Silver Cloud Reviews

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Where do I begin? I am not a complainer but here goes. We had not one, not two, but THREE floods in our suite. The toilet gushed water into the entire room and we were moved to the owner's suite (very large but all the way forward and the noise level at 4am from docking and anc anchoring was unbearable). When we couldn't work the shower (nether could the butler) I went to the original suite where I was told the plumbing had been fixed to take a shower and when I came out the room had flooded for the 2nd time. Back in the owner's suite at 1am my husband thought he heard something, and lo and behold, there was a man standing in the middle of the suite. I was shocked and scared. He said he was a security guard checking on unoccupied suites. Without knocking?! Even if it had not been for these appalling issues, the food was mediocre at best and the service was horrendous. Everyone was polite and tried to make it up to us with champagne and canapes and complimentary dry cleaning, but they never seemed to get things right. Service in all restauants was painfully slow (3 hour dinners) and the menus were terrible (mostly carbs and sugar). The staff tried but were not helpful. For example, there was no movie schedule published and when we asked what times the movies started they replied "They start each day at 8am. I can tell you how long each movie is; you do the math." Outrageous!! Furthermore, there was no bank on board and we couldn't change money in the ports without passports which the ship kept...

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The on-board experience fell way below the pre-sale marketing hype. For example, the "personal butler" turns out to be a (beautifully uniformed) steward shared with a large number of other cabins. The "fridge stocked with your personal choices" was empty on arrival, and took hours, and a complaint, before it got stocked with even soft drinks. We could go on........ Our "veranda suite" (719) was disappointing, and badly designed with little stowage space. Very dated 90's decor. Chipped and marked suite furniture. Only ONE use-able electrical outlet!! Very dated bathroom with half-length (unusable) bath. Faded mirrors, etc, etc. Massive walk-in wardrobe, mostly floor space, which wasted the cabin space. Maintenance poor - mildew on bath grouting and bath seal, weatherstripping broken on outer door causing wind noise, etc. Flat screen TV with most channels taken up by company sales rubbish - BBC World News replaced with silly "Shopping Partner" TV sales blog. Public spaces in better condition, but the same dated decor. Gym very small and smelly. Pool quite small and no swim jets. Two hot tubs but no way of turning the jets onto high speed!! Foodwise, the ship aims high but fails to deliver. The main restaurant menu is a dysfunctional disaster laid out by an amateur. We ate there once and had the worst meal we'd had for years - tough steak and shoe leather escalope; we refused to go back. The Italian "La Terraza" has the same fixed menu every evening - no specials. The cuisine here is done from a different kitchen; the menu here is better but the food on the plate unimaginative and true Italians might cringe. The $30 premium La Champagne has a six course well put together "taster" menu, but lack of attention to detail is its downfall e.g. gritty scallops, over-salted lobster bisque, overdone lamb which when sent back was recooked exactly as badly!! Great South African Maitre D!! The best evening food was in the most unlikely place, with the Pool Grill offering freshly grilled prawn or a choice of steaks, done to perfection by a German Chef who clearly knows her stuff. The inclusive drinks wines are poorly chosen - the sort of GBP5 a bottle stuff that you can get in a supermarket, which is a big let down. No choice offered unless you asked. The inclusive champagne is the rather awful Heidsick Monopole. The premium wine list is good but overpriced, and possibly not well looked after - we saw Lynch Bages in a neon lit and warm display cabinet in La Champagne, displayed at a 45 degree angle so the cork would have been drying out. The mostly Filipino bar and waiting staff are delightful. They try hard, and deliver with a smile. Aloof Italian Captain and officers who had perhaps tired of Costa jokes, and who didn't mix with the passengers. Silver Cloud itself badly needs a refit, and the prices need to come way down to make it good value for money. The "brand preservation" tactic of keeping prices up but offering a huge on-board credit isn't worth that much when what you can use it for is so hideously overpriced!

