New Silversea Royal Caribbean/Celebrity Status Match Announced

[MJfromCA]

We board the Silver Whisper in Barcelona tomorrow. I sure hope they've added laundry staff to accommodate all the new status-matching cruisers!

[Lois R]

39 minutes ago, late2cruisin said:

The suite restaurant (Luminae) is not open for lunch. So on port days, the buffet is really the only choice. (Unless things have changed since I booked a suite on Celebrity)

I just sailed in a suite on X and you are correct, Luminae was not open for lunch on port days. I was on Eclipse which does not have "the new Retreat"......just Michael's Club. Not sure about the E class ships and lunch. I have never sailed on them.

 

 

[mahasamatman]

4 hours ago, Lois R said:

I just sailed in a suite on X and you are correct, Luminae was not open for lunch on port days. I was on Eclipse which does not have "the new Retreat"......just Michael's Club. Not sure about the E class ships and lunch.

 

In general, none of the main dining rooms (including Blu and Luminae) are generally open on port days except in very limited circumstances. Whether there is a Retreat Lounge or Michael's Club has no bearing.

[Host Jazzbeau]

3 hours ago, mahasamatman said:

In general, none of the main dining rooms (including Blu and Luminae) are generally open on port days except in very limited circumstances. Whether there is a Retreat Lounge or Michael's Club has no bearing.

But if you're paying for a 'ship within a ship,' you shouldn't have to leave the enclave for lunch.  And you especially shouldn't have to resort to the buffet.  😱

[billc23]

6 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

But if you're paying for a 'ship within a ship,' you shouldn't have to leave the enclave for lunch.  And you especially shouldn't have to resort to the buffet.  😱

Only the Edge class ships attempt to be a 'ship within a ship' - but that area tends to have more passengers than many Silversea ships. On edge class ships, and those older ships that have been revolutionized, it is possible to have lunch on the Retreat sun deck - very limited menu.

 

There are a few 'pay extra for' sit down lunch venues depending on the ship. If you are sailing in an upper suite then they are included as part of your cruise cost. They may offer 'special lunches', depending on the sailing, that are extra cost for every one.

 

If Zenith, there is a Zenith lunch offered on a sea day.

 

So... basically no sit down lunch on a port day included... 

 

 

[mahasamatman]

7 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

But if you're paying for a 'ship within a ship,' you shouldn't have to leave the enclave for lunch.

 

That's not what the Retreat is. It's nothing like the true SWS offerings like Yacht Club.

[MHF]

16 hours ago, Homebruu said:

I'm just curious, if you were in retreat, what would posses you to visit the buffet? I don't do suites and do everything to avoid it.

 

The retreat pool grill was open on occasion.  The buffet had gelato and soft serve. I often wanted iced tea or lemonade thus needed a visit to the buffet on way back from shore excursions.  Sometimes I got pelligrino from retreat bar instead.  Our room attendant and shared “retreat host” were about non-existent.

[CalTexCruiser]

12 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

But if you're paying for a 'ship within a ship,' you shouldn't have to leave the enclave for lunch.  And you especially shouldn't have to resort to the buffet.  😱

 

LOL.

 

Actually we pay extra for larger rooms and secondarily the ability to access the ship within a ship, but we spend the vast majority of our time outside the Retreat areas, including specialty restaurants, shows, the casino, hot tubs, thermal suites, gym.

 

And yes we do sometimes eat at the buffet, since it does get tiring to have to sit through formal dinners every night, especially on cruises longer than 7 days.

 

[gymfreak]

21 hours ago, MJfromCA said:

We board the Silver Whisper in Barcelona tomorrow

Will be grateful to get any updates on Silver Whisper following her dry dock.

Have a fantastic cruise

[gymfreak]

We shall embark on our 1st Silversea cruise early next year. We are Diamond plus members on RCL, my question is will we get the benefit of enhanced status on our 1st cruise or do we need to complete that one before any benefits can be accessed?

many thanks 

[Host Jazzbeau]

6 hours ago, mahasamatman said:

That's not what the Retreat is. It's nothing like the true SWS offerings like Yacht Club.

But it costs like it.  When Celebrity introduced Luminae, the Sky Suites offered real value (especially compared to Princess and HAL, where suites didn't get you anything except more room).  MSC Yacht Club raised the standard, and Celebrity's answer (Retreat) doesn't measure up.

