DAY 9 DAY 5 SILVERSEA SPIRIT - SANTO TOMAS

Before dinner last evening we enjoyed pre-dinner drinks at The Bar.  Jose took great care of us and now not only knows our names but the wines we like and also the type of water we prefer.

Afterwards, we had dinner at The Restaurant.  

When we arrived to The Restaurant we asked the Maitre d’ for a table near a window just to sit at a different location than the one we sat at the first night we ate there.  On that first night although we were at a two person table, the waiter had a couple of larger tables and it seemed like the length of time it took to serve some of the larger tables had a cascading effect to lengthen the time it took between our courses, particularly when we were waiting for our entrée.  Although we don’t like to be rushed during dinner the overall wait time was a bit longer than we would have expected.  As it turned out the location of our table last night had an extra benefit.  The waiter, Alex, had our table and two other tables of two and towards the end of our meal another table of three.  This resulted in more evenly service with a normal weight between courses. 

We had four courses.  We started with Shrimp Cocktail which is available each night and then we had the Silversea Salad.  We both had the Sea Bass for our entree, but we needed to do something different so Anne Marie had the sugar free dessert but gave Keith some of it and Keith had the mixed berries.

When we arrived back to the room there was a form that we needed to fill out with respect to disembarkation including flights and whether we were interested in transport from Silversea.  Our original plan was to just take a taxi but given that amount of shipboard credit that we have we decided to just go ahead and request a private vehicle to take us the very short distance to the airport.

The seas continued to be relatively calm so we slept very well.

Keith worked out at the Fitness Center early this morning before we had breakfast in our room.  As has been the case this entire cruise, the center was open earlier than the official hours. 

We enjoyed breakfast in our room and had a simple breakfast as we have each morning.  We had the chance to speak with Butler Probha for awhile while he set up breakfast for us and a later when he returned to take away the dishes.  Like us, he will be leaving the ship in Fort Lauderdale to go on a close (55) day holiday at home.  His next contract will be on the Silver Shadow which we had sailed on our one and only other Silversea Cruise so he asked us about the ship.  He is a very kind and warm person and doing a terrific job in his role as a butler.

Then we got ready to go ashore.

The Cruise Director made an announcement when the ship was clear and mentioned that the Weather Forecast called for it to be cloudy but no chance of rain.  Sure enough five minutes later as we made our way onto the pier it started to rain.  Another reminder that weather forecasts are often wrong.

We just walked around the area by the terminal which also included items being sold by locals.  The locals were very friendly often making the same comments and asking the same questions.  This included we will make you the best deal. Where are you from?  What is your name?  Again, very nice people and if you said you were just looking they understood. 

There were many taxi drivers and tour buses at the pier in addition to the tours that Silversea offered but as we said from the start of our Blog we did not book the cruise for the ports.  Some of the tours included Tikal National Park by air, a visit to Rio Dulce and the Countryside, and a day at the AMatique Bay Resort.  Just from the ship you could see how lush this island is.

Back on board the ship we walked outside for awhile until it started to drizzle and then we both made a visit to the Fitness Center.  Then a downpour of rain occurred so good thing we were just inside.  Rain is obviously plentiful here given how lush the vegetation looks.

Before we knew it, it was time for lunch and we headed to La Terrazza.  Once again, we made a super size salad entrée.

We thought we would include some additional photos of our room.

We enjoyed the rest of the day on board the ship. We both worked out again and we read and wrote and Anne Marie worked on her knitting.

We all like cruising for different reasons.  For us, the driver might vary.  We might book a cruise for the itinerary and another time because it works well for us in terms of timing.  At the same time we enjoy the opportunity to use the ship almost like a health spa where we can workout and enjoy healthy food; both of which we are doing.  Today is an example of that where Keith essentially ran a marathon on the Elliptical Machine where in three separate workouts the total miles he recorded was equal to a marathon.  He's never totaled that much in one day on an Elliptical Machine so it was a good day for him.

This evening we will be dining at Le Champagne and will post all about that tomorrow.

Keith & Anne Marie