Jul 28

Jul 28 Day 1: Embarkation in Piraeus, Greece

This morning we checked out of the Hotel InterContinental in Athens and by 12:45 we were boarding a motor coach for the short ride to Piraeus to embark Silver Moon. When we arrived at the pier, we were directed to a large tent where all guests had to undergo a mandatory rapid Covid-19 test prior to boarding the vessel.

The Covid-19 test administered was the “long swab up the nose” type, but fortunately, it was not as painful as the ones we have had in the past.

Once we had both been given the test, we were then directed to a waiting area until the results were revealed. This took about 15 minutes. Fortunately, we both passed the test and were then allowed to embark Silver Moon.

Once onboard we were informed that lunch was being served at The Pool Grill on Deck 10 and that our suite would not be ready until 4pm. It was already about 1pm so we decided to have some lunch. I ordered the Silversea burger with onion rings and Rickee had the hot dog. Of course, we had to toast the cruise with glasses of Prosecco!

After lunch, we had a little time to kill before our suite would be ready, so we headed down to Deck 5 to check out Dolce Vita, the main lounge on the ship. The design on Moon is different from Muse and Spirit with the bar being the centerpiece of the lounge, right out in the middle. We actually prefer this design.

We also had to try a couple of their signature cocktails here, something new on Silversea since our last sailing. We go into more detail on these cocktails in a later blog. Soon, we were being informed that our ssuite was ready, so we wasted no time in getting to Deck 7 to check out our Superior Verandah Suite.

Just moments after we arrived at our suite, our butler, Anthony, arrived and introduced himself. He showed us the safety video on the closed circuit TV in our suite and reminded us that we needed to watch it and verify that we had done so. At the end of the video, a screen appears where you can use the remote control on the TV to tell Silversea that you did watch the safety video.

Not long after watching the video, we were instructed to go to our muster station where we received an additional safety briefing.

We were a little frantic when we got back to our suite because we needed to be back in the Venetian Lounge at 6:15 for the naming ceremony. Even though our luggage had been delivered to the ship by Luggage Forward, it had not yet been delivered to our suite. A quick call to reception is all it took and soon our butler arrived with our luggage.

Our two large duffel bags arrived as promised thanks to Luggage Forward

We had just enough time to unpack and get dressed for the naming ceremony. It was a very special event hosted by TV travel journalist Peter Greenburg. It’s not every day you get to be a part of history, and today, we were fortunately to be onboard Silver Moon for this historic naming ceremony.

From left: Richard Fain, Chairman and President of Royal Caribbean Group; Jason Liberty, Exec. V.P. CFO Royal Caribbean; Silver Moon Godmother, Gaia Gaja; Roberto Martinoli, President and CEO of Silversea Cruises; Luigi Matarazzo, General Manager of Fincantieri’s Merchant Ships Division; Captain Chavdar Georgiev

After the ceremony, we were invited to dinner at S.A.L.T. Kitchen, a new dining concept which is being rolled out first on Silver Moon. We go into more depth on the S.A.L.T. concept in future blog entries. We had an amazing dinner with new friends, great wine and delicious food.

Oven-roasted Filet of Beef and Sauteed Foie Gras

After dinner, we said goodnight to our new friends and wasted no time getting to bed for some much needed sleep. Tomorrow, Silver Moon is docked in Syros, Greece, and we have an excursion at 10:30am.