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Silver Cloud is a SMALL ship, about 300 passengers. Great for really getting to know people, but perhaps a bit small otherwise - small buffets with limited options, etc. But they did well with what they had. Checkin was a breeze -- we literally walked aboard at noon, when "everyone" arrives. The entertainment group was outstanding -- a 6-person group that did songs from the 50s-80s, Beatles, Broadway, even opera! Chef cooking demonstrations ALWAYS began with a glass of pink champagne for everyone, AND the opportunity to taste ALL the "creations." Seafood was outstanding (my dining choice), and (big surprise) WONDERFUL french fries (think McDonalds) as a standard option on the dinner menu. We had fun, enjoyable tours, all booked through the ship. It's a bit more formal than many other cruise lines -- yes, they still have the formal, informal, casual nights -- but the casual buffet dining for breakfast/lunch has you check in with a maitre-d and get seated BEFORE going through the buffet line! This is the ONLY cruise line of 6 we've been on that has this. (Silver Whisper, which we'd cruised previously, does the same). They also serve you in the line; we prefer serving ourselves. One big complaint we had with the buffet dining was their hours of operation. Sea days they opened at 0800 for breakfast! Tour days at 0730, even when there were early tours! Even worse -- NONE of the 3 dining facilities (pool, buffet, main dining room) opened for lunch until at least NOON (main dining room 1230)!! People with 1215 tours were out of luck unless you got room service (seriously?) or had bouillon soup in one of the bars! You're supposed to be able to get change at the front desk, but it didn't work for us. We wanted $5s and $1s for ONE $20 bill, and at NOON on St. Kitts, the receptionist had NO $1s or $5s, and only 2 $10s (which we took); she said she couldn't call anyone and wouldn't have anything until 7 PM when the next shift came in! My husband went into town to a casino to get the cash for tips! Really? This is luxury? He noted on the way back that the Emerald Princess, docked on the same pier was handing out cool face towels to returning passengers and had a big "welcome back" sign, and the plastic potted palms; the Silverseas gangway was barren except for one staff member slumped over his podium looking bored to death. The ship may have been understaffed, because on "big" events like the galley lunch and the Captain's Farewell, they would shut down/minimize other functions to shift the workers to the bigger events. Specifically, the buffet was shut down the day of the galley lunch; though the restaurant was open, they used a short a la carte menu. For the Captain's Farewell, the main bar was closed and the servers moved to the other venue! We'd planned to meet a couple for drinks before the show, but couldn't use it! My personal issue -- the ship was actually soliciting charity donations to for a Silverseas executive's personal organization. Bad enough when I'm on vacation, BUT they said they were CHARGING OUR ACCOUNT $1/day/pp UNLESS we took the time out of our vacation to go to the front desk and tell them we didn't accept that!! Unbelieveable! Cost wasn't the issue; the presumption was offensive!! Over time we've found we love smaller ships, especially those all-inclusive. Silverseas is very good, and we'll undoubtedly sail again, but given a choice, we'd take Regent ANY DAY.

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We sailed on the Silver Cloud from San Juan through the Lower Antillles. The itinerary looked promising: no days on sea; some interesting islands like Dominica and Grenada; and a ship full of alumni from great colleges and universities. Indeed, the lectures were good; the embarkation and departure went smoothly; and the service staff were well-meaning and mostly very kind. Some falsehoods to dispel immediately: 1)No one has a personal butler. The butler instead roams through several floors and has an appreciably high number of cabins to service. Often, it was difficult to find anyone, telephoning or peeking out into the hallway. Once you could reach the butler, he was attentive: room service was lovely, shoes were shined, and, if you care for this sort of thing (we do not), towels would be twisted into little animal forms at turn-down time. Rose petals were sprinkled into the bathtub, left for ther passenger to clean out if he or she wanted to take a shower! 2)The ship is not elegant. Rather, the furniture is chipped, the walls are scuffed, and the mirrors are all showing wear and scratches. The shower had a full-length mirror on one side, which was a miserable way to first look at oneself in the morning! The grout ands the area between the bathroom tiles were full of mildew, which many passengers noticed.The balconies had paint splashed on the floor and cheap furniture. The rooms were cleaned in so-so fashion, although on a daily basis. The library is nice; and the main auditorium was pretty. The pool was small and the chairs around it were very unattractive and clashed with the decor, suggesting a bulk sale on them. The computer room was tiny and the internet took hours to work. 3. The food is plentiful but not very good. Breakfasts never varied. The Italian retsaurant had the same menu night after night. Tea was nice, but you had to beg for the scones; otherwise, the waiters placed a stock dish on your table.Lunch was good and the best part of the eating day. The dining room menu was very difficult to read, and most of the food was the same nighr after night. It was not of high quality. The worst part of the cruise was how long dinner would take. If you arrived at 7:30, when dinner began, it was next to impossible to be finished before 10, making it hard to partake of the entertainment.The entertainment consisted of watered-down versions of Beatles songs and ABBA hits. The entertainers were peppy, but looked like they could have easily been as comfortable singing in the Magic Kingdom. 4. The passengers seemed to be mostly in their 70's and 80's. Nice people, but definitely an older crowd. 5. The executive staff was cold, mostly invisible, and liked to keep it that way. If you wanted to talk about anything, they sent out the same third-tier people time and again. The ship had an air of mostly not caring. Compare this to Crystal, and there is NO comparison. 6. The excursions were good and organized well. No complaints there. If you have an opportunity to choose between Silverseas and Crystal, choose Crystal. Much better attention, food, and overall quality. Silverseas by comparison is like the awkward, homely first cousin who is not sure how to compete and stops trying.The Silver Cloud was down on the heels, and there are much better offers on much better ships.

