Possible Silversea convert

[Leejnd4]

Hello SS CC'ers,

 

I'm seriously considering a Silversea cruise in 2009 to the Middle East, and have many questions before I make my decision. Although, to be perfectly honest, I'm 95% there - at this point it would take some pretty big red flags to dissuade me! Still, best to nose around for those red flags now, rather than later. Plus, I would just like to learn more about the Silversea experience, the ship, etc.

 

I have previous journeys on Regent (Voyager & Paul Gaugin), Windstar, Celebrity and {:::shudder:::} Royal Caribbean. I usually cruise with my mother, although I've taken a few with the hubby and kids (now teens – hence the RCI cruises ;) ). This will be an important cruise for me - I’ll be turning 50 in Dec '09, and so this is really my 50th b-day present to myself. Plus, my mother has always had the pyramids at the top of her wish list, and this may be the only chance she'll ever get to see them. So I want it to be a true knock-out experience on all levels!

 

I promise I’ve been doing my reading and research so I’ll try not to ask too many basic questions that I could answer myself. Still, things change, opinions differ, so some of my questions might seem somewhat basic…so I beg your indulgence. It’s always best to get answers straight from the best sources – the passengers!

 

Rather than dump out all my questions in one post, I'll just put what's at the top of the list right now, and see where the discussion goes.

 

Here's what I'm wondering the most: I was originally considering Seabourn for this cruise, but I got scared away when I kept reading about the lack of any real entertainment options on board, and the less-than-optimal layout of the ship for congenial daytime socialization, due to the awkward placement of the pool. These Middle East itineraries include lots of sea days, and if there’s nothing to do but, well, read and nap (and drink all that free champagne), I’m afraid I’d start climbing the walls (or end up in AA). Plus, the small size of their ship concerns me, as I’ll be traveling with Mom and really need other people to talk to! Small ships with little to do are fine when traveling with hubby, but when I’m with Mom, quiet romantic moonlit moments just don’t cut it, if ya know what I mean.

 

So I guess my question is – what exactly IS the entertainment like? I know it differs depending on ship – this cruise is on the Silver Wind, one of the smaller ones. Do they have actual shows at night? I know there are lecturers during the day – is there anything else?

 

As for sea days – what do you experienced SS cruisers usually do on sea days? Does the layout of the Silver Wind lend itself to daytime socialization?

 

My mother is a widow, and, while I’m married, I’ll be “single” (so to speak) on the cruise. Does Silversea generally make an effort to engage solo travelers? Regent did a GREAT job on this…and I’ve read that Seabourn makes a strong effort too…how about SS?

 

Oh, and one more small question - what type of caviar does SS serve? I believe I've read that it is served at no charge - is this still true?

 

That’s all for now…but I have lots more! :D

[meow!]

In case you have not read our previous long posting in this column

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=680435

this will give you an idea of the atmosphere on board a Silversea ship. It will also give you the link to our earlier posting with a detailed description of a standard cabin.

 

While we were on board, we heard that due to popular demand, production shows will return later this year. Silversea ships have elaborate multi-storeyed and well tiered albeit small theatres and can hold reasonable production shows. We heard that the Shadow/Whisper should have those shows by Fall, I don't know about Cloud/Wind. In any case, you should have a nice time on board!

[Leejnd4]

Meow, thanks for the link to that thread - I hadn't read it yet. So far I've been focusing on threads that the title indicated would contain some info I've been looking for. It looks like a great discussion with lots of good info, so I'll go pour through it.

 

I'm definitely curious about the shows on the Wind, as that's the ship I'll be on. Mom and I very much enjoyed all of the shows on Regent's ships, and hope there will be something equivalent on this cruise. The Paul Gauguin is not much larger than the Silver Wind - it carries 330 passengers - so we're hoping there are similar entertainment opportunities. We loved that ship!

[Margate Cruiser]

We have gone on crystal Regent and Seabourn. Of the three if you are looking for mid size with good service take Regent For the best service and yes it's entertainment is not big ship but you will never be board. The entertainment is cabaret style. They have great magicians, comics speakers. They bring on entertainment on board from the local ports. This they did several times when we went around the horn In S.A. We just came off 25 days around the horn and we are booked for 31 day from Athens to Dubai . If we thought we would be bored we would have never booked. There is this one lady on now and she will be on for 10 months. And she does plenty.

