We sailed with Silversea on Silver Moon in July 2024. It was our first experience of a Silversea voyage and also a smaller luxury cruise ship. The following is our daily account of this 14 night trip.
Day 0 – Silversea Cruise
Many years ago, when we first started our travel agency, Camel Travel, we went to a “Meet the tour operators” event in Manchester. It was in a huge room, and there were reps from all of the major tour operators there, and we had timed “Changeovers” where we would all move onto another table to meet someone else. It was invaluable – as newbies to the industry we learned so much.
At one of the changeovers, I spotted the Silversea rep. I’d never heard of them, so I decided to find out more. I found out they were a super luxury, all suite cruise line, operating small ships and offering a fully all inclusive experience. Much was made of the almost 1:1 passenger to crew ratio, the fact that excursions, gratuities and pretty much everything else is included in the price. On the face of it, the prices seemed high, but when you factor in how much you can spend on “extras” on a “normal” cruise, the value proposition was more appealing. I filed it into my “bucket list” and hoped one day to get a chance to try Silversea.
Over the years since, we’ve seen various offers with them, but the stars have never aligned – we either haven’t had the budget or the itinerary or dates were wrong.
Until earlier this year. One came up that was an itinerary high on our wish list, the dates worked, and best of all, it was at a particularly good price. We booked!
Tomorrow we fly to Madrid, then on to Venice, where Julie has booked us a couple of nights in a hotel, so we’ll be exploring Venice on Thursday and Friday morning. On Friday afternoon we board Silver Moon, which will be our home for 11 days, and we’ll be visiting Zadar, Hvar, Dubrovnik, Bari, Kotor, Sarande, Valetta, Giardini Naxos and Sorrento, before finishing up in Rome.
I promised to write a daily update here for our many clients and readers who are as curious about Silversea as we have been for so many years. Julie will add her amazing photos, too, as we go along.
Until tomorrow!
Silversea Cruise – Day 1 – Venice
Day 1 was all about travelling. We booked with Iberia to Venice using their business class service via Madrid. Intra European BC doesn’t offer larger seats or more legroom, but, particularly with connecting flights, you do have the benefit of getting off first and Iberia’s food is always really good We had a superb mushroom risotto on the first, and on the second flight, solomillo de cerdo, all served with proper cutlery, crockery and glass ware.
We arrived in Venice early evening, and the hotel had arranged for a car to collect us from the airport. We’re right in the city, so the car could only drop us at the main terminus, 800 metres from the hotel.
Having dumped our cases, we only really had time to do a quick explore of the immediate area and grab some dinner, so we’re really looking forward to exploring properly tomorrow.
Julie has once again found us a fabulous little boutique hotel, with brilliant, friendly service – more on it tomorrow.
I’m fascinated to learn more about this city state, which for centuries has been a huge melting pot of cultures. It became a hugely successful maritime power in the middle ages, and the most prosperous city in the world.
Silversea Cruise – Day 2 – Venice
I mentioned yesterday that Julie has a knack of finding great boutique hotels, and she did us proud again in Venice. The Venice Times is a fairly small place, but located right in the city. The rooms are small, but very comfortable, and all the facilities and amenities are great. The staff are exceptional – really friendly and helpful.
So, on to our day exploring. Venice has always fascinated me – it was the world’s super power in the middle ages, with a huge navy and commercial shipping fleet, bringing wealth back to the city from the far east in the form of silk and spices. The Venetians had a major impact on the whole region, controlling large parts of the other countries with Adriatic and Mediterranean coasts. Venice itself was the capital of a genuine empire, and the city attracted a huge number of immigrants from all over that empire and beyond, to create the cultural melting pot it has become.
The city is built on a group of 120 odd islands, separated by open water and canals, with the famous Grand Canal being a sort of ring road around it. There are 472 bridges joining the islands.
Today, Venice has become one of the world’s biggest tourist destinations, which has brought problems for locals, and I acknowledge the irony of me writing that, as a tourist myself.
The city is achingly beautiful, almost everywhere you turn, there are stunning buildings to look at, canals running in narrow alleys, the famous gondolas and much more. Weirdly, we’ve all seen so much of Venice in movies and tv shows all over the years, you walk into a piazza, or cross a bridge, and feel you’ve been there before!
The canals are basically Venice’s roads, so garbage collection, police, ambulance, deliveries to shops, bars and restaurants, are all done by boats. There are water taxis and a water bus service, which operates like a metro. It’s fascinating to watch, and yes, Italians drive their boats just like they drive their cars – with brio!
Venice has a reputation for being almost ridiculously expensive, and for sure, the closer you get to Piazza San Marco, the more the prices go up. But head away from there, and there are hundreds of little alleyways, with super little restaurants that cater for locals, and are priced sensibly – menus del dia from 13 € to 16 €. Julie found us a middle eastern place last night, and a Venetian one for lunch – it was a tiny place, with only seven tables, but fantastic fresh fish. In the evening, we opted for a slice of pizza and an artisan ice cream.
Venice has been an adventure, and I’m so grateful to have been, but it isn’t a place I’d return to – it’s just too crowded and too commercial for me. It’s a destination everyone should experience, but maybe only once.
Tomorrow we have quite a bit of work to do in the morning, and then we’re heading to the cruise port to board Silver Moon. As an aside, we’ve just found out that some good friends from Lanzarote are aboard now, and they’ve had a fantastic week – we only worked it out as they messaged to say they are in Venice from tomorrow and asked if we’d like to get together. We slowly pieced together the fact that they are heading this way on a cruise ship, and then it dawned on us, it’s the same one.
Silversea Cruise – Day 3 – Embarkation
We spent the morning in Venice, buying some Murano glass, and trying to stay cool in 36 degrees. We decided to treat ourselves to one of the famous water taxis to get back to the hotel and we enjoyed a cooling ride along the canals.
The hotel arranged a car to the terminal and a porter to take our luggage to it.
