I have been on this ship before and enjoyed it. The cabins spacious, the food excellent, entertainment not the best, but OK and the staff so courteous and helpful. On the 2nd port this time we were put into lockdown in our cabins while a patient results were awaited and unfortunately he was positive for Covid-19 15 March 2020 End of cruise holiday. Food is excellent apart from the fact that it is hard to get enough vegetables and it often turns up cold. Two gentleman hosts take dancing lessons and arrange for singles to sit together if they desire . This is much appreciated. This cruise has Bridge lessons with an excellent instructor. The cabin 426 is spacious with a walk in robe and big two bowl sink, shower and large bath, all scrupulously clean. The crew appear mainly Filipino and have a high standard of English. Unfortunately some of the land tour s , although expensive, were quite disappointing. Our 4 hour tour took in two churches, a few market stalls and a historic prison which was converted to market stalls in the cells. The wares were quite high quality, particularly the table cloths and ladies' clothing. Not much to see over 4 hours. The route was interesting. Now we have to see what will happen with our own quarantine/ incarceration . Read Less

Prime reason for picking this cruise Falkland Islands on my bucket list. Ship has a wow factor with the addition of Arts Cafe and new style reception and boutiques. Restaurant and La Terrazza comfortable dinning venues. La Dame seating layout not to our taste, Grill uncomfortable now cushions are not available for the chairs. Food spoiled on many occasions by being cold mainly in the restaurant. Filet mignon and Grilled fish always best options. Soups always good and hot. Breakfast in the restaurant excellent, perfectly cooked omelettes and eggs. Liver in La T always excellent. Best deserts the hot desert in LaT at lunch. A suitable wine to our taste was always available. Service excellent if you get the right restaurant and bar waiters otherwise mediocre. Waiter guidance key to enjoying good food. Pool area, lacks shade leading to occasional lounger confrontations.Teak Deck oozed bitumen. Grill served good fish tacos and crab cakes at lunch. Steaks at dinner, tiger shrimps getting smaller and the apple pies a disappointment. Entertainment not a Silversea strength the same shows year after year. Although performers add to the social life. Lack of enrichment lecturer. Read Less

Embarked in Barbados after a 3-day visit to that pleasant but (to me) mildly dull island. Embarkation was so easy we weren't sure if we were done (!) and cabin was available immediately. Our butler Daniel has helped me understand the point of a butler on a cruise ship (on prior ships we never saw them, didn't see the point) - eg. he polished my husband's shoes without us asking and found him a tie when we realized it was the one thing he failed to pack. yay Daniel. Embarkation in Fort Lauderdale was more formal (by colour group) but also went very smoothly. Itinerary from Barbados to Fort Lauderdale was good, pretty islands and no big deal when we hit rough weather and went to St. Thomas rather than San Juan (captain made the right/safe decision). We did 3 shore excursions through the ship and all were good - no big bus tours, well-organized and fun. Our 4th planned excursion was cancelled though - apparently no one wanted to watch dolphins in Key West (?!!). I thought perhaps that with this small ship (388 passengers) we might have ports where we were the only ship, but NO. Caribbean is swamped with ships now and even small islands like Bequia had multiple in harbour (though our counterpart there was the lovely Sea Cloud). Despite the small size, this is a miniature "full-size" cruise ship: it has a full show lounge (with great sightlines), a lounge with a decent dance floor, an all-day espresso cafe, etc. It has been recently refurbished and the decor is modern and attractive (except the main Restaurant which looks 1980's). I liked that there are (sort of) 5 dining venues, though we didn't really have any meals in the Arts Cafe (only very light food there). The Terrazzo restaurant is really special at night, actually much more attractive than the Restaurant and sitting outside there is magical. Pool grill is what you expect and the menu is very limited; Evening poolside menu is even more limited, so fun to try once but then we were kinda done with it. in the evening it becomes "Hot Rocks", a concept I do not embrace (they will cook your food and plate it on request, but somewhat reluctantly). We decided not to pay the big surcharge for La Dame as we found the cruise expensive to begin with, and the room is very blah (others on the ship enjoyed it, though). I strongly recommend they improve 2 issues (which hold for pretty much ALL luxury cruise lines and maybe all cruise lines, so this is not ship/line specific: 1) green practices - please eliminate single use plastics, especially drinking straws. There is no need for plastic water bottles when people go ashore - provide a re-usable carafe per cabin that can be sterilized between guests; toiletries should be provided in refillable bottles not millions of tiny plastic ones. 2) smoking - it is no longer OK to permit smoking in enclosed or semi-enclosed restaurant, this is not allowed in North America or in most of Europe so I am sure smoking passengers would understand!!! One entire side of the semi-enclosed pool area was for smokers and in the evening when it was "Hot Rocks" it was a smoking section. Day and night the pool area would fill up with smoke even though there were only about 20 smokers on our sailing. They have an indoor Connoiseur Club and an outdoor open deck area - that should be sufficient. (as for cigars, personally I think they should be banned anywhere but the CC - the stench really is intrusive, and more than once I saw people vacate the pool area when someone lit up a cigar). This is a health issue for the cruiseline employees, not only the guests. In terms of "room to improve" specifically for Silversea and Silver Shadow, the main issue is food and beverage service. The food is tasty and there is good variety. The bar service was fine. The complimentary wine selection is impressive BUT what they have on board is top secret, and it was an endless struggle to know what wine was available. There is no list, they won't provide a list, and even meeting with the sommelier did not result in any list (unlike Silver Discoverer, which provided a verbal list...). The solution was to say "no thank you, could we speak to the sommelier please?" every time a waiter approached us with a wine bottle, but that was really a headache and not always taken with good grace by the waitstaff. This approach really is not in keeping with the sophisticated guest that Silverseas suggests they are hoping to attract. Also, there were a LOT of minor food service errors, which added up to an overall "average" impression. One easy fix would be to use different glasses for sparkling vs flat water!! (I was constantly getting flat water poured into my sparkling and most did NOT remove the glass when it was pointed out).None of this was terrible, but at the price we expected better. Finally, every cruiser wants a different experience and sometimes, a ship may be delightful but not an ideal fit for you. For the interest of others considering this ship, I will give my impressions of the passengers on board; this is only my impression, and of course, other sailings and other itineraries may attract a different group. Relative to our experiences on Crystal and Regent, we found that this passenger group were less interactive; it was not a very diverse group (mostly white, married couples from the US and UK, aged 60-80), and although people were pleasant enough when we started conversations, with a few exceptions most seemed to prefer the exclusive company of their spouses. There were more people in the bars before vs after dinner; the shows were poorly attended (though pretty good); it was not so much an atmosphere geared to "making new friends". There were few organized activities, even on the sea days (exception: ping pong tournament, which was the friendliest event on the ship). If you are an older married couple who just want some "don't bug us" quality time together, this may suit you perfectly. We missed the more frequent chatting, dining and dancing with other couples that we had enjoyed on other ships.I think this would be a rather tough trip for a single passenger traveling alone, unless that person was really keen on alone time. Overall, I enjoyed the cruise and the ship, but I do think that for the high prices, the food and beverage service should be improved. I would go on Silversea again if the price or itinerary was right, but it won't be my first-choice luxury cruise line (based on this experience). Read Less

