Ovener

Sorry you had a bad experience Vistaman. Agree that towels weren't good, buffet presentation was dire, captain invisible and it was strange there were no local purchases of provisions. We thought it was a lovely bed / great linens and an immaculate cabin. No complaints at all about the suite and servicing of it. We didn't even see the cruise director. Not even once. Just hoping Europa 2 isn't cutting back too; it's our favourite ship. I remember when on board, and cruising round Italy, chefs went on shore to buy some wonderful fresh black truffles for a sublime impromptu pasta lunch at the buffet. Surprises like that are what a great cruise is made of.

Misery loves company. I love that!

Looking back that's exactly what I should have done had I known that they wouldn't provide a tour or staging post. But I don't know either how flexible they are with the Door-to-Door included flights. We're doing our own flights next time!

Thanks very much for clearing that up - I had a feeling there might be some rule about everyone needing to be off ship by a certain time. I honestly don't know what Viking and Seabourn are doing to deal with passengers with later-in-the-day flights in 2024. They were, however, very good to us in arranging pre-flight tours or a staging post in 2022 and 2023. However, I think someone may have mentioned in another post that Seabourn isn't providing them or may be charging. Perhaps someone on Seabourn in 2024 could kindly comment, it would be good to know. Hapag Lloyd used to provide a staging post but now they explicitly state they have changed their rules and they don't. Neither Seabourn nor Viking charged for a tour or staging post for a later flight whereas it seems Silversea does. Port-to-Port indeed would have worked better and we would have loved to have been able to choose it. Unfortunately Door-to-Door was the only option available here in the UK to reserve a Silver Suite on this particular cruise. Going back to my original point, I'm just saying Door-to-Door is not the 'seamless' experience marketed by Silversea, when you take account of Blacklane not working and a five hour airport wait. As you say, it's great we have a choice and there were a lot of things on Silversea we really liked. Who knows, if the price and itinerary is right, we may try Silversea again, but not at current prices.

it would have been nice to have stayed on board (albeit out of the cabin) a few hours longer. It was too far ago to visit Rome en route to the airport, but there are other attractions on the way to the airport that could have been taken in. Viking arranged a tour, Seabourn and Hapag Lloyd either a day room or conference room at a hotel. I guess a flight at 15.30 isn’t a great time. Had it been later we could at least have bought a tour.

Thanks Port Power, that’s correct. Sorry for any confusion jmmiva. We dropped Blacklane in the UK but took Silversea’s airport bus transfers to and from the ship. Quite a few guests were on our later flight back to the UK. I was therefore rather annoyed that Silversea hadn’t arranged a later bus for us all.

Thanks…sadly that was exactly what I had hoped for! No Debark Tours were made available for flights at our time. There were some offered for a hefty price for those with flights departing around 17:00 or after. I guess because they were taking in some sights in Rome, which is about 90 mins or more from Civitavecchia and 60 mins from Fiumencino. Last year on Seabourn and Viking Debark Tours were free. But I think they are victim to the new cutbacks across the industry. Even Hapag Lloyd have stopped their helpful interim staging post of a hotel or conference centre. I would have been very happy being kicked out of the cabin at 8am (as is usual) and being allowed to sit on deck until 10.30 or 11am. Or even taken to a local park as a staging post. At least Fiumencino allows you to check in early (most European airports allow this only 2-3 hours before the flight). Sadly the pre-booked lounge refused to allow access due to over-capacity. So a dull long wait. As for the survey, I’d be really happy to do it, especially to mention the stand-out crew - as I know they rightly benefit - but it’s so difficult and clunky compared to other cruise lines, both on the screen and on the app. I’ve just been into MySilversea online to try feedback and can’t find a way to do it post cruise. Seabourn normally send a post-cruise email for feedback with a link, so hoping I’ll get the same.

