One of the other passengers, from Florida, mentioned she preferred her cruise on Oceania over the cruise we were on. Everyone had their own favorites, including some who'd been on a ton of Sliverseas cruises. I didn't hear of anyone else onboard who was a first-time cruiser. A handful of other passengers had been on the ship for about 6 months. I can't fathom.
The Silver Nova holds ~700 passengers, so not huge. Of the 5 at-sea days, there was only 1 sunny pool day as it was October, but it was also quite humid, so I didn't stay long. Also hanging out at a pool with a bunch of 70 and 80 year olds didn't entice. On the cooler days it was nice to be outdoors and listen to music or read. There was a ton of space, and the pool is supposedly one of the highlights of the SN because every lounger offers an ocean view.
As my wife put it, the experience was underwhelming. If we wanted to eat filet mignon or pizza or grilled fish every night and dine al fresco on a beautiful, heated, wind-protected top deck in the middle of the ocean, we could have. But we were in Japan and as it was when we visited China and SE Asia, experiencing the country as some of the locals do -- especially the food -- is ordinarily a top priority. Except for the port where we stayed for 2 full days, we only got a glimmer of the different cities - we extended out own visit to see Tokyo and Kyoto more in-depth and that was generally the best part of the trip. We got talked into going on this cruise and I'm challenged to see a reason to try again.