I Cruise Silversea To See If Its New Owners Have RUINED It

Four years ago, Royal Caribbean, best known for huge, good value resort ships, surprised many by buying Silversea known for ultra-luxury small ship cruising. Having cruised on it before the takeover, I decided I should return to see if the online reviews from other pre-takeover cruisers saying things like, "Not the same Silversea” and “Before it was sold, we thought Silversea was superb, well run, with delicious food. Not now” were right or not. So, I booked myself on Silver Spirit for a two-week cruise, and this is what I found

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00:00 Start
00:40 What is Silversea?
01:34 What's the same on Silversea?
08:14 What's Better on Silversea?
10:04 What's not as good on Silversea

[TheCurlyclub]

I could watch Gary talk about the weather, he has the best voice. The excellent cruise reviews are a bonus 😂

[danielintheantipodes]

I like the look of these ships. Very classic. They look like ships, not hotels skyscraper theme parks on water!!! Thank you for the video.

[brianmcgauley]

A very good, and fair, commentary. We have enjoyed SSea three times with a fourth scheduled next year, our second in the “adventure” class. Galapagos on a ship designed for that sole purpose, the Silver Origin, should be on your bucket list. We have found the door-to-door experience seamless and worry-free, although there can be airline hiccups at any time. The butler service is marvelous if you take advantage of it and use it. I could provide example of their beyond expected personal attention, but that’s another video in itself.

[KateandBree]

I'll be on this ship in 9 days. I'm looking forward to it. Thank you so much for the fair commentary!

[iainmelvin]

We were on this cruise with you and were impressed by your low key approach. We pretty much agree with everything you say although we did meet some excellent staff especially in Arts Cafe. If you think communication was poor you should have experienced their awful communication ( nil) with Grand Voyage passengers when it was decided we were stopping at the Seychelles and not going towards the Red Sea. It was awful, often incorrect and quite unsettling when they did ultimately gave us information - one day out of the Seychelles.

[georgecummings]

My wife and I have been on two Silversea cruises in the last year and two Regent this year. We definitely prefer Silversea and have booked for next year. The biggest disappointment on Regent was the quality of the food and bar service.

[well-blazeredman]

Good video. I think I would have been happy enough with that line. And how nice to see cruise-ships that don't resemble apartment-blocks.

[sheilapearsonreflections]

Thanks so much for sharing. Your reviews are greatly appreciated.

[lancel]

Not sure what it was like before, but we did a Greek idle cruise on the Spirit last summer and fell in love with Greece and SilverSea. Can't wait to cruise with them again.

[ZoeWhitehouse-dl]

We’re taking our first cruise on Spirit next month to celebrate some missed out on big birthdays and anniversary from lockdown so this was a real treat for us to splurge on. Really helpful video Gary, thank you. We’d read such a lot of negative reviews recently which worried us a bit but will keep everything in perspective and some fingers crossed for a great cruising experience! 😊

[stephaniejones]

We travelled on Silversea last August and although we had never travelled with them before, I have to agree with you about the service. For a high quality service ship I was a little disappointed in the service in particularly in La Terrazza and that the waiters were not as attentive as I have had on other ships. The same with the butler service. I was not aware of the things you mentioned that you could ask for but we're not told about. Having said that we did enjoy our cruise and overall felt we had value for money for our cruise.

[patti]

Thanks for a review that was thoughtful and made me realize how this level of service looks great but not on my horizon just yet.

[lesleywaghorn]

Thanks Gary - really interesting. Important that when there are included excursions they are good value. Liked the range of eateries.

[wannabedal-adx]

Great review and insight Gary!! I think it is important to distinguish what you expect for a higher class of cruise line from a more main stream of line. I think I will check out Regent or some of the other luxury lines. And compare these to the "ship within a ship" like the haven on NCL. Thanks!

[suecooper]

I always enjoy and appreciate the quality reviews you provide Gary. You have reassured us that our 1st cruise with the Silver Nova in June to Alaska will be fabulous. Thanks to your previous great advice I booked all our included excursions right at the beginning and was able to secure all our 1st choices. I now know to ask the butler for certain treats, so that is useful too.

[rob_lightbody]

Travelled with them last year on their oldest ship, Whisper, and it was amazing. Compared to Cunard, our usual line, we thought it was surprisingly good value given how dramatically better every aspect was and how absolutely everything was included. Customer service was exceptional (especially compared to Cunard).

[PerplexedCJ]

While I have not had the pleasure of any ultra luxury cruises, I do understand the point about it becoming "corporatized". I find that usually comes when the crew lose autonomy and are now expected to follow orders from a central body that is usually not on the seas with their guests. It may bring some consistency, but you lose the special touches that an autonomous crew could give.

[slcrozier]

Thanks for the information Gary. You had me worried when you started your video, as we have our first Silversea cruise in February next year aboard the new Silver Ray (Lima to Buenos Aires). Thankfully none of your points are deal-breakers for us. One of our biggest fears is the dress code. We are not big dress up people and were told by our TA and Silversea that the dress code is beginning to be somewhat MORE relaxed specially on the newer ships. Whether that is true or not remains to be seen (<fingers crossed>). But thanks again for this informative post.

[ericbrown]

Top notch video, as usual! Thank you, Gary!

[sarahwendorf]

Just booked our first Silversea cruise for next year. This was very insightful, thank you!