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Silver Shadow

Silver Spirit

Silver Whisper

Rome (Civitavecchia)

Wow, what a fantastic adventure! Silver Spirit is a beautiful ship, crew is attentive, incredibly service oriented. The destinations were amazing, a blend of nature adventure and opportunities to sample local culture and events. Silver Sea's all inclusive approach makes everything smooth, no awkward moments when meeting with friends or meeting new friends about who gets the tab. Wine enthusiasts, foodies and just plain adventuresome folks with means should consider Silver Seas.

One complaint, smoking!!! Beware that half the pool deck, the pool bar, the outside dining at La Terrazza and outside lounge at Panorama are all smoking areas. Though only a very small percentage of the guests were smokers (perhaps 20 guests of 550?), a few dedicated chain smokers made life miserable in the above venues. Given that smoking is increasingly a habit most reflective of older, less affluent folks, why does Silver Sea dedicate so much space to a shrinking demographic?

In retrospect, a wonderful adventure, we've booked 2 more Silver Seas cruises and are loyal customers.

Grand Voyage Circle of South America

Simply delightful. Traveled solo. With work, it's easier for us to get away individually.  As a solo traveler, I never felt "solo". This cruise has gentlemen hosts that make u feel welcome and genuinely interested in u having a great time. There were usually about ten solo travelers that would meet for drinks and dinner nightly. Made some new bff's. We r on the last 2 days of this cruise and it will b sad to say goodbye.

Butler service... not your butler from the Caribbean.. need a chap stick with spf 5 minutes before your tour? He will get it for you. Along with the usual food and beverage service, they will do your running around for you, which I appreciated. Need a ticket to the sold out tour? What a surprise! He got me on. Need paperwork dropped at reception? That too. List goes on. Mention in passing that something was not to your liking? Quickly resolved and brought to managements attention.

Service in general... excellent. Nice fun folks work this ship. They know your name and your preferences very quickly. Maybe tough to fly under the radar. Lol. 

Entertainment.. go to Stars to c Esther and Chantal. U won't b disappointed. Small jazzy setting.  Class act and they r super people to get to know. More bff's..

Cabins.. I had a deck 8 veranda cabin. Very large, clean and well decorated. Did I mention clean? Spotless. I'm sensitive to bad smells. There r none to b found here.

Food.. no complaints. If u r picky, they will accommodate your needs. Even at the buffet.. I saw people having their breakfasts or lunches brought to them. I prefer fixing my own tho. Water is excellent on board too. They have good wine choices as well. Plenty of choices for restaurants. If a res is needed, just ask your butler and it will b taken care of. I tried every restaurant including room service.  Dining is an experience here.

Dress... i was happy that I brought dressy clothes. We had 3 formal nights. Loved them. Most evenings r informal, but that is still an opportunity to dress up. Most do. Informal is not casual.

I would definitely sail on Silver Spirit again. I would also suggest it as a good cruise for solo travelers.

Delightful 18 Nights in South America

Skagway

We sailed from Barbados to Barbados on the Silver Spirit from 20th November to 8th December 2016 to the Amazon.

Silversea is our favourite cruise line and we are loyal Venetian members. However standards have fallen considerably despite there being only 153 passengers on board.

Silversea was known for staff who addressed passengers by their names. No more. A fellow passenger proved it after fifteen days on board. The waiter and barman did not know his nor his wife's name despite being frequent Silvetsea passengers. Do crew not  care to learn the names of passengers over two weeks? A shame as that small detail which made passengers feel at home has been forgotten over the years. Bring back the tradition with regular staff training and check ups.

The food menus now repeat over three days for lunch. Why? While on food, the menus are non creative, the chips soggy and the meats overdone despite orders for medium or rare cuts. The bread is sub standard, served cold and can be at least warmed for the guests. Imagine cool soup and colder bread. The Seshin menu and food quality is not to standard. Why have fresh sushi and sashimi on a menu when the fish is obviously refrigerated? Best to stick to Pan Asian, South Asian or Far Eastern food. This said The Champagne, Stars and Poolside Hot Stones Grill is superb.

