Our first (and probably last) Silversea cruise: August 25 - September 1 Alaska

[Raptordash]

Our travel group of 5 which, for the past 9 years (pre-Covid) always sailed on Crystal, mostly Symphony, but once also on Serenity.  Due to the circumstances, we decided we had to try another "luxury" line and chose to start with Silversea.  As a test, we did a 7 day Alaska cruise on Silver Muse, August 25 to September 1.

I realize I am comparing a pre-Covid Crystal cruise with a Covid era Silversea cruise, but as Silversea is charging full price for it's cruises, there should be no reason for Silversea to use excuses such as supply chain issues or crew staffing problems if they choose to do so as to why their product was not as advertised.

 

We all agreed, overall Silversea was nowhere near as good in most things as the pre-Covid Crystal experience.  

 

Food: Some of the restaurants advertised as open for lunch were not (Kaiseki, Atlantide). The quality of many of the food items served was not top notch. Almost all meats (veal, beef) were tough and chewy, no matter the restaurant,  and the preparation of many of the food items lacked even a hint of the chef using seasoning while cooking. Too many bland tasting items, as if the chef were cooking a "bland diet" in a hospital kitchen. This included proteins as well as vegetables on the plate.  Many of the buffet items in La Terrazza for both breakfast and lunch seemed to be of low quality and lacked any imaginative display and plating.  For example, in the fruit section of the buffet, half of the blueberries had the stems on them in a large bowl of fresh blueberries.  Someone in the kitchen just didn't care enough to pick over them before placing in the bowl.  So, I had a plateful of blueberry stems at my table.

The coffee and snack venue, Arts Cafe was dismal and I could argue that my local 7-11 had a more appetizing bakery display case than the Arts Cafe.  Just a few plates with slices of cake and a few sad looking plates of cookies.  Nothing imaginative, nothing appetizing.

Crystal hands down much better food all over the ship.

Bartending: Extremely hit or miss depending upon who the bartender was and at what bar venue.  It does not appear that they use a standard recipe across the various bars for some of the cocktails.  And they do not use any higher end ingredients in some cocktails (the only vermouth is Martini and Rossi, they do not use Luxardo cherries, but rather the bright red marischino cherries.  Some of the cocktails served were undrinkable.

Entertainment: Nowhere near the professionalism of the Crystal Singers and Dancers and Silversea does not bring in professional talent for a few days at a time like Crystal did. (comedians, solo singers, instrumentalists, etc).  Not to disparage the hard working entertainers that were on the Muse, but just not at the level of Crystal, nor the variety.

Enrichment: The destination lectures and enrichment lectures were all repeats of previously recorded lectures given on the prior several Alaska Muse cruises. (could watch on the TV rather than need to go to the lecture)  

  

As for the positives for Silversea:

Crew: They were all extremely friendly and helpful. It is basically a one to one ratio of crew to passengers, as our cruise was almost to capacity at 530 passengers and I think that Muse has about 500 crew.  If anything, perhaps a little better deployment of waiters in the buffet at breakfast and lunch (a few less) would be better as multiple waiters would continually ask if you needed something and then run off.  Sometimes bringing what you asked for, sometimes not.

Cabins:  We would always book Deck 7 limited view cabins on Symphony and occasionally a deck 8 balcony as we basically only use the cabin for sleeping, showering and changing clothes because of all the great public spaces and multitude of activities on sea days.  We booked Classic Verandah cabins on Silversea Muse.  The cabins are gorgeous and large, probably 1.5x the size of the cabins we booked on Crystal. The bathroom has a full sized tub and a walkin shower, very nice.

Internet: Unlike Crystal, which never seemed to be able to get a consistent internet service no matter where the itinerary was or time of year, Silversea internet worked nonstop and quickly for routine web browsing, emails, What's App calls and texts.  The in room TV based list of activities, restaurants, your account, etc. was fairly intuitive and easy to use.

Ship's decor: The overall look of the ship and artwork was beautiful.  The only thing that seemed puzzling to me was Dolce Vita.  It is a beautiful venue for activities and enjoying the company of others in a room surrounded by large picture windows.  But why block most of the windows with gangways and other massive equipment?  Seems like no one thought about that.

 

The bottom line is that at nearly twice the cost of what the same cruise would have cost on Crystal, our Silversea experience was not "luxury" and we would not book another Silversea cruise, before trying Regent or Seabourn.   We don't mind paying for a good product, but Silversea is not worth the price.

[Gourmet Gal]

Thanks for taking the time to post your observations.  

[Lois R]

Hi Marc, sorry you and your group had such a negative experience.

 

Wishing you smooth sailing, wherever you end up.

[Silver Spectre]

Thanks for your review. Where will you try next?

[Mr Luxury]

44 minutes ago, Silver Spectre said:

Thanks for your review. Where will you try next?

Regent and Seabourn they said.

Perhaps better luck next time.

[Silver Spectre]

1 hour ago, Mr Luxury said:

Regent and Seabourn they said.

Perhaps better luck next time.

I thought they were looking for Luxury, Mr.

[Older Party]

2 hours ago, Silver Spectre said:

Thanks for your review. Where will you try next?

I'm spending a lazy Saturday recovering from a big party I threw last night, so opened the Boards for some light reading with my morning cup o jo.  I think you know Cliff Perry created the entertainment for Crystal? Gretchen Goertz and Kathy Orme always had an eye for quality, like my own company.  Crystal hands down had the best entertainment of any of the luxury lines, thanks to Cliff Perry.  He went on to Disney to create even bigger and better entertainment.  His entertainment programs were always hard to beat. 

