Review of Silver Shadow-Alaska-August 25 departure

[brownsf]

My wife and I took the Silver Shadow Alaska cruise, departing from Vancouver on August 25. We had only been on one prior cruise. Here’s a summary of our experience.

The Silver Shadow

Our "suite" was actually one room, but it does have a sofa, chair, walk in closet, bathtub and separate shower and a outside terrace. There was plenty of storage space because it was well laid out. Everything looked clean and well maintained. I hate small accommodations, but our this room was comfortable and spacious. We encountered some fairly heavy seas during the cruise, and the ship rolled at times. However, the rolling was well controlled, we never hit any hard bumps and the Shadow seemed to ride the seas very well.

It's an all-inclusive cruise, which means no tipping and free wine (with several decent choic--the really good stuff costs extra) and cocktails, among other things. The ship has three dining rooms--the cleverly named "The Restaurant," La Terrazza which, as you might have guessed, is Italian, and Le Champagne which only has seven tables and serves an upscale gourmet tasting menu. Guess where we had dinner? Twice in La Terrazza (unfortunately, because of staff shortages, they limited each passenger to one reservation per voyage at La Terrazza), three times in Le Champagne (I think we set a ship's record) and the remaining four times in The Restaurant. All the restaurants were good but Le Champagne was a couple of levels above the others and amazingly undiscovered by most passengers, even the veteran cruisers. Many passengers seemed to believe that there was a $200/person up charge for dining at Le Champagne. That’s true only if you order their wine pairings. Without wine, it’s $30/person and well worth it. While there is no free wine served at Le Champagne the wine list is very good with quite low markups. Breakfast is a choice of a buffet in La Terrazza or ordering from a menu in The Restaurant. Lunch is the same, with the addition of a pool grill serving hamburgers, crab sandwiches and other lighter things. Also, room service is available 24 hours at no charge. Service in the restaurants was generally good, although at least one waiter in The Restaurant was totally clueless. I had to ask for coffee four times, he confused orders, neglected tables and basically didn’t belong in the job. The paintings on the wall are by Miro, Calder,Matisse, Picasso and other such artists. A dining hightlight was the lunch served buffet style in the kitchen. The miles of kitchen counters were filled with almost every dish imaginable--all types of salads, beef, lobster, crab legs, etc. etc. Passengers could walk through the kitchen and help themselves. On our only other cruise--Celebrity--we had a butler who brought tea and sandwiches to our room in the afternoon and an appetizer tray prior to dinner. It was a very nice feature (not that we needed it). I read that Silver Sea will offer butler service beginning late this year.

There were many interesting activities on the ship. We attended three different wine tastings, which included food pairings. There were good lectures about each port, as well as lectures about the ship's artwork. There was a behind-the-scenes talk by the puppeteer, who performed very sophisticated marionette shows on two evenings. There was a tour of the navigation bridge and a tour of the galley with the head chef. At night, in addition to the marionette shows, there was a company of very good singers and dancers who did Broadway songs, 60's. ABBA, etc. There is a complete spa and health club. There's a theater (set up like a supper club), casino a cigar smoking room (ugh), a nice and surprisingly reasonable gift shop and jewelry store, a pool (too cold to use it), a library, computer room and lots of bars and lounges.

Smoking
Smoking is a very serious problem on Silver Sea. There are no non-smoking cabins. Silver Sea should either ban smoking altogether or at least have no smoking floors, like most hotels. As it is, they are subjecting non-smokers to second hand smoke that presents serious health risks. This issue would keep us from going on another Silver Sea cruise, no matter how well other things are managed. The guy upwind from us was smoking cigars on his veranda, which made ours unusable. I inquired at reception and, after a great deal of confusion about the policy among the front desk employees, they determined that cigar smoking was only allowed in the humidor room and informed him of this. Why isn’t this policy prominently displayed in the cabins? Also, the humidor room adjoins Le Champagne restaurant--terrible planning. On some nights, cigar smoke permeated the restaurant and made the meal far less enjoyable.

Passengers
We met many very nice people. The first night, we were asked if we preferred to dine alone or with others and we chose alone. After that, however, we always asked to join others and our table mates were, without fail, friendly and interesting people. It was a fun part of the trip.

Ports of Call
The plan was to leave Vancouver, spend one day at sea, and stop in Sitka, Alaska. No such luck. The seas were so rough that the captain announced we were bypassing Sitka and heading straight for our next port, Juneau, where we arrived the following day. It was raining pretty hard. We were scheduled to do a photography shore excursion that involved going out whale-watching on a boat, followed by a rainforest hike ending at Mendenhall Glacier.

