By Corey Sandler
Welcome aboard the Silver Spirit, fresh from one of the most spectacular renovations in luxury cruise ship history.
I think the hyperbole is warranted.
Silver Spirit entered a drydock in Palermo at the start of March as a handsome ship of 195.8 meters (642.4 feet), and emerged in early May stretching 210.7 meters (691 feet).
Photo courtesy Silversea Cruises.
How did they do that? It was not a stretch but rather a matter of cutting and pasting.
Shipyard workers cut the ship into two pieces in the drydock and then carefully maneuvered a 15-meter or 49-foot-long new section into place.
There followed weeks of welding, reattachment of cables and pipes, and a stem-to-stern refresh of the interior decor and amenities.
All this for a ship that before the operation was already one of the most luxurious and attractive vessels in service, first put into service in 2009.
Here’s a photo I took of the ship from across the Golden Horn in Istanbul a few years ago:
Silver Spirit now has 34 more suites, several more restaurants, a larger pool and spa.
And later today, we sail will from Civitavecchia, the port of Rome, on her first cruise in her new configuration. We’ll cross over to Porto-Vecchio on the island of Corsica, then back to the mainland of Italy for Livorno and Portofino. From there to Cannes and Marseille, France and in a week’s time pull into a 49-foot-longer parking space in Barcelona.
Here’s our plan:
I hope you’ll join me here for details.
All photos and text Copyright 2018 by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved.
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