First time on Silversea - Very Mixed Feelings

[Ovener]

 

Just got off a seven day cruise on the Silver Dawn, Barcelona to Civitavecchia. We’re normally on Seabourn (though have tried Crystal and Viking and love Hapag Lloyd). The Dawn is a beautiful ship, spotless and classily decorated. 

 

We thought the Silver Suite was an excellent space, with a great butler and room steward keeping everything perfect and surprising me with a birthday cake and balloons, which was charming. Tours were better quality than we expected, and the premium truffle hunting tour with Savini in Tuscany was the most memorable excursion we’ve ever done on a cruise, with a sublime truffle lunch. Highly recommended. 

 

We had to skip Marseille to keep ahead of storms, but this meant a lovely day at Villefranche-sur-Mer instead. A good decision by the captain. 

 

Fellow passengers were very international and mostly friendly. 

 

There were four main areas that let the cruise down. 

 

Door-to-door

 

We’re about 70 miles from Heathrow, so using Blacklane would have cost more anyway. Quite how much we’ll never know as the website didn’t recognise our address (it’s an easy one). So after an hour struggling with it we gave up, having read disaster stories and Silversea’s bizarre refusal to accept responsibility in the Ts & Cs should the drive not turn up. We took the £150 credit instead. Now we’re at Fiumincino, dropped here 5 hours before our flight leaves and twiddling our thumbs. We brought the timing of the transfer up with Reception but they couldn’t care less. Incidentally Reception was generally unhelpful about everything. Door-to-door is anything but seamless. 

 

Food / Hospitality

 

Whilst included wines were quite nice, food quality was often very mediocre. La Dame was pretty good with excellent service, but food was not stunning. Kaiseki was awful at lunchtime. The quality of the sushi was appalling - either dry tuna or flabby salmon. It was better in the evening and we enjoyed the surf and turf and black cod, though probably not worth the upcharge. Luckily we had a lot of OBC. S.A.L.T. was the most disappointing restaurant with dry and unrecognisable attempts at Niçoise street food and flavourless sous vide lamb. Fish at the Pool Grill was good (but tiny) at lunchtimes. Breakfast everywhere was rather dull with poor quality croissants and pastries, though I enjoyed the congee. Breakfast at Atlantis is quiet and civilised, but choice the same as room service. La Terrazza was really poor on our first day for buffet lunch; everything had hung around (except the staff who had disappeared), pies were missing pastry and the sushi looked ready to walk out. We heard someone got ill from it.  In the evenings the food there was actually pretty good. But it feels like there’s a lot of cost cutting going on with ingredients. 

 

The bars were all pretty good, though they can’t make a martini cocktail at the pool bar (remember to add gin!). We liked the Arts Cafe particularly, which was well run. 

 

Hospitality / Entertainment

 

Staff are not nearly as engaged as on Seabourn, some grumpy, many are clearly being trained, though some (e.g. Joel at the Arts Cafe and S.A.L.T Bar) were very friendly and good at their jobs. The crew and entertainment director are hardly present, whereas they are everywhere on Seabourn. In short it feels far less of a ‘family’ experience and far less fun, with fewer events. Musicians were good but the singing/dance group was amateur. Sight lines in the Venetian Lounge are woeful for what is otherwise a beautiful space. We missed the daily port talks other lines offer and helpful things like port maps. 

 

Dress Code

 

Despite the dress code changing a few weeks back (and changing again on 21 April) no-one on board had got the message, so there was still a truly formal night. Frankly the dress code at the moment is a complete muddle requiring a PhD. Hopefully the new code will iron things out eventually. 

 

Would we go back on Silversea? Probably not, particularly given their massive price hikes. And never door to door. As someone has written on another board post, it feels more Business Class than First Class. Whether Seabourn and Hapag Lloyd are experiencing the same problems with cost cutting and staff we’ll find out in a few months! I would have given Silversea this feedback, but the in room screen was so clunky I gave up. 

