From the Silver Shadow

Actually from an internet cafe in Puerto Vallarta as the set up on the ship is is so slow I gave up. In any evet $2 an hour beats 75 cents a minute.

The ship is beautiful and we are having a very nice time. Embarcation was the worst of any cruise we have been on. The thought among many is it was intentional to encourage paying for early bording. It could not have been that bad just by ineptness. After being in 3 lines we finally boarded and shook hands with the cruise director and expected someone to then show us to our cabin, perhaps offer a glass of something. Nothing. We wandered around and found our cabin and went in and no luggage although it had been deposited with them 3 hours earlier. So we wandered about the ship and found two more lines and asked someone what they were for and they said they were for ID pictures which no one told us about, so after another line we went back to our cabin. At 4 pm, many people were quite hungry and hit the afternoon tea only to find that they were overwhelmed and there were no plates, and just a couple of cookies out. Lots of grouching as many people had not had lunch.

In any event things have improved since then. Food is quite good and room service (yes Denyse you were right) is excellent. Overall we still give the edge to Crystal in our overall experience thus far, but the cabins on Silver Shadow are definitely nicer. More later. 80 degrees and beautiful here.

Gary

Gary,

Hmmm...we thought Silversea had the smoothest embarkation ever (the Shadow in San Francisco), and we were greeted a la Seabourn with champagne, and invited to dine on deck upstairs while we waited for our luggage, which arrived without incident. Everything was smooth and quite welcoming.

To be honest, IMHO, Crystal, isn't even comparable to Silversea, and should be taken out of the luxury category. In all respects, Crystal was the worst cruise we have ever taken, and we have never returned. It was also the slowest and most incompetent embarkation procedure.

I'm sure you will ultimately enjoy the Shadow, and will find it far superior to Crystal. At least your wrist won't go numb from signing for drinks! Enjoy!

Regards,

Denyse

To each their own I guess. Things have improved since the first day but we still see many positives with Crystal, although we are enjoying our trip very much. Le Champagne was wonderful and we have dined in the Terrace twice and it is also great.

In Cabo today and it is warm but pleasant. Only here about 3 hours net so must get going.

Gary

Gary, I had a feeling you would settle in just fine! Glad things have improved, and I'm sure you are enjoying your suite. The Shadow is a lovely ship (and the bbc's are excellent!).

Regards,

Denyse

Oh dear ! We are sailing on her from April 2nd. Monte carlo to Rome for the first time, after 3 RSSC Voyagers and 2 Mariners. Embarking seems unpleasant a routine. We stay in Nice and embark next day at our leisure about 2 or 3 p.m. Looking forward to your next post. Slow internet. Mmmm!

neviboy,

i have been on several SS cruises (whisper, shadow, cloud) and embarkation has NEVER taken more than five minutes, if that. I would hazard a guess that the problem stated above was an aberation and should not be considered typical.

We returned today and unfortunatley disembarkation was even worse than embarkation. I believe all your pleasant experiences but such is not the case in San Diego-perhaps non SS ground staff. We made our flight by 5 minutes and one of our bags is somewhere, but not in Sacramento. We have arrived a number of times in San Diego on other cruise lines and were always at the airport by 9 am. Shadow pulled in at 7 am and we did not begin disembarkation until 9:45. Rumor was that one woman did not sign the bottom of her immigration form and the crew apparently could not find her to sign it. HAL Statendam, with 1300 passengers was finishing disembarkation along side us as we were just beginning. Adding to the difficulties, they placed all the baggage in another tent out at the end of the pier (wrong direction) so it had to be retrieved from there and taken about a block to try and get a cab. Enough whining about getting on and off the ship but it was not a fun experience at all.

I enjoyed the ship very much. The food was good, coffee was dismal (can't get Peets everywhere), and we liked the all inclusive approach. It was fun trying some wines we would otherwise not try. The two specialty restaurants were very nice and the service excellent. Baked goods seemed stale and overcooked and were always disappointing no matter which restaurant. Service in the dining room was sometimes very good and sometimes not but we were fortuntate in meeting some new people that kept the time interesting. Service around the pool area was excellent and the servers friendly without being overwhelming. As I read from another poster's similar experience, there was only one woman serving about 75 people in the bar before dinner and she was doing her best but clearly understaffing was evident there.

The cabins are beautiful and well designed. Public areas are also very nice and well maintained. The ship reminded us a bit of The World but with twice the passengers. Cabins are similar but SS better layed out.

Overall, I liked the ship more the longer I was on it, but I was on it longer than I wanted to be this morning. My wife still prefers Crystal but would certainly cruise SS again. One drawback for me, as I still must work a bit, is the painfully slow internet connection on the ship which makes even limited work a real challenge. We had drinks last night with a couple who have cruised Princess alot and indicated that Princess provides highspeed connection at no charge to their frequent cruisers. Would be nice if other cruiselines would recognize the necessity for this level of service.

Back to the real world.

Gary

Sorry that you had such a bad experience. We were on the Silver Whisper in April and had the same easy embarkation and disembarkation that we experienced on Seabourn. Sorry that this wasn't the case for you. Maybe it was the San Diego based crew.

I can't comment too much about the coffee because frankly I don't remember, but the bar service and champagne was excellent. Food was great but I will agree with you that some of the pastries and breads were a bit overdone. Service on all levels was excellent and the staff was great throughout.

We have the Silver Whisper booked again for later in 2005 and look forward to sailing on her again.

Don

We have also just returned from the Silver Shadow and will post our review over the next few days. It was a nice cruise, with good weather and calm seas. The staff was courteous and quite friendly. There were embarkation problems probably because of the unusual timing (4 p.m. instead of 6 p.m.) and the internet connection had been spotty. Overall, it was a rather good experience and we will go into the details in our subsequent postings. Thank you.

I am sure that SS would like to receive your opinions. May I suggest that you print your remarks and mail them to the corporate offices here in Ft.Lauderdale. I did this with another cruise line and the errors were corrected. An acquaintance proved it with a later voyage.

I have met several ships' officers who log on to CC from time to time.

Our embarkation in Aruba took around 45 minutes. It definitely could have been handled better.

Disembarkation was no big deal as we wanted to stay on the boat as long as possible, but I believe they started letting people off around 9:45. I'm just glad we didn't have an early flight.

Gary...we enjoyed meeting you...and we have to say that we heard from many others the problems you had with embarkation. We came aboard early..so that was okay. As you said..disembarkation was a nightmare!...Luckily we had a late flight. Over all, we had a good time, enjoyed many members of the staff...but...it is Seabourn for us. There is just that difference of SPECIAL! On SS...there is no effort to know your name...we played a game of knowing all staff members by name that we dealt with...we thought that in using their names each time, they might get it...they did not! One good thing...the Bulgari products were still aboard, but not for long, as there was a sheet telling about the new changes..that is too bad. Again, it was so nice meeting you, hope to see you again in our travels. Lola and Don

Lola and Don-Was great to meet you folks and chat. The four of you travelling together were easy to spot (at least for my wife!). Glad you made it home uneventfully. Received our missing bag today.

Meow-Looked for you on the ship and there was one reported sighting-a woman with a cat sweater or top on. Was that you? I did not see this person or I would have asked.

Gary

Thank you Gary for your replies to our threads. We are just one couple of cyber cats difficult to spot! meow!

Somehow on this Silversea board, there are fewer replies than when we posted a similar review on the Regatta on the Oceania board last April. Perhaps they are busy during this Christmas season?

You have to remember that there are two reasons for the fewer replies:

1. A lower percentage of SS travellers are computer literate

2. A much smaller number to start off with are SS travellers

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