Live from the Shadow- new SS traveler posting from Alaska

[duct tape]

W e had some fresh fish while on board in June/July.

[UKCruiseJeff]

I thought that the aversion to shore-bought fresh food had something to do with concerns about food safety (had the fish been refrigerated consistently, etc?) However, in some ports I recall Silversea sponsoring "shopping with then chef" shore excursions. Perhaps restrictions are more severe in US waters/ports.

 

I wish I could feel more consistent about this. I confuse myself.

 

In reality good quality frozen fish if prepared properly is as good and often more often than not better than fresh. But really fresh fish locally sourced and freshly landed beats everything. And almost everything beats cheaply sourced bulk purchased frozen fish delivered from sub-ports that is then poorly prepared.

 

I think the excuses given are excuses. Any decent chef ... or indeed anyone ... can pick up a fish look at it's eyes and gills, have a sniff and know exactly how fresh and good that fish is. If you were going to a 6 star restaurant on land for fish you wouldn't expect frozen fish would you?

 

It is money saving. No more, no less.

[RachelG]

You are exactly right, Jeff. One of the places where regent shines above silversea is in allowing the chef to use local products. We have often have caught that day fish, fresh mussels, fruits and veggies purchased from the local market on regent, but that seems rare to nonexistent on silversea. Perhaps we have just been unlucky, but it seems you would take advantage of what is local and very high quality. The food safety thing is just a lame excuse.

[frequent traveler]

Our luggage has arrived so I pulled out the menus - one night, an appetizer called "fresh salmon tartare". That was the same night we had cold crab legs as an appetizer. Another night was "fillet of fresh halibut." As far as I am aware that was it. We are missing one night and I think there was a "wild salmon" special that night. Salmon is listed as available on the "steakhouse" menu every night and the night we had at Grill it had been frozen. Passengers are banned from bringing fresh foods on board but there is no prohibition on the ship buying locally from an approved fish market (or other foods, berries for example, the Alaskan blueberries are huge and were ripening). With King Crab and Dungeness in season, along with oysters, mussels, and clams, there was a lot of opportunity for variety.

[ronrick1943]

Well that's a little troublesome....I was hoping food was really, really good if not great. We cruise to relax and just enjoy the ship we happen to be on. This will be are first time on SilverSeas and your report isn't helping much for a lux ship.

But thanks for a great truthful report.

Rick

[UKCruiseJeff]

Thanks.

 

What SS do not seem to appreciate or perhaps care about is that by allowing chefs to use their skills to source locally, they not only improve the ingredients, they improve the menu, and most importantly the chefs and kitchens blossom into life, enthusiasm and creativity. They are allowed to do what they yearn to do. What good or enthusiastic kitchen staff are going to be motivated by being confined to searching the freezer for centrally prescribed formulaic menu food?

 

It is the knock-on debilitating effect of emasculating the kitchen as well as poor ingredients that matters.

[DisneyJen]

Thanks again FT and zqvol for taking us along on your cruise:cool:

 

Glad you are home safe and sound and that your luggage has found its way home as well.

[frequent traveler]

Well that's a little troublesome....I was hoping food was really, really good if not great. We cruise to relax and just enjoy the ship we happen to be on. This will be are first time on SilverSeas and your report isn't helping much for a lux ship.

But thanks for a great truthful report.

Rick

 

Food is very subjective, I have a couple of food allergies, scallops and tree nuts which meant that a number of dishes were off limits to me. You may have a different culinary experience. However as a different commentator noted, Regent incorporated more local food into its menu on the same Alaska voyage. And we really like fresh foods.

 

I can't say enough about the consistently friendliness and desire to please attitude of 95% of the staff. That outweighed the mediocrity of the food.

[whatnot]

Thanks FT for a very fair and balanced review. Since I also did Alaska on Regent I can get a feel for your issues with SS versus Regent. I thought the food on Regent was very good. Not as good as SDYD. We are foodies so I am wondering if we would like SS. I found your review of the food to be of concern. We too like fresh, local everything. I can understand if you are doing a crossing that you you can't get local but if you are going to wonderful local ports with great markets and fabulous seafood why can't you incorporate great fresh local ingredients into at least some of your meals? I know SDYC does a few things in some ports.

 

Glad you got home safely and finally got your luggage!

[CanadianKate]

I'm most interested in your comments about the art.

 

To introduce you to me: I'm sort-of a Walmart girl, belong The Compact (commit to trying to not buy anything new), don't care about fashion, and live a relatively modest middle class life ashore. We eat, we don't dine (had never dined before SS and don't dine when we are on land), and we don't drink alcohol so don't give a hoot which wines are being served. We choose SS because 1) itineraries, 2) fascinating fellow travelers (we avoid those who whine about the wine selection), 3) small ship experience with almost no line-ups and almost total isolation that makes my dh take a true holiday, unlike on land. Although, even with SS he'll often try and fit in business lunches if we are in a port where we have contacts.

