Hi from the Whisper Mar 28 cruise

[Jerimiah]

Yes - Did you find out how "new" the staff was in general terms, had they just come on board in the last weeks? Did anyone use the golf program, if so any comment? We're boarding for the TA on the 20th, hope they're settled in by then. Thanks for any information.

[cruiseluv]

Jerimihah,

 

Sorry, I have no idea how "new" they were or even if they were new. I just know that they were bewildered by "wierd" requests such as half and half for coffee at breakfast time. After waiting for 10-15 mins , the waiter came back and told me that they didn´t carry that in La Terrace and would have to go to another deck to get it. By then, I just wanted to have my coffee so I just used the skim milk he offered me.

 

Before people start jumping on me for bringing up such a minor incident, please note this is just a minor example of how the waiters reacted to simple requests time and time again. As I said previously , I'll try to catalog the problems by areas to give a better picture of what was wrong with the cruise.

[cruiseluv]

Cruiseluv,

Yes,these four day cruises are for training and experimenting with new staff and new ways,They are ofcourse a way for those who have not tried Silversea before to sample a cruise for supposedly less money,but when you work out the price per day that is charged then you will see that they are not good value.

Cruise lines should not offer these short breaks,I always find that it takes four days to unwind

 

Too bad nobody enlightened me about this at the time I booked the cruise. Certainly Silversea does not have a disclaimer to expect reduced levels of service on these 4-5 days cruises.

[Iamseasick]

Jerimihah,

 

Sorry, I have no idea how "new" they were or even if they were new. I just know that they were bewildered by "wierd" requests such as half and half for coffee at breakfast time. After waiting for 10-15 mins , the waiter came back and told me that they didn´t carry that in La Terrace and would have to go to another deck to get it. By then, I just wanted to have my coffee so I just used the skim milk he offered me.

 

Before people start jumping on me for bringing up such a minor incident, please note this is just a minor example of how the waiters reacted to simple requests time and time again. As I said previously , I'll try to catalog the problems by areas to give a better picture of what was wrong with the cruise.

 

Is it possible they didn't know what "half and half" was because they serve real cream? Just curious.

[cruiseluv]

Is it possible they didn't know what "half and half" was because they serve real cream? Just curious.

 

Actually, I asked for cream or half and half. He told me they just had the milk(skim).

 

The funny thing was that this morning I went to the Panorama lounge to get coffee/ OJ before disembarking and there, clearly labeled, they had skim milk, regular milk and ... half-and-half! Too bad I didn't know that the Panorama lounge was the place I should have gone for breakfast the previous 3 mornings. LOL!!

[Iamseasick]

Ha! Oh well, I was kind of hoping they only serve real cream or milk. Funny stuff.

[jhp]

I will be very interested in cruiseluv's report. I had the pleasure of meeting her and her husband last year on a two week cruise in Norway, and we had many dinners together, as well as excursions. Her report will be credible, and I can assure you she is not a curmudgeon!

 

My one experience with this line (a 10 day cruise in Asia in 2004) was so excellent that I was really happy to see that she was giving it a try. I am disappointed that, in the food service area, things were not up to the usual standards, but happy that she had an enjoyable cruise in spite of it.

[avalon1025]

I did a four night cruise on the Cloud years ago as my first Silversea experience, it was OK, loved the ship, the crew was just OK. I went back for a 9 night and what a cruise, it was wonderful. I have sailed two other times on the Wind and Cloud and they have ranked the best of my 55 cruises. I think you can't expect that amazing memorable experience from a 4 night cruise. The staff hardly has time to get to know you, the crew can not invite who they want to dinner, there is just not enought time. I did a 3 night on the Seven Seas Mariner and it was horrible, everyone was comming and going, drunk, never saw my cabin steward, officers thought I was crew (I was 32 at the time) etc. That would not prevent me from sailingon Regent again as I look at these shorty cruises to check out the hardware, not the service.

 

I have to say I did do a 3 nighter on Seabourn and it was amazing!!, I leave for the Legend in a few weeks as a result of that weekend cruise on the Seabourn Pride.

[blackbird71]

HEADS UP US Airways pax on Whisper's Apr 5 sailing. On weekends US Air has a 4 hour rule for checked luggage. You can not check in any sooner than 4 hours before your flight. Blackbird did the SS transfer with a mini tour but got to the airport 6 hours before his flight. I had to stand outside for two hours before I could check in my rolling duffel. Also there is a USDA Ag inspection in San Juan. One station is across from the US Air counters. You have to run your luggage thru it and get a red tag. There were ppl well into the long US Air line that had to get out and get their bags checked at the Ag inspection. I do not know if any other airlines on "cruise" weekends have the four hour rule.

 

 

Blackbird was BUSTED by another CCer. :D I told you all about the two guys from Ca and their comments. The next night I was also seated with them, and one turned and said, Hi Blackbird. :eek: WHO ME.....

