Children on SS

[Jaffa]

There are plenty of other lux lines (Crystal, RSSC, Cunard Grill class) that accept kids without problems.

 

Silversea was one of the only cruiselines that discouraged kids from sailing at all. It was written into all their PR material that children were not catered for and that SS was not suitable for children.

 

Then they go and stuff everything up.

 

I spoke to some friends tonight in San Fran who have 21 days booked on the Shadow in Alaska in late July.

 

They were not informed of this at all, and are so angry they want to cancel, but they have been caught up in the special discount pay in full by March 30 thing that has just been extended.

 

They are going to try to move there cruise to a different date and region if they cannot cancel.

They have over 400 days on SS and were shocked when l told them.

 

They want to take the matter further with senior contacts they have with SS in Europe.

 

Today l rang the SS office in Sydney and voiced my complaint, asked for it to passed up the chain to Corporate and have requested a written responce. I then backed it up with an e-mail complaint online and have requested my longtime loyal T/A (virtuoso & Amex agent) to do the same on my behalf.

 

I strongly encourage everyone else to take the time to do the same.

 

Pick up your phones and ring the toll free numbers and ask to speak to a supervisor,

tell them what you think, that you wish to complain and that your custom is very much at risk if they go through with it.

Ask for a formal written responce in reply.

 

Don't forget to quote your Venetian Society No, and inform them of your at risk forward bookings.

 

The only way to change this new policy is for SS's loyal clients to stand up and be heard. Waiting for something to happen will see all of us lose it in the long run.

Do what l did, drop an e-mail to past friends you have made on board SS and make sure they know whats happening.

 

Spread the word and let people power move mountains.

[wripro]

My concern is that this program will soon be followed by a "kids sail free" program. Regent did this and so did Crystal when it sailed the Harmony in Alaska. Can you imagine???!!!

[DebbieH103]

Regarding the pool issue, how many people really use it in Alaska? I'd see the hot tubs as more of an issue.

[Jaffa]

Everyone is around the pool on the Med itin's.

 

Many of the Alaska itin's are out of San Fran and the weather is still fine for the first days of the cruise.

On my Alaska cruises it was only the Alaska bit itself where the pools were not that popular.

 

It's the ambience in the dining venues, the theatre and the lounges that worry me the most.

The demands the kids will place on Silversea's polished, refined and wonderfull staff.

Once the kids see that staff play go fetch for the adults, they will want the same.

 

That quiet sophistcation that l so adore on SS won't be the same.

 

At $199 per child what do you think is going to happen.

 

I shudder to think, but l won't be there...

 

Why fix something that ain't broken for 200 bucks.

 

This is all just plain stupid

[billcrooz]

I just e mailed SS, i am on one of the cruises on the Shadow in Aug. I just e mailed my T.A. to find out how many kids on board before I cancel. It will cost me as i already booked non refundable air fares; hey i like kids too but not when i am on the ship. it is For ADULTS! :mad::mad::mad:

[endosunshine]

The cruise that we booked to Alaska for our 15th anniversary is included in the "special pricing for children".

At this point, I am considering cancelling. My SS agent stated in an email that SS suites only hold 3 persons, so there is rarely anyone with "several little ones". There is nothing to stop someone from booking an adjacent suite or one with a 2 bedroom and stuffing the kids in there. She totally tried to minimize the kid issue with "any kids aboard will be entertained by staff and therefore not underfoot" (I am paraphrasing). Unless the staff locks them in the hold, they will bound to be underfoot at times. One of the biggest issues to me is that so many people allow their children to run wild. If I could be assured that they would be well behaved, quiet, etc. I might not feel so concerned about it. However, even my own relatives are very permissive with their children (much more so than the way we were raised) and I generally find their children to be sassy brats.

 

Not the company I want on my anniversary!:mad:

[avalon1025]

Ugh! I'm on an Alaska sailing with this kids promo. I'll see how it goes, I would hope the onboard management will monitor the situation and address and issues. December 2007, I sailed the Seabourn Pride the week prior to Christmas, there was a large family on board with nanny's and 6 or 7 kids who were absolute terrors. The ship confined them to their cabins and the forward sundeck only. Unfortunately confining them to their cabins led to towels being flushed down the tolites and the system going off line. Bring on the kids, I'll bring my child catchers costume

[Goldens4]

I'm with you, endo. To date, Steve Tucker has not answered my "Devil's Advocate" ?????? in a previous thread on how SS is going to address complaints from adults about the children. Nor, did he answer how they are going to address a cabin move if the suites adjacent to you are filled with noisy tykes. If there are no other cabins available, are you just supposed to "suck it up"? Of course SS is going to put a "happy" face on this and say they will not be a disturbance. These are not large ships. Whenever I went to the library or game room on the Shadow, there were people there playing games, doing puzzles, or reading. Where are they going to be??? At the Pool? Oh just ducky for us pool people.

