This was our 59 cruise and second experience with Silver Seas. We always travel during January and February to get away from the cold of the Northeast of the USA. And we always, always, look at the itinerary first with any cruise line. We picked the Silver Shadow for our third trip to Asia and all but one port was new for us. The Philippines added to our booking as we always wanted to see that country. Our suite was nice but dated and sure could use modernization. Public rooms were nice but also dated. We were told repeatedly, by the crew, that the ship was going into dry dock at the end of the year, but not soon enough for us. For the cost of the trip you would think the company would keep the ships up to date. All suites, all butlers. - What does a butler really do? Our suite attendant maintained our room beautifully and also quickly. We would go for breakfast and if we went back after breakfast our suite was serviced and perfect every time. Our butler even came to our table in the dining room one night asking us why we never asked him to do anything and if he had done something wrong???!!!! Rather odd. So why does Silver Seas even have butlers. Oh we got a card from the butler on the night before leaving offered to pack our luggage for us! Nice guy but oh so unnecessary. The dining room was always wonderful. We prefer the same table and the same waiter. Alex was outstanding and after just one night remembered our names and on day day 2 remembered out likes and dislikes. Fantastic guy for our 20 day cruise. They have 'La Dame" for $60 per person, why? Never went as the dining room offers, at no extra charge, was wonderful. Entertainment: Forget it. We did not book this cruise looking for any entertainment. Silverseas along with so many others, offers mediocre to non-existent shows. The 3 piece band was great in the bars but the Lounge shows were beyond amateurish. High school productions are more entertaining, (sad but really)! As stated above, we booked this cruise for the itinerary. We started in Singapore on our own for 4 days. Borneo and other Malaysia ports were fascinating. The Phillippines were great and the Sanya in China was a surprise beautiful port. Then the second cruise to ports in Viet Nam we fun too. The free tours hosted by SilverSeas was fine. And they made sure that none of the tour buses and/tour boats had more than 22 folks. Finally the crew: Way over the top great, wonderful and they make the cruise oh so special even with the hiccups along the way. Yes, we would cruise with Silverseas again. But only because of the itinerary. And hopefully ports that we have not seen yet. Read Less

This was a special holiday and very expensive chosen as a one-off treat never again The cabin looked lovely but we had problems with the carpet being wet from the balcony to the middle of the lounge area as did a lot of the same side of our deck . The Butler was visible sometimes and not others . Tried twice to phone room service and was cut off . The patio door was not sealed properly and difficult to open/close . The weather was appalling on 90 % of the journey and was too near the front of the ship despite being described as midship and the rolling and banging was awful . Many of our group were sea sick . No kettle or tea coffee in room at all , water was provided in mini bar from a unsealed bottle that was refilled by the butler . The ship needs a refurb and is tired and tatty in some areas The food was not as good as I expected from this high end cruise line . The breakfast was bland and most of it congealed warm at best and the choice was limited .Hot plates available on request ?? Eggs available on request which took 10 minutes hardly anyone serving behind the station , burnt ( every day ) pastries. The only thing the staff insisted on in the terraze is carrying your plate from the buffet where you had chosen your food to the table ( could be as near as 5 steps ) which is the most ridiculous thing ( unless you needed help of course ) and I tried to avoid this with no success most days . Lunch wasn’t much better except on deck ( when it was open due to extreme weather ) where the food was really tasty and hot . Dinner in the restaurant was ok , the portions were a joke , with a steak one night there was three tiny pieces of warm pepper , a sliver of cooked onion and nothing else . The choice of puddings were sparse except ice cream and much too much chocolate . You could have three praline sweets and that was a choice ! On New Year’s Eve there was a gala dinner which was ok a few tiny courses and a main. There was very little to do during the day , the chronicles which advised the activities included picking up your crossword and daily puzzle from the library and the fact that there was someone to help with language for foreign speaking guests . The daily quiz with Moss was a highlight but the singers were mediocre and on in the theatre far too many times. We sailed from Bangkok into a tropical storm and had to miss ho chi minn city completely and spent 5 days anchored in Ha Long bay where after having done trips the only activity was being taken by shuttle to a large shopping centre half an hour away . Setting off from there eventually more high seas until arriving in Hong Kong where once again the shuttle bus dropped people at a shopping centre about half an hour away . At night was looking forward to the light show I had heard so much about only to be told we were in the wrong harbour and wouldn’t see it where we were . At dinner that night all we could view from the windows in the restaurant was the side of the boat refuelling for the next trip . I have never paid so much for a cruise and been so dissapointed. The weather could not be helped but everything else was such a let down . The only thing I will say is if you are a budding alcoholic this is the cruise line for you . Far too much alcohol with nothing else to do , many guests took full advantage and were loud , brash and inconsiderate despite being very upper class. I would never recommend this ship or company to anyone and I have read dreadful reports about p and o on cruise critic as well as good ones but for me there is no comparison . This is definately Not 5 star or and higher and its back to p and o for me and reasonable priced drinks and excellent itinerary . Read Less

