commodoredave

We got an air and hotel credit as there was no P2P fare. Got stuck with the car service which we don’t need but no credit so will try to find a way to make part of it work. Not an optimum outcome for us but apparently what works for SS is more important than what works for us.

I think the question that needs to be addressed is why Silver Air does not put the best interest of the customer first when choosing air routes for them. There are just too many instances of bad routing, long lay-overs, difficult departure times, etc. when other more acceptable options are available, and sometimes provided after a complaint. Is it because the more difficult routing is cheaper for Silver Air to provide? Or are they saving the better routing for passengers with more expensive cabins? If the mantra at Silver Air became "always choose what is best for the customer", perhaps the over-all level of customer satisfaction would be higher.

The issue is not that Silversea offers D2D. I think it's great that they offer it and I might even use it myself one day in a special circumstance. The issue is that Silversea is likely to withdraw the Port to Port option, only offer D2D, and financially disadvantage people who don't want D2D. That does not sound like a sound business strategy if Silversea expects to significantly grow its passenger base to fill all the new ships. A sounder strategy would be to keep appealing to people who want D2D or P2P.

But they have several new ships coming online that will need more passengers. And it’s usually cheaper to keep existing customers than attract new ones.

I'm with you! There are other luxury line options out there who want our business and will respect our preferences for P2P fares.

I've read this type of comment on the Crystal board when comparisons are made to other luxury lines. And having sailed with Crystal three times, I would not disagree. I think another important factor is that SS has moved to include shorex, and is pushing D2D (flights, hotels and transfers) on people. If Crystal does not include some or all of these "extras", and their service/culture is exceptional, they may steal people away from SS who don't want everything included.

I agree that Silversea has the advantage when it comes to ships. But will Silversea be able to maintain the course when it comes to people and culture, especially when losing so many key execs and bringing on so many new ships?

Manfredi Lefebvre d’Ovidio, the founder and former owner of Silversea and a driving force behind the new Crystal, has now poached former Silversea executives Fabio Agostini, Kim Berman, Fernando Delgado Vintimilla and Fernando Barroso de Oliveira while promoting Camille Drevillon, also a Silversea veteran. Is d'Ovidio trying to recreate the old Silversea, would you be tempted to give it a try, and should execs at Silversea be concerned?

I am appalled that the smell of cigar smoke is being compared with sewage. It is an odious comparison and an affront to many decent people who have spent a life-time working in the sewage industry. As the Executive Director of the Sewage Workers of the Americas, I would ask that you consider the importance of sewage to society versus the value of a cigar butt. I rest my case.

The wind must have been blowing off-shore.

I agree. I had two issues on our last Seabourn cruise and Mr. Leibowitz dealt with them in quick order. I have great respect for him.

Welcome to Guayaquil letter on the Silver Wind. Has Cigar Man upset the locals as well?

What about a gas mask?!

It does to a point. If the comments on this board are accurate, it appears that SB has an inconsistent policy of opening the MDR for breakfast and lunch. So, at this point, I am only sailing with SB on warm-weather cruises where I prefer eating outdoors for breakfast and lunch. SB might get more of my business if I could count on them to open the MDR for lunch on cool-weather cruises. For example, I spent 3 weeks on the Odyssey in the Caribbean in February, but chose Silversea for a recent Iceland/Norway cruise. Was the MDR the only reason? No, but it was one of several factors.

I don't know if you have thought of this, but when flying from North America to and back from 2 difference cities in Europe I have on occasions booked a return ticket to/from one city such as London or Milan, and then purchased a one-way ticket with a European airline back to that city. In fact, just did that with British Airways where we flew return from London, but connected to London from Amsterdam with EasyJet at the end of our trip. Saved a ton of money that way.