 

It was the best night in many cruises for tablemates. :) Inaddition to the two guys from Ca there was a couple from Iowa. I think between the two groups and myself we had over 50 cruises to all parts of the world. Around 15-20 cruise per group. We all sat down around 7:45 and at 10:15 we still talking cruises/ports/ and other trips. I want everybody to know Blackbird was the ONLY one at the table that did not take in a funeral on this cruise. (I could be wrong about the Iowa couple and this cruise, I know they did one on a cruise)

 

While all at the table had taken many cruises, we all had the same reason for doing this four dayer and that was to check out Silverseas. And all three groups came away with a bad taste in their mouths for Silverseas service for the price they charge.

 

Oh Mister CC Detective that busted me, Would you please post your service problems at the pool and your opinion on why other ppl were getting service and not you :( (IMHO ppl should be FIRED over this)

 

 

 

[mistrtj]

Well,,,, at least you enjoyed ONE experience on board,,, that being the night with the other four people! Sorry you (and others) did not enjoy the totality of this four day trip and REALLY, thanks for your "critique". All info, positive or otherwise, is welcome before our first SS adventure.

 

I'm a simple "glass half full" kind of guy and rather than fume, harp on and bitch about service problems (real or imagined) and let-downs, I and my wife are looking forward to the type of experiences you just mentioned (the fun dinner with two other couples) to celebrate our good fortune and thirty year's of wedded "bliss" (tchyeahright).

[blackbird71]

No special meal:

 

I work with a group of nuts that love the TV show Lost. I wanted to order boar and take a picture of it and show them how boar should be served. :D The second night I asked a tall man in the restaurant about ordering a special meal and he said he could do it. I told him what I wanted and he said that if they had it in stock I would get it the final night but he did not ask my name or suite number. On the final night I asked the short man in a black jacket about my special meal. He asked my name and then looked through about 4 pink slips and I was not on one. He then asked who I talked to, and while I was pretty sure it was the tall man in a white jacket, I just said tall man. He went over to the tall man and talked and came back an said "Mr XXXX said it was not him but I will check with Mr. YYYYY" He then assigned me to a table and the tall man in the white jacket took me to the table. Once we were alone, the tall man said to me that he had checked and there are no boar in stock. IMHO, why should I believe anything this man says, if I know he has already lied to the man in the black jacket.

 

Tipping:

 

No matter what some people on this forum say I should do or not do, I still tip for good service. I had brought my normal Thank You card for my room stewardess and her asst. so that mid-cruise I could buy them "lunch" BUT I did not have to use it this trip. Not only was there the problem with the in-suite bar, she did not like to clean the veranda at night. A couple nights I returned to my suite only to find an ashtray that had not been emptied and part used Diet Coke can on the table on the veranda. The second person I normally tip is the person that brings me my coffee and cream at O' Dark Thirty ( I had cream all four mornings) I tipped my normal $2 on three out of four mornings. One morning it took 40 minutes and two calls to get coffee. On my second call I got room service and not reception. When I told him it was my second call, he asked who did I speak to on the first call and I told him reception desk. He said he did not get the message....

 

OK, Blackbird tipped the tour desk person on tour with me in Tortola :) I was talking to her during the tour and she said she had only been on the ship the same number of days as myself. She was fresh out of college with her new BS degree and this was her first real job. Later in the tour we talked again and I asked her how long she had been working (not knowing if there was any training work before she joined the ship) and again she said just the three days. I then asked her when would she get her first pay check and she said in a month. So at the end of the tour, I gave here a couple 20s and told her to have a drink on me. A funny thing happened after that. During my cruise the ONLY people that call me by my last name was my room stewardess and her asst. But after I turned in my luggage to the people that would take them to the airport and turned to the tour desk person to tell which bus I was on for my mini-tour of San Juan, she told me "I have checked you in Mr. XXXX and that is your bus. I wonder how this new to me tour desk person knew my name. :D

 

Computer Things you wonder about:

 

The Whisper/Shadow were made at the yard as the RSSC Voyager. In the journal of poster Petlover on her 2005 World Cruise on the RSSC Voyager, she said that she had asked about getting connected to the net from her suite, and like magic they brought down a Lan cable and connected her to the net. So when I got to my suite, one day I was looking at the plugs on the desk and in the group of plugs for electric there was a plug the size of a Lan connector. So I asked at reception and the lady there just tried to tell me even if I got connected I would have to pay $9 per minute for the telephone call. I tried to tell her I was not talking about the extra telephone jack but the Lan jack but I gave up when she went into paying for a telephone call a second time. This is something that make me go Mmmmmm....

