New review of Silver Muse is published

[Gourmet Gal]

1 hour ago, Observer said:

 

The suite attendant's functions are quite different from those of the butler. The suite attendant does not deal with food or drink.  S/he works very hard making the beds, changing the linen, vacuuming the suite, cleaning the bathroom, washing the door to the veranda, etc.  Ideally, the suite attendant and the butler are a team who work well together.

Thanks for the clarification.  Sort of what I thought I remembered!

[Silver Spectre]

On 8/15/2022 at 5:46 PM, Accessor said:

I think it's a well balanced review and accurate of our SS experiences. 

 

I personally HATE the way SS makes it a guessing game as to which complimentary wines you can order. They have no problem keeping a current inventory of additional costs premium wines (is it harder to keep track of the free ones by the same computer system)?  SS is owned by a company that has world class inventory management for these types of things. 

 

The price of admission on a SS isn't cheap...yet SS has LESS to offer for inclusive wines/beers/alcohol then sister and lower end line Celebrity (comparing to premium bev package).  I am paying far more pp/day on SS vs Celebrity and yet I can get far superior selection and quality on Celebrity...

Celebrity-Cruises-Beverage-Packages.pdf 594.36 kB · 15 downloads

Thanks for providing the Celebrity package. A couple of comments, the wine is rather US orientated and the Villa Maria SB is cheaper here in the UK than SS’s standard pour of Tiki SB. If your are a spirits or beer drinker I get your point.

[Crcketfan]

Well as a fellow UK Silversea cruiser I must say that this review gives us Brits a bad name

If you applied the same supermarket price comparison to Resteraunt prices you would never go out as mark ups are notorious.Silversea offer a huge variety of wines and they are never backward in offering choices and refills.I would also like to know where he gets his price comparisons.Also the Paid for wines offer good value against UK retail prices and I always find it a bargain to bring the odd bottle back home

[tiggertom]

10 hours ago, Crcketfan said:

Well as a fellow UK Silversea cruiser I must say that this review gives us Brits a bad name

If you applied the same supermarket price comparison to Resteraunt prices you would never go out as mark ups are notorious.Silversea offer a huge variety of wines and they are never backward in offering choices and refills.I would also like to know where he gets his price comparisons.Also the Paid for wines offer good value against UK retail prices and I always find it a bargain to bring the odd bottle back home

I understood the OP to mean that the wine he received was in the £8 price range in a supermarket, and not in the £20 + range, which is what he expects for a ultra luxury cruise line. 

[worldtraveller99]

Thank you tiggertom! Probably not £20 but certainly around £15 a bottle retail. There are great styles of wine you can get for that. Less than £10 a bottle they can taste very similar and light.

[labrasett]

On 8/15/2022 at 5:46 PM, Accessor said:

I think it's a well balanced review and accurate of our SS experiences. 

 

I personally HATE the way SS makes it a guessing game as to which complimentary wines you can order. They have no problem keeping a current inventory of additional costs premium wines (is it harder to keep track of the free ones by the same computer system)?  SS is owned by a company that has world class inventory management for these types of things. 

 

The price of admission on a SS isn't cheap...yet SS has LESS to offer for inclusive wines/beers/alcohol then sister and lower end line Celebrity (comparing to premium bev package).  I am paying far more pp/day on SS vs Celebrity and yet I can get far superior selection and quality on Celebrity...

Celebrity-Cruises-Beverage-Packages.pdf 594.36 kB · 26 downloads

Wine is not a "guessing game" at dinner.   The wines offered are paired with the food on that day's menu but you can always ask for something different if it doesnt suit you and you could taste and try several different wines if you needed to do so to get something you did enjoy

.   

[Accessor]

27 minutes ago, labrasett said:

Wine is not a "guessing game" at dinner.   The wines offered are paired with the food on that day's menu but you can always ask for something different if it doesnt suit you and you could taste and try several different wines if you needed to do so to get something you did enjoy

.   

 

Paired to your food? NO! A server comes to your table with "today's" recommended wine before anything is even ordered, so how is it paired?  These are the least expensive wines pushed to pax that have limited experience or don't know to ask for something better. Then when you want something better, it DOES become a "guessing game" b/c their is no complimentary wine list! Typically pushing cheap stuff from Chile...never came to our table with anything worth over $8 for the selection of the day. Sure, you can find a good drinkable wine...but that's the guessing game part as the wine stewards are trained to not recommend the higher end pours (aka more expensive).

