The Big News

Anyone have any guesses as to when we might learn about this earth shattering announcement? I wait with bated breath!

It is indeed a contest for TA's. If they convince a client to pay in full at the time of booking, the client is entered in a draw for a free 7 night cruise. The agent is entered n a draw for a Mercedes. Yawn........

Host Dan

It is indeed a contest for TA's. If they convince a client to pay in full at the time of booking, the client is entered in a draw for a free 7 night cruise. The agent is entered n a draw for a Mercedes. Yawn........

Host Dan

Agree 100% with the wise Host Dan. In fact, it borders on being nearly or totally insulting to the customer!!! Most everyone needs some time and cushion between bookings and getting a better handle on other travel details, etc. How does this over-hyped promotion deliver more "value" or real benefit for the customer?

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

For details and visuals, etc., from our July 1-16, 2010, Norway Coast/Fjords/Arctic Circle cruise experience from Copenhagen on the Silver Cloud, check out this posting. This posting is now at 101,925 views.

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1227923

Agree 100% with the wise Host Dan. In fact, it borders on being nearly or totally insulting to the customer!!! customer?

What's new?

Perhaps indicative of a cash flow crunch.

How about 5% off (at least) for customers paying in full at booking and even another 2-3% off for not paying via credit card.

Game changer? Doesn't seem so to me.

Agree- being pressured into paying in full does not reflect well on a company offering luxury as a selling point. I thought when we moved from Carnival that these hyped up ploys were behind us. Apparently I was wrong.

Big whoop!

As I said a game changer should benefit the passengers not the company or TAs.

Totally agree wripro. Will the ta's be working for the pax or themselves???

Host Dan

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Does anyone know what penalties apply if you pay in full and want to cancel before the 120 day window? If you can get all your money back, then what harm is there in getting a chance to get a free cruise?

Obviously Ms. Bettridge OK'd this "game changer"....same category as the "free gift" sham as far as I am concerned. Really disappointed.

There was an inteview which she gave last summer where she spoke about becoming more active with TAs. This is apparently the kind of thing she was talking about.

Perhaps they'll use the up-front $$$$ to build Silver Spirit III ..

My TA tells me you just have to deposit for a cruise to be entered in the drawing for a free cruise - not full payment up front.

Who's right? Dan or my TA?

Does anyone know what penalties apply if you pay in full and want to cancel before the 120 day window? If you can get all your money back, then what harm is there in getting a chance to get a free cruise?

In true Italian tradition, money flows up.....it does not flow down. If you do not care when you get your refund, there would probably be no harm.

Does anyone know what penalties apply if you pay in full and want to cancel before the 120 day window? If you can get all your money back, then what harm is there in getting a chance to get a free cruise?

I believe it will cost $200 once you make a deposit.

My TA tells me you just have to deposit for a cruise to be entered in the drawing for a free cruise - not full payment up front.

But everyone has to make a deposit within a week or so- not sure that would make any sense.

Well, this was a non event! At least it was not news they were being bought Carnival or Royal Caribbean.

In true Italian tradition, money flows up.....it does not flow down. If you do not care when you get your refund, there would probably be no harm.

Is that some sort of an Italian slur? What other nationalities do you feel comfortable insulting? Just curious.

Well, I'm thinking of the catholic church, mafia, and a friend waiting over ten months for a $7,000 refund from Silversea.

If you want to take something as a slur, that's up to you. As an Italian, and former catholic I do not see the big deal.

I have to say this one seems very silly to me.

What is the incentive of the passenger to pay full?

If they want passengers to pay in full, they should do something for the guest. Sure they can also give a little (little is the key word) to the TA but the major incentive should be to the guest.

Like I said, this seems very silly to me.

Keith

This settles it for me.

My next cruise to book is LA to SYD or SIN to CPT. The latter was not SS but the former was offered by at least three cruise lines including SS.

I had to make a decision by the first July if I was picking SS because we'll be aboard the Cloud then and I could put down a floating deposit and get the discount on the next cruise.

I won't bother. Corporate's behaviour has me very nervous and is reminding me it is time for us to widen our experiences with luxury lines. They don't seem very loyal to me and I'm not one for unrequited loyalty. I've got my 100 days with SS so will get a discount on any future cruise I book with them. But until corporate starts treating the customers better, I think I'll ask my travel agent which of the other lines she recommends.

Don't know what all the fuss is about. We've paid in full at time of booking before to get suite priority on legs of a world cruise. Cancelled and got full refund less the $100/per admin charge within 1 week. If you find otherwise you'd better look for a new TA.

Silversea's incentive program reminds me that, until recently, they did little to no advertising and bookings had to be done through travel agents. If you didn't have one, they could recommend one. They must have had a very strong industry network.