 

 

 

[jollyjones]

" Fish at the Pool Grill was good (but tiny) at lunchtimes."

 

I agree with that but it's so simple, I just ask for two portions ...

[lincslady]

One might argue that they should be large enough in the first place, assuming they are a main course.

[Gourmet Gal]

Ovener, thanks for taking the time to give feedback.  The situation with food is becoming very concerning as your observations are in line with many other recent comments from sailings across the fleet.  I’m not sure how SS can justify the massive fare increases unless it’s to at least get back to its former food quality.

[MBP&O2/O]

Interesting comment about the staff. We returned from an SB cruise a few months ago and found the same problem with them🙂

The highlight was asking someone behind the bar for a drink only to be told the bar was closed, so if I wanted a drink i could go down to the pool bar and fetch it myself  .... from two decks down and at the other end of the ship. It would have then been served in plastic glasses and probably been watered down by the the time I had struggled back with two glasses as it was raining heavily at the time.

[Invited On-board]

4 hours ago, Ovener said:

 Now we’re at Fiumincino, dropped here 5 hours before our flight leaves and twiddling our thumbs.

Had all the Debark Tours ( that are designed to offer an option to fill the time between disembarkation  and flight departure) on the day sold out or was it something that didn't appeal ?.

From memory  they have previously appeared on the disembarkation preferences  letter that is left in the suite a few days prior the end of the voyage  or can  be booked thru your mobile device via the  My Silversea Web page  which is where you could have also completed the end of cruise survey to  ensure  your feedback was received.

[RetiredOnVacation]

5 hours ago, Ovener said:

 though some (e.g. Joel at the Arts Cafe and S.A.L.T Bar) were very friendly and good at their jobs.

Was also on Dawn earlier this year and remember Joel in Arts Cafe. He was excellent and remembered what we liked. He got a mention in the end of cruise survey (which by the way can be more easily completed on your mobile device) 👍

[TLCOhio]

1 minute ago, RetiredOnVacation said:

Was also on Dawn earlier this year and remember Joel in Arts Cafe. He was excellent and remembered what we liked. He got a mention in the end of cruise survey (which by the way can be more easily completed on your mobile device) 👍

 

Nice to know, now, that their survey can and should be done on a mobile device.  At the end of our late February Mumbai to Singapore Silver Moon cruise, I did "it" on the suite TV screen.  Terrible, shallow and painful experience!!  So much that I wanted to share to help Silversea's management fix and fine-tune their operations. Plus, salute some outstanding staff members. Wanted to give them some more, better options to complete our feed-back and help insure Silversea remains a "luxury" product.  If, management wants to hear it and learn??

 

THANKS!  Enjoy!  Terry in Ohio

[RetiredOnVacation]

31 minutes ago, TLCOhio said:

Nice to know, now, that their survey can and should be done on a mobile device.  At the end of our late February Mumbai to Singapore Silver Moon cruise, I did "it" on the suite TV screen

Have been on a number of SS cruises post covid, & as recent as February this year, and can't remember not being able to do the survey on mobile device (iirc using the MyCruise Web link or app). Certainly it would have been available to you last February! Ah well! 🤔😉

Edited April 14 by RetiredOnVacation

[sea bright]

On our Jan/Feb Nova cruise we couldn't complete the survey on our mobile devices (had had the same problem on some prior Moon and Dawn cruises). Reception could not fix the problem and told me to use the TV. I explained that I wanted to make additional comments. They told me to type something up and email it to them and they would forward to the Hotel Director. I have no idea if he saw it.

[RetiredOnVacation]

47 minutes ago, sea bright said:

On our Jan/Feb Nova cruise we couldn't complete the survey on our mobile devices (had had the same problem on some prior Moon and Dawn cruises). Reception could not fix the problem and told me to use the TV. I explained that I wanted to make additional comments. They told me to type something up and email it to them and they would forward to the Hotel Director. I have no idea if he saw it.

