Colgal

50 minutes ago, SLSD said:

One of my friends who is a regular Silversea cruiser, tells me that one of her cruises was substantially affected by the number of young children on board as they monopolized the pool deck and were loud, fast and noticeable.  She was convinced that SS gave a last minute discount for additional passengers.  I have to say that her description has kept me from seriously considering SS for our own plans.  We love children (and adore our three grandchildren) but would not consider taking them on a luxury cruise line that caters to the over 40/50 crowd.  

It’s not just SS- we had 2 cruises with unruly children on Seabourn- one in the Med and one in the Caribbean. Unfortunately some parents fail to note or really don’t care  that these cruise lines are adult oriented. In both cases the parents seemed to enjoy themselves poolside while their children took over the pool deck.

On our recent cruise on SS there was only one 11 year old who tried to make the best of things but looked rather bored. It appeared to me on our previous cruises with SS that the demographic was older than that of Seabourn and less likely to have young families aboard. 

We are taking our 5th cruise in November and are keeping fingers crossed that it will have few or no children aboard.

2 hours ago, JsJourneys said:

Thank you,  Colgal, for the positive comments.  Can you tell me about evening canapés? Something you order from the room service menu?  I’d like to do the room service dinner on the verandah too.  

We enjoyed an antipasti plate- lovely selection of meats and cheeses, or some cold shrimp, hot spring rolls, and caviar. The Arts Cafe always has a variety of snacks and the ‘always available menu” also has some appetizing snacks. There are so many options and it’s always a “yes” on SS.

We enjoy small bites with an afternoon glass of champagne, particularly after a very light lunch or a busy excursion-it’s something we never indulge in at home and is such a pleasure on vacation!

I hope you choose to have a room service dinner-nothing better than to put on a robe and indulge in a fabulous meal, particularly after a full day of sightseeing!

I think you will be comfortable on either Silversea or Seabourn. They are both wonderful lines with personalized service and good food.

We have sailed with both -5 on Seabourn and are taking our fifth cruise with Silversea (and our second this year) in November. We found the crew on Silversea to be more polished and the food more varied. We did enjoy La Dame on three different evenings and did not have a problem with the upcharge as the experience was really lovely. 

There are more jackets in all the dining venues but I would not be concerned by excessive formality. The only evening we saw tuxedos was formal night but a majority of the passengers wore suits or sport coats and ties and the women wore everything from slacks to cocktail dresses- no one was in a ballgown.

As to the Butler- we found him to be so helpful-not obtrusive. He served our room service breakfast several mornings, our evening canapés and a room service dinner. He arranged for a mattress topper and even shined my husband’s dress shoes (without being asked). He arranged dinner reservations, helped with the free wifi, cleaned our suitcases before departure, and was delightful to be around.

You can’t go wrong with either line and perhaps you should try both to determine which is best for you. Have a great cruise!

3 hours ago, crusinbanjo said:

 

I usually know what flights are best before I talk to SS. Then sometimes you need to insist or they will just give you what they have.  Last year on a cruise in SE Asia, SS offered us flights through Dubai, but nonstops were available to and from using a different carrier.  I insisted on the direct flights and after some back &  forth, I got what I wanted.  In this case a little knowledge and persistence paid off

We did our “homework” before booking both of our cruises with SS but our requested flights were tagged with upgrade charges to the extent that we could book it ourselves for a better price - believe me we spent a lot of time on our research as did our TA . We were offered convoluted connections for our fare to Europe in June but expected that our flights to Asia would be easier considering that we live in the Southwest. Since we our now 0 for two  we will always make our inquiries through SS but not too optimistic about the outcome.

28 minutes ago, Travelcat2 said:

 

In the regular swimming pool?  Hope not as that is disgusting.  Babies are not permitted in swimming pools on most cruise lines.  Good reason for us to avoid Seabourn.  

 

P.S.  Regent does not takes babies under the age of 1 or 1 1/2 (can't remember since we only sail during the times when school is in session and there are typically 0-3 children on our cruises.