[Mr Luxury]

1 hour ago, Silver Spectre said:

I thought they were looking for Luxury, Mr.

Not many to choose from then 😁

[Silver Spectre]

2 hours ago, Older Party said:

I'm spending a lazy Saturday recovering from a big party I threw last night, so opened the Boards for some light reading with my morning cup o jo.  I think you know Cliff Perry created the entertainment for Crystal? Gretchen Goertz and Kathy Orme always had an eye for quality, like my own company.  Crystal hands down had the best entertainment of any of the luxury lines, thanks to Cliff Perry.  He went on to Disney to create even bigger and better entertainment.  His entertainment programs were always hard to beat. 

And there was me thinking he was the Ent director of SS and the architect of the Artists of Silversea with Choosi back in 2012.

[Older Party]

LOL!  It was 2011. I love thinking about how much he resisted my idea of an all vocal program at first.  My concession was changing it from 4 men and 2 women (I would have had more depth to the vocal arrangements) to 3 men and 3 women.  Cliff always liked the pretty girls. 😉 

[Host Jazzbeau]

9 hours ago, Mr Luxury said:

Regent and Seabourn they said.

Perhaps better luck next time.

 

7 hours ago, Silver Spectre said:

I thought they were looking for Luxury, Mr.

 

To be luxury or not to be, that is the question.  Crystal was unique in its combination of food, service and entertainment – which allowed fans to ignore the small cabins.  But Crystal is still gone, and who knows what it will be like when it returns ... so the question is what is like Crystal?  So far, I don't see anything that really fills the bill.  Regent?–all inclusive but not at a high enough level.  Seabourn?–entertainment doesn't come close to Crystal and lots of reports of downgrading lately.  Silversea?–at least one Crystal diehard is happy here, but also lots of complaints about D2D vs P2P, poor food, and other issues.  So – @Mr Luxury – where is your new Luxury cruise line home?

[saminina]

To the OP.   Hey, at least you and your group tried it.   Your post makes sense to me, having been on Muse during June.   SS versus Crystal.......you are stating the obvious.

[Accessor]

SS post Covid has slipped on food. Entertainment and service still great, but we had the similar always bland, never seasoned, non-luxury level cuisine. We had superior meals on Celebrity Edge over Silverseas. What's shocking is they now have a Michelin star restaurant on Celebrity vs sister and higher end line SS? They are elevating Celebrity, yet SS is sorely lacking something exciting to dine at and experience which falls more in line with a luxury line...makes no sense.

[Mr Luxury]

9 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

 

 

To be luxury or not to be, that is the question.  Crystal was unique in its combination of food, service and entertainment – which allowed fans to ignore the small cabins.  But Crystal is still gone, and who knows what it will be like when it returns ... so the question is what is like Crystal?  So far, I don't see anything that really fills the bill.  Regent?–all inclusive but not at a high enough level.  Seabourn?–entertainment doesn't come close to Crystal and lots of reports of downgrading lately.  Silversea?–at least one Crystal diehard is happy here, but also lots of complaints about D2D vs P2P, poor food, and other issues.  So – @Mr Luxury – where is your new Luxury cruise line home?

I like Seabourn and have many hundreds of days sailed with then since they had the three very small ships.

I also like Silversea but the latest ships and not the old ones.

Hapag Lloyd Europa is good quality but not quit to my liking.

Crystal did what it did very well in the service and enrichment departments but it lacked spacious accommodation which it's competitors had.

Shows on most ships are not the quality that you would see in London or NY but they are ok but not for me as I go to the theatre,Opera and concerts on a regular basis here in London.

I really just like being at sea and sometimes don't get off in ports that i have been to often. 

I get the best nights sleep at sea and after a week I start to unwind a little. 

 

[Lonedaddy]

I think after Covid there was a great reset.  It isn’t just cruises that are lacking the standards of pre Covid restaurants stores… you name it.  Hopefully those that survived will up their game as competition for passengers tends to do that.  Unfortunately crystal didn’t make it and I suspect that If it had it wouldn’t have been the same as the old crystal.

 

we did our first cruise on regent this past May and i enjoyed it, and while some of the more seasoned regent travelers said it wasn’t as good a precovid, many were just glad to be on a beautiful ship and still good service.  I’m going to try SS next May and while there may be some issues I’m sure it will be an overall great time.  We just have to make the best hand out of the cards dealt.  

 

[crusinbanjo]

18 hours ago, Lonedaddy said:

I think after Covid there was a great reset.  It isn’t just cruises that are lacking the standards of pre Covid restaurants stores… you name it.  Hopefully those that survived will up their game as competition for passengers tends to do that.  Unfortunately crystal didn’t make it and I suspect that If it had it wouldn’t have been the same as the old crystal.

 

we did our first cruise on regent this past May and i enjoyed it, and while some of the more seasoned regent travelers said it wasn’t as good a precovid, many were just glad to be on a beautiful ship and still good service.  I’m going to try SS next May and while there may be some issues I’m sure it will be an overall great time.  We just have to make the best hand out of the cards dealt.  

 

Now, I totally agree with Lonedaddy.  After 3 years of no cruising, Mrs Banjo and I will be tipping our toes back into the waters.  I completely expect that many things will be significantly different, so our plan is to go with the flow and enjoy the ride.  I am sure that SS will provide the great service we have come to expect, and also have done cost cutting required to stay in business through this, (hopefully over), pandemic.