kids on sliver shadow

[billcrooz]

We just got home and I am going to bed but i will give a more in depth review on the Shadow Alaska Aug. 1 tour tommorow after a good night sleep.there were by the Shadow staff over 40 kids on this sailing and there are a lot of other things to discuss about this trip

[ging466]

We just got home and I am going to bed but i will give a more in depth review on the Shadow Alaska Aug. 1 tour tommorow after a good night sleep.there were by the Shadow staff over 40 kids on this sailing and there are a lot of other things to discuss about this trip

 

Hi billcrooz

 

I look forward to reading all about your trip.

 

Cheers

ging466

[Pincus]

billcrooz, welcome home!

 

I'll look forward to your posts whenever you are ready.

 

Hope you enjoyed the trip.

[mdmourges]

I was on Cloud last Mar in the Caribbean. About 15 kids on board and that drove me a bit nuts. Can't wait to hear what it was like with 40 (ouch!)

 

Mark

[billcrooz]

after a few hours sleep and a quick stop in work, here goes; first the kids that were on board the Shadow; for the most part not a problem, but because of the weather that was not conducive to pool time there was virtually no activity there but i can only imagine what could it have looked like with warm weather. La Terraza was a disappointment as there have been a lot of cut backs .Last year there was a bountiful gourmet assortment of breads,cheeses,and a huge Prosciutto ham,olives,etc. This year nothing. This theme of cutbacks was obvious thruout the ship although subtle you couldn't help but notice. in the bar no hors douvres being passed thru the crowd,just 3 or 4 on a tray on the bar;breakfast very few pastries where there used to be many, in the Restaurant the food was inconsitent,a lot of the fish was frozen.When my wife asked if it was fresh the Maitre' d said yes from S.F. which was 3 days earlier. at the Venetian party the Captain mentioned that although the economy had also affected Silversea they were on the way back. I will say that the crew as always were as close to perfection as possible which to me is about 80% of the trip. the talent was very good especially the sounds of a great blues singer and the always appealing dancers. The ship is looking a little tired with stains on the carpet and to me a liitle tacky with artwork for sale although pricey .Maybe we are a little jaded because we have been on too many sailings with Silversea but it's a little sad as what we have come to expect sometimes doesn't always deliver!

[avalon1025]

was the pool open and if yes, was it heated?

[billcrooz]

yes and no !

[SantaAna,CA]

Please tell me this is not typical of Silversea.

[Keith1010]

Please tell me this is not typical of Silversea.

 

I know Bill mentioned 40 children. We were told about twenty. So, the answer is probably in between. :p

 

As Bill said, they were really well behaved. The only problem IMHO was one large extended family with two parents who were not well behaved and did their three young children a diservice.

 

We were told that this was by far the most children they had on their sailings this summer.

 

Remember, we were in Alaska, and there has been quite a bit of promotional pricing.

 

I have a review on this board. Keep in mind it's from someone (me) who has taken lots of luxury cruises but first time on Silversea so I can't compare it to previous Silversea cruises but can compare it to the luxury cruise lines we have sailed on.

 

Keith

[WesW]

We had 49 Children on our Shadow carribbean cruise in April 2006...we booked

this cruise a week after the US celebrated Easter that year (hoping for few children) but we did not know SS heavily marketed this cruise to Latin America which celebrates their Easter a week later than the US. On our cruise there were no dedicated youth programs, no dedicated youth counselors..altho the Cruise Director attempted to devise

some children's program structure on the fly. Consequently, the pool evolved into a kiddie pool during the day, babies in diapers were in the whirlpools, children were in the lounges (dancing) after 11:30pm, children were screaming and running in La Terraza as we tried (&failed) to enjoy a nice romantic dinner. We were disappointed, our TA wrote a letter to SS on our behalf. Frank Sansone, Director of Guest Relations personnally sent us a letter of apology with a generous cruise credit and asked us to give SS a try again, promising this was not the SS standard. We did six months later, our Whisper cruise was wonderful.

 

FYI, below is the direct answer from SS management on their approach to kids

on Silversea based on a contentious CC SS thread on the subject earlier in the

year (link at bottom).

 

 

From Steve Tucker (SS Mgmt):

 

OK, you have spoken, and we have heard you!

 

We appreciate your comments and the passion you have about preserving the sophisticated, club-like atmosphere and ambiance aboard Silversea.

 

With that being said, we have decided to stop promoting the $199 Children's Programme.

 

We were quite surprised at the amount of attention and numerous posts that this subject has created. Since Silversea ships have no quad occupancy suites and a very limited number of triple occupancy suites, this program was never intended to generate a huge increase in the number of children that would normally sail on Silversea at any given time.

 

In any case, it is now our desire to revert back to the way we have previously handled the few children that do travel on Silversea. We will continue to ensure the best possible cruise experience for all our valued guests.

 

Thank you again to the readers of this board for your valuable input.