We had previously sailed on the sister ship Silver Whisper during a world cruise in 2017. Perhaps we were spoilt for the 15 days we were on that trip but by comparison the service levels, courtesy, warmth and welcome from the Silver Shadow team come a poor third. For two days the pool was an ugly yellow green, possibly algy which of course can happen, but the indifference of the staff who just laugh it off without explaining when it would be dealt with seemed curious. Meanwhile both restaurants at breakfast suffer from what seems to be a lack of attention to detail or even enthusiasm to accommodate simple requests be it for the food or the choice of seating. Try ordering simple smoked salmon and eggs ...any variation to the set menu seemed impossible to deliver. The restaurant on deck 7 for breakfast can’t cope when it’s busy - simple as that. The promise of luxury service and luxury facilities is not met. It’s interesting that this was a Caribbean cruise and we expected it to be more of a party ship which it was, and lots of sun worshippers understandably, but as ever Silverseas do not enforce the “no reservation” of sun chairs so unless you get up early being around the pool is not a choice. I expect this on cheaper cruise lines not Silverseas. Strikingly a large number of young adults on the trip which is not characteristic of the usual passenger profile on Silverseas but that’s no bad thing!. In contrast to our previous excellent cruise with Silverseas I noticed that the Cruise Director on this trip was far less visible. I lost count of the time’s the cruise director on Silver Whisper stopped to talk To passengers and gain first hand feedback. He was ever present in a non intrusive fashion. That was not the case on this trip. Trips were included in our price this time but of those that we did they were fine but not outstandingly memorable, more on that in this review later. The show Dancers and entertainers are again fine. To give context, if you have not tried Silverseas you will almost certainly find it a cut above other mainstream cruise lines, but I think we will give Seaborne a go next time and see if they deliver on the promise of 6 star which, on this cruise, Silverseas are falling very short on. Read Less

Suite chosen as it was to go South and enjoy a gracious Christmas at sea. Unfortunately there was no priest or minister aboard unlike other cruise lines during such holidays. Cabins/suites are now very handsome and luxurious. Unfortunately the size of the ship does not handle rough seas well. Cuisine was fine, but not outstanding and meals especially soups were tepid versus hot; likewise a steak came out of the kitchen cool...this is unacceptable for this price point. Room service was exceptional unfortunately restaurant service is terribly slow and meals were delivered often to the wrong person at the table. Bar service poolside is exceptional unfortunately the lobby bar attendant was often surly bordering on argumentative, I do not pay to have a person with a chip on his shoulder wait on me. This individual ought not to be waiting on passengers, I often felt demeaned by his attitude. Entertainment was low key but quite good unfortunately the sets needs to be upgraded to elegant versus looking like a bad high school bit of long forgotten scenery. Having said all this it is the ship’s clientele that makes one feel a sense of belonging. Fellow passengers are gracious, highly intelligent and well travelled without having any airs and graces. All in all I shall give Silversea another try but on their larger Silver Moon. Read Less

We are long time Celebrity cruisers..Elite Plus..and have been generally happy with our cruises. However, I wanted to find out what we are missing by not booking a 6 star ship. Nice ship, but not nearly worth the up charge involved. Back to Celebrity. The ship is one of Silversea's older and smaller (28,000 tons), but it had been refurbished just before this cruise. The ship's interior is lovely. All public rooms and our suite were very tastefully done and very comfortable. The suite(a veranda suite) is roughly equivalent to Celebrity's Sky Suites. There is no escaping, however, that this is a small ship, and the motion of the ocean is quite noticeable, even in relatively calm seas. Rough water would be a very rough ride. The food was absolutely the star of the cruise. We were unable to get a reservation in the highly touted, extra charge restaurant La Dame, but the food and service in the other open seating restaurants, La Terrazza and The Restaurant, were exceptional. Better than Celebrity's specialty restaurants. The Grill has very good poolside lunches, but it's not a favorite for dinner. Service outside the restaurants was very disappointing. The "butler" was a cabin attendant in a tux. We almost never saw him. except when he delivered the morning coffee . The Customer Service personnel were more interested in what they were doing than what we needed, and the bar servers were sometime surly. A long way from 6 star. Entertainment was very sparse, with shows by Silversea Singers in the small, but well done, theater. A piano player in one bar and a guitar player in another. Nothing else. Read Less

We wanted to try another 6 star line and we were not disappointed. Embarkation was very easy. It helped that we left on a Tuesday and were the only ship in port. We arrived earlier than noon and were allowed on the ship. Service at lunch was very slow, but fortunately it improved greatly. We were led to believe that it was dressier at dinner than it actually was. Most men wore jackets for dinner, but they were not required. The singers were ok. It was surprising to see they only used canned music. The bar entertainment was good. There were not a lot of onboard activities. Dinner at LA Dame was good, service was excellent, but that was true in the main dining room. LA Dame wa not $60.00 better that the main dining room. Overall we really enjoyed the cruise and would go again on this ship or try one of her sister ships. Read Less