The embarkation process was fairly straightforward, although we hadn’t realised the cruise terminal we went to was simply a place to take our luggage from us, check us in and clear customs and immigration. I fully expected to turn the corner at the top of an escalator to see the ship, but all I could see was the coaches that were taking us to Silver Moon, which was docked half an hour away.
We finally stepped aboard mid afternoon, and my goodness, the ship is simply stunning and effortlessly cool. There’s high end art everywhere, the carpet throughout is of the deepest pile, and you really feel like you’ve stepped into the most glamorous hotel you can imagine.
We headed straight for our suite, which is enormous, despite being a “standard” one. We have a huge double bed, a separate lounge area, two large televisions, and the bathroom is double the size of a typical en suite. All the lotions and potions are by Bvlgari.
Our butler, Mina, introduced himself to us and explained how everything worked in the suite. He left a bottle of Champagne on ice for us, the fridge was stocked with beers, ice and soft drinks, and he brings canapés each day before dinner. He asked what drinks we enjoy and then promptly delivered a bottle of Tanqueray and half a dozen tonics, putting some slices of lemon in the fridge. He also showed us samples of all the pillows available, and then delivered the ones we preferred. He told us he’d bring a few different types of bathroom amenities over the first few days, so we could let him know if we prefer them to the Bvlgari stuff.
Our cases duly arrived and we unpacked, although Mina would have been happy to do it for us, and we have more wardrobe space here than we do at home!
We ate at La Dame, one of the 8 restaurants on board, and had an exceptional first meal, with the sommelier recommending some excellent wines to us, and of course, everything is included. You can drink Champagne all day if you chose to, and even high end drinks like VSOP brandies and world class bourbons are all part of the deal.
So, the suite is magnificent, the decor to die for, but what really sets this cruise line apart is the crew. First of all, there are so many, almost one for every passenger, so you never need to wait for anything. And everyone is just so friendly – they all have the time to chat and really engage. They are also awesome at remembering our names, so within 24 hours, they were greeting us by name – that feels so special.
There are fewer than 600 passengers, so we’re already running into people we’ve said hello to before. They are a real mixture of nationalities and ages. Many in their 30’s and 40’s, more in their 50’s and 60’s and a few older. Quite a few from the US, a small number of Brits, lots of Italians, Germans, Scandinavians and a few French. Some are clearly seriously wealthy – I don’t think I’ve seen so many high end watches in one place, and I guess they cruise with Silversea regularly. But there are many who, like us, are on a bucket list trip.
We set sail bang on time, and by the time we fell into bed, we were looking forward to arriving in our first port – Zadar in Croatia.
Silversea Cruise – Day 4 – Zadar
We arrived in Zadar early in the morning, and docked outside town.
For breakfast on Silver Moon, there is an a la carte restaurant, Atlantide and one which has a buffet, La Terraza. We chose the former for our first morning.
The cruise line was running an all day free shuttle service into the city, for those of us who hadn’t booked excursions. We hopped aboard and were dropped right by the famous sea organ. It’s enchanting – marble steps with holes in them tuned to play music as the waves wash in to shore, forcing air into tubes. It was created in 2005, and the same Nikola Bašić, also created the nearby monument to the sun, which absorbs solar energy all day, and then plays a light show at sunset.
The city of Zadar was taken by The Romans in the second century, and there are artefacts from that time all over the city – roman columns of amazing size and decoration, crypts, the foundations of houses and more. The Romans created the sewerage and water system the town relies on even today. Long after the fall of the Roman empire, in medieval times, it became a classic walled city, to provide protection from pirates and Venetians.
We spent time walking around the old city, with charming cobbled streets, and some lovely buildings. When it was time for drink, we tried out the local Maraschino liquor, made from cherries – a clear, fiery sweet liquid.
Back at the ship, we had some fun with dinner at The Grill, where hot lava stones are brought to the table, and you can enjoy cooking your own dinner on them. Between us, we cooked a rib eye steak and half a dozen enormous prawns from Madagascar.
Every restaurant has a sommelier who recommends wines and gets to know your tastes. For this meal, Zachary recommended a Gran Reserva Argentinian red which was just fabulous.
After dinner, we went to the Panorama bar, where there was a cabaret show with a South African singer belting out both classics and modern pop – she has an amazing voice. It was lovely to see everyone, young and old, having a boogie – some doing proper ballroom dancing, others dad dancing, with everything in between.
It was our first “proper” day aboard, and we gradually relaxed into the quiet, relaxed efficiency of Silversea.
We departed Zadar bang on time, with our ship sounding our horn and getting responses from the Azamara and Seabourn ships that had been docked nearby.
Next stop Hvar, tomorrow morning!
Silversea Cruise – Day 5 – Hvar
We did our 4KM power walk around the running deck at dawn, and it was already 30 degrees as the ship dropped anchor at 7AM off the island of Hvar.
We had pre booked an excursion (excursions are included with Silversea) to visit a Lavender farm and see some of the island by coach.
Hvar is a small island with only 10,000 people, loads of stunning little coves and that beautiful, blue Adriatic water.
Lavender grows everywhere, so lavender products are sold throughout Hvar town, and the speciality is Lavender ice cream, which Julie enjoyed and I couldn’t really face first thing in the morning.
This whole coastline of Croatia is massively fortified, with huge city walls, and an imposing view from the many cannons pointing into the harbours. It served them well during the middle ages, protecting them from pirates and the Venetians, although Napoleon managed to conquer the country during his rampage through Europe.
Our excursion wasn’t as interesting as we’d hoped. We enjoyed seeing both sides of the island of Hvar, and also connecting with our fellow cruisers during the day, but it was almost unbearably hot, and the lavender farm was disappointing. We’d been expecting to walk through fields of the stuff, but we didn’t actually see any growing. The people at the farm had several different products for sale, and they provided us with a cold meat salad and a glass of wine.
