A new review of the Shadow

[ging466]

I just discovered this new review of the Shadow

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=56801

 

Anyone care to comment?

 

Cheers

ging466

[chicagogal]

I just discovered this new review of the Shadow

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=56801

 

Anyone care to comment?

 

Cheers

ging466

 

This certainly makes me nervous about our upcoming trip aboard the Shadow! Do others have different (hopefully more positive) recent experiences?

[avalon1025]

First, the pier in San Francisco is old and cold, not Silverseas fault. Second, sorry the poster had a bad cruise, but I sailed the Shadow in December and it was wonderful. I am looking forward to joining her again on the 18th. Seems like this sailor would not be happy regardless of how great the ship and service were. Honestly, who can not figure out on their own how to rotate the TV?

[CatServants]

My DW and I just returned from the Jul 20 SF-Alaska-SF cruise on Shadow - I suspect the very cruise the reviewer is writing about! This was our sixth cruise, first on SS, and while we've never before posted an "official" review, I guess we're going to have do so now. It will probably have to wait until this weekend, though, as work/home catchup aren't leaving much spare time on weekdays. Our bottom line: this was our first cruise on SS, so we can't speak as to how it was previously, but we found the experience so much superior to our cruise last year on the Celebrity Millenium (in the PH suite with butler service, I might add) that we booked a cruise next year on the Whisper while still on board! I'll also try and directly address some of the reviewer's specific items directly in this thread later this week as time permits, but with the caveat that since everybody has different values what seems unacceptable to one may be viewed as a very minor item by another.

[south seas sue]

I don't know what ship she was traveling on, but it sure wasn't our experience on the Shadow in June. Talk about fresh fish and lots of it! Fish I had never heard of before, in addition to the tried and true FRESH halibut and salmon. They servedfish soup for lunch on the pool deck one day in a huge caldron, with mussels and clams - I had more than one bowl I assure you. Food was marvelous. I can't imagine her discontent.

 

As far as accents are concerned, yes, many have accented English. As far as I can tell, most of the cabin and kitchen staff are either Indonesian or Filipino, and can have accents. I never had a problem making myself understood, however, and our steward was SUPERB.

 

I just don't get it how such a luxury cruise with service staff ready to fulfill your every wish, can get such a bad rap!

 

Yes, sometimes the books in the library weren't stacked neatly (!!), and yes, they weren't the up to the minute best sellers, but what a minor nitpick. Pulleeeze.

 

:confused:

[ging466]

I must admit the review was quite a surprise - especially about the frozen food.

 

I heartily agree with south seas sue: "I just don't get it how such a luxury cruise with service staff ready to fulfill your every wish, can get such a bad rap!"

 

For those of you concerned about the Shadow, Keith1010 is on the Shadow currently and is posting messages at:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1003729&page=3

 

Cheers

ging466

[spook1]

Over the years in reading Cruise Critic and dining with people on ships I have come to the conslusion some people leave home to spend some time at sea so they can bitch. You seem to fit that mold. Enjoy your next crusie non XYZ Cruise Line.

[ging466]

My DW and I just returned from the Jul 20 SF-Alaska-SF cruise on Shadow - I suspect the very cruise the reviewer is writing about! This was our sixth cruise, first on SS, and while we've never before posted an "official" review, I guess we're going to have do so now. It will probably have to wait until this weekend, though, as work/home catchup aren't leaving much spare time on weekdays. Our bottom line: this was our first cruise on SS, so we can't speak as to how it was previously, but we found the experience so much superior to our cruise last year on the Celebrity Millenium (in the PH suite with butler service, I might add) that we booked a cruise next year on the Whisper while still on board! I'll also try and directly address some of the reviewer's specific items directly in this thread later this week as time permits, but with the caveat that since everybody has different values what seems unacceptable to one may be viewed as a very minor item by another.

 

Hi CatServants

 

I'm sure that everyone will be interested to read your review, especially if you were on the same cruise as the OP.

 

Cheers

ging466

[duct tape]

WOW! I have had mediocre voyagers on the Whisper but never the Shadow. She must have had a very bad day!

[Goldens4]

That review was hard to digest. Our 4th SS is going to be on the Shadow for Thanksgiving. And, it will be our 4th on the Shadow. We have never had an experience like that. I agree with Spook. Some people will bitch and moan and find things to complain about. :p to the person who wrote it and please don't do a Shadow cruise again. To anyone else, don't be nervous if this will be your first cruise on the Shadow, we wouldn't be on our 4th if it was so awful.

