New to Silversea - Questions about Sea Days

We are experienced cruisers, but have never sailed on Silversea Cruises. We are considering one or more segments of the 2017 World Cruise where there are quite a few sea days. Because of the size of the ship - Silver Whisper - what kind of activities can we expect to find? Will the sea days mostly be for relaxation or will we be "overwhelmed" with choices of things to do?

Also what are the biggest selling points of Silversea? What would you consider to be their shortcomings?

The crew is the reason we all return. You can be as busy as you want or just lie around on your veranda or around the pool with exotic drinks which then subject you to naps![emoji4][emoji568]

If your previous cruises are on larger ships, expect a lower-key experience, especially when it comes to daytime activities at sea. There might be a dance class or bridge class. There will almost certainly be lectures. Many people reading books. Opportunities to win prize points at trivia....

Also expect more space per person and more crew per guest, so little crowding and few lines.

We like days at sea, but we know people who loathe them (though we don't often see those people on Silversea).

You tend to have a few select activities on sea days - mainly one at a time so nothing really overlapping as far as I've experienced. The type of things I've seen are: lectures, wine tasting, cookery demos, themed events in Panorama (such as a british pub singalong), quizes, dance class and bridge

Art, the reality is that a smaller ship will not be able to offer the level of on board activity that you experienced on a world cruise on a larger ship. I am not knocking that but it just comes down to the size of the ship. So it is all about expectations. If you are expecting 50+ programs to choose from during a sea day that won't happen but there will be several programs but not in the quantity or even diversity of the previous World Cruise you took. I agree with what was posted earlier. It's all about expectations. If you were to take a lot of segment of the World Cruise then if it was me I would do a trial run to be sure you will be happy. If only one or two segments I wouldn't work about it.

Keith

Thank you for your responses.

We have traveled on many different size ships including the M/S Paul Gauguin which is about the same size as the Silver Whisper, river cruises which are much smaller, all the way to the Oasis of the Seas which is much larger. As Keith mentioned, we did a world cruise on Crystal which is about 1,000 passengers.

We were just trying to get some input from past passengers what to expect if we were to sail on a segment or two of next year's World Cruise.

If I may, this is what I am hearing. There may be some activities, but they won't be going on simultaneously. There will be some lectures, but the main attribute of Silversea is the service and extra space.

I did notice that no one mentioned the food. I would expect on a 6 star ship that the quality would be superb and compare favorably with Crystal, Regent and Seabourn. Also what about the night time entertainment? Even with the small size of river cruise, we have been amazed at the talent they bring onboard.

From one cpa to another...

I have sailed Silversea twice (2010 and 2015), Crystal twice (2013 and 2016), Regent once (2011) and the Paul Gauguin (2012).

The food last year on the Spirit was excellent and high quality in my opinion, just like the Crystal cruise this year.

The Silversea cruises were both on the Med, so sea days for us was sleeping late, a good workout, then poolside. There were lectures, bingo, trivia, etc, but our days were booked up with relaxation. Not sure what I would do in bad or cold weather, but am confident there would be something to pass the time in an enjoyable way.

I was also surprisingly impressed with the night life in the Panorama Lounge last year on the Spirit. It was livelier than I expected. But, other than that lounge, not much else was going on late night.

From one cpa to another...

 

I have sailed Silversea twice (2010 and 2015), Crystal twice (2013 and 2016), Regent once (2011) and the Paul Gauguin (2012).

 

The food last year on the Spirit was excellent and high quality in my opinion, just like the Crystal cruise this year.

 

The Silversea cruises were both on the Med, so sea days for us was sleeping late, a good workout, then poolside. There were lectures, bingo, trivia, etc, but our days were booked up with relaxation. Not sure what I would do in bad or cold weather, but am confident there would be something to pass the time in an enjoyable way.

 

I was also surprisingly impressed with the night life in the Panorama Lounge last year on the Spirit. It was livelier than I expected. But, other than that lounge, not much else was going on late night.

Thank you so much. That is EXACTLY what we were looking to hear.