Silver Whisper - Disappointment

[mdmourges]

What I find interesting is that although I cannot address the bad service issue (I wasn't there), I am interested in the posts about what a "rip-off", "fraud" the trip was. I was actually booked on this cruise (changed to a longer one cuz 4 days is not enough and our 10 day ,two weeks prior on SW was wonderful). The rate being offered for the 4 day was 50% off list. So lets assume most people paid 40% off list. A midship veranda was listed at something like $2,000 for the trip. At 40% off it was $1,200 or about $300/day/person. Having been on a number of RC cruises, their Grand Suites are priced about the same. This was the price of a 3/8/06 cruise on Serenade in a GS. I know cuz we were originally booked on this one as well. The rooms are similar. However, there is no alcohol included, no current run in-suite movies, the food is not nearly as good, etc., etc. So, you may say your expectations were not met but to say you were ripped off based on pricing is not a valid statement. I know from a prior post that BB was on a 100% single supplement so I guess his consumer decision should be viewed differently from those that paid 1/2 as much.

 

Mark

[cruiseluv]

So far no CCer that was on the Mar 28 cruise has said service was good or great. But we are running 100% that it had problems. And I am sure the 1st time cruisers on FREE tickets loved the FREE cruise.

 

As for the Magtag repairman sorry the Cruise Consulant, because I was on the same floor as he was and I passed his office going to the bank of four elevators, sad to say he was lonely most of the time. On my RSSC cruise there was always somebody in there talking to their CC.

 

Amen to that!

[cruiseluv]

What I find interesting is that although I cannot address the bad service issue (I wasn't there), I am interested in the posts about what a "rip-off", "fraud" the trip was. I was actually booked on this cruise (changed to a longer one cuz 4 days is not enough and our 10 day ,two weeks prior on SW was wonderful). The rate being offered for the 4 day was 50% off list. So lets assume most people paid 40% off list.Mark

 

 

We were calling the cruise "La gran estafa" which ,as Quepaquete ( poster also on this cruise) pointed out, translates to "The Great Fraud".We were not using the word "estafa"( fraud) to mean that they stole our money but to mean that it was a fraud, a myth, that this was a "6 stars" experience. Maybe we should have called it "The Debunking of the Great Myth".

[mdmourges]

We were calling the cruise "La gran estafa" which ,as Quepaquete ( poster also on this cruise) pointed out, translates to "The Great Fraud".We were not using the word "estafa"( fraud) to mean that they stole our money but to mean that it was a fraud, a myth, that this was a "6 stars" experience. Maybe we should have called it "The Debunking of the Great Myth".

 

Hmmmmmmmmmm

[cechase]

Just thought that I would throw our two cents in here. Since we have booked the Dec. 12, 2006 9 night cruise on Silver Shadow, we visited the SS CC forum [our usual forum is for Celebrity and Celebrity Cruise Connections.]

 

Well, lo and behold the Silver Whisper which was launched in 2001 and is 4 or 5 years old is worn out and needs refurbishing, the service and food was not to the pax liking, and apparently some pax did not receive the value from SS that they expected.

 

So, hop over to the Celebrity forum, and the pax are bashing Celebrity's Mercury unmercifully because of a norovirus outbreak, along with some unkind comments about the condition of this 10 year old vessel, its staff, food, etc.

 

So, picking up some hints, visited the RSSC forum for the first time this morning, and lo and behold, pax are ripping RSSC's Mariner up one side and down the other, primarily food and services issues.

 

All of this bashing causes one to scratch one's head and wonder what level of service, quality of food, and cruise experience would satisfy any of these people.

 

We always book a Royal Suite with butler on Celebrity, and never have had a bad cruise, in fact, they have all been wonderful experiences. Our last one was in January of this year on Mercury for 11 nights all the way down to Ixtapa and Acapulco. Prior to our cruise [and we had cruised on Mercury before] on these forums we read about all kinds of complaints about Mercury and how this 10 year old vessel was not much more than a garbage scow! Well we found out that these complaints were not well founded. In fact, many of the public areas as well as our Royal Suite had been refurbished, and the staff was absolutely wonderful. Our butler, cabin stewardess and her asst. were the best team that we had ever had.

 

Was it all rosy? No. Our waiter and her assistant were very poor, and our table mates interceded with the Asst. maitre'd Steve to correct the situation, and the asst. was replaced. The waiter did not improve, and on the last night dinner appealled to us to give her a good write up on the comments document which we filled out, and rated her poor. That was a first for us. However, did that really affect our overall cruise experience, no! It was a fabulous experience for us.

 

We posted a review of our Mercury experience, and did relate the above negative, but primarily the overwhelming portion of the review was about all of the positives that we experienced.

