Silver Spirit Caribbean Nov 22 - Dec 2

[meow!]

I will be on Silver Spirit on 1st March 2011...

Thank you for your appreciation. So you will be on a three week voyage, good for you, enjoy!

[meow!]

Continued from above …

 

ANTIGUA

 

The ship was docked quite close to a tourist shopping area. There were again many jewellery shops, including one called “Diamonds International” recommended by Silversea. The “shopping companion”, by the name of Philip, was so busy running between the ship and several shops, trying to help out passengers who wanted his advice. Here, you could find watches, “loose diamonds”, alexandrite and tanzanite, among other things.

 

There were taxi drivers waiting for business. One tiny man offered to take us for $30 per hour or $50 for two hours, so we took the latter. He spoke reasonable English and we were happy to go with him. He told us that this was a former British Colony, now still honouring Her Majesty as their head of state, whose likeness was on local currency, and who still appointed a local governor. Presumably, he thought that this might be reassuring to some tourists, who could count on safety roaming around as a result of good governance. His van was air conditioned and reasonably comfortable.

 

He brought us all the way across the island to the “International Park” and then back to the ship. The roads were paved and quite wide only in the “city area” (close to the ship), where there were new LED traffic lights. Outside this area, the roads became narrower, and the road surface was not that good. Houses in the countryside were just like that, with a few animals wandering around. We were told that the average household income was US$600 to US$800 per month and the average house would cost US$100,000 to US$150,000. He also told us that since the island’s sugar cane business dwindled decades ago, the locals depended on tourism for their main source of income, accounting for as much as 65% of their gross national product. So we said they must like tourists. He replied that they loved tourists, because without tourists, they wouldn’t have enough food to eat, and “A hungry man is an angry man”. What a concise statement of wisdom, and in his accent the words “hungry” and “angry” rhymed so well. While we were lucky enough not to have that experience “first hand”, we would believe him.

 

We tried several ATMs on the way (we usually liked to get some local currency for souvenir, and to have a credit card record of having been to a destination), but none of them worked for both our Visacard and Mastercard. We again bought magnets, and a postcard which we wrote to ourselves, and mailed it ourselves at the local post office (which was closed, but we could put it into the “air mail” slot on the outside wall).

 

ST. KITTS

 

We also docked at St. Kitts. Here the ship was slightly further from the shore, with a longer, perhaps a quarter of a mile, strip of walkway to shore and the tourist shopping area. This was the only island where Silversea provided golf cart service for those not willing to walk under the scorching sun, and the driver solicited tips from passengers. Here, like Antigua, they used the “Caribbean dollar”, at an exchange rate of roughly three for one to the US$, though in any case the US$ was widely accepted and there was no need to change at all. Again, we tried several ATMs, and none of them worked. So for future travellers to these islands, bring enough cash (US$ would be fine), or in Silversea’s case, get “cash advance” from the ship’s counter (other cruise lines, including Celebrity, might not provide cash advances), but don’t count on getting (any kind of) cash from local ATMS (though they do readily accept credit cards for purchases).

 

Again we took a taxi tour, this time for only one hour for US$30, and we got an air conditioned Hyundai van. He took us to the other side of the island where the Caribbean Sea met the Atlantic Ocean to take pictures there. Local incomes and living conditions sounded similar to Antigua, and perhaps since we stayed mostly in the “city area”, it appeared a little cleaner than Antigua. The driver told us that there were several universities with medical schools on this island. We asked why would they need so many considering they had a population of only 40,000. He said because most of the students were foreign, studying there to get medical degrees to work in their home countries (a “foreign medical graduate” training centre?) We still wondered how could they get enough patients for those students to practise on (medicine presumably is a practical subject which can only be properly learnt through experience with patients).

 

It was a Sunday, and some shops were not open. While we could buy magnets and postcards, we could not buy stamps. So we gave the postcards to the ship’s reception counter to mail for us. Here we bought a small Tanzanite ring for $350 as a souvenir. We returned to the ship before dark. At every port through this voyage, we would sit on our cabin balcony and watch the ship leave harbour.

 

… to be continued

[meow!]

Continued from above …

 

VIRGIN GORDA

 

We anchored and tendered to British Virgin Island’s Virgin Gorda, a town of barely 4,000 people. As the tender approached shore, we saw the Union Jack and the local flag flying, and a band playing nice music, there was some kind of local festival. This place looked like a yacht haven, and there were a number of shops at the landing area, which sold souvenirs and other stuff. This island used the US$, and there was no local currency.

