Our first trip on Silverseas after 25 months of Covid did a lot to test our loyalty to the company: the crew were as wondeful as ever BUT, head office was sadly lacking!!.

We flew from Alicante to Gatwick on April 23rd. Once there we took a lateral flow test to prove we were Covid free. An email  30 minutes later  was good news, but David could not  successfully complete the Barbados entry form  with the results. Luckily the TUI check-in girl forgot to ask for it and we were able to check our 2 large suitcases in for our flight the followIng morning. Thence to Trumbles guest house, a quick bath

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and out to dinner at the Grumpy Mole with John and Meryl

Sunday we had a quick  breakfast before being driven to the airport for our 10.30 TUI  flight to Barbados. We were in Premium economy and had a very pleasant flight

 

-Once landed , 90% of the passengers proceeded directly to a Thomson cruise  so we cleared immigration very quickly but then had to wait a long time for our luggage. We got a taxi to the Yellow Bird hotel, arriving there at 4 pm. Incredibly, our room was not ready until 5!. When we were eventually shown to it, I remarked that  we had been travelling for over 24 hours; 10 minutes later there was a phone call offering us a free breakfast!. I had a swim and we went for a walk along the shoreline in both directions, masks being mandatory.. Then we enjoyed a gin  and tonic with some picnic  food we had

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Monday we really enjoyed the flying fish and plantain  in the breakfast. I had a swim before the rain set in; then read on our  balcony until noon, when we transferred to the restaurant balcony until 1.15 and a taxi ride to the Silver Cloud. Luckily we arrived  at the Docks just before all the guests who had been staying at the Hilton and were quickly processed and able to go to our cabin, 523, and enjoy lunch- roast beef and Yorkshire pudding - in La Terraza. The suitcases were a while arriving in the cabin but I still managed to unpack before the Welcome Briefing. Our TV did not work, so we had to get a dispensation for the confirmation  necessary for the Lifeboat drill. Over the next few days numerous attempts were made to try to make the TV, necessary to see what we were meant to be doing, function correctly! We soon lost confidence in our butler, Dave, but the room attendant, Dimeesh, was fine: both were new to Silversea.

 

Signing on for Internet access was also a problem: finally David discovered that the ship had input his birthday as September 2022!!. Also, the mobile phones could only be used by signing out from his IPad connection, and then back in once my Whtsapps had been viewed!!

On the Tuesday I discovered that Formal nights had been abolished  due to Covid. Not only was I disappointed but, also, cross, as the 3 long dresses I had brought, along with.David's jacket, dress shirt and  silk black trousers, had taken up valuable suitcase room that prevented a larger qantity of other clothes being  packed. Also there was now a Cruise Director / activity manager,Brian, aboard who delighted in 'Name that tune/ film', karaoke, Liars Club & even Bingo,etc, and ran the Team Trivia, with no connection to  the expeditions. We liked Trivia composed by the Expedition team. What a lot of disappointments!