Yes, unfortunately!

3 hours ago, Travelcat2 said:

Had to pop in and say that I have no doubt that Regent and Seabourn (probably not Crystal) will be happy to refer anyone that wants to travel with their babies/toddler/etc. to Silversea.  It could end up like when Seabourn still had smoking in suites........ it became a draw for smokers.  Now Silversea will be a draw for children since on these cruises there will be plenty of other children to play with.

 

Seriously though, I think that Silversea is shooting itself in the foot and it is sad.  We enjoyed our three Silversea cruises and were considering another one (on a newer ship) but, with this "promotion", think we'll stick with Regent.

I don’t know what Regent’s position is but Seabourn certainly accepts babies- we had them in the pool during our 14 day Caribbean cruise this past January. 

3 minutes ago, Observer said:

 

Let me once again thank you, Capt F, for dealing with SS management.  The above is of course only part of your post.

 

I understand that inaugurals and WCs/Grand Voyages are significant investments for many, but I would argue that all Silversea cruises should be considered "special," attracting sophisticated travelers who know the reputation of the Silversea brand and want to be part of the Silversea experience.  My personal preference would be to tighten the rules on children for all cruises -- and especially the rules pertaining to sub-3 year olds.

 

As for anticipating when children can travel:  I assume you are referring to when children would be in school.  The growth in home schooling means that an increasing number of children are not involved in the conventional school holiday schedule and could be expected to sail at any time.  What's more, infants and toddlers are at best in a child care setting -- not in formal schooling -- and it would be difficult to anticipate when such young children could travel.  

 

I think that "reasonable" anticipation about the presence of children (especially infants and toddlers) is difficult to make, and I wish Silversea would establish new, more restrictive policies (esp. as they related infants/toddlers) and remove the need to play a guessing/hoping game in booking cruises.

 

Agreed! It’s unfortunate that booking a cruise itinerary is complicated by the concern of having children and babies onboard.

We enjoy the Med in June and July and often combine a shorter cruise with a land vacation but are now reluctant to do so as it seems that families are booking more of the 7 night itineraries.  We had an unfortunate experience on Seabourn a couple of years ago where there were about 7 or 8 children in the 5 to 10 year age group who took over the pool deck and hot tubs- it certainly was not the relaxed ambience we were seeking.

Apparently Crystal offers a multi-generational cruise experience that has been successfully deployed- I wish that families would choose that line rather than SS or Seabourn.

7 minutes ago, CLOU said:

It's interesting how different people's experiences and preferences can be.  Granted, we have taken ten Seabourn cruises and only one Silversea cruise, but that was partly because of our negative impression following the SS cruise.  Unlike Accessor, the food on SS was one of it smain drawbacks for us.  We sent our meals back once in the main dining room because it was inedible, not just improperly prepared, and I cannot think of any other time I have done that anywhere.  And our experience in the club was the exact opposite.  While Seabourn's passed hors d'oeuvres may have gone a little down hill in recent years, as I think have many things on many cruise lines, they are still far superior to what was served to us in the lounges on SS just a couple of years ago. Everythings was ice cold, including greasy fried calamari and soggy pigs in a blanket.  Each cruise can be different and everyone has different tastes.

We just spent 11 nights on SS  Spirit in June after a 9 year hiatus and just booked a 14 night cruise on the Silver Muse to Asia in the fall.

Our first two cruises (about 9 years ago)on SS were disappointing because of the food and we moved on to five cruises with Seabourn. Initially we enjoyed the dining  on Seabourn ( Legend, Quest, Sojourn, Encore, And Odyssey),  but our experience on Encore was so negative that it took almost 2 years for us to return to a 14 night cruise on Odyssey this past January. After the first week the dining seemed repetitive and was not that enjoyable. 

