This was our second trip to Alaska. Our first was with 3 children on a Celebrity Ship 10 years ago. We thought it would be fun to try a much smaller and luxurious ship with friends. The cost was significantly higher but we thought it would be worth it for the world class service and food and of course the ship itself. We were very very disappointed and I will research a lot more before we go on another cruise. The staff tried to be helpful but it was no use, any simple request seemed to be problem for some odd reason. Management is nowhere to be seem. The one striking thing to me on this trip was the absolute seriousness of the staff from the moment we boarded, you would think we were on a dangerous naval mission to the Middle East instead of a fun trip to Alaska.

The food was highly disappointing on this "luxury cruise". It got very tiresome to be served potatato chips at all the bars with our glass of champaign, we really couldn't believe it. They did have something a little different the night before the end of the cruise timed perfectly for the distribution of surveys in each room. The staff seemed just plain bored all the time but they were kind and did try to please most of the time. In our opinion, this is not a staff problem, it is a management problem. Flat screen tv's are in the cabins but were simply placed in the original cabinets made for old style tv's so whats the point? they stick out terribly and are guaranteed to bump you in the head dozens of times in a week. Our fridge was only stocked when we called. The breakfast buffet was just average and the ship is very dated. The rust stains at the bottom of the pool didn't help and one closed hot tub on such a small ship is quite noticeable. The internet is completely useless, we would have been better off with walkie talkies on the ship. If this cruise had cost what a large ship charged I wouldn't even bother with this review but for $11,500 for 2 people .... this was highly unacceptable and we will never sail with SilverSea again. We should have known there would be a problem when we called in a few times before the cruise to ask a question and got rerouted several times for really simple and clear questions like "what time can we board the ship?". That call took 15 minutes and we were told 1 pm. The ship was actually boarding before 11am. I won't even go into how difficult it was to book specialty restaurants. Our contact at silver sea changed 3 times in just a few months, I should have known then we should bail. A very expensive disappointment. The beautiful observation deck has a bar for drinks or coffee/tea but it was never set up, what a waste. I am showing a photo of a beautiful day but by noon nobody had unsecured all the deck furniture so we could sit and enjoy the views. I will mention one last item and that is the slide show and presentations that constantly run on the TV. They were in fact "slides" and the presentation must have been recorded in the 70's. It's incredible at this day in age, where technology is where it is, that they are running these programs that make you feel you are in a boring science class in 1974. They would be better off transmitting current National Geographic programs or BBC wildlife programming. Anything but the tedious mind numbing choices all the passengers currently have now.