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Silver Spirit

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Great food/service; poor experience/management

Kelang (Kuala Lumpur)

There are no bad cruises, for us they are adequate to excellent.  However, I am writing this review while drinking what is perhaps the worst coffee at Sea on Silver Shadow. The saga of the bad coffee at sea pretty much sums up the cruise experience. This is our 4th Silversea cruise and we generally like a small ship experience. Besides SS we have cruised on Crystal, Oceania, Seabourn and Regent.  Our next cruise is on Explora I and we have a 2024 booking on Silver Ray.

Embarkation in Quebec.  Very simple, quick, and painless -- drop luggage, security screen, health questionnaire, receive key, take photo, turn in passport, credit card scan, walk on board, and lunch in La Terrezza.  Suites were ready at 2pm.

Muster.  Many people are now complaining about cruise lines no longer doing e-musters.  On Shadow the muster was traditional outside by the lifeboats muster, the only difference was the life vests were left in the cabin.  Muster was smooth and a non-issue for most.

The Itinerary.  Quebec to Fort Lauderdale, billed as a fall foliage cruise.  However, being late in the year most of the foliage was gone or past prime and the weather was very cold.  We were the last cruise for the season in Quebec, Halifax, and Bar Harbor. This meant many venues were already closed.  We did have sun through most of the cruise and that was a plus.  Moral – do it earlier.  For us New York was the highlight, with beautiful sunny weather and two great days of tours and food.

The ship. This was our first time on the Shadow and frankly, neither of us were impressed.  

The Good:

The good points are the number of passengers – we only had 286 on board.  Our SV stateroom was comfortable, with a large closet, and comfortable bed.  Generally good.

The service was excellent, what we have come to expect from SS.  Our butler was excellent, service in all the dining areas was similarly excellent. Ship’s personnel are friendly and engaging with passengers.

Destination Services.  After having done inclusive tours on Regent, this new SS inclusive feature surprised us, the tours that we took were good to excellent.  The guides knew their stuff, were experienced, had a sense of humor and the number of persons per bus were a maximum of 30 max to lows of 9 and 5. The low numbers were the pay extra excursions.

Wi-Fi.  Shadow had Starlink installed.  The included Wi-Fi allowed for one device per passenger.  Speeds were adequate for mail and general surfing.  Unless you upgrade to the better package, they will restrict VPN connections and any streaming (no You Tube connection, although it will allow viewing embedded videos)

The bad: 

Silver Shadow certainly looks its age.  While well maintained, the ship is dated.  The carpets and chairs were dated looking and, in many cases, uncomfortable.  Could see the seams on the carpet in the cabin.  The layout of the ship is poor with most of the cabins located forward, with only one elevator servicing them.  Pity if you were on deck 8 or 9 and had to get to deck 4 Restaurant in the 32 degree F (0 degree C) windy weather. 

The Worst:

The coffee saga.  Start with good beans from illy and make undrinkable witches brew. Silversea uses a semi-automatic barista style machine from WMF a German manufacture of coffee machines.  They have one of these in the Atrium coffee bar and an older machine in La Terrezza.  These machines are designed for 300 cups per day. Everything on this machine is adjustable, grind (effects strength/bitterness) and temperature.  The other WMF machines (Presto model) are fully automatic, push touch button, grind, dispense coffee, dispense foam.   Nothing is adjustable.   The machines are designed for maybe 50 cups per day and generally find these in hotel buffets.

The issue is that the barista quality machine has been broken for well over 3 weeks. Silversea has no spares onboard and relies on the manufacturer/distributor to repair this old machine.  Promised to be fixed in Quebec, then Halifax and then New York – it remains broken. Maybe it gets fixed in Ft Lauderdale and maybe not. The Hotel Director said it was up to HQ to get this fixed based on my comment card remarks and his verbal response.

So of course, the staff is making coffee non-stop during many times of the day using a machine that was not designed for this purpose. Result the coffee is always bitter, and many times COLD.  

The issue for me – is that SS has no spare parts, no one is trained to repair the machine and there is no spare machine as on other cruise lines.  So, if the machine fails on a cruise, it will not get repaired until it reaches a major port.  If not New York – where??  (note it was to be repaired in New York, but the person was a no show).  These are logistic issues and cost cutting related.  Taking this further is the takeaway cup saga, where on Shadow we have American sized paper cups and Euro size tops.  Do they fit – of course not.

