Live from the Spirit: Aegean Overtures

[BuenaVista1]

I hope Barbara Muckerman follows this topic 😉

[FlyerTalker]

45 minutes ago, BuenaVista1 said:

I hope Barbara Muckerman follows this topic 😉

 

Doesn't matter who follows a topic - what matters is if anything is done as a result.

 

 

[difranco]

Fletcher, all is forgiven.

After following your near daily posts during your cruise, we were somewhat concerned regarding the standard of cuisine on our 9 day Dubai cruise on 16th November. Well, we are back in the UK and can concur our dining experience was as you stated. We would have loved to report otherwise, however, with the exception of Atlantide for dinner, the plates presented didn’t match the description on the menu. Who wants to eat winter root vegetables with every main course. Just one example, La Terrazza dinner main, red snapper on a bed of risotto. Perfectly simple and acceptable, but then bastardised with the dreaded bland boiled winter root vegetable selection of cauliflower, carrots, broccoli and mash potato. All that was missing was roast beef and a Yorkshire pudding and your would have two dinners in one. Madness.
 

[lincslady]

Somebody in the galley obviously has no idea.  Could be not a chef but someone at the end of the serving line who thinks every plate should have the 'vegetables of the day' on.  What a shambles.

[Fletcher]

On 11/26/2023 at 8:23 AM, difranco said:

La Terrazza dinner main, red snapper on a bed of risotto. Perfectly simple and acceptable, but then bastardised with the dreaded bland boiled winter root vegetable selection of cauliflower, carrots, broccoli and mash potato. All that was missing was roast beef and a Yorkshire pudding and your would have two dinners in one. Madness.
 

Ah the unholy trinity of cauliflower, broccoli and carrot, beloved by every cheap 'Sunday roast' pub in Britain.  I asked several times on the Spirit that I didn't want that and it was always there. I guess you don't get it in La Dame???  Maybe half an asparagus spear at that 'fine dining' joint.  Silversea needs a total overhaul of its catering.  

Edited November 27, 2023 by Fletcher

[difranco]

In Atlantide, a side dish isn't a side dish. When ordered, they are prepared for the little people and placed against the main ingredient on your plate. This can be 2 steak fries, 1.5 asparagus spears, in fact, anything but a decent size side dish. There again, this method does make the measly steak or similar look enormous. 

[drron29]

Though on our Muse cruise in Atlantide the side of fries was as you said and truly pathetic but our waiter Pablo brought all the others to our table as a proper side dish.

But I got thoroughly bored with the veggie accompaniments to virtually every main dish. I mused that in the Galley there was this large number of plates all loaded with veggies just waiting for whatever the main ingredient was to be placed beside them.

SS please stop this.

Edited November 27, 2023 by drron29

[Fletcher]

I thought some of you might like to see the photos I took on this Spirit cruise to Greece and Turkey.  They are here:

 

[ak1004]

On 10/29/2023 at 7:41 PM, Host Jazzbeau said:

Is Spirit an odd man out in the Silversea fleet?  Comparing her specs and deck plans to the Muse – did they make a lot of mistakes on Spirit that were corrected in the future designs in that series?  Muse has a higher tonnage but fewer cabins.  Don't know if any of that affected your cruise, as the complaints seem to be about soft items (food quality and service issues) rather than the basic design.

 

I would have been very upset about the itinerary changes (even understanding the reasons), and expected that Silversea would have gone all-out to deliver excellence in every other area to make up for it.  Combining the poor new itinerary with so many deficiencies was adding insult to injury...

we were on the Spirit last year and on the Dawn now. Don’t see too many differences. Slight changes to the restaurant locations, La Dame much larger, that’s it. Very similar layout. Overall I still find it a great experience, but not necessarily better than Oceania. 

[Host Jazzbeau]

1 hour ago, ak1004 said:

we were on the Spirit last year and on the Dawn now. Don’t see too many differences. Slight changes to the restaurant locations, La Dame much larger, that’s it. Very similar layout. Overall I still find it a great experience, but not necessarily better than Oceania. 

If they go to the ports you were promised [saving Acts of God] at the times you were promised – that's way better than Oceania lately!

[ak1004]

24 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

If they go to the ports you were promised [saving Acts of God] at the times you were promised – that's way better than Oceania lately!

That’s true. But I still don’t have a clear evidence that Oceania misses ports more than other lines. How they handle missed ports is a different issue.

[FlyerTalker]

1 hour ago, ak1004 said:

Overall I still find it a great experience, but not necessarily better than Oceania. 

 

If you aren't seeing a significant quality difference between Silversea and Oceania, I'm not quite sure what to say.

 

IMO, they in completely different worlds.  And markets.

 

 

[ak1004]

21 minutes ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

If you aren't seeing a significant quality difference between Silversea and Oceania, I'm not quite sure what to say.

 

IMO, they in completely different worlds.  And markets.

 

 

Sorry but I don’t. And many people that we spoke on board with agreed with us. Cabins are better on SS, and you get a butler, which is useless to us. Food comparable, slightly better on Oceania in my opinion. Service comparable overall. Service in the buffet better on Oceania. Takes significantly less time to get a coffee in the morning on O. Water served almost room Temperature on SS.
 

