Randyk47

Our last cruise was on the Dawn shortly after she came into service. They were still trying to round out the crew and were actually short 20+ folks in the wait and service departments. We saw quite a few instances where more experienced crew had a “shadow” new crew with them and actually overheard one say “this is how we do this” to their partner. From what I have heard and read most cruise lines are still working to attract new staff and crew post-Covid. New builds only add to the demand.

Wish we were on this cruise, would mean a whole different world and set of circumstances than what has transpired. We were booked on the Nova along with our best friends and cruise partners. Had to cancel, actually move to a cruise next year, as both of the other couple required surgery so the thought was to kick the can down the road and cruise when they had recovered. Unfortunately, as it turns out, the husband suddenly and unexpectedly passed after four weeks after his surgery most probably from a blood clot. His widow still wants to take the upcoming cruise but we’ll discuss that more when she spends some time with us here in a few weeks.

Sometimes but not always.

I doubt Silversea would sell their passenger information to basically a competing company. I suspect the information was “mined” from a different source like a TA. Of course the pervious owner may have made off with a list of passengers though I would have thought that would not be looked at kindly.

Great! I think they brought the Medallion level suites back in the Nova class….in fact a couple of Medallion levels. For us the our opinion of Nova class ships is on hold. We were booked on the Nova for this coming April but work and a couple of major/significant surgeries have caused us to move to the Moon next year.

Anybody know what VIP status costs a TA? Several people here have mentioned getting it but I can’t find any mention of it on the Silversea site. I assume that a TA can “bestow” for a price.

I thought it was Medallion and above. Did they drop the Medallion suites out? We cruised a couple of times in the Medallions on the Wind and got “free” laundry and that was before we got our hundred days status.

I think once in our one and only Silver suite have we gotten any kind of extra swag. Certainly nothing in a Medallion or below.

Only here. Nothing I’ve read, experienced, or seen in 12 years of only Silversea cruises have we experienced anything but “VIP” treatment.

So as I understand the “VIP status” thing is this is an arrangement between the cruise line and the TA where the TA pays for a client to be given “VIP status”. Truth is in the Silversea realm this is nothing but a form of OBC.

I haven’t been on the Nova so can’t directly say what is specifically in those areas but typically they are service, storage, or crew quarters. We have had such spaces on other Silversea ships and quite frankly prefer being next to one rather than an occupied passenger cabin. No loud conversations, no banging of doors, no noisy television or music, etc. The crew and staff are typically extremely quiet in those areas and it has never been a problem or issue.

I have never seen a video poker machine on any Silversea ship. Granted the casino is subcontracted so things can change. Silversea casinos are very small and pretty basic.

Something like 10 +/- years ago there was quite a stink when what had been a well thought of and trusted Internet based cruise centered travel agency literally folded overnight defrauding hundreds of clients. As I remember the agency got bought out after years of great service and the new owners came up with the idea they could float deposits and final payments to support their personal lifestyle. Rather than just pass the deposits/payments for processing to the cruise lines they would wash the funds through their own accounts. Worked for a while but finally caught up with them and they owed more to the cruise lines and clients than they could garner from new deposits and payments. I know most of the clients never got any money back and while the cruise lines sympathetic they couldn’t and didn’t honor the bookings. I don’t remember the name of the agency and as I recall the previous owner tried to resurrect the agency but I don’t know if he successes or not. The whole mess impacted the whole travel agency business and the few agencies that honestly handled the deposits and payments changed to passing the credit card information to the cruise lines and let them process the funds.

Ugh. I won’t do business with a TA who banks my deposit or final payment before sending it on to the cruise line. Luckily I’m in the US and don’t have to deal with sometimes strange and different rules or practices.

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