Silversea of Regent?

Looking at 2 cruises, both Panama Canal from California to East coast. Is comparing Silversea to Regent like splitting hairs? I should be happy with either right? I'm looking for quiet, peaceful times with good food and comfy accommodations. Any opinions are welcome!

more specifically the Silver Whisper and Seven Seas Mariner.

Having sailed on both, you will have a quality experience either way. Though both are far from mega-ship size, they do have differences and similarities. Mariner holds roughly twice the guests as the Whisper, is about 100 ft longer, close to twice the GRT. OTOH, both were built in 2001, both by Mariotti (so you have similar design elements and stateroom concepts). Because of its larger size, Mariner has more onboard "venues" - the fewer on Whisper actually means the crew gets more personal interaction with you. Many negatives about the included shorex with Regent - also you get slower internet on Mariner as MANY guests are given free packages that slow down overall performance.

Look at deck plans, cabin layouts, number and types of venues for each ship. IIRC, there are some significant bathroom differences. Decide which features are more important - TO YOU!!! Some like having fewer guests, some like having more dining and socializing options. Scale giveth and scale taketh....you need to know which is best on your priorities.

I'm a coffee-holic, so I really enjoyed the coffee bar on Mariner. OTOH, I found the food to be more to my liking on Whisper. Bars can make or break on the staff, so that's often luck of the draw depending on who is where - I've had great staff on both and so-so on both.

Think about what YOU want...then you can start to focus on your own benefit analysis.

We are Regent regulars that have sailed on Silversea three times. The Whisper is our favorite ship in the Silversea fleet -- the Mariner on Regent is a tiny bit better than the Voyager (smaller regular suites on the Mariner - larger penthouse suites but the Mariner has much better public spaces). There is an obvious size difference between the two ships with the Whisper having a passenger capacity of 390 and the Mariner having a passenger capacity of 700.

Both cruise lines have their pluses and minuses. The service on both cruise lines is excellent. Silversea provides butlers for passengers in all suites while Regent has butlers for penthouse suites and above.

Food is so subjective. All I can do it tell you what we prefer. We enjoy La Terrazza on the Silversea over La Veranda on Regent (both buffet restaurants for breakfast and lunch and sit-down venues for dinner.) The main dining room on Regent, Compass Rose, IMO, is better than "The Restaurant" on Silversea. Regent has two reservation dining venues (no cost). One is a steakhouse (Prime 7) and the other is French inspired (Signatures). While we like both restaurants very much, there are items on both menu's that we do not care for. Le Champagne - Silversea's specialty restaurant that charges to dine there was not our favorite. We dined there once and found it extremely unsatisfactory (food not the right temperature and smoke wafting from the adjoining smoking area). Due to the problems the first night, we were given a complimentary visit. They placed us in an area that was not affected by smoke. The food was quite nice. Note: Just remembered that the Le Champagne incident was on the Shadow -- the twin to the Whisper. Therefore, it is possible that the smoking issue would not be an issue.

The biggest difference for us is the formality of Silversea vs. Regent. Silversea is the most formal of the luxury cruise lines. Many people love dressing up -- men in a tux and some women in cocktail dresses. Regent, on the other hand, is "Elegant Casual". Most men wear button down shirts and slacks to dinner. While it is not required, a lot of men do wear jackets or suits when they dine in the specialty restaurants or when they attend the Captain's Reception. We personally prefer the more casual dress code.

If you are looking at a cruise with a lot of sea days, and enjoy learning more about cooking, they have cruises when Chef David Bilson is on board. He is excellent and gives classes and demonstrations. They also have a wonderful wine expert (many times onboard at the same time at Chef David). He takes wine tasting to a new level. We chose two of our Silversea cruises when they were on board.

The bottom line for us is that we always go back to Regent. One reason is for the benefits we receive as long time Regent customers. For us, it takes a special itinerary for us to sail on Silversea. The one thing I would check out before sailing on the Whisper again is when she last was dry docked (full refurbishment). She is a gorgeous ship but needed some refreshing (carpets, etc.) when we were last on her.

Hope this helps. You may also want to ask this question on the Regent board.

We agree with the above posters, you can't go wrong with either Regent or Silversea.