Two Seniors with 9-10 prior cruises THE GOOD With fewer than 400 passengers it never seems crowded and there are rarely any lines for anything. Landed at FLL at 1:30, on board and in cabin by 2:00. While the staff on virtually all cruise lines is courteous and helpful, I believe that of Silverseas is a notch above the rest. The lunch buffet (La Terrazza) is among the best afloat. Best dinner was at La Terrazza. Disembarkation is easy and efficient. We boarded in a very good mood as we barely escaped the first Northeaster of the season and left a foot and a half of snow in New England. THE BAD Minor glitches from refurbishment – closet door won't stay open due to wrong doorknobs installed, missing tile, sink won't hold water, etc. Portion sizes in The Restaurant (who wants only a half cup of soup or 3 scallops, both of which were only lukewarm?). Quality of the always available beef entrees in The Restaurant is lacking. They did away with the Internet Cafe, as they did on Silver Wind. We had to tender in 2 ports. This did not show on itinerary and could be important for some. THE UGLY I would be remiss if I did not express my disappointment with what they did to La Dame. We were on the Silver Wind in January and in my review I stated that our meal in La Dame there was the best one we ever had at sea because of variety, quality, service, etc. As a result of that I had booked 2 dinners at La Dame on the Shadow. In the refurbishment the restaurant was expanded (no issues with physical changes), and the menu and approach to the entire experience were altered (many issues there). First the variety of menu options are greatly reduced. Even worse is the "system" they have implemented for the selection and ordering process. Our waiter refused to tell us about what was available for complimentary wine or provide the wine list. The process is now that all courses should be ordered first and then wines will be discussed. A conversation with "George" the Maitre 'D (who is great) fixed that. Lalique has made a substantial investment in La Dame, and as a result there is a tendency for the staff to "push" Lalique wines. It seemed to us that the quality of the food had dropped. The whole dinner lasted 3 hours. Which changes the categorization of the experience from leisurely to tedious. I quickly cancelled our reservation for later in the week. Our dinner was on day 2 of the cruise. Conversations with other passengers indicated that their experiences were better as the week went on, so maybe they got their act together somewhat. Others did also observe that the changed and reduced menu was a mistake. Read Less

This was our fourth Silversea cruise in an Owner’s Suite. All four were on different ships: Silver Shadow, Silver Muse, Silver Spirit, Silver Whisper. This cruise was the Mediterranean at the end of October. This was Silver Shadow's last cruise before its refurbishment. So, it still had the u-shaped bar which I prefer (see pictures if you are unfamiliar). I hope they don't pull it out during the drydock. Even though it was the final cruise, we did not note any major deficits. We were generally very happy with this cruise. We had the best butler we have ever had. At this point we know how we want our room stocked (we make a list of our needs before the butler introduces himself). One need I have is San Pellegrino. We asked once and were thereafter never without three bottles. He even brought a new bottle of Bourbon we he noticed that my first bottle was getting low. Coincidentally, it turned out that a guy I had worked with years ago was on the same cruise. We became reacquainted, and my wife and I thought it would be nice to host a little cocktail party. Our butler did a magnificent job of organizing it: Caviar, other canopies, champaign. We turned planning our dinners over to the butler. Every day, I simply asked him where and when we were eating, and he told us. I don't know if that fell into his job description, but it worked well for us. That solved my frustration with the Silversea reservation process (which basically is, set your alarm for midnight on the day online reservations open--months before your cruise--or you will miss the window of opportunity). I am in the process of adjusting my expectations of cruise ship luxury dining experiences, from what I expect at a land-based restaurant. Here is an example of what I mean. We frequent a fine dining Italian restaurant near our home. (For level setting purposes, fine dining means we expect to spend about $250 on dinner.) Last time we visited our local restaurant, I told the waiter that I wanted one of the veal dishes, but that I was craving some fettuccini Alfredo. The waiter's response, "I will make that happen." I got veal with a side of fettuccini Alfredo. Rather than bore you with a transcript of the same exchange on Silversea, suffice it that I have finally accepted that such personalized service cannot be expected on a cruise ship. But there were some minor lapses that fell below Silversea standards. One night at dinner the waiter didn't bother clearing our table before thrusting the dessert menu into our hands. Thirty seconds later he was standing there asking for my dessert order. I hadn't even glanced at the menu. Silversea offers its own sparkling water, which is fine for me, except that on this cruise, it was consistently flat. So, I started asking for San Pellegrino. I had to remind every waiter, every time I needed a refill what I was drinking. One amenity that Silversea offers in its Owner’s Suites is free laundry service. (The other three, Seabourn, Crystal, and Regent don't seem to include that.) We only bring carry-ons (yes that is correct, an 11-night cruise, and 5 extra nights with only two carry-ons--if you want to know how that is done, message me). Free laundry service makes that easier. Nonetheless, we have decided we should not become married to Silversea without at least having a baseline. So, we have booked a Seabourn cruise for next March. Seabourn does not include laundry service with their Wintergarden Suites. We have guesstimated that paying for laundry will add $300 to the cost of the cruise. Read Less

This cruise was chosen for a combination of itinerary and lifestyle. We wanted to sail Silversea again, and this itinerary ticked all the boxes. Here is a small review of that cruise, 3930 Piraeus round trip. Several factors are worthy of mention .... some good and some bad. BOARDING PROCEDURES Nothing but complements. Less than 15 minutes from exiting the taxi to relaxing in the lounge. ACCOMMODATIONS: The suite was clean, tidy and well presented. It could be argued that the style was ‘dated’ but that is a matter of opinion. I am surprised that there were no USB plugs in the suite. Perhaps this could be considered for the future? CATERING: This would be my main area of concern. La Terrazza: At breakfast and lunch, once it started getting mildly busy the staff were unable to cope. The buffet area is far too small and long queues frequently formed. I understand that enlarging this area is NOT on the agenda. Having been seated, service was again, at busy times, particularly slow, sometimes non existent! On one occasion we gave up and left. The small serving area did not allow for any Ice Cream so that was a special request ... with the appropriate wait. The main concern in this restaurant was hygiene. For the first few days the area was infested with flies. The main restaurant area had several but more concerning were number flying around in the food service area and on the food itself. This problem however was overshadowed when my wife found to her disgust and dismay a live caterpillar on the lettuce in the buffet area. This matter was raised at the time and apologies were made. This level of hygiene totally and utterly unacceptable. On an evening the restaurant was exceptional. Service was prompt and the food was excellent. MAIN DINING ROOM: Generally speaking the service, at breakfast and lunch, was far superior to La Terrazza, but again, on an evening, once it started to get mildly busy the service went into meltdown. It was not unusual to be ignored for twenty minutes. On the positive side we did ask for two ‘special’ dishes which were excellent. A Chateaubriand (for two) and a Beef Wellington ( for one). One ‘corked’ wine Read Less

