Silversea Private Charter

[pegsammax]

6 hours ago, spinnaker2 said:

TV,

The cancellation of the Dawn’s crossing was announced by Ms. Muckermann weeks ago in what some may take as an unofficial posting. I would have to go back and search the postings on another website that she often frequents to find the exact date.

What I find incredulous is that statement about the cancellation never filtered down or up or anywhere to get to  pax, travel agents and others. 

That disconnect is more than bothersome. 

There were posters on these boards who did mention the fact that the crossing was cancelled and even posted the verbiage from Ms. Muckermann. 

Why did Silversea wait until yesterday to “announce” the cancellation?

What I find even more egregious is that they continued to sell the cruise, after Ms Muckerman’s confirmation post that it was canceled. Even if they didn’t officially announce the cancellation until they confirmed the dates for the Moon, the Dawn crossing was still showing as available on the website. I saw someone post on the other website that they had booked it, and then they saw the post from Ms. Muckerman. Communication and management doesn’t get much worse.

[ronrick1943]

Really bad PR and really show poor concern about the core customer.  Sad at best of Silversea.

[tv24]

12 hours ago, spinnaker2 said:

TV,

The cancellation of the Dawn’s crossing was announced by Ms. Muckermann weeks ago in what some may take as an unofficial posting. I would have to go back and search the postings on another website that she often frequents to find the exact date.

What I find incredulous is that statement about the cancellation never filtered down or up or anywhere to get to  pax, travel agents and others. 

That disconnect is more than bothersome. 

There were posters on these boards who did mention the fact that the crossing was cancelled and even posted the verbiage from Ms. Muckermann. 

Why did Silversea wait until yesterday to “announce” the cancellation?

I tried to respond to this earlier, but my response disappeared.

 

Anyway, we do follow the Facebook group so we knew a while ago that Ms. Muckerman had disclosed that the crossing had been canceled.  Plus some good folks on CC provided the same info.  We were not idle;  we explored the possibility of a crossing on the Spirit as well as on other lines, but none of them worked for us for various reasons.  Then we had to wait for the official notice from Ms. Muckerman to see what offers Silversea would make.  We decided to request a full refund, and we will fly to Lisbon in order to arrive timely for the apartment that we rented April 1.

 

As to why Silversea waited so long to issue the official cancellation:  To be nice, perhaps they needed time to determine what offers they could afford to make to the booked passengers.  To be not so nice, maybe they are just mean and disrespectful, or maybe they were trying to attract more revenue by continuing to sell a doomed cruise.

 

Silversea is not on my happy list now.  We had hoped to be new customers, but it looks like we will stick with the other lines that have treated us with more respect.

[markham]

Yes, I am the one who lobbies against Ms Muckerman's use of social media to indicate what is really going on at Silversea with your cruises. You would think that a Chief Commercial Officer would know better and use official and fully open and available channels to do her job. We all have email and can be linked to timely, official announcements. This is amateurish and unprofessional.

 

Of course it is up to us to make our views known and take responsibility for her lapses in order to get equitable treatment. If I were on a cruise that was cancelled for a corporate charter and learned about it after all the chattering classes on facebook or whatever I would be hopping mad.

 

Happy and healthy sailing!

[labrasett]

I beg to differ from those who disparage SS at the current time and for their "failings" over the last 2 years.   The world is in complete chaos due to the pandemic, other lines are either cancelling trips or in fact falling into bankruptcy.   SS have tried to maintain a service to their customers albeit not at the level we might have liked but try they certainly have.   Every cancellation or change requires several hours of customer service agent time.   Each change of itinerary leads to several dozen cancellations and those pax need to be contacted, discussions need to be had about alternatives, flights have to be cancelled and maybe rebooked.   Financial adjustments have to be made and so the list goes on, thousands and thousands of man hours at a time when SS, like every other organisation, has its own Covid related staff absences.   Plus you cannot "magic" sales consultants out of the air, they need experience to know the business and what is possible and what is not.   Airlines are suffering lack of customer agents too which compounds the issues of resolving cruise passengers changes to travel plans and wishes.  Hotels are understaffed, sometimes not operating at full capacity, no doubt the same applies to ground services too.   Get real folks and realise that this aint going to come right in the foreseeable future.   Book and travel if you wish, but if you do so dont complain when it doesnt go as smoothly as it once did.   Roll on the days when we can pick up the phone, speak immediately to our independent T/A or SS agent, have a lovely leisurely discussion with that person about our travel plans, dreams and aspirations, discussion around cabin availability and the pros and cons of each category,  discuss travel routings and timings, pay a small deposit while we have a final "think through" and then move on to confirming our booking.   Subsequently probably make a few more phone calls with what in the bigger picture are small queries, eventually receive our Silver Box with cruise details, baggage labels and any other necessary information and then head off on our wonderful holidays.   

 

Right now, there is the stress of wondering even up to just days from departure whether the trip will actually go.  Will our destination ports and countries change their rules and regulations and make our arrival difficult or impossible.   So we start with PCR tests and paperwork we will need to generate from our own computers or ensure we have digital copies.  No hard copy documentation, no luggage tags, nothing but our "bits of paper" printed off from our computers but off we head to the airport.   The airport experience may not be what we would normally expect, longer queues and frazzled airline employees (due to covid related absences), paperwork checking, checking, checking, fewer Club lounges open, reduced service on the ground and once in the air.   Frazzled air crew sick and tired of wearing masks for hours and hours but doing their best to put on a good face.   Bad tempered passengers who are wondering why they are travelling at all time hampered by all the above plus masks on board the aircraft when not eating or drinking.   Reduced cabin service.   Arrival at foreign ports where people dont speak our language, there are fewer than normal porters and ground handling assistance personnel and then we get to the hotel. In South America lots of arrival formalities, short term quarantining pending more PCR test results.   On and on and on.   

