Photoblog 1

 

Dressed for dinner, lemon meringue, Silver Spirit

All change?

 

Silversea’s overlords at Royal Caribbean have decided to rebrand them. At the moment, this appears to be limited to the external appearance of the ships. The bottom section has been painted in what Diva assumed was undercoat, looks like battleship grey and is apparently meant to be silver. The logo on the funnel has changed so that it looks washed out – as if someone put white undercoat across it. There has been no official mention of this onboard – TSH and Diva asked the HR manager about it when they were chatting with her. They think it is a huge mistake.

The HR manager also described the logistics of the last 16 months. Getting as many crew as possible home - sometimes using the ships as ferries, preparing to help with evacuations from the Australian wild fires, assembling quarantined and vaccinated crew, dry runs to prepare the restaurant staff for the return of guests. The latter involved filling each restaurant in turn with non-restaurant crew such as cleaners and deck hands, who all enjoyed the new experience of being waited on.

The passengers are still trying to help out. During a lighting issue in the theatre when the lecturer could not read his notes, a passenger offered him her phone torch. It was politely refused. The lecturer – Peter Crimes – was a PhD student in the Geology department at Liverpool University when Diva, in her first job, worked on the Computer Helpdesk.

Weather misty but not too cold and the sea is very flat.

Wildlife sightings: 1 rabbit, 1 egret, 2 cormorants.

 

Life on Board

 

The crew are determined to make this a successful cruise. There seem to be more of them than ever before and they are attentive and cheerful to an even greater extent than before. Captain Arma says that there is a full ship of guests and a normal number of crew. Other sources suggest about two thirds the number of guests and observation suggests more than the usual number of crew. There are a number of guests who are regular cruisers with other lines such as Cunard and Azamara.

The food is well up to standard, including ‘the best Danish pastries in the world’ (TSH). Afternoon tea is no more but the Arts café has food, including sandwiches and cakes, throughout the day. La Terrazza is still buffet style for breakfast and lunch but guests indicate what they want and waiters put the food onto the plate. Thus far, TSH and Diva have not been there at busy times, so it has worked well for them.

The IT situation has been badly affected by the general IT outage at Silversea (almost 2 weeks now). Internet and TV are intermittent. For the first day or two there were no puzzles and no country news sheets.

Captain’s Welcome was held in the bar. No receiving line but Captain Arma spoke to many people in the room. In theory, guests are supposed to sit only with their own group but there is no space for that to be rigidly observed. Similarly in the restaurants, people are dining in twos more than usual but there are also group tables. No official tables – last night’s formal was the first for many years where TSH and Diva had no invitation from a ship’s officer. Masks are compulsory indoors when not eating or drinking and this is rigidly observed and enforced. The crew wear masks all the time, which must be really uncomfortable. Butlers take guest temperatures each day, using a device pointed at the wrist. An element of ‘best of 3’ about this. TSH and Diva have both registered low on these tests and have then had it re-taken on the neck. So far so good.

The guests are making a defiant gesture to Covid. Never have so many sequins and sparkles been seen on board. Diva has a sparkly mask for formal nights.

 

The QR Quest

 After an uneventful drive, TSH and Diva arrived at the all-day pub which Diva had carefully selected for refreshments on arrival in Southampton. They now know that ‘all-day food’ is a relative term. They were ‘greeted’ at 11:05 with the news that breakfast was long finished and lunch would not start until 11:30. They were not even allowed to order any food until that time.

Embarkation procedures shore-side took just over an hour – much longer than usual but very well organised. They passed quickly through the first few stages of documentation checks despite TSH’s Big Mistake.

They both passed their Covid test, which was much less brutal than the kind which their local pharmacist supplied. The Northern test involves mirrors, torches, tonsils and many nasal centimetres. This one was a series of gentle swirls just inside the nose. Diva was relieved and impressed.

The Silversea check-in also took place in the terminal building. A woman was heard to say ‘can I go up to my suite on Deck 5 now?' The attendant gently reminded her that she would need to board the ship first.

Within minutes of boarding, TSH and Diva were greeted as old friends by waiters, a restaurant manager, the Commodore of the fleet (Captain Arma, who took them round South America) and, most importantly, the Head Sommelier. The latter invited them to a day-time wine tasting tomorrow but this does not sound like a healthy option.

The Big Mistake?  TSH does not trust his smartphone or his own ability to use it in a hurry. So all the documentation, including the NHS QR codes confirming double vaccination for both, was printed out. And just for extra assurance he had 2 copies of much of it – 1 in his zipped pockets and 1 in the suitcases. He offered 2 sheets of QR codes to the medical documentation desk, who were trained well enough to spot that both applied to him and there was not one for Diva. The suitcases with Diva’s QRs were by now deep into the luggage system and totally unavailable. He offered the NHS vaccination record cards instead but these are not acceptable as proof. A frantic search through both phones followed and Diva was extremely relieved when she tracked down her QR code. So was TSH – he knew he would not be embarking alone.

TSH’s defence: he sent an electronic link of both NHS QR codes to Diva to cover any subsequent problems. He did not expect the problems to be self-created.

Information drips out

 The Silversea website is still down. There is no real official explanation but guests are told that the Tech Department are working on it. TSH has been told verbally that the system was taken down in response to a threat and that no data is compromised. An unofficial communication included the words 'It takes longer to get a system back up than to take it down'. Really? Over a week? Contingency planning should cover such an eventuality. Diva has seen an online comment that Silversea need a new Tech Department.

TSH and Diva have now been sent information about the second leg of their cruise, confirming that it is another round of Britain. Or, to quote Silversea 'an immersive experience'. Which is an unfortunate turn of phrase from a cruise company. An interesting quirk is that the itinerary down the east coast visits Edinburgh before Dundee. A mistake or a scheduling issue with the ports? Watch this space. 

TSH has had his hair cut.

The itinerary is just a wish list

 TSH and Diva have seen a communication from Silversea suggesting that their visits to Northern Europe and the Channel Isles have been cancelled. Instead, they are to circumnavigate the British Isles twice. Same ports twice. How the mighty are fallen. The original plan for January 2021 was to circumnavigate South America. Once.

This change was half-expected because of the Covid status of France in particular. As a precaution, this is OK with TSH and Diva. But they will need clothes for cooler climes such as Scotland in late September. And Diva has wasted money on Day 2 tests that will not now be needed. 

They look forward to a confirmation of where exactly they are going. And information about the dress codes. And luggage tags. But the Silversea website has been down for days with no real explanation. 

Silver Spirit is in the Bay of Biscay, still heading for Southampton.

7 sleeps to go

 TSH is raring to go. He has most of his holiday wardrobe hanging on the planning rails. Many lists have been made and many pieces of documentation printed out. He is watching the progress of Silver Spirit towards Southampton but is concerned that the ship appears to be resting near Gibraltar. 

TSH and Diva have both taken a lateral flow test and both proved negative. They will have to undergo more of these tests before embarkation and again during the cruise. Diva thinks that they constitute an assault and that some more civilised method should be found. The Day 2 tests to be taken on return have already arrived and the numbers for the Passenger Locator forms are carefully stored. 

Diva's wardrobe optioneering is still in her head but she is almost ready to start the selection. She needs to avoid any potential clashes with the clothes required for her 70th birthday outings. Her cruise supplies list is ready for use. How much toothpaste? How much hair spray?