We reluctantly booked SS for a cruise in June and selected it due to itinerary and the need to try something new-we were blown away by the professionalism and warmth of the staff, delicious and varied dining choices and overall feel of the ship. We never went hungry and could always pop into the Arts Cafe for snacks and chocolate. Our butler was amazing, room service outstanding, and the overall experience  exceeded that of Seabourn. The bartenders did an excellent job with poolside cocktails as well as the other venues and the champagne was certainly an improvement as well. The pool loungers were padded and very comfortable and there was more availability than what we found on Seabourn. We took quite a few excursions and they were highly organized and we appreciated that each bus was only half full with lots of seating options for everyone.

I agree that stops in Mykonos and Kusadasi are very desirable- two of my favorite ports,  and the more informal vibe of Seabourn appeals to many cruisers. Both lines offer a wonderful experience and can be a great option but for now we are willing to pay a higher cruise fare for the Silversea product as it appeals to our “wants” at this time.

Enjoy your cruise!

12 minutes ago, CruisinPashmina said:

I’ve had no problems booking SS flights...Maybe because I have always used my trusted Travel Agent to make all the arrangements. 

My TA was just as frustrated as we were- apparently she was only able to communicate through email and received the same responses as we did! 

2 hours ago, Gourmet Gal said:

Surprised you could find business class to Asia for less than $3K.  Worth booking yourself.

No- we are into about $5000 pp.  However the SS upgrade would have cost $1999 each way pp, plus deviation fee of $150 pp  AND an additional $1500 pp for terrible connections. We inquired about the flight we wanted, and eventually booked ourselves, and SS quoted that fare as being $7500 pp.

We decided that it was better to lose the offered one night hotel and airport transfers in order to book a better flight on a desirable airline. A frustrating experience but we went through the same process for our previous SS cruise in June and our January Seabourn cruise.

I guess the flight itinerary works out for some guests but it certainly has not for us.

We had a similar situation 2 years ago when we booked our tickets through Seabourn- fortunately we have status with American Airlines and were able to use it to book our seats on British Airways without paying the fee. Good luck with your flights.

12 hours ago, Gourmet Gal said:

So far the flight choices offered by SS are very unsatisfactory for our 2020 Europe itinerary.  An additional upcharge of over $650 for a one-stop on the return LHR to SFO.  There should be no reason not to fly non-stop on that route as we did through Crystal a few years ago. Trying now to negotiate a non-stop but for even more of an upcharge.

That happened to us as well in our recent attempt to fly to Asia. The routing  offered by SS was a huge up charge and the connections very inconvenient.

We asked SS to credit us for the economy air and booked our own flights on Cathay Pacific. Ironically our business class tickets were almost the same $$ as  the round trip tickets being offered by SS, and they are  more convenient flights. We were told that SS must work with a contracted wholesaler and it is not uncommon that the flights offered are actually more expensive than those you can book yourself.

Our $1999 each way “ upgrade “ had add-ons of $650 pp plus additional fees if we wanted to arrive earlier than the cruise and stay a few extra days afterward.

We were fortunate to find a good fare and booked our own hotels at a good rate as well. It was a few hundred dollars more but we have an excellent itinerary and it was well worth the effort to do the bookings ourselves.

Thank you Lois-I will give it a try. Today was full of frustration with our TA trying to work with SS. 

I offered several itineraries that were at the reasonable end of the spectrum regarding $$  but  apparently SS has contracted rates with a vendor that are higher than what we could do on our own.

We are holding a reservation with a 24 hr cancellation but I will contact your person to see if she can do better. We would lose the one night pre-cruise hotel and transfers but I believe I can book the same property at a competitive rate and arrange for transfers without getting damaged financially. 

I spent a lot of time on formulating itineraries just to be told by the SS rep that we would incur surcharges. My TA also was frustrated by the emailing process- she would have preferred a direct discussion with SS rather than a back and forth by emails.

Still excited about this cruise and will keep you up-to -date!

Yes that is true!

