Luxury 5 star Adriatic Cruise
We checked into our cabin shortly after boarding and were introduced to our lovely butler Anil and his sidekick, Armando. Each of the suites offers a butler service – not only do they ensure the suite was spotless each day, but they kept our minibar refreshed, provided breakfast on our large veranda and kept us informed as to what activities on the ship were on each day. Each time we met them, whether in the suite or the corridor, they greeted us by name and were just so friendly. I am sure we would all love an Anil or an Armando at home!
We stayed in a deluxe verandah suite which was incredibly spacious. There was a sitting room area adjoining the bedroom area with a table, 2 seater couch and armchair. The bathroom was large with a full size bath and a double shower and to my huge surprise, we had a large walk in wardrobe – plenty of room for all the ‘glamorous’ clothes we had brought with us! And of course, we had a large veranda and one of my favourite times of the day was to have a glass of wine sitting on the veranda in the evening before heading up to dinner.
For such a small ship, there was a great choice of restaurants and food was top class in each of them. Once we boarded the ship, we headed for La Terraza which was the buffet restaurant and open for breakfast and lunch. In my life, I have never seen such a choice of fresh fruit and berries which we enjoyed each morning, and at lunch time, the selection of salads was just mouth-watering. This restaurant became an Italian Restaurant in the evenings with waiter service. The main restaurant was called Atlantide which offered a wide range of food from meat to fish to vegetarian, and I especially enjoyed the scallops with strawberries! Hot Rocks was a real favourite. Situated on the pool deck, it does what it says on the tin – you pick your steak or giant size prawns and cook them yourself on the hot rock which they place in front of you. We also enjoyed the Pizzeria – ‘Spaccanapoli’ on another evening and a real treat was ‘Silver Note’, which served ‘tapas’ style food accompanied by a fabulous jazz singer - have a look at the picture of my starter 'The Beehive'! Indochine, the Asian restaurant was closed during our stay and the other 2 restaurants, Seishin and La Dame were the ‘specialty’ restaurants and carried supplements of USD$40 - $60 per person.
All of the Silversea product offers a premium all inclusive package. Premium brand drinks are included and they have 110 house wines onboard and you can choose what you want. In fact, if you discover a particularly nice bottle of wine, your butler will place a bottle in your fridge! The package also offered 1 excursion per person per port.
Silversea does not offer all the razzamatazz shows of the larger ships, but we enjoyed 2 lovely singing and dancing shows – one fairly contemporary eg, Abba songs and the other more ‘swing’ style. There were some other lovely options – a classical evening, an opera singer but there simply wasn’t time for everything. Each evening finished with music and a ‘bop’ at the Panorama lounge and what I just loved, was the huge comfortable outdoor area here.
And of course – the cruise is all about the destinations. I never thought I would appreciate waking up in a different place each morning and not having to live out of my suitcase! The beauty of the Silversea ships is that they are small, and can therefore berth at many ports where the larger ships would have to tender in. Kotor in Montenegro is a prime example here – we docked in the centre of the town in front of the tunnel which brought us under the road and up to the gates of the old town. We were therefore free to come and go as we please and Kotor was one of the highlights of our trip. The journey up to our berth was spectacular – we sailed through Europe’s most southerly fjord in the early hours of the morning. The sea was like glass, the sun rising and the mountains on either side majestic!
Silversea offered shuttles every half hour into the towns of Chania in Crete and Corfu Town. We didn’t avail of the latter as we in fact chose one of the beach excursions. We did this also at Katakolon and just loved swimming in the warm sea. We did our own thing in Santorini – took the tender into the port and the cable car up to the capital Fira. Oia is where everyone wants to visit – it is roughly a 30 min taxi journey from Fira (although we could have taken the included excursion) . The views were spectacular – just like all the post cards you see of Santorini, but we found it to be extremely busy. Earlier we had walked from Fira to the village of Imerovigli (approx. 3km). It offered the same view and type of accommodation (much cheaper than Oia) and was far less crowded. Each afternoon when we returned to the ship, it was a lovely treat to head to the Arts Café for a nice coffee and something ‘fancy’!
Our cruise ended in Dubrovnik and we tendered in right up to the Old Walls – just spectacular!
Silversea is indeed an ultra luxury product and definitely more expensive than other cruises. However, it is important to understand why this is the case. Very few ships in the 5 star category will offer a 24 hour butler service. Very few cruises will offer the standard of accommodation, meals and drinks and very few will offer excursions in each port in your package. The ships are small and intimate. The ratio of passenger to crew member is one of the best in the business and therefore explains the superior service. The ships stay in port a lot longer than many other cruise companies and because of their size, can berth much closer to the ports than other cruise companies. Overall, service is par excellence.
Silversea sails to over 900 destinations worldwide spread over all 7 continents. If you want to see the world and like a bit of luxury, why not give me a call?