 

Steve Tucker

Vice President National Accounts & Eastern Region Sales, The Americas

Silversea Cruises

 

 

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=966272&highlight=children&page=6

[Goldens4]

Bill, did you note your disappointment on the Guest Questionnaire? I know they give you one about 3 or 4 days into the cruise and then another at the end. Will you call SS and let them know or your TA? If so, please let us know their response.

 

Lord, I hope this is not going to be the norm.

[wripro]

It's always interesting to see the differences in reviews of a cruise from the perspective of a veteran cruiser of a line versus a new one. The new cruiser has only other cruises to compare to while the veteran has memories of the "good old days." And in fact, both points of view are accurate. Silversea does provide a wonderful experience for the most part. Great service, good food, luxurious atmosphere. To the first timer the experience is one to be cherished. No where except on a luxury cruise can one be so consistently well fed, entertained and served while traveling the world. Is Silversea the same as it once was? Doubtful. As Billcrooz points out there have been cutbacks everywhere. I first sailed on Silversea on June, 1994 when it was three months old and only had one ship, the Cloud. That cruise was a wonder. Not only were the flights, hotel and travel insurance included but at disembarkation a long line of taxis awaited to take all passengers to whatever destination they wanted (for free.) Caviar was abundant. Napoleon cognac was offered. The menus in the restaurant were much more innovative. Of course, times have changed and we need to change along with them and give SS a break. This is a business, after all. The one thing I will never tolerate though, no matter how well behaved, is 40 kids on any cruise. It's not my thing and I don't want to have to worry that at any point pandemonium could erupt. It's a shame one can only cruise Alaska in the summer time when kids are on vacation. That means I'll never be on a cruise to Alaska.

[Goldens4]

I agree with you wripro. I'll never see Alaska on a cruise either and that many children would put me over the edge. I'd probably be sitting in a corner somewhere with a bottle of wine.:D

[billcrooz]

wripro;i couldn't have said it any better; it may not be as good as it was; but it sure is a hell of a lot better than just about anything else and as I stated before the crew was as usual about the best anywhere. p.s. I did book the new ship for late next year...

[Keith1010]

Wripro as usual very well said.

 

A couple of items. As many of you know, I primarily cruise with Crystal so I am definitely the newbie here. It's actually nice to be in this position.

 

In terms of luxury cruising I have also take some cruises with Seabourn. And as I mentioned, I don't want to make a whole lot of judgments based on one cruise with Silversea.

 

With that said, from everything I saw there were not 40 kids on this cruise. In fact, I wanted to get the count correctly since I knew I would be writing a review about this cruise and I did confirm with several folks on the staff the number to be around 20.

And, of the 20 quite a few were mid to late teens. Now, I am sure there are times that 20 could seem like 40 but that is not what I observed.

 

In general, the kids were very well behaved. IMHO there was one family who had three well behaved kids who were put in a very bad situation by their highly immature parents. I don't want to dwell on it but those parents do not know anything about parenting. Personally, I think those three kids were just too young to be on any luxury cruise line but the parents could have taken steps to make it better for them and those passengers around them. They even had a nanny with them but the parents were truly the problems. For those of you who know me I tend to dwell on the positive but this was a problem family.

 

Interestingly enough, I have to tell you that given the ship was totally sold out and there were the 20 or so children, I never had the feeling that the ship was very crowded which speaks highly of the space to passenger ratio of this ship.

 

From what the staff mentioned the number of children were highest on this cruise for the Alaska sailings to date. It's not all too surprising as this is the peak time of the year for family travel. Even on the Sebourn triplets which are truly not ships that have anything for children to do you will see some children. No, not 20 but you will see some and those ships are almost half the size of the Shadow.

 

I think the bottom line to all of this is perspective. You will undoubtedl find very few if any children on these types of ships in the months other than the summer and the holiday season. And, you will find far less on itineraries that are not close to home such as those that do not involve Alaska, Mexico and the Caribbean.

 

I am not aware of any promotions on this cruise for children but some of you might know better. Yes, there were other promotions but not focused on children nor on families.

 

I think the challenge for all cruise lines is still the economy. And for those of us who appreciate luxury cruising we want those standards to remain as high as posisble. As such, the luxury cruise lines, have the challenge of trying to keep the standards that passengers have become accustomed to which on luxury lines can be quite costly, with the lower fares and all of the other promotional items they are offering from complimentary airfare to unprecedented levels of shipboard credits. And, I think the challenge for some lines and particularly Seabourn and Silversea in the luxury market is that they are adding capacity at a time when passenger demand is off.

 

Anyway, I certainly cannot compare this cruise to other Silversea cruises. However, what I do know from my extensive cruising with Crystal is that no two cruises are ever the same. Yes, some components can be the same but not the entire two cruises. There are just too many factors that can influence the cruise including the passenger loading and specific passengers on board the ship, the staff including the head chefs and others in key positions, the itinerary, the weather, and many other factors. I have sailed on two full world cruises and these each had eight and seven voyages respectively and each one had differences.