This was sold to us as a top of the range 5 star luxury cruise...it's not, it barley scrapes into 4 stars. Food :- Lacked continuity, sometimes OK, Breakfast in the Terraza was pretty poor and this ship gets my vote for serving the worst breakfast coffee I have ever had in the world. The food we paid for in La Dame was very good, is there a reason this does not happen in all the other eating areas. Also apart from one area you book in advance for other venues, unaware of this to begin with when we tried to book we were put on a waiting list and rarley got in. So disappointing food all round really. Cabins:- very nice but dated, I do believe this ship is going in for a refurb. Excursions ;- Who would pay a whopping $799 dollars yes $799 for a private car for 4 hours, your havin a laugh. All shore excursions were hugley overpriced. The staff were all very good and helpful, we didnt really need a butler so didn't bother ours very much if at all. Drink selection was excellent, the champagne flowed freely and was good quality. Entertainment was fine..better when they kept it simple and just had a bit of a disco on the deck....what you would expect really. Our problem with this cruise was that it was oversold and overpriced, Had I paid a couple of thousand less then I would have said it was OK but this is not 5 star and shouldn't be sold as such. Dressing people up in tailcoats and white gloves doesn't make it 5 star. Send your management to an Oberio or Four Seasons hotel to find out what luxury is, and send your head chefs along as well. So approach with caution and would I go again, clearly not. Read Less

Subject: SilverSea Cruise , Lisbon to Barcelona Unfortunately the little details were a negative. TV with a remote that has to be changed 1 channel at a time is prehistoric. 10 years past its time. also not a good list of channel offerings. 2 of 3 movie channels worked . channels 1-5 all about Silver sea. Yes they acknowledge it’s a problem. WI Fi also dated. i paid the extra $200. for premium and extra 50.00 to add 3 users. still very slow. not 21 st century. cruise advertises premium alcohol yet when we go to dinner and ask for a better wine than what is served it is an extra charge. Food was average at best. Also sorry that local fare foods were not offered. Closing invoice added $18.00 for a silver sea chosen donation. It’s not the money, It’s the fact that you added it without authorization. My first cruise and I was expecting 5 star everything. Unfortunately 3 star rating at best. The ship overall is a bit dated. Staff was hit and miss. some great, some not so accommodating. The web site pre boarding was great once logged in you could book dinners, spas, shore excursions. All this was great and easy to look at overall trip on any given day and get info and update, Problem is once you boarded this site was no longer available. said you can’t book once on board. OK but now overall schedule is gone with info. told me they know it’s a problem . Sorry. Now you must ask dress code for each day and it not only changes daily it also applies differently to each restaurant. Concierge service lacks any info for ports we stopped at. Also they were only open 2-3 hours in the am and 2-3 hours in the pm. Also not very accommodating. Overall a real disappointment for the money we paid. I in good faith could not recommend this cruise line. Read Less

