Captain Cook Never Had It So Good (All Things Considered) -- The First Few Days

Monday, 18 January 2010, Sydney Australia

Flights were on time and (!) uneventful. Bulkhead seats on the 15 hour flight were better than regular Economy Plus (the same way that one root canal is better than gum surgery.) After my charming phone call from Boulder to Cynthia at the Sydney hotel last week, they let us check in at 9 am yesterday morning so that we could shower and rest before venturing out and doing Sydney in essentially one day and an early morning. Despite the extreme jet lag we had a delightful day in Sydney with the ferry to Manley Beach (see attached picture. I think Barbara might have been enjoying it. Note the Whisper already in port in the picture) with a nice fish and chips lunch, then a train ride across the Sydney Harbo(u)r Bridge, a walk around the rocks area of Sydney, another ferry ride to Darling Harbo(u)r for a wonderful seafood Thai dinner, and a final train ride back to our hotel. Of course we were taking it easy and couldn't do everything we wanted to. It's amazing how extreme jet lag makes one feel very small. See picture above that seems to prove this. This morning we rose early (with the 6 hour time difference from Boulder and going to sleep at 9 last night) and walked all over Sydney after an Australian bagel and coffee, took the monorail around the downtown, and boarded the ship at 10:30 am. We had lunch--a duck breast appetizer and red snapper in garlic oil, a light repast with just a little white wine--and are now unpacking and about to walk back to the opera house (across Circular Quay from the ship) at the time the life boat drill is going on. We just met our butler who untied our life vests to "cover" for our not planning to do the "required by international law" lifeboat drill and will bring our booze to fit the bubble wrap I brought for taking the bottles home. So, so far, so good. We sail for Brisbane tonight at 11.


Tuesday, 19 January 2010, At Sea en-route Brisbane Australia

Initial Report, Lost at Sea 1

As mentioned in the previous entry, early boarding was available yesterday at 10:30 but the ship's reception personnel made it clear that we were a kind of imposition! The room was ready, but the security system wasn't updated. So we couldn't lock the doors or otherwise feel "at home". Worse than that, no Internet access until we could log in after the update. Actually no big deal, but Silversea needs to make it work.  Lunch was nice as mentioned above, the luggage was delivered in the early afternoon, and all was fine by 1 pm or so. We did go back into town and caught the "train" through the Sydney Botantic Garden (see picture) and made sure to be off the ship until the muster drill was over. The Gardens had some nice sculptures, including a sun dial that read backwards--as if the sun was going from east to west in the north instead of the south. Those foolish Aussies; they don't even know where the sun is. See we're better. So there! (ed note: this is a joke--everyone knows the sun goes from west to east in the antipodes.) Well, now the ship is really like being home again as I've sailed on Silversea for almost a years worth of days. Barbara is thrilled about the elegance of the Silver Whisper. The sail out at 11 pm from Sydney was fantastic from the open deck behind the Panorama Lunge.  More fun too as Reserve Port was not served on the ferry along the same route the day before.

The food and dining room service appears to be much improved in the last few years, so far up there with our experience on Prince Albert II a few months ago which was the best ever with the most expensive restaurants on land. This was a very happy surprise. Maybe it is because Dinalto is one of the Head Waiters. The Maitre d' (Hedi?) is new to me but said and seemed to do all the right things for us. The Executive Chef trained the chef on the PA II where the food was superb. That might explain it. So far so good.

Unfortunately, a few initial negatives so far seemed to be quite serious! We talked to our butler about 5 pm after we discovered that the room was very dusty and the bathroom floor appeared to not have been washed in weeks. He "promised" to have it done that evening. We left for drinks at 7 pm, left the "Service Please" sign on the door, and didn't come back until 9:30 pm. The room was not made up. The very young cabin steward was sitting in the aisle sorting Silversea Chronicles (the ship's newsletter/schedule) and clearly didn't have a clue about what to do or how to make up the room. The butler wasn't training him but rather just apologizing for the lack of service, actually more promising how good things "will be". It was a disaster. Barbara tried to take a nap before the sailing out while the steward throw some towels in the bathroom and ran out like a thief. The bathroom floor is still filthy and the room has not been made up, now at 9:30 am, but the butler has been by a few times to promise how good things "will be". This is how they celebrate my 349th day on Silversea! But I just finished a meeting with the Head Housekeeper. She looked around the room, saw the problems, and said, "He is new and not yet trained." NOT YET TRAINED!

By the way, we noted more lack of training is evident throughout the ship. For the (fantastic) sail away last night, I was greeted by the bar waiter in the Panorama who asked me what we would like to drink. I said, "A Port please." He said, "Sydney". I said, "Port wine." He said, "Wine? White or Red?" I said, "Port wine." At that point, the bar tender came running out, addressed me by name, and said, "He is new and not trained."  But I'm sure things will work out for me in the next few days.  But it was a bad start for Barbara. I'm embarrassed a bit, though.


Wednesday, 20 January 2010, Brisbane Australia

Yesterday was a sea day as we sailed from the temperate coast of New South Wales to tropical Queensland. The meeting with the housekeeper worked! The room was spotless and made up early and late on schedule and according the "spec." The butler has been pulling shoes off peoples' feet (TRUE story!) to shine them. My sneakers are now very shiny. He also stands around in hallway right outside our suite asking constantly (I believe even when we're out) if all is ok, can anything more be done, do we have more shoes to shine, and how do we like him so far. After one day onboard, the food and service is extraordinary, actually best ever. The scheme of everyone gets a butler needs some work, but otherwise Silversea is doing  very well. The initial day service issues appear to have been due to a large number of the experienced crew being sent to the Silver Spirit launch and a mess of new crew coming on with us in Sydney. I think they are having lots of meetings below deck and look at my photo on their bulletin board and read the notes below it quite often. The butlers are now shining each others' shoes. The ship reeks from shoe polish.

We took the shuttle from the brand new Passenger Ship Terminal to downtown Brisbane and walked to the lovely Botanic Gardens and around the downtown. We took the shuttle bus back to the ship when the temperature hit 35 degrees C. (That's 197 degrees F, I believe). We sail tonight at 7 for the real tropics, the Whitsunday Islands near the Great Barrier Reef and then Cairns and north to Thursday Island where we will arrive a few days after Thursday, thus showing that Captain Cook should have had our itinerary.

Will compile more pictures and report more in a few days. Regards from summer. Mike