1 - Boarding makes little effort to help physically challenged 2 Cheap wine and so called champagne a little better than vinegar 3 - Butler service is intermittent only available 7 to 12pm and 4 to 9pm 4 In-Room dining very poor quality 5 - Missed Saigon because of storm, but sailed through the storm to reach HaLong bay and sat there for 4 days, with nothing to do 6 Not a luxury experience So called formal nights not for today's travelers. This ship is dated and shows it. Never use Silver Sea again. Frankly cruising is not for me, it is such a con game the whole promise in the advertising is to me misleading. The hotels in Singapore and Hong Kong were excellent, wish I had spent my money there and not on crappy silver seas, it is not LUXURY. Read Less

This was my first experience with Silversea, having travelled with around a dozen other cruise lines over the decades. Silversea wins hands down! I had the lowest (and presumably the lowliest) of cabins (428), which I jokingly referred to as being 'below the Plimsoll Line.' It was incredibly spacious, with a huge and comfortable bed, lounge suite and two armchairs, walk in robe and ample storage, a bathroom larger than my own, desk, coffee table, further mirrored ledges, and a generous ocean view. The toiletries were Bvulgari, the in-suite fridge stocked and replenished with beverages of my choice, VIP treatment from both the butler and his assistant, who despite being totally professional, felt like 'family' throughout. I also appreciated the daily newspaper, plus bulletins from my part of the world, and having the nearby laundrette was fantastic. Given my predilection for cruising - and my love of food - I reckon I'm qualified to judge the variety of menu options across Silversea's several restaurants, the quality and generosity of the servings, and the high standard of the wait staff as outstanding. Special requests were honoured when necessary, preferred wines freely offered if those chosen daily were not to your liking, imaginative and delicious cocktails always available. My late husband and I have been guilty on many an occasion of eschewing a voyage's entertainment in favour of sleep. I'm so glad I didn't on the Silver Shadow. Their entertainers were fantastic: both the onboard team and the guest saxophonist and the cello duo. Cruise Director Moss brought the house down with his own show one night. Accolades also to the wonderful pianist who never seemed to sleep, and the resident band whose musical repertoire knew no boundaries. I selfishly enjoyed many hours playing bridge (the card game, not the control centre!) and afternoon trivia with a bunch of fellow voyagers. At no time did I feel lonely as a solo traveller. Every single member of the Silver Shadow's crew went out of their way to be welcoming, kind, friendly and helpful. Extraordinary training and personal enthusiasm must lie behind their exemplary and personalised customer service skills. Acts of God brought undone our scheduled itinerary, but the ship's personnel from top to bottom all coped well and cheerfully carried on (unlike some of their guests whose plans had been scuttled in order to save their lives!). This has been a most wonderful introduction to my future relationship with Silversea. Read Less

I love SliverSea for its high end attitude and small ship feel. The food was great and the unlimited wine and liquor make for a great social atmosphere. I thought the nightly shows were good and well produced. The cruise director Moss did a great job keeping everyone informed of daily activities and updates. I enjoyed the travel series type lectures by Peter LaSorsa, as I learned a great deal of useful information. The other lecture series on destinations was also informative. My butler was amazing and it really adds a great touch to the cruise. I found the laundry facilities to be fine and not too crowded. I also enjoyed listening to the two talented musicians onboard. Vlad on guitar and Alexsandra on piano. They are both so talented. I could listen to both all day. On most days Alexsandra also played piano during the tea hour which was wonderful. I would highly recommend this ship and cruise line. Read Less