Overall, the cruise was very enjoyable. The ship was nice, the staff was very pleasant and professional, and the ports that we got to visit were lovely. This wasn’t our first cruise, but it was our first cruise on a smaller ship (382 passengers) and I’m hoping it won’t be our last. There was no queuing for anything and everything ran smoothly. I’m hoping to stay away from the bigger ships (we have previously been on ships that range from around around 2500 to about 6000 passengers) now that we understand the small-ship difference. OK enough with the background…. The Ship: I thought that the ship was well put together. Some commenters have said that it’s “showing its age”, but I didn’t notice anything serious and felt that, cosmetically, it has been kept in good shape. I imagine that the upcoming refurbishment will add the shine that people may be expecting. The Problem: In summary: shortly before setting sail from Civitavecchia, there was a serious problem with an engine which caused a shutdown in some of the key electrical systems. As a result, power was lost to parts of the ship, including the galley and, for a while, the air conditioning. Long story short, we understandably could not depart port on schedule, and dinner options were reduced to a bland sandwich or (I’m guessing) the salad/vegetarian options available from the sandwiches fixings. Based on the price of the cruise, we have started calling these the “$1,000” sandwiches. We were stuck in port until 6:00pm the following day, which resulted in a modified schedule to the overall cruise (no overnight in Sorrento and no stop in Amalfi). They did hastily organize some bus tours of Rome for the day that we were stuck in port, but having just come from Rome (where we had done a bus tour) this was not an attractive option. During the port day, we did try to see it as a “sea day” and just hung around the ship (although some of the passengers were decidedly annoyed with this). Our main problem was with the Silversea response, or lack thereof. The Captain gave the mandatory “no option but to fix the problem” announcements (which we agree with), but the Silversea corporate reaction was non-existent until we reached out to them. We have had 4 hour flight delays that have resulted in communications from the airline, but a 24-hour delay in a “luxury” cruise was met with radio silence from management. When we did reach out to them, they gave a lukewarm apology and a rebate on a future cruise, which may or may not be used. The bigger issue is a complete breakdown in customer service. There should have been proactive outreach from the corporate office. I understand that the Captain had to keep the ship in port until he was certain that it could sail, but it was not an “act-of-God”, it was an equipment failure, which resulted in them not being able to deliver the product that they sold to the travelers. This lack of communication left a bad taste in our mouths. Silver Suite: I thought that the suite was great. We have been in larger suites on other ships, but in reality this suite had all the space you need. Lots of closet space, a nice bathroom, and a very nice separate bedroom. The only notes would be that the balcony was a bit small, which would have been okay, but the furniture on the balcony wasn’t great, so it felt more humdrum than it should have. The second note would be that the sofa was on the small side, and at 6’1” it was a bit tight for my afternoon nap (granted, this is definitely a “first world problem”). The TVs in the suite also need updating - they were often a pain to turn on and off. Other than that it had a nice bar that the butler kept stocked and added treats like M&Ms to the room on a daily basis. On that note, I can’t say enough about the butler service, which was truly wonderful. The butlers are both everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Always there when you want them, but remarkably unobtrusive. The same can be said about the steward, who kept the room immaculate. This suite also came with laundry service, which was great because we were able to have our clothes washed for the second part of our trip before we left the ship. Our suite was next to the service stairs, and while I could hear people going up and down the stairs, it didn’t bother me at all. Meals & Drinks: I thought the meals were fine. For a luxury cruise, the food wasn’t demonstrably better than we have had on other ships. I should note that we never did get around to dining in the upscale “La Dame” restaurant, but we ate at “The Grill” one evening, which was pleasant (but a little hot...no pun intended), and at “La Terrazza” on another night. We had breakfast in-suite most mornings, but when we did have it in the restaurant, it was (again) fine. All of that being said, the service made the difference for every single meal. The wait staff, like the suite staff, was exceptional. I should mention that the ship does have a strict dress code after 6pm, and I saw a few men who didn’t have jackets be provided with jackets for dinner. I wasn’t really happy with the choice of alcohol on board, as they seem to carry mid-shelf options. While I don’t expect them to carry top shelf as stock, I did expect they would make some effort to cater to their price-point. As a rum drinker, maybe a Europe voyage is not the place to get better quality rum, but if you are expecting top-shelf options, be aware that you may have to compromise or pay extra. That being said, It was fine and there’s no lack of drinks on board. Ports: We were scheduled to have stops in Rome, Sorrento, Amalfi, Trapani (Sicily), Cagliari (Sardinia), Palma de Mallorca, Valencia, and Barcelona. Rome: Rome is lovely. It is very easy to get lost in the tiny streets and discover beautiful buildings and great places to eat, which is pretty much what you want. While it was peak season and there were clearly a lot of people around, it never felt truly crowded. Note that if it is your first time in Rome and you are going on a cruise, the city is over an hour from the port, so plan accordingly. We stayed in Rome for 24 hours before the cruise but could have easily enjoyed a few more days there, just strolling around. Our favorite restaurant “Vini & Cucina” was a great little find close to the Pantheon. Sorrento: Sorrento is a lovely little town, we did a day trip to Pompeii, which was stellar. Had some great gnocchi at Il Pozzo, and wish we would have been able to spend more time, but this stop was cut short due to the issues with the ship. AmalfI: We were looking forward to just chilling in Amalfi, but we had to skip it completely due to the ship issues. Sicily: We did a day trip to Erice, which was the “unexpected gem” of the cruise. A definite must. Lots of walking, but just a lovely little town. It’s sort of like Pompeii, except instead of being a town that was frozen in time by a volcano, it is a town that is timeless. Sardinia: We did a boating trip here as we both love swimming and snorkeling. One issue with this excursion was that we thought that it was billed as a trip where you could swim and snorkel, but there was no snorkel gear provided, and the area where they anchored really had nothing to see. That being said, it was a lovely sailing trip that we would not have traded for another excursion. The captain pretty much knew only four words of English “Jump” (for jump off the boat), “Swim”, “Drink” and “Eat”, so he knew the basics for the trip. HIs wife was better at English, but not fluent, but that’s part of the fun. Malllorca: We did a bike trip with Palma Bicycle Tours around the Old Town and loved it. Great place and great guides; we had all levels of cyclists with us, from great cyclists to people who hadn’t ridden in 20 years. Valencia: Loved it, even though we only went to the Cuidad de las Artes y Las Ciencias. As a side note, for both Valencia and Barcelona, Catalan is the local language. Between my wife and I, we speak five languages reasonably fluently and learned some Italian for this trip - but Catalan is a language unto itself, which we both really enjoyed - even though we could barely understand it. Barcelona: I’ve always wanted to see the Sagrada Famila and it’s an incredibly amazing cathedral. Overall it’s a lovely city, but it’s overrun with tourists and the locals are starting to speak out about it. I counted anywhere from 4-5 very large cruise ships coming in each day, and many of these have Barcelona as their start or end point. My rough guess is that this puts 10-15k new people in Barcelona every day during the high season, then you add all of the other tourists that all want to see the same things, and I think Barcelona is close to a breaking point. Hopefully they manage this before things start breaking down. We did have a lovely meal of beer and tapas at an "off the beaten path” restaurant that was great and mind-blowingly cheap. We also had one of our favorite meals of our trip there, overlooking the city, at Restaurant Martinez. Read Less

It should be the first cruise and should be a great experience. On closer inspection, the ship was outmoded, worn and not up to date. Data transfer to iphone or laptop a sheer catastrophe. The bed width (we had twinbeds) only 80 cm - with a little swell you threatened to fall out. There should be a butler individually available to each cruise guest (which was mathematically completely impossible) - but that per Butler 15 guests were to look after, shows how rarely one had "his" butler actually available. The entertainment events were rather of moderate quality. Good were the mostly Filipino staff in the cabin cleaning and in the service of the three restaurants. In this overall form you can not advise a trip on the SilverShadow.A clear difference was also noticeable when offered dinner in the inclusive restaurant "the restaurant". We ate there twice and in both cases the food was extremely salted and we let things go back. Good were only the food in the two restaurants, where the drinks were charged separately. Read Less

