Some ship thoughts... my husband and I are not keen on the asymmetry that is popular on many new ships. While I am sure it seems clever to the designer, it can be an annoyance when you run into unexpected dead ends and have to back track. This is personal opinion. Overall I love the ship. I like the big ship feel, the countless open spaces, the automatic doors every where, public bathrooms including ADA bathrooms are abundant though sometimes not convenient to restaurants. While I use a wheelchair full time and find accessibility 100 times better than on Silver Moon, for people using canes, and walkers it is challenging as the cabins are long and not wide enough to use a walker to pass by the bed. There are also not enough safety bars in the standard cabin for many getting in and out of the shower or tub. I have heard the previous comments from many people.

 

Questions?

[JSR]

7 minutes ago, Mahogany said:

Do you know the name of the comedian? They usually perform for 2 nights. Steve Stevens was on Dawn last month.; most attendees enjoyed him; he also plays a few musical instruments.

Tony Daro. He did perform twice. The time was changed as he ended up disembarking 2 days earlier due to the canceled port of Manta. 

[JSR]

Another day at Sea...

 

Last night we went to the show and dinner at SALT. 

The dancers were good, the choreography bad, the music did not match the theme, and lighting and projections distracting. Would not recommend, it was called Fire Dance or something like that. 

 

SALT was really good. The special dishes were Ecuador based. We went with others and ordered all the appetizers to try. Really liked the crab. Had the chicken which almost had a Tandoor taste to it. All the dishes were unique. See the menu in the next post. SALT is our fav dinner restaurant so far. We have yet to make it to the main dining room but we will. 

Did the ship tour today. It was really well done and had lots of time to hang out and ask questions. They do not promote the tour, you just go to guest services and ask to sign up. I opted to read on the balcony even though there were many interesting lectures. Part of why we took this particular cruise was to be outside away from cold indoor winters so I have a hard time going to indoor activities when the weather is nice. For those that enjoy them, they are many options.

 

Tomorrow we are finally in port! We have gotten so relaxed and lazy we will have to get our sightseeing mojo going. Tonight is room service and US Football playoffs in the room. 

 

Photos to follow

 

 

 

[JSR]

[seaver]

13 hours ago, JSR said:

Another day at Sea...

 

Last night we went to the show and dinner at SALT. 

The dancers were good, the choreography bad, the music did not match the theme, and lighting and projections distracting. Would not recommend, it was called Fire Dance or something like that. 

 

SALT was really good. The special dishes were Ecuador based. We went with others and ordered all the appetizers to try. Really liked the crab. Had the chicken which almost had a Tandoor taste to it. All the dishes were unique. See the menu in the next post. SALT is our fav dinner restaurant so far. We have yet to make it to the main dining room but we will. 

Did the ship tour today. It was really well done and had lots of time to hang out and ask questions. They do not promote the tour, you just go to guest services and ask to sign up. I opted to read on the balcony even though there were many interesting lectures. Part of why we took this particular cruise was to be outside away from cold indoor winters so I have a hard time going to indoor activities when the weather is nice. For those that enjoy them, they are many options.

 

Tomorrow we are finally in port! We have gotten so relaxed and lazy we will have to get our sightseeing mojo going. Tonight is room service and US Football playoffs in the room. 

 

Photos to follow

 

 

 

As someone that is joining the ship on Feb. 5th,loving your posts!

Please keep them coming.

Are you doing carnival in Rio?

[amoscotti]

Enjoying your thoughts on the ship , food , service and entertainment we are coming on board in Argentina.

Last time, many years ago on the Silver Wind they provided an afternoon tea with  a selection of loose tea , scones and sandwiches which we enjoy bit of a British Tradition do they have that on board the Nova may be in the Arts Cafe.

[JSR]

@seaver Thank you. Yes, we are going to Carnival! Can’t wait. We will have the ship ready and waiting for your arrival. 
 

