Smoking Guest Suite on Silversea - Dissapointing experience

[tmcauban]

Back from an Alaska Cruise on the Silver Shadow, departing from San Francisco on August 1, we had the very unpleasent experience to be assigned to a very smelly smoking suite.

 

The previous guest must have been a chain smoking cigar smoker, and if we respect Silversea policy to accomodate all guests, including cigar smokers, we were very dissapointed and greatly inconvenience by the strong smell of cold tobacco in the suite when we embarked and the lack of cleaning of the suite between guests.

 

To make a long story short, it took several days of thorough cleaning from the housekeeping staff to clean the room and make it comfortable.

Even after that, it never felt really "Clean" as some smell persisted.

 

However they took the whole thing very lightly, and we had the put the strongest pressure on them to have the suite really deep cleaned.

 

Another option was never offered, although the suite next door remained empty for at least most of the cruise. (we neve saw anyone in that suite which smelled perfectly good and clean).

 

This made for a very uncomfortable cruise, as for the first days, the suite felt and smelled terrible. We could not have dinner or breakfast in our suite for several days. (who would want to eat in a strong stench of tobacco?).

 

Overall, this made our Silversea experience far from comfortable and certainly not a Luxury experience.

 

A letter of complain to the President of Silversea remains unanswered as of mid september.

 

Very dissapointed by Silversea, we will cruise with another cruise line.

[meow!]

To satisfy non-smoking (besides those smoking) passengers, perhaps from now on, Silversea pre-registration forms should have a new item for passengers to tick: smoking, non-smoking or smoke-sensitive. Records should be kept which suites will have smoking passengers prior to smoke-sensitive passengers. If a smoke-sensitive passenger is to follow a smoking passenger in any given suite, the "soft furnishings" (e.g. pillows, comforters, bankets, bed covers, linen etc.) should be cleaned or replaced with a new set. This should minimize potential complaints from non-smokers while catering to smokers.

 

Yes, this may result in additional operating costs, but if Silversea is to reap the benefit of enticing ex-RSSC smoking passengers, it may have to swallow such expenditures in order to keep those sensitive non-smoking passengers.

[Keith1010]

meow, I think a few basic steps could have been done to address this.

 

While you make some solid suggestions regardless of who occupied this room it would have been a problem for most people and sometimes problem can be prevented from happening in the future with just a few simple changes.

 

Logic tells me that smoker or non smoker that if a room smells of smoke on the turnover day for the ship then all of the furnishings should be cleaned to eliminate the odor. And that the stewardesses should know this.

 

And this one seems to be extreme as it should have been noticed by the stewardess as soon as she entered the room. It is hard not to tell the different between cigar and cigarette smoking.

 

So, I guess I have one related question for the seasoned SS cruisers. My understanding is that Cigar Smoking is not permitted in any of the rooms. Is that correct?

 

I have only been on one cruise, on another line, where someone was smoking cigrars in their room which was prohibited. When someone smokes a cigar in a room it is evident to everyone as the odor will smell of cigars. When we observed this once I called the front desk and someone was dispatched to the room immediately.

 

The other item is that mistakes do happen from time to time (eg,. the stewardess not catching this before the room was occupied) but as soon as it was reported it should have been taken seriously. On one cruise we were on on another line the room we occupied did smell of smoke. This was the first time that has ever happened to us. They cleaned it down but we could still smell a little bit. We mentioned it to them a few hours later and the response was it will be taken care of. And the stewardess immediately got assistance to have a deep cleaning of carpets and an additional cleaning of other items and it was all taken care of that day. And we did receive a note of apology from both the hotel director and the chief housekeeper. To me that is the type of approach I would expect.

 

Keith

[LOGHL]

Back from an Alaska Cruise on the Silver Shadow, departing from San Francisco on August 1, we had the very unpleasent experience to be assigned to a very smelly smoking suite.

 

The previous guest must have been a chain smoking cigar smoker, and if we respect Silversea policy to accomodate all guests, including cigar smokers, we were very dissapointed and greatly inconvenience by the strong smell of cold tobacco in the suite when we embarked and the lack of cleaning of the suite between guests.

 

To make a long story short, it took several days of thorough cleaning from the housekeeping staff to clean the room and make it comfortable.

Even after that, it never felt really "Clean" as some smell persisted.

 

However they took the whole thing very lightly, and we had the put the strongest pressure on them to have the suite really deep cleaned.