When we stepped ashore the excursion guy greeted us with the news that the boat was being repaired and wouldn't be ready until the afternoon. Since we were spending the entire day in Juneau, we decided to explore the town and return for the excursion. There's not a whole lot to see in Juneau but we went to the state museum, saw the capitol (which looks like a bland office building) and tried to catch a glimpse of Russia without success. Still having time to kill, we went to a Leroy Anderson concert put on by a youth orchestra at a state office building. After lunch on the ship, we departed for the afternoon excursion, which turned out to be great. We had an excellent guide and we did see whales. Also got pretty close to a black bear, busily dining on a salmon. After we boarded the ship, the first officer came on the PA system to announce that he was the acting captain (shades of Alexander Haig) because the captain, had left the ship in Juneau with medical problems.

The following day, we stopped in Skagway. More rain. Explored the town, consisting mainly of jewelry and souvenir shops. We had signed up for a three-hour narrow gauge train ride up mountainous terrain--a route followed during the Klondike Gold Rush in the 1890s. Turned out to be a good choice, considering the weather. People who had hoped to take helicopter or float-plane rides were disappointed because they were canceled.

We were supposed to spend Sunday getting spectacular view of glaciers. The acting captain announced that we would be very thrilled and surprised. Many of us passengers gathered in the observation lounge and out on deck, despite the cold weather. They served hot chocolate, hot spiced wine and other adult beverages. However, we started to encounter lots of ice and the ship came to a dead stop. We waited for about half an hour and then, without any announcements, turned around. Apparently, the acting captain decided he didn't want his first command to end like Captain Smith's (see "Titanic"). Many veteran passengers commented that the acting captain was being conservative and, if Ignacio had only been in charge, we would have continued onward to see the glacier (Dawes Glacier in the Endicott Arm of the Inside Passage). Obviously, that's just speculation and we'll never know.

Next port was Wrangell where Ignacio rejoined us--one day too late. We had signed up for the "Fire and Ice" excursion. We boarded a 14-passenger high-speed (50 mph) boat and followed the shoreline of the Stikine River. We stopped when our "captain" pointed out a bald eagle in the trees.

We continued on, hoping to get close to a glacier. We encountered heavy ice floes and the captain said he hadn't been able to navigate through the ice in over a year but would give it a shot. After several attempts (it's like trying to find your way through a maze), he succeeded and we were in open water right at the banks of the glacier. There was a little concern about whether we could navigate back out of the ice field. After seven or eight dead end tries we had visions of spending the rest of our lives trapped in Wrangell, but we eventually made it. We then joined several other boats for a good cookout lunch and returned to the Silver Shadow about five minutes before departure.

I ran into the Captain in the hall after we departed Wrangell. Actually, he stopped me (although we had never met before) and immediately apologized for having to leave the ship. He was very friendly and modest. I won’t go into detail because of privacy issues, but fortunately he was fine. He flew to Wrangell and rejoined the ship there.

Our final port was Victoria, BC on a perfect day. We hadn't signed up for any activities, so spent the day wandering around the town, with its many charming old buildings.

Left Victoria around 11 PM Wednesday night, arriving in Vancouver the following morning (since it's normally a 90-minute ferry ride from Victoria to Vancouver, I don't know how they made the trip last nine hours). Orderly departure from the ship, easily caught a cab to the airport and had a smooth (although delayed) flight home.

Overall, it was a great trip that would have been even better had we stopped in Sitka, gotten closer to the glaciers and experienced better weather--all of these the responsibility of Mother Nature. Despite these things, we had a good time in a beautiful place and were lucky to go on some wonderful shore excursions, meet nice people, and enjoy nine days of pampering and deluxe treatment.

[ging466]

Thankx for your review brownsf. Sounds like a great cruise apart from the weather.

Cheers
ging466

[meow!]

Thank you kindly for your comprehensive report. We were told that La Terrazza could only take fifty people in the evenings because of the limited kitchen space, which is only one-sixth the size that of the main restaurant. Apparently it takes much more space to prepare fine dinner than buffet breakfast/lunch.

It looks like you had a rather "adventurous" voyage. Glad that you enjoyed it, other than the smoking. We hope that more smokers will use the humidor room, which usually should be well ventilated directly out the chimney. We have never smoked ourselves, and we did not detect smoke outside the humidor in our limited experience.

[Keith1010]

Thank you for the very good review.