 

Again we bought some post cards and a “souvenir map tile”. We were told that the local post office was only a five-minute walk away (it took us much longer), and we mailed it ourselves there, which was in a fairly new government office building. With such a small population, it was understandable that the place was quite clean. There were a few taxi vans (somehow all through the Caribbean, taxis for tourists were nearly all vans, whether there were only a couple of passengers or half a dozen). We did not take a taxi tour, just wandered around this small area for a couple of hours ourselves, and took the tender back to the ship.

 

MISCELLANEOUS

 

Distances sailed (copied from Silversea Chronicle):

Fort Lauderdale to Grand Turk 585 nautical miles

Grand Turk to Gustavia 530 nautical miles

Gustavia to Antigua 75 nautical miles

Antigua to St. Kitts 75 nautical miles

St. Kitts to Virgin Gorda 123 nautical miles

Virgin Gorda back to Fort Lauderdale 989 nautical miles

Total distance 2377 nautical miles

 

Other than short “hops” between islands, the ship typically sailed at 15 to 16 knots.

 

... to be continued

[meow!]

Continued from above:

 

DISCUSSION

 

The Spirit, by itself was an excellent ship, had a greater variety of food and better entertainment. However, with its larger number of passengers, public facilities unable to seat all passengers “in camera”, single storeyed show lounge with a small stage, significantly smaller per passenger space, and narrower, “carpentered” cabins, it was not as luxurious as the Shadow/Whisper. If we call the Shadow/Whisper “luxury”, in our opinion perhaps we should call the Spirit “popular luxury” instead. As shown by a previous poll we had conducted on this board, roughly half the respondents considered the Spirit a “sideway development” compared to the Shadow/Whisper, while the other half considered it a step down, both with good reason (see http://boards.cruisecritic.com/poll.php?do=showresults&pollid=3885 ).

 

As we pointed out in September, 2009, by our calculations based on deck plan drawings, the public area : cabin area ratio on the Shadow/Whisper was 108%, while that on the Spirit was only 82%, that is a one-quarter decrease (see http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1053451&highlight=public+area+ratio posting #18), and this substantial shrinkage had been felt. That is not to say that the Spirit does not have enough of everything, it in fact does, but in the luxury market, the word to watch for is not “enough” but “plenty”. A facility can be called luxury when it is much more than enough, with plenty of it hardly used, rather than having much of it heavily used. The other factor to watch for is “individuality and exclusivity”, which is naturally diluted with a 40+% increase in number of passengers. Service becomes more “large scale efficient” rather than “individual cozy”. (We realize that some people may prefer the former to the latter, and indeed it may be easier to remain anonymous in a larger crowd).

 

We also recognize that the Shadow/Whisper were built at the turn of the millennium, when Western countries were at the peak of their economic cycle, and opulence was the order of the day. The Spirit was instead built through the economic tsunami years, when the West declined and Asia soared (and unfortunately still not many Asians have taken to luxury cruising), so the industry had been looking for ways to raise efficiency and trim costs. So this trend towards larger, more efficient and less luxurious ships should be easy to understand. It is up to the cruise line to gauge the market situation and decide on which direction it wants to go. Does Silversea want to be “true luxury”, or “popular luxury” or a mixture of the two (with some ships catering to the former and others the latter) in the long run? We are not and cannot make any value judgment on which direction is correct, we are just pointing out what we have observed and the choices we think available.

 

Just in case if Silversea decides on building Spirit sized ships in the future, and yet wants to hold on to “true luxury”, a compromise will be to lower the number of passengers from 540 to 480 ( a decrease of 11%) while keeping the Spirit’s hull. With better “yield management” and fare structure, since the present ships on average have a 90% occupancy rate (http://boards.cruisecritic.com/poll.php?do=showresults&pollid=4139 ), it should be possible to generate the same revenue with fewer cabins without raising fares by too much (and having 90% as many cabins all full is no less desirable than having 100% of the cabins 90% occupied). This idea had been discussed in detail in our previous postings http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=26702104&highlight=cabin+widen#post26702104 (postings #29 and especially #71 which made a practical suggestion on how this can be done). By the way, in comparison, Seabourn’s new ships have a space ratio (the larger the better) of 32,500/450 = 72.2 (closer to Shadow/Whisper) and a passenger per crew ratio (the lower the better) of 450/330 = 1.36 versus the Spirit’s 540/376 = 1.44 and the Shadow/Whipser’s 382/295 = 1.29

