Ricksherry

First of all let me say that we were new to Silversea. We have been on several other lines, Holland American, Regent, Carnival and SeaDream. We boarded in San Juan with little to no trouble. Check in was easy. Our luggage arrived in very short order.

Then our issues started. Most of the restaurant reservations that I had made on line were not correct on board. One was completely left out and on another night we had 2 for the same night. The person we had confirming them on board could not have cared less. Nothing he could do he said. We were to hear that same refrain more than once on this cruise. So he cancelled the duplicate reservation and waitlisted us for the one that had simply disappeared and the one we had to cancel. We did not get to go to either of those restaurants.

Silversea advertises the Butler service. Our butler was very nice and personable but didn't really do anything for us that room service couldn't do. He didn't come to our room until after the survival drill. We had already unpacked since we didn't see any sense in waiting around for him to show up. He did bring us some sparkling water and some gin and kept us in a supply of limes for the cruise which was nice. Our suite attendant was great. Room was always kept. Beds were awesome.

Met up with other "critics" at the Meet and Mingle. Met WendyG and Ron, Paul and Jane.

Went to St. Barts then St. Maarten. We had been to both places before. Did the Orient Beach shore excursion from the ship and it was fine. But this is where our second issue arose. We had booked the beach tour for the morning and the yacht race for the afternoon on line. Well, they informed us that the yacht race was going to be in the morning. So, we had to choose which one we wanted to do. AND, they would not refund the money for the one we could not do. I told them that if they really thought we were going to pay for something we could not do because their online schedule was wrong they were nuts. They continued to stick to their story for a couple of days when we got a call that to "avoid the drama" they would not make us pay. Really? To avoid the drama.... We also did the ATV tour at Samana and it was fun like Wendy said. The island is beautiful but not a great port. The tour itself was like one we could have had on other, mid price cruise lines. Guide took us to a waterfall with no water but there were obviously some of his buddies who tried to accompany you on the short walk, then asked for money at the end. At the end of the tour took us to a beach bar, again not great. There were two other bars on the same beach we drove past and they all had people at them and looked like a party was going on but where he took us we were the only group there. The owners made some weak pina coladas and coco locos. It was really kind of depressing. Seems like a luxury line like Silversea could come up with something better but maybe not at that port.

The third issue came up when we got back to our room and found our spa appointments had been changed from the day at sea to a day earlier. And of course, the day at sea was now fully booked. Again, we had made these on line for exactly that reason. We were ok with the rescheduled services but while we were talking to the spa lady about it, we found out that 2 other spa services had been scheduled for us for the day at sea. Services we never ordered. By this time, we had had enough of their online system. However, I suppose we should be grateful that the day at sea was a popular spa day, otherwise we might have had to pay for the new, unmade appointments!!!

The ship is beautiful. We loved the different venues, bars, public spaces. Our service was always top notch other than the online issues. The bar service in Panorama could be a little slow but that would be the only thing we would complain about. The staff is very nice and friendly.

Stars was a little silly in our opinion on the food side, not much to it really. Certainly not worth a surcharge. We thought the food was very good everywhere else. Food service as also great.

Entertainment was also very good.

Debarkation was smooth for us. But again, our butler never said a word about packing for us.

Overall, would we do Silversea again? Only for an itinerary that fit exactly where we wanted to go and when we wanted to go. We would not become regulars on Silversea, in our opinion, they oversell their services and then don't deliver. We should not have had to even discuss the excursion scheduling conflict. It simply was not our fault which they admitted and still insisted we pay for a couple of days. The online issues must be dealt with.

We enjoyed our cruise. We might be back.

Yes, we were on that cruise with Vandrefalk, even the day before at the hotel in Antigua. She was very well taken care of by the crew. We were so impressed not only by that but the way she hung in there the entire cruise.