Interesting - I haven't had that problem so far but I'll be prepared in case I do in the future. Maybe email to self and print off in the computer area (can you still do that?) and post directly under the Hotel Director's, or Cruise Director's, office door! Old school! 

[sea bright]

Reception told me they couldn't print my document, but could forward the email with it attached.

[Ovener]

3 hours ago, Invited On-board said:

Had all the Debark Tours ( that are designed to offer an option to fill the time between disembarkation  and flight departure) on the day sold out or was it something that didn't appeal ?.

From memory  they have previously appeared on the disembarkation preferences  letter that is left in the suite a few days prior the end of the voyage  or can  be booked thru your mobile device via the  My Silversea Web page  which is where you could have also completed the end of cruise survey to  ensure  your feedback was received.

Thanks…sadly that was exactly what I had hoped for! No Debark Tours were made available for flights at our time. There were some offered for a hefty price for those with flights departing around 17:00 or after. I guess because they were taking in some sights in Rome, which is about 90 mins or more from Civitavecchia and 60 mins from Fiumencino. Last year on Seabourn and Viking Debark Tours were free. But I think they are victim to the new cutbacks across the industry. Even Hapag Lloyd have stopped their helpful interim staging post of a hotel or conference centre. I would have been very happy being kicked out of the cabin at 8am (as is usual) and being allowed to sit on deck until 10.30 or 11am. Or even taken to a local park as a staging post. At least Fiumencino allows you to check in early (most European airports allow this only 2-3 hours before the flight). Sadly the pre-booked lounge refused to allow access due to over-capacity. So a dull long wait.
 

As for the survey, I’d be really happy to do it, especially to mention the stand-out crew - as I know they rightly benefit - but it’s so difficult and clunky compared to other cruise lines, both on the screen and on the app. I’ve just been into MySilversea online to try feedback and can’t find a way to do it post cruise. Seabourn normally send a post-cruise email for feedback with a link, so hoping I’ll get the same. 

[sea bright]

Silversea provided a dayroom for an Asian cruise about 2 years ago when our flight home was around midnight. Since then they have not, even when we had similarly late flights. Our last SS post cruise tour (about a  year and a half ago) dumped us at the airport more than 6 hours before the flight. Since then, I have either paid for my own transfer/tour or booked my own dayroom - so much for our  "Door to Door" fare (the only option for a Silver Suite). The new wider availability of Port to Port fares is a step in the right direction. I just hope the onboard experience improves over our Nova trip!

[Invited On-board]

40 minutes ago, Ovener said:

 I’ve just been into MySilversea online to try feedback and can’t find a way to do it post cruise. Seabourn normally send a post-cruise email for feedback

Tbf I think the 'My Cruise' page of My Silversea  disappears as soon as disembarkation occurs and cannot say as to whether there is a follow up e mail.

 It is disappointing when aspects haven't been as they should, still onwards and upwards there is always your next SB itinerary to look forward to and enjoy.

[RetiredOnVacation]

13 minutes ago, sea bright said:

Silversea provided a dayroom for an Asian cruise about 2 years ago when our flight home was around midnight. Since then they have not, even when we had similarly late flights. Our last SS post cruise tour (about a  year and a half ago) dumped us at the airport more than 6 hours before the flight. Since then, I have either paid for my own transfer/tour or booked my own dayroom - so much for our  "Door to Door" fare (the only option for a Silver Suite). The new wider availability of Port to Port fares is a step in the right direction. I just hope the onboard experience improves over our Nova trip!

Agree P2P now gives you the flexibility to make your own arrangements to your own requirements and not get sucked in to someone else's arrangements. Much prefer our own plans! 

[Invited On-board]

13 minutes ago, sea bright said:

Silversea provided a dayroom for an Asian cruise about 2 years ago when our flight home was around midnight. Since then they have not, even when we had similarly late flights. Our last SS post cruise tour (about a  year and a half ago) dumped us at the airport more than 6 hours before the flight. Since then, I have either paid for my own transfer/tour or booked my own dayroom - so much for our  "Door to Door" fare (the only option for a Silver Suite). The new wider availability of Port to Port fares is a step in the right direction. I just hope the onboard experience improves over our Nova trip!