We sailed on the Silversea Silver Shadow from Dubai to Athens in April of this year - our third Silversea cruise . We had loved our previous Cruises on the Shadow and the Silver Spirit and particularly liked the cabin comfort and the attentive service where nothing was too much trouble. This cruise was so different. 1. Cabin Comfort. Yes the Shadow is now a bit shabby and very much in need of the up and coming refurbishment but this was not the problem. From previous cruises we knew, the beds were hard. My back does not cope with hard beds so as usual at the time of (early) booking I had requested one of the egg-crate mattress toppers plus pillows from the list given. We had previously never had any problem with these requests. When we boarded this time it was ‘sorry there are only 7 mattress toppers on the ship and they are all taken.’ Huge hard pillows on our beds. Further pillows brought in - some the same, others just slabs of very firm. Pillow menu mentioned but profuse staff apologies and ‘Sorry but this is all we have’ Pillow menu not available. Previously always enjoyed and been comfortable sitting on the balcony. New Balcony chairs very high and deep - my feet could not reach the ground and the wire edge dug into the back of my legs. Staff tried hard but nothing more comfortable available than lots of padding with pillows. My back and neck suffered badly from the hard bed, the hard pillows and not being able to sit comfortably on the balcony - I could not believe I had paid so much money to endure such discomfort. 2. Cabin Air conditioning control - poor to non existent. When we arrived in our cabin at 2pm it was sweltering - the air con wasnt working. Fixed late evening by the engineer taking down part of our cabin ceiling. Control still iffy and a few days later - cabin freezing cold -again fixed late evening. Show lounge and parts of the main restaurant often freezing - apparently problems with the themostat. 3. Staff service. Nothing like our previous attentive experience. Our poor butler was rushed off his feet between two decks. Apparently there was a staff shortage and it would often take him over an hour to respond to a call - if at all. When sitting on the upper decks, there were rarely any staff around. If we wanted seat cushions or a coffee it was a case of walking down to the pool deck, and either carrying items up two decks ourselves or waiting till someone was available - by which time the coffee was cold. 4. On the positive side the food in the restaurants was as good as ever, the staff themselves as welcoming and as lovely as ever, embarkation excellent and the excursions we went on mainly ok other than the very hot, small, basic souk on a wasteland area in Oman. All our concerns might be small issues in isolation but taken overall this was not the luxury cruise experience we had previously had with Silversea. Maybe we were just unfortunate on this particular cruise. Because of our previous good experiences we already booked another three week cruise before we went on this one and have since thought long and hard about whether to continue with the booking. After apologies and reassurances from the UK Guest relations manager ie that the Silver Shadow is being refurbished and that all will be fine re our requests etc. we have reluctantly decided to go ahead. I only hope he is right. Read Less

This was our first SS cruise and our only prior experience of an ‘all inclusive’ cruise (in terms of alcohol & gratuities included) was our initial cruise on Paul Gaugin (PG), which we thoroughly enjoyed. In a way the Shadow reminded us of our PG experience in terms of excellent service, friendly crew, very good food and non-contemporary decor, but still very comfortable. They’re not majorly dissimilar in max pax numbers although PG’s style, entertainment and dress code befits its laid-back tropical itineraries. Anyway, we thought the Shadow service was generally excellent. Going on excursions was made so much more relaxed with the provision of water and beach towels before the gangway and cold facecloths and drinks waiting on return (unless near departure time). Our butler, Ray, room attendant, Orly and other crew were so helpful and pro-active. Joe, the maître d' at La Terrazza was always welcoming and Marlon and Marven were our favourite wait-staff. We enjoyed Peter’s (the head barman) cocktail lessons and all the destination lecturers were excellent and provided enlightening pre-excursion background information. Our voyage was immeasurably enhanced by Kirk, the CD who was outstanding and seemed to have unlimited energy. His show “The Boat is Rockin!” was arguably the best of all the performances in the show lounge. The solo performance shows by Julie, Laura & Ines from the Voices of Silversea were also very good. Given the size of the Shadow, the entertainment options met our expectations. I had wondered whether I would be bored with so many sea days, but there was more than enough in the daily program to keep one engaged. The gym was adequate and certainly far larger than that on the PG; a dual pulley functional station and a larger fit-ball would have been nice though. Pilates and yoga classes were available, but my wife preferred to perform to her own standard. Food: Overall, very good. I wouldn’t rate it as excellent because there were a couple of dishes we felt were ‘meh’ (eg. seafood bisque in MDR and tomato bisque room service), but the majority was flavoursome, range was quite wide and we liked what some might describe as ‘modest’ portion sizes, but we felt were just right with aiding the completion of a three course dinner. For us, the various menu choices were extensive enough such that in our 15 day voyage we found that by rotating through the various dining venue options (including room service, but excluding La Dame), we still found items we would have liked to have ordered but couldn’t fit in. Lobster, if that’s your desire, seemed to be on the menu every night in the MDR. Caviar as well, but I only noticed it printed in the 1st formal night menu and after that it seemed to be on request. Other standouts included the stellar Arabian-themed lunch in the MDR and the ‘pop-up’ cooked to order lunchtime stalls in La Terrazza. We also thought the meat available at the Grill was some of the most tender beef we’ve had, but the Chateaubriand in the MDR was slightly even more so. I was bemused though as to why there wasn’t any Italian beer available given SS’s heritage and how they could also run out of Gin several days before disembarking! Excursions: we did a mix of private and SS tours. To us, some of the SS tours were reasonable value for money and some less so. However, all 3 SS tours that we did do were well organised, coaches were only half-full for comfort, were accompanied by SS staff and the guides were good to very good. During this itinerary, the only port that didn’t hold much interest was Sur. Otherwise, this itinerary was great in that we managed to visit Petra and Luxor, although 2 nights in each port and stops in Israel would be better, but you can’t have everything! One area for improvement: The disembarkation process in Safaga could be improved with better foot-traffic management. Cabins: no significant complaints. If we had the choice we would have chosen a mid-ship location rather than so far forward (a bit pitchy at times). However, it wasn’t so bad we needed to take Stugeron or the like. We loved the spacious bathroom with twin basins and separate bath & shower stall and we felt spoilt with twice daily cleaning. The bed was most conducive to sleep (Ray said the beds were replaced not so long ago). So, was it a case of the dry dock later this year couldn’t come soon enough or a case of ageing gracefully? We would lean more towards the later. One could focus on the places with some fading varnishing on the hand rails, or cracked/bubbling paintwork or worn carpet (the carpet in the public areas could certainly do with a good steam clean, but I suspect unlikely before the refurbishment later this year), however, our focus was more on enjoying what the cruise had on offer. The ship is quite functional (they managed to fix the freezing conditions in the show lounge towards the end of the voyage – in the meantime it was a case of BYO jacket). The refurbishment planned for later this year sounds wonderful and should make the Shadow a more attractive choice in the “luxury” cruise marketplace. If you haven’t cruised with SS before then for the Shadow at least, our experience was that the service was excellent, food was overall very good, the entertainment/activities appropriate for this ship size and hardware was functional. However, if you’ve previously cruised on the Muse/stretched-Whisper or other recently built luxury ships then I can understand one might be underwhelmed by the Shadow’s décor, but I think a CC Shadow board poster summed it up best in a SS thread I read early last year; “The decor on the older ships is very Italian...think of a special hotel on The Grand Canal in Venice” (but I might add without Italian beer available…….). So, would we cruise with SS again? The answer is “yes” although a 4.5/5 score would be our rating (but not an available choice). Read Less

