Seabourn cruisers try Silversea Shadow

[clarky]

Silversea Shadow Vancouver to Shanghai Sept 12 2010 to 10th October 2010

 

Firstly I would like to say that we really enjoyed our cruise. We have done about 100 days

on Seabourn but wanted to cruise Alaska but Seabourn does not do this itinerary. We had

heard good things about Silversea from passengers we had met on Seabourn so thought we would give it a try. We had a choice between Silversea and Regent but felt we would be happier on board Silversea.

 

I have noticed many posts on these boards asking for comparisons between Seabourn and

Silversea so while I review our Silversea cruise I will make comparisons to Seabourn for

those of you who ask that question. I have come to the conclusion that each person has

their own preference of cruise line according to what is important to them. In order for

the reader to put this review in perspective I will give you some information about my

husband and myself. We are in our early 50's, have cruised many times mainly on Seabourn and we are Australians. We normally book a cruise of 14 days or more and enjoy good food and wine. We like good onboard lecturers and guest entertainers. We are not terribly fussed about Broadway production shows. We enjoy socializing with other passengers from all parts of the world.

 

We boarded in Vancouver and were quickly taken to reception where our photo was taken and our cabin card issued. We were then given a glass of Champagne and informed that as our suite was not ready but we could have lunch at La Terraza. I prefer the Seabourn approach to embarkation where you are seated in the lounge after your photo and card are issued and then Champagne and food is served whilst you get to know you fellow cruisers. You are then taken to you suite by a staff member. This allows you to get to know some fellow passengers and puts everyone as a group in vacation mode. A small point and it did not affect the pleasure I took in this cruise - just an observation.

 

Suite:

 

The decor in the suite was very nice and didn't show any signs of wear and tear. I knew the ship was due in dry dock very soon after we left the cruise. The bathroom was very similar to the Seabourn Odyssey bathroom although I think the Shadow's bathroom had more storage space which I appreciated. Amenities in the bathroom were Bvlgari which were very nice and always replaced immediately. We unpacked our bags and noticed that nearly every draw handle was loose both in the walkin closet and in the suite. Also the hinge on one of the cupboards was very loose. This did not give a good first impression. We notified the butler and this was soon fixed. We then received a visit from the Manager of Housekeeping who apologized but informed us that the ship was due in dry dock soon. This is a maintenance issue and should be kept on top of not left until dry dock which does not happen very often. You have a butler and room attendant but neither reports it to the appropriate people? The other issue with the suite was there was no way to play music; no CD player or iPod docking station. I asked if there were any available and after a couple of days was given an iPod system that was being put in every suite as part of the upgrade due in dry dock. It took the butler a few days to find an adapter so we could plug it in and once we did plug it in we found that you could not plug in your laptop at the desk and have the iPod system on as the power points were too close together. I ended up plugging it in at the make-up desk but had to unplug it as soon as I wanted to use the hair dryer as the power points are very close together here to. Hope they fix this in dry dock.

 

Butler:

 

We thought the butler service sounded great as you would have one person to go to for all your needs. The only time we really saw the butler was when he delivered our breakfast

every morning. We eat breakfast in our suite every morning (a form of calorie control; the

buffets are too tempting). After two breakfasts where the hot food was cold we made a

complaint. We have a plate of fruit and then eggs and the eggs and toast were always cold. We have the same breakfast on Seabourn and never had a problem with cold food. The butler informed us that he would have to serve us breakfast in two steps, first the fruit and then he would come back with the hot food. Not ideal but at least our food was hot. We noticed that the plates were hot this time but it was bad management that it took the butler to ensure our breakfast was hot! We heard the same complaint from several passengers who just gave up and went to the buffet. We liked the fact the butler polished my husbands shoes before every formal night. To be honest the butler service sounds great but other than ensuring that our breakfast was hot (on Seabourn this is not an issue) he made little difference to our cruise.