I am sorry about "mother nature" and its affect on the cruise.

Good point about the cigar room. I too thought it was a strange place for the cigar room right adjacent to not one but two restaurants.

Sorry to hear about the smoking. We had only cruised Silversea the one time llast month and for whatever reason I had made the assumption that smoking was not even allowed in the cabins because I never smelled the smoke except in the hallways and I never saw an ashtray in our room but obviously after reading your review I was wrong.

Thanks again for posting.

Keith

[DebbieH103]

Thank you for the excellent review, and I am glad you enjoyed the cruise.

Regarding smoking, we found it the worst on deck 6 where there are so many cabins, but they were running machines in the day, and we only found it overwhelming in the hallway in the mornings after people spent the evening in their cabins.

Some nights nobody is at Le Champagne and other nights so few, maybe they thought in designing that room that few guests would be affected, though guests paying extra to dine are going to be even more sensitive to these types of issues. Until your review and Keith's, I always had the impression that the Humidor was pretty self-contained and insulated.

[Goldens4]

So sorry about the smoking issue. I agree with you as a smoker. They should have a designated floor. by the way, most of us are very considerate. We ask our "neighbors" if it bothers them on the veranda. If it does we don't and NEVER smoke inside in our suite. Remember, a cruise is a "crap-shoot" when it comes to passengers. Some cruises will have smokers, some will not. Same as some cruises will have a friendly crowd, others will have the "snooty-hooties". Some cruises will have a few kids, others too many. As Forrest Gump said, "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you'll get".

[wripro]

Thanks for the review, brownsf. Just as a point of fact, those canapes and sandwiched that our Celebrity butler brought you each day....all you had to do was call room service or askk your stewardess and you could have had the same things delivered.

[avalon1025]

many cruise ship suites are one large room, separated in to sections. For standard cabins/suites, the Shadows are wonderful. For multiple rooms, you would need to go for the larger on board suites (I would suggest one of the Owners Suites next time, definitely not small).

Sounds like you had the same weather that we had on the cruise prior to yours, 6 days of rain, rain, rain...

Glad to hear the captain is OK, he is a great captain and I have had the pleasure of sailing with him several times, including with his lovely family.

[CatServants]

Thanks for your review, brownsf - it brought back memories!. We were on the Shadow in July and also had trouble with cigar smoke while dining in Le Champagne. We were told it was due to a clogged filter, had never happened before, and got invited back for a second dinner. Things were much better the second time for us, but it sounds like this is a persistent issue. We also wondered why the Humidor was located next to Le Champgane.....

[meow!]

We read somewhere years ago that the air in the humidor was ventilated directly out the ship's chimney. So when things are working properly, smoke should not have leaked out. Perhsps there is some malfunctioning -- air ventilation, like air conditioning can sometimes be complicated and difficult to fix. Hopefully, it will be resolved and also the newbuild will have a better design (in fact, it will be next to the casino and the shops on the newbuild).

By the way, while Silversea allows smoking in the cabins, as you board the ship, for the first several hours, the cabin television keeps repeating the message that Silversea strongly recommends against smoking in the cabin, and especially on the balconies, as lighted cigarettes can be a fire hazard if blown back onto the ship (or similar phraseology, we cannot remember the exact wording). Apparently, the cruise line is caught in a tight balancing act between customers of opposite views.

The best solution will be to repair the humidors such that they function fully as they should, and actively encouraging smokers to do their smoking in that room, which has presumably been custom designed for that purpose.

[CatServants]

Originally Posted by meow!

We read somewhere years ago that the air in the humidor was ventilated directly out the ship's chimney. So when things are working properly, smoke should not have leaked out. Perhsps there is some malfunctioning -- air ventilation, like air conditioning can sometimes be complicated and difficult to fix.

Meow,

As someone who has central air installed in their house, I have to disagree - air conditioning is ALWAYS complicated and difficult to fix!

[brownsf]

As I mentioned at the beginning of this thread, the smoking policy (or lack thereof) would keep us from going back, no matter how good everything else might be. It's interesting Silversea does broadcast a message saying not to throw cigarettes overboard because they might blow back and cause a fire. But the same video says nothing about where cigar smoking isn't allowed, about confining cigarette smoking to certain areas, etc. There is no more debate about the serious health hazards of second hand smoke. To me, any hotel, restaurant or cruise line that tolerates smoking and exposes non-smoking customers to such risks is making a very loud statement about its lack of concern for the well being of its customers.

I hope someone from Silversea reads this (we did submit a comment form).

