Accessor

17 minutes ago, FauxNom said:

You may have lucked into being undercharged, as they normally deny the b2b discount if you are booking a segment of a longer voyage. The code to identify a segment is an "S" followed by 2 digits at the end of the voyage ID. Maybe you don't want to stir this pot!

Yes, I was lucky enough to price this trip out as B2B! Save me over $5k for using a calculator (math classes really paid off) 🙂

ALL PRICES BELOW FROM Silversea website directly (USA)

Booking this as one 24 day cruise SL220524C24. D2D Veranda $20,900/pp = $41,800

Booking two segments B2B (using B2B 5% discount). 1st segment SL220524015  Port2Port $10,150/pp. 2nd segment D2D SL220608009 $9,100/pp. Total for 2 pax both segments $38,500. Less 5% B2B discount. $36,575.

So my buttons say this is $5,225 cheaper for the same cruise, same cabin, etc. Hope others do the math....

The Spirit has the same unbooked cabins on both legs of our 24 day trip;  but someone at Silversea cabin assignment dept decided to give us 2 different rooms on each leg of our B2B trip. It's has nothing to do with any Covid cleanup of room during changeover day...leaving the room is not a problem. Changing rooms is.

Really just annoys me to no end. The fact is if you book both segments together as one 24 day cruise (which they offer) we were getting charge nearly $5k more for the same trip in same cabin category...which is why we changed our booking to B2B vs one 24 day booking.

Silversea are you reading this forum?

1 hour ago, sloopjohnb said:

It might help if the OP could clarify which cruises we are talking about. If, as I suspect, they are a fifteen day Black Sea cruise and a nine day Adriatic cruise, they are, at least on the UK version of the website, also offered as a single, 24 day cruise. Perhaps it would be possible to re-book on that basis.

Johnny

For nearly $5k more same exact cruises combined as one booking. Price out the 2 legs as B2B taking one as door2door the other as port2port. We did and were shocked that this one 24 day booking provided no savings (*why not incentivize pax to book longer sailings) it was MORE expensive as one door2door 24 day cruise!

Hopefully SS sees this mistake and fixes it in the future so paxs don't need to go thru the hassle of booking separately due to the surcharge for the pleasure of a simple single booking number.

Sorry Black Sea (*not Baltic) on Silver Spirit May 24th followed June 8th.

Leaving ship for sanitation is no issue. The May 24th sailing of 15 days is nearly wide open probably b/c of the uncertainty in the area at the moment. The 2nd leg 9 days fuller. But either way, we did message our TA that we want one cabin for 24 days and don't want to move...especially since they have many options of open cabins.

Funny thing is this. If we booked 24 days as ONE booking, it was nearly $5k more vs booking 2 B2B since they provide a 5% discount and one leg is port to port the other door to door. I would have gladly kept this as one 24 day booking...You may want to check booking B2B vs longer single booking numbers that are a combination of several legs.

Thank you for all the replies.

Booked B2B on Silver Spirit this summer Baltic/med one 15 and one 9 days and had our TA link the bookings on our reservations. This was a guarantee, we are not super picky about location or cabin deck as they are all amazingly large....and now the WTH moment. They assigned us two different cabins for each segment.

I was able to find a site that allowed me to see open cabins; they have many options that are open both legs (50+ cabins). Really don't understand how hard is it for those in cabin assignment department to notice we are marked B2B and give us one cabin for the entire cruise, but this is really not going to work for us. I know, you choose a guarantee blah blah blah. It's not like the ship is full and they have no other options, which we would totally understand and accept our fate of moving cabins during our 24 day stay.

We emailed our TA asking for help and they were scolding us about booking guarantees...anyone else book multiple segment b2b guarantees with better luck?

I have been on Silversea (1 cruise) and Oceania (3 cruises on larger O ships only).

Silversea has larger standard suites, butlers, includes alcohol and tips, and generally more formal and traditional with a slightly older demographics. Silversea has better service which is more personalized.

I really can't think of anything that we find superior on Oceania over Silversea. Typically the price is also higher on SS over Oceania (comparing balcony to balcony).  Compare all the features you are getting on both lines and see which one fits your needs best.

Why don't they simply stop marketing these "features" if they are seldomly ever used? Would love to see a poll of how many times pax had opportunity to use Marina or get offered Caviar in the surf in all of 2019....

Marketing features that we don't receive only leads to disappointment. Simple solution tell us in advanced which voyage will offer each, weather pending. We can thenb set expectations accordingly.

