The Ship, the Cruise and the People

The Silver Muse is a great ship. For the most part we really enjoyed our time onboard. 30 days total. There are always things that could be improved but that goes for just about anything in life.

We had what's called a "veranda suite"...basically just a cabin with a balcony. The layout of the room is pretty much the same as any ship we've sailed on. You enter the door - bathroom on the right, next a walk-in closet that's not massive but is big enough, then the bed and beyond is a sitting area and the veranda.

We received a "free" bottle of champagne.  Everybody does...we're not so special.

One cool thing is there was a large screen TV mounted behind the mirror.  You can just make it out in the pic below. When the TV was off the mirror just looked normal. Very cool.  We'd only seen that once in our travels years ago in a hotel in Austria.

The ship holds just about 600 people so it is bigger that most of the cruise ships we have sailed on recently and slightly smaller than the Seabourn Encore which we were on last summer.  We prefer Seabourn over Silversea but I have to admit I like many of the things about the Muse over the Encore.

The pool area is much larger. There never seemed to be a problem finding a chair.

There is also a proper jogging track.  The shot below was after a crew member on the next level up brushed a bunch of muck down onto the track. No biggie...it was cleaned up soon enough.

Another thing I liked was the radiant heaters.  Seabourn has heaters only on the Quest as it is the ship that visits Antarctica. The Muse had them in quite a few outdoor eating locations.

And another nice thing is during the evening meal on the pool deck there are sliding doors that can be closed that help with the wind.

The people on the Muse are pretty much the same a folks we've met on other sailing trips.

Lots of old farts who sleep at the pool all day. And before anyone accuse me of being anti-old farts let me say I fully accept that I am approaching old fartism myself...I'm just not a sleepy old fart.

And lots of folks who refuse to accept that they're getting old.

This is the husband of the gal above...they must be from some odd "show-your-butt-crack" sect.

This guy just must have just hated cruising...he would sit at the bar and watch movies on his laptop all afternoon. Never say a word to anyone.

Here he is again...with headphones.  Jacket and jeans when everyone else in in shorts. Moron!

Another thing Silversea has which we enjoy is called "hot rocks dining"...you cook your own meat on a heated chunk of rock. Below Terri has a piece of fish and some sort of bug cooking and I have a steak. They also give you salad and a baked potato or fries or onion rings.

Here was are another night at hot rocks. We both opted for steak tonight.

Indoor areas are nice but I think Seabourn does a better job.

This was the New Year's Eve party. A very low ceiling. I drank too much..can't remember what happened.

The Showroom.  We only came once or twice. It was nice that there were no pillars blocking view though which can be a problem on Seabourn if you arrive late.

The main restaurant.  You didn't need a reservation here but it was always very crowded at the time we prefer to eat so we only ate here twice I think.

Another restaurant...Indochine.  The cuisine here was oriental. We ate here a few times and it was okay.

One of the place we really liked was the Observation Bar at the front of the ship. I'd say we had a pre-dinner cocktail (or two) there most nights.

The pool area was always a popular eating area during the day. They had a pretty decent pizza restaurant on the deck above which was very popular too.

On just about every cruise we've been on there is a priest or preacher or pastor who performs "non-denominational" services each day for those folks who just have to get their sins forgiven on a daily basis.  That's the guy below.  Each morning at breakfast he'd have numerous glasses of champagne.  I have to say I didn't like the way he looked at the serving boys and he always gave them cash tips for the booze.

And these two showed up for meals with their iPads and had their faces in them the whole time. Never said a word to each other or to anyone else either. You encounter  some very strange people on these trips.

But you also meet some nice people.  These are the Swiss kids we went on the Alice Springs excursion with.

The espresso martini which we both like to have once in a while.

And the sunsets at sea are often spectacular.

And even bad weather looks impressive at sea.

That's it.