Seems as if that  aspect is becoming  more common in the sector, referencing  Ovener's experience

 

"Last year on Seabourn and Viking Debark Tours were free. But I think they are victim to the new cutbacks across the industry. Even Hapag Lloyd have stopped their helpful interim staging post of a hotel or conference centre"

[Emdee]

You bring back memories of our not so great Silversea experience.

Since then we have avoided the classic cruises and sailed on their expedition cruises.

[Port Power]

4 hours ago, Invited On-board said:

Tbf I think the 'My Cruise' page of My Silversea  disappears as soon as disembarkation occurs and cannot say as to whether there is a follow up e mail.

 It is disappointing when aspects haven't been as they should, still onwards and upwards there is always your next SB itinerary to look forward to and enjoy.

There is no email to passengers of the post cruise survey. It has to be done on the ship. 

[Invited On-board]

8 hours ago, Port Power said:

There is no email to passengers of the post cruise survey. It has to be done on the ship. 

Yes,it was the OP  who was referencing a follow up e-mail. I have completed mine, initially on paper and latterly  online via  'My Cruise' Web page on 'My Silversea' prior to disembarkation 

[jmmiva]

On 4/14/2024 at 6:15 AM, Ovener said:

 

 

Just got off a seven day cruise on the Silver Dawn, Barcelona to Civitavecchia. We’re normally on Seabourn (though have tried Crystal and Viking and love Hapag Lloyd). The Dawn is a beautiful ship, spotless and classily decorated. 

 

We thought the Silver Suite was an excellent space, with a great butler and room steward keeping everything perfect and surprising me with a birthday cake and balloons, which was charming. Tours were better quality than we expected, and the premium truffle hunting tour with Savini in Tuscany was the most memorable excursion we’ve ever done on a cruise, with a sublime truffle lunch. Highly recommended. 

 

We had to skip Marseille to keep ahead of storms, but this meant a lovely day at Villefranche-sur-Mer instead. A good decision by the captain. 

 

Fellow passengers were very international and mostly friendly. 

 

There were four main areas that let the cruise down. 

 

Door-to-door

 

We’re about 70 miles from Heathrow, so using Blacklane would have cost more anyway. Quite how much we’ll never know as the website didn’t recognise our address (it’s an easy one). So after an hour struggling with it we gave up, having read disaster stories and Silversea’s bizarre refusal to accept responsibility in the Ts & Cs should the drive not turn up. We took the £150 credit instead. Now we’re at Fiumincino, dropped here 5 hours before our flight leaves and twiddling our thumbs. We brought the timing of the transfer up with Reception but they couldn’t care less. Incidentally Reception was generally unhelpful about everything. Door-to-door is anything but seamless. 

 

Food / Hospitality

 

Whilst included wines were quite nice, food quality was often very mediocre. La Dame was pretty good with excellent service, but food was not stunning. Kaiseki was awful at lunchtime. The quality of the sushi was appalling - either dry tuna or flabby salmon. It was better in the evening and we enjoyed the surf and turf and black cod, though probably not worth the upcharge. Luckily we had a lot of OBC. S.A.L.T. was the most disappointing restaurant with dry and unrecognisable attempts at Niçoise street food and flavourless sous vide lamb. Fish at the Pool Grill was good (but tiny) at lunchtimes. Breakfast everywhere was rather dull with poor quality croissants and pastries, though I enjoyed the congee. Breakfast at Atlantis is quiet and civilised, but choice the same as room service. La Terrazza was really poor on our first day for buffet lunch; everything had hung around (except the staff who had disappeared), pies were missing pastry and the sushi looked ready to walk out. We heard someone got ill from it.  In the evenings the food there was actually pretty good. But it feels like there’s a lot of cost cutting going on with ingredients. 

 

The bars were all pretty good, though they can’t make a martini cocktail at the pool bar (remember to add gin!). We liked the Arts Cafe particularly, which was well run. 

