Restaurants on Spirit

While we are well experienced with Silversea, we never had booked a cruise on the SPIRIT so far. When looking on their website, the main restaurant does not show tables for two on their video. Are there those just for two? What is your experience of the Spirit compared to Whisper or Shadow? Thank you for your tips to make a decision.

There are plenty of tables for 2 in the MDR on Spirit (and in the other restaurants, too). The dining experience is very similar across the fleet except that on the Spirit you have the added choice of Stars and Seishin (Seishin is no charge at lunchtime and a cover charge of something like $40 each in the evening).

The Spirit is oft derided by the SS old-timers and I'm sure there are plenty pf people who would prefer Shadow/Whisper. I'm not sure that we can really state a preference being happy to be on any of the ships. Having said that, given the choice we would go for the Spirit largely because we like Stars - otherwise there's really not that much to seperate them.

As mentioned there are plenty of two person tables in the dining room on the Spirit. My wife and I never had a problem getting one of them.

We've only sailed Sprit once (January of this year) and Shadow once (August 2009).

My experience on all cruise lines is that everyone has different opinions when it comes to the ship. For some it is familiarity of crew if they sail one more often than another one. For others it is the size of the ship and for some they prefer larger versus smaller and for others just the reverse.

For us, we preferred Spirit over Shadow. The size worked for us and we appreciated the great choice when it came to dining options and the size of the public space.

I would let the itinerary be the driver. If the itinerary is similar then just look closely at the ships diagrams.

If it's a toss up, my take would be that is is nice to try something new so since you have not tried Spirit I would give it a try.

Keith

Whilst I am perfectly happy on any and all of the SS cruising ships (I don't do expedition ships so I don't know about them), there are two aspects of dining on the Spirit that I enjoy. The first is having the extra dining option of Stars, and the second is having the option of eating at the Pool Grill/Hot Rocks upstairs on deck 10 - the views are better and I like it up there rather than being down on pool deck level.

Whilst I am perfectly happy on any and all of the SS cruising ships (I don't do expedition ships so I don't know about them), there are two aspects of dining on the Spirit that I enjoy. The first is having the extra dining option of Stars, and the second is having the option of eating at the Pool Grill/Hot Rocks upstairs on deck 10 - the views are better and I like it up there rather than being down on pool deck level.

Also there is live entertainment at the Grill on the lower pool deck on Spirit during dinner, which other ships do not have. We also prefer the upstairs dining on Spirit because of this.

And to go back to your question, OP, I sail solo and never have any difficulty getting a table by myself in any of the restaurants if I happen to be in a solitary mood of an evening. So you'll have no problem getting a table for two.

Mind you, that's not specific to the Spirit, it applies to all the ships.

Thank you for all the helpful replies. I will book the SPIRIT today through my TA.

We are consider a cruise Christmas/NY season Dubai to/or Cape Town to Singapore. SS Spirit or Oceania Nautica are possibles. My wife and I enjoy cruising and meeting other people over dinner etc. We have only done Seabourn and Regent SS. They no longer do Cape Town and if they did we would sail with them. We like good food, fresh not over cooked etc, and found Compass Rose meets our expectations as does the Observation bar for a cocktail. We have also found the service on each very good.

I am a little concerned that SS or Oceania won't meet our expectations and comments from people we know are not complimentary about the food quality.

I see a lot of posts give their personal experience about different cruise lines but some simple feedback would be appreciated (tothesunset). GP