New Opportunities

Hello Silversea cruisers:)........I have been a long time Celebrity cruiser (almost 15 years) and the past year

has brought me some funky circumstances (good and bad).....and I have the opportunity to sail a luxury line.

I am looking at Silverseas and Crystal...........I am 58...will be 59 by the time I cruise and I sail solo.

Looking at a June cruise on the Whisper from Southhampton to Copenhagen............

I am quite independent and loving seeing new places and meeting new people........I LOVE cruising:D

Thoughts from folks who enjoy Silverseas would be really appreciated:)

We did this cruise in reverse last year, that is - Copenhagen to Southampton. The Whisper is a "big" ship to us, we prefer the Expedition cruises. But we had a great time on the Whisper, and as a solo traveller you will not have any problems on any Silverseas cruise. There is trivia, so sign up to join a team - it is GREAT fun ! And at meals they ask if you would like to dine alone or join a table, so join a table - we have met some very nice interesting solo travellers this way. IMO you will have a great trip.

Thanks for the reply. I appreciate it:)

Hi Lois. We have cruised Crystal a few times however we did not like their Dinner set up. They just have a main DR with first and second sitting and a dinning by reservation system along with two specialty restaurants. The Serenity has a casual restaurant called tastes but a reservation is required. We have just booked our first trip on Silversea on their new ship. Looking forward to it.

I'm just a few years older than you and cruise solo myself. I have over 250 nights with Princess (tried all the other mainstream lines too) but became disillusioned when they started treating solos badly, and all their new builds were so big, so I tried Silversea.

Now I'm over 150 nights with SS and very happy. They are the only cruise line in my experience that make solos feel welcome (as opposed to just barely tolerated) and the quality of their product suits me just fine - I love the big suites and the small manageable groups of people on board (can't call them crowds!) - it's so easy to just chat to anyone.

If you look at the bottom line for a mainstream cruise after adding in 75 - 100% solo supp, grats, and bar bill then compare it to a SS with 25% solo supp and no grats or bar bill, you might be surprised at what good value SS represents. Add the uncostables - great friendly service, good food, no queues, a feeling of belonging - and you can't beat SS as a solo.

PS - Just seen the above post - I choose not to cruise Crystal because their dining set up doesn't suit me - I won't do any sort of fixed dining, I'm very much a spur of the moment person and this works particularly well on SS, they always accommodate a solo somewhere very graciously, either dining with others or dining alone, whatever you wish. And usually whenever you wish although you might need to be a little flexible on that.

Hi Lois. We have cruised Crystal a few times however we did not like their Dinner set up. They just have a main DR with first and second sitting and a dinning by reservation system along with two specialty restaurants. The Serenity has a casual restaurant called tastes but a reservation is required. We have just booked our first trip on Silversea on their new ship. Looking forward to it.

Thanks for you response. What is it about the dining on Crystal you don't like? As long as i can eat when I want I don't mind making a reservation:)

I'm just a few years older than you and cruise solo myself. I have over 250 nights with Princess (tried all the other mainstream lines too) but became disillusioned when they started treating solos badly, and all their new builds were so big, so I tried Silversea.

 

Now I'm over 150 nights with SS and very happy. They are the only cruise line in my experience that make solos feel welcome (as opposed to just barely tolerated) and the quality of their product suits me just fine - I love the big suites and the small manageable groups of people on board (can't call them crowds!) - it's so easy to just chat to anyone.

 

If you look at the bottom line for a mainstream cruise after adding in 75 - 100% solo supp, grats, and bar bill then compare it to a SS with 25% solo supp and no grats or bar bill, you might be surprised at what good value SS represents. Add the uncostables - great friendly service, good food, no queues, a feeling of belonging - and you can't beat SS as a solo.

 

PS - Just seen the above post - I choose not to cruise Crystal because their dining set up doesn't suit me - I won't do any sort of fixed dining, I'm very much a spur of the moment person and this works particularly well on SS, they always accommodate a solo somewhere very graciously, either dining with others or dining alone, whatever you wish. And usually whenever you wish although you might need to be a little flexible on that.

Hi, thanks for your reply too:),,,,,,I am on meds and eating at (for example 7:15pm) every night is fine

with me.I don't like eating at 6 and I used to do 8:30 every time and I LOVED fixed dining.......but getting

older brings on challenges......from reading on the Crystal Website there is more than just the "fixed dining".

*unless it is wrong......

