machotspur

We were on Silver Dawn last month and like you added a 1 page simple letter to the mid cruise questionaire, clearly stating that it was in lieu of the small mid cruise card. Usually one is contacted one or two days after submitting the mid cruise comments. On this occasion we heard nothing so I pointed this out to the Hotel Director. She advised that onboard management wouldn't be responding as it is a 'rule' that any letters handed in are referred to 'shore side' for response - a response that we never forthcoming. Sad, but predictable.

Thank you cruisinbanjo and turtlemichael before you, for posts that very much capture the feelings of Mrs machotspur and I. We've been on 26 cruises, of which 12 or so have been with Silversea, and much of the remainder with Seabourn & Regent. Our most recent cruise on Silver Dawn last month was poor in so many ways and our feelings about the experience are accurately reflected in bold in your post above. The reality is that the quality of the product of all of the cruise companies we have previously travelled with has declined significantly (IMHO), with the fares going through the roof. We do not believe that any of them are now (ultra) luxury. To us the term 'luxury' is now a misnomer when applied to Silversea et al. Like you we are not entirely 'throwing our toys out of the pram' and saying that we are done with cruising. However - there is no doubt going forward our travel plans will more likely be 75/25 land to sea, compared to recent years (COVID excluded) of 25/75. Whilst we understand - albeit not fully support - the reason for travel companies 'balancing the books', our experience is that - worldwide - the quality of premium land based travel has not been reduced as dramatically as the 'luxury' cruise companies. As always - "you pays your money and makes your choice" !

Mr Silver - I can't help but think that you were on our recent cruise, as oyu have captured perfectly our feelings. 😉 Mrs Machotspur & I sailed on Silver Dawn a couple of weeks back (Barbados to Barbados), preceding the TA reported by spinnaker2. Prior to this cruise we had very much enjoyed the ‘Muse class’ ships – they had become our favourite of any cruise company. This latter cruise on Dawn could not have been more different – or less enjoyable. In short we found a whole range of shortcomings, across F&B, service, shore excursions – and managment/shoreside attitudes – far too much to detail here. This cruise was for us the least satisfactory - and least enjoyable – of the significant number of cruises we have taken on SS/SB/Regent/O. Of course others onboard may have disembarked with more positive feelings. Whilst we avoided discussing the situation with many Silversea regulars, there were apparently some 160 Silversea ‘newbies’ onboard. We spoke to quite a few of these, all of which were incredulous that what they were experiencing was a supposed ‘ultra luxury’ product, compared to the mid market product that they usually purchase. There has been various comments made on here about the decline of the Silversea product and how an ever increasing price is being asked for something that is further and further from ‘ultra luxury’. As far as I can see the same sentiments are being voiced about the competitors of Silversea. It is my belief that sadly what we are now experiencing is the future of SS/SB/Regent. In my humble opinion RCI, Carnival, NCL all know that they have a large number of repeat mature guests that are willing to accept/excuse/ignore the decline in standards. I suspect that they also believe that the majority of these same guests – despite the ‘huffing & puffing’ – would be horrified at the thought of ‘divorcing’ their favourite cruise company. Just take a look at the postings on ‘the other place’ to witness the overwhelming positivity shown !! (One will have their own opinion as to why this could be !). At the end of the day it's all about personal opinions - "we pays our money and makes our choice" ! Mrs Machospur and I have - for now at least - filed for that 'SS divorce'.

Most certainly not unique to the Nova. We were on Dawn earlier this month and the menus on both restaurants you refer to have been significantly reduced. In addition we have noted a material reduction in the quality of some/many of the raw ingredients. Only this afternoon I have been going through this with my TA. IMHO there is a very significant cost cutting drive taking place within Silversea/RCI. Not a good sign.

We also very much enjoy Silver Note. We were on Silver Dawn earlier this month and dined at 'Note' twice. The booking tends to be a one hour window ie our reservations were for 8pm-9pm on both occasions. You can arrive any time in that window. Once we were there bang on 8pm, the other around 20:30. From memory the pianist played until 9pm, then the singer arrived and performed for around 45 minutes IIRC, so we enjoyed the full 'show' on both occasions, despite arriving 30 minutes later than the other.

