Seabourn vs. Silversea

[parisbully]

We are considering a Caribbean cruise next year on the Spirit. We have cruised Regent and Seabourn many times. On Seabourn I really enjoy the alcohol fruity concoctions they bring around in the pool area in the morning prior to lunch. Can I expect this on Silversea?

 

Also at the end of the second week we get a little tired of dressing for dinner in the MDR. The patio grill dinner is just right for us. Fast, small portions and no need for more dressy clothes. What would you suggest for a Silversea dinner?

[Nigella]

In my experience Silversea don't bring random cocktails at the pool deck. They bring non alcoholic treats though. If you want a cocktail, just order it.

 

There are multidunous threads here about dress code. It's hot potato topic so I will steer clear!

[parisbully]

In my experience Silversea don't bring random cocktails at the pool deck. They bring non alcoholic treats though. If you want a cocktail, just order it.

 

There are multidunous threads here about dress code. It's hot potato topic so I will steer clear!

 

Didn't want a dress code discussion. Just looking for alternate dining ideas...

[Mr Luxury]

Didn't want a dress code discussion. Just looking for alternate dining ideas...

 

If you have not done so already I would read some reports about the Spirit as it is not the same as the smaller more popular ships.

Wes might like to enlighten you about the differences.

[parisbully]

If you have not done so already I would read some reports about the Spirit as it is not the same as the smaller more popular ships.

Wes might like to enlighten you about the differences.

 

I have read quite a few of the Spirit reviews on CC. Yes, I wish someone would enlighten me. Wes, where are you?

[WesW]

Hi Parisbully,

 

Just saw John's/Mr. Luxury Wes referral for the Spirit--was out this morning getting a new car battery. Believe John's mention was because we have sailed on two (2010, 2011) Spirit crossings (have both Spring/Fall Spirit crossings booked in 2013). Therefore, we have spent many seadays on the Spirit enjoying the Ship's activities, dining venues, lounges, library, et. al.

 

Tho, we have not sailed Seabourn (and most likely will not as SB ships even the Quest/Odyssey do not have jogging tracks) like you we do have multiple sailings on Regent. We also have multiple sailings on Silversea. We enjoy sailing on both, tho for exotic itineraries (Asia, SE Asia, Middle east) prefer the included excursions on Regent (why we sailed Regent's Voyager in the Middle East in April and we will sail in/around India again on the Voyager in December). However, for crossings/European voyages we prefer Silversea (where we are comfortable doing our own excursion planning). We have the Cloud booked for London Tower Bridge to Reykjavik and back next July.

 

As mentioned above when you are on the Spirit's pool decks (9 or 10), a deck steward will come around frequently--then you can let

him know to bring you a Mai Tai, Margarita, or fruity concoction of your choice. We like the upper pool deck (10) for the shade in the morning and quieter environment compared to the jovial deck 9 (with associated pool activity, ping pong)

 

Options you can choose on formal nights for casually elegant attire (pls see SS's definition bolded below) you can either dine in La

Terraza (by reservation), Hot Rocks Grill (also by reservation) or enjoy a relaxing evening in your suite with room service. Believe, having sailed SS before you are familiar with these dining venues (the Spirit is the only Ship in the SS fleet that also has a by reservation Japanese restaurant, Seishin--described with pix in linked review below), if not pls let us know and we will describe these wonderful options. There are also two other dining venue options on the Spirit, also described more fully in the review below, Le Champagne (delightful fixed course meal) and Stars (Jazz supper club)

 

Also, here is a good Spirit review w/pix that also provides likes/dislikes

 

http://www.cruisereport.com/crReview.aspx?id=2216

 

On formal nights, guests dining in La Terrazza may opt to wear casually elegant attire (dresses or trouser suits for women; jacket, tie optional for men). Following dinner, all guests are free to take advantage of any or all of the public spaces for both entertainment or cocktails and after-dinner drinks. Sailings of eight days or less typically feature two formal nights, while longer voyages usually have three or four formal nights.

[parisbully]

Wes, thank you so much for this lengthy response. This tells me everything I wanted to know. Now I just have to make my decision....

[conchyjoe]

We recently tried Seabourn (Eastern Med) for the first time after a number of cruises on the Shadow and Whisper and did this little comparison purely for our own interest since we thought the two lines were very close but both had some advantages over the other.

The terms of our comparison were:-

 

Penthouse Suite v. Silver Suite

Seabourn Quest v. Silver Whisper.

 

See the attached document for ratings.

As you can see, almost too close to call.

 

Where Seabourn really lost points was in their suite & veranda design and privacy. We didn't like the veranda very much, although it was a bit larger than Silversea. There was what amounted to a removable panel (not a bulkhead) that separated your veranda with those next door and had a gap down the middle that you could see through as well as a gap at top and bottom.