 

Food:

 

This is where I may ruffle a few feathers of loyal Silversea passengers as the food on board was very much a disappointment. This is a very subjective topic as what one person likes another will not, however whatever is presented should be cooked well. To give this part of the review balance I will say that we met a couple on board who sailed on our last Seabourn Odyssey cruise and he thought the food was very good but then "I'm just a meat and potato man". I like a steak but don't want it to be the best option I have every evening. We were dining with him on the evening that I was served fish that was raw. I never experience a good piece of fish the whole cruise, it was either over cooked or under cooked. The main dining room menu was often uninspiring. The meat was always cooked well and I had a great Scallop dish and the salads were good but on the whole the food just was not that great. La Terraza was a better option and we had a fantastic meal of Shaved beef one night that was cooked to perfection. We noticed that the people who were happier with the food rarely ate in the main dinning room preferring La Terraza or the Patio Grill. The problem with La Terraza was that the menu only changes once every 5/7 days so it did become repetitive. The food at the pool grill was great but the menu never changed other than fish of the day (which was always hit and miss). So in my opinion the food was boring, sometimes very good but never sensational. The deserts were not great and I heard many people complaining about them. Not many appealed to me and I generally had a cheese plate. My husband who loves desert did not give high praise to the deserts. I found the choice of dining below that of Seabourn. La Champagne is not a dinning option unless you want to incur an extra fee of $200 per person including wines. The Two Restaurant on Seabourn has no extra charge and the food is sensational along with the wine paring. The Colonnade on Seabourn is the equivalent of La Terrazza but the theme changes every night and the food is wonderful. The pool grill is also and option on Seabourn so if we are talking about comparisons then Seabourn has more choices and better food. It also has caviar whenever you want it which is no longer the case with Silversea. Many loyal Silversea cruisers felt that the standard of food had dropped dramatically compared to their cruises just a year ago. Most felt that this was a cost savings as the cruises were so heavily discounted and cuts need to be made. I don't agree with this as in many cases it was the way the food was cooked that let them down not the produce. Another point to mention is that the friend who thought the food was good said that he felt the galley lunch was a joke they had cut it back so much. At this point in the cruise my expectations had lowered to the point I was not surprised. Compared to the Seabourn Galley lunch it was a very poor cousin.

 

 

Wine:

This is where Silversea had a win for me. Their wine was much better than Seabourn as was the choice of two house Champagnes. The variety on Seabourn regarding the wines is similar but I felt the quality of the wines on Silversea much better.

 

Service:

The crew are mostly Phillipino with some Indonesian and a few Europeans. The Phillipinos are very friendly and quickly remember your name but some of them are a little hard to understand. The stand outs here are Jovi and Verlin the bar tender in the small bar near

the casino. I prefer the Seabourn mix of staff as I feel they are just as friendly but perhaps more professional. The Phillipino staff sometimes had a too casual approach to

things. An example of this was a lunch we had in the main dinning room. After being served our first course we noticed very dirty rings on the table from where our plates had been. We mentioned this to our waiter and his response was "oh don't worry this was only on the bottom of your plates, the top of your plates were clean". We mentioned this to him so that he could find out what caused the dirty rings and make sure the problem was sorted out. We had this problem a couple of times but just put up with it. Yes, we could have followed up but I'm not on a cruise to follow up on things like this. It's not a big deal but it gave you the impression that the staff were not well trained. The case of the raw fish. We were seated at a table of 8 and everyone had been given their meal. My fish was raw and I was unable to eat it. Everyone had started to eat their meal and at that point I decided that I had lost my appetite and would just eat the vegetables. The waiter did not come to ask how we were enjoying our food until he needed to clear the plates. I quietly told him that my fish was uncooked that I didn't want a replacement but could he please take the dish to the chef so he could see that a meal had gone out to a passenger that was inedible. I did not want to make a fuss at the table and be eating while everyone had finished. By this point after taking a bite of the uncooked fish I had lost my appetite. Next the Maitre'd came to the table to ask about our meal and one of the guests mentioned my raw fish. He said "But madam, it would only have taken a moment to get a replacement. Why didn't you say anything?" I explained I didn't ask or want a replacement. He then proceeded to chew our the waiter in front of us. I felt terrible as it was not the waiter's fault; it was the chef's fault. And we should have to listen to him telling the waiter off. I also saw another manager yell at one of the Phillipino staff and this is always unpleasant and should never be witnessed by passengers. So for me Seabourn has better management and the staff take service seriously.