Just got off a seven day cruise on the Silver Dawn, Barcelona to Civitavecchia. We’re normally on Seabourn (though have tried Crystal and Viking and love Hapag Lloyd). The Dawn is a beautiful ship, spotless and classily decorated. We thought the Silver Suite was an excellent space, with a great butler and room steward keeping everything perfect and surprising me with a birthday cake and balloons, which was charming. Tours were better quality than we expected, and the premium truffle hunting tour with Savini in Tuscany was the most memorable excursion we’ve ever done on a cruise, with a sublime truffle lunch. Highly recommended. We had to skip Marseille to keep ahead of storms, but this meant a lovely day at Villefranche-sur-Mer instead. A good decision by the captain. Fellow passengers were very international and mostly friendly. There were four main areas that let the cruise down. Door-to-door We’re about 70 miles from Heathrow, so using Blacklane would have cost more anyway. Quite how much we’ll never know as the website didn’t recognise our address (it’s an easy one). So after an hour struggling with it we gave up, having read disaster stories and Silversea’s bizarre refusal to accept responsibility in the Ts & Cs should the drive not turn up. We took the £150 credit instead. Now we’re at Fiumincino, dropped here 5 hours before our flight leaves and twiddling our thumbs. We brought the timing of the transfer up with Reception but they couldn’t care less. Incidentally Reception was generally unhelpful about everything. Door-to-door is anything but seamless. Food / Hospitality Whilst included wines were quite nice, food quality was often very mediocre. La Dame was pretty good with excellent service, but food was not stunning. Kaiseki was awful at lunchtime. The quality of the sushi was appalling - either dry tuna or flabby salmon. It was better in the evening and we enjoyed the surf and turf and black cod, though probably not worth the upcharge. Luckily we had a lot of OBC. S.A.L.T. was the most disappointing restaurant with dry and unrecognisable attempts at Niçoise street food and flavourless sous vide lamb. Fish at the Pool Grill was good (but tiny) at lunchtimes. Breakfast everywhere was rather dull with poor quality croissants and pastries, though I enjoyed the congee. Breakfast at Atlantis is quiet and civilised, but choice the same as room service. La Terrazza was really poor on our first day for buffet lunch; everything had hung around (except the staff who had disappeared), pies were missing pastry and the sushi looked ready to walk out. We heard someone got ill from it. In the evenings the food there was actually pretty good. But it feels like there’s a lot of cost cutting going on with ingredients. The bars were all pretty good, though they can’t make a martini cocktail at the pool bar (remember to add gin!). We liked the Arts Cafe particularly, which was well run. Hospitality / Entertainment Staff are not nearly as engaged as on Seabourn, some grumpy, many are clearly being trained, though some (e.g. Joel at the Arts Cafe and S.A.L.T Bar) were very friendly and good at their jobs. The crew and entertainment director are hardly present, whereas they are everywhere on Seabourn. In short it feels far less of a ‘family’ experience and far less fun, with fewer events. Musicians were good but the singing/dance group was amateur. Sight lines in the Venetian Lounge are woeful for what is otherwise a beautiful space. We missed the daily port talks other lines offer and helpful things like port maps. Dress Code Despite the dress code changing a few weeks back (and changing again on 21 April) no-one on board had got the message, so there was still a truly formal night. Frankly the dress code at the moment is a complete muddle requiring a PhD. Hopefully the new code will iron things out eventually. Would we go back on Silversea? Probably not, particularly given their massive price hikes. And never door to door. As someone has written on another board post, it feels more Business Class than First Class. Whether Seabourn and Hapag Lloyd are experiencing the same problems with cost cutting and staff we’ll find out in a few months! I would have given Silversea this feedback, but the in room screen was so clunky I gave up.

My first time with Silversea and trying to book Door to Door with Blacklane. I’m 65 miles from Heathrow. The Blacklane app/site couldn’t recognise my address (it’s a normal postal address recognised by every other app, not a difficult one). Couldn’t get any further than that. The website didn’t say out of range. Given the pain in the **** of spending two hours trying to get a booking and failing, all the negative reviews of booking with Blacklane, the extra cost, and Silversea’s contractual refusal to accept responsibility for their delays, I’ve gone for the £150 refund and paid for £200 parking at Heathrow. More peace of mind. BTW I couldn’t book my cabin without Door to Door. Come on Silversea, this isn’t luxury and not a good start.

Good news, thank you so much!

On Seabourn they usually have additions of prawns, chicken, chilli, scallions, soy sauce and roasted garlic plus one or two others that change daily. You will enjoy it!

Thank you!

First world question, sorry, and given all the recent reviews about Silversea I probably know the answer 😞. But one of my favourite things about cruising is…congee for breakfast. It’s a real vacation treat for me. I got hooked when working in Hong Kong over two decades ago. A perfect savoury mix of carbs and protein to fix you up for the day ahead…without the fat of bacon and eggs. Seabourn do it reasonably well (particularly if the roasted garlic is available); Viking do it (not so well). I’m on Silver Dawn in a few weeks’ time, and will be a Silversea newbie. Are there any places that offer it at breakfast please?

We were last on the Europa 2 in 2018 and it was the best cruise ship we have ever been on (we are Seabourn regulars but have tried Crystal and Viking and about to try Silversea). Beautifully designed and run ship, excellent food and service. Non German guests are very well treated by the crew and have special events. Though some German guests can’t quite understand why we are there. Simple: it’s the best cruise ship ever. Don’t expect lots of mixing, though passengers are still friendly in a formal way. Entertainment excellent (normally music or for a gin tasting the international hostess translated) and everything on the ship is immaculate. Staff were wonderful on the whole and go out of their way to help if you are not a German speaker. Few tours for English speaking guests though. Do make sure you are on a dual language ‘international’ cruise. They all used to be but some are not these days. We are on Europa 2 again late this year as our repeat cruise with Hapag Lloyd in 2020 was cancelled due to the pandemic. The destinations we have been to before but we just want the Europa 2 experience again. Wine prices were very reasonable when we were on board in 2018. In Europe there is a small on board credit for non-German guests (who are used to inclusive fares) to help out with alcohol costs. Maybe that offer is available in Australia - ask your travel agent? Some free alcoholic drinks are provided on arrival and at parties but normally even mineral water is charged for at table. We don’t have an up to date wine list - nor does Hapag Lloyd have one on line as far as I know - but if you Google “Europa 2 getränkepreise” (Europa 2 drinks prices) in a browser like Chrome with translation facilities, you will see some recent postings about rough figures. Hope that’s helpful.

Ah, Solis Ombra.