[Margate Cruiser]

Your mother will have the best time of all. She will make friends in the first 2 hr's.

[Leejnd4]

Margate - are your answers about a Regent ship? Sorry - it's not clear from your post. If so, unfortunately Regent is out for this cruise - their Middle East itinerary is about $2000 more per person for the same length, which I just can't justify. My options at this point are Silversea, Seabourn, or Oceania (which I've pretty much ruled out).

 

I've already sailed Regent twice, so I'm pretty familiar with their entertainment options. I'm definitely looking for more info on how Silversea compares with them, especially on the smaller ships (Wind, to be precise).

 

Also, I'm curious why you think my mother will have a better time than me? Hey, I'm pretty friendly...won't I make any friends in the first two hours?

[meow!]

From what I have read, RSSC pricing has increased a lot in the last few years. Before, they used to be 80% of Silversea's pricing, now they appear to be substantially more expensive than Silversea.

 

Oceania's pricing has sky-rocketed in the last four years, by 50+%, and they are still usually overbooked despite the price increase. Pricing depends on market supply and demand. Apparently their boss FDR is particularly capable of improving his company's profit margin, with the market more than accepting his ever increasing prices. Now that RSSC has become a division of the Apollo-FDR cruise line, it is probable that RSSC pricing will increase further!

[unfathomable]

As for sea days – what do you experienced SS cruisers usually do on sea days? Does the layout of the Silver Wind lend itself to daytime socialization?

The pool is the main centre in the daytime and weather permitting, many people congregate there. However, we find we meet most people primarily at meals, and then, on a rather smaller ship than Regent, we see them again around the ship.

 

Does Silversea generally make an effort to engage solo travelers?

There is a singles party early in each cruise and I'm sure you'd be welcome there. And the Maitre d' will seat you at larger tables in the restaurant: he'll ask you whether you'd like to join a table with others as you enter. You can join in the "traditional" trivia and other activities if you choose. But that's about it.

 

Oh, and one more small question - what type of caviar does SS serve? I believe I've read that it is served at no charge - is this still true?

So-called "American caviar". It's free (or at least "included"). You can have it every night, or delivered by room service. Just ask.

[Margate Cruiser]

I miss spoke. Sure you will make friends just as fast. What I was trying to say that the ship are great match makers. There are fair amount of single men and women on board. Almost everyday invitations go out to the guests and they invite them to sit with the entertainers officers etc. Being your with your mother that you both would get an invitation. There was no captains night on our last cruise to SA. The captain ate his meals with the guests including his top officers. I must say each seabourn ship is different when it comes to that, but it's true in most cases. If you pick seabourn i have a coupon for 400.00 for any new passenger on seabourn that you can use as a ship board credit. This is a standard thing that seabourn offers.

[Dolebludger]

Lee:

 

Hello again! I have found what meow says above about comparative pricing to be true, and thus have taken my last two cruises on the SS Cloud and Wind as opposed to my old friend, Regent. I think you will find SS's ships to be virtual smaller copies of Regent's ships. And you will find the on-board experience to be very much the same. To me, that means that both lines have room for improvement in sea day activities -- but neither line is better than the other. I know what you mean about avoiding the need for AA. On my last SS cruise (ended two days ago) one guy woke up each morning and started drinking and did not stop until late each night! Don't know how he did it. It would have killed me!

 

These days, I tend to chose between SS and Regent based on price, itinerary, and my personal schedule. I can find no qualitative difference between these two lines. I also have my eye out for a competitive price and itinerary I want on Seabourn, as I'd like to try it. But so far, Seabourn's prices have been higher than SS's and Regent's.

[Leejnd4]

Richard, nice to see you again! Yeah, I've been missing from the boards for over a year now. We stuck to land-based vacations for the past year, visiting Costa Rica, Belize, Hong Kong and Bali. But I'm ready to get out to the high seas again. :)

 

Thanks for the feedback on SS. If we find the Silver Wind experience to be similar to the PG, that will be perfect! We had a marvelous time on that cruise, and met many wonderful people, some of whom we're still in touch with.

