When Silversea was Silversea

[Tothesunset]

When Silversea was Silversea we were quite dedicated to the line. Now that RCCL have control we see many small examples of changes (and one big example). Bear with... 

 

The following seem to be reported more frequently on here:

 

Reported problems with air scheduling

Bottled water

Customer service issues

Food issues

Internet throttling

Poor compensation for deleted itineraries (I know it's not their fault that human tribes can't live in peace but 15% towards a replacement that's way more expensive per diem? Come on)

Patchy on board service

And any others I've missed. 

 

And the big change? Pricing. Some of the pricing is ambitious to the point of being nonsensical. D2D where the "included" elements over P2P have 100%+ mark-up. What's that all about? (Yes, I know, simple profiteering.) 

 

Now I shall put the case for the changes that have improved the line:

 

Er... No, I'm out. 

 

I notice several posters who have declared dissatisfaction yet have further voyages booked. 

 

But for us the cachet has gone. 

 

In fact, the most glowing reports seem to be from new guests who might, perhaps, not realise that the line is Silversea in name only? And I guess that suits the new owners just fine. 

 

Incidentally, there is absolutely no point to this post other than as a eulogy to what was and a hope for what might be again. In the meanwhile we are enjoying Saga cruises: 95% of the experience for 50%of the cost. 

 

 

[jpalbny]

I hear you. We enjoyed our Kimberley cruise very much but definitely noticed that it's not the same as it was. We always have done our own air, and we were upgraded to a Silver suite with included premium internet, so some of the above does not apply.

 

But we noticed that the included wines were more repetitive and less interesting than they have been in the past. We were a little less impressed with the food - still better than cooking at home but... There was a particular waiter who we had to avoid because of poor service. Our wine glasses frequently went empty (maybe they were looking out for our livers)?

 

And, since we were in a Silver Suite, we had a beautiful chrome espresso machine in the suite which I loved. Until day 3 or so, when I had used all of the regular coffee pods and they refilled the supply with only decaf coffee pods. They said they'd run out of regular! Oh well.

 

So we have the two others booked still - we did not book any additional Silversea voyages whle on board in June. I don't dislike the onboard experience but I've found the Ponant itineraries much more compelling at this time. We have four more booked on Ponant at the moment. Between the Ponant status match (which gives us OBC, laundry, and a 10% booking discount), and the more interesting itineraries on Ponant, it's getting to be less of a contest.

 

I'm hoping that the next two Silversea cruises won't be the last.

[mchell810]

I'll add one more thing to your list of troubling changes: tours.  One of the things that drew me to SS was the wide selection of included tours.  They were interesting and varied -- offering something for everyone: wine tours, significant historical sites, outdoor adventures.  Now when I look at cruises now there is just one tour offered in each port and it is almost always a "highlights" or panoramic tour. 

 

If I have to add the cost of tours, and all the other little downgrades mentioned above, then the value for money equation does not work for me especially with the ever increasing prices.

 

Edited Wednesday at 04:49 PM by mchell810

[MBP&O2/O]

What about predicted changes/cutbacks that esteemed customers might foresee?

 

I personally think ....

Butlers will soon be for top grade suites only. Cattle class will go without with no fare reductions.

Drinks with meals only .... a package for anything else.

An upcharge for La Terraza?

 

 

[AtlantaCruiser72]

@MBP&O2/O Since they are part of RCG all this and more are possible!  They love to monetize anything and everything they can and use Dynamic pricing to soak their suckers, err I mean "esteemed guests"!

 

I'm already considering my upcoming trip on the Silver Shadow my first and last with Silversea.  I have had Royal and Celebrity on my "do not book" list for some time.  Celebrity since 2018 after a horrid experience on the Summit and have not sailed Royal in over a decade.  As consumers we have too many choices at multiple price points to tolerate being taken advantage of by a greedy corporation.

[taxatty]

3 minutes ago, MBP&O2/O said:

What about predicted changes/cutbacks that esteemed customers might foresee?