I would love to experience both, but seems like chances are slim to none...

Does anyone know if Seabourn would setup the marina and/or Caviar in the surf on this voyage *(Odyssey Aug 15th to 29th 2020)? Our last trip 2 weeks no Marina, and Caviar on pool deck, we were bummed. Why don't they just mark each Voyage IF this may occur and when?

Thank you for your feedback. So many opportunities on this itinerary to do both...it would be nice to see them happen to make up for the last voyage.

On 1/1/2020 at 6:10 PM, fudge said:

Day 12

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY FROM SUNNY ARUBA!

 

At 11 pm Seabourn held a New Year’s Eve party on the pool deck. Boy Seabourn know how to party!

The whirlpool was just full of champagne bottles, there were hot dogs and burgers handed out

 

Hotdogs and burgers handed out? Wow, they do know how to party...interesting choice of food for a NYE event. Hope everyone was black tie while enjoying hotdogs LOL!

Cheerleaders cheer when it's positive, but write off validity of surveys when it's not in their brands favor. A survey paints a good overall image of where a company's product stands against the competition that will influence a potential buyer. Companies use these results in marketing materials to promote their product,  so they must feel they are an accurate way to judge a product? 

In 2018 Seabourn was voted best small ship by CDT. 2019 they dropped to 8th place.   https://www.seabourn.com/en_US/news/press-release/2018-press-releases/pr-20181008-seabourn-wins-cnt-best-small-ship-2018.html

Call it what you want, but reader's scores gauge where a product stands in a fair and unbiased way vs glowing reviewers by travel bloggers on a free paid vacation that won't dare whisper one bad word in fear of being blacklisted from future offerings.

Going from 1st to 8th is a big drop in ratings that will costs the company bookings. Wonder what changed and how will Seabourn respond to the results?

20 hours ago, Colgal said:

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!

 

 

We felt the same way comparing SS to SB on our recent sailings on both...too bad some loyalists haven't experienced a SS cruise lately. Once they do, their perspective may change.  Mykonos is a fantastic stop that I wouldn't want to miss...

Cruising brand X 4 years ago may not reflect the current quality or experiences of the cruise line today. This year we sailed both SB Encore for 2 weeks and SS Spirit for 2 weeks. This is based on our recent experiences on both lines.

1. SB is more laid back especially with less formal dress code

2. SS has an extensive drink menu. Sure, SB will make you anything you want, but more fun ordering from creative extensive drink menu vs two pages on SS.

3. SS (Spirit) had higher end food/better selection/choices/variety (7 places to dine). We had lobster offered once on SB on a 2 week cruise *Silversea has lobster on menu every night. No crab legs or Chilean Sea Bass on Seabourn, which are two of our fav items. And don't get me started with the tapas served in the SB observation lounge (buffet of baloney, cheap chips, salsa, guac, all what you would expect on Carnival, not Seabourn). Silverseas presented properly plated high end tapas in lounge.

4. Servers on Seabourn were in short supply. Thus long waits, poured wrong wines, brought wrong food, and overall felt very stressed and rushed during service.

5. Entertainment was mixed bag on both. No clear cut winner.

6. Having a butler on SS was a pro. We got better service and felt more pampered.

The Executive Chef chatted with me about a few things I felt lacking on Seabourn. His response was he ordered food thru HAL suppliers and had limited on choices of products. I could feel the CCL corp penny pinching on Seabourn. We didn't feel this with Silversea under partial ownership from RCCL.

Overall both choices are great choices, but for us, Silverseas delivered a superior product and experience. It's our go to cruise line for this reason.

Just on SS in June. No draft beer all bottles/cans.

24 minutes ago, Isklaar said:

 

Interesting. Policy must have changed since we were last on SS - admittedly a few years ago - as we have received several invitations.

Or maybe the entertainment staff is unable to invite; they said we must invite them. I would guess top management has the ability to invite guests at their beckon call

16 minutes ago, Mahogany said:

Interesting comparison. I will be going on Pacific repositioning on Muse in September, first SS since right before Spirit was split in half. I've taken 3 Seabourn since then. I travel solo, and though there is some attention at Silversea, I like the invitations to dine with staff and visiting lecturers that I receive on Seabourn. BTW, you can have complimentary caviar any time on Seabourn. I just returned from an 8-day on Crystal, my first, and was disappointed with the MDR there, with staff constantly rushing around. I never found that on Encore. I agree the wine service is unprofessional, relying on servers. But I do love the TK Grill bar.