 

We have read on this board the opinion that new passengers will be happy to cruise on the Spirit, while repeat passengers may prefer the older ships given the same itinerary and fare. As for ourselves, we would be delighted to cruise on any Silversea ship (or Oceania or Celebrity ships for that matter). What is limiting our cruises is our own limited resources, as fares are expensive in any case to ordinary cats, and it takes a lot of effort to gather the payments needed. We don’t know when will we be able to afford another one, given so many things we need to do and pay for. Perhaps some years down the road, there will be another worthwhile newbuild to “scope out”, and we will find the means to try again. We do caution ALL cruise lines to be very careful not to over expand, indeed over expansion is a death knell to ANY business, and while it is in the nature of businessmen to be optimistic and expansionist, the ability to guard against this innate pitfall is the necessary wisdom for business longevity.

 

CONCLUSION

 

The Spirit is a nice ship with its own merits. The cabins are good. The food is good with additional restaurants providing more variety which should be appreciated especially on long voyages. The service is courteous and friendly. While it may not be as luxurious as the Shadow/Whisper, it is still well appreciated. The design is modernistic, with separate LCD TVs even in the standard cabins. For those who can afford it, any Silversea ship, including the Spirit, will be a joy to sail on.

 

Thank you all for taking the time to read this lengthy thread. Whether on land or (comparatively rarely) at sea, we still intend to post on this cruise critic board regularly in the long run.

[Travelcat2]

Thank you Meow. We cats definitely agree with your conclusion.

[WesW]

Meow, thanks for your detailed report, but after having sailed 16 nights on the spirit this January and sailing equally that many days on the Shadow and Whisper..we will never sail on the Spirit again. IMO, the Spirit is the absolutely poorest design new luxury ship (comparing Regent & Silversea) on the market. We will get a chance to experience Seabourn's newest ship, Quest, next November. A freqent CC poster who sails Oceania, Regent, and Silversea sent me an email today that succinctly describes his disappointment with the Spirit (he is now on board):

 

"The Spirit, on the other hand, is a different matter. Not only do I prefer the Wind/Cloud, to the Spirit, but I also liked the (Regent) Voyager better (and Paul was on the Voyager last week). The Spirit just didn’t get it right, IMO. It doesn’t offer any of the advantages you would expect from a larger ship yet you have many of the disadvantages of a larger ship."

 

Poor Spirit design features include: inadequate unisex spa and locker room, micro size fitness class room, poorly designed theater, observation lounge w/o bathrooms, and all pax decks forward resulting in second hand smoke that infiltrates your cabin (my wife's observation not mine)

 

Like Paul we will gladly consider another SS voyage, but not on the Spirit.

[Travelcat2]

Meow, we agree that the Spirit should be set up for less passengers. We do, however, feel that she is a lovely ship and a good size (for approximately 475 guests). I think that much was learned from the building of the Spirit and that the next build will benefit from the lessons learned (much like the Seabourn Sojourn being dramatically better than the Odyssey). Unlike other posters, in forward suites, we did not smell smoke at any time during our cruise.

 

We will be on the Whisper in May and are hoping for a good experience. Having visited the Wind, we found her extremely small and the smell of smoke when we boarded caused us to leave the ship earlier than we intended to. We would take the Silver Spirit over the Wind, any of the Seabourn smaller ships, the Seabourn Odyssey, or the Regent Navigator. Right now, with the disappointing reviews of the Shadow, we would not sail on her either. She is apparently well overdue for refurbishment.

[ging466]

I absolutely LOVED the Spirit having recently spent 21 days on her. I know she has design flaws but none of those upset me and I would happily sail on her again and again and again.:)

 

Cheers

Jennifer

[Roland4]

I absolutely LOVED the Spirit having recently spent 21 days on her. I know she has design flaws but none of those upset me and I would happily sail on her again and again and again.:)

 

Cheers

Jennifer

 

I would sail her again for the right itinerary, but one of the other four would be my first choice. Speaking of design flaws, I can't help thinking that the forward elevators/stairs were an afterthought. Looking at the way that very small hall area is designed and located, I am inclined to think that it was originally supposed to be service elevators and stairs. Especially considering the way they have the four elevators and three sets of stairs so close together in the mid-ship area.

