Hello and welcome to Mikey’s summer adventure, a 15 day cruise around the Mediterranean, stopping at ports in Spain, France and Italy. I didn’t announce this beforehand because it came together very quickly and could have all fallen apart, luckily everything came together and I had a fantastic voyage.
Now, this is my first cruise. I’ve always been a cruise skeptic, actively avoiding the insanity of a 5,000 passenger ship with screaming children and various communicable diseases. Despite all that, it’s been on my bucket list to try once before I get that final stamp in my passport.
A friend brought up the idea of a cruise around the Med, splitting the cost of a cabin with a compatible traveler sounded like a good idea. I immediately scratched the big family cruise lines and focused on the smaller ships which, at less than 1000 passengers, sound big but are definitely at the smaller end of the market. I also wanted something upscale so I wasn’t disappointed with the whole experience. Very quickly we settled on the SilverSea line, a well-respected luxury line. I just assumed the ‘Silver’ in SilverSea was the color of the hair of everyone on-board and I’m OK with that, they’re my people now! We can all talk about our medical problems over cocktails…
To get this out of the way, the total price for my share was 6,500 Euros. Gulp! OK, this is going to be Mikey’s big trip of the year… That works out to 433 Euros per day, but let’s look at what that gets me. 1) A 5* hotel room bigger than my first apartment, with a balcony. 2) Unlimited food and drinks. There were 5 included restaurants on board, with buffet or menu service and the choices would make Anthony Bourdain blush. I could order a filet mignon at 3am from room service and it would be delivered, no questions asked. Well, there is a limit… there are 2 more super fancy restaurants on board, along with some high-end champagne, wine and spirits with an extra charge. I felt like The Dude in The Big Lebowski since I always had a free White Russian in my hand and the servers would always offer me a fresh one when I walked into a bar. I splashed $38 for a shot of Macallan Enigma which retails for $600 per bottle, and is only sold on cruise ships. 3) Tips are included, which can be a significant extra expense that shows up as a shock at the end of your voyage.
So to summarize: I had a luxury hotel room that I didn’t have to check in and out of every day, I was transported to 13 different destinations while I slept, I had as much food and drink that I could fit into my body, and had a constant stream of available entertainment. That’s really great value for 433 Euros per day. There was a fantastic live music show every evening, bingo, trivia, casino, chill lounges with more food and drink and music, plus a relaxation and pool area on the top deck that had a “chocolate extravaganza” party, oh my god more chocolate! I mean come on! Oh also somehow I got a $500 credit to use for the fancy restaurants or dozens of paid shore excursion tours. I took the “Behind The Scenes” tour of the ship, showing us the food and goods storage area, laundry area, engine control room and the bridge where I got a picture with the jolly Italian captain. It included the extra-cost Asian restaurant and I did a 75 minute massage treatment in the spa to burn up my credit.
OK with that intro out of the way, let’s talk about the actual journey. On Saturday morning I literally rolled my suitcase from my apartment, down La Rambla and caught a short shuttle bus ride directly to the ship’s boarding area at 11am. The cabins aren’t ready until 2pm so I dropped off my luggage and explored the ship top to bottom, noting each restaurant, lounge, facility and service desk. We then moved into the spacious cabin, just check out the pictures. Then began 2 weeks of eating, drinking and enjoying the quaint port towns of Palamos Spain, Palma de Mallorca Spain, Valencia Spain, Alghero Sardinia Italy, Ajaccio Corsica France, Saint Tropez France, Monaco, Toulon France, Portofino Italy, Livorno Italy, Porto Santo Stefano Italy, Sorrento Italy and finally Rome’s seaport called Civitavecchia which annoyingly is more than an hour away from Rome. The highlights for me were Palma, Saint Tropez, Monaco and Portofino. Each of those locations was a short boat ride or walk from the ship, while I strolled through the streets in the heat of the hottest summer ever recorded in Europe. I’ll attach a selection of the pictures I took. Monaco was special as a Formula 1 fan I walked the track backwards and went through the Prince’s car collection. Portofino is tiny but the brightly painted buildings in the village can’t be beat. I didn’t bother going ashore in Livorno as I had the worst visit of my life there in 2016 and felt no need to see it again. I nicknamed the town ‘Satan’s Butthole’. The only reason the ship stops here is it’s the gateway to the Pisa and Florence excursions. You can read the full story here.
Now let’s talk about the ship. It was the Silvery Ray, the second in SilverSeas’ newest design and is only 2 years old, so absolutely everything was in perfect, modern shape. Here are some stats, including what I learned on my Behind The Scenes tour: 720 passengers and 532 staff, 11 decks with 2 for machinery and staff accommodation, 3 with restaurants, bars, lounges, boutiques, spa and service desks, 4 decks of passenger accommodation and the top deck with shade, sun and pools. I asked the important question: how many bottles of liquor are on board, the man in charge of the supply chain instantly said 5,168, along with 188 dozen eggs which are replenished at every stop. There are two main electric motors and propellers driven by two 16 megawatt generators using 100% green bio-liquid natural gas stored at -158 degrees Celsius, pushing the ship at a maximum of 21 knots or 24.17 mph/38.89 kph which is pretty zippy. We normally went 6-10 knots at night due the short distances between ports. There are two more 8 megawatt generators for the other electrical needs of the ship. Instead of the 360 degree rotating thruster pods I expected for in-port maneuvering, the ship has 3 thrusters in the front and 2 in the back, mounted in tunnels that go from one side of the ship to the other, giving very fine control without the drag that pods would generate. I had to get on the waiting list for this tour, they need to make many more time slots!
Now let’s move to the staff. I just cannot explain in words how wonderful each and every staff member was, from the captain to the guy who turned down the bed in the evening. 53 countries were represented on my cruise which is incredible. I listed my onion allergy in my profile and every time I sat down the server would walk up and say “Hello Mr. Brown, I can guide you through tonight’s menu and find the non-onion items or we can ask the chef to not put onions in, if possible”. So, yeah. Every. meal. And not only the onion thing but after the first or second day, everyone was calling me by my name. I can’t remember my own name most of the time so I found this mind-boggling how they can do this for 700 people! The top staff including JP the Cruise Director (the Julie of the ship if you get the reference), Lexy the Assistant Cruise Director, Valentina the Activity Director and Anthony the DJ and activity host were just simply amazing. In addition there was a cast of 4 singers and 4 dancers that performed with a different theme each evening, two outstanding piano players were brought on board for special one-time performances, a violin player and a guitarist.
The one strange thing was my 15 day cruise was advertised and sold to me as a single cruise, but once on board I discovered it was actually two cruises back to back, with half of the ship getting off and on in Monaco. Luckily I didn’t have to check out of my room.
As you might expect, I was totally hooked by the cruise after about the first day. This company has 12 ships and they go to the cruise hotspots like the Med, northern Europe, the Caribbean, Alaska, Central and South America, Asia, Africa, trans-Oceanic, around-the-World plus exotic trips to the Arctic, Greenland, Antarctica and the Galápagos Islands. I’m already thinking hard about my next cruise! And I’ll avoid a few of the rookie mistakes I made this time…
After finishing up near Rome, I stayed overnight in Tarquinia then took the Grimaldi ferry back to Barcelona. Being spoiled by the Silver Ray, I wanted to stage a mutiny on the ship and sink it in the middle of the Med, I’d give it a -1 star rating, not joking.
I’m back home now, resting and recuperating. I only gained 1.8kg which is shocking, I thought it would be at least 3kg given everything I ate and drank.
Next trip, early October back to Thailand for the winter.
