Silver Whisper - Disappointment

[zacho46]

Having just returned from a 4-night cruise aboard the Whisper, we must share some thoughts and validate the comments of Blackbird. Sorry Blackbird - we wish we had met you and the other CC posters in the Caribbean.

 

First, let us provide you with some background info...

After starting our cruising experience several years ago with our kids and parents aboard Royal Caribbean, we moved up to Celebrity and then to Radisson for the last 4 cruises. We selected SS for this short trip to give them a try and, frankly, compare them to the great experiences we have enjoyed aboard Radisson. In a word, we were disappointed.

 

While the Silver Whisper is a beautiful ship with outstanding accommodations, the staff and service on this voyage left a lot to be desired. Upon our arrival at port in San Juan, the staff seemed to be out of step with our expectations and previous experiences. When we checked in and went to the pool deck for a late lunch, we met a lovely couple from Michigan and placed our order. There were many staff members around and they seemed eager to serve us. After 20 minutes, we reminded the waiter we were waiting for our food and then needed to go over to the grill after waiting another 15 minutes to retrieve our order. We were off to an unpleasant start.

 

The preferences noted on our pre-cruise forms were ignored. We are not big drinkers but do appreciate other beverages. When we expressed our request for Diet Coke, soy milk and water in our cabin, we found the attendant to be quite responsive - once. Then we consumed our beverages and needed to remind her again on day 2... and day 3. We gave up on day 4. During our first night at sea, we decided not to request in-room breakfast dining the following morning. However, we awoke to knocking at 7:30am despite a privacy sign on our door. The waiter had a tray of food to deliver - but the order was placed by another passenger in another cabin. After reviewing the menu form, we noted the mistake and the waiter argued that the cabin number (537) did not exist. Note: It does - it was down at the end of our floor.

 

When we learned of the rough seas outside Virgin Gorda, we understood the captain's decision not to tender us to port. So we decided to visit the gym for a workout while other plans were being made for the ship. We were fortunate to find two available treadmills and attempted to turn on the TV sets above each unit. Much to our surprise, these TVs and one other were out of commission. When we inquired with the spa attendant, we were told the sets have been out of service for several months. We later discussed this with a Venetian Society member (with 170 nights under his belt) while on a terrific excursion in Antigua. He told us of his disappointment in the gym equipment and encouraged us to contact the cruise director aboard the Whisper (more on this later). Another passenger on the same excursion told us that she had been on the ship for ten days previous to the start of this trip, traveling from Costa Rica to San Juan, and had noted a marked dropoff in the service provided by the ship staff.

 

Later that day, when the announcement came that the ship was headed for St. Bart's, we were quite pleased, as it is one of our favorite destinations. But encountering the mess on Deck 3 to get onto a tender nearly made us turn back and stay on board. We have tendered under 'change of port' circumstances before ... but have never found such disorganization. It took an hour from the time that we got on line until we reached the dock in Gustavia.

 

Dinner that evening was lovely ... we chose to dine in Le Champagne, and found the service, the meal and wine pairings sublime. We were also pleased to have the chef come to our table to greet us. Dinner the following evening in La Terraza provided equally fine fare, but slow, disorganized, and somewhat inept service. Requests for something as simple as a green salad with dressing on the side were met with hesitation and confusion, water glasses were never refilled unless requested, and we needed to remind the waiters to provide us with fresh silverware after each course. For those who wondered about the staff's experience, we did ask each waiter ... many were well-seasoned with several years of experience with SS under their belts.

 

As reported by Blackbird, formal night was anything but. While we dressed appropriately, it was somewhat surprising to find the overwhelming majority of male passengers not in tuxes. The following informal night found men not only not wearing jackets, but some wearing polo shirts and a few in shorts.

 

When we took a step back and looked at the entire experience, we realized how fortunate we were to be in the Caribbean together, enjoying wonderful weather and taking advantage of outstanding food, and great accomodations aboard the Whisper. Each of our disappointments could be dismissed as insignificant, and there were more incidents which we are not citing here because they became so repetitive and redundant, but we were most upset about one final point...