@amoscotti sorta tea at arts cafe. They have all the pieces of afternoon tea. They have many loose teas and some in cotton bags, scones (not great), I believe clotted cream, finger sandwiches however you go order it at the counter it is brought to you but not served. 
 

just back from port. great tour. Will post photos and update in a bit. Need a rest. Luckily NCL Sun just left and we have our view back! 

[Move]

Love your posts..thank you.

 

Any chance you can get hold of a photo of the verandah bathrooms...1 without tub and 1 with tub?  Trying to find out which would be better and cannot find ANY online.  Would appreciate your help. Thnx

[seaver]

14 hours ago, JSR said:

@seaver Thank you. Yes, we are going to Carnival! Can’t wait. We will have the ship ready and waiting for your arrival.

Thanks for the reply! How has your experience been with restaurant reservations?

[Lirio]

16 hours ago, JSR said:

@seaver Thank you. Yes, we are going to Carnival! Can’t wait. We will have the ship ready and waiting for your arrival. 
 

@amoscotti sorta tea at arts cafe. They have all the pieces of afternoon tea. They have many loose teas and some in cotton bags, scones (not great), I believe clotted cream, finger sandwiches however you go order it at the counter it is brought to you but not served. 
 

just back from port. great tour. Will post photos and update in a bit. Need a rest. Luckily NCL Sun just left and we have our view back! 

I hope you enjoy my city (Rio). Be smart and safe. 

[amoscotti]

22 hours ago, JSR said:

@seaver Thank you. Yes, we are going to Carnival! Can’t wait. We will have the ship ready and waiting for your arrival. 
 

@amoscotti sorta tea at arts cafe. They have all the pieces of afternoon tea. They have many loose teas and some in cotton bags, scones (not great), I believe clotted cream, finger sandwiches however you go order it at the counter it is brought to you but not served. 
 

just back from port. great tour. Will post photos and update in a bit. Need a rest. Luckily NCL Sun just left and we have our view back! 

Thanks so much for the afternoon tea update.

[LuxeCruiseGuySF]

Hope you're all enjoy Nova...  Can anybody on Deck 6 (forward) tell me if there is noise coming from the Venetian Lounge? Am considering Silver Suite 6018 which is directly above. Thank you!

[JSR]

Sorry not to respond. 4 port days in a row. Today is our anniversary. Sea day tomorrow and I shall catch up!!! 

[fdnycruiser]

Congratulations!!  Enjoy the day and evening. A great place to be for an anniversary 

[JSR]

@fdnycruiser Thank you. We had a blast celebrating yesterday. 

 

@seaver Reservations- a real pain. I am not a planner when it comes to food. We tired once on the first formal night to join another couple and the whole reservation thing made it impossible. However, since then we have found it easy to get same day reservations except at Silver Note. I finally broke down and waitlisted us for 5 different nights at Silver Note. It will work out I am sure at some point, but I really dislike the whole thing. We did make reservations for last night for Chef's table right when we boarded, however there were only 8 of us and I believe they can seat 18. 

@amoscotti Thank you, I am glad you are enjoying and following along. 

@Move I have not met anyone with a tub. However, there are photos posted on another blog. Look for this cruise line passengers on a social media sight (one that has been around a long time).

@LuxeCruiseGuySF I will ask one couple I met on deck 6. Not sure where their cabin is. Another one left us in Lima however, we are in constant contact so I will ask her too. Again, not sure where on 6 they were. 

@Lirio We are very excited for Rio. With the GV we have a special arrangement for Sambadrome with transportation etc. Then we hired a private guide, driver and car for the other 3 days through Tours by Locals so we could get the most out of the city and not worry about figuring everything out with such a short time there. 

 

If I missed a question or someone, my apologies, just repost your questions. OK onto some port and ship updates in the next post.

