hamasgirl

We are on Splendor right now doing a transatlantic and we were at sea this past Sunday. They had a spectacular Sunday brunch as a result. Really stunning and very well attended. Jude, our CD, said that they were really excited to be able to do the Sunday Brunch since on their upcoming Mediterranean cruises there will be few, if any, Sundays at sea so they won't have the opportunity to hold Sunday brunches then. So, at least on Splendor, Regent is doing Sunday brunches when they can.

Thanks for the replies. It is now obvious why they have done this. We are traveling due east and there is a front coming down from the north sending 10 - 14 foot swells into the port side of the ship. Every so often during dinner last evening you could hear a big rumble as a wave would hit the windows in the restaurant. Glad for the boarded windows. Wouldn't want to see that water hitting the windows during dinner!

Currently sailing Miami to Lisbon on Splendor. This is our first transatlantic cruise. The weather has been very windy (25 - 30 kts) from the port side for the last two days out of Miami. The Splendor really handles the weather well but we have had some interesting bumps and bangs along the way so far. All of the windows on Deck 4 (at least for Compass Rose and the Casino) have been boarded up. I know the waves have been high (8-10 feet) but I have never seen this done on a ship before. Is this something new that is done because of the weather we have had or is this something that happens in preparation for the transatlantic portion of the cruise? (We are currently in Bermuda and start the 4-day crossing later this afternoon) We have done many cruises, including the Drake Passage a couple of times, the north Pacific once and the north Atlantic several times in all kinds of weather and have never seen this done. Can anybody enlighten me?

We have just sailed in Suite 700 on Splendor. We absolutely loved it. Having a large balcony 'dead center' in the front of the ship was awesome for us. Watching the approach into a port and/or departure from same was a very nice experience. And the balcony had a table with two chairs...room to move the two chairs away from the table to just sit, a long sun lounger and then a big (about 5 ft long) woven basket where all of the chair pads, lounger pad were stored. Plenty of room...but yes...the balcony railing is solid from floor to waist height so you do need to stand up at the railing to see the sights that are below waist height. We did not find the cabin to be small in any way. Very comfortable...two separate rooms (bedroom and sitting room) with a large area as you enter the suite that has a small table with 2 chairs where we ate our room service orders as well as a long counter with cabinets underneath. A large walk-in closet with lots of storage in numerous drawers and hanging areas that lined all of the walls. And the bathroom was amazing. Double sinks and a shower that was very big with an overhead rainfall shower head as well as water jets lining two walls of the shower that gave a wonderful overall body massage when you used it. It is also located in a very private area...between two corner suites so there is no traffic past your door. The only sounds we ever heard were when they dropped anchor for a tender port. That is very loud but since our 22 day cruise only had 2 of those...no big deal. We are booked on 2 more cruises and have booked Suite 700 or 800 for them.

We have done a number of Regent, Seabourn and Silversea cruises. There are many things that the three cruise lines have in common, so liking one means that you will undoubtedly enjoy the other. But there are differences and from our perspective I can say that Silversea is our least favorite from the perspective of three things. 1. They are definitely a more formal ship....there are very few evenings where at least a jacket for the men is required and the maitre d's seem to enjoy pointing that out to the men who show up 'under-dressed'. Which leads me to my 2nd item. Overall while everyone gets a butler on SS, we found the butlers to be not much more than a 'senior' cabin steward. And their attention to our suite, given the large number of suites that each butler is assigned, is not so 'special'. Overall in general we found the staff on our SS cruises to be more 'stand-offish' than those on Regent and Seabourn...not in a way that offends but just isn't very warm. And finally our third item. On the newer ships...like the Muse... there is no 'main' restaurant but a set or 8 dining venues. We enjoy trying different food items when cruising and thought that this was a great new idea. At the end of our 28 day cruise...not so much. Essentially each dining venue has a set menu of dishes that basically remain unchanged. Sometimes there are some small changes but these too become same-old-same-old as the days progress and these 'changes' show up again exactly as they did before. We did not find La Dame all that special, Kaiseki was indeed a waste of money for dinner, Silver Note is not our style of eating (jazz club music while eating small plates) and Spanacanopoli (spelled that wrong I am sure) is an outdoor pizza place. That left us with 4 restaurants including Italian (evening in La Terraza), outside dining (the Grill/Patio), steak and fish restaurant (Atlantide) and Asian-fusion restaurant (Indochine). Small well-designed menus at each restaurant became stale after about 14 days...and we had 14 more to go. So we will sail SS again...their itineraries are amazing....and have 2 already booked for 2024...but we will go on the cruises knowing what to expect. We are going to try Nova..a new ship with a different approach to dining that we hope will be better for us. Hope that helps.