It was good to get back to the ship and the epic AC! It was one of two formal dress nights. They only apply if you choose to eat in one of the formal restaurants, and although some wear tuxedos and ballgowns, many choose, as we did, to go with suits and cocktail dresses. After dinner, we went to the ships theatre to watch a show called Limelight. The theatre is gorgeous and has table service. The show was enjoyable, but nowhere near the west end standard huge events you see on large cruise ships.
Tomorrow we head to Dubrovnik, where Julie has planned all kinds of things for us, including walking the city walls!
Silversea Cruise – Day 6 – Dubrovnik
We arrived into Dubrovnik at dawn and once again did our morning exercise on the running track at the top of the ship.
Rather than taking one of the included excursions, we had decided to do our own thing in the city. We boarded a mid morning tender ashore, and took in the very impressive fortifications on the short boat trip to the harbour.
Dubrovnik is simply stunning, and it’s no wonder that it has been used as a set for dozens of films and TV shows. Almost the entire city retains its authentic, medieval look, with a towering wall around it, and a huge castle overlooking it. The fortifications kept the city safe for centuries in the period from 1500 to 1900, and once again came into play when Yugoslav forces laid the city to siege as recently as 1991. The siege lasted for several months, before Croatian forces were finally able to push them back and gain their independence.
We had pre booked tickets to walk the city walls, which started with a few hundred steps up onto them, and then a long walk around them in the very hot sun. But it was well worth it – the views to sea and back into the town itself were unforgettable. Fortunately, there was a little bar about halfway around, which provided much needed ice cold beers. The walls are 12 metres thick in places, and all the original features like gunpowder stores, dungeons and many of the original canons remain in place. It made me wonder how many died defending the place, and how many more defenders were killed trying to capture Dubrovnik. The sense of history was palpable.
Back to street level, you just seem to stroll from one beautiful building to another, with tight alleyways between each. We found a shop selling Bureks made in the traditional way, and we tried a chicken version, plus a cheese and leek one. These are very much like very long thin sausage rolls and they are delicious.
I’ve found Croatia a fascinating country. It’s at the crossroads of central and Eastern Europe and for more than 2,000 years has been run by one great power or another, starting with The Romans, The Ottomans, the Nazis, and the Yugoslavs. Even today, Russia’s Putin does not believe they are a legitimate country. But since they finally gained their independence in the 1990’s their small (3.8 million) population has gone from strength to strength. They now have a strong military, they are members of both the EU and NATO, and their GDP is growing significantly, thanks in large part to their very successful IT sector, although they also have significant manufacturing industry, including ship building, pharmaceuticals and biochemicals. Tourism is the biggest growth market, with more than 17 million visitors a year.
We finally got back to the harbour to get the next tender back to the calming, coolness of Silver Moon.
Our butler, Mina, suggested Champagne and Caviar in our suite pre dinner, and set up a table and cloth for us to enjoy it. It takes some time to get used to the fact that pretty much anything you want is included in the price of a Silversea cruise. We dined in La Terrazza, which is an Italian restaurant. Silversea is an Italian line, so as you’d expect, the anti pasti and the pasta is just amazing. Once again, the restaurant’s sommelier produced a couple of wines which went perfectly with the food we’d ordered. You don’t get the odd glass, either, the bottle is left on the table.
There was a show on the pool deck, which we enjoyed afterwards. The entertainment team belted out some old favourites and most people were enjoying a boogie under the stars as we sailed away. We’d run into a crew member called Cham in one of the bars earlier in the evening, and he told us he was the head barman at the bar on deck 11, called the Observation Library. He said many passengers don’t even know it’s there, so “Come up and see me sometime!” After the pool party we headed up there for a night cap, and it’s the most amazing place – it’s directly above the bridge, and has the same dimensions and forward facing windows. You really can pretend you’re driving the ship from there, and I did! We fell into bed very late, and let Silver Moon move us across the Adriatic, knowing we’d wake up in Bari, Italy.
Silversea Cruise – Day 7 – Bari, Italy
We had an early excursion in Bari, so having crossed The Adriatic, we woke up as the ship was coming into port and had a quick breakfast before heading ashore.
Our guide was Michele, and he was excellent throughout the day, with a deep knowledge of the history of Puglia, going back to Roman times.
Fascinating to think this region only became part of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861. After the fall of Rome, Puglia was conquered by the Goths, The Sicilians and Napoleon’s France. Pragmatists to the core, they took the best of each of their rulers over the centuries, and profited from their wisdom and expertise. Under Mussolini’s regime, lots of money was put into the city of Bari, which features some classic fascist era buildings.
These days it’s a farming and manufacturing powerhouse, with millions of acres of olive trees, tomatoes, grapes and almonds. Some big name companies manufacture here – Magneti Marelli, Bridgestone, New Holland and Iveco, for example.
We visited the famous Trulli houses of Alberobello. The whole village consists of the strange buildings with conical roofs. Most of it was constructed in the 15th century, and they were built with dry stone walls, as there was no lime or anything to “glue” the stones together locally. The conical roofs reflect the resident’s pragmatism. At the time, the “King” of the region imposed a punitive property tax, which applied to all dwellings with people living in them. The locals figured out that if they made the roofs using a simple conical shape, balancing flat stones in a closing circular pattern, they could easily knock the roofs down when the tax collectors came to town, claiming nobody could live in a house with no roof. And then rebuild them quickly when they left!
The village is now a UNESCO world heritage site, and is a wonderful place.
From there, Michele took us to a local farmhouse, where they served us a delightful lunch of local wines, cheeses and cured meats. I love how the dynamic of a tour group changes with a few glasses of wine – suddenly becoming animated, friendly and interesting.