 

Then finally we meet an SS representative who advises about travel to the ship, may issue luggage tags or even boarding passes for a charter flight to the Southern tip of the world, things are looking up.   Bus travel to charter flight or ship.   Boarding, champagne, smiling butler, smiling cabin attendant, lovely lunch, cheerful crew.   Oh it will be so worth it.

 

Be kind people and remember that if you travel it wont be like it was and one day will be again.  In the meantime remember that there are dozens of people doing back office work to support your travel dreams and they are doing their best.   If you think you could do it so much better I would invite you to change careers and give it a whirl, you might find your ideas are not so great after all.   

Edited January 28, 2022 by labrasett

[markham]

…which is precisely why the management of Silversea needs to set the tone for all their staff and execute major responsibilities such as customer communications in a thoughtful and professional manner. That would deliver one less complaint on this board.

 

Silversea itself is not a one yacht charter company. Hundreds of booked passengers are affected by what is does with information these customers are entitled to know. Its standards can judged as good or bad but not both. 

 

Happy and healthy sailing!

[pegsammax]

Continuing to offer on your website a product that you KNOW is cancelled for 10 days,  and not letting your reservation people have that information is poor management, period. When you are extremely short staffed due to a covid surge, and you make more work for your staff because TAs are hounding them to find out if the Facebook post by a Chief officer is true, that's not good communication. I'm still looking forward to sailing on my cruise, and know I will enjoy it.

[tv24]

Labasett:  Thank you for your post, and you make excellent points, as far as Covid is concerned.  Covid has completely upset the travel business and all of us who love to travel have had to deal with cancellations, plans that change at the last minute, anxiety, lost money, etc.

 

However, the cancellation of the Silver Dawn had NOTHING to do with Covid.  It was done because of the choice of the corporation to charter the ship.  And the reason for the cancellation that Ms. Muckerman put in her letter to booked customers was, "due to the ongoing global situation."  This vague statement comes close to an outright lie, so it just made us feel worse and less respected.

 

Of course the corporation has the right to charter the ship, and this has happened before and with other lines as well.  But the announcement of this cancellation was made less than 2 months before the sailing and in the midst of Covid chaos.  It created a lot of problems for us booked customers.  And I would offer that it created a lot of problems and extra work for Ms. Muckerman's staff and the other hard working staff at Silversea.

[Mayflower1]

You are so right Labrasett concerning the need for Patience & Resilience when travelling during these most unusual times. However both the Issues raised by tbliss & Others does not relate to Travel difficulties but merely to Poor? Wrong or No Information emanating from Silversea Corporate.

 

We all appreciate that Silversea Corporate are struggling to keep Cruises operating during Covid but this is no excuse for their failure to provide Booked Guests with Quality Information on Cruises not directly impacted by Covid - its all too easy to blame Covid for every Administrative Failure which is what seems to be happening at Silversea.

[Mayflower1]

Good Morning tbliss - Have you heard any News from Silversea regarding the ' Possible ' Charter ?

 

I have been advised by the London Office that the Charter is now cancelled and the Cruise will go ahead as planned but the SS Website is still showing the Barcelona - Lisbon Cruise as ' Waitlisted ' ???

 

Is this another example of inaccurate information or merely sloppy Website updating ???

Any News you have will be appreciated.

[WesW]

Silversea has updated their resumption of our itineraries today, here is what is now said for the Silver Dawn:

 

https://www.silversea.com/information-on-itinerary-changes.html

 

SILVER DAWN

Our brand new Silver Dawn is looking forward to welcoming guests aboard from 1st April 2022.

Edited January 31, 2022 by WesW

[silkismom]

Well, the supposedly updated changes still show the Japan sailings.

[Mayflower1]

In an attempt to get This Topic back to where it started, are you still intending to take this Cruise tbliss ? - The Barcelona to Lisbon Segment is still ' Waitlisted ' ???. Your thoughts would be welcome.

[tbliss]

Good afternoon Mayflower 1, Good news, I just looked on Silversea and it looks like the segment Barcelona to Lisbon is now open for booking again so I assume that since the waitlist has been removed that this segment is no longer held for the private charter. I haven't heard this from anyone official but hopefully that is what is happening. Thank you for your responses earlier it helped me to know that you were experiencing the same frustrations. All the best, Teresa

[Mayflower1]

Good Morning tbliss - Thank you for your Note. I too noticed the Reinstatement of that Segment but we have been so disappointed with the lack of communication from Silversea ( in spite of communicating with one of the VPs ?? ) that we have now moved from this Barcelona to Southampton Cruise to another , longer Cruise in June.

I feel that we have both been badly served in this situation but I sincerely hope that you will have a wonderful time and there are no other Issues. I am certain that once on the Ship everything will be fantastic. In our long experience with Silversea the Ships are great , The Onboard Staff magical but the Onshore Team is dire ( as can be evidenced by other recent Communication Issues ).

 

All the very best and have Fun.