 

I personally think ....

Butlers will soon be for top grade suites only. Cattle class will go without with no fare reductions.

Drinks with meals only .... a package for anything else.

An upcharge for La Terraza?

 

 

No more "free" excursions on non-expedition cruises, initially with an OBC offer which will eventually disappear.

 

Room service will acquire a small charge, which will increase over time.

 

Envelopes will be left in each stateroom for "additional voluntary gratuities."

[christraveller]

We already know the “unbundling” tricks from other lines “in response to guest requests”

 

Silly if Silversea management follows in those footsteps. They have priced themselves into the market where a lot of us have household help, fly business or first routinely, and have travelled for decades, building up expertise in food, wine, and how to be a tourist.  
 

That being said, is nickel and diming something we will endure?  Is death by a thousand very thin, totally painless, swift slices into  a product something we won’t recognize - and then not explore the competition - a corporate expectation of their guests?
 

I think this approach cannot work. The number of not just Silversea but other ships and suites to be filled day in, day out  is increasing remarkably. 
 

 

[RetiredandTravel]

Wine will be box wine, Champagne replaced with Cold Duck, Hamburgers will contain hamburger helper.  In anchor ports people will have to row themselves to shore and customers will have to shine the butlers shoes.  They will farm out the main dining room to Applebees.  Mercy Me.

[Tothesunset]

Just now, RetiredandTravel said:

They will farm out the main dining room to Applebees. 

To be fair, on some occasions that could be seen as an upgrade. 

[jpalbny]

21 minutes ago, Tothesunset said:

To be fair, on some occasions that could be seen as an upgrade. 

 

The hamburger, especially. 

[Port Power]

6 hours ago, Tothesunset said:

When Silversea was Silversea we were quite dedicated to the line. Now that RCCL have control we see many small examples of changes (and one big example). Bear with... 

 

The following seem to be reported more frequently on here:

 

Reported problems with air scheduling

Bottled water

Customer service issues

Food issues

Internet throttling

Poor compensation for deleted itineraries (I know it's not their fault that human tribes can't live in peace but 15% towards a replacement that's way more expensive per diem? Come on)

Patchy on board service

And any others I've missed. 

 

And the big change? Pricing. Some of the pricing is ambitious to the point of being nonsensical. D2D where the "included" elements over P2P have 100%+ mark-up. What's that all about? (Yes, I know, simple profiteering.) 

 

Now I shall put the case for the changes that have improved the line:

 

Er... No, I'm out. 

 

I notice several posters who have declared dissatisfaction yet have further voyages booked. 

 

But for us the cachet has gone. 

 

In fact, the most glowing reports seem to be from new guests who might, perhaps, not realise that the line is Silversea in name only? And I guess that suits the new owners just fine. 

 

Incidentally, there is absolutely no point to this post other than as a eulogy to what was and a hope for what might be again. In the meanwhile we are enjoying Saga cruises: 95% of the experience for 50%of the cost. 

 

 

Extremely poor compensation for deleted and changed itineraries that have nothing at all to do with world events.  Now only 10% discount on fares that have substantially increased.

 

It’s time that I look at Saga too!

 

[mysty]

While we were on our last cruise earlier this year we reached the 500 days with Venetian Society.   Being entitled to a free 14 day cruise we booked an expedition cruise on the Endeavour for July 2025.  With all the discounts and the free 14 day cruise, our cost went from $45,000 pp to a total of $14,000.  I fear this may be our last cruise with this line unless management recognizes that they are shooting themselves in the foot with their current business practices!

[saminina]

It took 7 years to accumulate 420 days.  An additional 13 years to get to 500.  Celebrated with two "free" weeks on Endeavor last summer.   First 200 days tops anything since.  Second 200 drifted towards "why am I doing this."  The final 80 days over 6 years "will I ever get to 500?"