Hi Everyone. Just some comments on what to pack. I have been on 2 trips to Antarctica, one in December and one in February. In both cases, it never got colder than what we experience in the winter in the Northeast...highs around 40 degrees Fahrenheit and lows in the high 20's. We even went through a couple of snowstorms. I was surprised that it wasn't as cold as I had anticipated. I brought waterproof pants which are essential. I brought waterproof gloves (with fingers) also essential since everything seems to be wet when you do the wet landings in Antarctica. Renting boots and walking poles are the way to go. If the boots don't fit, they give you plenty of options to change to those that fit. And the amt of penguin 'poop' that these boots encounter on your adventure are not something that I would want to have happen to my personal boots. For clothes...the ship itself is warm, but you want to be able to jump out onto the deck from time-to-time to take pictures of the wildlife as it suddenly appears outside the windows, so I packed a thin 'puffy' vest that I wore during the day for that occurrence. As far as outdoor zodiac trips...the waterproof pants and SS-provided parka are really toasty. I brought the multiple layers recommended but after the first day on the first Antarctica trip I never wore them again...too hot. Regular long-sleeve shirt under the parka was fine and my waterproof pants were lined ski-pants so I didn't need to wear anything else under them to stay warm. The rest of the clothes needed are what you normally wear for a somewhat less-formal cruise. So as I learned after my first trip...don't overthink the 'cold weather' wear. The cold weather in Antarctica is not extraordinary...just normal winter cold.

UUNetBill. We just came back from our first cruise on Splendor. I hope that I completed the template correctly for our Suite 700 Splendor CC Rating Template.xls

Currently on Splendor. There is no 'ship wide' COVID testing. If you feel unwell and contact medical and they believe/know that those symptoms could be COVID-related then they will test you. That is what happened to us. And we are currently in quarantine having tested positive. Overall very well handled and very low drama. Regent and the crew know exactly how to handle things and they are doing it very professionally

From our perspective we just showed our CDC vaccine document to the folks at the check in desk. They looked it over and then gave us a red wristband to wear as well as a gold sticker to put on our chest. Everybody I saw had both so I have no idea what the significance of either one was. It probably took 30 seconds to do that.

On Splendor right now. Prior to embarkation (while still at home) we were required to watch the safety video online to be qualified as 'ready to cruise' or some such designation. On embarkation day, after the passport and covid vaccination paperwork process (where were got wristbands and then a gold sticker to wear on our chest) we were on board. As they handed us the glass of champagne we were directed to our muster station where our suite key was scanned. Now we have officially completed the muster process. Altho as a previous poster indicated, you had to sit through the safety video (a more extensive one) on your suite TV before you could access anything else. And no block parties on our cruise...and we are the second cruise of our back-to-back journey and no block party on either leg.

We are currently on Splendor, starting in Barcelona on Oct 11. So far our experience has been excellent. It feels to us like pre-Covid Regent with an extra dose of care from the crew. We are sailing in a Penthouse C for the first time and are really enjoying the extra space. So far our experiences with the various restaurants have been excellent. In Compass Rose where we have most of our dinners and breakfasts have delivered tasty meals with prompt and courteous service. After the second day the various greeters at the front desk knew our name, suite number, seating preference and waiter preference. We have had a couple of lunches in LaVeranda and then in the Pool Grill. Again...very tasty food and all served piping hot. Service is prompt and given with a smile. I have to tell you all about 1 experience that I had in LaVeranda at lunch. Our tour bus returned at 1:30 and by the time we were through Security and upstairs it was 1:40 PM or about 20 minutes from closing time. Already one side of the seating was closed and we were directed to the other side. I thought..OhOh...this is going to be a tough lunch to enjoy since they are going to rush us out. Nope! We were greeted warmly and made welcome. One of the hot dishes that they had on offer was Chinese Ribs but by the time I got to them, the section was empty and as I turned away one of the staff behind the counter asked if I wanted them they could get them for me. I said...no thats OK..I don't want to cause any problems and that I knew that they were closing and I went back to my table. Shortly after that, the gentleman in the jacket running our side of the restaurant came over and said that he would personally get me the ribs if I could wait about 5 minutes. And sure enough...in 5 minutes time, he brought over a whole rack of ribs, steaming hot, with an extra dish of barbecue suace saying that the chef thought that I would enjoy the extra sauce. Wow...were they good...and I shared them with my DH . I thanked the staff very much...and we didn't leave the restaurant until 2:30...and nobody rushed us or greeted us with anything but smiling faces. Now that is service!!