[JSR]

We have reached day 14 out of 71 of the cruise. This is the beginning of the test point for us. We have never taken a cruise for more than 14 days on one ship. We have ship hopped with a day or more between 14 day cruise and a 7 day transatlantic. Now we test how we like a longer cruise. So far, we love it. We felt sad  for the people who had their bags in the hall to disembark the other day in Lima.

We have found our cabin, which is an ADA mid-ship veranda on deck 9 works well for us and we do not crave a bigger suite. I do remind myself to put things away every day. I am notorious for dumping things where they land and moving on to the next activity. Having a place for everything and putting it there helps make it easy for two people to function in a limited space.

My favorite dinner venue is SALT. The menu is the most interesting to me. SALT does not require reservations. The basic menu changes every segment as is influenced by the ports of that segment, the local menu changes frequently, I want to say every 3 days. I have found everything well prepared and tasty. Our fav lunch and breakfast is at Marquee Grill. Lighter fare and easier than doing the buffet. We finally made it to Alantide last Sunday. We went early and so we were able to eat within an hour. It was ok, my husband’s soup was very good, the rest was not bad but not memorable either. The china that the food was served on was beautiful. We have eaten at La Terazza several times now for dinner, as Nick really enjoys the homemade pasta. I have to avoid pasta, as I have one dress I wonder how it is going to fit??

Service continues to be outstanding.

If you are interested in cooking classes at SALT lab sign up early. Go to the open house on embarkation day and sign up. You may sign up for 2 classes and waitlist for others. Also, the SALT bar tender offers mixology classes that you can sign up for by asking him, they are not advertised. We have not done this, but others say it is fun.

[JSR]

Salaverry- This port requires you to take a bus to exit the port. The buses do not have lifts or ramps.  We booked a private tour with Louis @ Tours by Locals. Gabor, the shore excursion manager reached out to Louis and arranged for him to pick us up at the ship. The ship offers a bus to Paseo de las Letras on the hour for those that want to go to town on their own. 

We went to Chan Chan was an archeological site made of adobe which was the sight of the Capital of the Chima civilization. There is extensive restoration and replication. Very interesting and served as a center for ceremony, tribute to the king, and commerce, however it is believed people did not reside there. Had some similarities to Chaco Canyon in the US.  We then went to Huanchaco Beach for a ceviche and pisco demo. We went to a local restaurant for this, both were outstanding. We then took a walk through a local market, with no tourists and learned about the 3000 types of potatoes in Peru as well as the many different root vegetables and fruits. Made us realize that even in California the produce choices are very limited. Our guide ordered a lunch for us of 6 different fish and seafood tastings which was also very good. Photos in next post

 

 

 

 

Edited January 18 by JSR
Repeat post instead of new one

[JSR]

 

[JSR]

Callao/Lima We overnighted here. This is another port where you have to take a bus to get off at the port. Gabor arranged for an accessible van to take us to the event. There are two different buses one can take, one to Miraflores and one to another part of Lima, I do not recall and cannot find my info on this. I believe neither is accessible.  The first day we arrived at noon. We opted to do the Grand Voyage event that evening at 6 so were advised not to try and do another tour in Lima as with traffic it would have been stressful to make it back in time. We are learning as we go. The event billed as originally as street art and gallery tours with cocktails and dinner was a bit different than expected. There was no street art tour, and two galleries were open but not interesting very mundane tourist art. The dinner was banquet quality at best, the musicians and dancers were good. Unfortunates that we opted for this as opposed to making dinner arrangements in Lima at one of the top restaurants there. Oh well, next time!

Day 2 Lima highlights tour ADA van. We had 4 people on the tour. It was interesting. This is our first cruise with ADA included tours. In general, the cruises we have taken do not include tours so we are not used to the more general group tours. We visited the colonial area where we learned a lot about the area and laughed at some of the differences between what the guide the night before told us about the socio economics of Lima. We were supposed to go to a museum, but it was very important to the other women on the tour that we switch to going to Miraflores as she had fond memories of going with her husband and wanted to share these with her daughter. We were fine with this and there were lovely views. If we return, I had like to have done a private walking tour of Barranco area of Lima with colorful street art, cafes, etc. Maybe we will have to do another South America cruise with all we are learning.

