The Pinnacle of Luxury

Silver Shadow - At the Pinnacle of Luxury
Orginally posted by Art Sbarsky

There is a lot to be said about cruising on a small luxury ship. Spaciousness, dining, service and the hardware itself are the primary hallmarks of the experience. Big-time entertainment including production shows? No. Lots of glitz? No. A relaxing, quiet on-bard experience? Absolutely.

And my recent cruise on Silver Shadow, one of the two larger Silversea Cruises ships matched all of the above. Add to it an itinerary that was, for me, at least, almost all first-time calls, and it was sensational.

THE ITINERARY

Small ships can get into ports that the big ships cannot. And, because of this, an itinerary can include places that may not be known to everyone. That’s a benefit in and of itself to a lot of cruisers, especially the upscale, more experienced ones. This cruise started in Greenwich which is only four miles down the Thames from London. The overnight call gave guests the chance to explore the home of Greenwich Mean Time with all of its fabulous museums and history. You could even set your watch at the official 1PM ball drop; sort of like Times Square on New Years but not as cold or crowded. There were then three calls in France: Honfleur, a great small town for just walking around, maybe having a great local bite and beverage; the most popular tour was to the beaches of Normandy; St. Malo, another great small town, this one walled in, with a wonderful tour to Mont St. Michel; an overnight call in Bordeaux for vineyard visits including the small town of St. Emilion, a charming little place. Next up was Vigo in Spain where I went mussel farming; well, it was eating and watching, not actually doing any work. Then it was on to Portugal for stops in Oporto, the city most famous for its large number of port wineries, and an overnight call in the better-known Lisbon before disembarking. From Lisbon, where I had been before, I took a tour to Obidos, a small hillside town that’s a protected world Heritage Site. Other than Lisbon, it was all new places for me and I enjoyed all of them, especially the small walking towns. I thoroughly enjoyed the two full days at sea and a couple of late-morning port arrivals.

THE ONBOARD EXPERIENCE

The very word luxury has been used in so many ways that it has become a bit diluted over time but until a better word comes along, it fits for the cruise industry. At the same time, some of the very hallmarks that have defined luxury cruising – balconies, exotic destinations and upscale alternative restaurants – have been adopted by the premium and contemporary cruise lines. This has certainly improved the overall cruise vacation for all cruisers. It has also made the luxury operators work that much harder to distinguish themselves and earn the higher ticket revenues they charge.

Two of the primary requisites of luxury cruising are still space and service. In the case of Silver Shadow, with a capacity of 388 and tonnage of 28,258, the space ratio works out to just under 73 – an extremely high figure. Throw in the crew of 276 for a crew to guest ratio of .71 and you can easily imagine that every guest on board has plenty of space to move around in and that their service needs, whether it be on deck, in the public rooms or in the suites, will all be met. And such was the case on this cruise. The crew was seemingly always friendly, even the normally reticent non-hotel staff. The bar, dining and suite staff have a knack of learning guests names very quickly and learning their preferences. It’s amazing how they do that; it’s certainly a nice feature on the small luxury ships. And they are proactive without being pushy and sociable without being overly familiar.

There are 194 suites on board, 157 of which have balconies. About 90% of the suites fit into the Veranda Suite or Vista Suite categories, the only difference being the balconies. The room size itself is about 287 square feet — very spacious indeed. And, separating themselves from the larger, more mass market ships, all of normal luxury amenities are available: DVD and CD players; wonderful linens and pillows (lots of pillow varieties available); a choice of toiletries among Acqua di Palma, Bulgari and Neutrogena, or mix and match all three; bathtub and separate shower in the bathroom; new lounge chairs on all balconies (just put in during my cruise); and a fully stocked mini-bar (most alcohol is included with the ticket price so having non-stop champagne, wine and such in the room is no problem) is included.

On the luxury ships, dining is of course one of the major features and Silver Shadow does not disappoint. The two main places to dine are The Restaurant, a lovely, spaciously set up room, or La Terrazza, for casual buffets for breakfast and lunch and a more elegant set-up for Italian meals at night. The menu options in La Terrazza rotate among the regional cuisines of Italy so no two nights in a row are the same. This room is also the more casual alternative on formal nights although guests dress quite nicely on all nights of the cruise. On nice days, the Pool Grill is a great outdoors location for lunch with a fairly extensive menu. To say the least, I ate extremely well. For lunch on board, I usually had a self-made salad with all the fixings and topped off with shellfish, sushi, beef stroganoff, minute steaks, pasta, etc. I even indulged a couple of times and had a custom made pizza as well. Outside, the hamburgers are cooked to order, rare if desired. For dinners, I ate in the main dining room most of the time and La Terrazza a few times. In the former, I never got away with less than four courses and virtually everything was perfect. Service was occasionally off a bit but never to the point of ruining the meal. In La Terrazza, in addition to the regional specialties, there’s an appetizer buffet with prosciutto, grilled eggplant and other veggies, mozzarella and tomatoes, reggiano and more; it was enough for a meal in and of itself. Naturally, there’s a staff member there to help fill up your plate and carry it back to one’s table.

The Silver Shadow experience is not an overly active one except for those who chose to utilize the gym (four treadmills and 18 other pieces of equipment) or the dance floor. There are plenty of places to relax and enjoy the time at sea. There are no auctions or ship photographers. But there were two well-done cooking classes, scotch tasting, dance classes and a husband and wife lecture team. Evening entertainment is mostly dinner and conversation but the four cabaret performers all attracted various sized audiences. One, Jon Courtenay, is a combination pianist, conversationalist, comedian, song parodist and magician. He’s easily one of the very best entertainers I’ve seen at sea.

TO SUM UP

There’s always going to be room in the cruise industry for the luxury ships. It will be fun to watch them continually try to implement product changes to keep them ahead of the larger ships. As they do just that, everyone benefits.