 

During our third day aboard the Whisper, we went to the cruise director's office at the suggestion of several Venetian Society members who were also expressing their dissatisfaction about their experience since departing San Juan (many were aboard before the ship arrived in Puerto Rico for the 4-night segment). We introduced ourselved to Ron, the cruise director, provided some background on ourselves and summarized everything we enjoyed about the cruise. We then expressed our disappointment about the service and asked if this was typical of a Silversea experience. While Ron never answered our question, he said he would look into each of our issues and promised he would get back to us. All we were expecting was a note, message or letter of apology - nothing more. However, what we received was nothing - nothing at all.

 

As we were preparing to leave the ship in San Juan, I saw Ron in his office and approached him. He immediately recognized me, got up from his desk and said he was still waiting for a response from the concierge on why we did not receive a requested wake-up call the day we had an early excursion. He also referred to his notes and said he would talk to the waiter who ignored our privacy sign and attempted to deliver food we did not order. He had no explanation for the other comments we made and made no apologies. It was clear to us he really did not care.

 

We have worked with customers for more than 40 combined years in two different industries - and we know good service (and poor service) when we see it. We don’t expect perfection but we do expect a reputable service provider to take responsibility for their mistakes. In our opinion, Silversea let us down and did not live up to their reputation. We hope to have many years of luxury cruising in our future, but we don’t expect to be on Silversea.

[xplrcrzn]

I don't get it. Why would a luxury cruiseline intentionally provide such a bad experience? Are they in a self-destruct mode or do they have labor and personnel issues of which we are unaware?

[blackbird71]

Later that day, when the announcement came that the ship was headed for St. Bart's, we were quite pleased, as it is one of our favorite destinations. But encountering the mess on Deck 3 to get onto a tender nearly made us turn back and stay on board. We have tendered under 'change of port' circumstances before ... but have never found such disorganization. It took an hour from the time that we got on line until we reached the dock in Gustavia.

 

Zacho46:

 

While Blackbird did get Busted by a tablemate, I knew there was a couple CCers onboard so for the first day's tour in Virgin Gorda Blackbird wore a black tee-shirt with a large Blackbird on it. But VG was canceled.

 

IMHO besides SS not being organized for that tendering operation, was that night was formal night and we did not land at St. Barts until 4pm so if you wanted to go ashore you had to do that at first call. Still they could have had everybody go to the main lounge and give out "tendering tickets" and let ppl seat in the lounge until their turn.

 

I did not go to St. Barts because of the area just off the tendering dock is high price shops, and with formal night, I did not want to take a taxi to the hill overlooking the airport to try to catch a picture of a STOL plane landing there.

 

Happy Cruising....

[jim in cleveland]

Maybe it's time for us to contact our TA's and AMX Platinum (if involved) and express our concerns. I doubt SS phone reps would't be able to do much for us, but the companies who represent them may get some attention.

 

I will be curious if this or other sites get many more complaints in the next few days.

 

Just a thought.

 

Jim

[LOGHL]

The person to whom you should make any comments..pro or con....is the HOTEL DIRECTOR... He is the one in charge of all activities, restaurant, & services. You spoke to the cruise director, who is not able to address your problems...

[Set2Sail]

Maybe it's time for us to contact our TA's and AMX Platinum (if involved) and express our concerns. I doubt SS phone reps would't be able to do much for us, but the companies who represent them may get some attention.

 

I will be curious if this or other sites get many more complaints in the next few days.

 

Just a thought.

 

Jim

 

 

That was exactly our thought. Last night (saturday) after reading the latest round of negative comments regarding the SS experience, we e-mailed Silver Sea directly and stated our concerns regarding their lack of personal attention and value for their dollar. I also pointed them in the direction of this board so they (if they choose) can make some changes / modifications. On Monday we'll contact our AMEX PlatinumTA and see what they have to say.

 

Jen

[Wellseasoned]

The negative reports on recent Caribbean Whisper cruises are really surprising to me, and I hope you soon-to-cruise people will report back. I would be particularly interested in comments from veteran Whisper cruisers. I have cruised on the Whisper six times, most recently five months ago, time aboard ranging from 10 to 38 days. My wife and I have had uniformly great experiences. We had only one real problem, and this is how it was handled: With just over one week to go in the 38 day cruise, the toilet in our midship veranda suite became unreliable, flushing about half the time, otherwise not. They tried several times to fix it, replaced parts, to no avail. We decided to put up with it and continue to enjoy the last week of the cruise. Then, the Hotel Director offered (yes, offered. We did not request or demand anything) to move us to the only remaining empty suite on the full ship. It turned out to be the portside Owner's Suite on deck 7. Needless to say, the last week was outstanding!