Lois - I think you will have a great time on Silversea as a solo traveler. The passengers I have met on 2 different SS cruises were all exceptionally friendly and welcoming. You'll meet people from all over the world and a lot of them are seasoned SS devotees. On some SS voyages there are gentlemen hosts who will dance with solo female travelers or act as a dining companion if you wish. We met a very nice gentleman on one of our cruises who was traveling in this capacity and he was very charming and fun to be around. The voyages with this service have a bow tie next to the itinerary on the main web page of sailings by ship. Good luck!

Good morning, I am still looking at cruises.......want to thank you all for the replies..:)

Celebrity has never treated me badly but I have seen cutbacks over the years and life has thrown me a curveball

and now I have the chance to sail luxury so I am trying to see which one will be a good fit. To be honest with you,

I think I would love them all:D

Good morning:)

I have never found Celebrity to treat me badly but I have seen cutbacks over the years. Life has thrown me a curvelball this past year and also the chance to sail luxury......I think I will enjoy whichever cruise I pick:D

Still weighing my options and want to thank you all for the replies.

Thanks for you response. What is it about the dining on Crystal you don't like? As long as i can eat when I want I don't mind making a reservation:)

The same dinning room is used for the fixed dinning and dinning by reservation. I found it very noisy and chaotic. The room is small with a low ceiling. I also found it very hard to get the dinning and times I wanted as lots were wait listed very far out. The food was good, what you would expect however I found the logistics to be too much. However hope is coming, Crystal has announced that they are going to revamp both ships, making some cabins bigger, lowering the capacity of the ships and have all open sitting. That said we are really looking forward to our trip on the Silver Muse. We really like trying new lines and this seams like a win win. I am sure any one you pick will be great.

Thanks for you response. What is it about the dining on Crystal you don't like? As long as i can eat when I want I don't mind making a reservation:)

I found the dinning room to be chaotic as they only have one and use it for fixed dinning and reservations. The food is good, as you would expect. I also found a lot of the times are booked up quite far in advance. That said they have said they plan to revamp the ships to have more large rooms, less passangers and open dinning so things might change. We are booked on Silversea new ship and are looking forward to it as we love to try new lines.

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Are the boards working?

Thanks for you response. What is it about the dining on Crystal you don't like? As long as i can eat when I want I don't mind making a reservation:)[/quote

 

 

I found the dinning room to be chaotic as they only have one and use it for fixed dinning and reservations. The food is good, as you would expect. I also found a lot of the times are booked up quite far in advance. That said they have said they plan to revamp the ships to have more large rooms, less passangers and open dinning so things might change. We are booked on Silversea new ship and are looking forward to it as we love to try new lines.

Thanks for you response. What is it about the dining on Crystal you don't like? As long as i can eat when I want I don't mind making a reservation:)

 

 

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Thanks for you response. What is it about the dining on Crystal you don't like? As long as i can eat when I want I don't mind making a reservation:)

I found the dinning room noisy and chaotic as there is just one used for both fixed and reservations. Also many times are waite listed far in advance. The whole thing was just too much of a hassle.

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Hi Lois R

I remember you as the Celebrity lover on the solos board and many years ago I recommended trying Silversea...good to see you may change your mind.:):)

Basically you can't go wrong....SS and Crystal are both great. The only thing with Crystal is that you are on a table at the same time every night and if you don't gel with your table mates, you can get stuck. SS is dine when you want so if you make friends during the day you can easily have dinner together in the evening. There's always lots of solos on both lines to make friends with.

The single supplements on SS and Crystal are both excellent. The passenger mix is quite different. SS is more worldly (as in many nationalities) and Crystal is very American. I liked both.

There is so much to like about sailing luxury as a solo - small ships, no queues, incredible service, all inclusive. On SS you get a butler too who will look after you. Many don't think much of the butler, but as a solo I think they are fantastic.

I would happily sail on either lines again if I got the opportunity...I hope you give it a try.

Cheers

Jennifer aka ging466

Hi Lois,

Chris and I like SS because of the small ships and excellent personalized service. We enjoy the food and wine, and the interesting itineraries as well. It's been over two years since we last cruised SS and we will probably do fewer cruises in the near future, but that's because we want to travel more independently for now.

We really like their expedition ship (Silver Explorer) and we have a cruise coming up later this year that we're really excited about.

