sea bright

The Dusk bar was useless for most of the cruise as it was too cold/windy. The Panorama (and all of the other indoor bars) didn't open until late afternoon so they could not help with the horde of  coffee seekers in the Arts Cafe. In the evening the SALT Bar and Dolce Vita were so crowded it was difficult to find a seat or get a drink in less than 30-40 minutes.  The Panorama was generally the least crowded bar (except the Shelter, which was barely used as it was limited to champagne). However,  the Panorama was frequently taken over by groups so it wasn't a reliable option.

We had a great cruise on the Dawn last fall and thought the food and service were generally good and in line with what we've come to expect from Silversea over the years.

However, our January/February cruise on the Nova felt like we were on a different cruise line. Serious understaffing, poor food (both ingredient quality and preparation/service), crowds and very long waits at the Arts Cafe and all indoor bars and huge tour/excursion groups felt like we were on NCL, not Silversea. We very much hoped the issues were limited to the Nova, but this thread and others on CC make me think they may not be and have me re-considering the cruises we have booked for 2024 and early 2025.

We are boarding the Muse on May 1 and will use the experience on that cruise to decide whether to cancel the other cruises. Hopefully, the Nova was an outlier, but either way I'll post a bit about our experience and am happy to answer questions.

Silversea provided a dayroom for an Asian cruise about 2 years ago when our flight home was around midnight. Since then they have not, even when we had similarly late flights. Our last SS post cruise tour (about a  year and a half ago) dumped us at the airport more than 6 hours before the flight. Since then, I have either paid for my own transfer/tour or booked my own dayroom - so much for our  "Door to Door" fare (the only option for a Silver Suite). The new wider availability of Port to Port fares is a step in the right direction. I just hope the onboard experience improves over our Nova trip!

Reception told me they couldn't print my document, but could forward the email with it attached.

On our Jan/Feb Nova cruise we couldn't complete the survey on our mobile devices (had had the same problem on some prior Moon and Dawn cruises). Reception could not fix the problem and told me to use the TV. I explained that I wanted to make additional comments. They told me to type something up and email it to them and they would forward to the Hotel Director. I have no idea if he saw it.

4 hours ago, Silver Spectre said:

We are staying in a D2D SS hotel in Tokyo next weekend, originally scheduled and priced as the Conrad Hilton, it’s now the somewhat cheaper Yokohama Westin. As usual with SS these days, the hotel bookers decided to move everyone there and left the poor London consultants with no option than to apologise.

We are on a DtD on the Muse departing Tokyo on May 1 and had booked the Silversea hotel for 3 nights pre-cruise on the understanding it was the Conrad in Tokyo. After the deadline to cancel the hotel without penalty (about a month ago) we found out Silversea was using the  Westin Yokohama, despite the fact that our cruise leaves from Tokyo, not Yokohama! Rooms at the Westin were going for less than $250 when booked directly and Silversea was charging us more than four times that rate.  Our travel agent spoke to Silversea and we were allowed to cancel without penalty.

We booked a Mount Fujii view room at the Mandarin Oriental Tokyo for less than Silversea was charging for the Yokohama Westin. 

 We have had many problems with Silversea hotels since the re-start of cruising, but really didn't have another option as DtD was the only option for a Silver Suite, which we prefer. Hopefully, with the new pricing structure we won't have to use a Silversea hotel again.

Our transfers allow a choice between a large SUV or a sedan. Essentially, if you have more than 2 bags you need to opt for the SUV even if there are only 2 passengers. They say the SUV  seats 5 and takes 5 bags, but it  would be very crowded with 5 people. We generally travel with 3 or occasionally 4 bags and they usually need to put the back row of seats at least partially down.

Both the sedan and the SUV are paid for by Silversea up to the allowed mileage. The overage charge is a little higher for the SUV than the sedan.

My husband and I have done multiple DtDs, including back to back cruises, and I've never gotten more than 2 one way transfers. There must be different rules in the US.

The inluded Blacklane rides must be address specific. When my husband and I book a DtD cruise, we get links for only two one way rides on Blacklane, presumably because we have the same address.

However, when we have opted out of Blacklane we did get a credit for each person.

Their appearance seems to vary. They appeared maybe 4 weeks before our fall cruise on the Dawn, maybe 6 weeks before our January cruise on the Nova and have yet to appear for our May 1 cruise on the Muse.

They were visible in multiple ports the day before or after we were there. We just had bad weather. 

When is your cruise? We did a Copenhagen round trip on the Dawn last year, mid-September to early October. We did not see the Northern Lights (too many clouds at night). We still had a great time. The leaves were pretty much peaking and it is a beautiful part of the world!

Definitely! I got the feeling it's all evolving as they see how it sells (and what the new budget allows). It was more than 3/4 full the night we were there, but I heard other nights on our cruise it was less than half full.

I asked whether the menu changed. Our Chef said the same menu was being used for the entire South American GV. He thought a similar menu had been used prior to the GV, but wasn't completely sure. He said he had suggested changing the menu periodically, but had not gotten approval.

In early January we were looking at a September cruise on the Endeavour in a Silver Suite. It was $29,100 DtD (the only option for a Silver Suite at the time). After the recent price increase it is $30,600 DtD, but there is now a PtP option (which we often prefer) at  $28,600. Not sure I can get airfare and airport transfers for $500 per person so the price has increased, but only slightly. 

It looks like the amount of the price increase varies by itinerary and possibly even cabin class.

I got it today and answered similarly to Desperate to Sail!

This is the menu from our dinner at the Chef's Table. The menu was the same for the entire cruise. I'm fairly certain the Nova LaDame menu was posted on Cruise Critic previously.

