Silversea Food vs Seabourn Food

[oregon50]

Yes, not a cool first post and a good example of what is entering this market segment.

 

Regarding the PhillipB SB review. His well written review has valid points.

While the review will be there forever for all to read, SB quickly discovered it was a bad experiment and has corrected the errors. In the end, Carnival owns SB.....not Holland America.

[Ravenscroft]

Yes, not a cool first post and a good example of what is entering this market segment.

 

Regarding the PhillipB SB review. His well written review has valid points.

While the review will be there forever for all to read, SB quickly discovered it was a bad experiment and has corrected the errors. In the end, Carnival owns SB.....not Holland America.

 

We're new entrants to the market having never cruised prior to Silversea in May 2011 and in the last year or so, we are already noticing a worrying difference in some other guests on both SS and SB. For those who have been cruising in the luxury market for longer it must be very noticeable.

 

Back on topic - the food. I briefly mentioned our cruise on Quest on this thread yesterday.

It was our first SB cruise. We sailed within a couple of weeks of PhilipB's cruise, and were overall disappointed, especially with the food. We noticed that it seemed to deteriorate in quality and presentation a few days into the cruise. We talked to our fellow guests and many of them said the food wasn't close to the usual SB quality. Anyway, that was in December 2012. Having sailed on the Sojourn at the end of June we were much happier with our experience, and the food had definitely improved.

 

So that's a long winded way to say, I agree with you. The experiment at the end of last year was a failure but it was recognised and corrected quickly.

 

I do find that SB has the edge overall on food, although for me, the MDR selection is very red meat heavy.

[spinnaker2]

I thought the opportunity to post was to provide information, critique, commentary and otherwise discuss. I do not feel personal attacks are appropriate in these topic areas. However I am not the host so will leave that to Dan.

[dusababy]

uk jeff what dates and places have you visited on cruises. you seen to have many opinions......ps what is your BMI since you are slamming Americans.

 

your friend Sherry the Silversea Mole::

mom of 5..

 

 

pss

first time cruisers like me lets just be excited and ignore this bore

 

Sherry - there are posters who know everything and never let an opportunity pass to comment or critique -- don't let it bother you -- just IGNORE and enjoy the rest. ;)

[Mr Luxury]

We're new entrants to the market having never cruised prior to Silversea in May 2011 and in the last year or so, we are already noticing a worrying difference in some other guests on both SS and SB. For those who have been cruising in the luxury market for longer it must be very noticeable.

 

I am afraid so.

The prices have been very cheap for the past two years on all luxury lines thus attracting a "New" crowd.:rolleyes:

Thankfully prices are steadily rising and the luxury lines will settle down and find their level again.

[Ravenscroft]

I am afraid so.

The prices have been very cheap for the past two years on all luxury lines thus attracting a "New" crowd.:rolleyes:

Thankfully prices are steadily rising and the luxury lines will settle down and find their level again.

 

This is one reason that we will tend to book the longer/peak season cruises (Quest Holiday 2012,for example) in future when we can. I don't know about you, but we didn't see any bad behaviour, poor manners or loutish antics during the whole 18 days. Apart from the smoker on the veranda on Deck 6;)

We'll avoid 7 day cruises whenever possible, but won't rule them out completely.

[Mr Luxury]

This is one reason that we will tend to book the longer/peak season cruises (Quest Holiday 2012,for example) in future when we can. I don't know about you, but we didn't see any bad behaviour, poor manners or loutish antics during the whole 18 days. Apart from the smoker on the veranda on Deck 6;)

We'll avoid 7 day cruises whenever possible, but won't rule them out completely.

 

No,I did not see any wrong doing on the 2012 Quest trip.

 

I will be watching on the 2013 Sojourn Holiday trip but already know many from last year that will be with us this year.Just come back from the Legend and not too long to wait until Christmas.:)

 

I do not like the seven day cruises but if you keep away from sailing in the holiday periods you can join a few cruises together to get what you want.

[Ravenscroft]

No,I did not see any wrong doing on the 2012 Quest trip.

 

I will be watching on the 2013 Sojourn Holiday trip but already know many from last year that will be with us this year.Just come back from the Legend and not too long to wait until Christmas.:)

 

I do not like the seven day cruises but if you keep away from sailing in the holiday periods you can join a few cruises together to get what you want.

 

I've been unsuccessful in trying to persuade Mr R to book that Sojourn Panama Canal cruise this year. And still no commitment about alternatives for Christmas, so it could be spent at home for the first time in 10 years. :eek:

 

Anyway, I'll be interested to hear how it was when you return, and it should certainly be fun if some of the same guests as last year are with you.

[Mr Luxury]

I've been unsuccessful in trying to persuade Mr R to book that Sojourn Panama Canal cruise this year. And still no commitment about alternatives for Christmas, so it could be spent at home for the first time in 10 years. :eek:

 

Anyway, I'll be interested to hear how it was when you return, and it should certainly be fun if some of the same guests as last year are with you.

 

Sorry to hear of your sad news.:(

 

Has Mr R got short arms and long pockets this year.:rolleyes:

[Ravenscroft]

Sorry to hear of your sad news.:(

 

Has Mr R got short arms and long pockets this year.:rolleyes:

 

Short arms, long pockets, and, I suspect a secret desire to stay at home :D

Of course he won't be the one with his hand up a goose's bottom on Christmas Eve. Well, unless there's something he hasn't told me.

[Mr Luxury]

Short arms, long pockets, and, I suspect a secret desire to stay at home :D

Of course he won't be the one with his hand up a goose's bottom on Christmas Eve. Well, unless there's something he hasn't told me.