22 minutes ago, Randyk47 said:

Our 2017 cruise on the Silver Spirit was Rome to Dubai with an offer of reduced coach air fare.   We checked with Silversea to see what they could offer in the way of business air fare.  This trip required us to get to Rome so typically that means San Antonio to a big International airport like Dallas or Atlanta then on to Rome.  The return would be Dubai to a major European airport like London Heathrow or Paris then to the US to a major airport then home.   We already knew from our own research we were talking around 26 hours to get home from Dubai.  No way were we going to that in coach.  So Silversea gave us a quote and it was more than we could book our own flights in business.  Sometimes it works out sometimes it doesn’t.

Yes that is true! We had to book our own business class flights for our recent Spirit cruise in June. I was hopeful that the 4,000 pp upcharge would get us a decent flight but I’m not sure that will happen and will have to book on our own if we can’t live with the itinerary. Will keep everyone posted!

Yes we just booked this morning and are very excited to be going on the Muse- we sailed on the Spirit in June and loved it! Just trying to put together a reasonable flight- there are numerous and more comfortable connections through LAX but SS offered our TA a less than wonderful connection through Vancouver and then returning through LHR .

We are trying to utilize the $4000 pp business class upgrade but I would prefer to fly a less circuitous route.

We are booked on the 14 night Hong Kong to Singapore cruise on the Muse😁

On 7/9/2019 at 4:23 PM, Lois R said:

SS did the booking...…..the gal in customer service I use is awesome and she helped me with everything. I did give her my input on timing of flights, etc...….and there is no way I could have booked a business class ticket for the price.  When you ask about 700.00..….my first cruise with them was 2 years ago and so that price may have been a bit less.  Their air dept does the actual booking. One year they put me on American, the other year was United.  If you want the name of my rep, I can give it to you...….I have known her for more than 15 years.

Hi Lois- i would love the name of your contact as we are having difficulties booking our business class air through SS. We live in Az and the return trip was Singapore~London and Phoenix but there re numerous flights that are wide open in business class with a better itinerary. Thank you!

We did a 14 night back to back in January with two Caviar in the Surf events- we enjoyed the food  and setting more at the private beach on St. Kitts. Mayreau was fine but a little more rustic- fewer tables and less shade- almost seemed like the activities were dialed back a notch ; more speedboats on Carambola.

Either stop you will enjoy the food and fun with the staff!

All of our Seabourn cruises were staffed with female stewardesses- all of them wonderful! 

Our recent Silversea cruise room attendant was male as were many others on the floor, and he was efficient and personable. The SS staff was majority male but I don’t think of it as sexist hiring - perhaps the cruise lines promote a camaraderie among their employees.

On Seabourn many of the stewardesses would be in the hallways laughing and talking and they seemed to be enjoying each other’s company.  On SS the cabin attendant seemed to be working to get the suite cleaned and then depart the floor. I appreciated that the cleaning materials etc were usually gone by late morning and there was a peacefulness to the floor.

1 hour ago, saminina said:

 

Wow-did you misread my post?   The part about loyalt

1 hour ago, saminina said:

 

Wow-did you misread my post?   The part about loyalty?   One SS cruise in ten years would not be my idea of a loyal customer.

Enjoyed your review, though.

 

y?   One SS cruise in ten years would not be my idea of a loyal customer.

Enjoyed your review, though.

 

I really don’t believe that it is appropriate to question someone’s intellect regarding their loyalty to any cruiseline.The other two cruises we took were not satisfying due to the dining but this past one blew every other cruise( including our best Seabourn cruises) out of the water. We did speak to many people who were on our cruise about their experiences with SS and most were highly complementary- otherwise they would have gone elsewhere. After 8 cruises, 5 with Seabourn and 3 with Silversea I would have to give SS a thumbs up for not only meeting the bar but surpassing it- I can also say that others who sail SS feel the same way!

23 hours ago, saminina said:

Sounds like us.  Except we're heavier on SB.   SB, where we always see refugees from Silversea.   The only thing to like about SS nowadays would be some of the fellow passengers.  Cannot understand how intelligent people maintain a loyalty to that company.   It certainly is not a two way street. 