 

All the veranda's on the Quest also had swing doors rather than sliding doors which meant that the first 72 hours aboard, was annoyingly punctuated by doors slamming until our fellow passengers actually worked out that a swing door can in fact be closed quietly. Sadly a few passengers never achieved this level of evolution.

 

The sound proofing between suites was also quite poor and you could often hear conversations from adjacent suites. That said however, the noise from ships' equipment was much quieter than that on the Silver Whisper and we were never woken by early morning ship docking. There was a very evident ship vibration on the Quest when at sea, but it was easy to ignore after a few days.

 

The Penthouse Suite on Seabourn Quest was quite a bit smaller than a Silver Suite on Silver Whisper and the latter is better equipped and in our opion, a much better design. The Seabourn Penthouse for instance lacks curtains around the windows at the foot of the bed and thus it can't really be considered as a functional two "room" suite since opening the veranda curtains would wake somebody asleep in the bedroom.

 

The bathroom and walk-in closet on the Quest is also a little dysfunctional since being smaller in area there are a lot of doors and cupboards that intersect. We found the safe to be really annoying because it's door, when unlocked, swung into the passageway between the bathroom and the bedroom. Maybe this was intentional because locking it closed was the only option. We were also disturbed that half of the storage in the bathroom appeared to have been used by the Stewardess for toiletry replacement stock and was locked closed.

 

We liked the fact that Seabourn had maintained having a Cabin Stewardess rather than a Butler. We didn't like the changeover to Butlers on Silversea and have found the constant attention rather invasive, especially if you occupy a premium suite. The cabin service and level of attention on Seabourn was perfect for us, but the quality of cleaning, particularly on things like glass doors, was a little below that of Silversea. This was actually the the case throughout the Seabourn ship.

 

On Silversea we were always called by name but on our 14 day voyage on the Quest, we were only called by name by one person in the Restaurant (who looked rather familiar - he might be ex-Silversea). We personally actually quite enjoyed the illusion of anonymity!

 

Where Silversea definitely won out was the restaurant & bar staff and level of service. We found Seabourn a little disjointed in this respect. We also thought the quality and selection of house wines was better on Silversea. No peanuts or chips (crisps) in the lounges or bars on Seabourn.

 

We felt that Seabourn had slightly more enjoyable food and a greater variety of evening dining options with no requirement to make a reservation at most of the alternative venues. We did have dinner in R2 one evening which did require a reservation (the day before) and very much enjoyed the ambiance and the cuisine. We definitely prefer R2 over Le Champagne but that is very much a personal taste issue. Silversea won the breakfast category hands down.

On Seabourn we did get a little feeling of being "Nickel and Dimed", to use the American vernacular. No free laundry in a Penthouse Suite which added another $400 to the bill. No champagne in the suite's bar after the first bottle unless you paid an additional $35 per bottle. $50 per person Visa fee for Turkey ($20 if you get it yourself at the airport) and shore excursions that had to be paid for immediately if you booked-online. Just little stuff of no real consequence financially, but we did find it a little irritating.

 

NO FLAMES HERE PLEASE !

 

Being a smoker of cigarettes who never smokes inside and tries to avoid annoying any non-smokers, I did appreciate the fact that Seabourn has made many provisions for areas to smoke outside. Being a more complex design than the Whisper there are quite a few places that are available that will not disturb anybody, such as outside the Club on Deck 5, the Sky Bar and outside of Seabourn Square. The Casino on Seabourn Quest is also non-smoking which I applaud. Smoking on your veranda is also allowed on Seabourn, although I of course avoided this if my neighbours were present.

 

There has recently been much discussion about dress codes on Seabourn v. Silversea. We did not see much obvious difference on our cruise. We had two formal nights on our 14 day, very port intensive cruise on Seabourn, and we thought this was about right. The formal evenings were split about 50/50 between dinner jackets/tuxedo's and smart dark suits and we noticed that many men chose to wear ties on evenings when only a jacket was required. The only major difference we noted was that the ladies aboard Seabourn, tended to be dressed down a little in terms of formal wear and wore less jewelery than we have seen on Silversea.

 

I have tried to make this report as objective as possible, but I fully appreciate that every ship and every crew is different and the latter, as well as the passenger mix can have a huge influence on whether one cruise, ship, or cruise line, is more enjoyable than the last. The above commentary is is just our personal opinion based on one Seabourn cruise on the Quest and several cruises on the Shadow and Whisper.

 

In conclusion, I think that Seabourn and Silversea are pretty close. We will probably try Seabourn again next time but will upgrade to an Owners or Signature Suite suite to solve the poor privacy on the veranda, which we found disturbing.

SeabournVSilversea.doc

[Silver Spectre]

Thanks for an excellent and very objective overview Conchyjoe.

[wripro]

Thanks for the review and comparison.

[rbslos18]

What a treat. Refreshingly balanced and without hyperbole!