Gnoelj

20 minutes ago, Gnoelj said:

 

 

 

Just looked quickly at some reviews on CruiseCritic for the Silver Spirit, they seem to be much better than for Silver Shadow.

Wonder why is that?

25 minutes ago, rloke said:

 

You mean the Spirit then...if I were you, I would book immediately to snatch up that deal...£2850 for the veranda suite + BC flights is a scorching hot deal IMHO...😉😮

You are probably right, it could be Silver Spirit, not Silver Shadow. But whichever it is, the accommodation is luxurious, right?

Business Class flights within Europe is nothing much to write home about, just the same narrow economy class seat with the middle seat put down as a "table". And of course the airport lounge, that's the nice bit.

However, this is what is keeping us back from booking:

1) No main dining room?

2) No buffet for dinner?

3) All speciality restaurants hardly change their menus?

4) Do the popular specialty restaurants get fully booked early ?

5) Very Slow food service at those restaurants ?

6) No afternoon tea service?

7) Not sure about the dress code on SilverSeas...is it very formal and do they have formal evenings? We like the Viking/Oceania/Azamara arrangement where most evenings, it is just to dress "country casual", no formal nights at all .

..... Plus Are there lack of activities to do on board and do the stage shows start very late compared to those other cruise liners (10pm or 10.30pm) ? 

That was why we wanted to ask you folks who are in the know to see whether all these concerns we read elsewhere have any substance, or are they really nothing to be concerned about? We just do not know.

31 minutes ago, rloke said:

 

Just curious...if you don't mind, which Shadow cruise is "way, way LOWER"?

 

There is a cruise on the Silver Shadow from Lisbon to Greenwich (London), June 25th 2020, 10 nights, including transfers, and business class flight  to Lisbon ....all for £2850 per guest ! We still have the link to that page that offers that price.

However, we also saw an Baltic cruise for 10 nights, on Oceania, with 6 free excursions, wifi, specialty restaurants, gratuities , economy flight , airport transfer one way and OBC for about £3,350 per guest...which is somewhat more than what SilverSeas are asking for the same number of nights, albeit to a different part of Europe, and it is a verandah "stateroom" (ok, cabin!!!).

We have never been on Silverseas,but when we read the relatively substantial number of not-so-glowing comments on Cruise Critic AND when we realised that they did not have a buffet restaurant for dinner, we were not too sure whether to book with SilverSeas or not. That was why we thought we'd ask those experienced Silversea cruisers!

37 minutes ago, carefreecruise said:

You most likely will hear tons of stuff about food but food is subjective.

 

Silversea is comparable with Seabourn and Regent. Trying to compare others is like comparing Ritz to Marriott. 

 

So it would be best for you to try it and make your own comparisions.

 

Good luck and happy cruising... 

Is it really comparable to Regent or Seabourn? Really? That does surprise us!

The cruise fare we were looking at on Silver Shadow is way, way LOWER than what is being offered on Oceania or Viking, even after their discounts! As their fares were lower, we had thought the would be at best on level with Viking or Oceania.

We also had looked at some comments from past cruisers on  CruiseCritic

( see https://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/memberreviews/getreviews.cfm?action=ship&ShipID=162)  about the Silver Shadow, out of the most recent 20, about half of that were somewhat underwhelming. That really worried us somewhat. Perhaps you could give us reassurance that half of those people commenting were not right what they wrote???!!!

If there were some truth in those comments, so how can that SilverSea ship be better than the high standards of Azamara, Oceania and Viking service (let alone Regent or Seabourn).? Please do tell.

We are looking at a cruise on the Silver Shadow.

However, we have never cruised with Silver Seas. Our past experience has been with Viking Ocean, Azamara and Oceania (and a few others).

For folks who have cruised with Silver Seas as well as with either Azamara, Oceania or Viking (or all of them), could you perhaps tell us what you think the quality  and experience is  like comparing cruising with Silver Seas , and with either or all of these three cruise lines? Would we be overwhelmed?

For us, what is important is the quality of meals and wines on board. For sit-down non-buffet meals, in the restaurants,  what would drive us up the wall (well, just a little bit!) would be to sit for long periods of time before the food arrives!  Food served hot is also high on our list for extra brownie points!!!

We realise that on board activities (especially entertainment in the theatre) on Oceania and Viking are not  really their strengths (we know some folks rave about the on-board cultural enrichment talks on Viking, but we were not too sure about). However, you tell us,  what do you think their activities are like on  Silver Seas ships compared to  ships on those 3 cruise lines?