We have sailed to Antarctica twice on Seabourn pre-Covid. On both cruises there was a shipboard photographer/ videographer who took amazing shots of the entire cruise...its landscapes and wildlife. And on both cruises he/she had a drone that he sent out from the ship to get pictures that us passengers couldn't see. The night before the end of the cruise the results were shown to everyone and when we came back from dinner we had a computer 'stick' with the entire result in our suite. It was a gift from Seabourn to all of us. I still have them both and occasionally look at them to remember the wonderful cruises that we had.

I have been to Antarctica twice but on Seabourn. I don't think that matters because from what I have seen, all lines that go to Antarctica basically do the same. You will do wet landings...in some cases, the water will be up to your ankles and in some cases closer to your mid-shin. Either way, opting out of these landings basically says that you will miss most landings. Not something that I would do. Now relative to boot rentals. There are a number of companies that handle this for the cruise lines. Silversea will give you that information. When you contact them, you 'rent' what you want. I recommend the poles as well as boots. In a couple of places where we landed it was snowing and rocky so the poles helped us navigate the landing areas. They show up in your suite when you are on board and you will have an opportunity to swap them out if you picked the wrong size pre-cruise. You store them in provided lockers on board. At the end of the cruise, the boots and poles are collected and returned to the rental company for you. And within 1 week of our cruise the 'rental amt' was returned to our credit card. So, in effect, the 'rental' was free. It sure was a whole lot easier to rent than to try and pack boots sufficient to keep you dry.

Agree with the other posters - pretty much comparable in evening wear to other non-antarctic cruises. I will note though that you should think about bringing a sweater or maybe a light down jacket for indoor daily wear. With everyone running outside to see whatever special wildlife, or glacier or something else photogenic going by as you sail in those waters, the inside temps in many of the public places with access to the outside decks gets cool. And you yourself may want to jump to an outside deck to take a picture without having to run back to your suite to get a jacket. A warm sweater or vest will do the trick in a pinch.

Pre-COVID we sailed three cruise lines...Regent, Seabourn and Silversea. In general we feel that all three lines offer similar experiences at comparable price points. Having been cruising actively since we retired (at lease 2 cruises per year since 2012), we now choose which line to travel based on itinerary. We can travel longer-than-usual cruises...like 35+ days....because we are retired but found a sweet spot in the 16-21 day cruise length for enjoyment before getting too overwhelmed with rich food, drink and pampering. But most important to us is to sail new ships. We have sailed on the older ships (like for example Regent's Mariner and Voyager) but do not enjoy the older look and feel of ships of this age. And I have a sensitivity to salt and as much as I try to drink only still, bottled water on older ships, I always get swollen ankles and lower legs on older cruise ships which are very uncomfortable. The newer ships don't seem to cause that problem and the 'newness' of the ship facilities are what we truly enjoy. All that being said, Seabourn was our favorite and most-frequently booked cruise line pre-COVID. However their new ships are Expedition ones and those fares are too rich for us. So, for now, we have 7 cruises booked through early 2025....4 on Regent, 2 on Silversea and 1 on Seabourn. And with the exception of the Seabourn one, all are on the newest ships...Regent on Splendor and Grandeur and Silversea on Nova.