 

Another option was never offered, although the suite next door remained empty for at least most of the cruise. (we neve saw anyone in that suite which smelled perfectly good and clean).

 

This made for a very uncomfortable cruise, as for the first days, the suite felt and smelled terrible. We could not have dinner or breakfast in our suite for several days. (who would want to eat in a strong stench of tobacco?).

 

Overall, this made our Silversea experience far from comfortable and certainly not a Luxury experience.

 

A letter of complain to the President of Silversea remains unanswered as of mid september.

 

Very dissapointed by Silversea, we will cruise with another cruise line.

 

Unfortunately, you have encountered Silversea's biggest weakness!!!!!!!!!......NOT the smoking odor per se, but the lack of response from the home office. I have always said, that if the home office was as responsive & efficient as the crew on the ships, they would be a 10 star cruise line...Because of their non responsiveness, we have not cruised on Silversea for a few years (after having racked up over 780 days), so I don't know if the crew & staff of the ships are still as good as a few years ago. I would try Regent, where we have found both the the ship's crew, staff & home office to be very responsive. Also, no smoking in cabins!!!

[cruzemaven]

On my recent thread which has now been locked, I was just about convinced that there would be no problem with the smell of smoke in the cabins. I find it really upsetting that you had such a bad problem and that it was not remedied immediately....we would find that as unacceptable as you did. The lack of response from the cruiseline to your complaint is also troublesome.

[dwelsh]

Unfortunately, you have encountered Silversea's biggest weakness!!!!!!!!!......NOT the smoking odor per se, but the lack of response from the home office. I have always said, that if the home office was as responsive & efficient as the crew on the ships, they would be a 10 star cruise line...Because of their non responsiveness, we have not cruised on Silversea for a few years (after having racked up over 780 days), so I don't know if the crew & staff of the ships are still as good as a few years ago. I would try Regent, where we have found both the the ship's crew, staff & home office to be very responsive. Also, no smoking in cabins!!!

 

We know that Steve Tucker, Vice President Field Sales -The Americas

Silversea Cruise, scans these pages - he initiated the Spirit blog -

I think that the problems indicated above need a response. I know that on Oceania pages, Mr. DelRio a senior executive does respond to this type of problem.

[luvtojump]

I just returned from the Silver Cloud. I met two very nice couples on board that were on deck 4 forward. I do not know if they were forewarned by their TA that their suite location was not ideal, but they felt that their suites were much too noisy coming into ports.

 

Regardless, they took their complaints to the hotel director on board.

 

Their complaints were noted and resolved. Both were moved to higher suites as soon as could be. This was a very full sailing and there was really nowhere for them to go. Fate intervened and a few guests had to leave due to emergencies. The hotel director moved them as soon as he could and all was well.

 

Just thought I would pass on a positive experience thanks to the Silversea's on board management.

[daddyo]

We have only been on 6 or 7 Silversea Cruises and smoking ordors have never been a problem in our cabin. I would suggest that there may actually be a increase in smokers on SS since their competition has stricter rules regarding smoking in cabins. If this is the case, there will be more unfortnuate incidents such as this which is not going to make the majority of the SS clientele happy. Overall, this will be bad news for SS.

 

We are booked on the 12/11 Barbados to FLL cruise. It smoking is a problem, I will not be a happy camper. I appreciate the heads up.

[cruzemaven]

We have only been on 6 or 7 Silversea Cruises and smoking ordors have never been a problem in our cabin. I would suggest that there may actually be a increase in smokers on SS since their competition has stricter rules regarding smoking in cabins. If this is the case, there will be more unfortnuate incidents such as this which is not going to make the majority of the SS clientele happy. Overall, this will be bad news for SS.

 

We are booked on the 12/11 Barbados to FLL cruise. It smoking is a problem, I will not be a happy camper. I appreciate the heads up.

 

Why wouldn't SS care about creating a healthier environment for everyone...seems like a no-brainer to me!

[lord of the seas]

tmcauban,

 

Did you ask for an air purifier to be put in your suite.

Did you ask to move suites especially as the one next door seemed to be vacant?

[LaPaloma]

Can't understand why the smokers don"t use the humidor room provided by Silversea--it's a nice room with excellent venilation--made especially for smokers! I don't think that offends anyone--kind of silly not to use it, and meet all the other smokers! Don

[Stickrod]

I just received SilverSea's 2010 brochure in the mail today. For a couple of months I've been looking into several cruises on SeaDream, SilverSea, Seabourn, and Regent. (Regent is the only one we have been on, and we had an excellent time).