Back at the ship, we caught up on some work, and felt the pace of several late nights and early starts, so we decided to hop into SALT for dinner. SALT stands for sea and land taste, and the concept is excellent. They have one menu running for the whole cruise, which comprises a selection of dishes from the regions we’re visiting, but they have another menu which changes daily, based on the local produce of the particular port we are in. Julie picked from the local menu and I picked from the cruise menu, and we liberally shared the tastes with each other. Yet another excellent dinner, and I can see why this particular restaurant is so popular.
We’ve met some fascinating people already on this cruise, and I’m sure we’ll meet many more. They are from all over the world and there’s a lovely sense of camaraderie, with none of that strange snobbishness we’ve come across on other cruise lines, where everyone seems to be desperate to upstage each other with the number of cruises they’ve done or the size of suite they’ve booked. Silversea cruisers just seem to be interesting, hard working people – witness the fact that, as early risers, we’re used to being the only people on cruise ships working on deck at 7AM, clearing our emails before the day’s adventure begins. On this ship, there are many others doing the same.
We departed Bari just as Julie and I were falling into bed, and we’d been warned to expect a rough crossing as we headed back across the Adriatic towards Montenegro. It might have been rough outside, but aboard Silver Moon there was nothing more than the odd shimmy, which made for a very relaxed night’s sleep.
Silversea Cruise – Day 8 – Kotor, Montenegro
We arrived in Kotor, Montenegro early morning, and we’d booked an excursion to depart first thing, so it was a rush to get ready to head ashore. The excursions are included with Silversea cruises.
The entry to the port is a simply stunning journey into what looks like a twisty fjord. We followed two other cruise ships in – Mein Schiff 6, which we know well from winter visits to Lanzarote, and the Marella Explorer 2.
We anchored in the bay, and tendered ashore to be met by Tanya, our guide for the day. She’s a lovely lady and so proud of her town and country. Every time she mentioned Kotor, she followed it with the words “my home town.”
Our tour took us to Budva, a nearby town. We’d chosen it because we’ve been to Kotor before, which is a fantastic medieval walled city. Budva is also walled, but suffered more under various wars and occupations, where Kotor’s impressive defences have never been breached.
Poor Montegro has been screwed over for centuries. Twice, it has been literally wiped off the map, ceasing to be a country, most recently during Yugoslav rule, but it has also been subject to huge earthquakes over the centuries. The only long period of decent stability was when The Venetians did a deal with Montenegro. In return for a cut of their port traffic revenue, Venice promised to protect them from all comers, and they did. It was the original protection racket, and as Tanya said, “Just like the mafia!”
The last big earthquake was in 1979, and one upshot was that some of the parts of the earth around Budva that opened up revealed loads of relics from the Roman occupation 2,000 years previously. Tanya took us to a museum to see many of these relics including hundreds of pieces of the most exquisite glass that has somehow survived 2 millennia.
The country is now working towards EU membership, and has already switched to the Euro, which has stabilised it from some rampant inflation.
Back at the ship, we visited Kaseiki, the ship’s Japanese restaurant. This is one of two of the 8 restaurants that has a supplement – in this case $40. We’d been on a waitlist, so we were pleased to get in. We had an absolute feast of Lobster tails, King crab, Wagyu beef, Miso soup and vegetables. Our neighbouring tables were a young couple from Florida on honeymoon, and two lovely ladies from Australia who have been friends for 40 years and travel together from time to time.
We’re planning to make some decisions over the next couple of days to see which of the restaurants we want to go back to before this dream trip ends.
We departed early evening and started our journey towards Albania.
Silversea Cruise – Day 9 – Sarande, Albania
This was our first visit to Albania. In common with so many other small countries on this coast, Albania has basically been raped by everyone, over centuries. As usual, it all started with Rome, and then all the usual suspects had their period in control – the Venetians, the Ottomans, the Italians, the Yugoslavs and the USSR.
We docked right in the town of Sarande, which is a beautiful bay and a very busy tourist resort. The area enjoys 300 days of sunshine each year, and it was incredibly hot while we were there. Our tour guide for the day was Linda, and she was a local who had learned English at school – all children here are taught at least two foreign languages at school. She spoke with an interesting accent, sounding just like she’d been brought up in one of the southern states of the US, but I found out she’d never been there. She then proceeded to speak with a perfect New York accent and followed it up with London English – a real chameleon.
We started by walking along the promenade, with a ferry port, offering services to Corfu, just eighteen nautical miles away and visible from shore, a marina and then a stunning beach. The prom was lined with bars and restaurants.
Our coach then collected us and we made our way to Lekuresi Castle, which is a former fortress perched high on the hill over the bay. We were greeted by some local dancers, given a drink, and spent some time walking around the grounds and checking out the incredible views, to the bay on one side, and then the plain on the other.
We then headed down to the plain, where we visited a winery and Raki maker. The wines were reasonable, and the Raki was extremely potent!
We were joined on the tour by Christian, who is a crew member on the ship and works in the ship’s boutique. He’s from Lima, Peru and is a watch expert. He’s very proud of the fact that despite the worldwide shortage of Rolex watches, he has a few for sale in the boutique.
It was a half day tour, so when we were dropped back at the ship, we headed back into town for a much needed beer, and kebabs. By the time we’d walked back again, it was 37 degrees, and we melted into the ship’s surprisingly large and deep swimming pool. We had a pre dinner drink in the SALT bar, where Carlos, who is from Spain, but won’t tell us where, is the head honcho. He’s a very funny character and doesn’t take any prisoners. But you can give him some ingredients and he’ll create an amazing cocktail. He made Julie a Negroni, but added coffee and mint flavours and it was delicious.
From there we returned to the SALT restaurant where we enjoyed the local dishes from Sarande.
One of the things we’ve enjoyed most about this trip is the variety of people aboard. During the evening we met a couple from Dallas who had some hilarious stories, and while we were having nightcap, we spent time chatting with Konstantin, who is from Latvia. He was brought up in the USSR, worked as a merchant seaman for years, and now runs an online business. He’s brought his wife, two children and two friends on the trip and it’s their first cruise.