[Jim_Iain]

On 5/31/2024 at 6:24 PM, Host Jazzbeau said:

We're in the same category.  But I wonder [without any knowledge] if the Butlers have to document their activities and too many passengers not using them leads to things like Celebrity firing most of the Butlers in The Retreat and switching to a [small] team approach.

 

Usually the butlers we have had on Celebrity find ways to please us.   The last we had was incredible on pickup little things by watching our behavior.    Iain picked up some lemon's for our RS Bar Setup.   From that day forward there were lemon's and lime in our refrigerator.    

 

I had become incredibly dehydrated and picked up some EnergyWater -- next day the suite was stocked with 6 bottles of each flavor.  

 

I'm sure I could be lambasted but I believe the elimination of the SS Butlers was due to the fact that often the SS passengers were much more prone to get full use of their butler that it might have affected some of the upper cabins  

 

I do think that that Laura listened to the outrage of the elimination and did the right thing in re-instating them.    I was also impressed that she went further and included the stocking and restocking of refrigerators.   In the past this wasn't actually a perk but butlers would do it in order to not affect their tips.

 

We use to eat breakfast in our room but with Kelly's designs and elimination of dining tables in the room made it very inconvenient.     I am excited to see that SS has tables in their room.   This might encourage us to have breakfast in our room.

[Jim_Iain]

23 hours ago, Homebruu said:

I'm just curious, if you were in retreat, what would posses you to visit the buffet? I don't do suites and do everything to avoid it.

 

Jumping in.... On Celebrity, Luminae is not open on Port Days,  thus you are limited to Buffet, Eden Cafe (on E-Class), Spa Cafe and Hamburger/Hot Dogs at the Pool grill 

[Dolcevita Diva]

22 hours ago, MJfromCA said:

We board the Silver Whisper in Barcelona tomorrow. I sure hope they've added laundry staff to accommodate all the new status-matching cruisers!

 

It will be interesting to see whether Silversea is able to maintain the current exemplary turnaround times.  That's one of my concerns about this status-matched perk, particularly since I still have to pay for laundry despite having sailed with Silversea for a number of years.  

[Jim_Iain]

22 hours ago, Lois R said:

I just sailed in a suite on X and you are correct, Luminae was not open for lunch on port days. I was on Eclipse which does not have "the new Retreat"......just Michael's Club. Not sure about the E class ships and lunch. I have never sailed on them.

 

 

 

Lois --- Luminae is closed on port days across the fleet of M, S and E.     If you have a late port arrival around lunch time they make an exception and are open. 

 

 

[Dolcevita Diva]

13 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

I'm sure I could be lambasted but I believe the elimination of the SS Butlers was due to the fact that often the SS passengers were much more prone to get full use of their butler that it might have affected some of the upper cabins  

 

 

??? Not sure where you heard that Silversea has eliminated butlers, but that is not the case.  

[Jim_Iain]

3 minutes ago, Dolcevita Diva said:

 

It will be interesting to see whether Silversea is able to maintain the current exemplary turnaround times.  That's one of my concerns about this status-matched perk, particularly since I still have to pay for laundry despite having sailed with Silversea for a number of years.  

 

I was also curious about that.    I hear that is a problem on Cunard.   There are so many with high Status that it affect Suite Embarkation.   On Cunard they have a combined Suite and Upper Level all in the same line/area. 

[Jim_Iain]

1 minute ago, Dolcevita Diva said:

 

??? Not sure where you heard that Silversea has eliminated butlers, but that is not the case.  

 

Sorry -- we were discussing Celebrity who eliminated Butlers for Sky Suites (SS).  I shouldn't have used the same acronym

[Dolcevita Diva]

10 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

Sorry -- we were discussing Celebrity who eliminated Butlers for Sky Suites (SS).  I shouldn't have used the same acronym

 

Ha - that's how scary rumors get started! 😁

 

11 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

I was also curious about that.    I hear that is a problem on Cunard.   There are so many with high Status that it affect Suite Embarkation.   On Cunard they have a combined Suite and Upper Level all in the same line/area. 

 

Silversea does not have different arrangements for embarkation, etc. based on cabin/suite type, so that won't be an issue.  But a significant increase in passengers utilizing free laundry could make it difficult to maintain same-day turnaround - sure hope not for the sake of the crew who work in the laundry as well as long-time passengers. 