[JSR]

[JSR]

Pisco/Paracus – On our own. Again, this port requires a bus to get off the port. Private tours do not pick up at the ship, however, taxis area available at the ship. This Is not a faint of heart story…We were unsure if we were going to be able to get off the port due to no accessible buses. However, Gabor let us know that morning that there were taxis available. We did the same tour as available through the ship however, the ship version is not wheelchair accessible. Since I could not take a bus, we got off the ship and hired a taxi. He charged $60 round trip including the boat ride but not the tax. He did not speak English. We used broken Spanish and googled translate to understand his commentary about the area. He drove very fast (80 miles per hour/135 Kil) weaving in out of slow-moving tour buses, alas we did not have to sit in the car long. LOL He then parked and guided us to where the boats departed for Ballestas Island, bought our tickets and moved us to the front of the line. We saw several groups of Silversea passengers board their boat. He picked our boat, so we had one with a top. We then went to board, and they finally understood that I could not walk or stand, something I thought I had conveyed but had not. 3 guys awkwardly lifted me onto the boat. YAY then off we went at high speeds. Saw the cactus/candelabra of unknown origin and date along the way, breaching dolphins, sea lions (we have tons of sea lions where we live), beautiful island formations, and the small Humboldt penguins!!! Our first penguins in the wild. Upon return to the dock the captain lifted me up and carried me off the boat. Ok at 65 I thought I had stopped doing the kind of crazy wheelchair lady stuff, glad I have not!

[JSR]

[fdnycruiser]

On 1/15/2024 at 12:54 AM, Move said:

Love your posts..thank you.

 

Any chance you can get hold of a photo of the verandah bathrooms...1 without tub and 1 with tub?  Trying to find out which would be better and cannot find ANY online.  Would appreciate your help. Thnx

 
I don’t have any pictures of the bathroom Move, but stayed in a Veranda with a tub, which we never used. When you walk into the bathroom ( in our case) the sink is straight ahead, the tub was on the wall to the left, and a smallish shower and toilet were to the right. The shower was adequate, however when you opened the shower door,water would accumulate on the floor and in front of the toilet. For the ladies especially, you had to throw a towel on the floor or your slacks would get wet.  The tub did have a clothesline which we used. We didn’t know beforehand that the other cabins has larger showers and no tub. I definitely wouldn’t take a room with the tub again. Hope this helps.

 

JSR, great pictures!  The 80 mph ride would’ve scared the heck out of my wife.

[wencel]

On 1/14/2024 at 9:54 PM, Move said:

Love your posts..thank you.

 

Any chance you can get hold of a photo of the verandah bathrooms...1 without tub and 1 with tub?  Trying to find out which would be better and cannot find ANY online.  Would appreciate your help. Thnx

This doesn't capture the size of the shower well. It's decent size, no worries about anyone fitting. I liked having the option of both shower and tub.

[JSR]

On 1/8/2024 at 12:14 PM, MBP&O2/O said:

Re the Nova (and Ray), the marketing blurb for the S.A..L.T. kitchen says "Enjoy destination-inspired menus, including the Terrain menu, which offers recipes and flavours specific to the port visited, and the Voyage menu, which draws inspiration from the best flavours of the voyage. ".

Is this an accurate comment? 

We have a mediterranean  cruise bookedon the Ray and Italy features highly on the agenda ... which is good 🙂

Sorry I missed answering your question directly. Yes it is an accurate description and by far our fav restaurant on the ship. The food choices, spices have been so well done. We have enjoyed everything we have eaten there. To the point when we were on the Moon in Norway we did even try SALT as the regional food was not overly appealing. In South America, I could eat at SALT every night.