After reading a number of mixed reviews, I had lowered my expectations going in, but was pleasantly surprised. Everything was clean and comfortable and relatively efficient. Although we had slight concern initially that the linens appeared to not have been changed after a few days, since I noticed the same blood stain from my husband’s-cut on his finger. Although the linens did not smell, I assumed it was the same stain. I asked the front desk how often they changed them( I certainly didn’t want them changed everyday) , they said every other day, that seemed unlikely. However after my inquiry, they seemed to change them every other day, which was unnecessary, every 3 days would have been sufficient. I was a little upset that our cabin attendant notified us he was leaving the ship in Hiroshima and a new attendant would be taking his place. I asked him if he was leaving because of my inquiry, he said no , he was scheduled to leave for 2 weeks before we arrived, but his replacement was delayed due to obtaining visa, so he stayed on until his replacement arrived. He said his next assignment was on the Whisper, so no worries. I just hope that was the truth, because if he was in trouble because of my inquiry that would have upset me to no end. He was very good, our room was always cleaned well and early. After he left, our room always seemed to be the last one done on sea days , even though my parents room right next to ours was done long before ours. Oh well I don’t understand the negative comments about the food. I thought the food was very good and on par with Oceania which had been our go to cruise line prior to Silverseas. I wa not thrilled with the hamburgers at the grill at lunch, but overall I thought the food , selection and presentation were well done. The steaks especially were very good, note we like medium well and were not disappointed. We preferred the main dining room, la terrazza was also very good, but menu did not change that often. The room was comfortable and loved the walk in closet. I would say the suite (vista) was better than Oceania’s concierge level. The tv worked better than expected even out at sea, however the selection of movies was limited. although there is a DVD player, you can bring your own since their library collection may not be to your liking, at least it was not for us. They did have most cable news stations, even MSNBC( since Fox News for 15 days was not an option for us! ) and ESPN . I liked the separate workout room with free weights and a good area to do my own aerobic workout. The overall condition of the ship was good, although there were areas of the ship that may have needed some light maintenance, it was in areas that most people would not be traversing on routine basis. I would definitely recommend Silverseas although not sure if we will travel with them unless there is a good price, like we received on this one, and the itinerary is of interest. We were ok with the formal policy, but prefer not to drag that extra luggage with us. A great trip overall. Read Less

I returned to Silversea after four years (having been unable to travel in that time) and as a solo traveller for the first time - it was like coming home, from the initial warm welcome, the brilliant service, superb food (much improved since last time), lovely butler service (thank you Gideon), as much champagne as I could drink - yes Silver Shadow is a little tired in places but it is still very much a five star experience. With only once exception the on shore tours were well organised and good value. I didn't bother with the solo travellers get together after the first night as it was so easy to get to know people and I didn't have a single evening where I needed to eat on my own. The joy of small ship cruising! It was good to see some old faces on board like Kirk the Cruise Director and Anita Labs on the shore concierge desk - and lots of passengers were booking future cruises which proves to me that Silversea are still doing things right for their discerning customer base. Read Less

After waiting a year and a half for this cruise, we embarked in Tokyo, at 2:30 on Sept. 28th. At 4:00 we had the life jacket review, and immediately thereafter there was an announcement of an important meeting with the captain in the lounge. Upon entering the lounge, we found the captain on the stage with a huge map, showing the coming Tyohoon Trami, coming straight southbound into our voyage northbound. We were going to run right into it. The captain said, no less than 10 times, “it’s going to be very very bad.” Passengers began asking if we shouldn’t be getting off the ship and the only thing the captain would respond was “it’s up to you individually to decide what you want to do but it’s going to be very very bad.” Other passengers asked if we should get off and fly to another port and meet the ship, and the captain stated that wasn’t a good idea because he couldn’t guarantee being able to dock in any given port. Osaka, our first port, had already been canceled, and the typhoon was set to hit Hiroshima, our second port, in 2 days. We also couldn’t stay in Tokyo as the storm was due to hit there in about 4 days. We left the meeting, with about 25% of the passengers and went to call American Airlines. Luckily we got the last 2 seats to Los Angeles for the following night, The ship personnel could not give us any other guidance, other than to tell us they had enough sea sickness medicine for every passenger, and the captain said we were going to need it. We ate dinner, went to sleep, had breakfast and went to the airport for our flight home. We were on the ship for 24 hours! Upon our return home we called Silversea to trfind out about a refund and we were told they would get back to us. We’ve been home 19 days and haven’t heard from anyone!! Read Less

