commodoredave

So why even bother to offer Silversea clients a status match if it’s only to persuade people to move up, not down?

It would appear you are correct.

If the flow the other direction would be minimal, then it would cost almost nothing to make the status points equal while still making it look fair.

I get that. And frankly, I think a status match program is great, and we have certainly benefited from it. My point is that it is not an equal status match. For example, while 32 days with Celebrity gets us 100 days status with Silversea, 80 days with Silversea gets us nada with Celebrity. Basically RCL is saying that days at sea with Celebrity are worth triple the days at sea with Silversea.

Two days ago, which was 20 days out from the start of our cruise, we received notice that our bid had been accepted. Our bid was in the Fair category for an upgrade from a balcony cabin to a Signature Suite. 10 days prior, our bid had disappeared from our booking and we thought it must have been declined and there was no longer availability. However, we later received notice that it had been accepted.

After trying many different hotels in FL over the years, we have settled on the Riverside on Las Olas Blvd. It's more expensive, but the location is close to lots of great restaurants, bars and shops. And it backs onto the river.

We enjoyed out 3 nights in Lima following a flight from Guayaquil after our Silversea Galapagos cruise. But that was in December, and the weather was nice. By the way, despite the sky-high price for our Galapogos cruise, we did not receive any extra nights bonus for it. I wonder if that will change given the status match.

Isn't that what is happening? Le Bistro is being taken over for the whole cruise. I just want the French food menu...don't care which location I get it.

Good idea. I would also be happy if the Le Bistro menu was available for room service.

Any venue closed for private use should result in an offset for other passengers. There are many creative ways to compensate for it with very little cost. Once again, it's the thought that counts.

I would be very satisfied if the Le Bistro menu was offered in another restaurant. I have no objection to the charter group taking over the Le Bistro location. My issue is that the food they serve is one of my favourites -- not the location.

My wife has taken 3 Celebrity cruises (I've done 4) for a total of 32 days. She has Select status, which equates to VS 100 days. She has taken 7 Silversea cruises (I've done 8 cruises) for a total of 80 days, which equates to basic entry level with Celebrity. So, her 3 cruises and 32 days with Celebrity gets her a status level match with Silversea that she couldn't have achieved with 7 cruises and 80 days with Silversea. And her 7 cruises and 80 days with Silversea gives her nothing in terms of status match with Celebrity. Whoever thought up this system understands very little of rewarding loyalty.

There is indeed a difference between sold out and closed. Sold out means I missed my opportunity to book it -- fair enough. Closed means I never had an opportunity to book it. As for compensation, none is legally required; but something, however small, would show NCL cares about passengers. Even my small, neighbourhood pub would do something.

Ok.Maybe they give us $15 per cabin, flowers, or a complimentary bottle of sparkling wine. Anything that shows NCL has an interest in goodwill, which they apparently do not.

Re: complaints. We've had a few disappointments on cruises, but never enough to make it a bad cruise. We try to judge our cruises based on the total experience, not isolated incidents. As a result, we have always left happy. Re: cruises don't spend enough time in ports to allow passengers to experience them. Cruises, by their nature, give people a "taste" of various places rather than a "complete" experience. That's why we always spend extra time pre- or post-cruise to allow extra time in places we want to see more thoroughly. For example, on a recent Norway cruise that ended in Tromso, we flew to Bergen to spend 3 more days there despite it being a port call. We then took the train to Oslo and spent 4 days there. We've also gone back to special places we discovered on cruises as a land trip including Rome, Barcelona, Cinque Terra, Scotland, etc.

We will be on this sailing (January 19-26) with our extended family in 3 cabins. The closure of the Bistro, which happens to be our favourite restaurant, is disappointing. I do understand that sometimes closing down a restaurant for a charter group is necessary. However, wouldn't it be nice if NCL gave everyone else on the ship a $30 credit for use in other specialty restaurants as a good-will gesture? I know...why waste money just to keep goodwill with loyal customers.

My wife is English, so I will rely on her to teach me the right accent, it may be upper, or perhaps lower, but it will be crusty!🫠

Our experience as well.However, we use the wi-fi for basic things such as email, and basic website surfing. Never stream movies, but music streaming has been fine. Never do Zoom calls either.

I’m going to use that line the next time my Martini isn’t dry enough!😁

Our dinner at La Dame on the Shadow in June was superb, which was surprising as 5 previous visits to this restaurant on other cruises were all disappointing. I guess we hit the one night where the kitchen was firing on all cylinders. As for booking pre-cruise, we waited too late and could not get reservations at either La Dame or La Terrazza. However, we waitlisted for both and we were informed day-of that we could be accommodated. I guess that's the one benefit of other passengers overbooking specialty restaurants and then cancelling.

Yes, we did book. We are sailing on the Feb 1- 8 St. Martin to Barbados cruise. We, too will be looking forward to a report from LisaDee.

Agree. I would never lug a bottle of cruise ship wine or champagne home as I don't trust airline baggage handlers. However, I've occasionally taken them to a hotel so that we can enjoy a drink while unpacking.

We will be cruising on Princess again in late September (Sun Princess) after a 15-year hiatus. We didn't stop cruising with Princess because of any negative reason -- we did a good number of great family cruises with them -- but simply wanted to try some different cruise experiences. And, as we got older and the kids moved out, we had a little more money available for the two of us to spend on vacations, which meant we could try some higher-priced lines as well. However, the memories of the good times we had on Princess (including the Sun Princess being my wife's first-ever cruise) have brought us back, although we are somewhat apprehensive about how much has changed since 2009, and how we will feel about it. But we have an open mind and are looking forward to the experience. if you have any tips or advice, please feel free to pass it along.

It was a balcony cabin on the QM2 and it happened about 8-10 years ago. Where the light shone through the door, a previous occupant had applied duct tape around the door frame, as we could clearly see the sticky residue left behind. I believe this may be a bigger issue on ships that regularly do ocean crossings where rough weather can be a factor. Needless to say, we’ve never accepted a connecting cabin again on any cruise ahip.

I never went to a M&G for refreshments, it was always to meet people from the Roll Call that I had struck up an online friendship with. After Covid I stopped going to M&Gs and instead just arranged to meet like-minded people for drinks in at a bar or lounge at some point. For us, this works much better.