Hello spinnaker2 My wife and I were on the cruise preceding yours - Bridgetown to Bridgetown. We were in 1009 and were looked after by the same butler & suite attendant as yourselves. Please pass on our best regards to Mark, who is an oustanding suite attendant and a really lovely guy. (We are Mr & Mrs Mac..... from England). We've been enjoying following you on your TA cruise and are pleased that our recollections of our cruise are not dissimilar to yours - good and not so good. We'd be really interested to learn if the very controversial 'gratuities letter' lands on your bed one evening towards the end of your cruise !! Best wishes for the rest of your cruise.

Last week on Silver Dawn the range of beer was even worse than ever. They do half a dozen mainsteam 'lager' beers ie Stella. Apart from that they only had Guiness and Newcastle Brown (!!). They used to have Old Speckled Hen, which is an OK ale, but that seems to have disappeared.

The HD only came onboard at the beginning of this cruise - the end of last week. What information do you have please to suggest she is being replaced ? She was still here this morning !

OK - lots of speculation & opinions here. My attempt to introduce some factual insight below … My wife and I are currently onboard Silver Dawn and had the dubious honour of receiving this letter on our bed last night - three days before the end of the cruise !!! We were horrified by the content and this morning sought out some insight into this disgraceful communication. From speaking with ‘those in the know’ onboard I can confirm that I’ve been advised that :- - this is a corporate message, so ‘don’t shoot the messenger’ ie the Hotel Director. - Silver Dawn is the first ship on which this communication has been distributed. - there is no insight as to this being rolled out across the fleet, although I suspect, when considering Silversea’s usual attitude that this new policy will stand. - admittedly based on a limited sample there appears to be significant discontent onboard regarding this cynical announcement. - as has already been stated comments on ‘the other place’ are mostly extremely negative, although comments have now been turned off !! The primary reason we have travelled on Silversea/Seabourn/Regent for so many years is for the fully inclusive nature of the product. I know that there are a range of opinions on the subject of gratuities but we personally do not wish to be compelled to cough up a gratuity - we much prefer an all inclusive cost upfront (which is what we thought the deal had been for the past x number of years). For Silversea to now be encouraging/ embarrassing me to pay a set gratuity, in addition to the ever increasing fully inclusive cruise cost that I have already paid is IMHO shockingly cynical and a complete degradation of the core elements of the product.

mlk58 - thank you so much for you very helpful comments on Suite 737 - we thank you for taking time out of your cruise to help another Seabourn cruiser 👍. One other quick question if I may - you mention that you took an upgrade for a reasonable cost. Was this offered to you in advance of you departing from home, or once you had embarked the ship ? Thank so much again for your kind assistance.

Absolutely concur with the two accounts on Silver Endeavour. We were on the ship last November for a Falklands/South Georgia/Antarctica itinerary and the hygiene protocols, whilst being throrough they were a breeze - and little inconvenience to guests. To support the reports already posted - once we'd been through the initial inspection of the outer gear we brought with us, the expedition team members took care of everything. They inspected & sprayed our footwear down on exit & reentry to the ship. They also ensured that we went through the sanitation troughs each way. It really was a well organised, professional but hassle free process. We certainly didnt get involved in any boot scrubbing etc. A really good example of reconciling luxury expedition cruising to essential safety & environmental requirements.

We are booked on a South Pacific itinerary on Pursuit in April 2025, in a Veranda suite. Ideally we would have liked a Penthouse Suite but these are sold out. We are able to book one of these but with a ‘We Choose’ booking. On a different ship, with a larger ‘category size’ to be allocated from, we may have taken a gamble with this, but with Pursuit & Venture the Penthouse Suites are a little more complex. There is an odd suite – 739 – that is semi isolated - directly opposite the Spa (the suite was previously categorised as Penthouse Spa) – that is not of interest to us. Of the remaining 11 Penthouse Suites, 5 of them are ‘Accessible Suites’. So – my (delicate) question to anyone that has cruised on Venture/Pursuit in an ‘Accessible Penthouse’ - with utmost respect to those that very much value these adapted suites - is what is different in these to standard Penthouse, and to what degree did it feel ‘unusual’ to be in. Clearly if we went for the 'We Choose' booking we could end up with the isolated 739 or one of the 'Accessible' suites. We need to understand if these are as enjoyable as a standard suite. Thank you so much to anyone who can share inisight on this.

