Dolcevita Diva

Definite increases. I had a few potentials under consideration besides those already booked and every one of them has increased quite a bit. And the new Essentials fares seem to be the same price (or close) to the recent P2P fares on those voyages.

An announcement from another site: RCL has appointed the person who led Investor Relations for RCL (and was VP of on-board revenue before that) as VP Transformation for Silversea. Royal Caribbean's Michael McCarthy takes new Silversea role | Seatrade Cruise News (seatrade-cruise.com)

Thanks so much @QueSeraSera. We all certainly hope so, don't we?

Yes, if this is true, it is changing Silversea's entire experience where everyone has a butler, can dine in all restaurants, look at or think about beverage ricing, etc. You are absolutely right -having to go through the process of charging for beverages other than Connoisseur list wines or higher end spirits for a specific group of passengers based on fare category will undoubtedly slow service down. Here's hoping this is just a sloppy job of flyer preparation by the marketing team and those red Xs go away.

And with a second look, there is a disparity within the brochure. Page 2 states that Essential fares include all onboard luxury inclusions and lists Food & Beverage and Butler service as included. But the chart on page 3 has red Xs for Multiple dining options and beverages Butler service, onboard gratuities and Wi-Fi So this could just be very sloppy marketing and perhaps they are not unbundling to that extent. Unless they correct their flyer before tomorrow, there will be much confusion and possibly misdirected anger with the rollout of these new fares.

😁 I missed that one as I was pondering what a trasfer might be.

And with a second look, there is a disparity within the brochure. Page 2 states that Essential fares include all onboard luxury inclusions and lists Food & Beverage and Butler service as included. But the chart on page 3 has red Xs for Multiple dining options and beverages Butler service, onboard gratuities and Wi-Fi Very sloppy. Unless they correct their flyer before tomorrow, there will be much confusion and possibly misdirected anger with the rollout of these new fares.

And now it appears that Silversea is introducing a new fare category called Essential for bookings close to sailing date that does not include gratuities. Nor butler service, beverages, multiple dining options, wifi or excursions. 🤨 Go take a look at the brochure shared by AtlantaCruiser72 in the Door-to-door vs. Port-to-port thread. Will be interesting to learn the details of these exclusions and how they will be managed, but I am frankly speechless that they are unbundling core elements of Silversea's brand experience like this.

Thanks @AtlantaCruiser72. A few notes after a quick perusal: Wonder who proofed this brochure? There are typos on page 2.... The alignment of deposits, cancellation terms, combinability with other offers, etc. should make P2P much more attractive and that's the fare category I'm most likely to book now. Now that my schedule is more flexible, the Essential fare category may be appealing for spur-of-the-moment bookings, depending on the actual fares. There are several disturbing differences for the Essential fare category shown on page 3. The chart shows that in addition to excursions not being included, this fare category does not include: multiple dining options and beverages butler service, onboard gratuities and Wi-Fi ????!!! Many, many questions about those last two points, which represent a major shift in brand positioning.

I imagine we will find that out next week when details emerge from official channels... My understanding is that the deposit percentage, cancellation terms and benefits (I believe the Venetian milestone addtl. % off bookings only applies to D2D) will now be the same.

Sad (heartbroken) to share that my dear sweet, smart, fun, silly boy crossed the rainbow bridge on Thursday. I can only be grateful for all the years we had together and that he is now free of the ravages of this horrible disease. Please give your own furkids an extra hug today!

Stay tuned. A post today on another site indicated that changes to the fare structures will be rolled out next week. On the surface, what was mentioned made it sounds like Silversea has listened to the confusion and dissatisfaction with the current port-to-port product and P2P will now exclude airfare, ground transport and hotels but otherwise will be the same as Door-to-Door. There was also mention of a new fare category called Essential that will be for last-minute bookings and will have 100% cancellation penalty - and excursions will not be included for that category. Honestly, a last-minute booking has always fallen into the 100% penalty phase, so it sounds like they may be just formalizing that as a category to fill up bookings shortly before sail date. But if the note about excursions being excluded is correct, it will be interesting to see if those fares are correspondingly lower. Looking forward to finding out the details next week!

Interesting. So not new to the brand, which makes one wonder if this was done on her own initiative or if we'll start seeing reports of similar letters aboard other Silversea ships.

I did not recognize the Hotel Director's name and wondered how long this person has been with Silversea. Or perhaps this Hotel Director read the paragraph on Silversea's website that states that with Silversea you should never have to worry about whom to tip or how much and decided that somehow these "suggestions" would provide a service by eliminating that worry! 😄

On another site, passengers aboard the Silver Dawn have just shared a letter they received from the Hotel Director suggesting appropriate amounts for "additional appreciation."

Lovely photos. By the way, it appears that you shared the beauty of Bequia with Sir Mick Jagger yesterday.

@frankhi - What country are you based in? It's possible that there are different terms based on your region/country.

Just saw some news that Silver Ray's float out was yesterday:

A friend/former colleague is one of the presenters at a conference for the adult beverage industry and just shared this picture of the sign behind the check-in desk at the host hotel…😂

@ddron29 - The birds plotting is real; they strafed my car this weekend shortly after I'd finished using a specialized cleaner on the convertible top. And only targeted the top. 🤨😆

Oops!

Finding non-sugar substitutes was a challenge on the Spirit when I sailed on her in 2022. Cannot remember specifically if the Nova had Splenda when I sailed last October, but they did have more than one option.

@mchell810 - Have you been to their classes before? Due to the very nominal charge my expectations weren't high but was very pleasantly surprised by the quality of the class and others said the same. Now I can see why they get booked up quickly.

Lois, I hope that your recovery has continued to go well.

So much for Dry January! Last weekend I attended a champagne tasting class at the nearby Total Wine store. I had never attended any of their classes before, but this one caught my attention because Chanoine Freres was among the champagnes they'd be pouring and apparently was the selected substitute that Silversea brought onboard the Silver Dawn after running out of Pommery sometime last year. So I took one for the team, dear Coolers, to do some in-depth research on this champagne house's product line. 😉 The 2-hour class was very informative and well-presented by a charming representative for Chanoine Freres. Did you know that Chanoine Freres is the second oldest champagne house, founded under the reign of Louis XV? I did not, was actually not familiar with this champagne house until reading about it on a Silversea thread - have any of you tried Chanoine Freres, Tsarine or De Venoges? All in all, an educational and fun evening and a great way to sample an array of lovely champagnes that were new to me (we tasted 8 different champagnes). My personal favorites were the Tsarine Blanc de Blanc and the Chanoine Freres Reserve Brut, but all were quite good, depending on your preference for style/blend.