 

Entertainment Staff:

 

I like David Lawson and appreciated his sense of humour. Allesandra was also warm and

friendly and an asset to Silversea. We had two particularly wonderful guest lecturers, Phillip Hurst and Micheal Beurk. I know Phillip will be back on Silversea and also on Seabourn Odyssey in the coming months. His lecturers were topical and extremely interesting. We enjoyed the piano player and the violinist that were guest performers. The dance group were very average and the ballroom dancers particularly awful. We went to one show but as I mentioned we are not really fans of this sort of entertainment. We enjoyed trivia and the boat building competition. We found the on board activities to be about the same as Seabourn. Although I do like the outdoor Rock and Roll show that Seabourn puts on and the band and sailaways on Seabourn were much better. We enjoyed the Liars Club which both cruise lines do and Helmut the Hotel Director was hilarious. I enjoyed name this tune on Seabourn which they didn't have on the Shadow. So all in all Seabourn was a little better in the entertainment department.

 

Passengers:

 

The mix of passengers can make or break a cruise for us and it was great to meet up with three couples we had sailed with on Seabourn. I would say that the passenger mix is very much the same as Seabourn and we met and made some wonderful friends. 99% of the passengers were fantastic with 1% pain in the bottoms. The same can be said of Seabourn. David told us a funny story about Mrs 1%. She came to him and complained that there were too many Australians on-board and what was he going to do about it. This soon got around to all the Australians on-board, all 17% of us, and we all thought it very funny. We are very much used to being the minority when we travel. One of the Australian couples was at a hosted table one night and happened to mention to the table at large that a lady on board had complained that there were too many Australians on board. The lady next to him said "that was me", she then got up from the table never to return.

 

Overall:

 

We missed two ports on this itinerary because of our lateness into a Russian port and bad

weather and Russian incompetence and red tape. Some passengers believed it was the Captain's fault because he wanted to save fuel and did not make Russian in time thereby starting this chain of events. I'm not sure but I felt very sorry for passengers who disembarked in Tokyo as they missed their two Japanese ports. The shore excursions we took were very similar to the Seabourn excursions we have taken very well run. Would we cruise with Silversea again, I think this is the big question. My answer would be, if Silversea and Seabourn had the same itinerary I would select Seabourn but if Silversea did an itinerary that Seabourn did not offer I would cruise with them again. Many loyal Silversea passengers who were disappointed with the food and the way they felt Silversea was going asked us about Seabourn. I hope Silversea listen to these loyal passengers and get properly trained staff in both their kitchen and service areas.

 

Summary:

 

Food: Seabourn better

Wine: Silversea Better

Service: Seabourn Better

Staff: Seabourn Better

Entertainment: Seabourn by a hair.

Management: Seabourn Better.

Passengers: Equal.

Overall: Seabourn is the cruise line for us.

[Keith1010]

Clarky, thank you for taking the time to write and post your review.

 

In the end, I am one of those who is a firm believer that it is great that all the luxury cruise lines are not the same so as passengers we have a wide choice in the selection of a cruise line that works best for us. There are some who prefer one cruise line over other ones while there are others who prefer two or more cruise lines.

 

I always think it is nice if the opportunity becomes available to sail on a range of cruise lines within a particular category so that each person can figure out which one works better for them. I also think in the end the opinion that counts the most is each of our opinions.

 

Welcome home.

 

Keith

[keltic]

Really informative thread. I was on the Seabourn Pride, and boarding within on the Silver Cloud. Although comparisions are inevitable, companies are different. As far as my Seabourn experience was concerned, it was just OK, fine but not fullfilling the high expectations I had when I boarded. I had a great time, I enjoy every single bit of it, but I didn´t feel the luxury touch as I had when I was on the SeaDream II last may.

 

Probably because for many passengers luxury isn´t perceived in the same way. What I was impresseded in both cases, was service. Top notch....

[Silver Spectre]

Clarky, thanks for your review, well written and very informative. Also love your story about Mrs1%, really made me chuckle.