Very much 'ditto'. The experiences on the 'old' fleet led to us deserting Silversea for 8 years. Whilst aware of certain shortcomings the 'Muse Class' ships meet much of our needs. We cruise with Silversea, Seabourn and Regent and in our experience the downturn in standards that some note is apparent across all three. We went back to Oceania a year or so back and found the food & service standards to be very disappointing. None of the cruise lines mentioned fully meet our needs, but we would consider any of them if the itinerary was of interest.

We were on Silver Endeavour for 18 nights in November - Falklands, S.Georgia, Antarctica. No formality at all - generally 'country casual', and in the Grill casual. I understand that the nationality of guests on Antarctica trips is changing significantly and this may well affect how casually people dress. For example on our cruise there were 49 Chinese guests, a fair proportion of which dressed very casually. Nobody seemed to worry about it. One thing to rememeber - assuming you will be taking the charter flight down to Antarctica or Puerto Williams - the baggage allowance is only 23kg. I certainly didn't take anything resembling Formal.

When we were there on Silver Endeavour last month this was the reasoning given - migratory birds introduce the flu, but there is a high chance of humans speading it - if not controlled.(although of course there are other ways it will be spread). I understand that the expedition cruise ship folk will always defer to the people who are on South Georgia, who are charged with the primary objective of protecting the wildlife on South Georgia. I would add that the decision not to land in a couple of places was made by the Silversea 'advance zodiac party' who themselves identified evidence of Avian flu. Having said this the reports indicated up thread are far more positive than I had expected when we were there last month. Fingers crossed for everyone due to go there in the next couple of months !!

An addition to your Edinburgh route if you have time. Once you are done in Holyrood maybe a not too strenuous walk up to Calton Hill (around 0.5 miles). Superb 360 degree views across Edfinburgh, Leith, the Forth etc.

I apologise to the OP for going slightly off topic, however I’d like to make two points that I believe contribute to this subject. My wife & I disembarked Silver Endeavour last Saturday having completed the 18 night Falklands/South Georgia/Antarctica itinerary. It was a very memorable cruise – for all the right reasons. I very much respect that – as shown in this thread – there is much variance in individual views of a particular ship. I for one do not like the Cloud/Wind, hence we switched to Endeavour when it became available (and cancelled the Wind booking we had). We did not regret this decision one bit, in fact whilst there are a few unfamiliar aspects to Endeavour we found the ship itself – and elements such as service, expedition personnel, suites & décor etc to be outstanding. The only thing that missed the mark for us was (at times) the dining, but again, F&B is highly subjective and I’m sure there are other guests that were very satisfied with the dining. With regard to the situation in South Georgia. We were fortunate in being able to complete our first two days on the North side before this section of the island effectively became a ‘no go’ zone. Our third day was spent on zodiacs in the beautiful King Haaken Bay on the South Side. A different experience, which to me was an unexpected bonus as we got to see the exact site(s) where Shackleton and his other 5 crew members landed after the gruelling journey from Elephant Island. It is unclear how the whole Avian Bird Flu will develop in the coming weeks and months. As has already been noted the disease is carried and predominantly spread by migratory birds. There is of course no control over these and it is clear that it has spread rapidly on the North Side, before the cruise season had even got going. I have no specialist knowledge of this subject but reflecting on what happened to us I am thinking that at best South Georgia may now consist of ‘zodiac only’ visits – at worst a total lockdown. Time will tell.