[sea bright]

We've been able to deal with the slow slide downhill slide until this year. Hit 350 days at the beginning of a long, disappointing Muse cruise in May (after a long and disappointing Nova cruise in Jan/Feb). Canceled all other booked cruises except our January Shadow South Pacific (had extensive land bookings before and after that made cancellation difficult). Used our 7 day free cruise pittance toward a 16 day Endeavour cruise which ended last week. The food and service on the Endeavour was actually more like Silversea of old, beverage (wine, whiskey, gin) not as good, but better than Nova/Muse. I hope things are trending better (at least on the small ships) and that our Shadow cruise is similar. However, I am not holding my breath - I fear Silversea is reserving it's A game for expedition (or at least the Endeavour).

[sea bright]

58 minutes ago, mysty said:

While we were on our last cruise earlier this year we reached the 500 days with Venetian Society.   Being entitled to a free 14 day cruise we booked an expedition cruise on the Endeavour for July 2025.  With all the discounts and the free 14 day cruise, our cost went from $45,000 pp to a total of $14,000.  I fear this may be our last cruise with this line unless management recognizes that they are shooting themselves in the foot with their current business practices!

Curious, is the $45,000 a DtD price for a Veranda suite? We used our 350 day 7 day voyage toward a 16 day Endeavour cruise in a Silver Suite PtP. The numbers the Silversea onboard cruise consultant gave me for the 7 day voyage benefit never made any sense. I got my long time TA involved before booking and the discount improved, but it was still not as much as 7 days of our cruise in the cheapest Veranda suite, Port to port.

[mysty]

20 minutes ago, sea bright said:

Curious, is the $45,000 a DtD price for a Veranda suite? We used our 350 day 7 day voyage toward a 16 day Endeavour cruise in a Silver Suite PtP. The numbers the Silversea onboard cruise consultant gave me for the 7 day voyage benefit never made any sense. I got my long time TA involved before booking and the discount improved, but it was still not as much as 7 days of our cruise in the cheapest Veranda suite, Port to port.

 

It was DtD.  When we booked on the ship in April there was a suite upgrade offer in place.  We booked classic veranda and got the suite upgrade.  The cruise we booked was 16 days.  We were charged for 2 extra days at the per diem rate.  We got the 5% discount for booking on the ship and the 5% discount because it is a Venetian Society sailing and the 10% discount for our Venetian Society days.  I hope this explains the price. 

Edited Wednesday at 11:35 PM by mysty

[texanaust]

I can report that the rumors of Silversea's demise are greatly exaggerated.  We are currently on Nova and it feels like SS of old.  The crew are amazing (seems like their A team), the food excellent quality (with the exception of Kaiseki), wines pretty good and the entertainment the best I've seen from SS.

Nothing is perfect, and we've had a couple of meals with less than hot food, but that has been rectified with management continuously following up.  Silversea has even managed to poach an excellent maitre'd from Seabourn whom we have known for many years.  

 

With the silly status match getting us VS250 (with only two cruises from Celebrity) and 10% off plus the current 10% onboard booking deal, the per diems for 2025 are less than I have seen in several years.  

[drron29]

Well I can only conclude that Silversea wants to develop a reputation for being consistently inconsistent..

As to being cheaper than the past per day then how do you explain my latest cancellation of 14 days on the Whisper around Tahiti in August 2026. We can get 10% discount on exactly the same cruise in April 2026. however since we booked in January this year the cost port to port has gone up from $A26200 to $A33200 today. That is an increase of 26.7% in 8 months. And we will only get a 10% discount to change cruises. I will tell them they are dreaming.

 

So @Tothesunset I have looked at the Saga website and unlike the SS voyages in the future there are some itineraries that look interesting but I have a couple of questions. Now as 100 day plus Venetians the most important perk is free laundry. Does it cost much on Saga.

The other question is about excursions where most cruises only have 3 included excursions. Do those get booked out quickly and when can you book them. and most importantly do they change them within the last couple of weeks before boarding.

 

A sad day today.

