A Week Aboard The Cloud

We have been aboard the Cloud for one week crossing the Atlantic. Here are a few observations:

A few changes since our last voyage on the Shadow one year ago include an increase in daily Internet access from $16 to $20 per day, the ridiculous changes in the boutique, and the elimination of the cookie tray after dinner in the MDR (my wife's issue).

The above are minor issues and have not detracted from the enjoyment aboard the ship. The service has been as good or better than any previous cruise. Our butler, Richard, has been absolutely great as has been the rest of the staff. Food in the MDR, Pool Grillll, and LaTerrace has been excellent. Lectures have been well presented and intersting. The fact that there are only 130 passengers probably has , I'm sure, been a factor in the good service, but, the attitude of the crew, in general, appears to be very positive. So far, a very enjoyable cruise.

est…. 130 persons…..

This level of occupancy is unsustainable and the consequences thereof are not pleasant..

est…. 130 persons…..

 

This level of occupancy is unsustainable and the consequences thereof are not pleasant..

I have noticed quite a few reports recently where occupancy has been about 50% or less. Can Silversea sustain this; or is there some deep dark tax or similar reason for, presumably, not making a profit?

est…. 130 persons…..

 

This level of occupancy is unsustainable and the consequences thereof are not pleasant..

To be fair the cross-atlantic and other repositioning cruises, even heavily discounted, tend to run a little empty. I don't mind a few extra sea days, but try to skip the large ocean crossing and I'm not sure I'm alone in that.

Having looked at a load of summer cruises recently, there's more waitlisted on Silversea than I've seen for a while, so perhaps occupancy is just about to go up.

I'm on the Cloud too and the empty ship certainly makes life simple - no need for reservations in any restaurant, and take your pick of empty seats in shows and talks.

A few small changes as noted - no petits fours after dinner (I expect a lot went to waste), the pool grill closing for lunch at 3pm instead of 4pm and serving less good food - the french fries in particular are awful (well, I shouldn't be eating them anyway, I suppose) - but no really significant diminution of product quality except for the ridiculous waste of space for the boutiques.

Unusually, for a low single supp. cruise, there are very few solos - not a problem though, the couples are friendly!

A few pax are disembarking in Funchal, but there are 80 embarking so the 'feel' of the ship will no doubt change.

PS I only paid $16 per day for the unlimited internet package - that is unchanged from before - not sure why OP had to pay $20?

Glad to hear the unlimited package is still $16. Perhaps they paid for only a few days.

If the French fries are poor try asking for the sweet potato fries, they are awesome.

To be fair the cross-atlantic and other repositioning cruises, even heavily discounted, tend to run a little empty. I don't mind a few extra sea days, but try to skip the large ocean crossing and I'm not sure I'm alone in that. Having looked at a load of summer cruises recently, there's more waitlisted on Silversea than I've seen for a while, so perhaps occupancy is just about to go up.

Appreciate the above good info, plus the postings by jollyjones, etc. From our Silver Cloud experiences earlier this year, the 17-day Amazon River segment we did had 179 passengers. Then, on our nine-day Barbados to San Juan sailing, we had 256 passengers on this ship. After Feb. 20, it was supposed to be a totally sold-out segment for the Cloud.

We are booked on the Silver Cloud for a ten-day, early Feb. 2016 sailing, Cape Town. All of the higher-level suites are booked up, plus a high percentage of the mid-ship balcony suites. The Silver Cloud will be doing many options for late 2015 and early 2016 and these advance bookings seem to be doing fairly well. Our cruise is over 300+ days away, but these specific booking levels seems very good. In late October, the Silver Cloud will be getting an 18-day dry dock make-over in Italy. Much of the work will be "back of the house" efforts, but all of the teak decks will be replaced, lots of new carpet, etc., etc.

For me and my wife, not having the cookie tray after dinner in the MDR was not any kind of serious loss. We got plenty to eat, it was generally very good and not being temped by added sweets was actually a much-appreciate, low-calorie "treat" for us.

Not sure if the comment by tgh, "This level of occupancy is unsustainable and the consequences thereof are not pleasant", will turn out to be totally true. Time will tell!!

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 20,820 views for these postings.

Great suggestion about the sweet potato fries. I, too, thought that the french fries were terrible - a good reason not to eat them.

no petits fours after dinner (I expect a lot went to waste),

Nooooo. That was the only time I ever got to eat petit fours and rather enjoyed them. Is that the 'cookie tray' referred to by other posters in the thread? Not that there isn't plenty to eat but a cheese cart and petit fours is the way to end dinner!

Nooooo. That was the only time I ever got to eat petit fours and rather enjoyed them. Is that the 'cookie tray' referred to by other posters in the thread? Not that there isn't plenty to eat but a cheese cart and petit fours is the way to end dinner!

No more cheese cart either. Now, they just bring a plate of preselected cheeses. 😢

I assume that someone in the industry would have good info on all the cruise line occupancy levels, finding out is the nub.

