Silver Shadow Review

(This is a summary of the post to my travel blog but contains the essence of that post.)

I sailed on the Silver Shadow in April, on its Hong Kong to Tokyo itinerary. This was my first time on a ship this upscale and I was excited by both the potential experience and the ports of call: Hong Kong, Shanghai, Nagasaki, Kagoshima, Osaka and Tokyo.

The positives of my trip was the mostly excellent service we enjoyed, particularly from our butler, Roland, and the opportunity to see a part of the world long on my bucket list.

On the other hand, the trip turned out to be nothing like I had expected in a negative way, in both the ship and the ports of call. I will deal with the ports of call in another post. For this post, I’ll confine myself to the ship.

Let’s start with the fact that the ship definitely needed a dry dock. This was not only my opinion but the opinion of many people who commented on things like the condition of the carpet in the corridors and the cabins.

The food experience in the main dining room was a disappointment. The absolute earliest to eat dinner is 7:00 p.m., with meals taking at least 1 ½ hours. I missed having some earlier dining options, other than using room service. There were a lot of spicy dishes, made with what I thought was an overly generous helping of crushed red pepper, obvious in the pasta and not so obvious in Thai spring rolls.

On the other hand, the ship has two specialty restaurants which were excellent and had no surcharge. One is the pool grill where you can grill your choice of steak or prawns on the hot rock placed at your table. There was also an Italian specialty restaurant that we ate at twice and was excellent. Only one restaurant had a surcharge and while other passengers said the food and wine were excellent, the restaurant was situated right next to the smoking lounge and the odor of smoke made its way through the vents. It made for some very unhappy diners, who cancelled future reservations.

We ate breakfast in the main dining room only once. We had been ordering room service for breakfast and we wanted to see what more the dining room had to offer, as past experience on other ships suggested there would be a special or two of-the-day. To our surprise, the menu was exactly the same as the room service menu.

The price of the trip included tips and all alcohol, including a personally requested bottle of spirits, per person, to be had in the cabin. We made the acquaintance of some passengers who were wine connoisseurs, requesting specific bottles of wine. However, for someone such as myself, not a big alcohol drinker, Silversea definitely didn’t lose money on my liquor consumption.

Would I sail on Silversea again? It depends. I liked the size of the ship and the fact that it spent overnight in many of the ports of call. (Actually, we had two nights in Osaka.) But first I would check out the age of the ship and when it was last refurbished. And if I could, I would dine in the specialty restaurant every night.

Hi Diane,

Your post and linked blog is really interesting ... and in particular your afternoon SS sandwich eating attempts in your blog ... and your earlier muster post.

At this level, you had some reasonable expectations particularly as a savvy traveler and clearly some expectations were met and others not.

Hope you post again.

:)

Jeff

Thank you for your detailed report, Diane. Did you have any sea days, and what were your impressions of them (of activities and special events)?

Hi Diane,

 

Your post and linked blog is really interesting ... and in particular your afternoon SS sandwich eating attempts in your blog ... and your earlier muster post.

 

At this level, you had some reasonable expectations particularly as a savvy traveler and clearly some expectations were met and others not.

 

Hope you post again.

 

:)

 

Jeff

Very busy over the next couple of weeks but do hope to get posts up about our ports of call

Thank you for your detailed report, Diane. Did you have any sea days, and what were your impressions of them (of activities and special events)?

Yes, we had some sea days and, in general, there was not a lot to do.

We had port lectures which included information on history and geography and they were excellent. If you miss the live lecture you can catch it on your cabin TV. This was a "bridge cruise" so there were a lot of times set aside for that. Trivia every afternoon at 4:45.

I was OK with not a bunch of scheduled activities. I love sea days, just sitting in a lounge, or on deck, or on my balcony and reading and watching the water and sky.

And truth be told, I am also a casino person and would spend part of sea days there. There were two black jack tournaments but not many participants.

And, since you asked, yes, I won one of them. :)

Very busy over the next couple of weeks but do hope to get posts up about our ports of call

We also have a watercooler for people of a more superficial disposition and who chat about more important things like trivia. And more general travel. And food. etc.

One day I might even post pictures of some of our musters.

:D

We also have a watercooler for people of a more superficial disposition and who chat about more important things like trivia. And more general travel. And food. etc.

 

One day I might even post pictures of some of our musters.

 

:D

I've noticed the watercooler thread on the forum but haven't had the time to check it out.

Too busy traveling. Looks like I'll have to make time :)