First impressions of Silversea

We recently completed our first Silversea cruise, a transatlantic on Silver Cloud. I did a lot of research beforehand and thought I knew what to expect. Some things were even better that I thought they'd be, and some required a bit of adjustment. Then there were a few things that I must have missed in my research because they were a total surprise!

Plus points:

- the level of service. I knew we would be well looked after, but was bowled over by things like having our suitcases cleaned on the last day, ready for packing. On the second day I noticed that every stray hair had been cleaned out of my hair brush! I hid it after that, since I hate to think of causing that sort of extra work for anyone.

- the excursions. We rarely book excursions from any cruise line, but we made an exception on this cruise. Our first excursion was to the Alhambra, and although we thought it was a bit expensive at first, it turned out to be great value for money. The price included the transportation, the guide on the coach, and a pre-booked, timed ticket to the Alhambra for a guided tour, which allowed us to bypass the lengthy queue. We also had a generous lunch at a lovely hotel, with good food and free-flowing wine.

- the enrichment lectures and entertainment. Because Silver Cloud is a small ship, we were not expecting miracles from the lectures or the evening entertainment. But the three lecturers were really interesting and well-informed, and the evening entertainment was of a very high standard. The lectures could also be seen on the TV after the fact, very handy when we missed one.

- the Cruise Director, David Lawton, did a fantastic job. I'm sure he spoke to every passenger at least once every day, and made us all feel welcomed and included. We had some port changes due to stormy weather, and he did an amazing job of organising extra lectures and entertainment at very short notice.

Minus points

- the bathroom was very dark, with little storage space. I kept my sponge bag on the dressing table because there wasn't room for two of them in the bathroom.

- there was only one outlet that I could plug the hair dryer into, and I had to unplug the clock, and then re-plug it afterward. There was another outlet on the desk, but due to the bulky shape of the plug on the hair dryer, it wouldn't fit there. Maybe this will be addressed in the refurbishment later this year.

Surprises:

- the number of announcements. It was a bit like a return to the old days of cruising, with announcements in the morning, at mid-day, and often in the evening as well. This was understandable on the days when we had port changes, but we had multiple announcements on normal days as well. All of the lines we've cruised with in the recent past have had one announcement per day at mid-day, or when leaving port, not audible in the cabin, and I prefer this.

- the number of children on board. We normally book longer cruises, during term-time, to minimise the chance of cruising with lots of children. Since we were on a 15-night transatlantic, on a small ship with no facilities for children, I didn't think we'd see many, or any, really. I was caught out by the facility to personalise a cruise by interporting, and a significant number of children joined the cruise in Funchal.

Most of them were well-behaved and a joy to cruise with, but there were three small boys who spent a lot of their time shouting and running up and down our corridor, or splashing and jumping into the pool. They had minimal supervision from their mother and their grandmother, who both seemed able to tune out their activities. I was mildly annoyed by the noise, but more concerned that they were going to injure themselves as they ran in circles along the shallow ledge of the pool, or knock over an older passenger or two as they darted around the corridors and played on the stairs. They were better-behaved when Dad was present. In fairness to them, there was nothing for them to do on the ship. In fairness to the rest of us, their parents should have known that, and taken responsibility for them.

Overall impression:

We loved our cruise, and are looking forward to our second one, booked for 2016 on Silver Shadow.

Thanks for the review. Your plus points far outweigh the minus points. But it's the surprises that give me great pause. Announcements and children with oblivious parents will keep me away every time.

Unfortunately the inter-porting or segmenting of SS's cruises is happening more and more. On our last Cloud transatlantic we were inundated with Germans for Funchal to Barcelona. It completely changed the ambiance and dynamic of the cruise.

And thanks for the review.

thanks for the post and the review of your first impressions.

I am intrigued by the frequency of announcements. On the Spirit to hear the announcements one must turn to channel 1 on the television, otherwise one cannot hear them in the suite. Usually the captain would give the ships location, weather, etc. just after the noon signal, and then the CD would give an announcement of the day's activities on sea days. On days in port, one still could not hear the announcements of tour departures unless channel 1 was selected.

I gather its not the same on the Cloud? Hearing a number of announcements all day would also bother me as well.

Unfortunately the inter-porting or segmenting of SS's cruises is happening more and more. On our last Cloud transatlantic we were inundated with Germans for Funchal to Barcelona. It completely changed the ambiance and dynamic of the cruise.

 

And thanks for the review.

Yes, thank you for your review, lisiamc. I have never heard of interporting so had to look it up, and now I'm very concerned. First, how does one find out if a certain cruise is going to take on passengers mid-cruise for some reason? I have a Panama Canal cruise booked on the Spirit in December, but this new wrinkle may cause me to reconsider.

Excellent to read this, lisiamc. We embark on our first Silversea cruise in November and appreciate this helpful teaser.

One has always been able to begin/terminate their cruise at a port other than the official voyage. You would always see a few get on/off in Funchal during the crossings. Difference today is that Funchal is an official point to begin/end a cruise. Too many voyages have an "a" added.

Same on the last segment of the World cruise, way after we booked an extra 7 day voyage from Barbados to Ft Lauderdale is added, supposedly an extra 70-80 guests will come on. And the next voyage Ft Lauderdale to Soton is also split at New York, and again this only happened in the last 6 months or so.

It completely changes what is being booked.

Thank you for your review. We are doing our first regular Silversea cruises (did the Galapagos) B2B next February on the Shadow and appreciate your insights. Pleased to learn of the quality of the enrichment lectures, as we always enjoy hearing about where we are going to be. And I can't wait to be pampered by the service. Glad you loved it enough to book again.

I enjoyed your review and glad to hear that you enjoyed the cruise so much that you have another one planned.

