We had a fabulous experience in virtually every way two years ago on the Silver Wind so we were really looking forward to another cruise with Silversea. We chose this trip because of it's itinerary, but little did we expect that the excursions would be led by such poor guides and leaving us with a very unsatisfied feeling about the cost vs value received . Realistically, the rest of the cruise could have been perfect but with excursions being so poor and also VERY expensive, it is hard to come away with a good feeling about the TOTAL experience.

In fairness: the food was excellent, the ship offered an outstanding sommelier program which was truly a highlight (and FREE), excellent guest speaker from Columbia University, our butlers were fantastic and totally on the ball, the wines served on the cruise were very interesting, often regional according to port and well thought out, dinner at La Dame was amazing and even for a non-sushi lover-the food at Senshei was excellent, entertainment was very good most nights but not as frequent as it could have been in my view, bar service and restaurant was top notch and very accomodating.

One last item-the ship is very dated decor wise but we were told it is going to be retrofitted next year.