I like SilverSea's Caribbean and Alaska itineraries, but unless they revise their smoking policy to not allow smoking in suites/balconies, we will NOT be sailing with them. It's definitely a dealbreaker for us.:(

[dougburns]

For goodness sake, give it a rest! If you are so drastically anti-smoking then go to one of the non-smoking lines. Personally, I find SS to be pleasant in that the pax seem to be respectful of one another and their likes and dislikes. I've never seen any of this "in your face" stuff like we saw on Regent before we left.

[sw18]

I've been on Silversea several times & as a vehement anti smoker I can honestly say that I have never had a problem with smoking on Silversea ships, and am quite surprised that those that did have a problem with it were dealt with in such a poor way. I have had several on board "issues" dealt with in a professional & satisfactory manner - resolving the problem entirely.

 

Silversea, being Italian owned, attract far more European passengers than the likes of Regent & Oceania, & consequently the numbers of smokers will be higher.

 

If it really is such a problem then I'm sure Regent would love the business...I hear their yields are way down....

[Keith1010]

Somehow on all the threads whenever someone posts something about smoking or non smoking the thread takes on a life of their own.

 

The post was not about where you smoke or should you smoke but it was about their suite including the smell that was in the suite, how it was handled, why they weren't put in another room and why they have not received a response back from Silversea. All good issues.

 

I would hope that everyone would agree to the following.

 

1. Cigar Smoking is not permitted in the suites. This is fact.

 

2. On turnover day when new guests go to their room they should not smell the odor of smoke from those that occupied the room on the last voyage. And in this case it was not just an odor from cigarettes but from cigar smoke.

 

3. That the odor in the room should have been caught by the stewardess but certainly when it was caught that the room should have been cleaned propertly to eliminate all odor of smoke from the previous passengers.

 

4. If this could not have been accomplished then another room should have been offered to the passengers.

 

5. And, if this took a considerable amount of time to get right then the stewardess should have let the head housekeeper know and followup should have occured.

 

6. And finally, that no letter from a passenger to the corporate office should go unanswered within a reasonable amount of time.

 

I think regardless of whether you smoke or not smoke and regardless of how you feel about the current rules on board the ship that these are reasonable and logical expectations. Hopefully, most of you would think this is reasonable.

 

I don't think we need to turn this thread into other issues in my humble opinion.

 

And it doesn't matter if this problem has ever happened before. The issue is there was a problem and it seems from what the OP has posted that it was not handled the way it could have been. Actually, it should have been handled pro-actively before they ever walked into their suite.

 

Keith

[chicagogal]

Somehow on all the threads whenever someone posts something about smoking or non smoking the thread takes on a life of their own.

 

The post was not about where you smoke or should you smoke but it was about their suite including the smell that was in the suite, how it was handled, why they weren't put in another room and why they have not received a response back from Silversea. All good issues.

 

I would hope that everyone would agree to the following.

 

1. Cigar Smoking is not permitted in the suites. This is fact.

 

2. On turnover day when new guests go to their room they should not smell the odor of smoke from those that occupied the room on the last voyage. And in this case it was not just an odor from cigarettes but from cigar smoke.

 

3. That the odor in the room should have been caught by the stewardess but certainly when it was caught that the room should have been cleaned propertly to eliminate all odor of smoke from the previous passengers.

 

4. If this could not have been accomplished then another room should have been offered to the passengers.

 

5. And, if this took a considerable amount of time to get right then the stewardess should have let the head housekeeper know and followup should have occured.

 

6. And finally, that no letter from a passenger to the corporate office should go unanswered within a reasonable amount of time.

 

I think regardless of whether you smoke or not smoke and regardless of how you feel about the current rules on board the ship that these are reasonable and logical expectations. Hopefully, most of you would think this is reasonable.

 

I don't think we need to turn this thread into other issues in my humble opinion.

 

And it doesn't matter if this problem has ever happened before. The issue is there was a problem and it seems from what the OP has posted that it was not handled the way it could have been. Actually, it should have been handled pro-actively before they ever walked into their suite.

 

Keith

 

Nicely said, and I agree with you on every point you made.

[CatServants]

Nicely said, and I agree with you on every point you made.

 

As do we....

[endosunshine]

Excellent post!!

 

I get very annoyed that any post regarding smoking turns into a bunch of petty finger pointing.:mad: