I’m having a perfect breakfast moment. We’re somewhere off the Croatian coast and there’s nobody around; last night was clearly a late one. I’m enjoying a healthy green juice and a bowl of Greek yoghurt drizzled with honey. The Adriatic glitters and sunlight filters through the slatted shades of the alfresco Marquee restaurant.
There are no crowds, no noise, no Muzak. The recurring theme on Silversea’s new Silver Nova, which launched last summer, is space. Oodles of it, in the vast suites, around the pool, in the bars and lounges.
The 728-passenger Silver Nova is a new style of ship for the luxury operator Silversea, with two big advances on the ships that have come before it. First, it runs on hybrid power, with batteries and liquefied natural gas combining to make this Silversea’s most sustainable ship to date, up to 40 per cent more efficient than its predecessors. As a passenger, you won’t notice any difference but the batteries help to optimise the power system, making the engines perform better and burn less fuel. The ship can connect to shore power too, meaning it doesn’t have to run its engines when in port.
Second, it has an entirely new layout — what Silversea calls “asymmetrical design”. Most cruise ships would be almost perfectly symmetrical if you cut them lengthways down the middle but Nova has a long, U-shaped pool set to one side of deck 10. This gazes out at the sea through a wall of glass, the shimmering Hockney blue merging into the sparkling ocean. Squashy loungers are dotted everywhere. I could be on the roof of a really cool hotel, or at some swish Mediterranean beach club. There’s certainly no need to get up at dawn and bag a sunbed.
The whole ship is filled with light. Even the lifts are glass, whizzing up and down the outside. In my veranda suite, all soothing shades of stone and pale gold, floor-to-ceiling windows look out onto a balcony with a glass balustrade. As part of the sustainability initiative, there are no more plastic bathroom miniatures, just Silversea’s custom-made Otium-fragranced goodies in big containers. There’s no paper daily programme any more, unless you request it; it’s shown on the TV instead.
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The heart of the ship is the three-deck atrium, where a wall of glass floods the space with light. By the time I venture in from breakfast, the Arts Café on deck 4, part of this atrium, is busy with people gossiping, downing espressos and tucking into hangover carbs from the array of cakes and croissants.
Silversea makes much of its rather awkwardly named SALT concept, which means Sea and Land Taste. The idea is that the food on board will reflect the area in which the ship is sailing, a theme that’s extended with food-related shore excursions in port. These include visits to wineries, cookery classes in dreamy Mediterranean locations and tasting menus in (generally high-end) restaurants ashore. On my short cruise, several people headed off on a SALT tour to the Michelin-starred L’Argine a Venco in the north Italian countryside, where a tasting menu starts at £85.
There are three SALT venues on board. First, SALT Kitchen, a restaurant serving cuisine of the region in which the ship is sailing, with a daily changing menu. As we sailed from Venice, for example, we had cicchetti (Venetian antipasti), and sea bream with cuttlefish risotto. There’s a cookery school called the SALT Lab, with an exclusive chef’s table dinner in the evenings.
I like the third one, the SALT Bar, very much. On Silversea’s other ships, it’s a dark, moody little space with great cocktails but very little capacity. On Nova, it’s much bigger and positioned high up on deck 10, along from the pool, so has lovely sea views and a great buzz. And as if deck 10 could get any better, I discover a cool little spot called the Dusk Bar at the back, where a solo sax player entertains with moody jazz as we set sail from Zadar.
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This being an ultra-luxury line, there are plenty of smart restaurants. Atlantide is the main dining room, with a dress-up vibe and lobster and filet mignon on tap. La Terrazza offers buffet service during the day and does posh Italian at night, with indoor and outside seating.
There’s an extra charge for the Japanese restaurant, Kaiseki (£64), and La Dame, which features French haute cuisine for a pricey £127 with wine (although the daily featured wines on the all-inclusive menu are perfectly good). Top tip: You can get really good sushi and sashimi at lunchtime in Kaiseki and there’s no charge then.
The most casual dining is in the Marquee, my breakfast spot, facing the sea on deck 10, with pretty artificial trees and a floor tiled in bright Mediterranean-style tiles. On sunny days, it does a brisk trade at lunchtime with people tucking into burgers and salads. In the evenings, there’s a concept called Hot Rocks, where you cook your own steak or fish on a hot stone. Sadly, the stone was too hot for my fish and it stuck, and then fell apart.
Best of all, though, is Spaccanapoli, named after the long street that bisects Naples, home of pizza. The pizza here, all made to order, is outstanding. Pizza for lunch with a glass of rosé, pizza for a late afternoon snack when you get back from a shore excursion, hot and hungry. Pizza for dinner when you can’t face any more lobster downstairs. I keep it simple with a margherita, and it’s a real melt-in-the-mouth joy.
Some people can’t see the sense in going on a luxury cruise and cooking your own food but I love the SALT Lab, mainly because someone else does the washing-up and you’re guided through the dish in such detail that it’s almost impossible to ruin it. I join a class to make soparnik, a delicious Croatian chard pie with tomato relish, and vow to try it at home.
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I head back that evening for the SALT chef’s table, a tasting menu for just 18, served sitting around a marble counter as chefs buzz about preparing each dish in front of you. It’s a splurge at £143 a head, but the attention to detail, the presentation and the intensity of the flavours are second to none.
Silver Nova is in Alaska now, where it will spend the summer, so all that outdoor living I loved so much in the Adriatic might be curtailed a little by the cooler weather. Then it sails to Australia for the winter.
Also just launched is the identical ship Silver Ray, which will spend the whole summer in the Med before heading to the Caribbean and South America. You’ll find me by the pool.
Sue Bryant was a guest of Silversea, which has seven nights’ all-inclusive from £4,050pp, sailing round-trip from Venice (Fusina) on Silver Ray, departing on July 30 (silversea.com). Fly to Venice
What’s the roomiest cruise ship you’ve been on? Let us know in the comments below
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