[Scotspea]

Silversea Shadow Vancouver to Shanghai Sept 12 2010 to 10th October 2010

 

Firstly I would like to say that we really enjoyed our cruise. We have done about 100 days

on Seabourn but wanted to cruise Alaska but Seabourn does not do this itinerary. We had

heard good things about Silversea from passengers we had met on Seabourn so thought we would give it a try. We had a choice between Silversea and Regent but felt we would be happier on board Silversea.

 

I have noticed many posts on these boards asking for comparisons between Seabourn and

Silversea so while I review our Silversea cruise I will make comparisons to Seabourn for

those of you who ask that question. I have come to the conclusion that each person has

their own preference of cruise line according to what is important to them. In order for

the reader to put this review in perspective I will give you some information about my

husband and myself. We are in our early 50's, have cruised many times mainly on Seabourn and we are Australians. We normally book a cruise of 14 days or more and enjoy good food and wine. We like good onboard lecturers and guest entertainers. We are not terribly fussed about Broadway production shows. We enjoy socializing with other passengers from all parts of the world.

 

We boarded in Vancouver and were quickly taken to reception where our photo was taken and our cabin card issued. We were then given a glass of Champagne and informed that as our suite was not ready but we could have lunch at La Terraza. I prefer the Seabourn approach to embarkation where you are seated in the lounge after your photo and card are issued and then Champagne and food is served whilst you get to know you fellow cruisers. You are then taken to you suite by a staff member. This allows you to get to know some fellow passengers and puts everyone as a group in vacation mode. A small point and it did not affect the pleasure I took in this cruise - just an observation.

 

Suite:

 

The decor in the suite was very nice and didn't show any signs of wear and tear. I knew the ship was due in dry dock very soon after we left the cruise. The bathroom was very similar to the Seabourn Odyssey bathroom although I think the Shadow's bathroom had more storage space which I appreciated. Amenities in the bathroom were Bvlgari which were very nice and always replaced immediately. We unpacked our bags and noticed that nearly every draw handle was loose both in the walkin closet and in the suite. Also the hinge on one of the cupboards was very loose. This did not give a good first impression. We notified the butler and this was soon fixed. We then received a visit from the Manager of Housekeeping who apologized but informed us that the ship was due in dry dock soon. This is a maintenance issue and should be kept on top of not left until dry dock which does not happen very often. You have a butler and room attendant but neither reports it to the appropriate people? The other issue with the suite was there was no way to play music; no CD player or iPod docking station. I asked if there were any available and after a couple of days was given an iPod system that was being put in every suite as part of the upgrade due in dry dock. It took the butler a few days to find an adapter so we could plug it in and once we did plug it in we found that you could not plug in your laptop at the desk and have the iPod system on as the power points were too close together. I ended up plugging it in at the make-up desk but had to unplug it as soon as I wanted to use the hair dryer as the power points are very close together here to. Hope they fix this in dry dock.

 

Butler:

 

We thought the butler service sounded great as you would have one person to go to for all your needs. The only time we really saw the butler was when he delivered our breakfast

every morning. We eat breakfast in our suite every morning (a form of calorie control; the

buffets are too tempting). After two breakfasts where the hot food was cold we made a

complaint. We have a plate of fruit and then eggs and the eggs and toast were always cold. We have the same breakfast on Seabourn and never had a problem with cold food. The butler informed us that he would have to serve us breakfast in two steps, first the fruit and then he would come back with the hot food. Not ideal but at least our food was hot. We noticed that the plates were hot this time but it was bad management that it took the butler to ensure our breakfast was hot! We heard the same complaint from several passengers who just gave up and went to the buffet. We liked the fact the butler polished my husbands shoes before every formal night. To be honest the butler service sounds great but other than ensuring that our breakfast was hot (on Seabourn this is not an issue) he made little difference to our cruise.

