Silver spirit Vs. Others in fleet/My Silversea

Hi Silverseaers,

We're considering a voyage on the Silver Spirit to French Polynesia in February.

We have traveled several times on the rest of the fleet and wondered how the Silversea experience compares on the Spirit versus the rest of the fleet.

Also, over our last few cruises we've been disappointed in all the cutting of corners from early days. Things like no flowers in suites, no bottle of Champagne in suites automatically (has to be ordered) tiny bowls of nuts served in the bar rather than a small bowl, frozen patties used for hash browns at breakfast, etc. which ended up in our minds as putting Silversea in a sub-luxury category.

I asked a Silversea sales person whether this cost cutting was continuing and she replied that we could pre-order the things I mentioned above on "My Silversea" I checked out "My Silversea" and couldn't find anything other than the ability to order a special pillow or special diets. Maybe the selection of special items isn't populated until you actually book a specific cruise.

The stated rationale for self selecting items was that some people may not want all of the luxury items offered. For example, they said people may be allergic to flowers or not like champagne or not want to waste food by serving larger portions of nuts in the bar.

I find this a little strange because some people don't know what luxury items are available if first time cruisers on Silversea and also a little annoying that we have to go through the process of selecting this and that rather than just having a luxury experience simply a given.

I also find the examples given by Silversea as a bit disingenuous and limited to very few people.

As I've said before, Silversea certainly has a right to make money and aren't a charity for our benefit. We would love nothing better than having back the old Silversea experience, even if it meant fares needed to be increased, but that's another topic.

I share your disappointment with the steady decline in Silversea standards. Your catalog is useful but (I fear) incomplete. Like you, I would be prepared to pay more for higher quality.

I have traveled on Spirit once and was particularly disappointed in one feature that I think is unique among the five larger ships.

Unless you have a massage/spa treatment, there is a charge to use the steam room -- something that one would imagine would be included on a luxury line. Moreover, there is only one steam room for this large ship, it is not very large, and it is co-ed.

For this reason (along with others related to the size of the ship), I will not return to Spirit.

We haven't been on Silversea before so we won't know about the things that are no longer offered/volunteered.

I checked the MySilverSea and it only lets you indicated pillow/bedding setup etc. No boxes to tick or fill out to get champagne in the room or other things. No info on bar setup etc.

See attachments for the choices I see in the system

In fact, I recall distinctly that an earlier version of My Silversea had a box in which one could write comments, include special requests, etc. This box is no longer available and there is no way easily to note online that one wants a certain fruit in room or no beer in fridge or extra towels in bathroom.

In the past I have used the contact email address on the website to make special requests and have always had a satisfactory reply within 24 hrs. (in fact ususally 2 replies each frm a different address.)

Under butler requests there was a whole array of things to fill out. What liquor you wanted, beer, soda, refreshments etc.

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We have certain specific items which we wish to have in the suite bar and fridge on each cruise. To make sure that these will be on board, we simply have our TA request them from Silversea after booking. No problem. They are in the suite when we board. You can contact Silversea directly if you don't use a TA. Most other requests, such as towels, fruit, munchies, should be handled easily by the butler on embarcation day.

The old guest information form did have a box for special requests, which was much more convenient. I don't know why this was eliminated on the new "My Silversea" site.

We had a perfect Tahiti trip on the Paul Gauguin last year. Couldn't have not ask for anything better. You might want to check it out.

We had a perfect Tahiti trip on the Paul Gauguin last year. Couldn't have not ask for anything better. You might want to check it out.

Some friends took a trip on the PG a few years back and thought it was worse than Princess. Maybe its improved.

Not sure exactly how this relates to the OP's question though.

Some friends took a trip on the PG a few years back and thought it was worse than Princess. Maybe its improved.

 

Not sure exactly how this relates to the OP's question though.

Comparing with our Silver Shadow trip, the PG was so much better! I guess it is what you want. We like great food, pleasant service, etc. I think it has a lot to do with the OP question because he is asking about the decline in Silversea.

 

The stated rationale for self selecting items was that some people may not want all of the luxury items offered. For example, they said people may be allergic to flowers or not like champagne or not want to waste food by serving larger portions of nuts in the bar.

Makes sense to me. From my observations, most passengers seem to prefer drinking the ship's water. Also, some people prefer well worn carpeting and condensation damage to windows in observation lounge of Shadow. Why should they not push the limits? People seem to be happy with whatever is tossed their way.

To their credit, our last cruise was flawless regarding their response to our requests. BUT we had to request items that used to be, and should be standard equipment.