We learned that we must invite staff to dine with us on Silversea. They can't invite you on SS. The staff loves to dine with guests and get our food, we had several entertainers dining with us nightly and they were extremely happy to be our guests.

We sailed on the Encore March 2019 in Australia/NZ (our 1st SB cruise 14nts) and just completed Norway on Silver Spirit June 2019 (our 1st SS cruise 14nts).

For us, in our opinion, we loved SS over SB. Granted we have only cruised once on each line, but we have also cruised Oceania, Regent, Celebrity, and all the other cruiselines (except Crystal) with 60+ cruises under our belt.

1. Dining room service on SB was chaotic. Not enough servers, scrambling, forgetting what you're drinking, taking an hour btw courses, and even running out of TK featured dishes! No dedicate wine service, just reg servers doing double duty. SS they were calm, cool, professional, and friendly. Never felt rushed or overwhelmed like we experienced on the Encore.

2.  Food. We have heard people complaining menus never changed on SS. This is simply NOT true. They changed every 4 days or so. With 7 places to dine (2 add charge), we never got bored of the food like we did on SB. On SB, we were offered lobster ONCE in main DR in 14nts. On SS it was on the menu every day. Things like King crab, Chilean Sea Bass were never found on SB.We did enjoy SB's Patio over SS hot rocks (our least fav rest). Colonnade was carb overload, and also hard to find seating at peak hours.

Arts Cafe on SS had excellent small bites, flavored waters, superior quality teas, sandwiches, truffles, and sweets. Seabourn square lacked the quality and variety of what is offered in the Arts Cafe.

3. Service superior with our Butler making a big diff for us over SB with no butler.

4. Bar service, quality of champagne, and wines we found SS superior. Find the bar menu on each line and compare the two. We hated the NF champs on SB, but found the Monopole very drinkable on SS. The bar servers in Observation lounge would ask us 3 times what we ordered, and then bring us the wrong drinks on SB. The lite bites on SS far superior (canapes) in the evening vs baloney, chips & salsa, and other low quality bites in Observation lounge at nite on SB. Were usually offered nuts/chips on SS, which didn't happen on SB.

5. Entertainment would be equal. Hit and misses on both lines.

6. Cabins are equal on both lines. Both have high quality bedding/furnishings

Overall, you can feel the Carnival Corp bean counting, penny pinching, race to the bottom mentality on Seabourn. It was quite the opposite on Silversea with Royal buying a majority ownership now offering free caviar at anytime. Bottomless high quality champagne. Higher quality meats & fish. Better variety of food.

We would hands down choose Silversea over Seabourn as our go to luxury cruiseline. We will try Crystal sooner or later. We also love Oceania's food quality, but the service is more 4 star and lately pricing has been very 5 star.

Hopefully our very recent cruises on both lines add some value; things change and memories of how we perceived a cruise 2-3 years ago aren't always accurate (along with cuts, adds, and changes over time). If you haven't cruised SS recently maybe it's time to give them another try. No cruise is perfect, we had quibbles on both, but in the end after adding up our scorecards, SS was the best of the two.

Silversea serves Monopole blue top, which we found far more drinkable than SB Nicholas Feuillatte...drank one bottle of NF and that was enough for me. We enjoyed Monopole every day on SS!

Hopefully Montaudon is a step up over NF.

Sailed on the Encore in NZ & Australia March of this year. MD was open for 1hr/breakfast and 1hr/lunch on sea days. Port days 1hr/breakfast and closed for lunch.

I find these very, very limited hours on sea days unacceptable for a luxury line.

As a beer drinker, they have very few great beer choices. No IPA's. No wheat. No dark beer. Pretty pedestrian selection. The best chance of getting anything decent is to meet with the head of F&B or bar services and request something immediately when you get onboard.

About 1/2 way thru our 14 days cruise we did get some local IPA beers. Keep your expectations low otherwise you will be disappointed again.

Just got off Seabourn Encore March 19' and they are a perfect fit for the OP. People wore jeans, Hawaiian shirts, & tennis shoes to dinner (including the Thomas Keller grill)  Ladies were in spandex work out style bottoms in the MDR...and they also have an outdoor dining "Earth and Ocean" in the evening where your food can get cold quickly. We had similar issues when returning to ship at 2:30pm getting service at main pool deck was very slow along with long waits for room. The MDR was open ONE HOUR for lunch, even on sea days.

