By The Numbers
Built 2024
Capacity: 728 guests and 544 crew
Length: 801 ft
Number of decks: 9
Pools: 1 Hot tub: 1
9 Dining Options
Silversea is working towards more sustainable cruising with it's new ships. Silver Ray is a hybrid using LNG and also has a battery it can use while in port. They are doing their best to limit single use plastic as much as possible. Every room has 2 refillable water bottles and there are stations around the ship to fill up. Plus your butler can take care of that for you as well.
Silver Ray has an asymmetrical set up so it does throw you off when you first get onboard. The elevators are all glass and on opposite side of the ship at either end. The pool is off set to one side with the pool bar and lots of seating on the other side. This new design meant the pool felt much more open and you didn't really have any decks that you could walk all the way around the outside of the ship.
The ship definitely felt bigger than a 728 guest sized ship and maybe that was because of the big open spaces that came from the asymmetrical design.
Suites (all rooms onboard are called Suites on Silversea)
I had the smallest room onboard and yet it was still a large room by cruise standards at 357 sq ft. All rooms have a nice sized balcony too. The bathroom has a large sink with 2 faucets instead of a double sink. You also have a stand up shower along with a large soaking tub in every room. There are some cool little touches in the room that I really appreciated like the pull out drawer that had a laundry bag in it. The walk in closet is nice but I did notice it was smaller than the closet I had had on other Silversea ships. The beds are so comfortable and there is a pillow menu if you are picky about your pillows. The full size couch was comfortable but we didn't use it much.
Dining
There are a lot of dining options for a small ship. Most of the dining locations are the same as you will find on just about all of the Silversea ships. Atlantide is the main dining room serving your usual cruise type meals. La Terrazza is the buffet at breakfast and lunch and turns into a sit down Italian restaurant for dinner. There is also the options with an upcharge like La Dame and Kaiseki.
For dining Al Fresco you have The Marquee which serves a nice breakfast and lunch and turns into the hot rocks Grill for dinner. Spaccanapoli also shares this space and serves up delicious pizzas. I thought this area was beautiful with is open roof and trees (even if they are fake). The drawback to the open roof is that when it rains you really cannot use this space for eating. I am thinking a retractable roof might help.
Silver Note is a jazz themed small plates dinner and music dining location for dinner. Reservations are always hard to get for the small location.
New additions are the S.A.L.T Kitchen and S.A.L.T Lab (SALT stands for Sea And Land Taste). With these options along with the S.A.L.T Bar Silversea is giving guests a more in depth taste of the locations they are visiting on their cruise. Salt Kitchen is another main dining room option for dinner with no reservations required. The menu here will always have a few local dishes along with some SALT Kitchen favorites. I tried this out when they had Croatian dishes on the menu and really enjoyed it. SALT Lab is an open kitchen class area on the ship where you can sign up for some cooking classes that feature local dishes. I was lucky and scored a spot on 2 days and had so much fun doing it. Bonus is that as of now there is no charge for the classes! You can only sign up once onboard so if you want to do it I recommend heading right up to the SALT Lab when you see it has it's open house on embarkation day. SALT Lab also hosts a chef's dinner ($180 per person). I heard it was amazing but that isn't my cup of tea. The SALT Bar was my favorite bar onboard. I really enjoy the mixology and the creative cocktails they created.
Speaking of Bars there are plenty of them around the ship (which is nice since all drinks are included in your cruise fare). You can also grab a snack or coffee at Arts Cafe which is centrally located on Silver Ray.
Entertainment and Other Guest Areas
Silver Ray has a lot of guest spaces that you find on all the other Silversea ships. The Observation Lounge is at the top with the full view of the front of the ship with floor to ceiling windows. There is also a secret library (photo above). Panorama Lounge is where you will find music and dancing most nights along with trivia and bingo during the day. The Venetian Lounge is where you will find shows and lectures. The Spa and Fitness areas are a very nice size. All guests can use the sauna, steam room, and hydrotherapy pool in the spa at no charge which is a very nice bonus.
There is even a small casino and a couple shops onboard. The top deck has the pool and hot tub along with a bocce court and some other deck games. There are lots of areas with comfy seating all around the ship both indoor and outdoor.
Silver Ray does a nice job of providing a modern luxury cruise experience that I think will appeal to just about every generation.
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