We departed Albania in the evening and headed down towards the Ionian Sea, with a full day at sea tomorrow, before we arrive in Malta the following day.
Silversea Cruise – Day 10 – at sea
It was a sea day, which meant a full day’s sailing, with no port to visit, as we headed south west through the blue, blue Ionian sea, with over 2,000 metres under our keel.
We had booked a special event for the day, a connoisseurs lunch in the La Dame restaurant, where we enjoyed some of the best dishes the executive chef could some up with, paired with the best wines the head sommelier could find in the ship’s cellar.
There were a dozen or so other passengers, and we were joined by the ship’s captain, Julian, and two other officers.
The chef, Ross, is Scottish, and he certainly put a highland spin on some of the dishes, which were just wonderful. The star of the show for me was the Tournedo Rossini, which might be the best steak I’ve ever had – as tender as butter, full of flavour and served with a red wine reduction that had taken 24 hours to make. The wines were perfectly matched with each course, and before each course was served, Ross explained the dish, and Luis, the Portuguese head sommelier, described the wine he had selected and why.
The wine which most excited me was the 2011 Chateau Latour. It’s a $1000 plus dollar wine, and while it was interesting, complex and had the most amazing lingering finish, I would never dream of paying that much. It’s very good, but not, in my inexpert opinion, worth 20 times a decent $50 red. But the Rosé Champagne, which is left on the lees for three years was wonderful and creamy and the white Chateau Neuf du Pape (only 5% of their production is white) was really, really interesting.
It was a brilliant event and we loved getting to know all the sommeliers and the chef, who interacted with the tables throughout the meal.
In the evening, we had booked to visit Silver Note for the first time. It’s a small restaurant on the ship with a Speakeasy vibe, with a singer and pianist playing light jazz, very low lighting and an intimate atmosphere.
We stopped at the on-ship jewellery shop, where our new friend Kristian works – he was on our tour in Albania. He had promised to show me some of the Rolex watches he has for sale. I’ve never had a Rolex, and I suspect I never will. However, Kristian did have the exact model I’d buy, if I can ever afford it. He kindly let me wear it in the shop for a few minutes.
From there, we went to the theatre to see the entertainment team sing some classic pop songs before we headed for bed.
I mentioned the crew in an early post, but they really are what makes Silversea so very special. We’re just over a week in, and everybody knows our names, our drinks and where we prefer to sit in the restaurants. They appear like magic wherever we go on the ship, and I love the fact that they have so much time to chat with us. It’s not forced either, they are genuinely interested and the conversations are two way. I’ve talked cricket, F1, their home countries, my home, triathlon, and much more with many of them. Many of them feel like old friends already, and I can see why some people come back to the same ship time after time.
Tomorrow morning we’ll arrive in Malta.
Silversea Cruise – Day 11 – Valetta, Malta
The arrival into Malta seemed so familiar to me – I love Royal Naval History, particularly from the Napoleonic wars, and I’ve read so much about that period.
We docked right onto the wharf underneath the famous gun battery which fires the noonday and afternoon canons, giving us easy access to town.
Malta is the tenth smallest country on the planet and Valletta is the smallest capital city in the EU. The population is 545,000 – to put that into perspective, Lanzarote is three times larger than Malta, with one third of the people.
The country went through various periods being under the control of all the usual suspects like Rome, Venice, Italy and Spain. But it’s the recent history that fascinates me.
Napoleon captured the island on his way to Egypt in 1798, and designed the local infrastructure, schooling system and administration for Malta. He left a substantial garrison of the island, but it didn’t take long for the British, supported by Maltese resistance, to surround the French garrison and agree a surrender.
The Maltese people the agreed to come under the protection of the British, and 14 years later to become part of The British empire. And to this day, they have red phone and letter boxes and drive on the wrong side of the road.
The British made the harbour the home of their Mediterranean fleet, and an important stop over for ships travelling to and from the far east.
During World War 1, Malta was a sort of hospital island, taking on soldiers and sailors injured and sick.
The island’s finest hour was in the second world war, where it resisted heavy bombing and sea borne attacks by both Italy and Germany, and then survived a long siege. The island en masse was awarded The George Cross for their bravery by King George VI. Malta became independent in 1964.
We arrived on the feast of Saint Dominic which is a big deal in Malta. There were marching bands, loads of kids dressed in and painted blue, and stunning banners hanging from all the buildings. There was also a ticker tape parade. The atmosphere was amazing. Valletta is beautiful, with delightful green and very ornate sandstone buildings.
These days Malta’s economy is mainly driven by tourism, and financial services and IT, especially online gambling platforms.
The heat was intense while we were there, and it was a relief to get back aboard Silver Moon for a chill out. We enjoyed a cocktail in the main bar in mid ships, and then headed once again to SALT to try local dishes from Malta. It’s such good concept, having a restaurant where the menu changes each day based on where you have been that day.
We departed on a stiflingly hot evening and started the journey to Sicily.
Silversea Cruise – Day 12 – Giardini Naxos, Sicily
We anchored just of Giardini Naxos on Sicily, which is kind of at the start of the Messina straits. The name means “Naxos Gardens,” and dates back to the time when it was a Greek colony.
Etna erupted at 5.23AM on the morning of our arrival, and sadly, we got up at 6PM, so the excitement was over, but as you’ll see from the photos, she was still very smoky by the time we were on deck, and dumping a fine layer of black ash everywhere on ship. She also erupted again in the afternoon, but as several locals pointed out, it’s good that the volcano is “open” and can regularly release pressure.
We tendered ashore, and we’d booked what turned out to be our favourite excursion of the trip, with our guide Martine, who was born in Brussels, trained in Italy, is married to an Italian and has lived in Sicily for many years. As she said, a typical European, and with five languages as well.
