We wanted to visit New Zealand and Australia at this time of the year and had heard good things about Silversea. If the Silver Shadow is an example of the Silversea cruise line, we will never travel on a Silversea ship again. The ship is very old and most definitely not the luxurious ship it's promoted, the restaurant staff was poorly trained and no one seemed to be supervising the staff, the food mediocre, not fresh many of the times as if recycled over and over. Over-all the ship did not live up to what we expected from the advertisements. We've cruised with three other cruise lines, but this was the first time we couldn't wait to get off the ship. Also, this was the first of the cruises that we've taken where the most common discussion among fellow passengers was how disappointed they were the accommodations, food and restaurant staff, and some were first-time Silversea passengers and others were passengers that have sailed with Silversea several times. After leaving the the ship and moving to our hotel, we'd still be in Sydney if we hadn't questioned why we hadn't been given our departure information to the airport. We had to call Silversea to find out when we'd be picked up. The positives of the cruise were that the the shore excursion cruise desk people, the shore excursions themselves, though expensive were excellent, the entertainment and the housekeepers were also excellent. We will never sail with Silversea again.