The saving grace these days in Silversea are the staff like Cruise Director Moss Hills, the service staff from the butlers to the waiters and bar personnel who go all out to make a passengers stay comfortable and luxurious. On the other hand the Hotel Director Maurius cared not to reach out to passengers nor even wish them a simple Good Morning on the decks. This despite a friendly Captain Mino Pontello and Chief Engineer who made an appearance daily on the decks to greet passengers.

This is a critique only to improve our favourite cruise line. Please pull your socks up and revert to your once excellent standard.

We sail in a few days on the Silver Whisper through the Panama Canal from Fort Lauderdale to San Francisco and hopefully Silversea will have set a renewed standard over the festive season and for 2017.

As true well wishers of Silversea, looking forward to excellent service henceforth.

Pull your socks up Silversea

Hong Kong

The last few holidays, we have traveled Cunard and loved it. Wanting to embark from the U.S., we decided to give Silversea a try. The marketing suggested upscale and the price certainly reflected upscale. From the outside things looked pretty great. Once we stepped into the cabin, we got a surprise. Start with stains on the floor, drapes, and outer bed blanket. Friends offered to cut the frazzles off the frayed and very outdated sofas. The glass coffee table was seriously scratched. The dressing table was less than one foot from the end of the bed. My husband had to climb over the bed while I dried my hair. The verandah floor was shop worn and had two plastic sitting chairs with no cushions, and table. I suppose you could have put your foot up on the table for relaxing. Our room, 626 was noisy. It had a loud vibration. 

We thought the food was delicious and beautifully presented. We also found it difficult to get reservations at the other restaurants. Service started out great. After New Years, the staff size decreased. And they seemed less interested in pleasing. A good training motto for staff might be, "A 1000 dollars a day for our clients means you give them 1000 dollar service for each day!" While the cruise was all inclusive, I don't drink alcohol but like virgin mojitos. After New Years, I was told the limes and mint were gone. Sorry! Food also went down hill after New Years. 

My biggest surprise, was the spa. The prices were right in line with Four Season, Regent Cruise, etc. The robe I was given had a big rip. And the waiting area included a few dark brown sofas and tables. Something you would find in a medical clinic waiting area. The refridg had nothing in it. The staff were chatting it up. It was not a place to relax. And….if you wanted to use the warm stone chair, whirlpool or sauna, you were asked to pay another 29 dollars. Not one thing about this spa said, "awww." 

We bought our tickets in March and paid 11k per person. We met other guests who paid as little as 6k. 

The cruise gave us 1000 to spend "in-house." Right after New Years, the internet connection (we used 250 to buy minutes) went out. It stayed out for the rest of the cruise. Some of the passengers were offered a 50 (nonrefundable credit.) Had they offered the credit sooner, I may have used it in the gift shop. 

I let the hotel director know right away about our room, and within the hour, he came to the cabin. Very attentive. 

We booked our own excursions as the excursion planned by the line were not appealing. 

There were some nice thing about this cruise, however the bad outweighed. We won't use it again.