 

Keith

[billcrooz]

i hate to belabor this but there WERE in excess of 40 children on board as that fact was related to me by the captain as we had dinner with him one night

[Keith1010]

i hate to belabor this but there WERE in excess of 40 children on board as that fact was related to me by the captain as we had dinner with him one night

 

Sorry we didn't get to meet. I got my information directly from the Hotel Director, and from the two Youth Counselors. Each gave me the same number. :)

 

Keith

[wripro]

Why don't we compromise on 30 children?

[Keith1010]

Why don't we compromise on 30 children?

 

I love it. Sold. :):p:D

 

Keith

[cotto22]

My husband and i took an Alaskan cruise on Regent (then Radisson) 5 years ago in May, before school let out. The only person under 30 that we saw was a teenage boy traveling with his grandparents. I expect that he was horribly bored, but I never saw much of him except during shore excursions.

 

I am a mom of three, the youngest in college, and enjoyed teaching middle school kids for several years. However, I would not be thrilled to be on a luxury cruise with that many kids, no matter how well behaved they were. It would just change the whole chemistry or feel of the cruise. There are many alternatives out there for families traveling with children, and when we cruised with kids, we made those choices.

[Keith1010]

Cotto22, for us, we never took our children on a luxury line while they were young. Of course, we never took them to five star restaurants (would not want to bother those sitting next to us and as children they would rather go to family restaurants anyway) but today it seems more and more people do that. We took our children on mass market/premium lines instead where they had a wonderful time.

 

Regardless of the precise number of children on this specific sailing we were not bothered by it. The only problem that we encountered was that one family. We sat near them during lunch one time and that was the only time.

 

Silversea reacted very well to the situation. They had two counselors on board the ship and they kept the majority of them occupied in a conference room that they set up for children's activities.

 

You mentioned Regent, Evidently they were heavily promoting their ship in Alaska this summer to not only adults but to their children. We have friends who were on board one of their summer sailings and it had way too many children.

 

Keith

[wripro]

Cotto22,

 

You are obviously one of those parents who raises her children to be respectful of other people. Unfortunately, even on luxury cruises, you might be in the minority. Too many parents think their kids' antics are cute and don't care how it impacts their fellow passengers. I am not willing to chance this on an itinerary that attracts multiple children. You couldn't drag me onto a Regent ship in Alaska and now not on SS either. It's a shame that these cruise lines are in such dire financial situations that they have to depart from their intended demographic and alter the product they advertise in order to attract a few more customers. Personally, I think they might be losing as many as they attract, me included.

[Keith1010]

Being new to Silversea I have two questions for anyone who might know the answer because I really didn't pay attention to this.

 

When parents bring their children onto the ship say for the Alaska sailings do they pay a full fare for them or is it discounted in anyway. For example, can a third person stay in any of the cabins (I didn't think the couch in our cabin opened up but not sure about some of the larger ones)? If a third can stay in a cabin what rate are they charged (eg., 50% of the full rate, 75%, 100%, etc.)

 

What I'm trying to get at do passengers pay full rate for the children or some other rate.

 

Would appreciate if someone can educate me on this.

 

I know for us we normally do not cruise in the summer anymore since our kids are now working young adults. In fact, this was our first summer cruise in six years. So, on most voyages it is really not an issue for us as we cruise other times of the year. I know this is not an option for some folks such as school teachers and those in certain professions that have to take advantage of the summer for their vacation plans.

 

In terms of expectations, I figured there would be children on board the ship because it is Alaska and it is the summer. If we went to Northern Europe on Silversea in the summer I would expect far less.

 

Again, I want to say that most of the kids were really well behaved and for us were not in the way and were not bothersome.

 

Wripro, with that said there was that family I talked about in the review I wrote with the three children and it was not a good situation. We would never have thought about taking children that age on any luxury ship as we would not to a nice restaurant. To us, it's not fair to the kids and of course it's not fair to anyone around them. I don't think it's necessarily that the parents think it's cute. My wife and I actually talked about this a couple of times during the cruise when we ran into that family. For us we think the problem is that there are some who view this as an entiltlement. (eg., they paid the cruise line to cruise and to bring their family on the cruise so they are entitled to do what they pleasee.) Of course this was not the way we were brought up and this is certainly not how we brought our children up. But often we'll get a sense about entitlement where people think nothing of those around them which we find very sad.

 

Keith

[billcrooz]

Keith; they had a promotion which created a firestorm on these boards,199.00$ PER CHILD and lets end this and get on to more meaningful conversations about our favorite cruise line

[Wellseasoned]

Okay, we are on the last of the Alaskan Shadow cruises this year, Vancouver to L.A. , 9/12. One reason for this cruise, despite my loving grandfather status, is that schools will be back in session! I shall report on the number of children aboard.