josh1324342

We just had our Grand Cayman shore excursion cancelled for our March Edge cruise, so I'm guessing that's a precursor to them cancelling that stop.  I'm hopeful they replace it with Roatan.

I forgot to mention that I really enjoyed our pre cruise day in Quito.  I thought it was a really cool city.  We did a food tour on our own and the included Silversea tour at night in downtown.  

We did the Galapagos trip last September on the Silver Origin.  It was a good trip that I would recommend.  For photography, most of the animals are easy to capture as they aren't afraid of humans at all.  It's the only place I've ever been where you have to be careful to not step on birds as the literally will not move even as you are about to step on them.  The snorkeling was the highlight of our trip for us.  We saw so many amazing animals under the ocean.  

Here are a few pictures from our trip.

Does anyone know where you can get a good milkshake on Celebrity?  As someone that doesn't drink alcohol or carbonated drinks, I'm usually struggling to find something to use my beverage package on.

4 hours ago, RachelG said:

Clearly you need a new travel agent, as they should be able to tell you all this stuff in detail.  Ours did.  The precruise hotel and flights to/from Galapagos as well as post-cruise day room and transfers were included, even with not using their air. 

Agreed about a new agent, I already have one.  But the problem with air not getting booked and the poor customer service regarding that isn't on my travel agent, it is on Silversea since they were the ones that were supposed to do the booking.  I'm scared to think of what would have happened if I didn't hound Silversea to get my flights booked.

4 hours ago, Stumblefoot said:

One thing I might suggest is consider finding a different travel agent.  I totally understand your frustration because I would have been too.  

 

 

We have already found another agent.  We weren't happy with our existing one for multiple reasons and this was the final straw.

1 hour ago, RachelG said:

Agree with stumblefoot regarding the Cloud in Antarctica.  It is amazing.

 

i was on board Origin the week prior to you.  I highly recommend doing your own air if you want to have a say in that part of the trip.  We always do ours.

 

 

I would have booked our own air as we usually do for all trips, but I wasn't sure what that would mean with the pre cruise hotel and flights to the Galapagos.  I didn't get any clear indication from my travel agent or Silversea, so we just used the included airfare.  We had read about deviations and were willing to pay for a deviation it was just the way that Silversea handled it that was frustrating to me.

Based on what I'd read on this board as well as other places I was expecting exceptional service and we just simply didn't get it throughout the process.  I'd much rather book a suite on Celebrity then go on Silversea again.  That's a great thing about cruising, there are lots of options to find what works for you.    

My wife and I recently took the Silver Origin to see the Galapagos for our 20th anniversary.  I wanted to post a quick review of our experience on the cruise and with Silversea in general.  This was our first trip to the Galapagos and our first cruise with Silversea.  Let me start with the good things.  The ship is beautiful and the staff are very friendly.  We really enjoyed the food.  The best part for us was every meal had at least one traditional Ecuadorian dish.  One thing we don't like about cruising is that it really sterilizes the travel experience as you miss out on local eateries and street food.  We felt like this cruise didn't have that issue as we got to try lots of great local food.      

The Galapagos is great as a destination.  Beautiful with lots of exotic bird life.  We got to see so many birds and other animals that are endemic to the Galapagos.  The snorkeling was the highlight of the trip for us.  We absolutely loved it.  It was by far the best snorkeling we've ever experienced.  I would recommend bringing your own wetsuit if you get cold easily.  The provided wetsuits aren't full length, so you can get pretty cold while snorkeling.  One other thing to note was all gear that we used was absolutely top notch quality.

The excursions were mostly good, with the exception of the last day.  On Friday, we toured a tortoise breeding center in the morning and then had a beach day in the afternoon.  It was a real let down after all of the great excursions we had already done on the cruise.  I didn't come to the Galapagos to see a 'zoo.'  I would have rather seen something else that was less artificial and more natural.  The beach was beautiful, but not as good of an activity as the guided walks we did most other days. 

The Covid protocols were extensive and they definitely made me feel comfortable on the ship.  Everyone received a PCR test the day before we boarded in addition to being fully vaccinated.  We had to wear masks on the Zodiacs, but it wasn't a big deal as it was pretty chilly on the water most days.  When we got off on an island we were able to take our masks off as long as no other people were around.

Now on to the things that didn't go so well.  Our pre cruise experience was not good.  We struggled to get airfare booked.  I had to repeatedly call my travel agent and Silversea to get reservations.  They finally made them when we were about 30 days from sailing.  The first set of air reservations were absolutely terrible, but they claimed we couldn't change them without penalty because we were so close to sailing.  I spend 2+ hours on the phone with my travel agent and Silversea to finally get them to admit they could be changed without penalty since they had just been issued that morning.  It was quite a frustrating experience and not the kind of customer service I would expect from a luxury cruise line.  

Another issue we had was since the website and all communication was down, we didn't know what was going on with our cruise and couldn't double check any documentation and testing requirements.  It wouldn't be such a big deal during normal times, but these aren't normal times.  Not being able to confirm anything about our booking or check requirements was frustrating.  I've definitely not been impressed with Silversea's communications on that issue. 

We had one additional issue on board.  We had specified a night to celebrate our anniversary when we booked the cruise and I had also added the details on our my Silversea booking page.  Nobody on board seemed to be aware of it and I had to ask on the last day to get a small cake to celebrate with my wife. 

None of our issues were major, but on the whole, I was just not impressed with their attention to detail.  I've had much better experiences with other cruise lines that aren't supposed to even be in the same league as Silversea.  Our next major destination for an exotic cruise is going to be Antarctica.  We will be looking for other cruise lines as we just didn't think Silversea did a good enough job with the overall experience for the price they charge.  

If you have any specific questions about the ship or excursions feel free to ask them and I will try to answer.  