So, that's been our experience, and we are booked for back to backs on the Whisper in September. I really hope that future posts show that things are settling down.

[blackbird71]

So, that's been our experience, and we are booked for back to backs on the Whisper in September. I really hope that future posts show that things are settling down.

 

IMHO they will be changing back to what you know. One staff member told one person they call these 4 day cruises "Carnival cruises". :( But I book it to test SS and had I know this cruise would be a "Carnival cruises" I would have never booked it. IMHO still there is no excuse for SS to allow their staff on their ships to consider some cruises "Carnival cruises".

[zacho46]

We appreciate the comments and suggestions made in response to our posting. Just to make it clear... we had several conversations with Venetian members aboard the Whisper. Their feedback and observations were consistent with our own - the service aboard this cruise left a lot to be desired. Bringing these issues to the attention of the Cruise Director should have generated the right response. Even if he was not capable of addressing our concerns, he should have cared enough to refer us to the appropriate crew member or pass along our comments to the right person.

 

As a point of comparison, I would recommend Barracino Restaurant on La Forteleza to anyone with extra time in Old San Juan upon the return of a cruise. To give the Silversea tour desk deserved credit, they recommended Barracino when we inquired while aboard the Whisper.

 

Upon arriving in San Juan, we made our way to Barracino and they stored our luggage for the day - enabling us to enjoy one of our favorite walks through the Old City on Saturday morning. When we returned to the restaurant, we enjoyed a delightful lunch in a warm, festive, open-air environment. The waiter was terrific, as he was friendly, prompt and made us feel quite special. After explaining the menu options and daily specials in detail (not done once on the Whisper), he offered us samples of Barracino's real specialty - the 'original' pina colada. He told us about himself and the island, and he was quite proud of his heritage. (Note - While we initiated several conversations with SS staff, responses were guarded and brief). He spared little time in serving us several courses of terrific food, continuously refilled our water glasses, brought extras we did not request and did everything with a huge smile on his face. Here's the best part... at Barracino the bill includes a gratuity. This waiter provided outstanding service for the sake of making us happy. He took great pride in his own work and made us feel that he would really like us to return in the future. Needless to say, we will and we expressed our appreciation for his terrific service in several ways.

 

If Blackbird is correct, and the SS staff regards the short Caribbean voyages as "Carnival cruises," it is well reflected in their service. Perhaps Silversea can learn a lesson from this small, modest restaurant in Old San Juan.

[blackbird71]

If Blackbird is correct, and the SS staff regards the short Caribbean voyages as "Carnival cruises," it is well reflected in their service. Perhaps Silversea can learn a lesson from this small, modest restaurant in Old San Juan.

 

Sounds like a great restaurant....

 

Blackbird still really believes the Silverseas lovers that post here.. But it was not in the cards for this cruise. Somebody ALLOWED the standards to be dropped for these shortie cruises, IMHO...

 

While Blackbird was attacked for posting from the ship by some, I knew a couple posters here were on the 5th sailing and thing needed to get SS Management attention.

[Iamseasick]

Thanks for the posts, Blackbird. BTW, why do you refer to yourself in the third person? Just curious. Thanks.

[marycang]

Our experience on the Puerto Caldera to San Juan cruise , Mar. 18, 2006

 

In Greneda, 2 tours were leaving at 9:30. We went down to deck 3 to go on our tour at 9:20. There was no water for those leaving the ship to take with them. My husband went back up to our suite and took a bottle of water out of our fridge. It was over 15 min. before any water was delivered to the gangway area.

 

In Los Roques, where the only shore trip was to a beach, there were no towels in the gangway area when we arrived to catch the tender. Probably a wait of 5-10 min. for towels to be delivered.