The Food and Venues:

General. Food and quality are subjective and of course it is very opinionated.  What is not an opinion is portion size.  Example is serving in the Restaurant a filet mignon that is 6oz versus 8oz and providing steak frites of 4 per portion versus 8. The steak and frites were great. But portion size shows an obvious cost cutting. I have always enjoyed the pasta on SS and unfortunately on this cruise, it was uninspiring – either overcooked and mushy or undercooked hard.

La Terrezza (day).  Small ship with an extremely small buffet area. Very poor location of the buffet, very tight and crowded with a very limited choice of foods.  Pasta for lunch, and eggs for breakfast are ordered via the waiter.  However, was disappointed in the eggs as I was able to get a runny omelet 1 in 4 tries.

La Terrezza (evening). They have two menus each running every 5 days.  Surprisingly my favorite the Osso Bucco was only on one of the menus.  We had dinner there twice, and first was only good, the second time we had the best meal of our cruise.  The fish of the day was excellent, as was the Osso Bucco.

The Restaurant. Probably the most consistent on food.  Knock your socks off food like Crystal or Regent - Unfortunately, not.  RCL cost cutting is at its best.  Frozen lobster tails in Halifax and Maine, why??  No fresh oysters, no fresh lobster.  At best it is Seabourn quality, which is also subject to big brother Carnival cost cutting.  Remembering our last cruise with Chef Pia on Explorer, where fresh food and fish were her specialty, whole roast pig, fresh oysters – none of this on Shadow.   

La Dame.  Only comment is the $60 per person charge is not worth the extra $$ for a similar meal.  The quality was like the Restaurant, with a slight improvement in the included wine choice and of course the soufflé for dessert.  

The Pool Grill (evening).  We did not use the grill.  Most days in the evening it was closed.  On the days it was open we felt bad for the staff who had to work in the extremely cold and windy weather. 

Summary:

As stated previously, all cruises are good, some are better.   This was a 3* cruise (at a 5* price), because of the coffee issues (which are unforgiveable) and managements lack of actions or urgency on this, non-5* food, and the dated feel of the ship.

Worst Coffee at Sea -- RCL Cost cutting is very evident. Not the old Silversea

Riga

We chose this particular cruise because of the itinerary  - the line was secondary but intriguing as we had never sailed on Silversea before.

This was our first time cruising with the Silversea cruise line.  It is the luxury side of the Royal Caribbean family of cruise lines.  Prior to this we had one other encounter with another luxury cruise line - Regent - and for the  most part Silversea was comparable.  Our suite was large enough that we were not falling over each other to move around in it, the bed was a queen size and comfortable but, like a few others, had a central ridge that slanted off on the sides.

One of the perks were the bath amenities - Bvlgari shower wash, shampoo and conditioner as well as body lotion.  That is the creme-de-la-creme of those items; the towels were bath sheets, the largest we have ever had on a cruise, even larger that Regent's.

The choices for the included excursions were adequate and compared favorably with Regent's although we did choose one paid for excursion over the free ones.  There was one excursion that we do not recommend for anyone that goes on the New England cruise from NYC - Quebec City and that is the one that goes to Kennebunkport - we spent 3 hours of a 4.5 hour tour on the bus.

The staff on board ship were incredible - attentive, polite, catering to your every whim, remembering your name even.  Our suite had it's shared butler who was all you could ask for.  He did all that was asked of him as well as anticipating our wants on occasion.

Now for the second most important item on any cruise - the food.  Their 'specialty' restaurants were very good.  There were three only one of which we had to pay for:  La Terraza was an Italian theme at dinner but was the buffet for breakfast and lunch, The Grill was their version of a steakhouse but used hot rocks to grill the meat tableside (allowing for very precise control over the doneness), and finally was Le Dame, their French restaurant (this is the one that wasn't free.  The main dining room meals were good but not great (Regent's were better) and selection was limited.  The main menu was the same for three days with only a limited selection changing daily.

All in all it was an enjoyable cruise, we would give them 4.25 stars overall and, if they have an itinerary that we would cruise with Silversea again.

First time was a good time

We chose this cruise because we had heard that the food was excellent and the excursions good.

The ship is only 3 years old but looks much older.  We tried every restaurant on the ship, even La Dame where we had to pay $60 each extra.   Le Dame was by far the best of a bad bunch but the meals were still sub par.

The terrace restaurant was basically inedible.  Even the buffet which was poorly set up that you couldn’t reach the foods at the back without someone serving you them.