Now that passengers can book direct and online, agent bookings are less of a factor, so that network is probably much weaker. Fewer travelers bother to use agents now, so it's harder for Silversea to compete with other lines and acquire their business. A good travel agent knows the industry and can tell a client that "Silversea is the line for you!" Not so easy, however, when Silversea's direct-to-passenger advertising has to rely on discounts! free drinks! butler service! and other amenities that aren't exclusive to their line or, worse, can't effectively or accurately convey their luxury lifestyle to a very, very general public. Many non-luxury lines promote luxury experiences, so how's a new cruiser to know the difference between Silversea, Celebrity, NCL?

Canadian Kate, have you looked at Crystal? We're about to take our first cruise with them next month, a quick 5-day NYC-Halifax. We (very sadly) cancelled our Silversea cruises and already have several Crystal voyages on the books. Can't wait! The ships are larger than SS's little gems, but it seems that the experience doesn't feel "big ship" at all. I hope you'll visit their board to learn about their really fine dining, superb service, substantial enrichment programs, etc., etc. etc.

Wow, what an interesting discussion we've had --- all based on what a member Heard from a TA who'd Heard (presumably from SS) about a big announcement to be made on 2 April.

I think a lawyer would call that second-hand hearsay (or hearsay on hearsay.) And that same lawyer would explain that the reason why hearsay is generally not allowed in court is because of its inherent unreliability.

I have searched these boards and the news section of this website. I have searched the SS website. I have searched Google News. Nowhere did I find anything first-hand from the cruise line saying anything about a big announcement or a game changing event.

Indeed, I did read that a couple of our fellow members did contact the cruise line and were told that no big announcement was planned.

So I'm having a very hard time understanding why I should blame Silversea (or Italy, the mafia or the catholic church) for the fact that this rumor which was based on second-hand hearsay turned out to be less than completely accurate.

I'd also caution that we still have conflicting information (still based on hearsay) regarding the latest "news." Some report that it is a lottery for TAs who can con their clients into paying in full at the time of booking. Some report that it is a lottery for any TA who gets a deposit on any booking. Some report that the clients who participate in the incentive are also entered into a drawing.

All this brings me to agree with Doug that there is nothing here to get excited about and that the best way for me to sort all this out is to work with my expert Travel Agent. I'm certainly not going to cancel bookings or shift my loyalty away from Silversea because the "big announcement" I learned about through hearsay didn't turn out to be so big.

BTW -- Like Doug, I have cancelled a SS booking and my deposit refund was credited on my next credit card statement

Bogey: my refund experience was that I was waitlisted for two segments on the 2013 world cruise. Up until a few days before the deadline to pay in full, my waitlist had not cleared. Because of health issues that had arisen after making the deposit, I decided to cancel since I couldn't manage the travel home from SYD (travel to LA was doable and the cruise would be wonderful rejuvenation but the long flight home would not be manageable.) So we canceled. SS was happy to refund our deposit, less a 3% credit card fee.

My original receipt from SS made no mention of any fees if I canceled before making final payment and so my TA had to escalate the issue with SS. I did get the full refund, on the next credit card statement, but the experience left me a bit gun-shy. Remember, they had had my deposit of over $5K for over 2 months at that point, I was still only waitlisted so didn't have a confirmed cruise yet they wanted to penalize me for canceling an unconfirmed booking.

I still had a $1000 floating deposit so I knew I had to make a booking and we settled on a cruise and have booked and paid in full. So that is settled, but in the past years we've seen a lot of corporate policy changes that make us wonder about the line. Thus, our decision to widen our horizons and try another luxury line.

The decisions that annoy me the most? The automatic charity charge, the Christmas "gift", the splitting of what I consider 'short' cruises into two segments after advertising them as a single cruise, and the changes to the amount of the deposit and the due dates. We've also seen many changes in the luxury touches (no more free caviar on demand, for example, changed after our first cruise and I had to escalate the delivery of our 100 day pins because they did not arrive automatically by mail at home after being told on board that they would. Being given an empty gift bag was awkward enough without having the promised gift not arrive.)

I'd complain about the removal of the ship-board credits except they weren't there when we started cruising with SS so that would not be fair. But we will miss them! I also missed my non-alcoholic wine and champagne on my last cruise. Still not sure if that is a permanent change or not. My next cruise will answer that question.

Seafairer: we'll be choosing between Crystal and Seabourn, or perhaps one of each! Crystal has the itinerary we need to get back to Capetown. (Our current travel goal is to sail around the world and we just have the trans-pacific back to Sydney and something from Australia to Capetown left to do.)