[DebbieH103]

We arrived in St. Lucia last night after a 23 hour trip here from Houston, and we will have already unwound before we get to Whisper. I will try to lower my expectations on service and hope to enjoy the experience. I don't buy that service should be worse because it is 4 nights because if you stay at a 5 star hotel for one night, you still expect good quality.

 

We don't really care how well or often someone cleans the room if we have towels and a stocked fridge.

 

I will check my blackberry gprs in a number of places along the cruise.

[mistrtj]

Smoking on the veranda????? Can cigar smokers do that?:D

[blackbird71]

I don't buy that service should be worse because it is 4 nights because if you stay at a 5 star hotel for one night, you still expect good quality.

 

Right on that. And I would have cut some slack if I know a person is a "trainee". And from what I found out, there were a lot of new people on this cruise.

 

Update about the Venetian Society member comments to the two guys from California. They pointed out the last night that they meet her again and she was pissed. After the bad service, she went to the CD or Head of Hotel to complain and their answer to her was, "Your server is new to Silverseas and will be up to SS standards in two to three weeks." and her answer back to him was "I will not be on the Whisper in two to three weeks. "

 

And a poster as pointed SS home office to a couple threads on here. One clue you may see that your cruise will be different is if there is a hand sanitizing globe in the buffet restaurant. ;)I have become email friends with Ross Klein, PHD over our mutual dislike of the management of RSSC. (With the exception of a nit of a problem with security on my Mariner trip, I was very happy with the onboard room/food/service of my RSSC cruise. Dr. Klein has written a couple books on the cruise industry and runs http://www.********.com/ that tracks illnesses and other "events at sea". I emailed Ross before my cruise and in part of his reply to me was

 

"I’ll be interested to hear your impressions of Silverseas. I expect you’ll enjoy it, although it used to be a bit more stuffy than others in the ultraluxury group. "

 

Stuffy wait til he hears about sport's coats and no socks on formal nights.

 

I will be emailing him about this cruise and I am sure he will be troubled that Silverseas were not taking serious prevention against Norovirus transmission especially in the buffet restaurant. I wrote about my first port day and the empty hand sanitizing machine, well it had a old style "soap machine" device that you fingered to get the gel, and one of SS people were standing watching me try to get something out of this machine. One the second port day, they had out the new style machine that you just put your hand under it and it shoots out some gel, and this one had gel in it.

[Seas the Day]

Everyone is entitled to their opinion - negative or positive.

 

I understand Blackbird's discontent, and other poster's defense of a cruiseline they have loved time and again.

 

I've been on Silverseas three times. I would/will go again. I have seen some changes that I don't like, but I've also gone on some mainstream lines recently - Celebrity & Holland America - that make me appreciate what Silversea still offers.

 

It is difficult to make a profit today. This is true in my business, and likely for cruiselines as well. They face increased competition, higher costs for labor and safety, more demands from increasingly pampered passengers, etc... I for one am judgemental, I did not like my recent HAL cruise as well as Silversea or Celebrity, and will likely not sail HAL again. If with family (children), I would choose Celebrity. If with husband only, a smaller ship like Silversea. And, by the way, I took my family on a Carnival cruise five years ago - NEVER AGAIN. But if I were to post these comments on the other cruise boards, I am certain I would hear from adament defenders of their chosen line.

 

To each his own. We all come from different places, with different perspectives. In the long-term I'll make my own choices. And I am wise enough to think about the source of my information.

[MrsSparticus]

Couldn't have said it better DebbieH. I'm not going to cut SS any slack because this is only a 4 day cruise. If they really do need 3-4 days to get their act together then they shouldn't be selling a 4 day cruise. Period! It wasn't like I paid less for a 4 day then a 7. I paid the same per diem. We board on the 5th and I will go in with an open mind and let the chips fall where they may.

[blackbird71]

MrsSparticus

 

I am pretty sure you and DebbieH will have a different type cruise than me. One poster has already told SS home office about these threads, and I will be emailing my TA about both threads and the fact that some crew members think of these four dayers as their "Carnival cruises"

[Shift Colors]

No special meal:

OK, Blackbird tipped the tour desk person on tour with me in Tortola :) I was talking to her during the tour and she said she had only been on the ship the same number of days as myself. She was fresh out of college with her new BS degree and this was her first real job. Later in the tour we talked again and I asked her how long she had been working (not knowing if there was any training work before she joined the ship) and again she said just the three days.

 

Would you please comment about her Silversea training and orientation, and if there were others new crew members sailing.

[blackbird71]

Would you please comment about her Silversea training and orientation, and if there were others new crew members sailing.