The soups had no flavour, you couldn’t even identify what the soup was if you were blindfolded.  The meat was cooked to death.

At the grill the meat was good because we cooked it ourselves on the hot stone.  The accompanying foods like baked potato, vegetables, etc tasted like they had been cooked the day before.  They were soggy and cold.   The only food they didn’t screw up was the caviar where they only had to open a can.

The bread was mediocre at best.  The baked goods tasted like they came from Starbucks or Costco and had been baked a week earlier.

The only good thing is we didn’t gain any weight

On the positive side the wine and alcohol was very good

Some of the servers like Aida and Desivette  and the bar men were awesome

Our cleaner never restocked the toiletries with out us asking.  We had wash clothes the first day and then not again

Silver Seas charges a premium for their cruise and We found it a rip off.   Definitely not the standard we and several other passengers expected.

The fog horn went off just outside our room every 5 minutes for 3 nights.  Even my earplugs couldn’t  full the sound.  Thank god for the free booze.

Worst food ever

This was our first cruise with Silversea. Our overall impression was that the vessel, service and other offerings justified the premium price paid. Silver Shadow is an older cruise ship but it was in superb condition and very clean. With a passenger capacity of 360, its smaller size did not diminish its ability to cope with those few days when the weather turned a little rough.

This was an unusual itinerary, sailing up the east coast of North America, and then crossing the North Atlantic from St. John, Newfoundland to Cork in Ireland. Sailing in and out of New York city was a highlight for us. The weather was warm to hot from Fort Lauderdale through to Boston, however a bitterly cold wind met us when we arrived at Bar Harbour, Maine. Thereafter we were dogged by fog for many of the remaining days, which ruined sight seeing in St. John and Cork, and detracted from the many sea days.

Our planned visit to Shelburne in Nova Scotia was deleted without substitute due to severe wild fires, which added another sea day to the journey. The cruise would have benefitted from a greater variety of activities. The lectures were of a good standard, the shows well presented, and the magician/comedian exceeded our expectations. However, some cooking classes/demonstrations and free-of-charge wine tastings would have added to the experience.

The ships band was technically good, but their sessions in the lounge would have been more exciting if they had teamed up with the excellent vocalists who were on the Ship. Post-show nightlife was somewhat underwhelming on many evenings. This may reflect the age of the majority of passengers.

We had excellent meals at La Terrazza and La Dame. And with the high-quality food and service experienced in the main dining room, there was little to justify paying the premium charge for La Dame more than once. We preferred to avoid buffets, so often ate breakfast in the dining room or our suite. We had two lunches at the Grill but found the food cold when it arrived both times, so mainly chose the dining room again (which was serenely uncrowded) or something light at the Atrium lounge. And we didn’t fancy cooking our own food on our holiday, so didn’t avail ourselves of the hot-rocks Grill at night.

The included wines offered in the dining room and La Terrazza were usually of a good standard, and if we wanted something else we only had to ask and it was forthcoming. Pommery Champagne (not the standard one) was regularly refreshed in our fridge by Roy, our Butler, who also produced Caviar whenever we desired. A frequent table attendant I Wayan in the dining room was superbly attentive. On one breakfast occasion my wife asked for Vegemite (not on the menu) and it appeared immediately. Diass was always helping us with wines at the table and the bars, and he helped add to the experience.

The included excursions were average. As mentioned, our Shelburne visit was cancelled, and two of our chosen excursions in other ports were cancelled before departure, leaving us limited replacement choices. Next time we might choose to do hop-on hop-off buses in some visited towns. 

We chose the door-to-door option. Considering we circle the globe on this journey, and the cost of airfares last year when we booked, we would not have been able to do the flights, hotel and transfers ourselves for the same fare premium. However, if we do door-to-door again we will specify to Silversea the trip, stops and flights we want after doing our own research.

Overall, we were quite impressed, but see our cabin review too!

Impressive for an older vessel

St. Thomas

We chose this cruise primarily for the itiniary and except for the New Zealand ports (Auckland and Bay of Islands) everything was new to us. There is no doubt that sailing on a luxury ship like Silver Shadow through Melanesia, Micronesia and the Philippines can't get any better and Silversea did an excellent job choreographing the whole process.

