labrasett

I have just paid two arms and two legs for self booked air fares from UK to Perth and return from Auckland to UK. Airfares are never going to get cheaper. The only alternative is to travel in economy (or even premium economy where available) but on these long flights it really isnt for me I would prefer not to travel!!

The pizzas were out of this world delicious.

Anyway, a lot of my friends are American.

I wouldnt attempt to travel during the School holidays!! However notwithstanding the queues at Dover this year there are other departure points where these issues were not so marked (Portsmouth, Plymouth, Poole for example).

She certainly is a beautiful ship. We dont care for "entertainment" so werent in any way disappointed in that respect and I hesitate to suggest that music by the pool except perhaps at lunchtime or in early evening would be unwelcome for many, peace and quiet has have many merits. As for food, well my main complaint would be that the meat portions were just too big for me, I cannot face a large piece of meat on my plate so didnt have meat apart from sharing a fillet steak with my husband at Hot Rocks on one occasion. I ate lobster perhaps five or six times in various venues, I had wonderful turbot, salmon, cod and prawns also in a variety of venues. All the fish dishes were, to me, surprisingly good considering they must have been frozen at some point but were nevertheless succulent and appropriately flavoured. The lunch buffet in La Terrazza never failed to offer something delicious including some really wonderful quiches and also some spicy hot dishes. Overall I didnt feel the food was disappointing but mainly not to my taste.

I wonder if the passenger mix (US biased apparently) has something to do with the routings. Lots and lots of trips around Europe are possibly less attractive to Europeans since it is easy for us to get around the see our own continent. It is unlikely we would book a cruise in Europe since from UK we can get in the car, catch a ferry and drive across Europe very easily. We can also have a huge rail network available to us in Europe. I suspect many Europeans are more attracted to the distant destinations than those on their doorstep. I am a bit sorry to see the rather limited choices of cruises around South America in the next couple of years compared with recent itineraries. It will be interesting to see what the national mix is on a cruise from Sydney to Auckland.

Oh dear more moans and groans. We have been sailing on Silversea since 2011 and they have always offered us champagne on boarding. Baseball caps are never welcome in the dining room although some people try and push their luck. Perhaps people in US have more money to spend on holidays than people in Europe. Didnt hear Atlantide pronounced Alant - eyed when we were on the Dawn last month.

Drat, I dont usually wear a tank top over my posh frock.

Does it matter so long as they are all enjoying themselves.

So what is stopping the small number of Venetian Society guests from mixing with the new SS guests? In my experience you dont discover who are Venetian Society guests until you start talking to them, new guests to SS are usually really enjoying themselves and what is for many a real luxury experience. We need lots of new SS guests to ensure our favourite cruise company continues to thrive and grow.

There is a solution, travel with someone else you are obviously well fed up with SS.

Are you sure the fault lay with Silversea? Airlines have a habit of overbooking and it wont matter if you have an assigned seat if they decide to bump you off. On another tack some passengers turned up at Lisbon airport after Barbados to Lisbon cruise and when they looked for their departure details on the departure board their flight wasnt on there. To cut a long story short the flight had been cancelled and SS hadnt been advised but with the help of a local rep and Silverair the passengers were eventually rebooked on to an alternative airline/route but without business class for one of the longer sectors. They were pretty complimentary about the way SS handled the matter for them. I cant remember which airline it was but it was one of the "better" ones. Air travel is very hit and miss these days.

I too changed a booking when the prepay discount came available. I cancelled and rebooked and even with the UK£400 rebooking fee (becomes a potential FCC) I got around £2000 back and it was paid within a week. My re-booking was into the same cabin. Since I was already doing my own flights to accommodate one of the great train rides across Australia and having a few days in Perth and Sydney pre-cruise, it was so worthwhile. No trouble at all my SS rep in London was very helpful and it was all done and dusted in one phone call and a couple of emails.

Several mobility aids parked in the corridors on the Dawn on Barbados to Lisbon. Still sufficient room for other mobility challenged individuals to get past. Very disability friendly.

Sadly I dont think even 90 minutes is enough to change aircraft and terminals at LHR. I would have said a minimum of two hours and ideally more.

I am afraid I dont understand why people complain about their butlers (or indeed anything else on SS) on a site like this when the solution would have been to ask for a word with the Head Butler or other person in charge. A gentle push at the status quo, in my experience, usually results in a good outcome in almost all spheres of life. If a butler is new or inexperienced then he might be glad to be told what is going wrong or what he lacks. We had one new butler who asked us outright if there was more we wanted from him and what he could do to improve his service to us - not really anything we told him because we dont expect or ask much of our butlers, we only wish for them to be polite and cheerful and to put some Sauvignon Blanc in our fridge and keep the fridge topped up accordingly. 😃

Thank you for providing evidence that the butlers have received at least rudimentary (4 weeks) butler training. They do very well on it.

I saw a hot water bottle on the top of a trolley in the corridor on the Dawn only a couple of weeks ago.

Having looked up the full definition of the word plenipotentiary now there is an individual to be held in high esteem and awe (such as we generally do our butlers)

I find it hard to believe that anyone who can afford to travel on SS is "initimidated" by references to a butler. Most passengers do not come much more humble than we were when we first started travelling on SS and while we were a little tremulous about the whole experience the word "Butler" was not a cause of any consternation our main concern was about whether we would "fit in". All nonsense of course since 99.9% of SS passengers are lovely people.

Does it really matter what the role is called? I dont think people from US are so shallow as to be impressed by the aristocratic title of Butler. Whats in the name? Frankly very little, on the cruise the butler is your friend and assistant offering to facilitate whatever you wish for. They are almost exclusively lovely people who would be missed by many longer term SS passengers.

The flight to Guayaquil left around 10.30 in the morning and got in around 1.30 ish as I recall (three weeks ago). We had flights to Lima booked for 9.00 pm that night and took the day room in the hotel and had transport (SS) back to the airport around 6.30. SS check vaccination papers on arrival at the hotel pre cruise. Fully vaccinated pax with evidence did not need to take further test.

Love your comment about butler solving the light problem, please see comments in the thread about butlers - clearly they are useful and often resourceful!! 😃

What a mostly sad exchange of views. We are very low maintenance but happy to have someone to fill our fridge with water and wine and to pick up and drop off our laundry and to offer and provide nuts and nibbles to accompany a late afternoon glass of wine. If there were no butlers there would need to be more cabin attendants to do all the jobs the butlers do. Apart from anything else they provide a "buffer" between guest and cabin attendant, if there is something wrong you tell the butler, you do not upset the cabin attendant, the butler will fix it. There is nothing posh or aristocratic about having a butler, they are just there if you need them if not it is easy to politely ask them to leave you alone unless you ask for them. Simple.

My rep phoned me this morning in response to an email sent yesterday. He said the cruise ticket will not be available until the middle of next week so I think there is actually a ticket and I think I got one via email for the preceding Galapagos trip. He said he thought the ticket would be available on Wednesday next week but he would try and get it out to me on Monday as we are travelling on Tuesday. What I have done is to print off the full "Guest Information Form" from Mysilversea which shows clearly what our arrangements are, ie joining ship in Barbados and departing for Lisbon and I am inclined to think that will be adequate. If not while I am in Ecuador or Peru I will have to find a helpful hotel concierge or receptionist to print of any ticket documentation which arrives before we head off to Barbados. I was impressed with the speed of response from my SS rep.