Wow-must I now speculate about my intelligence? My husband and I just spent 11 wonderful nights on the Spirit, our first Silversea cruise in 10 years. We had previously cruised in Alaska and the Med with Silversea and found the dining to be lackluster so with the recommendation of friends we opted to cruise on the Quest. It was a wonderful cruise-food and service fabulous and we were hooked!

We followed with the  Legend, Sojourn, Encore and Odyssey. Some of the cruises were better than others in food and service, but our experience on Encore was so negative that it took took us 18 months to return for a 14 night cruise in the Caribbean this past January on Odyssey.The dining on Encore was mediocre to miserable, much of the  the staff untrained and the ship felt overcrowded. We could not wait to depart and enjoy the rest of our vacation in Italy.  We enjoyed our last cruise on the Odyssey but found that the dining choices became redundant after the 8th night. 

Our recent cruise on the Spirit has been one of the most memorable overall-the food in the main dining room Atlantide was delicious and beautifully presented and the service warm and on-point. There were always new selections on the evening menu- more seafood selections in addition to the standard offerings which exceeded those offered on Seabourn. The alternative dining venues, Indochine and Seishin  were  excellent and a great change of pace, while La Dame certainly surpassed The Thomas Keller venues on Seabourn. Yes, there is a surcharge for La Dame and Seishin but it is $ well spent. La Terazza was less hectic than Colonnade and the service prompt and spot on which was not our experience on Seabourn. Silver Note is a small plate venue with a Supper Club atmosphere that we never got to but heard great things about. Other passengers raved about evening poolside dining similar to Seabourn’s but we enjoy a more formal venue. There is also all day snacking from breakfast to late evening at the Arts cafe  and a pizza restaurant on the upper pool deck. It is often mentioned on these forums that food is “subjective” and I might agree if different people are commenting; if the same passenger finds that their experience changes from cruise to cruise then I believe the opinion has merit, as their standards have not changed. 

 We enjoyed the butler service- he took care of the little things and kept our champagne stocked. Yes, we enjoyed the Pommery more than the Nicolas Feuillatte. The  cocktails were better, particularly poolside, and it was great to have a “list” of specialty drinks in the Lounge. The room service was also better-always on time, the food hot, and the order correct. 

I would certainly look to Silversea for another cruise as it offered a delightful experience worth repeating. Our fellow cruisers were, for the most part, repeat passengers and we found them to be friendly, polite and undemanding- it was a pleasure to bo onboard.

No butlers and we were very appreciative of our butler on Silversea. We just find that the well trained staff on the Spirit was at least a notch above- even the cocktails were better, particularly at the pool.

In my opinion  Silversea is a bit more formal, which we enjoy, but Seabourn does deliver a very good experience. The only cruise on Seabourn that we did not care for was on the Encore; we found it crowded and the staff eager but not very trained and the food was poor. Having said that we would certainly give it another try as it has been 2 years and hopefully things have improved.

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!

We just returned from an 11 night sailing on the Spirit and found the food to be of higher quality and better presentation than our previous 5 cruises on Seabourn. The service was also superior…and we are huge fans of Seabourn.

14 hours ago, drron29 said:

We have always had free laundry so not an area I can give personal advice.But I did notice on our Muse cruise,we were on deck 10-solely silver suites so everyone on that deck gets free laundry,that the laundrette appeared not to be in use most of the time.

No law that says you must do your laundry on the deck you are on so maybe on the Spirit check out the laundrettes on decks 11,10,9.

Decks 4,5 also have less suites but would have more that need to do laundry.

And I guess-get there early.

I agree-we had a suite on deck 8 and the launderette was in full use every day so I went up to the 9th deck - no issues. I just set a timer on my phone so that the laundry wouldn’t sit in the washer a minute too long!

Yes, i stand corrected- still jetlagged! 😬