This was our first Silversea experience as we've only sailed on Regent Seven Seas and Crystal. We were a little worried about Silver Shadow's size since most of our previous cruises have been on slightly large ships. We have sailed on Regent's Navigator which is comparable in size to the Shadow but Silver Shadow is much better in our opinion. Our cabin was more than adequate for twenty days and I really don't see any reason to spend more just for better location unless ship motion is a concern. We had some rough seas and I didn't get really bothered by it so I wouldn't hesitate to book a less expensive cabin since they're all pretty identical. I didn't find the bigger suites that compelling on this ship, but I understand that on Silversea's newer ships that could be worth booking, especially on a longer cruise.

Service is second to none and the whole staff went out of their way to keep us happy. Food is definitely for "foodies" but I do miss some American comfort food like Crystal used to have. There's no ice cream bar either but I suppose my waistline is grateful for that.

Shipboard entertainment and activities are OK especially since we were on a World Cruise segment where that tends to be supercharged compared to regular cruises. The lectures were fine, maybe not as varied as on Crystal but better than Regent. Shows and performers were a bit weak primarily, in my deduction, due to a small entertainment budget. The reason I say this is I don't think Silversea has any reason but cost to restrict their pool of entertainers from the world's pool of talent and not having any horns in their show band just looks cheap. I think if Silversea just spent more on talent we could get a more varied roster of entertainment and not just plug in the Singers all the time. That gets boring even though I sympathize with those singers. Just add some more comedians, magicians and mentalists to the mix.

Shipboard tours were all good and the world cruise events (which we were invited to even though we were segmenters) were absolutely fabulous. My hats off to the Silversea event group who pulled off three of them on remote islands and Papua New Guinea while we were on board - top notch!

A couple of blips: Palau was the main reason for me to go on this trip and unfortunately due to Palau officials taking a long time to clear the ship our visit was whittled down to two hours. We spent that time on a private tour of the Rock Islands for a huge sum but it was worth it. I wish Silversea would have done an overnight here since it really is an absolutely gorgeous place. I'd try and return but its really hard to get to for North Americans.

All in all, we would sail on Silversea again and I hope Silversea can continue to upgrade their onboard entertainment and activities so that when we next sail on Silver Dawn in 2025 it'll be perfect!

A wonderful cruise to some challenging places

Trondheim

Originally, we were booked on a Holland America Line (HAL) Alaska cruise with a Denali land extension.  We have sailed HAL twice and enjoyed them.  We have sailed Oceania many times also.  But,  when I spotted a Travelzoo deal for the same itinerary on Silversea Silver Shadow, we rebooked.  Basically paid the same price as HAL but had the benefit of Silversea figuring out the air, transfers, all excursions, drinks and tips were included in the price and we would be sailing with 380 people rather than 2000.  In the midst of COVID, smaller seemed like the right move.  Everyone had to be vaccinated to get on board.  Silversea was a pain in the neck with over and over and over requiring the same information proving that you had been vaccinated.   Even at embarkation, though we had registered everything months before online, and again filling out the information when we started the land tour in Denali, they asked for the vaccination forms another three times before boarding.  Plus we needed a negative COVID test to get on board due to stopping in Vancouver.  Silversea arranged for it since we were on the land package.  No big deal.  The guide estimated that over the course of the summer, about 5% of the people turned up positive and were sent home.  The Denali land excursion was the highlight of the trip.  Without it, this would not have been a successful cruise.  The hotels for the Denali land tour are, as the guide admitted, not up to "Silversea standards" but are the best available.  Our travel agent correctly recommended we do Denali on the front end of the trip not only to allow time for flight/luggage disasters, but to go from average hotels to the lap of luxury, rather than the reverse.  Only the Alyeska hotel that we had one night in Girdwood prior to taking the scenic train down to Seward to board the ship was a nice hotel.  The Captain Cook in Anchorage was lasted redone when The Brady Bunch was on t.v. and the hotel in Denali was less impressive than a Holiday Inn Express.  But, Denali was splendid and well worth the extra time and expense.  

