New boutiques

[Highlandgames]

Been through hell with the boutique refurbishments on the shadow and the result was so disappointing. My feeling is spend money on the guest areas which need help and not on revenue earning areas so short sighted

[jollyjones]

Just out of interest - has anyone actually seen a passenger buy anything in these ridiculous boutiques?

[Isklaar]

Just out of interest - has anyone actually seen a passenger buy anything in these ridiculous boutiques?

 

I will confess! I bought a Colgate toothbrush once on Spirit after my electric one mysteriously disintegrated mid-cruise. But that was before the refurbs :D

[Observer]

I do not recall that we had reports as to the "hell" of the boutique renovations on Shadow. And this was as part of the 2015 Grand Cruise, wasn't it? It would be interesting to know more about the disruption, etc. I recall that the work was very disruptive on Whisper, but presumably Silversea did not repeat those mistakes. I think it is very worrisome that they continue to do this work while ships are underway with passengers and not during dry dock. It is difficult to escape the thought that Silversea really needs the money from its concessionaires.

[rojaan19]

On the Silversea website under the "My Silversea" section - once you have logged on, there is on the left hand side under the "My Bookings" is a link to "Our Boutiques - A Survey "

 

I suggest to all those not happy with what is sold in the shops to do the survey and let Silverseas know. I did the survey - it only takes a couple of minutes.

 

:)

[CruisinPashmina]

I agree. And I hope others will make a point of taking the survey. These amped up, very slick boutiques are ridiculous. But I must admit that I think anyone buying a $5,000 pocketbook is ridiculous.

Most, possibly all,of the wonderful people we have met over many years of sailing with Silversea have been interested in the experiences of their travels and not in buying flashy "stuff".

[TLCOhio]

I agree. And I hope others will make a point of taking the survey. These amped up, very slick boutiques are ridiculous. But I must admit that I think anyone buying a $5,000 pocketbook is ridiculous.

Most, possibly all, of the wonderful people we have met over many years of sailing with Silversea have been interested in the experiences of their travels and not in buying flashy "stuff".

 

jollyjones: Just out of interest - has anyone actually seen a passenger buy anything in these ridiculous boutiques?

 

Having been on the Silver Cloud recently for 26-days' date=' we walked by these fancy shops many, many times. They looked very, very nice and fortunately there was NOT any "construction" happening during our cruise. BUT, I cannot re-call seeing much, if any, activity or sales happening. During much of a our 17-day Barbados to Barbados cruise segment, the ship was within Brazil as we traveled about 2000-miles total in going up and back along the Amazon River. While in that country's borders, any items there would have [b']cost an added 30% more with their VAT[/b] added to the retail price tag. Ouch!!! An expensive item costly 30% more is even less of a "bargain".

 

As my picture below shows, these shops were looking good, had nice upscale lighting and showcases, etc. BUT, no worries about crowds and/or waiting to get staff attention. We asked to look at a couple of the price tags. These tags were kind of hidden. After that "sticker shock", we decided to focus our money on future cruises and travel adventures. For us, it was a "NO SALE!" in these shops.

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

From our Jan. 25-Feb. 20, 2015, Amazon River-Caribbean combo sailing over 26 days that started in Barbados, here is the link below to that live/blog. Lots of great visuals from this amazing Brazil river and these various Caribbean Islands (Dutch ABC's, St. Barts, Dominica, Grenada, etc.) that we experienced. Check it out at:

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2157696

Now at 18,719 views for these postings.

 

 

For shopping "entertainment", if needed, it was costly if done at these ship locations. This is the half of their operations that features watches, clothing, etc. As you can see, there were no long lines of people working on lightening their wallets. My guess is that on this cruise, more of the shopping was done during stops at the varied ports we visited in the Caribbean, including the retail-rich environment of the Dutch ABC islands.:

 

[luv-cruising]

On the Silversea website under the "My Silversea" section - once you have logged on, there is on the left hand side under the "My Bookings" is a link to "Our Boutiques - A Survey "

 

I suggest to all those not happy with what is sold in the shops to do the survey and let Silverseas know. I did the survey - it only takes a couple of minutes.

 

:)

 

Be careful when responding to the survey. The rankings are from 1 to 5 with 5 being the lowest rating!

Unfortunately there is no option to rate the boutique itself. Just an option to rank what items you would like to see.

We never saw anyone in the boutique. The one time we walked in we were immediately approached by two employees. Hardsell....

[Randyk47]

Personally I don't pay much attention to the shops on any ship. I'd say we pay even less attention to them so far on Silversea because there's just not much there. We've been on other lines with the bigger jewelry/watch, liquor, clothing, gold by the inch, etc., stores. Been there done that. Sure we've bought and enjoy a few Silversea logo clothing items we've purchased. And yes I think Mrs. K had a cosmetic purchase because of a failed eyeliner but that's about it. We don't cruise to shop on the ship so as long as there are the necessities and maybe some unique logo items we're easy to please. Have to say because we met her on the ship I actually felt bad for a special jewelery rep on the Wind last year. We spent so much time in port with a number of late departures she could barely get and keep her display open. It was pretty obvious it had not been a good or profitable venue for her.

Edited March 13, 2015 by Randyk47

[Baggywrinkle99]

The shops on our recent Spirit cruise were very disappointing and seldom seemed to have any customers. A large amount of precious space devoted to expensive jewellery/watches and over priced clothing and perfume. No Silversea "merchandise" or other useful consumables on display although I believe there was a locked cupboard with "emergency" toiletries, like toothpaste and aspirin. If you like to purchase jewellery or a watch as a souvenir of your cruise you'd probably find something suitable (at a price) but otherwise the shops were literally a waste of space.

[wripro]

These are obviously no longer Silversea boutiques, rather vehicles to sell other companies' expensive merchandise, only made more expensive to accommodate Silversea's cut.