Silversea and 3 other lines: Strengths and weaknesses

[bitob]

10 hours ago, drron29 said:

Another perk for Silver suites and above is that premium wifi is included as against standard wifi in the lower suites.

Now in the past SS wifi was awful but on our March Moon cruise which was the second voyage with Starlink I found the standard wifi perfectly adequate and was able to keep my photo intensive cruise report up to date easily.

Of course that cruise was around the Mediterranean so I presume adequate satellite coverage there which is probably not so good in more remote places.

I am on Moon now with premium Wi-Fi. What I don’t like is that I cannot use vpn on this ship so some streaming impossible. If you turn n vpn you cannot connect to Wi-Fi 

[billc23]

I just got off the Moon yesterday on the same itinerary around Iceland . Starlink premium wifi was great with consistent speeds of 9 Mbps using Ookla speed test with low jitter. I was able to use my VPN but I needed to change the protocol to a more compatible one. 

[canderson]

1 hour ago, billc23 said:

I was able to use my VPN but I needed to change the protocol to a more compatible one. 

Can you be more specific?  Could save others a lot of time finding success.

 

[Mr Luxury]

2 hours ago, bitob said:

I am on Moon now with premium Wi-Fi. What I don’t like is that I cannot use vpn on this ship so some streaming impossible. If you turn n vpn you cannot connect to Wi-Fi 

You need to travel with a seven year old to show you how to get around the cruise line blocking of the VPN

[canderson]

53 minutes ago, Mr Luxury said:

You need to travel with a seven year old to show you how to get around the cruise line blocking of the VPN

If they're doing port blocking, all you can typically do is try another VPN service that uses different ports to see if that works... hence my query above to @billc23

We've had to play musical VPNs on other RCG ships before.

[Dolcevita Diva]

JSR- Thanks so much for the follow-ups. Appreciate the nuances that you mentioned Re: the impact of seasonality, promo offers, insurance, etc. on the pricing question and that you factored those into your notes to provide these details. 

[billc23]

3 hours ago, canderson said:

Can you be more specific?  Could save others a lot of time finding success.

 

The VPN I use is VyprVPN so this may not be applicable to other VPN services.Here are 2 screenshots from my phone. I used a protocol called IKE v2 on the Silversea ship and it worked well. Usually I use WireGuard but change to a different protocol when traveling if I need to. It has always worked and allows me to set my location as needed. The VyprVPN website has a lot of information for those interested.

[canderson]

Very good @billc23.  Info is much appreciated.

 

Wireguard is very 'compact' code for a VPN protocol, but sounds like it's a problem?  It uses 51820 UDP, and perhaps that's what is being blocked by the ship.

 

IKEv2 uses UDP 500 and 4500, so evidently those aren't being blocked.  That also opens up a large number of possibilities including the services below, and no doubt many others that support IKEv2:

 

NordVPN, ExpressVPN, SurfShark, CyberGhost, AtlasVPN, pureVPN and IPVanish.

 

I've had good luck with Nord on other RCG ships, but have no idea what ports SS is actually blocking.

 

[mchell810]

@JSR

 Thanks for your thoughts on the various cruise lines. 

 

I notice all the Vista cabins on Silver Moon are connecting cabins.  Will you give a bit more information on that?  Where is the connecting door located? Did you even have an issues with noise? Anything else you think might be significant.  TIA

[JSR]

@Mr Luxury I do enjoy variety and also understand its not very everyone. 

 

@mchell810 In our cabin the connecting door was on the right across from the bathroom door. I did not hear any noise or even really notice it was there after the first day. 

[mchell810]

Thanks, that’s good to know. 

[bitob]

20 hours ago, canderson said:

Very good @billc23.  Info is much appreciated.

 

Wireguard is very 'compact' code for a VPN protocol, but sounds like it's a problem?  It uses 51820 UDP, and perhaps that's what is being blocked by the ship.

 

IKEv2 uses UDP 500 and 4500, so evidently those aren't being blocked.  That also opens up a large number of possibilities including the services below, and no doubt many others that support IKEv2:

 

NordVPN, ExpressVPN, SurfShark, CyberGhost, AtlasVPN, pureVPN and IPVanish.

 

I've had good luck with Nord on other RCG ships, but have no idea what ports SS is actually blocking.

 

I use Nord. Not working on Moon

[canderson]

39 minutes ago, bitob said:

I use Nord. Not working on Moon

Interesting.  I wonder if port blocking isn't uniform across the fleet?  Which VPN is working for you on Moon, if any?

[bitob]

Just now, canderson said:

Interesting.  I wonder if port blocking isn't uniform across the fleet?  Which VPN is working for you on Moon, if any?

Nord not working

worked on regent 

Worked on seabourn even though carnival bocks vpns on Cunard 

 

I have premium Wi-Fi

[bitob]

If someone knows a vpn that will work let me know and I will get free trial

[SusieQft]

On 7/16/2023 at 3:44 AM, bitob said:

I use Nord. Not working on Moon

Have you tried turning Nord off until after you are connected to the wifi, and then turning it back on?  This worked for me on either Seabourn, Silversea, and/or Regent.  I think on two of them, but unfortunately I do not remember which ones.  Once I got Nord running in that way, it usually (but not always) did not block me signing back on to the wifi the next time.  Very odd.

