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Other than Millie hitting rocks with her propellers in Villefranche, have there been any pod failures on the M class vessels this year?

Hubbard seems like a total crap shoot. I have no idea if our problems were really pod-related at all. They probably were, but what difference does it make if you can just as easily miss out on the Hubbard experience on a ship with no pods? Perhaps the problem is timid captains...

Drew B, I think that you are right. Our experience on Infinity last September was entirely different. At the time, Infinity was limping on its left pod and was restricted to 70% power on that pod. We entered the bay and proceeded to the bottom of the bay where the six mile face of the Hubbard Glacier was located. Infinity traversed the face from right to left for the entire six miles and I would estimate that we were crawling because it took about an hour to hour and half. We all got to see the ice in the water all around us, see and hear the calving - it was spectacular.

Just as we traversed the face of Hubbard, the Captain came on the speakers and said "If any captain says he go closer, he is lying". You could hear the cheers all around the ship in response to his message.

There may be several reasons for Infinity getting that close. There were no other vessels in the bay or at Hubbard during our entire trip to and from Hubbard. The ice in the water did not seem to be very large, although there was plenty of ice. It also could be that we were there at the right time of the year.

Pods were not an issue!

Rich, thank you, and we are really looking forward to our cruise in December on Silver Shadow. My DW loves to have me pull up the video of the Silver Suite for her to watch from the SS website.

While we have had six absolutely wonderful cruises on Celebrity this past 3 years, we do get tired of leaving the ship with a $1,000 to $1,500 credit card charge and doling out $400.00 in tips. That is why we are giving SilverSeas a try. We always have a Royal Suite on the Celebrity vessels and alway purchase insurance. We had a great comparison from our cruise on Infinity to Alaska this past September. [Great cruise, and the captain go so close to the Hubbard Glacier, so that almost could of got some of that blue ice for your martini :D.] The point of this comment is that our nine night cruise on Shadow in a larger suite than the RS on Celebrity is costing us in fare including insurance over $2,000.00 less than the fare for Infinity, and no tips and no charges for beverages.

uki er... Jeff, when we have embarked early on Celebrity, the vessel has never been crowded - since there is a very early rush, then people meander on until as late as 5:00 p.m. With one exception, our suite has always been ready, and the exception was that we had to wait until 1:00 p.m.

I agree that it is nice to be on the vessel early before the crowd - however, how can there be much of a crowd with only 386 passengers?

As can be seen from our signature, all of our cruises have been on Celebrity. Celebrity does have a definite dress policy, including formal, informal and casual. My DW and I really enjoy getting dressed up on formal nights, and we think most Celebrity pax do prefer such a policy. It just is part of the cruise experience for Celebrity pax. Sure, it involves packing additional clothes [gowns, dark suit or tux, etc.] but we have never found it to be difficult or a hardship.

Not really certain what SilverSeas or other posters here mean by "country club casual"!

We do think that it is silly to charge for early embarkation. On Celebrity, we have aways embarked at a time convenient to us. The earliest has been at 11:00 a.m. and with one exception we have embarked between 11:00 a.m. and Noon without any problem. [This despite the notation on our cruise documents that embarkation will commence at 1:00 p.m., and in one instance at 3:00 p.m.] There is no charge for this on Celebrity.

So for our very first cruise on SilverSeas, we have elected early embarkation and it is costing us $200.00. Certainly, that is a very small portion of our fare for a Silver Suite, but is a nuisance. Since we are staying in Barbados the night before the cruise, we do not want to hang around a hotel, or have to check our luggage until 3:00 p.m. SilverSeas should get rid of this charge, since it smacks of the "nickel and diming" that we are trying to avoid from Celebrity.

Neviboy and lord of the seas, I certainly do not dispute your opinions. My comparison was of the higher end suites on two different lines. One would think that the lower end suites or veranda cabins on SilverSeas would be higher because of the "all-inclusive" nature of SilverSeas.

I would take the opinions expressed above with a "grain of salt". Our experience up to this date has been quite different. We are taking our first SilverSeas cruise on Silver Shadow on 12/12/2006 out of Barbados for 9 nights. Checking various web TAs, our cruise is sold out, and has been sold out for months.

Now for some cost comparisons: We had a Royal Suite on Celebrity's Infinity for a 10 night cruise to Alaska in September. The fare on Celebrity including insurance was over $2,000.00 more than our fare on Silver Shadow for a Silver Suite including insurance [which is larger than our Royal Suite on Infinity]. On Infinity, we departed with a ship board charge on our SeaPass in excess of $900.00 for drinks, wine, etc., and gave $400.00 in tips. Those items are included in the fare for SilverSeas. When considering higher end cabins, the comparison is decidedly in SilverSeas favor.

I would be interested in hearing the data which would suggest that SilverSeas's vessels are traveling at less than full capacity - i.e., 85%, 90% or full.