Beware of claim of luxury

Silver Shadow Cruise Review to South Pacific

Cruises: 7+ cruises
Reviews: 2
Helpful Votes: 99

Overall rating:

3 out of 5
Silver Shadow

18 Night Indonesia & Australia (Singapore To Sydney)

Sail date: November 17, 2017

Ship: Silver Shadow

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 710

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 6 years ago

Review summary

Luxury is the most abused word used by cruise companies; it is an attempt to mislead consumers. Silversea plays a con game because it is, based on my recent experience, very far from being a true luxury cruise line such as Seabourn, Regent or Azamara. The Silver Shadow should have received a major renovation and refurbishment some years ago. Every other passenger on our cruise who had previous experience with true luxury cruises agreed with our view that Silversea was a major disappointment in a number of ways; this was true for people from different countries. One of the first shocks was the terrible television system in cabins; more like 20 year old technology than what one gets in modern cruise ships. Much of the food was disappointing, either bland or overly salted, and with too little variety. Nearly always meats of any kind were overcooked. There was no coffee and tea bar with snacks that one could go to at any time; something that true luxury ships offer. Amazingly, there was only one computer for the whole ship that passengers could use. Like us, many others were also disappointed with the entertainment and with many of the excursions. More importantly, cabins were either very hot or cold. Even more disturbing, at least half of the passengers became sick with coughing, nasal problems and other symptoms; if there was effective government regulation of cruise ships, then the one we were on would be required to undergo a very thorough cleaning and sanitizing before beginning another itinerary. On the plus side, the selection of wines was very good and the service was very good nearly all of the time. My advice is to dig deep for information to avoid falling for the luxury scam being marketed by Silversea and other cruise companies.

Embarkation

2 out of 5
went well

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

2 out of 5
best of the three dining options is the Italian restaurant

Onboard Activities

2 out of 5
entertainment was disappointing for the most part

Entertainment

2 out of 5
shows at 10 pm were too late

Service and Staff

5 out of 5
generally service was usually excellent

Ship Quality

3 out of 5
ship is in urgent need for renovation

Cabin / Stateroom

3 out of 5
a lot of wear and tear; television system is totally obsolete

Ship tip

lower your expectations of luxury

Ports of call

Singapore

5 out of 5
no excursion

Tanjung Priok (Jakarta), Indonesia

2 out of 5
excursion was disappointing

Semarang, Java, Indonesia

2 out of 5
excursion was disappointing

Surabaya, Java, Indonesia

2 out of 5
no excursion

Bali, Indonesia

3 out of 5
excursion was okay

Komodo Island, Indonesia

5 out of 5
one of the best excursions

Darwin, Australia

2 out of 5
no excursion

Cooktown, Australia

2 out of 5
waste of time; no excursion

Cairns, Australia

3 out of 5
pretty good excursion

Townsville, Australia

2 out of 5
no excursion

Brisbane, Australia

3 out of 5
okay excursion

Disembarkation

5 out of 5
fast and efficient
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