Pre-Covid we took our first Silversea cruise during the inaugural season of the Muse. We took this cruise for the itinerary (Hong Kong to Tokyo) which was amazing and to experience the Muse. Since we had never cruised with Silversea before we thought that this would be an excellent first experience. We found Muse to be kind of odd. The ship was beautiful, cabins well designed and spacious and common rooms well laid out. However, the crew were extremely stand-offish. And the food was sub-par at best. I have a sensitivity to dairy and usually meet with someone from the kitchen to see what options I may have when their menu is dairy rich. On both Regent and Seabourn I have found their kitchens to be very accommodating. On embarkation day on Muse I received a note from the Head Chef to meet him in the dining room to discuss. I was impressed! In my meeting with him, he told me directly that they would not/could not make any changes in their recipes! Not a great way to start. We found lots of other problems too numerous to describe here. After that first and only Silversea cruise we decided to not cruise with Silversea again since what they offered was less that what we had experienced on Seabourn and Regent.. And Covid 19 hit. We stayed home for 2 years. Deciding we wanted to step into cruising again we looked at Silversea, Regent and Seabourn for our first return cruise. I saw Silversea Whisper only had 300 or so guests and decided to start our return to cruising on that very small ship because of its size which we felt would be the least risky. What an absolute delight! The crew couldn't have been more lovely, the food was both delicious and very accommodating to my needs. While the ship is older, it is in beautiful shape. And we found that she is very sea-worthy for her size, riding some pretty rough seas very well. What we experienced on the Whisper could have reflected the fact that we took the cruise immediately following the end of the World Cruise on Whisper. So I would expect that we experienced a very experienced and highly skilled crew. But we still felt totally welcomed and valued by the crew even though we were not World Cruise cruisers! So Silversea is back in the mix for us for future cruises. We have booked two upcoming cruises in 2024 and 2025 on the still-to-be-built Silver Nova thinking that the Nova design may be more to our liking than the Muse-type ships. We'll see!

We did this cruise pre-Covid on Explorer. We did the pre-cruise 3 day Safari add-on which was fabulous. It was not free (I think it was an additional $1500 or so) but it was worth every penny. Please note that during this time (we did the cruise over the holidays too), S Africa basically closes down. Everybody is on vacation so most of the public places and stores are closed. A lot of the open-air venues (beaches and public parks) are mobbed with these folks enjoying their time off. Regent did a good job of arranging to have the museums on the cruise-provided tours we took open. We would literally be the only ones in the museum which was weird but kind of nice. On a couple of other tours we took to a soccer venue and a small historic building site we were also the only ones allowed in. So if you are planning to do touring privately please make sure that the places that you want to visit will be open for you. Lastly, the weather on both coasts of S Africa was atrocious...high winds and therefore waves...which prevented us from docking in two ports. When we could dock, it was rainy and very humid making tours very uncomfortable. So not as delightful a cruise as we had hoped but I am certainly glad that we did it!

We did this tour pre-Covid. As I remember it, the sanctuary was quite a distance from the ship...nearly a 1 hour drive I think. It was also all by itself location-wise. Not an area where you would expect to see taxis and we did not. The day we went it was horridly hot (42C) and everything in the sanctuary was outside...just as you would expect for a sanctuary. We saw lots of animals...walked among kangaroos. We saw the koala photo thing...but it was so hot, the thought of cuddling with a koala wasn't the least bit inviting! And the animals appeared to be just as hot as we were! An excellent opportunity to see wildlife and we found the amount of time allotted for the tour at the sanctuary sufficient for the size and number of animals there.

Based on my recent experience with SS-arranged flights I would recommend that you re-think that option. Please take a look at my experience on our recent SS-selected flight home from our cruise last week under "Great until Disembarkation" post. We will NEVER use SS to arrange our flights again.