[SantaAna,CA]

Thank you, and to everyone else who was encouraging. My first trip on the Shadow, and on Silversea, is coming up in November. I was horrified at this review. I'm sure I will love the cruise. I consider the $$ I pay to be for the privilege of setting my foot on a ship with only 382 passengers. Anything else great is "gravy".

 

Blessings to you all,

 

Jane

[cechase]

Like the others who have posted I was slightly miffed at bingogirl3's review of Silver Shadow. She was certainly not talking about the Silver Shadow that I knew and wrote a multipart review about several years ago. You can find the beginning of the review on Silversea Cruise Line Page 21 on the Cruise Critic boards - entitled - "Silver Shadow - 12/12/2006 - 12/21/2006. While the review includes comparisions with my late wifes and my experiences in a royal suite multiple times on Celebrity Cruise Line, it was a recalling of the wonderful experience that we had on Silver Shadow.

 

I have both embarked and disembarked from San Francisco's Pier 35 several times, and it is not a very nice place, just an industrial style pier with stairs and an elevator. Certainly, nothing like Canada Place in Vancover.

 

Incidentally, am going to enjoy Silver Shadow in November for the Thanksgiving cruise, and we already have some interesting cruise critic members going on that cruise.

[chrislcruise]

But I know I was on the Shadow out of SF on July 20th and everything about the cruise was magical!!

 

This was our first SS after many Regents, Princess and Celebrity and it far surpassed our expectations.

 

I will write a longer review in a couple of days.

[chicagogal]

... to hear all of you say such positive things about the Shadow, since this will be our first time aboard her. (although we have done the Wind and the Whisper) I was hoping the OP was all wrong.

 

Now if we could just find some other people going on Septmeber 3rd! The more the merrier!

[CatServants]

Ging466 and all, here are my thoughts on how bingogirl3's experience contrasted with ours:

 

Although we had not requested Early Embarkation, our bus from the airport terminal to the port was late so we were comped it. It took less than 10 minutes from the time the bus stopped until we were walking into our cabin, champagne glasses in hand.

 

We too were confused by the TV rotation and also how to get a CD to play. Our room attendant immediately explained how to swivel the TV, was a little unsure about how to play a CD (I gathered the flat screens were still somewhat recent), asked her assistant for help, who also couldn't get it to play a CD. They came back later that afternoon with detailed instructions and discovered there was a problem with the TV setup itself. They immediately called engineering, a technician came by shortly, found a loose cable, tightened it, no more problems.

 

We got everything we wanted for our mini-bar within an hour of two of our (first and only) request.

 

We saved the menus from the cruise and I counted at least seven (7) entrees of fresh fish, including two of silver salmon once we were in Alaskan waters. I talked to Sean Emslie, Executive Chef, during the cruise and he confirmed they do get fresh produce/seafood from local ports.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed the desserts/breads during the cruise, especially the french bread and homemade ice cream. The desserts we had in Le Champagne were the best I've ever had anywhere.

 

Ship was launched in 2000 without room hookups and will, I imagine, continue to be without them until dry dock as it's not trivial to run the cable and wireless networks might be problematic due to all the structure. But, since the SS has always been that way, I'm not sure how not having them now represents a degradation...

 

We talked to many (20+) of the crew during the cruise and found that the vast majority had previously been on one or more other cruise lines, and were now on at least their second eight-month SS contract. Some may have had a strong foreign accent, but we all enjoyed talking, so I guess their English wasn't too limited.

 

Our linens were replaced at the next service after having been used, and we always had a full set. We commented to the hotel director at one point that we thought the bath towels (although very plush) were a bit rough for our taste. The day after, we noticed that the towels in our cabin seemed softer. We checked with our cabin attendant and found that they had started doing our linens separately with extra softener. And we hadn't even thought of asking for something like this....

 

Library was well organized and well stocked. The only "throwing of books" we saw were where guests were returning items and stacking them by the signout log.

 

Some of the carpets in the public hallways do indeed have heavy staining and need to be replaced. The carpert/furniture in our cabin was in excellent shape, however.

 

We had a great time onboard, as did all the fellow passengers (both first time and return SS cruisers) that we talked to. I talked to one gentleman on the last night who told me that, although this was first cruise on SS, he had previously done 6 on Seabourn and thought they were very comparable and, while he marginally preferred Seaborn, he wouldn't hesitate to do SS again.

