Our 1st cruise on Silversea Singapore to Hong Kong Jan 5, 2023

[ronrick1943]

2 hours ago, drron29 said:

But who has given them more profit someone with 1 cruise in a larger suite or someone with 400 days in a verandah suite.

We have spent the majority of our days in Silver suites though from now on it will be Verandah suites.

Silversea has the idea if you cruise once yoiu’ll want to cruise again in a higher suite.  Think about if someone spends $40,000 on a 19 day cruise, and someone sends so much lest on a small suite for many more days- say 38 days total.  More drinks, food, tours, taking up crew time, shows and so on.  It cost Silversea more to accommodate the lower suite.  But fills the ship,

[ronrick1943]

Just to be fair, even though I think and manny others said the food on the Spirit was that good in the restaurants we ate at during the cruise.  Some service was so-so, but most of the time pretty good.  I think management “ON” the ship needs to step it up and get around and see what is going on.  We were told out right by 2 senior team management that each ship has different standard and what they purchase for the ship.  Silversea headquarters did respond to me via e-mail just before leaving the ship and totally think differently.  They are going to look at some of the problems in detail, if that becomes reality and do what they say-well see if I cancel or not are next cruise.  One would think being a new ship, that ship will be getting Silversea full attention.  We’ll see what happens this week after we get home.

On other note, if someone is looking for a hotel in Hong Kong-the Ritz-Carlton is wonderful.  One of the best Hotels I’ve stayed in.

[les37b]

I think Spirit is Hong Kongs first cruise ship since Covid?

 

I assume you all had to be tested prior to arrival? Hopefully everyone managed to get off and no one quarantined. 

 

 

[mancunian]

I have been intrigued by the idea on this thread that Regent is much better than Silversea.  As we have never been on Regent I thought I must find out more in case we are missing out.  So I looked up the reviews and they are really not good at all.

 

Presumably SS is not the only cruise lines with difficulties!

 

 

 

 

[A Tucson Guy]

27 minutes ago, mancunian said:

I have been intrigued by the idea on this thread that Regent is much better than Silversea.  As we have never been on Regent I thought I must find out more in case we are missing out.  So I looked up the reviews and they are really not good at all.

 

Presumably SS is not the only cruise lines with difficulties!

 

 

Having been on both RSSC & SS, as long as it is the newer ships, I would go on either line. It all comes down to $$$$$$$$$ and SS seems to be edging our RSSC when I factor in Bus Air. I think both lines are a great experience!!

 

 

 

 

[Mr Luxury]

51 minutes ago, mancunian said:

I have been intrigued by the idea on this thread that Regent is much better than Silversea.  As we have never been on Regent I thought I must find out more in case we are missing out.  So I looked up the reviews and they are really not good at all.

 

Presumably SS is not the only cruise lines with difficulties!

 

 

 

 

All cruise lines are wonderful,they just have difficult passengers.  

[ak1004]

42 minutes ago, Mr Luxury said:

All cruise lines are wonderful,they just have difficult passengers.  

This is brilliant! Couldn't agree more!

[cruiseej]

11 hours ago, ronrick1943 said:

Really, noi they don’t.  They may call it Premium, but it’s more like the old dial up.

 

It's their Premium internet service; no one suggested it was like being hard-wired on land. It does allow you to connect with multiple devices at a time, which Standard does not. It may give you better bandwidth, depending on a host of factors, including where in the world you are, which ship and how full it is, high usage versus slower times, etc.

[ronrick1943]

7 hours ago, les37b said:

I think Spirit is Hong Kongs first cruise ship since Covid?

 

I assume you all had to be tested prior to arrival? Hopefully everyone managed to get off and no one quarantined. 

 

 

Yes it was and all tested—didn’t hear any negative remarks, so I’m guessing everything was OK.  Mask were required on the ship once we got in Hong Kong waters.  And if you stay in HK you need a test before flying to US.

[ronrick1943]

13 minutes ago, cruiseej said:

 

It's their Premium internet service; no one suggested it was like being hard-wired on land. It does allow you to connect with multiple devices at a time, which Standard does not. It may give you better bandwidth, depending on a host of factors, including where in the world you are, which ship and how full it is, high usage versus slower times, etc.

I agree, but this was the worst service I’ve even seen on a ship—even years passed.  

[Silver Spectre]

16 minutes ago, cruiseej said:

 

It's their Premium internet service; no one suggested it was like being hard-wired on land. It does allow you to connect with multiple devices at a time, which Standard does not. It may give you better bandwidth, depending on a host of factors, including where in the world you are, which ship and how full it is, high usage versus slower times, etc.

I’ve checked it on the Whisper, Shadow and Moon over the last year or so, standard, averages about 1.5MB download, maybe 2 in the middle of the night. Premium, anywhere between 2.5MB and as high as 4. It’s not wonderful, but it’s better than nothing. BTW I have not yet had to pay for premium.