Once we got to the ship, we had booked just a Veranda room since we had sailed in Alaska previously and knew that all it does is rain and the weather is consistently cold.  Not a balcony destination.  We saved that money and it was the right decision as we encountered very high winds and rough seas that resulted in our having to shelter in Glacier Bay overnight to avoid the Gulf of Alaska.  It was too rough on the first day in the Bay to even get up to the Hubbard Glacier.  That was accomplished the next morning when it was still too rough to go out into the Gulf.  We had extended time having breakfast overlooking the Hubbard Glacier.  Pretty darn neat, but the timing meant that we had to skip the port of Juneau.  We sailed directly to Skagway where my husband booked a private fishing tour and I did the railroad trip into the canyon, which was nice.  The third train ride of the trip since we had a train take us to Denali (spectacular) and then to Seward (also very pretty).  Then we hit rough seas again and when we arrived in Ketchican we had a tug boat just holding the ship to the dock.  The Captain, correctly, decided it was too dangerous to leave the ship so we sailed out and had yet another day at sea.  Out of a 7 day cruise, we ended up with 4 sailing days.  The irony of having to leave Ketchican was that when we sailed in, we were anchored directly behind the HAL Noordam, which we had sailed February 2020 in Australia and New Zealand.  We were staring straight at the Aft-facing cabins we had booked on that trip.  The HAL passengers and those on two enormous Royal Caribbean ships were all able to disemark the ship for their excursions (though I imagine many that were on the water were cancelled) or to see the town.  At that moment, we had a glimpse of what might have been had we sailed HAL as originally planned.  Being on a small ship in notoriously rough waters is something to be strongly considered.  Our friend is subject to sea sickness and spent three days in her cabin.  A bigger ship is the better place to be in that case.  Plus, with the cancellation of two of four ports, Silversea really had nothing else for us to do on the ship.  She is a very elegant ship, but there is not much scheduled in the way of daily events.  Alot of people were just playing cards in the main lounge. 

Overall, I think Silversea is best for people who do not want to leave their cabins.  You have a butler to arrange in suite dining (I have no interest in that) and you can call anytime to have anything delivered to your cabin.  I prefer just to sleep in my cabin and enjoy the ports and amenities of a ship.  The personnel were all lovely.  Service was great.  Never a line for anything.  Nothing was crowded  (we sailed at 340 with a capacity of 380). One complaint was that there was no bar service in the Explorer's Lounge.  Very weird since this is the one forward facing lounge at the very top of the ship that is the perfect place for arriving/leaving ports.  People were just reading book there.  Seems like a huge waste of space.  We spent most of our time in the aft-facing Panorama Lounge that had wide open views and an expansive deck if you wanted to go outside.  With the bad weather, the chairs were mostly tied up and unusable for our trip.   Food was very good, but I would say that overall I prefer Oceania's food to Silversea, plus I like the specialty restaurants on Marina and Riviera especially.  We went to La Dame and paid the $60 extra per person.  Frankly, I thought the food in the main dining room was better and certainly the menu was more extensive in the main dining room.  Our friends had great fun ordering champagne and cavier before every meal.   Something Silversea makes a big deal about.  In conclusion, I am glad we tried "luxury" cruising with Silversea but we will not return and will take our next trips with HAL or Oceania most likely.

Size Matters

Brisbane

The cruise just prior to ours was apparently the cruise from hell (see previous reviews) with ship breakdown, missed ports and time delays.  Thankfully everything seemed to be corrected for our departure.  Other than today's typical airline horror stories, which we just barely missed, we arrived in Vancouver at 4:30 in the morning, of departure day.  Therefore, our free day in the departure city was non-existant.  Boarding was largely efficient but a bit tedious.  Thankfully we were the only ship at the cruise terminal on the embarking day.  I understand if multiple ships, were in port, embarking would have been a different story.  

We found the ship to exceed our expectations.  Beautifully furnished and spotless.  Every crew member, we encountered was friendly and went out of their way to be helpful.  Our Superior Veranda cabin was perfectly located and immaculate.  Room service was flawless and I can't count the number of times fresh towels were exchanged.  All electronics worked well and were easy to navigate through.  

All the restruants were excellent.  Especially liked the Italian venue which also served a breakfast and lunch buffet which we frequented almost daily.  Never a wait and always prompt service.  The Hot Rocks top deck restaurant was interesting but I doubt we would do again.  You cook your own main course on a scorching lava rock.  Difficult to judge timing and if the breeze is blowing the wrong way you get a bit greasy and covered with smoke.  LaDame was excellent but not really worth the $60 / per person extra, when all the other free restruants were of such high quality.  

All excursions went off flawlessly and we were pleased with our selections, especially Hubbard Glacier.  You heard an occasional complaint.  Would advise you check out your potential selections on Trip Advisor prior to finalizing your choices.  

This cruise sold me on small ship cruising.  Will never again set foot on a 4000 guest "cattle car" when this type of option is available.  Friendy, like minded shipmates and a perfect itinerary made this cruise exceptional.