 

At the end of the cruise we deposited $500.00 into the Crew fund because we thought they deserved it. I'm actually a little bit upset on their behalf for bingogirl3's review. But, in firness to her, everybody is entitled to their own opinion, and here experience was obviously different from ours. I'm sorry for this, but our was great and we're looking forward to the Whisper in 2010!

 

Randy

[ging466]

Our linens were replaced at the next service after having been used, and we always had a full set. We commented to the hotel director at one point that we thought the bath towels (although very plush) were a bit rough for our taste. The day after, we noticed that the towels in our cabin seemed softer. We checked with our cabin attendant and found that they had started doing our linens separately with extra softener. And we hadn't even thought of asking for something like this....Randy

 

Hi CatServants (luv your nickname!):D

 

I'm almost sorry I found Bingogirl's review now - it was a disappointing read. However, your review sounds much more like what I would expect on the Shadow. Glad you had a good trip.

 

I'd almost forgotten about the bath towels - I found them scratchy too on the Whisper last December but I didn't mention it to anyone apart from my friends who loved them. It's always a case of you can't please everyone and that sure is evidenced by Bingogirl's review.

 

Cheers

ging466

[WesW]

Randy, thanks for posting your detailed comments and very nice touch to

thank the crew for their service via your generous crew fund donation.

[CatServants]

Hi CatServants (luv your nickname!):D

 

I'm almost sorry I found Bingogirl's review now - it was a disappointing read. However, your review sounds much more like what I would expect on the Shadow. Glad you had a good trip.

 

I'd almost forgotten about the bath towels - I found them scratchy too on the Whisper last December but I didn't mention it to anyone apart from my friends who loved them. It's always a case of you can't please everyone and that sure is evidenced by Bingogirl's review.

 

Cheers

ging466

 

Ging466,

 

If you've ever shared a house with cats, you understand! And I'm glad to hear that someone besides my DW and myself found them scratchy.

 

Lead Catservant

[CatServants]

Randy, thanks for posting your detailed comments and very nice touch to

thank the crew for their service via your generous crew fund donation.

 

ColWes,

 

Your welcome, and even though we know the crew is on salary the service so exceeded our expectations we thought they deserved a bit more.

 

Randy

[dan-c-man]

I too was surprised by bingogirl3's review. We just returned from our first Silverseas cruise, and were very pleased. I believe my wife and I are seasoned cruisers having close to 500 days on various cruise lines including Crystal and Regent. Our experience supports Randy's comments. We too were so pleased that we contributed to the crew fund. And yes, the towels were rough but we did not think to say something. We will do so on our next SS cruise.

 

Dan

[West Maui]

Aloha!

Just to chime in....read bingogirl3's shore excursion reviews too. It seems she was determined to dislike EVERYTHING!

[CanadianKate]

Just a comment on the internet aboard the Shadow. We are self-employed and receive and deliver all work via the internet. Taking 17 or 28 days off from work is not an option but working only a few hours a day from our cabin is.

 

We have two Silver Sea cruises aboard the Shadow (May 2007 and 2008), successfully running our business using the (expensive) internet connection even during a transatlantic crossing. Wifi has always worked in our cabin (deck 4 or 5). Up in the Observation lounge, I live-blogged our trip through the Panama canal, including capturing the live shots of the Shadow going through the canal from the canal's webcam.

 

There are routers on all decks and we had connectivity wherever we tried.

[CatServants]

Just a comment on the internet aboard the Shadow. We are self-employed and receive and deliver all work via the internet. Taking 17 or 28 days off from work is not an option but working only a few hours a day from our cabin is.

 

We have two Silver Sea cruises aboard the Shadow (May 2007 and 2008), successfully running our business using the (expensive) internet connection even during a transatlantic crossing. Wifi has always worked in our cabin (deck 4 or 5). Up in the Observation lounge, I live-blogged our trip through the Panama canal, including capturing the live shots of the Shadow going through the canal from the canal's webcam.

 

There are routers on all decks and we had connectivity wherever we tried.

Canadian Kate,

 

Thanks for the info - I thought wifi might be problematic onboard, but your experience indicates otherwise. And if you can get wifi, do you really need room hookups given that the limiting factor is going to be the satellite conection anyway?

 

Randy

[ging466]

Ging466, If you've ever shared a house with cats, you understand! Lead Catservant

 

Oh yes, I know exactly what you mean:D

 

Cheers

ging466

[DebbieH103]

I am always working onboard, and I usually get 1000 minutes for $250, and I definitely prefer using it in my room.