Comparing the big 4 luxury lines

We have now done the big 4 luxury cruise lines. Here are some thoughts. The Crystal Symphony was our first cruise 5 years ago, so they may have changed some of their policies. Other ships were the Radisson Mariner and Voyager, Seaborne Spirit and SilverSea Silver Shadow.

Crystal had the best afternoon tea and they have the best casino with the only full size craps table on the 4 lines and with proper odds (run by Caesars). I did not like having to sign for everything, even Cokes. With no booze in the room there was a lot of signing for us. Dinner has assigned seating. With almost 1,000 people on board, there were sometimes short lines at the lunch buffet and lines for tendering and disembarking the ship.

Seaborne was such a small ship, it was more like a mega-yacht than a cruise ship. Some people will love that, some won’t. It did not feel crowded, even though there were only a few public spaces. One day they opened up the back of the ship and we swam in the Mediterranean. They had ski boats, banana boats and other toys. They did the best tendering, since they did not use the slow life boats. They had separate speed boats for tendering so it was much more efficient and comfortable. They can also handle very demanding people. One lady we met brought her personal soup recipe and had the chef make some for her every night for dinner. This they did with a smile. The Chef even came to her table a few nights to make sure it was as she liked it. We are not demanding people so some of the available service is lost on us. That makes this line less of a value to us than to some others. It is nice being smothered in service though. The officers on this ship were friendly, ate dinner with passengers almost every night and were seen walking around the ship.

SilverSea was the perfect size ship for me. Big enough to be stable and have lots of public spaces, but not so big that you had a crowd of people. The service, like Seaborne was truly top notch. Again, somewhat lost on us as we are not demanding people. I never saw the officers in the dining room eating with passengers or walking around the ship. They seemed very standoffish. The Silver Shadow and Silver Whisper have serious tendering limitations (don’t know about Cloud and Wind). Can’t tender unless seas are very still.

Of the 4 we feel more comfortable with Radisson. Their passengers seem a touch younger (we’re 45) and it’s a little less expensive than the others. They put 2 bottles of booze in the room and have some wines by the glass included with dinner. You only have to sign for bar drinks (Cokes are included). I wish they would take the next small step to all inclusive. The service level is not quite up to Seaborne or SilverSeas, but it is plenty good for us. The crew on the Voyager was friendly and ate dinner with passengers and were seen around the ship. The Mariner crew was French and only some were friendly. The casinos have a mini craps table but the odds are unacceptable.

Overall if you are demanding and want extra service or really want the all-inclusive style, then Seaborne and SilverSea are the better choice. If you are not as demanding then Radisson is the best value. Crystal is only good if you like the old style of cruising with assigned seating and don’t mind signing for everything.

You are absolutely right on! I, too, have been on all four of the lines you mentioned. Each one was fantastic in its own right. However, I don't think I will ever repeat Crystal. It was too much of a "large ship" impersonal feel to it. besides, the assigned seating can fell like a cattle call and too regimented. With many different cabin catagories, there is a tendency to detract from a "like minded" overall passenger mix....some are paying $200/day while others are paying $700/day. (SS and SB psgrs are all around the same price point at $500 to $600 pppd) SS and SB are a bit more polished and refined than Radisson. I think if I were with a group or extended family Radisson would be most appealing. If I want privacy and solitude in my cabin I'd go with Silverseas--their balconies are lovely as are the baths and walk in closets. If I am leaning towards being more social, you can't beat the small ship environment on Seabourn. The fellow passengers are unobtrusive, yet because of the limited choices in public spaces, one tends to see the same faces more often and "bond" with others more easily. SS and SB both have amazing service. This fall I am giving Seadream a shot for a week. We'll see what I think of it relative to the others.

We have cruised many times but on lesser lines, until this March, when we cruised on SS. (Actually, years ago we cruised on the old Radisson , with all suite accomodations, etc. twice.) The SS experience was very comparable to the old Radisson, walk in closets etc., but not all inclusive. Lately I have noticed on various sight I frequent that a number of the larger ships, (x, Hal) still have some Med cruises available. When you look at their pricing and add on, drinks, spa services, wine with dinner and lunch, they actually become more expensive than some of the SS cruises I have found. How is that possible.

We all need to keep booking . Happy sailing to all!!!!!!

Warm Regards,

Shannon

When you look at their pricing and add on, drinks, spa services, wine with dinner and lunch, they actually become more expensive than some of the SS cruises I have found. How is that possible.

 

Shannon

It is possible if you heavily discount the prices and lower the quality to meet the new prices. If you do not reduce quality you go bust eventually. That is what SS are doing to increase the volume.

Just back from the Silver Shadow, July 29-August 4 Rome to Venice, and as an experienced Radisson Seven Seas cruiser I have to say that the service was no better than Radisson's--and actuallly Radisson's officers had more latitude to do "make goods" where problems arose (e.g., our suite had a bad odor when we arrived; it had been inhabited by an elderly couple who, we were told, rarely left the cabin and apparently missed making it to the bathroom a few times--the female concierge did not handle the problem with the appropriate concern and "make-goods," particularly in light of the fact that the smell persisted for several days despite repeated cleanings). We fully expected clearly superior service, but in fact experienced some quite sour or otherwise less than helpful/personable staff on the Shadow, but also some superb staff. Based on our experience, Silversea's reputation for service superior to Radisson's is not reflective of current reality.