 

In Dominica we planned to leave the ship as soon as it was docked to go to the Cathedral for services. I went down to deck 5 tour desk to get a map of Roseau, met my husband at the gangway and saw on the map that it was a couple of blocks from the cruise dock to the church. WRONG! We did stop to ask a taxi driver which direction to walk to get to the church and he told us we were not at the cruise ship dock, but that SS had free shuttles from where we were docked to the real cruise dock (the one on the map). In our opinion SS should put a map of ports in the Chronicle and should definitely tell passengers where the ship is docked. About 8:00 when the cruise director who announces that the ship is cleared and that passengers can depart the ship he should have said that SS had shuttles to take us to the real cruise dock.

 

One morning our wake-up call came in an hour early and when we turned on the TV. It had the wrong time on the ship info. I called down to room service just to ask what time it was and they did have the right time. So somewhere a clock was off but no one ever gave us an explanation.

 

Our room stewardess was very helpful when we reported the lack of a hairdryer, a broken alarm clock and a burned out light bulb in the bathroom ceiling. She also kept our fridge stocked with sparkling water as requested and bottles of white and red wine when we requested it.

 

Were these "little things"? Yes! For the money it cost, it was too many little things. It just seemed to us that there weren’t enough people working together or that they lacked coordination. I certainly doubted at times that “we were on one of the worlds best small ships”

[cpafn]

Well this does not sound good. We are sailing on the Whisper for the first time April 13. We have been on the Sea Goddess, Seaborne, Radisson to name a few. I hope we do not have the same disappointment.

[white oak]

Myself and three other family members are slated for a 10 day cruise out of Lisbon on April 22, 2006. As a result of reading this post and Blackbird's, I emailed them and provided the link to this thread. I also suggested they pass it on to upper management. The following was Silversea's response.

 

Thank you for your e-mail!

 

At Silversea Cruises we continually endeavor to provide the finest service, commensurate with our status as a 6* luxury cruise line. As a general rule, we do not find 'anonymous' internet postings to be the most reliable source of information.

 

Best Regards

Information Desk at Silversea

 

<Informationdesk@silverseacruises.com>

 

The response speaks for itself. Given its arrogance, the future doesn't look too bright for Silversea. I hope they prove me wrong during our cruise.

 

[Host Dan]

Myself and three other family members are slated for a 10 day cruise out of Lisbon on April 22, 2006. As a result of reading this post and Blackbird's, I emailed them and provided the link to this thread. I also suggested they pass it on to upper management. The following was Silversea's response.

 

Thank you for your e-mail!

 

At Silversea Cruises we continually endeavor to provide the finest service, commensurate with our status as a 6* luxury cruise line. As a general rule, we do not find 'anonymous' internet postings to be the most reliable source of information.

 

Best Regards

Information Desk at Silversea

 

<Informationdesk@silverseacruises.com>

 

The response speaks for itself. Given its arrogance, the future doesn't look too bright for Silversea. I hope they prove me wrong during our cruise.

 

Personally I am VERY surprised. I know for a fact that other cruise lines execs take this forum VERY seriously.

 

Host Dan

[cruiseluv]

Myself and three other family members are slated for a 10 day cruise out of Lisbon on April 22, 2006. As a result of reading this post and Blackbird's, I emailed them and provided the link to this thread. I also suggested they pass it on to upper management. The following was Silversea's response.

 

Thank you for your e-mail!

 

At Silversea Cruises we continually endeavor to provide the finest service, commensurate with our status as a 6* luxury cruise line. As a general rule, we do not find 'anonymous' internet postings to be the most reliable source of information.

 

Best Regards

Information Desk at Silversea

 

<Informationdesk@silverseacruises.com>

 

The response speaks for itself. Given its arrogance, the future doesn't look too bright for Silversea. I hope they prove me wrong during our cruise.]

 

Wow! That's an unbelievably arrogant response. I brought with me the Guest Questionnaire as I was concerned they would throw it out since it will have a lot of negative feedback. It says to send it to one Albert Peter, CEO Silversea Cruises. And it will be signed with the name of the 12 people in my group. Nothing "anonymous" there!

[piatty73]

My wife and I were on the 10 day Costa Rica to San Juan cruise on the Whisper. This was our first sailing on the Whisper but have sailed the Cloud before. Overall we loved the cruise because the weather was great and we met several nice couples that we spent time with.