[les37b]

3 hours ago, Silver Spectre said:

I’ve checked it on the Whisper, Shadow and Moon over the last year or so, standard, averages about 1.5MB download, maybe 2 in the middle of the night. Premium, anywhere between 2.5MB and as high as 4. It’s not wonderful, but it’s better than nothing. BTW I have not yet had to pay for premium.

I can recall being on silver wind in 2017 in the Caribbean where SS were conducting tests with potential new internet service providers they were going to use. Not sure if it involved any hardware changes, but it actually was excellent. I didn’t do any speed tests, but I was able to stream live football. Not the whole game, but huge patches of it. At the time I thought wow, SS have pulled out all the stops and thought they’d found the one.

 

I can remember at the time (I did post about it) Spins was on the next cruise or one after. The tests had ended and they obviously didn’t choose whoever they’d had on my cruise.

 

Ever since, it’s been dire just as we know it has been. Viking’s internet is streets ahead of SS. Costs obviously impact decisions here…. But I’d rather have a good internet service than caviar. I’d happily swap! Providing luxury items has more kudos than some things many view as essential / very useful. Hopefully it will all change soon when the fleet is kitted out.

[ronrick1943]

6 hours ago, Silver Spectre said:

I’ve checked it on the Whisper, Shadow and Moon over the last year or so, standard, averages about 1.5MB download, maybe 2 in the middle of the night. Premium, anywhere between 2.5MB and as high as 4. It’s not wonderful, but it’s better than nothing. BTW I have not yet had to pay for premium.

I agree, better than nothing-but should be better.  We had problems when everybody (Most everybody) was off the ship.. Even the ship information TV said try later. This was on Spirit last week.

[ronrick1943]

2 hours ago, les37b said:

I can recall being on silver wind in 2017 in the Caribbean where SS were conducting tests with potential new internet service providers they were going to use. Not sure if it involved any hardware changes, but it actually was excellent. I didn’t do any speed tests, but I was able to stream live football. Not the whole game, but huge patches of it. At the time I thought wow, SS have pulled out all the stops and thought they’d found the one.

 

I can remember at the time (I did post about it) Spins was on the next cruise or one after. The tests had ended and they obviously didn’t choose whoever they’d had on my cruise.

 

Ever since, it’s been dire just as we know it has been. Viking’s internet is streets ahead of SS. Costs obviously impact decisions here…. But I’d rather have a good internet service than caviar. I’d happily swap! Providing luxury items has more kudos than some things many view as essential / very useful. Hopefully it will all change soon when the fleet is kitted out.

Regent also better.

[ronrick1943]

On 1/20/2023 at 9:18 AM, les37b said:

I can recall being on silver wind in 2017 in the Caribbean where SS were conducting tests with potential new internet service providers they were going to use. Not sure if it involved any hardware changes, but it actually was excellent. I didn’t do any speed tests, but I was able to stream live football. Not the whole game, but huge patches of it. At the time I thought wow, SS have pulled out all the stops and thought they’d found the one.

 

I can remember at the time (I did post about it) Spins was on the next cruise or one after. The tests had ended and they obviously didn’t choose whoever they’d had on my cruise.

 

Ever since, it’s been dire just as we know it has been. Viking’s internet is streets ahead of SS. Costs obviously impact decisions here…. But I’d rather have a good internet service than caviar. I’d happily swap! Providing luxury items has more kudos than some things many view as essential / very useful. Hopefully it will all change soon when the fleet is kitted out.

No, we’d want both.  They really do have a good caviar service——

[ronrick1943]

On 1/19/2023 at 5:35 AM, les37b said:

I think Spirit is Hong Kongs first cruise ship since Covid?

 

I assume you all had to be tested prior to arrival? Hopefully everyone managed to get off and no one quarantined. 

 

 

We did.  We stayed a few days longer and had to get another test before we could fly out.  The hotel (Ritz Carlton) recommended not using the doctor on call as the cost was $150.00pp, the recommended going to the Hong Kong Government Community Center where it is free or pay $30.00pp express service.  The line for the test was unbelievably long, however with the express service had a special line that took all of 5 minutes from start until end.  They also send you via text your results and the special form needed to fly back to the USA.  Simple and easy.  You must do this to leave, no exceptions.

Edited January 24, 2023 by ronrick1943

[minidonuts85]

On 1/15/2023 at 5:24 PM, ronrick1943 said:

I never said they were better, I said each ship has a different policy on purchases.  That was backed up by a few Officers on the ship.  Some have better offerings than others.  Like I said in my opinion I won’t cruise The Spirit again from my experience.

Thank you for your review! We were supposed to take a similar itinerary on Regent but it was cancelled. Glad you got to go! 
 

We have our first SS cruise on the Spirit on 2024 and what I have quoted above has me concerned. Aside from geographical limitations, are you saying that each ship procures better than/worse than food/drink items as a matter of policy? And the Spirit falls on the bottom rung, by policy, confirmed by your enquiry with ships officers? I need my wrap my head around how one ship procures better offerings than another in the fleet.