Help Me Choose

[Goldens4]

Oh duct tape, I couldn't remember her name and was too lazy to go back and look it up. You're a character.

[BroncosFan2010]

Oh duct tape, I couldn't remember her name and was too lazy to go back and look it up. You're a character.

 

No big deal!

 

 

Thanks to everyone for their honest responses. I was not trying to turn this into a smoking debate. Like I said before, we respect the rights of smokers on ships. I would just hate to book a full sailing on SS, and end up in a room that bothered my husband, and not be able to switch. He gets miserable, all stuffed up, watery eyes, coughing, and headaches. It would be awful to spend that much money and not have an enjoyable cruise. Maybe Regent will be our best bet... We have time to make a decision, and perhaps we could inform guest realations at SS about the need before we cruise, and they could make sure things are taken care of? I have heard such great things about this line that I don't want to completely rule it out.

[DebbieH103]

Whether you are dealing with someone in Virtuoso, vacation.com, Signature, Ensemble, whatever, there is one fixed price even if someone has a group unless they chartererd the ship. Naturally, if they have a lot of cabins, they can choose to do what they will with that money. In fact, Silversea has a no discount policy but not contractually like some lines and is allowing agents more leeway in these times. Just make sure your agent has ethics because these lenient policies can and will change. There are a number of types of "luxury specialists", an we are not all with the same credentials.

 

Regarding choosing the right trip and ship, the research is half the fun, at least it seems so till you get on the ship itself.

[BroncosFan2010]

Whether you are dealing with someone in Virtuoso, vacation.com, Signature, Ensemble, whatever, there is one fixed price even if someone has a group unless they chartererd the ship. Naturally, if they have a lot of cabins, they can choose to do what they will with that money. In fact, Silversea has a no discount policy but not contractually like some lines and is allowing agents more leeway in these times. Just make sure your agent has ethics because these lenient policies can and will change. There are a number of types of "luxury specialists", an we are not all with the same credentials.

 

Regarding choosing the right trip and ship, the research is half the fun, at least it seems so till you get on the ship itself.

 

 

Yes, research is half of the fun.

 

As you guys can see from my signature, DH and I will be sailing on RCCL (again) for a B2B. I would LOVE to sail on Regent or SS, but it turns out that we cannot beat the price or itinerary that RCCL offers for next year. I guess our luxury cruising days will not come as soon as I hoped.

Be sure, I will be back on these boards doing more research for the future!

[Emtbsam]

We're veterans of both also & find SS staff to be absolutely beyond compare. It's like you become a "family" member. Food excellent on both. Smoking is an issue on Silversea. Why they've placed the Humidor inside the Non Smoking Panorama on the Cloud is one of life's myteries! We would (and will) book with either in a heartbeat, depends on itinerary. You will be surrounded by interesting & welll traveled passengers on both. As has been mentioned, stay tuned....many things change in the course of time & who knows what might transpire in this economy? Maybe they'll all be owned by Carnival or Royal Caribbean, & instead of quietly enjoying the sunset with a cocktail in the Caribbean, you'll be attending the belly flop contest with 2,000 screaming little darlings.:eek:

We sailed on the Shadow last December out of FLL. When we first entered our cabin, there was an intense smell of cigar smoke. I went to the reception desk, and they offered a "deep cleaning" of the cabin or a different cabin. We we opted for a different cabin (917) and enjoyed the location tremendously. According to SS, cigar smoking is not allowed in cabins, only in the humidor. Although SS had been aware of the cigar smoke in the cabin, they did not do a "deep cleaning" prior to our arrival. This was disappointing and did make me wonder how they would have handled the situation if there had not been any open cabins. Nevertheless, there were open cabins, and we loved being on the 9th deck.

 

I have not smelled cigarette smoke in the hallways, although there was, at times, a smell of sewage! We commented on it but never received a satisfactory answer. Has anyone else had this issue on the Shadow on deck 9?

 

As another person has mentioned, the passengers on SS are very considerate of other passengers when it comes to smoking, and I would not be at all concerned about that issue.