Has Silversea Really Changed That Much?

[lincslady]

Surely the things changing applies to most lines, judging by reading posts from others.

 

My own theory - possibly simplistic - is that all lines took a huge financial loss during covid, obviously had to get rid of staff/put them on furlough;  costs on fuel and most other things have gone up considerably, and with the return they have had difficulty in getting enough old/new staff back.  In addition to which there are a lot of new ships to soak up the staff needed, including some massive ones on other lines, not all of whom are going to be experienced or even very suitable.  Things do seem to be improving, though I fear that the new emphasis on expedition type ships causes extra new problems for Silversea and Seabourn, for instance.

[bohaiboy]

One ISS e on the Muse currently is 0C. (32f) and 40 knot winds, forcing all inside from outside venues.  SS mistakenly designed Indochine and Atlantide the same size.  Indochine is seldom more than 70% full

[Emtbsam]

We love Indochine and SALT Kitchen and have no problem going to them if Atlantide is backed up.

[Dolcevita Diva]

28 minutes ago, QueSeraSera said:

 Anyway, if I'm reading this right, someone was on a Silversea cruise where the only wine on board was Chardonnay.  This is so far off from our experiences; I can hardly believe it.  No, that's an understatement - I don't believe it without further evidence.  But if true, I think we need to hear from Silversea how the hell that ever happened.  And they can't blame me, I swear I wasn't on this unknown cruise.  

 

 Both @spinnaker2 and @Silver Spectre have reported recent experiences with several varietals of wine running out onboard.  

[turtlemichael]

4 hours ago, Dolcevita Diva said:

 Both @spinnaker2 and @Silver Spectre have reported recent experiences with several varietals of wine running out onboard.  

Apparently, Shadow was not provisioned in Japan as scheduled causing, of course, a number of shortages. I have no idea why.

[RetiredOnVacation]

On 5/7/2024 at 2:15 PM, Port Power said:

 

Notwithstanding your other comments, I think one of the pleasures of dining is to sit after the meal and enjoy conversation. Perhaps with another wine, a coffee or a port/liqueur.

True, but then there are several other venues to carry on with that experience rather than occupying a table in a busy restaurant ? We've had waiter staff who will bring your wine from your table to where you go to! It's great to enjoy all the facilities! 

[vistaman]

23 hours ago, vistaman said:

there is 5 % cabernet franc in Pétrus  😁

obviously not anymore 

sorry  - my books are old 

[QueSeraSera]

4 hours ago, highplanesdrifters said:

recently been addicted to "Stop Making Sense", Talking Heads

"Life During Wartime" live performance, never could sit still through it.

[Sketty1616]

6 hours ago, highplanesdrifters said:

 

It was a bit of a musical wasteland.  Although we have recently been addicted to "Stop Making Sense", Talking Heads.  Might be the best live ever next to Queen at Wembley.  But it was the 80's and for the most part I didn't fully appreciate them then.  Business was the only thing that mattered, remember we all worked 24/7. Now it's more like 5/3 from home.😃

Same as it ever was.

[Silver Spectre]

16 hours ago, turtlemichael said:

Apparently, Shadow was not provisioned in Japan as scheduled causing, of course, a number of shortages. I have no idea why.

Supposedly it will be re-provisioned in Vancouver, just in time for all of us to get off. BTW they ran out of both of Rosés about a week ago, the only pink left is some nasty Zin type stuff.

[jpalbny]

31 minutes ago, Silver Spectre said:

the only pink left is some nasty Zin type stuff.

 

Moved on from that in the '80s.

[QueSeraSera]

That is really just unacceptable

1 hour ago, Silver Spectre said:

Supposedly it will be re-provisioned in Vancouver, just in time for all of us to get off.

Why not pursue alternate suppliers in Japan even if costs are very high?  

As we said back in the day, "heads are gonna roll over this"

 

Edited May 11 by QueSeraSera
clarity

[PaulaJK]

12 hours ago, QueSeraSera said:

That is really just unacceptable

Why not pursue alternate suppliers in Japan even if costs are very high?  