 

Hospitality / Entertainment

 

Staff are not nearly as engaged as on Seabourn, some grumpy, many are clearly being trained, though some (e.g. Joel at the Arts Cafe and S.A.L.T Bar) were very friendly and good at their jobs. The crew and entertainment director are hardly present, whereas they are everywhere on Seabourn. In short it feels far less of a ‘family’ experience and far less fun, with fewer events. Musicians were good but the singing/dance group was amateur. Sight lines in the Venetian Lounge are woeful for what is otherwise a beautiful space. We missed the daily port talks other lines offer and helpful things like port maps. 

 

Dress Code

 

Despite the dress code changing a few weeks back (and changing again on 21 April) no-one on board had got the message, so there was still a truly formal night. Frankly the dress code at the moment is a complete muddle requiring a PhD. Hopefully the new code will iron things out eventually. 

 

Would we go back on Silversea? Probably not, particularly given their massive price hikes. And never door to door. As someone has written on another board post, it feels more Business Class than First Class. Whether Seabourn and Hapag Lloyd are experiencing the same problems with cost cutting and staff we’ll find out in a few months! I would have given Silversea this feedback, but the in room screen was so clunky I gave up. 

 

 

 

 

12 hours ago, Invited On-board said:

Yes,it was the OP  who was referencing a follow up e-mail. I have completed mine, initially on paper and latterly  online via  'My Cruise' Web page on 'My Silversea' prior to disembarkation 

Don’t understand if you took the blacklane credit and booked your own trans, why is that on SS?

[Port Power]

2 hours ago, jmmiva said:

 

Don’t understand if you took the blacklane credit and booked your own trans, why is that on SS?

Being dropped at FCO was after the cruise and not related to Blacklane.  Both  comments being in one sentence I realise is confusing. The OP is unhappy with SS dropping them off so early.  Perhaps they hoped for individual transfers rather than a group transfer that would have to serve many flight times?

[Ovener]

5 hours ago, Port Power said:

Being dropped at FCO was after the cruise and not related to Blacklane.  Both  comments being in one sentence I realise is confusing. The OP is unhappy with SS dropping them off so early.  Perhaps they hoped for individual transfers rather than a group transfer that would have to serve many flight times?

Thanks Port Power, that’s correct. Sorry for any confusion jmmiva. We dropped Blacklane in the UK but took Silversea’s airport bus transfers to and from the ship. Quite a few guests were on our later flight back to the UK. I was therefore rather annoyed that Silversea hadn’t arranged a later bus for us all. 

[Invited On-board]

2 hours ago, Ovener said:

Thanks Port Power, that’s correct. Sorry for any confusion jmmiva. We dropped Blacklane in the UK but took Silversea’s airport bus transfers to and from the ship. Quite a few guests were on our later flight back to the UK. I was therefore rather annoyed that Silversea hadn’t arranged a later bus for us all. 

What would you wish  Silversea to have done for you and the other guests while waiting for a ' later bus ' between disembarkation and airport arrival for the return flight?

You previously mentioned the Debark Tour for Rome was unsuitable and also that Seabourn, Viking and Hapag Lloyd have  altered  how they facilitate disembarkation.

 

[Ovener]

6 minutes ago, Invited On-board said:

What would you wish  Silversea to have done for you and the other guests while waiting for a ' later bus ' between disembarkation and airport arrival for the return flight?

You previously mentioned the Debark Tour for Rome was unsuitable and also that Seabourn, Viking and Hapag Lloyd have  altered  how they facilitate disembarkation.

 

it would have been nice to have stayed on board (albeit out of the cabin) a few hours longer. It was too far ago to visit Rome en route to the airport, but there are other attractions on the way to the airport that could have been taken in. Viking arranged a tour, Seabourn and Hapag Lloyd either a day room or conference room at a hotel. I guess a flight at 15.30 isn’t a great time. Had it been later we could at least have bought a tour.