Just for information, if we book on the Silver Shadow, it will just be one of their standard verandah. On Oceania, we usually prefer their “O” ships rather than the smaller “R” ones. Strangely enough, for Azamara, as all their ships are “R” ships, for some reason, we did not mind that at all!

Looking forward to hear from you with your views. We learn new things every day, that’s our motto!

PS: We are going to place this discussion on all the boards of the four cruise lines, to get a more balanced view from various cruisers.

We are looking at a cruise on the Silver Shadow.

However, we have never cruised with Silver Seas. Our past experience has been with Viking Ocean, Azamara and Oceania (and a few others).

For folks who have cruised with Silver Seas as well as with either Azamara, Oceania or Viking (or all of them), could you perhaps tell us what you think the quality  and experience is  like comparing cruising with Silver Seas , and with either or all of these three cruise lines? Would we be overwhelmed or underwhelmed?

For us, what is important is the quality of meals and wines on board. For sit-down non-buffet meals, in the restaurants,  what would drive us up the wall (well, just a little bit!) would be to sit for long periods of time before the food arrives!  Food served hot is also high on our list for extra brownie points!!!

We realise that on board activities (especially entertainment in the theatre) on Oceania and Viking are not  really their strengths (we know some folks rave about the 0n-board cultural enrichment talks on Viking, but we were not too sure about), You tell us,  what do you think their activities are like on  Silver Seas ships compared to  ships on those 3 cruise lines?

Just for information, if we book on the Silver Shadow, it will just be one of their standard verandah. On Oceania, we usually prefer their “O” ships rather than the smaller “R” ones. Strangely enough, for Azamara, as all their ships are “R” ships, for some reason, we did not mind that at all!

Looking forward to hear from you with your views. We learn new things every day, that’s our motto!

PS: We are going to place this discussion on all the boards of the four cruise lines, to get a more balanced view from various cruisers.

PPS: Just to show that we have not "deserted" Azamara, we have already booked our next cruise with them !

We are looking at a cruise on the Silver Shadow.

However, we have never cruised with Silver Seas. Our past experience has been with Viking Ocean, Azamara and Oceania (and a few others).

For folks who have cruised with Silver Seas as well as with either Azamara, Oceania or Viking (or all of them), could you perhaps tell us what you think the quality  and experience is  like comparing cruising with Silver Seas , and with either or all of these three cruise lines? Would we be overwhelmed or underwhelmed?

f meals and wines on board. For sit-down non-buffet meals, in the restaurants,  what would drive us up the wall (well, just a little bit!) would be to sit for long periods of time before the food arrives!  Food served hot is also high on our list for extra brownie points!!!

We realise that on board activities (especially entertainment in the theatre) on Oceania and Viking are not  really their strengths (we know some folks rave about the 0n-board cultural enrichment talks on Viking, but we were not too sure about). However, you tell us,  what do you think their activities are like on  Silver Seas ships compared to  ships on those 3 cruise lines?

Just for information, if we book on the Silver Shadow, it will just be one of their standard verandah. On Oceania, we usually prefer their “O” ships rather than the smaller “R” ones. Strangely enough, for Azamara, as all their ships are “R” ships, for some reason, we did not mind that at all!

Looking forward to hear from you with your views. We learn new things every day, that’s our motto!

PS: We are going to place this discussion on all the boards of the four cruise lines, to get a more balanced view from various cruisers.

PPS: Just to say, we will never "desert" Viking cruises. We will be back for another one, as we just love cruising with them!

We are looking at a cruise on the Silver Shadow.

However, we have never cruised with Silver Seas. Our past experience has been with Viking Ocean, Azamara and Oceania (and a few others).

For folks who have cruised with Silver Seas as well as with either Azamara, Oceania or Viking (or all of them), could you perhaps tell us what you think the quality  and experience is  like comparing cruising with Silver Seas , and with either or all of these three cruise lines? Would we be overwhelmed or underwhelmed?

f meals and wines on board. For sit-down non-buffet meals, in the restaurants,  what would drive us up the wall (well, just a little bit!) would be to sit for long periods of time before the food arrives!  Food served hot is also high on our list for extra brownie points!!!

We realise that on board activities (especially entertainment in the theatre) on Oceania and Viking are not  really their strengths, but you tell us,  what do you think their activities are like on  Silver Seas ships compared to  ships on those 3 cruise lines?

Just for information, if we book on the Silver Shadow, it will just be one of their standard verandah. On Oceania, we usually prefer their “O” ships rather than the smaller “R” ones. Strangely enough, for Azamara, as all their ships are “R” ships, for some reason, we did not mind that at all!