 

I have many more questions...some of which might seem picayune, but hey I like to know what to expect. ;)

 

jgibbs - thanks for the info on the caviar. And speaking of picayune...do you happen to know what KIND of American caviar it is? I'm hoping it's farmed sturgeon, which is usually very close to wild-caught Caspian sturgeon. If so I'll be very happy! There are other types of American caviar - paddlefish, for example - which are not my faves.

 

Other questions - I've been reading about the Saletta restaurant, and I'd love to get some opinions as to whether or not it's actually worth the exhorbitant fee. Are the menus really that much better than what is served in the restaurant? While I doubt we'd be willing to pay the full pop for the wine-inclusive meal, we might be willing to do the $30 pp and buy one bottle of wine, but only if the wine is worth the price. Have you experienced SS'ers found the pricing of the wine from the Epicurian list to be fair?

 

And enough about food...how about shore excursions? Are they reasonably priced, well run? What is the overall opinion of how SS does with shore excursions? I'm normally a person who likes to make private arrangements - in the Med I think we did almost all of our excursions privately. But the Middle East is an area where I'm not real comfortable making private arrangements and trying to get around on our own (two women alone is not always a good thing in certain foreign countries.) I would love to read some opinions of SS's excursions.

 

Thanks again for this great discussion!

[newlondon]

We spent 2 weeks on SW last summer. In our opinion Saletta was not worth the extra money, especially for the wine. Whenever the wine was not to our liking in the main dining room we just asked the somelier for something different which was always delivered with a smile.

We are doing a Regent cruise this summer and I researched private shore excursions. Because of the dollar/euro problems the prices are staggering. We have decided to use the ship's offerings. We used SS last year and were very pleased with the itineraries, guides and the overall organization. I think you may wish to go that route.

[meow!]

... but only if the wine is worth the price.

We forget the specifics now, but we found the "premium wine list" in La Champagne (Shadow/Whisper) to be about the same price as on land. For the $30 extra per person, you have a set dinner and a scroll "certificate" which is your menu for souvenir. If you don't finish the bottle of wine you have purchased, they will deliver it to your cabin the next day.

[Dolebludger]

On the subject of excursions offered by the ship, SS does have them, and they are (IMO) reasonably priced usually. They don't seem to have the variety of offerings regent has, due to the smaller number of guests on the SS ships. And, for some reason, SS likes to schedule its excursions pretty early in the AM -- even if the ship will be in port until well into the evening. That's a negative for me, as I don't get around much in the AM on vacation!

[Leejnd4]

Meow - thanks - and the issue of EVER not finishing a bottle of wine will never come up - at least not with me there. ;)

 

Richard - I'm not much of a morning person either, so I'm with ya. Good to know you feel they are a good value. That's one of my issues with Oceania - I've heard mulitple times that they do a poor job on their excursions. I did look at what SS typically offered in these ports on previous cruises, and there seems to be an appropriate number of offerings. Many of these ports are places that have one primary target (i.e. Aqaba - Petra is the primary draw), or they are odd places we know nothing about (Djibouti - has anyone even HEARD of that place?) so having a lot of off-the-beaten-path excursions is probably not important - we'll just take the main offerings.

 

I have more questions, but I gotta get some work done so I'll come back with more later. Thanks so much to all of you!

[CASHIPman]

Hi LeeAnne...

I took the Silver Cloud through the Middle East. Click for my review. I hope you find it useful!

:)

[DebbieH103]

LeeAnne, hopefully I can offer some help from two directions - you can go to the Silversea trip reports section of the member reviews on CC and find my Dubai trip from December to hear about how SS handled the Middle East (didn't go to Egypt), and I have another report on Wind from the Caribbean that talks a lot about entertainment day and night. My reviews are many reams.

 

That being said...were I going with my Mom, I would need a bigger ship, but my mom doesn't drink! Anyway, I have met a number of mothers and daughters on SS, and they did some things together and some apart.

 

Sea days on SS are great. There is something or several things going on every hour. We often have wanted to do two things at the same time. They do things like bridge, trivia, golf putting, wine tasting, food tasting/wine pairing, lectures, nutrition lectures, spa specials, Italian lessons, bridge tours, and things of this nature. Those days, you can also make lunch a 5 course experience (as you can any day) or catch a flick.

 

On our middle east trip, sometimes she had shows at 3 pm or 5 pm. I really liked that.

