New to silverseas have some questions

Hello all fellow cruise travelers-

thanks in advance to anyone who can provide some advice and responses to questions .

Background: We have taken Oceania exclusively and are planning a trip to Iceland for which Oceania did not have the itinerary that worked for us. We have checked other cruise lines such as celebrity , silverseas and NCL that had the best itineraries. Our concern with celebrity and NCL is that the ships have 2400 guests plus, although they have some nice perks to include gratuities , drinks, the specialty restaurants are all extra and unsure of the restarants reservation policy. Looks like you can't make reservations until you board? Also not sure if accommodations/food are similar to Oceania .

We have heard Silverseas is a step above Oceania, but much smaller ship with only 300 guests, which is great accept I assume a smaller ship will rock more in open seas. Also have read some reviews that concern me. So here are my questions and look forward to any response.

Has anyone taken a cruise from London to Iceland on Silverseas? Did you feel motion on the sea days ?

Has anyone traveled recently on the Wind? have the vista level suites and ship been recently updated? (read that the ship has been recently refurbished, but heard a recent review that the had terrible water problems due to rough seas ? ) anyone have recent pictures of the vista level rooms, I have seen recent photos that appear to have marble baths, but their site shows paneling? Do they have DVD in room? Site says yes, agent said no.

What about food quality and can one easily get reservations at 7:30 for the included restaurants? We were surprised to see restaurants don't open until 7:30.

I probably have some more questions, but will start with these.

Thanks again

Liz

Other than Le Champagne you don't need reservations on the Wind. You just show up at 7:30 and ask for a table for the number of people in your party. Of course, SS has destroyed this concept on the new Muse.

I have to correct myself. One does need to reserve in advance for La Terrazza and Hot Rocks too but getting a table for two is no problem.

Hello all fellow cruise travelers-

 

 

 

thanks in advance to anyone who can provide some advice and responses to questions .

 

 

 

Background: We have taken Oceania exclusively and are planning a trip to Iceland for which Oceania did not have the itinerary that worked for us. We have checked other cruise lines such as celebrity , silverseas and NCL that had the best itineraries. Our concern with celebrity and NCL is that the ships have 2400 guests plus, although they have some nice perks to include gratuities , drinks, the specialty restaurants are all extra and unsure of the restarants reservation policy. Looks like you can't make reservations until you board? Also not sure if accommodations/food are similar to Oceania .

 

 

 

 

 

We have heard Silverseas is a step above Oceania, but much smaller ship with only 300 guests, which is great accept I assume a smaller ship will rock more in open seas. Also have read some reviews that concern me. So here are my questions and look forward to any response.

 

 

 

 

 

Has anyone taken a cruise from London to Iceland on Silverseas? Did you feel motion on the sea days ?

 

 

 

Has anyone traveled recently on the Wind? have the vista level suites and ship been recently updated? (read that the ship has been recently refurbished, but heard a recent review that the had terrible water problems due to rough seas ? ) anyone have recent pictures of the vista level rooms, I have seen recent photos that appear to have marble baths, but their site shows paneling? Do they have DVD in room? Site says yes, agent said no.

 

 

 

What about food quality and can one easily get reservations at 7:30 for the included restaurants? We were surprised to see restaurants don't open until 7:30.

 

 

 

I probably have some more questions, but will start with these.

 

 

 

Thanks again

 

 

 

Liz

Hi Liz and welcome to the SS forum. I imagine you will receive many helpful responses to your questions. I will share my perspective where possible.

Being a smaller ship, you will feel movement, although I have never found it stopping any of the daily activities on board. We did a lengthy voyage on the Wind's sister ship, Silver Cloud, from Copenhagen to the arctic and into Russia before backtracking to Copenhagen. There was only one day where the seas were so exceptionally rough that the ship's movement affected mobility of passengers. As you can imagine, it's a personal thing.

For dining reservations, you can make reservations to any of the restaurants starting 120-days before your voyage embarkation date.

Lastly, if you look through the subjects of this forum you will find recent updates on the Wind.

Good luck in planning your adventure!

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Hi Liz,

We were on the Silver Wind London to Reykjavik cruise August2016. There was only one sea day between the Faroe Islands and Husavik, Iceland and I do not recall any issue other than it was quite cool.

This was the third cruise on the Wind and the fifth onSilversea. The service was excellent as always. I have never had any issues withwater or air conditioning. Yes the décor is some what dated but everything is well maintained. The TV remotes are definitely dated but I rarely watch TV on a cruise. From my photo looks likethere is a DVD player under the TV. The photos included are for a Veranda Suite.

The restaurants open at 7:00 p.m. We generally make reservations in advance onthe MySilversea website. The food hasalways been good. Hot Rocks is a favorite but it is good to plan for day in port or just leaving port as it isan outside venue. Blankets are provided upon request.

I would rank Iceland as the best itinerary of any cruise Ihave been on. If they offer the MilitaryTattoo in Edinburg you should definitely consider. The Vestmanna cliffs in the Faroe Islands are awesome! One of the things I really likeabout the Silversea excursions is they have a crew member go along on all the excursions.

Hopefully you departure from London will be during theday. Ours was a night so we had to getup at 3:00 a.m. for the awesome experience of sailing under Tower Bridge. I am looking forward to our cruise in June to Norway on the Silver Cloud when the departure time is 2:30 p.m.