Excursions better on SS, smaller groups. Entertainment and activities mediocre on both lines. 
 

So I’m not sure what puts SS in a different world. The fact that it’s all inclusive, but charge extra for 2 out of 8 restaurants and $29 a day for premium internet?

 

We did 4 O and 2 SS cruises so far, so the sample is pretty small, but this is my opinion based on this small sample. We are having a great cruise on the Dawn, but I’m not blown away as I’m supposed to on an ultra luxury line.

Edited December 16, 2023 by ak1004

[tulok]

@ak1004 Have you ever sailed with Regent? I would love to hear your comparison of the three (O, RSSC, and SS). We are taking our first SS in June on Spirit and an O itinerary is very interesting to us and may try in the fall. Close to the same itinerary with R but O’s price is a lot lower. We have sailed with RCCS twice so we know what to expect with them. 

Thank you for sharing your honest opinion.

[ak1004]

2 hours ago, tulok said:

@ak1004 Have you ever sailed with Regent? I would love to hear your comparison of the three (O, RSSC, and SS). We are taking our first SS in June on Spirit and an O itinerary is very interesting to us and may try in the fall. Close to the same itinerary with R but O’s price is a lot lower. We have sailed with RCCS twice so we know what to expect with them. 

Thank you for sharing your honest opinion.

We want to try Regent, but each time I check them, their prices are significantly more expensive than SS, even when removing the air. Even SS prices are too high in my opinion. We got excellent deals on all 3 sailings we booked so far, but I would not pay their “regular” prices. I checked SS 2025 prices and they are out of reach. Just cannot justify paying 50% more compared to O.

[tulok]

2 hours ago, ak1004 said:

I checked SS 2025 prices and they are out of reach. Just cannot justify paying 50%

agree. Regent use to have great promotions but I haven’t seen

many lately. I think we are going to try O this fall. I have heard good things.

[ak1004]

1 minute ago, tulok said:

agree. Regent use to have great promotions but I haven’t seen

many lately. I think we are going to try O this fall. I have heard good things.

In terms of ship experience, we really like O. My biggest concern at this point is that they have a reputation for missing ports lately, which is pretty bad, and their excursions are not as good as SS. Also SS has better itineraries and longer port stays, at least for European sailings, and this is significant for us. 
 

Also the dress code on O works much better for us. I like to dress nicely and don’t think jeans or t shirts are appropriate for dinner, but having to wear a jacket on 6 nights out of 10 nights is ridiculous. 
 

We are also trying SB next year. Choice is good.

[Host Jazzbeau]

32 minutes ago, ak1004 said:

In terms of ship experience, we really like O. My biggest concern at this point is that they have a reputation for missing ports lately, which is pretty bad, and their excursions are not as good as SS. Also SS has better itineraries and longer port stays, at least for European sailings, and this is significant for us.

You have just explained why, as much as I like the Oceania onboard experience, I won't sail on them again.

[claudiaYVR]

@Fletcher awesome pictures. Thanks for posting!

[Brad1185]

Disturbing reports here that seem to echo what a lot of others are saying about extreme decline in service and quality of food.  So it’s more than one disgruntled person giving a bad review. 
 

looking back on our recent O cruise the waiters and crew really had their act together and have to say service was outstanding along with the meals and menu offerings. 
 

Hard to believe SS is struggling so much. 
 

 

[ak1004]

1 hour ago, Brad1185 said:

Disturbing reports here that seem to echo what a lot of others are saying about extreme decline in service and quality of food.  So it’s more than one disgruntled person giving a bad review. 
 

looking back on our recent O cruise the waiters and crew really had their act together and have to say service was outstanding along with the meals and menu offerings. 
 

Hard to believe SS is struggling so much. 
 

 

We had our first SS cruise last year, so I cannot compare to how it was pre Covid. But both our cruises were very enjoyable. When I said that to me SS is comparable to O, it was meant more as a compliment to O than criticism of SS. But maybe they were not comparable pre Covid, and this is why people say that the line is in decline. 
 

btw, all dinners we had so far were excellent in terms of food and service. Dinner in La Terrazza today was probably the best meal we had so far on the Dawn. Unfortunately I cannot say the same about lunches in La Terrazza. Food and service just ok.

[Brad1185]

To get some positivity back went and watched some SS video reviews by Rich and Helen.  They make SS look really good. 

[mancunian]

We are currently on the moon and service everywhere has been excellent though cannot say the same for the food with the exception of SALT.  We were on Oceania earlier this year and the food and Preparation were excellent.  Having said that the shore excursions team on O was the worst we have experienced

[ak1004]

6 hours ago, mancunian said:

We are currently on the moon and service everywhere has been excellent though cannot say the same for the food with the exception of SALT.  We were on Oceania earlier this year and the food and Preparation were excellent.  Having said that the shore excursions team on O was the worst we have experienced

excursions on O are not good. We usually book private tours.

[ak1004]

We were advised by our butler today that the ship ran out of Perrier and Pelegrino. Still 4 days to go. Never happened on O.