We have sailed over 100 days on both lines and by a wide margin prefer Silversea. If you want your shore excursions included (you pay for this in your cruise fare vs ala carte on SS) then the Mariner may be your choice. We would choose the Whisper (having sailed her berfore), why?

--We much prefer (lunch, dinner) the Silversea Italian restaurant (run by an Italian owned ship, Italian Chef) La Terraza over the Setti Mari on Regent.

--We also prefer the dining venues (more choice) on SS vs Regent. Italian, Main Dining Room, Hot Rocks (Steaks/Seafood), French (Le Champagne but a $40pp charge to dine on the French degustation menu (wine included). Both Regent and Silversea offer nice room service and pool grill offerings at lunch & throughout the day. Also, both offer very nice themed buffets (German, Mexican). Silversea (weather permitting) generally offers on the pool deck a wonderful evening Barbeque (for all pax, but other dining venues available) during most sailings (entertainment provided).

--We find the ambiance of a smaller ship provides more intuitive service on Silversea than Regent. We love both crews on Silversea and Regent and we've developed friendships with many R and SS crewmembers post cruise. In our experience, we also find the leadership on Silversea (Hotel Director/GM, Captain, Cruise Director) more passenger friendly and accessible than the ship leadship on Regent.

--We prefer that Silversea still includes formal nites, tho offers alternatives for those who wish to dress informally.

--For us, the perks on Silversea are more (5% discount on every cruise, free laundry) than we receive on Regent (free internet only).

--As TC mentioned above Chef David Bilsland provides an absolutely outstanding cooking class and cooking demonstrations. We are fortunate to be able to sail with David again this Friday when we all board in Sydney. Regent a few years ago canceled their Le Cordon Blu cooking class (my wife loved), me thinks for budget reasons--no substitute has been put in place.

--We also prefer the wine (poured & sommelier) service on Silversea over Regent.

--On many Silversea ships they provide Ambassadors/dance hosts--great for single passengers as they also host many pre meal get togethers and meal gatherings. The Dance hosts also serve as Dance Instructors vs the entertainers on Regent (regent stopped using their dedicated dance instructors (we adored Dieter and Isle a few years ago. Regent stopping using dance hosts a few years ago--again cost control.

--Silversea often provides outstanding single supplement deals for single passengers (10-25% of cruise fare). Regent rarely provides single supplement deals.

--Tho, not an on board experience but important to us--since we are posting on cruise critic--we very much appreciate that the leadership of Silversea shows their $$ support (and contracts with cruise critic) and sponsors formal meet & mingles in a formal relationship with cruise critic. Regent corporate leadership refuses (via my personal request, emails with the President of Regent) to sponsor cruise critic.

Enjoy your cruise.

I'll be able to make this comparison come November when we sail SS Whisper Barbados-Amazon-Barbados. Just returned from our first cruise aboard Regent to the Western Caribbean out of Miami. Ready for now for a new line and different ship.

Did not take ANY of the "included" excursions on Regent so I know I was overcharged.

Our first cruise was a 10 days Asian cruise on SS and it hooked us on cruising.

The next year we did 14 days back to back Istanbul to Venice on Regent and we felt there was not much difference between them.

We had an issue with some of the wine early on the Regent cruise and put it on the survey form. We had a phone call that evening with an apology. At dinner that night the sommelier visited our table and poured a wine he thought we would like. We did!

Our last cruise was Copenhagen to London 28 days on Silver Cloud and absolutely loved every minute of it. David Bilson was onboard and we had some market excursions with him which were very enjoyable. Service and food all over the ship was very good.

We did a combination of ship excursions and planned some of our own.

Our next cruise is 30 days Dubai to Cape Town on Regent next November. We are hoping that we will find the food and service up to SS standard. The itinerary appealed to us but we also appreciate that there are many more passengers than we had on SS.

We are usually happy to organise our own excursions but for this itinerary we will use most of the included excursions.

We will be able to compare Silversea and Regent after 2 longish cruises. I will write a review when we return.

more specifically the Silver Whisper and Seven Seas Mariner.

The Mariner is my favorite ship! She is the perfect size and the regular Deluxe Cabins are great....

Thanks everyone for some great advice. There is a guy that posts some really great "live photo reviews" on this page. I think he's got me convinced on SS!