 

Food:

 

This is where I may ruffle a few feathers of loyal Silversea passengers as the food on board was very much a disappointment. This is a very subjective topic as what one person likes another will not, however whatever is presented should be cooked well. To give this part of the review balance I will say that we met a couple on board who sailed on our last Seabourn Odyssey cruise and he thought the food was very good but then "I'm just a meat and potato man". I like a steak but don't want it to be the best option I have every evening. We were dining with him on the evening that I was served fish that was raw. I never experience a good piece of fish the whole cruise, it was either over cooked or under cooked. The main dining room menu was often uninspiring. The meat was always cooked well and I had a great Scallop dish and the salads were good but on the whole the food just was not that great. La Terraza was a better option and we had a fantastic meal of Shaved beef one night that was cooked to perfection. We noticed that the people who were happier with the food rarely ate in the main dinning room preferring La Terraza or the Patio Grill. The problem with La Terraza was that the menu only changes once every 5/7 days so it did become repetitive. The food at the pool grill was great but the menu never changed other than fish of the day (which was always hit and miss). So in my opinion the food was boring, sometimes very good but never sensational. The deserts were not great and I heard many people complaining about them. Not many appealed to me and I generally had a cheese plate. My husband who loves desert did not give high praise to the deserts. I found the choice of dining below that of Seabourn. La Champagne is not a dinning option unless you want to incur an extra fee of $200 per person including wines. The Two Restaurant on Seabourn has no extra charge and the food is sensational along with the wine paring. The Colonnade on Seabourn is the equivalent of La Terrazza but the theme changes every night and the food is wonderful. The pool grill is also and option on Seabourn so if we are talking about comparisons then Seabourn has more choices and better food. It also has caviar whenever you want it which is no longer the case with Silversea. Many loyal Silversea cruisers felt that the standard of food had dropped dramatically compared to their cruises just a year ago. Most felt that this was a cost savings as the cruises were so heavily discounted and cuts need to be made. I don't agree with this as in many cases it was the way the food was cooked that let them down not the produce. Another point to mention is that the friend who thought the food was good said that he felt the galley lunch was a joke they had cut it back so much. At this point in the cruise my expectations had lowered to the point I was not surprised. Compared to the Seabourn Galley lunch it was a very poor cousin.

 

 

Wine:

This is where Silversea had a win for me. Their wine was much better than Seabourn as was the choice of two house Champagnes. The variety on Seabourn regarding the wines is similar but I felt the quality of the wines on Silversea much better.

 

Service:

The crew are mostly Phillipino with some Indonesian and a few Europeans. The Phillipinos are very friendly and quickly remember your name but some of them are a little hard to understand. The stand outs here are Jovi and Verlin the bar tender in the small bar near

the casino. I prefer the Seabourn mix of staff as I feel they are just as friendly but perhaps more professional. The Phillipino staff sometimes had a too casual approach to

things. An example of this was a lunch we had in the main dinning room. After being served our first course we noticed very dirty rings on the table from where our plates had been. We mentioned this to our waiter and his response was "oh don't worry this was only on the bottom of your plates, the top of your plates were clean". We mentioned this to him so that he could find out what caused the dirty rings and make sure the problem was sorted out. We had this problem a couple of times but just put up with it. Yes, we could have followed up but I'm not on a cruise to follow up on things like this. It's not a big deal but it gave you the impression that the staff were not well trained. The case of the raw fish. We were seated at a table of 8 and everyone had been given their meal. My fish was raw and I was unable to eat it. Everyone had started to eat their meal and at that point I decided that I had lost my appetite and would just eat the vegetables. The waiter did not come to ask how we were enjoying our food until he needed to clear the plates. I quietly told him that my fish was uncooked that I didn't want a replacement but could he please take the dish to the chef so he could see that a meal had gone out to a passenger that was inedible. I did not want to make a fuss at the table and be eating while everyone had finished. By this point after taking a bite of the uncooked fish I had lost my appetite. Next the Maitre'd came to the table to ask about our meal and one of the guests mentioned my raw fish. He said "But madam, it would only have taken a moment to get a replacement. Why didn't you say anything?" I explained I didn't ask or want a replacement. He then proceeded to chew our the waiter in front of us. I felt terrible as it was not the waiter's fault; it was the chef's fault. And we should have to listen to him telling the waiter off. I also saw another manager yell at one of the Phillipino staff and this is always unpleasant and should never be witnessed by passengers. So for me Seabourn has better management and the staff take service seriously.