Everything we expected.

The inside passage Cruise departed Seward Alaska on 23Jun2022 and arrived Vancouver on 30Jun2022.

My wife and I were touring with two other couples.  We booked on SilverSea based on the small ship, limited passengers, and reputation for a fantastic cruise experience.  One of the other couples found this cruise line and time and we all agreed.

We also all three couples decided to do the 4-day Denali pre-cruise, 19Jun-23Jun2022, Anchorage to Denali and then Seward.

Overall, I think a rating of 2.6 star out of five is warranted for our cruise and pre-cruise, see summary at the bottom.  On Cruise Critic I rounded up to 3 star, since they don't have part stars that I noticed.

We arrived on our own two days early in Anchorage in order to look around, and we had a great pre-visit.

Our pre-cruise director was Carole (with us for the entire Denali pre-cruise), and by the way she gets a 5-star rating.  She is a pro who works for many different lines.  She’s not too familiar with SilverSea but well versed in travel and Alaska touring.  

Upon checking in with SilverSea at the Captain Cook Hotel in Anchorage, we found that the check in process was cumbersome and there was no ability to select a room with a view (as maybe half of the rooms at Captain Cook Hotel are pointed toward the second tower of the hotel).  We ended up with a partial harbor view next to a very loud elevator.  I asked Carol about a view room at Denali, and she said that was up to the passenger to call the hotel direct and take care of, so I did call them at that time.  The Grand Lodge at Denali said there would be an extra charge for a view room (I recall about $50/n), and anyway they didn’t have any available.  So, we ended up with a ground level room, looking at parked cars and a dirt parking lot, with the vehicles, particularly Grand Lodge official vehicles, speeding past kicking up excess dust.  Our two other couples never called the hotel about rooms with a view, but both received very nice rooms with a spectacular valley and mountain view.  Carole advised that she was not surprised that the Grand Lodge asked for more money for a view room; and I advised back that for what we are paying on SilverSea, I thought the top rooms should have been included as standard;  or at the very least, advise any upcharge for a better room.

No one ever was able to explain why the journey from Anchorage to Denali was part bus and part train, whereas other tour groups took the train the full distance, saving a bit of hassle ?

Note:  on the train up to Denali, we had to purchase our own food, whereas other non-SilverSea tour groups were in premium cars where the food was included.  Again, for our financial outlay, I would have thought ‘first class’ would have been included.

For the last night of our pre-cruise tour, we did have a room with a view, and actually I think all rooms had a nice view at this very nice hotel at Alyeska.

We were ‘coached’ on tipping, and we totally get that the seasonal workers are not paid well and need tips to earn a fair income, and it is noted that only cash is accepted but you cannot get anyone to change a $20 or $100 bill along the way.  ‘We are not a bank’ we were told at the Grand Denali Lodge front desk.  Annoying and Inconvenient.  We didn’t know to bring a sack full of cash, various demoninations.

The Tour into Denali Park was very good.

The Covid test on the day prior to leaving Seward was really something.  First, we were told by Carole that we had to arrange our own test, but upon telling her that the paperwork says SilverSea will arrange, she advised she would check on this and then ‘yes’ she later confirmed SilverSea would handle.  Unfortunately, a couple of passengers who had been in close proximity with everyone in our tour group of about 40 persons were sent packing the day before departure, due to a positive Covid test.  We spent two hours at the Anchorage test facility, a lot of waiting around.

We were following online the SilverSea SilverShadow boat on its two cruises prior to our cruise (all cruise boats have GPS and you can track a cruise ship’s location on cruisemapper.com), and found that they had major ship problems, skipped ports, ran late, sat idle at sea for many hours, power outages, outside passage on the high sea instead of protected inside passage, etc.   We kept asking SilverSea to confirm that our cruise would depart and end on time, and never could get a response.  I’m convinced that SilverSea’s corporate policy is to not communicate any information to anyone, then they will be less accountable.  We found over and over that SilverSea’s communications are terrible to non-existent.  Fortunately for us, it seems that the Silver Shadow shorted the previous cruise passengers, in order to catch up to our cruise time, and then leave on the correct day for our cruise.

Departure at Seward.  Slow and cumbersome.  Our SilverSea booking agent had advised that the boats are running at 60% full so be sure to ask for a room upgrade at check-in.  We never had any opportunity for this, just wait in several lines, show your ID, and get your paperwork and move to the next line.  Departure was an hour or two late, as I recall.