[ging466]

I would sail her again for the right itinerary, but one of the other four would be my first choice. Speaking of design flaws, I can't help thinking that the forward elevators/stairs were an afterthought. Looking at the way that very small hall area is designed and located, I am inclined to think that it was originally supposed to be service elevators and stairs. Especially considering the way they have the four elevators and three sets of stairs so close together in the mid-ship area.

 

I luved those elevators, they were quite close to my suite so when I was in a hurry to get somewhere I could jump in one of them. Normally I would just walk all the way down to midship.

 

There are so many good things about the Silver Spirit. It would be great if everyone could focus on those and stop whingeing about the flaws.:)

 

Cheers

Jennifer

[meow!]

Thank you all for the variety of opinions, which make this discussion interesting .. meow!

[Roland4]

I luved those elevators, they were quite close to my suite so when I was in a hurry to get somewhere I could jump in one of them. Normally I would just walk all the way down to midship.

 

There are so many good things about the Silver Spirit. It would be great if everyone could focus on those and stop whingeing about the flaws.:)

 

Cheers

Jennifer

 

Actually I agree they were convenient as we were two cabins away and I really don't think it would be practical if they weren't there. I just wondered if anyone else found the design of that area a bit "unusual", or if it was just me.

[Paulchili]

meow,

Thank you for your usual thorough and detailed report on the Spirit.

We boarded her as you disembarked on 12/2 for a B2B cruise from FLL.

My good CC friend Col. Wes quoted my sentiments on the Spirit (as a ship) accurately in his post above.

While we enjoyed the cruise very much, we did not fall in love with the ship itself. We much preferred the Wind and the Cloud and will happily return to either one of those. We have not tried the Shadow/Whisper as yet, but from all my reading it sounds like we would prefer them to the Spirit.

While our experience on the Spirit was made extra special by the kindness and extra attention from a few of the staff that had remembered us from prior cruises, the staff overall was excellent. However, once again, I am making a distinction between my experiences on the Spirit and the ones on the Wind and Cloud.

While the vast majority of the staff on the Spirit were excellent, it was not true of every single one. On the Wind, OTOH, the staff was uniformly outstanding without any exception. These differences do not surprise me just because of the larger ship and larger staff on the Spirit. Also, while the food was very good, it was not as “special” as I had remembered it (maybe my mind is playing tricks with me).

In conclusion, the staff of Silversea, in general,is the best I have encounter at sea and we will happily sail on any of their ships in the future but the Spirit and PA II.

[meow!]

We are so glad to hear from you, Paulchili, we always appreciate your kindness and wisdom.

[meow!]

Thank you all for taking the time to reply, Roland4, Ging466, Travelcat2, ColonelWes, assiechick7, Goldens4, PaulaJK, DebbieH103, and of course our Host Dan. Keep them coming, please. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

[DebbieH103]

Thanks Meow and Roland for all the commentary.

 

Meow, our second sailing on Spirit had 479. I think the first one (noted as "sold out") had about 500.

 

We had no guest entertainers this time, only the onboard cast. I also could not get into the galley tour, a disappointment.

 

On our first sailing on Spirit, they had a galley brunch. The area was narrower, and I suggested they started handing out champagne glasses and chardonnay for waiting guests, and they did. It was tight, for sure, but I still enjoyed it, though with the crowd, a return for seconds would have been daunting. Todd thought everything was cold by the time we got back to the table.

 

At one time some years back, SS reported those Whisper/Shadow cabin sizes as 354 square ft. Maybe a couple of cabins aren't quite as big, so they knocked the ad down to 345 some time back.

 

We adore the cabin features on Spirit except the goofy location of the toilet tissue holder (not a deal breaker). After two sailings in a row, we are ready to break for a while from Spirit. We were doing Whisper in March and will try to get on that if budget allows, but we did switch as we considered to 2127 Athens to Venice for my 50th celebration. We loved Wind a lot but have not sailed since the redo. I know we will miss the two TVs but are looking forward to getting back to the intimate feeling of the small ship.

 

The massage chairs are gone on Shadow. As I reported before, they were (unfortunately) removed to the staff quarters).

 

While some of the public areas are tighter on Spirit, we love all the cushy chairs and things and never have been crowded.

 

We had two children on board, the usual number we have had on all but one SS sailing where there were 7 with 5 being teens of 16 to 18 that behaved like adults.

 

I would like to hear what anyone else has to say about the Relaix and Chateau aspect (or not) of this sailing.