Up to this point in my travel life, I had not considered myself a cruiser. I have traveled on smaller craft like Sea Dream, A&K Nile cruising, and Orient Express Road to Mandalay, but I was never interested in cruising on larger ships.
I have to say, I was most pleasantly surprised with Silversea. All my expectations went out the window. No boatload of geriatrics with walkers, no endless buffet food, no seasickness, no tacky folks in shorts and gold chains, and tons of ways to get in strenuous exercise.
This cruise was full of young and young at heart, delightful, interesting, sophisticated, well traveled people. The nationality make up was around 30% Australians( I never met an Australian that was not delightfully funny and loads of fun), 30% British and 30% Americans. Excursions offered each day were fun, could be strenuous, and extremely interesting. Usually no more than 20 people, daily excursions really helped one learn about the destination in depth. And Silversea started each destination with lectures on the destination’s history and points of interest the afternoon before. Archaeology, historical culture, religion, and art history were examined.
The cabin was huge: Two televisions built into the twin mirrored walls -one in the living room, and one in the bedroom. We also enjoyed a large bathroom with tubs and separate showers, floor to ceiling windows and a roomy verandah with wicker lounge chairs. And most importantly we had a very large closet. Another surprise was the amount of storage space- drawers everywhere.
The ship offers 5 restaurants: my favorites were the Japanese and the French. I was shocked at the fine quality of the food and wines were imported from the region or you could delve into the serious bottles on the enormous wine list offerings.
It really comes down to the people you meet and the people you travel with;
I found Silversea engaging, interesting and tremendously fun, ships ahoy!