yayoye

I would have laughed off teaspoons but dealing with poor service day after day got tiring fast. I did fill in the mid cruise questionnaire and staff did respond. If I paid a lot of money for a Silversea cruise and experienced chasing down items as often as you did, I would have called it poor service too on a cruise that calls itself luxury. My prior experiences on Silversea going back to perhaps 2014 is that staff were always at the ready and proactive about things like water and drinks. Upon embarking Silver CIoud in 2022 after an absence of 3 years, my companion was recognized by the bar tender and told his favourite beer was on the way without even being ordered. That was the old Silversea. And an excursion guide breaking the law is certainly worthy of complaint in my mind. But yes- everyone has their own tolerance level. I also sailed on Celebrity Summit in 2022 and have absolutely no complaints about the service.

RE: Oceania issues - I won't mention them all as no one here wants a 9 page letter! Just a few points. We had afternoon tea twice. The first time we had to chase down teaspoons. We asked 3 times and finally got up and found them ourselves. The second time, the water for the tea was cold. I saw them remove an entire urn of water after we complained so obviously they did not put boiling water in it for tea. We had issues with virtually all of the excursions - one guide broke the law (which we found out after the fact), one guide shorted us 1 hour on the excursion - 30 minutes of which was time at the highlighted site; and in Istanbul the guide did not want to allow any bathroom breaks on a 5 hour tour and, because the tour started late due to Turkish immigration, he wanted to cut out the visit to the Grand Bazaar on the basis we would return late to the ship. Yes, but we started late and the ship was not departing Istanbul until the following day. Everyone complained and he finally completed the tour. These were Oceania ship tours which we paid for. Every bottle of white wine was warm - not room temperature, but actually warm. Two bottles of red wine were corked. I was not "allowed" to order a bottle of wine from the Jacques restaurant wine list when we ate in the steak restaurant. Why not? I was paying for it and I was told previously that all the wines are stored centrally. The steak teriyaki in Red Ginger was inedible and certainly not teriyaki flavoured (I am ethnically Japanese). To give the chef credit, he came out to see what was wrong when notified that we wouldn't be eating the steak. He admitted that he had trained in Japan and that he knew it was not a good teriyaki recipe, but he had to cook the "corporate recipe". The staff were nice and many tried their best, but these and many other issues just kept cropping up. This is a small sample of the issues we encountered. There were many more.

I filled in the end of cruise survey by logging in to one of the 2 actual computers by the excursion desk on Silver Nova. It took me 45 minutes to add in all my comments. I had to stand while doing it as there are no seats to use these computers. There is a real keyboard however, which is why I used them to fill in the survey. There was a specific box for crew recognition.

Yes - sorry about not being clear enough and not posting a link. You have the right company. They are insurance brokers and can offer insurance from many different companies. I like the fact that I can call them and talk to a knowledgeable human.

In the last 2 years I've been on a 25 day Silver Dawn transatlantic crossing, a 10 day Mediterranean cruise on Oceania, and I just completed a 16 night cruise on Silver Nova from Fort Lauderdale to Lima. The Silver Dawn crossing was wonderful and just like the Silversea I expected. The Oceania cruise was so bad I wrote a 9 page letter of complaint to the President of the company (and got no response - not even a form letter of acknowledgement of receipt). However, even though the Silver Nova cruise was much better than the Oceania cruise, it was not up to the standards of the 2022 cruise on the Dawn. Note that all of these are post covid and post acquisition of Silversea by RCCL. My assessment is that Silversea went from First Class to Business Class. My main concern is that while you can get pretty much anything you ask for, you need to know to ask and sometimes you need to ask the most senior staff person to get it. Many aspects of the cruise were great and most of the staff were excellent, but some seemed to understand that they could have done things the old, proactive way, but were now constrained by corporate rules such that they had to wait to be asked. Also the excursions were never more than 25 people in 2022, but in 2024, 40 became the norm, or perhaps even a few more if the buses could hold more. Included excursions are no longer a luxury experience. Staff became more sensitive to my concerns following the mid cruise survey, but I was also highly encouraged to fill in the end of cruise survey as comprehensively as possible as that is the survey that goes to head office. I have another cruise booked for this September on the Muse and hope that all of the changes will not have filtered down to that ship. I also have another cruise booked on the Muse for 2025. This is the first time I did not book a future cruise while on board. I am now willing to try other cruise lines.