 

On the subject of norovirus on Mercury. On our January cruise, we noticed that the crew had placed the globe handwashing dispensers all over the ship, at the buffet, leading into the dining room, and at the exits from the ship, and on the piers and tender piers. My DW also brought her own, and we religiously used all of them. We noticed that many pax did not use them, and I observed men in the men's room, who didn't even wash their hands. There are also reports that infants wearing diapers were in the hot tubs on the pool deck, even though the signage indicates that they are for adult use only. While only a very small percentage of crew and pax contracted this stomach flu like virus, Celebrity in our opinion provided all of the means for pax to protect themselves from this bug.

 

Oh, and we ran into Blackbird1 on a SS forum which I started inquiring about the stocking of our en suite bar. Blackbird1 was kind enought to provide some information, and we thought that he was a seasoned SS cruiser. Guess we were wrong.

[blackbird71]

Well my 1 1/2 page letter is written and will be going out overnight mail for Mr Peters to have before noon tomorrow. The last three paragraphs are

There are a number of Cruise Critic members on the April 5 sailing.

 

As for myself, there is an old saying about first impressions, and had this been my 2nd or greater Silverseas’ cruise, the problems I (Blackbird71) saw on this cruise, I would have just mailed you or Mr. Sansone and hoped you would take care of them.

 

But as it is, Mr. Peters, you will be receiving this the morning of the 5th, so please pick up your phone and insure the April 5th cruise is not another "Carnival Cruise" and then please remove me from all future mailings from Silverseas or the Venetian Society.

With one call Mr. Peters could stop this 4 dayer being another "Carnival Cruise".

• If people requested their in-room bar setup online or thru their TA, fulfill it. If they did not have the room stewardess ASK them what they want.
  
• If you have new service staff in the dining rooms, make sure they are supervised.
  
• If a passenger requests a special meal, write it down and get back to the passenger if you can not do it.
  
• Supervise any new cooks to see they are up to SS standards.
  
• When pouring water in the buffet restaurant, ask if the passengers want any thing else to drink.
  
• :) Source some raspberries/blueberries somebody may like them on the buffet.
  
• Four nights of "Chicken Consomme with Matzo Balls" is a little too much, IMHO
  
• Plan your tendering operation so everybody does not show up at the same time down in the tender dock.
  
• IF booked passengers emailed you about service problems, re email them with a better answer than your people did.
  

Do not know if this will be done but what am I out other than the $14 for overnight mail.

 

Later gators....

[cruiseluv]

I think it is a nice gesture as you're not asking anything for yourself. I know that if I were in the April 5 sailing I would be very thankful to you and the others that have taken the time to quickly report the service issues to SS management and hopefully prevent a repeat.

[quepaquete]

Just returned from the March 28 4 day "Carnival" cruise onboard the Whisper & will like to share my "small stuff" experience that at the end of the 4th day added to a whole "big stuff".

Our expectations were high as SS "IS" considered one of the best of small cruise line, but it didn't took a lot of time to face the crude reality of a mediocre & erratic service, tasteless food, unattentive (few exceptions) & unsufficient staff, etc... etc... in one word it seemed like an "in training cruise" (including the chef). I think someone wrote that indeed it was. Not impressed at all.

..............

 

I was going to write a detail report on the good and the bad parts of our experience but don't want to "beat a dead horse". In my opinion SS did not meet our expectacions of a 6* service. We have sailed on HAL on a deluxe suite, on Princess on the Owners Suite and mini-suites, and Celebrity on Concierge level. We have stayed at Fourseasons (our fav) and Ritz Carltons, Hiltons as well as on Courtyard by Marriott and even Motel 6. We know what to expect from each level.

Our tradition is to have diner on the best restaurant of the city we visit on the last evening. So we have had worderful meal in Singapore, Hong Kong, Paris, Rome, Venice (the best so far), etc., you get the point. I just want to give you a little background on ourselvers, so you don't think we don't know what we are talking about. The service on the silversea 4-day cruise was bad.

Our plan was to relax and we did. By the third day we were expecting mediocre service so we did not feel disappointed. I have to say, that our suite attendant was excellent, she made up for the rest of the crew.

The reason we chose SS is because we were looking at a itinerary on November on SS, and before booking we decided to give them a try with the shortie. We are looking elsewhere, now!! Would we book SS again??? I would never say never!

Jorge

[mdmourges]

Just did a 10 day recently and it was great. Really. I guess SS is not good at 4 day gigs. Oh well, sorry we won't be seeing you in the future. We booked another 7 day while we were onboard. I don't doubt what you say but it truley boogles my mind that the experience and comments folks made while we were on our cruise are soooooo 180 from anything I am hearing here. Oh well. I think what Mr. Peters will do is not have anymore 4 days sampler cruises, thats for sure!!! lololo

[mistrtj]

Just did a 10 day recently and it was great. Really.

:rolleyes:

 

You must've been on one of the FREE CRUISES we hear so much about!;)

[Sparticus]

Carl and Andrea are at their hotel, and I imagine they might be glad they missed some of this.