 

Edited June 6 by Dolcevita Diva

[MamaFej]

I promise to be patient waiting for my laundry, and will happily have mine de-prioritzed in favor of folks who earned their laundry perks via actual nights sailed on SS, rather than through matching.

 

Hopefully, they are anticipating the increased demand, and rearranging staffing as appropriate. 

[billc23]

17 hours ago, Dolcevita Diva said:

 

Ha - that's how scary rumors get started! 😁

 

 

Silversea does not have different arrangements for embarkation, etc. based on cabin/suite type, so that won't be an issue.  But a significant increase in passengers utilizing free laundry could make it difficult to maintain same-day turnaround - sure hope not for the sake of the crew who work in the laundry as well as long-time passengers. 

 

I hope that the quality of the laundry service does not decline. The timeliness, careful treatment, and presentation of laundry on Silversea is so much better than Celebrity. No comparison in my opinion.

 

Everyone is pretty much treated the same on Silversea, which is not the case on Celebrity. Celebrity has a very hierarchical system depending on which cabin one books and, to a lesser  extent, what status they have in the Captain's Club. I suppose that it makes people feel special because they have access to events and areas of the ship that others do not - and they may be able to skip lines, embark early, enjoy a boarding day lunch, etc. All of which is not necessary on Silversea. 

 

Having said that, if one books a larger cabin on Silversea there is a subtle difference in treatment but not in your face like on Celebrity.

[Host Jazzbeau]

3 hours ago, billc23 said:

Everyone is pretty much treated the same on Silversea, which is not the case on Celebrity. Celebrity has a very hierarchical system depending on which cabin one books and, to a lesser  extent, what status they have in the Captain's Club. I suppose that it makes people feel special because they have access to events and areas of the ship that others do not - and they may be able to skip lines, embark early, enjoy a boarding day lunch, etc. All of which is not necessary on Silversea.

It may be some people feel special, but the real reason they have to do this on Celebrity is that the ships are so big.  They can't provide this level of service to that many people.  Which goes to your point that it isn't necessary on Silversea.

[dawntrdr]

I'm sitting in the Panorama on the Muse with time to do a little more bean counting on the new status match program.   In the RCI Crown and Anchor Society, 30 nights in the minimum cost room gets you to Platinum level.  Platinum level is matched to 100 VS days.  In what universe does 30 days loyalty to a midlevel cruise line equate to 100 days loyalty to a luxury line? Eighty (80) nights on Royal gets you Diamond status. Diamond on RCI matches to, and gets you the benefit of, 250 VS days.  I thought the purpose of a loyalty program was to reward loyalty, not make you feel taken advantage of for being loyal.  Even without adjusting for the perdiem , this program is upside down and backwards.

 

If my interpretation of the loyalty charts is incorrect, please feel free to correct me; I promise not to be upset.

 

 

[mahasamatman]

1 hour ago, dawntrdr said:

In what universe does 30 days loyalty to a midlevel cruise line equate to 100 days loyalty to a luxury line?

 

In what universe would you assume there is supposed to be any sort of equality? It's an incentive program, not a redistributon of wealth.

[Observer]

2 hours ago, dawntrdr said:

I'm sitting in the Panorama on the Muse with time to do a little more bean counting on the new status match program.   In the RCI Crown and Anchor Society, 30 nights in the minimum cost room gets you to Platinum level.  Platinum level is matched to 100 VS days.  In what universe does 30 days loyalty to a midlevel cruise line equate to 100 days loyalty to a luxury line? Eighty (80) nights on Royal gets you Diamond status. Diamond on RCI matches to, and gets you the benefit of, 250 VS days.  I thought the purpose of a loyalty program was to reward loyalty, not make you feel taken advantage of for being loyal.  Even without adjusting for the perdiem , this program is upside down and backwards.

 

If my interpretation of the loyalty charts is incorrect, please feel free to correct me; I promise not to be upset.

 

 

I have not bothered to do the calculation, but if your calculations are correct this is distressing. I do not much care what discounts or quality of champagne another guest gets or how they got to that point.  However, I very much care if the laundry service is compromised. I have hundreds of nights on Silversea and I generally travel light.  Quality finishing/folding and same-day turnaround of laundry are very important to me. I will be greatly disturbed if this important perk is dumbed down.