8 hours ago, strawbs1 said:

I just got this response from Silversea via FB messenger.  I'd written with regard to the identical itinerary for 9/3 and 9/15.  So I guess both sailings ARE happening:

 

I can confirm that we were in the process of making the change when we encountered the system issues. Rest assured everything is still 'a go' and we will be sending out fresh information asap (hopefully early next week). I have asked my colleagues in Miami to email you the new details once we are able to. Have a good cruise! All the best, Silversea Team

There seems to be a lot of conflicting information on the 9/15 cruise.   I think what they are saying is the voyage isn't cancelled, so they don't have to refund guests their money.  It definitely appears to have had the itinerary changed to a British Isles cruise only.  From Facebook:

Silversea Cruises

5 minutes ago, bobolz said:

Josh

 

sorry to hear about your experience. I’m glad you got your flights all settled. I wonder  If the issue may have been That they had never made your air booking and were scrambling to get you on a flight just 50 days out. Not sure if you are on the same UK cruise we are, but the ticketing is still not complete for us, although the booking and the seat assignments are confirmed on the airline RLN. I’m willing to wait for them to ticket the flight because  I don’t want to be responsible for the air  if the cruise does not sail or some other issue arises , although as of July 14th , Silversea website still has this as a scheduled  sailing. I was concerned when you mentioned their comment to you about you would be responsible for any cancellation fees, not sure if that means if you make changes or if Silverseas?

 

Hope all goes well and no issues for your upcoming cruise. I believe you will enjoy the Silversea product more than your experience with the travel reservation team 

 

all the best! 

They were referring to the cancellation fee because I wanted to change flights.  We are headed to the Galapagos so it seems like the cruises will be hopefully not be cancelled.  We are looking forward to it.  It will be our first Silversea cruise.  We decided to do something special for our 20th anniversary.

23 minutes ago, Gourmet Gal said:

Yes, booking air through SS can be convoluted especially if you have certain flights in mind which will usually trigger a deviation fee.  All the drama can be alleviated if you book through a TA….they can make all the calls and perhaps would have gotten the ball rolling earlier.  I’ll bet the cruise will be a far better experience!

I would have been fine with a deviation fee, but being told that there was a cancellation fee because it was too close to my sailing really didn't sit well with me when the flights were booked this morning.  I don't feel like the rep was listening to me or my travel agent who was on the line.  I'm sure I'll forget about this experience once we're on the cruise, but I'm just frustrated today.

On 7/13/2021 at 6:02 PM, bobolz said:

Hi Josh

 

to get your record locator number you will need to call Silverseas directly. Although your air booking should show up in the details of your cruise booking, there is no RLN on MySilversea. Make sure you ask for the airlines  RLN  #, not the one that Silverseas received when they made the booking with the airline. They are 2 diff #s. Once you receive that airline RLN # you can go onto the airline website and view your booking. Most likely it willl not be formally ticketed, at least mine still is not , which is why I started this post. I was told they formally ticket 60 days out, but maybe they wont until 30 days with all of  these ever-changing travel restrictions by country. 

 

However, you should still have received a “booking”  by now for your air, unless you just booked this cruise 50 days out. 

 

Good luck

I finally managed to get air booked for our cruise.  This whole process was a nightmare.  I spent almost an hour and a half today on the phone just to get a flight that didn't leave our home airport at 12:30 am.   My tickets were just issued this morning, yet the Silversea rep insisted there would be a cancellation fee.  I've called 4 times over the last 2 week and just keep getting different excuses and answers on airfare so I'm glad it is finally done.  I really hope the cruise goes better than the booking experience.  So far Silversea's customer service is not living up to their reputation.  I would expect much better customer service from a luxury cruise line.  And to answer above, the cruise has been booked for months.  For some reason Silversea just forgot to book the air until I hounded them over the last week.

Where do you find your record locator number?  We leave in about 50 days and have seen nothing about flight information.  I called them last week and they suggested we would have flights by 30 days out.  That seems really close to me.

Has SIlversea posted a statement on whether they will require vaccinations yet?  NCL took a big step forward yesterday, just wondering if RCL/Silversea has followed suit yet.  I can't believe the CDC doesn't consider a fully vaccinated cruise sailing safe.  It will be interesting to see their response to NCL.  It really seems like the CDC should have issued 2 sets of guidance.  One is the procedures you need to follow if you have a fully vaccinated cruise and the other set should read like the ones they just published and only apply to cruises without everyone vaccinated.

4 hours ago, A Tucson Guy said:

Having sailed both Celebrity and Silverseas, in my opinion there is no comparison. Celebrity is not bad but just not a luxury cruise line. Only did Celebrity once and never wanted to go back. Just my $.02 worth. I guess right now I would take any cruise line, even Carnaval!!

We've done suites with Celebrity and the experience is quite a bit different then the regular rooms.  You've got your own dining room, lounge, and deck area which is quite nice.  If we do end up going with Silversea it will be interesting to see the difference.  We like some of the stuff on board the larger ships, but all of the ships in the Galapagos are small, so they all seem to have similar amenities onboard.

2 hours ago, taxatty said:

Welcome to Cruise Critic! Please note that we're not allowed to suggest using specific travel agencies by name on the CC boards. 

Sorry, I didn't realize recommendations were not allowed.  I knew advertising wasn't but thought it was ok to ask for recommendations.  

We are considering a Galapagos cruise for our anniversary this year.  We've never been to the Galapagos nor have we ever sailed on Silversea.  Does anybody have a good travel agent to work with for Silversea?  We usually book stuff on our own, but SIlversea doesn't seem to be readily available when I search.  We're also considering some of the Celebrity ships as we've done cruises with them before and really enjoyed the experience.  Any advice is appreciated.  Thanks.