Our room on the boat was fine, but not up to the standards of Viking European river cruise long boats, which is the only similar boat I have to compare to.  Viking has heated floors in the bathroom, and all air pushed into the rooms is fresh, never recirculated through other rooms or common areas.  This is a big deal with covid floating around.  I had asked SilverSea if they had the fresh air feature, and no one could tell me, therefore the answer in my mind is ‘no they don’t’.

On the boat.  We heard so much about the ‘butlers’, just tell them what you want and when, and it will be taken care of.  So, first day on the boat, we asked our butler for a bottle of cabernet sauvignon to be brought to our room that night, and it was stated that it would arrive as requested, but it came the next day, a there was an ‘excuse’ something about getting booze from the bar on the first day of the cruise (because we departed Seward late ?) ???  We asked the butler about the opening times for restaurants, and twice received incorrect information.   A few days into the cruise, I asked the butler to arrange a sandwich, and he said to call the phone number an hour or so ahead of the time when I wanted the food – what’s the butler for anyway?   At the end of the cruise, I asked out butler for a made to order breakfast sandwich on the last morning, and a take away box in case I didn’t have time to eat it, as we wanted to depart as early as possible to catch our flight.  The butler mad excuse after excuse to not be able to fulfill the request, till I final got fed up and said I’ll go to McDonalds after I got off the boat.   The butler phoned the number for food in our presence, and we could hear the guy on the other end of the phone saying ‘no problem, we are always here, just call’ while the butler was trying to tell him that the department is not open – how strange?   Miraculously, after the heated exchange with the butler, the sandwich showed up at the requested time.  Amazing.  So, forget the ‘butler thing’.  Overrated and frankly, not very useful, though I will say they were friendly and remembered your name.  Our Butler was well trained and well versed in how to weasel out of doing anything, and putting the responsibility back on the passenger.  Maybe just him, or maybe that is how SilverSea works.

Food:  Dinner.  Just ok.  But Viking European River Cruise food was about two levels better, in my estimation.  Had to make a special request to get ‘warm’ bread to go with the cold hard butter, and this seemed to bring on an attitude from the wait staff, so I gave it up.  Jacket rule is stupid in my view.  They hand you a jacket at the podium, you get it on by the time you get about halfway to the table, and then you carry it to the podium upon leaving.  For what?  Also, getting the staff to allow you to select the table you wish was difficult.  Once, they said am empty table was reserved so we couldn’t have it, but then agreed that reserved tables are not allowed – really ?!  Actually, the dinner food is better on Carnival, yes Carnival; of course, the atmosphere and surroundings aren’t.

Breakfast Food on the boat:  Very good.  Lots of fresh berries.  Eggs cooked to order upon request.  Slow sometimes.

Breakfast at Denali Grand Lodge:  Quite Good, buffet, often ran out but would get replenished if you asked.  Servers were very nice but overworked.

Hamburgers by the pool on the boat.  Very good.

Event.  Head Bartender on the boat did a presentation on drink and booze and staff.   Excellent.

Our room was approximately across from the covid quarantine ward.   After the cruise, all 6 of our party tested positive for Covid, but fortunately, we all hardly had any symptoms worse than a runny nose for a couple of days.  I expect that everyone on the ship had covid.  Getting covid was probably a blessing in disguise, probably better than getting a vaccine shot for the amount of future resistance to covid.

One evening, we were advised that on the following day, we would stop short of our destination and instead dock at a different port, and our booked tours would not go as planned.   Our 6 group had booked the ‘helicopter landing on the glacier tour’, and we also had a narrow gauge train ride of this same day.  So, SilverSea rebooked us without telling us onto a helicopter which lands on a glacier and then with a dog sled tour, but we would have to pay about $200 extra per person.  And we would miss the included narrow gauge train tour.  So, after inquiring and getting the run around, we said ‘no’, and ended up not getting the much anticipated helicopter tour.  Not happy with this at all.  SilverSea could have arranged us transport to still have time to get on the booked helicopter tour, yes a hassle and cost to SilverSea, but treating the passenger much better, but they didn’t, and chose not to be very communicative in addition.  

At another port, we were advised that we would not dock at the previously advised location, but instead we would dock about a mile away from the main dock, but there would be shuttles to take us back and forth to town.  But the shuttles times were unknown, just saying they will be here soon, and would be expected to run about every so-many minutes.  We had booked a private tour on our own, and had to walk the half hour into the town because it was unknown when the shuttle would arrive, and then it turns out that our private tour was cancelled without telling us (no worries, we found another at the last minute).