We wanted to go to Dubai and are experienced cruisers world wide. This is our 12 th cruise and it started in Mumbai. Mumbai should never be visited unless you like crazy traffic with shanties everywhere. Way way worse than the poorest town in Mexico. The next 3 ports were literally gravel pits with commercial cranes and little access to leave the ship. At one port my wife and I barely made it back through port security. The 3 rd & 4 th port of Furjariah and Abu Dhabi were better with the last actually having easy on and off the ship access. Finally one UAE country figured how to cater to guests . Then we find out at 2 pm they cancelled our Qatar stop and have to spend another full day here. Not that much to do that one day doesn’t suffice, so we will sit by the very small pool and eat the fly invested food I guess! The staff were friendly but the food is a disaster , they don’t have .orange juice now two days in a row for breakfast! I am serious about the flies! We have a suite and have been awoken each night except last night with the cleaning crew on deck 8 around midnight. The ship is outdated and we heard is scheduled for a referb soon, can’t be soon enough. The captain has made 4 announcements and I didn’t understand a single word he said. He should not be allowed to use the PA. Besides the 4 out of 5 ports that literally are a shit hole, we paid $22,000 US and I cannot see any value. I would recommend Oceana or another line. I will not sail with these guys again. Read Less

We boarded Silver Shadow on 17th April 2019 in Mumbai for a 9 day cruise visiting ports in India, Oman and UAE. We chose Silver Shadow as we had sailed on her in 2016 in Alaska. In 2016 the ship truly lived up to its 6 star rating in all respects. Comparing the latest trip with the 2016 trip I am sorry to say that Silversea has lost much of its reputation. The only standards that haven't changed since 2016 are the quality of the cabin staff, waiters, reception and shore concierge staff. They were all charming , helpful and a credit to the ship. The variety of the A La Carte Menus was not as extensive and mostly repetitive. Some areas ran out of selected wines and on one occasion there was no orange juice anywhere on the ship. Wine selection was limited and the cheapest of everything was offered as the main choices. The ship is tired and in need of attention as were the management on board. The Italian Captain made one announcement per day which was sailing information we think. I say ‘we think’ as it was impossible to understand what he was saying. There was a general air of disinterest at officer level. Apparently on 2 occasions some passengers reported seeing schools of dolphins bow riding for 20 or so minutes. A sight no-one should miss. No announcement was made by the ships staff to alert passengers to this so that all passengers could see this amazing sight. The 'entertainment' was amateurish and awful to watch and listen to. We left within 10 minutes of arriving on each performance , hoping in vain that it would improve. One port of call was Fujairah. The stop here seemed to be more for the convenience of Silversea than the experience for the passengers. The ship was refuelled there which took most of the day. Even some of the guides/experts stated that it was a mystery why we had stopped there as there was nothing of interest for tourists. Refuelling would seem to be the primary reason for stopping. On leaving Fujairah we sailed to Abu Dhabi. The wind was about force 5 , sometimes gusting but with stabilisers the ship was gently rolling and nothing to concern most of the passengers. Everything carried on as normal with restaurants full etc. no restrctions about going onto deck , just wind warning notices on doors. We arrived in Abu Dhabi, went off for day excursions and returned to be told that the ship was staying there an extra day as the Captain had decided not to sail on to Doha for the comfort and safety of passengers. All passengers we spoke to were at best very disappointed, and some extremely angry with this decision as we had sailed from Fujairah in similar conditions which were not exceptional - just a mild rolling. It was exacerbated by a much smaller passenger vessel leaving the port. The weather did not seem to be of concern to their Captain. So one port and a different country was missed out on the trip.. It seems that since being taken over by Royal Caribbean, corners are being cut to the detriment of the all round experience. We and many of our fellow passenger were very disappointed with the drop in standards. In a competitive world where the choice in cruising is extensive, if I was asked by a anyone whether Silversea was a shipping line of choice I would say "not any more....overpriced and now over-rated. there are far better cruising companies to sail with. Sad but true.' Look elsewhere. Read Less

This is our 5th Silversea cruise and we are currently on the ship. Service and food are no where like it used to be. Obviously it’s purchase by Royal Caribbean last year has affected the elegance, food quality and top tier service we’ve experienced in the past. We are going to be on the hunt for more luxe cruise line! The service in La Terrazzo is SLOW and the food was cold and subpar to previous Silversea cruise .Same at Hot Rocks last night. The gym has not been updated and one of the two ellipticals is an awkward ride Technogym early model. They do to a great job of getting you on and off the ship for excursions, but when you book what you think will be a luxe cruise, you want fabulous food and service. The food is so mediocre and skimpy. We won’t be cruising again with Silversea. We so expected more. Read Less

I was very displeased with the cruise we boarded on April 2 from Singapore to Mumbai. To our dismay upon boarding the ship was old and tired as many of the staff were. When we checked into our room I had to summon housekeeping to change the bathmat as it was frayed and extremely tired as some of the towels.The only saving grace was that the room was a decent size. The food was not first class as its reputation. La Dame was supposed to be their top of the line restaurant which charged $60. pp extra. Definitely not worth it. Stated in their literature is that premium wines are included. This is false as the Chardonnay served was the cheapest reserve of Wente, Morning Fog, when Riva Ranch is only a few dollars more. On several occasions the raspberries at the morning buffet were moldy. The avocado was shockingly served to us when it was overripe and black. Regular yogurt was at the buffet when Greek style was available but we had to ask for it. Why are there items available but not on the menu? This is not what I expected for the money spent. I have sailed on many other high-end ships and this did not measure up. Furthermore, I have received no email regarding my negative comments that I painstakingly wrote before leaving the ship. 4 of our group were so dissatisfied they left the ship after only a few days on board. And to add insult to injury, my travel partner and I had jewelry stolen from our room. When I reported this to the customer relations dept. (Dionel Castillo), the answer was very unsatisfactory. Needless to say, I am not left with a fond memory and doubt that I will return on Silversea as there are many other cruise ships that are a dream like Oceania, Crystal, Viking and Regent who offer much superior service. Read Less