 

Entertainment Staff:

 

I like David Lawson and appreciated his sense of humour. Allesandra was also warm and

friendly and an asset to Silversea. We had two particularly wonderful guest lecturers, Phillip Hurst and Micheal Beurk. I know Phillip will be back on Silversea and also on Seabourn Odyssey in the coming months. His lecturers were topical and extremely interesting. We enjoyed the piano player and the violinist that were guest performers. The dance group were very average and the ballroom dancers particularly awful. We went to one show but as I mentioned we are not really fans of this sort of entertainment. We enjoyed trivia and the boat building competition. We found the on board activities to be about the same as Seabourn. Although I do like the outdoor Rock and Roll show that Seabourn puts on and the band and sailaways on Seabourn were much better. We enjoyed the Liars Club which both cruise lines do and Helmut the Hotel Director was hilarious. I enjoyed name this tune on Seabourn which they didn't have on the Shadow. So all in all Seabourn was a little better in the entertainment department.

 

Passengers:

 

The mix of passengers can make or break a cruise for us and it was great to meet up with three couples we had sailed with on Seabourn. I would say that the passenger mix is very much the same as Seabourn and we met and made some wonderful friends. 99% of the passengers were fantastic with 1% pain in the bottoms. The same can be said of Seabourn. David told us a funny story about Mrs 1%. She came to him and complained that there were too many Australians on-board and what was he going to do about it. This soon got around to all the Australians on-board, all 17% of us, and we all thought it very funny. We are very much used to being the minority when we travel. One of the Australian couples was at a hosted table one night and happened to mention to the table at large that a lady on board had complained that there were too many Australians on board. The lady next to him said "that was me", she then got up from the table never to return.

 

Overall:

 

We missed two ports on this itinerary because of our lateness into a Russian port and bad

weather and Russian incompetence and red tape. Some passengers believed it was the Captain's fault because he wanted to save fuel and did not make Russian in time thereby starting this chain of events. I'm not sure but I felt very sorry for passengers who disembarked in Tokyo as they missed their two Japanese ports. The shore excursions we took were very similar to the Seabourn excursions we have taken very well run. Would we cruise with Silversea again, I think this is the big question. My answer would be, if Silversea and Seabourn had the same itinerary I would select Seabourn but if Silversea did an itinerary that Seabourn did not offer I would cruise with them again. Many loyal Silversea passengers who were disappointed with the food and the way they felt Silversea was going asked us about Seabourn. I hope Silversea listen to these loyal passengers and get properly trained staff in both their kitchen and service areas.

 

Summary:

 

Food: Seabourn better

Wine: Silversea Better

Service: Seabourn Better

Staff: Seabourn Better

Entertainment: Seabourn by a hair.

Management: Seabourn Better.

Passengers: Equal.

Overall: Seabourn is the cruise line for us.

 

 

Here we go again, subjectivity by the bucketload!

[oregon50]

Here we go again....someone feels the need to copy a long post. Is there a reason for doing this?

 

It is hardly subjective when the OP writes hard facts regarding crew nationality. Crew nationality is why there was no "Name that tune" during his cruise.

 

Well written reviews can be fun to read. This was a good read. And thanks for posting it again, so we could all read it twice.

[rojaan19]

Clarky, thanks for your review, well written and very informative. Also love your story about Mrs1%, really made me chuckle.

 

 

Mrs 1% was lucky she wasnt on the PAII in August - the cruise after ours had a Captains Choice tour on board 60% Aussies !

 

Clarky - we are doing the Shadow Japan to Anchorage in May 11 going up the russian coast. Can you tell me which ports you went to and how long did you have in those towns ? The two ports you missed in Japan ?

[clarky]

Hello Rojaan,

 

We Stopped in Petropavlosk and missed Sendai and Hakodate in Japan. Unfortunately we spent two days in Petropavlosk, this was due to some degree because we arrived late into port which meant we had to wait for the Russian Navy to finish their drills in port. This delay caused cancellations of the longer tours offered. The only tour then available was a shortened Highlights tour which I heard from many passengers was a low lights tour. The two longer tours sounded interesting so if you do visit this port I would suggest doing one of those. The weather then took a turn for the worse and the Captain announced we would be staying overnight and taking on fuel the next day to make up time and reach Hakodate. What with Russian red tape and them trying to fill the ship with fuel through a garden hose (really we saw them doing this) probably because they were paid by the hour. When we were finally ready to leave the Navy again had drills and we could not leave the port. By the time we left it was obvious to all that we would not make the port of Hakadate.