As we said back in the day, "heads are gonna roll over this"

 

It appears that SS has exempted itself from providing their advertised six * cuisine.

They state simply and without shame that they are out if this, that and more. They

make no attempt to fill in gaps using local purveyors. Frankly, I have never experienced this on other lines. 

[Gourmet Gal]

I never heard of nor experienced any food or drink item being depleted onboard SS.  Seems like a bad sign - either mismanagement or penny pinching.

[Carolfay]

And they ran out of pisco on Nova when we were in Peru and Chile - yikes.

[Gourmet Gal]

2 hours ago, Carolfay said:

And they ran out of pisco on Nova when we were in Peru and Chile - yikes.

Just wow.  How can that happen!?

[Carolfay]

29 minutes ago, Gourmet Gal said:

Just wow.  How can that happen!?

Dunno.  But I observed quite a few disappointed passengers, some of whom had taken the tour to the pisco distillery and were asking the bartenders for pisco sours.  I think they replenished the supply before we left Chile.

[DavyWavey70]

It does sound very much like they have switched to an RCI provisioning system with no autonomy  left for the ship when things go wrong. A Six star line with an inadequate purchasing dpt unable to provide so many basics will hopefully soon learn that they need to leave a little more in the petty cash tin before they become a running joke.

[Capri73]

5 minutes ago, DavyWavey70 said:

It does sound very much like they have switched to an RCI provisioning system with no autonomy  left for the ship when things go wrong. A Six star line with an inadequate purchasing dpt unable to provide so many basics will hopefully soon learn that they need to leave a little more in the petty cash tin before they become a running joke.

Davey we meet on that awful Sprit split they were pretty awful back then not surprised they are going downhill.

[MamaFej]

This seems surprising to me. In August of 2022, we boarded the Celebrity Summit in Reykjavik, Iceland. Supply chains were still getting up and running, and the scheduled wine had not arrived. The Cellar Master, Ingrid, purchased $10,000 of wine from local suppliers. It seems something like that should have been possible for Silversea to do as well. 

 

Note: I'm not saying I don't believe the reports, I'm just saying there should have been a solution. 

[DavyWavey70]

5 minutes ago, Capri73 said:

Davey we meet on that awful Sprit split they were pretty awful back then not surprised they are going downhill.

I’ll never forget it! I’m shocked though that whilst they’re sorting out their provisioning there is no autonomy given to the ship. Thinking back to that disastrous cruise, one of the things that I remember was that they had no batteries for any of the tv remote controls or safes.  I Remember pondering at the time why they couldn’t send someone to the pound shop to get some. This is a whole other level though. 

[Carolfay]

We were in Chile when this became apparent.  I heard at least a couple folks on board say, "Can't they just send somebody ashore to get a few cases of pisco."  Sheesh.

[DavyWavey70]

35 minutes ago, Carolfay said:

We were in Chile when this became apparent.  I heard at least a couple folks on board say, "Can't they just send somebody ashore to get a few cases of pisco."  Sheesh.

I Hope that RCI are following these topics as closely as the former CEO of Silversea did and realise the damage that is being done to the line. 

[canderson]

2 hours ago, DavyWavey70 said:

It does sound very much like they have switched to an RCI provisioning system with no autonomy  left for the ship when things go wrong. A Six star line with an inadequate purchasing dpt unable to provide so many basics will hopefully soon learn that they need to leave a little more in the petty cash tin before they become a running joke.

Might be worth investigating how some lines have taken to end-to-end supply chain qualification for food products to avoid train wrecks like the 'raspberry Norovirus' back in Summer-Fall of 2019.  Hit 10 ships from one line.  Turned out to be caused by 22,000 lbs of Chinese frozen raspberries that had been supplied to the line's entire fleet.  I'm sure experiences such as this make them even more averse to picking up items 'locally' unless a supplier has been 100% vetted in advance or the item being purchased can be for whatever reason presumed to be innocuous.

[drron29]

Fortunately it wasn't Silversea. Was referred to as Cruise line X but it was pretty easy to work out which line it was from the facts in the NIH article about the outbreak.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7188409/

 

It also is a bit scary how many Noro Virus outbreaks are due to frozen berries.