First Silversea Experience on the Cloud's WWII Charter

[caroak]

Since this was a charter and not a regular Silversea cruise, all of our events and excursions were organized by the WWII Museum and they were beyond our expectations and truly a once in a lifetime experience. You can read the highlights of our excursions and events posted by Emtsbaum in the Lisbon/Dover Cloud thread.

 

Now for the comments on the Cloud itself. This was our first cruise on Silversea and the first on such a small ship. We've sailed with Crystal, our favorite, and Oceania. The highest marks go to the staff for their service and attention to our needs. They were right up there with Crystal, even excelling in some areas especially since Crystal went all inclusive, but possibly because it's a much smaller ship and considering we had a butler, which we did not on Crystal, it was an enhanced experience.

 

The dining staff was most attentive and our wine glasses were never empty. Special thanks to our impeccable butler, Raiju, and our stewardess, Sharon. Both of them could not do enough for us. Also, special thanks to Christina, who I believe heads up guest relations, who made sure our move to a different suite went smoothly. We had to move after three days due to a buzzing noise in our cabin. Efforts to find the problem were not successful. Christina had offered to move us immediately but we waited in hopes it would be fixed. The suite with the buzz was 435. We were moved to 503, which was the first starboard cabin on Deck 5, and did not have a veranda but a larger window than 435. Since we were docked for five days there wasn't much of an issue with the grinding noise that's generated when the ship arrives or departs port. I would not recommend that cabin for a normal cruise schedule. When arriving it starts in the early morning and lasts for at least 45 minutes.

 

The food -- Best meals were in La Terrazza. We dined there three nights and I had two pasta dishes that were as good as I've had in Italy. Le Champagne was also excellent with the exception of too much salt on the very good Dover sole. The dinners in the MDR were, on the whole, very good, again, with the exception of too much salt especially in the soups. We had one lunch in the MDR which was excellent. We had breakfast either in our room or the buffet. We were disappointed that we could not have a hot/full breakfast in our suite. The breakfast buffet was adequate for that size ship. The other disappointment was no buffet option for dinner or casual patio dining if the weather permitted. The Hot Rocks concept did not appeal to us so we passed on that one. All the wines served were very good to excellent and we're wine snobs. The Italian wines in La Terrazza were the most outstanding and we felt no need to order from their reserve list.

 

We had another issue when DH got sick. We were in port in Caen and during the night he was sick with a cold and coughing. As a consequence, a piece of food got lodged in his throat. He visited the ship's doctor at 2 am, which was pretty much useless, and he did not improve $170 later and $22 for an oral rinse and one Valium, neither of which did a thing. Since the ship was leaving Caen the next day, we decided he should go to the emergency room at the Caen hospital in the morning. The nurse made the arrangements for our taxi transportation and did the necessary paperwork. I've had my own experience with socialized medicine in Italy and this experience in France was another eyeopener. We have the best medical care in the world and we should all hope and pray with the current changes in healthcare we do not end up being another country with socialized medicine. Fortunately, after three hours in the emergency room and no specialized in sight, he had a coughing jag and the food dislodged. I can't imagine what would have been in store of him if it didn't. The hospital visit was free but we would have gladly paid for good medical care. Also, a note on the condition of the hospital -- dirty floors, paint peeling, the doors were metal and all were chipped and the nurse looked down my husband's throat with the flashlight from an iPhone. If you wanted a drink you had to go to a vending machine. Not even water was offered.

 

To sum it up, we really enjoyed our experience on the Could although not sure if we would sail on such a small ship again. It's hard to judge because we were on such a specialized cruise and did not get to experience any of the ship's entertainment, excursions or enhancements programs. Also, the Cloud was a little "tired" in some of the areas.

 

Carole

[duct tape]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on that unique trip. Glad you enjoyed it so much. The Cloud may be too small for you, so consider another of their larger ships. My other 1/2 had a great time also!

[caroak]

Almost forgot our biggest complaint -- speciality restaurant reservation screw-ups!! There were three couples in our group so I booked three nights at La Terrazza for a table of six and one night at Le Champagne on their website. When we boarded I immediately went to the MDR and spoke to Sergio who was most helpful. He had no reservations for us and booked the three dinners plus Le Champagne. With the exception of Le Champagne, all the Le Terrazza dinner times were subsequently changed from what was originally booked by Sergio. Some of our dining times revolved around the evening events the Museum had scheduled but I booked according to that schedule so the times should not have been changed. I was not aware of the time changes until I found the reservation notes outside our suite. They were all changed back to our satisfaction but for one of them I had to be quite adamant with the Le Terrazza person. One evening there was quite a riff with a guest at the Le Terrazza desk when he was refused a reservation for that evening and he was not happy and very verbal. There were plenty of empty seats but he was still refused. We were told they only serve 17 guests in an evening although it seemed to be a few more than that served.

 

duck tape - We would consider one of their larger ships. Which one would you suggest?

[Observer]

The OP mentions the inability to get a full/hot breakfast in the suite.

 

This is puzzling. One can always get a full/hot breakfast in suite (at least on five larger Silversea ships).

 

I assume that the OP elected not to have the in suite breakfast or perhaps that on this charter such an option was not offered (perhaps because everyone would be disembarking at the same times and it would be impossible to serve everyone properly).

[caroak]

The in-suite breakfast was strictly a continental style breakfast. The order form placed on your door in the evening appeared to be the Cloud's standard breakfast order form and not something that was printed just for the charter cruise. It would have been nice to have some bacon and eggs or pancakes.

 

Carole

[duct tape]

I believe, since everyone got on/off the ship at the same time for the same activities, a full room service breakfast would have thrown a monkey wrench into the schedule. Just a thought.

[Emtbsam]

Glad to hear that you enjoyed the cruise. The Cloud is small if you are used to (and like) larger ships. I would suggest the Shadow or Whisper since the layout on the Spirit is a bit weird. That said, we are booked on the Spirit in the fall and will avoid the areas that are not to our liking (the main bar and the show lounge).

 

I'm sorry to hear that your husband had such a problem on board. Lucky that it resolved itself rather than having to depend on a foreign doctor whose English might or might not have been good.

 

Hope to see you again on a future Silversea trip.

[beckaboo]

We had an issue on deck 4 last Sept where our cabin wall mysteriously started to rattle on the sail from Haifa ... Luckily, the ship was not full... They moved us next evening after it started up again, down across from the launderette while we were at dinner.... Just like magic. Hope they sort out this problem (we are booked on deck 4 again in December).

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report!

[Keith1010]

Carole, thank you for your writeup.

 

I am glad that overall it was a great experience.

 

Sorry that your husband had something stuck in his throat. Something similar happened to me a few years ago on board Serenity. Thankfully when the medical team arrived to our room a short the remedy the nurse recommended worked but it was scary.

 

The smaller the ship the less activities you are going to have including enrichment and entertainment so if that is important to you and you want to try Silversea again go with the Shadow, Whisper or the Spirit but it will still have less activities than you are used to with Crystal or Oceania.

 

I would let the itinerary be the decider as essentially it was for the cruise you were on. Although Private it was the itinerary that gave you the opportunity to sail Silversea.

 

I say itinerary because on the size ships that Silversea and Seabourn sail on certain itineraries they have the advantage of being able to dock in places that other ships cannot dock often being closer to city centers or docking in areas that other ship might have to anchor.

 

Keith