 

I would have to say that the food was not as good as the last Seabourn sailing we did. We thought the service was very good but that the ship needs an upgrade of soft furnishings and flat screens as well as better exercise equipment. The stop at Gatun in Panama Canal was cancelled because they said there was heavy traffic in the canal. The tour director Clive was great and even spent an afternoon with us on a small island we were taken to by some indians for snorkeling off the coast of Venezuala. He said he did not know anything about the trip when I asked him about it on shore but volunteered to go with us with his radio in case there was a problem with the little boat they were transporting us in. It turned out to be the best snorkeling of the trip.

 

I was told aboard ship that the upcoming 4 day cruise was going to be a hectic one and the crew was not looking forward to it. This is no excuse for poor service but our service was very good. We has a toilet flush problem one morning and it was fixed within 30 minutes.

 

We are going to try Regent in Alaska next, this will be our first time and we are alittle concerned about the large ship.

[Set2Sail]

I also e-mailed SS on Saturday night and got this today from SS:

 

Subject: Re: Silversea Correspondence: An Existing Booking

Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2006 10:52:09 -0400

 

Thank you for your e-mail!

 

We continually strive to provide the very best service, commensurate with our status as a 6* luxury cruise line. As a general rule, we do not find individual internet postings to be the most reliable source of information.

 

Best Regards

Information Desk at Silversea

 

NEARLY IDENTICAL TO WHITE OAK!! Sounds like they get this complaint a lot and have a canned answer. Not good.

 

Jen

[cruiseluv]

I was told aboard ship that the upcoming 4 day cruise was going to be a hectic one and the crew was not looking forward to it. This is no excuse for poor service but our service was very good. We has a toilet flush problem one morning and it was fixed within 30 minutes.

 

We are going to try Regent in Alaska next, this will be our first time and we are alittle concerned about the large ship.

 

Interesting comments and it coincides with my opinion that the problems were driven mainly by poor attitude from the crew. Why I have no idea, but it was palpable.

[texanaust]

Personally I am VERY surprised. I know for a fact that other cruise lines execs take this forum VERY seriously.

 

Host Dan

 

The problem is that the SS information desk is probably staffed by one of the arrogant chumps from reservations. The email was likely never forwarded to the so called "executives."

[blackbird71]

The problem is that the SS information desk is probably staffed by one of the arrogant chumps from reservations. The email was likely never forwarded to the so called "executives."

 

Well I will be putting a name and this email reply into my letter to the CEO of Silverseas.

 

edited to add.. I will write the letter tonight and overnight tomorrow morning there is still hope for the April 5 cruise.

[Jerimiah]

White Oak, Set2sail, Make it three, I also received the identical response. There is a problem in the front office.

[mistrtj]

I have to side with SS's comments about anon internet postings. In my biz, (and I’m in the premium hospitality business) if you want to complain to fix something, then sign your name. If you want to maintain your anonymity and complain for complaining’s sake, then your comments will just go to file 13,,, BUT I'll bet you a free 10 day cruise that they read the posts and took them very seriously! (That’s what keeps them at the top)

Look, this 4 day cruise was trashed by two or three or 10 of the potential 300 passengers on the trip. Is it possible that maybe 10% were unhappy? Sure, any group can have 10% unhappy. Did their reports seem like SS really WAS Carnival? To me it did. But did it change my mind about my June trip? Hardly. Many of the things BB complained about really don’t mean the difference between a good experience and a washout to me. From BB’s posts, i can tell he/she and I have very different priorities, expectations and demands.

 

Even from what I read, I still think I could have found a great time on board for four days.

 

 

lol, mistrtj is still looking forward to his SS trip.:D

[MuseCruiser]

I can hardly imagine considering changing one's travel plans because of anonymous postings by some supposedly disgruntled passengers on a 4 day cruise.

 

To me, SS's response did not come across as arrogant. It came across as factual--anonymous internet postings do not engender a high degree of credibility.

 

Not to say some "real" people weren't disgruntled, and even that they didn't have cause, but to send a thread of anonymous postings to a company really shouldn't be expected to generate a tremendous response. What should they do? Investigate the anonymous posters' complaints?

[zacho46]

The purpose of my original posting was to inform and share my experience. I have learned a lot from many of you by reading your reviews and thought my comments would be of value.

 

For the record, I did not send an anonymous note but mailed a 3-page letter to the CEO and the head of guest relations of Silversea. While I'm not expecting much of a response, I will let you know the outcome.