Both are very good, with some problems. (Interestingly, we found that crewmembers who had just been or were going on vacation were excellent, while several of those who hadn't/weren't were less than pleasant and professionall.) The biggest advantage of Silversea we experienced was the all-inclusive inclusion of non-premium alcohol and especially caviar.

Silversea's staff, we were told, has no authority to provide any freebies or discounts in response to problems on board, unlike RSSC staff, which in our experience have always responded swiftly and appropriately when problems arose. Modern standards of "total quality management" teach that all staff are to be empowered to please the custormer, but Silversea is family run and apparently its staff have no such authority.

Thanks JPR, sad to read your note.

No sesnible person should expect perfection and you'll always get some things going wrong where humans are involved, but there is clearly a systemic set of issues here, which all fans of SS hope they get cured. Your comment concerning the withdrawal of on-ship managements' empowerment further supports concerns with respect to head-office management's increasing centralised cost-cutting endevours.

You particularly specify "inclusive non-premium" - I'm not certain whether that is a change but although I don't drink much I certainly specified brands on previous cruises with no problems - so this looks like another small step if true.

Just a correction. SS is no longer family run. It was family started but the CEO is Albert Peters who is not a family member, but there to get things on an even financial keel.

Jeff

I am just guessing, the "non-premium" wine referred to may mean those not on the "connoiseur list", is that so?

As for not offering "make goods", does it mean they did not change your bedding, towels, supplies, etc., or they did not fully "disinfect" your cabin at your request, or they did not give you a discount or shipboard credit in view of the inconvenience you have suffered? Thank you.

I didn't notice him mentioning wine, other than in the fact that wine is considered an "alcohol"

Maybe just an added word.

Oops

Having just completed sailing on all four premium lines over the last 12 months here are my impressions:

Crystal: Great service nice food (Lido was terrible), not worth the heavy price tag of a balcony vs all inclusive lines

Radisson: Perfect if you want a larger ship experience with great cabins.

Seabourn: Small outdated ship, but perfect food and service. Most intimate of the group.

Silversea: Great ships, lovely cabins. The perfect size wise between small and larger ships.

Would rank Seabourn and Silversea top followed by Radisson and lastly Crystal.

JT

JPR-If I could take a wild guess, I suspect the less than helpful female concierge was Anna. She was very rude to us on our cruise and should never have been promoted from international hostess...a non-customer service oriented person in a very prominent service position. Silversea should take note.

Yup, the Silver Shadow's "concierge" (dishonoring the august title) was indeed "Stonewall" Anna, as we ended up referring to her. Thanks. Now I can confirm that it wasn't meant personally! (Perhaps she was "kicked upstairs"--the new international hostess is delightful; I can't imagine Anna would be competent in in any position that involves contact with guests...)

By "make good" I merely meant perhaps comping the laundry and/or couple bottles of premium wine I ordered on the cruise (less than $100) as a token. The attempts to "disinfect" or otherwise remove the odor from the cabin simply did not work. After about 5 days it significantly improved, but that's simply not acceptable. The irony is that Anna claimed they could not comp the laundry charges, but during the cruise their promotional agent said that if you sailed with them ten times you get free laundry on your next cruise! (I thought that was tacky, but figured what we had to go through with our cabin merited the same consideration).

Silverseas provides an excellent choice of complimentary alcohol, including Absolut and Bombay (I believe it's extra for Gray Goose, Bombay Sapphire, but I never ordered them--I know they charge for super-premium cognac, etc.). Here's something weird: they charge an unbelievable $20 for a snifter of Maker's Mark bourbon (about what a fifth retails for) in the cigar lounge. However, they gave me for free a full bottle of Maker's Mark in the suite!

JPR,

I have just returned fron the Shadow and did experience Anna who I must say did look after us for the disembarkation.We wanted to have a day in Barcelona because our flight was at six o'clock in the evening and we wanted to leave our luggage on the ship.we put our problem to the reception girls who told us that the tour desk co-ordinates the disembarkation.After two days Heidi the tour manager rang to say that the Concierge would store our luggage in a locked safe place and to my surprise we were not asked to pay for a late disembarkation.We took a shuttle bus into town and had a good look around Barcelona then returned to the cruise terminal by taxi.Standing at the terminal was Anna who accompanied us back to the ship and we changed and were given water and Anna arranged for the Bell Captain to take our luggage into the terminal and get us a taxi.Anna was very nice and professional and could not do enough for us.I do think that we all encounter different levels of service on different days so looking at these boards gives us a big picture whether good or bad and for me it is interesting.

I did happen to hear that Anna might be promoted to Cruise Director within Silversea,but we will have to see.

John

JPR:

We will be going on our first Silverseas cruise this fall.

When do you choose the alcohol you want in your stateroom and how much of a premium would it be to switch from Absolut to Grey Goose.