 

You will find the atmosphere conducive to meeting people. I have gone solo on Regent twice, so I know what you are talking about with their great solo program. All 3 times on SS, I was with my husband. However, we each do our own thing, and people just fit in. The people are so interesting and accepting.

 

We also self tour a lot, but only in Dubai did we do our own thing. We were in some of the really conservative areas where dress and the whole women acceptance thing was an issue, so it was nice to have guides everywhere. We were largely sheltered from most of this, while we saw plenty and never felt like we missed anything. I think you will like the SS touring experience. I would sign up for my stuff in advance.

 

As already discussed, right now Wind doesn't have the production shows, and they may or may not bring them back after Whisper and Cloud do. When they don't do those, they do things like comedy, magician, a singer and normally in a week will rotate 3 acts that perform twice each, and one night they might show a movie or one of the 3 will do another performance or the staff will do something.

 

If you attend a few of the daytime activities early on, you will meet some of the social staff, and they will take care of you.

 

Also, they will likely have a pool bbq one night with some sort of local entertainment.

[Dolebludger]

Yes, we just got off the Wind/Caribbean two days ago. The pool-side bbq was more like a feast.

 

And back to excursion costs, snorkeling excursions of 3 1/2 hours cost $54 pp booked through the ship.

 

It is a bit of a close call for us between Regent and SS. But much of our Regent experience with their larger ships happened back when they were only about 1/3 full, and that makes a big positive difference. When I compare our last Regent Voyager cruise and our last SS cruise (ended two days ago) which were both 100% full, I have to give the SS Wind the edge. 700 guests on the Voyager is just too much for us, whereas the 290 guests on the Wind seemed to be no bother at all. Especially since the cruise on the Wind was several hundred dollars LESS than a comparable Regent cruise.

[Leejnd4]

More great info! CASHIPman, I read your review - very thorough. DebbieH103 - I couldn't find your Middle East review, but I did find your Caribbean one, which I skimmed. There was something in there that reminded me of another question:

 

Is the sofa large enough to sleep on? I ask this because, well, Mom snores pretty badly. I wear earplugs so it usually doesn't disturb me, but sometimes she'll get to sawing logs so bad it'll pierce right through them. On Regent's Voyager, when it got bad like this she'd go curl up on the sofa for an hour or so (with the curtans closed) to put some distance between us and allow me to fall asleep. I'm hoping that the sofa on the Silver Wind is large enough for her to do this comfortably. I noticed that the curtains do close in the Wind's cabins, so if the sofa's large enough, this will solve the problem.

 

Richard - I don't want to get into a cruiseline-bashing thing here, but I have to mention that I have some good friends who've been on two Regent cruises in the past year, both of which were very poor in comparison to their numerous previous Regent cruises. In fact they just recently got off a Regent Panama Canal cruise, and told me about some pretty horrendous service lapses. And these are normally die-hard Regent fans, with whom I've cruised on Regent before and had a GREAT time, so I totally trust their reports. Their issues were primarily service-related, and also had to do with having a full ship - being unable to even get into Compass Rose without at least an hour wait, horrendously long lines at the lunch buffet, VERY poorly handled shore excursions, unbelievably rude service from the woman at the tour desk, their cabin being untouched by their room attendant until late afternoon (so they came back from an all-day excursion to a messy cabin)...and that's just a small sampling of what they told me. They basically felt like they were subjected to the same service they would expect on a mass-market ship, at top-of-the-luxury-market prices. So I have to admit that their reports (along with the price disparity) had a lot to do with my ruling Regent out for this cruise. We're not abandoning the line altogether, but I, and they, plan on waiting for a while to see if Regent gets its act together before we will consider going on them again.

 

In the meantime, so far I'm likin' what I'm hearing about Silversea!

 

Oh, and in case anyone is curious - the itinerary we're looking at is the Nov. 19 '09 Silver Wind 15-day cruise, visiting the following ports: Port Said Egypt, Sharm-El-Sheikh Egypt, Aqaba Jordan, Safaga Egypt, Djibouti, Lamu Kenya, and ending in Mombasa Kenya. Yes that's a looong way off, but I want to make a final decision soon and get my deposit in, to guard against any price increases!

[TheFerret]

Djibouti - has anyone even HEARD of that place?