Edited July 22, 2023 by SusieQft

[bitob]

Nord worked for me on Seabourn and Regent 

 

Blocked on silversea. I tried everything 

 

vypr working flawlessly

[ClefsDor]

Bitob, how is this experience on the Moon comparing to your recent cruise on Regent and your other SS cruises?

[bitob]

9 hours ago, ClefsDor said:

Bitob, how is this experience on the Moon comparing to your recent cruise on Regent and your other SS cruises?

This first leg of itinerary boring 

I thought these small Icelandic towns would be interesting 

they are not. Lol

also am hating the cold

last time we were in iceland in July we had fab weather 

 

cold impacts our dining choices. Pool grill and hot rocks too cold. I prefer not to eat with blanket on me

 

cant blame cruise line for weather 

 

There have been food and service glitches but they have been resolved to my satisfaction 

 

second leg is uk so should be better port wise and weatherwise 

 

every cruise is different. 
 

my last regent cruise was Cape Town to Buenos Aires. Really can’t compare. 
 

we enjoy ss regent and just had fab cruise on seabourn 

[ClefsDor]

Thanks for clarifying, Bitob.

[Peter Lanky]

I am new to cruising having only been on one Azamara and one Silversea. Being of modest means we only consider the lower end of the cabin category, so it would have been interesting to see a comparison including Cunard that covered this. As I also use a wheelchair, accessibility is important. One thing that is very important to me is that everything relevant, namely drinks and he 'g' word are included in the headline price, hence these two cruise lines being attractive to me. I keep looking at Cunard, but the non inclusion of these puts me off.

 

I don't mind an inside cabin as long as the door is wide enough to get through and there is some room to move around, which was certainly easy in the Azamara. All we do is sleep in it after all, spending most time dining, socialising or relaxing. On the Silversea I was only able to obtain a non-accessible cabin initially, and the door was not wide enough to get in, but the staff found us an accessible one after the first night.

 

After comparing the two, the Azamara model was preferable, as we felt we had to go on all the Silversea excursions to get value for money. I would have preferred to pick and choose, as we were with Azamara, though as it happened, we were able to secure a daily excursion out of on board credit. In future I will look for a less excursion based itinerary to allow for more relaxing mornings. After a few days, repeatedly getting on and off a coach starts to get a little repetitive, for me at least.

 

So now we come to Cunard and transatlantic trips. I was not aware that the higher price cabins included drinks and the 'g' word, and I know that these can more the double the price, but at what cabin level are these included? I am not particularly fazed by the class things, and am quite happy to be sleeping in the bowels of the ship, but is there a compromise cabin category where I don't have to get my credit card out at the end of the voyage, but don't pay 4 times the price of a basic cabin upfront?

 

One thing with Cunard that I would like to clarify. Even if you are sharing a table of 6-8, if you are on the same table every night, then the same people are there every night, so how do you meet new people? What happens if people on the same table want to eat at different times? What happens if a group just doesn't gel very well? Or have I just misinterpreted the arrangement?

[bitob]

We have been on Cunard but only in Queens grill so. I really can’t answer The Cunard board is a great place to post your question. It is a wealth of information
 

cunard is Sui generis 

nothing else like it

and it is not for everyone 

 

[JSR]

@Peter Lanky many cruise lines offer the option to pay an additional amount to include a beverage package as well as prepaid gratuities and Wi-Fi. With Cunard I do not know if it is an option in all classes on all ships. I have seen it many times being offered in many classes. When you get a drink you still have to show your card as some people have packages and others don’t. 
 

Accessibility. You are brave to get on any ship without a pre booked accessible cabin. With rare exceptions of the higher suites you will not be able to get in the cabin or bathroom of a standard cabin with a wheelchair. You were fortunate that the ship could change cabins but do t cout. On it going forward. If there is no accessible cabin available online you can call the cruiseline and ask for the access department. They will try and find you one prior to taking your deposit. 
 

To address your dining questions. Most people sit at a 2 top. We chose the large table because we like to meet people to dine with. If you are not pleased with the mix of people you can ask the maitre d to reseat you. As for how do you organize eating together, we chose not to. There is a dining window in Queen’s grill we all seemed to show up with min 15 minutes of each other and the waiters were wonderful at catching or slowing us down so some how we all managed to finish at the same time. We would all also linger to visit. However, there were times when one couple would come earlier or later and everyone ate when they wanted to. The waiters do not wait for others unless you ask them to. We have done a group table on both our transatlantic cruises and enjoyed ourselves. 
 

as far as meeting people. We met people in bars, bridge class, doing the track. Qm2 is very friendly on a transatlantic as no one is in a hurry to get to port etc. 

 

Excursions are tricky with a wheelchair. We generally book our own  though SS is working with us to arrange some accessible tours on our 71 day cruise. We are supplementing with ones we book privately because the ship tours are sometimes very touristy and we prefer more off the beaten track type. 
 

my plane is about to take off so I will post now. If you have more questions let me know. 
 

 

[bitob]

Cunard has accessible tours. 

[markham]

The “upper classes” on Cunard do not include much of anything you get included on Silversea eg drinks (unless you buy a package) or internet for the full cruise. Even as top tier Club members (450 days +) in Queens grill you will only get a derisory 20% off laundry while after 100 days you get laundry included at Silversea. Internet is included at Silversea too. 
 

But of course Britannia class at Cunard is cheaper per day by far but those extras do add up.

 

Happy and healthy sailing!