 

She did not talk about any training before she joined the ship. She is an asst tour manager in training. She is working with one asst tour manager who will be leaving the ship soon. After the morning tour she did say she had a safety class to go to. Silverseas like the better lines puts a crew member on all buses on tours. My first escort was the man that did the Bridge (as in cards) thing onboard. But my second tour was a little funny. It was Tortola by Land and Sea. They broke the paxs up into two groups. One group (myself) did the sea part first while the other group were in two safari buses. The sea part ended in a very nice marina and we shopped and could buy drinks (they gave rum punches on the sea part) and waited until the people on the land part got to the marina. Then we took the land part and they the sea. The other group also had a member of the tour staff on it. Probably because of the strange nature of the tour, the tour staff took this two groups of people.

 

And I am sure it was NOT her fault that one pax got eaten by a shark. :D:D Lindsey I was only joking about the shark..

[Sparticus]

Cruiseluv,

Yes,these four day cruises are for training and experimenting with new staff and new ways,They are ofcourse a way for those who have not tried Silversea before to sample a cruise for supposedly less money,but when you work out the price per day that is charged then you will see that they are not good value.

Cruise lines should not offer these short breaks,I always find that it takes four days to unwind

 

Actually, Silversea charges a same or lower per diem on these voyages as they do on quite a few of their longer itineraries. Based on a quick scan of SS's website, there must be a lot of cruises that fall into your "not good value" category.

 

If thy know that they will have a lot of first-time customers on these sailings (and the do know) but they give out a subpar product, then they will probably never see us again and we'll move on to SB or Crystal.

 

Some other cruise lines use their older ships to service the short segment market and those ships have less impressive facilities and amenities than then newer ships that are sent on longer voyages.

 

That's not the case with the Whisper. It's the same ship, same staff, same kitchen, and same food as the longer voyages. I know that there are some things that are impacted by the length of the cruise, but there are more that are not - or at least should not be.

 

If we have a poor experience in a Silver Suite on a four day sailing, then there is no way that anyone can convince me that a longer sailing would be anything other than a longer poor experience. We're trying to keep an open mind, but this board has made us pretty apprehensive.

 

We'll try to post a review once we get back, but I can't see myslf doing a play-by-play as we sail. We try to get online, check our e-mail and get off as quickly as possible.

 

To keep things objective, we'll compare SS to Mobil's Star ratings guide for lodging and dining. (Adjusting for incomparables, of cours. We can't really penalize the Whisper for not having valet parking and coat check, for instance.) There are only 14 5-star restaurants in the USA and barely over 30 5-star hotels. If SS can rate a 4 for lodging and a 3 for dining they will have done well.

[Iamseasick]

I don't think it is possible for a ship of even 300 passengers to achieve a hotel status of 5 star or dining status of 4 on the best possible day. I agree that 4/3 would be possible and if they were to achieve it, that would be a fantastic cruise.

 

That said, let's face it---the best cruise will never be able to equal or even come close to the high end land resorts and restaurants. The advantage of a cruise is that you can unpack once and visit numerous locations. The disadvantage is you are essentially on a floating bus.

[jhp]

Iamseasick, that was really an intelligent reply. Thank you.

[lord of the seas]

Sparticus,

Seasick's reply was spot on.You should not compare a ship with a Hotel.There are too many differences

Why not compare a ship with another ship/Line

[Sparticus]

Sparticus,

Seasick's reply was spot on.You should not compare a ship with a Hotel.There are too many differences

Why not compare a ship with another ship/Line

 

We're not comparing the ship to a hotel, but rather to the standards used to rate hotels. If we compare the Whisper to another cruise line, then (A) we wouldn't be using well-defined criteria, and (B) too much value might be placed on quirks of a particular cruise line. By comparing our voyage on the Whisper to a well-defined, published standard, we can be pretty objective.

 

If you look at the Mobile Guide's criteria for restaurants and lodging, you'll see that most of the criteria aren't the type of thing that would not pose a problem for a ship. We'll exclude those criteria that would be impossible or not applicable to ship travel.

 

As I said, we'll be pleased with a 3 for dining and a 4 for the rest of the ship. We'll be delighted if we find a 4/4. If SS comes up 4/5, 5/4, or 5/5 then the line is probably the best vacation value on Earth.

 

Based on what we've read here on CC the past few days, my wife and I are somewhat apprehensive. However, our travel agent and several friends of ours have sailed on Silversea and they had nothing but effusive praise for the line. (One of them is the owner and the other is the Excutive Chef of an honest-to-goodness 5 star restaurant - so we know that they know what they're talking about. ;))

 

In any case, we'll have a much more informed opinion in a couple of days. Thanks to everyone for the advice.

[mdmourges]

Blackbird,

 

Based on the time it takes to log in, write a post and them review what you post before you hit send, you must have spent over 10 hours posting while you were on this cruise. Does my math make sense? And please remind me, how many other SS cruise have you taken. I am trying to read you posts with some objectivity and I think knowing this will help me get a better understanding of the nature of your posts. Thanks. Also, could you let me know if you have any future SS trips planned?

 

Mark