Silversea Silver Spririt Inaugural: 20-22 Dec 09

With frozen roads and frozen planes I wondered if I was ever going to arrive in Monte Carlo for the Silver Spirit inaugural trip on Sunday 20th December! I finally made it and jumped in a taxi from Nice airport, 100 EUROS later and a very pigeon French/English conversation I arrived at the port terminal to be greeted by a red carpet and attendants with white gloves who ushered me through check-in and took my suitcase all the way to my suite.

The Silver Spirit does not have cabins, only suites! And almost every one of them has an outside balcony. Every suite has a private butler service who will come and introduce himself when you arrive and tell you about the 24 hour room service and pillow menu.

As I was late arriving I quickly unpacked and got ready for dinner, I was due to meet the rest of the trade guests and Silversea team in the Observation Lounge for a drinks reception then onto the restaurant for dinner. I discovered that the restaurant is a formal affair with waiter service as you would expect on a Silversea ship and has a lovely a la carte menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner for 400 guests at a time. Unlike many ships this lovely restaurant is all on one level and features a'slow food' menu.

That evening we were treated by a caberet act from a singer called Lorraine Brown in the show lounge, the ships theatre, which is nicely decked out with 2-seater chairs and red decor. Lorraine was fabulous and her act included songs from the Supremes, Oleta Adams and the Beatles and ended with a sing-a-long 'You'll Never Walk Alone' which had all the Liverpool fans in the room (including me) doing our level best to recreate the fever of Anfield!

The following morning I attended a press briefing in the Panoramic Lounge which is a gorgeous room on deck 9 with a terrace overlooking the pool area. I found out that the ship has 6 dining options including two speciality restaurants for sushi and fine wine but with only 24 places available at each, early booking is recommended and customers should expect an intimate dining experience with excellent service. Silversea boast that the fine wine is some of the best in the world with very little mark-up which has been impressing guests, the cover charge for the sushi restaurant is $40 but to have a fine wine menu included there is an extra $200. However the standard wine menu is also impressive with 20 white and 20 red to choose from.

After the press briefing I took in a self-guided tour of the ship and visited the lovely internet cafe and library, pictured above, the poolside area with attractive deck furniture, the show lounge, the casino, the boutiques and the truly outstanding spa. Although rather high priced the spa offers treatments for men and women including wet-shaves (for the men), massage, hair & beauty treatments and even botox. There is also a steam room and a fitness centre.

The ship sailed to Barcelona early and the captain announced the seas were expected to get rough, the winds actually reached force 9 and I have to admit I hid in my cabin and ordered dinner service from my lovely butler and enjoyed the interactive TV menu with 56 blockbuster movies to choose from!

The following morning I caught the early transfer to the airport as I had heard about airport chaos in the UK causing many Easyjet flights to be cancelled, luckily my flight went ahead as scheduled unlike 178 others!

The Silver Spirit is certainly geared towards couples with no child facilities on board, the romantic two-seater theatre seats and truly luxurious cabins with possibly the comfiest mattress I've ever slept on. The dining arrangements are freestyle and passengers can dine in the main restaurant or the Italian 'La Terrezza' buffet between certain hours for breakfast, lunch and dinner and can sit with others or take a table for two. This offers the flexibility of sitting with whom you choose, whenever you like and with six dining options guests are not going to go hungry!

Happy Cruising and Merry Christmas!

Flo Powell
ACE Director
flo@psa-ace.org

NCLU’s Top 15 Students Birthday Bash in London.

I began my studies at the Norwegian Cruise Lines University (NCLU) on the 03rd Dec2008. Every couple of months a new course would be launched and all students received25,000 points for passing each course plus 5,000 point for each of the Electives(mini training courses with the fun factor). All course points allowed you to claim 5points under your ACE membership. The goal to reach was 250,000 points and other points could be gained from blogging and asking the dean questions along with games and competitions. A few months ago all students were contacted by the Dean to advise that the first top 15 students with the highest points would be invited to London to The Jamie Oliver inspired restaurant “fifteen” www.fifteen.net for the University’s 1st Birthday party. I am delighted to say I was one of the 15 and on the 01st December I, along with another Northern Ireland Travel Agent boarded our 6.30 am Ryanair flight to Stansted. Once here we took the Stansted express to Liverpool Street and then a tube to Old Street, the address of the restaurant. Dress code for the day was smart casual.

Upon arrival we meet Jill and James from the Marketing department at NCL. Steve Dunlop was there to take the photographs (www.stevedunlop.com) and before long we had a nice chilled glass of champagne in our hands. We were asked outside to partake in the photo ceremony and the 1st birthday cake made an appearance in these photos along with the other students and props! Natalie from ACE was in attendance too, as was Debbee Dale. Lunch was a grand affair with lots of menu choices and plenty of wine. I was sat next to Nick Wilkinson (Director of Sales for NCL) and NCL’s General Manager Stephen Park thanked everyone and gave a great speech.