It seems that the bigger the cruise boat, the closer to the main town they get to dock, so I think in hindsight it is better to get on the biggest boat.  Also, we thought that our smaller boat could get closer to the glaciers, but we didn’t, we stayed far away.  The other boats got closer.  Bottom line:  booked the big boat.

We almost gave up on the sporadic internet on the boat, but on the last day we were told that we had to re-login each day.  Would have been good to know earlier, when it showed an internet connection, but would not pull up anything, because we had not re-logged in that day.

I note that never has SilverSea contacted us for a rating or feedback.  I think they have lost the plot since taken over by Royal Carribean.

The tour on the deadliest catch boat was excellent !!

Would I cruise again on SilverSea? – not likely.


So, in summary:

Food:  3*

Service:  2*

Tours:  4*

Boat and Rooms:  3*

Communications:  1*

Overall Rating:  2.6*

Footnote:  Viking much better !!!!  And cheaper, with my limited experience of one cruise with each company.

Denali pre-cruise and Alaska Inside Passage

We had heard excellent reports on Silverseas from friends who had travelled with them. So when we decided to take a cruise to Alaska they were the obvious choice. The cruise was delayed by one say due to problems on the previous cruise. There was little or no information provided by the company and no member of staff from Silverseas came to the hotel where the majority of the passengers were staying. We were not told about the revised arrangements for the cruise, two of the four stops cancelled and a new port added that nobody had heard of, until we were on board. The offer of compensation was $300 to spend onboard ship. All that was available to purchase were watches, handbags and perfume, all of which were readily available on shore at cheaper prices.

The staff were friendly and willing but many of them were clearly struggling with tasks that they were not familiar with. Resulting in missing items or wrong dishes or drinks, Food was often served lukewarm or cold.

On arrival in Anchorage we were taken to the hotel booked by Silverseas, but there was nobody from Silverseas at the hotel and the hotel staff initially said we had to wait for a Silverseas representative to come to the hotel before we could get our room keys. The following morning we Silverseas were supposed to have arranged our transfer to the airport but faiuled to do so and we were only able to get the shuttle to the airport thanks to the intervention of hotel staff. Nobody from Silverseas came to the hotel or contacted us while we were in Anchorage.

Only six days with poorly trained staff

While the front-facing staff on Silversea are uniformly friendly, it was evident from the start that things were out of sync. the life boat drill that left us sitting for close to an hour because it was started with boarding incomplete. A guide to take us to our life boat station that failed to do so. Menus that were missing pages or for the wrong service. Orders that were unfulfilled or incomplete. Multiple restaurant staffers asking the same questions over and over. Over-stylized food that lost any connection with original flavors.

Small things at first.

After leaving our second-to-last port prior to sailing the inner passage to Vancouver, the ship suffered an electrical malfunction during the night. While only impact on passengers was a very brief loss of lights, etc., the ship stopped making forward progress.

At 7 am, many noticed a tender had been dropped and was making way to shore some two miles distant.

Not till 8 was the electrical problem acknowledged with assurance that we were all safe onboard.

Not till 12 was it announced that problem was identified and corrected but we were awaiting "Coast Guard clearance". No information on what was needed to provide that clearance or when it might be forthcoming.

Same update at 5 pm. 

Sometime after 7, we were told we were clear to sail and that the final port stop was lost.

It was not till the following morning, the 15th, that we were told that we were now sailing directly to Vancouver (avoiding saying the inner passage was no longer being taken) and would not arrive till 6 pm Thursday afternoon rather than the original docking of 7 am. We were also told we could not leave the ship till the following morning.

At one point a 20% discount was offered for the missing stop on a future cruise. Small comfort as that discount is routinely available on their website.

Those of us who had booked flights independent of Silversea were left to scramble to reschedule. Those with post cruise activities in Vancouver found them shortened or cancelled. Those awaiting a Thursday sailing were calling to us on our balconies Thursday afternoon after docking seeking information on their shortened cruise, indicating they were hearing nothing from Silversea.

These things happen. It was ship leadership failing to keep us properly and timely informed that made the last few days so stressful. The final straw was the cruise director suggesting how wonderful it was that we all got to spend another night onboard at the dock, ignoring all the negative impacts.

2nd and last time on this cruise line.

A Ship and Crew Who Were Not ready to Sail

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