trevandange

1 hour ago, Langley Cruisers said:

 

Wondering if you would please explain your two comments here...

 

Pretty self explanatory. I had the coronavirus so I am not afraid of it, and since I can't give it or get it, I don't want to have to wear a mask. 

 

Nothing else to say really. 

 

I will not be following or responding to any more posts on this thread.

 

yes sad

I took a short cruise in 2019 but due to family obligations could not do longer

Now that I am in a position to do longer cruises, I fear they will not be to my liking

I am not afraid. I had the 'rona. I think its overblown for most people.

Maybe we won't even be able to leave the US. Luckily I have done some traveling in Asia and Europe.

Hopefully sanity will win out at some point.

Is there an everything COVID thread?

I want to cruise but *warning* I don't want a bunch of restrictions.

Interested to know what others think

Thank you Silver Spectre. 

Nice to know we weren't missing anything!

Hi There - I'm doing the Wind in February 2020, 10 nights.  Can you clarify what you mean about the people "in the know" in terms of champagne?   I love champagne!  Thanks

I wish I could remember the name of the special champagne. I think all you have to do is ask what are the options. I believe that staff will tell you what other choices you have. In general they are probably told to offer brand X unless a guest asks for something else.

QueSeraSera,

How exciting for you to be looking forward to not one but two Silversea cruises! 

My first Silversea cruise was a long time ago, but my most recent one was in Feb 2019. 

As for the butler we did not really know how to "use" him. Some of our fellow cruisers had their butler (could be a male or female) unpack and pack their luggage but that is not for me. We are low maintenance.

Early morning we would request coffee in our room and if it was within butler's hours, he would deliver it. Outside butler's hours (too early) it would be delivered by someone else so although he was nice enough it really didn't matter to me who delivered my coffee. He also  keep us well stocked with nuts and some dark chocolate for snacking.

Butler's hours are morning and evening to handle getting people out for the day and then ready for dining. Single ladies were escorted to dinner by their butlers if they wished. 

I'm sure other cruisers here will know how to get the most out of the butler service that Silversea offers.

I am also in the dark on the wine list. I will say that there was a selection of Italian wines and I found all of them to be fine. We only drink European wines--no California or Australian, etc. only because I know I will not have bad reactions to them. We were happy with the wines. Nothing amazing, but very good for dinner, we don't drink at lunch.

27 minutes ago, Fletcher said:

 

I might also add that all three lines are starting to look a little stale in their unchanging itineraries.  Noble Caledonia is now offering a stop in Cap Haitien to visit La Citadelle and Sans Souci, Ponant has started to re-open the Bijagos Islands in Guinea-Bissau and Hapag-Lloyd now visit Federated States of Micronesia and the Marshall Islands.  I am wholly itinerary motivated so I'm unlikely to hop aboard any of these three lines in the near future.  And that's a pity as barely a morning goes by when I don't wake up and yearn for an early morning coffee in Seabourn Square.

We are itinerary driven as well and have found many of the current itineraries uninspiring. If I were doing a repositioning then the ship would be 80% important but otherwise it carries a much lesser weight.

On 6/25/2019 at 9:11 AM, wripro said:

If you do a search I'm sure you'll find at least a hundred threads comparing the two lines.

Actually I did a search and found many comparisons between Regent and other lines but not SS. If I missed one, please forward my way.

4 hours ago, Fletcher said:

 

I agree with all of this.  We sailed on the Navigator - I called it the Vibrator - from Montreal to Iceland last year.  I dislike the butler thing on Silversea and also the dress code so Regent was far better for us in these respects.  It's a personal thing but I thought the food and all the restaurants on Regent were better than the Silversea ships.

 

PS: Seabourn is better than both!

Thanks, so does Seabourn not do the "formal" thing? I thought they had butlers, etc.

Also was the entire ship vibrating or just in your cabin or something?

24 minutes ago, alithecat said:

We have only done one Regent cruise. Suites, food and service on the ship were all comparable. We didn't miss having a butler. The suite attendant and the room service waiters provided everything we needed. We were on the Navigator and didn't like the ship. But I know they have much nicer, newer ships now.

 

Regent prices are usually more expensive because they include all the excursions. But we found that the tours were disorganized, many were low quality and we couldn't book all of the ones we wanted. You had to sit in the theater every day waiting for your tour, and group, to be called. The tours never left on time. We were always sitting there for at least half an hour. Felt like it, anyway.

 

We will never book another Regent cruise. Unless I can be assured that they have fixed the above.

Thank you alithecat!

Can you tell me when you took your Regent cruise? And roughly the itinerary? We had delays on excursions on our recent Silversea cruise due to weather, with cancellations and in the cases where they did not cancel, I kind of wish they had because the experience was not very good. But I can't blame them for the weather. On Regent we are looking at the Voyager. 

We are new to CC. Our last cruise was the Silver Wind in the Caribbean in February. Yes, the Silver Wind is due for refurbishment so it is looking tired, but the experience was still top notch.

The fitness instructor was excellent although having to move chairs in the lounge each time was a bit of a drag.

A few disappointment were:

Ports of Call:

At most ports were many mega-ships so it really took away from any sort of exclusive experience. Each port had the same ships as the last.

Excursions: 

I realized you have to read the descriptions very carefully. A few excursions were hours on a bus to get to a snorkel destination that was not that great. The excursion concierge was useless.

Food:

Overall the food was quite good and they were very accommodating. Mostly we ate in La Terrazza. Wish they had simpler lunch options in the dining room.

We only ate at the pool once and it was a disappointment, so we did not try it again.

It seems they are not up to speed on current dietary trends such as Low Carb. All of the yogurt was fat-free. 

On board there was only 1 gluten-free cookie, a coconut macaroon that was cloyingly sweet, tough, and overbaked. Every single day, the same thing. I am not a great baker, but I routinely make gluten free treats that are more creative and taste a lot better. It's not that hard.

Champagne:

Seems that those "in the know" were ordering some special champagne. We only found out about it on the 2nd to last night. Kind of annoyed me as we had champagne before dinner each evening.

Cabin:

We booked directly with Silversea last minute but paid more than others who booked though an agent, who also got more generous shipboard credits. Also we never were asked about room amenities, etc. Our butler took care of it when we got on board but really, we kept asking our Silversea agent about this and he was absolutely of no help.

In future I will use a booking agent rather than go direct but I would definitely sail on Silversea again.

We have done 2 Silversea cruises (Alaska and Caribbean) and basically liked them very much.

We are considering a longer cruise and are considering Regent because of the itinerary. Also we think that the fact that the ships are larger may be better for a longer time on board.

We'd appreciate any input on how these cruise lines compare. We typically book a nicer veranda suite on Silversea and are considering the penthouse or concierge on Regent. Not sure what the absence of "butler service" on Regent means as a practical matter as I hardly make use of the butler service on Silversea.