I wish I had read the Cruise Citic Reviews for this ship before I booked. I would not have gone ahead. Many of the reviews do not have nice things to say about this ship and they are accurate. Silversea claim that this is a 6 star ship. I have done 27 Cruises and it is 4 - 4.5 stars at best. So in summary I paid a six star price for a 4 star ship. Everything on board is the cheapest of the Cheap. Even the bottled water in the cheapest they could buy. No Evian here - cheap water from somewhere in China. Ship - Tired and Run Down. Staff - poor levels of english and you have to ask for everything 4 times Management - Don't care - we told them of our dissappointment only to be ignored - One manager organised one special meal for us and that was it. Special Requests - At first they tell they can't do special things for you hoping you will stop asking then after a while the reluctantly give in and get it for you - not what was expected on a "6 star" ship. Don't expect any pampering on this ship. They claim to have daily yoga, pilates and fitness classes - they had nobody on board to do them. Out of 27 cruises Silversea are in my bottom 5. Read Less

Silversea advertised a series of Asia cruises with their "Far More in the Far East" special, and wow, did it deliver. I chose this Singapore-to-Hong Kong voyage for several reasons: the timing worked for me, I liked the balance of ports and sea days, the itinerary would take me to so many places I've never been but have longed to visit, and the Silversea specials put this all-inclusive luxury voyage comfortably in my price range ($1000 air credit, $1000 onboard credit, most excursions included, 5% discount for previous SS travelers, 5% discount for booking onboard a previous cruise, and then a surprise 3-category upgrade just a few days before sailing -- it all added up to a reasonable price). The Shadow is one of the older ships in the fleet, but she is graceful and well maintained. After previously sailing on her smaller sibling, the Wind, the Shadow at first seemed so much larger. Within a day, that feeling diminished and she seemed perfect to me. My suite seemed bigger than I expected, although the pool seemed smaller than expected. On this particular voyage, we had spectacular weather until the final few days, and the pool deck was filled to capacity. There were short waits (under 5 minutes) for the morning buffet at popular times on port days, but generally passengers were well distributed throughout the ship. It was easy to find quiet places to sit, or more active places for company. Embarkation in Singapore is odd simply because you have to walk through a mall to reach the desk. Once in Silversea's hands, however, the process was easy and pleasant -- under 10 minutes from starting the process to sitting in the Panorama Lounge enjoying my 2nd glass of welcome bubbly. I dined at every possible venue, preferring La Terrazza for breakfast (waiters will bring you eggs to order and cappuccino, but everything else comes from the vast buffet). My meal in the upcharge La Dame was as extraordinary as advertised, while two dinners at the casual Hot Rocks were good fun with good company. The Restaurant does include a small selection of regional selections every night, and I found they were nicely done -- especially the lemongrass beef. Over the 2 weeks, I dined in La Tarrazza for dinner on 4 occasions, always enjoying the upscale Italian cuisine and handmade pastas. As others have said, luxury trappings are nice, but it is the warmth and professionalism of the crew that make Silversea so special. Without exception, every staff member on board was at the top of their game, remembering names and orders, anticipating wants or needs, offering a compliment or a steady arm, making conversation with real connections, sharing insights from their homelands. I found this to be true throughout the ranks: from the captain to the room attendant, from the wait staff to the officers, from the earnest care of the butlers to the often invisible work of the maintenance crew and accountants. Of everything on this near-perfect voyage, I think I will miss the crew the most. Would I go again? Yes. And I would enthusiastically recommend it to others. Read Less

We chose the sailing because the timing and itinerary were just what we were looking for. The issues started just after we booked the cruise through the Silversea Florida Office. The thing to bear in mind is that this is supposed to be a luxury cruise and you are paying top dollar. The booking/ administration was awful and had no idea of life outside Florida. Questions went unanswered for weeks, escalation to management helped, but slowly, promises were not kept. Flights routings were stupid - the first plan was to fly us 4 hours East to Toronto, to fly us 5 hours West to Vancouver (rather than just the one hour to Vancouver), before flying to the Far East. Then they rescheduled our early February flight at the last minute giving us a very tight transfer in the middle of a deep freeze/ snow storm. We were told they wanted to cut down on our wait time in Vancouver - a better plan would have been to ask us! In my opinion, they had just no idea. The Shipboard credit was not provided and had to be requested from the ship. In all fairness, we travelled with a friend from England who did not have any issues with their admiistartion. Planning the ports looked odd. We stayed 2 days in Sianoukville, described as a cross between a rubbish dump and a building site, but only a few hours in Ha Long Bay, an area of outstanding natural beauty. Once we were on the ship, the ship's company could not have been better, service was excellent from top to bottom - particularly all the bar staff. We could not fault the cabin staff, just excellent. The line is Italian, so food was slanted to haute cuisine, which was fine, we had some beautiful dishes. The lunch on the Pool deck delivered a really, really good burger, just light on the salads, though I suppose I could have asked for double portions. The evening entertainment was not as good as we have previously enjoyed. There was a lot of opera/ American songbook shows, some of the arrangements were not my cup of tea The bar and pool staff plus the waiters were a joy. I doubt we will cruise with Silversea again - Regent provide a much better administrative experience and a nicer ship Read Less

After cruising with 6 other cruise companies, we were excited to have gone supposedly upmarket to Silversea. We were very disappointed.The whole ship is urgently in need of refurbishment, which apparently will happen later this year. The cabins are not that big, the balcony was tiny. The flat screen TV was out of the ark, was tiny and couldn't easily be seen from the bed. For 3 days the a/c didn't work properly, the fridge had to be changed as it also wasn't cold! The food in La Terraze was excellent at breakfast and lunch, but awful at dinner. The main restaurant food was usually lukewarm, sometimes not cooked. The service was poor with little response to any complaints. The complimentary wines were good, but bizarrely it is company policy to not have a list of complimentary wines. Instead you are presented with a white and a red as choice for the day. It is not made clear that there are other alternatives, and we spoke to several people who had no idea even late in the cruise.They do, however, have a long list of wines at extra cost! Incredibly, there was no complimentary NZ Sauv Blanc available for the entire cruise due to a procurement error. You have to play 20 questions with the sommelier to find what choice there is.This was incredibly annoying. The staff were generally very friendly and helpful, the room attendant and butler were very efficient. Room service was efficient but again the food was usually cold. The other guests made the cruise for us, together with a great itinerary and good weather. There was general agreement that Silversea were overpriced, very disappointing and to be avoided in future. Read Less

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