Life at sea has a magical quality. Aboard Silversea’s Silver Shadow, the ship came to feel like home, and the crew and passengers like family. Casting their spell were the Mediterranean’s waves, the marble baths, the private porches, and the bartender who remembered your drink.

Like every well-running machine, some of the genius is behind the scenes. As a member of the press who was on the ship at Silversea’s invitation and expense, I got to interview some of the people who work to make these cruises memorable.

Take, for instance, one of the cruise line’s advisers, the super-chic and connected Shirley Lord. The British-born novelist and contributing editor at Vogue, where she was beauty director for more than 20 years, is the wife of the celebrated former executive editor and op-ed columnist at the New York Times, A.M. Rosenthal. The two are fixtures at New York’s most important parties, from the Metropolitan Opera’s benefits to the very intimate dinner party to celebrate the recent opening of the De-Beers store on Fifth Avenue.

About a year ago, the chairman of Silversea and one of Italy’s most successful entrepreneurs, Manfredi LeFebvre, invited Ms. Lord and Mr. Rosenthal aboard to celebrate his birthday party and the 10th anniversary of the company. It was to be a trip from Rome to Capri to Corsica and back to Rome. Ms. Lord liked the ship very much but had lots of ideas for making it even better, which she’s been sharing with Mr. LeFebvre ever since.

“It’s tweaking, really. The idea is to make it feel more like being on a luxury yacht,” Ms. Lord said.

Ms. Lord isn’t one to boast, but she knows her luxury yachts. She’s lived on the French Riviera, and her marriage to the late architect and builder David Anderson took place in Monte Carlo on William Levitt’s La Belle Simone, moored right next to Charles Revson’s Ultima II.

Nor is Ms. Lord a stranger to cruise ships. While at Vogue she frequently gave talks on beauty for Cunard and Crystal ships. She also brought on Barbara Walters, who drew the largest audience in Crystal’s history. But Silversea’s excellent service, as well as its small size, makes it the first line of ships she’s seen that can really feel like yachts.

Ms. Lord could best be described as a fairy sprinkling her magic dust all over the ship.

Yachts are about good company, and Ms. Lord takes care of that with a flip of her Rolodex. Recently she invited a “20/20” correspondent, Lynn Sherr, to give a talk on a Silversea cruise to Barbados. Ms. Walters and William Safire are interested in speaking, and Nicholas Gage, author of “Eleni” and “Greek Fire: The Story of Maria Callas and Aristotle Onassis,” is already scheduled.

Yachts are also about shopping for jewels and couture. “There should be much more a sense that you’re walking down the Via Condotti than the High Street anywhere,” Ms. Lord said. “When I was on these great yachts, the jewelers and designers would ask permission of the captain, who would bring a message to the owner, to come on board and make some deals. The passengers of Silversea, they’ve got money and they’d be honored if they had those opportunities.”

Silversea’s director of brand management and global marketing, Gianluca Mazzetti, is realizing these ideas. A Valentino fashion show took place on the Silver Shadow July 15 when the ship was docked in Monaco, and another one is planned in Venice next month. Also, the boutique has started to sell Lora Piano, Missoni, and Valentino.

Ms. Lord would also like to see the spa and salon have an Italian spin. “Italy has some remarkable muds,” she said. “It’s a very curative place. Roman baths were the beginning of it all.”

In the library, Ms. Lord has an international outlook, calling for “the most up-to-the-moment publications in all languages” and for high-minded books next to all the standard vacation fare of thrillers and romance novels.

Ms. Lord’s own ship reading would be a perfect addition: Consuelo Vanderbilt’s memoir, “The Glitter and the Gold,” which describes quite a few of her luxury yacht excursions. The author’s uncle was commodore of the New York Yacht Club.

“A cruise is the total escape. Re-entry is very tough,” Ms. Lord said. “Now I’ve got to bring my nose down to my book.” The novelist is working on her fifth, a punchy “Bergdorf Blondes” for an older set. (Ms. Lord demurs on the subject of her age.)

She won’t be on land for long.

“I’m going off on another yacht on my birthday, which is in a couple of weeks,” she said. “It’s probably 90 feet, my Greek friend’s yacht to Martha’s Vineyard, the Zantino III.”

She added: “Luckily Abe likes the sea – otherwise I’d be in big trouble.”

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Even though the beaches of the Riviera call for slinky bathing suits, a lot of time is spent eating.

In St. Tropez, the sophisticated palates aboard the ship found their way to the famous Club 55 for the onion tart, with some nutmeg and cinnamon, and the sea bass, grilled to perfection.

In Syracuse a group of determined gourmets had a 3-hour lunch at Archimede. The menu included pasta with sea urchin, prepared with a touch of cognac; pasta with manila clams; pasta with eggplant, and ricciola, a sturdy, non-flaky white fish sauteed in olive oil and garlic. Dessert was cassata, layers of sweetened ricotta cheese and yellow cake covered with pistachio nuts. You can tell they’ve been perfecting their cooking for thousands of years. Just the cuisine is worth a trip to Syracuse.

In Lipari, a hilly island with Greek ruins and lots of pumice quarries, the clue to what to order came outside a local supermarket, where the head of a swordfish rested on a table. Nearby at Al Pescatore, the swordfish and the lobster tasted fresh out of the water.

Given what’s available on land, it may seem ridiculous to talk about the food on the ship, but guests were pleasantly surprised by the Silver Shadow’s new Italian restaurant, La Terrazza, which opened last weekend.

The menu is a selection of dishes from a popular Atlanta restaurant, Antica Posta, which is owned by the sprightly, tanned, and very Italian Marco Betti, who grew up in Tuscany and also has an Antica Posta outpost in Florence. Now he is bringing his recipes and experience on board, hired as a consultant to create and oversee La Terrazza for all four Silversea cruise ships. The Silver Shadow is the first ship to open a La Terrazza. The others will have theirs by the end of the year.

Isabella Rossellini liked the baked eggplant with fresh mozzarella and tomato sauce. The pasta with pesto was the favorite of the soprano Cecilia Bartoli. Other standouts include the crostini with duck and chicken liver sauces, the arugula and parmesan salad, and the rib eye steak.

The quality is high for a number of reasons. The operation is small. La Terrazza serves 90 meals an evening, and only by reservation. (Other passengers can eat in the main restaurant, in their rooms, or in the especially fancy Le Champagne, which seats only 20 people an evening.) As a result, Mr. Betti, who before becoming a restaurateur was a chef on a cruise line, has more control in the kitchen and on the floor.

Two other memorable food events were under the supervision of the Silver Shadow’s executive chef, Laurent Austrui, who hails from a small town close to Lyon in France. For a galley brunch, Mr. Austrui prepared more than 200 dishes from around the world, serving them from the counters where most of the time the kitchen crew prepares the meals. Then the one evening the ship didn’t set sail until midnight, Mr. Austrui supervised a barbecue on the pool deck, again offering a vast selection, from pasta to fried chicken to the standard hamburgers and hot dogs.