Blissful Monday

---

What a wonderful day! I didn’t sleep too well, I didn’t realise how excited I was! So we were up as soon as Tom was awake, dressed and out walking before 7am! We had looked up the port information last night so we knew exactly where our ship would be berthed. On arriving at Canada Place we found one of the other two berths occupied by a huge Norwegian ship, and a Disney ship was just backing into her berth. The Silver Muse was still in the outer harbour area, slowly making her way to port. We waited until she was just approaching her berth before returning to our hotel for breakfast. After breakfast we did a leisurely shower, shave and shampoo before pack up and then just waiting in our room until check out time at 11.

After 11 we joined the procession of wheely cases down to the shipping terminal We quickly checked in our large cases here and then were funnelled off to the checkin area for Silversea. When about 15 of us had gathered we were taken aboard where we were greeted with champagne and the rest of the checkin procedures were completed. It was now 11.30am and we sat down to wait in the lounge until lunch would be served at 12. We were served more champagne and were amazed when approached by the waiter in charge of the Dolce Vita lounge who had recognised us and immediately come over to say hello - it was Dias who had been on the Stockholm to London cruise last year! He was delighted to see us again. At 12 we went down to the restaurant where we were shown to a table for lunch. The head sommelier was doing her rounds and we were amazed to find it was Carolina, who’d been on the Panama cruise with us back in 2016, as well as the Stockholm one last year. One of our waitresses also recognised us as past passengers, so after one hour on board the ship we had been greeted as old friends and were dining on creamy potato soup, veal scallopini in a masala sauce and chocolate pancakes, all accompanied by more champagne.

We returned to the lounge after lunch to wait until 2 when our suites would be available - I think it was 10 minutes we had to wait, before the lounge was inundated with butlers and room stewards coming to escort us to our suites. The decor on this ship is still new as she’s only about 18 months old, and the finishes in our suite so much more modern. Our walk in wardrobe is smaller than I recall. On arrival in our suite we found a bottle of champagne in an ice bucket and a number of administrative things needing attention.

Due to the fatal float plane accident 2 weeks ago, Silversea had changed flight providers for our shore excursion in 2 days time, and our morning flight had become a lunchtime flight and would clash with our afternoon shore excursion. We would have to let them know of our decision. We also had a welcoming card informing us of our VIP status on this cruise, entitling us to free laundry, afternoon canapés and other delights yet to be experienced. This is due to the fact that the last cruise we were on had missed many ports due to inclement weather. We also had the luxury of $US750 credit on our onboard account, and had received an invitation to a wine pairing talk with Carolina in the intimate dining room at 11 tomorrow morning, which would have to be RSVPd. After taking stock of all our shore excursion tickets and noting some minor time changes our room steward, Evelyn, arrived with our luggage and we set about unpacking. We had just finished that when Yashdeep, our butler, arrived to introduce himself and sort out some serious matters. We organised to remove the soft drink from our fridge, and replace it with champagne so there would always be some to have with the afternoon canapés he would deliver to our suite. He would also bring us a bottle of Baileys to enjoy and most importantly, he explained the system involving our free laundry. He also showed us how to easily operate the two televisions contained within our mirrors.

After his departure, we felt it was time for a nap. Much lunchtime champagne and early morning starts will do that to you. And it was just so nice to be back on board. We set an alarm so we would awake in time for our safety drill at 5, which we duly took part in. After that we sorted out the shore excursion changes, the RSVP, and returned to our suite for the welcome champagne (which we later discovered on our Dan Murphy’s app was over $100/ bottle!) and the sail away.

Dinner was at 7 in the main dining room and how exciting that was! Salmon with caviar, seafood chowder, Australian king prawns and lemon meringue pie. Tom had almost the same, but his soup was tomato with veal meatballs, his main was Angus beef as a fillet Mignon, and his dessert was coffee ice cream. The previous cruise had consumed all of the billi billi (red wine we like) and the limoncello. More was taken on board today but not as yet unpacked. We dined at a table for 2 but were surrounded either side by delightful Americans who had been to Australia. By the time we departed the restaurant it was almost bedtime!

It is so good to be aboard!

---