Thanks,

Mike

JPR wrote in part:

>>By "make good" I merely meant perhaps comping the laundry and/or couple bottles of premium wine I ordered on the cruise (less than $100) as a token. The attempts to "disinfect" or otherwise remove the odor from the cabin simply did not work. After about 5 days it significantly improved, but that's simply not acceptable.<<

To me, it would be unacceptable to stay in a stateroom that smelled like, ahem, poop. (In his initial post, JPR explained that an elderly guest not making it to the bathroom in time was the source of the smell.) No token would make up for the unpleasant ambiance of the stateroom. Well, perhaps a veinous drip of Grey Goose, with a bottle hung from an apparatus on one's shoulder, might do.

If no other staterooms were available, I suppose there is no recourse. But, it is simply unacceptable to put someone on any cruise, let alone Silversea, in a room that has had an unremediable potty accident.

--Rich

When we were on the Whisper in Dec there was no additional charge for Grey Goose. That's what my wife requested in the room.

We wrote our selections on the form that our TA gave us under special considerations. There was no place on the form specifically for the alcohol you prefer in your room.

JPR:

 

We will be going on our first Silverseas cruise this fall.

 

When do you choose the alcohol you want in your stateroom and how much of a premium would it be to switch from Absolut to Grey Goose.

 

Thanks,

 

Mike

mikeMoga,

I have just got back from SS Shadow.The cabin stewardess came to our suite within one minute of our arrival and asked what we would like in stock in the way of drink and we had exactly what we wanted, all premium brands and not a mention of a charge.And if you want Champagne ,ask for the Perrier Jouet which I think is much better than the Pommery that the Stewardess supplies

John

JPR-I forgot to add that Silversea staff on board ARE empowered to make things good. Anna simply chose not to go in that direction. We were on the Wind two years ago and our Vista suite was right next to the laundry. We could not cool the cabin sufficiently and the laundry door was permanently propped open. We spoke to the conceirge about the heat and noise (also mentioned it was our anniversary) and she (a different female concierge!) upgraded us to a Silver Suite. She spoke to the Captain to get his approval, but my point is that some staff do go out of their way to help. Others (case in point) could not care less.

First, the suite smelled like antiseptic covering up urine in a nursing home, not "poop."

Second, to be both fair and precise, the Silver Shadow was indeed full for our cruise. However, we were offered first-night-only move to a twin-bedded suite three decks away (the occupants were arriving the next day, late) and, three nights later, we were offered a move to another suite three decks away that had been vacated by another couple that had to leave early. We turned down the first move because of the hassle of moving for just one night and because our kids were next door, and we hoped the ship's housekeeping department could eliminate the smell. We turned down the second move because by then we were ensconced, the smell was finally beginning to disappear, and again because we would be several decks away from our kids.

But it did significantly diminish the pleasure of the first 4 days of the cruise.

Since we had to endure the problem (hopping suites for just the first night made no sense to us, though we would have accepted a permanent switch had it been offered), I thought that comping our laundry and wine would have been a no-brainer. It would have amounted to just about $175.

Anna said she had no authority to do any such "comps," but that we could feel free to file a complaint after the cruise.

JPR

And have You?

John

Yes, I submitted comprehensive comments on the form they give you, right after the cruise, and am also sending an e-mail directly to the Silversea Manager of Guest Relations, Frank Sansone, at Frank@silverseacruises.com

One other telling story I neglected to mention: the Silver Shadow had no limes left on board for the final 24 hours of the cruise, despite the fact that we were docked in Venice and anyone could have picked up a few dozen!

To be fair, I also have praised Colin, the Cruise Director (always friendly and helpful), as well as the super restaurant staff, led by the Maitre D' (exception: head waiter wasn't so hot), waiters and sommelier/wine staff.

Yes, I submitted comprehensive comments on the form they give you, right after the cruise, and am also sending an e-mail directly to the Silversea Manager of Guest Relations, Frank Sansone, at Frank@silverseacruises.com

One other telling story I neglected to mention: the Silver Shadow had no limes left on board for the final 24 hours of the cruise, despite the fact that we were docked in Venice and anyone could have picked up a few dozen!

 

To be fair, I also have praised Colin, the Cruise Director (always friendly and helpful), as well as the super restaurant staff, led by the Maitre D' (exception: head waiter wasn't so hot), waiters and sommelier/wine staff.

JPR,

When Frank Sansone worked for Seabourn / Cunard, he was very accessible. Good luck with your inquiry!

Host Dan

By far the Seabourn even much small gives the best service. I don't know if any of you have had the top offices say good morning by name or not. Or the captain comes over to your breakfast table on the veranda and askes if he might join you. Then after a few min. he askes what kind of improvements could be made on board. Here you talking to the horses mouth. What a please that almost all crew know you by name. Yes there are some down falls but by far the service out shines over all the rest. S and J

Currencies- Which would you rate as second after Seabourn? The no real balcony is a deal breaker for me.

But the times you go on a balcony you could put on your shot glass. Don't get me wrong a balcony is nice but not a deal breaker for me. If you want a balcony go on the celebrity ships on the stern with a hot tub and 500 sf a corner balcony we did that to russia. That was a balcony