 

Darn the SJU Ritz-Carlton and their complimentary high-speed access. MrsS and I still get to keep tabs on this thread.

 

Of course, if the cruise is a bust, the SS-CCer's have supplied a host of reasons:

• It' a short cruise and the staff doesn't like them.
  
• There are (potentially) some people who had someone else pay for their cruise. (Although I don't think this applies to any of us on CC.)
  
• The cruise was sold to some pax as a discount. (Does this mean that Silver Sailings with bonus Ventian Society discounts would be worse? You gotta assume that if this particular piece of logic holds.)

Did I miss anything? We really hope that this voyage lives up to our original expectations. I guess we'll know soon enough.

[MuseCruiser]

We've been on 3 or 4 SS cruises, and about the same number on Seabourn. Two on Radisson. Without question, SS beats the others hands down. The last Seabourn cruise was a disaster, with threats of lawsuits by a couple who had been harassed, and rumours about the Captain and a crew member that I would just as soon have not heard.

 

Things do happen, and I'm sure some cruises don't live up to either expectations or standards of the line. Maybe this was one of them? I don't know.

 

We're booked on the Shadow in May to China; will report back.

 

Is some of this specific to the Whisper? I understand that it's the usual ship used for charters over the other ships. Not that it should be an excuse, but it is interesting. Is the Whisper of lesser standards so to speak than the other ships? Its the only one of the SS ships on which we haven't sailed.

[DebbieH103]

Don't know why so many are dying to say we didn't pay anything for this cruise. For 4 nights, it was in the 3900 range w/ the 40% off when tax was included. Does not include $830 pp air or unknown transfer costs. As I said, almost $1000 a night in midship verandah booked exactly 60 days out. Those booking the week before got 50% off but still would have paid well over 800 per night. I am talking per couple.

 

Sparticus and others, let's enjoy ourselves tomorrow. We have to leave for SLU airport at 6:30 am, so we are off to dinner.

[meow!]

Is some of this specific to the Whisper? I understand that it's the usual ship used for charters over the other ships. Not that it should be an excuse, but it is interesting. Is the Whisper of lesser standards so to speak than the other ships? Its the only one of the SS ships on which we haven't sailed.

I don't know about now, but several years ago, President Bush, Prime Minister Blair, President Putin and the German Chancellor spent a couple of nights aboard the Whisper celebrating some anniversary of St. Petersburg.

[simonv]

What's with this site? I can't get the third page of this thread. Can you?

[blackbird71]

What's with this site? I can't get the third page of this thread. Can you?

 

After my last post something got added and I can not view with Firefox, it crashes. So I am viewing this on Apple's Safari... :)

 

DebbieH103 and others I am hoping this cruise is not the same as mine :) Maybe Mr. Peters after getting my overnight mail will read this thread and get some blueberries. :D

 

My Dec cruise was cheaper per day than the four dayer. I brought the four dayer on a 2-1 with a 100% single sup. Which means I means I pay the same amount as any couple would for the same suite. But the Dec 12 was 50% off with a single sup of 150% so I would have paid only 175% of the couple rate.

 

At my second night I was at a table with two couples both on company paid tickets. The third night was my first with the two guys from Ca and the other couple were on a gift cruise by their children.

[surfklutz]

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?

 

I am with Host Dan here - I am surprised at the return email. Feedback should be taken seriously - no matter the source. Certainly there was a log of problems during that particular cruise that headquarters could review and see that these complaints were not of someone's imagination but stem from service problems that occured on that particular sailing. More often than not, service of the headquarters is reflective of the service onboard. Shame on Silver Seas for the curt response.

 

I don't believe the poster "wants" anything other than to be heard and acknowledged. Would that have been so hard?

[Shift Colors]

What's with this site? I can't get the third page of this thread. Can you?

 

Geez, I'm happy to read someone else has the same problem.

[Sparticus]

Don't know why so many are dying to say we didn't pay anything for this cruise. For 4 nights, it was in the 3900 range w/ the 40% off when tax was included. Does not include $830 pp air or unknown transfer costs. As I said, almost $1000 a night in midship verandah booked exactly 60 days out. Those booking the week before got 50% off but still would have paid well over 800 per night. I am talking per couple.

 

Sparticus and others, let's enjoy ourselves tomorrow. We have to leave for SLU airport at 6:30 am, so we are off to dinner.

 

Debbie -

 

Don't let the messages here get you down. I think that for every SS veteran that posts here there must be 276 (approx.) others who don't. After all, you cannot possibly run a cruiseline on these people alone. :D

 

I'm probably in deep, deep, trouble for letting this out of the bag (I haven't run it by my wife yet) but we're in 735, so feel free to say hello. Normally, I wouldn't post our cabin, but I'd hate to be deemed an "anonymous Internet poster" later.

 

See ya soon.