[Sweetpea711423]

Originally Posted by brownsf

As I mentioned at the beginning of this thread, the smoking policy (or lack thereof) would keep us from going back, no matter how good everything else might be. It's interesting Silversea does broadcast a message saying not to throw cigarettes overboard because they might blow back and cause a fire. But the same video says nothing about where cigar smoking isn't allowed, about confining cigarette smoking to certain areas, etc. There is no more debate about the serious health hazards of second hand smoke. To me, any hotel, restaurant or cruise line that tolerates smoking and exposes non-smoking customers to such risks is making a very loud statement about its lack of concern for the well being of its customers.

I hope someone from Silversea reads this (we did submit a comment form).

As you say, I hope someone from Silversea is reading this board. The reason my husband and I are now loyal Silversea people, whereas we had previously sailed many times on and enjoyed Regent, is because of the change in Regent's smoking policy to being much more restrictive. I think the Silversea policy is a reasonable approach to keeping most people satisfied -- those who smoke (such as my husband), and those who don't smoke (me). We had also previously enjoyed Queens Grill cabins on QE2, which also allowed smoking in the cabins. We are already booked for 2 Silversea cruises in 2010 (having recently returned from one). If the smoking policy were revised to be more restrictive, I'm afraid we would cancel. It would simply be a less enjoyable experience for us.

[dwelsh]

Of course this subject will go on ad infinitum but one of these days most public venues throughout the "civilized" world will bow to the majority, ie non-smokers.

The % of non smokers in the US is now about 75/25 but in many European countries a much smaller, but ever increasing % of non smokers will soon tip the scales. I don't know what the %'s are in California but smokers are a very rare breed now.

In the meantime you will just have to support those businesses which serve your particular needs.

[endosunshine]

Sorry that you had difficulty with the smoking. Perhaps there was an unusually high number of smokers on your cruise.
I also am extremely sensitive to smoke and can not tolerate it at all.
While on Shadow in early August the ONLY place that I ever smelled smoke was in the bar, which just reeked of it. The simple solution was that I never went back in the bar after the first attempt, which lasted about 30 seconds.

Sorry you had a bad experience which will prevent you from trying Silversea again.

[MHF]

I have read the Panorama Lounge on Shadow is smoke-free. Can you all verify that for me? Perhaps that's an answer for non-smokers.

As an aside, we were on QM2 2 years ago and could not smell smoke on our balcony. We were in the Carribbean so were on the balcony a lot. The bars were divided into smoking/non sides and one bartender actually asked a smoker to move to "his" side. I was talking to the gentleman at the time and said it didn't bother me. We moved the "no smoking" sign instead .

Melissa

[chicagogal]

Originally Posted by brownsf

My wife and I took the Silver Shadow Alaska cruise, departing from Vancouver on August 25. We had only been on one prior cruise. Here’s a summary of our experience.

The Silver Shadow

Our "suite" was actually one room, but it does have a sofa, chair, walk in closet, bathtub and separate shower and a outside terrace. There was plenty of storage space because it was well laid out. Everything looked clean and well maintained. I hate small accommodations, but our this room was comfortable and spacious. We encountered some fairly heavy seas during the cruise, and the ship rolled at times. However, the rolling was well controlled, we never hit any hard bumps and the Shadow seemed to ride the seas very well.

It's an all-inclusive cruise, which means no tipping and free wine (with several decent choic--the really good stuff costs extra) and cocktails, among other things. The ship has three dining rooms--the cleverly named "The Restaurant," La Terrazza which, as you might have guessed, is Italian, and Le Champagne which only has seven tables and serves an upscale gourmet tasting menu. Guess where we had dinner? Twice in La Terrazza (unfortunately, because of staff shortages, they limited each passenger to one reservation per voyage at La Terrazza), three times in Le Champagne (I think we set a ship's record) and the remaining four times in The Restaurant. All the restaurants were good but Le Champagne was a couple of levels above the others and amazingly undiscovered by most passengers, even the veteran cruisers. Many passengers seemed to believe that there was a $200/person up charge for dining at Le Champagne. That’s true only if you order their wine pairings. Without wine, it’s $30/person and well worth it. While there is no free wine served at Le Champagne the wine list is very good with quite low markups. Breakfast is a choice of a buffet in La Terrazza or ordering from a menu in The Restaurant. Lunch is the same, with the addition of a pool grill serving hamburgers, crab sandwiches and other lighter things. Also, room service is available 24 hours at no charge. Service in the restaurants was generally good, although at least one waiter in The Restaurant was totally clueless. I had to ask for coffee four times, he confused orders, neglected tables and basically didn’t belong in the job. The paintings on the wall are by Miro, Calder,Matisse, Picasso and other such artists. A dining hightlight was the lunch served buffet style in the kitchen. The miles of kitchen counters were filled with almost every dish imaginable--all types of salads, beef, lobster, crab legs, etc. etc. Passengers could walk through the kitchen and help themselves. On our only other cruise--Celebrity--we had a butler who brought tea and sandwiches to our room in the afternoon and an appetizer tray prior to dinner. It was a very nice feature (not that we needed it). I read that Silver Sea will offer butler service beginning late this year.