[sea bright]

Texanaust, glad you're having a good cruise and hope it's a sign that Silversea is turning a corner. Would love to be able to cancel some of the 2025/eatly 2026 cruises we've booked with the competition (Explora, Crystal and Regent). Our January Shadow cruise will be decisive!

[QueSeraSera]

Not mentioned so far is the land trip alternative to cruising.  For us it comes down to dollars and cents with a match (or near match) sending us towards land as a better way to learn about the place we are visiting.  For a 2025 trip we find if we take the Silversea fare for visiting St Lawrence River Canada & New England, we can book extremely nice accommodations on land. I wish cruise lines would bring their accountants under control.

[Tothesunset]

4 hours ago, drron29 said:

 

So @Tothesunset I have looked at the Saga website and unlike the SS voyages in the future there are some itineraries that look interesting but I have a couple of questions. Now as 100 day plus Venetians the most important perk is free laundry. Does it cost much on Saga.

The other question is about excursions where most cruises only have 3 included excursions. Do those get booked out quickly and when can you book them. and most importantly do they change them within the last couple of weeks before boarding.

 

A sad day today.

Laundry on Saga works out at about 60% of the price per item on SS. The on board self-service  laundries are quiet during port days and overwhelmed on sea days. 

 

The included excursions are uninspiring generally comprising a 2-hr coach tour in the company of geriatrics who spend most of that time getting on and off (and insist on being first on and off, the better to hold everyone up). 

 

In our experience the food is streets ahead of SS and the menus accurately describe the food rather than strangle the descriptions with superfluous adjectives. It arrives hot, as described and in a timely manner. 

 

The suites are smaller. That's an issue if that's an important factor. For us it isn't. I'm told the entertainment is excellent often featuring people you've actually heard of, singers that can sing etc. 

 

They also provide transport to/from the ship from anywhere in UK which they organise (forget the stupid Blacklane 50 mile radius, arrange yourself nonsense). For overseas guests they will arrange transport from your arrival and to your departure point. So if you wanted to do a tour of, say, Scotland they could arrange for your travel from Edinburgh-ship-Edinburgh. 

 

The biggest downside is the "God's waiting room" vibe at times (if you're under 80 I think they class you as a juvenile!) 

 

For us, we love the ebikes which are f-o-c and can be reserved the previous day. Much rather tootle around the town/countryside on our own rather than take the hearse-in-waiting to see the same things but s l o w e r. 

 

Their included wines and spirits are fine. 10 year Lahphroaig, for example, is on the included list. 

 

And they don't pretend to be some sort of floating Elysium hiding inadequacies under grandiloquent prose. 

 

Edit to add:

 

Included excursions don't seem to book up too quickly. They become bookable about 2 months out (and thereafter remain unchanged) and can be booked online.We avoid them. The paid-for excursions are about 50% of the cost of SS for broadly similar things. We only book excursions advertised as "strenuous" - they aren't but it puts off the barely-with-us which expedites the off-the-bus events. Mostly, though, we DIY with the ebikes or take the shuttle into town. 

Edited Thursday at 05:38 AM by Tothesunset

[DavyWavey70]

6 hours ago, texanaust said:

I can report that the rumors of Silversea's demise are greatly exaggerated.  We are currently on Nova and it feels like SS of old.  The crew are amazing (seems like their A team), the food excellent quality (with the exception of Kaiseki), wines pretty good and the entertainment the best I've seen from SS.

Nothing is perfect, and we've had a couple of meals with less than hot food, but that has been rectified with management continuously following up.  Silversea has even managed to poach an excellent maitre'd from Seabourn whom we have known for many years.  

 

With the silly status match getting us VS250 (with only two cruises from Celebrity) and 10% off plus the current 10% onboard booking deal, the per diems for 2025 are less than I have seen in several years.  

