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Penny pinching at it's finest...SS priority is all about saving money vs leaving a very positive experience on the final leg of your trip. A $60/night property doesn't align with SS image of luxury travel,. Another reason to never book door2door with SS!!

Go figure, it's cheaper to sail on SS vs Celebrity. Maybe that explains things....

We sailed on Celebrity Apex Oct 21 in Greece followed by Silversea Spirit May/June 2022. I am giving up on SS for now as our Celebrity Apex experience was far superior overall to our 27 days onboard the Spirit....Yes, SS has better service. Food? Celebrity superior. Bars? Try to order an IPA on SS (they have 6 beers to choose from). Entertainment? No comparison. I strongly feel RCL has raised the game on the Apex class ships to a very high level and standard. Meanwhile, they are finding as many ways as possible to cut corners (save money) at SS...just my opinion, and one from recent experiences not pre-covid.

We have done one cruise on Virgin and another one coming up in a few days, plus over 60 on just about every cruise line. some oddities that I would change 1. Food hall layout: the pizza place, ice cream shop, and poke bowl joint should be found in the dining hall concept for simplicity. I dislike the disconnect, as these are fast casual places that are disjointed from the rest of the concept 2. Signage in general could be improved. Ship is very choppy, and mediocre signage doesn't help things. Take RCL's ship on stick outside the halls of the elevators. 3. Fix the outdoor furniture. Make whoever designed this stuff sit in it for an hour. Then ask them why it's so uncomfortable. Great for the Insta, but some of it is useless beyond this... 4. Ship doesn't have a heart, a great place to congregate to see and be seen. This one isn't an easy fix. But I miss having a larger open venue that has some center vibe to it like Champagne bar on Celebrity Edge class. 5. No connection to sea from inside of ship with exception of the wake at the aft of the ship. 6. Shows. Look up The Mayfair after dark at Bellagio...or Zumanity. Sexy, flirty, and sinful. After all, it's an adult only ship and needs an adult only show. Take dual reality and add some sinfulness to it! 7. Make a section for topless sunbathing that has some privacy. Easy fix. tons of wasted deck space.

How hard is it for RCL to reuse Celebrity's cruise air system and allow SS pax to book their own flights? I prefer straight cruise only fares *(port to port as they like to call it) and allowing guest to book at RCL's wholesale flight pricing via an online booking engine. Fixes most of the problems, reduces massive amounts of labor costs and guest satisfaction goes up tremendously. PLEASE GIVE US ONLINE BOOKING ENGINE LIKE CELEBRITY FOR FLIGHTS!!! https://www.celebritycruises.com/ca/find-your-reservation/flights-by-celebrity

Check door to door prices which are usually far less than any air credit. arrange your own ground transportation, it's very easy!

Then close the paid restaurants and keep open all the ones advertised as included with your cruise fareIF you are short handed. Just sick of the Covid or CDC as an excuse. If you can't staff a ship fully, then keep it sidelined until you can. Yes, upper management has incentives to stay on budget, including bonus compensation based on Glass Door F&B management job postings for cruise ships. https://www.glassdoor.com/Monthly-Pay/Royal-Caribbean-Group-Food-and-Beverage-Manager-Monthly-Pay-E3579_D_KO22,47.htm

one word explanation, MONEY! They are doing this to save MONEY. it's total BS excuses like this we ran into in June on Spirit. They lost our business. I got sick of the finger pointing and lies. Nobody takes ownership of the truth. F&B manager's bonus is based on if they go over/under budget on food costs. The buffet is sorely lacking any creativity and many times something hot and fresh... make sure to leave a very unpleasant guest survey about this. it's the only way to get anything changed on SS.

SS post Covid has slipped on food. Entertainment and service still great, but we had the similar always bland, never seasoned, non-luxury level cuisine. We had superior meals on Celebrity Edge over Silverseas. What's shocking is they now have a Michelin star restaurant on Celebrity vs sister and higher end line SS? They are elevating Celebrity, yet SS is sorely lacking something exciting to dine at and experience which falls more in line with a luxury line...makes no sense.

from what I gather, it's been closed for well over a month. Why not close the paid restaurants since they are not included? seems reasonable to expect things to be opened you paid for, vs venues that come with a surcharge....it's not Covid, as they have had ample time to add staff.

