Having previously sailed on Seabourn and Crystal we tried Silversea. On its face it looked good and given it was more expensive we expected it to be superior. How wrong we were.

First the good points: the dining experience in the main dining room was excellent as was the service there and generally elsewhere. The hotel staff tried hard and were polite. The food in the breakfast area was limited and average. The 1 hour free internet was good too.

But the bad points outweighed these bright spots. The ship is shabby and old. Yes they are soon to be refurbishing it but it shouldn't be sailing at these prices in this condition. There were mechanical issues in our suite requiring fixing on two occasions. This shouldn't have happened and things should have been working from the start. They cannot change the design of the ship but as it is small there is little in the way of public rooms in which to sit and have a drink. The immigration handling in London was shambolic with people waiting around for over an hour to then be advised that it would be attended to the next day. Read more