[Doolz]

1 hour ago, Accessor said:

 

Paired to your food? NO! A server comes to your table with "today's" recommended wine before anything is even ordered, so how is it paired?  These are the least expensive wines pushed to pax that have limited experience or don't know to ask for something better. Then when you want something better, it DOES become a "guessing game" b/c their is no complimentary wine list! Typically pushing cheap stuff from Chile...never came to our table with anything worth over $8 for the selection of the day. Sure, you can find a good drinkable wine...but that's the guessing game part as the wine stewards are trained to not recommend the higher end pours (aka more expensive).

From our experience you generally know the type of wine you prefer, ask to taste some of them on your first couple of days, you then decide which one you like. When they come around at lunch/dinner and offer you the wine they are serving,  you can always taste what they are offering as it may be a pleasant surprise as you wouldn’t normally order/buy that wine, if it doesn’t suit your preference then simply ask for the one you have enjoyed on the earlier tasting session-they’re very accommodating!

[labrasett]

On 8/19/2022 at 1:42 PM, Accessor said:

 

Paired to your food? NO! A server comes to your table with "today's" recommended wine before anything is even ordered, so how is it paired?  These are the least expensive wines pushed to pax that have limited experience or don't know to ask for something better. Then when you want something better, it DOES become a "guessing game" b/c their is no complimentary wine list! Typically pushing cheap stuff from Chile...never came to our table with anything worth over $8 for the selection of the day. Sure, you can find a good drinkable wine...but that's the guessing game part as the wine stewards are trained to not recommend the higher end pours (aka more expensive).

Our experience has always been that the wine servers are very happy to offer alternatives and you can always ask to speak with the Sommelier.  $8 bottles?   I have never seen anything that would be that inexpensive at home (UK) on our cruises and we have had some very nice wines including some really nice ones from France which were definitely way more expensive than that.   I would question your statement "wine stewards are trained to not recommend the higher end pours"  I am guessing you would be happier going back to one of the other cruise lines since you have clearly not been happy on SS. 

[Accessor]

4 hours ago, labrasett said:

Our experience has always been that the wine servers are very happy to offer alternatives and you can always ask to speak with the Sommelier.  $8 bottles?   I have never seen anything that would be that inexpensive at home (UK) on our cruises and we have had some very nice wines including some really nice ones from France which were definitely way more expensive than that.   I would question your statement "wine stewards are trained to not recommend the higher end pours"  I am guessing you would be happier going back to one of the other cruise lines since you have clearly not been happy on SS. 

We spent 25 days on the Spirit recently and things were not up to SS standards except the service we received. Why don't you look at the current reviews on CC and you will see how things are slipping....(3.8 out of 5 stars). Maybe you haven't cruised with them lately, but I can assure you they have issues unrelated to Covid (I'm sick of this excuse) https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/silversea-cruises/cl/

 

[saminina]

A thread like this brings out the SS ultra loyalists versus the practical cruiser.  

 

Embarkation has not improved since we boarded Muse in June.   Could not believe the mess of a very long process.   No matter the week, an Alaska cruise on SS will have very few regular customers and many first timers such as the OP.

 

I have a very slight memory of the week spent on Muse.   I do recall a grilled cheese sandwich on pool deck as the culinary highlight of the cruise.   Attempt to follow up the next day was a failure.   That first one was just right.  Pizza on the deck above the pool was fine. 

 

Wine.....agree with OP.   I've pretty much settled on routine with SS and Seabourn.   They normally have a suitable cab on the included list.  Good enough for lunch and a dinner or two.   After that, I'll purchase from the premium list.   It's an expense I am happy enough to swallow.   The wines I like are very reasonably priced versus land based retail.   Whether it is on the included list, or premium, the bottle is left on the table and  self poured.

 

And those carafes of water......not as long as they pretend to be a luxury line.  

 

 

[RetiredandTravel]

18 hours ago, Accessor said:

We spent 25 days on the Spirit recently and things were not up to SS standards except the service we received. Why don't you look at the current reviews on CC and you will see how things are slipping....(3.8 out of 5 stars). Maybe you haven't cruised with them lately, but I can assure you they have issues unrelated to Covid (I'm sick of this excuse) https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/silversea-cruises/cl/

 

 

 

Sorry to hear about your experience.  I've been very vocal about our dissatisfaction with "luxury" cruise lines included wine lists but doubt it will change.  Unfortunately from the trip reports & reports I've read your experience isn't really that different from the other "luxuries".  Below is CC reviews of the Regent Voyager, ouch.   We really don't have a choice other than land based vacations but in many venues cruises just make more sense.  Our last Regent cruise was very poor,  we have 4 cruise lines to pick from (SS, SB, Regent & Oceania),  and are giving SS a try on our next couple of cruises, hope for the best.