Sicily has a population of 4.8 million and is the most populous island in the Mediterranean. Etna is the tallest active volcano in Europe at 3357 metres or 11,000 feet high, and is one of the most active volcanoes in the world.
Martine took us first to Linguaglossa, where we stopped in the piazza for ice cream and to visit the church. Ice cream is a serious business in Italy, and you can’t go wrong if you order pistachio.
From there we continued up the slopes of Etna, until we reached 800 metres, and the Gambino winery. Given Sicily mafia connections, we all wondered (quietly) if this Gambino family was in any way related to the Gambinos who ran the New York mafia for decades. But none of us had the guts to ask!
These days, they make wines from two pieces of land, one from the slopes of Etna, and there other in the centre of the island. We tried both, and Julie and I preferred the Etna wines, which were mineral, and reminded us of Lanzarote wines.
Our guide to the winery was Salvatore, a very cool young man, who brilliantly told us the story of the winery, and took us through a tasting of five wines, with a platter of local cheeses, cured meats, the best olives I’ve ever tasted and home made breads with their own olive oil.
It was a brilliant experiences and we bought several wines, and some of the winery’s gorgeous wine glasses.
Etna kicked off again as we were leaving, and we heard plenty of pops, bang, and deep percussive notes. Sicily was also suffering from forest fires while we were there, and two helicopters and an aircraft spent all day collecting sea water and flying up into the hills to dump it.
We returned to Silver Moon and enjoyed an Italian meal in La Terrazza, and stayed on deck for the spectacular cruise through the Messina strait, where the gap between Italy and Sicily is closer than 3KM.
Next stop the Amalfi Coast!
Silversea Cruise – Day 13 – The Amalfi Coast
The Amalfi coast is so beautiful. On a previous cruise visit, we’d hired a car and we drove all along the coast, but we literally couldn’t find a place to stop and park, so this time we were better planned.
Silver Moon anchored just off the harbour at Sorrento and we tendered ashore to be met by Guiseppe, who was to be our guide for the day.
A shuttle bus took us up the hill out of town to the bus station where we got into a much larger, more comfortable coach. Our driver Francesco then drove us all along the coast towards Amalfi.
It is one of the world’s great experiences, with mile after mile of incredible sea views, and stunningly beautiful towns. Interspersed with the modern traffic, there are loads of classic Fiat 500’s, Vespas and Lambrettas buzzing along, and looking out to sea, dozens of those beautiful Riva wooden speedboats. At times, you’re transported back to the 1940’s, and you half expect to see Audrey Hepburn and Rock Hudson cruise by in an open top Alfa.
We arrived in Amalfi and we had an hour and half to wander the square and the myriad streets coming off it. We enjoyed the cathedral cloisters, and found one of the famous bars selling cones of freshly caught fried fish – delicious! The area is also famous for its lemons, and they were everywhere – huge ones filled with sorbet and smaller ones for sale, as well as Limoncello everywhere. Guiseppe gave us his recipe, for Limoncello, so we’re going to try it with our surplus of lemons where we get home.
Meeting up with the group again, we all jumped onto a small boat, which whipped us along the coast to Salerno. Boats are definitely the best way to travel the Amalfi coast and I’d highly recommend it. From Salerno, we met our coach again and returned to Sorrento and boarded the ship.
It was a bit of a rush, but we managed to get showered and changed in time for the evening show on the ship’s theatre: Martin Kaye was performing and what an absolute star he was. He sings and plays piano and is absolutely hilarious. He toured for years, all around he world playing Jerry Lee Lewis, and he’s totally crazy and has the most entertaining show we’ve seen at sea. Look out for him on TV.
As it was our last evening aboard, we sat on the deck at the stern, drinking Champagne and toasting our trip and all the new friends we have made, while Silver Moon glided away from the Amalfi coast. We had a late dinner in Silver Note, once again enjoying the cool Speakeasy vibe and the lobster tails.
And that was it! Time for bed, but stayed tuned dear readers, as we’ll cover our journey home to Lanzarote, and then finish this story with a proper summary of what we thought about our first ever super luxury cruise experience. As a taster we’ll leave you with two words, but we can’t decide which way around they should go:
1/ Effortlessly elegant.
2/ Elegantly effortless.
What do you think?
Silversea Cruise – Day 14 – Rome and Home
Disembarkation from large cruise ships is always a nightmare, so we approached our last morning with some trepidation, but we should have known better. As with everything else on this trip, Silversea made sure everything went smoothly and exactly on schedule.
We got up early enough to watch the ship docking in Rome, and to witness two others come in behind us, and we also spotted Virgin Voyages Brilliant Lady anchored just off shore. She’s doing her sea trials currently, and will enter service soon.
We had our final breakfast in La Terrazza and we disembarked, saying our sad farewells to crew and fellow passengers, before we boarded a coach transfer to Rome Airport.
It was the end of the cruise, and we’ll write a summary and detail our feelings tomorrow, but it’s worth recounting the rest of the day, which was a long one!
Our flight to Madrid wasn’t until late afternoon, so we’d researched where we could leave our luggage, and we dropped it in, paying a fee of 10 € per piece to leave it for up to 24 hours.
Julie had found what looked like an interesting town about 8KM from the airport, called Ostia Antica. Our plan was to jump into a taxi, and the first one that rocked up at the airport rank was a beaten up old Dacia. We asked what the fare would be to Ostia Antica, and the two lady drivers had a chat and quoted us 45 € each way, but also said there was nothing to do there. Needless to say, we walked. I clicked onto Uber, and within 5 minutes a Mercedes E Class rocked up and whisked us to the destination in comfort for 28 €.
We had a quick around the charming town, with the obligatory espresso at a café and then we headed to the Roman ruins, which we’d heard might be interesting.
Oh my goodness! It was absolutely amazing and streets ahead of Pompeii. In a couple of hours, we only scratched the surface, visiting one street. The guy selling the tickets told us we’d need five hours to do it justice, and we are definitely going back. I cannot believe how this place isn’t on everybody’s map as the most incredible place to help understand how advanced The Romans were, and how they lived.