I see SILVERSEA is getting mixed reviews. SILVERSEA advertises and charges in the ultimate luxury category but after two cruises, my experience is it is clearly not. I described our experience in a previous local post as: "misrepresented in the advertisement, lack of planning very evident, mismanaged on the ship, disregard for passenger interests, and the withholding of critical information." I saw a Facebook post that asked the question if anyone else is noticing the decline in SILVERSEA after the purchase by Royal Caribbean. Yes!! We were on the SILVER SHADOW, leaving Tokyo on Sept. 28, 2018 and arriving in Hong Kong on Oct. 14. I see on your site that others on this same horrific boat ride posted very negative reviews. Trying to outrun two super typhoons was traumatic, but the way it was managed was much worse. We kept our local upscale West Lake Hills, TX Travel Agency apprised throughout the ordeal followed by a thorough debriefing upon return. Clients expect a travel agency to be very knowledgeable and truthful with them on recommendations. I found that our agent continued to promote SILVERSEA even knowing of serious problems. I would recommend doing your own research by reading actual customer reviews on places like Cruise Critic. 1) WITHHOLDING INFORMATION SILVERSEA HAD A DUTY TO REPORT - We purchased the SILVERSEA "REST ASSURED" Insurance plan that was advertised by the cruise line as “true peace of mind” to provide 100% cruise credit for air, hotels and cruise for cancellation up to only ONE DAY before the trip. SILVERSEA's Captain even admitted they were tracking the super typhoon headed straight for us THREE DAYS before scheduled sailing. SILVERSEA failed in its duty and their own policy to tell us or our travel agent therefore foreclosing on our opportunity to utilize the insurance and reschedule the cruise. The insurance plan they sell themselves seems to be a conflict of interest. 2) NO EVIDENCE OF REFURBISHMENT - SILVERSEA advertises that the SILVER SHADOW was refurbished in 2017, but we were on that same ship in 2016 and 2018. We saw no evidence of same. The old orange and gold colored upholstery had dirty spots that I sent a picture of to our travel agent. A chair in our cabin literally collapsed when I sat in it and I’m small. They were painting verandas during the cruise and piled the outside furniture in our cabins for painting and drying. They were cleaning hallway carpets and leaving loud fans on to dry it for hours. This maintenance work should not have been going on during a cruise passengers paid $30,000/cabin for. 3) POOR ITINERARY PLANNING - It seemed that SILVERSEA just threw the itinerary together without doing proper research. The ship arrived in Beijing on China’s ANNUAL national holiday and in Hong Kong when the port was closed to taxis because of an ANNUAL bike race. Any cruise company should know to schedule around major annual events like those. With only a one day sailing delay, those overwhelming crowds and confusion could have been avoided. 4) NO DISCLOSURE ON TYPHOON SEASON - SILVERSEA neglected to advise customers that the cruise was scheduled during the high season for typhoons in that part of the world. As soon as we got on the ship, in an all-passenger meeting, the captain told us we were responsible because we should have known. No one did and he immediately offended us all. Our supposed upscale West Lake Hills travel agent was apparently unaware or did not tell us they were recommending a cruise in an area experiencing typhoon season during the time of our cruise. As a result, passengers were subjected to two super typhoons with the Captain telling us to eat and drink as little as possible, including water. 5) APPARENT MISREPRESENTATION OF MAJOR FACTS - SILVERSEA told us there was A NEW CHINESE POLICY THAT PROHIBITED THEM FROM SAILING FROM SOUTH KOREA DIRECTLY TO CHINA which made SILVERSEA have to cancel many passengers’ top port in Seoul CAUSING THEM TO MISS THE DMZ. When I checked, both a US Senator and US Congressman reported finding NO POLICY OF THE KIND and other cruise companies confirmed there was no such policy. Other ship’s had in fact sailed from South Korea to China. Passengers speculated, and there was unverified evidence, that the excursion SILVERSEA sold us for the DMZ was not available on the day we were scheduled to be there and they were using the fabricated policy to hide that. 6) Cruise Critic has requested that I provide more on-ship experience information. Trying to outrun two super typhoons consumed most of the time, eliminated ports and excursions and impacted the on-ship experience. The positive was passengers bonded together in our fear and anger. We are aware of a number like us who have submitted claims for reimbursement. One person mentioned his claim on his Cruise Critic review. We liked the passengers from all over the world and we still keep in touch. I would rate food, entertainment and activities on board as average or below. Since the Captain told us to cut back significantly on our food and drink intake, obviously that normal experience was diminished. Seasick pills were distributed. A further disappointment on the food was, unlike the advertisement, it did not reflect the culture we were in except for one final buffet. The wellness director was just a snake oil saleslady trying to make an extra buck for herself. It was disgraceful and one passenger I met said she wrote on her evaluation that the person was inappropriate for the job. Communication was confusing or lacking, causing getting on and off the ship at ports very frustrating. We almost missed an excursion because of wrong information. The butlers were the positive point of the cruise always giving good service. Another positive was the thought-provoking and interesting political speaker and the port speaker. Many of our ports and therefore excursions were cancelled because of the weather. The one good excursion was the Terra Cotta warriors. It is an expensive excursion but we thought worthwhile seeing. We cannot recommend SILVERSEA because honestly, we cannot trust them. The information above is important for people to know. I plan to continue publicizing these facts until SILVERSEA decides to do the honorable thing for passengers they have wronged." Read Less

