Just returned - First Silversea Cruise

[Keith1010]

As Henry said earlier all reviews are very valid.

 

Keep in mind two things.

 

No two cruiser are precisely the same. At least that has been my experience. There are so many factors that can contribute to a positive experience or one that is less then positive. This could range from the butler assigned to your room to the dining room personnel that you happen to experience during your cruise to the weather and the itinerary to the passenger mix, to even the executive chef who is on board and the list goes on and on.

 

And, we all have different preferences. If we all had the same preferences there would be maybe three cruise lines; one mass market, one premium and one luxury line to fit various budgets.

 

We would all do the same things so no need for diversity of shore excursions.

 

In short, Silversea is not going to work well for everyone as no cruise line does and again my experience is no two cruises are the same. An analogy is on land. Do you all have a favorite land based restaurant that you frequent? If so, has your experience been the same each time?

 

Keith

[wripro]

Merriem,

 

Of all the SS cruises I have taken the one on the Shadow from Hong Kong to Tokyo was absolutely the worst in terms of food and service. The menu looked like it belonged on a Royal Caribbean ship and if you were lucky you got out of the restaurant in under three hours. The only thing that saved that cruise was the fantastic itinerary. Maybe there's something about the Shadow and the Far East that just doesn't work.

[Noggins]

We recently dis-embarked the Shadow (in Anchorage). I had not intended to post our conclusions but reading this thread decided I would....

To put the following into context this was:

~ our 4th SS cruise (all different ships)

~ our 18th cruise in 6 years

~ we have cruised every premium line and one or two others too (RCCL / Princess - one a-piece)

~ our most recent experiences were on Regent / Crystal / Oceania (in that order - all in 2012)

 

Silver Shadow pluses (a representative selection only)

+ great itinerary

+ great staff (in the main)

+ lovely suite

+ some excellent pouring wines

+ easy access to 'bookings only' specialty restaurants

 

Silver Shadows minuses (a representative selection only)

- never once greeted by name outside of our room (thought that was a usp?)

- several poor G&T's (how can you get that wrong?!)

- poor MDR menu choices (never before have we occassionally struggled to find something that appealed)

- specialty bread consistently stale in La Terrazza

- breakfast/lunch buffet reminded me of a works canteen! eg lemon sole was served as 4 broken fillets all fused together in the cooking process. Tempura crab served as a sad soggy mess. Coffee poor. Poor bread (the nice looking loaves were marked as display only!)

- cheese course served in La Terrazza was inedible - the worst dried up lumps of cheese I have ever seen

- very poor cruise director - not an original word ever passed his lips

 

I am convinced that if you are dining / travelling with friends you are much more likely to be satisfied than if you are just a deux - we were generally the latter. We certainly don't going looking to be picky but this trip left us underwhelmed with SS's current offering. For the first time for many cruises we did not put a deposit down for a future cruise.

Most of the problems were in the F&B area, as you can see. Whilst we occasionally were disappointed on Regent our abiding impression and recollection from Oceania was that the F&B elements were outstanding. Equally Crystal's F&B standards were way higher.

If SS want to claim they have a premium product and offer 'fine dining' then they really need to take a close look at the competition. For example, in our opinion, La Terrazza bears no comparison with Oceania's Toscana.

Disappointing to have to bare these findings.

[UKCruiseJeff]

This is the first time I've ever heard of bread "for display only". :D

 

If they can't make fresh bread all day ........:(

[CanadianKate]

For Jan 2014 I needed a specific itinerary and looked at booking one of three that fit the bill from three different premium lines.

 

Silversea was the least expensive by far (we are Vista passengers) and offered the better itinerary plus a known quantity for us. So despite being open to trying another line, if fact, expecting to do so, we ended up back at SS.

 

At the same time, we booked Crystal for our 2015 cruise. Crystal offers their itineraries way sooner than SS, offers a better choice for us, and has a better deposit and cancellation policy. But the price was more per day and we'll get less of a cabin which may be an issue since this is a trip that is majority sea-days. We'll see.

 

No line is perfect but a lot of the recent complaints about SS are issues that might be due to cutbacks in order to keep their fares lower than the competition. The current SS standards offer good value to me personally since my standards are pretty low compared to the average SS passenger so I'll probably stick with them. But that's because their pricing seems to reflect these lower standards than the competition.

[Seafairer]

It's funny (not really.. ) that in the last few years, we've received a couple of email questionnaires from Silversea that relate to our itinerary preferences and use of social media, and one questionnaire that asked which of 2 choices we preferred for the cover art of the 2013 brochure. It's just so frustrating that there's no communication from headquarters about other matters that are much more crucial than whether the brochure cover shows a whale or drops of water.

 

We just completed a mini-voyage on Crystal (our first) and booked 6 more cruises with them. For the first time since 2000, we don't have anything booked on Silversea. We might come back - I truly hope so - but just don't feel comfortable about it right now. Please, Silversea, ask us about what you need to do to ensure that you hold on to our future spending. The money is there for your taking.

[Silver Spectre]

- very poor cruise director - not an original word ever passed his lips

Disappointing to have to bare these findings.

 

Sorry to hear that you had such a poor experience. By the way who was the CD?

[wripro]

The one area where I thought SS always shined was their CDs. They have two of the best in the business in Fernando and Judi Abbot.

[Keith1010]

Something I've learned is that no two cruises are the same.

 

At times we are all guilty of judging a cruise line good or bad on that one cruise.

 

So many factors can influence our experience on that cruise including the stewardess/butler, the weather, the itinerary, or the passengers. Other factors come into play such as the executive chef, or even the pastry chef. Seems silly but sometimes the food can be off because of the personnel on that cruise.

 

Keith

[Noggins]

The one area where I thought SS always shined was their CDs. They have two of the best in the business in Fernando and Judi Abbot.

 

Indeed, we had the pleasure of Judi as CD on our previous SS cruise. The very best! But Mike Witte - oh dear....