We have cruised Celebrity in the past and enjoyed it. Princess was OK when we last cruised them as well. Oceania is probably our second favorite line now. But it's hard to go back once you've experienced an all-inclusive cruise. There are varying definitions of all-inclusive, but SS is the right level of all-inclusive for us. That's because we usually do our own thing in ports, so we don't want to pay a higher price for included excursions that we probably would not use.

So if you like Celebrity, like we did, I think you'd have a great time on Silversea. I've done trip reports on the past few SS cruises which may give you an idea about what it was like to cruise SS in 2012 and 2014.

I booked Barcelona to Rome:) in August:D on Silver Spirit........I will start a Roll Call and maybe some folks will join in as time goes by:D

Thank you for the replies:)

So now, ya'll can give me any tidbits about Silversea:)......why do you love it so much?

I can only compare SS to Oceania (taken 2 SS and 1 Oceania). The biggest reason I prefer SS is the all-inclusive set-up. It makes for a much more relaxing voyage. If you meet fun people on the cruise (and you will) when everyone meets up for say a drink there is the awkward moment when the bill comes on Oceania unless you specify to the bartender when ordering whose drinks you are covering. While Oceania may appear cheaper when comparing rates with SS, by the time you add in all of the extras at disembarkation on Oceania, it's about the same. I found the class of passengers on the SS to be diverse and more interesting and dare I say wealthier. We stayed in a Penthouse suite on Oceania which was slightly larger than the SS verandah but very close in dimensions and trim. The decor on the SS ships is understated compared to a lot of larger ships that feature a lot of glam and sparkle. The Oceania was very traditional and actually I liked it better in some ways than the generic finishes on SS. But I am anticipating the Muse to be a whole new level of style from SS. I'll know in July! I have to say the food was slightly better on Oceania not that SS food is not good but seasoning-wise Oceania was slightly better. SS passengers on our two cruises complied with the dress code more faithfully than on the Oceania. The crew on SS is outstanding generally speaking. We even saw some of the same people and they remembered us. Also, we have an outstanding SS rep we deal with who has great attention to detail and makes thoughtful suggestions whenever we are considering another trip. To sum it up, SS in my view lives up to their brand promises. I hope you have a great sailing and that your experiences with SS are as good if not better than mine.

I can only compare SS to Oceania (taken 2 SS and 1 Oceania). The biggest reason I prefer SS is the all-inclusive set-up. It makes for a much more relaxing voyage. If you meet fun people on the cruise (and you will) when everyone meets up for say a drink there is the awkward moment when the bill comes on Oceania unless you specify to the bartender when ordering whose drinks you are covering. While Oceania may appear cheaper when comparing rates with SS, by the time you add in all of the extras at disembarkation on Oceania, it's about the same. I found the class of passengers on the SS to be diverse and more interesting and dare I say wealthier. We stayed in a Penthouse suite on Oceania which was slightly larger than the SS verandah but very close in dimensions and trim. The decor on the SS ships is understated compared to a lot of larger ships that feature a lot of glam and sparkle. The Oceania was very traditional and actually I liked it better in some ways than the generic finishes on SS. But I am anticipating the Muse to be a whole new level of style from SS. I'll know in July! I have to say the food was slightly better on Oceania not that SS food is not good but seasoning-wise Oceania was slightly better. SS passengers on our two cruises complied with the dress code more faithfully than on the Oceania. The crew on SS is outstanding generally speaking. We even saw some of the same people and they remembered us. Also, we have an outstanding SS rep we deal with who has great attention to detail and makes thoughtful suggestions whenever we are considering another trip. To sum it up, SS in my view lives up to their brand promises. I hope you have a great sailing and that your experiences with SS are as good if not better than mine.

Thanks for your reply:).....you mentioned passengers and "their wealth".....well, I hope that is not essential:eek:....I would not put

myself in "the weathier categotry" but I do enjoy meeting other people from different backgrounds.. I am a regular working

person who has the opportunity to sail on a luxury line.....I would hope I would be treated equally.

Thanks for your reply:).....you mentioned passengers and "their wealth".....well, I hope that is not essential:eek:....I would not put

myself in "the weathier categotry" but I do enjoy meeting other people from different backgrounds.. I am a regular working

person who has the opportunity to sail on a luxury line.....I would hope I would be treated equally.

Unless that's changed recently, no worries. We are hardly members of the rich and famous, but they let us on board too.

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Unless that's changed recently, no worries. We are hardly members of the rich and famous, but they let us on board too.

 

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LOL:D....gotcha:cool::)