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Our travel agent suggested that we take a luxury cruise and we are very happy that we listened to her! We opted to use our points and travelled on our own. We left a day early and stayed at Hotel Milano - a charming older hotel in the heart of old San Juan. We had breakfast on the terrace upstairs and this consisted of basic pastries, toasts, fruit and cheese slices. It was plenty for us. We did ask for a real mug as opposed to the paper cups that were set out and the gentleman working in the breakfast room was very happy to accommodate us. Dinner was at Marmalade Restaurant and it was one of the best meals we have ever had. The room was beautiful, people watching was fun and the food was different from the regular fare, unique and tasted as good as it looked. I would choose another cruise out of San Juan just to return to this restaurant! We had to check out of Hotel Milano at noon and our cab ride to the pier was $15. The hotel arranged for the taxi for us. We arrived at the cruise terminal at 1230, our luggage was taken and we were immediately ushered onto the ship, champagne in hand and relaxing within 15 minutes. We had three dinners in the main restaurant, two dinners in La Terrazza and two grilled dinners out by the pool, one being the dinner show under the stars. Our breakfasts and most lunches were eaten outside at La Terrazza. The food and the service were always fantastic. We used our onboard credits for two massages each, one being the first afternoon, and that set the tone for the remainder of the cruise. We were relaxed from beginning to end. We took our folding bicycles with us so that we could experience the islands on our own and because of this, we didn't do any of the excursions. The Silversea staff went out of their way to make sure that we had any help needed taking our bikes onboard and offboard - even on tenders! We couldn't have asked for more. The terrain on the islands we visited were quite mountainous so we didn't have alot of energy for evening entertainment and staying up late. BUT the quartet in the bar were very talented and were happy to take requests. We also got to dance a few times, which always makes me happy. We had a vista suite and found it to have more than enough room. There were lots of cupboards and drawers for our things and if I had any complaints, it was that it would have been nice to have more than one plug by the mirror. When I used my hairdryer, I had to unplug something else. We parked our bikes by the window and still had room to sit down on the chairs. The thing I loved the most: no lineups, no crowds and no people getting up a dawn to place their books etc on their deck chair by the pool and "saving it" for the day. There was always a place to sit, no matter where you were on the ship and there was always lots of personal space. The staff on the ship always seemed to know our names and needs. When we walked into the Panorama lounge in the morning they would greet us by name and make us our cappucinos and when we showed up at the pool bar at cocktail time, the bartenders knew I liked chardonnay and what beers my hubby liked. Disembarkation was a breeze. We submitted our documents the day before debarkation, our bags were put outside our room by 10pm and we were all assigned colours. When our colour was called, we left the ship. Again no lineups, no mayhem, just easy, relaxed, go with the flow kind of movement. The whole cruise was like this and it didn't feel any different when leaving. We have already booked our next Silversea experience for July 2013 on an Expedition cruise in the Arctic. We can't wait and we are absolutely thrilled to be part of the Silverseas family!

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