We just completed our first SS cruise on Silver Whisper. We had a marvelous time. Crew were wonderful, food was excellent and the ship ...tho old..was in excellent shape. This being our first cruise back post Covid and having booked it last June, we decided to let SS make all of the air arrangements in an abundance of caution even tho normally we would have done that with our TA. It was a mistake. SS booked our return flight out of Heathrow at noon on Disembarkation Day. I was concerned but we were docking in Greenwich at 2 am. So maybe they had planned our flight knowing that they would be getting us off of the ship really early. Then we got our time as a 7:30 am disembarkation. I questioned that as pretty late given that we had to traverse London to get to Heathrow. But I was assured that they do this all of the time and it would be fine. Well we did leave the ship at 7:30 but the land arrangements for the bus transfer....tender to the dock, luggage scrum in that port, long walk to the bus, verification of terminals based on your flight at the bus, loading passengers and luggage on the bus...took 1 hour 10 mins. So now we headed out to the airport at nearly the height of rush hour. Luckily we were in the first terminal stop at the airport for the bus...which we got to at 10:15 am (the bus driver did a magnificent job to make it that quickly). We managed to get through the luggage checkin with 5 minutes to spare before our flight cutoff thanks to a helpful attendant in Heathrow who got us to the front of the line. Now we needed to get through security and get to our gate in approx 45 minutes. Again we were able to go through the "Gold Lane" based on Business Class so we got through Security in about 25 minutes. So now we had 20 minutes to get to the gate which was in another terminal that would take us 15 minutes to walk to. So...we ran. I haven't done that in probably 20 years. We made it...with about 8 minutes to spare. Lesson learned...do your flight booking through your TA no matter what SS offers (can't imagine what will happen with their new Door-to-Door offer).

Scseas. I just checked the electronic document that we received from SS prior to our cruise (which we received on 5/17 for a 5/20 flight and a 5/22 embarkation). Even though we were using SS for a 1 night pre-cruise hotel stay, we still received the pier infromation. But it is hard to find if you really don't look closely at all of the information. The pier information for my cruise was within the section of the document labeled 'Your pre-cruise information'. After the information about the hotel and the Local Contact agent there is a sentence that follows that section. And there it told us the pier will our ship would be docked. You really have to look hard but it is there. Good luck!

Currently on Whisper and only our 2nd Silversea cruise. We are long time Regent and Seabourn cruisers and have always had a wonderful time on both lines. Our first Silversea cruise was on the Muse. The ship and facilities are wonderful but we really didn't like the lack of a central dining room. Granted there are 8 different dining venues but we found that the menus in all 8 barely if ever changed. Given that experience we wanted to try SS one more time with a more traditional Restaurant approach. Thus the choice of Whisper. As our first cruise back after Covid we didn't know what to expect but the cruise has been wonderful. The ship and facilities are in tip-top shape and we love the fact that there are a smaller number of passengers than we are used to. We love the fact that the Restaurant has a special set of dishes every day (lunch and dinner) that reflect the ports we are visiting. And there are also 'standard offerings' every day if you prefer the tried and true dishes. Flavors have been wonderful. The staff have been doing everything they can to make the trip a wonderful experience. And their Covid measures have been well done. Given this experience we will be including SS in our choice of cruises in the future but not their larger ships.

Yup...that is all you are going to receive. Make sure to follow the details of what the email tells you that you need to do. As far as luggage tags go...if you booked a pre-cruise hotel stay through Silversea then they will be provided to you at your room at the hotel. Otherwise there will be tables set up at the pier providing you with luggage tags once you check in there. No more pre-cruise packages like the good-old pre-Covid days.

Currently on SS cruise Copenhagen to London. Masks are suggested to be worn indoors whenever not actively eating and drinking. Masks are required in the Show Lounge, Casino, on tenders, on tour buses. Temps are taken every day by either the Butler or the suite attendant and need to be done by noon. If the front desk doesn't see a result for you then reception contacts you to come and get your temp taken. We are doing a back-to-back cruise so testing for us was done the day before the second half of our cruise began and results sent to our email that evening. For folks who were departing the cruise and flying to the US on the day of disembarkation, testing by SS is being done with results provided with the passports when they are returned to you on the morning of disembarkation. All done very professionally and very organized. This being my first cruise since Covid, I have to tell you that I was very concerned and a bit panicky about how this was all going to work but so far everything has been handled very simply and professionally by SS. Hang in there...you will get an email from SS about 10 - 15 days before the cruise departure date with clear instructions on what you have to do. Follow that and it will all go smoothly.

We stayed one night at a hotel pre-cruise through Silversea. Luggage tags were delivered that night to our rooms and needed to be attached by 10 am the following morning for luggage pick-up from our rooms. The luggage wound up being packed into the bus that took us to the ship so we arrived together. Also at the cruise terminal there were two desks set up with luggage tags for attaching for those that arrived without them. Easy/peesy either way. No worries.