Just booked my 4th Silversea cruise!

Hi all,

I spent 2004 sailing every lux cruse line (lucky me!), Sailed the Silver Wind, Seabourn Pride and Seven Seas Mariner and I am happy to announce that I have booked my next two cruises on Silversea!! I'll be on the Cloud in Nov. and the Whisper next June. Overall, Silversea can not be beat for cabins and overall ship, great food and mostly friendly crew and good service.

The Pride was a bit run down (great service and food!), the Mariner like a great mass market cruise (good food, great staterooms, mediocre service), and the Wind like being on my own ship!

I am glad to hear from someone who has sailed all 3 luxury lines. My husband and I were on the Seabourn Spirit last summer for 14 days in the med and absolutely loved it. Great service and excellent food. However, we did not like the fact that the pool on the Spirit was in the back of the ship and not right by your lounge chair and the pool restaurant was not open on Shore days. But overall I would say service and food were a bit better on Seabourn.

However, we absolutely love Silversea as well. We have been on Silver Whisper the last 2 Octobers in the Caribbean and are leaving next week to take the Silver Shadow from Barcelona to Rome. We have also booked November Barbados to Ft. Lauderdale on the Silver Whisper.

I believe Silversea offers better value than Seabourn and they also offer many more itineraries in the Caribbean.

Cindy

Agree, Service and overall food go to seabourn, best overall to Silversea, they have the best ships and cabins (and real balconies!). I wish they would infuse some cash into Seabourn and give them some new ships or update the ones they had. On the pride in a rainstorm the ceilings all leaked down the central staircase and you had to run ourside to get to the casual restaurant, very yacht-like i guess.

All Seabourn ships are in for refurbish this Fall-- planning to have some fine changes!

Having just returned from Radisson's Seven Seas Voyager,it is for me superior to the Silver Shadow-better suites,entertainment,food(four restaurants),and staff.

Sailed the Seven Seas Mariner in December, overall; lovely ship, but a bit large and I thought the SS cabins were nicer. Also, the crew was hit or miss. I would rate Radisson 3rd behind Silversea and Seabourn. Also not all inclusive....

I have only sailed on Silversea once, on the Shadow in Asia, and loved it. Have had many (13) cruises on Radisson, and I honestly think it is splitting hairs to give the edge to one or the other, except for the inclusion of drinks in the lounges on Silversea. (However, the per diem is higher enough to negate the economic benefit, it's just nice not to sign) All a matter of what your priorities are. The size of the Mariner and Voyager I actually enjoy for the extra dining venues, and there is so much physical space per passenger that I never feel crowded on these ships. On my Shadow cruise, I enjoyed the entertainment more than I usually do on a ship. It was my first trip to Asia, and a lot of the solo entertainers seemed to be Aussies, and I thoroughly enjoyed them, as well as, I think the cruise director, a young woman who had a fantastic performance of both operatic and show pieces.

Maybe I should be more specific about my issues with my Mariner cruise. I am 35 years old, younger looking (to some!) and while boarding the Mariner was treated like a bad school boy as the crew thought I was an embarking member of the crew. I was told I should not be in public areas, I was told to find my own way to my cabin and even over looked in the buffet by an officer who was about to read me the rules for entertainment staff in public venues. It got old fast. I had to speak to the CD to spread the word that I indeed was a fare paying passenger traveling solo. After that the cruise was fine (though I thought the Mariner was a bit bland design wise: they had all the pictures taken off the walls for some reason most of the cruise). I would sail again, but for the price, I think Silversea is a better overall value and the smaller ship suits me better for the familiarity I can gain with the crew.

Maybe I should be more specific about my issues with my Mariner cruise. I am 35 years old, younger looking (to some!) and while boarding the Mariner was treated like a bad school boy as the crew thought I was an embarking member of the crew. I was told I should not be in public areas, I was told to find my own way to my cabin and even over looked in the buffet by an officer who was about to read me the rules for entertainment staff in public venues. It got old fast. I had to speak to the CD to spread the word that I indeed was a fare paying passenger traveling solo. After that the cruise was fine (though I thought the Mariner was a bit bland design wise: they had all the pictures taken off the walls for some reason most of the cruise). I would sail again, but for the price, I think Silversea is a better overall value and the smaller ship suits me better for the familiarity I can gain with the crew.