I’m really pleased that you’ve enjoyed your cruise but to dismiss the genuine concerns of so many as “exaggerated” is quite condescending. Especially when you admit yourself that a couple of meals served haven’t even been hot. Having been stripped of usable Wi-Fi, served wines available at any petrol station, and being charged more to rebook a cancelled cruise even after the discount, then those passengers are quite entitled to their opinions. Please don’t lecture us on criticising  a cruise line where only some of the food is served hot whilst paying 6 star prices and you can’t even WhatsApp your friends whilst enjoying a Hungarian Chardonnay to complain about it!

[drron29]

Thanks for that @Tothesunset. Sounds fine. I think we would be avoiding the included tours. Sound like some we have been on through SS. We also go for tours that are at least moderate even on SS. We are in our 70s but both definitely slowing down so our Expedition days are behind us. I know the expedition team could get us in and out of zodiacs but I would not put them through it.

 

Bikes are not our thing. I have never had good balance and a couple of mini strokes have made it even worse. I stay up at nights and watch the Giro,Le Tour and the Vuelta even though I have never been able to ride a bicycle.

 

Having a sister living in Devon the UK will be more our type of holiday.

On top of that our son has been tracing our family trees. Rojaan's family on one side came from Wales and were slate miners. Came to sunny Australia and became coal miners.

 

Both my grandmothers were of Scottish descent and luckily I have more Scots blood than English.

Interestly both of those families emigrated to Australia from Lanarkshire. No wonder on both sides of my family at least 1 member called their home Kelvingrove.

And both sides of my Scots ancestors fought with Robert the Bruce at Bannockburn but with the English at Culloden. A good knack of picking the winners.

Edited Thursday at 06:58 AM by drron29

[lincslady]

As a Saga fan (admittedly now quite ancient) I think Tts has been just a tiny bit unkind about the age of passengers on Saga, unless it has taken a turn for the worse in the past few years.  I have always found that at least 50% of those on board were active and lively, and though maybe 75 or so still behaving like anyone much younger.  The oldest are often actually very interesting to talk to, though there will always be a few curmudgeons.  However, that applies on most cruise lines.   The staff are generally from  the countries who treat their elders with consideration, and are not only efficient but also helpful to those who need assistance, which keeps things working well.  As he says, the standard of food and drink etc. nowadays at least matches the 'luxury' lines, and all cabins have balconies.  What might be considered a downside by some is of course that the passenger list is essentially British.  

[beaujolais]

We tried Saga last Christmas and we're not at all impressed with them

The food was pretty average, a couple of good meals but also a couple of very bad meals, in the MDR the choice was very limited. The speciality restaurants were good but with limited menus that never changed

I have to say that the wines were quite the worst that we have ever had at sea. I did manage to eventually have wines from the "to pay" list without any charge, as previously said all other beverage choices were very good, better than SS

We were in a two roomed suite which in total was about the same area as a veranda suite on SS, I did look into their normal suites and they reminded me of a box room, far too small from what we have become used to over the years Laundry was included in our suite as was a fridge full of booze, daily canapés (we declined) and a butler (not very good) and other freebies that we were given

There were always queues for everything, also you could never get a table on your own in the lounges as if there was a space left on your table someone would come and sit with you. The ship's capacity is just below 1000 and it was full

We never went on tours, free tours were not offered in every port, only about half, and they were always an overview from the coach

They do have e-bikes but there were many accidents with quite a few people falling off before they had even set off, good entertainment for us from our balcony

I should also mention that at most ports at least 1 or 2 ambulances were waiting

The staff were brilliant and mainly Philipino

I have never seen so many zimmer frames and people with walking sticks, there were also wheel chairs but not too many. Quite often if you wanted the lift you had to queue and on a number of times people were so slow to get in the doors closed before you got on

The pool area is enclosed and quite claustrophobic but the decks above are very good with plenty of sheltered area

We will more than likely try Saga again due to their sailing to and from the UK but it would be a shorter cruise and it would have to be in one of the larger suites but then the price becomes very similar to SS

At the moment our money is going to Regent who we find to be good but maybe a little expensive unless you can get a deal and there are plenty about