We have just returned from a lovely cruise aboard the silver shadow. The ship wasn't full and only 278 people on board so we were were very spoilt. Service was brilliant and the food was excellent, accomodation was very comfortable and our suite spacious. It's so much nicer having everything included but still having fantastic service. The entertainment was lacking in the lounges and we feel that the singing duo were not suited to the ship, although they were friendly and very nice it wasnt what you would choose to go and listen to each evening and the only other lounge entertainment was quite average. There was no piano playing no one singing melodies or playing a guitar and we met quite a few people who agreed with us. There was hardly a time when anyone danced in the lounges and we know from previous cruises how many people like to dance. The silver shadow entertainers in the theatre though were excellent and entertained us a few times and had us dancing on the deck one night but something is definitely missing in the lounges and pool area and even in the dining room. The pool grill was fabulous, we love the concept of the stone grill and cook our meat and prawns ourselves, the food was delicious and la terrazza is a must especially when overnighting in a port.

The few things we didn't like was the organization of the shuttles they had going into the towns, they had no representative in the town where the pick up and drop off was and in one port our shuttle ran out of fuel after being 45 min later than scheduled and it took over an hour for them to organize another shuttle. Another time the shuttles stopped completely for lunch and we didn't see the small print in the chronicle that said limited shuttles during a certain time but there weren't limited they were non existent. Also no water at some stops only ice tea and we were never offered a cool towel at the tenders as we have been accustomed to on other cruise liners.

My biggest gripe was not only is smoking allowed on the small outside deck on la terraza where you have breakfast lunch and dinner and I mean small, smoking tables are next to non smoking but we had a chap continuously puffing a cigar which hung over the whole dining area so when he was around we had to sit inside as there was no escape from the stench. This we found disgusting and unacceptable. Read more