Definitely not a good experience for you! But with my experience, when you embark on any RSSC ship, you show your voucher even before you go up the gangway, and are led to a place to "register" as a guest, give your credit card, get your charge card for the ship, and then when you head out of the theater, there are people there at the bottom of the theater to meet you and take you to the cabin. Simple. No staff passes through this line that I know of. Sorry you had a bad experience. For "the price" from my experience, RSSC is a better value when you book early (like a year ahead). Silversea is into offering some great deals up to 6 months in advance of the cruise that either match or beat those prices, and for 2006, I am going to be looking at what SS has to offer.

I think the problem was that the pier was letting people board before the ship was ready, or before they (the ship) knew anyone was comming aboard. When I boarded, I literally walked on (in Ft Lauderdale) and walked in to an empty atrium, scanned my card with one crew members and proceeded to my cabin. I did not encounter anyone untill I was on my deck, then I was scolded....I asked for help to my cabin, silly me. Now to be fair, there were entertainers in the cabins near/next to mine, so maybe the lovely officer was really confused.

sad news today, Silversea chartered my 06 sailing, so for now no 4th silversea cruise for me...

Which cruise was it? Did they offer you anything??

Hey Melissa, how are you doing? How was Venice? We had a great time with you, Flip, and Suzie on the Whisper. Have you guys booked another cruise yet?

BTW, Diana says hi!!! She is doing great and the cardiologist said she should have 100% recovery.

Avalon, I have been on the Whisper twice and on the Seabourn Legend and would go on any of them again in a heartbeat, in fact we are back on the Silver Whisper in November doing the Caribbean from Barbados to Ft. Lauderdale. I was really interested in reading your experiences on the three lines as I am sailing with several friends on the Mariner next August. Of course I don't think I will ever get mistaken for one of the younger staff. Maybe one of the older comedians!!! LOL Thanks for you insight. Sorry to hear that they chartered one of your cruises. Hopefully they did something for you.

The other line we really want to try is SeaDream. Saw both the I and the II in port together when we were in Nice. I think they moved over to Monte Carlo later that day, for the start of the Monaco Grand Prix. Very exciting. I think I would like the more laid back country club casual atmosphere. Don't get me wrong, I loved Seabourn and Silversea, I just think I would like to try a more casual venue sometime.

Don,

Glad to see you are still cruising. This is Jeff and Carol from McKinney. We took the cruise together on the Splendour a couple of years ago. What is this about Diana? Hope she is doing okay!

Hey since I have found you again, was wondering what you think about Silver Seas or Seabourne. Carol and I have been thinking about doing the Barbados to Ft Lauderdale next year. We just got back from the Voyager out of Miami in May and have the Navigator booked in December of this year. But I really have my sights set on Silver Seas at least one time.

Sorry for butting into this thread, but I did want to tell Don hello. Tell Diana hello also.

Jeff and Carol

Hey Jeff, we would love for you to join us on the Barbados to Ft. Lauderdale cruise. If you think you are interested email me at dails2@charter.net This is a silver sailing and if you decide to go we there are some additional savings.

As far as Diana, she is doing fine, but we had a little scare in Port Vendres, France. She was taken off the ship by paramedics to a hospital in Perpignan, France with congestive heart failure. Her cardiologist said that she will be fine, but at the time it was quite a scare.

Tell Carol we said Hi! Hope you guys are doing well and we hope that you can join us. I think it would be fun.

It was a June 06 Med cruise, Athens to Venice, Chartered. They offered me a discount on a future cruise in 06 (20%). I ended up choosing a Middle East cruise, Dubai R/T in November.

For the summer I had to cruise that specific week, and I was able to get a good deal on Seabourn for the Greek Islands.

All worked out fine, though for another year, I have yet to sail on the larger Silversea ships. Always on Cloud and Wind!

Silversea was very helpful in resolving this