ClefsDor

Thanks, Kieth. I have ascertained that if we book a cruise on Crystal this would be my 11th cruise and it would be my husband's 10th cruise. I will reach out to my TA and get her to push back on this with Crystal. Their response that we aren't entitled to milestones as we haven't sailed with new Crystal just doesn't make sense

Terry, what you say makes sense and now I'm wondering if I am at number 10 when I sail again or if I am number 11 with old crystal. I didn't ask the question but know it is either 10 or 11. I will get my TA to check and if it's number 11 it'll be bye bye milestone awards until we reach 15 but hopefully the next sailing might be number 10

Thank you, Rob and will do.

Yes it does, and this will be my 11th Crystal cruise - which they acknowledge. I can understand that if it was my 12th (or more) then they would have no record. The issue wasn't that but that I just hadn't sailed on new Crystal yet. 

After a long hiatus from Crystal we are looking at a cruise next year. Decided to apply my 10th milestone for a one category upgrade. The cruise is for 15 days and the milestone upgrade is for 12 days. Asked my TA if we could just pay the extra for the additional 3 nights. According to the supervisor she spoke to the milestones don't apply at all if you haven't done a sailing on New Crystal! Not sure if that is noted anywhere in the fine print!

Thanks Vistaman, a wealth of information! My husband will be excited for the white sausages and sent!

Thank you Vistaman, I was hoping you would chime in as I know you sail Europa frequently and enjoy it. In regard to the carafes of wine - what would be the price range?

Thank you, cathaana. I think CC turned that function off but if you would be so kind as to email me I would vey much appreciate it. shirinsatbigponddotcom

Thank you Ovener and cathaana for your responses! I was actually wondering about the best way to book. We have a very good TA based in the States but I don't think she has much experience or clout with HL cruises and the usual discount we get from her might not apply so a German TA might be a good option in this case.

We are seriously considering a cruise on Ms Europa 2 later this year. We have previously sailed on Crystal, Silversea & Cunard Queens Grill. I have read the reviews and seen some videos of the ship and so far we are liking the look and sound of it. My husband is second generation German and does speak a little, I don't speak German at all but this being the Europa 2 I'm sure this won't be an issue. I am interested to experience the ambience on board wth a passenger mix that will be, I'm sure, quite different to the cruises we have previously been on.

Another thing that will be quite different for us will be the non inclusive nature in regard to drinks. I was wondering if anyone has a recent wine list they can share or give me an idea of the average price range for a reasonable bottle of wine. I believe cocktails are around 8 Euro which is very reasonable and hoping they have a good range of wines in all price brackets. Also wondering what the prices are for things like single malt scotches? 

Thanks in advance and please share any other tips and information you might have.

We are also on the Dawn Holiday cruise and received our e-tickets yesterday as did our friends.

Our holiday cruise on the Dawn departing Dec 21 still doesn't have the formal nights posted - seems strange when according to above posts other ships have their formal nights showing. 

We were on the same Muse cruise as Texas Tillie and have to agree that particular cruise had some major issues which, kudos to Silversea, they were very transparent about.

It was our first cruise on Silversea, we had only cruised on Crystal pre Covid. However despite the issues we encountered on the Muse we enjoyed the ship size and all the outdoor areas for eating and dining - this is something that is lacking on Crystal.

We are "pool" people and we loved the size of the pool and having a pool bar. I found the service on par with Crystal throughout the ship. Entertainment wise Crystal was better but we still enjoyed the Voices of Silversea shows.

We appreciated having many choices of dining for both lunch and dinner. In terms of food Umi Uma on Crystal is better than Kaiseki and in general we would give the nod to Crystal on food but somethings were done much better on Silversea - primarily steaks and fish. I do think that particular cruise was struggling in the kitchen due to staff issues and I feel confident that it's not the norm for Silversea. Menu choices are much bigger in Atlantide than Waterside on Crystal so we were always able to find something that appealed to us but this was not often the case with the smaller menus on Crystal. Appreciate being able to dine in different venues but order from other  restaurants - something we did in Silver Note as the food was not to our liking. We felt the wine offerings on Silversea were superior to Crystal but the spirit choices were better on Crystal.

We are not inclined to book on Crystal for the time being but have two more cruises booked on Silversea - one on the Dawn and the other on the Ray. We would find it hard to go back to a standard room on Crystal with the even smaller closet they have installed, to get a walk in closet on Crystal on has to opt and pay for a penthouse, which at the moment is overpriced IMO.

I do think that the issues we experienced on the Muse were an anomaly and if our  next couple of Silversea cruises are as we expect then we will be happy to switch to Silversea.

Thanks for sharing your experience Mofrances. I will keep checking to see if the bow ties appear - they never did for our last cruise. 

We are on the Dawn holiday cruise and no bow ties are showing yet. We are about a week out from being able to book restaurants. Does anyone have any experience on when the formal nights usually are on a holiday cruise? I'm assuming Christmas Eve and NYE but it's a 15 day cruise so there will be at least one more. I would think it might not be on the 2nd night of the cruise as Christmas Eve is only 2 nights after that - cruise departs Dec 21.

Thanks for clarifying, Bitob.

Bitob, how is this experience on the Moon comparing to your recent cruise on Regent and your other SS cruises?

Looking forward to your posts! SS is our new go to cruise line. We loved our first sailing on the Muse and have 2 more booked - one on Dawn and the other on the new Ray in 2024. 

15 hours ago, 1954 said:

We were eventually allocated a room next to a Grand Suite. These are rooms that can be booked as a second bed room for a Grand Suite. However, connection appears to be via a common entrance 'outer vestibule' and not a direct connecting door, so I don't envisage any real problems.

Thanks, that's good to know!

18 hours ago, needingwifi said:

Nice...! What did you book and what did you get?

We booked a classic verandah GTY and were allocated the next level up. Having said that it is the adjoining cabin to a Royal Suite so not sure if that makes any difference. Thinking it might be better with more senior butler service perhaps but might be noisier as an adjoining cabin?

I was surprised to find our room had been allocated 2 weeks ago for a cruise in Dec 2023! 

I'm not sure if all butlers on Silversea have been to "butler school", especially with staff shortages since the pandemic. On our last SS cruise our butler was new to SS and had never been a butler before. His previous role was room service delivery at a hotel in Dubai. To say he was out of his depth and had no training would be an understatement. A couple of days into our cruise we asked him to cancel a La Dame reservation and he asked what that was!! Unfortunately the poor fellow was very stressed and uncomfortable and within a few days we were told he was leaving to go back home due to a family issue. We spoke to quite a few passengers on that cruise who also seemed to have new and untrained butlers.

If Silversea have been notified and top execs are aware why an earth haven't they shut down the site until the issue is resolved??!!

Same here. Just logged on and had other people's info and bookings! This is CRAZY!!!

Just goes to show that different ships, in different area have access to different quality of supplies. On the Muse in December the steaks in every venue were wonderful - including Atlantide. I never bother ordering steaks on cruise ships but on the Muse it became our go to meal if nothing else on the menu appealed. They really were excellent so maybe try a steak one night, you might be pleasantly surprised.