 

My brother-in-law visited there and brought back the most beautiful black pearls that were super-reasonably priced. (Around $150 for an opera length strand.) I got them re-strung because there were no knots between the pearls, but they look fantastic and I am so happy with them.

 

So, if you like pearls you may be in luck.

[Leejnd4]

$150? Are you serious? And these are real black pearls? We did a French Polynesia cruise about 15 months ago, and while I LOVED the black pearls, they were super-expensive. I ended up just buying three individual pearls and putting them on a chain I already own, because there is no way I could justify spending what they were asking for a full string of them. I'll be looking for these in Djibouti!

 

CASHIPman - something else I wanted to mention from your review - I liked what you said about doing a private Petra tour. Given your description, that may be one port stop in which we do a private tour rather than a ship tour.

 

I also wanted to ask you if you felt that the overnight Luxor/Valley of the Kings tour from Aqaba was a must-do? And do you recall what the price was? I know my Mom wants to do it, but I plan on staying at the ship and going scuba-diving at Safaga, which is supposed to be some of the best Red-Sea diving there is. I'm kinda hoping you say that it was a good tour, but not one that is an absolute must, like Petra. (I've been told mulitple times NOT to miss Petra - but luckily with this itinerary we're at Aqaba for two days, so I can scuba dive one day, and see Petra the other!)

[Dolebludger]

Lee:

 

I certainly don't want to get into cruise line bashing either. All I can say is the last time I was on Regent it was called Radisson, on the PG in '05, and all was great then. I do know that there is a tendency in business to take success and use it as an excuse to reduce quality. Whether this is true of Regent or not, I do not know.

 

What I do know is that I just got back from SS two days ago, and all was great, except for the weather for which the cruise line is not to blame. Indeed, the Capitan did the best possible in altering the itinerary to keep us in the best weather possible. In light of the fact that SS is often the cheapest of what I consider to be the lux lines (Regent, Seabourn, and Silversea in alpha order), I do feel that they do deliver the true lux cruise experience. Again, I can't comment on Seabourn as I have never cruised them, but will just as soon as I find one of their itineraries, times, and prices that I like.

[TheFerret]

The pearls sure look real. They are lusturous and if you look closely you can see that they are not perfect machine made fakes, i.e., each one is slightly different.

 

They are not as big as the Tahitian ones, which I also salivated over and couldn't afford. Sigh.

 

Now I should have said that the brother-in-law was on military deployment there, so he probably got a better price than cruise ship passengers might. But it should be worth it to check them out. Good luck, I hope you find something lovely!

[meow!]

Djibouti - has anyone even HEARD of that place?

 

My brother-in-law visited there and brought back the most beautiful black pearls that were super-reasonably priced. (Around $150 for an opera length strand.) I got them re-strung because there were no knots between the pearls, but they look fantastic and I am so happy with them.

 

So, if you like pearls you may be in luck.

Even though we don't know much about that topic, it may be safer if you get some expert to examine it and find out what it really is. No matter how cheap a place it, they should be able to export that and get more than ten times as much instead of selling it to you, the price is suspiciously low!

[simonv]

I also wanted to ask you if you felt that the overnight Luxor/Valley of the Kings tour from Aqaba was a must-do? And do you recall what the price was? I know my Mom wants to do it, but I plan on staying at the ship and going scuba-diving at Safaga, which is supposed to be some of the best Red-Sea diving there is. I'm kinda hoping you say that it was a good tour, but not one that is an absolute must, like Petra. (I've been told mulitple times NOT to miss Petra - but luckily with this itinerary we're at Aqaba for two days, so I can scuba dive one day, and see Petra the other!)

 

Petra was nice and I enjoyed it, but the Luxor overnight was the highlight of the trip for me. I would love to go back to Luxor and spend a few days there. The Silversea's overnight trip wasn't long enough. For any trip to Egypt, Luxor is a must.

 

Our guide in Cairo whose husband was a diver, told me Safaga had some of the best Red Sea diving. Sharm El-Sheikh was a big disappointment.

 

If I were you, I'd go to Luxor. There are other better and more unspoiled diving destinations in the world, such as Raja Ampat or Komodo in Indonesia, or Mergui in Andaman Sea, but there's only one Luxor.