Ostia Antica is about 25 km from Rome, and sits on the River Tiber – it was The Roman’s principle port city. It was established in about 700 years before Christ, and was finally abandoned in the 800’s after Christ.
As well as a huge commercial centre, full of warehousing for good coming in on galleys from around the Roman empire, it was also HQ for the Roman navy.
By the year 200 AD, there were about 100,000 people living in the city, and it had its own baths and a forum. A viaduct was built to bring water to the city, and it had a very complex mains water system supplying all the houses and baths.
As the empire collapsed, Ostia Antica fell into ruin.
What makes it so special, is that the river silted up and covered the city with a thick layer of sand, which has preserved it almost beyond belief. You can see the most incredibly mosaic floors, street name plaques that are still clearly legible, stunning marble columns and steps. We got as far as the baths and the forum, and walked all through the warehousing district and it blew our minds. I had to keep reminding myself I was in a place that had been built 2000 years ago. If you ever visit Rome, set aside a day to visit Ostia Antica. I promise you won’t regret it.
Sadly, we had to head back, and Uber did the job again, in another E Class with ice cold AC.
We retrieved our luggage and entered the most chaotic airport I’ve ever used – complete and utter mayhem! We head for the lounge – Iberia passengers in Rome use a commercial lounge called Plaza Premium, and I can safely say it’s the worst airport lounge we’ve ever used. Super hot, very, very noisy, the hot food was cold, and the cold food was warm.
Thankfully our flight was on time, and we were happy to be back in the air with Iberia and enjoying their excellent in flight food. We had a long layover in Madrid, but Barajas Airport was a joy after the chaos of Rome, and the Iberia lounge was an oasis of tranquillity, so we were able to get some work done.
The second leg was also on time, and we finally arrived back in Lanzarote just after midnight, broke the car out of the airport car park and got home at 1AM, tired, but as always, happy to be back on the rock.
Tomorrow, we’ll try to summarise the whole trip, but also share with you some of the misconceptions and fears we had about ultra luxury cruising, and let you know whether they were justified.
Silversea Cruise – Final Thoughts
I don’t think we’ve ever been so lacking in confidence about a holiday before. This was our first taste of “Super luxury” cruising. These were the things we were nervous about, and what we found:
Would the other passengers all be ancient?
No, is the simple answer. We were bang on the median age. As an example, we spent time on excursions as a group of six – two ladies from Australia in their 70’s, two newly weds from Florida in their late 20’s, and us. We had a blast with never a dull moment. There were as many people aboard younger than us as older, some with teenage children and others with their grandkids.
Would they all be super rich and let us know?
Absolutely not. For sure, we had watch and diamond envy, but not once did anyone make us feel out of our league. Sure, they’re successful, but they all got there through hard work, and it was fascinating to see how many were up at 7AM, as we were, clearing the day’s emails.
I get less tolerant of rude or irritating people the older I get, and I just didn’t ever have any of those moments where I seethed internally.
Would they play the “Who has the biggest suite?” Game
This is funny, but we’ve found the cheaper the cruise line, the more people play this game, obsessing about cabin size and how many cruises they’ve done in the last ten years. We probably spent time with half the passengers aboard, and I can’t tell you whether any of them were staying in a massive 11th deck two bedroom suite, or the lowest one on deck 4. It just wasn’t a conversation that ever cropped up. And Silversea doesn’t use wrist bands or lanyards, so you can’t see any evidence of where they are staying on the ship. There is also no discrimination – we’ve been on lines where people in different classes of suite get priority getting on and off the ship, booking restaurants and more. On Silversea, everyone is equal.
A butler? WTF?
This one bothered us. Every suite has a butler, and yes, they wear tails and white gloves. The thought of having someone fussing around us at all times filled us both with dread.
But then we realised how it works. Your butler is whatever you want him or her to be. If you want someone to draw you a bath with Bvlgari bath foam at 6.30 PM each evening, they will do so. If you want a full breakfast served in your suite every morning, they will bring it to you, set up a dining table with a white cloth and serve you a fabulous feast. Need your laundry cleaned and pressed? Shoes polished? No problem.
Initially our butler Mina did fuss around us a bit – he visited too often for us, and brought different pillows and bathroom toiletries to try.
After speaking to him, we realised his job was to give us exactly what we wanted, which boiled down to always making sure there was a bottle of good gin, lots of ice, slices of lemon, fresh fruit, nuts and crisps in our suite. We asked him to bring us Champagne and caviar one night, and that was pretty much it.
Our top tip. Sort it out on the first day and let your butler know how you operate. Next time we sail Silversea, we’ll tell the butler exactly what we’d like at the first meeting.
Would the crew be able to be themselves?
Yes, absolutely. And they’re very good at judging it. At first, they were very polite and genteel, and insisted on calling us Mr and Mrs Cliffe-Jones. But within a day, realising that wasn’t our thing, they moved on to Mr Michael and Mrs Julie, and eventually to Mike and Julie. At that point, it was just brilliant – great conversations about their lives and families, chats about where we are from, what sports we’re into and more. I don’t know how they train the crew with facial recognition, but they are brilliant at it.
And with an almost one to one crew to guest ratio, they have the precious commodity of time. Want to spend 15 minutes with a sommelier discussing which wine would go best with you menu choices? Or talking Ironman with a drinks waiter? Never a problem.
What on earth is elegant casual / formal wear all about?
Silversea is one of the few remaining cruise lines that has a pretty strict dress code, and we were hoping we’d fit in. It really isn’t that complicated. The key phrase is “the sort of clothes you’d wear in a five star hotel.” What that means in practice is pretty much whatever you want during the day, but in the evenings, you’ll need to wear “nice” clothes – that might be a dress or slacks for the ladies, a pair of trousers and a nice shirt for the fellas, and if it’s one of the “posher” restaurants, a casual jacket.