Public company reports usually give some info, whereas a private company could go belly up and the customers would find out the hard way.

I have more ss bookings but I wouldn't make them without insurance cover .. caveat emptor.

We have been waiting for a couple of months for refund of a forex charge placed on one of our bookings.. they keep promising .. current eta is next week...

No more cheese cart either. Now, they just bring a plate of preselected cheeses.

I know - the cart was the first thing to go - now it's the petit fours, it'll be the soup course next at this rate.

I always wonder who preselects the preselected cheese; someone, I feel, who really doesn't like cheese very much.

Rather than selecting the cheese myself, the list is too extensive to all be ripe, we asked for a variety of the 3 ripest. Works for me!

The suggestion to ask for the sweet potato fries is very timely. We're just about to go to lunch, and I'll give them a try. :)

Update: Unfortunately, my request for sweet potato fries was met with a regretful explanation that there are not any. A pity - I was looking forward to them!

No more cheese cart either. Now, they just bring a plate of preselected cheeses. 😢

You can most certainly select which cheeses you want to have and select the appropriate ports or sauternes to drink with them. In fact, we had a blind blue cheese taste testing on our recent cruise which was a great success.

I guess I was not clear. Of course you can choose which ever cheese you would like. My point was, that with such an expansive choice, it is not possible for all of them to be ripe at the same moment! That would really be wasteful. Enjoy!

Do they still offer the "Cheese Menu" after dinner????

Jen

We had an amazing "cheese selection" on our recent voyage - a plate of Edam in different shapes and sizes :confused:

Sorry to hijack the thread but this kind of seemingly minor cost cutting such as no petits fours, nasty French fries and other general scaling back of what used to be the norm indicates to me at least that the SS balance sheet is sailing into some very troubled waters. I also think the executive chef has been told to use lower quality, ie, cheaper fresh produce, smaller portions, less choice, truly dreadful and very limited wines, the list goes on.

The low occupancy rate is a symptom too IMO although I realise that TAs are often regarded as "repositioning" and as such don't always attract a Full House.

Update: Unfortunately, my request for sweet potato fries was met with a regretful explanation that there are not any. A pity - I was looking forward to them!

Really sorry to hear that. When we asked on the Shadow last November the first response was that the chef had gone to bed and did we really want to get him up to cut up sweet potatos to make fries for us at short notice. The second response 5 mins later was that they did have them (frozen) but the head waiter had never been informed that they were onboard. She was impressed and came and tried some with us.

So I suggest you rephrase the question and ask if they have sweet potatos onboard and if so ask them to make you a special order of fries.

Looks like someone has pirated this tread. All that’s missing is his eye patch and a bird on his shoulder…

So sorry, this was posted by mistake. If anyone is interested, it's a photo of my kids having fun over Easter weekend. Once again, sorry

So sorry, this was posted by mistake. If anyone is interested, it's a photo of my kids having fun over Easter weekend. Once again, sorry

No problem! Fun picture. Loved last year being in Adelaide and going to your nearby and amazing Kangaroo Island. Loved both Australia and New Zealand.

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

Enjoyed a 14-day, Jan. 20-Feb. 3, 2014, Sydney to Auckland adventure, getting a big sampling for the wonders of "down under” before and after this cruise. Go to:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1974139

for more info and many pictures of these amazing sights in this great part of the world. Now at 105,142 views for this posting.

We had an amazing "cheese selection" on our recent voyage. Sorry to hijack the thread but this kind of seemingly minor cost cutting such as no petits fours, nasty French fries and other general scaling back of what used to be the norm indicates to me at least that the SS balance sheet is sailing into some very troubled waters. I also think the executive chef has been told to use lower quality, ie, cheaper fresh produce, smaller portions, less choice, truly dreadful and very limited wines, the list goes on. The low occupancy rate is a symptom too IMO although I realise that TAs are often regarded as "repositioning" and as such don't always attract a Full House.

During our recent 26 days on the Silver Cloud as detailed and visually summarized below, the cheese option was always offered to us in the MDR. BUT, however, we never did take advantage of this "opportunity". Why? Too full and happy from our just-completed dining experience. Sorry!! Maybe, we'll trying that potential in early February 2016 when doing the Silver Cloud for South Africa.

From these comments and opinions noted above, I am happy to report we did not "suffer" during our extend period on this ship. We had read reports about "doom and gloom" from supposed cost-cutting, low-quality items, etc. That was not, however, our experiences. Was everything perfect? No, there were a couple of meal items that missed the mark. There were a few "service inconsistencies". BUT, overall, we were pleasantly surprised and happy to share that the service, variety and quality was generally very good. Everybody is entitled to their opinions. Just sharing the recent results from our experiences and the comments we heard from many seasoned travelers who were there with us in late January and February time periods for these two sailings.

And small portions? YES!! On both our July 2010 North Coast Silver Cloud sailing and these 2015 Silversea trips, we were very happy to have the portions to be "reasonable", not too excessive. Plenty of good food, 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 21,222 views for these postings.