The food was repetitive mainly lamb, scallops, and steak and low quality frozen fish with NO locally sourced ingredients or products. Buffet filled with starches and very limited selections of high quality protein. Lobster was served once on 1st formal night on a 14 day cruise. Sushi restaurant only served Bento Boxes for lunch (how cheap); never saw any sushi anywhere for lunch!   They served baloney on the buffet, in the Observation lounge, and during the final "gourmet bites" deck party the last day of the cruise. We asked for crab legs and the chef said they don't have any on board (no crab on a 6star cruiseline)? We found the food quality and variety severely lacking and comparable to Celebrity, well below Oceania or Regent.  

We are going on the Silver Spirit next month Norway 14 days...hopefully the food quality is higher than 1st Seabourn...fingers crossed. We have reservations at all the restaurants, and are on wait list for a few. Can't wait to compare our experiences on both SS and Seabourn after our June return from the Silver Spirit.

9 minutes ago, Texas Tillie said:

 

Wondering why you haven't considered Crystal? The entertainment is top notch as is the food. Sea days are filled with activities for every interest.

Crystal is on our radar too. The only downside is the smaller cabins on some ships. Will try them out sooner or later...thanks for the suggestion, it's on the lists 🙂

Being in the under 50 crowd and having cruised 60+ times I have similar interest in a cruise. Food and entertainment are at the top of my lists. We just completed our 1st Seabourn cruise and we were the youngest onboard. The entertainment is geared to anyone over 65, and daytime activities are non-existent. Food is below Oceania. Which brings me to Oceania. The larger ships tend to attract a younger crowd (especially in Europe). We have sailed on the Riviera 3 times, and the pax mix has varied with time of year and where the ship is sailing.

The Entertainment on Oceania is superior to Seabourn, but a notch below Celebrity. I would rate the food on Oceania the best of the best (over Seabourn or Regent). The specialty dining is top notch (make sure to try the La Reserve special events, they are some of the best meals we have ever had at sea).  We are booked on Silversea in June; hoping it's better than our Seabourn trip we just took.

I would highly suggest trying one of the two larger ships with Oceania. It should check off most of the boxes.

2 minutes ago, tv24 said:

I'm sorry that things did not work out for you on  the Encore.  I cannot make excuses.  However, I used to complain a lot about the lack of locally sourced food on Seabourn and other cruise lines and have learned, painfully I might add, that for many reasons, that is just not going to happen on a cruise ship.  So I have given up that expectation and stopped complaining and look for fresh food on land only.

We had a great cruise! it wasn't a bad time. We just found the food well below the standards for a claimed 6 star cruiseline. We spoke to employees which have been with the company 20+ years, they are embarrassed by some of the products they are now serving guests. I even chatted with the executive chef about the quality of things; his response was his hands are tied by CCL. He is required to use the standard purveyors all ships order from company wide. In other words, they use the same (fill in the blank) on every single ship in the fleet. Buying power, right?

We have also never been told an entree is "SOLD OUT" in the main dining room. This happened several times. It's all relative to what your expectations are...ours were high, @$450/day is not exactly a cheap cruise....

After just getting off the Encore, I concur with Berlitz travel. The food reminded me of a HAL or Princess cruise. Cheap low quality ingredients in most of the venues. The Observation lounge serving products like baloney and other cheap cheeses and meats (these are tapas?). Low quality tortilla chips straight off Carnival. Very limited hours in main dining room like breakfast and lunch open for ONE hour on sea days! Buffet filled with lettuce at many of the stations to make it look full. Carbs and starches filled the buffet, with minimal proteins. Want sliced tomatoes with your smoked salmon? It's not on the breakfast buffet. Really? No asparagus on the ship either. Ran out a Kiwis on a ship in NZ? No local sourced fish or seafood (no mussels found when the ship is in NZ).

Some people may be OK with a bunch of cheap low quality sliced lunch meats and cheeses to fill a space in the Observation lounge acceptable, other may find it off putting. I'm not expecting fillet but a variety of high quality nibbles would be a great start.

Just used my water flosser in the bathroom on the Encore. The outlet is not polarized (both prongs are small openings) and thus I had to work it in and out of the plastic to get it to fit. Worked great once the one smaller hole was larger (really not hard to do, just gently work it back and forth until it goes in). Never tripped any breakers or anything.