 

On another topic I remember when Regent went to Vero water.  They sent out marketing materials saying how they were doing it for the environment.  I thought did a Regent executive say I'm concerned about the environment so lets go to Vero water or we can save $xx per day by going to vero water and hey lets say its for the environment.   hmm

 

https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/getreviews.cfm?action=ship&ShipID=284

[worldtraveller99]

Your Regent reviews sound much worse RetiredandTravel! At least we only had 1 tender port, and personally I liked our entertainment people. 

 

I guess what we are paying for is fewer people, so less queueing, and probably slightly larger and smarter cabins? I will certainly ask for tender or not information if / when we cruise again.

[RetiredandTravel]

We felt our Regent cruise was very poor on many levels but the real defining moment was when our toilet overflowed and Regent response.  Please read the following from our review, some includes opinions.  Sorry for the cut & paste

 

"

We can debate who's experience is worse on the food and service level but there is one defining moment and Regent reaction in our cruise which I doubt you can compete.  The Regent Mariner had a major plumbing issue which forced our toilet and several others to overflow (I mean OVERFLOW) with sewage.  The only thing worse than the toilet overflowing was the Regent response, I can assure you we were not offered a bottle of "Veuve".

 

 Following is a recap of our toilet experience from another thread.

 

"One Mariner experience was our toilet overflowed to no fault of our own, the entire floor (and especially our room) had water and sewage gushing out.  It took two frantic calls and 20 minutes before the repairman was sent to turn off the water.  The water and sewage had started to consume our bed, the entry and bathroom had 4-6 inches of water and sewage by the time the water was turned off.  Following is part of my review discussing the incident, I was far to nice.

 

"Cabin: The newly refurbished cabin was beautiful and the housekeeping was phenomenal. Housekeeping not only did their job well they also were very interested that we were happy & enjoying ourselves. Unfortunately our toilet overflowed which wasn't pleasant, water all over. I will say housekeeping did everything in their power to fix the problem and the head of housekeeping apologized. No one else from Regent on board seemed to care. When I asked reception if they could contact us when it was resolved they acted like I was bothering them. I would have at least expected an apology letter and a bottle of wine (all inclusive) or something. crickets!!""

 

[Lois R]

Boarding The Muse this afternoon😀 and I plan on having a week of relaxtion. We are on the last day of the land portion and just finished up breakfast. Denali was beautiful.

And it was my first train ride in over 30 years. Loved it. We take another train to Seward this afternoon and the only thing I am disappointed about is how late we arrive. Not  until about 5:30. Oh well.

Hoping for a great week on board a beautiful ship😀

[Lois R]

Found out we are actually taking the bus to Seward so maybe we will arrive a bit earlier. This is due to the mudslide that has been happening.

[RetiredandTravel]

On 8/25/2022 at 1:38 PM, Lois R said:

Boarding The Muse this afternoon😀 and I plan on having a week of relaxtion. We are on the last day of the land portion and just finished up breakfast. Denali was beautiful.

And it was my first train ride in over 30 years. Loved it. We take another train to Seward this afternoon and the only thing I am disappointed about is how late we arrive. Not  until about 5:30. Oh well.

Hoping for a great week on board a beautiful ship😀

 

 

If you have time please keep us up to date on your adventure.  I've always found your trip reports to be very helpful and evenhanded.  

 

enjoy.

[Port Power]

On 8/23/2022 at 11:08 PM, labrasett said:

Our experience has always been that the wine servers are very happy to offer alternatives and you can always ask to speak with the Sommelier.  $8 bottles?   I have never seen anything that would be that inexpensive at home (UK) on our cruises and we have had some very nice wines including some really nice ones from France which were definitely way more expensive than that.   I would question your statement "wine stewards are trained to not recommend the higher end pours"  I am guessing you would be happier going back to one of the other cruise lines since you have clearly not been happy on SS. 

Yours is a very strange comment when the OP said quite clearly in his review that he was very happy with his overall experience.  Dissatisfaction with some wine doesn’t mean the whole cruise was unsatisfactory.

Edited August 27, 2022 by Port Power