Thanks,

SJS

Thanks so much SJS ! This was very helpful. I see you have also cruised with Celebrity, how is the food and amenities compared to silverseas? That was our other option which was cheaper in an Aqua room, but that room was noticably smaller than vista suite on silverseas and although I think I would prefer a physically larger ship (assuming you would feel much less motion than the smaller Wind) do not like the large number of passengers on Celebrity. The largest ship we have ever taken is Oceania with 1200 passengers. Also limited dining options on the Wind vs celebrity and Oceania. The hot rocks is the third "included" option, but as you said it is outside and am assuming it will be too cool at night. Also not a big fan of the Winds dress code. We loved Oceania's country club casual attire , no formal nights. We don't mind dressing up, but we are not fans of lugging a suit and cocktail dresses in already packed luggage. Were the formal nights usually on sea days?

Our itinerary takes us in the opposite direction. We start in Reykjavik and end in London. I preferred that itinerary since it included more stops in Iceland and included Faroe island.

Not sure if you used the gym, but it looked small, but they claim to have exercise classes, assume those rooms are somewhere other than the gym area.

How about the laundry? I heard complaints most of the machines were broken. Anyone know if the recent refurbishment addressed this area?

Thanks everyone (Also stumble foot and wripro)for your responses and comments .

Liz

Also not a big fan of the Winds dress code. We loved Oceania's country club casual attire , no formal nights. We don't mind dressing up, but we are not fans of lugging a suit and cocktail dresses in already packed luggage. Were the formal nights usually on sea days?

 

Liz

Liz,

Something to keep in mind... you don't need to bring any formal attire if you don't want to. On a formal night, you can always dine in La Terrazza, Hot Rocks, or in your suite without being formally dressed.

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Hello Again Liz,

The laundry! It is amazing that I block out the Laundry experience on Wind because, yes, (as of August 2016) the facilities are as bad as noted. The machines that do work take forever and are difficult (at least for me) to operate. They are made in Europe so they operate differently for the ones I am used to! The joke in the Laundry Room was that Silversea wants everyone to use their laundry service or reach the 100 night’s goal to get free laundry. As stated I tend to overlook it as everything else is great! Hopefully there was an upgrade during the dry-dock period.

Formal Nights – There were two on my cruise to Iceland. The first was on the second night and the second on about the seventh night. I agree with stumblefoots statement that there are options to easily avoid formal night. I have actually begun to not dislike them as much as I did in the beginning but agree it required more packing.

The gym is indeed small as I recall morning exercise classed. Since I did not partake I am not sure where they were.

Celebrity verses Silversea. We had only sailed on small ships and wanted to try a larger cruise line. Our TA recommended Celebrity and we sailed on a 7 day Caribbean cruise. The experience was very good but that was mostly attributed being in a Sky Suite and all the extra amenities that came with it like priority boarding, Michael’s Club and the private restaurant. I am not sure I would have enjoyed as much as in an Aqua room. We are booked on Celebrity for an Australia cruise in January 2018 mainly because of the month and itinerary we wanted was not offered by Silversea. I did enjoy multiple specialty restaurants on Celebrity. On the smaller Silversea ships the restaurant choices are very limited.

For Iceland I definitely recommend Silversea over Celebrity.

SJS

We are also Oceania fans and are not looking forward to formal nights on the Silversea cruise we have booked. So 120 days before sail date, I went into 'My Silversea' and booked La Terrazza for both formal nights on our cruise. It's much like pre-booking the specialty restaurants on Oceania. There is a nice display under the My Activities tab where you can select 'Dining' for each day of the cruise and then select your restaurant. The Formal nights are shown on the left of the display under each date. We didn't pre-book Hot Rocks since I was also concerned about cool weather; hopefully we won't have any difficulty booking onboard.

We're looking forward to our cruise - hope the Silversea cruisers are as wonderful as those we've met on Oceania! Sadly, there is very little response to Silversea Roll Calls on Cruise Critic so I've not had the opportunity to meet other cruisers online.:confused:

Thanks Su et al for your responses. Agree with advice above, I was planning on booking the La Terraza restaurant at the 120 day mark, so nice to know they have the formal nights scheduled that far in advance. i agree , I don't want to book the grill until I board , assuming the temp will be to cool to eat there.

Su- I would love to hear how it compares to Oceania, food, room, amenities, etc. when you return from your trip. I was hoping I would find an Oceania traveler like you to provide the best comparison. The small size of the ship, limited dining options , self serve laundry is where I feel Silverseas can't match what Oceania offers, but looking forward to being pleasantly surprised .

Thanks again everyone !

I am going on my first Silver Seas cruise in August and there is one other gal and I on the roll call.....ironically, we are both

sailing solo. Maybe as the summer goes by more folks will come by and chat but if not? I don't care.......I am really

looking forward to sailing on a luxury line:D.....I am sure I will see a difference from Mass Market............

As for dressing up? I am bringing a pair of dressy black slacks and a lovely top. I think it will be an appropriate

outfit on formal night. I don't own any "formal gowns" or anything in that genre and don't plan on buying any either:)

A long black skirt and dressy slacks with pretty tops will do just fine:)

Hello Again Liz,

 

 

 

The laundry! It is amazing that I block out the Laundry experience on Wind because, yes, (as of August 2016) the facilities are as bad as noted. The machines that do work take forever and are difficult (at least for me) to operate. They are made in Europe so they operate differently for the ones I am used to! The joke in the Laundry Room was that Silversea wants everyone to use their laundry service or reach the 100 night’s goal to get free laundry. As stated I tend to overlook it as everything else is great! Hopefully there was an upgrade during the dry-dock period.

 

 

 

SJS

As far as I am aware the laundry machines on the Wind were updated during its last dry dock in Nov 2016. And yes they are European ( or actually German - Miele) and are very easy to use.

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There is a small room next to the gym that can take a small exercise class, otherwise I recall seeing the Observation Lounge being used if required.

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