There were many interesting activities on the ship. We attended three different wine tastings, which included food pairings. There were good lectures about each port, as well as lectures about the ship's artwork. There was a behind-the-scenes talk by the puppeteer, who performed very sophisticated marionette shows on two evenings. There was a tour of the navigation bridge and a tour of the galley with the head chef. At night, in addition to the marionette shows, there was a company of very good singers and dancers who did Broadway songs, 60's. ABBA, etc. There is a complete spa and health club. There's a theater (set up like a supper club), casino a cigar smoking room (ugh), a nice and surprisingly reasonable gift shop and jewelry store, a pool (too cold to use it), a library, computer room and lots of bars and lounges.

Smoking
Smoking is a very serious problem on Silver Sea. There are no non-smoking cabins. Silver Sea should either ban smoking altogether or at least have no smoking floors, like most hotels. As it is, they are subjecting non-smokers to second hand smoke that presents serious health risks. This issue would keep us from going on another Silver Sea cruise, no matter how well other things are managed. The guy upwind from us was smoking cigars on his veranda, which made ours unusable. I inquired at reception and, after a great deal of confusion about the policy among the front desk employees, they determined that cigar smoking was only allowed in the humidor room and informed him of this. Why isn’t this policy prominently displayed in the cabins? Also, the humidor room adjoins Le Champagne restaurant--terrible planning. On some nights, cigar smoke permeated the restaurant and made the meal far less enjoyable.

Passengers
We met many very nice people. The first night, we were asked if we preferred to dine alone or with others and we chose alone. After that, however, we always asked to join others and our table mates were, without fail, friendly and interesting people. It was a fun part of the trip.

Ports of Call
The plan was to leave Vancouver, spend one day at sea, and stop in Sitka, Alaska. No such luck. The seas were so rough that the captain announced we were bypassing Sitka and heading straight for our next port, Juneau, where we arrived the following day. It was raining pretty hard. We were scheduled to do a photography shore excursion that involved going out whale-watching on a boat, followed by a rainforest hike ending at Mendenhall Glacier.

When we stepped ashore the excursion guy greeted us with the news that the boat was being repaired and wouldn't be ready until the afternoon. Since we were spending the entire day in Juneau, we decided to explore the town and return for the excursion. There's not a whole lot to see in Juneau but we went to the state museum, saw the capitol (which looks like a bland office building) and tried to catch a glimpse of Russia without success. Still having time to kill, we went to a Leroy Anderson concert put on by a youth orchestra at a state office building. After lunch on the ship, we departed for the afternoon excursion, which turned out to be great. We had an excellent guide and we did see whales. Also got pretty close to a black bear, busily dining on a salmon. After we boarded the ship, the first officer came on the PA system to announce that he was the acting captain (shades of Alexander Haig) because the captain, had left the ship in Juneau with medical problems.

The following day, we stopped in Skagway. More rain. Explored the town, consisting mainly of jewelry and souvenir shops. We had signed up for a three-hour narrow gauge train ride up mountainous terrain--a route followed during the Klondike Gold Rush in the 1890s. Turned out to be a good choice, considering the weather. People who had hoped to take helicopter or float-plane rides were disappointed because they were canceled.

We were supposed to spend Sunday getting spectacular view of glaciers. The acting captain announced that we would be very thrilled and surprised. Many of us passengers gathered in the observation lounge and out on deck, despite the cold weather. They served hot chocolate, hot spiced wine and other adult beverages. However, we started to encounter lots of ice and the ship came to a dead stop. We waited for about half an hour and then, without any announcements, turned around. Apparently, the acting captain decided he didn't want his first command to end like Captain Smith's (see "Titanic"). Many veteran passengers commented that the acting captain was being conservative and, if Ignacio had only been in charge, we would have continued onward to see the glacier (Dawes Glacier in the Endicott Arm of the Inside Passage). Obviously, that's just speculation and we'll never know.