 

The ambiance will be destroyed. I can hardly wait till they let the kids into THE BAR and tell me I can't smoke in the smoking section because of them. And, I doubt in the non-smoking Panorama Lounge if folks are going to want them there. Wait till they try to go into the Casino. This is going to turn into a nightmare.

[Goldens4]

How awful Avalon. I hope SeaB billed the parents for the repairs and banned those people from ever cruising with them again. Hope they don't go on SS.

[endosunshine]

That reminded me of an incident from my childhood.... We were dining out (3 kids, age 16 to 3) and our cousin (not as well behaved as we were taught to be) was with us. He was acting up somewhat and had been reprimanded by my father. Shortly after that, in another part of the restaurant, some kid started crying and screaming bloody murder. My father looked at the cousin and said "Do you hear that? Do you know what that is? This restaurant employs a man to walk around and look for children who are misbehaving. When he finds them he sneaks up behind them and hits them on the back of the head."

 

We had no more problems from the cousin and he spent the rest of his meal looking over his shoulder!!:p

 

Maybe we can request that SS employ that man.

[Goldens4]

Love it endo. That is a super idea.

 

By the way, just received an email from 2 couples we met from the UK. They are booked on one of "those" Aug. Med. cruises. No one from SS has contacted them yet, so they are going to contact them and their UK agent. They are cruising with their adult son and daughter w/o the grandchildren. They are livid and will either cancel or change to another cruise if possible. Their stance is they are not travelling with theirs, so why tolerate someone else's. They are savvy enough to realize that the $199.00 kids rate is going to bring them as flies to you know what. Seems like the word is getting out very slowly from SS. Gee, go figure!

[BroncosFan2010]

If I wanted children with me, then I would have had some. The main reason I selected SS was the lack of children. It is not my idea of a vacation to be subjected to hordes of screaming children. That said - hopefully any children on SS would be well mannered, but since the days of having children who are raised with rules and taught to obey them seems to be over....:(. These days it seems to be the children who are in control.

 

There is a big difference in "accomodating" any children who happen to be on board and "encouraging" the inclusion of children. It would "encourage" me to choose a different cruise line.

 

Well put, and exactly how I feel.

[WineDown17]

That reminded me of an incident from my childhood.... We were dining out (3 kids, age 16 to 3) and our cousin (not as well behaved as we were taught to be) was with us. He was acting up somewhat and had been reprimanded by my father. Shortly after that, in another part of the restaurant, some kid started crying and screaming bloody murder. My father looked at the cousin and said "Do you hear that? Do you know what that is? This restaurant employs a man to walk around and look for children who are misbehaving. When he finds them he sneaks up behind them and hits them on the back of the head."

 

We had no more problems from the cousin and he spent the rest of his meal looking over his shoulder!!:p

 

Maybe we can request that SS employ that man.

 

 

He sounds suspiciously like my father.. who has unfortunately passed away!!

 

It is unfortunate that so many parents choose not to actually "parent" these days.. I can certainly understand why so many of you are upset.. feels like a bait a switch I am sure.

[wripro]

I sure hope Steve Tucker is reading this thread hourly. From the vehemence of the response here I can only imagine what will happen when non CCers who know nothing about this kids' program board the ship and see them overrun with rug rats. I see mutinies galore!

[Island Cruiser]

We have almost always encountered a few kids on the luxury lines we sail. As yet, they haven't been a problem. Had two kids in the cabin next to us for 12 days in the fjords. No problem. There were a number of kids on Whisper last April. No problem. Yet, when we see a "kids sail free" promotion we look elsewhere. We are similarly gun shy about holiday period cruises. We will now book with greater scrutiny on Silversea.

 

Our most dramatic bratty kid incident aboard a ship was on the Regent Voyager in 2003. A notorious bratty girl would inhabit the elevators. When the elevator loaded up on deck 12 she would proceed to punch all the buttons so the elevator stopped on every deck. When an annoyed passenger challenged her about this she replied "I can do anything I want because my daddy's the captain!." The part about daddy was true!

[meow!]

Our most dramatic bratty kid incident aboard a ship was on the Regent Voyager in 2003. A notorious bratty girl would inhabit the elevators. When the elevator loaded up on deck 12 she would proceed to punch all the buttons so the elevator stopped on every deck. When an annoyed passenger challenged her about this she replied "I can do anything I want because my daddy's the captain!." The part about daddy was true!

That sounds unusual. If the child's parent is a passenger, then at least they can get away with it. If it was true that it was the captain's daughter, the affected passenger could write the cruise line about it and the captain could get reprimanded. A captain is an employee and has to obey rules and set an example of himself and his family on board the ship. We do not and cannot know what actually happened, not being there!

