By Simon and Susan Veness
Would you like to know what a Silversea cruise is really like before you book it? Would you like the ultimate insider’s look at a vessel before sailing? And would it be helpful to get real-time photos and reports direct from the ship in question?
If you answered ‘Yes’ to any of those questions, then we have a treat in store for you, starting next week.
For the first time in the long history of The Cruise Line (est. 1993), we will be presenting an “as live” series of blogs, direct from the beautiful Silver Muse of Silversea Cruises on its March 13 sailing round-trip from Fort Lauderdale, visiting Cozumel and Costa Maya in Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize and Key West.
It should be an ideal opportunity first of all to highlight the deluxe Silversea style, and what makes them one of the world’s foremost exponents of all-inclusive luxury at sea. They have been refining their offerings for 24 years now, but Silver Muse is barely a year old, hence it is a great opportunity to see how their latest vessel fits their smooth ethos.
For those unfamiliar with Silversea, they made their debut in 1994 with a pair of identical 16,800-ton vessels that remain among the most boutique and individual of any upscale line. They carried just 296 passengers in max comfort, and Silversea has slowly built on that platform since 2000 with four further ships that have all increased in size but not at the expense of the onboard style.
Silver Shadow and Silver Whisper took the expansion to 28,258 tons, and then 2009’s Silver Spirit pushed the envelope a little further to 36,000 and 376 passengers. The latest newcomer weighs in at 40,700 tons and with 596 passengers, ensuring a personal space ratio of 68.28, which remains one of the highest in the whole cruise industry (where anything over 30 used to be considered quite spacious 20 years ago!).
With all that sublime achievement to their credit, Silversea has justifiably earned a reputation as one of the most distinctive and elegant operations afloat. But it’s been a few years (almost 10 in fact), since we were last aboard, so it will be extremely illuminating to catch up with their maritime style on their latest creation.
And that brings us very nicely to what we will be doing, starting on Day One of our voyage. Here’s the plan (subject to the usual caveats about internet connections, laptops behaving, remembering how to type, and not being too distracted by all that five-star opulence on tap):
We will be doing a day-by-day blog account of the cruise right here on The Cruise Line website, highlighting everything we experience on board and underlining what we think are the key features as we travel through the Western Caribbean down to Central America.
As well as the daily blog, we will be commandeering The Cruise Line’s social media for the trip, adding thoughts, photos and insight on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to ensure a comprehensive look at this whole nine-day journey. There are two sea days and six highly contrasting ports of call, so anyone following along should get a complete view of the region as well as the ship.
And, just to complete the picture – almost literally – we will also be making a video log of the voyage, to produce a series of stand-alone features that will provide a wide-ranging view of Silver Muse and that characteristic Silversea style. The latter will have to wait until we can get back to our studio for the necessary editing, but rest assured we aim to get the videos posted online in a timely manner once we’re home.
It should all add up to the most thorough, far-reaching and genuine record of a cruise that we can come up with, offering the full flavour, style and enjoyment of Silver Muse, with plenty of visuals to back up the words.
So, if Silversea is on your Bucket List of cruises you’d like to take – and it certainly should be – then be sure to bookmark this page and come back religiously every day from March 13 onwards to see this ‘virtual voyage’ come to life.
We can’t promise exactly what it will look like, but it should be fun and entertaining, and we think it should make for a unique record of one specific voyage.
Before we go (and, even as we sail along), there will also be the chance to ask us questions (on the Comments section below) and seek out particular aspects that you might be interested in. We will try to answer everything we can, and make sure we leave no nautical stone unturned along the way.
We are told that the irascible cruise duo Treadwell and Tenny may be along for the ride, so we’ll keep an eye out for them, too, and see if they can be persuaded to pen their thoughts at some stage. Knowing their reputation for not wanting to be disturbed on any voyage, it may be a tough task, though.
It all adds up to a major adventure for us and (hopefully) a great read in store for you. So mark your diaries and be sure to come back regularly next week as we take to the Silverseas…!
