Speakers onboarb

[planada]

We have been Regent cruisers since Crystal folded. Our last 2 trips were wonderful except for the lack of onboard historians, speakers, ect about the areas visited. Is this something Silver Seas is proficiently providing? I realize we get a good overview from the excursions offered but really enjoy the speakers provided on sea days and leading up to a port. Viking does a good job of this,  BUT….. they are lacking in other areas that we enjoy too. 

[carefreecruise]

it depends.

If an expedition ship, there will be a briefing the night before to cover what your going to see the next day. Also the expedition staff are full of knowledge and when walking around the ship, they will spot birds and tell you all about them. Some will be out at night and explain the night sky to you.

 

If a standard cruise, the theater will be used on sea days to provide you with history and suggest places you should visit when the ship docks. Also will provide where to go if your in to shopping.    

[drron29]

I found the speaker onboard our August Dawn cruise informative. Though I must admit often I just watched him on replay from my lounge. He knew his history.

[MBP&O2/O]

Am I  correct in thinking that this question has been posted on at least three different boards?

[Mocamps]

We had some excellent talks on our Galapagos cruise on the old Silver Galapagos and on our Antarctic and Arctic cruises on Silver Cloud. They were mainly given by the expedition leaders but all of them were experts in their field, and most of them had good presentation skills.

 

There was a notable difference on our most recent (2022) Arctic cruise on Silver Wind. The speakers (again the expedition leaders) still seemed to be knowledgeable but presentation skills in most cases were sadly lacking. And there were a couple who didn't really have good English which made them difficult for us to understand. I have to admit that, although I always went to the briefings, we gave up on the additional lectures. And we watched a lot more TV than we normally do on cruises!!

 

Obviously these were all expedition cruises. I have no experience of classis cruises with Silversea.

[spinnaker2]

A small rant, a little off piste( or vice versa).  On our last cruise aboard the Dawn we had the General and the dentist, both frequent speakers across many lines.  We have heard them before, and the topics were the same if not similar.

At dinner in La Terrazza one evening they sat near each other, and other pax, self proclaimed refugees from Crystal, bent their ears. They happily bent back, and loudly bemoaned the experiences on Silversea. I found it astounding that two hired speakers would bite the hand that fed them in such a loud and uncouth way. 

[Daveywavey70]

5 hours ago, spinnaker2 said:

A small rant, a little off piste( or vice versa).  On our last cruise aboard the Dawn we had the General and the dentist, both frequent speakers across many lines.  We have heard them before, and the topics were the same if not similar.

At dinner in La Terrazza one evening they sat near each other, and other pax, self proclaimed refugees from Crystal, bent their ears. They happily bent back, and loudly bemoaned the experiences on Silversea. I found it astounding that two hired speakers would bite the hand that fed them in such a loud and uncouth way. 

I Hope you fed their comments back to the management spinns !

[Randyk47]

This thread got me thinking back about speakers we’ve had or actually more correctly not had on Silversea.  The majority of our Silversea cruises have been in the Med and in my mind that is one of the most interesting and history filled regions in the world.  A few of our cruises in that region have had excellent speakers yet others have had no speakers.  It’s really been hit or miss.  There may have been speakers on our Silversea Caribbean cruises  though having literally cruised a few hundred days in the Caribbean I haven’t paid much attention.   In fairness to Silversea I have to say our previous speaker experiences on the mass market lines in the Caribbean were more about the speaker hawking shopping opportunities  and who you should shop with in a port.   Some of those speakers would throw in some historical or cultural information but the underlying purpose was to get you to shop at stores they had “kickback” arrangements with.   

[Camillus112]

One particular speaker in a Caribbean cruise some years ago was hardly any expert.  In his talk about pirates of historical note, he failed to mention Roberto Cofresí y Ramírez de Arellano (one of the most notables).  After the talk I asked about this..."oh, yes, I should have mentioned him, but people won't know."  Well, I did, he is one of my ancestors.

[spinnaker2]

13 minutes ago, Camillus112 said:

One particular speaker in a Caribbean cruise some years ago was hardly any expert.  In his talk about pirates of historical note, he failed to mention Roberto Cofresí y Ramírez de Arellano (one of the most notables).  After the talk I asked about this..."oh, yes, I should have mentioned him, but people won't know."  Well, I did, he is one of my ancestors.

Good to see you back Cam!!!

[bohaiboy]

On 3/10/2023 at 11:25 AM, planada said:

 

We have been Regent cruisers since Crystal folded. Our last 2 trips were wonderful except for the lack of onboard historians, speakers, ect about the areas visited. Is this something Silver Seas is proficiently providing? I realize we get a good overview from the excursions offered but really enjoy the speakers provided on sea days and leading up to a port. Viking does a good job of this,  BUT….. they are lacking in other areas that we enjoy too. 

SS speakers, lecturers etc is nothing like what was available on Crystal.  We did one cruise before tehy folded and were quite pleased with the speakers and educational enhancements onboard.  Have never seen that on a SS traditional sailing.

[planada]

Thanks so much for letting me know. Cruise lines are you listening??