[Noboddame]

Silversea Shadow Vancouver to Shanghai Sept 12 2010 to 10th October 2010....

 

...... One of the Australian couples was at a hosted table one night and happened to mention to the table at large that a lady on board had complained that there were too many Australians on board. The lady next to him said "that was me", she then got up from the table never to return.

 

 

She should have been vegemited!

[Noboddame]

Here we go again, subjectivity by the bucketload!

 

 

Scotspea: Clarky was very clear about the post being personal observations and quite a bit of effort was put into making that post. Snideness, no matter how limited or subjective in itself seems an inappropriate response to Clarky's post.

[DebbieH103]

Thank you Clarky for the interesting commentary on your cruise. I enjoyed it and have reread it a few times after the various comments by others.

 

I find it disheartening when superiors chew out staff in front of guests. It humiliates the employee even more than a private scolding would, and it frustrates and embarrasses the guest. It often does not even accomplish anything. In your case, you only wanted to inform for others, a very nice and cordial attitude to take on.

 

We found the food to be more bland and less creative on Shadow than on Whisper, Wind and Spirit but always enjoyed our meal.

[wripro]

We must all remember that on each board of CC there are defenders of their cruise line to the death and any negative mention at all will set them off like smoke does a fire alarm. We must be kind to these people as they have so much emotional investment in their cruise line.

[Paulchili]

Clarky, thank you for taking the time to write and post your review.

 

In the end, I am one of those who is a firm believer that it is great that all the luxury cruise lines are not the same so as passengers we have a wide choice in the selection of a cruise line that works best for us. There are some who prefer one cruise line over other ones while there are others who prefer two or more cruise lines.

 

I always think it is nice if the opportunity becomes available to sail on a range of cruise lines within a particular category so that each person can figure out which one works better for them. I also think in the end the opinion that counts the most is each of our opinions.

 

Welcome home.

 

Keith

 

Well said, Keith. I agree wholeheartedly.

[Scotspea]

We must all remember that on each board of CC there are defenders of their cruise line to the death and any negative mention at all will set them off like smoke does a fire alarm. We must be kind to these people as they have so much emotional investment in their cruise line.

 

 

Or could they just be counsel for Lucifer?;)

[Dreps]

Clarky, thank you for the interesting post. Of course, it was subjective; that's what a review is. I hope that some time you give Regent a try. I would be curious, despite what you had heard, how you would rank the three lines in the end, given your comments about Silversea. I did a comparison of Silversea and Regent similar to yours, and ended up giving Regent the edge. We've not yet been on Seabourn. As others have said, it is great that we have several lines from which to choose.

[wripro]

Wasn't aware that anyone here knew my Uncle Lucifer! Absolutely loves Silversea.

[Oceans&Rivers]

I find it disheartening when superiors chew out staff in front of guests. It humiliates the employee even more than a private scolding would, and it frustrates and embarrasses the guest. It often does not even accomplish anything.

 

I totally agree with you. We sat down to lunch in the main dining room on another luxury line and I requested one of the named sparkling waters (don't recall which at the moment) of the waiter (not our regular waiter) or his assistant.

 

Then the waiter's assistant came around and started to fill my husband's glass of tap water. I said "yes, please" to this and smiled for him to fill my glass, too (I happen to enjoy regular water over ice alongside anything else that I am having). No sooner had he done that but our waiter for that lunch came over, scowling at his assistant, and chewed him out just behind us, but so loudly that we and other passengers could hear. It was uncomfortable for us, but much more so for the assistant, I am sure.

 

I immediately said to the waiter that I was happy to have both waters (the sparkling and the ice water) and that his assistant was serving us well, and that the only problem was that he, the waiter, scolded the assistant waiter in public, which I felt was unfair and unpleasant for everyone who overheard it.

The waiter went on to overcompensate (among other odd things he did during service), and I think he learned a lesson himself, and we did not report him or mention him at all on our final questionnaire.

[conchyjoe]

Clarky,

 

A good well written report.

 

Thank You