[endosunshine]

However, if no one was willing to approach the captain and complain or at least pass a complaint "up thru the ranks" so to say, then he might never have known how dreadfully the child behaved.

 

I emailed my SS agent and notified her of this thread and told her it might benefit her to read it and see how customers feel about this child issue.

[avalon1025]

IN December on the Shadow we had the Captains daughter on board, she was lovely and a joy to have on board. The Captain and his wife were great and she did not interfere with the passengers enjoyment of the cruise

[avalon1025]

OK, so where does every think the Kids playroom is going to be? The Library? The Lobby? Panorama during some off hour? These are not big ships. Silversea better have a damn good youth coordinator, or they will loose valuable past passengers to Seabourn

[avalon1025]

I hate to say it, but the poor crew on board the Shadow this summer are going to get it if passengers have issue with unruly kids. They just don't deserve it and I am sure are looking forward to having kids en mass on their ship just as much as the regular adult passenger population.

[MrsWaldo]

Well,

 

SS wont be able to count not made bookings as a result of this policy...

 

I had 2 work colleagues who were looking at SS cruises in Aug after our rec bc they liked the small number of guests and the child free...

 

after a discussion together today they will look at SB ....and have returned their SS brochures.

 

On the Children in suites,

 

SS policy is that someone over 18 must be in a suite...and as you cannot get interconnecting except for those forwrd ones

 

The real key to having kids on board is to limit it to very small numbers and only then can it have limited impact on other guests...

 

I hope they also consider separate mealtimes.. who will decide and at what point that a child's behaviour is inappropriate and they should be asked to leave

[Jaffa]

This thread has to be a "Record" for the Silversea's board.

 

1300 hits and over 70 posts in just over 72 hr's, I am not aware of another thread like this in the 5 years l have been participating here.

 

From my calculations it's 97% against and 3% unsure and 0% in favour

 

I had no problem with the old status quo on SS.

 

Yes! there was the odd kid here and there but as others have posted, mostly they were never a problem, well behaved and to tell you the truth l never really seen them.

I have never encounted a problem like Colonelwes had, that to me seemed like an execption rather than the rule. I am sure SS learn't a lot from that, seeing he recieved compensation for his displeasure and ruined holiday.

 

SS was succesfull in dealing with 2 or 3 kids onboard at one time and it did not bother anyone.

 

I would imagine even though SS explained to these clients that kid's were actively discouraged and would not be catered for , the parents wanted to book them anyway knowing this, and it seemed to work(keeping the no's very low).

 

I would assume the SS booking strategy did work by discouraging the vast majority of enquiry's and booking attempts in the first instance with only a few getting all the way.

 

It seems by the previous posts this will almost certainly affect the bottom line in the negative.

 

Steve Tucker,

Will SS allow those already booked, deposited and or fully paid for these cruises the oppurtunity to move to another cruise or region without $$$ penalty.

Why were people not told of this at time of booking or before the March 30 special deadline ran out?.

Will you offer a definate guarntee that this will definatly not be phased in fleet wide or on other itin's?.

What was wrong with your old policy that needed such radical and unwanted change?.

 

How is $199 going to cover the cost to SS to make this $$$ worthwhile when it looks like you are giving this away at the expence of your regular adult repeaters?.

[WesW]

Jaffa, good roll up of the sentiment on this thread...kids and smoking whitehot buttons for lux cruisers...imagine SS is very interested in what many of these posts are saying.

 

In retrospect, SS would have been better served to have sent a for lack of better

words, a "SS Chrildren's Select program proposal Letter" to their Venetian members for

comment...then either amended their planned roll out, cancelled it, or continued

with their original plans...at least they would have attempted to get Venetian buy-in (doubt they would have got it) before the roll out...Could be there are details in

SS's decision (Paul Harvey other side of the story) we are not aware of.....

 

But as Jaffa said, this thread ratcheted up the CC SS discourse like I have not seen

in months on CC SS...that is the good news of this thread.

[e.h. beach bum]

IN December on the Shadow we had the Captains daughter on board, she was lovely and a joy to have on board. The Captain and his wife were great and she did not interfere with the passengers enjoyment of the cruise

I was on that same cruise and there were 4 or 5 olther young kids that were in the pool and making a nuisance of themselves while their 2 nannies were socializing with each other. I had to ask them to monitor the kid's behavior. In addition they appeared in the cocktail lounge before dinner, and had no business being there, especially when seating was unavailable to the rest of the paying guests. How could anyone in their right mind encourage young kids on an upscale adult cruise. If parents bring them then, in my opinion, they are selfish.

[billcrooz]

good news for all of us on the Aug 1st cruise to Alaska;my T.A. checked with SS this a. m. and there were only 3 rugrats on board. :) Mush !