Food is subjective.  We did both the Chef's Table and LaDame. While we thought both were overpriced, we enjoyed LaDame more. The Chef's Table is a nice concept, but needs work. Many of the small plate courses were just not good - tough duck, over or undercooked vegetables and several uninteresting dishes. The food was far better at Atlantide or SALT kitchen. It is more about the "experience". If you've never been to a Chef's Table before, it would be fun, but if you have access to restaurants on land that offer them your $180 will go further (although not cover the whole dinner if you live in NY like we do).

The food in LaDame on Nova was better than what we had elsewhere on the ship. Much better quality caviar, Dover sole, seafood soup etc. The service was also excellent and the included wines were better than we got elsewhere. That said, I still think the upcharge was too high. However, if you're looking to splurge check out the menus and see which appeals to you.

Thanks for your info about the pool noise. Does the balcony fit a lounge chair? Is the shower bigger than a regular Veranda shower?

19 hours ago, turtlemichael said:

The OP was asking whether they would be disappointed on Silversea, compared with their last sailing 5 years ago, given the increased number of adverse comments in recent times. A perfectly reasonable question to me.  My last cruise was the World Cruise 2023 on Shadow. Prior to that it was a Pacific Island cruise on Muse in 2020 and the World Cruise in 2019 on Whisper. All were excellent in most respects. Of course, you'd expect a WC to be good given it is their premium product. The next is on Nova in November. I haven't deserted Silversea for anyone else. I've just done a lot less cruising as there are many other things on land to do and the attractions of cruising after 600+ days are fading.

 

Now, I'm interested to know what are the intentions of the many people here with significant adverse comments. Is it to move to another line, keep sailing with Silversea or cut back sailing overall? Is it so bad now, for the price, that you don't want to sail with Silversea any more? I'm particularly interested in the views of those who have done many trips on Silversea rather than just one, or even none. 

We have been sailing Silversea since 2006 and will hit our 350 day milestone on our May 1 Muse cruise. Some of our best Silversea cruises have been post-covid and after RCI took over - the Moon and Dawn inaugural cruises in particular. However, there were less than 250 people aboard and the service was stellar, as was the F&B. Since those cruises we have done several on the Moon and Dawn (including one in October on the Dawn) and noticed some cost-cutting, but still enjoyed them immensely and felt Silversea was delivering a quality product. However, our January/February cruise on the Nova was a huge disappointment. We had worse service and occasionally worse food than we have experienced in the past on mass market lines. In addition to the F & B cost cutting mentioned above, the restaurants and bars  were seriously understaffed. For example, while the SALT Bar on the Dawn/Moon had 1 bartender and 1 server, the Salt Bar on the Nova, which was serving at least 4 times the number of guests, had only 2 bartenders and 2 servers. They did their utmost, but it routinely took 20 to 30 minutes to get a drink. We found similarly slow service due to understaffing in Atlantide, Salt Kitchen and Dolce Vita. We hoped that these issues were limited to the Nova (which we will not sail again) but complaints on CC have us worried that the issues are more widespread. We have decided to use our upcoming cruise on the Muse as a test. If it goes well we keep the cruises we have booked in 24 and early 25 and book our "free" cruise. If our experience is as disappointing as the Nova was, we will probably still book the "free" cruise, but cancel the others.

I am, for the first time in years, researching other cruise lines  to replace at least some of the cruises we may have to cancel (Explora and Regent currently, but perhaps others as well).  Additionally, I am looking into expanding the land portion of our trip to French Polynesia in case we have to cancel our cruise there on the Shadow.

We will be very disappointed if our Muse cruise is not a good experience!

We felt the food on the Nova in Jan/Feb was a HUGE step down from our Sept/Oct cruise on the Dawn. We were hoping the obvious cost cutting was limited to the Nova, which we will not sail again.  Machotspur, your experience and similar posts are very concerning. We're boarding the Muse May 1 for a back to back. I really hope the food will better than what we had on the Nova!

On the Nova in Jan/Feb in addition to the above they had Buffalo Trace and Woodford Reserve in the Panorama. We didn't ask for it in the room.

On the Nova in Jan/Feb the Panorama did not open until 11 on sea days or about  2 pm port days. The ability to get coffee there was sorely missed as the Arts Cafe was a zoo pretty much all day every day before noon (and the outdoor bars, which were open early, were freezing for much of our cruise).

We ate at the Chef's Table. Arranged it at reception a day or two into the cruise. At that point it was available most nights. It's a great concept and the chef/host was great, but the menu and food need some work.

I went to reception the morning after sail away and was able to get reservations for Salt Lab. Dinner at Silver Note before 9 pm was the only reservation we found difficult to get onboard.

Caviar was definitely much better in La Dame. The caviar available elsewhere on the Nova was a big step down from what we had on the Dawn in October. The Dover sole was excellent in La Dame and not available elsewhere on our Nova cruise. The lamb was also better than what was available elsewhere on the Nova. The service in La Dame on the Nova was much better than our dinners in La Dame on the Moon and Dawn. That said, I'm still not sure it's worth the upcharge.

I wish they would go back to the wine region menus they hadoin Le Champagne around 2006/7. The upcharge then was 120 per person, but it was well worth it. Additionally, the menu changed to show case different wine regions so we would usually go more than once per cruise.

We dined in La Dame once on our recent Nova cruise. We enjoyed it. The wines were better than most of what was on offer in the other restaurants and the ingredients and service were better. We also did the Chef's Table and much preferred La Dame. I'm not sure the up charge was fully justified, but it is a much better experience than La Dame on the other ships (which is only $60 per person, but no better wines, ingredients or service).