Looking forward to hear from you with your views. We learn new things every day, that’s our motto!

PS: We are going to place this discussion on all the boards of the four cruise lines, to get a more balanced view from various cruisers.

PPS: To show that we have not really "deserted" Oceania, we have already booked our next Oceania cruise on the Marina!

On 12/1/2019 at 8:09 PM, RJB said:

Yup sure is.  You are paying a lot of money for your cruise so don't cheap out on the taxi.  Not much fun dragging luggage thru the street. 

Agree with you. Besides,  from what Oceania usually charges for airport-port transfers, you'd probably save money by taking a cab.

Of course, if you wish to save a little more, you could take the airport bus from Barcelona Airport to Plaza Espana in Barcelona, and grab a taxi from there to the port. It will be just a reasonably short ride in taxi. I am not sure how much the airport bus ticket is, but I guess you MIGHT save some money. For me, for convenience, I would just take the taxi, as the distance from the airport to the port is not as far as in some cities. Just make sure you have a metered cab though.

On 11/10/2019 at 3:42 AM, Mura said:

I was just checking train schedules.  It's 107 miles from Monte Carlo to Marseille.  The travel times that I saw posted were from 3 hours 36 minutes to 3 hours 46 minutes.  So if you can get your tickets, it's certainly do-able.  The train ride from Nice to Marseille appears to be about an hour shorter.

 

 

 

 

 

Just wondering if you might realise that there are two ports for Marseille - La Joiliette which is close to the city , and the Marseille-Provence Cruise Terminal (MPCT) , which quite a distance away (about 5-7 kilometeres) from Marseille St Charles Station . The latter is where the Marina  is docked. (according to  https://www.cruisemapper.com/ports/marseille-port-68 ) . 

Looking at the date of the schedules, I realise my message is too late for anyone wishing to find their way to the Oceania Marina for the cruise from Marseille (at the MPCT) . In any case, I  hope  there were not many people who opted to take the train to Marseille  as they might have found that the cost of the taxi from Marseille St. Charles  railway station to the MPCT was quite expensive. It would have been better to either take the coach provided at Nice airport, or in Monte Carlo.

25 minutes ago, Gnoelj said:

 

....think her name is Jenna 

 

Hope someone will tell her to pull up her socks as Viking Ocean customers deserve better entertainment than just lectures.

Just checked and realised our last Caribbean cruise was on the Viking Sea not Viking Sky.

3 hours ago, Gnoelj said:

 

....think her name is Jenna 

Hope someone will tell her to pull up her socks as Viking Ocean customers deserve better entertainment than just lectures.

On 10/5/2019 at 7:17 AM, cabogal said:

We are booked on our first VO cruise on the Viking Sky Lisbon to Miami in October 2020. Was wondering what kind of activities and entertainment there might be on sea days? There are 4 sea days in a row and am hoping for some activities (other than eating & drinking 😀) to keep us from getting bored. Thanks

 We were on the Viking Star on the Meds cruise and then the Viking Sky (we think) this year to the Caribbean and both the entertainment on board especially the theatre shows were quite poor and on some evenings there were no theatre programs at all. The similarity between the two cruises was the cruise director was someone called  Gemma ( or someone who sounded something similar). We will still cruise with Viking because of its other great qualities but  the next time we would try to avoid one when she is the cruise director. Hope on your cruise you will have a better cruise director than we had and who will organise a great program.

On 9/24/2019 at 11:10 AM, keithm said:

We're doing a Club Balcony. So we're really saving very little money. The pastry/desserts on Princess is bought from the likes from Sysco/US Foods. We thought the desserts to be really poor on Princess, exception were the Norman Love desserts. He forced them to use decent ingredients, in order for his name to be attached.

Sorry to hear you did not "enjoy" the desserts on Princess. Once in a while, when their pistachio bavarois come out in their buffet restaurant, it is quite nice, but I would agree with you the quality of the desserts are nothing compared to Oceania.

If desserts and pastries are important to you, apart from Oceania, Viking Ocean Cruises do sometimes have good quality desserts and pastries.

They have a eatery called Mamsens, their : Suksessterte (success cake) Fyrstekake (prince's cake) and waffles, are quite amazing....dare I say , the quality is comparable to those yummy things you find for afternoon tea on Oceania.

For me, Oceania especially on the Riviera and Marina , they have the best specialty restaurants. The cuisine in the speciality restaurants on Viking Ocean, in our view, were not as enjoyable as those on Oceania.