Best Quote is a good broker for all kinds of travel insurance. They have a website, but you can also phone them for a good walkthrough of the options and for any questions. They offer insurance from a lot of different companies. They are in Vancouver, but I live in Ontario and they have good knowledge of the Ontario situation so I assume they are good for any Canadian resident.

Thanks!

I used Blacklane offered by Silversea as part of my door to door cruise in May 2022. I live in Toronto Canada, so the service is offered in Canada, at least in Toronto. I did have to make a change to my reservation, which was "klugey" as I had to cancel the original booking and then use the link in the Silversea email I received again with the link to Blacklane, to book a new transfer. That was the instruction given in the email to make changes to an existing reservation and it worked just fine. The driver was early on the outbound trip. On the incoming trip, my flight was delayed due to issues with overcrowding at Pearson. Nevertheless, the driver was at the airport. We did have to communicate by phone due to changes to pickup points at the terminal. No other issues.

I want to confirm that despite all of the photos of Balcony cabins on Riviera showing a queen bed, twin bed configuration is available in the cabins. Can this be confirmed please? I am specifically interested in Category B1 Verandah Stateroom. Twin beds are a must.

Ok - so I am female and short, but just as a reference to the unisex sizes, I found a Medium to be the right size. I wore it in May of this year. I am usually a Women's size 12. This was the recommended size according to the sizing chart. I would recommend taking an XL if that's your normal size or check the sizing chart carefully. Leave the tags on so you can swap it out if necessary.

You can taste the wine offered and decline it if you don't like it. We used the sommelier extensively on our recent cruise and he made excellent suggestions from the standard offerings. We just asked to talk to him if we didn't like what was first offered. There was a decent white from Burgundy (Macon-Bussieres Les Clos 2019) which I often had instead of the white which was offered. Also there was a interesting red from Sicily which was surprising. We also were offered a Pouilly Fume when we didn't like what was offered. Also a Vouvray was on offer. For reds, I liked the Nero d'avola based Sicilian wine, Colosi, and there was a nice Valpolicella and a Bordeaux, as well as a Tempranillo. If you like sauterne, there was decent dessert wine from Bordeaux, but not the Sauterne appellation, on offer from the standard list. There seemed to be more South American and Australian wine offered first with the occasional European offering. I tend to prefer European, hence the request to see the sommelier. There was some nice wine on the "revenue" list which you have to pay for. We had a bottle of vintage Port from that list (Quinta de la Rosa 2009) and a premier cru Burgundy (for which I can't find the details). Hope that helps.

Just off of the Silver Cloud June 1 at Southampton. The hotel used was Conrad London St. James. Bus service from the ship to the hotel was provided.

There were 2 bars of soap in the bathroom on Silver Cloud (May 14 to June 1 cruise).

I just got off the Silver Cloud on June 1 in Southampton (did a lot of the same ports but in reverse order to you). Our hotel was the Conrad London St. James. I know that a lot of the people heading off to the Silver Cloud for the next leg, were also at the Conrad. However, the traffic on June 2 going to Heathrow was tricky due to closed streets for the Trouping of the Colour parade. My cruise was Halifax Canada to Southampton via Greenland. I found the ship and the crew to be terrific. I also really appreciated the way the captain navigated the tricky weather from Greenland to Scotland. The ship was in good condition and I did not notice any cigarette smell in the public areas. The smokers seemed to confine themselves to the Connoisseur Lounge. I had no issues with the transportation provided by Silversea at either end of the trip.

I am sailing on the Summit in 2 days. Some YouTube videos indicate that Celebrity supplies binoculars in the Aqua class cabins. Is that still true? I am considering leaving mine at home if so. Any recent info, i.e. since the start of sailing this year, would be much appreciated.