Thank you for posting this helpful article. It appears that there is little that can be done to halt the disease entering South Georgia as it is brought there by migratory birds. Stringent controls on visitors - which are predominantly on smaller cruise ships - should go some way to restricting the spread around the island. I do believe that cruise ships will ‘do their bit’ backed up by the South Georgia authorities who appear to be very diligent. However - as reported in the past couple of days around 50% of landing sites are already infected. It appears to be a question of ‘wait & see’.

Maybe a ‘thank you or like button’ on the original post may have been more appropriate than a post such as this.

Update We were given permission to carry out zodiac cruises around the bay. During this we viewed the glaciers, icebergs and Shackleton’s landing site with the James Caird. We were also able to view from the zodiacs the initial ascent Shackleton/Worsley/Crean took across South Georgia to Stromness. There is no suggestion that zodiacs will/ will not continue to be permissible. My understanding is that the species most vulnerable are birds of flight and certain seals. At the second level some, but not all Penguins are vulnerable. There is no other information being shared by expedition crew on the ship. We have now been at sea for two days heading for Elephant Island so do not expect any further reliable information. I’m sure more will emerge from cruise companies & TA’s in due course.

Some sad news has reached us on Silver Endeavour last night . Avian Bird Flu has reached South Georgia - one of the most remote and environmentally protected locations on the planet. It has been found on around 40% of landing sites on the north side of the island. Our planned landings for our final day have therefore been pulled. We have just received some bad news regarding our substitute landing - Peggoty Bay - Shackleton’s landing site on the south side. The crew advanced landing has identified presence of Avian Bird Flu, with dead birds evident. The landing has therefore been cancelled. The plan is for us now to view the sites from zodiacs. I’m no expert but it’s not looking good in South Georgia, both for the bird population and cruise visits. Those familiar with the island will be aware of the huge populations of various species existing here. Not wishing to be alarmist but I suspect a full lockdown will not be far away.

OK - here's a rather unusual question for you Antarctica veterans out there. We head off for our Falklands/South Georgia/Antarctica in 48 hours, beginning with a couple of days in Santiago, Chile. I believe that Santiago time zone is GMT -3 hours. Falklands is GMT -3 hours & South Georgia GMT -2 hours. HOWEVER - I understand that Antarctica is GMT +12 hours, although the various research stations there apparently have there own time zone, presumably aligned to their home country. So how do the cruise ships, specifically Silversea, handle this ? I'm thinking that we will keep with Chile time (GMT -3 hours) all the way round ?

Ryan - Alfred Lansing's "Endurance" is the classic account of Shackleton's adventure but may I recommend a couple of other excellent books - both of which I have experienced (twice) on audio. Ranulph Fiennes (the preeminent living British explorer) released a biography of Shackleton in 2021 and it is truly outstanding !! Hearing the perspective from someone who has first hand experience of the challenges of Antarctic exploration really brings the book to life. By way of variation Michael Smith also released in the same year a book named "An Unsung Hero". The subject was a chap name Tom Crean, who was on Shackleton's Endurance expedition and also one of the crew of 8 of the James Caird that managed to 'sail' from Elephant Island to South Georgia. He was also on previous expeditions with Shackleton and Scott. He is - IMHO - a truly awesome man who deserves far more exposure than he has been given. Enjoy - whatever you decide.

Hi RyanJCanada There are some truly awesome accounts that have been posted already, from experienced Antarctic cruisers in response to your enquiry, so I will not attempt to augment them. Mrs machotspur and I embark Silver Endeavour this time next week, commencing the Falklands/South Georgia/Antarctic Peninsula itinerary you are looking at. In truth when considering 'when to go' we went round in circles. Like you Falklands & South Georgia were more important to us than several landings on the Antarctic Peninsula (although like you we must have at least one Antarctic landing). I am a 'Shackleton fanatic' so would be devastated if we didn't get to at least see Elephant Island and to raise a glass at his graveside in South Georgia. In the end - and I know it sounds shallow - but the thing that swung it for us was that a quite new ship - Silver Endeavour - was to be our home for 18 days, rather than more dated ships. We felt that with the whole ecosystem being far less predictable than a couple of decades ago, we should just make a decision and go for it. I will let you know how we are feeling in 4 weeks time 😉