3 hours ago, Gnoelj said:

 

 

So, there are many things which Oceania does better , or very well, but Princess is not that bad. You will enjoy the cruise. Besides, your hubby will be happy because the $$$$ money he would have saved on a Princess cruise!!!

 

 

When I said that, I was referring to keithm rather than JPR. Apologies .

On 9/11/2019 at 12:04 AM, JPR said:

Princess (as opposed to Oceania) should at least be a great cruise if you’re trying to lose some weight!

We have been on Oceania several times, and Princess once. Sure, the cuisine on Oceania may be somewhat better, but our Princess cruise was not so bad. We remembered, the quality of the food improved towards the end of the cruise. That was quite curious. In the buffet,  the cruise ship buffet had mountain-loads of smoked salmon (dare we say, it was better than in Oceania, where the smoked salmon sometimes looked as if they had been in the fridge/freezer for too long and looked a bit "discoloured" and did not taste that fresh - we had to ask them to be changed) and huge amounts of Super-Duper KIng sized prawns  The only thing which we found strange on Princess (Regal Princess) was the poor quality of their pastry - both for savoury and sweet dishes - they tasted like cardboard! The cakes, pastries and desserts on Oceania were definitely superior, but then, we did not pile on so many calories on Princess as we did on Oceania !!!  Dare we say, we found the shows on our Princess cruise was actually BETTER than on any of our Oceania cruises. 

So, there are many things which Oceania does better , or very well, but Princess is not that bad. You will enjoy the cruise. Besides, your hubby will be happy because the $$$$ money he would have saved on a Princess cruise!!!

PS: We have been on  8 cruise lines/companies. On almost every cruise with different cruise lines, they were of varying degrees of quality, but we never actually starved or felt the food wanting. The only exception perhaps was on the P&O Ventura, when one of us actually LOST WEIGHT after the cruise because the food was that poor. (These days, whenever we read on the CruiseCritics.com board under P&O and someone described themselves as "foodies", it made us grinned !!!) 

On 4/1/2019 at 9:06 PM, Clay Clayton said:

Shortly after the Captain’s daily noon time announcement today, the trivia contest was interrupted by the ding dong ding and him asking for everyone’s attention to inform us of a serious incident.  As you can imagine after last week’s events on Sky, there was immediate silence. 

 

The Captain informed us that a storeroom has flooded and most of the toilet paper aboard was no longer usable. He asked guests to come to the Living Room to pick up their cabin’s ration of what was left. He stated he would need to use it sparingly as we have five more days before we get to Madeira.  

 

Most of us in the theatre started laughing recognizing the April Fool’s Day joke but apparently many folks (including my DMIL actually went to the Living Room where housekeeping was handing out rolls!

 

Shortly thereafter, the Captain came on and wishes everyone a Happy April Fool’s Day!

 

If we remember correctly, that Captain is Norwegian, right?

So who said that Norwegians are staid and do not have a sense of humour? Good for him !!!

On 3/11/2019 at 12:57 PM, wabamun said:

Does Viking allow us to have friends board for a lunch visit. I know it is possible with some cruise lines to purchase a visitors pass.

 

Thanks.

Not sure about having friends on board for lunch. However, on the Viking Sea (am still on board the ship)  in Dominica a couple of days ago, and saw about a dozen tour guides in uniforms helping themselves to the buffet at lunch-time in the World Cafe.

Between Dec 2018 and Feb 2019 the CDC reported some outbreak "incidents"and that included twice on the Viking Star (1st time: Causative agent was "rotavirus" and 2nd time Causative agent was "unknown") and once on Viking Sea (causative agent: "norovirus")? See

https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/vsp/surv/gilist.htm#2019

We realise this problem can and has happened to many other cruise lines, so Viking is not alone in this. However, compared to other cruise lines, do you think Viking Ocean  has been as stringent enough in trying to minimise any more of these incidents occuring on board? Or are they too concerned that this might annoy their customers if they remind them to wash their hands regularly, etc,  that they may lose their business? Should Viking Management be doing  more - if so, what can they do? Should passengers be more considerate towards others and be more careful about their own hygiene? 

This issue was discussed in another thread ("Viking Star - Current Mechanical Issues") but it went "off thread"  and this issue was discussed. Someone suggested maybe we should start a new thread to discuss this very  important issue.

If you have any opinion, observations, experience etc about this issue, especially related to Viking Ocean it would be good to hear from you.

32 minutes ago, Borderlander123 said:

Totally agree.  We all do it.  What do we do with the others?   As for the drift, Viking Star's Mechanical issues coincided with norovirus onboard.  (Conspiracy theory?)  Now onto Alaska Excursions ...