Silversea Sliding Service

First time on Silversea; most comparable cruise we have been on was Seabourne, so that is the best comparison. We took a mid-ship veranda which was very comfortable: king bed, full-size couch, separate closet, shower and bathtub, toilet in separate room.
We boarded in Rio, traveling to Paraty, Santos, Puente del Este, Montevideo and Buenos Aires. Silver Spirit is approximately 4 years old and accommodates 550 guests; on the trip the loading was approximately 500.
Positives:
* Cruise director was one of the best we had every met; made the entire trip fun. Seemed to work more than 15 hours each day.
* Food was excellent across the restaurants; service was not consisten.
* Veranda room was bigger than comparable room on Seabourne
* Speciality restaurants Palazzo and Pool Grill (not charging additional money) were excellent and many guests gravitated there for dinners
* Butler service was excellent; we were well looked after several times a day
* Gym not large, but adequate; track on 10th level (10 laps = 1 mile)
* Entertainment was good (a group of 6) who tried hard; most events were well attended
* We traveled over SuperBowl Sunday; cruise director managed to buy the tv rights and 200+ guests had a wonderful evening on the sea watching the SuperBowl, with delicious snacks
Negatives:
* Dining Room service was terrible for breakfast and lunch; staff not interested in serving us. One breakfast we sat for almost 2 hours. We gave up on the Dining Room and ate in the buffet restaurant (Palazzo) instead which was excellent.
* Specialty restaurants charging $30 per person per meal were not worth the additional cost, in our opinion. Food was not significantly better.
* Internet was ridculously expensive. Best deal was 1000 minutes for $250 and then 250 minutes for $85.
Almost twice as expensive as Seabourne. Also many complaints by passengers about difficulty to log on and log off, despite an "internet concierge."
* Many private cocktail parties curtailed use of bars in the early evenings
* Concierge desk rarely helpful; worst staff we encountered on the ship
* Silversea wants each guest to make a contribution to a Silversea charity run by the family; you need to opt out of your contribution is automatically added to the bill
* Very little notice about bridge and kichen tour; concierge refused to make a second tour despite many guest requests. As noted above, concierge more interested in creating impediments than granting requests.
* Enrichment lectures were very uneven. One of the guest lecturers, a former Ambassador in South America many years ago, was not very informed and was criticized by guests.
* The barbecue, which prior guests told us was a highlight, was cancelled because of a rain forecast. Seemed to us that the barbecue could have been held on another night with good weather.
* Ship excursions were very expensive! Many guests traveled on their own.
Ports:
Many of the ports that Silver Spirit used on this trip are container ports, requiring a bus trip (provided for free) or a long walk to the actual port terminal.
* Rio de Janeiro (2 days) -- so much to see; continual worries about pickpockets and personal safety in certain areas; traffic was terrible!
* Paraty -- very little to do; very poor city, difficult tender. Most guests left after an hour or two to return to the ship. Another port would have been much more fun, or two days in Puente del Este!
* Santos -- nice port city with good shopping and gateway to Sao Paolo
* Puente del Este -- beautiful beaches, great shopping; Bevery Hills meets South Beach; friendly people
* Montevideo -- interesting city with beautiful beaches, great architecture and fun shopping; friendly people
* Buenos Aires (2 days) -- wonderful city which holds its own even with economic difficulties. Wonderful to spend an evening there
 