The answer depends on how interested SB is in keeping and attracting the business of people who enjoy having some or many meals at breakfast and lunch in the MDR. In other words, there is both a cost to open the MDR for breakfast and lunch, and a cost of losing customers for not doing so. Other cruise lines seem to find an an acceptable accommodation, whether it's to keep the MDR open for just lunch, when the ship is full, on sea days, during cold-weather cruises, on long voyages, etc.

The only exception I would make to your never having the included wine is breakfast!

That is also true. For example, at the end of our recent Norway cruise in Tromso, the D2D folks flew to Oslo and stayed at a hotel airport for the night. We flew to Bergen, stayed overnight, took the train from Bergen to Oslo through the beautiful mountains, lakes and valleys, spent 4 nights in the old downtown of Oslo, and then flew home. Would I trade that for what SS delivered to the D2D folks? Not on your life!!

I agree with you. Let me provide a recent example. Another couple sailed with us on our recent SS Iceland to Norway cruise (back to back voyages) this summer. We booked our own air to Reykjavik and back home from Oslo. We chose our own airlines, our own routing and our own seats in BC and had lovely flights. Our friends used the D2D air, and had an unpleasant routing from Tampa to Reykjavik, and on the way back home from Oslo, were given seats in different rows from each other. They still have no explanation or apology. Not exactly the type of outcome that will encourage them, or us, to use D2D.

I don't know about others, but my pre and post cruise stays tend to be longer than most people. For example, we will be spending a month in Europe following our Ft. Lauderdale to Lisbon voyage on the Moon next March. This could not be accommodated in the D2D package, so as has been the case for many years, we simply booked our own hotels and air.

I can only speak for myself, but I have no issues with Silversea offering D2D pricing to customers. After all, many cruise lines offer air and hotel packages, and it works for some. However, what I do have an issue with is being financially disadvantaged if I choose not to take the D2D. Why can't we all be treated the same regardless of whether we choose D2D?

We did 3 back-to-back cruises on the Odyssey in February and found the Source App a Source of Frustration. It began with boarding when my app kept freezing. It got worse when the messages from our friends to meet for drinks or lunch would show up 7 or 8 hours later. And it got even worse when information was out of date, disappeared and then sometimes reappeared. In contrast, we had a positive experience with the NCL app on a cruise in November. So, until the Source App is more reliable and functional, my suggestion is that SB offer customers a choice of using the Source App or getting their information and tickets in paper form.

I will have to try Oceania. I don't object as much to included excursions as I do including hotels and air. That's because we want to choose our own airline and flight routes, and how long we want to stay in a city pre and post cruise. I also like to know many months in advance when we are flying, and where we are staying. From from I have read about Silversea's D2D, there have been lots of complaints about the air and hotel programs.

We rarely have breakfast in the MDR on a cruise, so that is not a big factor for us. On warm-weather cruises, we rarely have lunch in the MDR and prefer sitting outdoors at the buffet restaurant. However, on cool weather cruises, particularly longer ones, we definitely want the option to have lunch in the MDR. Consequently, we now only book SB for shorter, warm-weather cruises. And we book other luxury lines, including Silversea, for the longer, cooler-weather cruises. If SB would like more of my cruise business, it's they who will have to change, not me.

Since the Covid cruise shut-down ended, we've taken 7 cruises with 4 different cruise lines (Seabourn, Silversea, Hebridean Princess and NCL). In every case (except NCL where maintaining a lower service level may be less difficult than maintaining a higher one), we have felt the overall experience had slipped. Am I worried? No. I am hoping the diminished experience is a temporary situation influenced by staff shortages and supply-chain issues, and in some cases, adding new capacity. But while I plan to stick with Silversea and our other favourite lines for the immediate future, I also plan to try one or more of the new luxury line entrants (Explora, new Crystal, etc.) and benchmark the experience against Silversea, etc. While I am not concerned about current service levels being permanent, I am concerned about the drift towards including everything in the cruise fare, including air and hotels as in Silversea's D2D. In the final analysis, that will play a bigger role in my future decision-making about which line to sail with.