Didn't the CDC reported some outbreak "incidents" between Dec 2018 and Feb 2019 and that included twice on the Viking Star (1st time causative agent was rotavirus and 2nd time causative agent was unknown) and once on Viking Sea (causative agent: norovirus)? See

https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/vsp/surv/gilist.htm#2019

Guess everyone has to be more careful and hope Viking will be more stringeant with passengers washing and cleaning/drying hands, and constantly reminding them to do so, etc.,  even if it annoys some people who are not so understanding nor patient.

On one cruise line (I think it was Azamara), the officers including the Captain, did not even shake hands when they met with the passengers to reduce passing on anything unwelcome. 

Sorry to deviate from the original thread of mechanical issues but thought discussion about health and wellbeing on ships are just as important. Yes, perhaps we should start a new thread on this!

On ‎2‎/‎20‎/‎2019 at 2:23 AM, zitsky said:

e not

So you're saying that Americans don't like to wash their hands???

I do not think the other member is trying to taint all Americans with just one brush. It is equally unrealistic to think that just because someone is "American", somehow, he or she is so "perfect" that he/she is beyond criticism. Like others around the world, Americans are humans and "mere mortals" too, they are not God, and they are no better or worse than anyone else.

There are good and bad people - and many in between - in each nationality and race. 

I too have found that Viking seems to be too laxed in encouraging passengers to use the sanitisers, compared to other cruise lines.  Some cruise lines are so strict that they will have a sanitiser gun or dispenser at the entry to the restaurant and if your hands are not "squirted" with it, you are not allowed to enter. If they missed you, they would chase after you with that sanitizer gun! It may be a bit inconvenient, but in the long run, when you are having to deal with hundreds and thousands of different people with different degrees of hygiene standards, this has to be done to reduce any cross infection.

Perhaps if enough concerned Viking passengers were to write to tellus@vikingcruises.com , the cruise line may start to do something about being more stringent in using sanitizers.

Do you not agree?

6 hours ago, groryjm said:

Ok so an odd title for a thread but I have to question my normality......

 

I've just washed my hair using those little bottles of shampoo and conditioner..... You know the odd ones that you find at the bottom of your case when you unpack after a cruise.. .

 

Well one minute I am mundanely washing my hair the next I have magically been transported and am sitting on my balcony with a glass of Champagne 🍾 and watching a Mediterranean sunset while we get ready to head out to a Chic night dinner in Luminae. . 

 

 

 

Smell is such an evocative sense and these little treats help me bear the wait between cruises. Am I Normal? Do others do this?

 

Did you get the Bulgari shampoo and conditioner from Celebrity? I thought that brand was only used on Oceania Cruises (even the bottles looked exactly the same as the ones from that cruise line).

If Bulgari toiletries are offered in bathrooms on Celebrity ships, that would be a bonus. It has been a couple of years since our last Celebrity Cruise but we are going on one some time this year.

22 minutes ago, Shawnino said:

Zero interest from me in paying for included bus tours as Viking requires.

 

There is a time and place for bus tours.

The time is never.

The place is left for the reader to discern.

Nobody is forcing you to do it. If you don't want it , don't do it. However, there are others who like it. 

For more information about the Port of Leith/ Leith Edinburgh Cruise Terminal, and how to get there from the City of Edinburgh, etc, go to: https://www.cruisemapper.com/ports/leith-edinburgh-port-116 . There is a map which shows you how close it is to downtown Edinburgh (the "West End").

Actually www.cruisemapper.com has lots of information of practically any cruise port around the world. It would be a good place to start to find out information about any future ports you may be visiting for  your cruises.

7 hours ago, cbb said:

Gnoelj: 

again, so much great information.  Thank you and it has been added to my research document!  The Leith walk has been included in places to consider walking...and we don't worry about rain.  We have industrial ponchos that cover us and our cameras....we're not fashionable but the camera and the body from head to knees are mostly dry!!!

 

i spotted this today in my research on walking tours:   "Back along Waterloo Place is the Old Calton Burying Ground and its Emancipation Monument and statue of Abe Lincoln to honor Scottish-American Civil War soldiers" which for Americans is very appropriate today; It is President Lincoln's birthday!  Thanks again

If you are going to the Old Carlton Burying Ground, it would be worth your effort to walk UP Carlton Hill, almost next to it. Once on the hill, you will be rewarded with a PANORAMIC VIEW of the City of Edinburgh including the Edinburgh Castle, it is the favorite spot of many travel photographers.