 

On land we stay at mid-range business hotels with their ghastly prints that I try and ignore. It never occurred to me to give the art on SS a detailed study. I just assumed they were prints (that the sea air would damage originals.)

 

So thanks for pointing that out. If I return to SS (at present, our next cruise is Crystal because SS didn't have the routing we wanted), I'll look more closely.

[Silver Spectre]

I loved the public artwork. There were a couple of Chagall's on deck 8 that I enjoyed very much.

FT

 

There has been some very interesting artwork onboard the Shadow over the last 5 years.

 

Were any of these still there?

 

They were taken on a very rough day, hence the sick bag!

[duct tape]

Still there. Don't appear to be big sellers.

[Emtbsam]

It must have been rough weather the day you took the middle photo, or was it a commentary on the art?

[RachelG]

It must have been rough weather the day you took the middle photo, or was it a commentary on the art?

 

Haha, very true and funny. My son and his fiancé were looking into have their wedding reception at a modern art gallery until they found out that they would not know the exhibit till 2-3 months prior. It could be literally anything. So, no.

[Rocchi]

Was this Lady still on board. To be found across from the MDR in the wash room lobby.

[oregon50]

No.....we disembarked last week.

[frequent traveler]

I will get tacky and talk about prices. Art is about different tastes, I get that and I definitely lean to the more traditional. The lowest price pieces that caught my eyes were prints or charcoals- all framed of course and behind glass, probably hermetically sealed, starting at the lowly price of $2400. I was surprised to see paintings priced at 80k and above and even more surprised to see sculptures and pottery priced in excess of 20k sitting unprotected in niches and open to human touch. I'm sure there were cameras everywhere so theft isn't an issue but just thinking of someone stumbling down the stairs gave me shivers.

[Silver Spectre]

It must have been rough weather the day you took the middle photo, or was it a commentary on the art?

 

It was, we had just sailed through a gap in the Aleutian Ils and into the Bering Sea, it was howling at force 8 and running 25-30' swells.

[Silver Spectre]

I will get tacky and talk about prices. Art is about different tastes, I get that and I definitely lean to the more traditional. The lowest price pieces that caught my eyes were prints or charcoals- all framed of course and behind glass, probably hermetically sealed, starting at the lowly price of $2400. I was surprised to see paintings priced at 80k and above and even more surprised to see sculptures and pottery priced in excess of 20k sitting unprotected in niches and open to human touch. I'm sure there were cameras everywhere so theft isn't an issue but just thinking of someone stumbling down the stairs gave me shivers.

 

Were either of the 'Art Directors' onboard with you?

[Jim Avery]

It was, we had just sailed through a gap in the Aleutian Ils and into the Bering Sea, it was howling at force 8 and running 25-30' swells.

 

Where were you going in the Bering Sea?

[frequent traveler]

Were either of the 'Art Directors' onboard with you?

 

Yes, one of the "Art Directors" was on board and we declined an invitation to meet with him personally. I'm on a conference call at work now so I don't have access to materials with his name.

[Jim Avery]

Yes, one of the "Art Directors" was on board and we declined an invitation to meet with him personally. I'm on a conference call at work now so I don't have access to materials with his name.

 

Only you, FT, could play around on Cruise Critic while "working" on a conference call! Well, maybe ZQVOL could do it too. :eek::D

[Silver Spectre]

Where were you going in the Bering Sea?

 

It was the September 2012 Vancouver to Tokyo cruise. Last stop in Alaska was Kodiak and then through to Petropavlovsk, running north of the Aleutian chain.

[Jim Avery]

It was the September 2012 Vancouver to Tokyo cruise. Last stop in Alaska was Kodiak and then through to Petropavlovsk, running north of the Aleutian chain.

 

I used to run a freighter up there and one year our Northern terminus was St. Paul in the Pribilof Islands. It can get some kind of nasty up there especially in the Winter. I never saw a cruise ship up there so was curious. You went where few go (and for good reason).:D

[Silver Spectre]

Yes, one of the "Art Directors" was on board and we declined an invitation to meet with him personally. I'm on a conference call at work now so I don't have access to materials with his name.

 

Not to worry, the two I have met were both rather pompous.

 

I was having breakfast with the more ameniable of the two on the morning after the gale and sick bags, and he was outraged that someone had put a sick bag over the top of the rabbit sculpture. I nearly choked into my coffee in suppressing my amusement.