The only thing we didn’t like about it is that jeans are not allowed in the evenings. We think smart jeans, with nice shoes, can look perfectly “5 star.”
On a short cruise, there’s one “formal optional” night, and on ours, which was a little longer, there were two. Now here’s the thing: If you don’t fancy it, you have two simple choices – you can dine in your suite, or you can dine in one of the more relaxed restaurants. What you’ll find on formal nights is that about half the guys who choose to join in wear a tuxedo and the rest of us wear a suit. For the ladies, I’d say 10% wear full on ball gowns and the rest a cocktail dress.
BUT: It’s formal “optional,” and some people simply ignored it and wore something much more casual, so don’t stress about it.
Although it’s all inclusive, would we end up with a huge bill for extras?
This was a revelation. We’ve cruised quite a bit, so I’m used to budgeting a substantial sum for “Cruise extras.” With Silversea, everything is included – premium drinks like champagne, Woodford Reserve, Gin mare, all food, excursions, even tips. You can genuinely do a Silversea cruise and not have a cent taken from your card on departure.
In our case, we chose to do a couple of special things, so we had a bill to pay, but it was substantially lower than we’ve had on any cruise before.
Excursions
Excursions are included with Silversea, and you can do one a day. The free excursions are the sort of thing you’d pay 50 € to 100 € for on most ships. For example, we did wine tasting visits, a boat trip, walking tours and more.
You can, if choose, book premium excursions, which range in price from 80 € upwards, and you can also book a car and driver for the day, who will meet you in port, and take you wherever you want – they start at about 350 € for the day.
Tips
Crew gratuities are included in the price of the cruise. Silversea do make the point that the tips programme doesn’t include the excursions teams. So we budgeted to give them a tip, and we also took some extra cash to give to the members of crew who gave us really exceptional service. It’s not expected, but it was well received.
Entertainment
This was probably the weakest area. Don’t cruise Silversea if you’re a lover of the amazing west end style shows the large cruise ships put on.
The theatre is super comfortable, and the waiters will bring you drinks, but it’s simply not big enough for a full on “production” show, and the entertainments team consist of two dancers, four very good vocalists and a team of four musicians on keyboards, guitars and drums. They belted out the hits well enough, but don’t expect to see them on TV anytime soon. They were very good at fast costume changes, but the costumes themselves were a but cheesy.
There was a huge contrast when Martin Kaye came on board as a guest presenter, and his show was streets ahead of anything else we’d seen.
There were also pianists playing background music in one of the bars, and a duo on keyboards and jazz vocals playing in one of the restaurants.
Wines
There is a sommelier in every restaurant and when you sit down to eat, they will bring you the two wines they’ve chosen to go with the meal. These wines are included, and they are almost always good quality, very drinkable wines. if you don’t like the two they’re chosen, they will get you something different, for example, I asked for a Merlot to go with a steak and it was no problem, and not chargeable.
There is a wine list, with some stunning wines available, and they will be chargeable. They are very high quality, ranging in price from about $40 a bottle, and if you don’t drink it at the table, it will magically appear at your next meal, but who leaves wine? There were some very high end wines available, one of which was a 2011 Chateuax La Tour at $2000.
Would we get different treatment because we were in a cheaper suite?
This was something that worried us – not for the kudos, but because we’ve been on the wrong end of this on other ships – the high rollers get on and off the ship first, they get priority on restaurant and excursion bookings and get invited to special events.
None of that happens on Silversea. Everyone is equal.
Would the wifi be any good?
We work when we’re away, so we need access to all our databases and to be able to update and make changes to our websites. Julie also takes around 100 photos a day and I shoot 4k video. We’ve had endless issues on cruise ships with photo and video uploads backing up and long periods with no wifi at all.
“Standard” wifi is free for everyone, and it’s described as fine for normal browsing, but it does limit you to one device each. We opted for the Premium package, which cost $200 for the 11 days, and gave us four devices, but it was epic. I could have been in my office – the speeds were incredible, Julie’s photos were accessible in iCloud within half an hour of being back on ship, and my videos uploaded as fast as they do at home.
I spoke to another guy, from the US, who I spotted doing lots of online stuff and he told me he doesn’t buy the premium package, because in his words he’s “too cheap,” which made me laugh as he was wearing a Patek Phillipe watch, but he told me the standard wifi did everything he needed to do, and he just switched his phone off when he wanted to use his computer and vice versa.
The suites looked amazing in the photos, but would they be comfortable?
This worried me, because we’ve stayed in some hotels that look amazing in the photos, but aren’t comfortable or practical.
No need to worry, the queen sized bed was fabulous, there was a proper desk to work at, sockets everywhere, two TV’s with loads of channels, brilliant AC, more wardrobe space that we have at home and a huge bathroom. I could honestly live in one full time!
The Food
The food is exceptional – there are 8 restaurants, ranging from a pizza / burger place to a top end French cuisine and everything in between. The only buffet service is in one restaurant where they do breakfast and lunch, but if you prefer a la carte all the time, you can choose another.
There also 24 hour room service included, with no additional charge, and a cafe that serves food all day and afternoon teas.
Would we have fun, or would it all be a bit serious?
We’re big fans of Virgin Voyages, because we love a laugh and a bit of banter, so we were concerned life aboard Silver Moon would be a little serious.
But no, we laughed our heads off, with other passengers and the crew.
We just had a great time.
Finally
Well that’s it! In summary it was the best cruise experience we’ve ever had. With the exception of the entertainment, Silversea exceeded our expectations in every department. It’s so hard to describe just how effortless it all is. Even arriving or leaving dock just happens so quietly, so smoothly, that you sometimes don’t even know it’s happened.
It was amazing, and guess what? My next job after this is posted will be to book our next Silversea Cruise, it’s an expedition voyage on Silver Cloud.