 

So,there will be two tight arses in your household this Christmas.;)

[SantaAna,CA]

Was reading this thread about the food. I've been on four Seabourn cruises and loved the food. Cannot even think of something I didn't like. I took one Silversea cruise...on the Shadow....and was so shocked at the bad food, I'm hesitant to go back. I'm not a fussy eater either.

 

The worst was, in Le Champagne, a blob of roquefort cheese (sorry if I spelled that wrong) on a bed of prune jelly. What? I've never been served anything like that in my life. Horrid. In the MDR the food was bland, dry, or just tasteless. I was very disappointed since I know Silversea is a luxury line.

 

Jane

[himandi]

Well I will keep an open mind on all of the above - We have cruised for the last 4 years on Seabourn and have noticed it changing and I would agree that I think the food was better again this year after a dip in 2012.

We go on our 1st Silversea cruise on the Cloud in February 2014 and we are looking forward to it very much - basically it was the itinerary that sold it to us.

I do not like doing segments of a World cruise - just that the people on the full cruise definitely seemed to have bonded and we who were only doing one segment were made to feel like outsiders.

[duct tape]

You will love the Cloud, I hope!

[carefreecruise]

We as the original poster; are in the food business. We spent a lot of time talking to the Chefs on both cruises and narrow it down to two major differences:

 

1) SB has every protein (bacon, fish, meats) delivered to the ship frozen. Its orders from Seattle for safety reasons. Chef and Hotel manager must comply with new owners. They try to do their best masking the frozen food taste. Some passengers don't care while others passengers notice it. After talking to the ships staff, Chef was good enough to go on shore and pick us up a fresh side of beef and fish for personal preparation of a custom menu, served in our cabin.

 

2) SS ships we were on, chef is down on the docks picking up fresh meats and fish packed on ice. We have been down on the dock with them reading tags of where the fish was caught and how long ago. (note) This may not be done in all ships worldwide. When chefs are working with fresh ingredients its makes their job easier. If items are cooked and seasoned properly the passengers should benefit from fresh ingredients. Although some passengers may not like the food anyway and can't pinpoint why thy don't like it, period.

 

Chefs on both ships and in any restaurant can have bad days and serve food not prepared properly or adding improper seasoning.

[Randyk47]

No doubt fresh almost anything is better than frozen or otherwise preserved foods. Personally my palette isn't sophisticated enough to know absolutely whether a protein has been frozen or not with maybe the exception of fish. Seabourn probably does suffer from lack of some flexibility being a part of the larger Carnival Corporation which no doubt in turn has a significant purchasing and supply system world wide. It's not like Seabourn just became a part of Carnival as they effectively took control of them in 1998. The consolidation with Holland America operations in Seattle a couple of years ago may or may not be helping. I will say that the food on the Wind last year was far superior to the food on the Holland America Maasdam the year before but that's kind of a "I hope so" expectation.

[duct tape]

We recently sailed TA on the QM2. Wonderful ship, but, thank you, Carnival, the food sucked!

[lilant]

..thanks to our friends that are on SS several times a year we knew some secrets, and being a classically trained chef (schooled in the states and paris) i prepared our MDR menus in advance and presented them to the MD the first night. so the nights we were in the MDR we had meals planned out by us and cooked for us. even some lunches were prearranged. even the night we "invited" some new friends to dine with us all it took was a call to the kitchen earlier that day and our menu was served to the whole table. it all worked out super. in fact i already have our menus planned out for our cruise in jan.

 

just a thought.

[Grandma Gilly]

..thanks to our friends that are on SS several times a year we knew some secrets, and being a classically trained chef (schooled in the states and paris) i prepared our MDR menus in advance and presented them to the MD the first night. so the nights we were in the MDR we had meals planned out by us and cooked for us. even some lunches were prearranged. even the night we "invited" some new friends to dine with us all it took was a call to the kitchen earlier that day and our menu was served to the whole table. it all worked out super. in fact i already have our menus planned out for our cruise in jan.

 

just a thought.

 

I found your post very interesting. Can you explain a bit further please. We are going on our first Seabourn cruise in November and are looking forward to it. We have travelled SS and found the food just OK, not very exciting. Our favourite cruise line for food is without doubt Azamara. No, the cabins and bathrooms don't compare to SS or SB but there is something special about this line. However, as almost everyone else has said, food is so subjective!!!

[seabreezer]

I think SS actually does afternoon tea better than anything else!

[spinnaker2]

Tea is great even on the explorer!

[lilant]

I found your post very interesting. Can you explain a bit further please. We are going on our first Seabourn cruise in November and are looking forward to it. We have travelled SS and found the food just OK, not very exciting. Our favourite cruise line for food is without doubt Azamara. No, the cabins and bathrooms don't compare to SS or SB but there is something special about this line. However, as almost everyone else has said, food is so subjective!!!

 

im not sure how else to put it...

 

i think of all our favorite dishes maybe things we would not cook at home, items that we only have on special occasions or old favorites and ask they be prepared for us while we are on board. like for example the pool menu isnt really anything to write home about burgers and such, but we LOVE a good croque-monsieur or Croque-Madame with small garden salad and shoestring fries. ask and you shall receive.here is the menu ive come up with for our jan cruise.

2014 cruise menu.doc

[dusababy]

You, my dear, know how to eat !!!:D

[ging466]

I think SS actually does afternoon tea better than anything else!

 

Agree with seabreezer. On my recent Crystal cruise, I was looking forward to their afternoon tea but it was disappointing. SS does the best afternoon tea!

 

Cheers

Jennifer

[dusababy]

"SS does afternoon tea better than anyone".....agree.

Interesting -- and SS is an Italian line .:confused:

Point SS.