Good cruise in South America with some reservations

San Francisco

Maiden Voyage-South America Embarkation-Buenos Aires 16 days to Valparaiso 
South American embarkation ports can be very difficult to reach. We originally planned to connect via DC, due to East Coast weather leading up to our departure was not looking good, we changed our plan to Lima, Peru instead. You should be well advised that most South American countries accesses $131 per person entry fee to US citizens, if not visa. 
Our flight on Lan Chile was late out of Los Angeles which resulted in broken connection in Lima, nice long layover which was not a good start. We spent 3 extra days in Buenos Aires prior to our sailing, we generally plan few extra days to avoid unplanned events. 
Embarkation at BA Cruise Terminal was chaotic due to 5 ships in port, Silversea representatives were no very active in assisting arriving passengers. They were happy to stand with clipboard, but not too involved, unless approached by passengers. 
We finally found our way through customs and immigration, then to shuttle bus to our ship. Once dockside, we entered the ship, then to lobby for registration and to our cabin. We were greeted by our butler and our room Stewart, they were pleasant and greeted us with a smile. Our luggage arrived shortly there after and our butler asked if we wished to have him unpack our bags and stored. Very nice touch, but my wife insisted on doing it herself. 
Our Mid-ship Veranda cabin was very spacious, approximately 376 square feet, full bath, large separate shower with rain shower head, walk in closet, two full size mirrors with built in flat screen TV and separate sitting area with curtain divider. Very nice in room movie feature, there are 378 films loaded in the system which allows you to browse and watch film of your choice. 
This was our first experience on Silversea, have cruised mostly on all inclusive mid-size ships. The staff and their service level matches our experience with similar class ships. We were always addressed by our name, everywhere we went, our needs were anticipated most of the time. There were instances when we had to repeat our request, especially during rush hour in the main dinning room. 
Our favorite dinning venues were Main Dinning room, Pool Grill and La Terrazza for lunch and breakfast. Main Dinning room menu was to our liking, Pool Grill for stone steak dinner(amazing). Two for fee specialty restaurants did not interest us, simply because of negative feedback from those who sampled them. Seishin Restaurant was not authentic enough and La Champaign over rated. I have not encountered extra fee for dinning on any other all inclusive ships, but I am sure there is a market for this type of service. We sampled the Star Supper Club, music too loud and was not impressed with their bite size menu, novel idea though! 
One other issue on this ship is their smoking policy. The Panorama Lounge allows smoking on one side, it might as well be the entire lounge. It was suffocating for non smokers and we had to escape to main bar area on deck 5, but it was always packed with people and hard to find available seating. They also allow smoking in cabins which really surprised us for safety reason. When we walked through the hallway on our deck, we smelled strong cigarette smoke coming from several cabins. There was never a mention of no smoking policy in cabins. Regent Seven Sea for example does not allow smoking anywhere except in the smoking lounge or out on the deck area. 
There are couple of small things worth mentioning. In the Panorama Lounge, the doors leading out to the deck has large door handles on the inside, but small knob like handle on the outside which makes it difficult to grasp and open? Internet Cafe is situated in a small area and not easy to find. 
The Main Showroom is large enough with very small stage and they do not offer beverage service at anytime, so we carried our own from the bar. The quality of entertainment was sufficient, not impressive. 
Now about our voyage! Ocean is rough in this part of the World , no matter when you travel, this was their summer. It was windy and rough seas, especially first couple of days sailing to Port Stanly. Our second day at sea was roughest I have experienced with ship this size. It felt like the ship was planning during the night, the sound of hull smashing against the water was loud and unsettling. It lasted most of the night. 
What can you say about Port Stanly? It is wind swept pile of rocks in the middle of nowhere. I guess most cruise-ships make this call, because there isn't much else around. We were there for several hours mingling with those adventurer who were getting ready to depart on Antarctic expedition on Russian trawler. 
We departed for possible Cape Horn encounter, but weather was so rough our Captain decided against the venture and instead ducked into Beagle Channel toward Ushuaia, Argentina. Then the CNN reported about 8.8 major quake in Chile, our destination. We had 9 days, before our scheduled arrival in Valparaiso, so crossed our fingers and hoped for the best. At the same time our thoughts were with those who perished and injured by the quake, feeling little guilty with our comfort in luxury. 
We participated in ship sponsored shore excursions, prices ranged from $100 to $2000, very expensive as with others. There were to complimentary excursions included with the cruise, the Silverse Experience which is a nice touch. We purchased 3 other excursions and they were interesting and quality of lunches and service was in line with ship's standard which included wine and beer with every meal. 
We sailed through the Chilean Fjords to Punta Arenas, Puerto Chacabuco, Puerto Montt and finally Valparaiso. Captain kept us informed of condition in Valparaiso as we approached our final destination. The damage was minimal in Valparaiso as well as Santiago. We scheduled ourselves to stay in Santiago for 3 days which turned out to be good move on our part. Those extra days allowed Lan Chile to return their operation back to near normal, our flight home was operating as scheduled on the 11th. On our last day in Chile, we were struck with 7.2 after shock on the 23rd floor of Marriot which rattled our nerves, but just in time for our departure. The airport ticket counter area was in the tent, because the second floor above the counter area had collapsed and 3 hours before departure, we were allowed into the terminal to our departure gate. We were happy to feel those wheels of our plane clear the runway! 


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