The icing on the cake (so to speak!) was a complimentary 2 night cruise aboard the new Norwegian Epic for all students prior to the ACE Cruise Convention in June 2010 in Southampton. We were all delighted. Check out the epic website www.epic.ncl.com for more information on this fantastic new NCL project.

It was time to say our goodbyes, so we hot footed it back to Stansted and flew back to Belfast City. A great day was had by all and I would like to thank everyone at NCL for their generosity and company on the day. I can now claim that I am truly “freestyle certified” (…and I have the badge to prove it!!!)

Warm Regards

Brendan O’Connor
Cruise Specialist – Bryan Somers Travel, Northern Ireland.

The Oasis of the Seas Inaugural Sailing: 24-26th November 2009

I felt extremely fortunate to be invited on board the Oasis of the Seas for her inaugural sailing on 24th November. I was joined by Bill Gibbons, Director of the PSA, Penny Guy, PR Director, and Maggie Gibbons, PSA Membership Executive. We all flew to Miami with BA along with a whole host of industry partners, press and travel agents. Before leaving I realised that the ship, at double occupancy plus crew, will take about 4 times the population of the village I grew up in. It takes between 7,500-8,000 total!

It was all very organised when we landed, we sleepily boarded coaches for the hour long trip to Fort Lauderdale port. The Oasis of the Seas came into view and almost cast a shadow over Miami, there were audible gasps from the coach!

We walked swiftly through the enormous and modern purpose-built terminal and excitedly leaped up the escalator to board the ship. We dumped our things in our cabins then ran around like hyper children who've eaten too many smarties and tried to see everything!

My cabin was inside with a window overlooking the central park, which was a rather bizarre experience to wake up on a cruise ship to see trees and plants outside! The cabin was adequately sized with a nice window seat/sofa and an enormous bed which was very comfy. The width of the ship is really what shocked me, it is too enormous to really describe but I'll have a go.

We started from the top deck (number 17!) where the Windjammer restaurant is located for buffet breakfast and lunch plus an Asian restaurant and the Viking Crown lounge bar. We walked down to deck 16 to find the top level of the pool area, with an enormous amount of sun loungers, pools on each side and Jacuzzis. It took a good few minutes to walk to the other end, where we discovered a cocktail bar and three more Jacuzzis in a lovely, almost secluded area which looked gorgeous in the sunset light.

We also discovered the flowriders, where brave young men and woman were surfing happily away, occasionally showcasing a spectacular dismount! We also noted a very large basketball court, six table tennis tables, a very high zip line, and the 'wipeout cafe' (very aptly named as it caters for flowriders.)

The excitedness had not worn off but we now looked a little more slack-jawed as we wondered around open-mouthed at the wealth of activity available from the kids area near the pool to the teenagers area with playstations, a lounge and their own disco area.

We carried on and took a peek at the Royal Promenade on deck 5 which is essentially a busy shopping street including the entrance to the Opus dining room (over 3 floors, silver service for lunch and dinner), boutique and souvenir shops, an English pub, a nightclub, guest services and a champagne bar to name but a few.

We decided we needed a pit-stop and headed for the rather serene central park and found the bar that rises, called the 'rising tide bar' that travels vertically between the Royal Promenade and Central Park neighbourhoods. We discovered another lovely little bar and sipped kir royals whilst being serenaded by an impromptu bagpiper.

Dinner was a lovely experience, our waiter and waitress, both from the Philippines, were a delight and the food was amazing. I was impressed by the choice; healthy-options and lardy chef recommendations for all types of diet!

The next two days were taken up with going along to business sessions where we were given the opportunity to ask RCCL senior staff questions; everything from smoking on board to gratuities were discussed, then lots of eating, drinking, and finally some sunbathing when the captain announced he was 'going in search of sunshine' having been disappointed by the rain.

I have barely touched on all the areas of the ship and activities available; we visited the loft suits and other cabins (the Royal Loft Suite was particularly impressive with a piano, mini library and hot tub on the terrace), the enormous spa with every treatment imaginable available, the aqua theatre with synchronised swimming shows, huge rock-climbing walls, an indoor theatre seating 1,380 with top-notch entertainment such as the musical 'Hairspray', the impressive casino, 'Comedy Live', a karaoke bar, jazz bar, 1940's style cupcake shop, burger bar, seafood cafe, fantastic speciality restaurants and a hand-whittled wooden carousel. Of course.

You've got to see it to believe it! A huge THANK YOU to RCCL for the invitation, it was truly breathtaking.

For more photos please visit our facebook group, called the Association of Cruise Experts (ACE).

Flo Powell, Director, ACE