Next port was Wrangell where Ignacio rejoined us--one day too late. We had signed up for the "Fire and Ice" excursion. We boarded a 14-passenger high-speed (50 mph) boat and followed the shoreline of the Stikine River. We stopped when our "captain" pointed out a bald eagle in the trees.

We continued on, hoping to get close to a glacier. We encountered heavy ice floes and the captain said he hadn't been able to navigate through the ice in over a year but would give it a shot. After several attempts (it's like trying to find your way through a maze), he succeeded and we were in open water right at the banks of the glacier. There was a little concern about whether we could navigate back out of the ice field. After seven or eight dead end tries we had visions of spending the rest of our lives trapped in Wrangell, but we eventually made it. We then joined several other boats for a good cookout lunch and returned to the Silver Shadow about five minutes before departure.

I ran into the Captain in the hall after we departed Wrangell. Actually, he stopped me (although we had never met before) and immediately apologized for having to leave the ship. He was very friendly and modest. I won’t go into detail because of privacy issues, but fortunately he was fine. He flew to Wrangell and rejoined the ship there.

Our final port was Victoria, BC on a perfect day. We hadn't signed up for any activities, so spent the day wandering around the town, with its many charming old buildings.

Left Victoria around 11 PM Wednesday night, arriving in Vancouver the following morning (since it's normally a 90-minute ferry ride from Victoria to Vancouver, I don't know how they made the trip last nine hours). Orderly departure from the ship, easily caught a cab to the airport and had a smooth (although delayed) flight home.

Overall, it was a great trip that would have been even better had we stopped in Sitka, gotten closer to the glaciers and experienced better weather--all of these the responsibility of Mother Nature. Despite these things, we had a good time in a beautiful place and were lucky to go on some wonderful shore excursions, meet nice people, and enjoy nine days of pampering and deluxe treatment.

Brownsf - I am so sorry to hear of the difficulties of your Alaska voyage just one before ours on Sept 3rd. We had a much better experience with mother nature it seems! Out itinerary was different - Ketchikan, Juneau- Sitka- Wrangell- Victoria- Vancouver. (no stop at Skagway) We made all the ports and had pretty decent weather all in all. We did a float plane in Ketchikan to the misty fjords (rough ride but spectacular views and bear sightings), the photography whale watch (I have a whale diving on video!) and hike to Mendenhal Glacier in Juneau which was probably our favorite part of the trip (in the morning and without rain), the 4 mile rainforest hike in Sitka through 4 ecosystems (no rain and some sun). We made it pretty far toward the glacier in Endicott Arm (the captain said further than in any recent voyage) although still not Tracey Arm. Then in Wrangell we walked around the town and visited the really interesting museum there as well as other sights. Again we had mixed sun and clouds. Our Canadian weather was SPECTACLAR in both Victoria and Vancouver. A highlight for us there was a 45 min boat ride inside of the Bruchard Gardens hidden in the back of the park. We did have some showers but there were pretty much all later in the day after we were back on board or over night and it never really bothered us.

I'll post more thoughts later but it was a really great (not perfect, but none ever are) trip!

PS The captain stayed healthy last week, too!

[Emtbsam]

The captain left the ship on September 24 to go home to await the birth of his second child. He is a wonderful captain, a charming host, and a truly nice person.

[conchyjoe]

Originally Posted by brownsf

As I mentioned at the beginning of this thread, the smoking policy (or lack thereof) would keep us from going back, no matter how good everything else might be. It's interesting Silversea does broadcast a message saying not to throw cigarettes overboard because they might blow back and cause a fire. But the same video says nothing about where cigar smoking isn't allowed, about confining cigarette smoking to certain areas, etc. There is no more debate about the serious health hazards of second hand smoke. To me, any hotel, restaurant or cruise line that tolerates smoking and exposes non-smoking customers to such risks is making a very loud statement about its lack of concern for the well being of its customers.

I hope someone from Silversea reads this (we did submit a comment form).

There are many cruise lines that have a more restrictive policy regarding smoking and have equal quality of service to Silversea, such as Regent and Oceania. These might be a better choice for you for future cruises if smoking by other passengers is a major concern.

[conchyjoe]

[quote=brownsf;21207234]
There's not a whole lot to see in Juneau but we went to the state museum, saw the capitol (which looks like a bland office building) and tried to catch a glimpse of Russia without success.

See Russia from Juneau ? .... ah, OK.