Silver Service with Silversea

Last week I was lucky enough to be invited on a cruise with Silversea. I have cruise with a few luxury lines now including Azamara, Regent Seven Seas and now Silversea can be added to the list too.

Our journey started in Heathrow where we stayed at the Thistle hotel overnight before our early morning flight. If flying with BA I highly recommend the Thistle as it is linked to terminal 5 with the Heathrow Pod transfer. Take a look I felt like an extra in Star Trek! The journey to the terminal was so smooth and took less than 5 minutes.

I have transferred through Terminal 5 before and I admit it was a nightmare but travelling at 7am the airport was quiet and security took no time at all. Onbard we were offered a light bite, teas & coffees. A couple of hours in we went to ask for a vodka tonic the staff gave us one but asked us not to let everyone see! They then went on to say that would cost £6.50 from April. Have you heard? BA plan on charging for food and drinks on all short haul flights from January.

Once in Athens we grabbed our cases and took a private taxi to the Port of Piraeus to embark Silver Spirit. From our arrival in Athens we knew this was going to be special. Immediately we were receiving a real personal service and this was something that followed throughout the whole cruise. Once on board we headed to our suite to get changed as the weather was fantastic, here we met our very own butler Lorenzo. silversea do things differently and everyone is treated exactly the same if you are in an owners suite or vista ocean view suite you still have your very own butler and suite attendant. Lorenzo poured us a champagne and told us all we needed to know about our 4 nights on board. He also asked us what we would like in our mini bar.

We then headed to deck 9 to the pool bar for lunch. No self service here plenty of staff taking food & drinks orders. I opted for a salad & cocktail! I try to be a little healthy whilst cruising I know its all too easy to put on a few lbs with all the rich food & drink.

When we got back to our suite to get ready for dinner we found a bottle of Grey Goose vodka for me and Rum for my colleague! Not just a little miniature either a full litre bottle of each. Once we were ready we decided on a pre dinner drink on our balcony. Off we headed to diner in La Terazza

One of the great benefits of luxury small ship cruising is how close you are to the local port and how long you get in post. Our first stop was the Greek island of Chios. A fairly small port but this is a great picture ans shows just how close we are. We car that close you cant see any water! This was taken from up on deck 9, in most ports you will stay well after dinner sometimes not leaving port until 10pm at night. This does depend on your itinerary so if you are looking to spend a little longer somewhere then be sure to take a look at Silversea.

Little did we know we were in for an absolute treat for dinner tonight! We were taken to Hot Rocks. This is located on deck 10 overlooking the pool I ordered Surf & Turf this is where you become chef for the night, waiters bring out Hot Lava rocks for you to cook on, have your steak cooked to perfections exactly how you want. I did order 2 prawns but look at the size of these I had to go with just the one.

The following day we arrived in Kusadasi nice and early we were off the ship by 8am for our excursion to Ephesus. Pop back for my blog about Turkey as there is so much I want to tell you about this beautiful place we got to visit. As we knew we were in for a busy day we decided on a breakfast fit for a king. We had ordered this the night before and had Lorenzo bring it to the cabin for us.

Our final full day saw us arrive in Santorini. To say this was a disappointment was an understatement. We headed off to breakfast to give us a great start to the day. We had already heard we would need to take a tender across but this was no problem for us until we saw what greeted us. Take a little look

Beautiful view shame about the 1000’s of people all trying to look at Santorini. This shows 3 ships in view, Oceania, MSC and Holland America, the NCL Jade arrived a little later and not forgetting us on Silver Spirit. As we got off the tender we decided not to take the cable car to the top of the village as it seemed everyone else had the same idea and we were told we would be waiting 2 hours in a queue, off we went to walk to the top. We only lasted a short while before the smell from the donkeys put us off! If you have never been before there are 3 ways to get to the village, cable car, walk or donkey. The donkeys stink & do there business wherever they like and they use the same path we were to use to get to the village. We decided to give up and headed back to the ship for a relaxing afternoon. If you chose to take a cruise to see Santorini I recommend checking how many ships will be in port with you. The crew did say this had become a real problem this year with so many cruise ships pulling Turkey from its program.

For our final evening we had been invited to an exclusive Gala Dinner. We were on a Gourmet Cruise this involved Michelin star chefs coming on board to offer cookery demonstrations and gala meals. If you are a bit of a foodie like me Silversea will not disappoint even better if you can get on a specially selected Gourmet Cruise

I was so full after dinner I headed down to the show lounge to have a little look at the entertainment. This is very low key but still great at the same time. The show lounge is a small personal lounge but big enough to accommodate people and I found the seats really comfortable.

I really enjoyed my time on Silver Spirit, I love the ships get into smaller ports and stay much longer giving you a chance to really experience a place. The food on board was really good, the drinks were exceptional and its nice getting of a ship without having a huge bar bill at the end as all the drinks are included. There is a large choice for evening dinning including, Hot Rocks Grill, The Restaurant, Supper Club, La Terazza these are all included however there is also Le Champagne & Seishen which both hold a cover charge of $40 per person. I found the ship a real foodie ship maybe that was helped by the fact it was a Gourmet Cruise we were travelling on.

Children have no facilities on board but that doesn’t mean they are not accepted on board. There were a couple of young girls when we were on board. Very well behaved but its really not a cruise for kids. There is nothing for them to do on board and the evening entertainment is not suitable for children either.

Here are a few more pictures of the ship

Innovative Asian fusion cuisine, Kobe beef and spider lobster vie for the attention of your tastebuds in this cosy, stylish venue aboard this luxury cruise ship. Seishin features a large, round chef’s table as its centrepiece.

Settle in to the surrounding tables and watch the chef at work sculpting fresh sushi and sashimi, characteristic of a luxury cruise. The varied menu ranges from exquisite bento (boxed meal) lunches and a la carte specialities to a nine-course degustation dinner.