We spent 25 days on the Spirit recently and things were not up to SS standards except the service we received. Why don't you look at the current reviews on CC and you will see how things are slipping....(3.8 out of 5 stars). Maybe you haven't cruised with them lately, but I can assure you they have issues unrelated to Covid (I'm sick of this excuse) https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/silversea-cruises/cl/

Galataport is the newest terminal, but we docked in a diff area closer into town on the Spirit May visit. YMMV, but it could be a last minute decision...everyone prefers the older closer in town port, which I don't know the name of

Paired to your food? NO! A server comes to your table with "today's" recommended wine before anything is even ordered, so how is it paired? These are the least expensive wines pushed to pax that have limited experience or don't know to ask for something better. Then when you want something better, it DOES become a "guessing game" b/c their is no complimentary wine list! Typically pushing cheap stuff from Chile...never came to our table with anything worth over $8 for the selection of the day. Sure, you can find a good drinkable wine...but that's the guessing game part as the wine stewards are trained to not recommend the higher end pours (aka more expensive).

I think it's a well balanced review and accurate of our SS experiences. I personally HATE the way SS makes it a guessing game as to which complimentary wines you can order. They have no problem keeping a current inventory of additional costs premium wines (is it harder to keep track of the free ones by the same computer system)? SS is owned by a company that has world class inventory management for these types of things. The price of admission on a SS isn't cheap...yet SS has LESS to offer for inclusive wines/beers/alcohol then sister and lower end line Celebrity (comparing to premium bev package). I am paying far more pp/day on SS vs Celebrity and yet I can get far superior selection and quality on Celebrity... Celebrity-Cruises-Beverage-Packages.pdf

Yes, forward door outside access via Observation lounge. We just a sailed 25 days on Spirit and never felt smoking was an issue except one night on pool deck we could smell it.

I agreed with the OP. His review is accurate. We just spent 25 days on the Spirit May/June 22'. Steaks in restaurants cut so thin they couldn't serve us at proper medium rare temp. This is our 3rd SS cruise, we have over 50 days on board, and we will not return until things are fixed. We have also done Oceania, Regent, and Seabourn but all pre-covid. We meet with executive chef and F&B manager. I honestly feel the problem is multifaceted Poorly trained staff in kitchen that doesn't know how to cook to temperature Low quality cuts of meat cut entirely too thin (exe chef blamed ppl wanting smaller portions) Lack of any seasonings on nearly everything (is this b/c everyone is on low sodium diet)? Costs control. F&B manager said they don't have a budget...LOL. They did all they could to stretch things as thin as possible Big lack of variety on lunch buffet. Only around 6 new dishes (hot) a day, mostly starches (one fish, one meat). Dried out meats carved cold. Fish cut up into fork sized bites (what are we toddlers now)? Dinners were hit or miss. More misses, a few hits, but quality, taste, and presentation is mainstream levels now. too much blame on supply chain problems, logistics, covid, etc. Menu is tired, uninspiring, and lacked any WOW factor. We just did Celebrity Edge Oct 2021 and the food quality and taste were superior. Sure, their buffet was just as bad as SS, but dinners were well above SS especially specialty dining. Maybe someone at SS will start paying attention? We were told from a company insider that on our 15 day cruise leg had the most food related complaints of any cruise they have seen before, so bad they flew in the corporate executive chef to see what was going on. On our next 9 days, things did improve some, but they have a long way to go. Yes, we had a great time, and made the most of the our time onboard. But if you want an above average foodie experience SS isn't going to excite the taste buds...too much money spent to be feed average food we can get from other lines costing 1/2 the price.

Just sailed 25 days on Spirit. only outdoor or poolside events was guitarist one hour a day a few times a week. The CD told us the speakers around the pool were all blown and don't work. 😞 . So many great nights that we could have enjoyed an outdoor event with such perfect weather. 99% of your entertainment is all indoors. Hopefully they fix the pool sound system soon...