Keith

We recently completed our first Silversea cruise, a transatlantic on Silver Cloud. Overall impression: We loved our cruise, and are looking forward to our second one, booked for 2016 on Silver Shadow.

Glad to hear that things went well on "our" Silver Cloud during your trans-Atlantic trip. You did an excellent job summarizing the various pro/con factors with specifics to support your observations. Excellent points on the enrichment programs. We found the speakers to be very sharing, both during the programs and in discussions personally with them later round on the ship, seeing them during shore excursions, etc.

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

From our Jan. 25-Feb. 20, 2015, Amazon River-Caribbean combo sailing over 26 days that started in Barbados, here is the link below to that live/blog. Lots of great visuals from this amazing Brazil river and these various Caribbean Islands (Dutch ABC's, St. Barts, Dominica, Grenada, etc.) that we experienced. Check it out at:

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2157696

Now at 21,782 views for these postings.

Hi there, since there are a few people who are posting on this thread that will be new to Silversea, I thought I would share my recent experiences on the Silver Wind. We have been on all the Silversea ships (except the explorer ones) and like them all. We love the Cloud and, of course the Wind and Cloud are sister ships.

The bathrooms are the smallest on the Wind and Cloud - but we knew this going in (having been on her 3 times in the past). The space is tight, but with the shelves underneath the sink and also on the edge of the bedroom area, we found that we have spots for everything.

I never had an issue with the outlets. There was one at the vanity area, right in front of the bed. Surprised that there was not one like that on the Cloud, but that worked fine for the hair dryer.

Announcements were not heard in our stateroom. In fact, if there was an announcement, we had to prop the door to be able to hear it from the hall speakers. Our Cruise Director, Colin, was wonderful and he did not make an ungodly amount of announcements. I think there were a couple of times he had to "goose" people (with an announcement) to come to a talk or demonstration since on a small ship, it is nice to have a decent turnout.

There were 4 kids on our cruise. In fact, I was surprised there were any, given that this was a long cruise in March/April. One German family had a 3 year old and a 7 year old and the Italian/American family had a 12 year old and 5 year old. All behaved beautifully and in fact, they added a little extra zing to the cruise. I must say the parents parented well - for example, when the 3 year old began crying one night in the MDR, the mother gathered him up and took him away (for bed I guess; the father and other child enjoyed the rest of their meal.) Anyway, my point is more that kids are not the issue - it is the parents. Sounds like the OP got some "bad" parents on their cruise. We have never had an issue on Silversea cruises with kids - maybe we have just been lucky!

Like the OP, we loved our cruise (Singapore to Muscat, Oman) and signed up for another one!

Hey Lisa,

You forgot the other surprise - that it took us till the last day of the cruise to win at trivia! What a great team we were.

B

Hey Lisa,

 

You forgot the other surprise - that it took us till the last day of the cruise to win at trivia! What a great team we were.

 

B

Well yes, there was that! :p. It was still fun even when we didn't do so well. And I'm well pleased with my memo holder.

Lisiamc: thank you for taking the effort to post your comments!

On a Silver Cloud trip to South America a couple years ago over Xmas holidays, Mr. Catlover and I went on a nature hike excursion, with the idea of experiencing the peace and quiet of the local forest. There were about 15 people in our group, which unfortunately also included an affluent American couple in their 30's who apparently decided it would be hip and cool and modern to take their little baby with them in a baby backpack on the walk for educational purposes, even though it was just a few months old, They were part of a 3 generation group traveling together on the Cloud and usually sat together in the corner of the MDR. Baby was usually quiet there. But the hike was another story: the first fifteen minutes or so the baby slept in the pack, though the parents oddly tried to wake it and show it plants and educate it about the environment, but then, as babies do when they are cold or wet or jostled ( weather was nippy) it predictably started crying loudly and would not stop the rest of the hike. Instead of listening to the rustle of wind in the trees, we listened to it scream. The parents were pretty embarassed at the end, even though many women on the hike said cooingly "Oh, it's ok, not a problem" . My blood pressure was sky high when I got back to our suite. Of course, kids are allowed on luxury cruises, just like they are allowed in First Class on planes, I know there is a risk and assume it ( and carry extra BP meds and ear plugs) but you can minimize exposure by not going during holiday periods when kids' young likely working parents are more likely to decide to take time off with their offspring. The "big group dynamic"

is harder to avoid, as the cruise lines will not tell you if a big group is going to be on board or not, much less if they are a big group of Russians or Germans or Americans for that matter.

BTW, I love your Avatar :)

I have had enough moments destroyed on ships by unruly kids with oblivious parents to know that the moment I saw them I would have turned around and gone back to the ship and demanded my money back.

thanks for the post and the review of your first impressions.

I am intrigued by the frequency of announcements. On the Spirit to hear the announcements one must turn to channel 1 on the television, otherwise one cannot hear them in the suite. Usually the captain would give the ships location, weather, etc. just after the noon signal, and then the CD would give an announcement of the day's activities on sea days. On days in port, one still could not hear the announcements of tour departures unless channel 1 was selected.

I gather its not the same on the Cloud? Hearing a number of announcements all day would also bother me as well.

I agree about the announcements. They seem to be happening more and more. There is no need for the CD to come on to the Public Address system each day to read the schedule to us. We can read. The PS system should be for the noon announcement (from the Bridge), and for schedule changes only. More announcements are annoying and off-putting... especially on the elegant ships of SS.

Cunard and Seabourn have no announcements except the Captain! Like that.

Is it likely that a 17 day cruise would have many kids? Los Angeles to Ft Lauderdale is indeed a holiday trip, Christmas and New Years on The Spirit.

If it's a holiday cruise there will be kids.