We chose this cruise because we had been on Silversea twice before and enjoyed the complete luxury as well as the intimacy of a small ship. We had never been to either Alaska nor Japan so we thought that it would be a great experience. Knowing that there would be several sea days we thought that we would play bridge on those days ( or read). What was a real treat for us was the enrichment lecturers; each of them was very well prepared and so elevant to our cruise. The first lecturer was a professor of Migration economics who lectured about each destination in great detail before we arrived there. He went into detail about the history as well as the economy and demographics of our destinations. The second lecturer was a professor of the theater. Each sea day he would discuss a different show about East meets West. He went from the Mikado to South Pacific to The King and I and Miss Saigon. In each of these he discussed how the show portrayed the West meeting Eastern cultures. As an added treat on the last sea day he discussed Hamilton in detail. As always on a Silversea cruise the food was fantastic (as were the bar selections). While we could have dined alone at each meal we chose to sit with others each night at dinner, thereby meeting many others all of whom we thoroughly enjoyed dining with. I do have some problems with a few foods but the Maitre D' took care that each of our waiters were aware of my food allergies and I never hhad problems The ambience on the Silvershadow makes you think of the Italian influence on Silversea. This was especially evident in the bar which makes one think of an intimate European living room. Here we would enjoy cocktails and canapés as well as lovely piano playing each night before dinner. Our suite was lovely ( and very well located mid ship). As on all Silversea ships we were served by a butler as well as a steward. Needless to say, we wanted for nothing. The ports were interesting, especially the Japanese Northern most islands, which we would never have visited but for this cruise. The island of Hakodate is well known for its fantastic sushi but which we enjoyed. However, a real treat were the peoples themselves. Our first port, Kushiro, is a tiny port on the bottom of the island. Here the people went out of their way to treat us to a cultural show with Japanese dance, music and origami. As we sailed away those of us on port side were treated to Japanese music and dancing. ( We also had this at another Japanese port, Aomori. All in all, we could not rave about this cruise enough My only complaint is that my husband has mobility issues and there were very few shore excursions that he could do. Read Less